Unity

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Wednesday, August the seventh, twenty twenty four. It is currently four forty three pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well, I probably shouldn't, but I am here about to write. I probably shouldn't do it, but here I am, and I'm about to do it. I know I shouldn't because the last two live webcasts, Wow, what a frustrating experience. And it bothers me because I know I came across very negative. I know I did, and it's not that I was necessarily trying to be negative. I was just so frustrated because I'm like, Okay, I have this whole thing mapped out this and I know, in some ways I love this about this podcast. In other ways, I know this sometimes just causes me more problems than it's probably worth. But I love the spontaneity of this podcast. I love how organic and real it is and how we just kind of let things take us wherever it leads. Right, So, when I'm like Okay. Oh, here's a conference Salt and Light twenty twenty four thirteen sermons. Okay, well, that's easy.

1:30 I tell everyone to go listen to that for our sermons. Two point oh app sermon challenge. That's easy. Okay. Now I could have just left it there and moved on. Hey, everyone for the challenge this week. Go listen to those sermons, enjoy, tell me what you think, and I just move on and I don't even worry about it. Right, Or I could say, well, you go listen to it and I'll review some of the sermons. Well, once you start reviewing and finding out, Wait a minute, this whole conference is on Ephesians four five. Well, I can build an entire study around this. Right, Everyone's got thirteen sermons to listen to. I can review them. We all will spend the week reading Ephesians chapter four. I mean, I mean, all these things that we can do. I can, Oh wait, I can.

2:13 I can give you the structure of the book. I can tell you what to look for in Ephesians chapter four. We can look at Okay, this is really okay. We've got philological exposition, practical exposition. Okay, in a sense, we have a little bit about our positional reality versus our practical reality. I can lay it all out and we can just build upon this. This can be really, really, really good. Who could have predicted that the first sermon from the conference, even though Ephesians four or five was the text that literally, I don't know what to say? What? What? What? I look? I don't want to be mean, but it's just like, look, I get right. Let me state it this way. I understand that pastors can do whatever they want with the text. They obviously can, and they can build, they can have successful churches that can have large online following, they can bring in a lot of money doing whatever they want to the text, and people will say that the way they handle the text is right, or where I may think the way they're handling it is wrong. So so in one sense, I should not get frustrated by that. On the other hand, sometimes I'm just looking at it going I just don't get it.

3:27 I just like we have the Bible right, things are in, they're in, they're they're structured in specific ways, and words have meaning, and words are found in context of other words, and like all the different just basic rules. But those rules really don't apply I mean, I don't even know why we even have them, right, I think in reality, if we're honest from a from a theoretical perspective, Christianity has supposedly, you know, hermaneutical rules, hermanutical systems, interpretive rules in theory, in practice this especially in preaching. I don't think any of that ultimately matters. It's just people want a sermon and it doesn't really matter what is happening to the text. At least that's maybe that's being extremely negative.

4:12 So I was just so frustrated by it. So what do I do? Well? Do I just give up? Do I just say, well, you know, it's Wednesday, Hey guys, you go listen to the rest. I'm just gonna move on. What do I do? So I'm like, well, let me look at the conference, and so I found I think maybe this is the next message. This maybe the third message. I don't know if they're in order, but I believe this is the second message, and it's called unity. I'm like, okay. I emphasized that Ephesians four, starting in verse three, is endeavoring to keep the unity, and that verse five one Lord, one faith, one baptism flows from that and the endeavoring there really focuses on the practical aspects of this, right because the theiological exposition in chapter's one, two three, then we have the transitional word. Therefore, now we transition into the practical exposition. Now he's going to besiege and he is telling them to endeavor. Remember we talked about the Greek word. You're supposed to be going around saying it all day. I'm not going to repeat it, but you're supposed to know it. Okay, So so everything makes sense. Okay, great, So I'm like, well, this is on unity, so maybe this is going to be far more in you know, involved with the text. And then I noticed, wow, this is only like twenty something minutes. I'm like, this is a short message. Okay, well this makes it perfect to review.

5:32 So even if I don't review any others, I can say I reviewed the first two. That leaves everyone else. You can go listen to the to the remaining messages in the conference. Everyone benefits, and then hopefully this one, this will prove to be more beneficial than the last two messages. So I hope this is beneficial. I look, there's a part of me that wants to go back through the structure of the book. I mean I kind of already alluded to it. There's a lot, you know, I could go back to the Greek word for endeavoring. You should look up the Greek word and listen to it, right, and remember you slap when you say it. Remember I told you to use this when you're calling your dog, talking to your kids, talking to your spouse. Okay, I won't go through it all again, but I think I've done.

6:14 I tried to provide people as much as I can and helping them understand Ephesians four. But we also want to kind of review the conference. And we still got our assignment on Sultan Light. So I have given you plenty to do. I just feel like I haven't contributed much to anything. So let's see if we can make this beneficial. You're ready, twenty twenty four Sult and Light Conference. This message is called unity. Let's see what happens. Remember, as always, I don't listen first, I listen with you. Whatever happens is real. There's no obviously, this is not pre planned. I don't go get a sermon thinking, oh, it's going to be bad so I can criticize. It's nothing about that it's I'm listening to sermons, and so we just listened together. What happens is whatever happens, I can't I can't predict it. So hopefully you'll find this to be beneficial. Are you ready, let's begin right now?

7:14 Okay, thank you, okay, great, Thank you all very much. That's a beautiful prayer. I appreciate that very much, very heartfelt. I liked what Brother Zach said at the first part of his sermon where he was talking about being surprised. I don't know why he was. I don't think he. Really was, but when the machine welcomed you back, Okay, Well, just understand that Satan would be like the Most High God. And I work in technology, and I'm convinced whether I'm right or wrong. I'll go ahead and tell you anyway because it's my turn to talk. But I think that you know, he would be as as the Most High. Certainly, Satan does not have the power that God does, but he can certainly try to achieve omniscience or close to it, valance through the system, through technology.

8:02 So that's that's where we are. That shouldn't it shouldn't. Surprise you, and it shouldn't bother you that every conversation that you have near your phone, whether it's turned on or off, is being recorded and stored. Don'tn't worry about that, because God's already hearing what you have to say. So Satan is trying to gain omniscience through monitoring technology, and that your phone records your conversation even if it's off. Interesting, I'm gonna, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta check this out. Okay, I know I've heard these claims, and I know in some cases things are listening far more than we want to acknowledge. Do smartphones listen and record your conversations even if they are off?

9:10 All right? Okay, it says this, just as just checking smartphones are designed to red are designed to record audio only when specific permissions are granted to apps, such as for voice commands or calls. Generally, smartphones do not listen and record conversations when they are off, as they lack power to run necessary processes. Okay, well, that would seem to make sense. However, there are concerns and instances where apps or devices might misuse permissions, leading to unauthorized recordings. It is important to regularly check app permissions and system updates to ensure privacy.

9:55 If you're worried about security, you can also use physical methods like my microphone blockers to further protect your privacy. All right, So okay, I don't know. I guess my main issue is what what what would we take from scripture that would say, Hey, Satan is seeking to gain omniscience by monitoring conversations and phone calls through your phone. Is Satan? Like okay, all right, wait, I'm going to go to the offices for Android devices and I'm going to gather all of this information and then I will regain omniscience. Is Satan? I don't know. That's an interesting So sometimes when I listen to Christian preaching, I sometimes think, am I listening to Christian preaching? Am I listening to an episode of Alex Jones? Because sometimes I'm not saying it's completely as far as Alex Jones saying it's it's it's Alex Jones light and in that sense, But Alex Jones has been yelling and screaming that our devices are listening to us forever as he sits there with a phone on his desk when he's broadcasting. I'm like, well that's in that an iPhone, or he'll be recording a video.

11:13 I'm like, aren't you so the technology that is part of the deep state in the nWo and and and Satan. Uh, then we utilize it, right And like, how am I listening to him? I'm listening to him on devices? Right? Like? So, so if I don't know, so, am I contributing to the the goals of Satan to become omniscients? So should I just never all Christians have no devices? Well, then should we be putting our sermons? I don't know how it all works. Sometimes I just but okay, I know that's not the point of the sermon. The good thing is he's just throwing out as the introduction, So we'll move on.

11:57 I personally, for my band and and team of CIA and FBI handlers, I like to tell them about Jesus because they are you know, I kind of treat them like the Roman soldiers that Paul was chained to, you know, and he was imprisoned in Rome. You know, they didn't have any choice. They you know, he didn't he wasn't trapped in there. They were trapped in there. They had to hear it. That's ought to be our attitude and ought to be one of victory. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid by any of this stuff. Okay. So evening devotional, it's on my mind and heart. I ask that you pray for me. Were the theme of this week end, and I think it was very well selected is if you allow me. But my understanding is we're going to be talking a lot about unity, the unity of the spirit, the unity, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and so on. So I'd like to talk to you all just a little bit and give you some thoughts maybe to think about as you hear the coming good brethren that are going to speak and the ones that have already spoken.

13:01 It's real important that we think. About that word unity, okay, and think about what it means and what it doesn't mean. There's two words that are very similar in sound, Unity and uniformity. Okay, unity and uniformity. Unity appears in the Bible. Uniformity does not, but the concept does is I'll show you and we're all flawed, we're all fail Sometimes people who mean the best cause the greatest havoc among the church and their desire because they confuse unity for uniformity. Okay, First John chapter five, verse one. Let me just read it.

13:49 So unity versus uniformity. This is interesting. Okay, this has got my attention. Unity versus uniformity. Well meaning people sometimes can do great damage in the church, for I guess confine using or confounding unity with uniformity. All right, I have the Greek word pulled up that's translated unity. Here. I will see it's used two times. The word that's translated unity in Ephesians chapter four, verse three, where he says endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit. It's only used two times, and it's used in Ephesians four to three. In Ephesians four thirteen and the wait, oh, hang on, I just messed up here. Let me go back here, go back to the inntilineart to go back here to the intilinear. I apologize.

14:37 Here. Here's the unity. Okay. It is the strongest definition oneness, unanity, unity, unanananimity, I think is. How you would say it. All right, Okay, I'm just looking at this here. Agreement. All right, So unity versus uniformity. He wants to draw a difference between those. Okay, He's going to go to first John immediately, which is interesting because if Ephesians four is the focus, you figure he would immediately go to unity there. But he's going to First John, which is kind of interesting. Okay, I'm I'm curious where this is headed, so we'll go ahead and turn to First John. I think he said, chapter five, we'll find out. Let's listen.

15:21 To you. This is a verse that do I look like I have glasses anywhere? No, there's sunnis are on my head? Maybe they're under here. They all leave over there? Oh are they? Oh? J That's how I was preaching, And I said, the sister said, on your head. Thanks this, You'll be glad I did this. Listen to this verse and listen to the power of this verse. Chapter five, Verse one of First John. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him, that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. Okay, now, don't think about what's not in that verse. That verse doesn't say how you're born. Obviously, the Bible teaches us that you're born of God. He's just making the declarative statement that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. That's what it says, and that's a glorious statement because what the Bible tells us is without God intervening in our lives, there's no love for God at all.

16:34 There's no love for Jesus Christ at all. So if you encounter someone who's sincerely, maybe erroneously in some points, but you find someone who truly and sincerely believes that Jesus is the Christ, they're born of God and that's significant. Okay. We might say, well, they don't believe everything quite like we do. Fair fine, okay, but they're part of the fault. They're part of the flock. There's someone for whom Christ died, and we need to have that understanding that we are all all of God's children, all of his sheep, are one fault and we have one shepherd. And someday we're going to be gathered together and there's just going to be times and places where we do things differently. Okay, the Bible makes it clear where those lines are drawn.

17:23 But I want you to think about that that. Sometimes if people aren't doing things the right way, we just get all out of kilter. In the fourteenth chapter of the Book of John the other. Okay, so I guess the first point here is whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. So unity then is simply we are unified because we all believe that Jesus is the Christ. Who believe that Jesus is the Okay, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Whoever believes Jesus is the Christ.

18:10 So whoever believes Jesus is the Christ is born of God. So unity is first accomplish through a common belief that Jesus is the Christ. But so I guess that's a unity. All right, Let's see where else he's going to go. Now he's going to go to John chapter fourteen. All right, I'm trying to follow. I'm trying to follow, but okay, all right, I think I can do something with that. Maybe, well we'll come back to that, all right, John chapter fourteen, I believe is where he's headed. All right, let's see again. This is so odd because this is the second message where I thought it's Ephesians four, But really Ephesians is not being dealt with much. And now I know this is just his introduction. So I'm going to hope. Well, I'm going to be positive he's gonna circle around and bring all of this to Ephesians.

19:07 You know, the Gospel of John. Let's turn there real quickly. Jesus gives this parable, and this is this is the sheep chapter, as Brother David likes to call it. I like to call it the Shepherd chapter. And Jesus gives this parable. It gives us analogy. They're walking I believe they're in Jerusalem, and he walks by, and there's a sheep fold. If y' all don't know what a sheep fold is, it's kind of like a cross between a barn and a corral. It's a In this country, they had plenty of stones, so they would stack them dry, stack them up, and build a courtyard maybe the size of this room, maybe six feet tall. Maybe put some you know, like like the thorns, because they had plenty of those. Two And.

19:48 Okay, if he said John fourteen, it's John ten, I think he may have said John ten, verse fourteen, so I think that's what he meant. So he may have said John ten fourteen. And I just heard the fourteen and said chapter at fourteen, it's John chapter ten, verse fourteen I will clarify my own mistake there right here we go. It would run him across the top like like razor wire, and there was just a small door and you'd put your sheep in there. And Jesus makes, you know, an appearance, and he just points out some things about that sheep fold. And it's really funny. Because we all go every which direction on this chapter. You know, I have good brethren back at home that say, well, you know, don't you think that the porter in this story is John the Baptist. I'm like, well, yeah, maybe, sure, you know, maybe probably, I don't know. And then another one might say, yeah, but don't you think that the door that Jesus comes through is the door of prophecy?

20:39 Yeah? Yeah, I mean obviously he did. He fulfills all the love. But that's not what the master's telling us. That's not that's not what the Master is concerned with. What our what our savior says is when they don't understand what he has to say about this parable I'm not reading it for you. You can go read it, okay, add it to the list that Zach gave you. But think about this. This is that's what Jesus said Jesus said, I am the door, which is an odd thing to say. I'm the door, and I'm the good shepherd. And I'm the good shepherd because I laid on my life for my sheep. I defend my fold. I defend my sheep. I know who they are. I know them by name, just as a shepherd who knows his sheep. And he puts them safely in the sheep fold, and he goes to town and does his business. He comes back. He doesn't have to show up with a proclaim ticket. He doesn't have to prove his identity. He calls for his sheep, and they know who he is. They respond. Now he may have to go in there and pull him out, because sheep are like that. But he leads them to pasture.

21:39 He takes care of them both in the sanctuary and out. He's the good shepherd, and he's your shepherd. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, obviously that's a grace that God has given you. But you're born of God. You're one of his sheep. And notice what he says here the verse that I want to point out to you. He says in verse sixteen and other sheep I have which are not of this fold, Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Okay, he says, other sheep I have that are not of this foult what's he talking about? Well, I think that from the context you would say that the fold that he's talking about up to that point is the Jewish nation, the Jewish religion, the Jewish people, because those are the only people that God largely had revealed himself too up to that point. But now the shepherd who's been promised from the very beginning of scriptures has now come, and he says, I've got some other sheep that I also must bring.

22:44 The gentiles, the nations. You see, Jesus Christ didn't come just for the Jews, but he came for the world in the sense of the world of. His people from everywhere. Right. And notice that the word fold there occurs twice. And I very much love and appreciate the English translation we have, But in the original there's two different words there. The first word there, for fold, means what we would say, a sheet fold the structure, right, but the second one means a flock. Okay, Wait, so the word fold. There there's two different words. Okay, let me look at this. Let's John chapter fourteen, Verse no, John ten, I keep doing, I keep saying, John fourteen, John ten I apologize, Verse sixteen. The word fold is used twice. All right, fold fold. First, it is two different Greek words. The first one is this one.

23:49 Strong g eight thirty three. Al lay ala. Ala ala is used twelve times strong definition alay a yard open to the wind by implication, court hall, palace among the Greeks in Homer's time, in uncovered space around the house and closed by a wall in which the stable stood. Hence among the Orientals that roofless enclosure by a wall, and the open country in which the flocks were herded at night. A sheepfold. The uncovered courtyard at the house in the Old Testament, particularly at the courts of the Tabernacle and of the Temple in Jerusalem. So it's an open not not a roof on top of it area. It's just kind of out in the open, but it's kind of fenced off like it sounds like that's ola.

24:40 All right. So there's the first fold mentioned, all right, let me go to the second one. The second fold is this Greek word and it is strong G six seven poemne. Poemne refers to a flock. All right, so that's good. So hey, I love when I checked something out in a sermon and it turns out to be absolutely true. One refers to a structure, one refers to a flock. All right, all right, that's that's awesome, so accurate. All right, good, But now remember this is about unity. So all right, well, we still have a lot to try to figure out about unity. But let's see if we get something practical.

25:34 It's going to be a little bit different. And you see, it's good. There's gonna be unity. But we're not going to keep doing things the way we used to do. We're not going to have that uniformity. And isn't that the problem that the Jews had? The Jewish Christians, these were good brethren, These were people for whom Christ died. They loved the Lord. But they felt like, well, if these gentiles are going to come in, we got to circumcise them, we got to turn them into Jews. They gotta do it this way. Uniformity, uniformity. A lot of problems have come in the Church because we think we're pushing unity when really we're demanding uniformity.

26:15 In other words, you do things exactly the way I do it. You know my way is the right way, and you're out of order because not because there's no unity. And what's the difference, really, Well, unity is its unity of the spirit, unity of the Holy Spirit of God. If we perceive Jesus Christ as he truly is, and we're walking with him, then we're going to have fellowship one with another, and we're going to walk in the light as he is in the light, right, and we're going to walk with Jesus Christ. That's the unity that these men are talking about. I just want to make sure that you understand that. Okay, so this is interesting and almost all like we skipped something there, but okay, so he finally starts bringing in unity and uniformity. All right, so I'm going to let's look at this and see how we I just looked up at least one source. Unity and uniformity, though often used interchangeably, have distinct meanings. Especially in social and organizational context. Unity refers to a sense of togetherness and agreement among individuals or groups, where differences are acknowledged but do not hinder collective purpose or harmony. It is about collaboration, mutual respect, and shared goals. While embracing diversity, unity values the uniqueness of each end member, fostering an inclusive environment where different perspectives contribute to a common objective. Uniformity, on the other hand, emphasizes sameness and conformity. It seeks consistency and standardization, often requiring individuals to adhere to a specific

27:48 set of norms, behaviors, or appearances. While uniformity can simplify processes and create predictability, it also can suppress individuality and discourage innovation and creative things. Now, I will argue that when I read that Christianity is all about uniformity, it wants sameness. It wants conformity, It wants consistency, it wants standardization. It requires individuals to here to a specific set of norms and ideas. You will believe this, you will believe this, you will do this, you will think this way. You won't do this, you won't do that. And if you don't, even though you may be able to be here, you're going to hear plenty against it to move you from to conformity to uniformity. Christianity is all about uniformity over and over and over, where unity is like, hey, we're together and maybe we have some agreement among individuals, but are different, but we have differences. We acknowledge that, but we do not allow it to hinder our collective purpose and our harmony. Uniformity demands sameness, and I think Christianity constantly. Look, if you're not same enough, you will be pushed out.

29:03 You will conform or be rejected. You will be conformed, you'll be cast out. To quote the famous lyric by Rush Okay, So I see just the fact that I mentioned that band, someone will say, see, you're ungodly, And because they want uniformity, I gotta agree with them about music. See, uniformity is demanded in Christianity. Inclusivity versus conformity. Unity embraces diversity and different perspectives. Uniformity demands sameness. Collaboration versus standardization. Unity fosters collaboration and values individual contributions. Uniformity seeks consistency and adherence to a specific standard purpose versus process. Unity focuses on a shared purpose and common goals. Uniformity focuses on maintaining a consistent process or appearance. So now he may be push he may be calling for unity, but I'm saying Christianity at its very essence has been uniformity, uniformity, uniformity, uniformity, uniformity, uniformity.

30:13 And that's why there's constant fights and church splits and and and changes and denominations and and I'm going to leave this church because we want uniformity. I mean, over and over. I think that I think that's fair to say. That it's not uniformity. You know, there was a time, and it's recorded for us both in Luke and in Mark, where Jesus was speaking and he was teaching to his disciples, and and John said, oh yeah, that reminds me. Now let me let's let's let's turn there. There's a lot of humor in the Bible because we recognize ourselves if we will pay attention. So John said to him in Mark, chapter nine, verse thirty eight. John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he fought not us, and we forbade him because he followeth not us.

31:06 Here the disciples said, as we were walking along the way, we encountered a man who was claiming to do things, and they were pretty miraculous things, casting out devils in the name of Jesus Christ. And we told him to stop. Did we do right? That's what he says in Luke, do we do the right thing? You know, we thought we were doing the right thing. He wasn't one of us. He wasn't in the crowd with the rest of us. He wasn't following us, he wasn't with us. So we told him to stop, and Jesus said, forbid him not. Don't do that. Don't require that kind of uniformity. Jesus said, forbid him not. For there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that can speak, that can lightly speak evil of me. I mean, if these men had stopped to think about that, they would have understood. And sometimes if we would stop and think, we would understand that the same God who blesses us blesses.

32:05 All of his people. Okay, I'm not getting all like you minical, and you don't don't go off and say Randy wants open communion and all that nonsense. That's not what I'm talking about at all. But I'm talking about the idea that we can confuse and we can think that our way is the only way, okay. And we need to understand that what we're looking for and what we're pressing for is into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, and what we want unity is Him. We speak of knowing the truth, but the Bible tells us that the truth is Him. I am the truth. When you say that you're walking in the truth, what you're saying is you're walking with Jesus Christ. Are you doing that? If you are, then we. Can talk about our differences. But you can't do what John did here. But we all do it all the time.

32:49 Okay. Jesus says that no man could do a mirror. If you think about it, no man should be able to do a miracle in My name and speak be opposed to me. Wouldn't it matter that? I mean, wouldn't it occur to. You that maybe I was in on that, Maybe I was fine with that. Maybe maybe the Lord's fine with some things that we get maybe a little bit uptied about unity. We're looking for unity. That's what we're promised, that's what we're to pursue. Uniformity has its place, but only to a degree, and that is addressed by the apostle Paul in the Book of Romans. So let's go to Romans fourteen and. This all right, So unity is what we seek, but there's a place for uniformity. I knew because when you read about uniformity, I'm telling you that sounds like Christianity. Okay, all right, so now we're going to Romans. Okay, this is interesting. I guess this conference. It's so weird to have a conference where Ephesians four is the text and nobody covers Ephesians four. I am baffled by this. I really am. Hey, we're going to do a conference and our theme verse is going to be our key verse.

34:00 This is going to be in the Book of Ephesias, but none of our preachers are going to actually deal with the book. I'm assuming that change is at some point, but at this point I'm just baffled by this. Orright, let's continue. Fun. Okay, Well, praise the Lord. I'm thankful because we're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and what is he teaching us in his word and what's he going to reveal to us about unity? What does it mean? Why is that there. In fourteenth chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul is addressing some questions, some issues that were some friction in the church, and the friction was primarily coming, if I'm reading this correctly, the friction was probably coming because there were Jewish Christians who were used to doing things one way and there were gentile Christians who were doing things another way. And now let me ask you this question again, which one is right BOTHO him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not too doubtful disputations, which is a fancy word of saying, don't come down and harshly judge him, don't try to fix him.

35:18 Okay. If he has faith in Christ, you need to rejoice in that. Let's teach him. Okay, Let's teach him about Jesus Christ. Let's teach him the doctrines. These are the true doctrines. Don't get me wrong. This is very important. But you can have a spirit of uniformity that destroys your witness. Okay, that's what I'm talking about. So here Paul says, Look, you've got people in your church, and as you continue to read these verses, he says, there are some people who are still holding themselves to the Jewish traditional law. If you were an early day Christian and you are a Jew and you didn't want to eat. Pork, was it okay? See, yeah, of course it was okay. It's okay today if you want to, if you want to eat, have bacon, and I mean, he'd be crazy not to, but I mean because he's so delicious. But yeah, it's okay too. He says that. He says you, one man believes that he may eat all things. Another who is weak edith herbs, Let not him that edith despise him that eateth not, And let not him which edith not judge him which edith, For God hath received him.

36:23 That's their thing to remember. He that believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And he who loveth him that be God, also loves them that he has begotten, which means each other. Of course, it means the Lord too, but it means each other. That's what we're supposed to do. If we're gonna walk in the King of Jesus Christ. We have to have love, which means we have to tolerate a lot of things that we might. Not like or that we might put up with. That that's okay because what we're pressing for is the unity of the faith. He says, Who art thou that judges another man's servant to his own master? He standeth or falleth. Yeah, he shall be holding up, for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth another day alike. Okay, here's another situation. If you're a Jew, do you celebrate Passover?

37:03 Is it okay? If you're a Jewish Christian? Is it still okay to celebrate Passover? I mean, that's what he's talking about. Esteem. It's one day above another. There were still feast days, was it okay? These were the kinds of questions that they dealt with in Acts chapter fifteen. Right, they had the liberty to do it if they wished. Right. Notice what he says, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. I thought we had the mind of Christ. I thought we just had one mind. Well, yes, in that sense we do. But in another sense, we all have our own mind, and we are to follow our own conscience on our own directions, while taking into account the conscience of one another. As you go on to read this chapter and you read first Corinthians chapters eight through ten. What Paul sets out is that you're guided both by love and by wisdom. You know, when you're dealing with things. If you've got a brother who is offended by something you do, you should not do that.

37:58 You should not do it in their presence, not to be conform to them in the sense of just trying, because that's the only way to do it, but because you'll love them. Because you'll love them, why destroy him for whom Christ died. That's what Paul says. Here, and it goes on to say in chapter fourteen, Verses seventeen and eighteen says, for the Kingdom of God is not meet and drink. All these rules, all these silly things, all these things that we think are important, all these things that we think are actually the worship of God are not. They're not. Okay, they're not. The Kingdom of God is not meet and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in. The Holy Ghost. For he who in these things serveth Christ is accepted of God and approved of men. That's what we're pressing for.

38:43 And so that brings me to a very interesting story. And with this I will close. This is a historical story it's not in the Bible, but it is in the early writings of the Church. You know that as the Apostle Apostolic Age ended with the death of John the Baptist, who I read copiously from this evening. He'd lived to be a ripe old age. There was a man named Polycarp who was his disciple. He was a young man when John was an old man. And we know quite a bit about this man named Polycarp, who was a preacher. He was a pastor or the bishop of Smyrna. You've heard of Smyrna. Those of you have read Revelation, add that to your list, because you'll get you excited if you'll read Revelation. But Polycarp was a disciple of John. And what the church is in Asia, in that region of the world, those churches that were in what we would call modern day Turkey, the church is kind of in the East. When it came time to celebrate, they had a desire to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of course we had to celebrate that every day. One man esteem with one day above another another man of steemth every day alike, Let every man be fully persuaded in his mind, you don't have to celebrate Easter, but if you want to, you can guess what you've got that liberty you do, but don't be offended if somebody does it some other way. Well that was the problem, because there was another man. And let's see if I can get his name. I'm glad I got the glasses. Antecetas was the pastor in Rome, and Anteceitas decided.

40:11 This is the early one hundreds. Antecetas decided that it was necessary that all the Christians throughout the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the Sunday following the full moon following. The spring equinox. And the reason for that is because that would line up with the first Sunday that Jesus was raised from because we all know that Jesus was crucified in accordance with the Jewish calendar on the fourteenth day of Nissan, which was the day of the Passover, and then that following Sunday was when he was raised from the dead. So the church at Rome had a desire to celebrate on that Sunday. Now, I don't know if if Peter ever actually made it to Rome or not. I really don't know. I know that there's a lot of legends about it, but there's a lot of legends about Peter.

41:01 But you can certainly understand from a practical standpoint why Peter and his disciples would want to emphasize that day, you know, not the crucifixion, because that's when he crucified. Yeah, that's when he denied it. My point is that there were a group of Christians in Rome who set aside, this is the day. Okay, Well, those. Apostles that were from where Polycarp was, from the churches of Asia, Ephesus and so on, by John and by the Philip, who was another apostle, they celebrated it differently. They preferred to celebrate it on Nissan fourteenth. So if Nissan fourteenth landed on a Wednesday, they would celebrate it.

41:41 Then if they landed on a Saturday, they would do it. Then they would sit down and remember. That and think about this. If you look at the Book of John, the Gospel of John, almost half the book is about the night that Jesus talked with his disciples. It starts in chapter thirteen and it runs all the way to chapter eighteen. I mean, some of the most beautiful words in all the Bible. Right, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. I mean, this was Jesus talking to his disciples before his crucifixion. And it makes sense that the disciple whom Jesus loved would want to sit down and they would have a meal, and they would have a communion, and then they would sit there and they would talk about and bring to mind the things that the Master had said that night.

42:21 Isn't that beautiful? You know, we could do that too if we wanted to. There's absolutely no reason why Tyler Church or anywhere else. If you said, you know what, if it was the mind of the church and they wanted to do it, you could get together on Nissan fourteen and do that. It's an Apostolic tradition. I don't know what better you know, what better authority you need? But can you see, here's two different Apostolic traditions. So which one's right? I hope you've guessed by now. They're both right, right, They're both right. They're different, they're not uniform, but there is unity because what are they celebrating in both places? Both in Rome and in Asia. What are they celebrating. They're celebrating the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Right, and he can be in both places, and it doesn't have to be at the same time.

43:09 Right. Okay, But here's the problem. The guys in Rome were not content to do it the way they wanted to do it they wanted and they demanded that everyone else do it the same way. Why because they confused unity for uniformity. Now again, I'm baffled that Ephesians is not even coming into play here. I'm baffled that, you know, if Ephesians fours is the focus here, we literally have I. Therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing with one another, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit. What leads to how can we endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit by lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing one another in love? Like the text here just screams like, here's everything you need to do to talk about unity. His approach was radically different. Okay, great, now he's got this story. Now, I do like the idea that he is showing how uniformity and even in history, even in church history, uniformity is what the church presses for.

44:20 That the church doesn't really want unity, it wants unif it wants uniformity. I do like this distinction between unity and uniformity. So how does that work practically? Well, we could have a discussion. So I do appreciate this. Again, I'm just like, well, Ephesians four, its right, how do we how do we how do we bring in the subject of unity versus uniformity to this? But all right, let's just continue. They started making a big fuss and saying everybody in the world needs to celebrate this way and by the way, that's that's how Easter is calculated today. So if you did celebrate Easter, that's wonderful. But that's that's how it's kind of and that goes all the way back to the days of the early Roman Church. Polycarp went and visited this pastor. And I want you to see this because notice the Greeks, I say, the Greeks, this is the Greek Orthodox Church. Ultimately, these people who follow this tradition, right, the Roman Church and the Greek Orthodox. If you ever wondered why did they split, this is why. Because they wouldn't do it the right way. And that's a good thing that doesn't happen in the old Baptist Church. But anyway, Polycarp visited Antecetus and they did actually, to their credit, they had a good time. They could not agree on it, but notice Polycarp did not show up and demands that the Romans do it their way. They just said, we ought to have the freedom to do it our way.

45:47 And they parted it that ways and everything was okay. But in the years to come they did ultimately make a division. So there's just one example. It's not in the Bible, but it follows immediately after of where this kind of think can lead. And if we think back upon. Our own history of the of the of the primitive Baptist Church, and we think about a lot of the divisions that took place, it wasn't because of some really bad doctrine. I mean, there were some that did that, and that's that's right and appropriate, but a lot of it was because people confused unity for uniformity. I don't have a tie on. I'm not doing that to make a statement, I'm not smart enough to do that. I'm just I'm just doing what I believe the Lord would have me do. I'm not trying to impress you or anything else. But we've got to have charity and love one for another. We simply do because we want to walk in the Kingdom and fellowship of Jesus Christ. And if you're walking in the Kingdom and fellowship of Jesus Christ, you're my friend because that's where i'm That's where I am, that's what I have.

46:47 That's what I do. I try to do, and I'm with Zach. We're all flawed and we all fail, but you seek Him and most of this stuff's gonna take care of itself. Thank you for your kind of attention. I hope y'all sleep well. What's interesting is if you said I'm doing what I feel the Lord is leading me to do. This is where this is where the discussion of unity. I just want to throw up my hands. If God is leading you to do one thing and God is leading someone else to do an opposite thing, why would the same God lead two people to do absolutely opposite things. If if we're being led by one God, would there not be in a sense some level of uniformity, right, would there not be some love Like, well, now I understand you can say, well, God's leading me to go here, and God's leading you to go there. Okay, No, we're saying we're talking about God's leading you to Well, I'm gonna I think this is the way I can dress behind the pulpit. Well, I believe God is leading me. Well, someone is not hearing from God, unless you think God just has different wardrobes for different people. And then of course someone could walk up there in a pair of shorts and no shirt and you'd be like, well, no, God is not leading you. Wait a minute, if God is so, then like, well no, God would never lead you to do that. Well no God, And so then see I can't That's where I can't stand the whole leading me thing because that becomes subjective and how do you know that's not you leading you?

48:12 Right? I mean all right, So I reject that out there. But the idea of unity versus uniformity, I think is fascinating. I think Christianity, by its very nature is teaches uniformity, demands uniformity. And as much as we say, well they are a believer, I'm a believer. There's some kind of unity because we both believe. Just always note it's such a theoretical unity because that unity never works in practice, because even though we say, well, they're a believer and I'm a believer, ultimately it almost always descends into their heretics, or they have a false gospel, or they are apostate, or they are false doctrine, false theology. They should be avoided, you should not have no fellowship with them. So it it's always sounds so perfect in a theoretical way. Well, they believe in Jesus and I believe in Jesus. Now we're going to do things our own, separate way. But no, you're going at some point have to say that what they teach is false. And if they teach what is false, how much false teaching can one have before you then to even begin to question the validity of the Christianity.

49:22 It almost inevitably descends into that, because we demand some level of uniformity, whether we like it or not. Now, what I think he kind of did this, But it's just interesting that he didn't use Ephesians four, since that was I must be confused about the conference, right because my understanding the conference is pulling from Ephesians four. Five. Why is it I don't understand why the speakers are not just like living within Ephesians four because the idea is Okay, what is Why should we endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace? Because this unity, the concept of the unity is taught earlier in Ephesians. We are unified in Christ Jesus. I think what I think how this should be understood is our practical unity. Our call and striving for practical unity flows from our positional unity. We are one in Christ.

50:20 That is positional unity. Now, how does positional unity? How does it? How is it carried out in a practical way? Now, he gave some good principles on that right and a practical way. What should you be guided by? Well, what you should be guided by is that you do nothing to hurt. You put others before you, so you you won't do things that would hurt a fellow brother or be a stumbling block. You'll give up your own rights for them and not do things around them. Right, Okay, that that's that's idea. Being motivated by love, being motivated by humility. Okay, those are some good principles. Right, So there are good principles there, but I think we have to understand the practical flows from the thilological. The theological truth is that if you are in Christ Jesus, we are unified in Christ. How does that play out practically?

51:10 That's where things get convoluted and messy, right, because we all have a different interpretations, we all have different doctrines. We all think our doctrines are right. We think the other doctrines are wrong. If we didn't think the other doctrines are wrong, we would be there. It's like a lot of times people say, well, you know, well, like some people will say, well, Catholics are Christians, and Methodists are Christians and Church of Christ are Well, if everyone's just a Christian, then why are you condemning their doctrine? Like how much doctrine can you condemn? And still say well, there are they a viable option that anybody can go to any of those churches? Well, some people say, well Catholics are not or they're not, So then we start limiting who is and who isn't, and so it's just very odd like, well, in some ways we're unified. We don't want uniformity, but we do demand uniformity here, so uniformity then causes a division. But then we're supposed to be unified. It becomes really complicated. But there are principles.

52:13 There are principles. I do know this. Whether we have uniformity or whether we have unity, I want you to write down these words. Right, whatever you think about unity, whatever you think about uniformity, forget that. Here's what should This is what should characterize each one of us? Are you ready? Lowliness? Just write down these words lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing with one another in love? Just write those down. Lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, and bearing with one another in love. I want you to write those down, and I want you to define each one. What is lowliness?

53:02 What is gentleness? What is long suffering? And what does it mean to bear with one another in love? I want you to focus on that. Because whatever we agree about unity or disunity, what other we agree about unity? Uniformity? What are unanity? Whatever words you want to use, whatever phrases you want to use, we can set that aside. And just imagine if you and me, both claiming to be Christians, we possess these attributes lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, and bearing with one another in love. That's how I want to end this right again, this is right here in Ephesians, which I thought the conference Ephesians four five.

53:44 I'm just I'm baffled by why nobody wants to use the Book of Ephesians. I don't. I don't understand, but we can use it. So here's what I want you to. I want you to write down these words again, you're ready. I want you to write down the word lowliness, gentleness, long suffer bearing with one another in love. I want you to define each one, and I want you to just say, Okay, whether we agree or disagree, who cares about unity uniformity. Let's just forget all of that. Let's say, how can I as an individual grow in lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, and bearing with one another in love? All right, I'm just going to leave it there now. I want to do the work right now, but we're at fifty four minutes. I'm not going to do the work right now.

54:35 We'll leave it as a cliffhanger, and that next time what we'll do is we'll look at each one of those lowliness gentleness, hang on, long suffering, and bearing with one another in love. I want to get a memorize I think is lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing one another with love and love I think. So I want you to have those down. That's what I want you to focus on. Now. We we've listened it now too. Messages from the conference. We still really haven't gotten to the Book of Ephesians, but that one was. I like the concept of unity versus uniformity. I do like it brings up some very difficult questions that I don't have answers for.

55:17 But for me, I'm just gonna use it to get back to Ephesians for because that's where you know, that's where I want to be. So lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, and bearing one another with love. I want you to That's what I just want you to. I want you to go all in on that, all right, and we'll see if what I can do to build on that over the next couple of days. All right, Thanks for listening. You can emoi me news. I F at yahoo dot com. That's news. I f at yahoo dot com. News I F at yahoo dot com. Thanks for listening. God bless