Unity in the Church
Part 3
True Christianity
By Nick Bibile
False Unity
Charles Spurgeon said on a sermon he delivered on True Unity
delivered on Sunday morning
Here we are 140 years later and what a turn the Roman Catholic Church has taken and what a turn the Protestant churches have taken. Satan has changed strategy, if you cannot win the fight with the enemy, join the enemy. As a result the Pope is not cursing the Protestants anymore and many Protestants are embracing and giving high honor to the Pope.
Billy Graham In
1980 he wrote an article, which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post
(Jan.-Feb. 1980). He said: "Pope John Paul II is one of the greatest moral
and spiritual leaders of this century. He is an evangelist."
Hank Henegraff the host of the popular 'Bible Answer Man'
program calls Roman Catholics, brothers and sisters.
Today there is an attempt to unite all churches and all religions, this is called the ecumenical movement. There is
a false unity. Christ prayed with the following.
Joh
17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Here
Jesus is speaking of the true believers and not the apostate Church, fallen and
counterfeit Church.
Pentecostals and Charismatics have accelerated their Romeward journey and Evangelical leaders who have signed ECT ("Evangelicals and Catholics Together") have led very large numbers of Evangelicals to kneel before the open "holy" door that the Roman Catholic Church offers them.
True believers will not bend the truth of the word of God for the sake of compromise, they believe in Sola Scriptura the Holy written word of God above all human compromise and logic, above all human traditions. The true Christians are saved by , Sola Gratia meaning by grace alone where we cannot add one little work to salvation or any merit we are made righteous not by our good works but by the imputation of Christ righteous alone for the glory of God.
5
One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of all, who is
above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:5-6)
Last time on verse
four we saw, there is one body, one Spirit and one hope. The work of the Holy
Spirit in salvation and bringing us into the body of Christ with one hope. The
word one is emphasized, it means one and only, none other. On verse four the
unity was focused on the Holy Spirit and on verse five the unity is focused on
the Lord Jesus Christ.
One Lord.
Now when you say
one Lord it means one master, one ruler, one governor possessing supreme power
and authority.
George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation said,
“And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and
supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon
our national and other transgressions.”
Mt 28:18 And Jesus
came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in
earth.
And that person is
the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Bible, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the
Holy Spirit is God. Yet there is one God not three. But the Lordship is
attributed to Christ.
1Co 8:6 But to us
there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and
one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
Ac
Joh
There are many
false Christian churches. In Roman Catholicism there is the Pope. Pope is regarded
as the only one ruler, master and the governor of the Church, in Roman
Catholicism he is the head of the church. Pope is regarded as the Our Most
Holy Lord' - Council of
In all these false
Christian churches we find something very similar and that is they have another
leader, another master apart from Christ. But the Bible is telling the truth,
there is only one Lord and one Master we are all servants under him. Just like
there is only one body, the church there is only one head, that’s Christ Jesus.
One Faith.
It means there is
only one truth. As you see it follows
together. Because there is only one Lord there is only one faith. There are many who believe every religion is
truth. They believe there is truth in every religion. Some may even ask, “How
do you know which religion is the truth?”
It’s amazing that all the other religions of the world have a respect to
Jesus. Buddhists and Hindus do not deny Jesus; even Islam does not deny Jesus.
They say Jesus was a good man, a good teacher.
Let me ask you a question. Do good men and good teachers lie? No. Then
this is the crux of the matter as Jesus said the following.
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith
unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father,
but by me.
Our President
George W. Bush made an error when he said the following.
"That edifice of character is built in families,
supported by communities with standards, and
sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount,
the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people."
The truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount the word of Koran and the varied faiths of people cannot be put in the same level of the Bible.
Only the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ can save souls as it is the truth. None of the other religious leaders sacrificed their bodies for the truth but Jesus did as he was crucified for telling the truth. None of the religious leaders are alive as they are all dead but Jesus is alive as he rose from the dead and he will be coming again to judge the world.
There is only one foundation of truth and that is the foundation of true Christianity built on the rock, Christ alone.
1Co
Christ Jesus never change is his mind.
Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
There are religions like Mormonism tells an angel appeared to Joseph Smith and gave a new revelation. There are so many false Christian teachers who say the Lord gave them a new vision, or the Lord spoke to them. Let me tell you the truth. The faith or the truth is already given and the book is closed.
Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto
you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and
exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once
delivered unto the saints.
Today many Christians do
not want to defend the truth. One side
of the gospel tells us to preach the truth and the other side tells us to
defend the gospel.
The Puritans were masters of defending the Gospel against the attacks of those who sought an attempt at destroying the Christian faith. They wrote masterful treatises in defending the gospel
One Baptism.
Context of baptism here is the identification with Christ. There is one Lord, Jesus Christ, one faith meaning one truth then we are Baptist into one body.
1Co 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
There is one Lord, one faith and we believers are baptized
by one Spirit into one body. We can have
different denominations who believe essentials of salvation, the essential
truth of the gospel and we are all incorporated into one body, the
6 One
God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you
all.
We can see the
Trinity. On verse four the focus is the Holy Spirit and verse five it is the
Lord Jesus and verse six it is the Father.
Usually when we speak of the Trinity we say Father, Son and the Holy
Spirit. But here Paul is going backwards, Spirit, Son and the Father. Why? It
is because Apostle Paul is speaking from the effect to the cause.
Eph 4:3
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Here we see the
unity given to the church by the Holy Spirit and he starts with the body.
Eph 4:4 There is
one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.
But where did this
effect comes from? How did the church comes from? The answer is Lord Jesus
Christ, by the work of Christ. The Holy Spirit does to the Church what Christ
has done. Why did Christ has to come to earth and do the redemptive work? The
answer is it all flows from one God who is over all and through all and in all.
There is only on
true God, one true deity, the eternal God, the living God, the creator God, the
infinite, omnipotent, all sufficient, perfect, independent God.
Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me;
He is the Father of all. It means he is the source and originator of all. The first cause of all things. , he is the Father of the elect. He is above all other false gods; he is above all as he is the Creator God. He is superior to all not above his Son or the Holy Spirit as they are in the same nature. He is above governments and all his creatures. And through all means taking care of all in respect to his providence. But especially to his children, the believers as he is in relationship to him. And in you all means the gracious union between him and his people the believers
You cannot split the Godhead and in the same way we cannot split the true body of Christ the Church as it is God’s people and we are the result of God’s work and we exists for God’s glory.
True believers are united in love. This agape love is like a cement that bonds us together. We praise God for the internet as we have brothers and sisters who are blessed by our website can requesting materials from all over the world. We have never seen them but we feel the spirit of unity. I received encouragement from brothers I have never seen, this is Christian unity. It is the burning love for the Savior that brings unity. Unholy lives, cold hearts, inconsistent lifestyle brings hatred, jealousy, selfishness and divisions to the body. May the Lord bless our fellowship with the unity of the Spirit and may we overflow in love for his glory.