Unity in the Body

Well, take your Bible, turn back with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We were there last week, so we are familiar with these verses, and I did say that we would turn to Ephesians a little later on in the message. We'll look at chapter 2, and a few verses maybe in chapter 4. We'll just see how our time works out. I'll kind of mention a phrase or two and some things that we have sung as you're turning there. "Oh, let your will be done in us." Think about that phrase. "Oh, let your will be done in us." And I think about that as a church. That's what we're singing.

"Lord, let your will be done in us." And so as we're studying these scriptures, we want His Word to be planted down deep in us. Isn't that what we just sung? So as we're looking at 1 Corinthians 1, as we're looking at Ephesians and other passages, really all of this series, we're wanting God's will to be done in us as a people, and we're wanting His Word to be planted down deep in us. Now, I think everyone here knows that we're in our third message in our series that I've been calling Life in the Body. It's all about living life in the body. The Body of Christ, the local church. Now, the purpose and all that we are studying is to equip us.

We want to be equipped. We want to be taught. We want to be encouraged. We even want to be corrected so that we can live properly in the life of a local church. Being a part of a local church is a lot like a family. As a matter of fact, Paul uses the earthly family to illustrate life in the local church. And think about it. No matter if you are the husband or the wife, no matter if you're a son or a daughter, no matter if you're the first born or the baby of eight, even if you're a grandparent, you must know how you are to live in your earthly family. Isn't that right?

And if you do not know your place in the family nor how you should behave and live in the family, well, what do you have? Family problems, dysfunction, strife, and much more, you have a family with a lot of problems. Isn't that right? And my prayer is that we are all approaching this series seeking to know our place in the body, the Body of Christ, and then seeking to know how we should live in the body, which is truly the family of God, the local church. Now, when I introduced this series, I gave some reasons why we need this teaching. Now, think back to some of what I shared.

I'm not gonna cover it all, but I want you to see how relevant this really is. I said that many of you have come from very unhealthy churches, dysfunctional churches. I even said that some of you have come from what I call nine churches. Now, that phrase is not original to me. I've heard others use it. And if that is you, I strongly urge you to compare what we've been studying in this series with what you have experienced in those churches. You may even need some pastoral counsel to understand what you have been through.

It may not be pleasant, but we must all learn from our past and we must take what we are studying and we must apply it to our experiences. And then we learn from our past experiences, even if they have been difficult. And we must take what we are studying and we must apply it to the future because see, we need to be all the God who want us to be tomorrow in the days to come in the life of the church. But I also stated that we are learning from our past difficulties. Some of you know that I'm aiming this teaching straight at some of our struggles in the recent past.

I was talking with one of the couples in our church last Sunday night after adult snog group. And in that conversation, the wife told me that she was surprised that I outright mentioned our long series of difficulties. She then said that she was blessed by how I came back around to those struggles last week when we examined the vision in the church. One of our ladies reached out to my wife this week asking for counsel as to how she should apply what we learn and studied there in Corinth dealing with the division there in the life of the Corinthian church.

You know, Brother Keith and I as elders, we have examined how we've handled some of these past difficulties and divisions that we have faced. We're studying God's word. We're examining, we're learning, we're growing. Many of you know our affiliation with Anchored in Truth and Grace Life Church of Muscle Shoals. And I have ministers and other elders that I look to. I call, I get advice from, mentors I look up to, and I'm thankful for one of the long time lay elders at Grace Life Church told me that they had been doing church discipline and dealing with struggles for 30 years.

And he said, "Brother, we're learning as we go." And he said, "We don't always handle it perfectly, but we learn just like everybody else." You see? So I say all that to say this. Let's capitalize on this day and this time. Let's capitalize on our past and on our present. Let's capitalize in this day and time that the Lord has for us. And let's make sure we learn better our proper place in the body and how we should and shouldn't live in the body. Let's all learn from our past to be better church members and Christians for tomorrow. Now we've had two messages so far. The first one was one but many. We looked at one but many.

And then last week we looked at what I call division in the body. And all of this is interconnected. Living all of this that we have studied in two messages, it's all tied together. You're really gonna have a hard time dividing it. Now let me quickly blend all of this together for you. Each message builds. So you do need a sharp but short reminder just like last week. In 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12 to 27, "We saw that we are one body but many parts." As born again Christians, we have been spirit baptized in the Christ. That phrase surprised some of you.

We've been spirit baptized in the Christ and into his body and into that local body of believers. And just as the human body needs every part, the spiritual body of Christ needs every part as well. Paul showed us that we need one another. Although we are different, we need one another and we are to care for one another. And then in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 10 to 17, in a few other scriptures, we learned that division in the body of Christ, it is a sin. Division is a sin and divisive people are sinful.

If divisive people will not repent of their divisive behavior in the life of the church, it's sad to say they are to be disciplined and even put out and then they are to be avoided. So this all fits together. We've got to live all this out folks. This is life in the church, life in the body. We can't just have head knowledge here. No, we got to live this out. As born again believers, we are many parts, but one body remembered diversity and unity. Diversity and unity, unity and diversity. This is the supernatural work of God in us. We need one another, we must care for one another.

And if we have any attitude or behavior of independence from the body, it's sin. If we have any attitude of superiority in the body, it is sin. And divisive attitudes, divisive behaviors, those are sin as well. And I can't emphasize enough that any divisive behavior in the body of Christ by someone who claims to be a Christian, it is one of the most diseased and sinful and disruptive and satanic things that can happen in the church. Yes, I said diseased and satanic, but God ordains it. Didn't we learn that last week? God ordains it because it is God's work in the body to prove who is fit and to prove who is unfit for His church.

Now I do need to repeat a pastoral warning that I gave last week. I say this humbly, but with the authority that God's given me, if any person rises up and division in the life of the church, we will deal with it patiently, lovingly, but biblically. We will not permit anyone to be divisive in the life of this church, we just will not do it. We love the church and we love you and we love your children and we say that to protect you. We're protecting the work of the church. Listen, as your pastor, you need to remember this, when the dust settles, when difficulties from divisions are all worked out, it proves people and sometimes it takes time.

It exposes those who are fit for use in the church and it's sad, it does expose those who are unfit. Now here's a rhetorical question for you. Who does the proving? God, remember we learned that divisions are necessary. It is a part of God's divine work in his church. It is God who does the proving through this difficult thing called division. Now this morning, we're really picking up where we left off last week. We studied division and divisive people. We studied what one commentator called Clicks at Corinth.

That was out of 1 Corinthians chapter one, Clicks at Corinth, that has a ring to it, but I said last week, I think that's a little too nice. These were damning and damaging divisions. These were fatal factions. The church at Corinth was on the verge of ruin simply from all of the different divisions and this all came out of all of these different sin problems in the church. Like I said earlier in our scripture reading, one of the men of the church yesterday, he just said, man, the divisions and the sins connected with all of those divisions in Corinth. It was a lot. It really was.

You know, at this point in our series, we must ask ourselves a question. What's the answer for division? What's the answer? Many of you know the answer. It's called unity. Ultimately, unity is what the apostle Paul wanted for the Corinthian church, but this was not going to come easy. This was not an easy fix. I'm sorry, a Sunday school lesson would not fix this. Remember, there were nine different problems and divisions came out of all of these problems. Real quickly, I'll just highlight, it's about six that are just large and loom. They had divisions over leadership.

There was a big division over this horrible immorality that came into the life of the church. Some were proud of the immorality that even pagans condemn. Some of the Christians were suing other Christians in the pagan courts. Imagine the division from that. There were divisions over meat, sacrifice to idols. That was a horrific division. And then there were divisions over the abuse of the Lord's Supper. That caused all types of different division. And then there was the division over the abuse of spiritual gifts. I just highlighted that long difficult list of divisions and sins and problems.

And in Paul's efforts to get all of this out of the church, he wants it out. Right from the start, he was calling them, this church, the problematic church to do two things. And we must get this. He was calling them to two works that they were responsible for. And all of this was to move them towards unity. Now I'll go ahead and give you the title of the message. It's real simple. Unity in the body. And I want us to go back and I do want us to read these verses. So let's look back at verse 10.

Paul says, "I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree and that there'll be no divisions among you." He's calling out the division. "But that you may be united in the same mind and judgment, for it has been reported to me by Chloe's people or household that there is quarreling among you, my brothers." What I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul or I follow Apollos or I follow Cephas or Christ or I follow Cephas or Peter or I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or will you baptize in the name of Paul?

So you might not realize it, but right here, we see Paul calling this church to their great responsibility in dealing with division and these problems. So I want us to see first our number one. He called them to focus on agreement. And this is out of verse 10. He called them to focus on agreement. Now I know that I dealt with this last week. I explained that the divisions were forbidden last week. And I explained some of the meaning here of this verse. So don't check out on me here. I have a purpose in looking back at verse 10. So just hang with me. But notice what Paul is doing.

This church have been focusing all of their attention on the different groups. And they've been focusing on their unhealthy allegiances. I explained that scholars do believe that there were bad doctrines in the church that were connected at least to some of these groups. So they were focusing all of their attention on the groups. They were focusing on their allegiance to their self appointed leaders because Paul and Apollos and Cephas never would have been for these associations. And no doubt their theological beliefs were connected and they were focusing on those issues, those theological beliefs.

And listen folks, they were working real hard. These groups were working real hard. They were putting a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of energy into their groups and everything associated with their group. But remember what Paul did here in this circumstance. First he called them to agree in all of these matters. We looked at this last week, but look back at the beginning of verse 10. I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree. We saw that the meaning of this word agree is to say the same thing, but this does not speak of just mere words.

This is not a verbal agreement, but yet in their hearts and their minds, they held on to their disagreements and differences. This means a total agreement, a true agreement, a genuine agreement in their church practices, in their doctrines and even in their leadership. And then second, he called them to have the same mind in all of these matters. We see this at the end of verse 10. I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree that there'll be no divisions among you and here's what I'm focusing on, but that you may be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

We saw that the meaning of these phrases, same mind and same judgment, speak to a genuine unified judgment on all of these matters. They were to have the same mind, therefore they could make the same judgment in matters pertaining to church practice. Yes, their doctrine and oh, especially, their leadership. Now I wanna speak to something that I might not have emphasized as much last week. Paul was calling them to a work. He was calling them to roll up their sleeves and work. They had a responsibility, they had a job to do. He was calling them to focus on their responsibility here.

They had a responsibility to sit down and to totally agree in these matters, not just words. They were to work in such a way that they all came to the same judgments in all of these matters that were dividing them. And see, right here is where many would leave the church. Right here is where many in the Apollos group, they would just travel over land and sea to find them in Apollos church. This is right here where many, they would leave the church, they'd go find them a Cephas church. But notice they didn't leave. He didn't call them to leave. He called them to stay in this work. Yes, they were to go into their meetings.

Yes, they were to meet. Imagine this business meeting. Imagine this deacons meeting. Imagine this elders meeting. But they were to go into their meetings and to do this great work. They were to go in there divided, but ultimately they would come out. They would come out of this work united in their hearts, in their minds, in their thinking, in their judgment. Praise God, they could not leave and take their beliefs and take their affiliations and take their little group with them. Leaving was not an option. And remember Paul's approach. He called them brothers two times. I've had a good conversation with a few of you.

The fact that he called them brothers, some of us would have a hard time calling some of these folks brothers. That was a term of affection. And he tells them that he would come alongside them in the work we saw that last week. Now use your imagination with me here. Imagine a meeting with all of these groups. Oh, these were fighters. And Paul was moderating. Oh, but he was more than moderating because he had the authority of an apostle. Imagine Paul teaching them concerning their theological errors and their theological differences. Imagine Paul correcting them in all of these unhealthy allegiances. Just think about Paul sitting with them.

He would start off by correcting the Paul group just to get that out of the way. Imagine Paul addressing the many sins that were in their fellowship because you couldn't deal with the division without dealing with all of those sins. Imagine that Deacons meeting, that Elders meeting, that business meeting, and it wasn't one, folks. This was a long, hard, arduous work. So I want us to see that Paul is calling these groups to focus, to focus on their work at hand. They had a job to do. They had a big job to do, and it was all on them to do it, you see?

And this would involve humility, and more humility, and a little more humility, and a whole lot more humility, 'cause see, these people were puffed up with pride. This would require confession. Think about how much confession had to go on because these groups have been warring against one another. This would require repentance. This would require grace and mercy. That's why last week I said they had to bury the hatchet. They would have to lay down their arms. And imagine men who had been vehemently against one another because they saw each other as wrong. They had to do this work. That is what Paul was calling them to do.

He is calling them to focus on agreement. Now, an application, I want us to see a real big lesson, and then I'm gonna move to some smaller lessons, two other lessons. We have the responsibility as a church and as a people to agree in all matters pertaining to the church. We do. We have a responsibility to make the same judgments pertaining to doctrine, to church leadership. In all matters of church practice, we do. We have a responsibility to make the same judgments in dealing with sin and the life of the church. They had not. And this is a work that we must do. Think about it. This is the work we have to do.

We have to be vigilant in the same work. And this is a work of the Holy Spirit of God in us. See, we can't do it alone. We gotta have the Holy Spirit of God working. And this is a work of the Word of God in us because we have to have God's word. It is the pattern, it is the standard, it is the instruction. And see, it's all three. It's us, it's the work of the Spirit, and it's the work of the Word of God in us. And it comes to form this great lesson. We have a great responsibility, and we must be united in all of these matters. Let me give you an example. Quite a few years back in the life of our church, we had a sin issue. A sin issue.

Required the leaders of the church going and approaching that person in obvious sin. We lovingly, kindly begged him to repent. We offered all kinds of counsel and help. We rolled out the red carpet in love. And we tried to bring about repentance and restoration. It was open sin that even the lost world would condemn. And because we were God-sided with that sin, oh, there was a whole group that just condemned us. How in the world could you tell somebody how to live? You see? We had to work to agree, and there were some that wouldn't agree. And they just left. You see? It's a job, it's a responsibility. I could go down the list.

We are responsible to agree in all of these matters and to make the same judgments here. Now I want to zero in on these other two lessons. And these lessons are much needed. These groups here, Corinth, they were divided really in two obvious ways. First over who would be their leader. Just imagine they had just appointed Apollos and Paul and Cephas as their leaders. And those men didn't ask for that. And then second, they were divided over their doctrines. I do believe that all of these doctrinal problems within the church were connected to all of these factions.

And listen, folks, this church will never truly be united unless it is united behind its leadership. I will narrow it down. The church will not be united unless it is united behind its pastor and then behind its elders and then behind the other leaders that God would raise up in the life of the church. You see? You know, I've pondered this. It's amazing the expectations that people can put on a pastor. Now I want to say this. I do not have unreal expectations put on me here. I am very thankful. But just think with me. People want the pastor to always be there. They want him to be there for every funeral.

They want him to be there for every graduation. They want him to be there for the ballgames. They want him to be there for the deacons meetings. They want him to be prepared to preach. Heaven forbid if they think he's not prepared to preach. They want him to be there morning, noon and night. They want him to be there when it's raining and when it's not, when it's good and when it's not. Oh, when they need counsel, they want him. They want the pastor to work hard and to do his job. But some of those very same people will be the most derelict church members you've ever seen. They're not united behind their pastor.

They're not united behind the leaders. Again, I'm not saying any of you have done that to me, but I'm pointing out that reality that some of you have seen. And the church will not be united until it is united behind the leaders that God has given them. And I'll say this to you, listen, folks, I wouldn't do anything in the world. For a million dollars, I wouldn't change jobs. I do what God's called me to do because this is what God's called me to do. I pastor 'cause this is who I am and this is what I do. And I love the ballgames. Oh yes, I even love going to the funerals. I love studying to teach you God's word. I love it all.

And every now and then I'll give above and beyond. And some of you here say, oh, I'm so sorry. I had to take up your time. And I look at you and I say, this is what I do. This is what I live for. This is what I wanna do. This is within my DNA. I pour out my whole life here. I have no plan B. I don't have another option. The church is it. And this is what God's called me to do. And brother Keith feels the same way as an elder and God's bringing up men, the life of this church who feel the very same way. And I'm very thankful. And this church will only be as united as it is behind its leaders.

And this church will never be truly united unless it's united in doctrine. See, that's what we're dealing with on Wednesday nights. We're going through the church confession. We're adopting what we believe and what we teach. But to be honest with you folks, I've been laying the groundwork for this for years. I did that on purpose. You're gonna say, "Pastor, you've been teaching this all along. This is part of the unification, this work of God where He is unifying us in what we believe. This is all part of the work of God, you see? And we've got to work here." So Paul called these Corinthians to focus on their great responsibility to agree.

As you can see, what was needed was much more than a verbal agreement. I think you could see that verse 10, going a little deeper here, you really needed to see that. That's why I took the time. And then number two, our second major truth in our outline, number two, I want us to see that He called them to fixate on Jesus. He called them to fixate on Jesus. Now I did touch on some of this last week, but I did not go very far because we were focusing on the sinfulness of division, the necessity of division. But here I want us to see that Paul is calling the Corinthians to another responsibility or task. They were to be fixated on Jesus.

Now question here. If they had a division problem, and they did, if they had a division problems, plural, that's probably not good English, but I think you see what I mean. They had multiple problems and we've seen it. Why does Paul call them to fixate on Jesus? Well, Paul knows that division and disunity come into the church because the body has allowed their hearts to be fixated on something else. In other words, Paul knows their fundamental problem was that they had gotten their eyes off Jesus. Their words would have said otherwise, but their actions proved that their eyes were off of Jesus.

And notice who they had their hearts fixed on in an unhealthy way, solid, respected men. Paul had evangelized them. Apollos was their great successful pastor after Paul. And then of course, Peter was useful to them. As an apostle to the Jews, he would have been useful. And then Christ, Christ, he was the one that had saved them. But these fixations, one commentator I read called them personality cults. These fixations, they were very unhealthy. They had become divisive. And Paul does three things here to correct this unhealthy fixation. First, Paul calls them to the wholeness of Christ. Paul calls them to fixate on the wholeness of Christ.

What does the verse say? Verse 13, is Christ divided? Isn't that a strange question? Now this literally means can Christ be parceled out? Think about the situation. You've got four groups, very well known now. So much so that Cloyes House O brought the news to Paul. They were very divided. And it's almost like Paul is saying, do you want me to chop up Jesus and give him to you in your little bitty groups? Maybe Paul could have said something like this to the Paul party. I'll give you guys the evangelistic heart of Jesus because you love me. See, you love me because I'm the evangelist. I go around the world evangelizing.

So it's almost like he's saying to the Paul party, I'll give you guys the evangelistic heart of Jesus. Maybe to the Apollos party. Maybe Paul would say something like this, I'll give you guys the preaching and the teaching ministry of Jesus because you love great, eloquent preaching. See, Apollos was a great, eloquent preacher. And maybe Paul is saying something like this, I'll just chop up the preaching and the teaching ministry and I'll give that to you. Maybe to the Cephas click, he says, well, I'll give you guys the Jewish heritage of Jesus. See, they seem to love Cephas because of his Jewish heritage and the apostle to the Jews.

And see, it's almost like he's saying, I'll chop up Jesus and I'll give you the Jesus heritage. And then to the Christ click, it's almost like Paul is saying, I'm going to give you guys nothing but Jesus because you say you don't need anyone else. You say you don't need Paul, you say you don't need Apollos and you say you don't need Peter. See, this group was so spiritual, they didn't need anybody but Jesus. They didn't need pastors. Well, that's absurd. That's pure idiocy. That's because Christ can't be divided. You have all of Christ or none of Christ. You have all of Christ or none of Christ.

How can you divide Christ for different parts of the body when he owns the body? He's Lord of the body. He bought it, he purchased it with his own blood. So he can't be divided by the body for the body. That is complete insanity, spiritually speaking. So Paul is pointing them to the wholeness of Christ. You either have all of him or you have none. Those folks would have argued up and down that they had all of Christ and they have none of Christ. And listen folks, these groups had none of Christ. It was all their personal agenda. He had nothing to do with it. Then second, Paul calls them to the cross of Christ.

He's calling them to fixate on the cross. Go back to the verse. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Again, another one of those odd questions. But I like how one commentator said it. He, and I'm quoting, and he's talking about Paul. He is challenging the Corinthians to drop their personality cults and to fix their attention once again on Jesus Christ and him crucified. Think about it folks. This was the very message that had brought the Corinthians to faith in Christ. Do you see it? This is the very message that rescued them out of their pagan lifestyle. And these Corinthian Christians owed their very new life.

All that they had to Christ. It was Christ who died in their place. Not Paul, not Apollos, and certainly not even Peter. So Paul was pointing them to Christ who was crucified in their place. He was pointing them to the cross. And if the cross was removed from their lives, it would destroy their Christianity. And every group had a destroyed, distorted Christianity 'cause the cross was not in their Christianity. And then third, Paul calls them to fixate on the lordship of Christ. Go back to those questions. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Now notice this question of baptism.

Just like in Paul's appeal in verse 10, here Paul is speaking about authority again. Paul was calling them to this work in the name of Jesus, meaning under his authority, under all that he is, he's Lord of the church. Paul is reminding the Corinthian Christians that they were baptized in Jesus' name. They were baptized under his authority as belonging to him in every way. That's what baptism is and says. So Paul is pointing them to Christ authority and ownership. They were baptized into the name of Christ, in Christ. He was their Lord. He owns them, not Apollos. Christ bought them on the cross, not Peter.

So with these short seeming odd questions, we see Paul doing a very powerful work. He is calling these Corinthian Christians to fixate. I like that word, to fixate their hearts on the one true Christ, not some Christ that they had contrived. Because that's what they had done. They had invented a Jesus that could be divided. And look, Christ on them, he died for them. He cannot be divided. He is Lord over the church. And if they submit to his Lordship, their divisions must and will just fade away. The division will just fall away. When an application, we must see that here we have the key to the entire problem of division. We do.

Really, we have a key to all of their problems. And follow close with me as I unpack this for you. When a church is divided, it is a Lordship of Christ problem. You need to get that. When a church is divided, it is a Lordship of Christ problem. When Christians get their eyes off Christ, they move into an endless list of sins and divisions, which only diminish the work of the church and destroy its unity. Christ, his Lordship and his cross, is the only place where man can be reconciled to God. Remember, the cross in Christ is the only place where man can be reconciled to God.

And the cross is the only place where a man can be reconciled to other men. Here's where we really need to look at Ephesians. Ephesians chapter two. Everything that I've just unpack for you is right here. You're gonna see it jump right out of the word, right off the page here. I wanna read from verse 13 on down to verse 16. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. You know what he's talking about? Man being reconciled to God. You were once far off, now you've been brought near to God? How? By Christ. Verse 14.

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in the ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in the place of two. One new man. See, man being reconciled to other men. And then verse 16. And might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing all hostility. So what do we see? It's the cross that reconciles men to God, and it's the cross that reconciles men to other men. So when men move away from the lordship of Christ and the cross, disunity. It just flows right in.

Jesus is the only one who can unify men. And when Christians give an unhealthy allegiance to any man, such as a celebrity preacher, or a Christian writer, or any Christian leader for that matter, they have taken their eyes off of Jesus, and then disunity and division begins to set in. And when a church, or person of the church, or group in the church, moves away from the lordship of Christ and the cross, sin comes in. And allegiance to Christ and his cross and his lordship over the church ensures that a church stays bound to the commandments of the scriptures. And if people are bound to the scriptures, they will not allow sin in the church.

And if it does come into the church, they will deal with it. Why? Because they are bound to the scriptures. Remember the long list of problems and divisions? They had all kinds of divisions. Many of them came out of the immorality. Christians suing other Christians in the courts, fighting over whether they could eat meat, sacrifice to idols. They were abusing the lords supper, and all kind of divisions came from that. Oh, some were perverting the spiritual gifts, divisions coming from that. And listen, all of that was a lordship of Christ issue. All of that was a cross issue.

See folks, when you kneel at the feet of the Lord Jesus, and when you cling to the cross, any and all behavior like this must go. Sin and disunity, it just goes. Christ will see to it. Now honestly, in the past, we were a divided church. We were. Brother Keith and I wouldn't have told you that back then, but we were very divided. You know how I know it? Because there was sin in the lives of some of the leadership, and you know who I'm talking about, hidden sin. And then there were also those, they just had unhealthy allegiances. Those have come out.

And what I'm trying to show you is this, through the difficulties and the problems, all of that has been brought out. And we didn't know just how divided the church truly was. And the church needed to come back to the cross, to the lordship of Christ. And I'm very thankful that that's what we have done. So Paul, called this divided, sinful church, the Corinth to fixate on Jesus, on the cross, on his ownership. He was their Lord. Simply he was calling them the kneel at his feet and cling to the cross. And this is the key to unity. This is the key to unity. His people must fixate on Christ. And then it'll all work itself out.

Now, just like last week, I want to give a little more instruction here. I want to give a little more direction teaching on unity. I know this short list last week that we dealt with on division really helped some of you. I ran across some of this information and study, and I changed it up and altered it and just kind of made it my own. There are five things about unity real quick that you do need to hear. Listen close. First, unity is from God. Unity is not from man. It is a gift from God. I want you to listen to Ephesians chapter two, verse 13 to 16. Listen to the verses.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Christ has done this. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments, expressing the ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in the place of two. Who makes the one man in the place of two? God. But then number two, unity must be maintained by man. It is a gift from God, and it is a work of God in his people, but it must be maintained by man. Notice Ephesians one, verses one to three, or Ephesians four, verses one to three.

Paul says, "I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity." Eager to maintain the unity, you see, of the spirit in the bond of peace. So we see man is responsible to maintain this unity that is a gift from God. And then third, unity grows and matures over time in the life of the church. It grows and it matures over time in the life of the church.

Again, verse three that I just read, "Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." What does he say earlier? That we may grow in our maturity. So what we see here is this. Later on in verse 13, he touches on it even more. Paul shows us that unity matures. Unity matures, it deepens and it grows over time in the church. And then number four, unity is attacked and destroyed by pride and self-righteousness. Remember our Romans 16 passage, verse 17 and 18. Paul says, "I appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.

Avoid them and notice, for such persons do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites." See, unity is attacked and destroyed by pride, by self-interests. Paul says, "By their own appetites." Remember, Galatians 5, 19 to 21 shows us, division and divisive people. That's all a work of the flesh. And then number five, unity grows and matures when it is threatened. Remember that in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 17 and 19, we saw that divisions must come into church. Division and divisive people are a part of God's plan to prove people, to prove if they are fit or unfit, useful or not useful for his church.

And when that work takes place, unity among those who remain, who are fit, that unity grows and that unity matures. And I've seen that happening in you. So, unity's from God. It must be maintained by man. Unity grows and matures over time in the life of the church. Unity is attacked and destroyed by pride, by self-interests, by men's own appetites. And unity grows and matures when it is threatened. Now all of this, all that we have seen in these messages, we are one body, a local church. We are members of a local body that has been baptized into Christ, baptized into the local body, that supernatural marvelous work.

And God has made us all different. We need each other. Oh, we're different but we care for one another. In any attitude or behavior of independence or superiority is sinful. It's just not of Christ. And division is a great sin. The body dividing itself is destructive to the body. And it is a sin against each individual member of the body. And division is a sin against the Lord because the body belongs to him. And we are to treasure this precious gift of unity. We are to treasure it. It is from God. It is a work of God. And all of us who are truly born again and born into this body, we are to work.

We must roll up our sleeves and work to maintain the unity. We are to think the same thing regarding all of these matters in the life of the church. We are to work hard so as to have the same judgment in matters of doctrine and church practice and leaders. And the key to unity is the cross. The key to unity is the Lordship of Christ. See folks, when you come to the cross, you know what happens? You die. You die to self. You die to your ideas. You die to your plans. You die to pride. You die to self-interest. You die to a myriad of other things that we could just continue to list. We come to the cross and we die. And that is the key to unity.

It is the Lordship of Christ. We kneel at his feet. He is the Lord over the church. He is Lord over our lives. And we accept his will and plan regarding the matters pertaining to his church because it is his church. It's his church. So really all of these three messages go together. It's all about life in the body. It is. And it's loaded folks. It's loaded. What have we looked at? For one, many. And I'm thankful. Divisions and ugly sin. But oh, the precious gift of unity is something to live for. Isn't that right? Now I know it's a lot. And by God's grace, we can digest it all and be who God wants us to be. Now I'll say this before we close.

In any of these matters, if you need help, if you need counsel, you've got questions. You come to me. You come to Brother Keith. There's no such thing as dumb questions. I have a monopoly on them. You don't have them. I got them. So you come 'cause we wanna be together in all of these matters so that we can be all that he would want us to be. Let's pray. Let's commit this to the Lord. And then we will sing a song and close.