God's Requirements for Unity

As the choir comes down, I have the honor this week to introduce to you again Dr. Nathan Finn of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Nathan was with us here last week, and we enjoyed his good preaching and his good message. And we look forward to that again today. Chip and I were able to take him around last week to see Mr. Jefferson's university stumbling around the rotunda in the snow and ice that is still rampant in that part of town. And I believe this afternoon he's going to be going over to Monticello. So he's not just a historian of the church, but a historian in general. And I think he's enjoyed having the opportunity to come to Charlottesville and enjoy in our history. And I know that we have enjoyed having him here to speak with us. And so this morning we are going to be hearing again from him on church unity coming from the book of Ephesians. And we hear you gladly, brother. Good morning. Let me invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians four, Ephesians, chapter four, verses one through 16. And as you are. Turning there. Let me just say that Paul talks about being all things to all men. And in the providence of God, my rinky dink Baptist college that I attended in Georgia has the same colors as the fighting cavaliers of University of Virginia. And so I put on my alma mater's bow tie today because it looks enough like the colors of Mr. Jefferson's University, that this is my humble attempt to be all things to all men, unless you are a Virginia Tech fan, for which I'm just sorry for you for a variety of reasons. So if you have turned to Ephesians chapter four, verses one through 16, let me invite you, if you're physically able to let's stand together in honor of the reading of God's word. This is the word of the Lord. 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 of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, that is the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the things that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, We are to grow up in every way and to him who is the head and to Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to come here together again to gather together to worship you corporately. We thank you for the ways that we have already done that this morning through prayer, through song, through giving. And now we pray, Father, that through your Holy Spirit, you would help us to worship you through your word. We pray, Father, that you would grant us soft hearts and open minds, that your Holy Spirit would speak to each of us as he sees fit. And we pray, Father, that we would be stronger in Christ when we leave this meeting house today than when we gathered together just a few minutes ago. And now, Lord, I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart would be pleasing in your sight. Oh, Lord, my rock and my redeemer. And it's in the strong name of Jesus we pray these things. Amen. And you may be seated. I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen. That I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law. That I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law. that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law, and that I take this obligation freely and without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. That is the citizen oath of the United States of America for those who have not been born in our country but desire to become citizens. It is an oath of loyalty. It is an oath that these individuals, though they may come from the four corners of the earth, though they may initially not speak English, Though they may practice who knows what type of religion, eat who knows what type of food, and have who knows what type of traditions, they agree that they are going to become part of this unified people that we call the United States of America. The citizen's oath is about becoming a part of a new people, taking on the traditions of that people, taking on the history of that people, identifying now and forevermore with that people, no matter what your past may be. I want to talk to you this morning about God's requirements for church unity, because each of us have agreed to become a part of a new people. If we are in Christ, we have taken on the traditions of this new people. We have agreed to follow the directions of the leader of this people as he communicates to us through the book that he has given to this people and this people has become the group that we now primarily identify with no matter what our past may be. At this particular season in your church's history, I want us to think about church unity. And I am very self-consciously, for those of you who were here last week, playing off of some of the same things that we talked about last Sunday morning. And so we're going to look at Ephesians chapter 4 and talk about unity in the body of Christ. Now, before we go any further, I do have a confession up front, and that is some of you have already picked up on this as we read this text. Ephesians 4 is actually talking primarily about the church universal. You can see that as we're reading along, it's not primarily talking about local churches. Although Ephesians is written to a church in Ephesus, the whole book focuses more on the church universal than just about any other book in Scripture. It's interesting, about 80% of the time when the word church appears, it means local church. But there's that other 20% of the time, and an awful lot of that other 20% of the time is found in the books of Ephesians and Colossians in particular. In fact, many scholars think that Ephesians was a circular letter that was written primarily to the church at Ephesus, but that was intended to be passed around to other churches and read by them. In fact, there are other copies of Ephesians where word for word it's exactly the same except the beginning it says to the church at Laodicea. or to the church at, and names a couple of other churches. And so it's likely that this was a circular letter anyway, and for whatever reason in God's providence we have the copy left for us that was given to the church at Ephesus. But even though this passage this morning speaks primarily of the church universal, I think it is very relevant for local churches as well. There are, after all, many other passages of scripture that talk about unity in the local church. The book of Philippians, one of the major themes is unity in the local church. So we're not going to depart. from the teachings of scripture to apply this primarily to local churches. Besides, from a practical standpoint, it is in the context of local churches that we identify with the one body of Christ through baptism and church membership. So I think it makes sense to focus on how this passage applies to you as a local outpost of the body of Christ that goes by the name of Jefferson Park Baptist Church. These things that are true of the church writ large should also be true of you as an individual local church that chooses to identify with that church writ large. So as we look at this text, though, it is primarily speaking of the church universal. I think we're going to see it is very relevant in every way to who you are as a local body of Christ. So with that said, as we look at this text, I believe that Paul shows us that God requires three things of the church that desires to be biblically unified. And that word biblically is very important. Three requirements. Requirement number one, you must obey a common command. Requirement number one, you must obey a common command. Look with me again, if you will, at verses one through three. 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 of spirit and the bond of peace. In verse one, Paul commands us to walk in a manner that is worthy of our calling. Now, that word calling is interesting. Just like in our day, the word calling means different things in different contexts, so the word calling meant different things in their context. It might refer to the calling that you have as a vocation or it might refer to calling upon someone's name, sometimes even calling upon the name of the Lord. It can mean lots of different things, but in this context, Calling is not a reference to something that we do, and it's not a reference to the vocations that the Lord has called us into, but rather it is a reference to God's calling us as individuals from death to life. His calling us, as Colossians says, and transferring us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his son. At a specific moment in time, each and every one of us in this room who are in Christ were born again when the Spirit called us out of darkness and granted us the faith to believe. We call this God's effectual calling, and that's the calling that Paul is talking about here, that calling from death to life when God looks at each of us and he says, live. when the moment before we were dead in our trespasses and sins. So when he speaks of calling here, Paul is commanding the Ephesians to make sure that their practice is consistent with their profession, to walk in a manner worthy of your calling to use our modern day language is to walk your talk, to walk in a manner consistent with the Christ That you claim to believe with the Christian faith that you claim to embrace to walk in a manner we might say worthy of the gospel is what it means to walk in a manner worthy of your calling. Isn't this command especially pertinent in our age? I'm sure it's like this in every age, but they haven't had pollsters in every age and we have pollsters in our age. And if you look at almost any major pollster, they'll show you that there is virtually no difference in the day to day lives of those who profess to be Christians and those who profess not to be Christians. Christians use, abuse drugs and alcohol and things like that at virtually the same amount, the same rate. We're talking again about professing Christians, professing non-Christians. Christians fornicate in various ways in almost exactly the same numbers as non-Christians, the same percentages. We see that things like adultery, divorce, all of these things, they occur virtually the same. Even things like cheating on taxes. We see whenever polls are taken that Christians do these in almost exactly the same way, again, at least professing Christians do. And what Paul was telling us is that this is not the way it's supposed to be. If you claim the name of Christ, you ought to work in a manner, walk in a manner that is worthy of that claim, that's worthy of that calling. Christians ought to look different than the world around them, not just like the world around them. As we move to verses two and three, Paul describes for us what it looks like when we walk in a manner that is worthy of our calling. According to Paul, such lives are characterized by, he says, humility, gentleness, patience and loving forbearance. Friends, does this sound like you? I'm just asking when we go through that list, humility, gentleness, patience, loving forbearance, does that sound like the trajectory of your life. Friends, does that sound like your church? If you had to pick. Eight or 10 words to describe Jefferson Park Baptist Church as a church with those words include words like humility, gentleness, patience and loving forbearance. Paul would say it ought to. Furthermore, when we walk in a worthy manner, Paul says we are eager to maintain spiritual unity and the bond of peace. Friends, are you eager to maintain unity? Eager, not just willing to maintain unity, are you eager to maintain unity? When's the last time in your prayer life? You thanked God because you were how excited you were excited about how unified Jefferson Park Baptist Church is. When's the last time you said, Lord, I praise you that you've given us this unified body, just like your word says we ought to be. Friends, we ought to be eager to pray these prayers because we ought to be eager for the unity of God's church. Paul's general principle as he talks and uses these words like humility, patience, forbearance, his general principle seems to be that when we all esteem others more highly than ourselves, the spirit is then most free to draw us into real unity with each other. Or to say it negatively, whenever pride hardheartedness, pet agendas, when those things describe who we really are as individuals and as a church, it destroys our churches. We cannot have real biblical unity without patience, gentleness, loving forbearance. We've heard a lot in the last few years about purpose driven churches. Some of you have heard that terminology before from a bestselling book by Rick Warren, the same gentleman who wrote Purpose Driven Life, his more familiar book. There may be some merit to the idea of purpose driven churches, but what Paul is calling for here is what I would call golden rule driven churches. Churches where our corporate lives together are characterized by our doing unto others as we would have them do unto us, serving others as we would want them to serve us, putting others first as we would want others, especially when we're in need to put our needs first. If we're all looking out for one another, everyone will be looked out for. And that's exactly what Paul is talking about here. Friends, are you a golden rule driven church? What would your church look like if you were more of a golden rule driven church? Everyone esteeming others more highly than they esteem themselves. God's first requirement for church unity is that we obey a common command. Walk in a manner worthy of your calling. The second requirement that God gives in this passage is you must adhere to a common confession Let's look again at verses four through six. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. In these verses, Paul shows us that the common confession that is required of us includes specific content. There are specific things we're supposed to confess commonly. He says first that Christians confess one body, the Church of Jesus Christ, all Christians everywhere, be they Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal or my favorite, Non-denominational, it's not really my favorite, but they mean well, all true Christians everywhere are part of this one body. Second, we see that Christians confess one spirit that is the Holy Spirit. The body of Christ and every local church that is a part of that body, including your church, is comprised of men and women who are indwelled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. That's the second confession, this same spirit who lives in the heart of all Christians everywhere. Third, we see that Christians confess one hope. That is to say, eternal salvation based upon the gracious work of Christ. All Christians everywhere, regardless of what individual church or denomination they identify with, shares a common salvation based upon the perfect life, atoning death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. Fourth, we see that Christians confess one Lord. Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God and the son of man, the foundational Christian, the foundational confession of all Christians everywhere, all the way from the book of Acts to the present day is Jesus is Lord. There is a reason why in so many churches like ours and perhaps your church as well, whenever someone stands in the waters of baptism before they go under the water, symbolizing the death of the old man and before they come up, symbolizing resurrection into newness of life, the confession they must make before the body is Jesus is Lord. This is the foundational confession of the Christian life. If you cannot make that confession, With sincerity and with hope, then you are not saved. You are not saved. No matter what church you may be a part of, no matter what rituals you may have gone through, no matter what hoops you may have jumped through, no matter how many times you've prayed a prayer or walked an aisle or gone under the water or gone through a class or shaken a pastor's hand or whatever it may be, no matter what you've done, if you cannot say with utter sincerity, and hope based on the finished work of Christ. Jesus is Lord. You cannot make the foundational confession of the Christian life. It is a common confession of all true Christians everywhere. Fifth, we see that Christians confess one faith, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, that word faith means different things in different places. Often it's subjective, the faith that you may have in Jesus or in God or in the gospel. But that's not what it means here. Here, the word faith is not used subjectively, it's used objectively. Faith communicates content. It communicates fact. We hold to the faith. Paul talks about the faith in Jude three contending for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the Saints. That's the idea of faith that we see here, an objective body of content and that common faith, those common truths that all Christians everywhere hold dear are the gospel of Jesus Christ. The announcement of the good news of all that God has done on behalf of sinners through the perfect work, atoning death and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promise that every man, woman and child who turn from their sins and trust Jesus as their Lord and Savior will be saved. That is the common body of faith. Excuse me, that all Christians everywhere hold dear. The common faith is the gospel. Six Christians in these verses confess one baptism. This one's a little tricky. Admit it, how many of you have ever read this and thought, oh, or wondered, what does this mean? Well, for most of church history, this verse has been understood to mean water baptism. which almost all Christians argue marks the public identification of a convert with Christ and his body. Now, our Pato Baptist friends would also say it identifies the children of the church. And I understand that. And if we were preaching about baptism today, we'd address that. But you do know that even our Presbyterian and Methodist friends would baptize new converts who didn't grow up in the church, correct? You realize that. So almost all Christians everywhere agree that we should baptize new converts. It's just a question of whether we should also baptize children. And of course, as Baptists, we would say we should only baptize converts. So for most of church history, most people have seen this to mean water baptism. My hero. But in the last couple of centuries, excuse me, Most have interpreted this passage to mean spirit baptism. Because, again, most Christians in most places believe that all believers are immersed in the Spirit who comes to dwell in us whenever we come to faith in Jesus Christ. So just about everybody believes that we are baptized in the power of the Holy Spirit whenever we turn from our sins and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior. So for the longest time, people said, has to mean water baptism. Now, in our day, and this is certainly it would make us feel better if this is all it meant spirit baptism. So all Christians everywhere share in spirit baptism. Well, the truth is, it could mean either. Or more likely, it would mean both. Because almost every time we look in the New Testament, these two things occur side by side, especially in the book of Acts, where people are often baptized and then water baptized. And then the Holy Spirit comes upon them during that transitional age, whenever God was showing mostly the Jewish people and then the Gentiles who first heard the gospel, that something new had happened in history, that good news had broken into a bad news world. And that all who called upon the Lord would be saved. So for my part. I think that we should not do the water baptism versus spirit baptism, but say that this is both that all of those who come to faith in Christ are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. They are baptized into the Holy Spirit and the water baptism that we undergo is an outward symbol of that inward change that's happened in each of us by the power of the Holy Spirit when we turn from our sins and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior. The fact that we live in a world where many practices get called baptism doesn't change the fact that in the New Testament, almost everyone in here would agree as Baptist Christians, there is only one water baptism, the full immersion of someone who is repentant of their sins and trust Jesus as their Lord and Savior. While it is great that all Christians everywhere share in the spirit baptism, we should also long for the day where we share in the water baptism, just as they did in the New Testament. We should be willing to stand for unity, but unity with truth as we speak lovingly to one another and as we are willing to hear others speak lovingly to us about perhaps blind spots in our own Christian walks, in our own doctrine. Since this passage is primarily speaking about the universal church, I think it is a tragedy that Christians do not share in one baptism in the fullest sense of the word. And I think this verse should cause us to long for that day when we will enjoy perfect unity with all believers everywhere in the new heavens and the new earth. We already enjoy it spiritually in Christ. I long for that day when we enjoy it physically in Christ. But We're focusing on you today. We're applying this to your life as a church. And as Jefferson Park Baptist Church, you do share one baptism in the fullest sense of the term, don't you? Those of you who are in Christ have not only been baptized in the spirit, you have also received water baptism. And you need to remember that this one baptism that we talk so much about as Baptists, the water baptism part, and we ought to talk about it. That water baptism only matters because of all these other things we've talked about, because of that common Lord, because of that common faith, because of that common belief and all that God has done through Jesus Christ. The one baptism is a inward change and an outward sign because of the one Lord and the one faith. Finally, we see in these verses that Christians confess one God and father of all the creator and sustainer of the entire universe and the adoptive heavenly father of every man, woman and child who has been saved. What is Paul saying in all of this, all of this talk about common beliefs that we confess, what's he saying? This is Paul's point. Common convictions kill factions. And common convictions drive the unity of the body. If we're confessing different lords, if we're practicing different baptisms, if we have different hopes. Then your church is going to move in a variety of different directions. This is not the way it's meant to be, friends. You are called to one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one hope in the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. A church should not be like a political party where there are various special interest groups negotiating with each other, competing with each other, seeing who can dominate the party platform so that when people think about the party, they think, ha ha, that party stands for thus and thus and such and such. We're not called to be like a political party. Instead, churches are called to be families. And just like in a human family, there is a unity at the deepest level because of a common blood. So in God's new covenant family, there is a unity at the deepest level because of a common confession about the blood that was shed at Calvary on behalf of every man, woman and child who will ever believe. Let's look also at verses seven through 10. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men in saying he ascended. What does it mean? But that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth, he who descended as the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. Paul tells us in verse seven that our ability to make our common confession is a gift of God's grace, and he specifically says that this grace was given, look with me, according to the measure of Christ's gift. What is Paul saying? He's saying that Christ is the one who bestows the grace upon who he chooses, or to say it another way, we are not the keepers of the grace. Christ is the keeper of the grace. We're not the ones who get to pick and choose who we want to give the grace to. And aren't you glad? How many believers would not have gotten the grace if it was up to us, people whose lives were particularly despicable, in our opinion? We wouldn't want them to get the grace. It's important to remember we're not the keepers of the grace, especially as we interact with one another in a forgiving way. We talked some about this last week. You're not the keeper of the grace when someone wrongs you. We should remember that Christ is the one who is the keeper of the grace, and it is because of his grace. that we believe it is because of his grace we make this common confession. It's because of his grace that you've become this local body of Christ called the Jefferson Park Baptist Church. Paul talks about this in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For it is by grace you have been saved, not of works, lest any man should boast. Friends, it's all of grace. And in verses 8 through 10, Paul shows us that our common confession is not only a gift of God, but it's rooted in Christ's atonement. Verse 8 is a reference to Psalm 68, a verse about God's victory over his enemies. But Paul quotes it and he applies it to Christ's victory over death, the enemy of death, not physical enemies, but the enemy of death. Paul references the captives who follow Christ in his ascension, pointing to a multitude of those who have physically died, but are the spoils of Christ's victory at the cross. That he is leading these hosts into heaven echoes Colossians 1 18, where Paul tells us that Jesus is the first born from the dead, because one day every man, woman and child who are in him will also be raised from the dead. And that final resurrection, what the old southern gospel songs used to call that great getting up morning whenever all of us are raised to newness and life. Physically raised. dwelling with our Lord for all of eternity. And then verses nine and 10 are a parenthetical statement that reminds us that is for this reason that Christ descended in the first place. Christ became a man to save men, and then he returned to heaven so that men may dwell with him. Friends, we just celebrated Christmas and you probably talked a lot about the babe in the manger. and about the angels and about the shepherds who watch their flocks by night and about three kings or however many kings who brought gifts to the toddler Jesus. And these are great things. And we should talk about these things. But friends, Christmas happened because God is in the business of saving sinners through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christ descended when he became a man. He ascended in his resurrection. And one day, if you are in Christ, you too will ascend at the resurrection of the dead. And you will be with the one who descended to save you, who became like you in every way, yet without sin. You will be with him for all of eternity because of what he has done. We adhere, we are required to adhere to a common confession. The third requirement that we see. So we must pursue a common goal. Read with me, if you will, verses 11 through 16 again. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. To mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children. tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which is with which it is equipped. When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Paul tells us in verses 11 through 13 that we have leaders who should guide us in pursuing unity in the New Testament era. Those leaders were apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors, teachers or pastor shepherds, depending on the translation that you have. Each of which played a role in equipping and building up the wider body of Christ. But again, we're focusing on local churches today and in local churches. Then, as now, the leaders were pastor teachers, more often in the New Testament called elders. And to this day, churches continue to set apart godly men, pastors, shepherds, elders. To lead the flock of God, remember In particular, your church at this time in your history, as you are looking for a pastor, remember to look for someone who looks like the New Testament. And remember that if he looks like the New Testament, that's going to include what it says here in verse 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry. When you find that man who God is preparing for you even now, remember his job is not to do the ministry on your behalf. He's not your priest. We're not Roman Catholics. His job is to equip you for the work of ministry. His job is to prepare you for all that God would have you to do at your season in life, whatever vocation he's called you into. Pastors guide the church in pursuing unity and a deeper knowledge of God through biblical teaching and godly example. Don't you dare go find a godly man who can't preach. Don't you dare go find a man who can preach who is not a godly man. It must be both. He must be a role model and a prophet. And if he is not both, he is not worth having. Paul tells us in verses 13 and 14 that spiritual maturity is crucial to biblical unity. He uses phrases like mature manhood and measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And these are just different phrases to describe the Christian maturity that is part of our pursuit of unity. Our spiritual maturity, what Paul is saying is that it should help us to move past what we might call the baby Christian stage. and that true unity ought to result in a faith that is strong and mature and less likely to be bamboozled by bad doctrine or crafty teachers or diabolical plans. You cannot have unity if you are immature in your faith. You must pursue unity through maturity. Let me make this very practical. If you are mature in your faith, You will not listen to false teachers like Joel Osteen when he promises you can have your best life now or Kenneth Copeland when he tells you that if you just have enough faith, you will be wealthy and stop getting sick. If you are mature in your faith, you will not listen to, on the one hand, the liberal politicians when they tell you that abortion and gay marriage are enlightened positions. Nor will you listen, on the other hand, to more conservative and libertarian politicians when they tell you that the only way to save our flagging economy is for all of us to become even greedier than we already are. If you are mature in your faith, you will not be taken in by pyramid schemes, email scams, or gimmicky church growth strategies that promise numeric growth through superficial and often sub-gospel means. And if you are mature in your faith, you will not overreact to your recent trials by calling a pastor who will take you in some radical new direction just because things didn't work out with your last pastor. Friends, don't succumb to the temptation to become something different than who you have been because you're hurting. You had the right template. Don't reject the template. Look for a new man to lead you in the same template. Finally, Paul tells us in verses 15 and 16 that unity is part of what it means to be a healthy church. We talked a lot about that last week. He says we learn to speak the truth to each other and love. Rather than speaking lies to each other or speaking the truth out of jealousy or hatred, both of which are equally bad for different reasons. He tells us that we grow to look more like our head, who is Christ, rather than looking like the world, which is so often the case. He tells us the whole church works together like a human body. With every member using his or her gifts to minister to the wider body of Christ, part of what it means to esteem others more highly than ourselves. He tells us that the body grows biblical church growth. Numerical and spiritual, deep and wide. And finally, he tells us that all of this happens in love because gospel centered Christian love is the true basis of unity. One of the most amazing inventions of the 19th century was the steam engine. Which led to the development of trains and railroads, locomotive technology, In the latter part of the 19th century, we were a nation built on the back of railroads. Populations expanding as railroads moved westward, moved westward. Technology spreading as railroads linked city to city. Farmers prospering as they were able to get their crops quicker through means of railroad. But something happened at the turn of the 20th century. the automobile was invented. The leading railroad companies had the opportunity at the turn of the 20th century to invest in the new automobile technology, but they were not willing to do that. You see, they thought they were in the railroad business, but they weren't. They were in the transportation business. Had they realized they were in the transportation business and not the railroad business, they would have invested in the new technology and who knows what might would have happened. But because they thought they were in the railroad business and not the transportation business, by World War II and especially by the mid 20th century, Railroads had become obsolete in many ways for people traveling, except in a few rare cases, and we still see those rare cases today with things like Amtrak, and was only able to transport certain things. Automobiles had replaced railroads as the primary intercontinental way of transporting goods and people from one place to the other. The railroads lost their share of the market because they misunderstood what business they were in. Friends, what business are you in? What is your goal as a church? What are you driving at? Are you driving at Christ centered unity through maturity? As you adhere to a common confession, as you share a common love, Or do you think that you're in the gathering together business or the preaching business or the singing business or the Sunday school business or the we've always done things this way business or the we love our church building business. I like your church building. I like preaching. I like singing. I like gathering together. I'm a Baptist preacher. I love fried chicken. But these things are not the business we're in, are they? We are in the business of walking together in a manner that is worthy of the gospel as we follow the Lord of the gospel through our common confession and as we pursue biblical maturity together. As we move toward closing, I want to think a little bit more about some ways that we can apply this passage to our individual lives and to you as a church. For some of you in this room. Right now, you know that your life does not match your calling. I don't know who you are. I don't know what you struggle with, but if you know that there are pockets of your life where your walk does not match your profession, let me urge you to repent of those besetting sins, to remember that Christ has already bore God's wrath on your behalf on the cross. You do not have to carry that load with you anymore. Leave it at Calvary and walk in a manner that is worthy of the gospel. For some of you in this room, your pride, your selfishness, your pet projects, your stubbornness are hurting the unity of this church. I do not know who you are, but there's over 100 people in this room. There's someone in here who this applies to. If your pride, your selfishness, your pet projects, your stubbornness, your preferences are damaging the unity of this church, let me urge you to repent of that sin and become a team player for the sake of the gospel. Putting the needs of the body above your own preferences. For some of you in this room, unity means that almost anything will go as long as everyone is nice to each other. Friends, don't settle for being peacekeepers. Be peacemakers through the power of the gospel. Your unity must be biblical unity or you're just a bunch of people who like to be together. And you can do that at the Kiwanis Club. For some of you, the gospel has ceased to be your common confession. And unity through maturity has ceased to be your common goal. You love Jesus. You've just gotten off track along the way. And let me urge you to commit as a church to make your priorities gospel priorities where you do care about unity through maturity, where you do care about your common confession. Commit to pursue unity through maturity rather than unity through tradition. or unity through fondness or unity through habit or unity for the sake of keeping up appearances, pursue real biblical unity. In his high priestly prayer, Jesus prays in John 1721 that his followers would be united, quote, that the world Maybe leave. Friends, what is the world saying about you right now? Is your unity a testimony to Charlottesville? Finally, for some of you. None of what I have said thus far applies to you. It could apply to you. But it doesn't yet apply to you because there has never been a time in your life when you have turned from your sin, when you have cast yourself upon the mercies of Christ and when you have been saved. And friends, if that is you today, if you know that you're here, that you're in the church, but not of the church, if you're a visitor today, if you're someone who may have been wrestling with whether or not you're a Christian for years, or someone who's never given a thought to this before this morning. Friend, whatever your case may be, let me urge you to turn from your sins and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and to become a part of this new family being created by the power of God through the work of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit called Jefferson Park Baptist Church. Will you pray with me? Our Lord and our God, we thank you this morning for the grace that you have shown to us. We thank you, Father, for the unity that you call us to. We thank you for the way that you have worked in this church and days gone by. We are thankful for the way that you are working in this church now, and we are especially hopeful for the way that we trust you desire to work in this church in the future. Father, I pray that you would help them to be a unified body. Not a body that looks unified, but where rivalries. where bad doctrine, where competing factions prevent real unity. But, Lord, I pray that this church would enjoy biblical unity through a common command to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, through a common confession that Jesus Christ is Lord and everything that goes along with that, and through a common goal of pursuing unity through spiritual maturity. And Lord, I pray that as this church does these things, as you lead them to a new pastor who will lead them in these things. Father, I pray their testimony in the community would be second to none and that even the nonbelievers who live in this neighborhood and in this city would say what in the world is happening at Jefferson Park Baptist Church? Because you are doing something mighty in this people for your glory. And, Father, as we transition to a time of commitment, we pray that you would speak to each of our hearts in a way that you see fit through your Holy Spirit. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.