So we turn to quite a number of scriptures this evening.
And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee.
Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.
That they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us: that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me.
For He is our peace, Who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that He might create in Himself of the two one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father.
Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in all.
For both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ.
There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female: for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus.
I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ?
Seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of the one bread.
And have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye were called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus: that with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wherefore receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you, to the glory of God.
But him that is weak in faith receive ye, yet not for decision of scruples.
Let us therefore, as many as are full-grown, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you: only, whereunto we have attained, by that same rule let us walk.
I have entitled it, “The Oneness of Christ: The Positive Exclusion of All Man-Made Barriers and Divisions.”
Christ is the oneness of all true children of God. The Scripture is emphatically clear that the body is one because there is only one Christ. Because He is one, there is only one Christ; and because He is one, then the body is absolutely one. He is indivisible.
You turn to 1 Corinthians 1:13. Paul asks a question. You will see that in some versions it has been put in different ways. Here, in the standard version, it is put like this: “Is Christ divided?” Or, really, it is a stupid question, if you understand what I mean. It should be literally: “Christ divided?” Impossible. Christ divided? Was Paul crucified? Paul crucified for you?
Just as Paul was not crucified for our salvation, so Christ cannot be divided. We have the same thing in 1 Corinthians 12:12:
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
We have it again in Romans 12:5:
So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another.
All the members of Christ’s body share Him as their common salvation, their common Head, and their common life. He is their unity.
Our oneness does not, in the final analysis, in the ultimate, depend on whether our temperaments, backgrounds, nationality, cultural background, racial background, or the way we were brought up are alike. Our unity is not a matter of just agreeing to agree.
Our unity is something far deeper than mind, reason, or thought. It is in a Person and in a life: a shared Person, a shared life. We are all, by the grace of God, in Christ, and Christ is in all of us. And that is our unity—nothing less than that, and essentially nothing more.
So essential and so profound is the nature of this unity that it is, we are told in John 17, precisely the same unity as that which exists between the Father and the Son.
Now, no one can define the unity that exists between the Father and the Son, and the Son and the Father. It is profound, but it is essential. And the unity that is ours is exactly the same.
If you turn to John 17, verses that we read earlier:
That they may be one, even as We are.
That they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us.
I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one.
If you turn back to John 14:20, we read these wonderful words:
In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.
I have often thought that this verse is one of the most wonderful verses in the Bible. In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye are in Me in the Father, and I and the Father are in you.
And you have it again in John 14:23:
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.
If you look at verse 17, you will see the Spirit of truth is also given to us. So you have the whole triune God: the Father in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, in us.
That is the profound and essential nature of the unity which is ours. It is not just likened to the unity between the Father and the Son; it is precisely the same.
It is clear, therefore, that this is not an organised unity, but an organic unity. We cannot create it of ourselves, nor can we attain to it by our own efforts or our own ingenuity. It is already ours in Christ, and He is indivisible.
Our unity is not just trying to get alongside each other, trying to be nice to each other, and trying somehow to agree with each other. Basically, our unity is this: that in you is the same Christ Who is in me. It is ours.
If we abide in Him, we cannot be divided. Get out of Him, and we are divided. It is quite as simple as that.
This spiritual unity is a fact and not an objective. Oh, the mistake that has been made in Christendom by making unity an objective instead of seeing that it is a fact from which we move out—a fact upon which we stand. It is not just an objective to reach out toward. It is something already won for us. It is an indisputable spiritual fact, to be experienced because it is Christ Himself, to be known by the Spirit.
We are to give diligence to keep what has already been given to us in Christ. It is as simple as Ephesians 4:3:
Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Now note the word keep. You cannot keep something you have not got, can you? You cannot keep a non-existent dog. You cannot keep a non-existent house. You cannot maintain a non-existent car.
If you are going to be very careful about the maintenance of your car, the first thing you have got to have is the car. Then you can maintain the car, and then you can be careful to maintain the car. Do you understand? It is as simple as that.
Give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit. The unity of the Spirit is there. We may fall away from it. We may get out of Christ. But the unity of the Spirit is there. It is a fact, a spiritual fact, already given to us in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can only be divided when we leave the position God has given us in Christ and come down to another level—to the earth, to the level of the carnal.
If you turn to 1 Corinthians 3:3, we read this:
For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal, and do ye not walk after the manner of men? For when one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not men?
You look at 1 Corinthians 1:12:
Now this I mean, that each one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
Carnality is just flesh. You and I get out of our position in Christ. We do not hold fast the Head. We simply come down to the earth, to what we are naturally, and we shall be divided within a matter of days.
And we can never heal division by simply trying to come together horizontally. We have to do it through Christ. When we get right with Christ, we are immediately right with one another. It is a judge; the way we can judge everything is by that.
People have much-vaunted spirituality, but if they are out of gear with other children of God, that spirituality is, in a measure, pseudo-spirituality. For no one can be in touch with the Head in a living way, holding fast to Him, and really be divided from other believers.
Furthermore, let us make this point: every true child of God has been born into this oneness.
You know, in John 3:3 it says:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
And then in verse 5 it says:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Then if you turn to 1 Corinthians 1:30, we read this:
But of God are ye in Christ Jesus, Who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.
But of God are ye in Christ Jesus. You are in Him and He is in you. You are in Him, and God makes Him to you everything in this so great salvation. He is wisdom, He is righteousness, He is sanctification, He is redemption. He is all.
We are born into this oneness—born into it. First Corinthians 12:13 puts it like this:
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
This unity of the Spirit, you and I have been born into. If you are a child of God, you and I have been born into this oneness of Christ. We entered it when we were born. There is no such thing as entering it later.
We entered it, our God, even if we were ignorant of that fact, even if we did not recognise the fact that we were born into this oneness. In fact, as far as God is concerned, we were born into the oneness of Christ the moment you and I, in simple, sometimes weak, sometimes very ignorant faith, put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour and our Redeemer. That moment, God put us in Him and made Him to us all these wonderful things.
We are not only living in a union with Christ, but in a union with one another. Now, I suppose most evangelical Christians accept the fact that, having been born of God, they are in a union with the Lord Jesus Christ. But this is just the whole point: it cannot stop there.
Just because you and I have been made one with Him, we are one with His body. Just because you and I have become members of Christ, we are members one of another. Just because you and I have become a branch in the vine, we find all the other branches in the vine. Because you and I are living stones, there are all the other living stones.
You have it here in Romans 12:5:
So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another.
Have you thought of that? Just in the same way that you are a member of Christ, you are a member one of another. I am one of your members; you are one of mine, because we are members of Christ, of one body.
Now, this union includes every true child of God, however weak or ignorant that one might be; and it excludes every single one not born of God, however knowledgeable or religious that one might be.
We may get some shocks one day. Yes, we may get some shocks one day when we find out just who is in that oneness and who is not. But let us be absolutely clear that every single true child of God, whoever, whatever label they might have, however weak or ignorant they might be, is included in that oneness.
And every single one who is not born of God, however knowledgeable, whatever position they might occupy in the ecclesiastical hierarchy or system, if they are not born of God, they are excluded from that oneness.
You see, Christ has never been, and never will be, the unity of believer and unbeliever. And He will never ratify any division between believer and believer. Let us put that clearly.
You turn to 2 Corinthians 6:14:
Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? For we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Wherefore, come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to Me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
The Lord Jesus Christ is not, and never will be, never has been, the unity of believer and unbeliever. So any kind of membership that includes unbeliever and non-believer is something that God does not recognise for one single moment. His Word is absolutely clear: “Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.”
Nor will the Lord ratify, as I have said, any division between believer and believer, however traditional, however hoary with age, or however novel, however much it is justified or excused by us Christians. He absolutely and emphatically refuses to ratify any such division on any level whatsoever—anything that divides a believer from a believer, or believers from believers.
For we read in Ephesians 2:14-16:
For He is our peace, Who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that He might create in Himself of the two one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
Christ died to break down and abolish the middle wall of partition.
Now, there is a middle wall of partition. It divides this room from that room. It is a middle wall of partition. If there was not a door in it, we could not go there.
Just like down the hall of this house, due to some antiquated law that has somehow outlived the days when chastity was rather common in this country before marriage, this house is divided completely from that end to this end by a middle wall in which we are not permitted to have a door.
If we were to knock one single door into that wall, we would lose the licence to marry people. No building in this country, in the British Isles, is permitted to be licensed as a place where marriage can be solemnised if it has a connecting door with a residence.
A middle wall of partition. So it means this: every time we want to get into that house, we have to go right round the garden, or out into the street and walk round to the front door in that part of the house.
But the Lord died to abolish such spiritual middle walls of partition: the things that make everything difficult, the things that hinder everything, the things that stop the flowing together, the things that stop His life and His headship being expressed.
He died to abolish it. He died to break it down, pull it down, tear it down from top to foundation, and abolish it—not just pull it down so that a new, stronger one could be built up because it had got weak and rather tottering, but break it down that He might abolish it altogether and so make of two one.
That is what He did. Now, my friend, the question is this, my dear brother, my dear sister: can we? Dare we? Rebuild such walls?
He died to produce this living, inward, organic, dynamic oneness. We are not to contradict it. We are not to destroy that oneness in any way, but rather we are to diligently maintain it.
Now, let us carefully note that in the Word of God there are only three reasons given—three grounds—for the division of believers, or the exclusion of believers from the gathering together, the assembly of God’s people.
The first is geographical. That is the only ground in the Word of God for the division of believer from believer. It is a question of where you live.
We are not really divided, but we are divided in the sense of our coming together. Obviously, the people in Tokyo and the people here cannot come together in quite the same way. We have to settle local matters here; the folk in Tokyo or New York or somewhere else have to settle them there.
It is one ground. Now, we shall deal with that in point number six, so I am not going to say any more.
The second ground is discipline.
Now, if you turn to 1 Corinthians 5, verse 9, we read this:
I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators; not at all meaning with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world: but as it is, I wrote unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one, no, not to eat.
For what have I to do with judging them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.
Disciplinary action is one of the grounds for the exclusion of someone who has been saved and is a child of God, but who is living in sin.
The third ground in the Word of God for the exclusion of believers, or division from them, is heresy or apostasy.
I will give you a few scriptures for that. First Timothy 1:19-20:
Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith: of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme.
Then again, Romans 16:17:
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which ye learned: and turn away from them.
Or withdraw from them. Then Revelation 2:2:
I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false.
And lastly, 2 John 9-11:
Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son.
If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting: for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works.
Three grounds only in the Word of God for the division of believers, or the exclusion of believers: geographical, disciplinary, heresy or apostasy.
Now, apart from those three grounds, there is no other single ground for division or exclusion of a single child of God. And anything more than this which excludes true children of God from gathering together is wrong. And anything which includes those who are not born of God is wrong.
Now, this oneness of Christ, this unity which Christ has produced in Himself, is not a vague, unrealistic, idealistic thing.
You know, so often, if you have been brought up especially in evangelical circles, you get the idea that this unity is something all the time invisible, intangible; therefore, it is abstract. It is something up there. No one ever sees it, but it is there. You sort of take it by faith that it is there, but no one has ever really seen it.
This is not so. This oneness which Christ has produced in Himself is practical, realistic, and positively dynamic.
This oneness which Christ has produced in Himself is practical, realistic, and positively dynamic. Now, I mean by that that once the unity of Christ finds a way of expressing itself, it is absolutely dynamic. It dynamites everything. It blasts away right through all that would divide us, whatever it is, whatever realm it is.
We are not to relegate this matter of unity to the future—one day, when the Lord Jesus comes, then this perfect unity that exists between the Father and the Son and us is going to be manifested. Nor are we merely to relegate it to the unseen and intangible. It is to be experienced and maintained in concrete ways, in time and on this earth.
It is just here that the devil has done his most devastating work amongst us Christians: dividing us, and dividing us, and dividing us, and dividing us.
It seems to me that the devil hates the unity of Christ. It seems to me as if he knows that if he can fragment Christ, he can paralyse things, hold things up, make things difficult—whether locally or universally, on whatever level it is.
You and I have to understand that all those earthly and natural barriers which divide man from man have been swept away in Christ.
You turn to Colossians 3:10-11:
And have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.
Now, I want you to notice these wonderful words. This new man is not a personal man; He is a corporate Man. It is the church. It is Christ and His body. We put Him on, and as we put Him on, we discover that in Him are all the other members. We are suddenly in a body. We are suddenly in a family—a spiritual family, an eternal family.
But more than that, listen to this: “Where there cannot be.” Where there cannot be Jew or Greek, circumcision or uncircumcision, bondman or freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
This rather remarkable volume is called The Twenty-Six Versions Bible. Now listen to this. I will just run through a whole lot of different versions.
The Authorised Version: “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free.”
The American Standard Version: “Where there cannot be.”
The Twentieth Century New Testament: “In that new life, there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or freeman.”
Weymouth: “In that new creation, there can be neither Jew nor Greek.”
Moffatt: “In it, there is no room for Jew or Greek, circumcision or uncircumcision.”
Williams: “In this new relation, there is no Greek and Jew.”
Phillips: “In this new man of God’s design, there is no distinction between Greek and Hebrew, Jew or Gentile, foreigner or savage, slave or freeman.”
The New American Standard Bible: “A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew.”
Goodspeed: “Here what matters is not Greek and Jew, the circumcised and the uncircumcised, but Christ.”
Taylor: “In this new life, one’s nationality or race or education or social position is unimportant. Such things mean nothing.”
This is how “Christ is all, and in all.” This Book says, “Christ is everything and everywhere.” Moffatt: “But Christ is everything and in us all.” Goodspeed: “There is nothing but Christ in any of us.” Monsignor Knox: “Christ is all that matters, for Christ lives in them all.” Phillips: “Christ is what matters, and He is equally available to all.” Taylor: “But Christ is all, and in all.” That is the Twentieth Century New Testament.
All those natural barriers that divide man from man have been abolished in Christ. They cannot exist. They have been done away. The middle walls have gone.
You turn to Galatians 3:28, and it says this:
There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female: for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus.
You have it again: “There can be neither.” Ephesians 2:15: “That He might create in Himself of the two one new man.” Create in Himself of the two one new man.
Now, what are these barriers, essentially, that divide man from man? Well, we have racial barriers: white, black, Asian, African, European, American. The racial barriers that tend to divide us in one way or another are very, very deep-seated.
People talk about all the troubles and so on, but when it starts to hit them, they feel very differently. Everyone can offer good advice until the real problem comes, for it is not just a matter of cleanliness or anything like that. It is often a matter of cultural background—the way we do things, the way our minds think, the clash of two cultures, the clash of two ways of living that are deeply rooted within our very being.
Racial barriers, national barriers. Well, we all play down national barriers today. The younger a nation is, the more patriotic it is, on the whole. But this is not a day so much of nationalism; nevertheless, it is still there.
You just put a foot wrong with someone about their country, and they can be very upset and very annoyed, because national temperament, national character, is a very deep-seated thing. Animosity between nationalities, and so on and so forth.
National barriers. Social barriers. Class, sex, and all the rest of it. Religious barriers—not only the fact that one is Buddhist, Confucian, Muslim, and so on, but denominational barriers: Baptist, Congregationalist, Roman Catholic, Anglo-Catholic, Lutheran, Wesleyan, Brethren.
All these different things, barriers, divide us. We either look down or we look up. Personal barriers—that is the thing between us all, the instinct.
There is no such thing as African Christians in God’s sight; there are only Christians in Africa. There is no such thing as Asian Christians; only Christians in Asia. There is no such thing as European Christians; there are only Christians in Europe. There is no such thing as British Christians; only Christians in Britain. There is no such thing as Danish Christians; only Christians in Denmark. Nothing is Japanese, because there are only Christians in Japan.
You see, it is a way of looking at it. Once we say Japanese Christians, British Christians, German Christians, French Christians, we are all divided. But we are simply Christians, are we not?
And we know it when we meet together—the true family of God. It does not matter what nationality, what ways it is; we are one.
The same is true in social class. What a wonderful thing it is when everyone is mixed up together, titled or untitled, all just jammed together, everyone with something to give and no one standing on what they are. I have known that. Many of you have. And it is very wonderful.
And, of course, we set up religious barriers when they are gone. From our different backgrounds, we each have something to give; it will contribute. But it is Christ Who is everything and in everyone.
Personal barriers—that is where all our trouble comes in the end, because those are the deepest-seated of all, deeply rooted in our constitutional temperament. Even when the Lord has dealt with race, nationality, social class, sex, and religious denomination, there are still those things within us where we hit up against the others.
But Christ, in Himself and by His work on the cross, has abolished every barrier and division and made us one in Himself.
And how has He made us one new man? It is in Himself He has done it. In other words, we are in Him and He is in us, and that is our unity.
Or let me put it again like this: He is our unity.
Therefore, it follows that division on any level is not just sad evidence of failings to be lamented with patience. Division is not just something wrong but unavoidable, to be accepted. It is sin.
It is sin.
And that is why I could not be a Baptist another day. For when, in the day that I saw—I do not say for others, for myself—the day that I saw that to have a label was dividing Christ, that day the label went.
I would rather go into the presence of God a despised, nameless Christian than have any number of labels going round amongst Christians and be guilty of being any part at all in the dividing of Christ.
You see, there is this common idea amongst us that these divisions are hoary with age and part of human nature. You cannot do anything about them. But you know as well as I do that in every age, in every generation in the history of the church, there has been an expression of universal unity.
Sometimes it has been among a most despised people—persecuted, marked—but amongst those who have been simple, ordinary, honest, godly people, there has been that expression of the oneness of Christ. It is there that the lampstand has been all the way through church history.
I can only say that it is a building again of that middle wall of partition. It is not only the building again of middle walls of partition, but, when I am talking about division, being within it or part of it, it is also the acceptance of them or the adjustment to them.
Those things simply mean that if you are building again that wall, or any part of anything which has or is, if you and I are accepting it as something that cannot be helped—to be lamented over, but cannot be helped—or adjusting ourselves to it, then we are undoing the work of Jesus Christ.
That is why it is sin to go out and get drunk: it means that you sin against your body. But to divide Christ is to sin against His body. And therein lies the solemn and serious nature of this whole matter.
Such an acceptance of division, however it may be excused or justified by some, divides Christ, hinders and frustrates God’s purpose, holds up the building of God’s church, denies Christ’s full and finished work in its practical outworking and consequences, and stumbles others.
You know as well as I do how most people say to us, “Well, if Christianity is true, why is it so divided? Why is there so little love shown between them?” Most people, the man in the street, do not distinguish between nominal Christians and true Christians, between just churchgoers and those who really do know the Lord.
Now, anything denominational, sectarian, or exclusive must, of necessity, due to its very character, divide believer from believer. It is not necessarily a question of malice, but a question of constitution.
If an idiot punches you one in the eye, it is not necessarily a matter of knowledge. It may be a question of constitution. He is demented, so he clocks you one in the eye. He did not know any better.
And people seem to think that because we say that anything denominational, exclusive, or sectarian is wrong and sinful, we are being very sanctimonious. Well, we are not saying that it is necessarily malicious. It is constitutional. It comes out of the very way these organisations and institutions are constituted.
Anything which makes the standard of fellowship or membership a question of a certain measure of light, knowledge, or experience extra to the essential minimum inherent in new birth is divisive. Have you got that?
Anything which makes the standard for fellowship or membership a certain measure of light, of knowledge, of experience, extra to that essential minimum which is inherent within new birth, is divisive.
Now, nearly all that is denominational, sectarian, or exclusive is built in this way. So we get denominational church constitutions. We get denominational church creeds and declarations. We have the membership roll. We have membership qualifications and conditions. They vary from group to group, but you have these things which are, as it were, instruments of division.
And that is what I mean by the thing being constitutional. It is not that it is malicious; it is constitutional. It goes right back to this thing of whether a thing is organic or organised.
The basis for fellowship together in Christ is not the unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, which we are told is something we are going to arrive at one day, or attain unto.
But the basis for fellowship together in Christ is the unity of the Spirit into which we have been born of God.
Now, if you turn to Ephesians 4:13, we read:
Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
Now, in verse 3 we have, “Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit.” We have two unities. One, we are told, we have; we have to keep it, we are to maintain it. The other, we are told, we are arriving at, we are coming to. One is a goal; one is a basis.
Now, the trouble with so much of Christendom is that we have made the goal the basis, and therefore we have been divided.
If we were to take this company, just this small company within these four walls, and divide on the unity of the faith—if we were to make the unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God our basis of fellowship—I do believe we would immediately have two or three churches, so-called. It could not help it.
But, you see, it is the unity of the Spirit into which we have been born of the Spirit of God that is the basis upon which we fellowship together.
Therefore, because of the oneness of Christ, we must receive all whom He has received. That is what it means in practice.
In Romans 15:7, it puts it very simply in these words:
Wherefore receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you.
We therefore, because of the oneness of Christ, because we have been born into this oneness, must receive everyone else whom the Lord has received.
In other words, the one requirement, the one necessity, for fellowship together—for being looked upon not as a visitor but a member of the family—is this: has the Lord received you?
Has the Lord received you? If the Lord has received you, God forbid that any of us should reject you. We can do no other.
Why, you might be very untoward. You may be very difficult, awkward. But what can we do? We are trapped. If the Lord has received you, we must. Woe betide us if we reject you.
But has the Lord received you? If the Lord has received you, if you have been saved by the grace of God, if you have been born of His Spirit, you have been received by Christ. We must receive you.
It does not matter who it is. Let it be the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Pope. We accept them all if they are saved of God. If God has received them, we receive them. If God has not received them, we will not.
Now, get clear what I am saying. Just get absolutely clear what I am saying. I am not talking as if we sort of push out people. We are talking about whether a person is a member of the family.
Now, if there is a family, I am not talking about those difficult occasions when someone comes that we just do not want to see, though so often in the world it can be like that. But I am talking about the normal family. Someone comes; there is a visitor.
Now often we show more politeness, more courtesy, and more love to a visitor than ever we do to any member of our own family. You know the kind of thing: someone comes in with a hat that really you wonder where on earth they got it from, but the whole family clucks and coos over it.
But if one member of the family came in with that hat, they would say, “Get that out of the place. You look awful. You are a member of the family.”
The same hat could be clucked and cooed over on a visitor, but on a member of the family you get it straight from the shoulder.
Now, that is what I mean when I am talking about receiving. I am not talking about saying we will not receive anyone into the family. We do not accept as members anyone not born of God. Visitors—we will do everything that we can, by the grace and love of God, to make them welcome.
I do not know who it is—the greatest religious dignity in the world. If they are not saved, we will welcome them as a visitor to the family. But we must receive every single one whom the Lord has received.
Therefore, we have no membership roll. We cannot. Our membership is the Lamb’s book of life. And we can only go by the fruit that we see.
By their fruits ye shall know them.
And we have to go by that witness of the Spirit and the fruit that is seen in lives.
But will you also note that we must receive one another as Christ received us? Now there comes, in one way, the key to the whole matter, and I might say sometimes the crunch.
We must receive one another as Christ received us. How did Christ receive me? He received me as a sinner saved by grace. He did not receive me as someone who could preach, or someone who thinks he could preach.
And He did not receive me as someone who is perhaps knowledgeable, or someone who is zealous, or someone who is devoted, or someone who is going to be useful. He received me as a sinner, a worthless, insignificant, ugly sinner. And that is how He received me.
It was the minimum basis. He received me as a sinner saved by grace. Here is the equality of fellowship. Every single one is received on the minimum. And what is the minimum? The minimum is that you are a sinner saved by grace.
Not that you are decent, devoted, pure, and spiritual, but that God saved you as a sinner who could not save himself or herself.
It is a sad fact that the way the Lord has received you and me is not the way we receive one another, and hence all our trouble. For all the time we judge one another. We cannot receive one on that basis.
But that is the basis upon which we are to receive one another and fellowship together in Christ. Are you a sinner saved by grace? That is the whole thing: saved by grace. Are you a sinner saved by grace? Has He received you as a sinner saved by His grace? Then we receive thee in the same way, on that one basis of what He is.
It is a very interesting thing that, in Romans 14:1, it says:
But him that is weak in faith receive ye, yet not for decision of scruples.
Think, because this is exactly what happens: decision of scruples, investigation into their conscience. Is that not exactly what happens with most membership conditions?
I was investigated, believe me, by two people, and I got in, as I have said, on a two-thirds majority. The only way I got in. Investigated.
“Him that is weak in the faith.” Is that not interesting? Him that is weak. That is the very people that some of us will say, “Oh, very wobbly.”
Well, do not get him in a corner and say, “Now look here, have you given up?” Or say, “Have you given up drinking? Do you go to the cinema?” But this is the kind of thing that happens. My word, I have known it and passed that kind of thing.
Why, I have even seen a poor girl who did not have something on her head taken out and—I do not know the word to use—grilled may be too weak, by two old sisters. I was not here, thank the Lord.
“Him that is weak in faith receive ye, yet not for decision of scruples.” In other words, not for doubtful disputations—having a good old argument with them, trying to convince them that they should do so-and-so-and-so-and-so to make them more acceptable.
Him that is weak in faith receive, as Christ received. As Christ received him, as a sinner saved by grace, let God do the work of investigating. Let God do the sorting out of the motives. Let God do all the work of reformation and cleaning up.
Oh, the trouble we get into. You get someone in with a troubled background—say something like divorce or something else, some unhappy background—and before you know where you are, you have got people latched onto them, sort of drumming up the divorce laws. It is incredible.
“Him that is weak receive ye, yet not for doubtful disputation, not for decision of scruples.” Scruple—interesting, is it not? Scruple. You have a scruple about smoking, or drinking, or something. It may be from the Lord.
But do not you take him in for a decision over scruples. Receive him as Christ has received him—or her.
That is why it says in Philippians 3:15-16, where Paul, who could well have argued with all of us and cut a lot of us off, says:
Let us therefore, as many as are full-grown, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you. Only, whereunto we have attained, by that same rule let us walk.
Now, that is the spirit of the apostolic form. He says, “Look here, if we are really going right on, we will be together in this thing. But if you are otherwise minded, we are not going to argue about it. We are not going to have a decision of scruples or doubtful disputation. We will leave it. The Lord will reveal it, either to me or you. We will go on.”
Only—and here is the point—“whereunto we have attained, by that same rule let us walk.” So if God has said to you, “Do not you do that,” you do not do it. If God says you do something, you do it.
But do not all the time be saying, “Oh, you know, if I cannot do it, he cannot. Why should he be doing it? I cannot.” So what we do is, we get him.
You see? It is strange, is it not? People who take drugs always want everyone else to take them. Someone is ordered; everyone wants to get them all in, you know—get them all into the club. It is a human tendency.
So if the Lord has dealt with you over something, it is, “Get them all into the club of the none,” whatever it is. Ah, it is terrible. It is a destruction of fellowship and oneness. More trouble is done here than anywhere else. This is where the flies in the ointment are.
Well, now we must finish. I think we should just add one little point, and that is that this unity is not uniformity.
I always think that wherever there is uniformity, it is evidence that true organic unity is not there. True unity is expressed in variety and diversity within the unity.
You think about that and you will see it is true. There is tremendous variety and diversity of gift, of function, of operation, in the oneness of Christ.
Well now, to take the ground of the body of Christ means, in practice, that we stand in the oneness of Christ, having left all that is a contradiction to that oneness—all that could or would divide in any way, on any level.
It means that we receive everyone whom He has received and minister to all to whom He ministers. It means that we want to be able simply to greet and welcome every other born-again believer as members of Christ with us, and seek to draw them in as members of the same body, the same family.
We see this beautifully exemplified in the book of Acts, where there is a unity in great variety and diversity throughout, from beginning to end.
We see in all parts of the world this rebuking by the apostles continually of any lining up behind names, personalities, or teachings as such.
And we see it exemplified in the breaking of bread, the Lord’s table. Perhaps some of you who are younger in the Lord forget that, but at the Lord’s table one of the supreme testimonies of that table is one loaf and one cup.
We share the bread; we share the wine. It is one loaf, and it is one cup, and we share it together. What are we doing? We are simply saying we have been born into this oneness. We have been born into Christ. He is ours.
And the Lord help us.
Now, Lord, we just simply commit ourselves to Thee, and we pray, beloved Lord, that Thou wouldst reveal this to our hearts. Do not let it remain, Lord, we pray, in the realm of theory, or doctrine, or just biblical knowledge.
Lord, we pray that by Thy Spirit Thou wouldst enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know this inwardly. Lord, we know how important this matter of Thy oneness is, and we ask that Thou wouldst help every one of us to give diligence to keep the unity of Thy Spirit in the bond of peace.
We ask it in Thy name. Amen.