Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Several years ago now, a friend of mine accepted the challenge of a church which had at its beginning of his ministry 33 people, including the children, only 12 of whom were members. After one and a half years of sacrifice, prayer, hard work, teaching the word, over a hundred people had trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and followed him in baptism. Think of what was accomplished
in those 18 months. And then one man became negative and critical of my friend's ministry. For example, on visitation night, instead of going visiting, he would go with another man, but the two of them would sit together and in the entire time of visitation talk about the pastor's ministry. The result was that there developed within that church of 150 or so people a small group of critical people who gossiped. primarily about the pastor. The result of that was that the blessing of God
lifted from that church. After just two months of that kind of activity, missions giving dropped off to nothing, and it was not long before the pastor left, to his own admission, probably prematurely. But he heard the noise of the minority. and the majority was quiet. Sad to say, that church has not to this day recovered from that incident. Nothing is more important to a local church than the unity of the Spirit in the body of that church. The loss of spiritual unity is really the death
knell to its ministry. Oh, it may exist all right. but it cannot thrive and it will not be effective because of the lack of unity. Our text today in Ephesians chapter 4 deals with this very practical topic. The unity of a local church is a sacred treasure, which is to be appreciated, encouraged, and it says here protected. It is essential for that unity. to be thusly treated for that ministry to be God -honoring. I want you to think with me, first of all, regarding the source of unity.
It is supernatural in its origin. The unity of the church does not come from the natural state of the people who belong to it. It does not come because everyone pays a certain amount of dues. It does not come because they meet together and they eat a certain meal one time a month, as some clubs do. Rather, the origin of the unity in the church is a supernatural origin because it comes from God himself and is personally administrated by the Holy Spirit. Thus, it is called the unity
of the Spirit. That unity is not merely some vague spiritual identity, but rather it is, as George Johnson says, quote, a profound oneness made possible by God's Spirit. That unity exists as a reality due to the work of the Holy Spirit in placing us together into the body of Jesus
Christ. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 speaks to this when he says, excuse me, chapter 12, when he says, even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though there are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greek, whatever our ethnic or national origin may be, whether slaves or free, whatever our social position may be. He says we were all made to drink of
one Spirit. That, my friend, is the source of the unity in a local church. It is the result of a supernatural work of God who, by the Spirit, places us together in identity in Jesus Christ. The diverse members of the body are organically united by this work of the Spirit. Now think with me secondly concerning the seal of the unity. For it says here in our verse, we are to preserve that unity in the bond of peace. The word bond
means that which binds together. In Colossians 2 .19, the same word is translated, ligaments, the ligaments of the body, holding it together. Again in Colossians 3 .14, the same word is translated in the Greek literally, the bond of peace. completeness. Skevington Woods says this peace is the clasp that ensures that this God -given unity will not fall apart. What is being said here is that the peace in a local church is the indication that everything is in place, that it's in order
in the church. Many churches have lost their bond of peace. signifying the unity of the Holy Spirit. It can be recovered, but only as the Holy Spirit is able to effect cleansing and renewal or restoration within the body. It cannot be achieved by human effort. It's impossible. Only the Holy Spirit is able to cause that unity and the resulting peace in the church to be rekindled, to be real. Of course, all of us are concerned
about that which would divide the body. Equally as dangerous as the immoral person or the one who may murder or steal is the church troublemaker who divides the body and destroys the unity of the church. I'm not referring, of course, to one who speaks against false doctrine. that may arise in the church, or one who may expose hypocritical living, that needs to be done in the right way. It needs to be done with meekness and love. But that kind of thing must be brought to the surface.
I am glad, frankly, that I am not one of those privileged to the information about PTL. Because to have that kind of information and be responsible for it is a tremendous burden. Yesterday, a lot of us saw John Ankerberg on the television set, and even Friday night, talking about some of the details that he claims to be true. I think it's wise for all of us just to sit back and not get too excited until some of these things are brought out in a way that the proof is clear.
But the fact is it's a tremendous responsibility to have facts and information about false teaching or false living within an organization or a mission or a church. Because one must handle that in some proper way. It cannot be overlooked. That kind of a person is not a troublemaker in a bad sense, although he may be a troublemaker in a good sense. I remember King Ahab called Elijah a troublemaker, and Elijah turned the word on him because it was Ahab who was really the troublemaker
in Israel. And in talking about this, I'm not speaking about the person who may have a legitimate complaint or who voices a dissenting opinion on an issue. That is not a troublemaker. We do not all think the same way. We do not all have the same perspective on everything that happens. seek to express our differences in the right way at the right time. That is proper to do that, and that is not making trouble in a church. So that's not the kind of thing that we're talking
about in division. But rather I would define a troublemaker in a church as one who takes peculiar pleasure, and it is peculiar, believe me, in habitually opposing the church's philosophy or direction. or one who attacks others within the church to destroy them, or one who continuously complains, murmurs, slanders, or otherwise negatively influences people. I tell you, as dangerous as cancer to the human body is the malignant spirit
of a divisive person. I thank God that we've had as little of that kind of thing in our church in these six years as I think anywhere I've been. We've had some, but we've really had very little. And it's surprising to me that that's the case, if I may speak just very honestly with you for a moment. Of course, I'll speak honestly for
more than a moment. But about this issue, because a church that has gone through what we have, in the first six years with the rapid growth and so on, tends to attract people who are disgruntled in other churches. Sometimes that disgruntlement is proper and right. There are things wrong there. Sometimes the unhappiness is not right. And so there is a tendency for a church like ours to attract some people who come with a wrong kind,
of disgruntlement. And usually, if they don't get themselves healed of that inwardly and restored, what happens is, in a period of time, they become disgruntled in their new church. It takes a little time for that to happen. It may be months or it may be a few years. But unless God does a cleansing work, setting the heart of that person right, there begins to be the same pattern in the life. I have seen people like that in my ministry, and undoubtedly in your church experience,
you've seen people like that. They're around for a little while until they get unhappy and complaining and griping, and then they move on to another church. The same pattern, the same cycle occurs all over again, and it's a very tragic thing in their lives. Almost inevitably, the issues are predictable. And it's true whether it be a mission, or if it be a local church, or it be a Christian college, or it be some Christian
organization. Almost inevitably, the issues are predictable as to what a particular troublemaker will attack, will land upon as, quote, his issue. And of course, the one obvious one is the leadership of the organization. whether it be the president of the mission or the president of the school or the pastor of the church or the board of directors or the trustees or the elders or the deacons. Often anyone who's trying to do his job as best he can by the Spirit of God in leading that Christian
group. I say anyone who's trying to do his job will become the focus of attack, especially by one who has a malignant spirit. And all questions come up, well, why is it being done this way? Because where I came from, this is the way we did it. There are too many staff members. Not enough of the staff has been to seminary. Now, I haven't heard that within our church, but I've heard that outside of our church about our staff because I think only about half of us have been
to seminary. That doesn't include me. I've not been to seminary. I don't brag about that. I thank God for it sometimes because I didn't have to spend the five or ten years getting over it. But there are some of the tools, undoubtedly, that seminary would have given me that I don't have. But this has been the will of God for my own life. And yet that has been a criticism focused at me, again I say by some outside the church. But inevitably church leadership is one focus
of attack by troublemakers. And often these attacks come out of misunderstanding. They come out of poor information or gossip. They sometimes come out of jealousy. They sometimes arise out of hatred and dislike. but inevitably there will be that kind of an attack. And then a second one that is obvious to you, I'm sure as it is
to me, is that of finances. Organizations are attacked for this, and sometimes those finances have not been rightly handled, as is one of the allegations now against the ministry that I mentioned a few moments ago. Time will tell, I suppose, as to whether that's the case. But since we're talking in the realm of a local church this morning, let's just limit it to that realm. So often there are people with malignant spirits who question and attack the allocation of money or how it's
spent or how it's raised. And the fact is that few people, few even of the dedicated and sincere people of a church, really understand the unique aspects of a church's finances. There are some parallels to business, but there are also some contrasts to business, some ways in which a church is not run like a business. Budget control and expenditures and control of expenditures is an important aspect of any organization, including
a church. But you really can't compare the way it's done in the church to a business just across the board. For example, You're a physician, let's say, or you're an attorney. Let's suppose that your clientele paid for your services by freewill donations. Let's suppose that you sent out a statement each month and said, well, your charge is this. Now, please remit whatever you feel like remitting. How would you control the finances of your organization, of your office? Or let's
say you're a salesman. And let's say you sell cars, and you sell a car to somebody, and you say, well, now sign here in the dotted line, and we sure would appreciate a donation toward this car that we're selling to you today. It doesn't quite work that way, does it? And yet a church must operate on the basis of what people choose to give to it, on the basis of donations. I think you can obviously see there how that can affect. budget -controlled and expenditures
in a church. Let's suppose that if you own a business or even if you're employed by a corporation, let's suppose that every financial decision of your corporation, every one of them had to be decided by the stockholders. Can you imagine calling the stockholders together every time you needed to make a little decision in your
church? And yet there are people who expect a church to operate that way who think that every time a church spends more than $50, some say, or more than $500, the church should call everybody together and everybody together should make that decision instead of the board of deacons or trustees or elders, whatever is appropriate in the church. I think you can understand what I'm saying there. you in your business, your small business, had to annually post for your customers to view what
your income is. And not only that, but they were allowed to vote on whether that was the proper income for you. Would that make you feel good? And yet there are some churches that insist that the salaries of their staff members be publicly disclosed to the whole congregation so that everyone can... can have a vote and whether that is the right amount or not. Ignorant of the fact, apparently, that there's no larger church that I know of, at least, with a multiple staff that does that
sort of thing. But somehow there seems to be this insistence that public disclosure of those kinds of details is important to everybody. I guess when I've heard that before, my response is probably a little carnal, if you'll forgive me. But my response is, if we're going to have public disclosure, let's post everybody's salary so that everybody knows what everybody makes. And then beside that, in the second column, let's post what everybody gives. Right? And then we
have public disclosure. And we have all the information out there so we can all gossip and talk about it. Whether it's common issues like those that I've named or it's some other unusual or minute issue, as is sometimes the case, in what kind of an organ to buy or what color to paint the classroom or whether to buy new tires for the bus. And all of those have been causes of church
splits. We need to understand how destructive that kind of squabbling can be because it destroys the unity of a body and it cripples its effectiveness for this reason. It absorbs energy which should be used in ministry. Not only that, it quenches the Holy Spirit. The peace that arises from oneness of mind or singleness of purpose and unity of heart is a powerful testimony to Jesus Christ. And that is why the Apostle emphasizes it so strongly. as he does in our text today, the oneness
of the body. What does God say about discord? Let us look quickly at two or three passages of Scripture. First in Proverbs chapter 6. I'm going to begin reading in verse 12 to get the context here. But it says, a worthless person, a wicked man, is one who walks with a false mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his fingers. Now here you have people who have inside information and they're
sharing it by signals that are secret. And he says, who with perversity in his heart devises evil continually. who spreads strife. Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly, instantly. He will be broken, and there will be no healing. There are six things which the Lord hates, yea, seven, which are an abomination to him. Here we have God's hate list. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans. feet that run
rapidly to evil. Notice the anatomy of evil here. He talks about the eyes, the tongue, the hands, the heart, and the feet. He continues, a false witness who utters lies, that's perjury, and one who spreads strife among brothers. The word spread there means to send, just as God sent the prophets, or it means to loose, to let loose, just as captives were. let loose from Babylon. So he says, the one who loses strife or quarreling
or contention among brothers. And so we see quickly what God's attitude regarding that sort of thing is, because God prizes the unity of his people. Turn with me in the New Testament to Galatians chapter 5. The specific problem here was one who was bringing in false teaching and was thus bringing division and confusion to the Galatians. And he says in verse 7, Galatians 5, 7, You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the
truth? When I read that verse, my mind goes back to the illustration I started with this morning in that little church that knew God's blessing and then lost it. Who hindered you? This persuasion did not come. From him who calls you, a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. I have confidence in you and the Lord that you will adopt no other view, but the one who is disturbing you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. And so the Apostle Paul was quick to isolate the
troublemaker and to warn of judgment. And then in Philippians chapter 4, verses 2 and 3. You say, is it just up to the apostles to isolate troublemakers? No. Here, however, Paul did name a couple. He did it publicly, and he did it for all of eternity in the sense that it's written in God's eternal word. And it says in verse 2, I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. It says to be of one mind,
literally. And he says, indeed, true comrade, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel. Please notice that these were not careless women. These were not lazy women. These were women who were active and involved in serving the Lord Jesus Christ, even with the Apostle Paul. that something had come up, whatever it may have been. They were at one another's throats. And Paul was concerned, and you see it in the whole book, he was concerned
about the unity of the church in Philippi. And so as he brings it to an application, he names the two sore spots. And then he says, I urge you, true comrade, to help these women. That word help means to take and to bring together. So you see, all of us have a responsibility. That's my point. All of us have a responsibility when there is discord in the fellowship to seek to bring about resolution, to seek to bring about
harmony and peace. Now the significance of unity, going back to our text today in Ephesians, the significance of unity is this, that the oneness of mind, and Spirit in the church reflects the unity of our faith. Notice the triads here in verses 4, 5, and 6. In fact, you will notice that there are three of them, each one related to a person of the triune Godhead. In verse 4, the Holy Spirit is in focus. In verse 5, it is the Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 6, it
is God the Father. Now notice with me what is said here regarding the unity of what we believe, of our faith. He says there is one body. Why is it that we should be concerned about unity in our church? Because there is one body. It's not Jew or Gentile. It's not rich or poor. It's not middle class or lower class. It is one body.
And why is it one body? Because there is one Spirit, as we've said before, the Baptizer, the one who brings us into identity with Christ and with each other, resulting in what he calls one hope, that which the Spirit has called us to, the destiny of glory with Jesus Christ. We shall share that with all of God's children. Why should we not be fighting with one another? Because we're all going to be in heaven together. We might as well learn to get along together down
here. And then he mentions our Lord. There is one Lord, that is Christ, who is the head of the church. Christians can call no other one Lord but him. And there is one faith. That could refer to the body of doctrine, we believe, but most probably refers to the way that we're saved, by faith. There is one way to be related to the Lord, and that is through faith in him, by repentance of our sin and commitment to him and trust. And then he mentions one baptism. Now, he's already
talked about the Holy Spirit in verse 4. This baptism in verse 5 is undoubtedly water baptism. Water baptism, which demonstrates the unity that believers have with Jesus Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection, and with fellow believers. One baptism. And then in verse 7 he says, One God and Father of all. All believers, that is. This is the redemptive fatherhood of God. He is saying there's only one God that we have.
We are not polytheists like the pagans. There is one God and Father of all, and it says he is over all. That is, he is sovereign and supreme. He's over all believers. And he is through all. What that means is he's operated in all. He is effectively working in all of his people to make us salt and light in our world. And he is in all. Of course, he's everywhere. He is in the world he created, separate from it. But God is
everywhere present in this world. But there is a special and unique sense in which he is in us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And so the unity of a fellowship, a local church like ours, either upholds and honors this unity, these onenesses, or it's disunity and discord denies this doctrine. That's the significance of it. You see, the way that we operate, the way that we conduct ourselves, reflects upon what we say we believe about God. That's why
it's so important. And then finally, the security of unity. Notice that he tells us in verse 3 that we are to preserve the unity of the Spirit. Each one of us, that is, is responsible for that. To maintain, to guard the unity within the body. And notice that that is not to be done casually. It is not to be done as an afterthought. But that is to be an upfront issue for all of us.
It is to be on the front burner. Diligently preserve the unity of the Spirit, making every effort we can with determination and resolution that the body remain united. I've wondered what might have happened at my friend's church if 95 % in the body who supported him actually had taken this command seriously. And instead of sitting on the sides and saying nothing when the few were attacking him, had actually done what the scriptures told them to do, to confront the troublemakers
and to maintain the unity of the body. I wonder what might have happened in that church and how the last 12 or 15 years might have been different than that part of the Twin Cities had that taken place. is posted by God as a sentry for the body. Again, not to suppress legitimate concerns, but to see that those are addressed and answered in an appropriate way. Not to ignore falseness or hypocrisy or wrong and just try to put it under the carpet and never face it. Not that.
not thinking that we might otherwise create a disturbance if we did point it out, but on the other hand dealing with those things in a biblical manner. We are posted as sentries that we might be on the lookout for any who would be sowers of discord and dividers of the brethren, emissaries of the enemy, to disrupt the work of God. Say, how do you know them? Well, Jesus put it very simply and I think very plainly. By their fruit ye shall know them. And let's remember the blessed
words of our Savior. I say blessed because it's a part of the Beatitudes. For he himself said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Let's bow together in prayer. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. I wonder in this matter of the unity of the Spirit, just what... the Spirit has said to you today?
And how would you respond to that? Would you, in the quietness of these moments, address the Lord and tell him what your own concerns are, what your commitment is as one who has received the challenge of our text today? There may be someone that you need to approach regarding an opinion that you have. Or there may be someone that you need to approach because you're aware of discord being sown. It may be that you are
the one who needs to repent. Father, I thank you for the peace that you, by your Spirit, have engendered within the body of Grace Church Roseville, and for the healthy way in which the body has responded in past years, and even for the unity and peace that we sense is in the body at this
very time, this moment. I pray that we will not take that for granted, that none of us will be careless and casual, Neither may we see this work as drudgery, but may we be excited and committed that we might obey the Scriptures and with diligence preserve the unity which the Spirit administers
in our local church. And Lord, we pray that as that unity continues and as it is manifested in even greater ways, that the result will be more energy used in ministry and a clearer testimony of the oneness of our faith in you, the great three in one. We thank you that we are one in the Spirit. We are one in the Lord. But I'm aware, Father, there may be some friend here today without
Jesus. who does not know what it is to be born into your family, who does not feel and experience that oneness because it's not there, I pray that that one will come to understand the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and would respond in repentance and faith to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Bring that one into the family. Make him a part of us. And we pray, continue using our church in whatever way that it pleases you to use it. In Jesus' name, amen.