United We Stand, Divided We Fall

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United We Stand, Divided We Fall

1 Corinthians 1:10-13; Romans 16:17-18

"I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, 'I follow Paul,' or 'I follow Apollos,' or 'I follow Cephas,' or 'I follow Christ.' Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?. . . . I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve." (ESV)

INTRODUCTION

(This message was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Ephrata, Washington on November 14, 2004. It was part of a series of messages that I preached related to the process of leaving the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Ephrata Presbyterian Church is part of the Confessing Church Movement. It confesses Jesus Christ as the only Lord and the only Way to Salvation; it affirms that the Bible is indeed the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, inerrant and infallible and the only rule of faith and practice. EFPC also confesses that the Church of Jesus Christ is to be found pure in its organic and dynamic life; that is, we are called to be holy because our God is Holy. Therefore, EFPC affirms that the Church is to be found pure, as the Bride of Christ. I was asked by the Committee on Ministry of the Central Washington Presbytery to preach a message on the Unity of the Church, using John Calvin as a source for my preaching. This is the result of my investigation; since it is a sermon, I will refrain of presenting academic sources [e.g.: footnotes, bibliographic data, and so forth] because I want to keep it as close to the message that I read in front of the Congregation. The only addition to this text is the "show and tell" section, which I did in front of the Congregation, showing the references that I had researched. This is impossible to be done here; therefore I will briefly present my arguments for that part in written form.)

I was told by the Committee on Ministry of our Presbytery to preach on unity and also to use John Calvin as my hermeneutical starting point for that preaching. I found the idea both exciting and challenging. Exciting, because I already use Calvin as the hermeneutical key for most of my preaching, and this has been my practice for many years. Challenging, because the way Calvin sees the unity in the Church, both in his Institutes of the Christian Religion and in his voluminous set of commentaries does not endorse the current view of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on the subject. Calvin never taught that the Church should be united at the cost of compromising its biblical faith, its view on the Sovereignty of God, its view on the Holy Scripture, much less on its Reformed teaching.

It is at this point that I want to emphasize that I want to affirm, once more, that Calvin follows very closely the Pauline teaching on unity and that it is centered on our personal relationship with Jesus Christ as our Lord; under the sound doctrine that is taught in the Gospels and in the New Testament corpus. One will not find Paul or Calvin giving in to the idea that the Church should be united just by the need to be united; the Church is united only in Christ Jesus.

It is with a trembling heart that I come to you today with this message; I cannot compromise the Gospel teaching on unity to accommodate the agenda of a Church that finds itself already divided in many ways. In fact, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is totally fractured, shattered into pieces in its theological framework. This is beyond the scope of my teaching today, but the very fact that we, the First Presbyterian Church in Ephrata, are a Confessing Church already defines where we stand in our faith. Just as a reminder, I want to point out that we became a Confessing Church because we completely disagree with the present situation of our denomination. As a Confessing Church we declare that Jesus Christ is the Only Lord and the Only Way to Eternal Life; we declare that the Bible is the Only Authoritative Word of God in everything it declares and that it is our Only Rule of Faith and Practice; we also declare that the Church of Christ is called to live a life that is holy in all its praxis. We, as the Church of Jesus Christ, are called to be holy because our Lord is holy.

Being that the case, our congregation is already united and we thrive to fulfill God's call in Ephrata as an expression of the Body of Christ. We are Reformed or Presbyterian in our faith, but beyond that, as we clearly learned last Sunday in our Congregational Meeting, we are first of all Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are Christian first, and our denominational affiliation is to be considered a privilege, but relegated at a second place in our stand for the Truth.

Unity in the Church Is Kept Through Agreement in Faith, not Through Love Alone (1 Corinthians 1:10)

"Where divisions are rife in religion, it is bound to happen that what is in men's minds will soon erupt in real conflict. For while nothing is more effective for joining us together, and there is nothing which does more to unite our minds, and keep them peaceful, than agreement in religion, yet if disagreement has somehow arisen in connexion [sic] with it, the inevitable result is that men are quickly stirred up to engage in fighting, and there is no other field with fiercer disputes" (John Calvin, I Corinthians, pp. 26-27).

Paul had his concerns for the Church in Corinth because he heard about the disagreements that generated different parties in that church; there was no schism yet. But the element of disagreement was the factor for that possibility. In Paul's mind, the main factor of disagreements was the danger of a possible schism in the church; this was the cause for possible divisions and he wanted to address that vital aspect of the life of the church.

Paul's first appeal was "that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you." One is positive and the other negative. We learn that in this part of the Scripture Paul teaches that unless there is agreement, divisions will occur. In fact, the glue that keeps the church together is agreement, and that agreement is primarily around His Word and the assurance that He is the Lord of the Church.

Paul's second appeal was "that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment." Here, our sameness of mind will happen only if we are able to judge the situation. In other words, our mutual agreement will take place if we judge what is going on first. This is what we want to accomplish in these days. Our called Congregation Meeting for next Sunday (November 21st) and other meetings with the several elders before we take our final vote about whether to stay or not within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

My caution is that our mutual love for each other could suffer unnecessary drawbacks if we do not realize what is the main focus of our unity, to be united in Jesus Christ as the Scripture teaches. It is okay to disagree on secondary issues and continue in healthy relationship among ourselves; but when the disagreement is related to the essentials of our faith, that agreement is broken and the division is at the door.

Division Happens Because of Obstacles Contrary to Sound Doctrine (Romans 16:17-18)

I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites." (NIV)

Those who promote division in the Church, according to Paul, are persons who "do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites." I am secure to say that those persons are looking primarily for their personal agendas, whatever agendas they might be. They look after their own interests, not the interests of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul cannot be more clear than that in this passage of Romans.

He admonishes us that those persons do so "by their smooth talk and flattery. . . . [deceiving] the hearts of the naïve" members of the Christian Church. They are masters of deceit, their arguments (sophisms) are in many ways convincing and will always find a soft spot in the hearts of well intentioned brothers and sisters. A good illustration of this is what we call today as being politically correct. He goes on in presenting to us two appeals, which I would like to briefly bring forth now:

The first appeal is to "watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught." Here the Apostle Paul is reminding his readers that there is a set of teachings, we may call them doctrine, that are invaluable for the keeping of unity in the Christian Church. We build up our faith on the doctrine that has been passed on to us from the Bible, the Word of God. Doctrine is a most important aspect of the Church because it is the uniting glue that will preserve our faith together. The very moment that doctrine is changed, there is no more possibility of unity. This applies not only to the dogmas of the Church, but even to the unity of other societal groups: societies, clubs, governments. In our case, since we are dealing with the most important societal group on earth, that is, the Church, we must understand that doctrine is more important than any book of order or constitution. When the Bible is no longer the central focus of our doctrine, our constitution will be void of any authority, because it must be under the authority of the Scripture. So, the logical conclusion is that those who cause divisions in the Church are the same who "create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught."

The second appeal is the expected outcome of the previous: "avoid them." This is the difference between dividing the body of Christ and remaining faithful to Jesus Christ. Our Session's decision to consider leaving the denomination is the result of much prayer and the realization that we've been constantly bombarded by non-biblical teachings on various issues. Their decision is not based on the outcomes of the denomination's lack of theological integrity (e.g.: the gay and lesbian issue, the denomination's involvement in the fellowship of Sophia, etc.). It is based on the grave theological problems that are present in the denomination, which are the very root of the entire problem we face today. Some are saying that the Session's decision is based on what we see on the news, that it is motivated by the media. This is not true! The truth is that our Session is formed of men and women who love Jesus Christ and also believe that we have serious doctrinal issues being challenged by the political machine that has dominated the denomination for so many years; going back to Angela Davis, to mention just one quick example. The Apostle Paul clearly teaches us that we must avoid those who are promoting this huge division in our denomination.

Who Is Dividing Our Church Then?

There are more than just cybernetic evidences of the present situation in our denomination today; its own body of documents shows it to us. During this week I spent time reading the minutes of our past two General Assemblies. My findings show that there is enough evidence of total misappropriation of the Word of God to consider it as a travesty of the Truth. Several documents reveal the lack of sound interpretation of the Word of God to favor the agenda of several groups.

Among them, as a consequence of this theological bankruptcy, I would like to briefly show you an example or two from those voluminous reference books. However, I want to point out at this moment that it is amazing how prepared the denomination is to incorporate their theological framework into practice as soon as they manage to approve the ordination of homosexuals and same-sex marriage; which is not too far from today. The language used in most overtures, reports, recommendations, and theological essays is already entirely geared towards the homosexual agenda and a non-biblical view of marriage.

I would like to step down from the pulpit for a moment for a short "show and tell." There are several things that I would like to show to you at this moment. Good and Bad! But to be fair, I must say that I found a larger disturbing body of information that validates my preaching today. So let's go to the show and tell, even so briefly. (Note: I stepped down from the pulpit and showed a number of books, magazines, newspaper clips, and a list of websites to the congregation. However, I made my case from the two latest books of the minutes of the General Assembly.)

I would suggest that who is indeed dividing our Church is doing this for many years already. Our denomination is loosing members every year. In the past two years alone, we lost over 80,000 members who went to other churches. A few years ago, I was in a meeting with some PCUSA leaders at Fuller Seminary, in Pasadena, and one of the most respected mission theorists, a former PCUSA missionary, told me that he lamented the fact that in the past forty years, our denomination has lost over 1.7 million members. The lack of unity is not in our congregation, it is nationwide. We are just a small representation of the problem. There is a cancer in our denomination and it is fracturing it; the cancer comes from those who are contaminating the church with false teachings and their own agendas, contrary to the Kingdom of God. These are the ones who are really dividing us.

CONCLUSION

I want to conclude by saying that I see a good level of unity in our Congregation today. We, for many years, are grounded on the Scriptures. We are an Evangelical and Conservative Presbyterian Church. At a local level, we are indeed united. I also see that level of unity in the kindness and love demonstrated in our last Congregational Meeting a week ago.

But when we look at the big picture, we are shattered. What is the positive witness that we are passing to our nation and worldwide? If we consider our witness at a local level, is it different? How can we be declaring to our community that we are one in Christ and at the same time silent to the true reality of our denomination out there? As some of our members said last Sunday night: "there is indeed a conspiracy of silence."

As your Interim Pastor I want to call you to a biblical unity. Not one based on tradition, fear, or blindness. I want to invite you to go to the Word of God and to compare the teachings of the Gospels in the Old and New Testaments with the reality that is before us. I want to ask you to pray and to seek the Sovereign Guidance of the Holy Spirit in your hearts and see if we are doing the right thing by living a "double Christian identity." If we find ourselves in one mind in Christ on this issue, then we should not leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); but if not, we should obey the Word of God and follow Jesus Christ as the Only Lord of All.

May the Lord Jesus Christ be glorified today in our lives and in our Church. To Him be all the Glory forever! Amen.

Final Note: I was terminated as the Interim Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Ephrata, Washington, on January 6, 2005, by the Central Washington Presbytery. As a result of that action, the EFPC's Session called for a Congregational Meeting to sever its relationship with the PC(USA). The Congregation voted to leave PC(USA) on January 17, 2005. The new formed Church, Community Church of Ephrata had its first worship service on February 6, 2005. CCE joined the Evangelical Presbyterian Church on May 7, 2005. At that same day, I was ordained by the EPC's Presbytery of the West as a Minister of the Gospel, to serve as an Evangelist. You may visit CCE's website by clicking here

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Generated: January 9, 2005.
Updated: January 11, 2006