Welcome to Fife's Pulpit for our Sunday morning service on this wonderful Lord's Day. My name is Pastor John and it's really good to have you. with us here as we delve into the Bible together and look at some great Christian principles. I want to do two readings, short readings, and I want to link these together in the theme of what we're going to be looking at this morning. And I hope it's going to be helpful for you. It was certainly helpful for me preparing it, as I think John Owen said, the old Puritan that it's best to dip the ink, the pen in your own heart before you write anything down in a sermon. Galatians 5 verse 13 says this, for you Christians were called to be free, brothers and sisters, only don't use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another. Now I want to go right to the very book, first book of the Bible, the book of beginnings, the book of Genesis. Now the book of Genesis is a marvellous book because all the doctrine we find throughout the scriptures has its genesis, has its beginnings in the book of Genesis. And there is an interesting section here which I want to link with what I want to say this morning. And I hope you'll hopefully see what I'm trying to do here. And well, let me read from Genesis chapter one, the creation story, verse 20. And then the Lord God said, let the water swarm with living creatures. Let the birds fly above the earth, across the expanse of the sea. So God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water. according to their kinds. He also created every winged creature according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas and let the birds multiply on the earth. Evening came and then morning, the fifth day. Then God said, let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds, livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so. So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, and the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds. And God saw it and said that it was good. And the Church of the Galatians that we read a small snippet from were turning away from the true gospel into Judaism and into legalism and ritual. So Paul spoke sternly to them about real freedom. Freedom was not to be used to do what you want, but freedom to love. The freedom was not to gratify themselves, but to love and to serve one another. But sadly, then he went on to say, if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out. Beware of destroying one another. Chapter five, verse 15. Once again, we see the same old problem occurring that we looked at just a wee while ago. When Christians depart from the truth of the gospel, then their conduct suffers and their essential unity is in danger of being lost. This also brings me to the obvious conclusion. That essential, true, Christian unity can only be held together when there is agreement on the essentials of truth. I'm not talking about periphery things of what to wear or how high to lift your hands. I'm talking about agreement on essential truth. The Galatians neglected essential truth and the result was disunity. It was exactly the same for the Corinthians. Remember, this was during the apostles' time also. Surely, true Christianity and Christian unity is based upon the belief of the truth, as revealed by Christ and his apostles in Scripture. in the garden when Jesus prayed for the unity of all of his children in that beautiful prayer in John 17, one of the most sacred of all prayers and a scripture that I'm almost too frightened to even go into. It is so revealing of the Lord and of his great love for his people. But he prayed and the point was when he prayed, that link that unity. He prayed for the unity of all of his children and link that unity with truth. And he says, where is truth? Thy word is truth. So he linked essential unity with the truth of the word. And the point is that when I speak of biblical unity, it has to be unity in Christ and in the true gospel. Often today we talk about visual unity, which is not based upon essential unity in essentials, which comes from being in Christ and the truth of the gospel. So it is not real unity as it has no real agreement. It's just a kind of tolerance for the sake of what it looks like. All true believing Christians are one. and that their essential unity is always under attack by Satan. And not only that, but it is always being substituted by a false unity. Satan, you see, will do that kind of thing. He will come as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Where truth is laid aside for the sake of a vague form of unity, But biblical unity is a spiritual unity found in the new birth and in Christ alone in faith in him. In Genesis, you see, you know, you're wondering why I read that section in Genesis. I want to kind of link something that maybe you've never thought of before. And I hope you don't think me being rather naughty doing this or too exclusive. But in Genesis, when the Lord created He made all the creatures according to their kind. A fish was a fish and it swam in the water. A lion was a lion and it usually sat under trees enjoying the sunshine. A bird flew in the sky. But a fish didn't decide one day to come ashore and spend the day with a giraffe. Neither did the hippo spend a day flying around with a pigeon. It was each to its own kind. And so it is with Christians. Our unity and fellowship is with our own kind. and our own kind are those who have been born again and whose minds are controlled by the word of God and who worship him in spirit and in truth. Now this is not meant to be exclusivism, but a basic common sense. Christians can only be truly unified with other Christians, just as the animals can and do intermix, for instance. A swallow will sit on the back of a huge hippo, but they remain different. They cannot be said to be the same or in fellowship. And this is the way it is with Christians. We fellowship with other Christians that are of the same kind. As God created one kind and created another, so he recreates the Christian. So we are to greet one another with a holy kiss. We are to love one another. We are to share. We are to pray, to laugh, to cry, to worship, to believe together, to be together, because we are now of the same kind of each other, as each other. And this is why Christianity actually, in I think it was the second century, maybe it was the first, I'm not sure, became known as the third way. That's nothing to do with the political concept of third way today. This is going back to those ancient times. It was known as the third way, or the word means third tribe, third clan, or third stock, or third family, or third life, or even the third people. Now, the first were the Jews, I suppose, although the Romans and Greeks would think it was the other way around, but the first were the Jews. Then you had the Greeks and the Romans. Then you had the unique, Christians. The Jews way was ritual and religion. The Greeks and the Romans was philosophy, worldly wisdom and great worldly social strength and power. The Christian way was the way of love and unity. It's exactly the same as today. We have ritual religions and authorities of religions Then we have secular philosophies and secular way of looking at things and we have secular power. And then we have Christian love, Christians, which of course is the love for God and his word and for each other and for our neighbours. So God commands it, not only because we need each other, but that the world can see this third alternative. You have religion, you have social power and humanistic thinking, and then you have Christ, the third way. To add to this fact, once again, we can be sure that the enemy will attack that which is true, and encourage visual unity amongst those who do not believe it really in the gospel of truth. So apostate groups, I use that word advisedly, come together today without little opposition, for in the main, they have a little threat at all to the enemy. But when it comes to true unity of believers, enemy does what he can to destroy that unity. And you know how I can prove that as well? Go back to Genesis. What happened there when Adam and Eve walked with God in perfect unity? What did the devil do? He came to disrupt that unity and to break it. And that's been what he's been doing all the way along. You get a group of people are happy together in the Lord and sooner or later, one of his wolves will come amongst them and spread discourse. I have experienced that a number of times and I'm absolutely convinced that you have too. But we must link our shields together and show that no matter what colour, race and background or culture we are, if we are in Christ, then we are one. It doesn't matter what colour we are, what background or race we are, not at all. So please come with me for some help once again from our old friend Thomas Brooks, Puritan, who in 1652 wrote a little book and it was published. It was called Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. Now I bought a copy of this in 1970. I was converted in 69 and I bought this in 1970 up in Edinburgh to keep me company on my naval journeys. I still have that original copy, although it has actually fallen apart, and it's made even worse because I've referred to it recently and other bits fell out of it, so I've used various bits of sellotape. But I can't say I've followed every bit of advice contained in it, but certainly it is a book worth getting and reading. Banner of Truth, I think, produced it. However, Brooks lists as one of Satan's devices, he lists this, by dividing them, Christians, and causing them to bite and devour one another. Then he gives a list of 10, 12 remedies of which I will just bring to you a few of them. And I want to share with them now. And I hope this is going to be helpful for you. Some of them are typical brooks. They are very simple. But if you think about them, they are actually quite profound. The first thing is this. The first thing we should do is to dwell more upon another's graces, not their weakness and failings. Now this may seem an odd point, but really it's very important, says Brooks. Tell me what pleasure, what delight, what comfort is there in looking upon the wounds, sores and sickness and the diseases and the nakedness of our friends? He's right really, isn't he? In short, sin is darkness, grace is light. Sin is hell, grace is heaven. So it is absolutely crazy, says Brooks, to look more at darkness than to light, or to look more at hell than to heaven. We should be looking for heaven in people, not bad things or their sins and imperfections. James 5.11 gives us an example of this, where there James speaks of Job's patience But he doesn't speak a word of Job's impatience and his groaning under the weight of what he suffered. And so would I, by the way. I don't pour scorn upon him for that. But James speaks only of his patience. And that is beautiful because he does that. Christ sees the smouldering flax. I use the smouldering flax a lot, I know I do, because sometimes I feel, and I think some of you do, like that smouldering flax or that Bruce Reed. But he blows on it, to see not the weakness, but what it really is as it fans into flame again. It's easy to find faulted be, you know. There are plenty and many you don't even know about. But my friends look upon my few graces, I'm glad to say, not my flaws. They remember the good times, they remember the grace and ignore the flaws. That's what we have to do is an illustration that I've used many times because I believe it's good. We take what people are and what they say, and we take them like kernels of corn, and we rub them in our hands, in between our hands, and then we blow on them. We blow away all that is useless, all that is chaff, and treasure and keep that essential corn. And all this may seem a trivial matter, but I believe that if we learn to look upon and blow into flame someone's graces, then we would be an amazing people. People would wonder at us and be amazed. If you try and do this, I guarantee that things would be happier. There is always something to find in another Christian to warm them to you. I know that sometimes you You have to look a lot harder in some than others. I know that. And probably people have to look a lot harder to find grace in me. It's not only others. But we can always find things upon which we agree. We can always do that. Secondly, if you cannot think of others, at least, and this will appeal to you and probably myself, who are a little bit more probably selfish, But if you cannot think of others, think of yourself and realise that love and union with others makes you feel stronger and you feel safer and you feel better. Brooks says, we shall be invincible if we are inseparable. It's true, isn't it? He goes on to tell a story The story is called of a king, now wait for this, who had 80 sons, 80 sons, and he was dying, probably through exhaustion, I'd imagine, with 80 sons, but it doesn't say that, Brookes doesn't say what. But he called the 80 sons around and he bound a bundle of arrows together and he asked his sons to break them, but they couldn't. and then he untied the arrows and they were able to break one by one, one by one. And the king said, my sons, so long as you keep together, you will be invincible. But if a band The band of union is broke betwixt you. You will easily be broken into pieces. Isn't that true? It is. I've seen it happen so many, many times. The sheer strength that you get from being with another true believer is something that you should really glory in. It is something so wonderful and so marvellous. I know that speaking with Christian friends, and in particular with our fellowship here in Vice Pulpit, gives me strength. It's hard to break, even if Satan tries, but our arrows are bound together. So even if you have trouble caring for others, at least give a thought for yourself and the strength you personally get from unity with others. Try to go it alone and you will eventually be picked off by the enemy. Remember some time ago I told you about the Amalekites in the Old Testament as they were scavengers and they hung around the tail end of Israel picking off any stragglers in the desert. So Israel had to cling close together, close with each other. as they were surrounded continuously by hostile tribes, not least the Amalekites, who would tie you out and pick you off. Now then, you see, our God is wonderfully good to us. Well, to me, I know he is. Just as I was writing down this sermon, I'd received an email just that very morning from a dear friend in America who May and I knew at Cape and Ray Bible School. We were very close. We shared a Christmas time together and we visited him in 1981 in the US, but we had somehow lost contact. He was not the best communicator, but we'd lost contact. We had searched, but we found an address. I wasn't sure whether it was him or not, And we couldn't get an email contact. Then, actually, out of the blue, he emailed us just the other morning, in fact, this morning. And it was as if 40 years had disappeared. And it was just yesterday when we hugged and said goodbye and shared some fish and chips and some pop together. But his email came just at the right time, because I tell you this, the Amalekites were giving me some hassle and were eroding me bit by bit. But to be reminded of our fellowship and happy times in fellowship made me feel safer and stronger because I was flagging. We should never, never, never underestimate our need of fellowship and unity in the Lord. When permitted, give your Christian friends a big hug and value them and value your unity with them. Thirdly, now we come to an obvious point, and of course it has to be mentioned, it is simply that God commands peace and unity, because he knows it's good for us also. And this was embarrassingly simple. But he says we have been given a new commandment by Jesus, a New Testament new commandment. And it is simple. What is this New Testament new commandment? We are to love one another. And of course, with that, there is the implication of unity, a unity of love. In fact, Jesus is quite clear about this because he links the two things together when he says, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. And how has he loved us? By coming to us. and uniting himself with us. We are to love one another the same way that he loves us, and he loves us by uniting us together by dying for our sins upon the cross. Surely I don't need to go on to tell you of the scriptures that command our unifying love. Just as the Lord commands us to repent and be converted, and we obey, so we are told to love each other, fervently, without hypocrisy. This is the message, says John, that we've heard from Jesus at the beginning. He says this is what he first started to say. We should love one another. We are known to the world for our love, not only for our Lord, but for each other. They will know we are Christians by our love. We used to sing that, I think in the 70s, there was a song that went something like that. We are known to the world for our love, not only our love for the Lord, but for each other. We show that we are really the third way of living. The Christian is a different kind of recreation or creation. Once in the world, we are now recreated in Christ Jesus after his kind. He is, says the Scriptures, the firstborn of many, many children. We are of the same kind as him. So we have a different rule book, a different drum to march to, a different hymn sheet to sing from, and a different commandments to obey. This difference is seen in the world by our unity and love. We are different because God has commanded it to be so. Fourthly, we should follow our Lord's example. Now, what do I mean by that? I mean this. God in scripture is known as the God of all peace, Romans 15. and in many other places, he is known as the God of Peace. Our Lord Jesus Christ is said to be the Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9, 6. Remember that Christmas text that we use. And the Spirit of God produces in us his fruit, which is what? Love, joy and peace. So then we have a good pedigree, a good inheritance. If our father is peace, our saviour is peace, and our indwelling sanctifier is peace, then of course we should love and promote that peace and unity amongst us. If you sow discord and dispute, then are you really a child of God? who loves peace? Do you have the spirit of peace in your heart or the spirit of the devil, which is discourse? Is the enemy who loves division and discord, strife and war? We see that in the world today. But once again, we should stand out promoting our unity and peace. But again, please, please, please remember that I speak only of Christian unity, a unity in Christ, of those who are regenerate and are his children. I'm not speaking of a kind of eco-nonsensical belief believe what you want as long as you love kind of visual unity. I'm talking about solid, genuine spiritual unity where your spirit witnesses with the spirit of God and with the spirit of God in another person that you greet each other with a holy kiss, you know, and there is spiritual unity there. Fifthly, if we maintain our relationship with God we will be more likely to retain our unity. Now again, that is so obvious, isn't it? Why are you telling me this, John? It's so obvious. Well, Brooks has told me that, and I think that it is important. Because if someone spitefully causes disunity and will not walk with other true believers, then it is possibly because they're not walking with God. Paul says something about that in Ephesians 4, verse 3. He says, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. And the word he uses in Greek for endeavouring is a word that means straining every sinew, making every effort. And notice what Paul says in that text. We are to endeavour to what? To keep the unity of the Spirit. We don't endeavour to get the unity of the Spirit, but to keep it, to treasure it. You see, the essential unity amongst Christians is a unity that we have, a unity of the Spirit that we are to keep. Not get, but to keep. It's something we have only if we're in Christ. We have that already, essential unity. If we desire to walk with God, then we will desire to walk with His children, whatever shape or size they are, whatever funny things they do with water or don't, however they're earthly or emotional or doer. They're all flowers in God's garden, loved by Him if they are born of His Spirit, and so should be loved by us. We could also consider What great pain it causes when discourse happens. It's terrible things that happen. I know the importance of Christian fellowship and a relationship with God, how it helps that. I know that when I was in the Navy on the Fishery Protection on minesweepers, I sailed around the UK. and I had to find fellowship in little tiny fishing towns and in other places. And I could honestly and truly before God say that I fellowshiped with exclusive brethren in the Shetlands, and with the Salvation Army in the Isle of Man, and with our dear Pentecostal friends in Fleetwood, and then my dear Reformed friends in Edinburgh. And truly, I did not feel any difference in my love and regard for them. True, yes, it was true. We might discuss things, but I was a baby Christian then. I was so glad just to be with fellowship with fellow believers, but we could discuss things and we could disagree. But I can tell you, I was so glad that after being the only Christian on the ship, how much I valued the unity I experience with all those dear brothers. You would introduce yourself, you would shake their hands, you would look into their eyes and you would see the beauty of Christ in them and they would hopefully would see it in you and you were one together for that short moment. If we walk with God, then we will learn to walk with all others who love him. We will learn also to discern the wolves from the sheep as well. Are we not daft? We don't go throwing our arms around people that are obviously not believing in the scriptures or denying the scriptural essential truth. No, no, we're not buttoned up the back, you know. Sixthly, if we discover disunity, if you discover it in your own relationships, with other true believers, then it is not a weakness to make the first approach for unity. So often we think that if we are the wronged party and we are right and that they have upset us, then we are just not going to them to ask for peace between you and them. Now that is entirely wrong. Now, I know I'm treading here in very dangerous grounds, but so let me give me my own understanding of these things. You may disagree. That's fine if you do, but let's remain unified. Remember that God was wronged and he was the innocent party. And yet as the stronger innocent party, it was he who came down to bring the rebellious, wicked, guilty party to bring us together with Him. It was He who humbled Himself. It was He who washed our feet. So if you find that you have a dispute, as Jesus said, then seek unity before you even bring your offering. Are there people right now in your life that you're embarrassed to see because you have broken unity? Then is it time to climb down from your high horse and seek that unity. For unity in that beautiful song of ascent is like the anointing oil that comes from God that falls upon the head of his high priest Aaron runs down Aaron's beard all onto his breastplate, which contains the 12 jewels of all the elect 12 tribes of God, all the way down on his garments to the floor. So unity comes from God through his high priest to his people, bringing them all together. Now, however, I know I'm a realist and Know that often you can try, and often your efforts are rewarded, sadly, by the other person trying to open up the old wounds. They obviously haven't dealt with it. And things sometimes can get worse before they get better. Now, this kind of approach needs wisdom. And I found that if you are willing, then sometimes God puts the other person in a situation where they need your help and you can then assist them and show them that essential unity and love you have for them, even if they won't listen to you initially. But I think, and as I say, it is only my opinion, that we need to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves when we engage in any effort to restore unity in particular about widening a situation to include the whole church. We have to be very careful about this. Isn't there a proverb that somewhere says, it's on the tip of my mind now as I'm talking, that a man who can save another brother or can restore another brother is stronger than someone who can take a city, something rather like that, but it's true. Brooks says this, our souls It is not a base, low thing, but a God-like thing, though we are wronged by others, yet to be first in seeking after peace. Again, I say that although it may be hard and may not be appropriate sometimes at this moment, because remember one thing, that the Lord created a perfect situation for bringing Christ into the world. He waited until he saw it was the fullness of time. There was a one language, the Koin Delectus, the Greek language, there were Roman roads, there was the peace of Rome and God saw to it and created time in such a way that it was made perfect for his son to come. It was exactly at the fullness of time. So we have to remember that sometimes, although we desire it, Sometimes we have to wait until the time is right. However, having said that, and not by means of a contradiction, Brooks goes on to say, and I do agree with him here also, when he says, it is not a matter of liberty whether you will or will not pursue after peace, but it is a matter of duty that lies upon you. and though it may seem to fly from you, yet you must pursue after it. Ah, you self-willed, sour-dogged Christians! Can you look upon these commands of God without tears or blushing? So, although I agree with him there, we must pursue peace at all times. Sometimes it is not the right time to do certain things. That's my own opinion. You may disagree and that's fine. But this is a very delicate matter. Whilst it is laid upon us to pursue peace, it is also laid upon us to be humble, gentle, Christ-like in our approach and how and when it is done. Unity is such a valuable, delicate matter. that I fear that I may have already said too much on this matter, on this subject. Let's move on to the final point, number seven. There is of course, there could be many other things that we could say, but I'll close with this thought, that we will need to be humble and self-judging to maintain unity. We all think we're right, don't we? Of course we're right, we're always right. The other person's always wrong. We are given a right to judge all things in the word of God by the rule of the word, yes. But first we should check out our own lives. Are we the cause of any disunity? What do you mean by that? How can I be? They've wronged me. But are we, have we done something to trigger this disunity? Is it me? Am I trying to take a tiny, tiny speck out of a brother or sister's eye whilst I have this huge great log sticking out of mine? I must first examine myself and ensure that I act not to gain superiority or to score points, but to act in love and truly want to ensure unity. You see, it takes humility. to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. Remember those stern words of scripture in John 7 verse 24, judge not according to appearance. In other words, don't jump to conclusions because something appears to be that way, but judge with a righteous judgment, judge with a righteous judgment. And that is important that we do that. Sometimes we can judge and act without really understanding the motives or intent or the situation of others so that we react on what we see according to appearance, says the Lord. So when we judge a situation, first you have to judge yourself as well. There is a beautiful picture from the ancient Greek Olympic Games. And this is quoted by Thomas Brooks. He says this, that apparently wrestlers did not put their own crowns upon their heads, upon their own heads, but they put them upon the heads of others. So as a winner, you crowned the man next to you on the heads of others. You know, dear ones, endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit. That is unity that already exists amongst true believers. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Ephesians 4, 4-6 tells us this. Let me read it to you. It is a stern and yet precious words. There is one body, one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope, when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. That about sums it up, doesn't it? So you see, even if we differ, and here I speak maybe as a fool, but even if we differ on what to do with water, or how high to lift our hands, or when to shout hallelujah and when to keep quiet, or whether to wear a hat or not, or whether to sing only psalms, or only hymns, or psalms and hymns. We should remember and do well to remember that a motto that was quoted by the Puritans was actually originated in Augustine when he said this. Now listen to this, I'll repeat it for us. In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity or love. I'll repeat it for you. In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity. And there we have it, dear ones. That is the whole matter. There's much more to it than that. Endeavour to keep the unity, that wonderful, glorious unity that we already have with the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. There is no disunity in the Godhead. There is no disunity in heaven. And there should not be any disunity in the church. Now, if this has upset you, if you think I'm getting at you, I'm not. I got at myself first. My own fellowship will know full well what I'm talking about because we discussed what I was going to say in this sermon and discussed certain aspects of it and it was very interesting. So if I've upset any of you at all, let me tell you something what an old Puritan again said. He is the best preacher, not that tittles the ear, but that breaks the heart. He is the best preacher, not that tittles the ear, but breaks the heart. If I have broken your heart, then let God draw near and mend it. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the essential unity that we have in the things of God. Thank you that the systematic truth has been revealed to us in the faith handed down to us through generations, protected and died for even by men. And we thank you that we have that essential unity in essential things. And in all others, non-essentials, we have that liberty to exercise it in our own way. But in all things, we have love and charity. So bless us, Lord, and keep us. Bless all your dear ones. Let them be unified. Let us feel the sense of the glorious unity of God amongst us all as we finish our time of worship and end God's Word together. And the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, rest and abide upon each one of us, both now and forevermore. Amen. This has been a help to you, then please let us know and encourage our hearts as well as we can then pray for you and encourage your heart. Thank you.