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Unity - Is Biblical Unity Possible?

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[Music]

Good evening.

Welcome to this evening service of

Pastors Fellowship 2025. Have you

enjoyed the day?

Has it been

wonderful? It has been rich and it has

been wonderful. Well, we're glad you're

here for the evening service tonight.

And let's just take a moment and pray

and ask the Lord to meet with us this

evening. Father, we thank you, Lord, for

the day that we have had. We thank you

for the presence of your spirit that has

met with us. And Lord, as we come

together for this evening service, Lord,

we ask for again that your Holy Spirit

would fill this place. Father, our

desire tonight is that we would

experience your presence and your power

and your blessing in a very fresh and

new way. We pray father that when this

evening is over and the two services

have been completed and father we walk

out of here for the night lord may we be

able to say surely god was in the house

tonight and lord we will have

experienced your presence with us so

have your way here tonight we pray in

Jesus precious name

[Music]

amen let's

[Music]

Dan, now that your belly is full with

all that good southern chicken and uh

mashed potatoes, green beans, all the

stuff, you cannot get sleepy on us.

Okay? It's not an option. It is not an

option. Oh, we're going to start off

with one of our good reformation hymns.

Just like it says, the reformation

glory. Let's sing it all together.

There's a mighty reformation sweeping

over the land. God is gathering his

people by his mighty hand. For the

cloudy day is ending and the evening sun

is bright. With the shout of joy we

hail. Oh, let's sing a church. Oh, the

reformation

glory. Let it shine to every land.

We will tell the blessed

story in its truth we air shall

stand. When the voice from heaven

sounding warning all to flee from the

darks courts the babel back to Zion's

free. Let my heart to hear the message

and I hasten to obey. And I'm standing

in Oh, if you're standing in the truth,

let's sing. For the

reformation

glory, let it shine to every

land. We will tell the blessed

story in its truth. We air shall stand.

Zion's walls again are building in the

days of your and the scattered hosts

returning to their land once more are

rejoicing in their freedom pledging ever

more to stand in the reformation truth

grand. Oh the

reformation

glory let it shine to every land.

We will tell the blessed

story. In his truth we air shall

stand. Christians all shall dwell

together in the bonds of peace. All the

clashing of opinions. All the strife

should cease. Let divisions be forsaken.

All the holy join and one and the will

of God in all. Oh let's sing it one more

time. Church. For the

reformation

glory, let it shine to every

land. We will tell the blessed

story in its truth. We all sing that

course again. Oh, the

reformation glory, let it shine.

[Music]

We will tell the blessed

story and it's true. The air shall

stand. Oh, I'll never Oh, I praise the

Lord who bought me.

Hallelujah. I'm a happy pilgrim bound

for glory. That's it. I am singing and I

hope to sing

forever when before his throne eternal

light. Oh, let's praise him tonight. Oh,

I will praise him.

Hallelujah. I will praise him more and

more. If I had 10,000 lives in which to

praise him, I could not enough my

blessed Lord

adore. Oh, I will praise him for

salvation.

Hallelujah. Richest treasures human

spirits ever found.

Once I wandered far away was sad and

lonely. But I'm dwelling now where

pleasures there. Are you thankful for

that? Oh, I will praise him.

Hallelujah. I will praise him more and

more. If I had 10,000 lives and wish to

praise him, I could not enough my

blessed Lord

adore. Oh, I will never cease to praise

him.

Hallelujah. For he gives me peace

abounding every

day. He redeemed me from my sins and

fully cleans me. And I find his service

sweeter all the way. Oh, I will praise

him.

Hallelujah. I will praise him more and

more.

If I had 10,000 lives in which to praise

him, I could not enough my blessed Lord

adore. On the last verse, I will praise

him for the strength he daily gives me.

I am running now to gain that heavenly

prize. Soon with joy I'll reach the goal

of life

immortal and go sweeping through the

gates of oh one more time lift your

voice. I will praise him. Hallelujah.

[Music]

If I had 10,000 lives in which to praise

him, I could not enough. My blessed Lord

adore. Give him a hand of praise

[Music]

tonight. Sing this good worship song.

How great is our God, the splendor of

the

King, clothed in

majesty. Let all the earth

rejoice. All the earth

[Music]

rejoice. He wraps

himself in light.

And darkness tries to hide and trembles

at his

voice. Trembles at his

voice. How

great is our

God. Sing with me. How

great is our God. And all will see. How

great.

How

great is our

God. Oh, and age to age he

stands. And time is in his

hands. Beginning and the

end, beginning and the

end. The Godhead three in

one. Oh, the Father,

Spirit,

Son, the Lion and the Lamb, the Lion and

the Lamb. Oh, lift your voice and sing.

How

great is our

God. Sing with me. How

great is our God. And all will see how

great, how

great. Oh, for he's the name above all

names. Let's sing. For he's the name

above all

names. Worthy of all praise.

and my heart will sing. How

great is our God. Oh, let's sing that

line again. Oh, for he's the name above

all

names, worthy of all praise.

And my heart will sing. How

great is our God. Then sings my soul.

Let's sing. Then sings my

soul. My

Savior God to

thee. How great thou are.

How great thou

art. Then sings my soul. Then sings my

soul. My Savior God to

thee. How great thou

are. How great thou are.

heart. Oh Lord my

God, when

allome

wonder,

consider

all the world thy hands have made.

I see the

[Laughter]

stars. I hear the

rolling

thunder. Thy power

throughout the

[Music]

universe

displays. Let's go to that fourth verse.

When Christ shall

come with shouts of

acclamation to take me

home. What joy shall fill my heart.

Then I shall

bow in humble

adoration and there

proclaim my God how great thou art. Lift

your voice. How great. Then sings my

soul, my Savior God to

thee. How great thou

are. Oh, how great thou are.

Then sings my

soul, my

Savior God to

thee. Oh, watch me now,

church. How great thou

art. How

great

thou are.

Oh, let's give him a hand

[Music]

tonight. This

evening, we're going to receive an

offering. This is the only offering that

we receive in pastor's fellowship.

I need you to get in your

billfold, your pocketbook, in your

neighbor's bill fold, and in your

neighbor's pocket, and

uh seriously, we need you to give the

best offering that you can give. We need

about $10,000 tonight. No, we really

need about $2,500 tonight. And uh you

know, Pastor's Fellowship is attempting

to try to expand and do a lot of other

things, a lot of other ministries, and

but you got to be you got to have

dollars to do that. And so tonight, I'm

going to trust you that you're going to

give the very best offering that you can

uh for the glory of God and for the work

of this pastor's fellowship ministry.

Okay, let's pray. Father, thank you

tonight, Lord, for again the opportunity

and privilege to be here together in

this place. Lord, we thank you for

pastor's fellowship. Lord, I know just

for me what a blessing it has been down

through the years. And Lord, uh it

continues to bless many hearts and lives

tonight. But Lord, we do need the

finances to be able to continue not only

just what we do in May every year, but

Lord, some of the other things that

we're attempting to try to do to expand

the work and ministry of Pastor's

Fellowship. And so tonight, we pray,

Father, that you would just bless your

bless this offering. And Lord, may you

just make it a good one to meet the

needs that we have. We pray in Jesus

name. Amen.

[Music]

Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat.

[Music]

Amen.

Well, when Allan called me a few days

ago and asked me if I would chair these

two evening services, and I knew that I

was going to be introducing Brother

Mitchell Burch. How do you introduce

somebody that doesn't need an

introduction? Most everybody in the

house here knows our dear

brother. So, I'm not introducing him

tonight. I'm presenting

him. I am presenting him to

you. I am so thankful. Back in 19 fall

of 1979, I met Mitchell for the very

first time. And down through the years,

we have crisscrossed paths and even had

the privilege of serving on his staff

for a couple of years at Daypring Church

of God. And I love him dearly and I'm

thankful for his friendship and for

being a wonderful colleague in ministry.

I know tonight that if you know him, you

know these three things I'm about to

say. He loves God with all of his heart.

He loves the church. He loves the church

of God. He is one of her sons and has a

deep long legacy and history uh with the

church. And tonight he loves truth and

he is a warrior for truth. So you pray

for him tonight as he is going to come

and preach and proclaim the truth about

biblical unity to us. But before he

comes, we've got a trio of guys that I

know you're going to hear. They're going

to come up and sing for us. And after

that, Mitchell will come to preach.

Hallelujah. Thine the

glory.

Hallelu.

Amen. Hallelu.

Thine the

glory.

Revive us again.

Revive us again. Fill each heart with

thy love. May each soul be rekindled

with fire from

above.

Halleluah. Thine the glory. Halleluah.

Amen.

Halleluah. Thine the

glory. Revive us

again.

Hallelu. Thine the

glory.

Hallelu.

[Music]

[Applause]

Amen. Hallelu.

Thine the

glory.

Revive

again.

Revive us. Revive us.

Revive us again.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

I've been held by the

Savior and I felt fire from

above and I've been down to the river.

Yeah, I ain't the same. I'm a

prodigor for all my hope is in Jesus.

[Music]

Thank God my

yesterday's

gone. I know my sins are forgiven

and I been washed by the

[Music]

blood. I'm no stranger to the

prison. See, I've worn shackles and

chains. But here's the best part. I've

been freed and

forgiven and I'm not going back. I'll

never be the

same. For all my hope is in Jesus.

Well, thank God my

yesterday's gone.

Oh, my sins are forgiven

[Music]

and I've been washed by the

blood. There's a kind of

thing that just breaks a

man. It'll bring him down to his knees.

Lord, I've been broken more than a time

or two, but then he picks me up and he

shows me what it means to be a

man. All my hope is in Jesus.

Well, thank God my

yesterday's gone.

And all my sins are

[Music]

forgiven. Life been washed by. I know

you know it when you sing with us. For

all my hope is Jesus.

Well, thank God my

yesterday's

gone. And all my sins are

forgiven. Oh yes, they are. And I been

washed by the

blood. Praise God.

I I've been washed by the

blood.

[Music]

Those boys have been singing with me for

over 10 years. We travel here and there

and around the country and uh just love

singing. Love telling people about

Jesus.

love singing the gospel and I love doing

it with guys like Ben Lon and Brandon

Pelffrey. It is a joy for me to be here.

It's It's good for me to be

anywhere. I'm glad to be here to be

here. You understand that double

positive? Glad to be here to be here. If

I weren't here, I couldn't be here. You

know what I'm saying? And I would be

remiss if I did not say a special thank

you to so many of you who on the spur of

the moment lifted my

name and my

need. Thank you. God has heard the

prayers of his people and he's helped

and he is continuing to help.

I would also be remiss if I did not say

a special thank you to the preaching

committee uh pastor's fellowship

steering committee for the honor and the

privilege of speaking here again. I was

trying to remember brother Frank uh the

first time I spoke at pastor's

fellowship but I know it wasn't here. It

was down on East Tikman Street 127 East

Tikman. And uh I was a young kid like

some of these young preachers are today

and I'm delighted that they're among us

preaching. Wow. But I was just a kid

preacher and I thought why am I down

here among the giants and uh I I I used

to I used to honor them. I thought I was

I was trying to honor them when I would

in the privacy of my own conversation

call them elder statesmen.

I wouldn't say that out loud, but that's

what they were to me. And I looked in

the mirror today and

uh the Lord reminded me that things do

come

around and now you are one of

them. One of them. So, it's a privilege

and an honor to be here and I've enjoyed

the day. It's been good. So good.

Preaching's been good. The conferences

have been outstanding and I know it will

continue after this sermon tonight. It

will continue on being

outstanding. I have been given the the

the theme of biblical

unity. My my question is is there any

other

unity that is really

unity? I submit that there isn't. and I

will probably take all of my 47 minutes

in counting to try and tell you about

it. I don't know what happens at the end

of 47 minutes and I I'm a heart patient

so I got to be careful that I don't pull

a trap door or something

on. Few years ago, I was on my way to a

funeral visitation just to pay my

respects to the deceased of a family uh

friend of mine. And uh on my way, I

tuned my radio to a Christian radio

station. And uh it wasn't one that I

listen to a lot. I normally listen to

Sirius XM, Enlighten, or Bluegrass

Junction. Um that tells on me a bit, but

nonetheless, um I I don't normally

listen to a lot of preaching on the

radio. I I can't afford it

um on a number of

fronts. But this particular night, I

pulled up to the funeral home in the

funeral home parking lot and I had just

tuned my radio to this Christian radio

station and there was a preacher

preaching and I heard him make a

statement and the

statement pierced me.

And I want to share that statement with

you and

proceed. He said, and I

quote, "If you have a faulty

christologology, it will produce a

faulty

ecclesiology. And if you have a faulty

ecclesiology, it will produce a faulty

sociology."

and he ended his statement by saying,

"And all of that leads to

chaos and anarchy." End

quote. And I'll give him credit, the

brilliant

expositor, Dr. Tony Evans.

I want you to stay with me tonight

because not only do I want you to

understand what I'm going to speak, but

I want you to be able to defend

it. Defend it as the word of truth. And

believe me, you'll need to defend it

because you'll face it and be confronted

with it later.

I want to help us understand that as a

part of the church of Jesus Christ, we

are born into a new nation. Say new

nation with me. New

nation, not

nations, a new nation.

Singular. As citizens of this new

nation, we are to live with a new

agenda. Not our

agenda. a new

agenda. The truth of the matter is in a

nutshell and maybe I should say this and

sit

down. When the church acts like the

church, it will experience biblical

unity.

When the church acts like the church, is

the church, behaves like the church, the

natural product of that righteous

behavior is biblical

unity. Now, the reality is I I have I

have preached this message before, and

for those of you who are here from

Michigan, just indulge

me. You've heard some of this before.

So, you don't need to turn to your

neighbor and say, "I I've heard him

preach this

before because I just told them that I

have preached this

before." But everything I've heard

today, I've heard before. How about you?

I haven't heard anything new. I've heard

some fresh word, but nothing new. So,

let me let me reiterate for those of you

who have heard it, but let me state it

clearly for those who have not.

There are three theological truths that

help us understand biblical unity. The

first is a radical statement and the

other two biblical truths that help us

understand biblical unity are biblical

principles that I want to share with you

as briefly as I can. The first one is

this this radical truth. God resists

unity outside of the church.

one. Amen. And many people thinking

about it. I'll say it again. Give you a

chance to think it over. God resists

unity outside of the

church. This the statement may not make

sense just yet, but follow me. God God

resists. He He actually works against

man's attempt to become unified outside

of the

church. Look at a passage of scripture

with me in Acts 17:4. It says this, "The

God who made the world and everything

that is in it, the Lord of heaven and

earth, does not live in temples built

with hands. He is not served by human

hands as if he needed anything because

he himself gives all men life and breath

and everything else. From one man he

made every nation of men that they

should inhabit the whole earth." And he

determined the

times. He determined the times set for

them and the boundaries exact places

actually the exact places where they

should live.

He decided where they would live. He

created the nations and determined what

groups would live where. And he

determined how how long every nation of

people would

exist. And you might be asking, well,

why would he do that? Well, look at

verse 27. That they should seek God if

perhaps they might grope for him and

find him though he is not far from each

one of us.

Why did he why did he create and send to

various parts of the earth the peoples

of the earth? So that they might grope

for him and find him though he is not

far from each one of us. This verse

teaches us that God established global

separation, national division, separate

racial, ethnic identities and

development to force men to seek him for

salvation. Why? Why would separation

force men toward God? It's because only

in their separateness would they realize

their limitation, their insignificance,

and their smallalness.

You see, it is when men are separated

that they recognize they cannot be all

they wish to be. The point of this

divine separation is to get them back

toward God. You see, when we are divided

in the body, we are not all that we

should be or can be. You see, I need

you. And whether you want to admit it or

not, you need me.

We are not meant to live in a vacuum as

believers. We are meant to live in

fellowship and harmony and oneness and

unity. I need you, you need me. We need

each other in order to demonstrate the

greatness of God and the excellence, the

beauty and the purity of the bride.

So when men try to come together across

racial, social, cultural, class, and

doctrinal lines, what normally drives

them is the humanistic view that if we

can get together, we can pull off what

God cannot pull off because we've come

together. And you actually hear it today

when men are called together. Let's get

together and show what we can do. God

will never let men come together and

show what man can do

when he wants to keep them apart to show

what only he is able to do.

Now the truth is this unity doctrine,

this unity truth did not originate in

John 17 which is the famous passage of

scripture on unity where Jesus prayed

that high priestly prayer for the

believers that the Lord God had given

him that they all may be one. It didn't

originate in Acts chapter 2. It starts

all the way back in Genesis 11 and verse

one. Turn there with me. Genesis 11.

Genesis 11 and verse number one. You've

read the story about the the tower of

Babel. Now the whole earth had one

language and one speech. And it came to

pass verse verse two as they journeyed

from the east that they found a plain in

the land of Shannar and they dwelt

there. When they then they said to one

another, "Come, let us make bricks and

bake them thoroughly." They had brick

for for stone and they had asphalt for

mortar. And they said, "Come, let us

build ourselves a city and a tower whose

top is in the heaven. Let us make a name

for ourselves, lest we be scattered

abroad over the face of the whole

earth." But the Lord came down to see

the city and the tower which the sons of

men had built. And the Lord said,

"Indeed, the people are one, and they

all have one language, and this is what

they begin to do. Now nothing that they

propose to do will be withheld from

them." Then verse seven, hinge

pin critical turning point. Come, God

says, come, let us go down there and

confuse their

language that they may not understand

one another's speech. So the Lord

scattered them from abroad there over

the whole face of the earth, and they

ceased building the city. Therefore, its

name is called Babel because there the

Lord confused the language of all the

earth. And from there the Lord scattered

them abroad abroad all over the face of

the whole

earth. He

decided to go down

there. Can I just suggest to you that

when you're going up and God's coming

down, you you need to be

careful. When you're rising up the

ladder of success and God's coming down

to assess it, you need to be watchful

and careful. Just it's just a little bit

of a a play on direction there. God's

coming God's coming down. Man is going

up. Here the

scripture helps us understand that God

is not at all

pleased with their efforts.

Look at these verses again in verse

three of Genesis 11. I'll just break it

down quickly. Come, let us, verse four,

come, let us build for ourselves. 4B

says, come, let us make for ourselves a

name. The men of the world decided to

come together to build a monument to the

power of man. to come together and build

a city and a tower that would

demonstrate the greatness of man. And

God admitted their great

capacity. How do we know that that was

their purpose? It says in the second

half of verse four, "Let us make for

ourselves a name lest we be scattered

abroad across the whole earth." The

intent of man back at the Tower of Babel

was to build a name for themselves

independently of God.

So they sought to unify across race,

nation, culture, and class, all speaking

one language in order to demonstrate not

the greatness of God, but the greatness

man. Now let's answer the

question. Did God applaud

them? Did God congratulate them on their

brilliant efforts? Did God encourage

them in their modern

genius? Did he support them? Did he

sustain them? Absolutely not. What did

he do in response to their efforts? The

Bible says he came down. They came down.

God father, God Son, God sp Holy Spirit.

And they confused

them. The Lord scattered them across the

whole earth. Therefore, they stopped

building the city. Therefore, the city

was called Babel or confusion because

there the Lord confused the language of

the whole earth. It cannot be any

clearer. In my

estimation, God resisted man's attempt

to become unified apart from him. And I

contend that God will always resist

human attempts to have unity outside of

him. When men want to come together to

unify apart from God, guess who gets the

glory? Man gets the glory. They want to

demonstrate their clout and their power

and their genius and their greatness.

What happened? What did God do? God

caused them to lose their ability to

communicate. And that is true every time

there is no

unity. There is an inability to

communicate when there's no unity. It's

true in a marriage. It's true in a

family. It's true in a church. And I

contend it is absolutely true in a

movement of people.

Every attempt man has made to find unity

outside of God will be frustrated and

resisted by God

himself. Point number one, 33 minutes

in. Number

two, the spirit establishes unity

through the church. First bold

statement, the spirit establishes unity

through the church. Paul Billheimr may

very well be right when he writes, and I

quote, "The continuous and widespread

fragmentation of the church has been the

scandal of the ages, and the sin of

disunityity has probably caused more

souls to be lost than all other sins

combined." End quote. Staggering

idea. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 12 says

it like this. For even as the body is

one and has many members, and all the

members, though they are many, are one

body, so also is Christ. Watch this. For

by one spirit, we are all baptized into

one body. Whether Jews or Greeks,

whether slave or free, we are all made

to drink of one spirit. Church, we

cannot deny the unity and the oneness of

that one verse of scripture.

And so it's the baptism of the spirit or

God placing you in the family of God

through conversion by the spirit that

establishes the unity that God wants us

to have. Why? Because only the baptism

of the spirit or being placed into the

body places you under the direct rule of

God.

The reason why the church is the only

authentic crossracial cross-cultural

crossgender basis of unity is because

only the church is obligated to live

under the authority of

God. And so what God did by the spirit

is to establish a

baptism. You see, unity is a uniquely

spiritual

experience. Hear me. The government has

not. The government cannot and the

government will not be able to legislate

unity. They will not be able to organize

it or politicize it. Why? Because unity

is not a political dynamic. Unity is a

spiritual dynamic. And it comes not by

political power or persuasion or

manipulation, but by the power and the

persuasion of the Holy Ghost of God

himself.

Unity, you see, is a gift of the Holy

Spirit and a work in the heart of the

believer. That's why, listen, that's why

the church holds the key to unity. The

government does not understand the

things of the spirit. That's an that is

an understanding that is reserved

exclusively exclusively for the church.

So if it's not the government's

responsibility which we have given too

much responsibility to

don't I I can't go there. I got 30

minutes. But suffice it to say that the

church has given up a lot to the federal

government to do that the church chose

not to do. Amen. But I want to tell you,

we cannot relegate the unity of the body

and the unity of the people of God to

the government. It will never happen. It

will always be fractured. The church

must retake. The church must intercept

the gift of the spirit of unity again.

We must do it. We must do

it. The Greek word for baptism is used

in the Bible as identification.

It is meant to reclassify

something. Here the scriptures teach us

that we have been

reidentified. We have been reidentified

to another realm. We have been

reidentified into a brand new family. We

have been reidentified into a new

environment. It's like a friend of mine

who adopted two little girls from China.

Beautiful little girls. These little

girls are still Chinese, but they are in

a brand new family now. They come under

a new authority now. They have a new

name now. Now they're in a new

environment now. They've been adopted

into a brand new family. And I'm here to

tell you, when you were baptized by the

spirit into the body of Christ, into

only authorized unity under heaven,

under God's authority, when you were

baptized by the spirit and converted and

saved by the glorious grace of God, you

were reidentified

in a new

family. A new order is in line.

In the same way, no matter what your

race, culture, or class, when you came

to Jesus Christ, you entered into God's

only authorized unity under his

authority. And this unity is established

by the spirit for the church and for the

church alone. That's why Ephesians 4 and

3 says it like this. Endeavor to keep

the unity of the spirit. Endeavor to

keep the unity of the spirit. You see,

we don't create

unity. There is nothing you can do to

create

unity. Truth is, you don't have it in

you. I don't have it in me to create

unity. Unity is a work, a distinctive

work of the Holy Spirit. If you don't

believe me, then get out of the spirit

and see how unified you'll ever

be. It'll be chaos. It'll be a dog

fight, right?

You can only preserve or endeavor to

keep I want to tell you it is an

endeavoring. Hello. It's an endeavoring

to keep the unity of the spirit with

some people. It's sometimes an

endeavoring to keep the unity of the

spirit with me. I get

it. I get it. But it's an endeavor. It

it's it's it's it's the help of the

spirit's work in us.

Apart from the Holy Spirit, unity

meetings are man's attempt to find unity

or create it. The Bible says that the

spirit has already established unity. We

can't create it. We can only live by

faith in what the spirit has already

accomplished. It takes a sanctified

spirit of surrender to live in biblical

unity. Look at that Ephesians 4 text

really quickly. Ephesians

4. Quickly Ephesians 4:1. I therefore, a

prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to

walk worthy of the calling with which

you've been called. Now watch verse two.

Sounds like sanctified life to me. With

all loneliness and gentleness, with

longsuffering and bearing with one

another in love, endeavoring to keep the

unity of the spirit in the bonds of

peace. I want to tell you that is a the

hard work of unity.

The work of unity is hard. But it that's

why it takes a supernatural end of power

from the Holy Spirit to live in unity.

That's why after hundreds of years we've

not solved the race problem or the

division problem in the

church because men apart from God are

trying to create unity when men under

God already have unity. The failure

listen the failure to find unity in the

church in the culture is a result of the

failure of the church to pres to to

preserve the unity of the spirit. The

race problem is not first a social

problem. It is not first a political

problem. It is not first an economic

problem. The race problem in the church

is first and foremost a spiritual

problem. I'll just tell you right now to

the extent that you are entire entirely

sanctified to that extent you will live

unity.

Hello. Are you kidding me? Nobody here

nobody here believes

that. Well, I need to preach a little

longer than that. Extend my

time. To the extent that you're

sanctified by the spirit of God, to that

extent, you will live in unity.

You'll work at it. The spirit will work

through you at

it. The church has already been given

unity because we have been put in the

same family.

The racial divide in this country and in

the church would be significantly

narrowed if the church would get its act

together. The church already has been

given unity because we've been put in

the same family. Listen, I have two kids

and five

grandkids and uh I don't have to ask my

kids to be in the family. They're in my

family, right? They just are. Andrew

Wayne Burch is my oldest. Megan Rochelle

Burch Flores is my youngest. And they

each have grandbabies. My grandbabies. I

don't have to I don't have to tell them

that they're in my family. But sometimes

I have to ask them to act like they're

in my family.

I'm a PK. I'm a preacher boy. My daddy

pastored for 57 years. Was a faithful

member of pastor's fellowship on the

steering committee for many years.

I remember my big brother and I, we get

in dad's Volkswagen. We'd be going on

visitation. And uh I didn't always like

visitation because I didn't like their

dogs and I didn't like their cats and I

didn't like most of the time what they

fed me. I didn't like it. But I can

remember going on visitation and dad

would turn about two miles away from the

house of visitation. He would say,

"Boys, we're going to soand so's house.

You need to act like you're our

family. Act like you're my sons. Don't

embarrass me. Love their dog. pet their

cat, play with their kids, eat what's

put before you. What was he trying to

say? He's trying to say, "Act like

you're a part of my

family." You don't have to ask your

spouse to be a part of your family.

They're already a part of your family.

But sometimes you have to ask them to

act like they're part of your family.

Just look straight up here at me. Don't

look

sideways. The idea is not to become

family. The idea is that you are family.

Therefore, we should by the spirit's

power act like family.

Now, listen carefully. When God wanted

to confuse the attempts of man to reach

unity, he blocked their communication.

Genesis 11. When he wanted to unify men,

he gave them a new communication on the

day of Pentecost. When they heard and

understood languages known to them,

unknown to them, and spoke in language

that they had never learned. Acts two.

May I suggest to you tonight that the

unity of Pentecost was the direct

reversal of the confusion of Babel. At

the Tower of Babel, God said,

"Unreenerate men want to be unified

apart from me. I'll confuse their

language." On the day of Pentecost, when

the spirit showed up, people spoke with

languages they did not know so that

people with different backgrounds could

come from all around the world and hear

the central message of Jesus Christ and

him crucified and come to faith 3,000 at

a time.

God reversed the curse.

And I'll just promise you this, Sister

Jessica, he will always reverse the

curse. And you'll do it with the power

unity. You authentic unity comes only to

those who are under the authority of the

spirit. So what's our problem?

We have a theology where God disunited

to keep men limited and the spirit that

unifies to to help us understand the

unlimited God. So what's the problem? I

contend it's a faulty

christologology. Christ determines unity

within the

church. That's where the rubber meets

the road when it comes to the

possibility of unity in the church. And

it's also where we struggle the most.

It's just where we struggle. You see,

God resists unity outside the church.

The spirit establishes unity through the

church and Christ determines unity

within the

church. For Christ himself is our peace,

who made both groups into one, and broke

down the barrier of the dividing wall

that divides men by abolishing in his

flesh the immnity strife, which was

which is the law of commandments

contained in ordinances, that in himself

he might make the two into one new man,

one new nation, one new

man, thus establishing peace or the end

of the conflict, that he might reconcile

them both into one body, the church, to

God through the cross thereby killing

the mutual enmity and bringing the feud

to an end. Church, the in Christ, listen

to me. In Christ, the feud, whatever it

is, in Christ, the feud has come to an

end in Christ. The question is, are we

truly in Christ?

Verse 18 of Philippian or Ephesians 2

says, "For it is through him that we

both, whether a faroff gentile or near

Jew, now have an introduction or access

by one Holy Spirit to the Father." You

see, Christ ended the conflict, the

conflict that existed between the Jew

and the Gentile so that the two might be

one. Therefore, only in Christ and only

having Christ as our reference point

will we ever live out the unity that

we've been given already by the spirit.

Christ died for the fulfillment of his

dream. Unity among his people. Do dreams

still come true? Yes, by the cross. Yes,

through the cross. Yes, in the cross.

That's where it

happens. How do you preserve the spirit?

By living under the cross.

Let me share this last

passage in the next 19

minutes. I'm so glad my church don't

have one of these time tickers.

I just preach as long as I want to. A

Buffalo

church. Colossians 3. I'll honor it

tonight. Colossians

3. And have put on the new self, new

nation.

Are you listening? New nation, new man,

new self. In front of the new self is

being renewed in true knowledge

according to the image of the one who

created him. A renewal in which there is

no distinction between Greek and Jew,

circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian,

cynthian, slave, free. Christ is all in

in all. Passage is deep, very deep. And

I don't have time to unpack it, but I'm

going to I'm going to give you the

highlights.

Paul says that when you bring the

divisions of men into the church of

Jesus Christ, you divide

it. When you bring those divisions into

the church, you turn the church into

something that it was not meant to be. I

want to bring to this family my agenda.

No. No. There's a bigger agenda in

here. If you lose sight of the bigger

agenda in the household of faith and

only focus on your limited agenda, the

family never comes together. Let me tell

you why the church struggles to come

together. We've taken the divisions of

the world and tried to force them to

work in the church. We've taken what

Paul called the old man, how we were

outside Christ, how you were in the

world, and tried to fit its round peg

into a square hole called the church.

When you when you enter the church, you

enter a whole new

family. You have to leave that mess out

there. There's a whole different program

in here. He's not saying that you're not

white. He's not saying that you're not

black or or Asian or Hispanic. He's not

saying that you're not traditional or

contemporary. He isn't saying that that

you're not Church of God Anderson or

Church of God Cleveland or Church of God

of this or Church of God of that or

Nazarene or Baptist or UMC or UMG or

UMGGGC. He's not saying any of

that. He's not saying that. He's not

saying that you're not male or female.

He's not saying that you're not that

you're not traditional contemporary.

you're you're you're just distinctly

different. He's not saying that if you

believe differently about non-essential

elements of the gospel that you can't

come into the church. What he is saying

in these passages and what he's saying

in these things is that if any of these

things divide you, you have to bring

them under the lordship of the cross and

Christ.

When you come into the church, all

people are on the same level. There are

no handicaps in the

church. There are no advantages in the

church. In Christ, human distinctions

become nonrelevant when it comes to

spiritual progress. They are all

overruled and transformed. He's saying

that physical differences lose their

significance. The problem we face is

that we try to bring this old man into a

new man, the church, and we try to use

our physical, our social, and our

theological heritage as an advantage

rather than subjecting it to the

cross. When you walk through the door,

your whiteness must come under the

cross.

Hello. When you come through the door,

your blackness must come under the

cross. When you come in the door of the

church, that is when you're baptized in,

your femin femininity must come under

the

cross. One woman said, "Amen."

When you come when you come into the

church, you've got to make sure that all

of those personal nuances are

sanctified. Those personal preferences

are sanctified and laid at the cross of

Christ

or they will

divide. I believe it's because the

church has not forced people to come

under the cross that there are divisions

in the church.

Blacks can't worship with whites and

afroentrism takes over. Whites can't

worship with blacks and euroentrism

takes

over. But if you look at Colossians

chapter 3 11, it's talking about a

renewal, a making of brand new where

there are no distinctions and no

differences. Follow me here. First, he

says there are no ethnic or racial

differences, Greek or

Jew. the Jews and everybody else,

right? There were different races being

identified. He did not say that you

weren't a Jew or you weren't Greek. He

just says there's no difference to be

made. I'm not to look at a black brother

or a sister in my church and make a

difference because their skin is

different than mine. I have a right to

be what God has made me. But listen to

me. I have no right to make a

difference. Not in the church. I must

treat them and they must treat me as

equal members of the body of Christ. And

when you don't do that, hear me. When

you don't do that, you lose Christ.

It may help us understand the question

of the church's lack of power. I think

sometimes we've lost the power of Christ

because of the

division. Whenever you make a

distinction and divide the family, he

can't be your father.

Look at your neighbor and just say in

West Virginia brogue, they ain't no

difference. Just ain't no difference.

Ain't no difference. I hope you're

standing I hope you're sitting beside

somebody that's of a different ethnicity

than

you. There ain't no

difference. There ain't no

difference. Secondly, there is to be no

difference made between circumcised and

uncircumcised. This is difficult,

but there will be no religious

distinctions. Now, you got to follow me

here or uh you'll misunderstand me and

uh it won't be

good. And what do I mean? I believe the

apostle is talking about being under

Christ. That's the caveat. Being under

Christ. Sure, we make distinctions

between what is Christian and

non-Christian. Get that right. Right. We

make a clear distinction. Christian,

non-Christian. We don't fellowship with

the unfruitful works of darkness. But

what the Jews wanted to do was to force

the Gentiles to be circumcised in order

to follow the external Jewish practice

religion. I I I love what Acts Acts

chapter 15 says really quickly. You got

to you got to look at this. Acts chapter

15. You know the debate going

on. Acts chapter 15 verse 11 or or verse

one. and the the brothers had come

together and they were in this major

discussion and basically a dispute

breaks out and uh the dispute was

whether or not the Jewish proelites to

Christianity was going to force the

gentile converts to be

circumcised. And

uh the fight was on. They actually sent

the the two apostles to uh to to town to

talk to the credentials committee about

it. And

uh they had a little debate. But as it

turned out, what happened was the

apostle said, "We are not going to

require the gentile Christians to be

circumcised." And I love what the Bible

says. And all the men rejoiced.

It's like this. Think of it. Think of it

like this. What if in order to be saved,

you had to have a

colonoscopy? How many would line up?

That that was

preposterous. So the So Peter says,

"Look, we we already have verified the

miracles of Christ among them. They're

already redeemed. They're already saved.

They don't need your ritual to make them

converted."

And I'm going to tell you something that

you may not want to hear. They may not

need some of our ritual to be converted.

Let me preach it in the next 11 minutes.

I mentioned to this this to you in

Ephesians 5 that we are to have no

fellowship of the unfruitful works of

darkness, but rather expose them for

it's shameful even to speak of those

things which are done by them in the

secret. Let me just tell you this, my

friends. I got to tell you

that we cannot fellowship with persons

and groups of persons who deny the

authority of scripture. We cannot

fellowship with people and groups of

persons who deny the word of God and its

infallibility, its inherency and its

inspiration. We cannot fellowship with

people and groups of people who will

deny the reality of a male and a female

in a in a in a marriage that God

sanctions. We cannot fellowship with a

people like that.

We love them. We love

them and we share with them but we

cannot fellowship with

them. He said there can be no

distinctions. They wanted to force

circumcision. In other words, if people

don't worship like we do externally, it

cannot be the basis of division and

separation. Now listen to me and keep in

mind all of this is a subject subject to

Christ. If people don't baptize like we

do, some people sprinkle, some people

pour, some people immerse, that is an

external

unless you believe in regenerational

baptism. And if you believe in

regenerational baptism, then make your

case, brother or sister. But the truth

is we know that it is a sign of an

inward reality. It is a sign of an

inward work of God's amazing grace.

So what I'm more concerned about is the

internal reality, not the external

practice. Now we have our method. I've

counted it up. Brother Frank, I should

have asked you

permission, but I've I've sprinkled two

people in 50 years of ministry. Two two

of them. Both of them were heathens on

their deathbed that came to faith in

Jesus Christ. And they had oxygen and

tubes and ventilators and everything

else. And and their family was saying,

"Would you please," they were conscious.

They were saying, "I'd love to be

baptized, but I can't get to the pool. I

can't get to the river. Can you baptize

me?" I said, "I can, but I got to call

my b my my uh my Methodist preacher

friend cuz I don't know how to do it."

And so I called my Methodist preacher

friend and he he told me what to do and

I took half of his suggestion and a

little pan of water and a little picture

of water and a towel, put it up around

the guy's chin up under his neck and I

poured water on his head and I prayed

the Holy Spirit would would would help

him understand that he was identifying

with Christ.

We have our method of baptism. I immerse

I believe it's the the most the most

appropriate and the most articulate way

to communicate what has happened in the

believer but it is an

external

practice. We have people fighting over

external stuff in the church. Did you

use cups or do you share a common cup?

Well, co took that out of the picture,

didn't it? That shows you just how

spiritual it

was. Did you use crackers or do you use

unleaven bread? Paul said no, no, no. If

the internal is straight and is under

Christ, the external can vary. Do you

know my most meaningful communion

experience was at Myrtle Beach with 50

men and the guy that was designated to

bring the the juice the Welch's grape

juice. Bless God. Welch's grape juice.

Don't you change

that. The Welch's grape juice and those

little flat crackers. no taste. He was

designated to bring it. He forgot it.

Here we are on the beach. All the guys

that were about to have communion. I

said, "Where are the elements?" "I don't

have any. What do we've got?" He said,

"We got Coke and

Fritos." I said, "Break out the Coke and

break out the

Fritos." And I'm here to tell you, we

had church. We had

church. Why? Because our guys realized

for the first time maybe in their life,

it wasn't about grape juice. It wasn't

about a wafer that dissolved on your

tongue in 3 seconds or less. It really

was about what was racing around in your

mind and in your heart when you were

drinking it or eating

it. Paul says you cannot divide over

externals. Now, I don't suggest you

start with Fritos and Coke.

Get back to the Bible and get Welch's

grape

juice. Some people raise their hand in

worship. God forbid we'd ever raise

two. You know where God set me free to

worship God in spirit and in

truth. On 127 East Hickman Street in

front of Ero Moore and John Connley and

Oel Johnson and Bill Nice. I was on the

front row. Frank Curtis was sitting

right behind me as I recall. And Ero, he

had a way of singing the song over and

over and over and over. And I kept

fighting with the Holy Ghost. I'll raise

the other hand if you'll sing another

verse. And he would. And I'd put it I

wouldn't raise it if he'll sing another.

And he sung about six or seven verses.

And finally, I shut my eyes. I gritted

my teeth. And I had one hand up and I

said, "Well, I'm going to go for it.

They might throw me out of here as being

a radical charismatic, but here we go,

God." Amen.

And I turned around and Frank Curtis had

both of his hands up. Bless God. Freed

me up in the Holy Spirit. I'm telling

you, I've never had a problem worshiping

anywhere since then. Just like God to

free you up in the most conservative

house in America. Isn't

it external stuff? You cannot divide

over

circumcision or uncircumcision.

He says there could be no cultural

distinctions, barbarian or

cynthian. The Greeks thought that

everyone who was not a Greek was a

barbarian. Don't that make you feel good

in the house of

God? If you really wanted to be a

barbarian, then be a Cynthian. They were

people who had low class, but not just

low class, but absolutely no class, no

culture. Cynthian. They were not raised

to know which fork to eat with first.

Outside in, inside

out. They did not go to the opera. They

did not go to the symphony. No

class. So here's the deal. Here's what I

believe he's teaching. If someone is in

the church from Africa and they want to

wear their African garments, as long as

they are modest, they are free to do it.

Someone from China, they want to wear

their garments, they are free to wear

it. If there's somebody from the

mountains and the hollers of Boone

County, West Virginia, and they want to

wear their bibbed overalls and t-shirts

and their B boots, then they're free to

wear it if it's modest.

There can be no

distinctions. No

distinctions. There can be no slave or

no free.

When persons come into the church from

the ghetto or the inner city or from the

suburbs, they're equal. the cross. You

know, the ground around the cross is

level. We've all been saved by God's

grace anyway, right? If God has given

you the ability to move up the ladder,

understand most of us in middle class

are one paycheck away from going down

the ladder. Don't get too excited about

how far you are up the ladder. God has

blessed you and now you live in a house

with four bedrooms and the three car

garages and a boat on the on the at the

at the at the lake rather than a shack

on back street. You ought to thank God

that he took you from where you were to

where you are and relate to every

brother and every sister in the house of

God regardless of distinction.

Finally, right at 3 minutes and 20

seconds. Tell you what, I'm setting a

record. There are no gender

distinctions. What's it say?

Galatians 3, neither

male nor

female. And I just want to tell you, I'm

glad it stops right there. Hallelujah.

Neither male nor

female. And from what we're hearing

today throughout Pastor's Fellowship,

that's the way it ought to stay. Male or

female. That's not the way it ought to

stay. That's the way it's got to stay if

we're going to remain true to the word

of God and the word of truth. You know

that women were put down in Jesus day.

Greeks would pray, "Thank you, God, for

not making me a woman." The women were

working in pleasure machines. So Jesus

turned the social tables around when he

said that they are to be treated equally

to men. They are not less than men. They

stand beside men. Yes, there are

functional differences. They're always

equality of persons. However, women are

never to be demeaned as less than a man.

That's why the Bible says, "Husbands,

treat your wife as an equal heir to the

grace of God. And the last time I

looked, when you love your wife like

Christ loved the church, she will follow

you to the ends of the earth.

You were built to lead. She was built to

follow. And if you'll love her like

Christ loved the church, she'll follow

you.

Well, my question was,

uh, biblical

unity, is it

possible? Come up here to the

instruments, please. Uh, I I I didn't

ask this question. I probably should

have, but but but does the time tick on

the invitation to or just the

sermon? I want to do something really

freaky. Every man in here with a beard,

I want you to come right up here and

stand over here. Every man, hurry. I

don't have time. I don't have time.

Every man with a beard, come up here.

Stand right over here.

Every man with a

beard, come over here and I want you to

look at these bearded

men. Hey, every every African-American

person in this room, I want you to come

and stand right here. Every

African-American person, I want you to

come stand right here. Where are you?

Come on. Come on. Every African-American

person, come stand right over here.

Right over here. Over here. Separate

from us. Are you hearing me, brother?

Brother, brother, I want you to stand

over there just for a second because I

want to show y'all something. I want to

show y'all something. Are you a bearded?

What? I should have picked something

else. There's way too many bearded men.

You kidding

me? Every African-American, every

Hispanic, every Hispanic, every single

person in this room, come over here and

stand over there. Every single person.

Single persons, come over here and

stand. I know who you are. I got my got

my finger right on you.

Every single person come over stand over

there. Every every Church of God female

pastor come stand over there. Every

Church of God female pastor come and

stand over

there. Every pastor's wife, every

pastor's wife, go over there and stand

by the women

preachers. Come on, girls. Come on,

girls.

Hey. Hey. Every pastor's husband over

there in stand too. If your husband is

bearded, go get him and get him over

there. All

right. All

right. Every retired preacher, get up

here. All right. Hey, come here. All

right. Mark Richardson, Sister

Richardson, up here. Up here on the

platform.

Come on. Come on, Sister Richardson.

Come with Mark. Come with Mark. Come

with Mark. All right. Look at Brother. I

want you to stand back there. I want you

to stand between Mark and

Isa. Stand between them. Stand between

them. Stand between them. Do not let Do

not have let let the African-American

people stand by

themselves. Don't let the Don't let the

Latino people stand by themselves. Don't

let the Just don't let the bearded men

stand at all.

Uh lady, women, women pastors, women

pastors, get up there. Get on the other

side. No, you all have to separate.

Y'all have to separate. Y'all have to

separate. I want a white person between

y'all. A white person. White person. I I

want a Hispanic between you all. Come

on. Hey, up there. Up there. I got to

have you up here. Okay. Hey, Greek. Hey,

Greek. Hey, Greek. Hey, Mr. Greek. Go up

there. Go up there. Go up there. Go up.

Go up and stand by that lady right

there. Mr. Greek. Go there.

Are there any other ethnicities in this

room I missed? Are there any naturalb

born Jews in this house?

What? Glory to God. Get her right over

here in the center.

All right. All right. I'm right here.

Okay. Right here in the

center. She's the nation through which

the Messiah came. That's right.

Hallelujah. Thank you, sister.

What what other uniquenesses do we have

in here?

Well, we got to have somebody to

celebrate. So, I'm going to let

everybody else sitting in the seat

celebrate. Ladies and gentlemen, hey,

hey, hey, brother, pastor, I was looking

for you. I need you up

here. I need a 6 foot I need a 6'7

African-American guy.

I want you to I want you to go up there

and stand beside that little Greek guy.

Okay. He's the Hey, hey, hey, hey.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But

he's got a dual option. Okay. Hey, hey,

hey. He's the guy that asked you all the

questions this morning. Stand up there.

All right, ladies and gentlemen,

everybody standing, all the bearded

guys, I want you to turn around and

look. Turn around and look. Turn around.

Turn around. Y'all turn around and look

up there. Look up there. I want to

introduce you to somebody. There she is.

There she is. The bride of Christ, the

body of Christ, the household of faith,

the people of God, the people of God.

There she is. There she

is. Hey. Hey. I know. I know in this

world we're not perfected yet, but I'm

going to tell you, we're on our way to

perfection. And that's the body of

Christ.

These are the people of God.

They're not black and white and Greek

and

Hispanic. They're not

eurosentric. They're not afroentric.

They're our brothers. They're our

sisters. We can make absolutely no

distinctions whatsoever.

I celebrate you

tonight. I celebrate you. I love you.

Even you bearded guys.

We can't make any

distinctions. The women in ministry, the

pastor's spouses, no distinctions. All

servants, all people of faith, all

people of God, all part of the family of

God. I want you to sing it with me.

Let's sing it together. Sing it, Caden.

I'm so glad.

of the family of God. I've been washed

in the

fountain, cleansed by his

blood.

Join with Jesus as we travel this song.

For I'm part of the family. The family.

Come on, let's sing that first verse

together.

You may notice we sing. Hey, turn around

and tell somebody, "Hello, brother."

Sister around here, it's

because we're a family and these folks

are so near. When one has a

heartache, we all share share the tears

and

rejoice in each victory in this family

so dear.

Oh, let's sing this chorus. Oh, I'm so

glad I'm a part of the family. Oh, I've

been washed in the fountain. Sing. I've

been washed in the valley, cleansed by

his blooded by his joints with Jesus.

Join with Jesus as we travel this song.

For I'm part of the

family, the family of God.

[Music]

Hey. Hey. Let's send all these bearded

guys back to their seats so we can sit

down. Hallelujah.

She's glorious. She's glorious.

Beautiful. Well, we're at minus 624 and

the floor didn't open swallow yet.

Yeah. All right. We're gonna just do a

quick dismissal. The next service starts

at 8:15. Am I

correct? 8. Well, you got seven minutes.

Okay. 7 minutes.

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YouTube Transcript:Unity - Is Biblical Unity Possible?

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Unity - Is Biblical Unity Possible?