41. Can't All See Alike?

SERMON 41

CAN'T ALL SEE ALIKE

(1 Corinthians 1:10)

Perhaps no expression has become of more general use than the one expression, "We can't all see alike." And no expression was ever so full of deception nor farther from the truth than this one. Then a careful examination will do us good on this point.

In using the word "see", no religious teacher uses it in the sense of sight, but faith; for all agree that, religiously, we walk by faith, not by sight ( 2 Corinthians 5:7 ) . Then, when they say, "We can all seek alike" they mean, we can't all believe alike. Judging from their different contradictory teachings, one would certainly believe it to be true.

But ask them all if it is right to teach the Bible. All answer, "Yes, men should preach nothing but the Bible." Then let four denominational preachers preach four nights, all in the same house, to the same people, all claim to teach the same Book which exhorts us to be of the same mind and speak, the same thing. A will preach, he says, nothing but the Bible. He will preach once in grace always in grace; no man can fall from grace, and no man believes the Bible who teaches that he can fall. The next night B preaches. He will preach that a child of God can apostatize, and fall away, and finally be lost, and no one who believes the Bible can believe to the contrary.

The third night C preaches from the same Bible. He teaches that immersion only is scriptural baptism, and if a man is not immersed he is not baptized.

The fourth night D preaches that one drop will do as well as an ocean; just so the heart is all right, it makes no difference about the water. These four men claim to teach the same Book that comes from the same God. All of them claim to be called and sent by God, and are doing God's will, are preaching the same Bible, yet it is impossible for God to He.

There are many school houses and churches where this kind of preaching is carried on every month in the year. No wonder it is, then, we have so many disbelievers in the Bible. But is it true, as they claim, that we can't all see alike? Is it right for four different men to teach four different ways? Why not just employ one man at a place, and let him teach the four different ways, and send the other three men where there is no preaching. But they all claim that it is wrong for A to preach B's doctrine, because he doesn't believe it. But it was admitted that it is right to preach the Bible, and B says he got his doctrine from the Bible, and A says B is a Christian and calls on him to lead in prayer, calls him Brother, says he and Brother B can't see alike. But all claim to be sent by the same God, and all claim that God hears and answers their prayers. Then I ask, why not let A preach all four doctrines, provided they are all found in the Bible?

But this deception does not stop here. A, B. C, and D will sometimes decide for a grand union meeting. All arrangements will be made, the meeting held, outpouring of the Holy Spirit will come, (so they claim) forty will be converted in answer to prayer. During the meeting the forty will be of the same mind, speaking the same thing, But the last night of the meeting comes. All the young converts are instructed to go out and pray, as the Spirit will tell them which church to join. The meeting is over. The doors of the four churches are opened ( just three more than Christ ever had.) Ten will join A's church and go out arguing that man can't fall from grace. Ten will join B's church and go off arguing man can fall from grace, and many will fall before next July Ten will join C's church and go off arguing that baptism is non-essential, but the mode is essential. I must do a non-essential act by a very essential mode. If I am not baptized by immersion I am not baptized at all. The remaining ten will join D's church, and argue how indecent is immersion. Sprinkling and pouring will do as well. With this kind of performance, no wonder we have so much infidelity among us. When these scenes can be enacted under the head of Christianity, I denounce them all as of human origin, deceptive in their teaching, contradictory in statement, unscriptural in the whole, a slander on the God of the Bible, and no one was ever made a Christian by such.

I once knew one of these called-and-sent preachers, who for twenty years preached once in grace always in grace, and immersion only is baptism. After preaching for twenty years that way, I suppose he decided his God had made a mistake, for he came to the same Conference I was examined in, and got my license to preach (before I was a member of the church of Christ) and claimed that God had called him to preach in that church, and for a number of years he has been preaching that a man can fall from grace, and that sprinkling for baptism will do.

This brings me to the second line of thought. Does God require us all to see or believe alike?

Christ taught that a kingdom divided against itself could not stand (Mark 3:24-25). Christ, in his prayer, prayed that His followers might be one, that the world might believe that God had sent Him (John 17:20-21). In 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul besought the church of Christ at Corinth to be of the same mind, and to speak the same thing, and to be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment.

But how can we do this? Peter says, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (1 Peter 4:11). With these scriptures before us, no man can believe that the present divided condition of the religious world can be of God. Hence we must conclude they are of men, and are doing harm instead of good—sowing the seeds of infidelity in many good and honest hearts who might be Christians if it were not for these.

No man can become a member of them without becoming a party to their wicked work. Hence we expect all truth seekers to look well to this end, and obey God rather than man.

I call attention just here that in all salvations brought to man, either in type or antitype, God has told the "how" and commanded the "what," and that no man can claim to be saved by God who will not do the "what" through the revealed "how."

Two examples on this point will do. God told Israel they must take Jericho (Joshua 4). The "how" was that they should march around the city seven times. The last day to observe the "how" as well as the "what" before the city was taken. God commands us to believe (John 20:30). He gives this "how" through the teaching of the apostles (John 17:20). So it is through all the line of obedience. If men will observe the what through the how, it will be impossible for them to see things differently.

In the fourth place I notice that in each dispensation God has used only one plan at a time by which to save man; and that all men had to see that plan alike and obey it alike In order to be saved. God had only one plan of salvation from the flood. All that were saved, were saved alike in the ark. God had one plan, and only one, for the salvation of Lot and his two daughters, when Sodom fell. All had to escape to the mountain for their lives and not look behind them. But Mrs. Lot could not see it in that way, so looked back; and even Christ tells us to remember Lot's wife. God had only one way of saving Israel from Egyptian bondage. All had to pass through the sea and the wilderness to reach the promised land. So it is in the Christian age. We must do the will of God to be saved; must build on the rock and not on the sand; must believe the same things; must obey the same commands; must walk in the same narrow way. Hence, we must see things alike (Matthew 7:13-24).

I notice in the fifth and last place that men are taught to see alike, commanded to see alike, and can see alike when they are willing to be governed only by the word of God, and believe all things commanded of him. In the Old Bible, I read that Noah was saved in the ark. All preachers in all churches can see that alike because they can believe that part of the Bible and it does not conflict with anybody's religious theory. Naaman had to dip himself seven times in the Jordan before he was cleansed from his leprosy. We can all see that alike because all can believe the Bible and it does not conflict with anyone's religious theory. But I read again. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:15-16).We can't all see that alike. Why? Because some of us do not believe that part of the Bible. We can not believe that part of the Bible without a conflict with our religious theory, and with the doctrine of "my" church. This, dear friend, is the foundation of the whole system of not seeing things alike. It grows out of a disbelief in the Bible. It is infidelity.

Then I ask seriously, can a man disbelieve one part of the Bible and be saved if he believes another part? Why not disbelieve all?

Let me plead with you to accept the whole truth, believe and obey the word of God, and finally be saved.