In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding and implementing the teachings of Jesus Christ. He criticizes the tendency to overlook or rationalize these teachings and instead focus on secondary matters and arguments. The speaker highlights the orderly and purposeful life of Jesus, emphasizing the need for strategic action in our Christian walk. He emphasizes the importance of unity among believers, expressing disappointment in the lack of unity he has observed in his travels. The speaker also discusses the need to address conflicts and disunity in a biblical manner, emphasizing the importance of walking in the light and seeking resolution.

God as the time of the crusade draws near, we're aware of how frail we are when it comes to living the life of love and faith. But we know that God in unity there is strength, and we pray that during this hour you would unite us for battle, that you would unite us for the offensive against the enemy. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Now once we are properly motivated by love, once we are compelled by love, once we are moved with compassion, something is going to happen. It's called Jesus to go into the villages. And as each of us realize that we're in a warfare, and then we realize that we have weapons, and we learn to use these weapons, and then finally we're motivated by the love of Christ, action is going to take place. It always will. Faith always produces action. A man who's sitting in his home and his wife comes out and says there's a fire in the kitchen is not going to remain sitting there if he really believes that there's a fire in the kitchen. He's going to move, he's going to mobilize, there's going to be some action. Faith produces action. And when you and I begin to believe the word of God, when you and I begin to believe the teachings of Christ, when you and I really begin to believe that our situation is a warfare, and that our weapons are the word of prayer, and that we're motivated by love, there's going to be action. It's stupid and ridiculous to have action before that. When one of the national governments of the world decides that it's going to go to war, it doesn't just say, well the situation's at war, let's go. They start running off to fight. No, they have strategy. And as we read the New Testament, we see that Jesus had a strategy. Jesus had a plan. Jesus had a purpose. A foreordained, God-ordained purpose in everything he did. He wasn't a scatterbrain. He was never late for a meeting. He was never in a hurry. There was no disorder or confusion about the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Constantly walking in the will of the Father, which was his meat, according to John. And so as we consider this task, we realize that it's a warfare, a prayer and a word of our weapons, motivated by love, which is also at the same time a weapon, and this is going to bring action. But this action must be strategic. There must be strategy. There must be a plan, too. It can't just be a scatterfire, but it must be a planned action. And in our next tape, we'll be discussing the kind of action we need. This week, the first and the groundwork of the kind of action, the kind of offensive we need is unity. It must be a united offensive. It must be a united action. Next week, Dale Rothschild will speak to us on the subject of reproduction, that our action and our offenses must be reproductive. He'll bring us a message on this subject of reproducing for Jesus Christ. And then the week after that, we'll be hearing a message on discipline. Our action must be disciplined. Our defensive, our offensive must be a disciplined offensive. So now we'll go into the subject of unity. There's no better place in the scriptures to start the subject of unity than in the 17th chapter of John, where Jesus is praying the great prayer in which he prays for unity, in which he prays that we would be united with him and that we would be one. John chapter 17, verse 20. I'd like to read the whole chapter, but we never seem to have enough time to bring forth all that is on our hearts. The 20th verse. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their words, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. The world today is looking with utter confusion upon the outward church, wondering which group could possibly have the truth. And even when they look into the evangelical church, even when they look into the fundamental church, the Bible-believing church, they find at times so many divisions and so much confusion and so much disunity that they hardly know where to go. The church has been torn and stripped by disunity. It's hard to find a church in America that has not had a major contention or a major disunity problem within the past five or ten years. Disunity is probably one of the greatest fruits of an unloving life. It's love that brings unity. In fact, if we came to grips with the message we received in our last session, there'd hardly be any reason to go forward in this message on unity. But I want us again to look into the Word of God, to go from book after book in the New Testament and see what God says about unity. Just how important is it that you and I as the other team members be united as we go forward to battle? Just how important is it that we have unity there on our school campus or in our home church or wherever we are? Just how important is this unity? Well, it was important enough for Jesus Christ to pour out his heart over us. And when we realize the essence of unity, we realize that it's in the atonement. Unity was wrought for us in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. We were away from God. We were strangers. We, in our awareness, were brought back to God. We were reconciled to God through the cross. You have been reconciled. That's the Word of God. And when we're reconciled to God, we're reconciled to God's people. The cross has two great pieces of wood. One goes vertical, which to me stands for our relationship, our vertical relationship with God. And then there's that great cross beam that represents our horizontal relationship with one another. And the Bible very clearly says, if you love not those whom you have seen, how can you love him who you have not seen? To me, this is brought clearly into my thinking. When I think of the words of Jesus, who said, and whatsoever you do unto the least of these my brethren, you do it unto me. What would happen to us if moment by moment, day by day, hour by hour, we realized whatsoever we do unto the least of these, unto the weak converts, unto the man who seems a bit proud, to the teacher whom we don't appreciate, to this person who doesn't agree with our theology, to that person who doesn't agree with our evangelistic efforts, whatsoever we do unto these, we do unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ gets even more specific. He says, even a glass or a cup of cold water, given in my name, will not go unrewarded. Here again we are to some teachings that are so revolutionary, so dynamic, so new, so different, so out of the American way, out of the British way, that it's hard for us even to grasp them. And so we pass them by, like we do with most of the basic teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, we manage to theorize them, we manage to rationalize them, and away we go, eating away at our little side issues, caught up on little secondary matters, arguing over little bits of prophecy, and missing the main brunt of the gospel. H.G. Wells, the famous agnostic who wrote one of the most famous histories of all of civilization, said in his book that shortly after Jesus Christ left the earth, his followers twisted his revolutionary teachings. He used the word revolutionary, and he went on to say that shortly after a few centuries went by, the church began to substitute secondary matters, doctrinal arguments, rituals, and all these other things, for the basic revolutionary teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ which were too hard for them to accept. That's what an agnostic said. How true it is that we in the modern church are straining at a gnat and swallowing a cobble. How true it is that we have eyes but see not, ears but hear not, as the derivals of the Old Testament. As God said in the third chapter of Revelation, we have a name though we live, oh yes, we've got names. We've got reputations. You sing in the choir, you're the president of your class, you led us over Christ last week, and you're in charge of the social club, and you do this and you do that, and you're the chaplain, and you've given devotions, or led devotional messages, and your church thinks you're quite keen, and they're helping pay your way through Bible school. We've got names, we've got reputations, we're evangelicals, we're fundamental, we're Bible believing, we're the Christians, we're the lawyers of the word of God. We've got names that we're alive, oh yes. We've all got names, oh so many names there are these days to give to those people who claim to follow Jesus Christ. But God says, you have a name that you live, but you're dead. Could that be true about some of us who are listening to this tape? It was true in my life, and at times, as I read that passage of press, I realize it's even true today. Got a name, George Verwer, director of OM, director of Send the Light, he's a live wire, he preaches all these messages on discipleship, he preaches these messages on total dedication and on living all out for Christ, he's got a name that he lives, but many a time God has had to come to me in prayer and says, yes George, you've got a name that you live, but you're dead. You're dead because there's no compassion, you're dead because there's no yearning for life and for love and for reality. Could it be that some who are listening to my voice right now have a name that they live? Maybe you're an evangelist, maybe you're a pastor, maybe you're a teacher, maybe you're a Bible speaker, you've got all the theology right down the line, you know the doctrine, you've got a name that you live. Maybe you're a deacon or an elder in the church, you're a leader of young people, you've got a name that you live, but when you go to prayer, when you try to take an hour out to prayer, when you set aside some time to go to prayer, you realize, yes, you've got a name that you live, but you're dead. God says in the same chapter, be ye hot or cold or I'll spear you out of my mouth. Those words cause me to tremble. Oh, might we realize what it is to be in the hands of an angry God who hates sin, how we play with God and we make God a little midget. Instead of allowing God to conform us to his image, we're trying to conform God to our image, and in America we want to make God an American. We want to put God in a new car, in a new home. We want to put him in an air-conditioned pew, in an air-conditioned church, and we want to put a cigarette in his mouth, and we want to conform God, and we want to make him like man, and this is the greatest sin. Oh, might we realize that God wants us to be conformed to him. When we think of this subject of unity and we see the Lord Jesus Christ praying this prayer, we have to admit that we utterly fail so often in this thing of being united to God and united to our fellow men, two things that always come together. And so Jesus prayed the prayer that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, may they also be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. In last week's message, we showed how the world is going to know that we're Christians because we love one another, and here it clearly teaches and repeats it over again, that the world is going to know that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. They're going to know that this is reality when they see unity, which is nothing more than an expression of love. When two people love one another, they become united, and when you and I begin to love one another, we become united. Not really in any way because of our love, because we've learned how to win friends and influence people, no, but because the Holy Spirit bears witness in both of our lives that we are sons of God and that we are blood brothers through the atonement on the cross of Jesus Christ. This isn't something that you are going to do. You are going to become united to a brother. You have been united, and what we need to do is simply, by faith, appropriate that which God has already done on the cross. At the cross of Christ, the barriers were broken down. At the cross of Christ, the wall was broken down. The veil has been read. Now we can live together in love and unity. We see that in the book of Acts. We haven't got time to even begin to look at it, but as we look through the book of Acts over and over again, we see that they were of one mind. We see that they were of one accord. We see that they had all things common. We see a group of people who moved to the power of the Holy Spirit as one body in Jesus Christ. This is the prayer that Jesus prayed, and I believe God desires to answer that prayer in a new way in our day. As we see around us false unity coming to pass, the greatest of all the false unity is the so-called ecumenical movement. There's not many things that I outwardly attack and am outwardly against, but this is one of them. This ugly false monster, this ugly fake unity. How can any intellectual, rational person believe that there's unity outside of the realm of love and outside of the realm of truth? I don't know. How we can think there's unity by all signing on the same dotted line is beyond my understanding. How we think there can be unity all by going through a little motion is beyond my understanding, but the devil is doing it. People, even some good evangelical people, are clinging to the false unity of our day as expressed in the ecumenical movement, which is a stench in the sight of God. There's no unity in the realm of organizationalism. There's no unity in the realm of committees. All through history, men have tried it. Hitler tried it. Mussolini tried it. Alexander the Great tried it. All the empires tried it. The United Nations is trying it. And everyone, one after another, has utterly failed. There is no unity among sinful men. There is no unity outside of having a new nature, God nature. The old message of John 3, 3 echoes clear. He must be born again before there's going to be any unity, before there's going to be any standing together united. In the great cause of Christianity, there must be the new birth. There must be regeneration. Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. He's a natural man. And the Bible says, the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. For they are spiritually discerned. Oh, how heartbreaking it is to see people waiting in the mire, waiting in the futility of human unity. Absolutely valueless. But the unity that Jesus Christ talks about here is something that has already been wrought, something that has already been paid for, something that has already taken place. It's the unity that was brought to pass when Jesus Christ slew the enemy on Calvary's cross. And now we have been reconciled to God and reconciled to one another through the blood of the Lamb. Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. Yes, Jesus prayed for unity. And we see this in a very practical way. And we see how Jesus laid down in his teachings certain principles that would enable us to maintain this unity. And if we go back in the book of Matthew, the 18th chapter, we see one of Jesus' most basic teachings concerning the maintaining of the unity as we work together as a team, as we go forward to Mexico. Now let's be realistic. Let's see things as they are. There's still people in all the world right now that are working together in unity. For eight years in all my travels in 20 different countries, I've looked for groups of people that were really moving together in unity and in love over a period of time, and I've found a few. Splits, divisions, arguments, seeking for vainglory, jealousy, strife, envy, pride, all these things have managed to make us a very disunited world. This can be one of those heartbreaking things in Christian work. And it's better to learn it now back in school than go out to the field and learn it the hard way and be like many who never live it down. If you think you're going to go out into Christian work and have all Christians agreeing with you or uniting with you or even loving you, you're really disillusioned. You will find, as we have found and as all Christian organizations have found, that the biggest enemies can be those of their own household. And it isn't just Operation Mobilization that's receiving criticism in these days. Every organization and every group I've ever heard about, I've heard strong criticism against. Just happens to be that in some places, OM is the thing they're talking about today, and so OM is the thing they're taking whacks at through criticism, gossip, and all forms of backbiting. I've seen so many good organizations, and I've been impressed with them, and then later I've talked to someone about this group, and they gave me a whole line of gossip on their work. I saw some people working diligently for the Lord. I've been united to them, and then somebody comes along a little later and gives me a little backbiting and a little gossip. How true the Proverbs are when they say, He that repeated the matter separates the very best of friends. I've almost lost some of my best friends because people have repeated the matter. The wisdom of learning what it is to allow love to cover a multitude of things. But we can't just go on covering things. God doesn't want us just to push things into the dark, just to hide things. He wants things to come out into the light. As the book Calvary Road tells us, we need to walk in the light. As God teaches us, we need to walk in the light. And here, in the 18th chapter of Matthew, it shows what we're to do when there comes up a little stub of disunity. There comes up a sin in our brother that causes us not to be able to have fellowship with him. We're not to go to all of our friends and to begin to talk about it. We're not to write granddaddy. We're not to write Sam over on the other couch and tell how Joe is getting away from the Lord. But we're to do as it tells us in Matthew, the 18th chapter, starting at the 15th verse. For over if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. This same spiritual principle is brought forth in the Sermon of the Belt. The same spiritual principle is brought out in the book of Galatians and in other parts of the New Testament. If your brother sins against you, if he's done something that you know is wrong, whether it be on your team or in your college or wherever you are, you just ought to go to him and him alone. That's God's principle. And if we don't practice that in this crusade, we might as well quit before we begin. If you think your leader is going to be perfect, you're really out for disobedience. If you think the directors of this work are a bunch of sharp men, are a bunch of keen Christians, are a sort of spiritual supermen, you're really out for disillusionment. The basis of unity is not perfection. The basis of unity is the cross of Jesus Christ. So give us mercy and love. And if you're going to have unity with any brother, it can't be based on the fact that you think he's keen. It can't be based on the fact that you think he agrees with you and everything. It can't be based on the fact that you think he's dedicated or you think he's spiritual. It has to be on the basis of your both being broken at the cross of Christ. And this is why our unity doesn't last. Because we base it on outward appearance. We base it on even anything from the way a man looks to the way a man talks to the way he prays. Instead of basing it on the fact that we have been united in the beloved, we have been accepted together in the beloved. Says God, speaking from God. And so when things do arise, when problems do come up, when there is sin, God's provision is life absolutely. Don't just hide it, but go to your brother. Now we want to put this into practice. We're not just talking about a nice theory. We're not asking you to do this so you can pass an exam on the subject of unity or be able to tell someone else how to do it. But we want this to be practiced on O.F. and on these crusades. And if you're not willing to put this into practice, don't come. Why attempt to do something without falling into order with God's way of doing it? This means if you're in Mexico and you see some brother, maybe he loses his temper with some team member. You don't go to another team member and say, you know, Sam, there's something wrong with him. He keeps losing his temper and he must be walking in the flesh or he doesn't seem to be abiding in the Lord. And I guess he's missing his morning devotion. No! God's name, no. You go to that fellow and you sit down with him alone and you say, well, I want to tell you, it's hard for me to say this. And I realize that there's so much I need to learn. And I realize this is one of my faults too. And I'm weak in this point. But I thought you might want me to mention the fact that the other day or this morning, you really seem to lose your temper at one of the other fellows. I really think it was wrong against the Lord. Maybe we can have a word of prayer tonight. And if you do it in meekness and gentleness and love, you'll find that 99 times out of 100, the brother will say, you know, you're right. I'm sorry. I've already actually asked the Lord to forgive me. But let's ask forgiveness again. I appreciate it. And you bow down, the two of you, and your hearts are hit together in love. This is where we're going to slaughter Satan. Week after week, as we're united together in brokenness. I've seen this happen over and over again. I had one of the fellows who was working in one of our offices. And in terms of administration and in terms of business affairs, he had some very different ideas than I had. And I was very strong about certain things that had to be done this way. And he was very strong about certain things being done that way. Apparently, one day I said something that offended him. And he mulled it over in his mind for a few hours. And it bothered him. It bothered him. And he had no fellowship with God. And he came to me. And he let me have what was on his heart. He told me three or four things. He felt that I was doing wrong. And I was just wrong in my life. Right there and then. Every inch of flesh in me called to defend myself. Every inch of flesh in me called to stand up for my rights. And I just roared. I felt the roar from within to stand up for my rights. And there were a few points that he was confused on. But on at least one or two points, he certainly was right. Don't argue over the points you think the person is mistaken about. But surrender on the points you know he's right about. So by God's grace and because of the word of God and because I'm convinced this book knows what it's talking about, I confessed to him that it was my fault. And I said, I'm sorry. And I apologized. And we went to prayer and I prayed that God would forgive me. And as I prayed the prayer that God would forgive me, God broke through in that fellow's life and he began to reap. And pretty soon he was confessing sins that he had in his heart. I was confessing sin in my heart. And the two of us who had been way apart from each other, two of us who had been going on separate roads, even though we were in the same office in the same administrative setup, were united together in brokenness before Calvary's cross, in love with each other because Jesus Christ loved us. If you have anything against a brother, if your brother has trespassed against you, go to him alone. And in meekness and humility and brokenness, present that which is on your heart. Now don't go running every time you see somebody do something wrong. You'll be busy all day just correcting people. But when somebody does something wrong, somebody sins, you need to go to the Lord first in prayer. Secondly, I suggest sleeping on it. And then in the morning, if it's still on your heart that this brother has sinned and you think he probably hasn't repented of it, you think he hasn't gotten it right with God, then you need to go to him. That's God's principle. But God goes further because sometimes the dear brother won't repent. And so God goes further and he says this. But if you will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man or a publican. There's God's principle. You go first alone. If you know that this person is sinning against God, he refuses to repent, then you take two or three witnesses and you present the facts again. And if he still refuses to repent, then it's taken to the whole group or to the church group.