Unity

Psalm 133. Psalm 133. Song of Degrees of David.

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments. As the dew of Hermon, as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.

But in particular, this verse, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. I know you know that that word there is the word for a oneness or a term of accord. It's actually a musical term.

It's the term for harmony. Harmony. Now turn with me please to the book of Ephesians in chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. I'm reading in verse 4. But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ.

By grace you're saved. And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Verse 14 please.

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in the ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man. So making peace. Now you'll have the expression there, one new man.

And some who have, there's about four different publications of Bibles that will have a reference in your margin to the passage in 2 Corinthians 5 and 17. Let me say this. The only thing they have in common is the term the new man.

In fact it is a different truth altogether in both of them. Here it's the thought of two nations. Two distinct individuals or groupings of people being made one company.

So it's not talking about the new man of 2 Corinthians 5 and 17 which is a positional truth relevant to the believer in Christ. Now turn with me please to the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

And verse 16. I could read a lot here but we'll just read this passage. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion or the accord or the fellowship of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, one body.

For we are all partakers and for this reason we are all partakers of that one bread. Now turn with me to the book of Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. And verse 5. Let this, maybe just for context sake, look at verse 4. Let not every person, look not every person or every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God.

Now that's a great difference from just who being God. It brings a lot more to view. It's not just the truth of essence.

It's the truth of all the attendant splendors that are consistent with who and what he is. And it is something that never cease to be. Who being? Who being God in the form of God thought it not robbery or a thing to be grasped after or to be certified to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man.

Form of a servant, likeness of man. Not form of man or likeness of a servant. That's important too.

And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death or can I just put this thought to the extent of death and even that the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him. Now the term also is there.

I've had an also every night because it is a response to a response. The person of Christ responded. God has responded.

God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name or a repute which is above every name or above the reputation of any that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. I read more than I needed to, but I like reading that part so I read it. And turn with me please to Philippians chapter 2 and verse 12 and 13.

12 Wherefore my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence because he was absent far more than he was present, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmuring and disputings.

And that will help us understand what he's referring to in the truth of working out your own salvation. Now for another reading, just turn please to chapter 4 of the same epistle. Chapter 4. And we'll commence reading at verse 1. I've actually got notes tonight.

Verse 1. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and my crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beseech Jodeas and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labor with me in the gospel.

With Clement also, and with other my fellow labors whose names are in the book of life. Now that is all we'll read, and we trust that God will add his blessing to what we have read. I want to speak this evening on the truth of unity.

Unity in the assembly. And I must admit I have read far more than I'll be able to cover, but it's very profitable to read it, and I'll possibly refer to points that I have read. I want to break my message down into five headings.

I want to look at the means of unity. There has to be a means whereby unity is brought about. It doesn't happen by itself.

The means of unity. I want to look at the manifestation of unity. There is something that a New Testament church does that is the greatest expression of the unity that exists in it and is consistent or should be consistent even with the truth of the church which is the body of Christ.

So, the manifestation of unity. Then I want to look at the maintenance of unity. And it's found in the expression let this mind be in you.

I want to look at the truth of the marring of unity because we're going to find that the expression work out your own salvation in fear and trembling is given in light of the fact that there is a difficulty or there is some declension that has taken part among sisters in an assembly that if it continues will likely cause the division of the entire company. So, the marring of unity. And finally, I want to look at the ministry of unity.

And I don't want to look at it in the sense of what it does for us. We're not going to be selfish tonight. I want to look at what it does for Christ.

How it ministers to Him because that's what's found in Psalm 133. What it is for Christ in His great high priestly service. The administration or the ministry of unity.

When it comes to the means of unity we have to go to Ephesians 2. You know, for the longest time I thought that the expressions like He has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places was the thought of me and Christ. And it was the thought that I was linked with Christ when I got saved and I'm going to be raised and be with Christ forever after the Lord comes. Now, those thoughts are scriptural thoughts but that's not what this passage is teaching.

The together that is found in this passage is the truth of Jew and Gentile. Two distinct peoples. The term Gentiles just simply means the nations.

God only ever recognized the nations and the nation. And God always desired that Israel who was a nation set apart to God should be a walled city, should be a separated people. And so there weren't only the ordinances and the commandments given and the orders to desist from intermarrying from the Gentiles, but they were forbidden to even mingle with them at all and be a distinct separate people.

And we'll find that the Scriptures taught that that middle wall of partition, that dividing wall that came between them was put there by God. God made the difference. God made the distinction.

God gave Israel a distinct place in His dealings as His nation, His testimony in this world. But it's interesting, when it comes to the person and the work of Christ, it tells me this. Having made peace.

That is not only the thought of a peace with God, but warring factions and nations that were at odds now have been given the potential to be brought together and breaking down the wall of partition, thereby making of two one new man. And so you have the truth of the church, which is the body of Christ. And it has taken all the divisions.

The great division that God Himself acknowledged between Jew and Gentile has been removed through salvation by the death of Christ, the blood of His cross, and has brought into existence one people. Then how much more should the bitty separations and divisions that are found amongst people in this world today and believers today be set aside because of the great truth and the provision of salvation. You know, I remember one time I went down to a conference in Boston, East Boston.

I think they call it Saugus today. Maybe they're the same place. But anyway, it's called Saugus, but it used to be referred to as East Boston.

And I remember going down there for my first conference down there. It was only the third conference I ever went to. And myself and another chap, and the other chap's name was Johnny Vanderlance.

And most of the folks here know a little about me. Before I was saved, I was, to my shame, I was a drug addict for nearly eight years, in prison three times. John Vanderlance, before he was saved, and to this present day, is in the RCMP.

And that's kind of like a, that's a little better than the OPP, I think. It's kind of like the Canadian Military Police, isn't it? Because they move around a lot, it's less prone to corruption. That's one good thing about it.

But anyway, at the RCMP, so when Johnny and I first met, as a matter of fact, I'll tell you how we met. I was doing some work in a gymnasium. Actually, I got a job after I got saved, and I applied myself, and I started working.

I actually enjoyed it, earning my own living. Bringing home a check that I'd earned myself. I got money in other ways before that.

And two of the members of the RCMP, the narcotics squad that used to give me, rightfully, a difficult time, and often times visited the house without an invitation, they came by and one of them said, And they used my nickname, they used to call me Fox Peter. And they said, We haven't seen you on this trip. That's just another term for where it's all happening, with the drug people.

I said, I got saved. And I told them very briefly, I can do it briefly if I have to, how I got saved, and I told them that now that I was saved, my sins were all forgiven, and I was a little in error when I said to them that I wouldn't be sinning anymore, I need a little help with that, okay? But I told them that things were really changed, and they were different, and then I thought to myself, these fellows need to be saved as much as I do, so I started preaching to them. And they told me, Hey, we got a guy back at the office, just like you.

You two should get together. So I've analyzed. And John and I, when we first met, from the time we met, we never talked about our past.

We never talked about his job, and what I used to do, and what he was doing. We just enjoyed reading the Scriptures together. We enjoyed doing so much together.

We spent a lot of time together. And we went down to that conference together. I can still remember, as we walked in, I must admit, I felt a bit like a hayseed.

Probably because I was. And I walked in, and all these different folks were sitting there, and there's a man down there, his name is Frank Vitale. Well, I sat down at the table, and John sat across from me.

He came up to me, and he says, in front of everybody, it was hard to hide. He's a person that's not that quiet. And he turned around, and he said, Hey, you're the drug addict from Canada.

And I just kept my head down in my spaghetti. And then he turned around, and he said, and you're the cop from Canada. The job.

And then he said this, we must be in the millennium. He said the lion and the lamb are laying down together. Do you know something? I never thought until that moment of this truth.

Here were two people that would have nothing in common. We would have been diametrically and directly opposed to one another. And yet here we were, enjoying each other's company, sitting down, sharing things together, looking forward to spending time together.

What was the difference? When I trusted Christ as my Savior, all those walls, all those barriers, culturally, ethnically, nationally, socially, were all broken down. And we were one. And we were enjoying that oneness.

When I went up to British Columbia to visit my parents, I hadn't seen them for a long time. And I'm awesome. My father's not saved to this present day.

And I love my father. It was nice to go up and visit him. And they were very kind to us.

And they certainly tried to make us very comfortable and at home. But then after we left Vancouver Island, we spent a little bit of time with Christians I had never met before in my life. And I felt more at home and enjoyed the company of these people I had never seen before, never even heard of.

And spending time in their home with them than I did with my own father. You know what's stronger than the ties of blood? The ties of precious blood. That's the great truth of the oneness and the unity of believers.

That the person of Christ, by His blood, has broken down the wall of petition. We're in a country today, let's face it, it's a known fact. There are divisions today when it comes to this country with French Canadians and Anglo Canadians and maybe even Polish Canadians.

And I think it's commendable. What a testimony. When God's people are not inhibited by those very things, and we sit down with people otherwise, we would have no desire to be with.

We would have no inclination to enjoy their company. And yet we enjoy each other. We spend time together.

What a testimony. You know what it is? It's the testimony of unity. It's a oneness.

It's an accord. And you know the means of it? It is the provision of the precious blood of Christ. It is made up to one new man taking away the enmity thereby.

And so the means of it is simply this. We have been purchased with the same great price. We have been put into the same great bundle of life.

And whether we live like it, or look like it, or behave like it, we are one. We are one. I want to think of the manifestation of it.

Because that is the great truth of the breaking of bread in the New Testament church. Now I know there's people here that aren't going to agree with me on 1 Corinthians chapter 10. But like I said the other night, I'm up here doing the preaching.

You're listening to me. So tonight I get to say what I think about it. I have no doubt whatsoever I could be wrong.

That doesn't mean I'm not wrong. But in my mind I don't think I am. But 1 Corinthians chapter 10 is only consistent with the New Testament church.

But I don't believe that the Lord's table is the little table in the center of the company when they come together to break bread. I believe it is a figure of the fellowship of a New Testament church. I'll give you five reasons for it.

Because there are some that think it's the fellowship of the whole church, which is His body. And it has nothing to do, or it's not fulfilled or necessarily to do, with a New Testament church. That it's body truth.

But let me give you five reasons. Number one. First of all, every occasion in the Scriptures where eating and drinking is mentioned in that chapter, whether it's the manna, whether it's the smitten rock, whether it's the truth of eating what's set before you, whether it's the idol's temple, it is literal.

It has spiritual implications, but it is literal. So are the bread and wine literal. They are not spiritual entities.

Simply speaking of enjoyment of Christ and joy of salvation. They are the same bread and wine that are used by assemblies when they sit down to remember the Lord. More than that, in this passage that deals with a New Testament church and is bringing out the truth that all have the same potential, all have the same beginning, but not all continue in the same way, it would be totally out of place now to revert to the teaching of the body when it's been looking at the church, which is a local aspect.

More than that, if you take away the truth that the bread and wine that are connected here with the Lord's table are literal bread and wine, then the truth of the bread, speaking of the oneness of the company of a New Testament church, is found nowhere in the Bible apart from here. So you couldn't substantiate it if it simply referred to the body. More than that, when it comes to the truth of the expression, do we provoke the Lord to the jealousy? You know, this is a very important thing.

Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Do you know what that is? That is going back to the jealousy offering. I wish you could see my notes. They're smaller than I can see.

But anyway, it goes back to the jealousy offering when a man thought his wife to be unfaithful. And he took her before the priest. And there was a specific drink prepared that was a drink that she partook of.

Now, if she was faithful, it didn't break out or do any harm, thereby manifesting the fact that her condition was right and the suspicions were wrong. But if she were unfaithful and guilty of what she was accused of, then she broke out with a sore, she was ill, and even possibly died. Now, that's the jealousy offering.

It's interesting, in 1 Corinthians 10, he says, do we provoke the Lord to the jealousy offering? Are we greater than Him to stand against Him? In 1 Corinthians 11, it says, for this reason, many amongst you are weak and sickly, and some die. They are partaking in an unworthy condition. And so you'll see the truth falls right through from chapter 10 to chapter 11.

I've got three more reasons, but I can't see them right now. I'll tell you if you want to know what they are later. And so, when it comes to that truth, the Lord says, hold it a minute, I am not saying that that table is the table with the emblems on it.

The Lord's table speaks of the truth of a company, of fellowship, where the breaking of bread is the manifestation of that fellowship by that company. And so when we sit down and we partake all of the one, one loaf, one cup, we are saying this, we, being many, are one. We're one.

It's a wonderful truth because you know what it is? It is a truth of implication in the sense that it is one of the two or possibly three times where something an assembly does speaks beyond the assembly. Even though the statement is made relevant to the company of a New Testament church, it is an expression that is fulfilled in the oneness of the body. Someone says, what do you mean by that? Let me give you an example.

I know you all don't play football, but you probably know a little bit about it from your dad telling you. Anyway, and I'm not talking about soccer. Anyway, you know when you have the universities and they turn around and they have their football teams.

I'll use for example, St. Mary's University, they have a football team in Nova Scotia. Now, everybody in St. Mary's University doesn't play in that team. They are unsuited for it for a particular reason.

Now, let me clarify this. When it comes to the truth of the assembly, every believer could be in assembly fellowship if circumstances were made right in their lives. I do not believe in the expression not assembly material as a figure of constancy.

If they were willing to bow and be submissive and make right circumstances, perhaps moral obligations or whatever it is that would prevent them from being in the assembly or an attitude that would keep them out of the assembly, were they to deal with that, those individuals, God has nothing else for a believer in the Bible but to become a part of a New Testament church. So, I couldn't accept anyone else. But let me use my illustration again.

So, there's the football team. Not everybody in St. Mary's University plays in that football team for some reason or other. But every time that football team plays, it represents the university.

Every time it plays. As a matter of fact, they don't say, St. Mary's football team beats St. FX football team five to three. You know what they say? St. Mary's beat St. FX because that's what they are associated with.

So, it is one of those truths. The truth of headship is another one that is expressed in the company as to the headship of Christ with the heads of the believers covered and uncovered, consistent with the brother or sister. And the truth of the emblems on the Lord's table, the bread, it is one of those occasions where the truth, though it is relevant literally to the company itself, it has an expression that goes beyond it.

And it simply says this, as you partake, that's why it's passed around and as you partake from it. You know what you're saying? Not only the truth of that bread comes by. The body of Christ, that body suffered so terribly for me.

The incarnation was necessary that my sins might be dealt with because He bare my sins in His own body in the tree. As you partake your portion from it, you know what you're saying? We, being many, are one. And then after the breaking of bread, you go out and the believer's there and they put out their hand and you walk by and you don't put your hand out? Or there's somebody in that assembly that you haven't spoken to for years? Brethren, if we are doing that and denying that oneness in our response to one another, we are hypocrites in partaking of the bread with what it suggests.

So it is vital that we are practically what we say we are in the breaking of bread. That we are one. Unity.

So the breaking of bread is that meeting which expresses the truth, not only in the sense of a devotional meeting, and it's the most worshipful meeting of the assembly, though every meeting has worship in it. But it is the meeting in distinction that says this, makes this statement. We are one.

That's the manifestation of it. The maintenance of it, you know what some people think? If everybody does things my way, we'll get along great. Oh, come on.

Isn't that right? You know, I thought to myself, have you ever thought to yourself, if you were going to form an assembly, you were in charge of forming, that's why God plants assemblies, not men. I've heard too many people say, God saves souls, men plant assemblies. No, no.

Not according to the Bible. Paul recognizes himself as an instrument of God and being used in the planting as much as he was an instrument of God being used in the sowing. But you know what it says? You're God's building.

God built it. But if you were going to have the privilege of putting the assembly together, didn't you want to fill it with people that you got along with and they were just the kind of people that you like and they agree with you in this and they get along with you? Wouldn't you really? Could you think of anybody you wouldn't include? I said that one time and a brother came to me afterwards. He was being kind.

He said, well, brother, I have to confess. I owe you an apology. He said, the first thing that came to mind, I thought I wouldn't include you.

And we get along pretty good now. We didn't before. And to be honest, I don't think I would have included him.

Do you know something? If we had formed it ourselves, we would have picked individuals that were suitable to us, that had the same mind, did things the same as us, thought the way we think. That's the way we would have formed it, wouldn't we? Come on. But it's God's assembly.

The individuals that formed the assembly, God brought them there. God placed them in that company. We are different.

We are different. And there is only one thing that will give us a harmony and keep us together. And it is not the thought that you all have to agree with me.

Or you all have to agree with a certain individual. I love this verse. Let this mind be in you.

Do you know what this really, the thought of this? It's not so much the thought that you can get a mind transplanted and have a different mind put in. Maybe I could say it like this. Let this attitude be yours that was Christ.

The attitude. Do you know what the attitude was? That though he were equal to God the Father, and he is equal, and he always will be, he never insisted on announcing it. He never went to individuals and kept saying to them, remember I am equal with the Father.

You know when you meet a person who owns a company and he is a part share in the company? And perhaps the other man is a little sharper in business, but they are 50-50 shareholders. And you go out with that man that day and he keeps saying to you, yeah, well I'm just, I'm into this now. I own as much as he does.

I'm just as important as he is. It's something he is asserting. Something he is grasping after because he wants to make it clear because he feels shaky in it.

You know what the Lord Jesus did? He made himself of no reputation. That's one thing about us. We want reputations.

If I'd have done the healings the Lord Jesus did, I would have been the first thing I would have said is, make sure you tell everybody. And the name is Peter Oraszuk. O-R-A-S-U-K You know John the Baptist has a wonderful truth about John the Baptist.

When they asked him who he was, you know what he just said? I'm just a voice. I'm just a voice in the wilderness. I don't even, my name is not even worthy to be given.

I'm just a voice, a mouthpiece for God. And here is the person of the Lord Jesus who was co-equal with the God the Father. And yet he never grasped after it.

In fact, he took a low place. Became a servant in its full character. All that was required to manifest true servanthood.

He did and he was a perfect servant. And he never insisted that his name be blazed abroad. Many times he says this.

Go and tell it to the priest. Other times he says, tell him not. He took the low place for the glory of the Father who is his equal.

You know what I learned from that? Let this attitude be in you. Brethren, we're equal. I hope you understand that.

We are equal. Even though God has given some a distinct work. An overseer.

Is an individual that has given work. But he is not superior. His work is distinct.

His work is given. He's responsible before God. He is not a superior being.

He is equal. And it's not a thing to be grasped after. He didn't declare or go after a reputation.

That's why I love these words. God hath given him a name or a reputation that is greater than any name or reputation. That hath the name of Jesus.

And someone says, hath the name of Son. The name is Son. And the name is Lord.

Lord is a title. Son is a relationship. Name is Jesus.

It says right there. Hath the name of Jesus. I think people have written books on what the name is.

It says right there. Every knee shall bow. The name that is linked with his humiliation.

The name is linked with his humanity. And his perfect, absolute obedience and service to God. The name of Jesus.

Every knee shall bow. God hath also. He did something for God.

The Father. God also hath highly exalted him. You lose nothing in taking a low price.

Never. Can you imagine an attitude that is simply like this? I would like every believer to get along in this assembly as well if not better than me. I care more for their problems than I do for my own.

I don't think myself to be above any. I know too much of the potential of my own heart. It's a low price.

It says let this mind be in you. That attitude. We won't be hurt when others don't give us the place of respect and prominence we feel we deserve because we don't deserve it.

It's a low price. And you know the wonderful thing about the Lord Jesus? He did it by example. My time is going.

The marring of testimony. I poured my own... No, I didn't pour my own basement floor. That would be an exaggeration.

But I destroyed it. I hired someone to do it. They did a very good job.

It's quite a big basement because the house above it is big. It's all one story and so the basement is quite large. And even though they put what? Rebar? Is that what they used? Rebar in it? And you know the plastic to make sure it has a vapor barrier and a little styrofoam underneath and then gravel underneath that.

Oh yeah, we're prepared. And I thought to myself this is drying kind of slowly. So what I'm going to do is take a dehumidifier in there and suck all the water out of it fast so it will dry quick and it will be nice and to walk on.

Well, there are brethren here that know about building. And you know what happened. Oh, it dried quick.

Then I noticed this little what do you call it? A hairline crack? Oh, it was so thin you couldn't have put a... Well, it was almost the page of a Bible might have fit into it. But it was a very thin crack. That's the way it started.

Just a thin hairline crack. You know what I got now? I got a basement floor and almost four sections. I mean, I must admit it's still together and still some degree of unity but that crack in some places is that wide.

But I'm going to fill it. Don't be telling everybody because they sell those. But I'm going to fill it all up.

That's fine. But that little hairline crack grew and grew and grew until it actually divided the basement floor. You know, sometimes something that starts between two believers doesn't seem to be a real major problem.

It's just a little hairline crack. It's just a little hairline crack. It's just something that's a mild irritant.

You don't phone each other anymore. You just don't seem to find... Not that you're deliberately not shaking hands but you really don't go out of your way to shake hands anymore. And this person has kind of got on your nerves and when you meet them and say hello you've got a little bit of a... How are you doing? Here are two women.

I'm pleased, brother. I know some individuals say they call them odious and soon touchy. I don't like making fun of these two women.

You know why? They were two great servants of God. They were two great women. Syntyche and Eudes.

They helped the apostle Paul whether it was looking after him and temporal things that were needful cooking his meals. Helping him and distributing things that he had written or carrying information for him. I don't know what it would be.

It would be consistent with a woman's place in the work of God. You could be sure of that. But there were two... It wasn't one was a great woman and the other was just kind of a... You know, a hanger-on.

A troublemaker. They were two great Christians with great potential. And we're not told what it was but something begins to come between them.

At first it's a hairline crack and then starts to widen and widen. And they contact the apostle Paul and you know what they say because individuals are exercised above the point that God's people are likely beginning now to form sides and camps and cliques. Some on her side.

Godly sister. Some on her side. Godly sister.

And someone writes to the apostle and says, will you come down here and sort this out? Couldn't write the truth in type. Will you come down here and sort this out? The apostle Paul says this. Work out your own deliverance from these circumstances.

He uses the word deliverance because there's a potential disaster. With fear and trembling. Not only realizing your weakness but realizing all that the implications could hold.

What could happen. For it's God that worketh in you. With an exercise to do it and an ability to do it.

Deal with it. Deal with it. Brethren, there are good assemblies.

You know of them. Where I come from there are good assemblies. You know what has happened? Petty differences.

Minor squabbles. Have gone from hairline cracks to produce great wrists or schisms. And whole assemblies are torn.

To the point they're not like unified companies. There's no harmony. They're like armed camps.

And when you go in there the first thing you're trying to do the first thing you want to know is whose side you're on. And I know of a meeting that took place on Prince Edward Island. I won't tell you which assembly.

My brother Robert McElwain was there because he was involved in the sewing of it. Planning of it. And they asked him to go and he went and he witnessed.

He just witnessed what transpired as an assembly that had been riven by feuding and bickering. To the point that the community at one time when I asked individuals for the meeting two people in the community told me why would I go there? They can't get along with one another. They don't need anybody else.

So it can't happen here. Okay? It can't happen. The different men got up.

They were going to settle it. They prayed. And then the different men spoke to one another and spoke their portion.

Basically everybody was right. Nobody was wrong. And after they finished nothing was resolved.

One of the elder brethren said is there anything any of these younger men would like to say? Some of the younger men were there. Maybe they should have been. Well, they were.

One young man stood up in tears sobbing. Here's what he said. We're feuding with people in this assembly for reasons we don't even know why.

We don't know how it started. We don't know when it started. But we're feeling the results of it.

It's affecting us. It's coming to our families. It's coming to our communities.

It's come between the young brethren, the young sisters. And the older brethren began to break down in tears as they heard this man. They broke down in tears until one man finally said what have we left them? We never resolved this when we should have.

We've swept it under the mat so long we're tripping on the lumps. And the younger generation that's coming that had no part in the problem. They don't even know why anymore.

They just know whose side they're on. That's the inheritance that's being left to them. That's what we're leaving to them.

And the Apostle Paul recognizing that this hairline crack which is a rift could destroy a whole assembly. He said work out your own salvation. Work it out.

Brethren, if there are difficulties in the assemblies that are represented here, don't sweep them under the carpets. Don't ignore them. Deal with them.

Conscientiously before God with contrite hearts and an attitude of Christ. Otherwise the assembly will be marred and torn. Sometimes individuals are so persistent to support their view, their rights.

It's like that wise King Solomon when that child was suffocated by its real mother. And she claimed right now to the other child. She said that's my child.

And two women came forward. Two women. And both said it's my child.

Solomon said this is very simple to decide. We'll just cut it in half. We'll destroy it for you.

Does that do? Is that what you want? Is the problem that important to you to be right in and to win in? To destroy it for? If you take that sword, the one that has a heart for it, turns around and says no, give her the whole thing. Don't hurt the child. Don't hurt the child.

That child means more to me than my rights. God help us. This assembly, the assembly you form a part of, should mean more to you than your so-called rights.

That individuals should get down before God and work out their own salvation. When it comes to the difficulties, if you know something tonight in your experience, this isn't just a sermon. Then by all means, for the good of the child, for the good of the assembly, work it out.

Get together and resolve it. Don't divide the child. The marring of it.

My time is up. The ministry of it. It is like that awaitment.

You know, I remember when I was just a little guy, I used to have two friends. I can still remember their names. Bob Dockrell and Jimmy Fox.

Two of my best friends. And I was playing with both of them. One fellow used to fish with them.

The other one used to go looking for frogs with them. You know what bothered me? They were both my friends. And yet they couldn't get along together.

They didn't like each other. And it tore me apart when the three of us went and they were fighting with one another. And I just, because they both meant so much to me, I wanted them to mean so much to each other.

Every believer in the assembly you form a part of matters. Sometimes we say no, no. I made the mistake one time of saying about a couple that left.

It was a mistake. I got up on the platform and apologized for it because I was wrong. I said, they did you a favor.

It was wrong. And I went to them years later and I apologized. They're still not back in the assembly.

Believers in God's assembly. Listen, brethren. There's the truth of the pattern of the assembly and the principle of the assembly.

Thank God we hold those truths. But never forget this. The assembly is people.

Those people sometimes you don't get along with. That's the assembly. It's not an it.

It's us. And when an assembly has its difficulties dealt with and its harmony restored and there's a sweetness to it, there's a sweetness. I'm going to tell you, you go to individuals you're not getting along with and you dab before them and you make it right, it will be sweet.

There is something in that assembly. It's a fragrance. The earth is a balm.

It's like the ointment. Pour it down the beard and the garments of the high priest. It enhances him.

It brings Christ to the front. More than that, it's not only for his enhancement. It's for his enjoyment.

Remember Moses and those two men who were Israelites. He could understand the Egyptian and the Israelite. Remember almost the perplexity when Moses goes out and there's two Israelites fighting and he says, but we're brother.

Why? It's a wonderful thing when brethren dwell together. Unity. God help us to make right things that are wrong.

To resolve differences that the harmony of believers in this assembly and every assembly represented here might be an enhancement and an enjoyment and a very fragrance to the name and the person of Christ in the communities where you are gathered. Unity. Unity.

God bless us where we pray.