The Unity of God’s People – True Unity

[00:00:00] I'll just go through a number of scriptures which are basic to what we have said last week in the way of refreshing your mind. In this whole matter of true unity, we shall be returning to a number of these scriptures, but nevertheless we will go through them. To start with the first letter to the church at Corinth. [00:00:26] First Corinthians, chapter one, verse twelve and 13. [00:00:38] Now this I mean that each one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. [00:00:48] Is Christ divided? [00:00:52] Was Paul crucified for you, or were ye baptized into the name of Paul? Then looking back to verse nine, God is faithful through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The fellowship of his son. Just to remind you that this fellowship of his son is not just simply communion, but it is partnership in the Son. Participation in the Son is sharing the sharing of the Son. The idea is one deeper than mere words. It's not just a kind of cup of tea and a little bit of talk that we say. I had a spot of fellowship with so and so. I exchanged a few ideas with him. That's not the whole meaning of this word. It includes that, but much more basic to its meaning is the idea of partnership, or being participants together or sharing together. And here we have it. God is faithful through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Is Christ divided? [00:02:31] Then if you will turn to John 17, John 1720, John 1720, neither for these only do I pray, but for them also, that believe on me through their word, that they may all be one. Even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given unto them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that thou didst send me and lovedst them even as thou lovedst me. [00:03:37] And then in I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. As for bide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him the same beareth much fruit. For apart from me, ye can do nothing. [00:04:26] Now that's the basic teaching in the gospel of John and this whole matter of unity. Christ is divine. He is everything. And the vine was the symbol of the people of God. The people of God. So the Lord Jesus was virtually saying, I am the people of God. Abide in me and I in you. And then he said, I am the vine. Ye are the branches. There is this amazing union between the Lord and ourselves. We are in him and he is in us, and we are all this one glorious vine. [00:05:01] Now if you turn over to the epistles again, you come to Romans chapter twelve. [00:05:08] The apostle Paul explains this in another way. [00:05:13] Romans chapter twelve, verse four and five. For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. Then if we turn to one. Corinthians chapter ten, verse 16 and 17 the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion? Now this word is exactly the same as the word. God is faithful through whom you are called into the fellowship of his son. Is it not a communion or a participation in partaking of the body of Christ the bread which we break? Is it not a communion or a participation in a sharing of the blood of the body of Christ, seeing that we who are many are one bread, one body? For we all partake of the one bread in Colossians chapter three, Colossians chapter three, verse ten and eleven. [00:06:33] Colossians 310 eleven and have put on the new man that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him, where there cannot be Greek and jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman. But Christ is all, and in all this new man is a corporate man, and in him there cannot be Greek and Jew, and so on. But Christ is everything, and in every one all, and in all. And then if you turn to Galatians three, back to Galatians 327 28. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ, there can be neither jew nor Greek, there can be neither bon nor free, there can be no male and female. For ye are all one man in Christ Jesus. Ye are all one man in Christ Jesus one. Corinthians twelve, verse twelve for as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. [00:08:03] For in one spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks were the bond or free, and were all made to drink of one. [00:08:15] For the body is not one member, but many and then Ephesians, Ephesians four, three. Now here, it's not the unity of Christ. Oneness of Christ is emphasized. It's unity of the spirit. There is one body. I'm sorry. Verse three. Giving diligence to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And as one body and one spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. [00:09:03] Now we'll leave it there. [00:09:05] Those are a number of scriptures just to underline and this whole matter and refresh your mind upon what we said last week. Now, shall we sing a hymn? Short hymn. And then we'll. [00:09:22] Now, this evening we take our second study on this matter of true unity. You will remember some time ago now, quite a long time ago, we took study on this matter of false unity and true unity. And unfortunately, we never got the than the false unity. Now, this evening we want to go on from last week where we've took the matter up again and spoke about true unity. [00:09:54] This evening I want to take it a step further and conclude if it is his way. [00:10:03] What we have said is this, that this unity is Christ. [00:10:12] Christ is the true unity of all believers. Those who are born of the spirit of God, who are saved through his grace, are absolutely one. They don't have to try to be one. Their basis is they are one in themselves. They are not one with each other. But it is that Christ in them is the unity of all. [00:10:44] Now, we have spoken quite a lot last week about that matter. It includes every child of God, however ignorant or weak he or she may be, and it excludes every person, however knowledgeable or religious they are. [00:11:02] The point is that this unity only includes those who are in Christ and in whom Christ dwells. There is no in between land, no in between land at all. Christ is not the unity of believer and unbeliever. Nor, on the other hand, does Christ ratify division between believer and believer. Now, we must be very, very firm about this, because this evening we are coming to the practical side of it all. And we live in days of great complexity. We live in days when we have become immune and inoculated to a thoroughly abnormal situation. [00:11:52] It was never God's intended plan or will that we, his people, should be split up into all kinds of different groups and sects and denominations and parties and so on. This was never his mind. You and I become so immune and so inoculated, so somehow or other adjusted by the sheer weight of traditional and the atmosphere amongst Christians that we accept it as a simple matter of fact that we are all divided. [00:12:30] Now, as we come to the practical side of this great truth, that Christ is the unity of all believers, we have got to bear in mind that we are living in an upside down situation when things that we take for granted are not necessarily the Lord's mind at all. Now that presents us with a very great problem as to what we should do, and I'm not sure that we can legislate for one another. But what we can do this evening is this. We can look at the whole thing and we shall look at it from God's point of view. The trouble with most christians is that we refuse to look at it from God's point of view. If it should be a complex problem, we always view it from man's point of view and therefore nothing can ever happen. [00:13:27] The only way to look at any problem, however complex it is, is through the eyes of God. [00:13:34] Now that may seem to begin with to be idealistic, but it isn't idealistic at all. It's realistic. [00:13:41] If God, if with God there is nothing impossible, and if the counsel of God is going to stand and he is going to perform all his good pleasure, if it is true that the Lord Jesus is going to build upon the rock of himself, this church and the gates of hell are not going to prevail against it, then it is realistic and not idealistic to look at it through the eyes of God, through the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ. Take, as it were, a heavenly view of it this evening. And then when we face the earthly situation, I think we shall be able to face it with faith instead of this sort of pessimistic half groan that is in most christians when they face the matter of unity. Now we have spoken of Christ as the salvation of all believers, Christ as the foundation of all believers, Christ as the head of all believers, Christ as the life of all believers, and Christ as the goal of all believers, and Christ as all. [00:14:57] Here, then, we have these tremendous things all summed up in Christ. He is therefore the unity of all true believers. We have spoken too about Christ. [00:15:13] This unity, this oneness of Christ, is maintained both universally and locally, as Christ takes and has his rightful place as centre, Lord and circumference in his people. [00:15:31] It is in the measure in which he is that in the life of his people that we are one. And likewise it is the measure in which he is not centre and not head and not circumference in the life of us, his people, that we are divided. This is an infallible rule, an infallible rule that whenever you find believers truly united, Christ is head, Christ is centre, Christ is circumference. And whenever he is only a little out of his place, or more than a little out of his place, that is the measure in which we are divided. [00:16:21] Now that brings us more or less up to where we ended last week on a great digression, when we spoke of this unity as being the church and spoke of the nature of the church. It is not an organization, it is not an institution, it is not a religious movement. It is not a system of doctrine or teaching. It is not just an evangelistic agency. It is not a congregation of true believers. It is not even a fellowship or a society for mutual benefit, as some people seem to think. The church is Christ. It is this unity, and simply in its simplicity, it is this. You and I are in him and he is in us. And the christ I am in, by the grace of God, is the same Christ you are in. There may be 60 or 70 of us here this evening, but there's only one Christ, and all of us are in the same Christ. Not one of us has a different Christ. We haven't got a personal Christ. We haven't got a Christ of our own order, shaped and tailored to ourselves. There is only one Christ, and every one of us, by God's grace, has been placed in that one Christmas, and that one Christ is in every one of us. It doesn't matter how many we are, there's only one Christ. The Christ in me, dwelling in me by the grace of God, is the same Christ who dwells in you. So it is a twofold unity. We are in the same Christ, and the same Christ is in us. Now, this is the whole point of the Lord's talking about the vine abiding in him and he in us. And then he went on to explain this amazing unity, and later on he praised as the passion of his heart, just before Gethsemane and just before the great work to which he was moving, just before he was about to accomplish it, he prays out the great passion of his heart that they may be one. It wasn't just that he wanted us all to sort of be sympathetic to one another. It wasn't all just simply that. He wanted us all to agree with one another. He didn't want us to be a kind of united nations. Wasn't his idea at all. His whole point was, it is the very heart of the purpose of God, that you and I are in him and he is in us, that we may all be one, as he is in the Father and the Father is in him, that we are in them. [00:19:03] That is the amazing thing. It's not just some subsidiary, secondary thing. It is something that goes to the root of everything. And the devil's cross master plan, in which, tragically, he has succeeded, or so it would seem from the human point of view, is to wreck that and frustrate it so that you have christians actually justifying the divisions in which we're found, rooting around for excuses why we shouldn't do anything about them, and so on and so forth. Well, now we should digress again if we're not careful and not come to what we have this evening. But you see, the whole point is that this city of God, this bride of the lamb, this body of the Lord Jesus, this temple of God, however you like to look at it, is the objective of God, and it is this that is, as it were, the passion of his heart. And this matter of unity is basic and essential to its fulfillment. [00:20:18] Now we come to this evening, and what is it we're going to say this evening? Well, now we're going to come down to earth with a bump. [00:20:27] This unity ought to have visible expression. Now, you don't hear that very often, and it might surprise some, because generally we are told that this unity is invisible, intangible. And as I have often said, it is so invisible and so intangible that you cannot find it. It is truly invisible, and I doubt very much whether even the invisible principalities and powers can see it. It is so invisible, it is something that is beyond the scope of man or God to find. [00:21:04] What is this invisible unity that everyone talks about? Of course, we have to say here and now, Christ is the invisible unity of all true believers. It's not something that first sight is can be seen. It's not something that can be touched and held in the hand. [00:21:24] But we must be very careful that we don't go too far and make this whole matter of it being invisible and intangible an excuse for settling down to division and justifying what the devil himself has done in building middle walls of petition between the people of God. No, we have to say this. This unity ought to have visible expression. Why is it always thought that spiritual and heavenly things have no visible expression? [00:22:03] Why, supposing we were to apply the same law to conversion and to say, conversion is a spiritual thing, therefore it is invisible. It is intangible. You must not expect to see anything. You must not expect to feel anything. It is. There must be no evidence for it. It is a spiritual thing. Now, everyone who's got their heads screwed on the right way spiritually must understand that conversion is a spiritual matter. It is the work of the spirit of God. [00:22:39] If, therefore, it is a spiritual thing, it ought to be invisible and intangible. [00:22:44] We might say new birth in exactly the same way a person being born again by the very nature of it. When you are born, you become visible by the very nature of it. And so it is when you are born again, something becomes visible. It is true, the conception and the growth has been an invisible thing. The glory of this strange mystery of divine life is indeed invisible and intangible. Yet somehow we expect to see something. For our Lord himself said, by their fruits ye shall know them. Away with this idea of something invisible and intangible. By their fruits ye shall know them. Some of us quake at the knees. When we think about it, it's much more comforting to feel that everything should be invisible and intangible and so on. I'm a very godly, holy person, but don't you look too far. [00:23:39] It's invisible and intangible because it is so spiritual. It is so heavenly that no one can see it. [00:23:48] That's not so. You know it. I know it. Where would we be if we started to teach this, that holiness should be an invisible, intangible thing? Where would we be if you started to teach godliness ought to be an invisible and an intangible thing? Then we come to this matter of the unity of all believers, so near to the very heart of God that goes to the very root of his great purpose and his finished work, and we're told that it should be invisible and intangible. Never mind, we're told. Let us not bother our little heads about it. God has got it all in hand. We are one, even though we can't see it. [00:24:26] So we shall drape across our platform all one in Christ Jesus, and we can be one in an evangelistic crusade, and we can be one in a conference for the deepening of spiritual life. But when it comes to the deeper, complex problems of living together, we must depart from one another hastily and go back to our own group, as it were, where we can stay and where we can be happy. [00:25:00] Now, although the oneness of Christ, the unity of the spirit, is essentially a spiritual, organic, inward thing, it must have its practical, visible expression. [00:25:18] Now let us see if this is the teaching of God's word. First, in John 17. [00:25:24] Let us turn back to the chapter in which our Lord prays so tremendously. [00:25:38] Verse 21. [00:25:42] That they all may be. That they may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee. Now that was an invisible relationship. It was an intangible relationship. You couldn't hold it in the hands, yet it was visible. [00:26:00] There was something about the Lord Jesus Christ that was visibly evident, that he was walking in absolute union with God. He was another kind of man. He didn't belong to the world. He wasn't of the ordinary sort. He wasn't of this fallen creation. There was something quite different about him. There we've got it. [00:26:24] That they may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee. That they also may be in us. That the world may believe that thou didst send me. How on earth can the world believe that the Father sent the son, unless this unity for which the Lord Jesus prays has some visible expression? It is perfectly clear from the Lord's own words that he prays passionately, fervently, zealously, painfully for us that we may be one, because he wants the world to see and to recognize that the father sent him. Now the Lord again says that in verse 23, I in them, thou in me, that they may be perfected into one. [00:27:23] Perfected into one. That the world may know that thou didst send me and lovest them as thou lovest me. [00:27:35] Now there is, I think, evidence for something visible. Now, if you turn back to Matthew and chapter 16, Matthew 16 and verse 18, we read this. And I also say unto thee that thou art. [00:27:52] And upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now here the Lord is speaking not of some local church, not of some church in time and on earth, but he is speaking of some of his great, invisible church, if you like, the church that is being built upon the rock of himself, the church that you and I can't see in one sense with the naked eye. It is timeless. It is eternal. It is the very work of God. And here we've got it here in this verse or two. And where Peter is told, along with the others, that as representatives of this church, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, because they are his body and he is the head, they will be able to bind things on earth, they will be bound in heaven. They will be able to loose things on earth. They will be loosed in heaven. Now if you turn over the page, you find that here there's quite different atmosphere in one way from verse 15. Or we'll read, I think from verse 17, chapter 18, verse 17. If ye refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church. [00:29:25] And if he refuse to hear the church also let him be unto thee as the gentile and the publican. But only I say unto you, what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. What things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Now it is quite clear from this passage that this invisible church has a visible expression. [00:30:02] If you've got some trouble with the saint and the church is something invisible and intangible, what do you do? If you're told? Go and tell it to the church. How can the church arbitrate? How can the church seek the mind of God and judge the matter? The Lord Jesus tells us quite clearly here. Evidently there is a visible expression of this unity. Evidently this glorious church over which the gates of hell shall not prevail has some visible expression down here on earth. [00:30:36] Now there are many other places you turn to. One corinthians, one corinthians, chapter one, verse two. [00:30:48] Paul writes to the church of God which is at Corinth. [00:30:53] Even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus call saints with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place their Lord and ours. Now that's rather wonderful, isn't it? The church of God at Corinth, even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called saints with all that call upon the name all that call upon the name of the Lord of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place their Lord and ours. Here you've got it again. This unity has a visible expression. Evidently it's good enough for you to be named with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:31:36] And the very situation that Paul is facing here in Corinth is that this church at Collint's this unity of the Lord Jesus Christ is in danger of being somehow or other denominationalized. [00:31:55] It's being broken up into groups, into factions, into parties. [00:32:00] And he is concerned about it. Now there I think we have some ground for expecting that this unity should have a visible expression. Indeed, this matter goes to the very root, as I have already said, of the purpose of God. It goes to the root of the work of Calvary. It goes to the root of the building up of the church, which is the Holy Spirit, one of the great burdens of the Holy Spirit, and it goes to the root of effectiveness in evangelism and testimony. [00:32:46] Now, is that so, or is it not so? This matter of the unity of the Spirit, the oneness of Christ, is not a secondary issue. It's not a subsidiary thing. It is absolutely essential. And the sooner believers start to wake up to this matter in the light of the ecumenical movement and the Vatican Council, the better. [00:33:10] We have for too long been using shotguns against those armed with nuclear warheads. [00:33:19] We're like a lot of primitive savages dancing up and down with woad painted on us and a few spears with sort of polaris submarines ranged against us is positively ridiculous, using outmoded, outdated theological ideas that are not even in scripture. [00:33:43] Not even in scripture, but come from the vain traditions of man. And why do we find everywhere people are listening to the ecumenical movement? Because they are talking in one sense sense, and they are not only talking sense, but they are talking sense biblically. [00:34:04] That's the tragedy of the whole thing. It is the wrong people talking about the right thing. [00:34:13] And here we are, all us believers, rushing around writing little books, justifying our mess, the mess that we're in, and trying somehow or other, just simply to say that our unity is there, even though no one can see it, and that it has expression. In such times as the earl's court crusade and the Keswick Convention and other conferences, we say, well, it has got some kind of expression. This may satisfy some, but it certainly doesn't satisfy the word of God, and I am wholly convinced that it does not satisfy God. [00:34:57] Some of these arguments used will just simply die on the lips of those that use them. When we stand in the presence of God, at least it's better to be honest, even if we have to put up with the situation that we find. It's better to be honest and thoroughly lament and deplore the situation, which is an un new testament, unbiblical, unscriptural and undivine one. [00:35:26] Anyway, if you turn to some of these scriptures, you will find very quickly the matter goes to the root of it all. This manner of unity goes to the root, first of the purpose of God. Ephesians chapter three, verse, three, how that by revelation was made known unto me, the mystery, as I wrote before in few words, whereby when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit. Now, what is it, to wit, this is the mystery of Christ that's not being revealed to other generations, but now, says Paul, it's been revealed in our day, beginning with his day. Here it is, the Gentiles, our fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel. Now, here you've got it. What is that? Fellow heirs, fellow members, fellow partakers. Unity, a glorious spiritual unity. [00:36:38] The Jew under the old covenant and the Christian under the new are born bonded together in God. Here it is. You and I are fellow members of one body. We are fellow heirs of the same messiah. We are fellow partakers. Well, it's tremendous, if you really look at it like that. Now then look at this matter of unity here. It goes to the heart of God's purpose. What is this mistake? What is this mystery that Paul speaks of again and again in his letters? The mystery of Christ, he says, which he glories in. And here in this letter particularly, he underlines it and emphasizes it. What is this mystery? This mystery is that by the grace of God, through the salvation of God, you and I are made part of Jesus Christ. [00:37:35] We have become partakers of the divine nature through the promises, the exceeding great promises of God's word. This is tremendous. It's a unity. For, listen, if I and he are one and you and he are one and someone else is one with him, what happens to us? How can I and he be one and you and he be one and you and I not be one? [00:38:04] That's the point. [00:38:06] It's as simple as that. This is a spiritual, organic unity that must have visible expression. We belong. [00:38:14] We belong. [00:38:17] We don't have to drag ourselves. It's not just a matter of dragging ourselves to meetings. It's not just a question of dragging ourselves into the company of the saints. We belong. We may have our bad times, we may go through our difficulties, we may have our collisions, but we belong, and we know we belong. [00:38:37] Now, that is a tremendous thing. And then, of course, if you look at ephesians two and verse 14, well, we have it again now, just before this, in verse twelve, Paul is speaking of us. That is, you and me. We were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Now, verse 14. [00:39:07] For he is our peace, who made both one and break down the middle wall of petition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances that he might create in himself of the two, one new man, so making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. [00:39:41] Verse 18. For through him we both have our access in one spirit unto the father. So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but your fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom each building, several building fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation or a home of God in the spirit. Now there you've got it. The root of God's eternal purpose is this matter of unity, the unity of Christ, the root of the work of Calvary is this matter. What did God do at Calvary? He reconciled us. Now, my dear friends, if he reconciled me to God and he reconciled you to God, what did he do with the two of us? He reconciled us to each other. And that's the whole point of ephesians two. God has reconciled the jew to himself, God has reconciled the Gentile to himself, and now he's reconciled Jew and gentile together. [00:40:59] Here you have this unity, one new man in both, in one body unto God, both have access by one spirit to the father. That's what he has done. Therefore, you and I must understand this matter of the unity of the spirit. The oneness of Christ lies at the root of Calvary. You turn to colossians chapter one and verse 21 we read this, and you being in time past, alienated, alienated the opposite to unity and enemies in your mind, in your evil works. Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and without blemish and irreprovable before him. Now is it not interesting that in verse 18 it says, and he is the head of the body, which is the church, that in all things he might have the preeminence. Then it goes on. For it was the good pleasure of the Father that inhibited all the fullness dwell and through him to reconcile all things, whether in heaven or on earth. [00:42:10] Here it is, this matter of unity you see, sin has divided everything. It is not only divided us into races, into all our little sections. It has not only made us, as it were, strangers to one another, but it has got into the very fabric of the universe. And somehow or other, something which in the beginning was one glorious unity with a tremendous design has gone haywire. [00:42:48] And whilst we can see something of its original design and its original unity, we are very much aware of something having gone wrong. It lies at the very root of the universe, of the natural creation as well as man. [00:43:04] God's thought was that man, in union with himself, should be the head of a natural creation. And that when man took his place in Christ and God took his place in man, then as man would become, as it were, the head would have dominion over the whole natural creation and everything would be a harmony. [00:43:30] Now it is this very thing that God has struck through Calvary, through the Lord Jesus Christ. He has touched this division which lies at the root of everything, this fragmentation that lies at the root of everything. [00:43:52] And he says that through Christ one day he reconciles everything in heaven and on earth. And in Ephesians one, it says, the good pleasure of God is this, that in the end he will sum up all things in Christ. Everything will be headed up in him. Now, we can go on, and we can go on. And we can go on. We can turn to one. Corinthians 617, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. And now we can prove from that one simple statement of scripture that if I am joined to the Lord and therefore have one spirit, and you are joined to the Lord and have one spirit, and another believer is joined to the Lord and has one spirit, then what has happened between us? If we are all one spirit, then between us there is one spirit. So it is a horizontal unity and a vertical unity, a vertical unity and a horizontal unity. It is a unity that encompasses all. [00:44:52] It is glorious in its nature. Now, I've said that this matter of the unity and oneness of Christ lies at the root, not only the purpose of God, of the work of Calvary, but of the building up of the church. Is that true? Well, I don't think we hardly need to turn to scripture to convince ourselves of that. You've only got to turn to ephesians four, the whole chapter. The whole chapter is to do with the building up of the church. And we are told that it all rests on this matter of unity. Give diligence to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now, if you go on in Ephesians four, you will find that it says in verse 14, well, it says, really? Verse 13, till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In other words, we grow up. We grow up. And this isn't an individual growing up. This is a corporate growing up. It is the measure in which all of us individually are growing, that the whole body is growing up into Christ. Now, listen to what he says. That we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. [00:46:12] There are children blown about by this, by that, by the other. Their heads filled with this one moment, and they're blown about by something else, taken up with this, then taken up with that, just blowing about all over the place just as the wind comes into their sails. But what does it say? Verse 15. Speaking truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christian, from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love. Now, I don't think anything more need be said that about this matter, that the unity of the spirit lies at the heart of the building up of the church. If there is division, then this building up work is hindered. [00:47:04] There are great obstacles in the way. That's obvious. Fitly framed together. Think about it. Knit together. I have a. Even if it's not very visible or very apparent to any, I have a muscle system, and it is knit together. [00:47:23] And under that I have a skeleton that may be more visible. I don't know, although some people tell me these days it is. [00:47:32] But under there, there's a skeleton. Now, that skeleton is fitly framed together. Every bone is fitted to the other. It's fitly framed together, but it is of no use until the muscles are knit together over. And somehow they are the things that enable me to use it. No good having a skeleton, you know, without some flesh on it. You've got to have some muscle. Why, I might have the perfect bones in my arm, but if I hadn't got muscles that could just lift that arm up, help my hands to grip something, it was no use to me at all. No, says the apostle Paul, you must be fitly framed together and knit together. [00:48:16] These two things have got to go together. [00:48:19] How can that be so if there is no unity of the spirit. If this unity of the spirit is not, if it's not maintained. And of course, we have already said something about the matter of the effectiveness of evangelism. I believe this is not understood enough, that evangelism is more and more effective where there is behind it the unity of Christ and the Lord Jesus got to the root of it when he said that when they see that you love one another, they will believe. And he said it again in John 17, when he said it in this way, that being one that we may, he prayed that we may be one that the world may believe that the father sent him. [00:49:14] They will believe. [00:49:16] And, of course, one of the great concerns of the ecumenical movement has been this point that they say that the world, the worldwide mission of the church, is seriously hampered and hindered by its divisions. [00:49:35] This is perfectly true. [00:49:37] It is perfectly true. And I think no one who has not been on the so called mission field, if, let me put it this way, anyone who has been with their eyes half open spiritually on the mission field must see the great obstacle it is to national believers, this importation of all kinds of division. [00:50:08] Brother Knee once said, we had the letter in the library upstairs when he wrote to a great mission leader. Why should we Chinese who have no idea at all what it is to be a Methodist or what it is to be a congregationalist, or what it is to be a Baptist or Episcopalian, suddenly wake up one day to find that we've been made Episcopalians, and we speak with our brother and sister chinese believers, and we're talking about some letter, and suddenly we find we're not meeting, and we say to them, but you're a believer, aren't you? Yes. And the other says, but you're a believer, aren't you? Yes. And then we find that unbeknown to ourselves, we have been made differently. And it's not the word of God that has made us different, but others have made us different. Now, that was the root of the whole problem with Waboni, and that's why he's been ostracized from that day to this many circles, circles, simply, and only because he said in a rather unwise way in his letter, which caused a bit of a hoo ha in high circles, that he simply said in his letter, if we Chinese are to be divided, please give us the privilege of making our own chinese divisions that upset them no end. Evidently, it was felt that western divisions, european divisions, american divisions, were quite good enough for the Chinese, and they should be happy with them. But Brother Ni said, let us start off as one, absolutely one, and then if there are to be divisions, let them come from the Chinese themselves, then we shall understand our divisions, but to have them imported to us and we don't even know why. And then, of course, came the unit happy incident where he unwisely said that he felt that Hudson Taylor, though he was a great man of God, should not have carved China up into denominational fields. [00:52:17] And this has stuck ever since upon his head as being arrogant talk of a young Chinese. [00:52:29] But from his point of view we must understand that. It was very hard to understand that someone could come to the country and say, now this area we will send baptist missionaries to, this area we will send episcopalian missionaries to, this area we will send Methodist missionaries to. And the Chinese, without even realizing, became Episcopalians. Methodists and Baptists only woke up when they got together that something was wrong. [00:52:56] So when they did wake up, they started to search the scriptures and decided that their missionary brethren were wrong. [00:53:04] And this caused very great trouble. Well, now that's digressing again. But the point is that the whole question of evangelism is obviously 100% more effective when the unity of believers, the unity of Christ is preserved. [00:53:24] And when we are presenting Christ to people and not making them something additional or plus, but simply presenting Christ to them and looking to God to do a deep work in them and to make them what he himself wants them to be. Now, I know that there are problems about this, but we must speed on. Well now, what can we say as a result of that? Division, therefore, is not just sad evidence of, is not just sad evidence of failings, something to be lamented, wrong, the divisions are wrong, but quite unavoidable to be born with much long suffering. [00:54:16] This is not to be our attitude, I am quite sure of it. And although at present it may seem to be extreme, in the next decade or two it will be seen, if you remember what I have said, that what I have said is truth. [00:54:36] When this whole thing has blown up, it will become more and more and more apparent that there has been a spiritual munich, and therefore true believers will suddenly wake up to the fact that they have been following tradition instead of the word of God. [00:55:00] And it will be the word of God that then will come into its own by the spirit of God. I believe the thing is already starting in many, many places now. I think this is of course tremendous, because in every generation the Holy Spirit is worked, and in that generation, when anew anything that the Lord was doing and saying was understood it was very much misunderstood and misconstrued and misinterpreted. We all understand what Lord was talking about when he talked about justification by faith. But if you and I had lived in Luther's day, we would have had just the same kind of talk. [00:55:46] People say it was all, how wild. [00:55:50] I mean, is that scripture? Of course it's not. Why, we've had hundreds of years. What about St so and so and st so and so and st so and so and so and so? They've never mentioned this. I mean, the man must be mad. He's unbalanced. See, it's the same with. With Fox, the same with. With Wesley, same with Whitfield, same with the brethren. All these folk, they pioneered away. And I'm quite sure that as we come to the end of this age, the Holy Spirit's great concern will be to bring the top stone into its place in the church. It will be, even if only in a remnant, it will be a recovering of the true nature of the church. For the glory of the latter house will exceed that of the former. [00:56:35] And it may well be that. You may say, yes, but how can that be? When the Lord said, shall there be faith? When I come, the love of the many shall wax cold, and so on and so on? Yes, this is true, but over against that, there is going to be a progressive preparation of the blind. It says in the book of revelation, she hath made herself ready. Who is she? [00:57:02] Individual believers, of course, but individual believers in fellowship, surely that's what the book of Malachi says. Then they that fear the Lord spake oft one to another and the book was opened and then they were recorded. [00:57:22] Well, what we say, I'm quite sure, is very, very important. [00:57:31] And this matter we've been talking about, this matter of division, this matter of disunity, of fragmentation of believers, divides Christ. And. Don't argue with me, have an argument with the word of God on that matter. It divides Christ, it says so, it hinders and frustrates God's purpose. [00:57:59] It denies Calvary's full work, it halts the building up of the church and it stumbles the outsider. [00:58:12] Now, many of you go out into the streets and you know the simple fact that is hidden from many a decent, godly church goer or church worker. [00:58:27] You know how again and again people in the streets come round at you on this matter of denominationalism, and you know as well as I do that every time we've had a baptismal service in the baptist church, we have found it impossible. To get anyone in. [00:58:47] As soon as you and I mention the name Baptist. The whole somehow or other, the whole atmosphere of the day in which we live now is, as Billy Graham has so rightly said, against church as an institution. [00:59:07] The whole thing swung against it. Therefore you and I, if we are going to hold forth the word of life, it's no good just trying to work up jazz groups or pop groups or all kind of things. Maybe they have a place, I don't know. But what I'm quite sure is that we've got to somehow be in line, in step with the spirit of God so that he can reach the people of our day with the message that he has now consider, just for a few moments as we close, how Christ has abolished all these divisions. [00:59:48] Just consider, because it is a tremendous thing when we think of it. I think we've got to recognize. Just wait, one thing before we just consider that I must just say this. [01:00:01] And that is, I've digressed again, that although even if. [01:00:11] Let me put it again, start all over again, it's important. [01:00:18] This matter of division or fragmentation is not just something to be lamented, a kind of failure. [01:00:28] It's not just wrong, which is quite unavoidable, but we've got to put up with it and grin, bear it. [01:00:39] It is sin. [01:00:44] It is sin. [01:00:47] And the sooner you and I realize that and recognize that, the better. [01:00:55] Now, why is it sin? I'll tell you. If I went out tonight and got drunk, you would all be horrified, quite rightly, if it got round to everyone that I was carried back in an inebriated state, it always sounds better put that way. [01:01:17] You would be horrified. You would say we would have to call an extra church meeting to deal with this matter. This is sin. [01:01:27] It is not that the brother has just got a failing and has a liking for the bottle. [01:01:35] It is not just that this is something wrong, but is unavoidable because of his background. And we've got to put up with it with much long suffering, you would say, and rightly, this matter is sin. [01:01:52] God cannot be with us if there is this thing in our midst. [01:01:58] And so it would be if I went down to Woolworths and stole something. [01:02:06] You couldn't just say, now then, of course, in these days, with the dropping of moral standards, it is to be expected and we must. [01:02:18] Well, it was a failing. But you would say, this is sin in a responsible brother, a leader from the church. How can that be? But, my dear friends, if I got drunk, I have sinned against my body. [01:02:36] If I commit immorality. I have sinned against my body. I have abused myself. [01:02:48] But when I am divided or part of a division or propagating a division, I am sinning not against myself, but against the body of Christ. [01:03:03] How much more serious is that? [01:03:06] My dear friends, I would prefer to go into the presence of God. God outside of everything which divides, even if it means ostracism all my life, than to go into his presence with that kind of thing round my neck. [01:03:25] It sometimes means we are without the camp. [01:03:28] But that doesn't matter, does it, if our Lord is outside the camp. I was so. [01:03:37] I so enjoyed the prayer of that dear old sister, misses Goode, 82 years of age. [01:03:46] It was her 37th crusade. She follows around, you know, with the Billy Graham team, prays for them at all times. She came here and she had a meal with us. And afterwards she said, now shall we have a little time of prayer, just the three of us? And I said, yes. And we launched away in prayer. I prayed and then I heard a prayer that it has not been my joy to hear for a long, long time. But I never forgotten one thing she just said, talking to the Lord as if he was just on the other side of the table gesticulating. When I had my eyes open, I wasn't going to miss anything. [01:04:22] She said, lord. She said, lord. She said, you know, I was in the Methodist church till it sprang a leak and I. I got myself into a lifeboat and got away. [01:04:42] I thought that was most remarkable. I was in the Methodist. Just that it sprang a leak and I got myself into a lifeboat and got away. Some people say to me, it's not right to leave a sinking ship. My dear friend, if the pilot leaves it, leave with him. [01:05:00] It's as simple as that. Never stay on a sinking ship if the pilot's gone. My dear friends, we stay while the candlestick stays, and we watch for that candlestick can keep our eyes upon the testimony of Jesus, and we stay through thick and through thin. [01:05:21] Once that candlestick goes, we go with the candlestick. [01:05:27] It's as simple as that. [01:05:29] We are to stay and overcome until our lord goes and then we go. [01:05:36] It's quite simple. [01:05:38] Well, let's just accept this simple point that it's sin. One corinthians 113 says, is Christ divided? Or another version, can Christmas be divided? [01:05:50] Is Christ, but can he be divided? [01:05:52] Well, now, the point is that there. There is something you and I have got to reflect upon. Ephesians 214, the middle wall of petition. Now, we know this middle wall of petition. Was between Jew and Gentile. But, my dear friends, is it really right that you and I should be party to middle walls? [01:06:12] I was once speaking with a dear minister and he said to me, well, the point is, this situation has come to stay. This is the general feeling about it. This situation has come to stay. There are walls, but we must. [01:06:29] We must get a ladder and we must climb up and we must shake hands over the wall. [01:06:36] Now, that sounds very good, but for myself, I cannot accept that the wall should be there which Christ has died to remove. [01:06:48] Shall we adjust to walls that are a denial of what the Lord Jesus died to abolish? [01:06:56] Now, that, I think, is a serious point. And that's why the scriptures speak so much about the sin of division. When I say sin, I mean, for instance, in Romans, chapter 16, it puts it in very strong language indeed. [01:07:13] Verse 17. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark then that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling contrary to the doctrine which he learned, and turn away from them. [01:07:25] Also, quite a bit in scripture about this matter of just simply avoiding division. The apostles were the custodians of the unity of the spirit and jealously they guarded it. And the corinthian letter is a letter written on this very point. We would never have had the corinthian letter if it hadn't been for this awful business of division. Well, now, as I said, we must close. But consider how Christ has abolished these divisions. Galatians three and verse eleven. Here you have a certain number of things, we're told, abolished. Now, just listen to the way it's put. [01:08:11] Where there cannot be greek and jew. Circumcision. Uncircumcision. Barbarian, scythian, bon man, Freeman. But Christ is all and in all where there cannot be. [01:08:27] In other words, the work of Christ has put away an old man with all his fragmentation, all his sectarianism, all his. His division, his party spirit, and has created a new man where there cannot be greek or gentile, a jew or gentile, bondman or Freeman, barbarians. [01:08:57] Circumcision or uncircumcision. Isn't that wonderful? When you just think about. Just think about it. All these divisions abolished. If you look in Galatians three and verse 28, you have exactly the same. Again, it says, there can be neither jew nor greek, there can be neither bond nor free. There can be no male and female. These things have gone. Now, what does it mean? Well, it means this. That in Christ's himself, in this unity, the racial divisions have been abolished. Now, it doesn't mean that we're no longer asiatic or european or american. [01:09:33] But it does mean this, that although our origins may be there and our background are there, we are in the one Christ, and the one Christ in his earth is in us. [01:09:46] Asiatic Christians are not inferior. [01:09:49] I remember when I was in Egypt, the shock that it was to my whole system, when a missionary said to me about a dear and beloved egyptian evangelist, of course, we could never have him to tea. He's inferior. [01:10:05] He just doesn't. He doesn't just come to our standard. They put it this way. Even spiritually, we can't meet mind to mind, so they put in fellowship. But he's a good man. Gave him a good write up. [01:10:21] Well, we know there are difficulties, but, you know, dear, dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, really, when it comes down to it, haven't you found that in real fellowship, when all these other things are put away and there's no positions to maintain and no artificial levels to be kept, we find. When absolutely one we find they give us something and we can give them something. [01:10:46] There's no such thing as racial division in Christ. [01:10:50] None of it. There are no national divisions in Christ. They often wear their ugly head. But there aren't there. They're not there. [01:10:59] There are no longer Germans or English or Norwegians or Swedes or Japanese or Chinese in Christ, of course, they're all the time tongues, and there are all the backgrounds and so on. But we are one new man. There is neither Jew nor Gentile. There is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision nor Bavarian. Syrian. Bondman. Free man. But Christ is everything in it, and everyone, it's a new man. [01:11:25] Now, we have a testimony to bear, because let's look at it like this. There is no social divisions, of course, it's not easy if you've come from a certain social background and you're sort of suddenly pushed into working with someone from a very different kind of background, and you rub each other up the wrong way. [01:11:51] It's not that you want to, it's that you can't help it. [01:11:56] You have a broader mind. [01:11:58] Perhaps you've been used to looking at things on a slightly wider scale, and you can't understand how anyone could be so sort of dim witted sometimes when it comes to it, or, you know, the kind of the old iconic splaying, all kinds of ways which we could go on and would probably find highly amusing as well as instructive, if we would really talk about the little things that irritate us all, things that go right back into background, the type of people we are and how often that can just cut right across our fellowship. [01:12:34] We have fellowship within our own social grouping, but in Christ it's gone. And even the division of sexes, the war between man and woman, as it were, it says there is no male nor female that needs to be remembered. Needs to be remembered. No, it's gone. In Christ, it's gone. Of course, it doesn't mean that a man and a woman, whilst equal, can just simply do each other's jobs. [01:13:05] That's the tragedy. We've got extremists always. We've got these. These extremists who, once they get hold of a tree, a truth go right over. [01:13:16] We are absolutely one. There's no male nor female in Christ, yet there is the man and there is the woman. And there's an awful lot of scripture about man and a woman. And so there is a sense in which we come from our different national backgrounds and our different racial backgrounds, and we are to understand that and we are to contribute from them. Oh, how sad it is when east tries to be west and west tries to be east instead of all, as it were, just simply spontaneously developing along their right lines. [01:13:52] A tremendous problem in some of the companies where there is much east and much west, and where, I can tell you, companies I've been in, where little things happen. I remember one group company I went into where a real situation had developed, a very small little thing. [01:14:10] There were many dear chinese brothers and sisters in that company, and as many of european background. And the point was that some of the chinese sisters had made some beautiful dresses, chinese style, and given them to the european sisters. [01:14:29] And the problem was that it being in an american scene, the whole problem was to those with american, who are american born european stock, what should they do? [01:14:46] And the point was, the Chinese felt that western dress was not becoming and that there was something about the Chinese cut and so on, which showed the figure off in a right way and was much more becoming. [01:15:04] And there was the pumpkin, another company I went to. There was a problem that in the west we believe in romance leading to marriage. But in the east, they believe more in marriage leading to romance. And in the east, they believe in an arranged marriage. [01:15:27] And so when the christians come, they come to the church, and they say to the church, to the elders, would you please find me a wife? And the elders pray about it, and they find the wife. [01:15:37] And normally it seems that it works out in many of the assemblers, but in the west, that's not so. But here in one company I came to where there was a dreadful situation, a dreadful situation where somehow or other, the folk from the east had somehow tried to bring the east. And they've got scripture. [01:16:00] They had tried some out of range for a dear american girl. And there was much trouble. [01:16:06] You see, the whole problem is that east has to be east and west has to be west. Yet we are to be absolutely one in Christ. Those are the problems. All the spiritual divisions, religious divisions that we have, we've got them all. I am of Paul, I am of Apollos. I am of keyphas. Oh, everyone says it's quite wrong. It's quite wrong. But just wait. Don't just take that as human personalities, just simply as it was some personal thing. What difference is there when I say, I am of Luther and someone says, I am of Wesley and someone says, I am of George Fox and someone says, I am of so and so? It's no different. It's exactly what began in seed form, in common. [01:16:55] And if the little group who met around Apollos, it wasn't Apollos, by the way, he would have no part to it. There'd be no party to it. But they met studying Apollos's ministry, imbibing Apollos's spirit all the time, talking about the good days with brother Apollos and so on. Well, just supposing they decided to start an apollonian fellowship in Antioch. [01:17:23] And then supposing the group who met around Peter. No time. But Apollos, all that wind, all that talk, talk, talk, teaching, teaching, teaching till you're blue in the face. It comes out of their ears. [01:17:36] We want the kind of man who goes out with evangelism, gets to the beat next. Gets to, to the Dragadicts, gets to the people in the street. Now, Peter's the man. He speaks rough, it's true, but he's a man. He's the man for open air work. He's the man for sort of down in the sleazy part of the town, the work. And that's the kind of thing we want. We don't want to always be sitting on our behinds, taking in more and more and more like that group that sits round that apollos all day long. [01:18:03] Peter's the man. And then they say, well, have you heard what they've done? They've started, opened an apollonian fellowship in Antioch. Oh, dear, dear, dear. [01:18:12] Say, pizza's group, we must start a mission in Antioch. [01:18:17] So they start a mission for down and out beatniks and drug addicts in Antioch. So they started then, of course, Paul comes in and they say, oh, my goodness me, isn't this terrible? We're the people who understand something of the church. We'll have to do something about this. So they send off a missionary or tutorial, Antioch, and they start St. Paul's. [01:18:39] They've got some poles. St. Paul's, Antioch as well now as St. Paul's in Corinth. And now there's a mission to deep sea fishermen and others at Antioch, of which everything founded on Peter's ministry in Phoenix. And so it goes on. Now, my dear friends, we all laugh about it. If it spread over the whole roman empire, what would you have? You would have nothing more than a 20th century situation amongst christians. The believers essentially one belonging to one another in one christ, and one Christ in them are now, they've been somehow split up. [01:19:23] They have been somehow denominationalized. There is the apollonian section, there is the Petrine section, there is the Pauline section, and there is the exclusives, the people who say, now, my dear friends, this is all utterly wrong. [01:19:39] Utterly wrong. Apollos Paul kifats. Why, it's utterly wrong. We are of Christ and we shall put a rope round the table and keep them all out. And once they have seen their sin of having anything to do with these names and all this sort of division business, we will have them back in because we are the originals and we're standing on the original ground. But they've become as much a party as anyone else because they've become exclusive. [01:20:06] They hadn't taken a name, but they're exclusive now. It is this very situation that Paul writes this corinthian letter about and says, this is wrong. [01:20:18] Were you baptized into the name of Paul? Well, my dear friends, were you baptized? Were you baptized into the name of John Wesley? Were you baptized into the name of Martin Luther? Were you baptized into the, into the name of Simon Minnow, all these other great men of God, of Zwingli, of Ulrich Zwingli, of Jean Calvin, or these others. [01:20:39] John Knox, of course not. You were baptized into the name of Christ. [01:20:44] In whose name do you meet? In whose name do you gather in these men's names around their teaching? [01:20:51] Or is it in Christ? Now, this is the whole point. And so you have this awful denominationalization, this splitting up into groups, and sometimes it's built on personalities, sometimes it's built on doctrine. You get people who don't agree. They, they believe in predestination and they want anything to do with those who believe in free will. And so they hive off on one side, and the others hive off on the other. And you've got two absolute, clear groups. You've got divisions on doctrine, not quite so apparent today, although there has been something of a revival of it. You've got division based on method and experience. [01:21:33] Have you had the second blessing? [01:21:37] If you haven't, you're out. If you have, you're in. Have you had holiness? [01:21:43] If you've got it, you're in. If you haven't, you're out. [01:21:46] Have you been baptized in water? [01:21:51] If you have, you're in. If you're not, you're out. [01:21:55] You've got divisions based on method and experience. [01:22:01] And so it goes on and goes on and goes on. But, my dear, supposing we brought them all together. [01:22:07] Supposing, just supposing, we brought them all together. Here we had the early Wesleyans with their doctrine of perfect love. And then we've got the Pentecostals with their baptism of the spirit. Well, those two might possibly get on a little better. But then when we bring up against them those with the teaching of inner life, what are you to do now? What is inner light? Someone says, inner light is Madame Guillaume. The friends toastaken Paul Gerhard and the others, they could be nothing more different than the experience of Madame Guillaume. Port Gerhard and tennis taken than some Pentecostals. [01:22:53] Madame Guillaume bleeds. She said, just sit quietly and quietly wait in silence, and God will meet you. This was the secret of the great Waker movement. Inner light. They called it. Illumination by divine light, the enlightenment of the being. Suddenly, they say, as you wait in quietness and silence upon God, not moving, not a single note anywhere, God will meet with you. Now, don't just look at me in utter horror. Because thousands and thousands and thousands of people. Came into the most revolutionary experience of the Lord through silence spread all over the country. And you mustn't just say it was Quaker. How do you explain Madame Guillaume? She never heard of the Quakers. [01:23:41] She was a Roman Catholic. [01:23:45] You can't explain ter Stego. You can't explain Paul Gerhard. Our most beautiful hymns, hymns sometimes that are rapturous in their content, came out of this experience of inner light. [01:24:01] Now, how do you explain that? Supposing we said, now, if you haven't had inner light, you can't join us. About two thirds of us, or 95% of us here would be shut out. [01:24:14] You see, it's impossible to build divisions on such experience. Well, we can go on. We could go on. We could talk about personal divisions and so on and so forth and so on within a company. [01:24:28] There is so much we could say, but we must end and say this, that we must give diligence to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. [01:24:38] And we've got to learn to distinguish between the unity of the spirit and the unity of the faith. [01:24:46] The unity of the spirit we have, and we are to maintain the unity of the faith we are going to arrive at. We've got to learn to distinguish between these two unities to maintain the unity of the Spirit whilst we are coming together to the unity of the faith. [01:25:04] It seems to me that that is the only way that you and I will be able in these days to know and to keep that oneness of Christ. As we hold fast the head. As we hold fast the head, we have the mind of Christ crucified. And if we have the mind of Christ crucified as we find it, Philippians two we are able to really love one another and serve one another, speaking truth, dealing truly in love. Now we'll end there. Maybe we'll have another evening. On the personal aspect of it all, this just this whole matter of what happens when someone puts their foot in it with you and tells you what they think you should do. [01:25:58] This is the kind of thing that ruptures the kind of thing that is the practical difficulty in this whole matter of the unity of Christ. It's not just an easy thing. It's not just something that flows easily. We have to learn how to maintain it. It is interesting that Paul says, give diligence. Give diligence to maintain the universe spirit in the bond of peace. Now may God help us. [01:26:32] May he interpret it to us as he alone can what has been said in a right way. Shall we pray now? Dear Lord Jesus, we do put pray that thou wouldst help every one of us to keep the unity of thy spirit in the bond of peace. [01:27:00] Lord, we live in days of so much complexity and so much contradiction of this very thing. But we pray, beloved Lord, thou hast enlighten us that we may not become in any way exclusive or in any way preoccupied with a thing. But, beloved Lord, we may be those who, in a spirit of divine love, keep and maintain that unity of thy spirit and enable, as it were others, to go on with thee and with us in thee. Now, Lord, we commit it all to thee in thine own precious name, asking, Lord, that thou wouldst make it real to everyone. [01:27:46] Amen.