The Savior’s Way—Unity, The Prayer

SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

Let’s speak about unity, a precious word that, well, regrettably, it has been misused and abused, but never from our Lord. Our study of unity is just ahead from the International Gospel Hour. Please stay right here.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:17

Hi, this is Jay Webb for International Gospel Hour. We’re so glad you’ve decided to listen to our program today. In a world of challenges, we need God’s Word to help us face those challenges. Thank you for joining us in this period of Bible study with our speaker, Jeff Archie of International Gospel Hour, a broadcast of the Churches of Christ. So let’s listen today. Here’s Jeff.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:46

Well, greetings everyone and great having you with us once again for this, our weekly broadcast of International Gospel Hour. We’ve been on the air since 1934 and we press onward and upward and we appreciate you making that happen by tuning in and being a part of our study. We also pause and thank our Jay Webb, our announcer. You’ll hear from Jay again in our program, and we appreciate having him each and every time letting you know about the things that we offer for your study and your use in between broadcasts. The International Gospel Hour mailing address is P.O. Box 118 Fayetteville, Tennessee 37334. We’re located about 20 miles due north of Huntsville, Alabama. Our website is internationalgospelhour.com. You can reach out to us toll free at 855-444-6988 and we would love to hear from you. If you have a moment, give us a call and tell us where you’re listening to our broadcast. We’d love to hear from our listeners and we do appreciate you very much. From the very outset, allow me to acknowledge some thanks to our friend and encourager, Paul Sane, and his work at sanepublications.com. Some years ago, Paul reprinted a book of wonderful sermons titled, The Savior’s Way. These sermons were proclaimed by the late Garland Elkins in 1965 at the Morrison, Tennessee, Church of Christ. These messages are relevant and worthy even to this day because, friends, the Bible is relevant today as it ever was. So today we’re going to speak from the Bible and study about biblical unity. However, in light of our study today, we want to pause for our J-Web, who has a free gift for you from us here at International Gospel Hour.

SPEAKER 01 : 2:53

Our popular free booklet, Something is Wrong, But the Bible is Right, is available once again. There is just too much confusion in the religious world, and this brief, concise study reminds us that the Bible is always right. Call us toll free at 855-444-6988. And leave your name and address and just say Bible Tract. That’s it. You may also go to our website at internationalgospelhour.com. Click on the contact tab and leave us the same information. Name, address and type Bible Tract in the message box. You’ll receive it very soon from your friends at International Gospel Hour.

SPEAKER 02 : 3:35

We are discussing this program, The Vital Theme of Unity. The majority of people do not realize how serious division is. Division is indeed very sinful. We read in James 3, 13-16, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from the Father, but it’s earthly, sensual, devilish. For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed. I do not think I have ever read a more graphic description of just how terrible, awful, and sinful division is than this. and we shall be discussing such passages. I hope that all of us will make the necessary applications of these scriptures to our needs. A man said that there are two types of people that go to church. One attends with a pitchfork, and he just pitches the truth over his shoulder to someone else and never applies it to himself, while the other type attends church with a rake, and he takes in the truth and applies it to his needs. Friends, let us use the rake. For Paul told Timothy, Take heed to yourself and to your teaching. Continue in these things, for in doing this you shall save both yourself and them that hear you. 1 Timothy 4.16 I am confident, knowing something about human nature, that we have people in this audience who are waiting to see what I will say so they can apply it to, well, someone else. Of our Lord it is said, Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear… Though he was a son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation. Hebrews 5, 7-9 In the very shadow of the cross, our Lord’s longest recorded prayer was prayed. This was certainly not his longest prayer, for before selecting his apostles we read, And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God, Luke 6, 12. But our Lord’s prayer in John 17 is his longest recorded prayer. He first prayed for himself. John 17.1 These things spake Jesus, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee. And in verse 5 he prayed, And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. He then prayed for his apostles in these words, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. and I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one even as we are. John 17, 9-11 Having prayed for himself and his apostles, he then prayed for all who would ever believe and obey him. In other words, he prayed for us. He prayed for 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. John 17, 20 and 21 Our Lord prayed for unity. He did not pray for some kind of loose, jointed union. There is a vast amount of difference between unity and union. It is possible to tie two cats together by their tails and throw them across a clothesline, but you certainly would not have unity. There will be some fighting and scratching. The religious world today, as a whole, is contending for union instead of unity. A number of years ago, shortly after I moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the Baptist preacher who preached for a large Baptist church that was located just across the parking lot approached me one day when we met at the hospital with the suggestion that I join the ministerial alliance. incidentally he was the president of it at that time I said I have some questions that I would like to ask you first of all would I be permitted to preach the whole truth on any and all subjects he did not seem very anxious to answer that question to give him a concrete example of what I meant by the whole truth I asked him would I be allowed to preach the truth concerning baptism, that is, that baptism is a burial in water for the remission of sins? Of course, he did not want me to preach that baptism was for the remission of sins. I then told him that he and the others of the ministerial alliance reminded me of a similar group who invited an old gospel preacher to one of their meetings, but strictly forbade him to even mention baptism and its necessity for salvation. The old preacher agreed not to mention baptism. He went to their meeting and kept his word. However, he read Mark 16, 16 like this. Then he went to Acts 2, 38 and read it like this. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and do that which I am not allowed to mention, and which this group of preachers do not believe anyway, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then he went to Acts 22.16 and read it like this, And now why tarriest thou? arise and do that which this group of preachers do not believe anyway, and which they have forbidden me to mention, calling on the name of the Lord. At that point, one of the older preachers leaped to his feet and said rather loudly, Go ahead and say it. You are making it worse the way you are doing it. Our Lord did not pray for a loose-jointed union wherein everyone agrees to disagree. Rather, He prayed for absolute unity. But quite often you hear people say, Our Lord does not intend that we be united here, but we are just to be united in heaven. But such people are just as wrong about that assertion as they are about any other error. Please listen again very carefully to John 17, 20 and 21. 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. Observe, please, that Christ said, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. Our Lord prayed for unity among His followers that the world might see that unity and be constrained to believe that there is indeed something to Christianity. That the Father did send Christ and that the world might come to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. If we, as followers of Christ, do not unite upon His truth in this life, we need not expect to be in His presence in the world to come. There are those who say that we cannot be united in this life, and yet those same people pray the model prayer of Matthew chapter 6 that our Lord taught His disciples. But if you advocate division, you cannot even consistently pray that prayer. Listen to a part of that prayer as recorded in Matthew 6, 9-10. After this manner, therefore, pray ye. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. We cannot pray this part of it today because the kingdom has already come, in fact. It has been here for over… Two thousand years. In 1 Corinthians 15, it is stated by Paul that Christ will reign until he has put the last enemy, which is death, under his feet. Then Christ will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father. So, Christ is reigning over his kingdom now. But we can certainly pray the part which says, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. I raise this question, is there a person in this audience who really believes that in heaven there will be a little partition here and another there and that the inhabitants of heaven will be divided? You know, friends, I do not believe a single person in this audience believes that. Well, if you do not, and if you pray the prayer, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, you, if you mean what you pray, obligate yourself to work toward the eliminating of division and the obtaining of unity. Everyone admits there will be no division in heaven. Therefore, there should be no division upon earth. Our Lord prayed for absolute unity, and we need to remember… For hereunto were you called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you as an example that you should follow his steps. 1 Peter 2.21 There never were hundreds of divisions between Christ and his Father. There never was one division between them. What kind of unity did Christ pray for? Listen to him again. John 17.21 that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. Again, John 17, 21. God is the God of peace. He did not send Christ to establish divided bodies to fight each other. Christ established but one church, Matthew 16 and verse 18. He did not establish a multiplicity of churches. 1 Thessalonians 5.23 says, And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our God is a God of peace. In 1 Corinthians 14.33 we read, For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. Earlier I called attention to the fact that where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion in every vile deed. Again, James 3. But God is not the author of confusion. There, God is not the author of division. I suggest further that Christ is the Prince of Peace. For listen to Isaiah 9, 6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Then in Ephesians 2, 14. Speaking of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and break down the middle wall of partition. The church of Christ is a kingdom of peace. We have this statement in Romans 14, 17, For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And we are admonished in Romans 14, 19, Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. Have you ever known anyone who violated this? Are there those listening that have violated this? then you know your duty. Observe, please, Romans 14, 21. It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbles. Incidentally, this verse does not say, whereby thy brother objecteth. Everything that we do that is right, somebody will object to it. I do not know of anything that our Lord has authorized that someone has not and does not continue to voice objection. Sin is the transgression of God’s law, 1 John 3 and verse 4. But my sin is not the transgression of your opinion. I know people who object to faith. Others object very much to repentance. I had a discussion with a preacher who objected to confession. I have had discussions with a number of preachers who have ridiculed and scorned and made light of the necessity of baptism for the remission of sins. I know of people who deny the importance of the Lord’s Supper. I know people who deny the necessity of simply singing as the Lord authorized or commanded. They are not content to do just what the Lord commanded. They are determined to corrupt their worship by adding instrumental music. I know people that ridicule prayer. Some oppose teaching. Some object to the contribution. Somebody opposes any and every act that our Lord authorizes in Christian worship. Some people seem to have been born in the objective case and in the kickative mood. Some people seem to get their exercise by jumping to conclusions. And that’s a very poor way of getting one’s exercise. The church is the kingdom of peace, and whoever disrupts the peace of the church stands guilty and condemned in the sight of God. Now, of course, if any kind of disturbance comes because one stands for the truth, he is not responsible for it, but the person that opposes the truth bears the blame. Elijah stood for the truth, but the first thing the wicked king Ahab said to him after it rained not on the earth for three years and six months was, Are you he that troubles Israel? Elijah replied to these words recorded in 1 Kings 18, 18. And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and you have followed Balaam. In other words, Elijah was saying to Ahab, Thou art the man. Again, I suggest to you that the gospel is the gospel of peace. In Ephesians 6 and verse 15 we have these words, And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Note the expression preparation. The gospel is God’s prescription to be taken in order to build us up. And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Acts 20, 32 If you are a Christian, did you not know that you have been added to the church in order that you might have peace, and that you might help to continue to maintain and to keep the peace? I call attention to Colossians 3.15, And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also you were called in one body, and be ye thankful. What is the motivating factor in your life? These passages are directed to those of us who are Christians. Some brethren have so much faction, jealousy, and hatred in their hearts to consign their souls to hell. At this point I hasten to ask, so then am I become your enemy by telling you the truth? There is nothing that means enough to me to cause me to compromise the truth. Like Peter, through weakness, in an unguarded moment, I might compromise the truth unintentionally, but I will not intentionally do so. Peter thought that he would not, but did. I am not saying how strong I am, but I am saying that I do not intend to do it. Peter did not plan it that way either. I pray, and want you to pray with and for me, that I shall never compromise the truth. Friends, it has a very solemn effect upon me to think of 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 12. Wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Whatever I shall say I need to first apply to myself. And if there is any part that I do not realize that I need, I will count you to be my friend if you will call that to my attention. And I assure you that I will count you my friend. However, on the other hand, I ask you to apply these truths that we have studied to your own needs. Friends, what a very humbling study of unity in light of Scripture, the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. And again, friends, what Jesus is pleading is not impossible for us to do. Earlier we discussed and offered a free booklet, Something is Wrong, but the Bible is Right. And friends, if we will but go back to the Bible, to the Scripture, and see God’s will for our lives and pursue it therein, then may it be. And may that be the direction we all go. Again, we appreciate the good lessons from the book, The Savior’s Way. We’re delighted to present these once again as they were presented well around 60 years ago. And dear friends, we will continue further thoughts on unity in our next weekly broadcast. Well, you’re listening to us right here. Join us again next time. But first, we’re not done yet. We have a very special offer for you. Earlier, Jay offered our popular free booklet, Something is Wrong, But the Bible is Right. Well, we also have another free study for you. This is a new Bible study available by mail from here at International Gospel Hour titled, God and Man, How to Be Saved from Sin. Our beloved friends down in the Beaufort, Georgia area have shared this material with us to share with you. This special study booklet addresses a number of questions about the salvation from God to man. And friends, like all of our materials, it is free. Now, you can call us toll free at 855-444-6988 and leave your name, address, and just say God and man. Several of you have done that, and we hope that you’re finding that study very helpful. You can also go to our website at internationalgospelhour.com, click on the contact tab, and leave us the same information, name, address, and type God and man in the message box. That’s another new Bible study that is free from International Gospel Hour. As a matter of fact, feel free to request both the track, Something is Wrong, but the Bible is Right. Just say Bible Track and God and Man, and we’ll put it all in the same envelope and send it to you as soon as possible. Now again, you can call us at 855-444-6988. Leave your name and address and just say God and Man, and also say Bible Track, and we’ll send it all to you from our broadcast today. If you’re at our website, you’re perusing through it and learning more about our work and seeing the things of which we offer. You can click on the contact tab and leave us your name, address, and just type God and man in the message box. Now, I’ll give you a third option. I don’t want to muddy the waters. But if you go to God-and-man.com, the little lines, the dashes in between, God-and-man.com, you can download the God and Man material free, so you can have it as quick as you’d like, if that is convenient as well. We want to help you in your studies of the Word of God. Indeed, friends, God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. And we want to pursue that peace that God provides, the peace that passes all understanding, Philippians chapter 4. And as we study the most important subject of unity, may we all become one as Christ desired. May we do so by returning to the Bible and to see God’s will for our lives. So again, in our next weekly broadcast, we will continue the study of unity. We do appreciate you tuning in today. And while we have a few more moments, and I have a little bit more time than I normally do… Again, our toll-free number is 855-444-6988. Now, if nothing else, give us a call and just tell us where you’re listening to our broadcast. We would love to hear from you. We’re very particular in preserving phone numbers, emails, addresses, and all of that nature. We keep that within ourselves. We work within ourselves when there are those desiring Bible study materials. We work with the Mount Leo Church of Christ in McMinnable, Tennessee, and they preserve those addresses and use them to fulfill Bible correspondence course requests. We have a number of tools that we think will be of help to you. Please check them out at internationalgospelhour.com. You can also click on previous shows and hear previous broadcasts. I really appreciate you joining me in this study today, and we’ll do so at another time. So thank you so much for being with me today on the International Gospel Hour. I’m Jeff Archie, and friends, keep listening.

SPEAKER 01 : 26:30

Thank you for listening today. May this study prompt your search of God’s Word for His will in your life. To assist you in your study or to listen to our other programs, please visit our website at internationalgospelhour.com. To God be the glory.