God-Approved Unity (Psalm 133:1)

Introduction

We’ve had a number of our young people recently put on the Lord and become Christians. And that really relates to some things I was saying this morning about not growing weary in the work that we’re doing of teaching and educating our young people in regard to the great things that God has done. And so we rejoice with all of our young people. And this is your faith. It’s not your parents’ faith. It’s your dedication to the things that you believe in. And I want to challenge all of our young people who have obeyed the gospel recently, cling tenaciously to faith. And don’t ever let it go. And I say that tonight because this lesson could be a disaster. I’ve been thinking, this is not something I came up with this week.

This is something I’ve been thinking about. It’s my sister’s fault, which I’ll explain in a little while. My little sister. I have an older sister, don’t mention her as much. She’s not always putting a bird in my saddle. But I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I’ve been thinking about how to preach this sermon. And I, if this isn’t going well, we could be done in 25 minutes. But I, and that wouldn’t be a good thing. This could be just the beginning of a series of lessons. But if I try to do all this in one night, it would be a disaster. You’d be dead. Okay, so we’re not we’re not doing that. But I was thinking about, since this is based upon some work that somebody else did, a very public proclamation.

I thought about, and I’ve talked to Daniel about putting the clip, the nine-minute clip on YouTube of this fellow’s argument, his sermon that he preached, and letting you see that nine-minute video clip and then preaching about it. We’ve never done something like that here. I don’t know that we’re ready for it, and so I never ran it by the elders. Although I think it would be appropriate. Again, I don’t think we’re ready for it. So now what that means is I’ve got to tell you what he did. And I’m not going to be able to give you the effect that the video would have. So let me just say this. I’m going to try to present this to the best of my ability the way it went down.

And I’m going to tell you, go to YouTube, and you can watch the video for yourself, but I want to warn you ahead of time. Okay? It’s a nine-minute clip. It’s easy to find. Now, let’s start here tonight. Unity is a wonderful thing. God wants unity. Jesus speaks of the unity that he has with the Father and purpose and character, so many other things. Unity is desirable and pleasant. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. We talked about the testing of our attitudes in the speak O Lord song that began our assembly tonight. And I think we need to test our attitudes. Is that what we want? I want to be in unity with everyone who lives in my area of the world and wants to be a part of this group who is in fellowship with God.

I need to have a unity with all of those people who want to be unified with me, who are doing the will of God and are in fellowship with Him. And we need to desire that. Okay? We see an example of such wonderful unity in Acts chapter 4. When I think of unity, I immediately go to the text of Acts 4, when the early disciples it says, and the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul. I think that describes what we need to be all about as the church at Decker Prairie. We need to be people who are of one heart and one soul. And not one of them claimed that anything belonged to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.

They shared with one another is the point of that materially. And with great power, the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And abundant grace was upon them all. And boy, don’t we need that for the abundant grace of God to be upon us all. There wasn’t a needy person among them. They would sell the things that they had according to verse 34, lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would distribute them as anyone had need. Certainly an ideal to give great effort. Did I emphasize that? Great effort to imitate.

1. Unity Must Be Accomplished on God's Terms

Unity must be accomplished on God’s terms.

Not my terms or any terms that we develop as the Decorary Church of Christ. Unity must be based on God’s terms. I renamed this sermon after I did this slide. It’s actually called God approved unity. So, if you’re taking notes, write that down. That’s the real title. God approved unity. And what I mean by that is seeking unity on God’s terms. Think about this. What good is unity if the congregation has been repulsed from fellowship with God. Like Laodicea. If you don’t repent, I’m going to spew you out of my. Oh, but we’re a unity here in Laodicea. We love each other and we serve each other. But what good is that? This compassion for one another, concern for one another. What good is that if we if we’ve been repulsed from fellowship with God?

Don’t let the warning of Jesus ever stray too far from your mind. Matthew chapter 7. Verse 13. Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction. And many go in thereat. And I just want to make a simple observation that what good is unity if we are embracing those that are on a path toward destruction.

The desire to incorporate the broad way into the narrow way is a very popular idea today. But the narrow way is what God defines. And he says, many are going in thereat, for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few there be that find it. I wish, God wishes, the majority of people would embrace his truth and walk his narrow path. But the fact is that most don’t. And then he warns about teachers who actually advance the broad way while claiming to be the narrow way. Wolves in sheep’s clothing, Matthew chapter 7 and verse 15. And there will be people who feel a kinship and association with Jesus, who say unto him, Lord, but they will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

2. Rick Ashley and His Chairs

They practice lawlessness. He goes on to say in verses 21 through 23. That is my introduction to the video of Rick Ashley and his chairs. And if you want to find this on YouTube to see what is the basis of this lesson, and again, if this doesn’t go well, it’s my sister’s fault, my little sister’s fault, who said something about this video to me. And I knew of this sermon. I’d heard it before. This happened several years ago in Abilene, Texas. And so I had to go back and look at the video again. Only nine minutes of the whole sermon is actually in this video. I tried to find the whole thing and couldn’t find it. But I found nine minutes, and this is Rick Achley and his chairs.

He’s sitting in chair number two. Now I could have brought a chair up here and demonstrated chairs. I’m just going to tell you got eight chairs. What’s it matter if I have eight props up here? So I’m going to explain to you what the chairs are about. He’s sitting in chair two of the sermon in this image. First chair. He begins discussing instrumental music before he talks about each chair. And it’s opposition in the 1800s by preachers like Moses Lard and J.W. McGarvey. Now, you may not know those names, or you may. And he says they opposed instrumental music on the basis of the silence of the New Testament scripture regarding the use of the instrument. And after he talks about these two preachers who opposed instrumental music on that basis, he said, but they supported the missionary society, and reportedly they argued that the Bible was silent about it.

Therefore, it’s okay. So the point that he makes is they’re opposed to instrumental music on the basis of the silence of the scriptures, and then they supported the missionary society on the basis of the fact that the Bible doesn’t say anything about it. And that was the audience’s first chuckle.

That sets the scene.

As it does. Now, to be fair, if Moses Lard and J.W. McGarvey were here, they would say how you painted that discussion is not what we believe. However, I have a problem with the missionary society too, but that’s another story. But then he says, that’s what we’ve done for 150 years. Now, then, whenever somebody says that’s what we’ve done, the question is who’s the we, whenever you hear that. Okay? But that’s what we’ve done for 150 years. We get to pick and choose when we want to enforce silence and when we want to ignore it. Who gets to decide what is unauthorized and what is expedient? Now that’s a loaded question. That question right there should be big red flag number one. Am I supposed to let Rick Ashley decide?

Or am I supposed to decide myself in regard to that question? Who gets to decide what is unauthorized and what is expedient? I want to tell you we all need to be deciding. What is authorized and what is expedient for us to do as we strive to please God and have unity with his people.

The first chair is all people who worship with mechanical instruments.

And again, if I’m if I’m not characterizing this exactly the way it is, go watch the YouTube video. That’s the objective standard of this. Okay. There are no liberals in our movement. Christian churches and churches of Christ, he said. My movement would not be categorized in those terms. But that’s the movement he’s talking about, Christian churches and churches of Christ. And he says, There are no liberals in our movement. Nobody who denies inspiration of the scriptures, the deity of Christ, his virgin birth, his bodily resurrection, his full sufficiency and atonement, his bodily return, his ultimate lordship. Okay, that’s seven things. Hold that thought. And then he says, The way we read the Bible, or he might have said this previously, the way we read the Bible will only produce division.

Again, who’s the we? And my question is, how are we supposed to read the Bible? The way we read the Bible will only produce division. Well, how are we supposed to read the Bible? Okay, we’ll come back to that thought too. So the first chair is instrumental music. Guy in the second chair, he pulls the second chair in, sits the second chair down. And the second chair guy is talking to the first chair guy and says, I can’t have fellowship with you because you have rejected the authority of the scripture. The Bible is silent in the New Testament regarding the use of instruments, and unless you give up your innovation, I cannot have fellowship with you. You are my erring brother. And the audience chuckled, which is interesting to me.

And so then he sets down the third chair, and the third chair guy is talking to the second chair, and that would be this chair, talking to the chair he used to be in there in the picture. The third chair speaks to the second chair and says, Well, the second chair says, I’m opposed to this guy because he teaches instrumental music, but the third chair says, But don’t you have praise teams? Where’s that? Where’s that in the New Testament? You have praise teams. And because you reject the authority of the scripture, and I can’t find that in the Bible, that’s a liberal innovation. I can’t fellowship you. And then he says, unity is getting harder and harder. Then there’s the fourth chair. The fourth chair speaks to the third chair.

As the third chair says, Well, I can’t have fellowship with those guys because one practices instrumental music, the other has praise teams. We don’t read about that in the Bible. And so the fourth chair says to the third chair, but you have Bible classes. You have Bible school. And there’s no pattern in the New Testament for that, he says. Innovation. Give it up, and we’ll have unity. And the humor grows as this chair thing goes on. Then the fifth chair is introduced, and that’s multiple communion cups. And then the sixth chair is introduced, and that’s a located preacher. And each chair, as you move across, has problems with all the previous chairs. And the seventh chair is the guy who worships in a church building. And that’s not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament.

So silence of the scripture is again the argument here. Now that’s the brief version of this nine minute story, and there’s a lot of laughter. And then this conclusion.

Now you’ve heard the motto we speak where the Bible speaks, and we’re silent where the Bible is silent. He quoted that. He said, but this is our real motto that in regard to the silence of God, we have a lot more to say. Is unity only to be achieved by surrendering to the conclusion of the most narrow-minded among us. Are we going to let the most narrow-minded person, I guess that’s chair seven, eight, nine, or ten, he said he could go on with this. We’re going to surrender to the conclusion of the most narrow-minded among us, and everybody else in the preceding chairs has to give up their practices and cater to this narrow-minded individual. Now, some of that may have gone over your head. But here’s what I want to say.

3. Generic and Specific Authority

And young people, this is important. I believe very strongly. We can understand what God wants us to do. We can understand what God expects from us in our individual lives and what we do corporately. What we do together. He didn’t make it only so a certain number of people, a certain religious hierarchy, could get it. The New Testament is understandable. Now I mentioned my sister, a little sister Annetta. She said, Tony, have you seen that sermon by Rick Ashley? Do you know about it? I said, Well, I listened to it once upon a time. She goes, I don’t know that I could answer that. And here’s the thing.

My sister is very seasoned and mature as a Christian. And she’s not sure that she could answer this because I have questions about that. And the first thing that did for me when she told me this over a month ago is I need to preach on this. I need to talk to our young people about this. And young people that I say this was important. This is important. You need to understand how the Bible speaks to us. How the Bible authorizes certain conduct and activity. And that’s why I said this may involve a good number of lessons. And you should not be persuaded necessarily by well-articulated arguments. You watch this video, and I’m saying this is a red flag, this video, in a lot of respects.

That seemed to make a lot of sense. That’s how a false teaching often operates. Especially for those who are very skilled. Now let’s go back to this real motto. Where the Bible speaks, we speaks, we speak, and where the Bible is silent. Well, we have a lot more to say. That argument that is the basis for all these chairs and the idea of surrendering to the most narrow-minded among us, that argument is flawed. The motto, speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent. Some of you I could ask you, where does that come from? And you would say, what verse? 1 Peter 4, verse 11. And that’s right. If any man speak, let him speak as it were, the oracles or utterances of God.

If any man serves, let him do so by the strength which God supplies. If any man speak, let him speak as it were the utterances of God. And again, that verse is saying we can know what God’s will is. I mean, this whole experiment of the chairs seems to suggest that we’re not going to be able to arrive at unity on these particular issues, so we all just need to get along. We all just need to get along because our hermeneutic is flawed to begin with. Hermeneutic means science of biblical interpretation. Our way of understanding the Bible is flawed to begin with because we speak out of both sides of our mouths in regards to silence. That is wrong. The motto, as I said, grows out of 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 11.

The point about silence is that we cannot derive our authority. This is what God wants me to do. For practices in things that God has not, and this is where I’m going to have to explain to you more in a later lesson. Unless God has said something by command, unless he has given us an approved example that is based in a command that we are to follow, like Paul said, the things that you have seen and heard in me, those things do, Philippians 4 and verse 9. Unless he has commanded us specifically, unless he has given us an approved example or implied, certain things should result in our practice, necessary implication or inference. That’s our way of knowing God’s will. Now, in those ways, if it doesn’t do one of those three things, if we don’t understand God’s will for us in one of those three ways, then we allow silence to be silence.

And we will not presume that any practice is okay beyond that. Now, as you’ve probably gone ahead to read, but in those ways of knowing God’s will, expediencies or ways of accomplishing them will be available to us that he has not specifically mentioned. God is silent about cars, for instance. But to use one in order to evangelize is not a violation of the motto. Speak where the Bible speaks. Cars are authorized, or a camel or a boat, and Paul used a boat, any mode of transportation that is necessary to go and to preach the gospel. And so it is not a violation of our motto when we say, speak as the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent. Here’s the point about that.

All authority, whether it be command, example, or inference, all authority has general and specific elements, or generic and specific elements. And the more general the instruction is, the more choices that are left at your disposal. To choose in a matter of judgment as to how those things are being accomplished. For example, psalm books.

But there’s a command to sing. The command to sing implies, and that’s why I talked about necessary inference a minute ago, implies that we are going to need songs to sing. The provision of a song book or two or slides or a teaching aid, as I’ve used in preaching today. Those things are helping us or aiding us or expediting the carrying out of God’s will, as is this building. And the lights in this building. And the seats upon which we sit. God expects all such judgments, sound systems, water fountain, first aid supplies, whatever might be provided, so that we can accomplish what’s that command? A symbol. Whatever might be needed to accomplish the command to please him. And he will expect us to invoke our best judgment.

Our careful judgment in determining how to carry out his will. We will be judged for unnecessary extravagances.

And that’s another whole lesson as well. So the first argument that I would make about Rick Ashley’s video is that what he says about our motto is flawed because it does not take into account a proper understanding of generic and specific authority. That’s why kids say, I don’t know what that means. I like to use this illustration. If I said, Oh, I’ve got a couple of books here. This is how this works. Take a book from my hand. Well, which one? You’ve got two choices. Take a book. If I said, and I wish they were different color, that would have helped here. Take the Bible from my hand. See, the more specific you get, take the book that is the Bible out of my hand. Oh, this is hard.

This authority thing is so hard. Take the Bible, the Bible out of. Wait a minute, that’s a psalm book over here. That’s excluded because you see, the more specific you get, the fewer choices. If you just say take a book, you got a couple choices. Take the psalm book out of my hand. This is the one that works. Did you get it? Sometimes I have four year olds come up here. I’ve done this before. Have a four-year-old come up and demonstrate. A four-year old that they understand generic and specific authority. The more specific it is, the fewer choices that you have, the more general it is, the more choices that you have. But that’s not treading upon the silence of the scripture where we go beyond what has been instructed or commanded or shown by example or implied to improvise and presume.

4. More Chairs: You Have to Draw Lines Somewhere

For example, he said, sing, not play. And again, this is a discussion that could go on for hours and hours and hours. But I’m going to show you another flaw in this. I want to make two observations that will be done tonight. The first observation, as we seek unity on God’s terms. I would like to add more chairs to Rick Axley’s sermon. He started with instrumental music, but I would like to go even a little more to the left. That’s my right, but as you look at it’s a left. You did that this morning. That scares me. Okay. Let’s go a little bit more to the left. What about the guy who his chair is sprinkling infants. Now the guy in the instrumental music chair says the Bible doesn’t talk anywhere about sprinkling infants, you see.

So now we’re going to the left, and now the guy in the first chair has a problem with this guy over here in this chair. And then you have this guy over here who is the Pope chair. And then the guy over here is the homosexual member chair, the practicing homosexuals can be forgiven if they repent. Okay, I want to be clear about that. But here, but here’s accepting homosexuality as a practice that God approves of. We’re going to have the homosexual chair. And over here we’re going to have the adulterer chair. On and on we go. I’m out of room. On and on we go to the left, you see. Well, now the guy in the instrumental music chair has a problem. I guarantee you’d be opposed to some of these things in these chairs over here.

My question is this. And again, it’s another whole sermon, but my question is this. Upon what grounds does this fella make that determination about the chairs to his left? Well, he’s going to invoke some standards or rules, right? The Bible seems to indicate about why that behavior to the left of him is not okay. We could extend this chair thing out a hundred chairs or more. You have to draw lines somewhere.

Remove the wicked man from among yourselves. Now that’s a line. There was an immoral man in Corinth, and apparently they should have known that there was a line there, and they should have enforced the line. And he said, remove the wicked man from among yourselves. Whatever God constitutes as the practice of wickedness that is not consistent with his holy standard, he says, remove that chair. Unless he repents. That’s a helpful guideline. What about the lust of the flesh in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 20? What about those who cause or sow discord and division? We’ve been talking about unity. Are there no practices which create division? And what about the insistence on the people of the left? And again, how far left are you going to go?

The insistence of the people on the left that the people on the right of them embrace them in their unauthorized practice. Who’s creating the division there? Is it me who says I can’t fellowship that? Or the guy that insists my practice is right, even though we don’t find that practice in the Bible. Who’s really causing the division? And let me tell you how this works. And I’ve seen this so many times.

And they get to keep their liberal practice for the sake of unity. I want to tell you that’s how that’s always how it goes. For the sake of unity, you narrow-minded people, and who’s narrow minded? The instrumental music guy is narrow-minded to the guys left of him. But you narrow minded people who are on the right side of me, you’ve got to give up your practice in order to fellowship me. Now I haven’t told you what I thought about every one of those chairs, but I, and that’s again another sermon. But I hope you’re seeing the principle here. Why is it that the left always expects and yea demands that those on the right compromise? Remember what actually said?

There are no liberals in our movement. Nobody who denies inspiration of scriptures, the deity of Christ, his virgin birth, and all those things matter, those things that he mentioned. But where does that list come from? Is that all there is? Is that all there is to the subject of unity and what God wants from us. Again, if any man speak, let him speak as it were the utterances of God. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We need to have concern for everything that God has instructed us. His list is a start. But it’s not exhaustive. And while differences do arise in the pursuit of this, from honest students of the Bible, differences do arise.

And they did in Corinth. And Paul admonished them to come to agreement. Speak the same thing, be of the same mind and of the same judgment. Unity is possible. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 10. Let me tell you something about this narrow mindedness over here. That is a negatively charged term. Now remember, this guy in this chair is narrow minded to somebody. But a lot of times that’s floated around. It is a negatively charged term, so that we’re supposed to be thinking all the way along. Narrow-minded, narrow-minded, more narrow-minded, even more narrow-minded, and that’s bad. Narrow-minded is bad. Something about Matthew 7 and the narrow way should come to mind here. The Lord’s people have always been the minority. Now that doesn’t mean the place that I’ve decided to draw the lines is absolutely right.

And that I’ve not been more narrow-minded than God is. That’s altogether possible. I’m not arguing that it’s not. I’m just saying that just to pigeonhole it is narrow-minded. Oh boy, these narrow-minded people. The media does that to you and me all the time. And I’m not sure who all the you and me is here in this audience. But I guarantee you, the media thinks your views of religious things are narrow-minded. And if you don’t believe me, just ask Bernie Sanders. And if you didn’t see that interview, you need to see it. It’s ridiculous. I didn’t mean to get on my soulbox there.

5. How Can We Come Together?

Let’s conclude this. How can we come together? And what I said in the very beginning. How can we come together in matters where we differ? Let’s talk about the unity God wants and expects. That’s what I care about. Again, all these specifics we can talk about another time. We can’t do that all in one sermon. But how can we come together? And the first observation that I want to make about that is that it’s never been easy. And there are no shortcuts. And whatever we’re going to say about unity, we’ve got to start, I think, with Ephesians chapter 4. Well, there’s a lot of places we could start, but this is a good place to start. As we’re instructed to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we’ve been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

We’ve got to be diligent. We’re going to have to work hard. It’s not going to come easily. And if I knew Rick actually and I had an interview with him, we’re going to sit down and we’re going to talk for a lot of hours about his chairs. And I would love to have the opportunity to do that. If somebody knows Rick and wants to set that up or show me how to set that up, I’d be glad to talk to him about his chairs. First century churches confronted challenges in regard to unity. What do you think the New Testament’s talking about?

Unity in diversity is a whole lot easier. That’s what Rick was promoting. Let’s just agree to disagree and lock arms. And then we find ourselves like some other preachers that Rick has some relationship with who says, well, we’re all in the same boat, but we’re just on different decks. Even though the guy on another deck doesn’t believe that baptism is essential to salvation. See where this goes? It’s just easier to say, well, there’s so much controversy and disagreement. Let’s just let it go and lock arms. But what are going to be the limits of your arm locking? Who are you going to lock arms with and who are you not going to lock arms with? And what’s going to be the determining factor? Well, it’s not going to be Muslims, okay?

Is that it? Why? And if you don’t know why, sooner or later you’re going to be locking arms with them. In fellowship.

You’ve got to know the reasons. So may I recommend seven things? Probably could have been more, but seven’s a good number. Unity is going to be found with, first of all, careful and disciplined thought. It is going to require honest self-examination. We’re going to have to overcome prejudices and longstanding tradition and practices that we’ve become comfortable with. We may have to overcome prejudices, placing human tradition and expediencies in their appropriate place. Just because we’ve always had two songs of prayer and another song doesn’t mean that expediency always has to be followed forever. There might be some other choices that are more expedient. The Bible doesn’t talk about the order of assemblies either. But we are to assemble, right? Okay, so don’t get messed up on silence on that.

Foregoing personal preferences in areas of judgment, like I just mentioned. Church is dividing over what color of the carpet’s going to be. Seriously? That’s not endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. If I am, look, if I’m the only guy that doesn’t want pink carpet, well, let it be pink. It might be a terrible idea. And I may be absolutely right. Pink carpet is a terrible idea. But I’m the only one. Everybody else wants pink. Can we forgo that for the sake of unity? Again, that’s simply an expedient choice. Humility. We’ve got to humble ourselves. You know, this isn’t about me being smarter than Rick. In fact, if we had an IQ test, he might beat me. Well, he might.

Yeah. A lot of you would. It’s not about being smarter than someone else. It’s about wanting God’s way. And then that leads me to seven. Courageous, total submission to all the will of God. And I’ve got to tell you, we cannot compromise that pursuit. There might be some struggles, there might be some challenges along the way, some different conclusions along the way that we’re going to have to work out and hammer out, but that’s always got to be the goal. And it’s some of the failures in one through six that cause us not to be able to arrive at seven. No shortcuts in this pursuit. God is patient and gracious with us, and we need to be gracious and patient with others. We do not all come to the truth at the same pace or at the same time.

Conclusion

I like what William Boyd said in his answer to the video. There is a world of difference between honest, erring seekers of truth and scheming, self-willed dreamers. God knows the difference. He will judge us individually and righteously. And that last call is his. But the standard for truth is unchanged. And an error is an error, nonetheless. Good response. So, what I’m encouraging by this lesson is a better understanding of how the Bible speaks to us, and that we have a right attitude about what God has given us. Possess a humble mind, loving his holy will, loving his people, but always exalting him. Is there someone in this audience tonight, like Hayden this morning, who needs to submit to the will of God and embrace salvation while there’s time and opportunity?

Let’s stand and say.