An Undivided Church

John chapter 17, and while you find it, I will thank you for letting us come. We've enjoyed it. Every time we come it's a delight to see that new people are coming in and the old folks haven't all apostatized.

But some of our family has gone to glory and we miss them. We miss them. And my memory is at the point now where I know the names of all my grade school teachers, but I don't know where I parked the car.

But just to see you faithful people, and you newcomers now, you newcomers, you're coming in on this. Somebody else paid the bills. Somebody else did the work.

Somebody else did the praying. Don't take it for granted. Do not take this church for granted.

We've traveled a good deal over the years and I know many communities that would rejoice with great joy if they had a church like this. So don't take it for granted and don't let it backslide because you don't want that to happen. We've been talking about the phrase where I am four times in the gospel of John.

Our Lord Jesus uses the words where I am. He's talking about heaven. In chapter seven he says if you know you're going to heaven you will have an uncompromising witness.

You won't be mean, you won't be arrogant, you'll not be militant, but you'll have just an uncompromising witness that Jesus is the only way to heaven. And he is. And then in chapter 12 he talks about planting the seed in the ground.

He says if you're going to be where I am you'll live an unselfish life. Any sacrifice we make in this life will be more than compensated for in heaven. The only thing most of us know about the word sacrifice is how to spell the word.

But when we get to heaven we'll find out that every pain we bore for Jesus, every misunderstanding, every work we did will be perfectly compensated because we're going to be with the Lord Jesus. So it's the secret of an unselfish life and it's also the secret of an untroubled heart. John chapter 14, let not your heart be troubled.

He says it twice. Verse one, verse 27. And it's easy to have troubled hearts these days.

There's a difference between a heart trouble and a troubled heart. Heart trouble they can give you medicine for. Troubled heart only God, the great physician, can handle.

And when you know you're going to heaven it calms your heart down. Not to complacency or indifference but peace in the midst of the battle. Christian peace is not the absence of war.

It's perfect confidence in the midst of the war. And now John 17 verses 20 through 24. If you know you're going to heaven you'll encourage an undivided church.

John 17 20. I do not pray for these alone, that is my disciples. Because in verses one through five Jesus prayed for himself and then six through 18 he prayed for his disciples.

Let me pause to tell you why. Those first apostles had a tremendous responsibility because if they failed we wouldn't be here. Spurgeon said I'm not worried about apostolic succession.

I'm concerned about apostolic success. And I think he was right. They were successful.

Here were a small group of men entrusted with the greatest message that cost the greatest price and that produces the greatest results. And if they failed then what? But they didn't. In fact we wouldn't be here if generation after generation after generation had not been faithful.

Now some of you young people wonder why grandma and grandpa or mom and dad or Sunday school teacher sits down and says now here's something you need to know. But we do that because this church is one generation short of extinction. Just remember that.

If our generation doesn't pass along the word to the next generation and they to the next there won't be any church. So the apostles were important. Then in verses 20 through 26 Jesus prayed for us.

Look down the centuries and said there's going to be some folks in Covington Kentucky. I'm going to pray for them. I do not pray for these alone but also for those who will believe in me through their the apostles word.

Now what does he pray? That they may be one. Six times in this chapter you find the word one. That they may be one.

It's back in verse 11. That they may be one as we are. That they may be one as you father are in me and I in you.

That they also may be one in us. That the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them.

Not I will give them. Not I might give them. I have already given them.

That they may be one just as we are one. I in them. You in me.

That they may be made perfect in one. And that the world may know that you have sent me. And have loved them as you have loved me.

Father I desire that they also whom you gave me. That includes all believers. The word give is used 17 times in this prayer.

This prayer is saturated with grace and the word grace is never used. But over and over again you've given. I give.

They give. You've given. Father I desire also that they whom you gave me as believers.

Isn't that interesting? Jesus was God the father's love gift to us and we are the father's love gift to Jesus. I wonder what kind of a gift I am. Somebody ever give you a crazy gift that's in the attic or the basement.

Or that's what that's what what flea markets are and that's what garage sales are. Just taking the junk people have given us and transferring it to another place. I wonder what kind of a gift I have been to Jesus.

Father I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am. That's heaven. Did you know that every time a believer dies that prayer is answered.

I was chatting with a dear friend today and she said is it true that when a Christian dies they immediately go to heaven. I said it's true. And one reason is because that's what Jesus prayed.

Now next time there's a death in the family. Somebody you love goes goes to glory. Just read verse 24 and say thank you father for answering that prayer.

That they may behold my glory which you have given me for you love me before the foundation of the world. Now our Lord is talking here about three important topics and they all sort of hang together. He's talking about the word one.

Six times he used the word one that they may be one one one. So we're going to talk about that the meaning of unity. And then he talks about the world.

Nineteen times in this prayer the Lord talks about the world. So we're going to talk about that because it's a very difficult thing to be a united church in a divided world. And then he talks about as you move on here he talks about the importance of the glory.

Now these all go together. Here I am in the world. I'm a part of the church and I want to be a peacemaker not a troublemaker.

I want to build up not tear down. I want to build bridges not walls. Here I am in the church and Jesus prayed that he wants his church to be one in a world that is filled with competition division.

And then he talks about glory and what he seems to be saying unless I'm wrong is that the more we focus on the glory we're going to be in heaven where I am said Jesus the better we'll be able to conquer the world and unite the church. So let's look at it now. Let's take that word one.

Six times he uses it. He says Father I want them to be one. Now when you read your Bible you come to the embarrassing fact that the saints didn't get along too well together.

Remember the little jingle we learned. I think we learned it in seminary to live above with saints we love will certainly be glory to live below with saints we know that's another story. And I understand in Texas there's a town you drive in and the sign on the church building says the Harmony Baptist Church.

It's a good name. As you drive out of town there's another church building and the sign says the new Harmony Baptist Church. Now let's face it.

From Cain killing Abel all the way through scripture you find division dissension opposition. In fact the psalmist said how behold how good how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. When Joseph's brothers were going to go back down to Egypt then they found out that Joseph was alive and Joseph sent him back to get daddy and everybody else.

Bring him down here and he said by the way don't fall out along the way. He knew him. When I was teaching in seminaries every once while a very zealous student would raise his hand and say sir wouldn't it be good if we got back to the churches in the New Testament.

I said fine which one do you want? Corinthian church? That wasn't a church it was a rescue mission. They were getting drunk at the church suppers and they were divided four ways and the people with spiritual gifts were showing off in the meetings. You want that? The Roman church the Jews were saying Jewish Christians oh you can't eat that stuff and the Gentiles would say what kind of saints are you? Divided over holy days and diets.

Galatians they were biting and devouring one another. By the way you know Paul wrote first Corinthians 13 not for weddings, not for funerals, but for business meetings because he was talking to a bunch of people who were fussing with each other. Wherever you go Philippians that was Paul's favorite church.

Two women couldn't get along with each other very odd problem in a church. I beseech you odia I beseech syntyche that they be of one mind in the Lord. Dr. Ironside used to say it's no wonder they couldn't get along one was odious and one was soon touchy.

Well it's a bad translation but it does say something. So here in the church at Philippi a happy church, joyful church. Two women fussing could just well been two men.

In Colossae they were a bunch of big heads a bunch of egotists divided on false religion and all kind of craziness. The Thessalonian church was having problems over prophecy. We don't have that today.

We we all know what's going to happen. I really don't know as much about prophecy as I used to but I'm looking forward to the Lord's coming more than I ever have. I preached a sermon here one night one Sunday night on prophecy.

I covered the waterfront like it'd never been done. I mean this was a sermon. An unknown to me hiding in the back was one of my preacher friends from northern Kentucky.

He had sneaked in for the evening and when the meeting was over he came out to me he said I want to give you a word of advice. I said what's that? He said get get off of the planning committee and get on the welcoming committee and I did. I did.

So the church has been divided and the church is divided. There's no sense. We bravely sing out we are not divided all one body we and it's true theologically practically no.

No. That's why Jesus prayed I want them to be one and he gave us the reason because the world is watching. The world is watching.

You see the unity he's talking about here is not theological unity it's visible unity. This church like the church that my wife and I belong to has to constantly say what are we doing in this community to let people know that the church is one. I don't mean every church is a Christian church.

No. I don't mean that every preacher is preaching the gospel. No.

What I'm saying is that around this world is a great multitude of believers different colors different genders different incomes different education and the Lord wants us to be one. We've traveled a good deal and been in all kinds of situations. We've worshipped God in the middle of Zaire and other places.

Your pastor's done the same thing. We've met people who have had a different background from ours but they love the Lord and Jesus said I want you to be one. That simply means that when you meet a Christian you don't try to figure out where you disagree.

Try to figure out what you have in common. I can fuss about a lot of things. I'm a fusser.

I'm Scandinavian. We Swedes are Norwegians are worse but we Swedes are my wife is Norwegian. I'll hear about this but I have a coffee mug at home that says living with a Norwegian builds character but I can fuss and there are people who are always finding out where do we disagree instead of where do we agree.

So Jesus wants us to be one. Now what does that mean? Does it mean one denomination? Does it mean one person ruling everything? Does it mean the church is totalitarian and told what to do? No no no. We're going to go on just a little just a little bit of a of a journey.

Turn to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Now we all know one and two where individually we're to present our bodies and our minds and our wills to the Lord but now in verse 3 of Romans 12 Paul begins to talk about the local church and in verses 4 and 5 he talks about the unity of the church.

We have many members in one body. We being many are one body members one of another the unity of the church. We are one body.

We may not look like it we are one body. Then in verses 6 7 and 8 he switches gears and begins to talk about the diversity in the church having then gifts differing. Isn't that great? We all don't have the same gift.

It'd be an awful thing if all of us were bible teachers all of us were preachers. We all don't have the same gift and every gift is important. So he moves from the unity of the church to the diversity.

He talks about the various gifts. Now if the church is a unity and if the church has diversity how do you keep these two from destroying each other? That's what was happening in Corinth. Unity without diversity is uniformity and that's not the church.

But diversity without unity is chaos and that's not the church. See that's why the Lord used so many different symbols of the church. My body the body human body is a picture of the church.

My body is one. I heard about a schizophrenic guy who walked into a psychiatrist's office and said I'm schizophrenic and so am I. But I'm not schizophrenic. I'm one body but it's made up of many parts.

The whole body is not a gallbladder which is a good thing for me because I don't have one. I'm an Israelite in whom there is no bile. The church is a body.

There is one but there is diversity within that body. The army is one but there's diversity within the army. The family is one but there's diversity in the family.

So you have unity and diversity. Now what keeps them from killing each other? What he talks about in verse 9. Let love be without hypocrisy. Maturity.

When you have unity and diversity the thing that keeps them from destroying each other is maturity. What keeps a family from destroying each other? People grow up. They start acting like grown-ups.

What destroys a marriage? Somebody acts like a baby. A husband and a wife are one but they are diverse. One's male, one's female.

One likes to shop, one doesn't. Now what keeps the two from destroying each other? Love. What keeps a church from destroying itself? Love.

Now we saw that in Romans turned to 1 Corinthians 12. Now I'm going to repeat this until it sinks in because one of these days you're going to need to remember this. 1 Corinthians 12 verses 1-13 he talks about unity.

Verse 4, same spirit. Verse 5, the same Lord. Verse 6, the same God.

Verse 7, our gifts are for the prophet of all. So in 1-13 he talks about unity. He ends up in verse 12, the body is one.

But then down about verse 14 he starts talking about diversity. In fact the body is not one member but many. So there's many members in one body and he goes into that discussion of diversity.

The eye says I'm the most important part of the body. Well good, would you please start the car? Well eyes can't start cars. The hand says I can start the car and yet I'm the most important part of the body.

Oh that's interesting. It's kind of hard to walk on my hands. The foot says see I'm the most important part.

Every part is important. So we have unity, we have diversity. And in the Corinthian church they were destroying each other.

That's why Paul wrote chapter 13, maturity. When I became a man I put away childish things. Childishness and immaturity destroy a church.

Some years ago a Russian commercial plane crashed in Siberia, 75 people killed including the crew. They found the black box, began to play it, and they were horrified. The pilots, 16 year old son and nine year old daughter were flying the plane.

And on the black box it says daddy can I push this button? Well now move away. Well pull it back up now. And then you hear the boy's voice will say daddy if I find out that the pilot is going to have his kids flying the plane I'm hitchhiking home.

But I've been in churches where they allowed immature people to get into places of leadership. They almost wrecked the plane. Paul says we have unity but we have diversity.

Now mature people who practice love and don't treat this in a childish way can make this work. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4. You're probably wondering when am I going to get around to the theme. I'll get there just be patient.

Ephesians 4. In verses 1 through 6 he talks about unity. Verse 3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit. One body, one spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father.

Unity, unity, unity. Then in verse 7 he says but unity without diversity is uniformity where everybody does the same thing at the same time in the same way. That's boring.

If there was one thing true of the early church it was it was not boring. You never know how many of them would be in jail the next day. You say we have our prayer sheets.

And these are good. It's good to have these prayer sheets. But if this were a New Testament church there'd be another column in here that you don't have.

Members in jail. Now it's possible some of you ought to be. I don't know.

But we don't do this. But they did. So he begins with unity.

But, verse 7, to each one of us grace was given. Each one of us. I'm always into diversity.

Verse 11, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints. Ah, maturity. Why do we come to church? It's the accepted thing to do.

I might meet a customer. I can sell some insurance to him. I might find a boyfriend.

I might find a girlfriend. Stay home. Why do we come to church? To use the spiritual gifts God has given us to help other people.

I have very few gifts. All I can do is teach, preach, because God gave to me a gift of teaching. And so I've pastored and I've taught and I've taught in seminary and I've written books to teach people.

But there's so many things I can't do. And so I've been smart enough to get around me when I've been in ministry, people who can do things better than I can. Let them exercise their gift.

One of the joys we're having now as we work with the university students is to see what gifts God has given them and say, you know, you ought to go off to seminary someplace. You ought to get some training. Oh, you'd be wonderful on the mission field or in the local church.

So here's the same pattern. Unity, diversity, maturity. Verse 13, till we all come to the unity of the faith, to a perfect man, a mature person, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

How do you know if a church is successful? He just told us. The people are more and more like Jesus. When there's a committee meeting, they act like Jesus.

When there's a disagreement in the finances, they act like Jesus. The more a church becomes like Jesus, the more mature it is. The more mature it is, the more there will be diversity and unity and it won't be a bunch of cookie cutter carbon copy Christians.

That's the word one. I'm going to mention a name. If you recognize that name, raise your hand.

Ready? Edgar A. Guest. Not too many. Edgar A. Guest.

Who was Edgar A. Guest? A poet. He lived in Detroit, Michigan. And would you believe that newspapers used to publish his poetry? You don't put poetry in newspapers anymore.

This is my favorite Edgar Guest poem. I watched them tearing a building down, a gang of men in a busy town with a ho heave ho and a lusty yell and they swung a beam and a sidewall fell. I asked the foreman, are these men skilled in the kind you'd hire if you had to build? And he gave a laugh and said, no, indeed.

Just everyday labor is all I need. I can easily reckon a day or two what builders have taken years to do. And I thought to myself as I went my way, which of these roles have I tried to play? Am I a builder who works with care, measuring life by the rule and the square? Am I shaping my deeds by a well-made plan, patiently doing the best I can? Or am I a wrecker who walks the town content with the labor of tearing down? There are in every community people I call the nomads.

They get mad, they say no, and off they go. And they've been in every church in town. We have them in Lincoln.

And they're wreckers. And yet there are people who say this is my gift. I'm going to promote the unity of God's people by using my gifts in a mature way.

I don't think everybody has to be like me. I don't think everybody in this church has to agree with me. But I am going to promote the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace because I want to be mature.

I doubt that there's a married couple here who within the first two years of their marriage couldn't have had a wing ding argument that led to a divorce. We don't think about it. Are you a builder? Are you tearing down? Jesus talked about one.

Now, without going into great detail, he talked about the world. Nineteen times in this chapter, he talks about the world. There are three meanings.

Sometimes he uses the word world to mean the planet. Verse five, and now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was such a planet. Sometimes he's talking about people.

Verse nine, I do not pray for the world. I don't pray for the people on planet Earth. That surprises some folks.

They think Jesus is up in heaven praying for lost souls. He's not praying for lost souls. We are.

He's not. Last time he prayed for lost souls was on the cross. Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing. He's praying for his church because it's the church's job to go out and reach those lost souls. So, sometimes world means people.

Sometimes it means the planet. And sometimes it means the system. Verse six, the man whom you have given me out of the world.

That means out of the world system. The apostles hadn't ceased to live on planet Earth. Verse eight, I have given to them the words which you've given me.

And they've received them. Now, what happens? Verse nine, I pray for them. I don't pray for the world because they don't belong to the world, you see.

So, here we have Jesus saying the world is watching. My people are in the world, but they're not of the world. But I've left them in the world that they might witness to other people to get them out of the world, the world system.

We hear this every day. You turn on television and watch the news. I don't because I think television manufactures the news.

It doesn't report it. But that's beside the point. You're watching television and somebody comes on and said, now the news from the world of sports.

Now, what is the world of sports? Is that a special continent, a special planet where only athletes live? No, no. It's all the people and all the plans and all the money and all the motives and all the things that go into sports, the world of finance. So, when Jesus talks about the world, he's talking about sometimes planet Earth, sometimes people, and sometimes the system.

Now, here he's talking about people. Look at verse 21. What's wrong with the world? The world doesn't believe that Jesus was sent by God, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.

Down verse 23, that they may be made mature in one, that the world may know that you've sent me and you've loved them. Now, hear me and don't be angry with me. When Christians are fighting with each other, how can you tell the world that God loves them? That's the problem.

How can anyone in Lincoln, Nebraska, where we live, believe that God loves lost sinners when church folks don't even love lost sinners? If you're a certain color, you can't get in. They're ignorant that Jesus was sent by the Father and they're ignorant that God loves them. And verse 14 says they hate us.

I've given them, the disciples, your word and the world has hated them because they're not of the world, the world system, just as I am not of the world system. They hate us. They don't know that God loves them and they never will know as long as we're fussing with each other.

Go back to Ephesians, would you, for just a moment. Chapter 1, verse 10. Why did Jesus come to earth to die? Here it is.

That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, when God wraps everything up, he might gather together in one all things in Christ. Jesus is in the business of putting things together. The devil's in the business of tearing things apart.

Jesus puts things together through faith, hope, and love. The devil tears things apart with sin, lies. And so our Lord says, Father, help them to be one for the world's sake.

Now we must hurry to our third thought about the glory. Eight times in this prayer, Jesus talks about the glory. Now there are four different aspects of this glory.

When you read your Bible, you've got to discern. He talks about his own eternal glory. Chapter 5, the glory which I had with you before the world was, his eternal glory.

Jesus did not come into being in the womb of Mary. He existed before Mary, before Abraham, before Adam, before the world ever was. He was existing in the glory of heaven.

That's the first kind of glory he's talking about. Verse 4 is his incarnate glory, the glory he had here on earth. I have glorified you on the earth.

I've finished the work which you have given me to do. Then there is his ascension glory. After he finished his work, he went back to heaven and received glory.

There is today a glorified man in heaven. Verse 1, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son also may glorify you.

Verse 5, glorify me together with yourself. So when Jesus returned to heaven, he was glorified as the king, the priest, the glorified man in heaven with wounds on his body. See, when I get to heaven, when I have my glorified body, there won't be any wounds or blemishes or weaknesses.

But my Savior, when I see him up there, is going to have wounds, not scars. Hymn writers talk about scars because it rhymes easier. But the Bible doesn't talk about scars.

It's wounds. The only work of man that will last for all eternity in heaven are the wounds on the body of Jesus, constantly reminding us, I died for you. I died for you.

God's desire is that his glory shall be with his people. In Genesis, Abraham walked with God, Enoch walked with God, Isaac walked with God, Jacob walked with God. In Exodus, God says, I've been walking with you.

I want to settle down with you. Moses, make a tabernacle. They made a tabernacle.

They dedicated it. The glory came in. The tabernacle was at the center of the camp.

The very center of the camp was the glory of God. Is the central thing in your life the glory of God? Is the central thing of this church the glory of God? What can we do that will glorify God the most? Well, then Israel sinned. They got some wicked priests, and one day they said, Ichabod, the glory has departed.

There are hundreds of church buildings over which you could write Ichabod, the glory's departed. They're going through the motions. Their machine is turning around, but the glory's departed.

Then God gave David the blueprint for the temple, and David had amassed all the wealth. David called Solomon in and said, Solomon, you're going to build a temple. Solomon says, I've never built a birdhouse.

He said, you're going to build a temple. So Solomon built a temple, dedicated it to God. You know what happened? The glory moved in, so much so that the priests could not function.

So glorious was the presence of God. Now, you'd think everything would be fine from now on, but it wasn't. When you read the book of Ezekiel, chapters 9, 10, 11, you see the glory departing because God was going to destroy the temple, and he did.

Well, then the glory came back. Jesus was born. John chapter 1, verse 14, and the word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory.

So the glory came back. What did we do to that glory? Nailed it to the cross. Crucified the Lord of glory.

He went back to heaven after being raised from the dead. Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down. And now every believer has the glory down inside.

If you're saved, you've got the Holy Spirit, and you have the glory down inside. In fact, Jesus says here, the glory that you gave me, I have given them. Oh, you say, someday we shall be glorified.

That's true. We've already been glorified, just hasn't been shown yet. That's all.

In fact, in Romans 8, Paul says, whom he justified, them he also glorified, not will glorify. We already have the glory. That's how sure we can be of heaven, and Christian living is just letting the glory come out so that people don't pay any attention to us, but they pay attention to God.

You know what it means to glorify God? I'll give it to you in one sentence, to make God look good. God doesn't look good to people, but they don't think about him. United Nations doesn't worry about God.

They don't worry about God. Media don't worry about God. A young preacher friend of mine called me and said, I have to go speak at this meeting, and they've told me I could not mention Jesus.

I said, I'll stay home. I'd stay home if I were you. To glorify God means to make God look good.

Now, says Jesus, God's glory dwells with his people. This local church, when it assembles, or whatever church you belong to, if it is a gospel preaching, Christ honoring church, when they assemble together, God's glory is there. It has to come out.

Now, we get to the point of what he said in verse 24. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me, that's us, may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me. Because when that happens, the glory which he has given us will shine forth.

Paul said that all of creation is groaning and travailing in pain, just waiting for the time when God allows that glory to shine. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. In other words, if we're going to heaven, where we're going to see his glory, while we're waiting, we need to show his glory.

Now, let me explain that. Let's get down to brass tacks and then go home. Here's a saint in the church I don't like.

Might love him. There's a difference between Christian love and liking people. There are people to whom I have shown depths of Christian love.

I wouldn't want to spend two days on vacation with them. I'm sorry. And if you're honest, you'll say the same thing.

Christian love means I treat you the way God treats me. God listens to me, so I'll listen to you. God forgives me, I'll forgive you.

God helps me, I'll help you. But I may not want to live with you. Here's somebody in the church, I'm the pastor, here's somebody in the church who's a real problem, and I'm praying, dear God, there's bound to be some church needs this person.

Pastor and I have a very dear friend who's now in heaven. Somebody asked him, what do you do with problem people in the church? He said, I pray for funerals. He said, by the way, my record is pretty good.

How do I get along with this? Somebody in your family, some in-law or outlaw, you can't get along. What do we do? We say, look, I've got the glory down inside, and he's got the glory down inside, and so let's forget the externals and major on the internals. You know what splits churches? Externals, people wanting to be important.

God doesn't get the glory, they get the glory. You see, in the church it's not important whether you're rich or poor, educated or uneducated. According to Galatians, male or female, bond or free, Jew or Gentile.

We could split this congregation right now a dozen ways if we majored on the externals, starting with politics, but that's not what's important. The important thing is, is pastor has the glory down inside. I've got the glory down inside, so we forget about the externals.

I may not like your aftershave lotion, but that's not important. You've got the glory, I've got the glory, and so I say, we're going to be walking the streets of gold together. Down here we can avoid each other, up there you can't avoid each other, and as much as you've got the glory and I've got the glory and we're going to see the glory, let's clarify God by seeking to work together.

I had a church officer attack me physically, not here, attacked me physically. For five years I've been praying that God would break his heart, God would change his attitude, creating problems. God finally solved the problem very painfully.

So our Lord is saying, don't major on the externals, major on the glory on the inside. Fellas, there may be some girl chasing you, she wants to be your girlfriend, and she might look like somebody's science project, and you don't want to go with her, but if she's got the glory and you've got the glory, together you can glorify God in the way you straighten that out. It means something else.

We major on the internals, not the externals. We realize we're going to be together for all eternity. Let's start here, and it reminds us we're going to be where he is, and where he is, he is the center of everything.

Now just read the book of Revelation. Our Lord is not sitting off in a corner, Jesus is not sitting off in a corner saying, I wonder what's going to happen. He's in the midst.

He's in the midst of the candlesticks. That represent the churches, and he said, I got a message for you people. He's in the midst of the elders, and the seraphim, and the throne, and I want you to know something.

If we're going to be where he is, we better put him here on earth where he ought to be, at the center. It's not important that what Calvary Church does pleases me or you. Does it please Jesus? This decision that we've made, does it put Jesus at the center? Now I'm going to meddle.

I don't want anybody to be upset. Heaven is a place of worship. When you read the book of the Revelation from beginning to end, it's worship, worship.

There are so many wonderful worship scenes up there, and Jesus is in the middle, the lamb slain from before the foundation of the earth. God wants that kind of glory in his churches today. Can I read you a passage from 1 Corinthians 14? Please be patient.

Paul's writing to the Corinthians saying, you know, you're fussing all the time. The tongues people want to do all the talking. The prophecy people want to do all the talking.

Somebody else wants to do that. And you're using your spiritual gifts as toys to play with, not tools to build with. You're using them as weapons to fight with.

You want to be important. The only person who's important is God. Worship is not about the church.

It's not about music. It's not about instruments. It's about God.

We come to God's house because we love God. Years ago, A. W. Tozer said it's very difficult anymore to get anybody to come to a meeting where God is the center of attention. We have to have sword swallowers and all sorts of things.

Now, listen to what Paul wrote, 1 Corinthians 14, 23. Therefore, if the whole church comes together in one place and all speak with tongues and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, visitors coming in, will they not say that you're out of your mind? And they would. Worship is orderly.

But if all prophesy, now that means giving the Word of God, one by one they get up and give the Word of God. And an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all. He is convicted by all.

And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed. And so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you. When was the last time we saw anything like that? Where the presence of the glory of God was so evident that there was no place for people to show off, no place for people to magnify themselves.

God was there. And the unbelievers heard the Word of God and were convicted and were converted and fell on their faces. Oh, that can't happen anymore.

Oh, yes, it can. Oh, yes, it can. Some years ago, I preached for the first time at the Brooklyn Tabernacle where my friend Jim Simbel is a pastor.

And I could not believe I preached a simple gospel message. We gave the invitation. I could not believe what happened.

People came forward. They handed us knives, cigarettes. At one meeting, I wasn't at it, but at one meeting where Jim preached, a guy came up with a gun, crying.

And it wasn't because I preached a great sermon. No, no, no. It was because God was there.

You sense the glory of God. You know why? While I was preaching, 30 or 40 people were praying. In fact, for 24 hours, day after day, they just keep praying.

Three thousand people at prayer meeting, praying, and God's glory is manifest. Now there are other churches like that, I'm sure, and there have been times here when you have sensed the presence of the Spirit of God. So to sum it all up, if you know you're going to heaven, you're going to be a part of an undivided church.

Are there things wrong with this church? Sure. You know why? We're people. I've told my students over and over again, I've got the simple solution to every church problem.

Get rid of the people. But then you have no church. I'm going to heaven.

You're going to heaven. We don't see prophecy quite the same way. That's okay.

On the way up, we'll discover who's wrong. And who cares anyway? You like this, and I like that, and I don't like that, and you don't like that. That's all right.

Whatever Jesus is glorified by, that's what we like. He's in the myth. The next time you sing Amazing Grace by John Newton, please remember that he wrote an interesting letter in 1757.

He wrote it to George Whitefield, the great evangelist. This is what he wrote. Relax and listen.

The longer I live, the more I see of the vanity and the sinfulness of our unchristian disputes. They eat up the very vitals of religion. I grieve to think of how often I've lost my time and my temper in that way, in presuming to regulate the vineyards of others when I've neglected my own, when the beam in my own eye has so contracted my sight that I could discern nothing but the moat in my neighbor's eye.

I allow that every branch of gospel truth is precious, that errors are abounding, that it is our duty to bear an honest testimony to what the Lord has enabled us to find comfort in, and to instruct with meekness such who are willing to be instructed. But I cannot see it my duty, nay, I believe it would be my sin to attempt to beat my notions into other people's heads. When our dear Lord questioned Peter after his fall and recovery, he said not, art thou wise, learned, and eloquent? No.

He said not, art thou clear, and sound, and orthodox? But this only, do you love me? An answer to this was sufficient then, why not now? And I have learned over these years, learned it the hard way, that some of the people I thought had blemishes, they weren't blemishes at all, they were scars, they'd been in battles. I was criticizing them when I should have been saying thank God for them. We're not obligated to agree on everything.

My wife and I will celebrate the 50th anniversary of marriage next year. We don't agree on everything, but that's not important. I pastored three different churches.

We didn't always agree on things, but that's not important. The important thing is we agree on the one thing. We've got the glory, you've got the glory, Jesus is in the midst, let him be glorified.

When you know you're going to heaven, you are part of an undivided church. God never called me to break up a church. On doctrinal matters, yes.

If my board says to me we don't believe in the virgin birth, we're going to do something. That's not what we're talking about. I have never seen a church yet really ruined by bad doctrine.

It's usually trivia, and therefore all of us are going to say, I know I'm going to heaven, I know it, therefore I'm going to have an uncompromising witness. I'm not going to push Jesus off to one side. I know I'm going to heaven, therefore I'm going to seek to live an unselfish life.

Let God plant me where he wants me. I'm going to have an untroubled heart, and when it comes to God's people, I'm going to promote an undivided church. Saint Augustine put it this way, in essentials, unity.

In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity, love. I think that's a good way to approach it.

O gracious Father, help us as your people to be peacemakers and not troublemakers. Help us to be faithful in the places where you've put us, and help us to present to a watching world the kind of loving unity that glorifies Jesus. I pray for any unbelievers here tonight, people who are not going to heaven, that Lord you'll speak to them.

For Jesus' sake, amen.