Christian Unity vs Worldly Division

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

Are we under the law today? Okay, no.

Paul in Romans says we're under grace. So grace is better, but let me just say one thing about grace.

Grace is not a license. Grace is not a license.

Yes, we have freedom. We don't have all these restrictions and regulations, you know, offerings to make and sacrifices to keep and the feast days and the

Sabbaths. And I'm not saying that those things are bad, but when you look at God's law, it was quite burdensome or at least it became what they made of it.

It became quite burdensome. I'm not afraid to say I'm glad we're not under that system.

Are you glad you're not under? You don't realize how good you have it. So all

I'm saying is that the new covenant is better. Grace is better.

But grace in this newly found freedom that we have is not freedom to do whatever you want.

Because with great privilege comes what? Great responsibility. I was thinking about this.

Have you ever noticed that some of the Old Testament believers, even some of the great heroes of the faith, some of these guys were real.

Be careful what I say. Some of these guys were real rascals. Some of the things that they did.

And I'm not going to say that they got away with things. I'm not going to say that.

And I don't want to use this verse out of context. But Acts 17 verse 30 says, speaking of the old times and the times of this ignorance,

God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.

So I only say that to say this, that New Testament Christians, if anything, we have an even greater responsibility to live godly lives.

I don't know where this idea came from, but it's definitely out there. I've heard it my whole life where people view grace or the new covenant, almost like God is lowering the bar.

Have you have you encountered this? I know some of you have that. You know,

God in the Old Testament, he was pretty harsh. But in the New Testament, he's kind of softened up a little because of grace.

I don't know where that idea came from, but it's totally false. God has not changed.

Okay. God has not changed. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. God is immutable.

I am the Lord. I changeth not. The only thing that has changed is the covenant, right?

The covenant. So what is the covenant? We are now under the new covenant, the

New Testament of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Look at Galatians 3, 27 again.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, you have done what?

You have put on Christ. The Bible says in 1

John 2, verse 6, that if we say we abide in him, we should walk just as he walked.

That's not lowering the standard. That's not lowering the bar at all. Paul says something similar in Romans 13, verse 14.

He talks about put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.

So let me ask you, have you or are you daily putting on the

Lord Jesus Christ? He's talking about it like you're putting on an article of clothing, right? You get up in the morning, you take the pajamas off and you put on the new clothes.

Every day you do this, hopefully, right? So we should do the same thing every morning when you get up, make a decision, a conscious decision to put on the

Lord Jesus Christ. What's our responsibility? Think of it this way.

If you work at a job that requires a uniform, you know that once you go there and you put the uniform on, then you're expected to do certain things, right?

You're expected to uphold the company standard. People, when they look at you and they see the uniform, talking about putting on Christ, when they see the uniform, they know that you do what?

You represent the company. Do you know that you represent Jesus?

You represent Christ? For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

The Bible says that we are his ambassadors. So we're no longer children.

We're full grown adults. Christians bear the name of Christ and that comes with responsibility.

Ephesians chapter four, you can just make a note of this. Ephesians four, 13 and 14, talking about children and being brought into a state of maturity.

It says, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God to a perfect man, that is one who is complete, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.

So our inheritance comes through faith in Christ. We must remain faithful to Christ.

Don't be tossed to and fro. Some Christians are being tossed to and fro.

One day they're up, one day they're down. One day they're obedient, the next day they're not. One day they're firm in their beliefs and then the next day they have doubt.

They know what they believe, then the next day they're not so sure. We don't want that, do we?

We want to be firmly grounded. Now this was, going back to Galatians, this was a problem for some of the church members in Galatia.

Some of them were being carried away with this new wind of doctrine that was sweeping through the church.

Talking about the false teachers and the Judaizers. What was the goal of the Judaizers? You know, it's in the name.

If you think about the name, Judaizer, right? Judaizer.

So what was their goal? Their goal was to make these Gentile converts to Christ, Christians, they're trying to make these

Christians Jewish. You know, if you're going to come to Christ, if you're going to be saved, you have to first become

Jewish, meaning you need to come back under the law of Moses.

You know, there's no inheritance there. Speaking about the believers' inheritance, there's no inheritance under the law.

If you want to put yourself back under the law, the only thing you're going to inherit is a curse.

Because no man can keep the law. This is the foolishness of the people.

Well, you know, I think I'm going to heaven because I do all these good things. Do you really think that God looks at you and He's so impressed?

I mean, really, think about that. There's no inheritance under the law. The inheritance is in Christ, because God is going to give

Christ everything. And the only way we can be part of that is if we are in Christ, right?

So, how did people buy into this? Why would people want to go back under the law and give up their inheritance and all the rest?

Well, it's because the false teachers, they're sort of like Satan. Paul calls them ministers of Satan.

They're sort of like Satan. They're very cunning. They're clever. They're subtle. Here's the thing about people who are deceived.

They don't realize they're deceived, because they're deceived, right? So, the false teachers crept into the

Church. They said a lot of the right things. They kind of gained the people's trust.

And then came the false doctrines. So, they were deceiving people in the body of Christ.

This caused great division in the Church. Nothing causes division more than false teaching.

Just to help understand how divisive this Judaizing doctrine was.

What were they doing? They were dividing people. Jew and Gentile. Hey, you're not circumcised.

You're not keeping the law of Moses. And they were dividing the Church up into two groups.

You know, the circumcised versus the uncircumcised. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Lord, forgive me. But just to help understand how divisive this

Judaizing doctrine was. Dividing the Church into two groups. Pitting one group against another.

Imagine. Imagine if there was a Church where half of the members were white.

And half of the members were black. And they're all Christians. They're worshiping God together.

Loving one another in unity. That's great. That's a wonderful thing. That wasn't the case back then.

It was Jew and Gentile. But, you know, you can maybe try to make that comparison. But then imagine if somebody came in, a preacher came in.

And he started preaching that God loves white people more than he loves black people.

You'd have a little problem on your hands, wouldn't you? Or, let's say a preacher came in.

And he said that all white people are bad. And they need to repent. That would be a recipe for division, wouldn't it?

And, by the way, that latter thing is happening. It's called being woke. It's happening in churches all over America.

And that should be rejected just as the first thing. A racist preacher coming in, teaching that. Both are wicked.

Both need to be rejected. But you get it. If somebody came in and started teaching that, it would create division within the body of Christ, wouldn't it?

And if people started going along with it, that church would not be able to survive.

So, I say all of that to help us understand how serious this was. How divisive it was.

And what was at stake. The unity of the Christian church was at stake.

And there was this first century prejudice against the Gentiles.

This is why Paul says in verse 28, there is neither

Jew nor Greek. Now, were there Jewish people and Greek people? Obviously.

He says there is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. Now, are there male and female?

Yes. Are there roles for both? Yes. So, he's not undoing any of this. But his point is what?

We're to be united. We're all one. Don't worry about Jew and Gentile.

Men are not better than women. Women are not better. We're all one. Love one another. Come together in this.

That's a unifying message. That is the Christian message. The world wants to divide.

The false teachers want to bring that division into the Christian church. And Paul said, nope.

Not on my watch. Not if I can do anything about it. So, when a church experiences unity, that's when the people rejoice.

That's when God is most glorified. The false teachers, though, in Galatia were trying to sow the seeds of disunity.

That's how they were trying to devour the flock. And what does Paul call them?

What does Jesus call false teachers? They're wolves in sheep's clothing.

So, that kind of tells you something. They appear to be sheep. They appear, at least at first, to be

Christians. How does that happen? How are people deceived? You say, well, that could never happen here.

I mean, it happens all the time. So, we need to know. We need to be on guard.

If we know that, if we're not ignorant of Satan's devices, we can protect against it. So, that's why this kind of thing needs to be preached consistently.

But how do they gain people's trust? They come in and they say, we believe in Jesus.

That's what the false teachers will say. I know this will sound bad. Just give me an inch here, okay?

When somebody tells me they believe in Jesus, to me that really doesn't mean anything these days.

Oh, that's terrible. Somebody tells me, well, I believe in God. That means nothing. That means nothing.

It means you're not an atheist. So, what? Satan believes in God. Satan knows that God exists.

So, if somebody says, well, I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. Well, amen, on the one hand, praise

God. But, you know, there's a lot of people who say they believe in Jesus, the

Judaizers. Paul says they're false teachers, though. So, we can't be gullible is the point.

We need to test all things, hold fast to that which is good. Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website,

MorrisCornickChurch .com. We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.