Unity — Peter Orasuk

Unity in Psalm 133

Psalm 133, Psalm 133, Song of Degrees of David. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments, as the dew of Hermon, as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.

But in particular, this verse, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. I know you know that that word there is the word for a oneness or a term of accord. It's actually a musical term.

It's the term for harmony. Harmony. Now, turn with me please to the book of Ephesians in chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. I'm reading in verse 4. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ.

By grace you're saved. And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Verse 14, please. Our peace, who have made both one, both one, and have broken down the middle wall of partition between us, have abolished, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in the ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man.

So making peace. Now, you'll have the expression there, one new man. And some who have, there's about four different publications of Bibles that will have a reference in your margin to the passage in 2 Corinthians 5 and 17.

Let me say this, the only thing they have in common is the term, the new man. In fact, it is a different truth altogether in both of them. Here it's the thought of two nations, two distinct individuals or groupings of people being made one company.

So it's not talking about the new man of 2 Corinthians 5 and 17, which is a positional truth relevant to the believer in Christ. Now turn with me please to the book of 1 Corinthians and chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 16.

I could read a lot here, but we'll just read this passage. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion or the accord or the fellowship of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

For we being many are one bread, one body. For we are all partakers and for this reason, we are all partakers of that one bread. Now turn with me to the book of Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5.

Let this, maybe for just for context sake, look at verse 4. Let not every person, look not every person or every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God.

Now that's a great difference from just who being God. It brings a lot more to view. It's not just the truth of essence, it's the truth of all the attendant splendors that are consistent with who and what he is.

And it is something that never ceases to be, who being. Who being God, in the form of God, thought it not robbery or a thing to be grasped after or to be certified to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man.

Form of a servant, likeness of man. Not form of man or likeness of a servant. That's important too. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Or can I just put this thought, to the extent of death and even that the death of the cross.

Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him. Now the term also is there. I've had an also every night because it is a response to a response. The person of Christ responded. God has responded. God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name or a repute which is above every name or above the reputation of any that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.

I read more than I needed to, but I like reading that part so I read it. And turn with me please to Philippians chapter 2 and verse 12 and 13. 12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.

Because he was absent far more than he was present. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmuring and disputings.

And that'll help us understand what he's referring to in the truth of working out your own salvation. Now for another reading just turn please to the chapter 4 of the same epistle. Chapter 4 and we'll commence reading at verse 1.

I've actually got notes tonight. Verse 1. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for my joy and my crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beseech Jodeas and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord.

And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labor with me in the gospel. With Clement also and with other my fellow labors whose names are in the book of life. Now that is all we'll read and we trust that God will add his blessing to what we have read.

The Five Dimensions of Unity

I want to speak this evening on the truth of unity. Unity in the assembly. And I must admit I have read far more than I'll be able to cover but it's very profitable to read it and I'll possibly refer to points that I have read.

I want to break my message down into five headings. I want to look at the means of unity. There has to be a means whereby unity is brought about. It doesn't happen by itself. The means of unity. I want to look at the manifestation of unity.

There is something that a New Testament church does that is the greatest expression of the unity that exists in it and is consistent or should be consistent even with the truth of the church which is the body of Christ.

So the manifestation of unity. Then I want to look at the maintenance of unity and it's found in the expression, let this mind be in you. I want to look at the truth of the marring of unity because we're going to find that the expression, work out your own salvation in fear and trembling is given in light of the fact that there is a difficulty or there is some declension that has taken part amongst sisters in an assembly that if it continues will likely cause the division of the entire company.

So the marring of unity. And finally I want to look at the ministry of unity and I don't want to look at it in the sense of what it does for us. We're not going to be selfish tonight. I want to look at what it does for Christ.

How it ministers to Him because that's what's found in Psalm 133. What it is for Christ in His great high priestly service. The administration or the ministry of unity. When it comes to the means of unity we have to go to Ephesians chapter 2.

The Means of Unity: Jew and Gentile Made One

You know for the longest time I thought that the expressions like He has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places was the thought of me and Christ. And it was the thought that I was linked with Christ when I got saved and I'm going to be raised and be with Christ forever after the Lord comes.

Now those thoughts are scriptural thoughts but that's not what this passage is teaching. The together that is found in this passage is the truth of Jew and Gentile. Two distinct peoples. The term Gentile just simply means the nations.

God only ever recognized the nations and the nation. And God always desired that Israel who was a nation set apart to God should be a walled city, should be a separated people. And so there weren't only the ordinances and the commandments given and the orders to desist from intermarrying from the Gentiles but they were forbidden to even to mingle with them at all and be a distinct separate people.

And we'll find that the scriptures taught that that middle wall of partition, that dividing wall that came between them was put there by God. God made the difference. God made the distinction. God gave Israel a distinct place in His dealings as His nation, His testimony in this world.

But it's interesting when it comes to the person and the work of Christ it tells me this. Having made peace. That is not only the thought of a peace with God but warring factions and nations that were at odds now have been given the potential to be brought together and breaking down the wall of partition thereby making of two one new man.

And so you have the truth of the church which is the body of Christ. And it has taken all the divisions. The great division that God Himself acknowledged between Jew and Gentile has been removed through salvation by the death of Christ, the blood of His cross and has brought into existence one people.

Then how much more should the bitty separations and divisions that are found amongst people in this world today and believers today be set aside. Because of the great truth and the provision of salvation.

I remember one time I went down to a conference in Boston, East Boston. I think they call it Saugus today. Maybe they're the same place. But anyway it's called Saugus but it used to be referred to as East Boston.

And I remember going down there for my first conference down there. It was only the third conference I ever went to. And myself and another chap. And the other chap's name is Johnny Vanderlance. And most of the folks here know a little about me.

Before I was saved I was, to my shame, I was a drug addict for nearly eight years in prison three times. John Vanderlance, before he was saved and to this present day is in the RCMP. And that's kind of like a, that's a little better than the OPP I think.

It's kind of like the Canadian Military Police, isn't it? Because they move around a lot it's not so prone to corruption. That's one good thing about it. But anyway at the RCMP, so when Johnny and I first met, as a matter of fact I'll tell you how we met.

I was doing some work in a gymnasium. Actually I got a job after I got saved and I applied myself and I started working. And I actually enjoyed it, earning my own living. Bringing home a check that I'd earned myself.

I got money in other ways before that. And two of the members of the RCMP, the narcotics squad that used to give me, rightfully, a difficult time and often times visited the house without an invitation.

They came by and one of them said, hey Pete. And they used my nickname, they used to call me Fox Peter. And they said, where you been? Where you been? We haven't seen you on this trip. That's just another term for where it's all happening with the drug people.

I said, I got saved. And I told them very briefly, I can't do it briefly if I have to. How I get saved and I told them that now that I was saved my sins were all forgiven. And I was a little in error when I said to them that I wouldn't be sinning anymore.

I need a little help with that, okay. But I told them that things were really changed and they were different. And then I thought to myself, these fellows need to be saved as much as I do. So I started preaching to them and they told me, hey, we got a guy back at the office.

Just like you. You two should get together. Job Analyzed. And John and I, when we first met, from the time we met, we never talked about our past. We never talked about his job and what I used to do and what he was doing.

We just enjoyed reading the scriptures together. We enjoyed doing so much together. We spent a lot of time together. And we went down to that conference together. I can still remember as we walked in, I must admit, I felt a bit like a hayseed.

We probably were because I was. And I walked in and all these different folks were sitting there and there's a man down there. His name is Frank Vitale. When I sat down at the table and John sat across from me, he came up to me and he says, in front of everybody, it was hard to hide.

He's a person that's not that quiet. And he turned around and he said, hey, you're the drug addict from Canada. And I just kept my head down in my spaghetti. And then he turned around and he said, and you're the cop from Canada.

The job. And then he said this, we must be in the millennium. He said the lion and the lamb are laying down together. You know something? I never thought until that moment of this truth. Here were two people that would have nothing in common.

We would have been diametrically and directly opposed to one another. And yet here we were enjoying each other's company, sitting down, sharing things together, looking forward to spending time together.

What was the difference? When I trusted Christ as my Savior, all those walls, all those barriers, culturally, ethnically, nationally, socially, were all broken down. And we were one. And we were enjoying that oneness.

My, when I went up to British Columbia to visit my parents, I hadn't seen them for a long time. And I must have, my father's not saved to this present day. And it was, I love my father. It was nice to go up and visit him.

And they were very kind to us. And they certainly tried to make us very comfortable and at home. But then after we left Vancouver Island, we spent a little bit of time with Christians I had never met before in my life.

And I felt more at home and enjoyed the company of these people I had never seen before, never even heard of. And spending time in their home with them that I did with my own father. You know what's stronger than the ties of blood?

The ties of precious blood. That's the great truth of the oneness and the unity of believers. That the person of Christ, by his blood, has broken down the wall of petition. We're in a country today, let's face it, it's a known fact.

There are divisions today when it comes to this country with French Canadians and Anglo Canadians and maybe even Polish Canadians. And I think it's commendable. What a testimony. When God's people are not inhibited by those very things and we sit down with people otherwise we would have no desire to be with.

We would have no inclination to enjoy their company. And yet we enjoy each other. We spend time together. What a testimony. You know what it is? It's the testimony of unity. It's a oneness. It's an accord.

And you know the means of it? It is the provision of the precious blood of Christ. It is made of two, one, new man, taking away the enmity thereby. And so the means of it is simply this. We have been purchased with the same great price.

We've been put into the same great bundle of life. And whether we live like it or look like it or behave like it, we are one. We are one. I want to think of the manifestation of it because that is the great truth of the breaking of bread in the New Testament church.

The Manifestation of Unity in the Breaking of Bread

Now I know and there's people here that aren't going to agree with me on 1 Corinthians chapter 10, but like I said the other night, I'm up here doing the preaching. You're listening to me. So tonight I get to say what I think about it.

I have no doubt whatsoever I could be wrong. That doesn't mean I'm not wrong, but in my mind, I don't think I am. But 1 Corinthians chapter 10 is only consistent with a New Testament church. But I don't believe that the Lord's table is the little table in the center of the company when they come together to break bread.

I believe it is a figure of the fellowship of a New Testament church. I'll give you five reasons for it. Because there are some that think it's the fellowship of the whole church, which is his body, and it has nothing to do or it's not fulfilled or necessarily to do with a New Testament church.

But it's body truth. But let me give you five reasons. Number one. First of all, every occasion in the scriptures where eating and drinking is mentioned in that chapter, whether it's the manna, whether it's the smitten rock, whether it's the truth of eating what's set before you, whether it's the idol's temple, it is literal.

It has spiritual implications, but it is literal. So are the bread and wine literal. They are not spiritual entities. Simply speaking of enjoyment of Christ and joy of salvation, they are the same bread and wine that are used by assemblies when they sit down to remember the Lord.

More than that, in this passage that deals with a New Testament church and is bringing out the truth that all have the same potential, all have the same beginning, but not all continue in the same way, it would be totally out of place now to revert to the teaching of the body when it's been looking at the church, which is a local aspect.

More than that, if you take away the truth of the bread and wine that are connected here with the Lord's table, our literal bread and wine, then the truth of the bread speaking of the oneness of the company of a New Testament church is found nowhere in the Bible apart from here.

So you couldn't substantiate it if it simply referred to the body. More than that, when it comes to the truth of the expression, do we provoke the Lord to the jealousy? You know, it's a very important thing.

Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? You know what that is? That is going back to the jealousy offering. I wish you could see my notes. They're smaller than I can see. But anyway, they go back to the jealousy offering when a man thought his wife to be unfaithful and he took her before the priest and there was a specific drink prepared that was a drink that she partook of.

Now, if she was faithful, it didn't break out or do any harm, thereby manifesting the fact that her condition was right and the suspicions were wrong. But if she were unfaithful and guilty of what she was accused of, then she broke out with a sore.

She was ill and even possibly died. Now, that's the jealousy offering. It's interesting. In First Corinthians, Chapter 10, he says,. Do we provoke the Lord to the jealousy offering? Are we greater than him to stand against them?

In First Corinthians, Chapter 11, it says,. For this reason, many amongst you are weak and sickly and some die. They are partaking in an unworthy condition. And so you'll see the truth falls right through from Chapter 10 to Chapter 11.

I got three more reasons, but I can't see them right now. But some other, I'll tell you if you want to know what they are later. And so when it comes to that truth, the Lord, hold it a minute. I am not saying that that table is the table of the emblems on it.

But the Lord's table speaks of the truth of a company of fellowship, where the breaking of bread is the manifestation of that fellowship by that company. And so when we sit down and we partake all of the one, one loaf, one cup, we are saying this, we being many are one.

It's a wonderful truth because you know what it is? It is a truth of implication in the sense that it is one of the two or possibly three times where something an assembly does speaks beyond the assembly.

Even though the statement is made relevant to the company of a New Testament church, it is an expression that is fulfilled in the oneness of the body. Someone says, what do you mean by that? Let me give you an example.

I know you all don't play football, but you probably know a little bit about it from your dad telling you. Anyway, and I'm not talking about soccer. Anyway, you know, when you have the universities and they turn around and they have their football teams, I'll use, for example, St. Mary's University.

They have a football team in Nova Scotia. Now, everybody in St. Mary's University doesn't play in that team. They are unsuited for it for a particular reason. Now, let me, let me clarify this. When it comes to the truth of the assembly, every believer could be in assembly fellowship.

If circumstances were made right in their lives, I do not believe in the expression not assembly material as a figure of constancy. If they were willing to bow and be submissive and make right circumstances, perhaps moral obligations or whatever it is that would, it would prevent them from being in the assembly or an attitude that would keep them out of the assembly, were they to deal with that, those individuals, God has nothing else for a believer in the Bible.

But to become a part of a New Testament church. So I couldn't accept anyone else. But let me use my illustration again. So there's the football team and not everybody in St. Mary's University plays in that football team for some reason or other.

But every time that football team plays, it represents the university. Every time it plays, as a matter of fact, they don't say St. Mary's football team beat St. FX football team five to three. You know what they say?

St. Mary's beat St. FX. Because that's what they are associated with. So it is one of those truths, the truth of headship is another one that is expressed in the company as to the headship of Christ with the heads of the believers covered and uncovered consistent with the brother or sister and the truth of the emblems on the Lord's table, the bread.

It is one of those occasions where the truth, though it is relevant literally to the company itself, it has an expression that goes beyond it. And it simply says this, as you partake, that's why it's passed around and as you partake from it, you know what you're saying?

Not only the truth of that bread comes by the body of Christ, that body suffered so terribly for me, the incarnation was necessary that my sins might be dealt with because he bear my sins in his own body in the tree.

But as you partake your portion from it, you know what you're saying? We being many are one. And then after the breaking of bread, you go out and the believers there and they put out their hand and you walk by and you don't put your hand out or there's somebody in that assembly that you haven't spoken to for years.

Brethren, if we are doing that. And denying that oneness in our response to one another, we are hypocrites. In partaking of the bread with what it suggests. So it is vital that we are practically what we say we are in the breaking of bread, that we are one.

Unity. So the breaking of bread is that meeting which expresses the truth, not only in the sense of a devotional meeting, and it's the most worshipful meeting of the assembly, though every meeting has worship in it.

But it is the meeting in distinction that says this, makes this statement. We are one. That's the manifestation of it. The maintenance of it. You know what some people think? If everybody does things my way, we'll get along great.

The Maintenance of Unity Through Christlike Humility

Oh, come on. Am I right? You know, I thought to myself, have you ever thought to yourself, if you're going to form an assembly, you're in charge of forming. That's why God plants assemblies, not men. I've heard too many people say, God saves souls, men plant assemblies.

No, no. Not according to the Bible. Paul recognizes himself as an instrument of God and being used in the planting as much as he was an instrument of God being used in the sowing. But you know what it says?

You're God's building. God built it. But if you were going to have the privilege of putting the assembly together, didn't you want to fill it with people that you got along with, and they were just the kind of people that you like, and they agree with you in this, and they get along with you?

But yeah, really? Could you think of anybody you wouldn't include? I said that one time, and a brother came to me afterwards. He's being kind. He said, well, brother, I have to confess. I owe you an apology.

He said, the first thing come to mind, I thought I wouldn't include you. And we get along pretty good now. We didn't before. And to be honest, I don't think I would have included him. Do you know something?

If we had formed it ourselves, we would have picked individuals that were suitable to us, that had the same mind, did things the same as us, thought the way we think. That's the way we'd have formed it, wouldn't we?

Come on. But it's God's assembly. The individuals that formed the assembly, God brought them there. God placed them in that company. We are different. We are different. And there is only one thing that will give us a harmony and keep us together.

And it is not the thought that you all have to agree with me, or you all have to agree with a certain individual. I love this verse. Let this mind be in you. Do you know what this really, the thought of this?

It's not so much the thought that you can get a mind transplanted and have a different mind put in. Maybe I could say it like this. Let this attitude be yours that was Christ. The attitude. You know what the attitude was?

That though he were equal to God the Father, and he is equal, and he always will be. He never insisted on announcing it. He never went to individuals and kept saying to them, remember, I'm equal with the Father.

You know, you meet a person who owns a company, and he's a part share in the company, and perhaps the other man's a little sharper in business, but they're 50 -50 shareholders. And you go out with that man that day, and he keeps saying to you, yeah, well, I'm just, I'm into this now.

I own as much as he does. I'm just as important as he is. It's something he's asserting. Something he is grasping after because he wants to make it clear because he feels shaky in it. You know what the Lord Jesus did?

He made himself of no reputation. But that's one thing about us. We want reputations. If I'd have done the healings the Lord Jesus did, I would have been the first thing he would have said. Make sure you tell everybody.

And the name is Peter Oraszuk, O-R-A-S-U-K. You know, John the Baptist has a wonderful truth about John the Baptist. When they asked him who he was, you know what he just said? I'm just a voice. I'm just a voice in the wilderness.

My name's not even worthy to be given. I'm just a voice, a mouthpiece for God. And here's the person of the Lord Jesus who was co-equal with the God the Father. And yet he never grasped after it. In fact, he took a low place, became a servant in its full character.

All that was required to manifest true servanthood. He did and he was a perfect servant. And he never insisted that his name be blazed abroad. Many times he says this. Go and tell it to the priest. Other times he says, tell him not.

He took the low place for the glory of the Father. Who is his equal? You know what I learned from that? Let this attitude be in you. Brethren, we're equal. I hope you understand that we are equal. Even though God has given some a distinct work, an overseer, is an individual that has given work, but he is not superior.

His work is distinct. His work is given. He's responsible before God. He is not a superior being. He is equal. And it's not a thing to be grasped after. He didn't declare or go after a reputation. That's why I love these words.

God hath given him a name or a reputation that is greater than any name or reputation. That at the name of Jesus. And someone says at the name of Son. The name is Son. And the name is Lord. Lord is a title.

Son is a relationship. Name is Jesus. At the name of Jesus. I think people have written books on what the name is. It says right there. Every knee shall bow. The name that is linked with his humiliation.

The name is linked with his humanity. And his perfect, absolute obedience and service to God. The name of Jesus. Every knee shall bow. God hath high also. Hath also. He did something for God. The Father.

God also hath highly exalted him. You lose nothing in taking a low place. Never. Can you imagine an attitude that is simply like this? I would like every believer to get along in this assembly as well if not better than me.

I care more for their problems than I do for my own. I don't think myself to be above any. I know too much of the potential of my own heart. It's a low place. He says let this mind be in you. That attitude.

We won't be hurt when others don't give us the place of respect and prominence we feel we deserve. Because we don't deserve it. It's a low place. And you know the wonderful thing about the Lord Jesus?

He did it by example. My time is going. The marring of testimony. I poured my own. No I didn't pour my own basement floor. That would be an exaggeration. But I destroyed it. I hired someone to do it. They did a very good job.

The Marring of Unity Through Unresolved Conflict

It's quite a big basement. Because the house above it is big. It's all one story. And so the basement is quite large. And you know even though they put what? A rebar? Is that what they use? Rebar in it?

And you know the plastic to make sure as a vapor barrier. And a little styrofoam underneath. And then gravel underneath that. Oh yeah we're prepared. And I thought to myself this is drying kind of slowly.

So what I'm going to do is take a dehumidifier in there. And suck all the water out of it fast. So it'll dry quick. And it'll be nice and to walk on. Well there are brethren here that know about building.

And you know what happened. Oh it dried quick. Then I noticed this little what do you call it? A hairline crack? Oh it's so thin you couldn't have put a. Well it was almost the page of a bible might have fit into it.

But it was a very thin crack. That's the way it started. Just a thin hairline crack. You know what I got now? I got a basement floor and almost four sections. I mean I must admit it's still together. And still some degree of unity.

But that crack in some places is that wide. But I'm going to fill it. Don't be telling everybody because I sell those. But I'm going to fill it all up. That's fine. But that little hairline crack grew and grew and grew.

Until it actually divided the basement floor. You know sometimes something that starts between two believers. It doesn't seem to be a real major problem. Just a little hairline crack. It's just a little hairline crack.

It's just something that's a mild irritant. You don't phone each other anymore. You just don't seem to find hands. Not that you're deliberately not shaking hands. But you really don't go out of your way to shake hands anymore.

And this person has kind of got on your nerves. And you know when you say something. Meet them and say hello. You've got a little bit of a. How you doing? Here are two women. I'm pleased brother. I know some individuals say they call those odious and soon touchy.

I don't like making fun of these two women. You know why? They were two great servants of God. They were two great women. Syntyche and Eudes. They helped the apostle Paul. Whether it was looking after him and temporal things that were needful.

Cooking his meals. Helping him in distributing things that he had written. Or carrying information for him. I don't know what it would be. It would be consistent with a woman's place in the work of God.

You could be sure of that. But there were two. It wasn't one was a great woman and the other was just kind of a. You know a hanger on. A troublemaker. They were two great Christians with great potential.

And we're not told what it was. But something begins to come between them. At first it's a hairline crack. And then starts to widen. And widen. And they contact the apostle Paul. And you know they say because individuals are exercised above the point that God's people are likely beginning now to form sides.

And camps. And cliques. Some on her side. Godly sister. Some on her side. Godly sister. Someone writes to the apostle and says will you come down here. And sort this out. Couldn't write the truth in time.