Is Christ Divided?

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.

There are people who love Jesus in all sorts of different groups and denominations.

Again, John sees this man. He's not part of our group, so I'm going to shut him down, and he shouldn't be ministering in the name of Jesus.

Jesus, I did the right thing, didn't I? No, John, you didn't. That's what he told them.

So you get the idea. So we should be ecumenical in this sense. Somebody asked me a question, you know, where do you draw the line?

How do I know or how do we know if we can work together with another church?

What's the approach? This is this was my answer. I said if the pastor of that church is saved,

OK, if the pastor of that church is saved, if the church is preaching the true gospel, if they're not embracing and promoting sin,

I believe that they're on our side or we're on their side. We're all on the

Lord's side, right? So that's generally my approach. We're on the same team, you know, but what's happening today?

Christians are busy fighting each other, right? And we spent all this time fighting each other.

Well, we're much stronger if we're united so we can work together with other groups. So that's that's the sense in which

I would be ecumenical. But the Bible also teaches separation because we're not just going to unite with every person, every church that has the label of Christian.

Let's turn to Second Timothy chapter three. We'll look at some statements there. Second Timothy three.

But that line from our mission statement again, we are to have cooperation with Christian activity as long as it's in harmony with God's holy word.

The Bible. And again, obviously, we're not going to agree 100 percent of the time on everything.

But if we agree on the personal work of Christ and again, there's a basic level of Christian ethics and morality.

I believe we can have fellowship. Now, will you be able to find flaws with some of these other churches?

One of the reasons why Christians maybe fight with other Christians or churches fight with other churches is because they find flaws.

Well, here's the thing about that. Yeah, that these other churches might have flaws. But guess what?

Our church has flaws. These other people, they have flaws. But guess what? You have flaws.

And it's like they say, yes, you can point the finger. And this is kind of corny, but it's true.

You can point the finger at somebody else. That's true. But what you have three other fingers pointing back at you.

But if Christ can see past all of that, Christ has forgiven you.

If you believe in Jesus, he has forgiven you of all your sin. Jesus is able to see past your flaws or let's call it sin.

Jesus is able to see past your sin. He's forgiven you of your sin. You're growing and the grace and knowledge of Christ.

If Christ can see past some of your flaws, I think we should be able to see past the flaws of others.

If a church is going to sanction immorality or on the other hand, or if their teachings are contrary to the

Bible, that's another story. So obviously there is some limit. There is some line.

So I've been kind of emphasizing the ecumenical side of things now for the separation. So on the one hand, we're willing to work together with others.

We need to have that spirit that it's not just us, but there is a line. Look at second

Timothy chapter three, starting in verse one, Paul writes to Timothy, but know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self -control, brutal and despisers of what is good.

They're traitors, they're headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

And notice this statement, having a form of godliness, but denying its power.

And from such people do what? Turn away. The Greek word translated turn away means to separate from them, to, to shun or to avoid.

Another way you can put it is just distance yourself from such people. Or if a church is doing this, separate yourself from that church.

So part of being obedient and part of being biblical is practicing separation.

So if you talk about the ecumenical side of it, that we should all work together and people love that, that sounds great.

But as soon as you start talking about separation, people don't like that as much. But here's the thing, both are true.

Our brother Dennis, who left earlier this year to go and pastor a church in Pennsylvania, he made a statement in Sunday school when he was teaching through Colossians, I think.

And he said about me, he said, I am such a believer in separatism, he said that I even want to separate from the separatists.

Now there's a little bit of an exaggeration, I laughed. But I think that when someone even talks about separation, because it's not popular these days, you don't hear a lot about it.

So when a pastor preaches or talks about separation, it is kind of seen as extreme.

I mean, shouldn't we want to just unite and just have unity? Well, yes, but you can't have unity with people that are teaching false doctrine.

You can't have unity with people who are preaching another gospel. You can't have unity with people who are saying that immorality is great and it's fine.

You just you can't do that. But about this verse, because Paul says there's in the last days perilous times will come.

Do you think we are living in perilous times today? This is true when Paul wrote it, when Paul said it.

It's even more true now. It's just as true, if not more true.

So Paul says there will be these people who have a form of godliness, meaning they want to retain the label of Christian, but they don't actually want to live as Christians.

Let me repeat that. They have a form of godliness. They want the label of Christian.

They want to be able to say, I'm a Christian, but they don't want to live as a Christian. They have a form of godliness.

They have a sense of spirituality, but they deny the power of sanctification and a changed life.

So going back to the original part of the message that we were looking at, Jesus tells

John not to forbid the man who is ministering in Jesus name. So Jesus and his teachings are the standard.

No doubt about it. Jesus, the personal work of Christ, the teachings of the scripture are the standard.

So again, if a Baptist church, Presbyterian church, independent, non -denominational church, if a church is upholding the standard, preaching the true

Christ and the true gospel, we can and I think we should be willing to work together with them.

Just a few examples. Say, well, you're saying this. Are you actually willing to do it or have you done it?

I would never preach anything that I wasn't actually willing to do myself. So a few examples.

We have a pastor's fellowship and there's pastors from all these different groups that I mentioned. And we actually get along really well.

And I think that's great. I've organized what six or seven gospel billboards that have been put up in the

Greenfield area. You know, there's a few of those. There were Baptist pastors,

Baptist churches that donated independent churches that donated. A few Presbyterian churches donated.

One charismatic church donated. To get all these different groups together on anything, it's a massive challenge.

But you know what? We've been able to do it at times. So I say to that, maybe you don't agree with that.

I guess that's up to you. But I praise God for that. There is a local

Christian radio station that brings together all these different denominations.

And what is it doing? Bringing the light of Jesus to the Pioneer Valley, right?

There's again, Baptist, Presbyterian. Now you're noticing that there's some groups I'm not mentioning. Like I'm not mentioning the

Mormons. Okay. Not mentioning the Mormons. I'm not mentioning Roman Catholics.

Although I think there probably are some people that are within the Roman Catholic Church that do love the

Lord. I don't know why they're there. I have to believe God the Holy Spirit will draw them out. But that would be hard to work together with them.

And if you don't know why, Google Protestant Reformation and see what the issues were.

Another example. There's a radio station we are on in Worcester, the

Worcester, Boston area, WVNE. They have all different types of churches on that radio station.

Our Sunday afternoon program was actually on in between John MacArthur, who's a dispensational

Baptist, and R .C. Sproul, who is a Reformed Presbyterian. And we were right in the middle. Now, of course,

I felt totally unworthy of being in the middle of those two men. I bring it up for this reason.

Those two men probably are my biggest influences of pastors that I look up to and respect.

Those two men were so different. Again, dispensational Baptist, Reformed Presbyterian, and yet they were the best of friends.

And they worked together for the furtherance of the gospel. They set that example.

And I believe we should learn from it. Again, we will be far more effective if we work together rather than fighting each other.

So it's one of my prayers that believers would come together more often, not just on radio stations and projects like that.

But it really is my prayer that churches would come together, maybe even have joint services, have joint events.

Every church, it seems like, is sort of like an island unto themselves. You ever notice this?

Maybe it's New England. I don't know. But every church is like an island unto itself, it seems.

So you think about it. We're going to be spending eternity with one another. Might as well get used to fellowshipping down here while we have the freedom to do it.

Because if you haven't noticed, this freedom to assemble openly and to preach, I can get up here behind this microphone and pretty much say whatever

I want. It might get censored on YouTube or Facebook, that's true. But we still have the freedom to say and to gather and to do it openly.

Let's take advantage of that. So this is my prayer. I hope it'll be your prayer that all the evangelical churches,

Bible -believing churches will get closer together and not further apart.

We don't want to be arguing about which church is the best. Right? Hey, our church is better than their church.

If you do that, you're acting in a carnal manner. Let's turn to another passage.

1 Corinthians 1. We'll close here. But this is my prayer that local churches would come together more.

That true Christians in all different denominations, it's not about yoking up together, but just working with one another.

And not being like the 12 apostles who are arguing about who's the best, who's going to be the greatest.

That's a bad testimony. That's a bad witness. Or being like John and finding this guy who, hey, that guy's ministering.

We don't know him. Let's work against him because we don't know who he is. Wrong. Bad idea.

All right. So you're turning 1 Corinthians 1. This section of 1 Corinthians is titled

Sectarianism is Carnal. Sectarianism is carnal.

What does it mean to be carnal? Well, it means you are of the flesh or you are operating based on the flesh.

This is not what God wants. God wants his people not to be carnal. He wants us to be what?

Spiritual. Right. That's the opposite of being carnal, to be spiritual. That it's not about us and what we want.

It's what you feel like. It's about what God wants, what pleases him. And part of that is our words and our actions.

We should be exalting who? Christ. We should be exalting Christ and not ourselves.

So just as with Luke, that's one extreme. He sees somebody he doesn't know and he wants to shut him down here in Corinth.

They were looking at men and they wanted to exalt. So in Luke, shut this guy down in 1

Corinthians. They're exalting men and it caused great division.

Look at 1 Corinthians 1, 10 through 13. Paul writes, now

I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you.

Now I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul. I am of Apollos.

I am of Cephas. That's Peter. Or I, I am of Christ. Well, is

Christ divided? Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornett Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website,

MorrisCornettChurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.