(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now, this morning I preached a sermon about the wrong kind of unity, the unity that the world wants us to have where we actually would yoke up with unbelievers and yoke up with idolatry and everything else. Tonight I actually want to preach about the right kind of unity. And so the title of my sermon tonight is Unity in the Local Church. Unity in the Local Church. Now, the word unity is found twice in the New Testament and both times it's in this chapter. And that's really what this whole chapter is about. So this could even be called the unity chapter, Ephesians chapter number 4. One other place in the Bible that uses the term unity is Psalm 133. You don't have to turn there, but it says, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Now that's the right kind of unity right there because number one, it's brethren. It's those who are actually saved. And number two, it's talking about those who are physically together in the same place. Brethren dwelling together in unity. And that's what I want to preach about tonight, unity in the local church. Now before we can really talk about unity in the local church, we have to understand what the word church means because this is a word that people are confused about. And the meaning of this word has actually been changed from what it means in the Bible. Now in the Bible, the meaning of the word church is very clear. It is synonymous with the word congregation. Church means an assembly of God's people, a congregation of God's people. So church is not a building. Church is not an organization somewhere or some kind of a hierarchy. But church is also not just a couple of Christians getting together and hanging out and saying in a fishing boat together, hey, we're the church right here, you know, just sitting in this fishing boat on Sunday. We're the church. No, wrong. Church is when God's people congregate together in a local assembly. That could be inside of a building. That could be inside of a tent. That could be in somebody's living room if it is a legitimate bonafide church meaning that it is actually not just, you know, friends getting together but actually there's a man of God there and there's growth and soul winning and so forth. Now, some proof that that's the definition of the church is, first of all, in Psalm 22 22, it says, in the midst of the congregation, I will sing praise unto you. And then in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 12, that scripture is quoted as, in the midst of the church, I will sing praise unto you. So he substitutes the word church for congregation. Another mistaken meaning of the word church is that people think that the word church just refers to everybody who's saved. They think everybody who's saved in the whole world makes up the church. Well, here's the problem with that. We're not congregated with everybody who's saved. We're not assembled with everyone on the planet who's saved. We don't have fellowship and unity with every single person on this planet. That doesn't make any sense. That defies the very meaning of the word church as an assembly or a gathering or a congregation because I'm not congregated with believers on the other side of the world. We don't make up a church. Now these people who will believe in what's called a universal church, meaning all the believers in the whole world make up the church, they don't realize that the Bible commonly uses the term church as plural. Now when you talk to those that are Roman Catholic and they say, well, there's only one true church, then my question is, why did the apostle Paul write the book of Galatians to the churches of Galatia if there's only one true church? Why? Because there are churches plural. Thirty-seven times the Bible uses the word church as plural. In addition to that, many times when it says church singular, there's a certain geography associated with it. The church of Corinth, the church at Ephesus, the church at Smyrna, the church at Pergamos, the church at Thyatira. There's not just one church, folks. There are multiple churches all over the world. Now right there in Ephesians 4, just flip over one page to Ephesians 5 and let me show you one of the verses that causes people to get mixed up and think that there's only one church. And again, what's the evidence that there's not only one church? Thirty-seven times the Bible says churches. And then most of the time when it's church singular, there's a geography associated with it. Church at Corinth, church at Smyrna, et cetera. But here's a verse that people will sometimes use to teach this universal church. They'll show Ephesians 5, 23, for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything. And they will look at this and they will mistakenly come to the conclusion that there's only one church. Christ is the head of the church. But here's my question for you. Is there only one husband and only one wife? It says the husband is the head of the wife. Is there only one wife in this whole world? No. The husband is the head of the wife as Christ the head of the church. Here's what that means. Every husband is the head of his wife. And Christ is the head of every church. It's not saying that there only exists one church. That is not biblical because it's written unto the church at Ephesus, which is just one of many churches mentioned in the New Testament. So now that we understand what a church is and we understand that a church has a location. That's why I'm calling it the local church. It's something that has a location. The church in Galatia, that's a location. The churches of Colossae, that's a location. The church in Thessalonica, that's a location. So when we talk about the local church, we're talking about a church that's in a certain location and the title of the sermon is Unity in the Local Church. I'm not saying unity amongst every person who's saved on the planet because that would be impossible. How can I have unity with people that are on the other side of the world, speak a language that I don't understand, that I've never seen and never will see? That doesn't make any sense. Also, the Bible warned us in the scriptures we looked at this morning that even people who are saved, we don't necessarily want to have unity with those people if they're violating scripture, if they're living in fornication, if they're worshiping idols. The Bible says we should withdraw from those people. So when the Bible talks about unity here in Ephesians 4, he's talking about having unity right there in that local church at Ephesus. And just as God wanted there to be unity in the church at Ephesus, he wants there to be unity in every church. Unity is a good thing in the local church. If someone said that Faithful Word Baptist Church is a church that has great unity, that would be a compliment. That would be a good thing if we have unity in our church. Now I'm going to give you four ways tonight that we can achieve the unity that God commands us to have as a local church. Four ways that God wants us to have unity. These are the four things and three of them are from this one chapter. Number one, first of all, in order for us to have unity, we're going to need humility and long suffering. We're going to need humility. Number two, we're going to need the right doctrine. Number three, we must avoid having cliques and factions in the church. And number four, we need to learn how to forgive. Okay, those are the four things that I see in Scripture when I look up unity that are going to help us get to that destination. So let's start with the first one. Number one, we need to have humility and long suffering. Look at verse number one of chapter four. It says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy in the vocation wherewith ye are called, and pay special attention to verse two, with all lowliness and meekness. That's another way of saying humility, being humble. With all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity in the spirit in the bond of peace. Now verse three is not a complete sentence. It's a continuation of verse two. So how, according to verse three, are we going to keep the unity in the church? How are we going to keep the unity in the spirit of the bond of peace? It says we need to do it with lowliness and meekness and long suffering. Humbleness is what he's saying. Now flip over to Philippians chapter two and you'll see something similar. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. So right after Ephesians is Philippians. Look at chapter two. It says, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, verse one, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded. Now, like-minded is another way of saying having unity. When we're like-minded, it means we're unified. He says, be ye like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and one mind. One accord is another way of saying unity. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. If we're going to have unity in the church, then we can't be arrogant and puffed up and thinking that we're so important. We have to actually esteem other people. We have to have a humble attitude and get along with one another, forbear one another. You know what forbearance means? Putting up with things that you don't want to put up with, forbearing or bearing with someone. It means putting up with things. It means that every little thing that someone does to bother you, you don't just freak out about it. You actually just let things go. That's what it means to have forbearance. It means that you don't just blow up at the slightest provocation. It means that when someone says something that is just a little off or maybe it offends you a little bit or hurts your feelings a little bit, you just let it go. You just move on and you don't be so puffed up where, how dare they talk to me that way? How dare she act that way around me? How dare they pass over me or skip me and not invite me or not shake my hand or not greet me? Get this high-minded attitude that thinks that the world revolves around you and is just ready at the drop of a hat to be offended about every little thing. That's not going to provide unity. How are we going to get along? How are we going to have unity? How are we going to be in one accord? Well, it starts by you being humble and realizing that the world doesn't revolve around you, the world doesn't revolve around me. We don't always have to get our way about every little thing. If something doesn't quite go our way, that's all right and sometimes we'll even make sure that things go someone else's way because that's what lowliness of mind and humility and long suffering are all about. We don't always have to get our way. Things can go other people's way and we don't have to just always insist that we are accommodated all the time, right? I mean, how can you have unity with that kind of an attitude that thinks that the world owes you a living and that no one dare cross you in the slightest way? So number one, if we're going to have unity, we need to have humility and we need to have long suffering where it takes a little bit more than just a tiny provocation to get us upset. But number two, we need the right doctrine. Go to Ephesians chapter 4 and notice I said the right doctrine. I didn't just say we need to all have the same doctrine. Now what a lot of people teach is that in order to have unity, we all need to have the same doctrine but that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible actually teaches that we all need to have the right doctrine in order to have unity. See, God's not going to be pleased up in heaven if we all unify around the wrong doctrine. He's not going to look down and say, oh, it's so great that church is just in one accord. I mean look how that church has such unity as they teach false doctrine. No, that doesn't impress God. The proper way to have unity is that we all have the right doctrine. How can we not be unified if we all have the right doctrine? Look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 4, the unity chapter. There is one body and one spirit even as you're called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. There are not multiple truths in this world. There's only one truth, there's only one correct Bible, there's only one God, there's only one Jesus Christ, there's only one legitimate faith, there's only one proper baptism and by the way, that one baptism is baptism by immersion after you're saved. That's the one baptism. You know, pouring is not the right baptism, sprinkling is not the right baptism, dunking a baby is not the right baptism. There's only one baptism and it's this kind of baptism after you're saved. Go down just a few verses to verse 11 and we'll see this point further in the unity chapter Ephesians 4 verse 11, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So by teaching doctrine, the Bible says we're going to have unity. By having pastors, teachers, evangelists give us good doctrine and then everyone's being taught the Word of God, that's going to create a unity because we're all learning the same Bible and we all have the same Holy Spirit teaching us we're all going to come to the truth. Let's keep going, it says in verse 14 that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. You see, in order to have unity, we must avoid deception, right? Because deception is going to ruin the unity. I mean the Bible says in order for us to have unity, we need pastors and teachers that are teaching good doctrine so that we can all grow up and not be children anymore because he said spiritual children will be carried to and fro with every wind of doctrine. And if we have a church full of babes in Christ that are being carried to and fro with every wind of doctrine, every new thing that comes down the pike, every trendy new doctrine, they just go for it hook, line and sinker, well, there's not going to be unity in the church because people will be going all different directions doctrinally because they don't really know what the Bible says. But if we all learn the Bible and we all are being taught sound doctrine from the Bible, unity will be there. But deception is the enemy of unity. Now unity does not say that we allow deception to come in because we're all just going to get along no matter what. Hey, we want to get along, we don't want to have any strife, we want to have unity so we're just going to allow people to come in and teach lies. No, wrong. Unity involves us having the right doctrine, not the same doctrine. You see, if someone comes in here and says, hey, I believe that you can lose your salvation if you don't live right, we're not going to say, well, for the sake of unity, let's just not worry about that issue. Let's just put that on the back burner and just all agree on the fact that salvation is through Jesus. No, in order for us to have unity, we all need to be taught why you can't lose your salvation. We all need to be taught why it's eternal life, everlasting life, that he'll never leave us or forsake us, that we're sealed unto the day of redemption, that nothing can separate us from the love of God, that no man can pluck us out of the Father's hand, etc., etc. That's how we're going to have unity, is by getting up and teaching that and preaching that, showing all the verses. Everybody in the congregation's got a King James Bible in their hand and they're turning there and they're looking at it and we all understand it and we all believe it. Now we have unity, not just saying, well, let's just put aside that. Well, no, that's too important to put aside. We must all have unity around the right doctrine. Here's another great scripture on that, Philippians 3. A lot of these ideas in Ephesians have their parallels in Philippians. Go over to Philippians chapter 3, verse 16 says, Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, and this is the part I want to emphasize, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Can you imagine playing a game with someone and you're both using a different set of rules? That's not going to work, is it? I mean, imagine playing Scrabble, and I like to play Scrabble, and when you play Scrabble, a very important step is to get a dictionary and set it on the table and say, this is the final authority. This dictionary is the authority. Because otherwise you'll have people laying down goofball words that aren't real and then they'll just Google it, or just find some bogus dictionary that just includes everything, and try to pull one over on you, or you know, hey, they'll just go dictionary shopping. Oh, it's not in this dictionary, I'll find it in this one. No, you have to set up a dictionary on the table and say, this is the standard, this is the rule, this is the final authority. If it's not in this book, it doesn't matter what we say, it's not getting played in this game of Scrabble. This is good preaching right here about Scrabble, too. I'm saving your family from having strife and envying. This is going to bring unity to your Scrabble games, all right? That's one good thing about playing it, sometimes if you play it on the app, the Scrabble app, because then if you try to play something bogus, it just throws the tiles back at you and says, nope, you know, it just doesn't let you play it. But I've noticed that that Scrabble app, it allows a lot of stuff, a lot of crazy stuff that wasn't in the Webster's dictionary when I was growing up. And if it's capitalized, you're not playing it, all right? But anyway, enough about Scrabble, you've got to walk by the same rule. You've got to agree on the rules before you play the game. I mean, how could we all be following a different set of rules? I mean, what if all the citizens of Tempe had a different set of rules that they live by based on where they're originally from? Okay, so let's say you're from Germany, you're judged under German law. Or you're from South Africa, you know, you're judged under that law. You're from France, you're judged under the French law. No, no, no, everybody here is judged under the same law because otherwise you'd have a lot of confusion about what's legal and what's not. So God says that we need to walk by the same rule and mind the same thing. What does mind mean? Mind the same thing. It means that we acknowledge and regard the same thing, okay? What this is saying is that we all have the same final authority here. I mean, this is the rule right here. You know, we all walk by the same rule, we all mind the same thing. Everybody in our church agrees, everybody in our church agrees that the Bible is our final authority. Anyone who is here tonight that does not believe that the Bible is the final authority, we don't want to hear anything that they have to say about how our church operates or about what our beliefs are. Because to us, as a church, Faith Forward Baptist Church, this is the rule book right here. This is what we believe. So if somebody comes in here and says, well, that's not my final authority, then anything they say after that, we would just completely disregard. We have no interest in it. It means it's just like water off a duck's back dust. You have no say in the affairs of this church. The only person who has any say in the affairs of this church is the one who says, I acknowledge that this is the final authority. Then we can talk. Because then we have a frame of reference. Then we have some common ground here on which to build fellowship and unity, the King James Bible. Now if somebody comes in with a totally different Bible and they say, well, you don't understand, Pastor Anderson, the living Bible says it this way. Or well, I've got here the ESV and it clearly says this. They're trying to bring in a different rule now. Basically we were on the Webster's dictionary on the Scrabble game. All of a sudden they're basically pulling out the Oxford. That's got way too many words in it. It's huge. They're slapping an Oxford on the table and saying, well, oh, yeah, it's in the Oxford. It's like, whoa, wait a minute, buddy. This is our standard, Webster's. But when it comes to the Bible, this is the standard, the King James. We're not a member of the Bible of the month club here where we get a different Bible every month and a different Bible every week as they come hot off the presses. Hey, now it's gender neutral. Hey, now it's inclusive to all religions. No, sorry, not interested. We're sticking with the tried and the true, 400 years old, still more relevant than today's newspaper, the King James Bible. So that's the rule. That's the standard. That's the boss. Can you see how we can all have unity if we all agree on that? Now let's say we all have the right standard here and let's say that we all believe in Jesus Christ, so we're all saved and we all have Jesus in our hearts, right? Same Holy Spirit, same Bible. Shouldn't we all be able to come to an agreement in this church? It makes sense. I mean, if we all have the Holy Spirit inside of us, we all have the same Bible, it says the same thing. We should all come to the same agreement. Now there are going to be times in the church when people disagree. Here's why. It's going to be due to one of a few things. Number one, someone might be ignorant of what the Bible says. There could be a guy who's only read the Bible maybe less than one time cover to cover or maybe just one time cover to cover, right? And then another guy's read the Bible 40 or 50 times cover to cover. These people might not always see eye to eye on everything simply because one guy has a lot more knowledge than the other guy. And so because he has a lot more knowledge about what the book says, his opinions are more in line with the book whereas the guy who's only read it like once or almost once, he may have a lot of wrong views not because he's a bad person, not because he's trying to be evil or so discord or it's just that he hasn't learned yet. He's newer in the faith. He's not stupid. He's just ignorant. He's just unlearned in the Bible. He's just growing. He's a beginner and there's nothing in the world wrong with that. Thank God for a church that's filled with babes in Christ because that means we're reaching people. It's good if we have people that haven't read the Bible cover to cover or that have only read it once or twice or three or four times because of the fact that that shows that we're reaching people. We're growing. But you can see how a difference in opinion could be based on one person's knowledge versus another person's ignorance. That could cause a difference in doctrine right there, right? But that's why God's saying that we're all kind of heading toward unity with the right pastors and teachers where we're all walking with the same rule, same thing. We're heading toward unity as a body the more we learn the Bible because we all have the same knowledge, okay? Now here's another reason why people could disagree on things in the Bible. Even with the same Holy Spirit and the same Bible, people could disagree on minor issues simply because they are unclear in the Bible, okay? There are some things in the Bible that are not that clear. They're a little bit unclear. Most things in the Bible are very clear. Some things in the Bible are a little bit unclear. Therefore you could have two different people with two different opinions. Neither one of them is denying the standard here. Neither one of them is just resisting and defying the Holy Ghost. Neither one of them is unsaved. It's just simply something that's not that clear in the Bible. And then a third reason why people could disagree about doctrine even though they have the same Bible and the same Holy Spirit is that they received some false teaching somewhere else that they're kind of bringing into the church because maybe they grew up under some false doctrine or they've been listening to a lot of TV preachers or just a lot of bad stuff has come in. And so that person has a preconceived idea. So even though they've read a lot of Bible and even though they're saved and even though they love the Lord, they just have this preconceived idea from some bad doctrine that they got in the past. That could be another reason why people would have differences of opinion. And then a fourth and final reason why people who have the same Bible and the same Holy Spirit could disagree on things would be simply because one person just stubbornly doesn't want to admit that they have something wrong. They just want to believe a certain thing so they just hang on to that. And there are people who want to believe various false doctrines simply because it's convenient for their life. Or maybe it's just a pride thing. They just don't want to admit that they had ever been wrong about something so they just kind of refuse to change. They just kind of dig in. And maybe it has something to do with their lifestyle. They want to drink so then they create a doctrine about how drinking is fine. Or they want to divorce their spouse and marry someone else so they create a doctrine that's going to justify that and condone that. So those are maybe four reasons why people could disagree. Now here's what I want to say about this. When it comes to unity, I'm not saying that we all have to just be in lockstep on every tiny little issue. But I do believe that on major doctrines, we need to agree on major doctrines. How can we even be a church? How can we even be a congregation or an assembly of people that has any kind of unity if we all have a different plan of salvation? Some people are saying it's by faith alone. Some people are saying that you have to do works or be baptized. Those kind of differences are not acceptable because those are things that are crystal clear in the Bible. There's no question about them. There's no gray area about them. They are clear. The Bible is our final authority. We all have the Holy Spirit inside of us as saved, born-again Christians. We know salvation is by faith. We know that you cannot lose your salvation. We know that the Word of God is our final authority and all matters of faith and practice. We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. We believe in baptism by immersion after you're saved. These are the key doctrines of the faith that are just non-negotiable and it's not acceptable for people to believe something else. Now you say, well, how dare you demand that people believe like you? Well here's the thing. I don't demand that anybody believe like me because there are a whole bunch of other churches out there that you can find that will believe like you. If you believe that you can lose your salvation, well there's a whole long list of charismatic churches for you to join. If you believe in Calvinism, well then the Presbyterian Church is down the street for you. If you believe in Calvinism, you can go to the Sovereign Grace Reformed Baptist down the street and go there. That's where you belong because we can't have unity with people bringing in these major false doctrines like Calvinism or losing your salvation or denying the deity of Christ or other Bible versions that are just completely taking out verses, adding verses. You come here with a Septuagint that removes like 400 verses from the book of Job, removes half the story of David and Goliath. You can't come in here and expect to have unity with us. You have the same Bible. You're not walking by the same rule. You're not minding the same thing. You go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 1 Corinthians chapter number 11. Now I will say this. There are things in the Bible that are less clear or they're just not as important of an issue, not as critical, not heaven and hell, where if people believe differently on these things, it's okay that they believe differently. We're not going to say, hey, you can't come to church here because you don't agree with us on every little thing. There is tolerance for those who have differences of opinion on smaller issues because number one, we're hoping that if you stick around long enough, your ignorance will turn into knowledge on that issue. In many cases, it will. Right now, you think that we're out to lunch on X, Y, and Z, but once you're here for a little longer and you've read the Bible about five or six more times, you might say, you know what? Now I'm starting to see what they're saying. Now I'm starting to see it in the Bible. See when I first came, I'd only read the Bible a half a time. Now I've read it ten times. Now I'm seeing where they're coming from. Now I get it. Okay. So you can't just – and look, I've seen it in this church and in other churches where a mature believer or an established believer will just jump down somebody's throat for having wrong doctrine when in reality, it's just that that person needed to grow more. So you need to have a little more grace with people and give them some time to grow, right? I mean, you can't just expect somebody to just walk in. It's their first Sunday. It's their second Sunday. It's their third Sunday. And you just start grilling them on doctrine and boy, woe be unto them if they answer wrong. You know, I mean, somebody walks in here and, you know, you start grilling them on the end times prophecy doctrine, you know, making sure that they've got it right, you know, that it's post-trib pre-wrath. Start grilling them and making sure – look, there are going to be people who come in here that believe in the pre-trib rapture. That's all they've heard. They've seen the movies. They've got the board game or whatever and, you know, left behind, all that. That's just all they've been taught. That's all they know. So what? Give people a chance to read their Bible. Give people a chance to hear some sermons, to grow. We want to give people a chance – because there are a lot of people – somebody give me a cup of water – there are a lot of people that are good people that are nice people that love the Lord. They just don't know as much as you because they're new to church or they're new to being a Baptist or they're new to, you know, being saved even. And so you've got to give people a chance to grow. You need to have a little bit of grace with people and not – and even if they – even if you – well, I showed them and they still didn't get it. Well, give them time to find it on their own, to read their Bible, to learn. And again, we're not talking about people who come in here and they're preaching a false salvation or a false gospel. I'm saying people have a different view on the Jews or a different view on Israel. They have a different view on end times Bible prophecy or they don't understand everything that the Bible teaches about the homos, for example. Now look, if they come in here and say, hey, you know, hey, we love homos and they're wonderful and, you know, my best friend's a homo, then, you know, throw them out. You know, they come in here cross-dressed and promoting homos – obviously, get them out of here. But I'm saying somebody who just hasn't learned about that – because the problem is we're living in a society now where people are fully brainwashed on that issue. And look, I've got my beliefs about the homos and I'm telling you this right now. I've studied that subject to the point of ridiculousness because it's such a contentious issue and because I've come under so much fire. You know, when you have thousands and thousands of people telling you you're wrong, when you have millions of people telling you you're wrong, when you have people of all stripes and all denominations and even your old friends and loved ones telling you you're wrong, you really take a hard look at your doctrine to make sure that you're not wrong. At least you should, right? If everybody's telling you you're wrong, you know, you better make sure you're not wrong. So here's the thing. I've memorized every scripture that has anything to do with that subject. I've looked up and read every article that's probably ever been written about the pertinent scriptures. I've talked to pretty much, you know, just tons of people, you know, about from all different views and I'll just tell you right now, I don't have any doubt that I'm right about what I believe and therefore, I will go to the grave believing the same way that I believe right now about the homos because I've studied the subject to the point of ridiculousness, ad nauseum literally. It's a very nauseating subject and so, you know, look, here's where I stand. Let me just tell you where I stand. I mean, I believe that it's crystal clear in the Bible and this is where I've stood for well over a decade now. My entire ministry, you can get a sermon from my first year of preaching and it'll say the same thing that I'm saying tonight and that I've always preached and I've always said is that the Bible teaches that homosexuality is so bad that under the old covenant in the Mosaic law, it was literally punished by death, the death penalty, execution. I mean, Moses, when he brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt and he went to Mount Sinai and he went up and talked to God on the mount and he got the law of God and he got the tablets of stone, God told Moses, you must kill all the homosexuals. He said, if a man lie also with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination, they shall surely be put to death, their blood shall be upon them. That's what Moses was told when he was on the mountaintop and it seems like a lot of people, they get this just weird doublethink where they just separate Leviticus like, oh, that's Leviticus. Well, but here's the thing though. I think that they've lost sight of the fact that God spoke verbally to Moses. I'm just trying to break this down to you, but just to help you understand, God spoke to Moses on the mountain, the mountain burned with fire. Is everybody getting the picture here? And God told Moses, Moses, I'm giving you this perfect law. I mean, it's called over and over again, perfect, the perfect law. The law of the Lord is perfect. And under God's perfect law, he said that if a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination, they shall surely be put to death, their blood shall be upon them. But I'm supposed to believe that the United States of America has improved upon God's law ever since 2003. In the year of our Lord, 2003, the United States of America improved upon God's law by making homosexuality legal. Now people will try to tell you there's a difference between Old Testament and New Testament, but I thought that the New Testament started in 33 AD. That was always my understanding. I didn't realize that the New Testament started in 2003. Is anybody listening? I mean, were the 1950s in America, was that the Old Testament? I mean, were the 1600s in America the Old Testament? Because a hundred years ago, virtually every country on this planet had laws where it was criminal. It was considered dangerous criminals that would be locked up. And of course it was a gradual process that culminated in 2003 when in 2003 the last few places in the U.S. where it was illegal, it became legal in 2003. But now all of a sudden, you know, everybody's changed their doctrine and now they say, oh, well, you know, it should be totally legal. Yeah, you can't legislate morality, so it's got to be legal now. Well, here's the thing, I'm not changing what I believe on that. I'm still sticking with Leviticus 2013 because that's God's perfect law. And Jesus didn't die on the cross so that people could become trannies and freaks. There's nothing about the New Testament that applies to them. And in fact, all you see in the New Testament is just God reiterating that the same doctrine of the Old Testament on the homos is the same doctrine of the New Testament because he keeps going back to Sodom and Gomorrah and saying, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. He didn't say, well, that was then, this is now. He said, no, even as Sodom and Gomorrah, it's the same now. Second Peter 2, the same. Jude is the same. Romans 1 is the same doctrine, never changed. I'm not going to change. Nowadays if Sodom and Gomorrah were to take place, everybody would be tweeting and giving a status update that we need to mourn and pray for their families because that's what's happening today when a bunch of homos got killed. You know, everybody's like, oh man, we need to stand with them in solidarity and pray for them. I mean, that's what they would have been telling Abraham in Genesis 19. It's the same thing. Now here's the thing about that. Not only do I believe that, but I also believe according to Romans 1 that the reason why a man would lust after another man in the first place is that he's already been given over to a reprobate mind because that's not normal. Normal men have no desire for that. In fact, it's repulsive to them. It's really gross. So therefore, something has to go wrong up there and I believe that the Bible clearly tells us what that is in Romans 1, that they've been darkened and blinded and given over to vile affections. I think it's crystal clear. I don't have any question about it. Case closed as far as I'm concerned. It makes perfect sense and then I look around me and it all adds up. I mean, the Bible's right about everything. That's what I believe. I believe it's too late for these people. They're a reprobate, you know, and I'm not going to go all into that tonight. That's not the purpose of the sermon but the reason I bring that issue up is that there are a lot of people that are really brainwashed on that particular issue and if somebody comes in here from another church, chances are they're not going to understand that issue. Even if they're a good, born again, saved child of God that loves the Lord, they're probably not going to understand that issue because the brainwashing is so deep. Now 20 or 30 years ago, that would have just been obvious to everyone. When I was growing up, those things were pretty obvious to everyone. But nowadays, the brainwashing is very deep. The average person who darkens the door of our church is going to walk in here saying, whoa, we need to love and reach out to homos and bring them into the church and whoa, what are you talking about the death penalty? What are you talking about, you know, reprobate? What's a reprobate, man? It's never too late for anybody. I mean, Gandhi told us. I mean, it's in 1st Gandhi, chapter 1, verse 1, it says, hate the sin, love the sinner. So here's the thing, you have to understand, you can't just shoot that person down and treat that person and get out of here, you queer loving freak. You have to give people some grace. You have to give people some time to learn and grow. And listen, there are people in this church right now that I know disagree with me on what I just said. Even long-time members, there are people who go to our church who think, hey, I still think that the homos can be saved and it's not too late for them. And here's what I always, when people come up to me and tell me that, hey, I think you're wrong on that, Pastor Anderson, here's what I tell them. I tell them, okay, then go out and get as many homos saved as you want, just don't ever bring them here because I don't want to bring, you know, dangerous predators, dangerous pedophiles around my children. But I say, hey, go out and if that's what you believe, if you believe that they can be saved, then you go out and preach your heart out to them because that doesn't bother me. I'm not offended by that. You know, it's, you're the one that's going to get trampled under your feet and rendered, you know, that's, it's not, it's no skin off my back. And you know, people who accuse me of being uncaring and unloving, I've accidentally witnessed more homos than the average pastor has done on purpose because if you just knock every door you end up preaching to all kinds of people and not everybody wears a shirt that says, hi, I'm a homo. So the bottom line is that we need to understand that, you know, unity involves us rallying around the right doctrine, okay, but we need to differentiate between essential doctrine. We need to differentiate between salvation doctrine or core fundamental doctrine, okay, and doctrine that's more peripheral. Now obviously we want to have unity on everything ideally. That's where we reach perfection. That's the goal. That's what we're striving toward where we all learn the Bible and we all agree on more and more as we all get closer to the word of God and closer to Jesus Christ and we learn more, but you can't expect everybody to be in lockstep on every issue and just, oh, I can't believe that we have people in our church that are off on this doctrine or that are, you know, or that are off on Bible prophecy. Look, these are not the fundamentals of the faith, okay. Now I will say this though. If somebody is coming in here and saying, hey, we're going to invite homosexuals into the church, that's a problem because now you're jeopardizing the safety of our children, the safety of our members, and now you're getting onto ground where the Bible couldn't be any clearer, where it talks about putting away from among yourselves that wicked person. Even those who are living in open fornication are to be expelled from the church. How much more someone who's participating in the worst kind of fornication. So what am I saying? I'm saying that we need to give grace to people and to understand that unity is a process. Unity is a destination. We're on the journey toward unity. You can't expect us all to have perfect unity right now. That's why the Bible is saying here, if you look down at your Bible there in verse 13 of chapter 4, till we all come in the unity. Does it say we're already there? I mean we've got unity if we're a biblical church. It doesn't say we have unity. It says that we're on our way to having unity. Does everybody see that? God gave us pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. See as we gain knowledge, we gain unity. But you can't expect us to already be at the destination when new people are being added every week. And you don't want to mistreat people or be rude to people or jump down people's throats or just declare them a wicked person or a false prophet because they're mixed up on a peripheral issue. Now look, if they're mixed up on salvation doctrine, you still don't want to jump down their throat. You want to kindly, lovingly try to correct them and get them saved, okay? That's the goal. You say, well, what if they don't get saved? Well, look, you give them the gospel, you do the best you can, and then you walk away. And if they don't get it, they don't get it. Now look, there have been people where I've given them the gospel when they first got here and they didn't get it over their head, didn't understand it, didn't get saved. I didn't just badger that person and just say, well, don't ever come back then, you know, since you didn't get saved this time. Just don't ever, I didn't say that. You know what I did is I just thought to myself, well, if this person keeps coming to church, they're either going to get in or get out. You know, if they keep coming to church, because I emphasize the plan of salvation a lot in my sermons and, you know, there's so much soul winning going around and so many people talking about the Bible around here. If you're here for a few months, you're going to figure out what the plan of salvation is and you're either going to get on board with it and get saved or else you're going to realize this church isn't for me and get out. And I've seen people where they came and it took them two, three, four weeks and then they got saved. So I'm not really worried about it if somebody doesn't get saved, excuse me, if they don't get saved the first time they hear it. I'm not just going to write that person off, but I'm just going to give that person time to keep coming to church and keep learning and hopefully they will eventually get it. You don't want to just burn that person right away, okay? So we need to be careful that we understand that unity is a goal. Unity is a destination. Unity is a process that we're working toward. You can't just demand unity now. Now that becomes cult-like. When you have a leader that just gets up and says, I demand unity now, I demand that everyone be in lockstep with me on every doctrine right now or you're gone, that's cult-like at that point. Now, do we demand unity on salvation doctrine? Of course, but that's just one thing. You can't just demand that everybody agree with you on every little thing. Obviously, if people just find themselves disagreeing with half of what I preach, well then they're obviously in the wrong place. They don't belong here. But that doesn't mean, and I guarantee you that if we went around the room right now, we're not going to do this. If we went around the room and asked everybody, hey, is there anything you disagree with Pastor Anderson on? And we went to each person and said, tell us what you disagree with Pastor Anderson on. There'd probably be something that almost everybody in this room would say, you know what, I disagree with Pastor Anderson on this or I disagree with him on this. And it would probably be a lot of just really small insignificant stuff. They're not going to be disagreeing on the divinity of Christ or on salvation or on heaven and hell or on the gospel or on soul winning. But people might just have disagreements like, hey, Pastor Anderson believes that homos are reprobate. I think they're not. Okay. Whatever. You're wrong. But whatever. Or hey, I think that Pastor Anderson is wrong when he says that the rapture is going to take place 75 days after the abomination of desolation. I think it's just an unknown period in the second half of Daniel's 70th week. Okay. That's okay. People might say, hey, I think that Pastor Anderson is wrong on, you know, clothing. You know, he thinks that women, you know, should wear skirts and dresses. I think it's okay for them to wear pants. Well look, fine. You don't, you believe wrong on that. That's okay. You don't have to believe exactly like what we believe in order to come to church here. It's not like, you know, hey, you got to be in lockstep on every issue. People need time to learn and to grow. And as we gain more knowledge, as we study the Bible, as we listen to more preaching, we're going to find ourselves agreeing on more and more and more. So listen to me. If you don't agree with every word out of my mouth, don't just think to yourself, well, I need to quit the church because I disagreed with something Pastor Anderson said. That doesn't make any sense. Stick around and maybe you might change your mind or maybe it's just a small issue and it's just not that important. We can still just have unity even without being an exact lockstep, you know, on every single issue, exactly the same. So we need to be careful that we don't go overboard on unity. Okay. Does everybody understand that? I had you turn to 1 Corinthians 11, but I never read it to you, but I'll read it to you right now. 1 Corinthians 11 18, for first of all, when you come together in the church, and by the way, this is more proof that the church is a locality because he says you come together in the church. I hear that there be divisions among you and I partly believe it for there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. What the Bible is saying here is that when there's division, somebody is right and somebody is wrong. He's saying if there's division, then there must be heresy because one person is teaching it right and one person is teaching it wrong. So let's make sure that we understand that unity is not just a majority vote and then we go with what the majority believes. Look, if the majority of the people in this church think I'm wrong about the Sodomites, guess what? Doctrine is not changing. And you're going to have to drag me kicking and screaming out of this building and go get a different pastor because I'm not changing. I'm not taking a vote, hey, who thinks I'm right? No, no, I am right. And people act like you're prideful when you think you're right. Well, if that's pride, then, you know, if I thought I was wrong, wouldn't I change? And then I'd be right and then I'd think I'd right and then I'm prideful again. So it would become like a cycle of pride, you know. I'm right. Oh, wait, that's prideful. Okay, I'm wrong. Okay, well, let's switch. Okay, now I'm right again. Oh, prideful again. You know, it's a paradox. Anyway, we got to hurry up. I'm almost out of time. I got more to say. First Corinthians chapter one, go to first Corinthians chapter one and I want to show you the third thing. I'm just going to blow through these last couple of points. So number one, we need humility and long suffering. And by the way, humility and long suffering also has to do with point number two where I talked about the fact that if somebody's doctrine is a little off, you don't just jump down their throat and rip their face off, but you have long suffering, meaning you suffer along with them, you're patient with them and help them to understand and so forth. Now there are some times when people do need to have someone jump down their throat. Don't get me wrong. If somebody comes in here and says, you know, hey, the earth's flat, I'm going to jump down their throat. If somebody comes in here and says, hey, you know, we're living in a simulator and, you know, we're all plugged into the matrix, you know, and so, you know, then I'm going to tell them, hey, you're an idiot. Somebody comes in here and says, hey, it's the Mandela effect. You know, has anybody heard of this? It all started with the Bernstein Bears. Anybody hear about this? Who knows what I'm talking about with the Bernstein Bears? Yeah. Everybody knows. Everybody remembers that the Bernstein Bears was always spelled B-E-R-E-N-S-T-E-I-N. But then it turns out that when people actually get the books out of the attic and they actually look at the books, it's B-E-R-E-N-S-T-E-I-N. So instead of people just admitting, oh, I remembered that wrong, they basically have said that there's been a glitch in the universe and that basically the whole universe has changed. So instead of people admitting that they're wrong, they're saying the whole universe has changed and that Bernstein really was spelled with an E and they say now we're living in the, they've even named the universe we live in now the A universe because Bernstein is now spelled with an A. So we're living in the A reality, the A universe. But we grew up in the E universe. So we've shifted between parallel universes and parallel realities. Some people have said that the devil is going back in time and changing things. People are saying that the Bible used to say that the lion would lay down with the lamb in the millennium. Oh, remember it. But now it says the wolf will lay down with the lamb. But what it really is, people are just misquoting it. But they're like, no, no, no, I'm not misquoting it. The universe has changed. So they claim that movies, God, you know, the devil or God, some people say it's the devil, some people say it's God, some people say it's the total hadron collider, you know, that is making these changes in the universe. Now look, if somebody comes in talking that kind of stupidity, you know, I don't mind you telling that person that they're high, you know, or that they are being an idiot and that they need to, you know, not just blather and talk stupidity, OK? Look, I get that. But look, when somebody is just a little off on doctrine or somebody just needs to learn the Bible a little more, you know, be kind to people. Some people do need a swift kick in the pants because there's some real weird stuff. And if people would tell these people, you're an idiot, then maybe they'd think like, oh, maybe I am an idiot if I believe this. Or like they said that, you know, Muhammad Ali had already died several times, you know, but it was in a different universe. I mean, look, I'm telling you, it's out there, it's huge. I mean, I've been getting emails, you know, thank God for Brother Baker because he answers the church's emails. I mentioned to him this, like, I couldn't even believe that this Mandela Effect thing. And he told me, he's like, I've gotten like 20 emails about it where people are, what's that? Yeah, he was, he made like a form letter to respond to the Mandela Effect emails, like, you know, because they're all, they're like, oh, man, I'm starting to get nervous. The Bible's changing. The Bible's changing, you know, through time travel. I mean, wow, but anyway, I got to hurry. I'm out of time. Okay, so number one, how are we going to have unity in the local church? Number one, we need humility, long suffering, okay? Number two, we need the right doctrine. And let me say this, if you've only read the Bible one time, don't go around telling people that have read the Bible 10, 20, 30 times that they're wrong. Do a little more reading first, or the Bible doesn't say that anywhere. Have you read the Bible cover to cover? No. Well, then how do you know what it says? You haven't read it. It might be in that part you didn't read. Maybe that's where it's hiding. But number three, we need to avoid having cliques and factions in the church. In 1 Corinthians Chapter 1 there, this was a problem that they had. Look at verse 10, I beseech 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, that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it had been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you sayeth, I am of Paul, I have Apollos, and I have Cephas, and I have Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? So what he's saying here is that there were cliques and factions developing in the church, not over differences in doctrine, but over personalities, where one of them is with Paul, one of them's with Peter, one of them's with Apollos, and he's saying that our unity should be based on the Bible, it should be based on Jesus, not on personalities. It's not like, hey, I'm with Pastor Anderson, because Pastor Anderson is just such a cool guy. You know, I prefer Brother Baker, or I prefer Garrett Kirschway, or I prefer, you know, some other Bible teacher, or some other pastor, whatever. It shouldn't be about people's personalities, it should be about Jesus and the Bible and doctrine. That's what our unity should be based on, not personalities. And we need to be careful that we don't develop cliques and factions in the church, where we rally around certain people to the exclusion of other people, and you start getting one faction where people always hang around with the same people, and they kind of have another faction they don't like very much, and that they avoid. Now obviously we have friends in the church, and obviously when there's 250 people in the church on Sunday morning, you're not going to be buddy-buddy with everybody, are you? So you pick a few people that you get along with, you pick a few people, and you make some friends, and there's nothing in the world wrong with that. Obviously you're not going to invite everybody over to your house, you have a few people that you invite over to your house that are your inner circle. But where it becomes a problem is when you come to church and every single time you're only talking to those people. And you're not branching out, you're not making other people feel welcome, you're not being friendly to others, you're just kind of showing up and you just go straight for that one group. And you know, I teach this to my kids all the time because I try to tell them, hey kids, there's a visiting family, go meet those kids, or hey, do you ever play with these kids, do you ever play with these kids? Just because I don't want them to just always just that one person or those same four people, and that's just the only people that they talk to. And then sometimes in the church you'll develop like an us against them, well there's those people and then there's our group. So it's good to have close friends, but be sure that you don't have factions developing. Or animosity toward people outside your group, hey it's just us four and no more, and then there's them, then there's everybody else. And you know, sometimes people will form a faction against the pastor. Basically there's the people who like the pastor and believe in what his vision is, and then there will be a faction that will develop of people that are kind of disgruntled. And then they kind of find each other and kind of gravitate to each other, the disgruntled with Pastor Anderson faction. We like the doctrine, but we don't like his personality. We like the doctrine, but he's a jerk. You know, there's that faction, right? They kind of will get, you know, you got to be careful that you don't undermine the unity of the church. And then you just realize, look, it's not about liking everything about Pastor Anderson or thinking that everything Pastor Anderson does is right, and we all have to live our lives exactly like Pastor Anderson. You just need to understand that we're here unified around the Bible, we're unified around soul winning, we're unified around hard preaching, but it doesn't mean that you have to like everything about Pastor Anderson, but you shouldn't go around just disliking me either. I mean, if you really don't like me that much, you should probably go to church where you can have more respect for the pastor. And I don't know of anybody like this, you're like, whoa, man, what is he talking about? You know, who's the faction? I'm not saying that there's an I hate Pastor Anderson faction in this church. I'm speaking theoretically here, okay? I'm sure it has never existed. But anyway, the fourth point real quickly is that number four, we need to forgive. Look at Ephesians 4 31, this is the last place we'll turn, says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you and Philippians, it says, I beseech you odious and beseech synticky that they be of the same mind in the Lord. These are two women. And I entreat the also true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. So there's a tendency sometimes for women to get in fights with one another, like you odious and synticky, okay? And there's a tendency for women to sometimes hold on to some bitterness and grudges and lack forgiveness. Now, there are certain sins that men struggle with more than women. You know, we could list the sins of the male gender and then there are sins that women struggle with. I believe that sometimes women struggle a little more with forgiveness than men do. I think men typically, and we have our own issues, you know, we have our own problems, we have our own sins. But I think that men sometimes are a little quicker to just kind of move on. Seems like when there's a fight or a strife in the church, when I talk to the husband, when I talk to men, usually we both just want to just put it behind us, hey, let's just move on, it's water under the bridge, who cares, let's just get over it, let's forgive and move on. Seems like women sometimes they hang on to things and they never forget. You know, and months and years later they're still, you know, I'm not saying all women are like that. I'm just saying that there's a tendency there. In order for us to have unity in the church, you've got to be a person who is, as the Bible says here, forgiving one another. And it seems like when I get up and preach stuff from the pulpit like this, people don't apply it to themselves. They're thinking, you know, she needs that or he needs that. Listen, I want every single person right now to examine your own heart. And this is for men and women, not just the women, men and women. If there's someone in the church right now that you have animosity toward, if it happened today, okay, you know, you can be mad for a few more minutes here until the sun goes down. But don't let the sun go down on your wrath. But if you right now have anger, bitterness and frustration toward someone because of something that happened a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, two years ago, when are you going to let them live that down? You know? And look, I know about situations in this church where one woman did another woman wrong and I mean, there was an altercation, angry words have been thrown. I mean, I can think of many situations that I've even observed or witnessed or heard about. And I'm sure that there were plenty of others that I didn't hear about, other catfights that went on. Okay? But let me tell you something. I don't care if you think that you're the exception and you're justified but you don't understand Pastor Anderson, what she did or what she said or what they did. Look, if you are sitting here right now and you in your heart have animosity, frustration, anger, resentment toward another person in this church because of something that they did months ago or weeks ago or even years ago, then your heart is not right with the Lord and you need to get that right. You need to get that right today. You need to pray to the Lord and say, Lord, I'm sorry that I held on to bitterness and resentment and I am right now, Lord, forgiving that person in my heart. And why don't you just push a reset button and start. I'm not saying that you have to be best friends with that person but you know, you ought to be able to smile and say hi to that person and really mean it. And be able to bless that person in the name of the Lord and mean it from your heart. And if you can't do that, then you are not right with God. And honestly, the Bible is really clear on the subject of forgiveness. It's a whole sermon in and of itself. You need to search your own heart right now and decide to love your fellow church member, to love the brotherhood and to love the ladies of this church. If you're a lady in this church, you need to love your fellow ladies and not be bitter about things that they said or did. You know, I mean, and the same thing goes for the men, of course. We need to have unity in the church. How are we going to do it? Number one, humility and long suffering. Number two, we need the right doctrine. We need to all agree on the same rule right here. Number three, we need to avoid having cliques and factions. We need to make sure that we are a member of this entire church, not just that we have our own little thing going on. And again, not saying you shouldn't have close friends. You should. Obviously, you're going to have an inner circle. Nothing wrong with that as long as it's not just that inner circle. You need to be able to have relationships with people outside that group and make sure that you don't have animosity or an us against them view to other people. And then number four, you need to forgive in order to have unity. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for this chapter and the principles on unity. And Lord, we don't have perfect unity in this church, but I believe that if we were to grade our church from my perspective, Lord, I don't know how you're grading it up in heaven, but from my perspective, I would give us an A or an A minus on unity, Lord. And I hope that you feel the same way. Help us to continue to improve, Lord, and to continue working toward that destination on unity and help us to have grace with those that are at a different stage of the journey and not to just jump down their throat because they're a little bit unlearned on a certain doctrine, Lord. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.