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A House Divided |
Dear Brethren,
"Reunify" means to cause a group to become
unified again after being divided. The leaders of God’s people made some gross
errors with regard to the Church after Herbert W Armstrong
died. First, they failed to come together to prevent the
heretical apostasy that ravaged the Church. And secondly, they
failed to come together to prevent the scattering of God’s
people - in fact, much of the division can be laid squarely at
the feet of those church leaders.
God says, "If they had stood in my counsel, and had caused
my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them
from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings."
(Jeremiah 23:22) The solution for these failed leaders: Repent
and bring about a reunification of God's
people. "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter
the sheep of my pasture! Saith the Lord." (Jeremiah 23:1)
The unity of the
brethren is seemingly out of reach until Jesus returns. But,
what is a Christian’s responsibility now, with
regard to the unification of all the brethren? How will
reunification finally take place? When will it occur? Who will
bring it about? Where will it take place? Did God know that
there would be such division in His Church that families could
not keep the Holy Days together? There has been so much pain,
discord, hurt, and upset. We use words like branches, splinter
groups and organizations, but God calls it heresy.
Notice what God says:
“There must be
also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be
made manifest among you.” (1Corinthians 11:19) The Greek word
here for heresy is hairesis, and it means disunion.
The word translated approved is dokimos, and it refers to
those who are acceptable to God. Which side of the equation are you
on?
This Scripture
tells us that the reason that disunity exists among the brethren, is
for the express purpose of providing an opportunity for church
brethren to work toward unity. And, if they do,
they will be made manifest among you – in other
words, it will become obvious who it is that is approved. We can
draw from this verse that those who are the cause of the disunity
are those who are not approved. And, more
importantly, we can draw from this verse that we, who wish to be
approved, have an obligation to
bring about the unity
of the brethren.
We brethren are
responsible for the unity of the Church of God. We cannot sit
around and wait for the ministry to say that it’s time to get
together. We cannot wait until corporate organizations are ready to
yield to the Word of God. We, the brethren, are the ones who must
extend the right hand of fellowship (Galatians 2:9) – if we desire
to be among those who are acceptable to God. This
is a test for us!
If we wish to be
approved and acceptable to God, we will be doing everything within
our power to bring about the unity of the brethren. Those who are
maintaining division and disunity among the brethren for their own
reasons and purposes, fall into the category of those who are
not approved of God. Keep in mind that many brethren will not
be receptive to fellowshipping across organizational lines. Many
have been taught to be exclusive of all those outside their group.
“We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)
Sadly, those people will fall into line in order to curry favor
with their leadership. God says
to those false ministers. "The diseased have ye not
strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither
have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye
brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye
sought that which was lost." (Ezekiel 34:4)
In some cases, there exists a rivalry and competition over whose
congregation is the best in some arbitrary category, like who has
had the most media responses, or the most attendance, or who has
been around the longest, you name it... They forget that Jesus
Christ has only one Church, and that He has a
different way of judging. Jesus says, “He that is greatest among
you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall
be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”
(Matthew 23:11-12)
In many cases of
separation between brethren, reconciliation is not even required
because no offense has taken place. It is a matter of the
brethren having been separated into differing factions when the
apostasy hit the Church. All that God expects in that situation is
that we reach out and demonstrate that we consider them brothers and
sisters in Christ. If they reciprocate, we have gained our
brother. That is God’s will.
It will be more
difficult to reunify with brethren with whom offenses have taken
place. Sometimes, harsh and offensive words have been said. Again,
it is our Christian responsibility to make sure that no disunity
exists because of our unwillingness or reluctance to reconcile.
“God…has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
(2Corinthians 5:19)
We have our work
cut out for us, and this work of reconciliation comes before the
"work" of being on television. We cannot make the mistake of
believing that membership growth for a particular church group comes
before teaching the brethren to seek unity across organizational
lines. Those who follow a policy of looking to a particular man or
organization as an alternative to the teachings of Christ, make the
same mistake the Pharisees did. Jesus said of them: “Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land
to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more
the child of hell than yourselves.” (Matthew 23:15)
For example, one
church leader teaches that organizational loyalty comes before God’s
fifth commandment, “Honour thy father and thy mother.” (Exodus
20:12) He will not allow his members to speak to their parents in
another group. Does that make that leader a false minister? You
decide. “There were false prophets also among the people, even
as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring
in damnable heresies ['hairesis', disunion],
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by
reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And
through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise
of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their
damnation slumbers not.” (2Peter 2:1-3)
Jesus is not as
satisfied with the scattered condition of the brethren – as many of
the various branches of the Church of God are separated from one
another. We are being given this short time – these remaining days
to prepare the Bride for the return of Jesus Christ. Many,
obviously, do not yet know how to behave in the Church of God. Paul
reminds us that we ought to know how to behave ourselves in the
house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth. (1Timothy 3:15)
Paul asked the
question, “Is Christ divided?” (1 Corinthians 1:13) We should know
that the answer to that rhetorical question is, “No, Christ
is not divided.” But if we would honestly look at the
divided condition of the Church today, we would be
forced to come to one of two conclusions: Either, Christ’s Body is
divided, or, not all of us are of Christ. Now, that is a scary
scenario, no matter which one you choose. And, Paul would agree
with you. He wrote that if we are not properly discerning the
Lord's body, we are eating and drinking damnation
to ourselves (1Corinthians 11:29).
Perhaps it would
motivate us a little more if we would stop and realize that Satan is
the power behind division and splits - his motto of warfare: Divide
and Conquer.
Who is for unity and togetherness? Brethren, we have our work cut out for us.
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| Sermon: |
"A House Divided"
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