If the church wasn't under threat . . .

One of Satan’s favorite devices is to sow animosity among the brethren.

“We usually think of Satan’s devices as some big heretical message coming in and it can be, but another one is animosity; holding grudges, not ‘esteeming others better than yourselves,’ ” explained Richard Jordan (shorewoodbiblechurch.org) in his Sunday morning sermon last week. “If the work of the local church wasn’t threatened, there would be no reason for members of the Body to 'endeavor to keep the unity.'

“Paul says in II Corinthians 2, ‘Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.’ If you read verses 8-10, you discover that the device the Corinthians were falling for was animosity among one another.

“I’ve said to you many times, Brother Lange told me years and years ago, ‘The hardest thing you ever do in your Christian life is work together with other Believers in the work of the ministry in the local church.’

“When you begin to engage in doing that, what you need to learn is to submerge your interest and put the interest of the work ahead of your own. That’s what Ephesians 4:2’s talking about: ‘With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.’ That’s thinking of others over yourself.

“Understand, meekness is not weakness. Numbers 12 says that Moses was the meekest man in the earth. You think Moses was a coward? Have you read about Moses? Jesus said, ‘I am meek and lowly of heart.’ You think he was a coward or afraid to confront something?

“Meekness means I have power but I have it under control. I have it harnessed and I’m using it. It’s a pursuit of the Spirit, with longsuffering. Longsuffering means I’m going to put up with it a LONG time. You know the first thing you want to do when you have suffering: ‘Let’s get this thing over with quick!’ He says, ‘I’m just going to patiently endure.’
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“Ephesians 4:3 says, ‘Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’ True unity comes by preaching the same thing and believing the same doctrine, not by being in the same organization.

“In I Corinthians 3, when Paul told the Corinthians, ‘I want you all to speak the same thing,’ the problem was they weren’t. Verse 3: ‘For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?’

“Paul’s saying in this chapter, ‘You guys are saved but you’re immature. You don’t get the doctrine! You’re like a bunch of babies. You’re not able to talk intelligently about what God’s really done. You’re still in opposition of being influenced by your ignorance! You’re still under the influence of your old life, your old thinking.’

“The Bible doesn’t leave you wondering what it means to walk as men. That comes from being under the influence of flesh; that’s what carnality means.”

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Paul instructs in Galatians 6, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”

Likewise, II Timothy 2: 24-26 advises, “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
[25] In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
[26] And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Jordan says, “That’s what happens when a Believer goes into reversion. They’ve done what Ephesians 4:19 says and given themselves over to lasciviousness. They’ve betrayed themselves into the hands of the enemy from which they were rescued. They literally live in opposition to the true identity they have in Christ.

“Verse 25 is the key to rebounding out of reversionism. Paul’s saying, ‘Here’s what you do. You don’t strive. It isn’t an issue of arguing.’

“That’s what religion does. Religion wants to be right. If there’s anything religion desires it’s, ‘I’m right.’ That’s because religion is more of a political thing.

“You know, politicians want to be right. You talk to a Republican: ‘I’m right.’ You talk to a Democrat: ‘I’m right.’ You talk to a Libertarian: ‘I’m right.’ They strive to be right. They just strive to win.

“A fellow told me one time, ‘I like to debate.’ I thought, ‘No, I’ve seen you; you like to win.’ Debating isn’t the issue; winning’s the issue.

“Religion’s that way: ‘Our view’s right. Our God’s right.’ Listen, God doesn’t need you to be right. He’s right without you. You can relax. You don’t have to defend the integrity of God; He can take care of Himself.

“You know what happens with truth? Truth will win if it’s allowed to be at the table. So he says, ‘Don’t strive; don’t think this stuff depends on you.’ You’ve heard the old illustration about how you don’t have to defend a lion? Just turn him loose; he’ll defend himself. That’s the way God’s truth is.

“The servant of the Lord must not strive. Why? Because that’s making it about you, and it isn’t about you! One of the wonderful things you learn when you learn about grace is it’s not the end of the world when you lose.

“If it looks like you lose or you really do lose, it’s in your weakness that His strength is made perfect. So you don’t have to strive to win.

“You read through Paul’s epistles and he says, ‘We’re as the offscouring of the world.’ I love that verse in I Corinthians 4:10 that says, ‘We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.’

“If somebody thinks you’re a fool, they’re not bragging on you. But Paul knew why he was being considered a fool. I had a friend who had written on the back of his wheelchair, ‘I’m a fool for Christ; whose fool are you?’ I used to think, ‘Man, that’s a great sign.’

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“Paul writes, ‘For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ.’ I love that verse. I’m crucified with Christ at Calvary when I trust Him. You know how many people don’t understand that?

“I listened on the radio the other week to a famous preacher known all over the world who was talking about water baptism in his church and he’s a ‘pourer.’ He said that when you get baptized you’re baptized into the death of Jesus.

“Imagine somebody being so foolish to think you can get put into Jesus Christ through the city water system! Through some religious activity where they can’t even decide what kind it ought to be!

"He pours, somebody else says you sprinkle. Somebody else says you got to dunk them. They can’t even decide how to do it and they think it’s going to put them in contact with the God of heaven! You think, ‘What!’

“Paul talks about a baptism God did where you don’t have anything to do with it and it’s got no water, no preacher, no priest involved. It’s the operation of God.

"When you trust Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit takes you and puts you into Jesus Christ, and His death becomes YOUR death. His baptism into death becomes YOUR baptism into death.

“You’re buried with Him by His baptism into death and you’re raised with Him to walk in newness of life, and it’s a real spiritual transaction God does. And they say, ‘You’re a heretic!’ Well, I’m a heretic if that’s heresy! I’m sure not in your camp, if that’s where you are.

“You know what you lose when you don’t see that? You don’t see that, ‘I’m dead with Him,’ and that you’re alive with Him. You see, you have to understand the identity God gives you when you trust Him and it means something. You’re not just trying to be different from some religion.

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“You go to the Billy Graham Center Museum at Wheaton College and there’s this big board that reads, ‘Ask Dr. Graham a question.’ You punch the thing that says, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ and there’s audio of Dr. Graham saying, ‘What you need to do to be saved is you need to make Jesus the Lord of your life. And what that means is you need to repent of your sins. What does repentance mean? It means to be sorry for your sins. How sorry? REAL sorry.’

“I thought that was amazing so I took a little tape recorder and copied that and I used to use that for years to let you hear Dr. Graham say it in his own voice.

“Repentance is not sorrow for sin. People say all the time how, ‘You need to repent of your sins,’ but there’s not one verse in the Scripture that talks about repenting of sin. The term is really a Roman Catholic concept: Penance, repentance and penitence. One is the sorrow for sin and one is the things you do to pay for your sins.

“The Bible isn’t talking about being sorry for sin. That isn’t what repentance is. II Corinthians 7:9 says, ‘Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.’

“Notice, where does repentance come from? Godly sorrow PRODUCES repentance. The word ‘repent’ means ‘a change of mind; to rethink something.’ It’s to think differently than you thought before.

“You notice in the verse there’s two kinds of sorrow. Godly sorrow and the sorrow of the world. Godly sorrow is real genuine sorrow; real guilt. You recognize that what you did is wrong and you have a genuine concern to solve the problem.

“You acknowledge the guilt, you have regret for it and you seek to set things right by appropriate, correct, responsible behavior. The sorrow of the world isn’t real true guilt; it’s, ‘I’m sorry that I got caught. I’m not sorry for what I did; I’m sorry that I’m going to be held accountable for what I did.’ That doesn’t work anything but death.
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“The passage in II Corinthians goes on, [10] For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
[11] For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

“That’s a detailed description of the godly sorrow that produces true repentance. When you clear yourself of something it’s, ‘I want to get this out! I’m going to remove the debris!’ It starts with, ‘I’m going to find the thing in my life that needs to be dealt with. How did that happen, where did it come from, what led to it.’ I’m going to track that sucker down and get rid of it!’

Paul says, ‘Yea, what indignation.’ I love that one. It’s like the verse that says to ‘abhor evil.’ You see sin in your life and you say, ‘Sin is a horrible thing. Look at what it did to my Savior.’

“You know how you ought to deal with sin in your life? Just as ruthlessly as God Himself dealt with it. The sin in your life is the sin that crucified your Savior. You look at it like that and you won’t keep on loving it quite as much as you did.

“You don’t love something, embrace it and carry it to your bosom as a lover of your soul when you look at it and realize, ‘That’s the thing that nailed my Savior to the Cross.’

“I’ve been telling people for five decades, ‘You were living the way you wanted to live before you heard about grace! You didn’t need the grace of God to live any way you wanted to live.’ The grace of God teaches you that ‘denying ungodliness.’

Titus 2 says, [11] For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
[12] Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
[13] Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
[14] Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
[15] These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.