Sermon Transcript — December 6, 2003
Having spent eight years of our lives in Pasadena in two different stretches in the '80s and '90s, I do feel somewhat familiar with, and to some degree comfortable in, the Southern California environment, and yet I am totally unfamiliar with your congregation except for that handful of people that we have known pretty well over the years. I could mention a whole bunch of names that I can see here, and most of whom I have spoken to already. I won't do that, but most of you would be readily familiar with those that we worked with on a regular basis in Pasadena during those years, many of whom are among your leadership here now. But I trust that Mr. Register's invitation for me to speak will produce sufficient confidence to keep you from bolting for the doors anyway — at least for the first 45 minutes or so. I don't even speak for an hour and a half like I used to. These days I get by with about an hour and 20 minutes usually. But I hear you only have an hour and a half service so I am a little short on time. Mr. Webber and I have been friends, of course, since about 1980 when we first worked together. But Mr. Register and I have been friends since 1965 when we were both students in Ambassador College in Big Sandy. He was a kid. I say that because I was by that time an old married student who had already had a couple of years of college elsewhere, and had a wife and child, and I think Dave might have been coming out of Imperial Schools at 17 or something. So we had a few years between us. Dave, in fact, was my brother's roommate and survived, which is saying something for him. Actually I am kidding. They did get along well and even intend to get together in the not too distant future. They apparently live only about 20-30 minutes apart now and haven't seen each other in probably more than 30 years.
I want to start with a little history this afternoon which might be in order here, partly because some of you have no idea what my place to speak to you is, and partly because it is relevant to the subject at hand. So I will give you a little bit of background. While we don't want to focus generally too much on the past, and I am one who has tried to avoid doing that a great deal over the last few years, we also don't want to forget it, because church history is a matter of importance to us all, and ultimately becomes a part of the context in which we live our lives and serve God. We arrived here in the United Church of God somewhat by a different route than most of you. So perhaps it would be good for you to have a little bit of understanding of that.
Our family left Pasadena in 1992, and I left some major responsibilities in the Work under considerable duress due to activities and decisions, and so forth, behind the scenes that most of you would not have been aware of in any way at that time, though some few might have. After that I pastured briefly in St. Louis thinking that the field was a safe place to survive and teach the truth, and found that that wasn't going to happen. And I actually resigned the ministry in Worldwide Church of God in February of 1994. So that's a little bit before the average one of us was in that situation. But I was put in particularly difficult circumstances and had to make that decision a little earlier than even many of our fellow ministers. And I resigned due directly to doctrinal conflict with the organization. And for a few months we met with a small group of faithful members who had left separately but for similar reasons. We had nothing to do with their departure. We did not go and preach that they should leave or anything of the sort. It just didn't happen because of timing and other things that were concerns at the time. But a number of people were separating themselves from the organization, and so we met separately for a period of time, sometimes in our home and in other peoples' homes, and gradually we ended up with about 45 or 50 of us. We began to look around us and say, you know, we have to do something different than what we are doing.
And I want to explain to you why we did that. We looked at our little group, and even though we had a number of elders and people who had had relatively strong positions in the church at various times, we knew that there had to be other members of God's church who were doing what we were, that is, simply trying to survive and in a sense feeling a little bit cut off from the vine, though we saw that the vine itself was having trouble. We knew certainly that we had no commission to do an independent work of some sort. We have strongly resisted that question and comment from many sources at many times, which plays into something that occurs later. We did have some contacts in other groups who were telling us about what they were doing and why, and so forth. We did some research and some interviews, and to make a long story short, after about four months we chose to throw in our lot with the Global Church of God at that time in 1994 at Pentecost. We, along with several others, fellow ministers, worked in that group for about four years and then came to a point of conflict within the organization over written doctrine, but primarily over application and the attitude with which that doctrine was administered. But in trying to save that organization we ended up with a very hard, clear division that persists to this day.
Now on background, a number of us in that organization had met with some of the United leadership previous to this time regarding a potential merger, but that had been scuttled and crushed by some of the leadership in Global. And so after the division occurred in Global and we ended up with two separate groups, that organization openly went under on a financial and legal basis, and so we formed a new group, which we called the Church of God, A Christian Fellowship. Some of you are familiar with the relationship that developed with United over a period of time. Of course, we knew at the time we formed that organization that this was not the end of the road, because we always, most of us, acknowledged from '94-'95 on that ultimately God would bring his people together and that the church would be reconstituted according to God's guidelines, not according to ours. And so all of these things were sort of stops along the way. I trust and pray that this particular circumstance is not a stop along the way, but rather a forward motion in the ultimate process. Because certainly we have seen some real positive results of the unity of a number of groups that have come together. Throughout the fall of 2000 and through the spring of 2001 there was a good deal of communication between the Church of God, A Christian Fellowship and United Church of God. In the fall of 2001 we agreed to unite on the basis of doctrinal agreement as well as ministerial credibility. And we as a small organization, somewhat unknown to United, agreed to accept United's method of credentialing ministers on the legal and traditional basis, as opposed to simply demanding our rights, because even though we felt our history and fruits were our credibility, it was obvious that organizationally there had to be a similar rule applied to all of us as was being applied to anybody else coming into the organization. So within a few months that was done and virtually all of our ministry had been credentialed and were functioning fully in the United congregations. So that was mid summer and into fall by the time we were actually discussing employment and that kind of thing, and we actually had some of our ministry hired by United in the fall of 2001.
Personally, Judy and I were privileged to work with Doug and Tanya Horchak down in Dallas. Many of you probably know them from the past as well. Doug and Tanya have been very good friends since about 1975 when we worked together back on the East Coast. And then after a year in Dallas we were transferred to pastor the present congregations in the fall of 2002, actually it was July of 2002, when Bill and Cheryl Jahns volunteered to serve in southern Africa. And I'm sure you've heard a little bit about their experiences down there, and the difficulties they have faced getting settled in. But the tremendous growth that is happening in southern Africa, not only in South Africa itself, but in Malawi and Zambia and Zimbabwe and some of these areas. It has been a real education for Bill and Cheryl, and of course a real blessing for the brethren in that part of the world. So we now pastor the three small churches which Bill was pastoring, which are Salt Lake City, Twin Falls, Idaho, and Grand Junction, Colorado. So our churches are scattered over three states and about 600 miles. It would be sort of similar here if you want to put it in geographic terms to be pastoring not only Los Angeles and Bakersfield, but throw in Yuma just for kicks. Because when we leave the house and drive to Twin Falls it is three and one half hours one way. And when we leave the house and drive to Grand Junction it is four and one half hours the opposite way. So we end up with a little bit of travel.
I took my car in for an oil change the other day, and the lady came back out and she had a sticker in her hand. She said, "They forgot to put the sticker in the windshield." And the other girl said, "Well that can't be his." And she said, "Yeah, I think it is." She said, "That says 103,000 miles, and he has a 2001." I said, "That's mine." It's a 2001 automobile, with now over 104,000 miles on it. And they were a little bit shocked at that since the average person drives maybe 12,000 a year, in that part of the country maybe more like 15,000-20,000, although if you live in Salt Lake City there's nowhere else to go. The roads don't go anywhere. But no, that's for two reasons. One is, it's a wonderful place to be, so why would you go anywhere else. And secondly, there just isn't anywhere else to go.
You are too far to go anywhere unless you're going to go on a trip.
So we have three churches scattered over 600 miles with a total attendance of about 100 people. So that's one of the blessings you can count as well. Be thankful for having so many brethren together that you can identify with, spend time with, get to know, learn from, grow by, and so forth. Because that is a real blessing. Because some of these small isolated churches, the Twin Falls congregation, for example, frequently has 10 people in attendance. So we drive the three and one hours up there and speak to 10 people. They appreciate it and we are glad to do it, but at the same time there just isn't a lot of interaction and iron sharpening iron to happen at that point in time. So you have some really big blessings there that you can also be thankful for. And, of course, it changes our routine. Because when we can't go to sleep we can't count sheep. We count miles. We would never get to sleep if we counted sheep.
So with that bit of personal history maybe you can already anticipate what the subject of the sermon is today. Unless you know me from a long time and expect there isn't going to be one. The title today is Unity in God's Church. And I realize I am speaking to people out in cyberspace whom I trust will bear with us in this folly.
I have found it fascinating over the last few years to see how this matter of unity is viewed. Generally speaking, we might say that most organizations, remnants of the mother church of this era, most organizations seem to expect absolute dedicated unity within the organization, but don't think much about it across organizational lines. We are doing our thing, they are doing theirs, and so be it. I hasten to say here, again from experience, that most in United, including the ministry and the leadership, do not feel that way. If they did I probably wouldn't be here. Actually back in the Global Church of God we were approached first by a number of United ministers as early as 1997 when we first began to talk about getting a group together to explore the unity of the two groups. I think we may have even been contacted somewhat less formally back in 1995 shortly after United was formed. And there have now been other groups united, some before, some during, and some since the merger of United Church of God and Church of God, A Christian Fellowship. There have been others who have come together. So the United Church of God has in a sense taken the lead, sort of made an effort to reach out and say, hey, if we're all of one mind, if we're all of one spirit, if we are really the body of Christ, then let's get together and make it more efficient and more effective to do God's work. And that's a laudable position to have taken, and I commend the organization for that. But some in organizations, or as independent individuals, seem to put pet doctrines, and I call them pet doctrines, often marginal doctrines or based upon interpretations of obscure scriptures, above the real doctrine of unity in God's church. And I do not hesitate to call it a doctrine. It is a clear and unmistakable prominent teaching of Christ and the apostles that God's people should be united, and it is even used to define true Christianity in some areas of scripture.
One of the major issues that is sometimes brought up as not necessarily being a pet doctrine but absolutely a traditional must-have doctrine is that of church government of a particular form. Now ironically, that is one of the favorite positions that people take to say we cannot be unified. I say ironically because Mr. Herbert Armstrong placed a lot of emphasis on church government. Any of you who were around in those years know that. You know how much emphasis was placed on church government, and to the point that people did begin to say if we don't have it exactly this way then we can't be right in God's eyes. What most fail to realize is that Mr. Armstrong was emphasizing and pushing church government precisely for the purpose of maintaining and preserving unity within the church. That was his goal and his purpose, contrary to the critics who might even say, well it was because he could be in charge, nobody could say him nay, or whatever. That is ridiculous. Mr. Armstrong promoted church government for the purpose of preserving the unity within the church. He had learned by bitter experience, as you can find easily by reading through his autobiography, that leaving individual congregations sort of loosely federated and under their own local leadership, and so forth, never tended toward unity but always tended toward dissipation and division and ultimate separation. And so church government, which did not actually mature in the church for decades, was a means of preserving the unity of the church. But sometimes we end up throwing out the baby with the bath water, or perhaps thinking that the baby is the bath water. Because in this case the unity of the church is the foundational doctrine, and the preservation of that unity in the church is what was important and still is. How it is achieved may vary from time to time and from age to age or decade to decade, but it is ultimately a very important doctrine within God's church. A doctrine that comes right directly out of the word of God, and from Christ's own lips, as well as many of the apostles. So today we have a different form of governance in the church. Now I'm here to tell you as a person who has participated in both, and as a person who has been for a short period of time in official capacity of president of the other organization, that governing by one man rule is so much easier than governing by collective rule. You know, it's really easy to get things done if everybody says somebody is in charge and whatever he says that's what we do. That's a piece of cake. You don't have the right to challenge. You don't have any reason to discuss. It's just, hey, he said it, God must have inspired it, I'll go do it. That's easy. But when you get a collective group of people, whether it's a congregation, whether it's a group of ministers, whether it's the Council of Elders itself, or whether it's the administrative staff at the home office, it doesn't matter who it might be, you get a group of people together and give them input, I've done it over and over again, it is a very difficult thing to manage. It's a difficult thing to guide. It's a difficult thing to produce the goals and the focus and the details that you need to get the job done. Because everybody has an opinion and they are entitled to it. Everybody has a perspective. Everybody has a reason for feeling and seeing things the way that he does. And that is very valuable. But it's hard to pull all of that together and make it a meaningful whole. We are now successfully doing that. And while I would much rather have the easier way in one sense, I respect and appreciate the effort that has gone into making this system work. The present system may be the only one some few of you have experienced. But it is a successful, functioning system. And what does it do? It promotes and preserves unity, because we have systems of written documentation, and processes of governance that are governed by principles that everybody has agreed to initially. And so it promotes unity, it promotes togetherness, it promotes efficiency and effectiveness.
hat it does not do is to proclaim that at this time and place God is guiding and working through one man as his agent on earth. We haven't seen that happen at this point in time. We don't necessarily expect it to happen. And therein lies the rub for some. Because amazingly, there are several organizations within the Church of God, some call it the greater Church of God, all the various organizations that represent the Church of God, amazing, there are several of those organizations, each of which is being led by that one man that God is guiding and leading to make the final decisions governing his church. Only one of them by their own definition can be right. Isn't that true? If you are going to espouse that kind of government in the church today, only one person can be right. All the rest of the leadership of organizations who say we have one man government and that follows the pattern God gave us in the Bible and through the apostles, are missing the point that there are other people proclaiming themselves the heirs of that same office.
So we don't have that and we can be thankful for that as well today. Not because there is anything inherently evil in the one man government necessarily. I don't believe there is anything inherently evil in it. It can go astray, has gone astray. But in the context of one man government, several of these organizations don't have a whole lot of hope for unity, do they? We, on the other hand, are in a position to espouse unity, to promote unity, to encourage unity, to reach out to others for the sake of unity. Not contrary to principle. Not in conflict with what we believe or who we are. But within the context of those who are of like mind, those who are motivated by the same word, the same spirit, the same hope of God's kingdom, ultimately are of one mind and should be together and not divided by whatever physical human limitations we have brought upon ourselves. And again I speak from experience.
But let's review a few scriptures in order to keep fresh in our collective and individual minds the importance and perhaps even the urgency of promoting unity in the Church of God. Let's start in 1 John 1. I really appreciate this passage of scripture. And while it is focused on a slightly different ultimate point in the sense of our sin and the need for the sacrifice of Christ, there is some very relevant information in this first chapter of 1 John regarding our attitude toward unity. Let's start in verse 3, breaking in here. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. (I'm reading in the King James.) That which we have seen and heard. This is what they believe, this is what they were taught, this is what they experienced as apostles. We declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us. So the purpose of this experience and this sharing of these experiences is to promote fellowship between those who are called of God. That you may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So he says, our fellowship is with God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, and we are telling you these things so you can have fellowship with us. So where is the focus of the fellowship? The focus of the fellowship is between human beings and God the Father and Jesus Christ. And the implication here is, if I have fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, and you have fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, then we automatically have fellowship one with another.
You know, I come here to see family. I come to see Randall and Stephanie and Seth. But in a larger sense, tonight I will spend time with Stephanie's parents, who are not in this church organization but who are in the family. By the way, we get along very well regardless of church organizational lines. But the point is, we are part of the same family. Our fellowship is actually through Stephanie, if you think about it that way. You know what I'm talking about. You have an extended family relationship through some person who is the focal point. And frequently parents of a bride and groom or of a young couple, the parents will have a relationship only because they have mutual children and grandchildren. So your fellowship is attached through that conduit. In this case Stephanie is the conduit or the central focus of the relationship. Because she is their daughter, she is married to our son, actually she and Randall together become, if you look at it from their point of view, I can come visit Randall and Stephanie, and it would be irrelevant whether I saw Bob and Stella, but if I am here to see Randall and Stephanie, and we want to get the whole family together, then I am automatically going to be extending that same family relationship to Stephanie's family.
That is what John is saying here. Our fellowship is with God the Father and Jesus Christ, and we want you to have fellowship with us. If I want you to have fellowship with us, how are we going to do that? We are going to promote fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ who are the conduit, the connection between us and you. So that is what he is saying here. We want you to have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the God family. We come on down to verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us, collectively us. We all, in other words, have the same sacrifice to be thankful for. And it's through that sacrifice and that power of God's Spirit that we have any contact whatsoever. So we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. He goes on to talk about if we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth isn't in us, and so forth. The point is, our fellowship with God will define our character, our appreciation for Christ's sacrifice, and our respect for others who accepted that sacrifice and are living according to its requirements, because there are requirements. And so he is basically saying if we have fellowship with God we should have fellowship with one another.
Now, again, I am not here to condemn or judge or try to create some conflict with other parties. I am simply here to discuss the principle and the theory that is clearly enunciated in the scriptures that all those who are of God will also have appreciation and respect and fellowship with one another. And today that simply is not the case. Not one of us here would say we don't know of any Christians in any other organization. I could name a whole bunch of people I consider good Christians who are not in the same physical organization I am in. I believe they are all in God's church to some degree. Again, I am talking about those who qualify, not everybody in every organization. But those who are true Christians are separated here and there and scattered among various organizations. Most of us would acknowledge that. But what we must also acknowledge is that if we are all of God we have not only a responsibility to God in terms of fellowship, but a responsibility to one another. Now stay with me lest you think I am calling you to a particular action I am not. I don't want to mislead you.
Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 1. We know 1 Corinthians 1 is a place we often go to talk about unity, or division as the case may be. Of course it discusses both. 1 Corinthians 1:9. God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Here is the apostle Paul saying the same thing we just read from the apostle John. You were called to the fellowship of Jesus Christ. That is part of what we are here. We are the friends, the brethren, the called out circle of friends that surround Jesus Christ as our leader.
Verse 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing. We frequently read that, but I'm afraid sometimes we take it a little bit out of context. You see, he's saying you're called to the fellowship of Christ, and by implication if you are in the fellowship of Jesus Christ, and your fellowship is with Christ and God, then you are going to be speaking the same thing as somebody else whose fellowship is with God and Christ. I beseech you by the name of Jesus Christ, it is not just by the authority here, it is by the whole point that you are a part of Christianity. That you all speak the same thing and that there be no schisms (or divisions) among you. But that you be perfectly joined — wow, look out — that you be perfectly joined together — there are lots of big demands in the Bible. This is one of those very, very big demands in the Bible — that you all be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Do we begin to comprehend how hard this is? Have we even begun to achieve this even within organizations separately, much less across organizational lines? Oh no. We have not really begun to achieve being of the same mind and the same judgment. We can sit down with very close friends, and I daresay I could sit down with Randall and Stephanie and have a conversation about doctrinal things for long enough that we would have some disagreements. The same thing applies to any one of you. We haven't come to the same mind and the same judgment to where we are automatically on the same page. It isn't going to happen — yet — but it is what we want to come to. It is what we are called to do it says here, in the fellowship of Jesus Christ. To represent Jesus Christ and his way of life so thoroughly that we are instantly identifiable by what we believe and practice, by what we teach, and how we treat one another, and people can say, wow, you must be of them. Now we are a very small group of people on the face of the earth, and so to some degree right now we don't even have a public reputation.
My wife was called to jury duty a couple of weeks ago, and she is supposed to serve this coming week. Well, she doesn't believe she should serve on jury duty, so she put in her application for an excuse for that responsibility, and she listed her spiritual doctrinal concerns. But they wouldn't give her an answer until yesterday. So she had to call in yesterday to see do we have to be home first thing Monday morning to be at the courthouse at 8:00 or whatever, or can we dilly-dally on our way home. And so they said, "Well, you're qualified for jury duty." She said, "Well I don't intend to serve. I'll be there if I'm commanded to be there, but I won't serve anyway." "Well, you're qualified to serve, you need to be here," etc. Then he said something interesting. He said, "Are you Jehovah's Witness?" Meaning, are you of the Jehovah's Witness organization. Now technically she could have said yes. She is Jehovah's witness. One of many. All of us to some degree are that, we hope. But they meant the organizational title, the group, are you Jehovah's Witness. It was almost like, well if you are, we know we aren't going to succeed anyway so okay, we'll figure out something. But she said no. So he was very gracious and polite and said, "We don't have court on Monday anyway, so I don't want you to rush back. You don't have to be here till Tuesday." Now, you see, they have a reputation as having stood up for that particular principle or value that they choose to espouse as an organization to the degree that it is almost a readymade thing, if you are a Jehovah's Witness, okay you're off. We don't have that reputation, and maybe we never will in that particular category because I don't think we require that each of us does that. It happens to be our personal position.
But what I am saying, you see, is we should come to eventually the same mind and same judgment on those trunk of the tree issues that are so obvious we don't even need any gray area, that we are instantly recognizable as the people of God. Sabbath keepers, yes. Commandment keepers, yes. Holy day keepers, yes. But far more than that, people who believe what they believe, and are going to commit to it and stick to it regardless of the consequences. People who are going to love their fellow man and love God to the degree that that is the motive behind whatever they do. Instead of selfish personal gain motives that are so common among fellow man, and even among often religious groups.
Perfectly joined in the same mind. Notice verse 11. For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe that there are contentions among you. Now I won't take time here to go off into how come he says those of the house of Chloe. We like to have anonymity when we make such a judgment, don't we? You come to the minister and you say, hey, we have got this big problem in the church. But don't tell anybody I said so. Interestingly, here Paul says, the house of Chloe says you guys have got a problem. Enough said about that. There are contentions. That's the point. There are contentions among you. Then he goes on to describe one example of those contentions, which is that they are followers of men individually. That is, they have chosen their heroes, they have chosen their leaders, and they are going to follow those leaders. That is the contention he specifically addressed here. But the example clearly is one for which the principle follows through to other potential contentions, other private doctrinal issues or concerns that we sometimes allow to drive a wedge in between us individually within God's church.
I don't know this congregation at all, and Randall and Stephanie certainly haven't rumored about you, so I have no authority to talk about this, except to say that as a pastor of 35 years standing I can almost be assured that there are people in this congregation who can hardly even really spend any time with certain other people in this congregation because of differences of opinion or wedges that have been driven over some pet doctrine, or some process somewhere, sometime that causes us to be divided.
And we can look at 1 Corinthians and say, those people were all divided because they were following men. Oh, yeah, but what are we divided about? What is it we are not really willing to commit to as something that serves the body and serves the greater good of the whole of the people of God? I say that because all to often even in the two years since I have been in United I have seen individuals who go off in their own direction after their own pet project, sometimes writing books or pamphlets or letters or sending out tapes, or whatever it might be, to promote their particular branch, their particular twig, their particular personal concern that they somehow want all the rest of us to buy into. Even if we have differences of judgment and differences of speaking in our private lives, they must be subjected to the greater good of the unity of the church. Again, one of the things Mr. Armstrong always taught us was to stick to the trunk of the tree. Oh yes, he would fill in some of the twigs, sometimes even speculate on some of the twigs. He would allow the ministry to do that. I have heard him say in speakers' meetings at the feast, I give the trunk of the tree. You guys have to fill in all the branches and the leaves. And we have tried to do that to give the whole picture. But the branches and the leaves are attached to the trunk of the tree. And if you go off on trees and branches and leaves, and so forth, that are not attached to the trunk of the tree, you have not filled out the tree. You have planted a different one. So following men here is only one of those things that can take us astray.
Let's go back to the book of Ephesians, again the apostle Paul, chapter four, where again most people would go to discuss church government, particularly one man government. We have determined that there is much more in this chapter than that, though certainly it allows for that under certain circumstances that God has obviously used at times in the past. But it is referring to primarily the purpose of the ministry and the leadership and the functioning within the church of those whom God has put there.
Ephesians 4:11. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Okay, we have all of those to a degree within the church today whether they carry those titles or not. Verse 12. For the perfecting of the saints. All he is really saying here is God has put a place, a role, a responsibility, an accountability within the church into which he puts certain people who have the responsibility of doing what he is doing for him on his behalf, God's workmen, his laborers who are working among his harvest, in order to fulfill his purpose. And notice what that is. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the service of the church, for the edifying of the body of Christ, until we all come into the unity of the faith. You read your Bible over and over and over again, and these words of various aspects of this process of unity keep coming out. Until we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the son of God. That unity of faith is partly based on knowledge, and some of the other elements that Dan Apartian mentioned earlier. The knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.
One of the things that every minister knows, every pastor, every shepherd who has a flock of sheep, as we are all sitting here today, and we are all sheep. Christ is the chief shepherd, but he appoints assistant shepherds here and there to take care of parts of his flock.
And every one of those shepherds knows that sooner or later somebody who is presently very nicely ensconced within the fold is going to jump the fence, and is going to say, "I have discovered new truth." Or, "I just read this fascinating book about such and such and it makes me question the whole Bible." We have had that happen within this organization recently. Or, "I have decided that I cannot in good conscience continue to participate in an organization that fails to do this," whatever that thing might be. Now, I do not question the sincerity or the honesty of such individuals in some cases. In some cases I do, but in some cases I don't. They do what they do of a good conscience or an intentional attempt to obey God. But they do it on their own counsel without the help and advice and counsel of the greater body, God's church, and of being of one mind and one judgment, because their fellowship is with God and Jesus Christ. And we hate to see that happen. I hate to see somebody who is going along, serving God, and seemingly a very viable part of the congregation, serving and helping perhaps, and all of a sudden they say, "Nah, I can't come anymore, because I have this problem with this aspect of the church." Now again, every man is ultimately going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And yes we do have to be responsible for our actions and accountable for them. And we all make decisions accordingly day in and day out. But we ought to be very, very cautious not to make them on our own authority with our own counsel without really getting the best counsel and guidance and advice that we can possibly get. Somebody sent me a booklet not too long ago, very beautifully done booklet, very well written in some ways. And I thought, this is what some of my friends have followed, so I'd better find out what is in it. And so I skimmed through it. And I very quickly found that the person was on the one hand propounding absolute preservation of everything Mr. Herbert Armstrong taught, while at the same time he was espousing several theories and fulfilled prophecies which Mr. Armstrong would completely disagree with. And I thought, well that's interesting. His whole authority in life in this particular booklet, and it's probably not who you think I am talking about, is to say we have got to stick with what Mr. Armstrong taught, while he is proclaiming truth that he has come to understand that the church never had under Mr. Armstrong. It is contradictory. Doesn't work that way. But people go off to follow their own light, and they end up disappearing.
It is for the unity and the perfecting of the saints, until we all come into the unity of the faith. We can only do that within our own lives and our own group of people, our own fellowship. We can't solve the problem of lack of unity with other organizations, though we do have a responsibility to set the example, and to reach out, and to be available when they come looking for us if and when they do. Or to reach out to them as United reached out to our organization years ago. It is clear that the purpose of the ministry, the organization, the church, physical corporation itself in some sense is designed to maintain and preserve the unity of understanding of doctrine, of practice, of example, and the capacity to really do God's work. Because we cannot do it individually and separately.
Back to the gospel of John now, to chapter 17 which we all know well, or at least those of us who have been taking the Passover for 30 or 40 years certainly know well John 17, because we read it virtually in its entirety every Passover, and no doubt many times in between. John 17. Again I break into a very long discussion here in chapter 17, including Christ's prayer to his Father on the evening of that last Passover. He is talking about praying for the brethren, verses 15-16, along in there, 17. Coming down to verse 20 he says, Neither pray I for these alone, meaning those gathered in the room with him. But for them also which shall believe on me through their word. So he's saying, I'm praying for those down the line, decades, centuries, millennia from now, who will believe Jesus Christ's word because the apostles witnessed to it and wrote it down and passed on that knowledge to us, preserved by Christ in this word. I am praying for them. So Christ was praying for us. We understand that. Verse 21. That they all may be one, as you Father are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us. Again, a very powerful demand. As you and I are one. That's what Christ is saying. As you, Father, and I are one. Now how much were they one? To the point that Christ is described in Hebrews as being the exact dye-stamped image or expression of his Father. A perfect likeness. And Christ says, that they may be one as you Father are in me, and I in you, that they may be one in us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. That the world may believe that you have sent me. Now that takes it to a whole new level. There's going to be an example. There's going to be a witness. There's going to be a testimony that says these people are so like God, they are so like Jesus Christ, they are so committed to the truth that they have to be of God. That the world may believe that you have sent me. The very validity of Christ's authority as the Son of God and the Savior is to some degree tied to the ultimate fruit of his ministry, which is unity among his people. Does that put a little bit of burden on you? I hope it does. I am not even sorry. Because it is the very burden that God and Jesus Christ put upon us, to become one as they are one. And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me.
Wow. You and I are hardly even on the map as far as the world is concerned. And yet ultimately it seems like, it sounds like we have got to come to the place where we are not only on the map, we are recognized as being absolutely of one mind and judgment under the authority of God and as an exact imprint of the mind and thinking of Jesus Christ himself, dedicated to his purpose and his will to the point that people can say, wow! They aren't going to say, "Are you Jehovah's Witness?" They'll say, "Are you part of the Church of God? Do you keep the Sabbath and Holy Days, and the commandments? Do you love your fellow man? Do you love your neighbor? Do you love God? Do you put all of your heart and mind and soul and being into that effort? Oh, well then, have your own way. You're Christ's. You're not mine." Now that's theoretical. The world, of course, is never going to come to the place that it totally acknowledges that. But the point is, we have to be doing our part to set that standard, to set that example. And to provide the world with that kind of witness and that kind of standard that they can look to.
Each of us has a responsibility to deepen our fellowship with the Father and the Son. Which will in turn automatically increase and deepen our fellowship one with another. And it will also make us of one mind and judgment with all others who have true fellowship with the Father and the Son. So we are promoting unity by the way that we commit to the truth as God has revealed it to us, as opposed to reserving our own little judgments, and our own pet doctrines, and our own theories which take us off and separate us from the trunk of the tree, and therefore from one another. It seems doubtful to me, as a personal position it seems doubtful to me that Christ is going to continue in the long run to work through competing judgmental groups of Christians even though they may initially be converted, who are so focused on their own work that they fail to see the need for unity and promote it with zeal and effort by the way they serve God and the way they hold out that openness and love and care for one another.
I have been through some pretty difficult times in the last 15 years. I have been through what I consider some fairly abusive circumstances. But you know what, with God's help I have come to really want total unity with all of those brethren, even those that slap me around a little bit. And I think we have to come to that. Oh, I don't proclaim to be perfect in it. I have a long way to go before I am perfectly forgiving. But we need to be coming to that. And mark this well. I am not saying, as you may have concluded way back when I said caution, don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that that unity and that peace and that one mind and judgment is going to come by us having sort of a live and let live attitude. We do our thing, they do their thing, okay fine. We live and let live. We are not trying to criticize or condemn or judge or any way isolate ourselves from each other, though that we must do. That is not going to openly promote the unity. True unity in God's church is not going to come in some loose federation of organizations even more than it ever came in some loose organization or federation of individual congregations way back in the '30s. It is not going to happen by just a loose federation of saying, well they are serving God this way, we are serving God that way, they have their gifts, we have ours, and God knows his own. I don't believe that personally. I don't believe that is going to happen. God is going to bring all of those who are his children into one mind, one judgment, one fellowship, the unity of the faith and the fullness of the stature of Christ. The responsibility for each of us today is to see that we are able to be used in that way, that we are malleable clay in God's hands, who will accept his guidance and direction to make us what he wants us to be, so that we together produce a much more effective example, and witness, and light, not only to the other organizations, but to the world itself. That unity will come when we individually and collectively achieve fellowship of the mind and heart and attain the goal of one judgment. That will come when we each achieve in Paul's words there in Ephesians, the fullness of the stature of Christ. Unity of the faith is important to God. It should and must be important to us, each and every one of us in this congregation and throughout the Church of God.