Let me ask you today—this always raises eyebrows because we live in a time when people are saying, “let’s don’t ruffle the feathers;” or “let’s not talk about things that we disagree on.” But, let me ask you, when you go to a doctor and you have a malignancy, what would you think if the surgeon said, “Now look, you’ve got the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen. Let’s not talk about what’s bad!” What would you think if the doctor said, “You are the nicest looking person. You really look like you’ve got good health otherwise. Let’s not talk about…[that cancer].”No, that’s ridiculous! That’s not what you went to the doctor for. Here’s another example: You go to a mechanic and he says, “Look, you’ve got a good looking shine on this thing [car]!” You say, “Yeah, but the motor isn’t working!” The mechanic says, “Well, let’s not talk about that. The tires look like their new….” No, you go to a mechanic because you need something fixed.

It’s ridiculous today that people claim to go to the same place, claim to be the same people, claim to come from the same Book, and yet you have “peanuts,” “popcorn,” and “berries.” It just doesn’t make sense! What does that mean? Well, let’s go back. Let’s be sure we’re all taking the seed, the Word of God, from that bag [the Bible]. That “seed is the Word of God,” we’re told in Luke 8, verse 11. If we take and plant that seed, the Word of God, with people who know nothing about any other religious group (they have never heard of other religious groups) in England, in parts of Russia, and in other parts of the world (again, with no knowledge at all of any denominational or religious group), they just take the Bible, and they call themselves “Christians.” This has been done. They refer to it as the “Lord’s church.” They take the Lord’s supper on a Sunday. Why? Well, that’s what they find in the Bible! How often did they do it? Every week. They didn’t use instruments of music in worship, because in the 1^st Century, they didn’t use them. There are only nine passages in the whole New Testament about worship in song, and all of those have to do with vocal music. The instrument was brought in later.

So, who is the one that brought in the innovations? Who is the one causing division? Keep this in mind, because this is touchy! In Romans 16:16 and 17, “mark them that cause divisions and offences”…period. No! Exclamation mark? No! Question mark? No! That’s not the end of the sentence: “mark them that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine [teaching, instruction, commands] which you have learned.” So, let’s say the Lord teaches a certain thing and I do something else. Now who is causing the division? Not the One teaching the right thing, but the one who teaches otherwise!

Is there any such thing today as false teaching? Well, with many people, it doesn’t really matter what you think. It doesn’t matter what you teach. It doesn’t matter what you believe. If that’s the case, there is no such thing as false teaching, and yet, in Mark 7:15, Jesus talks about false teachers. 2 Peter 2 talks about false teaching, and on and on we go. 1 Timothy 1:3, Paul said “charge them that they teach no other doctrine.” 2 John, verse 9 says whoever “abides not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. But he who abides in the doctrine hath both the Father and the Son.”

Let me tell you something tonight as we think about the church and as we think about the importance of it. Despite the fact that the church has been down-graded, despite the fact that people have spoken of it lightly and have regarded it lightly, Jesus loved the church! He “gave Himself for it,” Ephesians 5:25. He wanted it to be a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, Ephesians 5:27. The only way the church could be a glorious church is mentioned in John 17:4, when Jesus in the prayer said, “Father…I have glorified Your Name on earth: I have accomplished the work which You gave Me to do.” The only way we can glorify His Name, and have a glorious church, is just to be doing what He says!

The grace of God makes it possible that we might be saved even though we have nothing extra to give, and only the Lord Himself could provide what we couldn’t, that which we can’t deserve, can’t repay, can’t earn. He’s made it possible. Why, then, would we be ingrates and quibble or question or argue about things that are very clear?

In John 3, verses 3 to 5, it says, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit….”One little lady said, “What do you think ‘water’ means there?” Someone said, “I think it means ‘buttermilk.’” She said, “Now wait a minute—I’m serious!” “No,” he said, “I love buttermilk! And if it doesn’t mean what it says, I’m just going to say it means ‘buttermilk.’” The point is, if God’s Word doesn’t mean what God says, who…on…God’s…earth…can…know…what…it…means?!?! That’s the thing!

Beloved, the time was when people were not as nearly enlightened as we are in this day and age. There was a time when people didn’t know nearly what people now know or can know. The Bible said, “They that believed were” together and “they had all things common,” Acts 4:32. They “were of one heart and of one soul.” The Lord pleaded for unity, but before there can be unity, there has to be in agreement: you, your brother and the Lord. You and your brother can be in agreement, but that’s not Christian agreement until the two of you are in agreement with the Lord. In Acts 5:9, Ananias and Sapphira “agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord.” That was unity, but not Christian unity. Psalm 83:5 says, “they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against Thee.” You see three or four terms there that really speak of unity, but it wasn’t Godly unity. Three must be in agreement: you, your brother…but that’s not enough…you two must be in agreement with God. So, “mark them that cause divisions” and think that it’s “contrary to the doctrine which you learned,” [Romans 16:16-17].