In Chris Hayzlip's sermon titled 'Unity', the concept of unity is explored in both its holy and unholy forms. The sermon highlights that while unity can evoke feelings of peace and brotherhood, not all unity is inherently good. The speaker warns against uniting with groups or causes that are evil, such as street gangs, false religions, and heretical leadership within churches, which require the sacrifice of personal values and truth. The sermon emphasizes that true unity should be rooted in the truth of God's word and warns against the dangers of idolizing leaders or embracing the misleading concept of 'unity in diversity.' Instead, it advocates for 'unity from diversity,' where diverse gifts and roles within the church are unified under the singular truth of Christ. The sermon concludes by highlighting the importance of remaining separate from unholy unity and striving for a unity that reflects the teachings and spirit of Christ.

All right. Well, it was very interesting to learn that Brother Jackson could trace the church roots all the way back to a church named Unity Baptist Church. That really piqued the interest of some of us here today because the church that is going to be organized today has chosen the name Unity Baptist Church. And Unity is the title of my message this morning. If you would turn to the book of Proverbs chapter 1.

As you're turning there I'm going to quote for you from the book of Psalms, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Unity. Think of that word for a moment. Meditate for a few moments on how that makes you feel when you think of unity. What comes to mind when you think of unity?

Conjures up images of peace and tranquility, harmony and brotherhood. And I use that word conjure on purpose. Words are very powerful things. They're powerful tools and many times there are emotions that are attached to certain words. Professional speakers know this and they choose their words carefully because of it.

They want to get people thinking emotionally so they can get people following them. Many people seek after unity and ironically many people will fight to impose unity and also many people make many sacrifices to preserve unity. But what is unity? Is it a goal that we ought to strive for at all times? Preserve at all costs?

Is unity good or Is it evil? Is all unity good? Well, we've got to remember for every holy thing that God has made, Satan has made an unholy counterfeit to it. Let's read in the book of Proverbs beginning in verse 10. I'm going to give three examples this morning of unholy forms of unity.

And I'm going to start with the easiest to recognize and progress to the more subtle types of unholy unities. Beginning in verse 10 of the first chapter of Proverbs, my son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause, let us swallow them up alive as the grave, and whole as those that go down into the pit. We shall find all precious substance. We shall fill our houses with spoil.

Cast in thy lot among us. Let us all have one purse. My son, walk not thou in the way with them. Refrain thy foot from their path, for their feet run into evil, and make haste to shed blood. Basically King Solomon was warning his son against what today we would call street gangs.

Those villainous, murderous, communist forms of unity and yes, communist. That's what let's all have one purse means. To be part of a street gang is to be part of something that is both chaotic and evil in nature. They recognize no law but their own. They rule by violence and by force.

Sadly, too many people find this appealing. This clearly demonstrates a type of unity that is evil, wicked. And I should hope that every saint of God would recognize it as such and flee from it. Uniting with such groups as this would mean sacrificing personal wealth, liberty, morality, and justice. Turn if you would to the book of Daniel chapter 3.

Surely no saint would ever unite with such a murderous group of thugs, But what if the unity was around organized religion? The book of Daniel chapter 3, let's begin reading in verse 14. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, the flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye shall fall down and worship the image which I have made. Well, but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?' Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, "'O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Therefore he spake and commended that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.

Troublemakers! Here the whole land was worshipping in unity. And then three troublemakers stood up and caused division. How dare they? Is that what they did?

No. Sowing discord is a term that sadly is tossed around far too much these days. Tossed around by people who have no idea what they're talking about. Standing up against evil is not sowing discord. These three Hebrews did not sow discord.

When we sow something, what are we doing? You plant something, you cultivate it over a period of time, expecting to reap something in the end. They didn't have time to do that. Who was the one sowing discord here? Nebuchadnezzar.

He's the one who planted the golden idol, tried to cultivate a new and false religion, and then expected followers in return. The three Hebrews did not sow discord. They took a stand against evil, which is their duty as the saints of God. I would hope that as saints, none of us are tempted to follow after false religions. Uniting with such a false religion would mean sacrificing the God that created us, his word that sustains us, and the soul that he gave us.

Turn if you would to the book of 3 John. Surely no saint would ever unite with an idolatrous religion. But what about unity that is centered around a leader in our own churches. Third John, let's begin reading in verse 9. First chapter in case you're wondering.

I wrote into the church, but diatrophes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, Praying against us with malicious words, And not content therewith, Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, And forbideth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God." Here John is writing to Gaius. Quite clearly he is pointing out Diotrophy's errors.

He's false. And moreover, John is telling Gaius that he is not to follow diatrophies in his evil deeds. Trouble maker, quite clearly John is sowing discord in someone else's church. And furthermore, he plans on cultivating it when he arrives. Is that what he's doing?

Are the charges stated against John righteous? The sum, that's how John would perceive a letter written like that today, wouldn't they not? But Christ commanded us, judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." John 7 24. Turn, if you would, to the book of 1 Timothy chapter 5. Appearances aside, John was doing what he was supposed to do, what his duty is to do.

And as you're turning to 1 Timothy, I'm going to quote a couple other scriptures for you, one from the Old Testament, one from the New. Leviticus 19 tells us, Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon them. Ephesians chapter 5, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame to even speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest is light." Now what about The leaders in the church though, the church leadership as some people like to call it. Yes, we're even to rebuke the elders of the church when they sin. 1 Timothy chapter 5 beginning in verse 17. 1 Timothy 5, beginning in verse 17.

Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. Against an elder received not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others also may fear." Our brother stated earlier in his message that he had to rebuke someone for the sin that they were in. That's our duty.

We're not allowed to suffer sin upon our neighbors. We're not allowed to suffer sin upon our brothers and sisters in Christ, we're not allowed to suffer sin upon the elders of our churches. Many elders are quick to point out that they deserve double honor, but they often leave out the contingency that it's only for those that rule well, not rule sinfully. Deutrophes was not ruling well. Therefore, John had a duty to point out his error.

And his God-given duty was to rebuke him. I've heard pastors say that it is their duty to guard the pulpit and indeed it is. But no more or less so than any other member of the church. Amen. Amen.

Sadly, too many churches turn over that responsibility to the pastor alone, and this is a grievous fault. It is the church, according to 1 Timothy 3.15, that is the pillar and ground of the truth. You see, the problem is we're all mortal men. Any man who stands behind the pulpit is just as mortal and just as sinful as anybody else. And when you turn the responsibility of guarding the pulpit over to one man, you are essentially letting the fox guard the hen house.

Amen. He too is prone to error. He needs help. Errors sometimes come intentionally, but often they come unintentionally. And if they're not rebuked, they will fester and grow like an infection.

You've got to nip it in the bud when it is small. If anything, the church actually has a greater responsibility to guard the pulpit than the pastor does. In all these cases, whether It's unity in immorality, unity in idolatry, or unity in heresy. There's one overarching command that covers all these contingencies. It's found in Exodus 23 Verse 2, Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.

Uniting around a heretic or the heretical church that follows him means sacrificing the truth of God's Word, means sacrificing rewards for service, and quite possibly even sacrificing being a member of the Bride of Christ. No matter how well-intentioned that union began, No matter how long it's been established, God's people are not allowed to remain part of any unholy unity. To do so, that saint would have to sacrifice their first love, Christ. There is no church so grand, no man so noble, no peace so sweet that is worth forsaking the fellowship of Christ our Savior. Turn if you would to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 6.

Having thus spoken of unholy unity, I want to talk for a few moments about division. Unity, as we have seen, is not always a good thing. And when we find ourselves part of an unholy unity, what recourse do the saints of God have? Second Corinthians chapter 6, beginning with verse 11. O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.

Ye are not straightened in us, but ye are straightened in your own vows. Now for a recompense in the same I speak unto my children, be ye also enlarged. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?

And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols. For ye are the temple of the living God as God hath said, I will dwell in him and walk in them and will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Sometimes division is necessary.

Division is sometimes according to God's holy plan. The children of Israel split And they almost went to war over it, but God told them, no, this is according to my plan. Let it be. As the saints of God, we cannot be united with evildoers. We cannot participate in spiritual idolatry, nor can we be fellow travelers with heretics.

After all, as it says in Amos chapter 3 verse 3, can two walk together except they be agreed. If you would, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Just as there is a holy and unholy type of unity, there's also holy and unholy types of division. Yeah. That's right.

I would like to sound the alarm on two types of these unholy divisions. And the first here is idolizing and becoming followers of men. Amen. Go ahead. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 beginning verse 11.

For it hath 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, every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Reading this, it seems absurd that we take our eyes off Christ and start following men. But it wasn't just a problem back then. We do it today. We are often very guilty of this today. When we put men on pedestals, be certain that an unholy division in the church is soon to follow.

That's right. Because some members will esteem one man, others will esteem another man, and pretty soon they start seeking after guidance and advice from outside their own church. Taking their eyes off the head of their church, Christ, and neglecting the gifts he has put within that church. This robs the church of both her unity and her independence. As Paul pointed out to the Corinthians, the only man we ought to highly esteem and follow is Christ.

The other thing is this idea that sprouted, well, who knows when it sprouted. I first caught wind of it decades ago, but I've seen it grow over time. This idea that there can be unity in diversity. I first heard about it from a man named, well the late Ravi Zacharias who went around teaching this, he said that universities were established to find a way to find unity in diversity. Now he rightly said that they have failed in this goal because they don't have unity in diversity.

He also stated that the reason is that nobody will ever find unity and diversity on the outside until they first find it on the inside. We've got to be careful when we use words. Words are very problematic things because they mean things. I hate the term illegal immigrant. There's no such thing as an illegal immigrant.

Immigrants are allowed by law, therefore they can't be illegal. If you're here illegally, you're an illegal alien, not an illegal immigrant. We have that sort of problem here with this term, unity in diversity. It's an oxymoron. It doesn't make sense.

It's illogical. It's a dangerous idea. It's a dangerous idea that has grown into this idea. You've probably heard it stated from governments and schools and other organizations. Our strength is in our diversity.

No it's not. There's no strength in diversity. It is this brainwashing that has masses celebrating and valuing diversity rather than those things which unite and bring us together. There is nothing about diversity worth celebrating. Diversity in and of itself is chaos, disorder, confusion.

Therefore we ought not take pride in our diversity nor celebrate it. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace in all the churches of the saints." First Corinthians 14.33. If you would, turn to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 12. What does the Bible have to tell us about diversity? It does speak about it, and quite often people like to turn to the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians to point out, oh, there's diversity in churches.

We celebrate our diversity. I'm afraid that too many have placed the emphasis on the wrong part. Let's read it together. 1st Corinthians chapter 12 read verses 4 through 6. Oh, and by the way, if I go long, don't worry.

I hear there's going to be an intermission where food and refreshments will be served. First Corinthians chapter 12 beginning of verse 4. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

All in all. Yes, these verses do speak of diversities within the church, but if that's all you see, You're missing the point. You're placing too much emphasis on the wrong part of each sentence. And like Peter walking on the water, you've taken your eyes off Christ. Verse 4, Yes there are a diversity of gifts distributed among the saints, but it is that same spirit that generates and empowers each gift.

Verse 5, yes there are a number of different ministries, and that's what that word ministrations mean. People like to think it means governments, but it really means ministries or services. There are a number of different services to be performed within the church, but it's the same Lord, our head, Jesus Christ, which leads and directs them all. Verse 6, yes, there are a number of different works or as it says here, operations that the church performs, But they are all performed to the honor and glory of God the Father. So what do we have here?

This is not unity in diversity, rather it's unity from diversity. Ever since the very first chapter of the Bible, God has shown us that he is the one who brings order out of chaos. Says in the beginning the earth was without form and void. You don't see God celebrating that chaos. It's at the end of the chapter when he finishes all of his work, he rests and celebrates the unity, the order that he brought out of that chaos.

I'm trying if you would to the book of 1 Corinthians. Well, no, we're still in chapter 12. Just jump down to Verse 12. I love that the Bible is its own commentary. Verse 12.

For as the body is one and have many members, and all the Members of that one body being many are one body. So also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit For the body is not one member but many if the foot shall say because I am not of the hand am I not of the body Is it therefore not of the body? Jump down to verse 20. But now are they many members, yet but one body.

There's a Latin phrase that sums this up. You should know it. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one. You see, the great importance is not on the diversity of the parts but the unity of the whole.

You ever heard that term, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts? That's what we have here. There was a TV show that came on in the 1960s called The Adams Family. They had a servant called Thane. It was a severed hand.

It could crawl around on its own, it could perform work on its own, it could communicate on its own. And Hollywood did a really great job of making this look cute and funny. But that's just fantasy. In reality, if a severed hand started doing any of those things, it would be a terrible, would it not? There are no things in the churches of God.

Amen. You cannot be a severed member of the body and function. That's right. Turn now, if you would, to the book of Ephesians, chapter 4. How do we achieve unity from diversity?

Diversity. To answer this question, we'll read the first 16 verses of the book, or in the chapter 4 of the book of Ephesians. Beginning with verse one, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherein ye are called with all lowliness and meekness. Let me stop there. All lowliness and meekness, not with the pride of diatrophies.

You want to be exhausted, exalted, abase yourself. Endeavoring with long-suffering for bearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Unity of the Spirit who is at one with God the Father and God the Son. There is one body and one Spirit even as ye are 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. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

Who maketh you to differ one from another? What do you have that you did not receive? Is there any room for any member of the church to think of themselves more highly than another member? God esteems the person of no man. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended up above, far above all heavens that he might fill all things. Now beginning at verse 11 we see what Christ did. And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. They didn't make themselves these things.

They have nowhere to brag or to boast. Why did he do it? Verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The purpose of those roles is to saturate the saints of God with the Word of God. You see, if we're going to be united, we have to have something that we can unite around, something that as Amos 3.3 taught us, we can agree upon.

And the easiest thing for us to agree upon is the truth. Why? Because Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. That tells us that there are some qualities about truth that are identical to Christ. Number one, it's singular.

There's not more than one truth. You can't have your truth and I have my truth. There's only the truth. It's also immutable. Truth doesn't change.

But a lie changes frequently. And there's many copies of it. If you want to unite on a lie, which lie are you going to unite on? Right. Eventually, everybody's going to have their own flavor of lie.

There's no, you cannot have any permanent unity around anything but the truth. And therefore, it's the purpose of these roles that God has given to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. What's the intended goal? Look at verse 13. 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.

Notice that word till. We're not talking about an achievement that's already been made. We're talking about a goal that we're reaching for. It's in the future. Why?

To avoid something. Verse 14. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive the lies that creep in that we can't agree upon, destroying the unity, breaking us up pitting us one against another. It's when we come to agree upon the word of God that we can fight these things So that we can become something. Look at verse 15.

But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Think about that. The head. We often think of head as just being leadership, but if you think about the body and the function of the head, the head not only leads the body but it also nourishes the body. All the food and refreshment and nourishment comes through the head.

Where does our spiritual food come from? Christ. We have to be nourished by him, not turning to other men, but turning to Christ. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted. I like word studies.

I looked up this word compacted in the Greek. And it means to something that was once individual parts coalescing and compressing together into one thing united for a single purpose." Paul chose his word well, didn't he? "...compacted by that which every joint supplyeth." There's no useless members in the church. "...according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, making increase of the body into the edifying of itself in love. In closing, I want, let me remind all that the mission and very soon to be church bears the word unity in its name.

Though through the grace of God we do enjoy a great deal of unity, That name is not a banner proclaiming what we've achieved. Rather, it is a mission statement serving to remind us, through all the temptations, trials, and tribulations, of what our all ought to be.