The Doctrine of Sin - The..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. We're going to read the passage that we always read, and, Brother Bernie, I'm going to get you, please, to read the passage there. So, brothers and sisters, with much faith and reverence, let's pay attention to the Scripture together.

And let's read those verses there. Chapter 6 in Proverbs. We're going to be addressing the last one of those scenes there in verse 19, the one that saws discord among brothers. And, Brother Bernie, please read those verses for us, if you can. That is the reading of God's Word.

Brothers and sisters, tonight, as I said, we're going to continue with that study. Lord willing, we're going to be finishing tonight with the seventh of those sins, the one that sows discord among the brothers and sisters, among the brethren, and then next week we're going to be addressing in the New Testament perspective of the sins that is given to us in Romans chapter 6. The apostle there, by inspiration of the Spirit, opens to us in light of the gospel, in light of union with Christ, all of those sins that we are to mortify, that we're to put to death because of the union that the saints have with the person of Jesus Christ. Tonight, we're going to be addressing that seventh sin that says that it's that person, the one that sows discord or contention among brothers and sisters, among the brethren. This is a sin that is committed against the body of Christ.

This is a sin that is committed against the people of a sinner in the spirit of Satan, in the spirit of a demon with lack of love towards Christ and towards the bride, comes to sow discord or contention or division among the brothers and sisters. We could take that from the natural point of view. A person that saws discord among brethren in the natural sense. Those who, brother and brother, or sister and sister, who have been conceived in the same womb, who have come on the same loins, who have naturally been united by the same woman who is their mother, and a person who comes to destroy that union that naturally exists between brothers who have been conceived in the same womb, in the same mother, who have been conceived in the same loins of the same person. Of course, we're not dealing with the natural aspect of that sin, but we're dealing with the spiritual aspect of that sin.

And that is the person, the one who guided by fleshly desires, guided by the passions of the flesh, guided by Satan, comes to the context of the people of God to sow, to spread, to diffuse contention, discord, division, separation, in that which is meant to be naturally united, just as brother and the other brother or sister and the other sister have been conceived from the same woman and naturally united in the flesh, those who in Christ, people of God, were to be naturally united. A person comes to sow discord, division, contention, and the Bible says that that is detestable. Detestable! in the eyes of the Lord. That is an abomination to the Lord and beloved of Christ.

We are not to just let those words pass over our heads. That is the disposition of the Lord towards this sin, is hatred. It is an abomination. When we started this series of studies, our purpose was that we will see together, as a congregation, the depths of sin and of the flesh, so that by knowing what is in us, we will turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and want to be conformed to His image and to His likeness. But at the same time, beloved of Christ, it is very important that we do not let those words pass that sin is an abomination to the Lord, that it displaces the Lord, that the disposition of the Lord towards sin, even if it's committed by an unbeliever or a believer in this case, is that that is detestable and that that is an abomination.

The Lord is concerned with His people and the purity of His people. Hence, He wants them to die to self and to sin and to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what we're dealing tonight is a scene that happens, if you want, in the New Testament context. It is the division of the church, that it is promoted, that it is brought, that it is initiated, if you want, by a sinner who finds pleasure and satisfaction in carefully sowing and spreading discord, contention, disunity, division. among the brothers and sisters.

Now, brothers and sisters, beloved of Christ, we will not understand the depths and the seriousness of bringing discord and bringing division and separation to the... if we do not understand the glorious truth of the unity of just as in the secular world people do not see anything wrong with a husband and wife being divorced and separated because they do not understand the majesty and the power, the God-given significance of the marriage, so for them division and separation is of no importance, so the one that does not understand the importance of the unity of the brothers and sisters in the context of the people of God, will be so careless when it comes to protecting the unity of the Church, and even more, in their sins and in their passions, perhaps being even instruments of Satan, to bring division, discord, and separation into the context of the people of God, the brothers and sisters. May the Lord give us, beloved of Christ, that's my hope and my goal, and may burden for all of us, that we may have an understanding of the importance of the unity of brothers and sisters, of the brethren, so that in light of understanding the importance of the unity of brothers and sisters, we will be able to understand the depths of the sin that we have here and be prepared to give ourselves to Christ and not to the deceitful passions of our flesh. and perhaps be anyone of us an instrument of Satan in sowing discord among the brothers and bringing division and contention, separation among the brothers and among the sisters. Beloved of Christ, I want us to discuss and to meditate upon what biblical unity is for the people of God, so that by understanding what biblical unity is meant to be for the church, we will understand the seriousness of the sin that we have there in Proverbs 6.

But we will not understand that definition of biblical unity if, first of all, we don't understand the importance of it. Perhaps you could give the importance of it after the definition, but I see pertinent for us to think about the importance of the unity of the church. Beloved of Christ, we are not playing to be a club of people who have a common interest and are coming together twice per week to do something that satisfies our passions and our emotions so that we can continue with our lives doing other things. What we're doing here, what we're doing even right now, is of cosmic importance. It's of cosmic importance.

There are principalities and authorities and demons that are opposed to what is going on right here. The spreading of the gospel, the spreading of the name of Christ, the spreading of the truth, it is a cosmic issue. So when we come together and we're supposedly united in Jesus Christ, if that is not taken with that seriousness and with that importance, then we are not more united than the club just across the road, whatever they do. So it's very important. See, if we are going to value and see the seriousness and the weight of those who will bring this court of contention, of division among the brothers, that first of all we understand, of course, the definition of what biblical unity is, but initially to understand the importance of a church being united, of a church, of a group of redeemed people by grace through faith, of being united in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, there may be many reasons of why it's important that we are united as a church, but the one that I want to give you tonight is something that I have already mentioned in some of my sermons. And that is that, beloved of Christ, unity is so important because unity is going to be tested. The Church is going to be tested when it comes to its unity or to its... The Lord has been pleased to allow that within the context of the Church there will be people like the one that we have here in Proverbs 6 that will be, within the context of the Church, sowing discord. The greatest manifestation of it is the false teacher.

The Lord has been pleased in allowing that within the context of the Church there will be this type of people so that the unity of the congregation will be tested. And beloved of Christ, that is fearful. Because the one that is testing the unity of the Church is not so much the false prophet or the one that is bringing discord, but it's God Himself. the one that is testing, if that which is professing to be a church is indeed a church. If those people that are coming together saying that we belong to Christ and singing praises to the Lord and gathering to do religious things, that if indeed we are walking and doing things unto the glory of the Lord, if we're doing them in the flesh for the sake of self and for the sake of religion, is the Lord Himself the one that tests the church.

It is necessary that judgment begin by the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome of the unrighteous? Those are not my words. Those are the words of Peter. It is necessary that the judgment of God will start with the household of God, with the Church.

And if it begins with the Church, if it begins with the household of God, what will be the outcome of the unrighteous? If the person who is in Christ is cursedly saved, Peter says, what will be the outcome for those who disobey God, for those who disobey the gospel? The Lord will purify his church. There's nothing, as I said on Sunday, there's nothing that will prevent the plan of the Lord bringing to completion a bride without blemish, without spot, that will be united to the Lamb of God. There is absolutely nothing that will prevent the Lord from that.

But as He does so, He will test the Church, allowing that people like these will be within the context of the Church. Just read 1 Corinthians chapter 3. when the Apostle Paul is speaking of him being the one that waters and Apollos, the one that sows and waters, Apollos and Paul, saying that it's God the one that gives the growth. And then saying of the stewardship of God that we are to build with precious stones and with different materials. Fire will come to prove what the Church is made of.

The fire of God will come to prove what the church, not only the universal church, but the local churches made. There will be salvation after fire, but it will be tested. There's one foundation, Jesus Christ, and we're to build upon that foundation. When we don't build upon that foundation, then that which we're building is not God's. And He doesn't like what we do in our flesh.

He will just simply bring fire to burn all of those things, and then the work will be manifested. And in my eyes, according to my understanding, the closer that we are with the Lord Jesus Christ, the more that the work of the Lord will be built upon precious stones, gold, coming from the Lord Jesus Christ. The more that we do the things according to what is written, the more that we will be united, not in the power of the flesh, not because we like one another, not because we have similar preferences, or just because we do things that are not so bad to offend each other to an extent that we just separate, but rather because we are truly united in the person of Jesus Christ. So then, it is very important for us to understand what biblical unity for the Church is. So, beloved of Christ, take heed how you hear Pay attention to how you receive the Word, which soil there is in your heart.

Is it good soil to produce fruit as the Word is given to you and you receive by faith so that you will bear fruit not only for you but for those around you? It is just a stony ground. It is just on the side, on the path. And Satan comes and just takes the Word. Or just simply things just pass and we go through the motions.

Very important. we cannot be united if it's not all of us, right? There's no unity if it's not all the Church. There's no unity if it's not every person in the Church that is united according to what Scripture says. And we will not despise the sin of bringing discord and division to the Church if we don't understand the value of being united in Christ.

Just as I said, just like the secular person, marriage, it's OK. five times, separate, because they do not understand the value of the glorious union of marriage. How much more precious is the union of the members who are the bride, not of a man, but the main God, Jesus Christ? How much more precious is the union that have the saints in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? We're not going to be married to heaven.

We're not going to be given a marriage. We're going to be married to the Lamb of God. how precious that union is. It's not precious because it will happen there. It is precious because it has happened already.

For those who, by grace through faith, have been united. So there's a couple of things that I wanted us just to meditate upon of the nature, if you want, of that biblical unity of the Church and of the congregation. Two or three characteristics that if we just simply put in our minds and meditate upon and put in our hearts, I think that the Lord is going to give us a greater weight of glory, not only individually, but also as a church and as a congregation. And as this church faces new things that happen and faces new days and faces new challenges, then we will be established as brothers and sisters in Christ, genuinely in Christ, being led and guided by His Word, thinking according to the precepts of Christ and not according to our flesh. So I'm going to invite you to the first letter of the Corinthians, because if you know your Bible, you will know that perhaps one of the churches that was facing most difficulties when it came to unity was the Church of the Corinthians, right?

The Church of the Corinthians were the ones that were facing more difficulties when it came to unity. So if you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I want to give you the first and most important characteristic of biblical unity. Now, beloved of Christ, the third and most important characteristic of true, genuine biblical unity for the Church, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12. It says, for just as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body. Though many are one body, so it is with Christ.

For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit, the love of Christ. The most important characteristic or the more important aspect of the nature of unity for a church is that the church is spiritual in nature. Therefore, the unity of the church is meant to be spiritual. Now, do you agree with this? With what you may say, yes and amen, but I just want you to think this deeper than the statement that I have just made.

The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is spiritual in nature. And therefore, every one of the members of the body of Jesus Christ is the head of the body, Colossians, and here in 1 Corinthians, is a spiritual member of that church. That means that those who are not spiritual members of Christ, do they belong to the Church? They do not belong to the Church. The Church is not a human institution.

The Church is not an association of people with a common agreement. The Church is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And for a person to belong to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that person has to be baptized by the Spirit of God into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the baptism of the Spirit. When you are baptized by the Spirit into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're vitally and spiritually united to Jesus Christ, that is the body, and that is the church.

That biblical unity It is purely and substantially natural? No, spiritual. We cannot be united in the flesh. We cannot be united in our preferences. We cannot be united by liking one another, or not disliking so much that we will separate.

We are to be united in the person of Jesus Christ, spiritually and by faith. So that means that what we need to protect of our church, Cornerstone being a local church, being in a sense a shadow of a universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ, is that those who are in our church are united to Cornerstone. We know that they are united to the Lord Jesus Christ. that the Lord Jesus Christ will reign in the hearts of everyone who are within the context of quarters. We will never obtain biblical unity if a church is made up of people who are in their sins and people who are in Christ.

You see that, right? The church is meant to be united by the blood and in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when people are united to Christ, then these people will desire the things of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they will not need any more than the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why churches throughout the world come up with different programs, noisy music, and colors, and all of these things to entertain the fleshly desires of people who are not in Christ, and because they are not in Christ, they need to be entertained in their passions to remain seated there, giving money to the pastor, and continue with the whole thing.

They can be united externally. They can be seated in the same place. They can have the same agreements on different issues, and they may have even same likes and preferences, but are they united as a church? No. When fire comes, when fire comes, it will be manifested, the type of work that that is.

Beloved of Jesus Christ, and when just the thought, even, you know, I don't know what the word is, but many heard just the fire of God coming on churches like this, or even among us if we are not in Christ, beloved. It is just a fearful thought. And that should give us reverence to those who speak, to those who hear, to those who study, to everyone to do the things according to what is written, because the one who gives the growth is not man, but it's God. That is what the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, because the church is spiritual in nature. The members of the congregation are not united to the church by praying a prayer.

or by just having been born in a Christian family, or by being baptized, or they are not united to the church just by being members of the congregation. They are members of the body of Christ, because by grace, through faith, they have been inserted into the body of Jesus Christ. And the Lord has been pleased in his providence to have a local body that will represent him in that local area. Powerful truth. manifested, not accomplished with the power of intellect or with the power of the flesh.

That's why when a true church is established, in other words, the Great Commission is no other thing than establishing Biblical churches through the world. Because once a Biblical church is established and people are genuinely saved by grace through faith, there's nothing that can overturn those brothers and sisters. They can kill them. They can destroy them. But they have been victorious already.

because the work and the growth is given by the Lord Jesus Christ. Unity among the brothers is only established upon the Spirit. It is a spiritual unity. And because it's spiritual in nature, beloved of Christ, the truth of that church will also be spiritual. So first thing, the first characteristic of biblical unity is that unity is spiritual.

It's not in the flesh. Second thing that I want you to have in your mind is that unity in our church will be only established when it's established upon truth. We cannot have unity, biblical unity, when it's not about or on the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because a spiritual life and a spiritual reality in the soul of a person will move that person to spiritual truth. That is what the Apostle says there in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

If you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, speaking to the Corinthians, it says there in verse 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12, after he has spoken about the It's wisdom that is kept from age. It says, now, speaking of the Christians, pay attention to the pronoun, we. Now, we have received, not the spirit of the world, namely saying, what is in us is spiritual and is real. Now, we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart these in words.

not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, speaking of the Word being preached, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person, that is, the one that belongs to the Church truly. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct him?"

And then he says something glorious. Of those who have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God. We have the mind of Christ, of Jesus Christ. The unity, the genuine unity of the congregation of Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church will only happen and will continue to grow when it's established upon the Spirit of Jesus Christ. When the Spirit of Jesus Christ is enthroned, governing and ruling each one of our hearts.

When it's manifesting conformity to Christ continually and ongoingly. And one of the manifestations of that is that we will be united in the mind of Christ, because just as the Apostle says, not that the preachers, not that the elders, not that the pastors have the mind of God, but we have the mind of God. Speaking of all believers, those who have received the Spirit of God, he also says in Romans chapter 12 that we are to renew our minds, because in us we have a fleshly mind and we have the mind of the Spirit of the mind of Christ. And we are to continually work towards conformity to Christ so that the mind of Christ will prevail in us, and the fleshly mind will be put to death so that we will grow in unity that is established upon the truth. Not a truth that is romantic, not a truth that is abstract, not a truth that is just simply reciting the gospel according to 1 Corinthians 15 and just simply going through the words, but a truth that goes goes beyond your head, a truth that transforms absolutely our lives, a truth that leaves you desiring more, an illumination that tells you or that gives you this sense of, where is that fountain?

Show me the path. I want to continue, Lord. Take me through the road. Take me through that path, a truth that goes beyond human ability. Christianity is not dumb, is not simple in the sense of human intellect is profound.

We're speaking about the God of the universe who has been pleased in redeeming a people unto himself through his glorious wisdom. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. Unity in the context of the Church, beloved of Christ, only happens when we all grow in the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that means that oppose him, the unity of the Church, or going against it. It is when we allow our fleshly mind to prevail in us.

When a person within the context of the Church is giving him or herself to the things of the world, and the mind of this world is increasingly growing in the heart of that person, that person is going against the unity of the Church. Because we cannot be united only by coming together in a day or a certain time of the week. We are united in the Spirit, and therefore, hence, the responsibility of the unity of those who are in the Church is the responsibility of absolutely everyone who is within the context of the Church. Biblical unity is, first of all, spiritual, substantially, substantially spiritual. We cannot be united to those who are not in Christ.

They can be among us. They can be seated in the chairs. We can have relationships to them. But we are not united in the Spirit to those who are not generally in Christ. You see the difficulty of those words, but the truth in the Scripture?

We are united to one another, not because of our fleshly connections, not because of our friendship or anything like that. We are united to Christ. connected in Him by His blood, by His Spirit. And that is the union that cannot be separated, that cannot be broken. And that union, that spiritual union, will bring to us the truth of the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So in other words, just simply just to say what I said last Sunday during the sermon, just simply to the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrine in which we are called to abide until the end, the doctrine that is not only a cold intellectual truth, that abides in the mind, but it's also love. Because genuine love, beloved of Christ, it is only accomplished when the person has genuinely experienced the union to Christ that unites it to the body, and the mind of Christ is given to that person. This is what the Apostle says to the Corinthians in chapter 13, the chapter about love, if you go there. He gloriously presents there, in that chapter 13, the doctrine of love. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, So as to remove mountains but have no love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

And then he said something glorious. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. And knowledge, it will pass away.

You know, this concept of love. just so sometimes abstract and so far away from, you know, the concept of the love of God, sometimes in a sense is so far away from our understanding and even from our experience in our hearts, sometimes sadly and to our shame. It is just so far away from us that when we just simply read these things, I don't know if it happens to you, but it happens to me, it's sometimes just like poetic words, romantic words that sometimes do not have the power just to arrived to my heart and just to disclose the lack of love that there may be in my soul. Beloved, love is the substance of everything that we are and who we are in the person of Jesus Christ. We cannot be united apart from having the love of Jesus Christ among us.

Love is the substance of the Christian faith. Love to God, love to Jesus Christ, and love to others is the substance of the Christian life. In Jesus Christ, nor circumcisions or circumcisions avail for anything, the Apostle says in Galatians chapter 5. What matters, what is important, is what? You remember that passage?

A faith that works through love. The Apostle says, Keeping or not keeping the law is not important. What is really important is a faith that works through love. That is a faith that finds its substance, its power, its energy works in or through love. genuine saving faith, beloved of Christ, is a faith that is filled with love to the Savior, love to the Savior for the forgiveness that we have received by the cross, ever increasing, never stopping, love to the Savior that moves us to believe in that faith whose substance is love will necessarily work.

faith that works through love. A faith that is empowered by love. A faith that receives its energy and its power, its motion, from the love of God. Not that we love Him, but that He loved us first. And by the manifestation of the love of God to our souls, then we're filled with gratitude and love.

And our faith is ever increasing to work and to do according to His pleasure, the love of Christ. Never take the concept of the love of God as something romantic flesh because beloved of Jesus Christ. We will never be united in the spirit and in the truth if we do not have love. We can have all the faith, we can have all the words and knowledge and understand all things and if we have love, we don't have love, we have nothing. We can speak in tongues of angels and all tongues we may know and understand if we have have no love, we have absolutely nothing.

I don't understand how we can sometimes let our hearts grow cold when it comes to these matters. How can a Christian let his or her heart grow cold when it comes to loving the Lord, our Savior, and loving our brothers and sisters? How can we allow that in the things of this world, and in the affairs of this world, and in the harris of this world, and in all of the things of this world, that we may be so removed from that which is important, that our hearts may grow cold in love, love towards the Lord, and love towards one another, beloved of Jesus Christ. A hundred people can walk through the doors of Cornerstone, and chairs can be added to the building where we meet, if there is no love among us. Fire will come.

A handful will be left. Contention will be spread, and it will be like a good soil. When you're spreading contention and division, easily sinful thoughts and sinful doctrines and desires, and it will easily give fruit of unrighteousness. So that when God sees us, he will just simply send the fire of purification of the church. That we may know increasing numbers, but that we may increase Beloved of Christ in love towards the Lord Jesus Christ.

That even if there remain 10 of us until the end of the days, if there remain 5 of us until the end of the days, that we may not be known by the outsider because we have the answer to this or that, or because we preach in a particular way, or because we do things like that. They may know us because in us is the love of Jesus Christ that surpasses everything, that takes everything, the love that He's willing to give the life, right? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. To live, to give our lives for one another, even to give our lives in the proclamation, for the exercise of the proclamation of the gospel, that Jesus Christ will be proclaimed, that His kingdom will be established. We cannot do that in the flesh.

Those who are in the flesh, the words that I'm speaking are just simply, like he says, instruments that have no good noise, just going above. Soils that are indifferent to the glorious words of the Scripture. Hearts that are hardened and seared, either by sin or by death, to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what biblical unity in a congregation requires, the spiritual in nature, the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of Christ. In other words, the doctrine of Christ, that we will walk in the truth and that we will walk alone.

So what is one of the risks to division among us? What is one of the threats to division or that contention among us will indeed come to happen? The Apostle gives that answer in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. If you go there, let me just show you some of the biblical causes for division among a biblical church. Causes for division in 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

Remember, we just finished in chapter 2 saying that we have the mind of Christ, right? That we have the mind of Christ. that we don't have the spirit of the world, but we have the spirit that gives us understanding of all the spiritual matters, that the natural man does not understand the things of the spirit, but we have the mind of Christ. And then he says in chapter 3, but I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, the spiritual people that I've spoken about in the previous chapter, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. They fed you with milk, not solid food.

For you were not ready for it, and even now you are not ready for your steal of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, in other words, division or contention, are you not of the flesh and of behaving only in a human way? For when one says, I follow Apollo and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human, or namely of the flesh? What is then Apollos? What is Paul?

Servants, through whom you believe, as the Lord assigned to each. Because of the spiritual immaturity, beloved of Christ, of the church at Corinth, the eyes of the people of the church have been turned from Jesus Christ to men. Followers of men. Instead of following the Lord Jesus Christ, their spiritual infancy, their spiritual immaturity, the Apostle says, acting like if you were in the flesh, have taken the eyes of those who were in the church, instead to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, to be followers of men. And when you're a follower of men, it's just a matter that you pick one man, and then division will enter through the door.

that just contention and separation will enter through the door. Because spiritual immaturity, spiritual infancy will never give you the ability to discern the voice of the Lord. You will be always following the voice of your own thoughts, the voice of your own heart, the voice of your own flesh. In a sense, growing in conformity to Christ is just simply, I hear what you say, and I following Him. That is what it is.

Following the Lord Jesus Christ. The spiritual immaturity, beloved of Christ, is lacking the ability to hear the voice of the Savior and to discern. That is what the author of Hebrews says, right, in the passage that we quoted on Sunday. Go there, to Hebrews chapter 5. That is the other passage that speaks to a spiritual immaturity.

Hebrew chapter 5, verse 11. After, remember what I said on Sunday, after he had spoken about this glorious doctrine connecting the sufferings of Christ and the perfection of Christ to his priestly service, he says, about this we have much to say. But this we have much to say, and it's hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, not speaking to the preachers, but to the Church, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food.

For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the works of righteousness, since he is a child. Solid food is for the mature. for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." Just pay attention to those words. Have their powers of discernment.

Your discernment has powers. And those powers of your discernment trained by, not often, by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Beloved of Christ. Every single day, every single hour of your life, every single second of your life, you are presented with the option of righteousness and unrighteousness, with the option of following the flesh or following the spirit. Every second of your life, you cannot escape this.

We cannot escape. Every second, even as I'm speaking, we have the option of following righteousness or following unrighteousness. Apart from the ever-increasing life of Christ in us, we are naturally choosing the path of unrighteousness. And as we continue to live in the power of self and the power of our mind and in the power of our own intellect and not increasing the ways of Christ, we will tend to choose the path of unrighteousness because The powers of our discernment are not trained, and we are easily confused between righteousness and unrighteousness. The greater that Jesus Christ is reigning, or the more powerfully that Jesus Christ is reigning in your heart, the more aware that you will be to the unrighteousness of your heart.

and the unrighteousness of the world. The more that Jesus Christ is ever increasing in your mind and in your heart, and that his words are your words, the more that you will be able not only to discern, but to take the path of righteousness. The more that you will be trained not to be easily taken by the doctrines and by the things of this world, but to take the path of righteousness. Because ever increasing Christ-likeness in your heart is to simply, in other words, that you're dying to self. When you die to self, you die to that which empowers you for unrighteousness, and Jesus Christ increases in you, moving you to righteousness.

Beloved of Christ, tell me if from the passages that we have just read in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and Hebrew chapter 5, that we can say with an honest conscience and in truth that these only apply for a preacher or for the pastors of the Church or for all Christians. For who? Christians, we cannot be united as a Church if the burden of the Lord to every increasing conformity to Christ is in all of us. A Church is not made up by one, two, three, five, or ten. It's made for everyone who providentially has been united to the body that you can see with your physical eyes.

That means that is not only a responsibility to place our eyes in the Lord Jesus Christ individually, but to care for our brothers and sisters. Right? Because if we don't see the importance of this, first of all, we will not care about ourselves, and we will be very happy in externally showing people and pretending before people that we are something when we are not. But it's okay, because we can keep it secret enough. More than that, not caring, more concerning for the brothers and sisters, and then the brothers and sisters lacking concern, lacking care, because our souls have been united to a body, to be cared by the Lord through the brothers and sisters, right?

If I cut my hand, all my body is going to suffer. If I cut my feet, my foot, all my body is going to be affected. If one member of the body suffers, the whole body is meant to be suffering. But if I do something to this, nothing is going to happen to me. because it's not united to me.

If we don't have biblical unity, we're just simply concerned and cared about ourselves. And worst case scenario, we're just doing it with wrong purposes, with sinful intentions, not caring for the others. And beloved of Christ, when you do not have discernment for righteousness, you are unable to deal with your own sins, And that makes us a church that is unable to deal with sin, which is what was happening with the Corinthians. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. The spiritual immaturity of many of the Corinthians was manifested in that they were not able to deal with sin.

You remember the grotesque? It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans or Gentiles. For a man has his father's wife, and you are arrogant. Would you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done these be removed from among you.

For though absent in body, I am present in spirit. And if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver these men to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens a whole lump?

Cleanse out the old leaven. that you may be a new lamp as you really are unleavened, for Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. That's why throughout the land, beloved of Christ, churches do not even pronounce the word sin from the pulpit, do not even speak about the manifestations of sin and unrighteousness, because they're established upon a fleshly, carnal union that is not in Christ, not in the truth of His Word, and therefore they are not able to endure the sound doctrine that we spoke about on Sunday. When carnality is offended, they just simply leave. They depart because their flesh has been offended.

Beloved of Christ, when we all grow, spiritually speaking, in the truth of Scripture and in the love to the Lord Jesus Christ, we will love as a church what He loves, and we will say, I hate those sins and they are an abomination to me. Because now we have the heart of God in us. the heart of Jesus Christ. And then we are able to deal with sin as the Lord commences to deal with sin, because now the church understands the seriousness of sin, not only in the life of a person, but in the context of the church. And when you allow sin in your heart and in your mind, when you don't deal with it before the Lord, It's just a matter of time.

Sin begets sin. Sin hardens your conscience. Sin hardens your heart. Slowly, the things that you knew that they were wrong, now they are okay. And you continue to do even things that are worse in the secret place.

And when you're given over, you cannot do them even publicly, because you have been given over to the deceitfulness of sin, as the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 12. The deceitfulness of seeing now has hardened your heart, and then you are given over to the passions of... There was no one, not even in your conscience, no one outside of you to tell you, brother, please, don't take that path. Sister, please, don't take that path. There was no one who will mourn for your soul, because they were more concerned about having a smile before you, respecting our unrighteousness, rather coming in love to tell that you see that the definition of love when it comes to Christ is different.

Go on and speak of love to the Lord Jesus Christ when he will speak with these very difficult words not only to the crowds but also to the Pharisees. Words that if a preacher will say in multitudes and congregations this day, many Christians will stone him. If Jesus Christ will come to preach many like these days in Western Christianity, he will be stoned. That is not my Christ. That is not my God.

Beloved of Jesus Christ, we are to grow ever in Biblical unity according to what the Lord Jesus Christ has given us. unity in the congregation, established upon the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, founded upon the love of Christ, so that we will be equipped with a two-edged sword of the Word of God that discerns and separates, that we will not be coward when we are to take cover and to utterly destroy it, that we will be empowered by the Lord to conquer, to move, not because we have the ability to do, but because we have been given the grace to obey and to continue and to move forward because He has said that He will accomplish for the Church what He has said that He will do. And apart from trusting what He has said, we have no other empowerment other than following His voice. So then when He calls us to take the sword and to attack, we have the power to do it because He has given us the power to do it, the love and the grace to do it, to move in His ways. When we understand that, beloved Christ, then you can see the greatness of those who dare to sow discord or division among the brethren.

Imagine those who, in their flesh, want to come in the context of the Church to sow, to spread, division in the context of the Church of the Bride. If we do not have a greater view of the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we are just simply going to allow men to do anything to the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will be okay with it. As a brother in Mexico once told me, you have to ever, ever, ever, ever grow in your love for the Lord Jesus Christ and in your love for His Bride. Ever. growing the love for the Lord Jesus Christ and the love for His bride.

You cannot love the Lord Jesus Christ if we do not love the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. The love towards the Lord is manifested in how much we love and concern for the bride, and that is all of us. So then, just as Peter says, if you go there to 1 Peter chapter 2, you may remember that we mentioned this. 1 Peter chapter 2. In verse 4, it says in 1 Peter 2, verse 4, as you come to him, speaking of Christ the Lord, as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen.

What a glorious statement. and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. The living stone, Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, even the name of our church, cornerstone, Jesus Christ, rejected by men, but chosen by God, precious in the sight of God. And we are the living stones that as we come together in Jesus Christ, we're built up in a spiritual house, offering spiritual sacrifices. And the value, beloved, of your salvation is not only that you have been redeemed from your sins and from the condemnation that you justly deserve, but that you have been inserted into a body to serve as Savior by serving others and by caring for others.

Not so much that they may have this or that, but they may become like the person of Jesus Christ. I don't know if you see this, but for my life, for me to increase in Christlikeness, I need your care, and I need your love, and I need your guidance, and I need your counsel, and I need your support, just as everyone else in the context of the Church does. Nobody is going to be able to grow in Christ-likeness just by living a life of self-isolation, just like teenagers these days, or everyone, better, on their phone, and then just living their life just on their phone continually. Rather, church is completely different. It's all of us continually growing in unity, in union, so that we understand the power of being united and the great sin of causing division among the people of God?

How is someone going to open their mouth to gossip if they understand the value of the Church coming together in the person of Jesus Christ? How is someone going to have a thought of hatred towards a brother which, according to the Apostle John in 1 John, is just simply not only hating the brother, but building a wall against the brother and basically being in darkness and being lost? How is a person going to allow that lack of love will just simply grow in the heart? Or just as James says in James chapter 3 and James chapter 4, that contentions happen among the congregation because of the passions of the flesh and because of love to self. And before he has said that there is wisdom, demonic wisdom, that is reigning in the mind of those people.

contentions, love to self, desires of self-aggrandizement at the expense of others. How is that even going to be a thought that we will contemplate and allow in our minds if we have the correct understanding of the body of Christ? How are you or how am I going to do something just to show and pretend, show off before the eyes of others if I know that He sees it all? If I know that He reads my thoughts, If he knows what I did before coming here and what I will do after, how am I going just to come to pretend and play religion in front of other people? How am I going to push a table, do this, move the camera, print this or whatever you do to show others and not him?

If you understand the value of the spiritual value before the Lord of the congregation. so that the Lord may make us not only lovers of Him, but lovers of the Church and lovers of our soul, that when people come into this congregation, they may not be amazed so much for this or that, but rather, wow, they love one another in a sense that when I see the love that they have for one another, my soul is even convicted for the things that I'm just seeing and witnessing because it's not natural what is taking place here. And they are so united to it each other, from every tribe, every nation, every place, every tongue, so different in their preferences and their external manifestations, but yet Christ is reigning in each one of us. I don't know if this is what you desire, but I truly desire that before the Lord, for our congregation, so that we may be given a greater weight of glory and a glimpse of Christ, that He may be enthroned in our hearts, in our congregation.