InPerspective

Harry Reeder: We have taken that personal dynamic of salvation and we have allowed a culture of individualism that the church does not know. That corporate dynamic of the body of Christ, the covenant community, is something that is not known as it ought to in the church of Jesus Christ. We are a people. Now we once were not a people, but now we have become the people of God. How can we march together as the army of the Lord?

Guest (Male): Putting life in biblical perspective with Dr. Harry L. Reeder. This is InPerspective, a radio and internet ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. An orchestra just makes noise if they play different pieces all at the same time. But when the conductor gets them all on the same page, the instruments blend together into a beautiful symphony.

When we pursue a genuine love and spiritual unity with one another in the body of Christ, we will create a harmony of love, fellowship, and faithful service that is pleasing to the Lord. Stay with us now as Dr. Reeder takes us to Colossians chapter 3 and verse 14, as he brings us today's teaching, the message entitled: Harmonize with One Another.

Harry Reeder: Brothers and sisters, we live in a culture that rightly affirms personal responsibility. And in the church, we rightly acknowledge you must personally have an individual personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. But we have taken the personal nature of salvation. The kingdom of God has a narrow gate and only one goes through it at a time. We have taken that basic truth and rightly emphasized it. There are no group plans to get saved.

But we have taken that personal dynamic of salvation and we have allowed a culture of individualism that the church does not know. It's compounded by the fact that we also have to deal with the biblical truth that God lays certain ministries on the hearts of individuals. And they rise up and lead forward. And it would be so easy for a church just to become a collection point of various personal agendas and individual ministries.

We live in a culture of choice. Many of you will go home tonight and cut on the television, hooking into a system that's going to give you 893 choices of what you're going to watch. And we go out and we have choices all around us. And so we look at the church and what we expect in a church is you provide the menu and I'll make my choices, instead of perhaps the Bible has already made some choices that leaders are supposed to enact in the name of the chief shepherd who has declared where his sheep are to go and how they're to get there.

That corporate dynamic of the body of Christ, the covenant community, is something that is not known as it ought to in the church of Jesus Christ. We are a people. Now we once were not a people, but now we have become the people of God. How can this diverse people be a people? And then we'll compound it further that we all have individual burdens and callings and agendas.

And then we'll compound it even further that we're all at different places in our Christian lives: new believers, weaker believers, stronger believers, older believers. And we're all at all of these different places. How can we march together as the army of the Lord? Well, we have no choice here. Our Savior, before he went to a cross, went to the Father.

And this Savior who is ever interceding for us, we had the privilege to hear the first high priestly prayer on the basis of the atonement before he made it. It's in John 17. He makes seven requests, but the centerpiece of his request is this: "Father, I want them to be one, even as we are one. I want them to be one, and I want them to know that unity."

And yet, as we minister to one another and as we care for one another, we're not only all at different places, we're all at different seasons of life, different status of life. Some married, some single, some college, some divorced, some widowed, some in difficult marriage, some in joyful marriage. We're all in different places. How is it that all of them can be brought together as one?

Well, we recognize a certain amount of our oneness, don't we? We recognize a certain amount of oneness because all of us here that are Christians, who is our Savior? Jesus Christ. We've got one Savior. We've got one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We've got one God and Father overall who is through all and in all. One spirit who calls and brings ministries in different and diverse effects.

We all have the same indwelling Holy Spirit within us. The same Holy Spirit's in me that's in you. And the Holy Spirit in me bears witness with your spirit as he works in my spirit. And we all have the same Bible, the word of God that's given to us. But how does it stay together? How does that stick? Well, Colossians tells us how it sticks. If you've got your Bibles, turn with me to Colossians chapter 3.

It says this, down to verse 14: "And above all these things, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect what? Harmony." That word "binds" is a verb that if you turned it into a noun, it would be "belt." Put on love which belts together. Remember that Roman soldier that he had all that uniform. What's the one thing that held every piece together was the belt.

It's the idea of a shepherd that's out and the shepherd has this long flowing cool robe that's on him. When it's time to go to work, he just reaches under his legs and he grabs the back side and he pulls it up and he tucks it in a belt right here. Now he's got pants. But the belt holds it together. A couple of years ago, I got a phone call from one of our elders. He said, "Harry, I just cut down a tree." I said, "Great."

He said, "You got a fireplace, don't you?" I said, "Yes, sir." He said, "Would you like some wood?" I said, "Yes, sir." He pulled up with the pickup truck and what to my wondering eye should appear but all kinds of wood, all different kind of shapes. And he said he had just cut this. Some of it was that long, some of it was this long, some of it was that wide, some of it was skinny.

All of that, and so we carried it up and any time I carried it in the house, it was a chore. Now, I tell you what I could do. I could cut it up all the same length, same width, same everything, pile it up on each other. But I had a problem. I didn't have a saw and I didn't have an axe and I wasn't interested in investing in one. But I'll tell you what I did have. I had this long firewood belt.

And I could go out and place those different sized pieces in that belt and then pull it up and cinch it and just pick it up and walk in. Now, we can attempt, as many churches do today, one church growth principle's called the homogeneous principle. Target the group you want to reach. Birds of a feather what? Flock together. But folks, I don't want to do that.

First of all, I can't stand just eating vanilla ice cream. I mean, I want vanilla, I want chocolate, I want... Well, I don't want strawberry. You can have all the strawberry. I want peach. Boy, all the peach you can put there. Different flavors and put it all together. I'm not one of those that eats... I just like to mix it all right up together and just enjoy it. I believe that's the way the church should be.

I don't think the church should be able to be sociologically explained. Oh, they get along because they all have everything in common. I think there ought to be something supernatural about the church so that unity is not sameness. It is diversity harnessed together. Young, old, male, female, single, married, widowed, remarried, all kinds of things. New Christians, old Christians.

And all of them are put together. So if we don't just cut everybody up the same length, but we've got this diversity, there's only one belt that'll hold it together. How then shall we love? That love is necessary to bring harmony. And God pulls all of that together when love is the belt that allows us to harmonize. Harmonize with one another. A body.

Isn't it beautiful to see an artist, a dancer, or an athlete? Isn't it marvelous to see all of those pieces that make up that person's human body all coordinate together? Hand-eye coordination, eye-foot coordination, mind working with the hand and the eye, the skills being performed. And when we see that happen on a football field or a basketball court or a baseball diamond, what do we do? We worship, don't we?

Yeah, that's what we do. Now, I'm not accusing you of false worship, I'm just saying because we'll say things like, "Oh, let me see that again. Did you see that?" In fact, let me get a little bit... In fact, we may get more excited about that than when we get in here and talk about Jesus going to a cross. And Jesus says that's the way I want my body to function.

The athlete coordinated. The artist with coordination and skill so that the world would stop and say, "Can I see that again? Do y'all have an instant replay on that one? Can you show us that one more time?" It's when the pieces work in harmony bound up with love. That's what Paul addresses in Romans 15. If you'll look with me there, let me remind you of what we have covered thus far.

Our first sermon in this series was "Members One of Another". That's the fact that all believers have been spiritually gifted, that each believer is both unique and necessary, and therefore mutually interdependent and relationally reciprocal in order to effectively fulfill the Lord's calling. We're one body, individually members one of another. And then we studied "Let's Outdo One Another".

That's learning the art and skill of becoming a Christian accompanist in life and ministry by recognizing and affirming one another with honor. Take a few moments with me on "Harmonize with One Another". Look with me in Romans 15, verse 1: "We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up."

"For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, 'The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.' For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. And may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Jesus Christ, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Just end right there at verse 6. Go back to verse 5. May the God of endurance... Boy, how much endurance has God shown with us? May the God of encouragement... How many times has God refreshed us? Grant you to live in such enduring and encouraging harmony with one another. Well, what do we mean by "harmonize with one another"? Well, let me give you just a little definition.

It means to develop a working unity with one another that results in the harmonious symphony of praise. It is to work, it is to develop a working unity in which diversity comes together in order that the output of that particular body of believers is a harmonious spirit symphony of praise. What does verse 5 say? Verse 5 says may the God of encouragement, endurance, may he so bless you that in the same manner you will harmonize with one another.

You will work in harmony with one another so that God will be praised with one voice, one heart, one soul, one mind. May that be at work within you. Well, to get there, let me enumerate seven steps of harmony from the text. Step number one is those who are spiritually mature accept their obligation to help those who are weaker. If we're going to harmonize, step one, look at verse 1: those who are spiritually mature have an obligation.

Now, I understand that's not popular today. I listened to a guy preach the other day and he said, "Oh, I'm grateful to preach the gospel of grace because I want to tell you when you understand the gospel of grace, there are no 'ought-to's' in Christianity." My goodness. I said, what Bible have you been reading? "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, call you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling as we ought to."

If you have been a Christian for a while, you've got some spiritual maturity, you have a grace-given responsibility and obligation to help your brothers and sisters come along with you. Let me tell you what you cannot do. If you've been saved by grace and grown in grace, let me tell you what you can't do because of grace. You can't look back at them with self-righteousness, "Why aren't you where I am?"

Because you wouldn't be where you were if God's grace hadn't worked through some other people to get you there. If we want to work in harmony, the spiritually mature must accept their obligation to help the weaker brothers. That means there's certain things that I just don't do. You know why I don't do them? Not because I couldn't do them, I just don't do them because I'm concerned about my weaker brother.

My weaker brother's growing in grace is much more important than my freedoms and my liberties. Much more important. That's why the early church got together at Jerusalem and they said, "You know, we can eat pork now. Now that you're Christian, new covenant, you can order eggs and bacon any time you want to. You can sit down to dinner and say, 'Chops here.'" You can do all of that.

But then they said this, "But when the gospel goes out to these surrounding cities, there are some there who only know Moses. For the sake of reaching them, let's restrain ourselves. For the sake of reaching them, for the sake of evangelism, for the sake of weaker brothers, I have an obligation to make thoughtful decisions in my life and to reach back and pull them along."

And let me quote Evelyn Christensen, "I need to be a balcony person, not a basement person." A basement person grabs people and pulls them back down to make them feel better. A balcony person reaches down and pulls people up. That's the obligation. That's the first step of harmony. I promise you, there's somebody weaker than you. Wherever you are, one of the things that will mature you the fastest is to start reaching back to help someone to come along with you.

It's not, "I'll go get mature." Actually, helping people to go with you will mature you. The second step is that not only do I have a responsibility as a spiritually mature to reach back to the weaker and bring them with me, I am to promote the pleasures of God in my brothers and sisters. Look at what it says in the text in Romans chapter 15, look at verse 1: "We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves."

"Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up." I have a responsibility that when I'm reaching back to my brothers and sisters, whether they're ahead of me, whether they're my peers, or whether they're coming along behind me, no matter where they are in the body of Christ, I want to build them up so that they take delight in the pleasures of God and they don't get caught with the pleasures of this world.

I want to introduce them to the pleasures of God. The third step: we have an obligation to those behind us spiritually, we are promoting the pleasures of God in each other's life, but thirdly, we've got to fix our eyes on Jesus. He's our model. Notice what it says in the next verse: "For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, 'The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.'"

What did Jesus do for us? He didn't wait for us to get better to love us. He loved us when we were powerless, enemies, helpless, sinners, ungodly. And what the reproaches that should have fallen upon us, he loved us so much that he took our place. Christ is our model. Can I take you back to our basic verse? "Love one another as I have loved you." Christ is our model.

The fourth thing that we're to do in these steps of harmony is that we must stay in the word of God. You gotta stay in the means of grace. There's the preaching of the word, the teaching of the word, your private Bible study in the word, there's family worship. You gotta stay in the word to grow in grace and to be an instrument of grace to promote harmony in the body of Christ.

That's why the very next verse says what? Verse 4: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." Listen, loving is tough business. And you're not always going to get your encouragement from those whom you love. In fact, many times you'll get your greatest disappointments.

I can tell you my greatest disappointments have not come from the enemies of the Lord, but from the people of God, some whom I have given the most. Now, I got a choice. I can go over there and die in a pile and have a pity party, which by the way, I'm prone to do. But what I need to do is get back in the word. I gotta get back in the word.

There is endurance, God's endurance with me. There is encouragement. And what he's telling them, he says, "Listen, you guys have got a Bible. Those things that that old covenant, that thing that was written, that pointed to the new covenant, all of that stuff that's there. It's there to tell you about Jesus, and when it tells you about Jesus, it will encourage you to have hope."

You gotta stay in the word. Stay in the word in your morning time, if it's an evening time, stay in the word in your evening time. Stay in the word by Scripture memory. Stay in the word with singing good Scriptural hymns and songs. Stay in the word through the listening of the preaching of the word of God and the teaching of the word of God. Stay in the word with family worship. Stay in the word.

Now, can you be in the word and not profit from it? Yes. But you can't profit from the word without being in it. You gotta get in it. This is not a magic book. You don't buy one of these, put it on the coffee table and "shoo," spiritual vibrations go out all over the... It's made to be opened, studied, read, memorized, meditated, listened to, eagerly studied, shared with others, sung, prayed. Use that Bible. Wear it out with your heart and your life.

Then the fifth thing that we're supposed to do: we're to pray. And he gives you a prayer in the next verse: "May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Jesus Christ." Our very focus is a prayer request that's there. He says call upon the Lord in prayer. He says it's only by God's strength that you can do it and you can call upon him who prays for you.

You can call upon him and then he'll intercede for you. God, give me the strength to love. To love the lost? Yes. To love you with all of my heart? Yes. But God, I want to love my brothers and sisters. I want to live in harmony with them. I want to bear the obligation of being responsible to bring the weak along. I want to promote the pleasures of God in the lives of my brothers and sisters so that Satan won't promote the pleasures of this world.

I want to fix my eyes on Jesus. Help me with the word of God, see the God of the word. Lord, I need you. I need to call upon you. Prayer. Oh God of endurance and encouragement, stay with me to the end. And then the sixth thing: focused upon Christ. Look if you would, we fix our eyes on Jesus, not simply as the model of how we live in harmony and love for one another.

But beyond that, notice what he says: he's our objective. See what it says in verse 5: "May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Jesus Christ." Here's the point. To get harmony, you've got to revolve around something or someone. Listen, I love you. But it's not about you. I love harmony.

Oh my goodness, I love harmony. But brothers and sisters, the organizing principle that we have, the one that brings us into harmony, is Jesus Christ. Christ is the one that brings us together. We're the people of Jesus. We belong to him. And then finally, the last thing he says: here's the objective. Singular symphonic praise and worship.

Now, I'm not going to beat a dead horse and please don't take offense at me because I know that other churches decide to do other things and I'm not going after them. But brothers and sisters, that's why, I know we all have our own little things and preferences and everything, but when a church works in harmony, the greatest expression is when it comes together to worship. To lift up the songs of Zion together.

To do that which pleases the Lord in worship. To worship the Lord with one heart, one voice, one mind, one soul. To come together. Worship is that which sets the pace for the congregation. It is the Christian cultural dynamic that brings us together in which we're all giving and we're all giving to one another and we're all recognizing because we've all got our heart set on one goal and that is to lift up the praise of God when we've assembled together.

And to lift him up and to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Come on, let's help each other worship. Here's an ember. It's going out. How can I get all these embers to come as a flame? You don't leave them out separated, they die out. But when they come together, they fuel each other. And what would have died out separately as embers, when it comes together, there is this glorious lifting up of praise.

Brothers and sisters, we have got to be able to draw together, to assemble together. What would it be if we say, "I want to be with my brothers and sisters. I want to encourage them. I want to be encouraged by their praise. I want to encourage them with my praise because God's done a work in me and part of the harmony is the symphony comes together to lift up praise to the Lord. And we who are the many become the one voice of praise to God."

Well, here's your takeaways very quickly. Number one is this: to have one body that lifts up praise to the Lord, function in harmony, we gotta do away with solo Christianity. There are no solo Christians. There are no lone rangers. You have been baptized into the body of Christ and members of it. Secondly, no solo Christians then what that means we're in an orchestra of diversity.

And I praise the Lord for the diversity. It is an amazing diversity all over the body of Christ. And I praise God for the different voices and the different ministries and the different gifts and the different all of those things. And we all organize around Jesus and his kingdom. The third takeaway: we gotta stay on the same page. You can't sing in harmony unless you've got the same score, the same page of music lifted up in praise to the Lord. The body in harmony.

The fourth thing: we've got one conductor. And that conductor is not a religious organization. It is the majesty and glory and preeminence of Jesus Christ. He is our conductor. And then finally, we have a singular objective and that is to lift up the symphony of praise as a body of believers. Now, brothers and sisters, Sundays is just a taste of it. It's a piece of it. It's a blessing of it.

But when we are operating together in Christ, filled with the spirit, led by his word, in harmony, caring for one another, pulling each other along when we're doing that, do you know what happens? Six days a week praise will arise to Jesus by the way we function for him in this world. The symphony of praise in the worship of God with the way we live and then the frosting on the cake when we come together on the Lord's Day.

So who is that weaker brother or sister out there that you're going to reach out to and bring them alongside of Jesus? Introduce them to the pleasures of God as the pleasures of this world are starting to pull them away. And will you be in the word this week so that you have encouragement and endurance? And will you fix your eyes on Jesus to see how he has done that for his body, so that becomes the guide post for you?

And will you pray diligently for the unity of the body, just like Jesus: "Oh Father, I pray that they will be one even as we are one." And will you lift up Jesus so that we're all drawn to him, for if he is lifted up, he'll draw all kinds of men to himself. And may the Lord be praised. Father, thank you for the time we have been able to be together. Thank you for the Lord's Day. Thank you for the privilege to be together.

Thank you for the opportunity to encourage one another. And I praise you for what you do in the lives of these people that so stimulate me. I'm so grateful for it. But God, we want to move on and up and out, and we want Christ to be seen. We want the world to see Jesus taking men and women and boys and girls, old and young, rich and poor, all over the world, new Christians, baby Christians, growing Christians, mature Christians, ensnared Christians, weak Christians, strong Christians.

And the bond of love would be wrapped and we would take the steps to work in harmony. In Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): You are listening to InPerspective, featuring the teaching of Dr. Harry L. Reeder. Our current sermon series: Loving One Another. For additional teaching by Dr. Reeder, visit InPerspective.org. The Bible has no shortage of critics who are quick to point out seeming contradictions in the scriptures. Do you have the confidence to engage in such discussions?

Dr. Reeder's series, Is the Bible Reliable?, is our free gift to you. Call 1-800-488-1888 or visit InPerspective.org. This series will give you loving confidence to challenge those who are critical of the scriptures and your beliefs. For InPerspective to continue on the air and on the internet, we need your financial support and your prayer support.

Make a one-time contribution or, better yet, become a monthly donor. To find out how, give us a call at 1-800-488-1888 or contact us through our website, InPerspective.org. You may mail a gift to 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. Dr. Reeder's impact reached far beyond the pulpit. Our Bible teacher was a prolific author and articulate spokesperson for the reformed faith around the world.

Audio and print materials from Dr. Reeder's event broadcast and writing ministry are available at ReformedResources.org. That's ReformedResources.org. And once again, if you would like a copy of the series, Is the Bible Reliable?, call 1-800-488-1888. This gift is our way of saying thanks for listening. Join us again next time as Dr. Reeder demonstrates how important it is to welcome, accept, and bear patiently with spiritually weak and immature believers as they grow in their faith. That's next time, as we turn back to the scriptures to put life in biblical perspective.