Divisions and the Tongue

Transcript

GRM 1185
06/03/2018
Divisions and the Tongue
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

I want to look into a few things in the Word with you and then answer some questions and then as time permits we will also open up for questions. I want to talk a little bit of the things I was reminded of in connection with the communion service.

Come back to I Corinthians 11. As you are aware and we have studied together, I Corinthians is a difficult letter. I have shared with you, I was told early in my studying for the ministry, “Teach I Corinthians early in your ministry when you go to a church because it covers all the kinds of problems that will come up eventually, so you will have laid the foundation and groundwork for dealing with them” and that is true.

But it is sad to say about the Corinthian church. We think of it as a church of division, of conflict. It is an immature church. Paul says that in chapter 3, “I can’t write to you as mature people.” And he rebukes them for it. “You are spiritual children. And part of that is characterized by the divisions that characterize you over one thing and another.” And you note in I Corinthians chapter 11 Paul, if you go back and reminder in chapter 7, verse 1, Paul says, “Now concerning the things which you wrote.” So, he goes on there. Evidently after he writes things concerning him in the first 6 chapters, now he is going to address questions or matters that have been addressed to him in evidently a letter that was conveyed to him. They had certain issues they wanted him to address. So that is in the section we are on in the book.

And he talked about the role of men and women in chapter 11, the first part of the chapter. God created them to be different. He created an order in creating them. That is a touchy issue today. It was a touchy issue then because man, in his sinfulness, is always chaffing against the will of God. And even we as believers as the Corinthian church manifests can be guilty of such action.

He came down to verse 16 after talking about the difference in the male and the female and God’s plan for each, verse 16, “If one is inclined to be contentious we have no other practice nor has the churches of God.” It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t matter if you don’t like what I said, then don’t do it. That is not the point. What he is saying, “If one is inclined to be contentious we have no other practice, there is nothing to debate here.” This is God’s plan for us and that is true for all the churches wherever they are. God’s Word is the final Word. We go there to find out what God’s plan is.

So, you get an idea there is an issue there that he has been dealing with and it has caused some contention, such stress. So, he sets out clearly, under the direction of the Spirit of God, what God’s plan for the man and for the woman and how they are to relate to one another. And anyone who disagrees with that, we don’t have anything to argue about because there is no other practice for the church and that is the church, wherever it is. Whatever local church you are a part of, this is God’s plan. It is not a matter, well this church sees it one way, this church sees it another and this church… Well we go to the Word of God and He intends it to be understood and Paul says every church everywhere should understand this.

Then you move into verse 17; “But in giving this instruction I do not praise you.” And it is interesting what he has been talking about, you can read the preceding chapters. We have studied it in a prior time when we have studied Corinthians. It flows out of this and you realize the conflicts that are going on in the church and now he says, “In giving this instruction I do not praise you.” He is not commending them because what they have been doing, what’s Biblical? This is just a reflection of the condition of the church because this is not the only issue they have had, the role of men and women.

All the way back into the early chapter of the letters they had problems over personalities, that they like one over another. So “I don’t praise you in giving this instruction because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place when you come together as a church” like we are meeting now. They had regular church meetings obviously where the church met together.

You read the article by Larry in the Newsletter. It is God’s plan that we not forsake our coming together as a church. So, when the Corinthian church came and met together, it is not for the better but for the worse because this emphasized the conflicts and the divisions and the disagreements that were going on. “For in the first place when you come together as a church I hear that the divisions exist among you and in part I believe it.” and that is an understatement. There is truth to it.

Paul started out acknowledging this was a church that had experienced God’s redemption in Christ. This was a church, a local church, that had been provided all the gifts necessary to function as God wanted them to function.

Come back to chapter 1. You note he addresses in verse 2, “The church of God which is at Corinth. Those you have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, set apart, in Christ as those who belong to God, saints by calling;” saints, holy ones, God’s chosen ones. This is the church here and they would be connected with “all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” because we are not all there is to the church but we are the church meeting in this place and every individual local church stands on its own but we recognize that we do have an agreement and a relationship spiritually with every other local church in the world.

And you will note, verse 4, “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.” We think sometimes when we talk about the church at Corinth and we talk about it as an immature church and a church with problems, but it is God’s church and that is the sad thing. It doesn’t say, “You are a counterfeit church.” The sad thing here is you are God’s people gathered together by Him to form the body of Christ in this place and you are a mess and there is no excuse for it.

What can you say? God is battling with Himself? God is in turmoil? Obviously, something is wrong! The grace of God was given to them in Christ and that means, look at verse 5, “In everything you were enriched in Him; in all speech, in all knowledge.” They are not the stupid ones without wisdom that we read in our earlier study today, the unredeemed. These are those who have been enriched in Christ, in all speech and all knowledge. “Even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you.”

Overall Paul has confidence in their salvation. “So that you are not lacking in any gift.” They have all the spiritual gifts in that local church necessary for that local church to function as a harmonious body growing and developing.

I’m limping because what? There is a part of my body broken. When all the parts function together harmoniously as they should, then the body functions in a way you can tell when I walk it is affected. Why? Something is out of place. The Corinthian church has a lot of pieces out of place, broken if you will, not working properly. There is no excuse for it. They are living with their gifts functioning awaiting the return of the Lord.

Verse 9 puts this all together. “God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” With an introduction like that, wouldn’t you say and now he says, “You are a testimony to that grace and the unity and the harmony and growth together is a marvelous.” Verse 10, “Now I exhort you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all agree and there be no divisions among you; that you be made complete in the same mind, in the same judgment for word has been given me that there are quarrels among you.”

Well what do you mean there are quarrels? Do we serve a different God? Are each of us indwelt by a different Spirit of God? And the gifts that God has given us when He brought us into the body in conflict with one another? Just what is the problem? Well the problem is obviously somebody else, not me. But something is wrong in the church at Corinth.

And so, come back to chapter 11. We have skipped over all the other. It is for you to read and remind yourself, if you haven’t recently, that Paul is not done here. In 11 chapters as we have it now into the book into the letter and “I hear that when you come together that divisions exist among you.” So, he wasn’t done when he introduced that in chapter 1. This is an ongoing problem.

You know these things have a way of feeding themselves and you get the idea that happened in Corinth. When one person gets unsettled that causes another person to think about things that he doesn’t like or he is in disagreement with. So, you have all these things now working that the body is fragmented.

How many things can go wrong in your physical body before it becomes a body that becomes somewhat incapacitated? You have people lying in hospital beds because parts of their body have become non-functioning. That is why God uses this clear picture that we can understand it. God has come down to our level, so to speak, like we observe with the communion service, something simple and clear, so the picture is simple and clear. The division is in the body.

And then there is a word of warning here, verse 19, “There must also be factions among you.” That is an interesting way to put it, “There must be factions among you.” Why? “So that those who are approved,” dokimos, a word that means putting something to the test so that you can evaluate whether it has passed the test, been approved, been demonstrated to be what it ought to be. “So that those who are approved may become evident among you.”

It is not surprising that conflicts and difficulties develop in the body but they become tests that we are put through to refine us. It not only develops our character, it reveals our character and sadly, too, many are failing the test. That is the indication at Corinth. There are divisions that exist among you and there must be factions.

We get the word schisms from that word translated, factions; “So that those who were approved may be manifest.” That word schism is the word divisions in verse 18, not factions in verse 19.

God has a purpose. He doesn’t cause the divisions, but He allows them to arrive. The problem is that the church at Corinth wasn’t dealing with them Biblically. There are things that have to be dealt with, but they are not dealing with it. They are caught up in it and everybody has their own issue. Pretty soon things unravel. That is happening at the church at Corinth. When we get to the second letter to the church at Corinth, you find out they still are not dealing with things like they should and soon what? You have false teachers, as we get into the issue in 2 Corinthians, that have infiltrated among the church and they take advantage of the deliverance. Pretty soon you have a church being destroyed as early as chapter 3 of this letter. Paul warns that anyone who destroys the church, God will destroy, which indicates what? It is possible for the church of God at Corinth to be destroyed.

God may let the unbelievers that infiltrate among the church and part of that happens when divisions happen among believers. Now we are functioning contrary to the Word of God. That opens the door for Satan to infiltrate. Not just with believers that he has lured off of faithfulness, but with unbelievers who can come in and who can masquerade as believers, and they just feed the fire of the divisions and the church may be destroyed.

But what I Corinthians 3 says is, God will destroy those who destroy the church. So ultimate revelation of what happens but you realize the church at Corinth is in a dangerous position and again we will see when you put the two letters together, the church is divided. Well, you just opened the door to the devil to come in and feed that and bring in unbelievers who are disguised as believers but you already have believers who are not functioning in obedience to the Spirit because the Spirit of God is not fighting with Himself. He is not divided against Himself.

So, when you have believers functioning in rebellion against the Spirit, then the Devil sends in unbelievers who look like believers and they are there just to feed the divisions and divide it more and down through history we can see what happens to churches. And then he leads into the communion with that and even at the communion they were ignoring the impact of it.

He had to tell them in verse 27, “Whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner is guilty of the body and blood of Christ. But a man must examine himself” and then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Because you eat and drink judgment to yourself and when you don’t judge yourself as God’s child, you know what happens with the picture again. With your children, what happens? You tell them what to do and that gives them opportunity to do what is right. If they have not done what is right they have an opportunity to correct them. When they don’t, what happens? You step in and provide the correction, the discipline.

We are talking to believers here because verse 31 and he tells them, “For this reason” (verse 30) “many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep. If we judge ourselves rightly we would not be judged. But when we are judged we are disciplined by the Lord so we will not be condemned along with the world.”

He is talking about believers here, getting it together so to speak. As we would say, “Fix the problem.” What is the fix? Well it is personal. Verse 28, “Each man examine himself.” We are great at examining others. We are experts in that. I can see every flaw in someone else but sort of, you know, we pass over ourselves. I may not be perfect. We need to stop and ask ourselves, what is my role in this division? What is my role in this conflict among believers? What is the issue here? If we don’t judge ourselves, we are disciplined. And if you are not disciplined, Hebrews addresses this. If you keep going on and don’t experience the discipline of the Lord, as you continue rebelling against Him, that is the mark you never did belong to Him, because none of God’s children go without discipline. That doesn’t mean it is always immediate. Obviously, the situation in Corinth goes on but among the Corinthians “some were weak, some were sick and a number sleep.” We judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

Come back to Romans 16. Let me just look at a few passages with you. Romans chapter 16, verse 17, “Now I urge you brethren keep your eye on those who cause dissentions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you have learned and turn away from them.” Sometimes we get drawn into by those causing dissentions and hindrances contrary to the teaching you have learned. Turn away from them.

We open the door when we listen and get involved with what we shouldn’t. “Such men are slaves not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites. By their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.”

So, you see what he said, where we will find in 2 Corinthians especially, false teachers infiltrate among and you know the first step for any of us. We need to remember this individually when I fail to be obedient to the Lord. That opens the door to the Devil’s influence because when I am in rebellion against the Lord, I lose some of my protection and the Devil is there to encourage the sin, to encourage more rebellion.

You recognize there are those, well I think they are believers, I think they mean well. If they are causing dissentions and hindrances, you tell them to stop. If they don’t stop then you don’t have anything to do with them. The solution – otherwise we continue down that road.

Look back in chapter 15 of Romans, verse 5, “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore accept one another just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” We take this lightly. We become experts in other people’s sin and don’t take seriously that we may be contributing and acting sinfully ourselves in how we are involved in handling certain things.

Come over to Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, “I the prisoner” This is that pattern. Paul laid down the doctrine in the first three chapters about the sovereign work of God in choosing us to belong to Him in bringing us into the body, the end of chapter 1 of Ephesians, verse 22: “He put all things in subjection under His feet, gave Him as head over all things to the church which is His body.” Now this is a terrible thing. Christ is the head of the body and the body is tearing itself apart. You think that is because the head is giving contrary directions to the body? When the body stops taking its instructions from the head, something seriously is wrong.

You know, at a period of time in my life several years ago, I began to have mini strokes. One night I am studying at my desk on a Saturday night and my arm goes dead and my mind is telling my arm to move. Pick up that and it is just like it is no longer taking instructions from the head. That is a serious thing and it needed to be fixed. Something is wrong, because what? When the head tells the hand “pick up the book” and the arm just lays there, and it won’t move, it doesn’t obey, something is wrong. And you see other kinds of disorder where the parts of the body function out of control.

What don’t we understand? Why does the church continually go through? Paul wrote these things under the direction of the Spirit years ago. Now he says, come to chapter 4, “Therefore I the prisoner of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all humility and gentleness with patience showing tolerance for one another in love. Being diligent to preserve” (note this) being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

It is the Spirit of God that has placed us into the body of Christ. “By one Spirit we were also baptized into one body.” The problem isn’t with the Spirit. He didn’t misplace you or me in the body. He didn’t make a mistake. So, the spiritual body of Christ has a unity created by the Holy Spirit of God, under the headship of Christ. No problem, right? No problem…..as long as each part of the body functions in obedience to the Spirit of God and works to preserve the unity that the Spirit created.

Now you see we are in rebellion against the Spirit. We are in rebellion against Christ. We are in rebellion against the purpose of God in His salvation and we wonder why we don’t have a stronger testimony before the Lord because we can’t even get along with ourselves.

Go join the church and you could pick out what side you are. I have shared with you, my previous pastorate, I served a church with a center aisle. I am thankful to have come to a church that didn’t have a center aisle because this side, I could name the family and this side, the other family and you sat according to which side you were on. Did you support this faction, or did you support this faction? What in the world. The church has since closed its doors. Any wonder? What is the future of such a church?

You will note verse 4, “There is one body and one Spirit,” one body, that is the body of Christ in this place, the church. “There is one Spirit,” the Holy Spirit indwelling each believer, indwelling the body. “Just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” and then he goes on to talk about the gifts, the diversity in the body, not there to create division but to enable the body to function. So that “when every part functions as it should” down in verse 16, “the head is Christ,” verse 15, “From whom the whole body being fitted and held together by that which every joint, every part supplies according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth in the building, of the body built itself up in love.” What a beautiful picture. Why do we have such a problem; a serious matter?

I want to wrap this up. We won’t have questions and answers tonight, we will do that again next week. I am concerned about the matter when we thought of it when we do communion. We don’t want to just blow by this and act like we are different from the church at Corinth.

You are aware of our history. I can think of six or seven, I sat down and took note of those, all major church conflicts in my years of years. I don’t know whether it is every seven years you have what they sometimes call the seven year itch, but it seems like that is a pattern. There is a blow-up. Why? Did something go on? What is there that takes place?

I want to talk about the sin that does the most damage to the church in this context and fractures the unity. You know we are great. We focus on the biggies, murder, immorality, maybe I don’t know, sorcery, idolatry. Those are the biggies. You know what the most damaging sin is? What the most pervasive sin is in the Bible? The sin that every single one of us sitting here cannot get totally in control, I can’t. How beautiful it is, the mouth. The tongue goes in and out, it forms words. It is the problem.

Isn’t that what James says? Come to James chapter 3. We have studied it together and then we all quickly forget. The Spirit of God says through James. “Let not many of you become teachers my brethren knowing that as such we will encourage stricter judgment for we all stumble in many ways.” That is an excuse, but it is reality. “If anyone does not stumble in what he says he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well.”

That is why I say, this is the one sin that we know we haven’t gotten complete control over. Not that we couldn’t, because the Spirit of God is sufficient, but it is the one that plagues us. Because if you had control over your tongue completely, you would be a perfect person because the Spirit of God says “If you don’t stumble in what you say you would be a perfect person.” This is the most difficult one and then he gives the example, “bits in the horse’s mouth, ships with a small rudder but a great ship.” Verse 5, the application, “So the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire.”

And we have seen that in our own country. Someone discards a match or starts a small fire and the next thing you know, thousands of acres are burned. That is the point. “The tongue is a fire, the world of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, sets on fire the course of life and is set on fire by hell.” We ought to be very careful of the tongue. You know we read this. I am amazed. I can’t believe some of the things that are said by those who profess to be believers. As far as I can tell, there is not an element of truth in it. What is the purpose? “It is set on fire by hell.” If you are not careful the Devil will take your tongue and use it for his purposes. That is what he says. “It is set on fire by hell.” And all kinds of creatures can be tamed but verse 8, “No one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.”

There is nothing that has damaged this church as much as the tongue. And that is true of every other church. The ultimate destroying sin comes with the tongue. I am not minimizing the seriousness of other sins, but this is what God says. No one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil. How quickly does the word get out, something gets said or you pass something on and afterwards you think, “oh I wish I hadn’t said that. I shouldn’t have said that. That was out before I thought.” You know we ought to be working on it. We ought to be sensitive to it and you know if we are not, we get dulled to it and pretty soon our tongue can say things it shouldn’t say and we are not even bothered by it. We are deteriorating. We are going backwards instead of growing as God would have us grow.

Come back to the book of Proverbs. I just want to read a few passages from the book of Proverbs. This is not new. Come to Proverbs chapter 10. If you don’t make progress I would encourage you, we are early in June you can catch up quickly. Through the month of June read a Proverb a day. You will have to read a few to catch up but read a few for the first couple days here and then you will be on track to read one Proverb a day through the month; a good practice to do because of the practical information given here. Proverbs chapter 10, look at verse 12, “Hatred stirs up strife. Love covers all transgression. On the lips of the discerning wisdom is found.” Come down to verse 18, “He who conceals hatred has lying lips. He who spreads slander is a fool. Where there are many words transgression is unavoidable. He who restrains his lips is wise.”

Do we really stop and take that in and examine ourselves, not somebody else? Lord, what about what I say with my tongue? You know when there is hatred in the heart it comes out through the lips. Verse 18, “He who conceals hatred has lying lips.” There is something in the heart and it is coming out, that desire to destroy, that hatred that is there, how ugly it is.

Come over to chapter 12, verse 17, “He who speaks truth tells what is right. A false witness deceives.” Verse 19, “Truthful lips will be established forever. A lying tongue is only for a moment.” We ought to be concerned with verse 22, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.”

If I want to please Him, I want to be careful with my tongue. Things that are spread out there by believers who feel that they can say…. We see it going on in the world, in a political world, and what is going on in our country? You say, “Who knows what is true and what is false anymore?” I mean they look you in the eye and they say one thing, you listen to someone else they tell you the opposite and they both claim, and the sad thing is that has become somewhat characteristic of God’s people. We can’t say we are any different. There are things said on the internet and are written and passed on. I say you can’t even defend yourself against it because it is just there, and the Devil is so clever. The lies we say develop a life of their own. They don’t go away and the destruction they do is so serious.

Come over to chapter 16 and there are many verses in Proverbs. I have just collected a few. Look at verse 27, “A worthless man digs up evil while his words are like scorching fire. A perverse man spreads strife and a slanderer separates intimate friends.” Do we take these verses seriously?

We say this is the Word of God and somehow maybe the church gets divided. Godly people aren’t looking to dig up evil. That is what goes on in the world. Everybody that thinks they found out something bad about someone, let’s get it out there as quickly as we can and then it is found that that wasn’t true, oh well, you know. And all that just gets poured out there. Well there is smoke, there is fire. If there is enough of it out there, must be something to it and we lose any interest in truth and distinguishing what is true and what is a lie.

I’ve gotten letters from people, I can’t establish things, I have tried to call people and say there is no truth in it. I can’t even get a response. You give up, and in our day there is so much of it floating out there. There is no way to deal with it.

Come to chapter 17, verse 4. It is important for all of us. Not just what I say, what I listen to. “An evil doer listens to wicked lips. A liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.” You know something of my character is revealed, not only by what I say, but by what I am willing to listen to. There are certain things I ought to just shut down. I am not open to hear what you have to say. We get drawn in. Well, I would like to know, I mean you know maybe there is something in there that I should know about. Maybe there is some truth to this rumor and you know we all like to know. That is why you turn on the news and they say “Something breaking,” and this is what was found out about this and it has been revealed in an email that was discovered and …..ohhhh, better listen to this. And there is so much of it.

This goes on in the church. Well, I better, you know, I heard this. There is a rumor out there. Well I heard that this happened. Why are you listening to that? Are you a garbage can? “An evil doer listens to wicked lips.” Something is being manifested by the character and I don’t want it to be true of me. “A liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.”

All of us have been guilty. I don’t know whether there is any truth to this but here is what I heard. What am I doing listening to something that may be a lie and may be destructive? Well we like to be in on it. Ladies, it can be a particular danger and I am not bemeaning womanhood, but we were created differently and ladies have to be careful. They are usually better with their tongue. I married Marilyn because she can talk. She is good with people. She is better with her tongue than me and that is good when it is used good and sometimes we have to be careful.

I have shared with you, one of the women we had many years ago when we were going through one of those altercations, she told me this. “If we could get the women to stop talking to each other, everything would die down.” This is not only a woman problem, but it is a problem for us as a church to be sure we deal with.

Well, one more passage and we are done. Proverbs chapter 26, verse 20 “For lack of wood the fire goes out. Where there is no whispered contention quiets down. Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire so is a contentious man that continues to kindle strife. The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels. They go down into the innermost parts of the body.” Be careful what you listen to. Once it is put in there it is harder to get out. Doubt is sowed, That is there. It doesn’t go away and then someone else adds to that and you think, well and then pretty soon the character of someone is undermined and destroyed in your thinking. Verse 28, “A lying tongue hates those it crushes. A flattering mouth works ruin.”

We partake in the communion service this evening. That is set in the context of a church that was characterized by divisions and Paul said “It ought not to be. And if you don’t deal with it’ he says, ‘God will deal with it.”

We want to manifest God’s grace in bringing us together as a body under the headship of Christ. The individual parts controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit producing a unity that is not characteristic of fallen human beings but is supernaturally produces by a gracious God.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your Word. Lord truths so clear and in many ways so simple but Lord even as Your people we acknowledge we stumble in many ways and sometimes we are guilty of causing a division of adding to the fire of failing to deal what we could to heal. Lord we want our local church to be a testimony of Your grace. You have cleansed us. You have forgiven us. You have made us new. You have set us free. There is no excuse for sin in any of our lives. Thank You for the cleansing that is provided in Christ as we continue to grow. Lord may we examine ourselves and be ready to allow the Spirit to bring us into conformity with Your Word and Your will we pray in Christ’s name amen.