What ultimately unites God's people is sound doctrine not activities.

What ultimately unites God's people is sound doctrine not activities.
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Excessive activity and merrymaking only produces callous of heart that nibbles away the individual.

Activities and entertainment perhaps are Satan's scheme to distract and stupefy a person away from the truth.

~Hosea 4:6
English Standard Version (ESV)
6 My people are destroyed (A)for lack of knowledge;
    (B)because you have rejected knowledge,
    I reject you (C)from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
    (D)I also will forget your children.

Activity distracts the train of thought and provide a temporary relieve to doubt and worries.

It nullify a man's ability to meditate on the words of God which is the only true source that can quench the thirty soul.

~Jeremiah 17:8
New Living Translation (NLT)
8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
    with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
    or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
    and they never stop producing fruit

Activities cease to promote unity in church for true bonding comes from understanding the word of God.

A man who is drown by activity robs himself off the nourishment of God's word.

Like seeds that fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so is meaningless activity choked the young christian off the spiritual nourishment.

~Matthew 13:7
7 Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants.

~A W Tozer
"Coming before God in quietness & waiting upon Him in silence can accomplish more than days of feverish activity."

The World is Laughing at the Church
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~Martyn Lloyd Jones
The man who only comes to church or chapel because he likes the minister as a man is of no value at all, and the minister who attempts to get men there by means of that subterfuge is for the time being guilty of lowering the standard of the truth which he claims to believe. For this gospel is the gospel of salvation propounded by the Son of God himself. We must not hawk it about the world, or offer special inducements or attractions, as if we were shopkeepers announcing an exceptional bargain sale. . .

~Martyn Lloyd Jones
The churches organize whist-drives ¹, fetes ², dramas, bazaars and things of that sort, so as to attract people. We are becoming almost as wily as the devil himself, but we are really very bad at it; all our attempts are hopeless failures and the world laughs at us. Now, when the world persecutes the church, she is performing her real mission, but when the world laughs at her she has lost her soul. And the world today is laughing at the church, laughing at her attempts to be nice and to make people feel at home. My friends, if you feel at home in any church without believing in Christ as your personal Savior, then that church is no church at all, but a place of entertainment or a social club. For the truth of Christianity and the preaching of the gospel should make a church intolerable and uncomfortable to all except those who believe, and even they should go away felling chastened and humbled.

http://www.erictyoung.com/2013/06/19/the-world-is-laughing-at-the-church-martyn-lloyd-jones/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ReformedBibliophile+(Reformed+Bibliophile)

Parts of the Whole (Martyn Lloyd Jones )
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There is a teaching today which is very popular and which I regard as this I hope to show you as not only being unscriptural but extremely dangerous is this. Give the new convert something to do. Give them some work to do. The argument is this that the way to keep a young convert or a raw convert standing on his feet is to give him something to do. Now if He doesn't have something to do he should have fall away or falling to sin. Giving him something to do and it will keep him right. Now that I regard as the most pernicious teaching and as I say an extremely dangerous teaching but is very popular today.

There is this tendency to organise the activity of convert and of christians. The whole activity is being reduce almost to a mechanical present. They are given a simple and a grib and easy teaching. They absorb so much and to give it up again almost by number they are told this and they do that. It all put down for them the rules and regulation. Their activity are immediate organise. They take a new convert, put him into a class and teach him and the whole of his life of activity of the plans and the ways are organise for it.

Now this teaching I think really must be examine. Because as I wanted to show you it violate a certain clear teaching it seem to me in the scripture itself. The sense of thing that it ignore is this. That we are to be before we do. It's very dangerous to put doing before being. But surely there is a tendency of the present time. We are such activist. And we are all busy and buzzing and must be doing things. And the result is we forget this vital first thing of being. Our realising the truth about ourselves...

Matthew 7:22-23
New International Version (NIV)
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Psalm 46:10
New Living Translation (NLT)
10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.”

From the MLJ Archive with Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/living-grace/player/parts-of-the-whole-337374.html

 

True unity comes from having the same mind to the teaching of sound doctrine.
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~Romans 15:5-6
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
5 Now may the (A)God [a]who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you (B)to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one accord you may with one [b]voice glorify (C)the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

~1 Corinthians 1:10
New Living Translation (NLT)
Divisions in the Church
10 I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters,[a] by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

~Philippians 1:27
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
27 Only conduct yourselves in a manner (A)worthy of the (B)gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are (C)standing firm in (D)one spirit, with one [a]mind (E)striving together for the faith of the gospel;

~Aw Tozer
if you had four thousand pianos and tried to tune them to each other, you couldn't do it. If you had one tuning fork you could tune them all to that. And the one tuning fork to which all of your lives are tuned is the truth, the faith of the gospel. And when you're all tuned to that, you're all tuned to each other.

~John MacArthur
http://articles.ochristian.com/article18965.shtml

~John MacArthur
You will not achieve biblical unity apart from sound doctrine and apart from godliness, holiness and the dealing with sin. Then when you are of the same mind, Romans 15:6 , with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

~John MacArthur
2 Thessalonians 3:6, "We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you stay apart, or keep aloof, from every brother who leads an unruly life, not according to the tradition which you've received from us." That tradition not being some rabbinic tradition, but that tradition established by the revelation from God.

~John MacArthur
If you have someone in your church who is teaching error, you cannot have unity with that individual. If you have someone who is leading an unruly or sinful life, you cannot have fellowship with that individual. So what we're talking about here is the pursuit of the true unity of the Spirit that belongs to those who surround the truth and affirm it and who live godly lives.

~John 17:23
New Living Translation (NLT)
23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.

~John MacArthur
In verse 23 He says it again. "I in them and Thou in Me that they may be perfected in unity." It's not a question of "are we all getting along fine on the surface, are we all buddy- buddy, are we all holding hands and swaying back and forth and singing the same song." It's not that. We're talking about something here that is supernatural. This prayer that Jesus prayed was a prayer for all those who came to Him to be given the same eternal life, to possess the same life of God in their souls, to become partakers of the divine nature, to have the indwelling of the very presence of the Spirit of God. He was praying that which is stated as reality in 1 Corinthians where Paul says, "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." Paul said essentially the same thing when he said, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives...what?...within me."

~Ephesians 4:3
New Living Translation (NLT)
3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

~John MacArthur
The prayer of Jesus is answered in that we are all one. And that spiritually organic oneness, that real unity, that like precious faith, as Peter calls it, that binds us all together in a real unity and in a spiritually organic unity is the basis of our practical common fellowship. But we find in this unity given to us at the point of salvation by us being placed into the body of Christ with all other believers, by us having the indwelling of the same Holy Spirit, that basis becomes the foundation on which we obey the command of Ephesians 4:3, keeping the unity of the Spirit. It's already there, it's not something you have to drum up, it's not something you have to seek, it's not something you have to chase, it's something you have to hold on to...it's something you have to preserve. And you do it by always recognizing that's what ties us together in the practical expression of our lives, what ties us together is the pursuit of peace.

~John MacArthur
Some people think that to split the church is a virtue. It's not. It's not. And some people might think, "Well I'm right." That's not the point. The point is the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, you've found the path of peace to keep the unity. You should all agree. There should be no divisions. You ought to be made complete, thinking the same and rendering the same judgments.

~John MacArthur
Now let me tell you something, folks. The only environment in which that could ever happen is in an environment where people all understand the Word of God. It's the only place it can happen. Where you don't teach the Scripture with precision and care, there's no way people are going to think the same. There's no way they're going to make the same judgment on issues. And I really believe with all my heart that one of the great blessings and benefits of a church that has clear doctrine and clear teaching and handles the Word of God accurately and precisely is that it gets a legacy of unity because the people think the same thing, they render the same judgments, they agree. There might be a bit of a struggle here and there as to the wisdom necessary to make the application of the truth, but certainly you want to start with the truth.

~John MacArthur
Any kind of unity where you have violent disagreement and just keep your mouth shut is no true unity. I guess in some ways it would be better than starting a war unless you have to admonish a heretic or confront a sinner.

~John MacArthur
Let me tell you one of the things that contributes most directly to discord in the church is people with a shallow understanding of Scripture. That's why I say again, the legacy of solid food of an understanding of some of the depth of the Word of God is the unity of the faith. And everyone understanding the same, believing the same, having the same mind, making the same judgments...there's no ground for substantial foundational disagreement. Quite the contrary to take a reductionist mentality and say, "We want to throw doctrine out so we can get together," is the antithesis of this and that is to sweep heresy under the rug and think that it's not something to be considered and to sweep sin under the rug as if it had no negative effect, as if the all compelling thing was to just accept everybody whatever they might believe, or however they might behave. Nothing could be more dishonoring to our Lord.

~John MacArthur
If this great effort to create some kind of evangelical ecumenism were properly directed, if the people who are trying to orchestrate this knew what they were doing, they would understand that the path to one mind and one judgment and agreement and real unity is the path of sound doctrine. That's how you get there. And that's where it all begins. And the path of holiness.

~John MacArthur
If I find that you error according to Scripture, I must confront the error. And if you don't repent of that error, I can't...I can't let you be a part of the fellowship. Why? Because your error will eat like gangrene and as a result of it, some people might make shipwreck, or if we brought it into the vernacular, plane wreck of the faith. I can't expose my congregation to that. And if I don't confront your sin, a little leaven leavens the whole lump and that doesn't produce unity, it destroys it.

~John MacArthur
And I say it again, I...I look at this movement toward unity and it is passionately convinced that if there is going to be any achieving of unity in evangelicalism, we've got to make sure doctrine doesn't get in the way...absolutely opposite the proper path. Striving together for the faith.

~John MacArthur
Do we understand the faith? Do we really understand it? Do we grasp its great realities? When we do, when the church does there will be the expression of that uniform commitment to the truth in the life of that church in visible demonstration of spiritual unity.

~John MacArthur
Romans 15, and see again this same emphasis. Verse 5, "May the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus." You see, the established measure is Christ Jesus, the faith, the gospel, Christ Jesus, the truth. And there it is again, the same mind. May I hasten to say to you that the outworking of our organic, our spiritual organic unity, the outworking of our real spiritual unity, the outworking of the life of God in our souls, the way that expresses ourselves starts with the mind. First Corinthians 1:10 the word "mind" was used. Philippians 1:27, the word "mind" was used, sometimes translated soul. Here again Romans 15:5 the word "mind" is used.

~John MacArthur
Christianity is a cognitive faith. We're not trying to induce some kind of emotional hysteria, or some kind of emotional sentimentalism that causes people to just sort of melt together under the mass hypnosis. What we're trying to do is to express a unity around common understanding of revealed truth so that we have the same mind. And you can only do that when you understand truth in the same way. You know, I could...I could spend my whole life trying to get a whole group of people this large, or a lot smaller than this, all united and never accomplish it if I didn't have a common standard, like Tozer's four thousand piano illustration. He said if you had four thousand pianos and tried to tune them to each other, you couldn't do it. If you had one tuning fork you could tune them all to that. And the one tuning fork to which all of your lives are tuned is the truth, the faith of the gospel. And when you're all tuned to that, you're all tuned to each other. We may discuss how that fleshes itself out, as I said, in the application of wisdom, but the common reality is ours. You will not achieve biblical unity apart from sound doctrine and apart from godliness, holiness and the dealing with sin. Then when you are of the same mind, verse 6, with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Watch Out for Those Who Lead You Away from the Truth

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~John Piper
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/watch-out-for-those-who-lead-you-away-from-the-truth

~John Piper
When there is no truth that deserves assent from everybody, the only arbiter in our competing desires is power. Where truth doesn’t define what’s right, might makes right. And where might makes right, weak people pay with their lives. When the universal claim of truth disappears, what you get is not peaceful pluralism or loving relationships; what you get is concentration camps and gulags.

~Romans 16:17 (ESV)
17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.

~John Piper
For Paul, doctrine is the basis of unity. Without the common doctrine they had been taught, the unity would not have been Christian unity. So he is willing to call for truth-based disunity (“Avoid them.” “Divide from them.”) for the sake of truth-based unity.

~John Piper
In other words, when a person departs from the doctrine that the apostles had taught, Paul sees this as a greater threat to unity than the disunity caused by avoiding such people. If we say: How can that be? How can dividing from a false teacher who rises up in the church promote unity in the church? The answer is that the only unity that counts for unity in the church is rooted in a common apostolic teaching. Isolating false teachers—avoiding them—is Paul’s strategy for preserving unity that is based on true teaching.

~Charles Spurgeon

Feeding Sheep Or Amusing Goat

My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church. If it is a Christian work why did not Christ speak of it? 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel'.

~Paul Washer
When you walk in to a group of people who knows absolute nothing about the gospel. You stand there as a man absolutely helpless or you stand there as a man arm with armament of the flesh. You know we think we can put up a media screen and do all kinds of things and have a few movies and we can some how emotionally manipulate people into the kingdom.

That is not true. When we try to do that we no longer gonna see the power of the holy spirit. What we have to do. And I always teach my man this on the field. I said give me one man who believes God with the bible in his hand, take him in the middle of the town square and let him preach until he have been stone to death or till someone is converted. Because God will bless that type of preaching.

kirk and todd interviews paul washer 2

~C. S. Lewis
It’s not the load that breaks you down. It’s the way you carry it."

~Paul David Tripp
The sin of unbelief will always cause you to load onto your shoulders things that only God is able to do.

~C. S. Lewis
The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of. Our attention would have been on God.

~Christopher Enoch
The worst thing in the world is compromised,Nothing brings more reproach upon the Name of the Lord.

~Joel Beeke
"Worldliness is destroying the church of Jesus Christ. The time is thus right for us to biblically expose and condemn worldliness, and to promote the alternatives of genuine piety and holiness."