Unity

The word unity which represents being in agreement with one another is both commanded and condemned in the bible.

Hearing this you might say how is it possible pastor? How could the very same thing that God commands He condemn?

For example you might say doesn’t the Lord speak this way in Luke 11: 17, 18.  Which says “Every Kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls”. Yes you are right this universal truthis confirmed by our Lord in the scriptures and is the basis of our sermon today, however this universally accepted truth has another side to it that is what I would like for us to examine today.

The destructive unity, which is the result of all evil.

The discovery or the unveiling of this controversial truth.

How could unity be a bad thing, since the Lord says in Luke the 11^th chapter that the lack of it is the sign of destruction?

Men of all ages have always accomplished great accomplishments in being united, even the very name of our country speaks of such truth. The United States of America. Men in this nation have always said in unity we stand. Now all of a sudden the word of God condemns what we always thought to be good thing?

Here is where the subject of our discussion turns into a new direction. Amen?

How could the unity that connects us to one another all of a sudden become a bad thing?

Jesus our Lord told us from our love they will know that we are of the truth, but if there is no unity how could there ever be love? These are hard questions, with very simple answers Church.

Unity is a dream for us all, yet in many occasions it could be the worst nightmare of all of us too.

The Bible tells us that we men from the fall of Adam have inherited a nature called “The Flesh”, which is a fallen and depraved nature and in it carries the rebellion of Lucifer and the mistrust, or sin of Adam.

Men having inherited this awful fallen nature have a great negative potential that can be very much magnified when it is combined in unity. By this I mean. The bad that is in us combined can be a great disaster of all kinds. It is the accumulation of all form of evil in one place; therefore its fruit is devastation.

The generation prior to the flood was like that and even much more since angelic rebellion were added to it in an uncommon measure.

This unity of evil brought the first wide spread judgment of God on this earth, which were the waters of the flood. A judgment where even the earth and all that was in it suffered.

Now we read again in the book of Genesis that men soon after the flood became united, but not for a Godly cause, but in their former state of mind. Men became united to make a tower to reach God and in that in their strength and in the power of unity of their rebellious state of depravity of their minds.  In Genesis 11:3 & 4 this is what they said “Come let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” and they said again “Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth”. But the Lord came down to see what sons of men were about to do and ….

Then the Lord said!!!

“Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come let us go down and confuse their language.

Yes unity meant power, but of a wrong kind and that is why the Lord God destroyed their unity in confusing their languages so, that they could not continue in their unity and the very thing they were afraid of they suffered. They were scattered on the face of the earth.

Satan being the worship leader of heaven and a mighty arch angel knows the power of unity, so does God, but with one difference that he uses it for destructive purposes on earthly level of rebellious nature of man. A nature he gave to them in Eden.  Therefore having said this I should add that even with Israel of God in the Old Covenant we read every time when God was going to give victory to His people Israel He Himself, yes God Himself would send division among the armies of the enemies of God and thus they were always fighting against one another and destroying each other from within.

Now that we learned about the benefits and the dangers of unity let us turn to our main subject of our own days. A reality that the last day Church of Jesus Christ is living through its prophetic fulfillments through its historic events being unfolded right before our eyes.

An unavoidable truth soon completely to be embraced by all the inhabitants of the world, including us the Church. Prophecy of the prophet Ezekiel.

Who is this Prophet Ezekiel? Where did he come from? Where and when did he live? What does his prophecies have to do with me?

Prophet Ezekiel was a priest and his father was Buzi and his name meant “God Strengthens”. He was said to be a part of Zadokite priestly family that came to prominance in the time the reign of king Joash (621 B.C).

Ezekiel lived and was called about 593 B.C. He ministered for almost 20 years. His ministry overlapped Jeremiah the prophet. His wife died about the time of Jerusalem’s destruction in 587 B.C. From his exile he wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem to the people of Israel still there about its utter destruction and God’s presence being lifted up from amongst them.

Ezekiel being a priest was also a prophet that spoke of the last days and the events of the end times.

In his prophetic utterances Prophet Ezekiel’s prophecy of an unholy allegiance in Ezek. 38 & 39^th chapters speaks of what we are now seeing take place right before our very own eyes. In this the Lord God shows the prophet Ezekiel what would take place in the latter days, meaning now, when Israel is once again a nation in her own land given to her in 1948.

In it he names nations that would form a unity to gain power to come against Israel in the last days and we need to heed its details carefully now.

In the small video clips we are now going to watch we will learn a very dangerous truth happening right before our eyes. The countries mentioned here in Ezekiel chapter 38 are almost all now in turmoil’s within and trouble from outside. Today on March 27^th 2011we witnessing the fulfillment of these prophecies before our own eyes. Now therefore let us watch these clips and continue the word for today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5znR5F2u4cM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR1kj0PdXHk&feature=related

We no longer can say who these armies are since after we watched the clips, now we know who they are and what God has foreseen that would happen to the world soon.

But this is the question for us the Born Again believers of these last days. What are we to do while the united men of this world are marching in unity to destroy this world and its Godly offspring?

Where do you and I fit in this picture? And where do we hide? And how do we form a holy alliance if I may ask? And with whom?

These are what we need to answer in the next few minutes remaining into our sermon, if the Lord permits.

Now the answer to all our questions that we just asked for is in what our Lord prayed to His heavenly Father in John chapter 17 verses 22.  Here our Lord prays to His Father for the unity of the Church. A holy unity that its basis is not founded on human wisdom, but the renewed wisdom gained from the Lord.

This is the union that will bring God the glory and this will never be overthrown by any force in heaven, on earth and under the earth.

For an alliance of this magnitude we need to study the Ephesians letter chapter 4 where Paul the Apostle speaks of the five fold ministry of the Church and its ultimate purpose in the lives of the redemmed elect which is.

“Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of Christ” Ephesians 4:11

This unity is what we need to be united under, but this has two aspects to it.

First an individual conformation to the image of Christ. A personal and individual responsibility of all members of theBody of Christ, through which the genuine and Godly unity of the believers is possible.  If every member of the body of Christ is not willing to walk to the goal of our faith, which is to reach to understanding of that One and  perfect man, then how could we be the army of the Lord that needs to be ready in this great war that is coming on this world in these final days united on one front? Therefore let us not be conceived and ensnared by mere human talk, we cannot be united with men who would not come to the unity of the spirit through conforming to the image of Christ. This unity needs to be first in the transforming of our minds, before it can take place in the natural, and that with the bond of peace?  Amen? Amen.