Do you think division in the church means anything to Christ? Do you think it makes any difference when I say I am of Paul or Apollos or Cephas? How Paul warned them there in Corinth! How he pleaded with them! How he begged them to put that thing aside. Look at 1 Corinthians 3:21: “Therefore let no man glory in men: for all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (ch. 3:21-23). “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ” (ch. 12:12). “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another” (vs. 25). That is the statement of the doctrine. Does it mean anything, or are we just to make our own choice?
Someone was telling me about listening to the biggest fundamentalist broadcast in America the other day, and this dear man was telling them how to choose their church. He said to just canvass around and find where the real gospel was preached; that was the place to go. Canvass around and make your choice! It is your choice! When Israel had no king, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Is that true here? Has He ceased to have an interest in the path His people tread? Tell me this: Is the Lord a hard master, reaping where He has not sowed? Has He not said that division is sin, and has He not told us to keep the unity of the Spirit? Is there a path for the saints right now in this time, just before He comes? Is there a path where I can avoid the sin of division in the church of God? If there is not, ah, well, let us scatter and each find that which suits him — his taste, his whim. You know we are all different; we all have our preferences in that kind of thing. Probably you would not choose the same place at all that I would choose. No, brethren, it is not up to us to go where we please. God marks out a path in the midst of the confusion.
Second Timothy 2:20. There was a time in my life when this portion in 2 Timothy had a loud voice for me — I hope it does still — but it was Christ’s voice to me. “In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (vss. 20-22). I find there the intimation that in 2 Timothy, which gives us the last days when the outward profession is broken down, the house of God is likened to a great house where all kinds of vessels are found. Every kind of unclean bird has taken shelter in the branches of Christian profession today. I have read statements of most awful blasphemies —the most Christ-dishonoring doctrines — all connected with some kind of a confession of the name of Christ. What a defiled house it has become! And now hear this word: “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (vs. 21).