The title of my message is Unity among Differences. 

Normally when we talk about unity, it is from the perspective of what we have in common. My ministry which I choose to call the alternative view, will take a different approach. The focus of this message is unity among differences. For I make a deliberate effort to focus on a view that is uncommon. For, Jesus was one of the most controversial speakers that we know of. So my objective is to be like my master. To tell you the truth that is not necessarily consistent whit what most others are saying.
 
What I am going to talk about is unity in the body of Christ from the perspective of Paul. I am a vegetarian, and I have been so for over thirty years. I am saying this so that you can imagine my supprise when reading Romans 14 2. Romans 14 2 says "For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eat-eth herbs." My initial response was, Paul, why are you calling me week. I could not understand it. Nevertheless, the bible says in Philippians 3 15, "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing yee be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." So I just sat on my lack of understanding, persuaded that eventually God would open up the scripture to me. Then in my regular bible study, God's servent and my mentor, Andrew Wommack opened up the scripture to me.   
  
Paul wrote this epistle, Romans 14, to the saints in Rome, dealing with the mistaken teaching, that Gentiles who became Christians had to keep the Old Testament laws in order to be saved. The only thing that God requires for the born-again experience is faith in what Jesus Christ did on the cross.   
  
The issue was, the eating of meats that the Law declared unclean. The Jewish Christians, were saying that the Gentile Christians had to keep these laws. The Gentile Christians, felt no obligation to old Jewish rituals.  
  
In Romans 14 20 Paul stated that, the Gentile Christians were correct doctrinally, but he warned them against despising their weak Jewish brethren who could not, in good conscience, eat meat. Therefore, Paul established a principle that those who have the greater revelation of their freedom in Christ have an obligation to try not to display that freedom in a way that offends their weak brethren.  
  
Who was the weak brother referred to here? It was the religious Jew who was converted to Christianity. Romans 14 2 refers to the weak one as the one who was eating herbs. This was a reference to the Jewish Christians who had not totally realized their freedom from the Old Testament dietary laws. Because the Jews who were in Rome could not always be certain of what type of meat they were buying or if it had been killed properly to drain the blood, many of them had become vegetarians to avoid any possible contamination.  
  
It is very interesting that Paul cited the religious person as the weak brother. Most religious people think that all their religious convictions make them superior to those who come to Christ without any religious background, but that wasn't Paul's assessment. A simple pagan background is easy to overcome in comparison to a heritage of legalistic religion. Paul ought to know; he was the Pharisee of the Pharisees. Paul was saying that we shouldn't be critical of, or discriminate against, those who are weak in their convictions. How does Paul's actions harmonize with unity in the body of Christ?  
  
There are some doctrinal points that are non-negotiable and others that are. When it comes to the doctrine of grace for salvation, Paul didn't compromise. He even said in Galatians 1 8, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed".  
  
If these Jewish believers had taught that abstinence from meats, are essential for salvation, Paul would not have tolerated it. However, if these Jewish Christians were professing righteousness with God solely based on the work of Christ, yet had a personal conviction about these other things, that was okay. The thought or the motive behind the action, is what must be judged.  
  
Likewise Ephesians 2 8 says, we cannot compromise on the matter of salvation by grace through faith. But there should be room for Christians to dwell together yet have different interpretations of scripture. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.   
 
I started reading a book called Controversial Issues In Social Policy. The title of the book increased my awareness of controversial issues in bible doctrine. An example of a controversial issue in bible doctrine is; 
 
- Some say there is but one God. Others say there are many gods'.   
- Some say women should be silent in the church. Others say there were women prophets, judges and other speaking offices in the body of Christ.  
- Some say that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have passed away with the death of the last apostle. Others say that fully preaching the gospel is followed by signs and wonders.  
- Some say once saved always saved. Others say you have to endure until the end.  
- Some say that everything in life is predestined. Others say that we are predestined to be declared sons of God or salvation is predestined.  
- Some say, God knows everything. Othere say, God said I came down to see.  
I could go on and on like this.  
 
Yet, the sum of the matter is: 
Romans 14 2 to 3, and  6 says.  
For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.   
Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.  
He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.   
  
Romans 15 4, and 7 says.  
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.   
Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.   
  
I realize that I lacked some of Solomon's wisdom. I think that often I can make a wiser decision by seeing that "a combined certainty of two possible interpretations is better than a singular uncertainty of one interpretation."  
  
Here is what I mean. Two things. One! Recently, I have run across a lot of admissions by great scholars and great minds that some things that they were certain of is more likely than not, something altogether different. The problem for them, quoting some famous translators, is that: "they are wise [that] rather have their judgments at liberty in differences of readings, than to be captivated by one, when it may be the other." Now that's a mouthful.  
  
Nevertheless, these scholars perceived themselves as potential fools for choosing just one interpretation "when it may be the other." We often behave foolishly at times, thinking I must be decisive and choose one interpretation, even in the face of real uncertainty.  
  
Martin Luther explained this principle this way: "Better a sparrow in hand than a crane in doubt." What is not doubtful is that one of the two interpretations with differing probabilities is correct.  This may not look like a majestic crane, yet it is a sparrow without doubt.  
  
Secondly, what I mean is this.  
  
Often times in life we must take a both and approach to life, rather than an either or approach. We must keep in mind that the explicit statement takes precedence over the implicit statement. Both scriptural approaches are correct, in the sense that. For what saith the word? For these are not drunken, as yee suppose.   
  
There is but one God. Yet, there are many Gods in the sense that. There are women prophets and judges. Yet, women ought to keep silent in the church in the sense that. Fully preaching the gospel is followed by signs and wonders. Yet, the Holy Spirit is not as active as in biblical times in the sense that. You have to endure until the end. Yet, once saved always saved in the sense that. We are predestined to be declared sons of God. Yet, everything in life is predestined in the since that. God knows everything. Yet, God did not know a particular thing in the since that. Moses talked to God face to face as a man talks to a friend. Yet, no man has seen God at anytime. Is there a need to say more?  
 
Proverbs, or the bible in general, many times don't give up their meaning easily. They say to the reader: you're going to have to work at this, because the mind is a muscle. And just like a bodybuilder will go into the gym and lift those weights to build those muscles, the wise person goes into the gymnasium of Proverbs and works that mental muscle to strengthen it.  
 
Matthew chapter 13 says that Jesus always taught in parables, and his disciples were frustrated by this. They said unto him why speak if thou in parables? He answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.  
  
So, a parable is a story that reveals truth to one person while hiding truth from another person. The disciples were so frustrated, and they said why do you do this? Why don't you just speak plainly? Well, God's teaching is designed in such a way, so that the occasional observer will have an excuse to reject it. While the true seeker, will grasp it. We find that the Bible says seek and yee shall find. In this explanation here in Matthew 13, Jesus said for the prophecy of Isaiah is filled in them, having eyes to see they sea not. Having ears to hear they cannot. Unless at any time they should hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, should be converted and I should heal them. Now, Jesus said that these people's hearts is waxed gross, and their eyes were closed. Okay now, understand with me real carefully right now, because this is the way that God deals with you and me. It is given to you to understand. To them it is not given. What is going on here?  
 
Jesus said when truth comes, some people open their eyes and say I want it. Yet other people, when truth comes they close their eyes. Now why does this happen? Because we human beings are pretty ingenious. When we hear truth we start calculating. Okay, if I embrace this truth, if I believe it then it is going to control my life. It is going to determine what I do. So we will calculate ahead and we will understand that in the ramifications of this truth that we have gained, a lot of times we make a decision. We say, okay I believe this and I am going to embrace and obey it. Or we decide to close our eyes. For a lot of people, as soon as they say well I do not believe it that way, they think that  this gives them an out to reject that truth. The truth of the matter is, although we do not believe the truth, that does not change the truth. The truth is still the truth, and the Bible tells us that when we choose not to believe the truth, that we are making a conscious free willed decision. The Scriptures teach us that all unbelievers shall have their part in the lake of fire. Just because you say I do not believe that, that does not give us an out, because the truth is still the truth. Remember, the Scripture tells us that unbelievers will have their part in the lake of fire. So when the truth comes to us it is important that we embrace it and obey it.   
 
This is the reason that Jesus taught in parables, so that people who didn't want it would have an out but the people that did want it could get it. Because he is looking for people that love him on their own free will, not because they are compelled. The church is his bride, and he wants a willing bride.  
 
Here is an under-appreciated piece of Solomon's wisdom.  It says here that there is hope for the living " because a live dog is better than a dead lion." Its application to wisdom is important. 
 
First, let us examin what is wisdom. The Hebrew word is chokmâh, and it was used throughout the Old Testament to talk about people who did things with skill. The basic meaning of the word chokmâh or châkam is skill. It was used to describe the people who embroidered the priest's garments back in the book of Exodus. These garments were to be beautiful; they were to represent the nature and work of God. 
 
So when they selected people to do that embroidery, they selected people who didn't just do embroidery, they did it with châkam, great skill, so that other people who did embroidery would look at the priest's garment and say, " Now that's embroidery.” it's also the people who did the metal work on the tabernacle, who were chosen specifically because they did metal work with châkam, with skill. 
 
People who parented well, people who administrated well, people who led well, various things that people could do with great skill, with great dexterity, they did with châkam. And when we come to the book of Proverbs, for instance, and we read over and over again about wisdom, it is this word châkam or chokmâh. 
 
What Solomon was saying is that when you see a person living life with wisdom, their whole life is characterized by skill. And just as a person who does embroidery would look at the embroidery on the priest's garment, just as somebody who does metal work would look at the metal work on the tabernacle, the Old Testament tabernacle and say, " Now that's how it ought to be done. I do metal work but I wish I could do it like that.” Well, as people looked at a human life and saw how that person related to other people, saw how that person related to their work, saw how that person parented, how that person functioned as a spouse, how that person managed their money, everything about that person they would say, " That person lives life with chokmâh. I think that's how life ought to be lived. 
 
But most especially in the Old Testament wisdom literature as we see how a person relates to God and how that person's relationship with God bleeds out through every other aspect of their life, we say, " That's wisdom. So when you think of wisdom and you read the book of Proverbs, and you read the book of Ecclesiastes, and you read the book of Job, these books that are given to wisdom, what God is showing us in these three books is, this is how life is lived with beauty, with balance, with dexterity. This is how life ought to be lived. 
 
Proverbs 1 1 to 7 is a particularly important section because it introduces in condensed form the purpose of the Proverbs. And as with poetry, if you don't understand how poetry works, if you don't understand how the Proverbs work, you don't read them with maximum contribution. 
 
It begins this way, " The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel. And then there's a series of infinitives. Now if it's been a long time since you had English, an infinitive is a word that introduces a purpose. It's usually introduced by the word to. Listen to this: " The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction, to give prudence, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles. 
 
So you see, these infinitives introduce the purpose of Proverbs really as two fold. One is to give us wisdom, but secondly the Proverbs are like a mental gymnasium. The Proverbs being poetry are set up with two lines usually, once in a while more, but usually two lines that work together to produce a thought. And like other poetry, the meaning is in the middle. And the writer of Proverbs had to develop two skills. The first was an astute observation of life. These were wise sages. They looked at life and they saw how life worked and they wanted to capture the lessons that they saw in life. 
 
But then the second skill was an ability to cleverly craft that observation into a proverb, into a poetic structure that forced the reader to ask what is the meaning of the first line, what is the meaning of the second line, and as I put these two lines together what is the truth that comes out of that process? 
 
A proverb is a mystery, but a mystery is something that some understand, and others do not understand.  
 
So if you read a proverb or the bible, and it doesn't make sense to you right away, that's by design. So if you're a lazy reader, if you're not serious about learning, many of these proverbs will never yield up their meaning to you. So my invitation to you is the same as my invitation to me. If you want to live a wise life, you've got to cultivate wisdom. And if you're going to cultivate wisdom, you're going to have to work at it.  
  
So don't blame the bible if you read it and you say, " Huh? That's by design, that's your challenge, that's my challenge to meditate, to prayerfully think my way through, " My challenge is to ask what is the message here?  
  
Okay, notice Jesus taught in parablesor proverbs. John 16 25 tells us these things have I spoken unto you in a proverb, but the time come-eth when I shall no more speak in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the father. So Jesus spoke mysteries, but as a proverb or a parable. The original Greek word that was translated proverb also was translated parable in John 10 verse six. So it is the same thing. The Lord said I teach you about the body in a parable. Then he went on to say but I shall now speak unto you plainly of the father. So likewise my objective is to speek to you plainly. This introduces a formidable perspective of my ministry, the alternative view. That is not to say that, often particularly around highly controversal issues, that my view is the only valid view. Yet, it is to say that I believed and then I spoke. Come, let us reason together. For Jesus was one of the most highly controversal teachers that I know of. So I choose to make an on purpose and deliberate effort to focus on what many people preceive as controversal issues. As your mother may have said to you, boy you don't even have common sense. Well, controversial issues are precisely what is not common sense. 
 
I am persuaded that our access to truth exists on a sliding scale. At the bottom of the scale of our access to truth is an opinion. An opinion is anywhere from 1% to 50% probability of truth. Once we get to 51% probability of truth we enter the arena of more likely than not. As we keep climbing we will get to the 85% probability of truth, which is beyound a reasonable doubt. As Moses said it takes two or three witnesses to establish a thing. At this point we are ready to move to action. I believed and then I spoke. If we keep climbing the scale we will get to a fact, which allows us to access a 95% probability of truth. If we keep climbing we will get to a level of self-evident, which starts at about a 98% or 99% probability of truth. Then finally we will get to what Jesus said, I tell you the truth, which is a 100% probability of truth. For me, this represents the beginnings of clarity of thought and percision of expression. Where on this scale does a particuloar view or opinion exist.  As my, now grown daughter said to me on one occation, it is true that opinions are like noses. Everybody has one, and many people start out with two opinions about the same thing. Nevertheless, we must study to show ourselves approved. We must become a workman that need-eth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  
 
We must resist the devil. We must resist adopting an, there is no absolutes philosophy. That is a philosophy which declairs that everything is relative. We must resist a philosophy of relativeism, which declares that the only thing that is not relative is the idea that everything is relative. For such is by its very nature, or it is self-evident that such is, an oxymoron. Perfection is approachable. Thus this idea, unity among Differences, is birth-ed out of controversal thinking. 
 
The next words that you hear come out of my mouth, will more likely than not be about the significance of the scripture which say-eth, the righteousness of  God comes by the faith of Jesus Christ. How that scripture speaks on the imputation of faith, and how that is related to the next great awakening. This takes the concept of revivals to another level. Yet, that is another topic for another day. Because the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. 
 
So grace and peace be unto you. From God our father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.