Sunday AM

Mark Dever

1. Do we follow commands to purify or to unite?
1. Truth =/= popular
2. II Timothy 4:3-4
3. We often pit one aspect of God against another, such as holiness vs. love (if God can’t stand sin, how can he love us?)
2. What are some common fights Christians have?
1. There are a lot!
3. Why are we together?
1. The level of our agreement that we need for a good relationship depends on the type of agreement we have (we need to agree more with a future spouse than a member of a Bible study)
4. What must we agree upon?
1. This question does not mean “How much can we get away with?”
2. Not all of my doctrines are true! I may be misinterpreting the Bible
3. Ways to know what we need to agree on:
1. Bible
2. Church--our spiritual family
3. Conscience--not always accurate because of sin, but a God-given way to recognize good and evil.
1. Conscience must be trained
4. Testing a doctrine to measure its importance:
1. How clear is it in Scripture?
2. How clear do others think it is?
3. How close is it or its implications to the Gospel?
4. What would the effects be if disagreement would be allowed in this area?
5. To be saved, we must believe in:
1. God--self existent, omnipresent, omniopotent, Creator, outside time
2. Bible--the truth about God
3. Gospel=good news
5. What must we disagree upon?
1. Acts 15:37-41
2. If we agree on the gospel but not on “secondary” issues, we can still cooperate in a lot of ways
3. We can still separate with good will toward each other
4. Romans 14:22
5. I may not agree with someone’s view on something, but don’t bedisagreeable about it
6. How can we disagree well?
1. It’s not about winning an argument, it’s about winning souls