In the sermon titled 'Building Blocks of Love for Those Who Disagree,' Scott Brown discusses the importance of love and unity within the church, especially when faced with disagreements. The sermon is based on Romans 15, where Paul emphasizes the need for like-mindedness and patience according to Christ Jesus. Brown highlights six 'building blocks of love' essential for maintaining unity among diverse believers: like-mindedness, awareness of God's glory, receiving one another, following Christ's example, fulfilling Christ's objectives to fill with hope, and answering Paul's prayer for joy and peace. He uses historical examples from the Reformation, notably Samuel Rutherford and Archbishop Usher, to illustrate how love can prevail amidst doctrinal conflicts. The sermon underscores the importance of hope, patience, and the glory of God as central themes in navigating church disagreements, advocating for a Christ-like approach to acceptance and love.

Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 15, beginning in verse 5. Romans 15 verse 5. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. Now I say that Christ Jesus has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers and that the Gentiles would glorify God for His mercy For it is written, for this reason I will confess you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.

And again he says, rejoice, O Gentiles, with all the people. And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Laud him, all you peoples. And again Isaiah says, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles in him, the Gentiles shall hope. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, I pray that you would take these words and burn them deeply into our hearts that you that you would equip all of us your children this morning and that you would help us together this morning to see more clearly than ever we have the hope that we have toward you for one another in the church and Lord that you would reveal to us if we have violated any of these principles of hope and blessing and receiving one another, Lord, that if there's any one of us who, on the one hand, has lost hope for themselves, that you would come mightily, Lord, among us and fill us with hope. And if you have any of us here that have lost hope in one another that you would reverse that as well Lord that you would help us not to sin against one another in this way to forget this hope that you would have to reside in our hearts Lord if there have been any disagreements that that have destroyed love and destroyed hope in this church or with us Lord in any of our relationships in this community or outside of this community that you would help us now Lord that you would come and convict us but you would also bring us with all of the joy that your spirit can supply us this morning for we know that we're completely dependent upon you for any of these things that you would come and and bring it to us in great measure and Lord I pray I tremble before this passage because I lack understanding and I lack holiness in applying it.

I lack everything that's spoken of here, Lord, and I pray that you would help me now not to misrepresent this, but that you would take anything that I have spoken wrongly and correct it through your own work in our hearts. And Lord, now that you would come and open up this very blessed passage of Scripture to us and teach us how to live now as a church in Jesus Christ's name I pray amen. Well this is a very this is an amazing passage of Scripture that was born out of a time of tumult I have just been traveling in Scotland visiting the sites of a gigantic tumult where the saints were being sawn asunder, burned at the stake, where godly men who were preachers of the gospel would be tortured. They'd have their hands chopped off, and their heads would be mounted for 10, 20 years on the entries of the cities. Where there was tremendous tumult in the church, where Reformation was taking place, where there were gigantic disagreements that were taking place on matters of doctrine.

And the church was being reformed. And it was a time of tremendous pressure for those who were about. And in this tour of Scotland, we spent our time visiting the churches where these conflicts took place. The cathedrals, which were the staging grounds, the castles, the fields, the caves, the places where the Covenanters hid for their lives, the places where they were either shot or decapitated or burned at the stake. Why?

Because the message of scripture was clashing hard against the culture. And so there were many who died during the killing times, very short period of time, between 1661 and 1668. 18, 000 covenanters went to their graves. We visited those graves and walked through these graveyards that housed the bones of those who had gone before us. Two great personalities in this conflict.

I was captivated by, first, Samuel Rutherford, perhaps one of the dearest tender-hearted pastors who ever lived. The theme of his whole ministry was the loveliness of Christ on the one hand. On the other hand he wrote a book that would be burned in effigy. He wrote a book that if you carried it it was a capital crime. I have a copy of that book in my library.

Lex Rex, law is king. It was so disturbing to the kings that they would put him up to be killed. And yet he died a natural death just perhaps a day before he was going to be executed. Samuel Rutherford, the dear pastor at Anwoth, who preached the gospel of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as anyone ever did. Reading his letters, you can see the tenderness that he had for his people.

You also see his amazement at the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this time of bitter conflict, a strange visitor came and visited his church. And he came to stay on Saturday night and came into the home. And as they did in those days, visitors from the church on Sunday would stay often in the house of the minister that night. And this man came, and it was none other than Archbishop Usher.

But he came in disguise, and no one knew who he was. And there he was in the evening in the Rutherford home. They practiced family worship on Saturday night. And as they engaged in their family worship, after that was completed, there was a time of catechism and questions were being answered of all those who came to visit that Saturday night. And he was, Usher was welcomed as a guest.

He took his place with the family while they were being catechized, just along with the rest of the crowd. Imagine this gigantic theological mind, who wrote perhaps one of the most important books regarding the chronology of the Bible, the Annals of History, was there, completely incognito. And the question came up, how many commandments are there? And they asked Archbishop Usher, how many commandments are there? And he replied, 11.

And the pastor said, there are 10 commandments, and even the youngest of children in this church know that. You should perhaps be more studied. And after being corrected, this strange guest said that there's a new commandment that I give you, that you love one another. And that is the 11th Commandment. They retired for the night.

Samuel Rutherford got up early in the morning, and as he was taking a walk, as he did, to prepare for the time of the gathering of the saints, he walked by a hedge and he heard this amazing prayer being uttered by someone. And he came around the corner, and it was none other than this man who had gotten the question wrong the night before and spoke about the Eleventh Commandment that you would love one another. And it wasn't long that he discovered who this person really was. And they had a time of very sweet fellowship together. And then Archbishop Usher came and preached the New commandment in that church that Sunday morning.

This was a time of tumult. If you would study the details of these men's opinions, you would know that they differed on matters regarding church government. The book that Samuel Rutherford would write would contradict Archbishop Usher's principle of church government that he was advocating, sort of a middle of the road. And yet here they are in this church gathered around this one principle, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another." I believe that in this text, the apostle Paul is expounding upon, he's applying all of the issues of the doctrines of love in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to great lengths.

He's spanning two chapters to make it clear that there's a way to disagree on debatable matters. He's saying in all of our disagreements, let these commands be fulfilled. Let these marks of love emerge in the midst of the disagreement. So love in the church is the subject of our text this morning. Loving people for the glory of God, maintaining hope in one another for the glory of God, doing what is good to them, not manipulating their consciences, not judging them harshly and being overbearing, but to love them genuinely comes from the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this kind of love causes something to happen in a church, something that is so precious, something that is so easily lost. It is hope. And this is why the word hope appears in these phrases that we have already read. There's nothing so stultifying than to have a people that have no hope. There's nothing more discouraging than to have a household where the children or the mother or the father have lost hope.

There's nothing worse than that. I can't imagine. The question on the table here is, do you abound in hope for one another? Or are you just so concerned that your concern, the gravity of it, the depth of it, would cause you to lose your hope in one another. Or your friend out there who's not here, who's in some other church, or has some other twist on Christian doctrine that you might not actually embrace.

So this here in Romans 15 and in 14 is a case study of conflict, of division in a church. And if you look back and begin in 14.1, you see the stages set for this whole discussion about how do believers engage one another when they disagree on debatable matters. Divisions can happen in churches and companies and between husbands and wives, but the root of the problem is always the same and the cure is always the same and that is to return to the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ to hear Him and then to be found in hope. Now with that said let me just help us get calibrated again about where we are in the whole book. The first 11 chapters of Romans is the gospel, the doctrine of the gospel.

In 12 through 16 it's the application of the gospel. How do you apply the gospel in everyday life? First, we read that you apply the gospel by presenting your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. The second thing you do is identified in 12-3-8. You exercise your gifts.

You give of yourself. You pour yourself out for the saints in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you apply the Gospel. You do something about it. It's not just something that sits in your head and rots, it puts your feet to motion, it puts your mouth to moving, it puts your money in play, it serves the body of Christ.

Then there are, in 12.9 through 21, many ways that we love one another. How we deal with enemies, how we deal with those who have have wronged us. There are many specific things, over a dozen of them that are listed. How do you love? And then also, how do you apply the gospel when you live under all these authorities?

There's the authority of the civil government. There's the authority of perhaps your state government. The authority in your family. How do you relate to your father who's an authority? How do you relate to your boss who's an authority over you?

This section speaks of how you apply the gospel in all those areas. And then in the next section in chapter 13, in the second half of it, how do you fulfill the law? How do you do it? And you fulfill the law through love. And then we come to 14 and we speak of how do you apply the gospel when there are debatable matters on the table, arguments, differences of opinion on debatable matters.

Now he's not talking about things like debating on whether it's wrong to commit adultery. We're talking about areas of debate that require a particular grace when you're engaging them. And then now, in this text this morning, How do you have like-mindedness toward one another? And so the immediate topic here covers what do Christians do when they disagree. So you see the whole picture how all of this fits in.

We are applying the gospel to disagreements that we might have in the church. And the example that the apostle is giving to us is eating and drinking and the celebration of different days and the different interpretations that people have about that. And so these issues are what is being spoken of here. Now, There are many ways to approach this text, and I've done it many times, many different ways in my studying it over the last few days. But I want to give you out of this text six building blocks of love that are clear in this passage.

Six building blocks of love among a diverse people who are in different places in their Christian lives and they have different thoughts about things. How do we deal with one another? What are the six building blocks? And the first building block is this. Like-mindedness according to Christ Jesus.

That's in verse 5. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus. Now the whole context of this chapter revolves around tensions between people in the Church of Rome. So Here's the deal. You have problems in the church when pagans become Christians.

They're problems. And they are doctrinally underweight. They are morally short. And they come into the church. And it's a perfect opportunity for disagreement.

They don't think rightly about many issues. They may say foolish things. They may not shed practices as quickly as they want to or you want them to. And then there are also problems when Hebrews, who have striven to be faithful to God, are converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, and out of their rich background they misapply it in the Church. And so you have this conflict between Greek, pagan, and Hebrew believers in the church.

And so there is this like-mindedness that he speaks of here. And you know Christ's kindness is expressed to us in this, that he saves us, and then he takes all our life long to sanctify us. And in that process, how well aware we must be of the patience of Christ toward us, how much we don't get, how much we don't do, how foolish our thoughts often are. You know, you who have been believers over 20 years know how immature your first thoughts of the Bible and the world and everything were. And now you know more, but you're not nearly where you should be.

There's this continuum that God has us on. How do we walk with one another in this continuum? And we must walk with a like-mindedness that he speaks of here. It's a building block of love. It's the glory of God to have patience for one another who are on this journey.

And he gives us something. He gives us a like-mindedness in this walk with God. And we think toward one another in the same way that Christ thinks. I don't believe that like-mindedness means that you all think the same way about everything. I don't think, because the context Is that there are disagreements, but what do you do about them and Paul is not saying?

You two you two brothers start thinking exactly the same no he's saying you Brothers start treating one another in the same way. That's what he's saying Like-mindedness isn't finding everybody who agrees with you. Like-mindedness is treating everyone the way that Christ has treated you. That's like-mindedness in this context, I believe. We can disagree and we can still be like-minded according to Christ Jesus.

I may not agree with you, but I can act toward you in a way that's consistent with Christ's disposition toward you. I can't change your mind, although there are occasions when I should try. We are given liberty to correct one another and counsel one another, but there is a way that we do it in the process of sanctification, and it's characterized by this like-mindedness. We can disagree and still be like-minded according to Christ Jesus. The unity is in the common desire to glorify God and the common patience of Christ in the midst of our disagreements.

Let me give you an example. You happen to be in a church in which there is a a doctrinal disagreement among the elders. Two elders in this church do not believe that head coverings are required for women in worship. And you have two elders who do believe that it is required for women to wear head coverings in worship. Now, of course, we who believe that head coverings are not required have not yet excommunicated the elders that do.

Why? Why? Why have we not done that? We have two elders who have a strong conviction one way, and two elders that have a strong conviction the other way. So should we have two churches?

Should we have the head covering church and the non head covering church? We've absolutely determined that would be the silliest thing we could possibly do. And it would contradict everything that's written here. Being like-minded doesn't mean that you just go find every kind of fish just like you. If you did, you would be so disappointed.

Because if you find fish that are just like you, you'll just find some more smelly fish in reality. And so in our elder team we are free to speak our minds, But we are not free to get out of sync with the patience and the comfort of Christ in our sanctification process, in our growing and understanding Scripture. By the way, we're all growing, hopefully, in our understanding of Scripture. You think that right now the elders have arrived at the final, everything, perfect application of life in the Church, and this is it? No, absolutely not.

We still have many, many miles to go in this life, and Christ has been so patient with us to now. We pray that we would be with one another until then, and that you would with one another as well. Let me tell you how this works out in our relationships with one another. Now, my wife, Deborah, does not wear a head covering. But her fellow elder's wife, Christina, does.

And there are times when perhaps Christina might forget her head covering. And this has actually happened. And she's come and said, Deborah, I've forgotten my head covering. Do you have something I can borrow?" And Deborah doesn't say, see, you shouldn't even be wearing that thing anyway. You forgot it because it was the Lord's will.

You never should have even thought of bringing that thing. Now you've left it at home. Now you can walk in perfect harmony with God and me. That's not what she says. She says, oh, my dear precious sister, let me find something beautiful for you that you might cover your head.

So she, one, respects the conscience of the other. One understands that there's a sanctification process in play, and love is preserved among the elders' wives who have a dramatically different view on head coverings and the elders. We do not have division. We are like-minded and yet we don't have the exact same opinion on this particular matter. It's a matter of conscience, it's a matter of interpretation of Scripture.

How do we deal with one another? We have patience with one another. And it allows something really wonderful to happen. In verse 6, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one mouth. How do you have one mind and one mouth and still disagree on a particular?

It's because genuinely in your hearts, you've determined to love one another. That's how. And these disagreements provide opportunity, too, with one mind and one mouth. By the way, not just with the mouth, not just lip service, not just to say, I love you, sister, but with the mind. You know, it is with the mind as well, for God looks on the heart, and there must be a heartfelt unity, a real unity, A true love, not the kind of relationship where we're grinding away at one another because we're so disappointed in one another that our brother or sister just hasn't gotten there yet.

There yet, it would be so wrong of us to overly pine away toward one another. And yet this doesn't exempt us from the commands to minister to one another, to reprove and rebuke and exhort with great patience. And so this is why this great prayer is here. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus that you with one mind and one mouth might be able to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, and now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope according to the power of the Holy Spirit." So the first building block of love is like-mindedness according to Christ Jesus.

Not cloning, but loving. Here's the second building block. Awareness of the centrality of the glory of God, verse 6. That you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Having Christ's attitude toward one another glorifies God.

It is a blessing toward God. And you know, love will come hard among us if we do not understand the ultimate purpose of all things. That's the glory of God. The purpose of all things is not that a group of elders turn out a bunch of clones. The glory of God is that the love of the Lord Jesus Christ is glorified in all of the relationships and the distinctions that are there.

The first step in the road to peace is to be focused on the glory of God, not the glory of Scott, or the glory of Susie, or whoever it might be. Man-centered thinking is the root of all division. We make way too much of ourselves and our opinions. We think more highly of ourselves than we ought. We grind on our favorite topics until we've ground everybody into the ground and we've forgotten the glory of God in the midst of it.

It's self-worship, it's self-absorption, and it's the cause of the divisions of churches. You know what? It causes divisions in homes. Perhaps some of you husbands and wives are divided on this very issue, because you've lost sight of the glory of God. Your purpose together as husband and wife is to work everything together for the glory of God.

You get together and you pray for it, you talk about it, how might we bring glory to God? And all of us know that husbands and wives might disagree from time to time on particulars. And how would they handle that? They would have to have one thing in mind, and that is the glory, the glory of God. And so when people are mainly concerned for the glory of God, there's a kind of unity that they are given.

So that the God of patience and comfort would grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus, that you with one mind and one mouth might glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the second building block of love in the church is an awareness, a captivity toward the glory of God, to think all things according to His glory and not how will it advance me. And then the third building block is receiving one another. Receiving one another, verse 7. Therefore, notice there's the word therefore.

He takes this prayer, he prays the prayer, and then he says, therefore. Here's what it means. Here's how you put this into practice. You put this prayer into practice by receiving one another and to obey it's a command to receive one another and this has really been the main point since the very beginning of chapter 14 verse 1 that that was the introductory term received in this whole section in 14 one he says welcome him who is weak in the faith. Welcome him.

And now he says, receive. And it's the same word that he uses. The translators, because of the context, use welcome in verse 1 and receive in verse 7 in chapter 15. It's the same idea. The subject is never changed for a second.

It's about how you deal with those who disagree with you. And what you do is you accept one, you receive them, you welcome them, you accept them. So when you have a disagreement with someone, what's your first tendency? Avoid them. Go the other direction.

Live in another town. Get a divorce. Whatever. If you have a disagreement with someone in the church, you are sort of like opposite polar magnets. There's always a distance.

Make sure you don't get too close to them. Keep those magnets continually pushing one another in the right direction so you never get close. No, no. Accept, receive, welcome. Bring them in.

Go after them. My fellow elder, Jason and I, we have a term we like to use when there's a difficulty, it's this, charge the fire. Charge the fire, yes. Engage, do what's right, go after it. Don't just let things smolder until there's nothing left but ashes.

That's what happens when people avoid one another when they have a disagreement. Good things don't happen. It gets worse. And so we must continue the relationship. There's a spirit of welcoming for the glory of God.

And There's a way that we operate with one another from time to time. We stand back, we take pot shots, we stand our comfortable circle. But no, no, that's not what we should do at all. We should cross the aisles. We should drive across town.

We should pick up the phone. We should send that email. We should welcome one another when we have an argument on a debatable matter and not isolate ourselves in our own little world. Who knows? We might actually learn something.

And because of this great principle, this great principle of receiving one another. We have to know what it's founded upon. The authority for it, the ground of it, the foundation of it is this prayer. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." And then the fourth building block is perhaps the heart of it all. I looked at a number of commentators.

A number of the commentators said that this was the meaning of the passage, the example of Christ. This is the fourth building block, following the example of Christ, verse 8. Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers." Now, look, do you understand what he's saying here? You have to pause and think about what he's saying. Jesus Christ is a servant to the circumcision?

Wait a minute, I thought we were in the New Covenant. How is Christ a servant of the circumcision? I thought circumcision was no longer part of our lives. What is he talking about? And there are two things to notice.

First, that Christ came to confirm the promises made to the fathers. That's plain. Whatever Christ did, he did to make it known that everything written in the Old Testament was true. He came to confirm the Old Testament. And to do so, he became a servant to the circumcision.

And that means that Christ laid aside his heavenly glory, he descended from the throne of his father into the earth and he was circumcised and he was taught the law. He became a man. He engaged in all of the practices of Judaism. He became a servant of the circumcision. Why?

So that he would be able to fulfill for his brethren to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that God was true and that a messiah had appeared. And the example of Christ is this, that he laid aside his rights. Did Christ have to be circumcised? Did Christ have to obey all of the ceremonial law? I don't think so.

He didn't have to obey one single iota of the ceremonial law, but he did. He did that. He put even his knowledge under his obedience to his father. He put the obedience to the ceremonial law into his life when he knew he didn't have to do it for his brethren he did it for his brethren and so we must do the same there are things we must set aside for our brethren the stronger brethren vows to the weaker that's really the that's That's not the only truth in this text. That's one of them.

And Christ is the stronger brother, wouldn't you say? And yet he finds himself circumcised. How strange that is. How unprideful that is. How serving that is.

How loving that is to lay something aside for the sake of your brethren. That's what Christ, Christ did. You know, In a few minutes we're going to celebrate the Lord's table. Please remember this. Every time, every time we take the bread and the cup, we are demonstrating that Christ did not please himself.

Every time. He did not please himself, but he hung on a cross and he died and he shed his blood while not pleasing himself. He could have destroyed everyone in front of him with a wave of his finger, the thought of his mind, but he did not do it. He laid aside his heavenly glory and he shed his blood for sinners. He accepted us in spite of our sins and our weaknesses.

He accepted us in spite of our blind spots and our foolish thinking. He accepted us in spite of our unformed habits, our bad theology, our fuzziness in all kinds of areas. He accepted us in spite of our psychological problems. He accepted us in spite of the pollution that we allowed to creep into our souls in our years without Christ. And He received us, and He accepted us.

And so this is an appeal to love, but it's based on the example of Christ, to follow Christ's pattern of acceptance. And he receives, He receives sinners. He would accept a sinner in the state that they are. If anyone here, even this morning, who feels that they are in a state too bad for Christ, They are so wrong. You can't be right about that.

Christ receives sinners, Paul said, of whom I am chief. And so there are sinners that Christ accepts and there are sinners in the church and we should accept sinners in the church who are in the state that God finds them. And you know what? They are able to stand, for God is able to make them stand. God will help them be sanctified in this life.

Perhaps God has sent you to help your brother to be sanctified, but you will do it in a Christ-like way, according to the patience and the comfort of Christ. And that's the point here. Now, to be welcomed by Christ is the sweetest thing that ever could happen. He is the best shepherd. He is the best of all that ever lived.

And if Christ is speaking to you and it's time now for you to to repent and embrace the kingdom of heaven. Let it be so. Let the tenderness of Christ fill your heart and then and then take up his cross and follow him and love the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the same way that you've been loved. That's the point that he's making. Now, we should be following Christ, right, in our love for one another.

Here's something I think we need to recognize. It can be really hard to please one another. Jesus acknowledged this in his earthly ministry. He in his earthly ministry spoke of the difference between him and John the Baptist regarding eating and drinking. And he said, you know, John the Baptist came neither eating and drinking, and they said he has a demon.

He says, then I came, and I came eating and drinking, and they said, I'm a drunkard and a glutton. So sometimes you can't win. You can come eating and drinking and they'll say you have a demon and if you come not eating and drinking there's no way to win. I think we just have to be realistic at times and be patient. The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated, I think, that there are times when you can't please anyone.

And if you defer to your brother, it might backfire of you. But be patient still. God is still at work. And so this building block of love for Christ is based on his example. And this fifth building block is this, fulfilling the objectives of Christ, fulfilling the objectives of Christ to fill with hope.

Verse 5. Now this is a fascinating text here. I really labored over this text, and I'm amazed by the language that's here. But if we would love, we would need the heart of Christ to fulfill the objectives of Christ. And these are revealed here in verses 9 through 12.

Now let's look at this. Let's read this carefully. Please look at the text, verse 9. You have to understand what's happening here. And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.

So that is the chief objective of Christ for the Gentiles. That they would glorify God for His mercy. That they would be enraptured by His mercy. That when they think of God, what they think of His mercy. As it is written, and now we're going to go to four Old Testament texts, one from the law, one from the writings, and one from the prophets.

He draws passages from each section of scripture to prove the heart of God toward the Gentiles. So look at this. For this reason I will confess you among the Gentiles. Okay, who's doing the confessing? I'll give you two.

It's either one of two options or both. It's either Christ confessing God to the Gentiles, or it's the preachers of the Gospel sent by Christ preaching the Gospel, or when we get to the Psalms, it could be David the representative of Christ preaching to the Gentiles of confessing God among the Gentiles. So Christ says, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna, here's how I'm gonna interpret this. Christ, for this reason, Christ will confess to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name." And again he says, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles.

Laud him, all you peoples. This is the heart of God toward the Gentiles, That they would sing, that they would rejoice, that they would praise the Lord, that they would laud Him. This is the heart of God. What does God want in this church? He wants that atmosphere, And that atmosphere is destroyed by an overbearing judgment of one another.

You can't laud, you can't praise when you have a brother looking down his bony nose, pointing his bony finger at you in judgment and overwhelming the grace of God. You can't do that. We can't live that way. The Gentiles could never live that way. And the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, now, this is my disposition toward the Gentiles.

You Jews who don't like those Gentiles who are eating meat sacrifice to idols, quit pointing your bony finger at them. Quit looking down the bony nose that guy gave you. Quit taking the air that I gave you and breathe out threats toward these people and your own concerns. Quit doing that. Here's what I want them to do.

I want them to praise. I want them to rejoice. I want them to laud Him. I want them to see the root of Jesse that has come for their rescue, that their new king who has risen to reign over them, there's hope in that king. That's the idea.

He says, and again Isaiah says, there should be a root of Jesse. He takes him back to one of the premier passages, Messianic Psalms, or Messianic passages in prophecy of Christ. And he who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope. So In all of these quotations, he is saying, here's my disposition toward those people that you disagree with. Here, Jews, I'm talking to you now.

I've talked to you gentiles and I've told you what to think. I've given you commands. Now here are you Jews. Here's my objective for these brothers that are among you. It's that they would praise, that they would laud, that they under the care of the Holy Spirit would be full of joy in my presence.

Oh, fill them with hope. Don't fill them with condemnation, fill them with hope. These who were not a people, not obtaining mercy, had obtained mercy. You know, the greatest mercy of God to any people is to accept them into a covenant relationship. And that's exactly what the apostle is calling for in the Roman Church.

The Roman Church was having problems. People were shunning one another. People were angry with one another. People were judging one another. People were not like-minded in the way of Christ.

No. Their attitudes were bad, and He's attacking all these things. So we see the hope of the Lord Jesus for his people. And it's the ground of love to know the objective of Christ, to be an agent of hope in the church. And though we might have disagreements and we should exercise care to speak so that we would be sanctified, but the way we do it will cause joy because there is not an overbearing personal judgment against that brother.

Against that brother. And then the sixth, the sixth building block of love is really found in answering Paul's prayer in verse 13. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Oh that we would fulfill that prayer. What a church that would be.

A people abounding in hope, a people filled with joy and peace in believing. And how does it happen? Because of the work of the Spirit of God. Not because of any man, but because God was working, God was awakening his people and causing them to love one another. And so this prayer is a very blessed prayer.

It should be prayed often in our midst. Now Paul begins his prayer with a declaration of the character of God. What kind of God is he? He's the God of hope. He is the God of hope.

So if you want to, if you want to get close to God, if you want to worship God, what are you getting into? You're getting into hope. You know, this, This was the greatest awareness that I had when Christ saved me back in my teens. I was filled with hope. God supplied a hope that I never had before.

In every area of life, God poured his hope because I was redeemed by his blood. He washed me and he replaced my hopelessness with his hope. He is the God of hope. And he has an objective. He has an objective.

And that is that he would fill you all with joy and peace in believing. This is God's objective in the Church. Why did he create a spiritual family? To fill that family with all joy and peace in believing so that something would happen, so that something would happen deep within their hearts that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." So we've dropped into the Roman Church, a time of tumult, a time of disagreement, a time of one party not appreciating the other party thinking the other party is a downgrade. And it seems that the comfort and the joy had been stolen from the Church of Rome.

And the Apostle is writing for many, many miles away. Things are going to get tough in the Church of Rome. The writing of this letter, it's 55 AD. It was only a year before that Nero was brought to power. They had no idea what was getting ready to break loose upon them.

And what did they need? They needed to learn how to love one another in the midst of tumult, in the midst of disagreement, in the midst of reformation, in the midst of trial. And they needed to understand the 11th commandment, that a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. And so it's true that every true church, every true local assembly must attend to its own unity by understanding the commands of God and His threatenings regarding violating it and the blessings that are there when those who would have the heart of Christ in the church for one another. These dear brothers Samuel Rutherford and Archbishop Usher had a profound disagreement about church government.

But they did agree on the 11th Commandment. And that made them the dearest of brothers. And they lived in a time of reformation where the two malt was almost unthinkable. And the pressures on the church were tremendous. And yet they did understand this.

They understood that the God of patience and comfort could grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. May that be true here among us. Would you pray with me? Lord, we are so stretched by your words.

They are not comforting to our inclinations. They take us out of our own pathway into yours. What a sweet pathway it is though Lord. And I pray you would come and cause a mighty awakening in us for all things that would promote love in the church. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Amen.