Good morning everyone. As we sing about God's faithfulness, about His grace greater than our sin, I just was thinking about this is the message that we really need to come back to every day for ourselves in the course of our lives to keep our mind right, to keep our focus right. And that's the message that Paul comes back to really in our text again today. 

People have asked me before, do you sometimes feel like you're getting up there and saying the same thing every week? Sometimes I do. But Paul said it's safe for you. It's not tedious for me to say the same things again and again, but it's safe for us. We need to have these things renewing our minds and setting our thinking straight so that we can focus on Christ, focus on the Gospel, and the truth of His grace and faithfulness to us. 

We're going to be looking at Romans 15. We'll probably get through verse 13 today. Verses 8 to 13. I just want to look at verses 8 and 9 to start. Paul says, "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, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy." 

So we see here in this text, Paul's main point of unity in the church is his subject he's been talking about, but he's talking about how Jesus Christ brings everyone together, Jew and Gentile, in the church. And he wants to explain that to us in this text and the importance of understanding that because of the division that existed between those two groups.

I'd like for you to turn to Ephesians 1 with me as we start. Ephesians 1 at verse 3. And I want to read a text that expresses this same thought. These wonderful words of Ephesians 1. Verse 3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the Beloved."

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself. Now look at verse 10. That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory."

"In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory." 

Paul has been teaching us about the importance of unity in the body of Christ in the church. We have seen in passages like John 17 and Ephesians and Philippians and so many passages in our New Testament God's desire and purpose for unity in the church through salvation in Jesus Christ. 

And one of the great dangers to that unity, to that like-mindedness and passion and purpose to believe Jesus and to love one another is division over doubtful things. Judging one another, looking down on one another because of our differences in conviction concerning those areas of life that are not clearly laid out in the Scriptures. 

And I'll remind you again, these are not areas concerning clear doctrine or sin issues, but rather preferential things of daily life. And in the church in Rome in Paul's time, these divisions fell largely among Jewish and Gentile lines. Because of the diverse backgrounds between these two groups of people, many cultural and religious differences plagued their unity. 

The Jews had come out of a very strict legalistic system of following dietary restrictions and observance of certain days and feasts and festivals. The Gentiles had come out of a horrible pagan worship which involved all kinds of debauchery and sin. They had been a very divided people before coming to Christ, expressing hatred toward one another for generations. 

The Jews had perverted God's intention in having them be a separate and holy people and had made themselves into an exclusive and self-righteous people, despising the Gentiles, as we see illustrated in stories like Jonah and his call to preach to the Gentiles in Nineveh. The religious Jews of Jesus and Paul's time no longer understood God's plan for them nor His Word revealed to them. 

How many times Jesus said to them, "Have you not read? Don't you understand your Scriptures?" They'd missed the whole intent of being a city on a hill, a light to the world, a witness for God to the nations. All of these things, the history, was a great danger to unity in the church in Rome between Jew and Gentile. 

And so Paul uses two chapters here in the last part of the book of Romans to instruct the believers in Rome and to highlight the importance of this unity. And really, he's been making this point throughout the entire epistle. Think about Romans 1 where he said that this is concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. 

Through Him, we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name. In Romans 1.14, Paul said, "I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you who are in Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." 

The Jews were to be a witness to all nations for the glory of God, but in Romans 2.24, Paul chastened the Jews saying, "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." Paul spends two whole chapters as we studied in Romans 9-11 explaining God's salvation plan for the Jew and also for the Gentiles together in one body. 

Unity in the body of Christ. And that's Paul's intention in our passage here today to further cement his teaching on unity between Jew and Gentile in the church by using the Jews' own Scriptures to show that it has always been God's intention to save all men from all nations through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bring them together in one body. 

This is the mystery that was never before revealed. This is the church revealed in the New Testament in Christ, the body Jew and Gentile. And this has always been God's plan and His intention. 

Let's look together at our text in Romans 15.8. Paul says, "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 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written, 'For this reason I will confess to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.' And again he says, 'Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.' 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." 

And Paul goes on in this text to tell us that he is a minister to the Gentiles. This is what he has been chosen by God to do. To go out to the Gentiles. We'll look next week at how Peter was chosen to go to the Jews and Paul was chosen to go to the Gentiles. This is his ministry. 

I want to just outline our text this morning in verses 8-13 with three points. First, we're going to see God's promise to the Jews. Second, God's plan for the Gentiles. And third, we're going to see the unity in Christ in the body. 

Well, God has throughout salvation history from the beginning, planned to save all nations, not just the Jews. And He has planned in this church age in Christ to bring Jew and Gentile together. I'd like for you to turn over to Ephesians 2 with me. Ephesians 2.11. This is an instructive text on what we're studying today. 

Ephesians 2.11, "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." 

"For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace." 

"And that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." 

It's hard for us to understand the division that existed between Jew and Gentile and how great that was. And it's an amazing thing to see what God has done to bring these two groups of people together in one. And His instrument for doing that, His means for accomplishing our salvation and for tearing down that middle wall of separation was Jesus Christ. He is the chief cornerstone. 

It's so important for us to understand God's salvation plan from the beginning. We see the promise all the way back in the Garden, in Genesis, of a deliverer, the seed of the woman, who would crush the head of Satan, who would conquer sin and death and hell. From the fall, we see the promise of redemption, of God providing a way for us to be made right with Him, to deal with our sin that separated us from Him and to deliver us from the punishment to come. 

And we see God's plan founded in the nation of Israel all the way back in the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, beginning in Genesis 12. And what were these promises? Genesis 12, verse 1 says, "Now the Lord had said to Abram, 'Get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'" 

God promised Abraham and Isaac and then Jacob, Israel, a land, a nation. And God promised that through the seed of Abraham all nations would be blessed. All the way back in Genesis chapter 12. We see in these great promises made to the fathers, to the patriarchs, the means by which God would bring His salvation plans to pass. 

And we see this fulfilled in our New Testament in the church and still yet to come in the promises to Israel. Turn over to Galatians chapter 3 with me please. Galatians 3 verse 5. It's amazing to see all these things come together over these thousands of years throughout the Scriptures. 

Galatians 3 verse 5. "Therefore, He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?" Paul's dealing with legalism in the Galatian churches. They were turning back to putting themselves under the law and perverting the Gospel, confusing the Gospel. 

He says, does God do these things by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Verse 6. "Just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Therefore, know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel to Abraham beforehand saying, 'In you all the nations shall be blessed.'" 

"So then, those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham." I'll stay in Galatians for a minute. The Jews had so corrupted God's Word that they had taken His grace and mercy and the means of faith unto salvation and they had twisted this into a works-righteous, legalistic, exclusive system whereby only Jews were accepted. 

And they, through their works and their rites and rituals, not by faith. It's not unlawful. unlike the religions of our day, who have corrupted the Word of God, who have turned it into a works-righteous system where we're trying to make up for our sin and earn our salvation, and it can't be done. Paul is explaining God's plan by grace through faith. 

In Galatians 3, look at verse 10. It says, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.'" I remember telling you before about some young men who came to my house one time, some Jehovah's Witnesses, and just as I pulled up from church, they were coming from my neighbor's house, so I went and got the dog and let him out and I stood and waited on them to come under the tree. 

And when they came, they started to talk to me about being Jehovah's Witnesses. And I said, you know, I just want to know how to get to heaven. Well, you can't get to heaven. I said, okay, heaven's full, how do I get to the good place? Tell me how to get to the good place. 

And the two of the young men were really indifferent. They were there under obligation, but one of them seemed to be sincere and he started to tell me about not committing adultery and not lying and he started to go through a list of the commandments and I just said to him, I said, how's that going for you? How's that working out? 

Because I know that the truth is that none of us can keep the law. That's why everyone who is under the law is under a curse. The law brings only wrath. If I am trying to keep the law to earn my salvation, then I will fail because all men have sinned and fallen short and the law requires perfection. If you want to be justified by the law, it's simple, just keep it perfectly. But if you sin at one point, you're guilty of all, James says, because you're a lawbreaker and you deserve wrath. 

Religious systems like ones designed by the Jews that Paul is addressing here in Galatians lead nowhere but to destruction. Look at verse 11. He says, "But that no one is justified by the law on the side of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them." 

"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'" That the blessing of Abraham, that promise all the way back in Genesis 12 that God made, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 

Verse 16, "Not of Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say unto seeds as of many, but as of one. And to your seed, who is Christ." In this I say that the law, which was 430 years later, the law wasn't even given until 430 years after the promise was made to Abraham. We tend to think that the Ten Commandments have always been around. 

But God gave the Ten Commandments to the Jews for a specific and expressed purpose. And from Adam until Moses, there was no law. This I say, that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise, through faith. By promise, through faith. 

What profound and amazing words. What good news this is for us. And in Romans 15.8, Paul says, "Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, in order to confirm the promises made to the fathers." 

How is it that God would fulfill the promises made to the fathers? How would God bring to pass the promise made to Abraham? That through His name, through His seed, there would be a blessing to all nations. Jesus Christ is that seed. He is the Messiah. He is the Deliverer. And He has indeed fulfilled the promise. 

But the Jews did not receive Him when He came. They did not believe Him. In John 1.11, it says, "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as did receive Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 

Anyone who will receive Jesus Christ, that is, believe on His name, is given the power to become a child of God. But how sad the words, "He came to His own, to His people, to the Jews, and they did not receive Him." They would not believe Him. They persisted in their own self-righteous religion, and they killed Him, nailing Him to a tree, because He threatened their power and their religion, their system of works and rites and rituals to earn salvation. 

And Romans 9-11 tells us that in response to Israel's failure to be a light to the nations, to be a city on a hill, to draw all men to glorify the Lord, because they did not fulfill His will and desire, but rather withdrew themselves and excluded the Gentiles and rejected their Messiah and crucified Him, God would set them aside, and He would carve a new channel of blessing through the church, whereby we would go out into the world and preach the good news, the new covenant gospel to all creatures, and God would deal primarily with the Gentiles in this church age, accomplishing His forever plan to bring salvation to all men through Jesus Christ. 

The promises of the land and the kingdom with Jesus reigning on David's throne are set aside for a time yet to be fulfilled, and this will come to pass. God will keep His promises. But now in this church age, God has fulfilled the third part of the promise to the fathers, the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ. He has accomplished our salvation on the cross, and now God is bringing that good news message to the world, accomplishing His plan to bring salvation to Jew and Gentile, to all who will believe and call upon the name of the Lord that they might be saved. 

And He's bringing them together, the great mystery revealed together in one body in the church, the Bride of Christ. So we see first that God has kept and will keep His promises to the fathers. That's verse 8 of our text. And this, through Jesus the Christ. 

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. And Paul also wants to make abundantly clear through the Old Testament Scriptures that God's plan has always been to bring salvation to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ as well. 

Look at verse 9 of our text. "And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written, 'For this reason I 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.' And again, Isaiah says, 'There shall be a root of Jesse in He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles. In Him, the Gentiles shall hope.'" 

We saw all the way back in Genesis 12, God clearly lay out the promise of a blessing to all nations through the seed of Abraham. And we saw in Galatians 3 that that seed is Jesus Christ. Jesus has become a servant to the Jews for the fulfillment of the promises. And Jesus is also a fulfillment of a blessing to all nations through the cross, through the gospel of grace, available to everyone who will believe. 

And this was emphasized throughout the Old Testament, the very Scriptures of the Jews. Paul here quotes Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah to show that God has always planned to bring salvation to the Gentiles, and that He would do it through the Jewish Messiah. 

Turn over to Romans 9 with me, please. Romans 9 verse 30, Paul explains much of this through Romans 9 to 11, which we studied together before. Romans 9 verse 30, "'What shall we say then, that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith? But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law, for they stumbled at the stumbling stone. As it is written, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.'" 

Listen to Paul's heart. He says, "'Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.'" 

We place a lot of value on sincerity today. We say people are very sincere in their religion. The problem with that is that they can be sincerely wrong. I've often thought about that, that probably the most sincere man I've known in my lifetime, known of, was Osama bin Laden. This man was sincere. He left everything, all the riches in Saudi Arabia, and he was sincere in pursuing his religion, and what he believed, and actually what the Koran does say. 

So sincerity is not valid unless you are sincere about the truth, about the right things, and this was the problem for Israel, Paul says. They have a zeal. They have a great zeal to establish their own righteousness through the law. The only problem is it's impossible. They didn't receive righteousness because they did not pursue it by faith, but the Gentiles, when the Gospel came, when Paul brought the Gospel to the Gentiles, they were happy. They were glad to receive, to believe, and to receive God's righteousness. 

In Romans 10.80 continues, but what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth, in your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. Listen to this promise, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 

For the Scripture says, God's Word says, "whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." For there's no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 

Now we skip over those words, but for the Jew reading this epistle, there's no difference between the Jew and Gentile. They couldn't hardly stomach that. It was something completely new to them. They were God's chosen people. They had the blessing, not the Gentiles. But the Gospel came, straightening out their misunderstandings, correcting their abuse of God's Old Testament Word, and Paul's showing them all can come, whosoever will, can call on the name of the Lord in the Gospel of grace. 

God extends grace and mercy to any man who will repent of his own self-righteousness, his idols, religion, and turn to Jesus. Turn to Jesus and trust Him. Believe Him. Call out to Him and be saved. This great salvation, this mercy of God, is available to any man who will call upon the name of the Lord. 

And now we are in the church age, His ambassadors. We are His messengers and heralds with the message of the Gospel of grace, extending this offer of God of salvation through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 

This was always God's plan and His intention for Jew and Gentile. And in Romans 11, Paul tells us that God has His remnant in Israel. Even in this time where they have been set aside as a nation, and God is dealing mainly with the Gentiles, there is still a remnant of Jews. Paul said, I am one of those of the remnant. The blinding of Israel is only partial, and it's only temporary. 

Wild branches, the Gentiles, have been grafted in to the olive tree to experience the fatness of the root of the tree, the promises made to the fathers. But God will graft back in the true branches, the Jews, when they cease from their unbelief and receive their Messiah in faith, and they will when He comes. 

Let's look at Romans 11.24 as we're talking about this tremendous promise. Romans 11.24, we're studying the book of Revelation on Thursday nights, and we're coming in to all of these truths as we see John's vision of them coming to completion in the future. Romans 11.24, "'For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature,' I'm sure this is Gentiles, "'and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, "'how much more will these who are natural branches "'be grafted into their own olive tree? 

"'For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part,' God has a remnant, 'has happened to Israel until,' that blindness is only temporary, 'until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.' And so, all Israel will be saved as it is written, the Deliverer will come out of Zion and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins." 

Jesus Christ has become a servant to the Jews in order to fulfill the promises made to the fathers. How important is that? And Jesus Christ has also become a servant to the Gentiles to bring salvation to them through faith in Him. 

My brothers and sisters, Jesus is a promise. He is the promise of God, the fulfillment of the promise made to the fathers for the Jews, and He is the promise to the Gentiles of salvation by grace through faith to all nations, to any man who will believe. Jesus is the promise of God. 

And it is through Him that we can now have unity in the church. Look at verse 13 of our text. 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. 

How can we have unity in the church? How can we have hope and joy and peace consistently in our daily lives, resulting in fruit and abundance for God's glory? Look at those two words 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. 

In believing. This is the way, my friends. The just shall live by faith. But it's not just believing. Don't put your faith in your faith. We hear this so often now in our world. Men have all of a sudden become very spiritual. They all want to believe in something. Usually the wrong things. 

Believing is the key, but more so the key is believing in Jesus. Faith in Jesus. Not faith in our faith, not in just believing, but faith in Jesus. He is the object of our faith. He is the one that we are believing in, that we are trusting in. 

And this is what Paul wants the believers in Rome and the believers at Living Hope Church to understand. He wants us to have one mind, one faith, one purpose, and that is Jesus Christ. Don't focus on the things that divide, the doubtful things, the differences that we have in preferential areas, areas of conviction. 

Rather, focus on Jesus. On the truth that He is the promise of God to the Jews for the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The amazing promises of Messiah, of the Kingdom, of the land. 

And also focus right in on the truth that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise of a blessing to all nations, to Jew and Gentile, of salvation from sin and death and hell, and the wrath of God for our sins. And that now we have hope. 

Remember what Paul said in Ephesians, that passage we read before, that you Gentiles were strangers from the covenants, you were without hope, without God in the world, having no hope. My friends, we have hope. We have confident assurance in Jesus Christ. 

And we have joy and we have peace regardless of the temporal things of the earth. The struggles and the trials and the tribulations. We have hope, we have promises, because we have Jesus Christ. 

The exhortation is for us to see that it is Jesus that brings us all together at the heart of God's salvation plan for all men. And so it is Jesus that we must focus on. It is the Gospel that brings unity in the body as we all come together in Christ. 

If you have believed Jesus, then you are in Christ. And all those wonderful truths that come with that that we've studied through the book of Romans. Galatians 3.28 says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ." 

And my friends, we are one. This unity is possible because of what Jesus did at the cross. And we come together here this morning at the Lord's table to remember this very thing, to proclaim His death until He comes as He commanded us. To remember what He did for us. 

Unity is possible with all our differences, with all our diversities in background and preferences and convictions. Unity is possible in the church for one reason. That is the cross. That is Jesus Christ. 

1 Corinthians 2.2 Paul said, "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." If we are to maintain unity in the church, it will be by getting our eyes off of the doubtful things. Taking away a critical eye from each other. 

And getting a laser focus on the cross of Christ. One day at a time. Looking to Him. Trusting Him. Believing Him. This is the key to unity in the body. And this is why we need to come back to the Lord's table. We need to come back to the cross of Christ. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day.