and they that walk in love shall share in life that never ends. Amen. Let's turn to our confessional reading this night, Lord's Day 6, page 206 in the Smaller Forms and Prayers books. It is also in the back of the Trinity Psalter hymnal, but it's page 206 in the Forms and Prayers and Lord's Day's 5 and 6 are very closely tied together. And so we are building off of question answers 14 and 15, but we're looking now at 16, 17, 18, 19. I'll read the questions. Let's together say the answers. Question 16. Why must the mediator be a true and righteous man? Because God's justice requires that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin, but a sinner could never pay for others. Why must he also be true God? So that by the power of his divinity he might bear in his humanity the weight of God's wrath and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life. Then who is this mediator, true God and at the same time a true and righteous man? Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given to us for our complete deliverance and righteousness. How do you come to know this? The Holy Gospel tells me. God Himself began to reveal the Gospel already in paradise. Later, He proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets and foreshadowed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law. And finally, He fulfilled it through His own beloved Son. It's the confession we hold in common. Let's turn to God's Word. And I do want to add a brief Old Testament reading. Psalm 133, which we just sang from. And so we'll turn there first and then we'll go to Romans 1. Romans 1 will be our text. Pull a couple things out of Psalm 133. Psalm 133, right near the middle of your Bibles. Job, Psalms, Proverbs. I'll read just those three verses of Psalm 133 before going to Romans 1. Psalm 133, a song of ascents of David. Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore. Then we turn to our text, Romans chapter 1. Acts, Romans, 1st Corinthians, page 1194. 1194, and the Bible's under the seats. And for those who were here last Sunday night, we looked at the first seven verses for Lord's Day 5. We'll read that again for the context and to bring us into verses 8 and following, but we're going to look especially at verses 8 to 17. But we begin our reading, Romans chapter 1, we begin our reading at verse 1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son. who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace. From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world, for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son. that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. And so far the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades. The word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we just sang and read from Psalm 133 and the images of that Psalm, anointing with oil, running down the beard, running down the beard of Aaron, the picture of dew coming down from Mount Hermon. These are pictures that we might say they need some cultural translation. But even though we don't live in a culture that places much value on being anointed with Our understanding is helped when we remember that this was a blessing all through the Old Testament times and then through also the times of the life of Jesus Christ. And while we probably don't know exactly where Mount Hermon is, we can understand that picture quickly enough if we just are reminded or told a couple of details. It was the highest mountain in all of Israel. It was a mountain known for being especially lush and green and beautiful and so the dew of Hermon is that picture of special blessings and greenery and life and all of these things. But while we might need some cultural translation for the pictures of Psalm 133, there's no translation needed for the central blessing of that psalm, the blessing of unity. How good and pleasant is the sight when brethren make it their delight to dwell in blessed accord. We do not need translation for this. It is the blessing of unity, the special unity of God's people, united together for worship, The oil that consecrates for holy toil. The oil of the anointing of God's servants and especially in the line of Aaron, the high priests. The blessing of God's people all being together. So there's something a little bit sad there in Psalm 133. Mount Hermon is the highest mountain and it's also a mountain in the north, where the northern tribes are. Mount Zion is in Jerusalem. to bring those two mountains together is to say, how blessed is the unity when all of God's tribes worship together. And it's a psalm written by David. And it's a unity which, sadly, did not last long. But the picture of unity, that does not need cultural translation. It is the blessing of God's people gathered together, gathered to worship the Lord under the teaching of his ordained servants gathered together for worship on Mount Zion and to worship the Lord forevermore. The blessings of unity, being united in faith in the name of the one true God and worshiping Him on His holy hill. Well, the blessing of unity, Again, the details of Psalm 133, they might need some cultural translation, but the blessings of unity, that transcends culture. That's a blessing which we're called to know in the days of David, in the days of Paul writing to Rome, and our days here. And certainly the Apostle Paul is concerned with unity, unity in the faith between man and man, and the foundational unity with God, the unity between man and God, which makes that unity possible. This is the unity that the Apostle is concerned with here. Unity that comes through Jesus Christ, our only mediator. So that's our theme tonight, Jesus Christ, the only mediator brings unity. And we look first at unity between man and man, and then second, at how Jesus is the one who is bringing unity between God and man. The Apostle Paul, at this time in his life, he has never been to Rome. He desires to see the church soon, verse 11, but in one way or another, verse 13, he has been hindered. He does not know them personally, but yet he prays for them. He prays for them often, the end of verse 9 into verse 10, without ceasing, I mention you, always in my prayers. Brothers and sisters, already here we have an application. We are called to pray for God's people. We are called to pray for Christ's church, including, sometimes we might wonder, why am I praying for a church that I don't even know? Even on our prayer calendar. Maybe you know somebody from one church or another as you pray through the list, or maybe you really don't know anybody, or at least there are some churches on the list you don't know anybody. Why are we praying for faith church this week? Why are we praying for the church in Sanborn the next week? Or whatever it is. I don't even know anybody there. Brothers and sisters, it's good to pray for God's people, even if we don't know them personally. That's exactly what the Apostle Paul is doing here for the church in Rome. We read in other places in the New Testament that he prays for all kinds of churches, but here he's praying for a church he doesn't even know. He hopes to know them, he hopes to be there, but brothers and sisters, it's an application for us already. The unity of faith includes praying even for believers we don't know. It's good to pray for the persecuted church, even if it's a church far away from us. We don't speak the same language. We don't know a single church in a whole nation. We can still pray for them. This is part of the unity of the faith. is that we pray even for those that we don't personally know. Because we give thanks wherever there is faith. We have a certain level of unity even with people we don't personally know. We have a level of unity just from the fact that we profess faith together. All of this, again, through our mediator Jesus Christ. Look at how the Apostle gives thanks for them. Verse 8, First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. Jesus Christ is the mediator who binds us all together. Again, it's not that we would even maybe know the people that we're praying for, that we have unity with. We don't know most of the believers on this world. But we are united to every believer in faith. And we can give thanks. We can even speak strongly about this Thanksgiving. We can speak strongly about our desire to see those whom we have not seen in right situations. Verse 11, For I long to see you, that I may impart some spiritual strength, that I may impart some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. For that is what happens when God's people are physically together. Now we can mutually be encouraged in the faith. This is how it should be. And so brothers and sisters, is this how we speak? Do we encourage other believers by telling them that we're thankful for them? And at the deeper level, do you ever phrase it this way? I thank God for you. I thank God for you. That's how the Apostle says it. I thank my God. I thank my God for you, for all of you, through Jesus Christ. And then is this how we pray? That we pray for the church, even the church that we don't know. And we do this without ceasing. I mention you always in my prayers. Are we praying for Christ's people, even those whom we do not know? The apostle speaks then about the harvest that he hopes to see in Rome. That's his language at the end of verse 13. A harvest which is tied to the preaching of the gospel, verse 15 to 16 and 17. A harvest which he hopes to see among you, I hope to reap some harvest among you as well as, the end of verse 13, among the rest of the Gentiles. In other words, what does the harvest of gospel preaching include? It includes both, Lord willing, seeing a harvest of an increase of the number of God's people in his church and also He's writing to those who are already in the church. I hope to reap a harvest among you. And so what's another kind of harvest that we hope to see? The harvest of spiritual growth as we continue to hear the gospel and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle hopes to see both of these things as he comes to them. And so, again, that's the end of verse 13. And it's, again, tied to the preaching of the gospel. Verse 15, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. And then in between there, he includes all kinds of different people in verse 14. Why? Because there is to be unity in the faith between all kinds of different people. Look at the two groups that he mentions in verse 14, both the Greeks and the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Greeks and Barbarians, that's not what I'm used to hearing in the New Testament. I'm used to hearing about Jews and Gentiles. And indeed, there's many things in the Letter to the Romans about Jews and Gentiles. The Apostle is going to mention that distinction right in verse 16, just a few words later. But while that was a kind of tension that was so likely going to exist just from one city to another because the Jews were spread throughout the Roman Empire and this was a fundamental tension that the New Testament Church had to deal with. But it's not the only kind of tension because what do we do as people? We make all kinds of divisions. People who live on this side of the street, people who live on that side of the street, people who live in their own home, people who live in rental homes, people who have this kind of work, people who have that kind of work, people who look this way, people who look that way, cool, uncool, etc., etc. We just make all kinds of lists. That's what we do, isn't it? What's the Apostle Paul saying? He's reminding them that they shouldn't make lists, essentially. I mean, not that we ignore the fact that some people speak different languages than us. That's actually what the Greek barbarian language is kind of what that distinction is getting at. It's basically, Greek stands for everybody who speaks Greek, everybody who's immersed in the Greco-Roman culture, and then all those barbarians who don't speak Greek. It just sounds like Babel. They're not as cultured as we are. They don't speak the same language we do. They're barbarians. And we don't see that distinction come up as often in the New Testament. Part of that is because it's not usually as much of an issue. But Rome is especially a church that's going to have to think about that. Why? Because they're going to be especially tempted to elevate their own Greco-Roman coolness. We're the capital. We're Rome. We are the Greco-Romans. At the same time, Rome is a great cultural center and trade center. And so it's going to be the place where you're most likely to rub shoulders with barbarians. So to the church which is going to be most tempted to celebrate its Greco-Roman-ness, Greek-ness, and at the same time is most likely to rub shoulders with those barbarians, Right here at the start of his letter, Paul is saying, we're called to unity in the faith. Greeks and barbarians, don't draw any lines that would cause a division in Christ's church. Because when the gospel comes, we are all called to be united in faith. Both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Now, foolish is probably a good translation, but this could be understood in terms of like the learned and the unlearned. The people who have lots of learning and people who do not have a lot of education. Which again, now we're like Yeah, Rome as a church is going to have to be reminded of this, because Rome is also a place of higher education than most places in the world, where some of the first Roman Christians probably are very highly educated. And what happens sometimes when there's very highly educated and then people with less education? Well, sometimes we can find anything to draw lines of distinction and division. And so this is another line of distinction that the Roman Church is going to be especially careful to avoid. But it is also, we could think of the Apostle Paul's slightly hinting already at the deeper meaning, the fact that we all must put away the wisdom of the world. Look ahead just a few verses to verse 22. One of the descriptions of The way that sin is celebrated in Rome at that time, verse 22, "...claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up to less of their heart." And so, the Apostle is probably, he's already hinting at the reality that we need to all see ourselves as putting off our own wisdom and humbling ourselves before God. But again, it comes back around to these are lines that Roman Christians in particular might be very quick to draw. The Apostle, by mentioning these specific groups and saying, I am under obligation both to Greeks and barbarians, to wise and foolish, He is very gently, but directly, reminding the church in Rome, do not make lines. Do not make lines. Do not draw divisions. The unity of faith is for all people, because the gospel is for all people. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. And so that takes us into our second point, bringing unity between God and man. Because that is the foundational unity. That's where the unity of faith is based in. It's based in the gospel. The gospel which is the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who is true man and true God. who as the true God-man is able to stand between holy God and sinful man. And as the mediator who dies on the cross for us, He reconciles that which was broken and brings us back into a right relationship with God our Creator, our Father, as we repent of our sins and trust in Him, Jesus Christ, the one mediator, who stands between, who stands in the gap. And so that's the foundational unity. It all comes back to Jesus Christ. And the unity that we're called to have is the unity of faith. For into the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. The emphasis being put on faith, using that word So repeatedly there in verse 17 to take us back to that. What is the unity that we have between man and man? It's the unity that we're both believers in Jesus Christ. This is what we are called to do. Not something that any of us ever could have done for each other. End of question, answer 16. A sinner could never pay for others. people of God in an external sense, because we do not always mutually encourage one another in the faith, verse 12, the way we're called to, because we sometimes start making lines for whatever reasons when we should not, because we are still stumbling sinners on this earth, The unity of the faith in the church is broken down in all kinds of ways. It is. And so in an external sense, somebody in their life might seem to have more kindness more acts of generosity even from unbelievers than from within the church. It shouldn't be so. By God's grace, I hope I can say that's not a very common thing, but it could happen. Because why? Because the unity of faith is not yet perfect. It gets broken in all kinds of ways. Because we are all still stumbling sinners. We're all stumbling sinners who could never have paid for each other's sin. We're united in Christ. That's where unity is. Think of the unity of Paul with the church in Rome. What have they done for him? They haven't done anything for him. He doesn't even know them. Why is there a unity? Why does he pray for them? Why does he love them? Because they have been loved by God. to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. And so, brothers and sisters, even as we must strive for unity and hope to see the beauty of that unity, again, it's going to be sadly broken in all kinds of ways. So even when we sing a beautiful psalm about the unity of God's people, and Mount Hermon in the north, and Mount Zion in Jerusalem, Two generations later, the North and the South are split against each other, never to reunite again. But we are not called to unity in the faith, because we'll always see that unity exercised perfectly on this earth. It all comes back. To whom? It all comes back to Jesus Christ. and that we're united by faith in Him. And He's the only perfect One. We are all just sinners who could have never paid for each other's sins, but He is the righteous One who takes our sins upon Himself. Then who is this mediator? this only mediator, this one mediator, true God and at the same time a true and righteous man. Question answer 18, our Lord Jesus Christ who is given for our complete deliverance and righteousness. And so in Him there is the blessing of unity and it will, it will then be unity forevermore. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, Psalm 133, verse 3, life forevermore. And brothers and sisters, I hope that you, like me, are greatly encouraged by the many pictures that we have in Revelation of all God's people, of all God's people gathered together and worshiping the Lord together. And so we have things like 12 and 12 and multiples of 12 and 12 together. Why? Because it's a symbol of all God's people, all God's tribes, and then also all of God's Old Testament people, and then as the 12 also stands symbolically through the 12 apostles laying the foundation of the New Testament Church, all of God's New Testament people, that in all kinds of different ways, from really the start to the very end of the book of Revelation, we get picture after picture of, in heaven, the unity made perfect. and the blessed unity of worshiping God together and praising God together and unity between God and man. Well, yes and amen, because we'll be before his very face and singing praise to him. And so to take just one of those pictures of that blessed forevermore and eternal unity. Revelation 7, verses 9 and 10. After this, I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. It is unity. All the voices of God's people raised together in praise. It is unity between man and man. Unity in faith. Unity in praising God. It is unity between God and man. We are before God. We are before the Lamb, Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain for our sins. And we are singing our praises directly to Him, face to face, people of God. That is where the unity will be perfect. May the Lord May the Lord teach us to pray for one another and mutually encourage one another. All of this through Jesus Christ. Because again, He is our only Savior. May we see this already on this earth. May we learn to take all those lines away. But there are also times where we may just have to turn to Revelation and say, Lord, I'm waiting for the perfect unity of your church and the perfect unity between God and man. My sin is no longer in the way. No barriers anymore. to unity, the unity of faith and blessings forevermore. And so, people of God, let us learn unity now. Pray for it. Seek to live in it, living by faith. And let us wait for unity forevermore. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, our Lord, Great Shepherd of the sheep, we pray that you would bring us in faith to unity