Well, let's turn together in God's word to the book of Romans, and we will continue in chapter 15, verses seven through 13. Romans 15, verses seven through 13. In order to remind us of the context of this text, we're gonna read for us from verse one. So we're gonna read a larger section of scripture, but we're gonna focus on verses seven through 13. To help us, Hear now the word of the Lord from Romans 15, beginning in verse 1. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. As it is written, therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. And again, it is said, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let the peoples extol him. And again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles. In him will the Gentiles hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. So far, the reading from God's word this morning, may he add his blessing to our hearts. Please be seated. As we begin in verse 7 of Romans 15, we're really coming to the end of another significant section in the book of Romans. We have encountered different emphases, different sections in the book of Romans, and have learned from each this overall together picture of what Paul begins to explain in chapter 1 verse 16, this gospel message, which is the power of God for salvation to everybody who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And we're returning to this notion of Jew and Greek here in verse 7 of chapter 15, but before we go to the end of this section, let me just remind us of where we've been. So the different major sections that we've looked at in the book of Romans have begun in chapters one through three, where the book of Romans lays out for us the great guilt of man and God's right position of judgment. So, so God would be right and justified to condemn all. That's where the, the book of Romans begin. As often the scriptures do the book of Romans begins with the bad news. to make sure we understand where we are by nature, to make the need for Christ all the more clear, and to make the sweetness of the gospel take root within our heart. And that's where Paul goes next. The next major section in the book of Romans is chapter 4 and 5. And there, having established the sinfulness of man, the book of Romans demonstrates to us how God has a plan for redemption. There is a way that man is justified. This term that has these two branches of meaning, that we are pardoned of our sin, and that we are declared righteous in God's sight. So these things, these two branches that form justification come to us, Romans labors to establish, comes to us only by faith. There is no contribution of man when it comes to the declaration of righteousness, the justification of the sinner. And that's chapters 4 and 5. And then the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has introduced a third section of Scripture that says that even though we're not contributing our works in our justification, There is an expectation for the person who is justified that they will turn away from their sin. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? That's how he begins that section, and the answer is, by no means. So though we are justified apart from works, once we are justified, we are to be holy as God is holy. And that section shows us not only this obligation that we have as regenerated people to continue in our labor's impurity, but also shows us how badly we fail in that. Remember that cry from the Apostle Paul near the end of chapter 7, verse 24, O wretched man that I am, this recognition that he has been justified and he should not continue in sin that grace may abound, but there's this inner turmoil within him. So the obligation to sin and the failings of the Christian as he seeks to turn away from sin, a third major section in the book of Romans. And there was this fourth major section, the hopeful section that shows to us the assurance that we have. So, sections 1, 2, and 3 are true, and especially sections 1 and 3, which show us our corruption, show us our continued corruption, even though we are saved. This notion that God in Christ Jesus does not cast us aside, even though He could, because we have gone back to our sin, but that we are assured of our salvation. in chapter eight. Then the faithfulness of God, this fifth section in the book of Romans, we saw it in God's dealing with the people of Israel, the elect among the people of Israel, that we could never charge God with unfaithfulness to his promises, even though not every single Israelite is saved, but that God is faithful to his promise, which has always been that those who would turn to him would be delivered from condemnation. Those five sections have come before. In some sense, you could say the rest of Romans is really another major section, but we've kind of broken it up into bits. This, from chapter 12 on, this call to holiness. How we are to offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice. How we're to be renewed in our minds after the image of the creator. All of that truth, marking a subsection, maybe within that larger section, beginning in chapter 14, that deals with the preservation of peace within the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, when it comes not only to the clear statements of doctrine and command, which allow for no variation in the Church, So there's unity in that as well, but also in how we treat each other in what Romans 14 began to talk about as these matters of opinion. where there is a desire to be faithful to God. There is no clear point of practice or doctrine that you could point out that would say that is sinful in this person. This matter of opinion where scripture or the general application of reason and drawing out the truths of scripture leaves people with one opinion one way and another opinion the other way, that there should be preservation of peace. within the church in those areas. And in today's verses, we're coming to an end of that section. And so Paul makes one last appeal to the Christians, the outworking of deference in the church and the reason for that deference in the church, but also showing us the foundation Christ's likeness as the foundation for the deference of the Christian in the Church, that the Christian as he witnesses God's work in covenant promise through Jesus Christ, that he likewise has cause for deference and rejoicing for the good of all the people in the church." And so what we see here as this section is concluded is that the grace of God is extended to Jew and Gentile alike, and is the cause of joy and peace and hope in the church. So the grace of God extended to Jew and Gentile alike is the cause of joy and peace and hope. To learn that lesson, we're gonna look at our text in three ways. We're gonna first see the Christian's covenant life in verse seven. So one last look at what we are supposed to do before we look at the foundation. What is our covenant life look like? Second of all, in verses 8 through 12, we're going to look at God's covenant work. What's the foundation for our expression? So we have a covenant life. In some sense, the order is reversed. Don't want to lay blame with how God has ordered his words, but you could look at the foundation for what we do in verse 7 and verses 8 through 12. So God's covenant work. And then lastly, we're going to see Paul's covenant prayer in verse 13. So the Christian's covenant life, God's covenant work, Paul's covenant prayer. So let's begin by thinking about the Christian's covenant life in verse 7. Last time we stopped after verse 6, The ESV has the paragraph break one verse later. The reason I stopped after verse 6 is because there's a therefore in verse 7. There's a break. There's a moving on from what was said in verses 1 through 6 and picking up afresh in verse 7. So as we've looked at life in the church, we've considered how we are to behave in light of differences of opinion. And we've seen we're not to despise one another. We've seen that we're to build each other up, we're not to pass judgment on another in the area of opinion. We are to see it as a delight to leave off doing certain things if it means that our brother or sister would stumble. And all of those things really are actually symptoms. They are actually the expressions on the surface of what should be a deeper theological motivation that sits behind them. Underneath the behavior, there should be a love and attitude that is shaped by our understanding of what God has done first. So the call for the Christian to care for the other differently than the world is based, as we saw already in verse 6, on this call to Christ-likeness, that we unified would glorify God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we've seen in other places, for example in verse 3, the example of Christ doing and us following. So Christ didn't please himself, we shouldn't please ourselves. That's the foundation and that's the expression of what the Christian does. But in verse 7, there is this therefore. because of all these expressions, therefore. And now the therefore in verse seven connects to what Paul was saying in verses five and six, this prayer that he offered at the end of that section. This call for harmony, this call in verse six to glorify God with one voice, this call to unity, has as its foundation what is going to be said later on, including verse 7. Therefore, we are to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. If we are to have harmony, and if we are with one voice to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Therefore, we are to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you." So there's this Christ-likeness that is brought back into the Christian testimony. We are to glorify God with one voice, and that can only be done when we welcome one another just as Jesus has welcomed all believing people. That means that for Christians, we are to accept one another, to practice hospitality to one another. And that's actually where Paul started this call to welcome each other. If you go back to chapter 14 and verse 1, as he begins talking about the one who is weak in faith and the one who's strong in his faith, he says, as for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him. So there is this immediate call from Paul to welcome, and as he's concluding this section, he brings us back to this call to welcome one another. Within the church, we are to receive each other in unity so that we can be better equipped to glorify God, not as individuals, but as the body of Christ. Now that is almost impossible. if you expect uniformity in every area of life, also in the disputed areas. Now let me give you an example, and I hope this doesn't distract some of you for the rest of the service, but let me just give you an example. Let me give you the example of the use of choirs in worship. I would consider that a disputable matter. So there's two positions. Well, there's a variety, but for the sake of simplicity, we're going to take two positions, and you should be able to understand how each person would come to that conclusion, how each person would come to that position. So position A says we should use choirs. There are choirs in temple worship, you can see it in Nehemiah 12. The angelic choir welcomes the birth of Christ in Luke 2 verse 14. 55 of our Psalms are written for the choir master. Therefore, there's biblical precedent for choirs, unless you want to charge God with sin. So you can have choirs, or maybe you should have choirs. That's position A. Position B would say we should not use choirs because the way the choir is used in worship diminishes the participation of the church. The way that choirs are used in worship makes them a distraction in worship. And maybe there's another topic that you can think of where there's people who have two different positions that tend to be quite opposite, and they have to find a way to make do in the church, to live side by side in the church. Now, what is the tendency of man in these situations where there is a disputable matter that is resident within the church? Well, in my experience, what happens is that people form teams. They form groups. And so you end up with two groups in the church who kind of live within their own bubble. where the people who are on the no-choir team are always talking about how great it is that we shouldn't have choirs, and the team that says we should have choirs is always saying how great it is that we have a choir or how we should have a choir. And so each talks amongst themselves about how they can't believe the other person's position. Even though it's not sinful to have a choir, nor is it sinful not to have a choir. So where there is difference, where there is no sin, this text is saying in those places you should receive each other. You should welcome each other. It doesn't mean welcome the heretic. There's a reason why heretics are excluded from the church. It doesn't mean welcome the person who is unrepentant of their sin. There's discipline within the church for those things, but where there are opinions, Christians, we should welcome each other. That's the outworking. of Christ welcoming you. Because Christ has welcomed you in your imperfections, you should welcome your brothers and sisters in their imperfections. It's part of the thankful Christian life. But even this action of welcoming one another as Christ has welcomed you is still on the level of symptoms. It's still an expression of us doing something in response to an underlying theology. And that's where we want to go next. We want to understand what God has done that would motivate us to behave in such a way to each other in the life of the church. So to understand the depth of the unity that we should have as Christians in the church, we should understand the work that God has done in fulfilling his covenant promises. And that starts in verse 8, where it talks about Christ becoming a servant to the circumcised. So as soon as you introduce circumcision in the biblical language, now you're dealing with covenant. Because circumcision is a sign of the covenant of God, that God has made with Abraham, later on with the people of Israel. Circumcision was this sign, which was to be applied on the eighth day. And in verse 8, it says to us that the reason why Christ became a servant to the circumcised was, what? At the end of that verse, to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs. So we're in the area of covenant and in the fulfillment of those covenant promises to God. Now, what does it mean that Christ became a servant? When did he become a servant to the circumcised? And that happens at the incarnation. We know that from Philippians 2 and verse 7. In Philippians 2, verse 7, okay, remember last Lord's Day, we cited that to show how Christ didn't think of himself, how he wasn't seeking his own pleasure, but seeking the good of his people. Well, as part of that text in Philippians 2, verse 7, it says that Christ emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. In His incarnation, Christ takes the form of a servant to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs. Now, just as a side note, when it says in Philippians 2-7 that Jesus emptied himself, that Christ, the Son of God, emptied himself, that is not to say that the Son ceases in any way to be divine. But it means that his human nature is added to his divine nature, and in his human nature, he does not mix it with his divine attributes. So there is an emptying of himself in that way, where in his human nature, he voluntarily lays aside his divine attributes. And it's one of the mysteries that we bump into as Christians when we talk about the hypostatic union, or how Christ's divine and human nature relate to each other. But that's a different sermon for a different time. This is not a sermon that's seeking to explain the hypostatic union. The point that's being made is that Christ becomes a servant to the circumcised in his incarnation. Can you remember the times in Jesus' ministry when he says to his disciples, I have come to the lost sheep of Israel? This is Christ becoming a servant for the circumcised. And Christ becoming a servant to the circumcised confirms God's faithfulness to the promises made to the patriarchs. Who are the patriarchs? Usually we think of the patriarchs as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And because of Christ's service to the circumcised, which confirms the promises given to the patriarchs, it says that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. The Gentiles glorify God when the promise to the patriarch is confirmed because the promise to the patriarch includes them. When God makes a promise to Abraham, he includes the Gentiles. In Genesis chapter 12, the first instance, where God specifically makes a covenant promise to Abraham, part of God's promise to Abraham is that through his family, through Abraham's family, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. So if God is faithful to his promise to Abraham, and he confirms that promise to Abraham, that means that if you are one of the nations of the earth, you are included. The promise that God made to you is also confirmed. The incarnation of Christ, when He came to the earth as a man, He fulfills His promise to the patriarch, and that is cause for great rejoicing for the Gentile as well. And there are four proof texts that are cited from the Old Testament that bear in mind that when God delivers Israel, that Gentiles rejoice, that when God is faithful to his promise to Abraham, those who are biologically not of Abraham have cause for celebration as well. The first proof text in verse nine is cited from 2 Samuel 22 50. Again, another example of how the New Testament doesn't discard the Old Testament, but uses and explains fully the texts of the Old Testament. So in 2 Samuel 22 verse 50, it's a record of the song that David sang when he was delivered from his enemies, and even when he was delivered from his father-in-law Saul. And the deliverance of that circumcised Jew by God causes the nations to praise. Therefore, because of God's deliverance of David, I will praise you among the Gentiles," it says. So, there is that first instance of how the confirmation of promises given to the patriarchs leads to Gentiles rejoicing. The second proof text is found in verse 10, where the Book of Romans returns to Deuteronomy. 32 verse 43. Deuteronomy 32 is the place where the song of Moses is recorded. Moses is about to die. Israel is about to enter into the promised land. As Moses records this song right before his death, he speaks of the deliverance of these circumcised Jews, which does what in verse 10? Rejoice, O Gentiles. with his people. Again, God's mercy confirmed to the circumcised causes the Gentile to rejoice. And the third proof text that Romans uses is Psalm 117, verse one. You see it in verse 11 there, when it says, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him. A Psalm, a Psalm which calls the Gentiles to praise the Lord for his steadfast love. The fourth proof text in verse 12 from Isaiah 11 and verse 10, which is part of the prophecy of the stump of Jesse. And the prophecy of the stump of Jesse, of course, has to do with our Lord Jesus Christ, the root of Jesse, who is to come. He comes to serve the circumcised, but also to arise and rule the Gentiles. That's the glorious singular focus of the Bible and Christ in his work in the completion, the confirmation of the promises of God. It is his work. It is his Christ's work that confirms the promises to Abraham. It is his birth and living in this world under the law. but perfectly without sin. It is his death on the cross. It is his resurrection from the dead. It is his ascension into heaven, which punctuates with a great big exclamation mark, Christ's work on earth is done. He has confirmed the promise to the patriarchs. And that is good news. That is gospel news, not only for the circumcised, not only for the Jew, but also for the Gentile because Jew and Gentile included already in God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 2 verse 13. As the promises to the circumcised Jews through the patriarchs are confirmed by Christ's service, the Gentiles delight because in Abraham all the families of the earth will be blessed. And that has been a time's struggle, but that has always been the call of the gospel. In Galatians 2, verse 14, Paul reproves Peter for not welcoming certain Christians. In Galatians 2, verse 14, Peter separates himself from the Gentile Christian. And Paul's assessment of that is that Peter is not in step with the truth of the gospel. Well, what is that truth? The truth that Peter got sideways with is that Jesus confirms the covenant promises to the patriarchs, which weaves the Jew and the Gentile together into one spiritual body with one head, the Lord Jesus Christ. He purchases all of them, Jew and Gentile, by his blood. And that is the covenant foundation for unity among Christians. Christ and him crucified overcomes the differences of all people because his obstacles, the obstacles of all people are removed in the same way. So all belong to Christ. All are the beneficiaries of the fulfillment of the promises given to the patriarchs. And that is why, that's the theological reason why the Christian is to welcome his brothers, even or maybe especially if there are differences with regard to opinion. And from that, we see that as a Christian church, as a group of Christians, we should be diligent to promote the unity of the whole church. Now that requires some qualification because Paul is not saying that you are expected to like everybody to the same degree. There is a natural compatibility between people, all sorts of factors that go into that, a person's personality. A person's interest, a person's life philosophy means that for some, even in a group this small, you will be naturally attracted to some people over and against others. You will enjoy being around some more than you will enjoy being around others. And this text is not saying, pretend that you like everybody just the same. but you are to value everybody who is part of the church with a valuation that God gives to them in the Lord Jesus Christ. God Almighty says of everybody who is a Christian, This person is worth the blood of my son. He says it of everybody who is a Christian. And the way we think of the Christian then shouldn't be based on our valuation of them. It should be based on God's valuation of them. So we will not be chummy with everybody in the church in the same way. but we must value them in the same way as the ones considered worthy by God to receive the benefits of the blood of Christ. Will you bump heads with somebody in this church? Will you get sideways because of something that they've said, something that they've done, Most assuredly, if you spend enough time in this church, you will get sideways with somebody. You will become irritated with the things that a person says. Maybe they said something that is too personal. Maybe they're saying it in a way that irritates you. Maybe you think they could do it better than they're doing it. And the way they're doing it is getting on your nerves. But is it not true? that Christ's service to that person, that Christ in servicing that person with His blood overlooked way more aggravations than you're overlooking. And yet Christ welcomes that one. And so you should welcome Him too. That is the message of scripture. Because that is true, we as Christians are to welcome each other. Because Christ welcomes his people, we should welcome Christ's people. And so there's very practical things, right? As Christians, we should avoid cliques in the church where we're only in this group, where we never stray outside of our group, where we make it clear that other people aren't welcome in our group. When visitors who are believers come, even if they're coming only for one service, we should be the ones who welcome them more eagerly than any other group of people would welcome a visitor. The Christian is to be warm with everybody who is in the body. The Christian is to be willing to extend their time and treasure to every single person in the body of Christ. They are to be... Another way that you can think of the practical outworking of our unity is, as Christians, we should all be signaling that we want to be involved in the life of the church. There's no arm's length when it comes to the other believers, because Christ doesn't do that with us, and so we are to welcome each other in that way. We are to welcome each other as Christ has welcomed us, and it is Christ's evaluation of another that constrains us. It is not our own evaluation of that other person. We look to the owner to set the value for that person. I'm going to try to illustrate it for you. My sister Janica is handicapped. She had for the longest time, almost as long as I can remember, she had a doll. It was her Amy doll. And Amy was Yannicka's celebrity. She was the popular aunt. She was a ballerina. And so my sister really loved that. And she, one time, gave to my sister this doll. And it was one of those dolls that the eyes were open, and when you lay it down, then the eyes would close. And it was a beautiful doll when she first received it. And Yannicka, my sister, loved that doll for years. And at the end, You would look at this doll. There's hardly any hair left on this thing. And you would lay it down and one of the eyes would stay open. And all the stuffing was coming out of the body. It was not in its original pristine condition. Now, I could walk into Janaka's room and look at that doll and say, this doll is a piece of trash. Give it to me. We're going to throw it out and I'll get you a new one. Have you ever gotten into that, to that point in a relationship with another Christian, where you decide it's just a little too much trash in there, it's not worth it, and so you're gonna dispose of them? But my treatment of my sister's doll, it would have been cruel and heartless if I dealt with that doll based on my evaluation of it. I should treat that doll based on her evaluation of it. That's what we do in the church as well. Your decision with regard to another person who has a soul that is precious in God's sight is not based on your evaluation of things. You have to think about how God views them because he is their owner. That's what we should do in the church. to think of the brothers and sisters around us, not according to the rough edges that we see they have, and they might really have them, or the imperfections in their thinking that they might have, and they probably do have them, but we are to think of them in terms of God's evaluation of them, that he would send his son, into the world to confirm the promises to the patriarchs. What does it mean? It means that these unworthy men are precious in God's sight. And so we Gentiles, most of us, praise God because he has confirmed the promises to our circumcised brothers and sisters. Jew and Gentile woven into the same covenant promise, glorifying God together that he has had mercy on all of them. See, the promise fulfilled to the Jew is assurance for the Gentile. It is assurance to the Gentile that in Abraham's seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And as Paul has worked through his four proof texts, then he ends this section also with a covenant prayer of sorts. Paul ends this section as he did verse five and six. He ends verse 13, also another prayer. And of course, underlying that is that man cannot possibly be Christ-like on his own. The words that Paul has written down here will not be efficient. unless the Holy Spirit works in them and works through them. These words are not efficient without the Holy Spirit's strength. A dead man, spiritually dead, can read these words, explain them, and have no change from them. But when God makes you alive in Christ, you read these words and you have peace and joy and hope and that's the nature of Paul's prayer. Paul prays recognizing that what's said in Philippians 2 verse 13 is true that it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure and so Paul in his prayer at the end of this section He prays for three things. First, he asks that the God of hope would fill you with all joy and peace in believing. See, the building of teams in the body of Christ, in the areas of opinions, is not the fruit of joy in Christ. See, The joy of the Christian comes from what he has given. The peace of the Christian comes from what's taken from him. In other words, the joy of the Christian comes because he recognizes he has received from God the fulfillment of these promises. He's received eternal life, and so there's joy in the Christian. And there is peace in the Christian because he knows that when he stands before God, the judgment that should be his is taken away from him. And Paul is praying that we would have joy and peace in believing, in knowing that the promises made to the patriarchs have been confirmed in Christ. And because those things are true, we should have joy and peace. But God does that in us. That's why he asks God that the God of hope would accomplish that in us. See, the joyful, peaceful Christian strives for harmony in the body, unity of voice, so that with one voice they can give glory to God with the others who have been delivered and who have had the judgment of God turned away. The only way that that blossoms in your life, the only way that that faith will take root and bear fruit in your life is if God works in you. It is a joy and peace that comes from believing. And believing is something that God gives you because by nature you are dead and God makes you alive. Ephesians 2.4 says so, that you're dead in your sin and trespasses but God makes you alive in Christ. So the only way that we have fulfillment of, or that we have some kind of fruit from what Paul has laid out before us, is that the God of hope would give us peace in believing. That's the first thing that Paul asks for in this closing prayer. The second thing is that he asks for power from the Holy Spirit. Sometimes as Reformed people, we get heartburn when the Holy Spirit gets brought up, because we don't know what to do with Him. It seems all kind of subjective to us and mushy. But the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, and without His work in you, you will not have the effects or the benefits of the covenant of grace applied to you. The scripture doesn't ever teach you that you need Jesus. The scripture teaches you that you need the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You need all three persons of the Trinity, not just one of them. So John 3 verse 5 says that if you are not born of the Holy Spirit, you will not enter the kingdom of God. In John 6, verse 63, it says that the Holy Spirit gives life to an otherwise dead soul. In John 14, verse 17, it says that the Holy Spirit of truth dwells in the Christian. In John 14, verse 26, it says that the Holy Spirit is the helper who teaches the Christian all things. In Acts 1, verse 5, it shows how the New Testament Christian is baptized with the Holy Spirit in a way that was foreign to those who lived under the Old Testament regulations. There is no life in you Christians. without the work of the Holy Spirit. And so Paul is asking that God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, would do something in you. And the third thing in our prayer is that thing that the Holy Spirit would do in you. So we're asking that God would fill us with joy and peace and believing. We're asking for the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit to make these things come to life in our dead souls. And lastly, we're praying that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we may abound in hope. Because the Holy Spirit is in the Christian, the Christian abounds in hope. Hope is not something that looks to something that you already have. Hope is looking ahead to something that is yet future. It is a future fulfillment based on present knowledge and experience. And you can see something of this in 1 John 3, verse 2 and 3, where it says, Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. So if you're thinking about 1 John 3, we are God's children now. That's the confirmation of the promise to the patriarchs worked out in the life of the Christian. But there's a certain thing, a certain aspect that is yet future. We know that when he appears, he hasn't appeared now, but when he appears, his second coming, we shall be like him because we shall see him. And everybody who hopes that way purifies himself as Christ is pure. Because we have hope, in other words, that we will be like Christ, Therefore, we live in Christlikeness today, welcoming each other as Christ has welcomed us. Joy and peace come by believing that the promise of God, that in Christ all the families of the earth will be blessed, even the families who have different opinions than yours, Those families have been joined together, knit together, welcomed by Christ, and therefore we are to welcome each other. By the power of the Holy Spirit, you will abound in hope. That is the knowledge, that is the promise, that all who are in Christ which God gives to him, they welcome each other because God has welcomed, because Christ has welcomed them first. The Christian church is far from that ideal. And I would say at Cliffwood Presbyterian Church, we by and large strive to that ideal. I see that fruit in many of you. But would we not be foolish to say that we had arrived in this regard? Would we not be able to say that we also are far from that ideal? Oh, that the Lord would teach us to welcome each other better. Why? Because all the people who are here, who belong to Christ Jesus, They are precious in God's sight. And so the people in this room that have gotten on your nerves, and the people in this room that you're having a hard time liking, you're to evaluate them, not based on what you've experienced, but you're to evaluate them based on what God has said of them. Because God has said, this one too is mine. God works salvation for that precious one too, by the blood of his Son. He welcomes them in Christ. And then so should all of us. We Christians should welcome them too. Why? For one aim, the fulfillment of the promises of covenant applied to God's people are for what purpose? That we would be united. so that in one voice, with one voice, we would glorify God who has worked this salvation and all who trust in Him. Let's pray together.