Rejoice in One another

Romans 15:8-13

Rejoice in One another

Romans 15:8-13, 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, ⁹ 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.” ¹⁰ And again he says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!” ¹¹ And again: “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!” ¹² 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.” 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.

The Unity of Strong and Weak Believers. There are two believers focuses on: the weak and the strong.

• The strong believer tends to just live his liberty to the fullest.
• The weak believer tends to be extremely confined.

• The weak believer looks at the strong believer and accuses him of being abusive of freedom.
• The strong believer looks at the weak believer and accuses him of being too narrow and not understanding what Christ has really provided.

There is a potential conflict. Paul writes this section Romans 14:1-15:13. Paul gives some principles. Receive one another with understanding. (Romans 14:1-12) Build up one another without offending, Romans 14:13-23. Please one another as Christ did, Romans 15:1-7.

Rejoice with one another in God's plan, Romans 15:8-13. Discord strikes a deadly blow at the work of God in the church. Chaos, confusion, strife, envy, jealousy, anger, bitterness, dissension, fighting, hatred, indifference to the needs of others, selfishness, a lack of sacrificial love, all these things violate the unity of the church.

Therefore, they violate the will of God and His testimony in the world. The loving harmony and unity of the church is of grave concern to God.

Paul realizes that one of the great dangers to unity in the church is the potential discord between strong and weak Christians. Unity is of such grave concern to him. Unity among the believers is the passionate desire of the heart of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Since this unity is so essential to God, Paul also finds it essential to teach the matter of unity. One of the great potential problems in the church is conflict between weak and strong Christians who can disrupt the unity of the church.

Romans 14:1-15:13, that entire section is all devoted to a discussion of the relationship between strong and weak Christians. Rejoice with one another in God's plan, Romans 15:8-13.

The call of this passage is a call for rejoicing that God in His saving plan has brought all of us together, Jew and Gentile, weak and strong, and made us one body in Christ. Paul is no longer exhorting here in a negative way as he had earlier in this portion when he was calling us not to offend.

Or not cause someone to grieve, Or not cause someone to stumble. He is no longer speaking of negatives but positively calling for us to rejoice in what God has done in making us one. Now this is the positive aspect of unity.

To have unity in the church we must avoid certain thing. Make sure we don't cause someone to stumble or be grieved, or to be led into sin, or to be caused to be discouraged or distressed or to go against their conscience and therefore feel guilt.

But apart from just avoiding the negative, we are called to a positive attitude of rejoicing. Sometimes when there is a conflict/argument/bitterness in the church we ought to cultivate an attitude of joy, rejoicing and praise.

The strong are those who have the faith to accept their freedom from the Old Testament ceremonial law and ritual. The strong believers are those who have no concern about Sabbath days, feasts, festivals, new moons, and dietary laws, and all the external trappings of the old ceremony.

They are free from that. They realize it.

They believe it so they don't worry about it. They are not hung up on old religious taboos and institutions of a prior economy. Gentiles, who never did have any orientation to the Old Testament law. It would be very easy for them not to have that problem. They were never subscribed in their own minds to the Old Testament ritual and law and ceremony and practice.

So, for them there was no problem at all. A strong Jew who got to the place where he understood his liberation, but primarily it has to do with the Gentile believers. On the other hand, the weak are those who do not feel in their own mind the freedom from Old Testament ceremony.

• They are still observing the Sabbath.
• They are still trying to keep the external laws and rituals.
• They are still concerned about dietary practices.
• They do not believe they are free to ignore those things.

So, they are weak in faith to accept their freedom. The Scripture reveals that freedom. The apostles have articulated that freedom. But they can't quite come to believing that.

A Gentile equals strong issue, and a Jew equals weak issue in the church in Rome. The conflict came because the liberated Gentiles were wanting to exercise all their freedoms and the Jews were wanting to confine everybody to Old Testament.

Now the strong were right, they did have those freedoms. The weak were wrong but Paul calls for loving understanding until the weak can be brought to the place where they have the faith to believe they are free as the others do.

No conflict should exist between the two. Rather, Jew and Gentile, weak and strong were to be mutually rejoicing over each other and patiently, lovingly bringing each other along in unity. V 7, Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

The basic instruction. Since God's desire is that one with one mind and one mouth, we should glorify God, wherefore we must receive one another. Since God wants us to be one for us to be one mind united, we have to receive one another.

• It doesn't mean receiving people into church membership by writing their name on a list.
• It means receiving them into affection, receiving them into fellowship.

Receive. Open your arms. Embrace. It is calling to communion, to mutual love. The strong receive the weak, the weak receive the strong, the Jew receives the Gentile, the Gentile receives the Jew. V 7 is vital because Jesus is the example of what it means to receive.

"To receive"with a strong preposition added to it which intensifies the word. It is a word which means to receive by pulling something very close to yourself.

Matthew 10:40, “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.

When you receive another believer, you receive Christ. In receiving Christ, you receive the one who sent Christ, even God the Father.

So, receiving your brother in Christ, though he differs from you in lifestyle, liberty that you enjoy, receive them intimately in love. This was not easy in the Roman assembly.

• It wasn't easy for the Gentiles who were liberated, who didn't have any of the hold-over from the Old Testament law.
• It wasn't easy for them to accept a Jew.
• It wasn't easy for a Gentile to hold the one who bound to old covenant to just open his arms.

The strong tend to look down on him and say, "Why can't you accept your freedom? Why can't you grow up?" On the other hand, the weak Jew who was bound by the law had a very difficult time, the ceremonial law, had a very difficult time accepting a liberated Gentile.

He had enough trouble accepting a Gentile. It was a very difficult thing for him to conceive of God allowing a new, inclusive brotherhood of Gentiles on equal terms with Christ with Jews. Particularly when these Gentiles had no regard for Old Testament ceremony, Sabbath, dietary laws, any of those traditions. They appeared to be guilty of abusive license.

To the Gentiles, the Jews appeared to be guilty of a lack of trust and a lack of faith. The potential for conflict was very great. But they both needed to understand the principle of verse 7. One of the most devastating things that happens in the church is when people set up criteria by which they will receive each other.

If you don't meet those criteria, you are shut out. Devastating in the church. We need to see what the meaning of this whole passage is and receive each other. V 7, Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

Jesus is our model.

Ephesians 4:32-5:2, And be kind to one another, tender- hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. ¹.Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. ² And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Be tender-hearted, be kind, be forgiving, be loving, be sacrificial to each other, just like Christ has been to us. Jesus received you.

Were you worthy of it? Did He receive you because you were so wonderful?

Luke 15:2, And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” If Christ has received us unlovely, sinful when we hated God, when we were deep in our sin, if He did not refuse to love us if He did not refuse to embrace us. If He did not refuse to forgive us, to call us His friends, His children, His brothers, to enter an eternal fellowship with us. To empower and assist Him in the development of His kingdom. If Christ did not refuse to do that, but rather received us, shall we not receive each other?

When a Christian refuses to receive into his heart another Christian, he is saying that I know Christ receives the worst of sinners, but I have a higher standard. They say that they have a higher standard than Jesus Christ!

Are you more holy than Jesus? Can Jesus be friends with people not worthy of your friendship? Can Jesus receive people that are just not good enough for you? For those in the body of Christ to refuse to open their hearts in love to each other is to say, I know that Christ does that, but He doesn't understand my standards.

Blasphemous thought! Jesus is our pattern. Paul is not telling us that there is some real equality in the qualitative essence of these two compared things between us and Christ. For no human sacrifice to receive another person can even come close to the sacrifice of Christ who received sinners. But the illustration still stands.

As He received those who were unworthy, so we must receive each other. Jesus receives us, we receive others! Your failure to open your heart to some other believer because you resent something about them is an effrontery to the Christ who received you.

If we place restraints on our love to each other, we are violating the principle taught in the passage. We are violating the example of redemptive action in the person of Christ Himself. V 7, Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

What is the reason? To the glory of God. The same reason for which we are to receive each other. We do it because God is glorified when we do it. Because it reflects the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts. Because it is His expressed will.

It brings Him praise. My prayer for the church is that we might know this kind of attitude. People set off against other people. People condemning other people, not only within a local church among churches.

Matthew 10:24, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

How did Christ receive sinners? Christ receives men gladly.

Luke 15:1-5, Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. ² And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” ³ So He spoke this parable to them, saying: ⁴ “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ ⁷ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

When a sinner comes, and the Savior receives the sinner gladly. Not reluctantly. We are not storming the gates of heaven pleading to be received. We are not begging God to receive us. He does it eagerly.

Matthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! How many times I wanted to take you and receive you, but you refused.

Matthew 11:28, Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus cries out for those who will come.

John 7:37, On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Even on the cross He says, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Jesus receives people gladly. He receives the sinner gladly.

It isn't with reluctance. It is that for which He came and with outstretched arms He embraces the sinner who comes to Him.

John 6:37, All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. Our fellowship should be the same.

When we receive one another, it should be with gladness, not with reluctance. The identifying mark of our fellowship to receive one another with gladness. 1. Christ receives sinners despite their sin. He receives them despite their sin.

They don't have to clean up their act first. God doesn't say, if you can get your life cleaned up then I will take you. Not for a minute do we believe that there are some pre- salvation works which man can do for himself to make him receivable.

He receives sinners despite their sin. The beauty of grace. The wonder of Christ's attitude.

Matthew 9:10-13, Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” He receives them despite their sin, not because they clean their act up.

We find the same kind of thing in Luke 5, 6, 7, and 18.

Luke 18:11-13, The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men— extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ ¹³ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ Who has God received in Luke 18?

Does He receive the Pharisee who thought his life was right, who prayed all the time and fasted all the time and gave his

tithe all the time, or does He receive the sinner pounding on his breast?

Luke 18:14, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Jesus said the sinner went home justified rather than the other. Jesus receives sinners in spite of their sin, though they are sin- stained, depraved, and despairing of righteousness and helpless, ignorant, and guilty when they come, they are received.

Romans 5:8, But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 Timothy 1:15, This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Jesus drew Himself to sinners to change their sins, to change their imperfections, to make them, that is, to make us, like Him. So, Christ receives sinners in spite of their sin, and He receives them gladly.

2. Jesus receives sinners impartially.

Acts 10:35, But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.

Romans 2:11, For there is no partiality with God.

It does not matter to God whether you are Jew or Gentile, male, or female, bond or free. Doesn't matter to God what your background is, doesn't matter to God anything, He receives people impartially.

James 2:1, My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. Don't let your Christianity have respect of persons.

James 2:2-11, For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, ³ and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” ⁴ have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to

those who love Him? ⁶ But you have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? ⁷ Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? ⁸ If you really fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” you do well; ⁹ but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. ¹¹ For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

It is a serious transgression to have respect of persons. No place for that in the church. Christ sets the example.

John 6:37, All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 3. Jesus receives for the glory of God. Jesus receives sinners gladly, He receives them in spite of their sin, He receives them impartially. Jesus receives them for the highest reason. That reason is the glory of God.

God is glorified when a sinner is saved!

Ephesians 1:4-6, 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, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

The reason God saved you was for His own glory, He might demonstrate His own glory, He might show the principalities and powers, He might show the angelic host, He might demonstrate to all beings created His glory.

Ephesians 3:10, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of

God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, God does that by showing the salvation of the church. Everything that is done for God's glory. ✓ His sovereign electing grace, ✓ His predestination, ✓ His will, ✓ His grace, ✓ His shed blood,

His saving work is all for His glory. So, Christ received sinners gladly in spite of their sin, in spite of their imperfections. He receives them impartially and receives them for the highest reason. This is our model. Our model then for receiving one another is to do it gladly, is to do it in spite of their imperfections, without impartiality, and God can be glorified in the unity of His church.

The biblical illustrations. Paul illustrates this point of Jew and Gentile being one in Christ by choosing four Old Testament prophecies that verify Gentile salvation. Four Old Testament prophecies that verify Gentile salvation.

They show that the coming Messiah would receive the nations of the world into salvation as partakers of the covenant of grace. These verses should soften Jewish prejudice in the church at Rome and anywhere else. They should call the Jews to rejoice over Gentile salvation as a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy rather than allow Gentile salvation to create division and dissension.

The whole Roman epistle is somewhat preoccupied with the Jew and the Gentile issue.

Romans 1:5, Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, Paul lets us know in the very beginning where this gospel is going to go to all nations.

Romans 1:13-14, Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. ¹⁴ I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise.

Romans 1:16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

The whole epistle is really filled, fraught with this theme of Gentile conversion.

Romans 2:14-15, for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing

witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) God has even given the Gentiles the law in the heart.

Romans 2:24, For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.

God through Paul condemns the Jews 24 because their conduct caused the name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles whom God sought the Jews to evangelize. Instead of reaching the Gentiles with the truth, they were reaching the Gentiles with a blasphemous counterfeit of the truth and God was dishonoured.

Romans 3:19, Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Romans 3:29, Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, All are sinners but all have the same God to whom they can turn for salvation.

Romans 5:12, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Romans 5:15, But the free gift is not like the [e]offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

Romans 9:24-25, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? ²⁵ As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.”

Romans 9:30, What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; Gentile conversion is a major theme all through this.

The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call on Him. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Romans 11:11, I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.

Romans 11:25, 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 has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Romans began with the whole world in sin.

It ends with the whole world in terms of the saved world. Jew and Gentile brought together in unity in Christ. We see both Jew and Gentile in sin. Then we see both Jew and Gentile in Christ. That is the flow of this glorious epistle.

So, Romans is a declaration of the sovereign act of God to save both Jew and Gentile. The Jew is a transgressor of written law. The Gentile is a transgressor of the law in his heart, conscience. Four Old Testament Prophecy.

V 8-12, look at it just briefly because it's just a series of Old Testament quotes. We find here the proof of Gentile equality in salvation. V 8, "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made

unto the fathers and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy." Jesus was a servant of the circumcision. Jesus came as a Jew. A servant sent to the Jews circumcised himself, for He was circumcised as a child and identified in a true way with the sign of the covenant which was physical circumcision.

He comes as a Jew, circumcised as a Jew, He comes to Jews. He even said "I am come (initially) to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."He came then as a servant of the circumcision. He was a Jew so He is a circumcised Jew sent to the Jews for the purpose of the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers.

Jesus came then to fulfil prophecy. If Jesus hadn't come to fulfil the promises made to the fathers, then God would not be true, God would be a liar.

Who were the fathers? Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God in giving the Abrahamic covenant to Abraham and reiterating it to Isaac, reiterating it to Jacob.

From Genesis 12 all the way on through the life of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God reiterates the covenant of salvation. God promises there will come a great deliverer, there will come one who will enact that covenant. Christ came as the perfect minister of the Jews to fulfil those promises made to the fathers, made by God. So, the truth of God is at stake.

Jesus came for the truth of God.

Why did Jesus come to the Jews? To verify God's Word. He came to verify God's Word to them.

Matthew 5:17-18, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. ¹⁸ For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. ✓ He fulfilled the law by coming as the law said, to save. ✓ He fulfilled the law by upholding its sacredness and reestablishing its truth. ✓ He came and fulfilled the law by keeping it perfectly.

✓ He fulfilled the law every way possible and verified the promise of God. ✓ He came for the sake of the truth of God. He came to verify that God speaks the truth. This is to the glory of God! You may think Jesus came just to save me.

No, He came to prove God true, to confirm the covenant, to ratify the covenant that God had originally given, which He ratified with His own blood. When Mary knew about the child, she cries out in her Magnificat in Luke 1.

Luke 1:46-47, And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, ⁴⁷ And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

God is doing what He told Abraham He would do. A glorious thing! Zechariah, filled with the Holy Spirit, hearing of the birth of His own child.

Luke 1:68-70, “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people, 69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of His servant David, 70 As He spoke

by the mouth of His holy prophets, Who have been since the world began, Christ comes for the sake of the truth of God so that God cannot be thought a liar. So, when Israel praises God, they praise God because Christ came and verified His truth.

V 9, "And the Gentiles, they might glorify God not for His truth but for His mercy." ➢ Certainly, the Jews are thankful for mercy. ➢ Certainly, the Gentiles are thankful for truth. But the emphasis here is that Christ came to show to the Jews the truth of God and He came to show to the Gentiles the mercy of God.

That was the emphasis. Jesus was a minister of the circumcision to show them the truth of God and to show the Gentiles the mercy of God.

• A saved Jew will primarily praise God for His truth, He made a promise, and He kept it.
• A saved Gentile primarily praises God for His mercy, for He gives mercy to a non-deserving, a no-people, a people outside the covenant, outside the promise, outside the fathers, outside the line of Messiah.

➢ The saved Jew, praising God for His truth, ➢ The saved Gentile, praising God for His mercy, You blend them together with one mind and one voice and they both glorify God. The emphasis may differ. Covenant promise is important to Israel.

Mercy to a non-covenant people is important to the Gentiles. But both glorify God, both rejoice that they are included in the plan of God.

Isaiah 45:22, “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

Isaiah 52:10, The Lord has made bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God. Both rejoice. To show the promise of Gentile salvation and further encourage the Jew to accept the Gentile, Paul gives these four Old Testament quotes. V 9, "As it is written"

Paul quotes Psalm 18:49. It's also quoted, in 2 Samuel 22:50, the same verse.

Psalm 18:49, "For this cause I will confess to You among the nations and sing unto Your name."

The Psalmist says, I will declare God's name among the nations. The word "confess"means to acknowledge God. He says in the middle of the nations, I will acknowledge God, I will sing to Your name. So, David is singing the praise of God among the nations, an allusion to Gentile salvation.

V 10 Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:43, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people.” Deuteronomy 32, the last part of Moses'writing, the first set of books in the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, the Gentiles rejoice along with the Jews. They join in offering praise.

The first scripture, the Psalmist in the midst of the Gentiles offering praise, now the Gentiles join the Jews in offering praise.

The third scripture, V 11, quoted from Psalm 117:1, Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples! Here the nations are doing it alone. First the Psalmist did it, then the nations did it with the Jews and now they are seen doing it alone.

V 12, the fourth scripture quoted from Isaiah 11:1 & 10.

Isaiah 11:1, There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

Isaiah 11:10, “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.” Isaiah the prophet, who said there would be a root of Jesse, that is the Davidic line, Jesse being the father of David, the son of Obed, the father of David the king from whose loins, of course, came the Messiah. So, there would come a root of Jesse, the Davidic line, and one would rise, that is rise out of humiliation, rise to reign over the nations. Messiah will rule the world. He will reign over the nations. But not just over the nations with a rod of iron.

They will hope in Him, again, a promise of Gentile salvation. Salvation is hope.

This is a saving hope. So, the nations will hope in the Messiah.

Do you see the plan of God? The Jews rejoicing over God keeping truth in Christ. The Gentiles rejoice over God showing mercy in Christ. The Old Testament all along said that the Gentiles would be saved, that the Gentiles would praise and rejoice with God's people, Israel.

The Gentiles would hope in the Messiah to come. We ought to embrace them and each the other. All are loved by God. The Gentiles can have no grudge against the Jews because through the Jews the salvation came to them. The Jews can have no grudge against the Gentiles because their very purpose for existence was to reach the Gentiles.

Jew and Gentile are consummately blended together.

Conclusion.

Paul closes with a benedictory intercession. I always feel like I am treading on sacred ground when I try to explain a benediction. All you need to do is read it.

V 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. That really is the summation of the whole epistle. It's a benediction to wrap up everything.

A prayer. The God of hope, the God who is the source of eternal hope, the source of eternal life, the source of eternal salvation, fill you up, leaving nothing out. Literally overflow you with joy and peace that comes in believing, that you may super abound in hope through the agency of the power of the Spirit of God.

In other words, that's another way of saying, may you get all there is to get and may you know all the joy and all the peace and all the hope that can possibly be given to you through believing in Christ by the power of the Spirit of God.

May you be totally spiritually satisfied. May you be totally spiritually filled with joy, and filled with peace, and filled with hope to overflowing. That's what salvation was intended to bring.

It is a prayer for a satisfied soul which is to sweep back through the whole epistle. ✓ May you know forgiveness, ✓ May you know peace, ✓ May you know hope, ✓ May you know love, ✓ May you know victory over sin, ✓ May you know the power of the Spirit of God, ✓ May you know the obedience of a spiritual life, ✓ May you know the use of your spiritual gift, ✓ May you know a right relationship to people, ✓ May you know the love, ✓ May you know the sense of urgency, ✓ May you know how to care for each other as weak and strong, ✓ May you know all that God could possibly overflow to you in the power of the Spirit and thus be a fully satisfied believer.

His prayer, his benediction is that we might be fully satisfied in Christ.