Before we get started, I want
to point out something to y'all. I just don't know what I mean.
We sang that song, Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness. And
I don't know if you picked up on it, but in the last verse,
Art was singing, thou hast for thine a ransom paid, instead
of singing the word all. Thine, for thine you have. As
was common, this song was written by somebody and then brought
to John Wesley. And John Wesley would edit the
songs. He did this for his brother,
Charles. But John Wesley hated God's sovereign
free grace. Hated it. And I just want to
point out to you, those first three verses are excellent. They're
excellent. And you see how in the fourth
verse, one word changed everything that went before it. One word. And that's how it is with the
preaching of the gospel. Everything can be true. And then
enters that one word and disannulls everything that was said. Everything
that was said. So, all right, let's turn to
Romans chapter 15. Romans 15. Now our text today
gives us God's name. God's name. Verse 5, now the
God of patience and consolation. The God of patience and comfort. And then we're told God's grant. What He grants to His people.
Verse 5, grant you to be like-minded one toward another according
to Christ Jesus. And then we see God's purpose.
Why does he grant us this like-mindedness? Here's the purpose. Verse six,
that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so then we have God's admonition. He says to us, wherefore, receive
ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. So those would be our divisions,
God's name, God's grant, God's purpose, and God's admonition. All right, first of all, let
me give you the gist of what I want you to get here. As believers,
rather than focus on our differences, rather than speak of our differences. Glorify God with one mouth being
of one mind. Speak of what we agree on with
one mouth and one mind. Because the way we glorify God
is by our oneness. by our oneness because that's
of God. I've titled this glorify God
by oneness. Glorify God by oneness. Now,
first let's look at God's name. Verse 5 says, now the God of
patience and consolation. The God who saves his people
is the God of patience. He's the God of patience. Spiritual
patience comes from God, from the God of patience. If we have
patience, it came from the God of patience. I'm talking about
spiritual patience, endurance, that patience that makes you
long-suffering and forbearing with your brethren. God effectually
teaches us patience. He effectually grants us patience
by His grace. It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Patience is produced only in
those chosen by God, redeemed by Christ, and sanctified by
the Holy Spirit. It's worked in us by God's grace,
by His gospel, and by tribulation. We saw last time from Romans
5, tribulation worketh patience. Well, what are some things that
glorify God's patience? What's some things that help
us to see how patient God is? Well, I wrote down three things.
One, God's omniscience glorifies his patience. You and I only
know men's thoughts in part. So we can be somewhat patient
with somebody if we don't really know what they think about us.
God knows exactly what we think about Him. And yet God is patient,
long-suffering, forbearing. His omniscience glorifies His
patience. God's power glorifies His patience. You and I have to patiently wait
because our power forbids us from doing anything else. That's
all we can do. God has all power to do whatever
He pleases. and yet God patiently forbears
and is longsuffering with his people. Doesn't that glorify
his patience? And then what about God's righteousness? How it glorifies his patience.
If you and I became impatient with a brother or sister, we're
being unjust because we're sinners ourselves. We have no business
being impatient with another sinner, none whatsoever. But
God is righteous. It would be just for God to cease
being patient with sinners. That would be a just thing for
God. He's holy and just. No hypocrisy in Him. And yet,
in Christ and for Christ's sake, God is righteous and patient,
therefore, with His people. patient with his people. And
we could go on and on. Everything there is about God
glorifies every other attribute about God. And everything there
is about God glorifies his patience, his patience. Well, also it tells
us here the God of our salvation is the God of comfort. That's
what consolation means. He's the God of comfort. Spiritual
comfort comes only from God our Father. That's where it comes
from. He's the God of comfort. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, His dear Son, He's called the consolation of
Israel. He is the comfort of His chosen
people. His spiritual Israel. And the
Holy Spirit is called the comforter. The comforter. He's the one who
comes and comes into the heart of God's people and gives us
comfort. Gives us comfort. So brethren, would you grow in
patience? Do you want to grow in patience
and in comfort, being a comforter to your brethren? Do you want
to grow in that? Then flee to the God of patience and consolation. He's the only one that can grow
us in patience and consolation. He's the only one. So that's
His name, the God of patience and consolation. Now secondly,
let's look at God's grant. God's grant. Verse 5, the God
of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward
another according to Christ Jesus. Now He's speaking to redeemed,
regenerated sinners. That's what He's talking to,
believers. And he says, God grant you, this is a prayer. He's praying,
God grant you to be like-minded one toward another according
to Christ Jesus. If we're patient, if we're comforting,
if we're like-minded toward one another, it is because the God
of patience and consolation granted us to be so. He granted it to
us. He gave it to us. He gave it
to us. And that's true of anything spiritual
you and I have. James said, every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above. And cometh down from the Father
of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. I
was just talking with Brother Steve about how everything in
our lives change. We go through all these changes.
and it's just continually changing. I wrote a lyric this week where
I wrote, time is your friend and time is your enemy. Because
whether good or bad, this too shall pass. Whether good or bad,
it's gonna pass. But God never changes. God never
changes. Our Lord Jesus is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He never takes back his gifts. Never. Never. Sinful flesh can
only produce division. That's all. If we're divided,
our sinful flesh did it. You can bank on that. It was
not of God. It was of our sinful flesh. But
sinful flesh cannot produce godly patience. Sinful flesh cannot
produce godly consolation. Sinful flesh cannot be like-minded
with another sinner. It can't make itself so. Only
the God of patience and comfort can grant this to us. Now how
does God grant patience? How does He grant you forbearance
and longsuffering? These go under the heading of
patience, forbearance, longsuffering, mercy, forgiveness. How does
He grant you to be patient? Well, He does it by the Spirit
of God teaching His child how patiently God has been forbearing
and longsuffering to us. We learn everything from God
and we learn everything by looking at what God has done for us in
Christ. That's where we learn these things.
Every elect child of God is the prodigal son. Every one of us.
Every one of us are the prodigal son. You know the parable. The Lord said to the prodigal
son, he took the inheritance, he took everything from his father
he had coming to him and he just left. He left his father and
went out to the world and just lived for himself. That's you
and me. We took everything God gave us
and rather than serving our father and worshipping our father, we
went into this world and lived for ourselves. Are you still
living for yourself? We're either living for God or
we're living for ourselves. But when that father, when that
son went out into the world, you can be certain of this, Christ
doesn't say this in so many words when he gave the parable, but
you can be certain of this, that father knew where his son was
and he had servants watching that boy. and protecting him. You can bank on that. How do
I know that? Because God has always had his angels sent forth
to look after his people even when we were the prodigal. That's
right. And then in time, he was brought
to himself and he came home to his father. And God has preserved
his people and keeps you all the days of your rebellion until
the time appointed when he brings you to himself. Brings you to
yourself and then brings you to himself. It's by patience,
by forbearance, by long-suffering that God preserved us while we
were ignorant dead sinners. That's what, when we talk about
patience, It's God forbearing with us, being long-suffering
with us when we were ignorant sinners so that He preserved
us. I want you to listen to Jude.
Jude 1.1 says this. It says, Jude, the servant of
Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are, now listen
to this order, to them that are sanctified by God the Father
and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Doesn't it seem like
it should be them that were sanctified by God the Father choosing us,
them that were called by the Spirit of God regenerating us,
and who are now preserved by God. That's not what it said.
God the Father sanctified us when he chose us in Christ before
the world was made. And when Adam sinned, that whole
time from then throughout, when we were born, all our days of
rebellion against God, when we were nothing but a God-hating
rebel actively sinning against God, God preserved us in Christ
Jesus. And then at the point of time,
He called us. He called us. That's what I'm
getting at here. He's preserved us when we were offending Him. You ever think about this? I
mean, just sit and think of this. Think of how much we offended
God when we didn't know Him. Think of how much we offended
Him by our sin, by our vileness toward Him. We were children
of wrath, even as others. To God, we were an abomination. You know what the word means?
A sulfurous stench. That's what we were to God. We
actively transgressed against God. We did it in the garden.
When Adam transgressed against God, every one of you sitting
here that believe, that was you in that garden. You took that
fruit. You transgressed against God
yourself. That's how one we were in Adam. It wasn't as if we did
it. No, we did it. We did it. We
willfully sinned against Him all the days of our rebellion.
Sin is a willful choice. It always is. All this excuse
about I was born this way. Well, you were born that way.
You were born a sinner like everybody else is. But acting on that sin
is a willful choice. We all sin because we want to. We want to. And God through all
of that was patient. longsuffering, forbearing with
us, protecting us, preserving us every step of the way. That
sheds a lot of light on this, Psalm 37, 23. The steps of a
good man, good in Christ, good in Christ. The steps of a good
man are ordered by the Lord and He delighteth in His way. How
could He delight in my way when I was in rebellion? In Christ. Though he fall, he shall not
be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. That was true before I knew him.
That was true before I knew him. And not only before that, brethren,
and this is worse, after we know him. It was one thing to sin and rebel
against him before we knew him. We still do it now that we know
him. But he's patient and he's forbearing
with us for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. It was God's patience. It was his forbearance by which
our sins were remitted. Did you know that? Go to Romans
3, look there with me. Whenever Adam sinned in the garden,
instead of pouring out wrath on all mankind and consuming
us all right then, what did he do? He was forbearing. Why? Because he had chosen his son
and ordained him to come forth and redeem his people. So look
at Romans 3.25, Christ is he whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. It's God's patience, his forbearance
that waited till Christ came and put our sin away on the cross. We're saved by forbearance. We're
saved by forbearance. You know what we have to say,
brethren? We have to acknowledge and confess what the Apostle
Peter did. He said, account, account that
the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. By God being longsuffering from
Adam to the cross. from our birth to when He brought
us to Christ, we're saved. We're saved because He was long-suffering
and forbearing, patient, patient. You know, this is hard for us
to understand sometimes, I think, but before God's law, before
the judgment seat, you and I have no sin. He's put away all the
sin of His people and remembers our sin no more. but before God's
omniscience in ourselves. All our sin is just open before
God. I really, I know we do this.
We all lie to some degree or another. We all deceive to some
degree or another. So that our brethren and others
don't know just how great a sinner we are. And we do a pretty good
job of it and we think we've hidden it pretty well. It's all
open before God. He knows every bit of it. And
yet for Christ's sake, He's patient. That's how He creates the fruit
of patience in His people. That's how He creates long-suffering
and forbearance in the heart of His saints. He's continually
teaching us His patience toward us. He sends a trial. You have a
brother, you have a sister that they're overcome in their flesh
and they're not treating you like they should or like you
feel like they should. And you lose patience. You become impatient with them.
Stop being long-suffering. Stop being forbearing. And then
the Spirit of God comes and reminds us of how God has done nothing
but be patient with us. And the Spirit of God teaches
you. He says, Isaiah 46. He says,
Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob. and all the remnant of the house
of Israel, which are born by me, carried by me, from the belly,
which are carried from the womb, and even to your old age, I am
He, even to your gray hairs will I carry you. I have made you,
I will bear you, even I will carry and will deliver you. And
the Spirit of God makes you know that so of you, believer, God's
done that in patience. For Christ's sake, He's born
you and He won't stop and He'll deliver you. And when He makes
you know that and He really brings that home to your heart in the
midst of this trial you're having with your brother or sister,
it breaks your heart. And you say to yourself, how
can I be impatient when God's been so patient to me? That's
the rule. That's the constraint. That's
the governing rule by which Christ makes us love one another and
be long-suffering and patient with one another. It's beholding
what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. It's the gospel. It's
the gospel. Oh, is God patient with you?
Is God long-suffering to you? We ought to imitate His patience
toward our brethren constantly. Constantly. We ought to imitate
His patience toward unbelievers and rebels. Even toward our enemies. Be patient. Because God our Father
is patient with us. And likewise, the God of consolation
gives us comfort and makes us comforters the same way. He sure
does. He comes in the Holy Spirit and
He gives us comfort and He makes you a comforter. I'm going to
be quite honest with you. It's rare to find somebody who
is a comforter in time of trouble. It's a rare thing. We used to
have these fellas back home and we'd go out to some field or
something, build a fire and before the night was up, some two boys
would get in a fight. Always happened. And there was
always these fellas that just sort of hang around on the edge
and if you got knocked down, they'd run in there and sucker
punch you. If we're not comforting to a
brother who's fallen, that's what we're doing. We're just
sucker punching That's, you know when you're
down, when you're brought down, you know, you know the things
you've done wrong. You don't need salt poured into
that wound. Be comforting. Be comforting. And God does this for us. He
comes, He sends the Holy Spirit, and He makes us see how He's
comforted us. Let me tell you how He starts this. How does
He begin to comfort you? How does God do that? Now God
can do this. You and I can't do this. God
can do this. God comforts us first by convincing
us of what we are and who Christ is. Listen to this. I tell you the truth, it is expedient
for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
Him unto you. And when He has come, how does
He begin this work of comforting us and teaching us to be comforters?
He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. Of sin, because they believe
not on Me. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father and you see me no more. Of judgment, because the
Prince of this world is not judged. In other words, He teaches us
our sins. Our sin of not trusting Christ,
not believing on Christ as we ought. And then He comforts us
by showing us Christ has put all those sins away. He's put
all our sins away and He's our only righteousness before God.
He brings you to see you have no righteousness in you. But
then He shows you Christ is all your righteousness. He brings
you to remember everything's open and naked with God whom
we have to do. You're coming before God one
day before His throne of judgment. And then He makes you to know
that your judgment was settled on the cross. It's accomplished. It's accomplished. That's how
He comforts us, and that's how He makes us comforters. How He
makes us comforters. And He has to do this all our
days. He has to continue to do this
for a believer all our day. We start thinking too highly
of ourselves, Start thinking about things we've done for our
brethren and we start thinking too highly of ourselves and we
get thinking about how little our brother's done for us. And
we get pride, full of pride and haughty and arrogant and we feel
sorry for ourselves and we become impatient and hurtful rather
than patient and comforting. And we have to be reminded all
over again, we're nothing but sinners. Christ is our only righteousness,
and He is the judge. I can't judge you and give you
discernment, and you can't judge me and give me discernment, but
Christ can. He can. He can do this in a way
that leaves you comforted rather than leaves you with salt in
your wounds. He does this in a way that brings you to Christ
and leaves you comforted and makes you a comforter. Makes
you a comforter. That's how he does this work.
He makes us, through making us patient and comforting us, he
makes us like-minded, one toward another, according to Christ
Jesus. Like-minded, that we're nothing
and Christ is all. That's when believers are going
to truly be at peace and harmony with one another is when they
have the same mind that they're nothing and Christ is all. Like-minded
in patience, in long-suffering, in forgiveness towards one another.
Like-minded that this is how we ought to treat one another.
Like-minded as being a source of comfort to our brethren. If
you ever notice this, this is so of believers. A believer,
if you talk to a believer about your troubles, believers just
automatically start trying to comfort you. They're a source of comfort.
And we're like-minded in that. So are each of us by God's grace. And this like-mindedness is according
to Christ Jesus. Now that means at least three
things. Probably a lot more, but I'll give you three things
when it says according to Christ Jesus. First of all, Christ is
the reason God grants us patience and comfort and like-mindedness.
He's the reason for it. It's according to the blood of
Christ. According to the blood of Christ
Jesus that God can grant gifts to his people justly, showering
us with mercy. Then secondly, Christ is also
the perfection of our patience and comfort and like-mindedness.
None of us can look for acceptance with God based on how patient
we've been with our brethren or how comforting we've been
with our brethren. We can't do it. Christ is the only one who
was perfectly patient with his people, perfectly comforting
to his people, perfectly like-minded with the Father. He's the only
one. And he is our perfection in everything, in everything. And thirdly, you see the margin
there, it means Christ is our example of patience and comfort
and like-mindedness. And we don't have any better
example to follow. There's no better example to
follow. He came and He said, I didn't come to do my own will.
I came to do the will of Him that sent me. Don't you wish
you could say that and say it all the time? Whatever the situation,
don't you wish you could say honestly, I'm not here to do
my will. I'm here to do the will of Christ
that sent me. I want His will to be done. Brethren,
everything is right when it is according to Christ. Let us be
patient and comfort one another and be like-minded according
to Christ Jesus. When I die, when you die, and
everything in this life up to that point shall be well with
our souls. as long as it's according to
Christ Jesus. Now, thirdly, let's look at God's
purpose. God's purpose. Verse 6, here's
why God gives this, these gifts, these patient, long-suffering,
this comforting, this like-mindedness, that ye may with one mind and
one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's God's purpose. so that with one mind, one mouth,
we'll glorify God the Father. That's why He does it. God is
glorified when His people are one in faith in His Son. When we're one, of one mind and
one heart and one mouth, believing on Christ, that's glorifying
to God. God's glorified when we're united
with each other in His Son. When we truly behold ourselves
as being one and us being one with Christ and in Christ, that's
when we'll glorify God. And God our Father's glorified
because He worked it in us. He worked it in us. because He
brings His child to give Him all the glory. We don't take
credit for this. We give Him the glory. He worked
this. He did it. And the Father is
glorified because when we are of one mind and one mouth, we
glorify His Son. And that glorifies the Father.
Believer, God our Father, sent His only Son into a divided world. A sinful, divided world. And through Christ's precious
blood, He has made all God's elect one in Him. We were one in Him before we
ever knew we were one in Him. We were one in Him by His blood,
not by something we did. We were already made one in Him
with each other, with Him, with the Father by Christ's blood. And you know what He's doing
right now? There's only one reason we're in this world. Believers
are in this world to preach this gospel because He's calling His
people into Christ this way because this is God's purpose in the
end. What did he say? He said, in
the dispensation of the fullness of times. That means in the end. He's going to gather together
in one all things, that's talking about His people, all His people,
in Christ. Both which are in heaven and
which are on earth. His people in heaven, His people on earth,
He's going to gather us all together in one, in Christ Jesus, even
in Him. That's his purpose. That's God's
purpose. Don't you think that's wise and
it glorifies God to choose a people who come into this world divided
from one another and from everybody else, who cannot possibly be
like-minded in a godly way, and yet Christ comes through his
blood and reconciles us to God, makes us one with God, then through
his spirit makes us one with our brethren, And in the end,
He's going to gather all His saints, those that have already
died, already sleep, went on to be with the Father, and those
who are yet alive on this earth. He's going to gather us all together
in one. Isn't that glorifying to God?
That shows you what God can do. Man can't do that. We've been
on this earth for however many thousands of years God created
it, and we've never made a people one. And we might act like we're one,
but just give it a little time. You'll find out we haven't accomplished
it. But God has. God has. So if we're inseparably one in
Christ, let us be one toward one another. With one mouth and
one mind. Glorifying the Father. You know
why? Life is too short to do otherwise. Be like-minded. God grant us
to be like-minded. Now, that purpose is for His
glory, brethren. Don't you want to glorify God?
Division doesn't glorify God. Oneness glorifies God. Oneness. Now lastly, having heard all
this, let's hear God's admonition. Verse 7, Receive ye one another
as Christ also received us to the glory of God. What a way
to give this admonition. How did Christ receive us? How
did Christ receive us? He received us when we were weak
and guilty in ourselves. Overcome with sin and infirmities,
didn't He? That's how we should receive
our brethren. When they're weak and overcome in their fault,
receive them as Christ received us. To the glory of God. How
did he receive us? Freely and heartily. Sincerely. We didn't have to do something
for him to receive us. He did it freely. And with all his heart. Let us receive one another freely. If I divide from somebody because
of something they've done toward me, I'm saying my love's not
free. You gotta earn it. Love freely
as Christ loved us. And do it heartily. When you're
born of God, that's how you love. Because remember Peter said,
we were born again unto unfamed love of the brethren. It's hearty,
it's hearty love. We love as Christ loved. And
then He did this. He received us into His fellowship
as joint heirs with Him. And so He teaches you and me,
receive our brethren into fellowship with one another. And do it as
both being joint heirs with Christ of the grace of God. These brethren differed. They
differed as to meets and days and some thought they should
be observing it and others didn't think they had to. And the ones
that did observe it were weak, as were the Jews most likely,
predominantly. The other believers that didn't
believe they had to do it were stronger. They were most likely
Gentile. Paul said, receive one another
as Christ received you without doubting with one mind and one
mouth glorify your Father and be silent on these things wherein
you differ. That's what he's telling them.
Receive one another as Christ received you. Don't doubt one
another. Don't speak of these things wherein
you differ. Just speak with one mouth and
one mind the things wherein you agree in Christ Jesus. Brother
Henry would go places and men would sit and question and question
and question him. And I heard him say this one time. He said,
he would tell people, if we sit around and talk long enough,
we can find something to disagree on. Why try to find something
to disagree on? Don't talk about any things wherein
we differ. Wait on Christ to correct those
things. What are we to do? Speak one mouth and one mind
on these glorious truths of the gospel that we all know is true
and we love. Speak on these things. You see,
to speak on things wherein we differ, that's going to promote
division. And it won't glorify God. But
speaking on these things we know and agree upon, these truths
in Christ Jesus, brethren, That's going to promote peace and unity
in Christ, and we're going to glorify God by oneness. That's what he's saying. Amen.