Let us turn tonight in our Bibles
to Romans chapter 16. It began several weeks ago on Sunday
evenings, bringing messages to us, beginning in chapter 12,
where the practical part of this letter begins. Matthew Henry's
comment on this last chapter was, as in the main body of the
epistle, Paul appears to have been a very knowing man. So in these last words, he appears
to have been a very loving man. I'll just read the first two
verses of the chapter, but we're going to look at the chapter
in its entirety. I command unto you, Phoebe, our
sister, which is a servant of the church, which is at Centuria,
that you receive her in the Lord as becometh saints, and that
you assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you.
For she hath been a sucker of many, and of myself also. I want to bring us six things
from this chapter that stand out to me. Now, I'm not by any
means going to cover the entire chapter verse by verse or anything
like that. I'm only going to bring this
one message, but I really believe a person could preach a number
of messages from this chapter, no doubt about it. But I want
to mention six things that stand out to me, six very simple things. First, the absence of Peter's
name. When you read through this chapter,
there's a number of people who are named, men and women, and
yet you do not find Peter's name. Now you know that That big pagan
church makes much of what they say concerning Peter, being the
man who brought the gospel to Rome, the man who pastored the
church in Rome, the man who was the first pope. And yet here,
the apostle Paul is writing to this church, and he doesn't mention
Peter. To me, that sounds very strange. It sounds very strange that he
would not mention Peter if Peter had been in Rome, if Peter had
been the pastor of this church. That's strange. The fact that they teach that
Peter was the first pastor of this church cannot be supported
from the scriptures. And if it were true, I believe
that Paul would have certainly mentioned him in these closing
remarks. You say, well, if Paul did not
bring the gospel to Rome, and he didn't, he wasn't the first
one to preach the gospel in Rome. And we know that because he's
writing to a church in Rome and he had never visited this church.
And if Peter did not bring the gospel to Rome, and the Lord
raised up a church here, who did? Well, keep your places here,
but look to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2. And we do not
know, I cannot answer that question with certainty, but I can say
this from Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, we are told
of a number of people who were in Jerusalem that day who heard
the gospel, and we know that 3,000 were saved and baptized
that day. And if you notice in verse 10,
as he names different nationalities or where different places, I
should say, where the Jews were from, who were in Jerusalem worshiping,
at the end of verse two, he says, and strangers of Rome Jews and
proselytes. Now, proselytes would mean Gentiles,
men and women who had been proselytized to Judaism. And the main thing
that they embraced when they were proselytized to Judaism
is the truth that there's only one God. There's only one God
because the nations of the world were polytheists for the most
part. Israel was the one exception.
The nation itself knew and were taught and everything in the
scriptures revealed to them that there's one God. And so these
proselytes no doubt were Gentiles, but there were Jews and proselytes
from Rome who were in Jerusalem when Peter preached the gospel.
And I assume that if any of them were saved that day when they
went back to Rome, they began to gossip the gospel. That's
what it says in Acts chapter eight about those who were spread
abroad because of the persecution. They went everywhere gossiping. That's the word that's used there,
literally gossiping the gospel. It's only natural that those
who are saved that we share that truth with others. We see it
in the first apostles there in John chapter 1, when Andrew found
his brother Peter, when Philip found his brother Nathanael.
It's just natural that when a person receives food, a beggar receives
food, he's going to share that with other beggars. Here's a
place where you can get a meal. Here's a place where you can
hear the truth. And so I would assume that we
know Paul did not preach the gospel originally in Rome. I would assume that it was these
men that heard the gospel in Jerusalem and carried it back
to Rome. And God raised up a church there.
Because after all, you will remember that Paul, his apostleship was
to the Gentiles. Look back in chapter 15, here
in Romans chapter 15, we saw this just a few times back in
verse 16. He said that I should be the
minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. In other words, God
blessed the apostle Paul, his ministry especially to the Gentiles. But the same thing was true of
Peter concerning the Jews. His apostleship was to the circumcision
to the Jews. Something else that the scriptures
reveal as that it is that, yes, Peter was one of the original
apostles. Paul was a man, an apostle born
out of due season, like an abortion, he uses that term in 1 Corinthians
15. And so when he met Peter, we're
told, he tells us this, that he met Peter in Jerusalem. And since Peter was an apostle
to the circumcision, it would only be natural that most of
his ministry was in Jerusalem and Judea, where the Jews lived. Someone says, well, what about
Peter, and this is what men used to base their assumption that
Peter was the first pastor there in Rome. What about his word
in the last chapter of 1 Peter when he says, the church that
is in Babylon, elected together with you, saluted you. They make
the argument that he referred to Rome under that title of Babylon,
but John Gill said, It is best, therefore, to understand it literally,
of Babylon in Assyria, the metropolis of the dispersion of the Jews
and the center of it to whom the apostle wrote, and where,
as a minister of the circumcision, he may be thought to reside,
here being a number of persons converted and formed into a gospel
church state." And so John Gill said it would be best to think
of Babylon as literally a place in Assyria that was named Babylon. I know this, in Isaiah, God referred
to the nation of Israel by the title of Sodom and Gomorrah. And Babylon, as wicked as that
was and what it stands for in the word of God, could just as
easily have, in my mind at least, referred to Jerusalem, because
it was a center of false religion once the gospel of Christ was
rejected. So that's the first thing that
stands out to me in this chapter. You read through it. Some of
these names are hard for me to pronounce, so I'm not going to
try. But you read through it, and
the name Peter is conspicuously missing, as far as I'm concerned. The second thing that stands
out to me is we have an example of the fulfillment of the Lord's
words. Fulfillment of the Lord's words,
these particular words. In Luke chapter 21 and verse
17, the Lord told his apostles, And you shall be hated of all
men for my namesake. Also in Matthew 19 in verse 29,
the Lord said, everyone that hath forsaken houses or brethren
or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands
for my namesake shall receive an hundredfold and shall inherit
everlasting life. Now Paul, he was both hated for
the gospel and he was loved for the gospel. He was both hated
for the gospel and he was loved for the gospel sake. When he
was arrested in Jerusalem, we read that there were 40 men,
there were 40 men, and I quote, which had bound themselves with
an oath which they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed
him. 40 men took an oath. and said,
we're never going to eat again until we have killed Paul. And
you know, they had that plot. They were going to ask the Roman
centurion to bring Paul back down and have an audience. And
when he came down, they were going to kill him. But Paul's
nephew revealed to the Roman centurion what their plot was.
And the Roman centurion had Paul sent off. that very night to
a place where he would stand before the Roman authorities,
but be safe. But there was a plot of 40 men
who took an oath to kill him. Now, we see two names here in
this chapter, and I'm sure that there were many, many more. Forty
men took an oath to kill him, but I see two names in this chapter
that did lay down their necks for Paul. Look with me in verse
3 and 4, Romans 16, 3 and 4. Great Priscilla and Aquila, my
helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their
own necks. Forty took an oath to kill him. Here's two who had risked their
life to keep him from being harmed, and I'm sure there were many,
many others. Also, if Paul was disowned, if
his mother was alive when the Lord saved Paul, then it would
only be natural that she would have disowned him as her son. That's still in practice today.
When a Jew is saved out of an Orthodox Jew family, the family
disowns that person. But notice here, if you will,
in verse 13, God gave him another mother. That's what our Lord
said, wasn't it? He said, if everyone that hath
forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother,
for my name's sake shall receive an hundredfold. Look here in
verse 13. Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord
and his mother and mine. Evidently she had taken him in
and considered him to be her own son and he considered her
to be his mother. There's two that are named that
risked their life for Paul, laid down their neck for Paul. But
as I said, there was many, many more scattered all over the known
world where he had taken the gospel and the Lord had used
him in their conversion. And they would have gladly given
their lives for him because he was greatly hated, but at the
same time, greatly loved. And that's usually true of men
who are bold in proclaiming the gospel of God's sovereign grace. Many hate them. Many religious
men hate them. But there are many who love them. Here's the third thing that stands
out to me in this chapter. First, the absence of Peter's
name. Second, we see the fulfillment of our Lord's words. Third, the
number of women that Paul mentions and commends. Now I counted in
these first 16 verses, I counted the names of 26. And of those
26, it's either 9 or 10 who are women. And listen to these commendations
that he gives concerning these women. A servant of the church. And
that word servant is deaconess. That's the first one there, Phoebe. A deaconess. She was a servant. What a commendation, right? to
be a servant in the Lord's church. He came not to be served, but
to serve and give his life a ransom for many. And to be a servant,
what a commendation. Phoebe, our sister, a servant,
a deaconess in the church. Priscilla, This woman laid down
her neck for the apostle. Another, a helper of Paul. Another opened her house for
the church's meeting place. Another bestowed much labor on
Paul and his companions. Another, along with her husband,
were fellow prisoners with Paul. Another was of note among the
apostles. Another who labored in the Lord,
yea, who labored much in the Lord. The number of women that
he commends and mentions. Now remember, the condition of
women at this time was not like it is today. If you look over
in those worlds where Islam is still the ruling dominant part
of the society, that's the condition of women in the world at this
time. Everywhere the gospel has gone,
the gospel has not only been used to free slaves, but also
to raise the condition of women. They're no longer looked upon
as merely, and they never were, never were, by God's people,
but in the world in general as a person's material, a man owned
his wife. Now call our attention to this,
to point out that where the spread of the gospel has gone, women
have been lifted up. And I heard a woman one time
who claimed to be a preacher. And the interviewer, this was
on a television program, the interviewer asked her, he had
enough knowledge of the scripture, that he asked her about a couple
of verses that are part of the Bible, 1 Timothy 2, where Paul
said, I suffer not a woman to usurp authority over a man. This
interviewer had enough knowledge of the Bible to ask her, what
about what the scripture says? And her response was, I have
a problem with Paul. I have a problem with Paul. And
I thought at the time, and my thoughts haven't changed, Her
problem was not with Paul. Her problem was not with Paul.
Her problem was with accepting God's ordained order. That's all there is to it. We
live in a rebellious world. And it's always been a rebellious
world since Adam rebelled against God. But it just seems to me
like confusion is growing by leaps and bounds. Confusion. I have a great granddaughter
who is two and a half years old and recently she told me, she
said, I'm a girl. I'm not a boy. Isn't it amazing that a three-year-old
can say that and yet you've got the Q in that list of people? questioning what they are. We live in a confused world because
men have said goodbye to God. Whenever it took place, I believe
in the last century, in the early part of the last century, churches,
for the most part, waved their hand goodbye to God and said,
we're going to go our way. We're going to do it our way.
No matter what the scriptures say, we're going to do it our
way. And we are reaping, our country,
reaping, I believe, a whirlwind from the confusion, just like
at the Tower of Babel when God confused the languages. We live
in a very confused society. That stands out to me. People
like to belittled the apostle Paul as
though he was some chauvinist and spoke down about women. Nothing could be farther from
the truth about Paul or about the gospel or about the scriptures. What the scriptures revealed,
the relationship between a man and his wife. The man is to love
his wife even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for
it. And the woman is to reverence,
obey her husband. That's God's order. And when
this order is reversed or somehow there's something put into the
order that changes it, man can only expect confusion. That's the result. The fourth
thing that stands out to me is the appreciation that Paul expressed. The appreciation that the Apostle
Paul expressed. We all here tonight recognize
that all praise and glory for all things good must first be
given to the Lord. The Lord Jesus said that when
a person has done all that God has commanded him to do, that
we are still unprofitable servants. And we know that, we recognize
that. But we should also recognize
that it's not sinful, it's not sinful to show our appreciation
to those whom the Lord uses, to those who the Lord uses and
who are a blessing unto us. hurt to show and to express our
appreciation. You know, the easiest thing in
the world is to find fault with someone. That's easy, isn't it? It's easy to find fault. I've
often said, if you come into this building and you're looking
for something to find fault with in the preacher, you won't have
to look very far. I know that. That's just the
way it is. But there's nothing wrong with
showing our appreciation to those whom the Lord blesses and uses
in our lives. If you notice in verse 16, he says, greet one another with
a holy kiss. Salute one another with an holy
kiss. You know that the Apostle Paul
uses this same phrase in three other letters. Salute one another
with a holy kiss. And this word holy distinguishes
this kiss from a lustful one or a kiss among families. And
it is a display of the love which is between those of us who are
born of the same spirit, saved by the same blood and adopted
into the same family. The truth manifested is that
true, true believers love one another. Our Lord said, by this
all men shall know that you are my disciples if you love one
another. And then look with me at this
passage in 1 John. Very familiar to all of us, I'm
sure. But turn with me, if you will,
to 1 John chapter 3 and verses 14 through 18. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth
not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. For whoso hath this world's good,
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his vows of compassion
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children,
let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in
truth. And the fifth thing that stands
out to me in this chapter is the church's makeup. The church
at Rome, its makeup. In this chapter, there are men
and women named. There are people who were free,
and there were people who were slaves. There were people who
were rich, and there were people who were poor. And if you look
down to verse 23, there's a man here mentioned, Erastus. About middle ways, Erastus, the
chamberlain of the city, saluted you. Do you know what that means?
That means that he was the city treasurer of Corinth. Now Corinth
was a wealthy city, a city in Greece that was wealthy, and
here this man was a child of God, a believer, and he was the
city treasurer. So you've got free and slaves,
rich and poor, men and women, the makeup of the church. The
Lord saves whom He will and adds to the church. Someone told me
the other day something about our church, the diversity that's
in our church. Speaking of the nationalities,
and I said, well, that's just what the Lord's done, you know? That's what the Lord's done.
Because he's the one who's added to the church, he's the one who's
subtracted from the church. It's his church. And I thank
God for everyone. Everyone. And I am thankful that
we have a church that is diverse. Now that, sometimes, you know,
we live in a time, they say, well, our strength is in our
diversity. Not necessarily. Diversity is
good, but not just for the sake of diversity. What's good is
you have a membership of people who have been born by the Spirit
of God and who love Him and desire to serve Him. The fact that we
may come from diverse nationalities, that doesn't show anything except
God's purpose of saving men of all tongues, all nations, redeemed
under God by His blood. But here's the last, the sixth
thing that stands out to me, the question, the question that I must ask
myself. If I had been a believer, and
that day had been a companion of Paul, Would he even have mentioned
me? Could he have written of me what
he wrote of some of these people? That they labored. Yeah, they
labored much in the Lord. Could he have written of me that
I rest my neck for the safety of a messenger of the gospel? Could he have written of me as
a true servant of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? And
I think all of us should ask ourselves the same questions
when we look at a chapter like this. Could he say of you? Could he say of me? He labored
in the Lord. He labored much in the Lord. I trust, I pray that it would
be so, of all of us. All right, David, if you will
come and lead us.