Take our Bibles and turn to the
book of Romans, chapter 16. Romans 16. I've enjoyed this book, it's
been a book of. Great revelation to me. And I
pray to you. And in these closing verses,
we're going to be actually looking at some that Paul is speaking to
the church at Rome about, some brethren. And I thought about,
as I was reading, I'm going to be looking at verses 21 to 24
in a minute. And as I read these verses of
Scripture, He gave names of different individuals. It caused me to
think about how, in Paul's day, how thankful he was that he could
express to the church there at Rome some thanksgiving and some
salutations and some commendations and some words concerning those
that he knew personally that the Lord had done something for. I was thinking this morning what
a blessing it is to be able to do the same thing. Here are sitting people that
I am so thankful for and that I thank God for. And how many times I have made
mention of you to others and telling them what a blessing
it is to me that Almighty God has given us. fellowship in the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul is doing. And
knowing that every Scripture is given by the breath of God,
the inspiration of God, and every Scripture is profitable for correction
and reproof, or that is to prove God's grace, for instruction
in righteousness, I pray that this morning that the Lord might
be pleased to teach us something and that we wouldn't just read
over these names. These are actually people that
the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed, shed his blood for, that the
Father everlastingly chose in Christ, that God the Father has been
pleased by His Spirit to teach us something through. Though
in themselves, I know this, like we are this morning, they are
but dust, frail creatures that have gone back to the dust now.
Those bodies that they lived in have been sown in corruption,
but for Those that God everlastingly
loved, they're going to be raised in incorruption. Those bodies
are coming out of the grave. That's going to be a resurrection.
These bodies. Paul the Apostle is relating
something this morning. Salvation is personal. These
are actually people. And you yourself, you're an actual
person. And you want to know something.
You want to know something about He who chooses, and you want
to know something about the One in whom you're chosen. Almighty God has always known
the objects of His mercy and grace. They've been people. David said, I consider the heavens. Who is man that thou art mindful
of him? A man. You think about this. Almighty God that would choose
because He loved the world. He loved the order of man. He chose some individuals out
of every place. Every nook and cranny. Brother
Henry said that he believes that God is just going to be a representative
of every namesake. God would show some mercy to
some stonkers. I'm glad for that. Some locks. God Almighty was pleased out
of every nation, every kindred, every tribe, every tongue. Paul's going to mention some
of them this morning. Verse 21. Here's an individual right here. Timothy. Timotheus Timothy. My workfellow. Oh, Paul, how he thanked God
that God raised up Timothy, spoke of him, and said, I'm so thankful
for you. I'm thankful. He said, your mama
and your grandma, they read you the Scriptures, and God blessed
them to you. and made you what you are, fellow
worker. You were a real help to me. I appreciated you. Lucius, Jason, Sosipater, my
kinsmen, salute you. What those kinsmen Relatives,
that's what that kinsman, kinsman I know in Christ, brethren in
Christ. But kinsman, that word also is
by blood. Paul was thankful that those,
that God had caused to be in his family, how he was thankful.
Don't you know he was thankful for that nephew, his sister's
son that we looked at a few weeks ago that heard of that plot and
how God had taken that young nephew and came to talk to Paul. You know the story. Paul said,
I've got some right here. He said, some in my family that Almighty God wrote their
names in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world. I got some folks, I got some
people in my family by blood that are kinsmen by blood and
kinsmen by grace. And I'm thankful for them. I'm
thankful. Not many. It's obvious, not many. But I'm telling you, they're
sons. And I thank the Lord for them. I, Titius, verse 22, who wrote
this epistle, salute you in the Lord. I know he penned it. I know that
holy men of God wrote as the Spirit of God moved upon them. Bore them up is what it means.
These men wrote down what God Almighty by His Spirit told them
to write. And they wrote under direct inspiration
and the power and the grace of God. And I'm so thankful that I can know. Listen, I'm resting my soul on exactly what this book says. I will take, Jeff, a word, one
word in here, and one word can change the meaning of something.
And by the grace of God, God Almighty has given me a heart
to rest in Christ exactly, exactly, what this book says as God reveals
it to me, as He teaches me. This man says, I wrote it. He
penned it. That's what he meant. He wasn't
taking any credit for that. He said, I, Titus, who wrote
this epistle, I salute you in the Lord. I salute you. I give honor to
you. I beckon you. I talk to you. That's the evidence of somebody
that God's done something for. I salute you in the Lord. Let's
don't talk about all the... I don't want to hear about what
you've done for the Lord. Whenever somebody starts talking
about, you know, I salute you in the Lord. Thankful
that God's done something. Verse 23, Gaius, mine host and
of the whole church, saluteth you. Oh, I want you to notice how
the Spirit of God directed Paul to set forth those distinguishing
characteristics. Here's what he said. This man
right here, oh, he said, God Almighty has blessed this man,
he said, with a special gift of hospitality. He just took me in. Hospitality. A man to just have somebody just,
you know, My home is your home. Let me know what you need. If I've got it, it's yours. He
said he's the host of mine. He's my host of the whole church. Paul said he wasn't trying to
impress me. No, Paul can't spend the night at your house tonight
if anybody else needs You need a place. Those that Almighty God loves,
God gave this man a heart to love them. I have yet to ever see a time
when somebody came over to stay with somebody else, a believer,
and that there wasn't a blessing in it. They received a blessing. God just, God blessed that home. I thank God for the homes that
the Lord has raised up and established and kept. You say, well, I just
gave them, I mean, they just spent the night at, I mean, whosoever
should give you a cup of water to drink. In my name, because you belong
to Christ. Now listen, I'm quoting a scripture
here, Mark 9, 41. For whosoever shall give you
a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ,
verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. Let me tell
you something. If my son or one of my daughters
was out somewhere and they were broke down and they cut off and
they did something like that. And somebody, especially because
they knew that they were one of my kids and they did it for
me. You're Marvin's boy? You're Marvin's
daughter? Oh, I've known your daddy. Man, we go back. Come here, come
here, come here. Honey, here, get him a glass
of water right here. What else you need, son? Let me tell you something. Buddy,
you've got a friend forever. Whatever you need, and I've got
it in my power to give, because you belong to Christ. Paul said,
guys, My host, for Christ's sake, verily I say unto you, inasmuch
as you have done it, unto the least of one of these my brethren."
The Lord said, you did that to Me. Somebody, be nice, one of your
kids, they did that to you. You did
that to Me. That was bone of my bone and
flesh of my flesh. And that's how Christ sees it. When Saul of Tarsus was persecuting
the church, he said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? When
you did it to one of them, you did that to me. That's my body. Erastus. The Chamberlain of the
City saluted you. You know, obviously that title,
Chamberlain of the City, I don't know. It could have been a treasurer.
I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't matter.
But he held some political office. And whatever it was, here's the bottom line. God Almighty
is God and elect in every area of society. There are not many
mighty, humanly speaking. There are not many noble. There
are not many wise. There are not many tremendously
rich. There are not many tremendously
beautiful. But as far as this world is concerned, There's not many. There's not many high echelon
type in this world's society and government. There's not many.
But thanks be unto God, there's some. There's some Davids. There's some Solomons. There's some. Here was a man right here. He
was a politician. And obviously, Buddy, he was
a fair one. He was honorable. He wasn't trying
to pad his pockets. He did what he did for the glory
of God. If Almighty God saves you, wherever
you are, until God moves you, stay right there and do what
you do. Do exactly what you do. Wherever
God's put you, in society, if He called you out of darkness
and you're a clerk of court, whatever, be right there and
be faithful where God's called you. Be faithful to that ministry. Be faithful. This man was a politician. And he said in Quartus, the last
part of verse 23, in Quartus, Now, listen to this title. A
brother. A brother. Well, I'll tell you,
the world would think so little of that title. Well, the world
wouldn't think anything of that title. A brother. Yeah. Going back to what I was just
talking about. Where are you? Well, I just, I work, I go here,
I'm a housewife, I'm a mother. Oh, I thank God for mothers.
Highest calling that God ever called. Highest calling ever
called a woman to be a mother. Be faithful to that calling.
Take care of those kids. Raise those children. Read the
Scriptures to them. Teach them. Teach them the Word
of God. Mama, teach those kids. Like Timothy's mama and grandma,
taught him the Scriptures. Made him the Scriptures that
were able to make him wise unto salvation. Be a faithful mother. Raise those children. Be their
mama. This man right here is a brother.
But let me ask you this. What did it take to bring that
man to the point to where he could be called a brother? What
did it take? I'll tell you what it took. Almighty God, the Father before
the foundation of the world, God had to set His love upon
him. God set His love on him. God looked upon him and chose
him in Christ. God Almighty before the foundation
of the world purposed in Himself through no merit whatsoever of
Quartus. Quartus, as far as Quartus was
concerned, he was a lump clay dug out of the same pit that
Hitler was dug out of. This guy and Hitler came out
of the same lump. And Almighty God, before the
foundation of the world, purposed according to His own will to
show mercy to Qortus. I'm going to show mercy to Qortus.
Chose him in Christ, in the Lord Jesus Christ, who in that everlasting
covenant of grace said, I'll answer for him. There was never a time when that
started. It was before the foundation as an everlasting covenant. There was never a time when Christ
began to be the eternal surety. Now, we're lost in that thought. It's an everlasting covenant.
And the Spirit of God, everlastingly covenanted, said, I'll quicken
him. I'll quicken him in time. I'll
teach him. I'll seal him. I'll mark him.
God's. And I'll bear him along, led
by the Spirit of God. I'll indwell him. I'll keep him. What did it take
for Quartus to be known as a brother? It took God Almighty to show
mercy to him. The Father to choose him. Christ
to redeem him. The Spirit of God to quicken
him. And Paul says in verse 24, the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. the grace of God or the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our relationship to Him is one
that gives total honor to Almighty God. It is the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the grace of God. When you say that God has shown
grace unto us, you can take that word grace and just put Christ
right there. Almighty God has shown Christ
the revelation of who He is. Man has absolutely no part in
salvation. Man is passive. If we'd ever
get a hold of that, we are the recipients of the grace of God. We are the recipients of God's
mercy, compassion, and salvation. God saves men by grace. And they know it by the means
of faith. You're saved by grace. Through
faith does not mean that your faith added. Your faith, if you
think that your faith is what caused God to save you, then
you believe in salvation by works. You say, well, I don't think
so. Yeah. Try to explain it away if you want to. But if I believe
that God was wanting to do something for me and that I acted upon
something that I felt in my heart, my free will, and I acted and
God saved me because I. That's works. You're saved by grace. You're
saved by Christ. You're saved by mercy. You're
saved by the grace of Almighty God. By grace, you're saved through
faith in that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. The grace
of God is free. There's no merit in me. There's no merit, no worthiness. in me for God to save me, but
listen to this, there's no unworthiness in me that'll ever cause God
to remove it. I'm so thankful. Kept by the
power of God. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
is the summation of all that God Almighty has purposed and
ordained to do in the salvation of His people. Just a few verses. that mentioned a few names. But
these were names that God Almighty has everlastingly loved, everlastingly
known, everlastingly purposed to set His affection on. And
He did it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul said,
after he mentioned these names to the church at Rome, he says,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That which God has done for you,
for His sake, be with you all. Amen. Gary, you come.