Romans chapter 16 it's there's
there's a lot let me say this there's a lot of stuff that I
could deal with in the last chapter there are some things that I
could go through and you know we went through I think we got
even through verse 16 of 16 last last week because this is a lot
of things that Paul is saying and parting and It's important
because it is the Word of God, but it's not necessarily doctrinal.
So there's just some things that we should take from it. And one
of the things that I said last week that we should take from
this closing is that Paul commends certain people. He commends different
saints throughout different seasons of his life. And the list is
huge. And it goes to show you that
Paul, even though he is a hero of the faith and we often think
of Paul as this great dynamic man, Paul spent most of his mission
work in prison. So the work of on the ground,
boots on the ground, church work, church planting, ministering
to the saints, was done by other people, was done by the local
assembly. And that's why Paul so passionately
tells in the letter to the Ephesians, he tells the elders there to
teach the church, to do the work of the ministry so that as we
learn these things, it's not just for our individual pleasure.
It is for the sake of one another. It also, when you see this closing
and these greetings, if you will, there's something that we need
to make parallel to in the context of our present-day ideals concerning
men and women in the ministry. Outside of the eldership, our
sisters in the faith are able to do everything that God has
commanded us to. There is no specific place where women are
not supposed to be sharing the gospel, or men only are supposed
to be doing this, or praying, etc., etc., etc. For the eldership,
not every man is called to that. But those who are called are
only men. And the specific reason for that is the headship of Christ
and the picture of the gospel and the sanctity of marriage.
And we hold that in high honor because of what it represents.
So that two, we understand the order of what God has done. And
if my wife were my pastor, she would be my head. And that doesn't
look right. It doesn't stand right. But outside of that, we
are subject to the scripture. So when Paul says to speak the
truth in love, and to do all things and to look to the glory
of God, he's speaking to the saints, not just the men of the
church. He's showing here in these closing remarks that the
sisters in the work of his ministry were just as vital and just as
important as were the brothers. And if we get now to verse 17,
which is where I wanna be, let's read that. He says, I appeal
to you brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions
and create obstacles. Contrary to the doctrine that
you have been taught, avoid them. For such persons do not serve
our Lord, but their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery,
they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is
known to all so that I rejoice over you. But I want you to be
wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. God of peace
will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you. Now let's stop there. Let's revisit
this again. Let's talk for a moment about
this appeal, this exhortation. Paul said, I commend these people
to you. I commend these brothers and
these sisters. Please receive them, love them, welcome them. Some of them, as we see, that
aren't listed here, some of the brothers and sisters in their
own fellowship in Rome, we're weak. And Paul says, for we who
are strong, we welcome them in Christ, for Christ has welcomed
us. Now, these strong saints that have been working and laboring
for the sake of your joy, for the sake of your gospel, for
the sake of your Lord on my behalf, I commend them to you as well.
Greet them. They're coming to minister to you. They will continue
to do the work that they've been called to do. These workers in
Christ And then He does not forget, He does not let them forget that
amongst all of those who are entreated, all of those who are
welcomed, all of those who are working, will come others who
are not working. There will come others who should
not be welcomed. And so when we think about the
idea of loving unity, one of the things we have to be careful
with is not to fall prey to the cultural mindset that loving
unity means to accept people no matter what. Now, should we
be kind? Yes. Should we be caring? Yes.
Should we be loving in our attitude and our approach? Yes. But just
because someone comes and confesses Christ and wants to jump right
in head first, if they don't pass the test, They should not
be ministering. They should not be serving. They
should not be intimate. Unity is not everybody stands
together in the same place. Unity is that we understand that
the God of peace has given us His Spirit. We are in the same
Christ. We have the same gospel. We have
the same purpose. We have the same calling. We
have the same mission. We have the same vision. We are
the same body. And the way we distinguish between
those who are truly in the body of Christ and those who are not
is by their confession, by their testimony that Jesus Christ in
all of His person, in all of His work, in all of His promises
is our righteousness. That it's not in the work of
the flesh, it's not in the actions of the mind, it's not in the
will of our morality and our desire to do and be that which
the world would say is godly. Now, of course, these things
are ours to bear out of love for the Lord. But when these
things don't take place, when we see division, Paul has dealt
with that. How do we handle it? We are unified,
not because we lack division or that we don't have problems,
but we're unified because love wins. And our love for one another
is what takes us into the place of worship and what keeps us
into that place of keeping our eyes on the gospel so that the
divisions don't matter anymore. Those things all of a sudden
become less and less important, less and less provocative, less
and less divisive. And so we begin to love and yet
there will still always be people who come into the fellowship
of the church and try to edge their way in and try to come
into the assembly for the mere purpose of causing divisions.
Because there's something crazy about the human condition. There's
something crazy about human nature that just loves drama. And if
there's not enough drama, then we'll cause it. And if we can't
cause it, then we'll stir it. And if we can see a way to make
it take place, then we'll encourage it. And what are the ways to
cause drama? What are the ways to cause divisions? Well, there's many ways. Paul
has already dealt with some of them. Sin can cause division.
Division can cause division. Arguing and fighting. Like Paul
would say to the church of Philippi, what's the last thing he says
in Philippians chapter 4? He starts there in that very
beginning, the beginning words of his close, and he encourages
these two sisters in the Lord to reconcile. Then he charges
one of the brothers in the fellowship to help them do it. You see. Now see, that's great. But there are some divisions
that we can't really be patient with. There are some divisions
that we can't just say, okay, well in time we'll work these
things out. For example, if somebody was filling the cups for our
Lord's table this coming Lord's Day, and we saw next to the juice
or the wine or whatever it is you want to call it, we saw next
to that this poisonous powder because there was some ants.
And they sprinkled some poisonous powder on the ground around the
table because ants had gotten there from last week. And then
they decided just to sit it open atop the cups. Now we would be
foolish not to go, okay we probably shouldn't drink out of these
today because that probably dusted into there and if it don't kill
us it's gonna really cause trouble. We don't need a massive exodus
to the two restrooms we have for vomiting up poison. So that
type of division is not something, well look at how silly they are
to put the poison on top of the Lord's table. Let's just, well
let's don't say anything right now because we don't want to
hurt their feelings. Well, are feelings really important
in the context of death? Are feelings really important
in the urgency of someone being poisoned? Are feelings really
important? Not as much as health. Not as
much as living. Not as much as not dying from
being accidentally poisoned at the Lord's table. Oh, what a
headline that would make! Grace Truth Cult kills everybody.
I mean, you know, you could see it. It would become the talk
of the town for a couple of days. And everybody would say, I knew
it. I knew Tippins was a bad guy. Enough of the macabre, let
me bring the point home. We would not allow that type
of poison to go unnoticed. We would handle it. We would
mitigate it. We would do so lovingly. And we would say, hey, brother,
sister, whoever you might be, we know you didn't mean to do
this. We know you didn't mean to try to sprinkle this stuff.
You didn't intentionally do it, but it did contaminate. Let's clean
this up and let me help you clean this table in preparation for
our Lord's Day. The same thing is true when it
comes to divisive doctrine. Yes, we must be willing to listen. We must be willing not to pass
judgment, but we don't let it go for weeks and weeks and weeks
and weeks just thinking, well, we'll take time out. Divisive
doctrine is just like poisoned wine. It will cause destruction. It will create obstacles so abruptly
that we'll think to ourselves, how will we ever survive this?
It will poison the body of Christ in an incredible and quick fashion. What should we do for those who
refuse to pay attention, who refuse to walk away from this
divisive doctrine? At best, if we love one another
and we say to someone, do not teach that, you are not thinking
through this. What you're saying is wrong. Because they love us, they will
go, Oh Lord, I do not want to poison my family. Those who refuse,
at that moment, the scripture says we avoid them. We avoid
them. People will come in to try to
take away doctrinal fidelity. They will do what they can, because
there's something else innate in the human heart, is that no
matter what gives glory, if we get glory, we love it. If we're known as the heretic,
we love it. If we get glory from having a
weird doctrine, we thrive under it. Not us who have the spirit,
but those who are false converts, those who don't know the truth.
And friends, we've had it in our fellowship. We've had faults
and divisive doctrines that created obstacles contrary to the doctrine
that you have been taught. And the scripture says here,
avoid them. Now let me give you an example that may not be on
your mind right now. What happens if someone, let's
say they were a friend of mine and a long time brother, and
for whatever reason, they were in this pulpit. And they taught
the gospel perfectly. And they stood here and they
exegeted the doctrines of Christ contextually. And at the end
it was all well and good that what they said then was pure. Good, we have doctrinal purity.
But as they approached you, as you approached them, they began
to treat you with disdain. They began to poison your spirit
through interactions that were impatient, hostile. dare I say the word toxic, they
should be avoided. For no one who teaches in the
authority of God's word over the fellowship can have that
characteristic. They should not be given the
platform, even if they teach what is right. Of course, if
we're teaching what is wrong, if someone teaches what is wrong,
we do understand to avoid them. But these people who have not
a heart for the sheep should be silenced. And if they are
not silenced, we should avoid them. And see, that's an area
of avoidance that a lot of us have not considered. Because
sometimes we think, well, division in doctrine is always teaching. But am I not teaching you when
I love you? Am I not teaching the gospel clearly when I'm patient
with you? Am I not teaching the gospel
also in the actions of my heart as a shepherd? So if I violate
the gospel teaching. I am not worthy as a teacher. For such persons do not serve
the Lord Christ, but their own appetites. Now let's look at
both sides of the coin. False teachers with false doctrine. All they want to do is be heard.
They want to spew and purvey there. That means to sell. They
want to continue to spread their lies and their false teaching.
And friends, this is the crux of evangelicalism. It's the whole
of Protestantism that most people, most pastors, most teachers,
are teaching that which is not true in the name of Scripture,
which is in the name of Christ, the living Word of God. Yet, there are also some who
have the appetite for self-glory, but they hate Christ's people.
Do you not think that Judas Iscariot preached a good gospel? Yes,
he did. Judas Iscariot preached a good
gospel. Judas Iscariot, what did he do? He also had the power,
according to the Lord, as God granted him as an apostle, or
as a disciple, to work the work of the ministry with Jesus. He
was known probably as one of the most zealous of Jesus' men. Yet he hated Christ, and he hated
Christ's people. How do we know? We saw his end. His God was his belly. His flesh
and His own appetite was His desire, not the gospel of free
and sovereign grace. So they look after their own
appetites. They do not serve the Lord. And
how do we serve the Lord? We serve the Lord by serving
the Lord's people. We serve the Lord by teaching
the Lord's people. We serve the Lord by praying
for the Lord's people. We serve the Lord by providing
the needs for the Lord's people. That is how we serve the Lord.
So if I'm just up here blabbing facts, but I'm not doing it because
I love you, I'm not serving Christ. Paul says, actually back to the
Philippians in the first chapter, he says, many in his imprisonment
preach out of pretense. They preached for ulterior motives.
But Paul said let them preach on the streets in that context
because they were preaching the truth. But they were not converted
though they were preaching the truth. Anybody can ditto head something
they've memorized. But they hated Paul. They hated
the disciples of Christ. They hated the church. They hated
the brethren. They weren't preaching because
they loved the elect. They were preaching because they
love the sound of their own voice and they love to see people agree
with them and they love to see the fans that they accumulated
in that popular medium of oratory. Smooth talk, flattery, What happens
when these people talk smoothly and they flatter others is that
they deceive the hearts of the naive. In this sense, I believe
Paul's talking about naive believers in the sense that they were young
believers. They were new converts. They'd
yet to be taught to watch out. So Paul's saying to them, watch
out. There are people among you who
are coming among you and they seem legitimate, but you'll know
they're not mine. because they'll flatter and they'll
try to talk. Now what is the difference there in 2 Peter?
Peter says that they actually were teaching sensuality and
sexual depravity. They were teaching all sorts
of things. Getting young converts, naive and weak people to what? Fall prey to that. Paul says
the same type of thing when he's talking to Timothy where he says
that these people will sneak in and he uses this imagery.
He says they'll sneak in and they'll capture weak women. who are not ready and all of
a sudden they're captured as if like they're being abducted,
sold into slavery. And that's what these false teachers
do. They're not as easy to spot as we think they are. That is
why the qualifications for those who teach, even while they may
be teaching the truth for now, ultimately their false gospel
will come out of their mouth. They will begin to reveal themselves,
but long before their doctrinal error catches up to their lie,
they're the truth of their hatred to God's people and those who
hold to the soundness of the gospel. will come long before
them. It will be like the fire truck
at the beginning of the parade. You will know the parade has
started when you hear that siren. The siren of the lack of love
for God's people, for those who teach, goes out long before the
error of their heresy ever catches up like the horses at the end
of the parade. The stench of their false doctrine
finally becomes obvious. The damage has been done. They deceive the hearts of the
naive. It doesn't mean that these people are lost, the naive. It means
they are deceived. Christians can be deceived. Christians
can be deceived in their behavior. Christians can be deceived in
their doctrine. You can be tempted to make provision
for your flesh even though you have been born of God and are
resting in the assurance that Christ alone is your only hope,
but when some other smart-sounding, flattering, unloving teacher
stands up and starts to tell you something a little bit different,
if you're new and young and aren't paying attention and you don't
have the body around you to listen with you, it's very easy to be
wooed. Such were the conditions in Galatia. All of those churches of all
of those cities in that region that the Judaizers who claim
to believe in the free and sovereign grace of God through Christ begin
to attach addendums to the gospel, conditions to the gospel, obedience
to the gospel, and all sorts of different things to which
Paul responds and calls them anathema, a play on words dealing
with the cutting away of flesh and circumcision. They, in this
same way, will be cut away from Christ. But the true church, the true
believers will not be deceived forever. They may be caught up
in the flattery, but soon and very soon they will see very
clearly that the people that teach these things don't truly
love them because they will not stand in doctrinal fidelity. Verse 19, Paul continues to explain
what he means. He says, your obedience is known
to all so that I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise
as to what is good. And I want you to be innocent
as to what is evil. Now, I said this last week. I mentioned this
last week. Didn't I go through this a little bit? I think it
was really fast. But Paul is saying, I want you
to be very wise. I want you to be knowledgeable.
I want you to know the truth. I want you to know the doctrines
of Christ. I want you to study the letters that I've written
to you. I want you to study the other letters that are being
copied for your behalf, that the other apostles wrote to other
Christians across the regions. I want you to know the truth
of the gospel. I want you to study it. I want
the pastors and the elders to oversee the teaching of the truth
so that it might root hard and permanently by the Holy Spirit
in your mind and in your hearts. Chapter 12, verses one and two.
be what? Transformed by the renewing of
your mind. And you will know that which is good, the will
of God, and perfect. So in this now, Paul is saying,
I want you to be wise. I want you to know as much of
the good as you can possibly know, but I want you to remain
innocent as to what is evil. Two things to know about this.
I don't want you participating in evil acts. I don't want you
to be hateful. I don't want you to be unloving.
I don't want you to fall prey. Even if these false teachers
are exactly what they seem to be, don't sin in your flesh against
them. Don't sin against them. Don't
prove yourself to be a hypocrite. Because you are in Christ. I
want you to be innocent as well. I don't want you to be named.
I don't want people to come in here and say, you should have seen
how James attacked that heretic on the internet. If I attack
someone on the internet and I am rude, callous, harsh, unloving
in any way, I will have to step out of this pulpit until such
a time as my public character is restored. The other part of being innocent
to evil is don't give an ear to it. Don't give a platform
for it. Don't give an opportunity for
anybody else to hear anything they're teaching about anything.
Don't teach evil thinking it is good for the church to hear
about the evil so when they hear the evil they'll know it's evil.
So you know what poison tastes like. I'm going to sprinkle just
enough, not enough to kill you, but just enough to give you a
splitting headache and a good run to the diarrhea room. I'm
going to put just enough into this wine for the Lord's table
because I want you to know if you're ever poisoned what it
tastes like when you put it to your lips. I want you to experience
a slight poisoning of your body. That's what it's like to teach
heresy to the church. Say, don't look at that, and
everybody looks over there. Don't look at this, everybody
looks over there. You avoid divisive heretics in
every avenue and instrument available to our senses, our eyes, our
ears, our hands, what we can think about, what we can see,
what we can experience in any way, we avoid them. We don't talk about them. We
block them. We burn them out of our existence.
We remove them forever. We mark them and we tell everyone
that we can who knows them in that context. No more of this. Because this is the truth. This
isn't. These are the brothers and sisters
that love the Lord and His gospel. This isn't. Just, what does he
believe? I don't care. Be done. You see? Why? Because human nature. This is
the third thing I'm talking about human nature. We love a fight.
We love a fight. We love to be victorious. We
want to be the champion. We hear Queen screaming in the
background. And we are the champions. I mean,
you know, you can hear it. And we're thinking, wow, look
at what we are. We're doing it for Jesus. Jesus
doesn't need our doing. He defends himself quite well. We need to focus on what is in
front of us. We need to focus on what is around us. We need
to hold true to a unity that a heretic couldn't squeeze into
if he wanted to. One of the main ways that false
doctrine comes into the church today, and I've been doing a little bit
too much research, And one of the main ways false doctrine
comes into the church in our present day is that because congregations
talk so much about so many heresies and so much false doctrine that
it's real open segue for somebody who's a heretic to come in and
say, hey, I heard you talking about such and such. And they just... Next thing you know, that's all
we're talking about. We don't even have to have somebody
agree with false doctrine for them to be a heretic. It's just
all they know. It's all they want to do. It's not the place. Give the
emphasis that Paul and the apostles give it a line in an entire letter. And it says, avoid them. Jude
says the same thing. Avoid these people. Warn them
once. Please hush. and then avoid them
forever. Avoid them. But that doesn't
settle well with our self-glory. It doesn't settle well with some
of my brothers in the faith, whose entire existence and ministry
is only on the internet. And when God shuts that down,
they have no ministry. And they shouldn't have one anyway.
Teaching, if it can go out into other vehicles, awesome! But
what would you do if it was gone now? And I'm not saying there's
anything wrong with you all deciding, hey, you know what, I want to
read Scripture, talk about Scripture, and I'm going to stream that stuff
live with this thousand people that I got in this group. Great,
do it! But you're not a pastor. You're not shepherding. You're
just obeying the commandment of Christ to proclaim the gospel.
That's great. Do it, whatever. If you want
to write letters, then put them in the truck stops. My Lord,
the heretics do it. Do whatever! But just to understand
that the only real and true, lasting ministry of the gospel
is going to be when we are investing in the lives of each other. And
whether it be on the phone or with letter or remotely or through
or through the electronic means that we have, whatever, there
needs to be true intimacy involved in teaching and to protecting
the church. It's not a blanket shotgun blast. Let's see who it gets. How do
you pray for your spiritual body when you don't even know their
names? How do you meet the physical needs of someone who's starving
but you don't even know they're hungry? You don't even know they
exist. Let the Lord's Word encourage
His sheep through any possible means, but let it be clear to
us, beloved, that when Paul said, I commend to you Phoebe, and
I commend to you Prisca and Aquila, all these other people, Andronicus,
Junia, Urbanus, Apelles, that these people were going to show
up. These people were going to be involved. These people were
invited to be a part of the life of the church, whether it be
a day or a week or a month or a year, forever. They had unity
in the gospel. And when somebody else showed
up and said, hey, I'm here to be part of the church, and they
were dividing over doctrine and dividing and unlovingness, they
were to be avoided. Because you can't kick them out
of the city, right? You can't. The church shouldn't
have that power. We can't banish people from a
location because they are heretics. If we could, depending on who
had the bigger sword, either us or them would be here right
now. depending on who we're talking about. But I want you to be innocent
of what is evil. Don't spend a lot of time with it. Avoid
it. Avoid sin, avoid the discussion, avoid it all. Several years ago
I was asked to do a class, 16 weeks class on world religions. And I don't know how many weeks
we made it through, but we didn't. I don't think we did but seven,
and it just didn't settle with me. Yeah, I can teach that stuff.
But I'd much rather just teach the scripture, because if I teach
the truth of Christ, then those students who learn the truth
of Christ, when someone knocks on their door and says, hey,
I want to tell you a little bit about Jesus, and they start blabbing
on about something that they haven't learned, they go, that's
not Jesus. This is Jesus, and they proclaim
the truth. Sometimes apologetics loses its
focus when we think that apologetics is having all the knowledge about
all the things in every realm of every wrong. When really,
apologetics, if you take it straight from Peter's writing, it is giving
a defense of the hope of Christ. That means to proclaim that which
God has proclaimed through Christ to others. And the context there is directly
related to when people saw the suffering of the Jews in the
Dyspersia and they wondered why they were continuing to permit
themselves to suffer and be ostracized and their lives ruined because
of this Jesus. When people were baffled by the
fact that they would be so dumb, they could proclaim the free
and sovereign grace of God as their answer. So then chapter 16 verse 21, we see these words. Timothy,
my fellow worker, greets you. So do Lucius and Jason and Sossipater. Who knows? My kinsmen. So now
Paul is giving more. Here's a few more of the brethren
that are working with me. They're with me now. And by the
way, when this, when, when, when Tertius is writing this for me,
they're here and like, man, let's pray for these people. Can you
imagine what it was like to sit in the room with Paul as he dictated? And Tertius is writing, not Tertius,
but Tertius or Tortilla. Tertius. Now I think it's tertius. T-U-R-T-I-U-S. And he's writing, and Paul's
talking, and he's like, whoa! And then they're getting excited
about what Paul is saying. Can you imagine the hallelujah
moments? Did he write it all in one sitting?
Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it took a week or two.
Maybe it was several times. Maybe as they were having their
own discussions and learning from Paul, They would sit down. He said,
write this down. Write this to the Romans. I think
it was probably done more in one sitting because it's so cohesive. But either way, imagine it. But Tertius writes himself into
the letter. I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the
Lord as well. Don't leave me out, Paul. This was a long letter.
My hand hurts. Yeah, Timothy, I know, he's your
favorite, but I'm helping too. I'm not marring the intentions
of turkeys, I'm just saying. I'm being funny. And Gaius, who
is host to me, and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus,
the treasurer of the city, and our brother, Quartus, greet you. We love you all, and
we say hello. And we're fighting the good fight.
And you need to watch out for evildoers who cause division
and avoid them at all costs. Be innocent to their evil in
word and in deed. But be wise to everything that
is true and everything that is sovereign. This is almost an
identical exhortation to the Philippians. Whatever is lovely,
whatever is pure, whatever is good, think on these things.
All right, you sisters that are fighting, I'm going to get this
guy to help you straighten that out. Be of one mind, as Christ
is. Have the mind of Christ, which
is yours. And then verse 25, which is the point of this entire
sermon tonight, now that we have just a few minutes left, there's
a praise. There is what we call a doxology.
And it should be, most of you would have that word written
in your Bible there. But it says, now to him, What's that mean? Now we've said
everything we need to say about the gospel and about Christ.
We've given some exhortation. We've warned people. We've given
some practical instruction. We've taught justification. We've
taught redemption. We've taught the gospel of free
and sovereign grace. Now you've got everything that
you need in this letter. I want to remind you over and
over again to hold fast to it. And there's a lot of people involved
in the ministry here and here they are. And when they show
up, if they show up, you need to greet them as if it were me.
They're important because the ministry and the work of Christ
is for the sake of the beloved, for the sake of the elect, those
who have yet to believe that will believe through the proclamation
of the gospel that we have received. And then as life together now,
that's where the rubber hits the road. We serve Christ when
we serve each other. We love Christ when we love each
other. It's amazing how what a parallel this is to what we've
been learning on Sunday morning in John 14. But then at the end, Paul, as
he often does, gives praise to Him, now to Him. Worship to Him. Oh, to the glory of Him. Him,
who Jesus, the Son of God, God the Son, God the Father, God
the Spirit, the God of the cosmos, who set me into these places. And many times Paul would say,
and put me in these chains for your sake, like he said to Colossae,
that I may fill up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ now
to this one. to this God, to the one and only
true God of all things, who is forever and ever, now to Him.
And this is where God, this is where Paul, what Paul emphasizes,
is able to strengthen you. He's able to strengthen you.
Why do we need strength? Because we got infighting. We
got weak Christians. We've got arrogance. We've got
pride. We've got fleshliness. We've got false teachers. We've
got persecution from the government. We've got Jews telling us that
we're bad because we eat Halloween cakes. And we've got Greeks telling
them they're bad because they eat Hanukkah cakes. And everybody's
hating one another. But now to him, It's not about us, church. It's
not about James and his fervor and his passion and his zeal
and his ability. It's not about any of us and
all of our strong abilities in our flesh just being resolved
to be so awesome and be this great Christian brother or sister.
And so we can go down in the historical record as awesome. How about we become the nobodies
that loudly lamented over the body of Stephen in Acts chapter
7? Because it's about Him. And the
whole reason we do not throw our hands in the air and say,
I am done with Christ and I am done with this gospel business
and I'm done with this apostles letter and I'm done with this
assembly and I'm done with these people. I was better off being
in the world and living well. The only reason we don't do that
is because He strengthens you. Because as God is my witness,
not to quote Scarlett, but as God is my witness, if I were
to give in to every inkling of the give up in my spirit, I would
have given up a billion times already. And I'm not just talking
about ministry. I'm talking about life, marriage,
parenting, gardening, simple things, and great things. But oh, the strength of God,
He who is able to strengthen you. How does He strengthen me?
What kind of strength am I getting? Am I just getting some encouragement? Go boy, go, go! Run, run, run!
Yes! You beat your time by half a second. No, it's beyond that. He's able to strengthen you according
to my gospel. I don't know why I'm holding
the stopwatch still. of the truth of the word of God,
Jesus, and all that he's done and all that he's finished and
the work that he's accomplished for us, his elect, his sheep,
his beloved, his bride, his church, that which Christ has done according
to this work in us that I have preached to you. God is able
to strengthen you. Paul puts it another way in some
of the other letters. According to the power at work in us that
was able to raise Christ from the dead. The finished work of
salvation. So according to this finished
work, God is able to strengthen you in the same power and in
the preaching, the proclamation, the teaching, the continual reminders
of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery.
Where so many people for so long and so many areas of the world,
so many generations were never taught, and you not only have
been taught, but you have seen. And you can never unsee, you
can never unsee that which God has caused you to see by His
mercy and power. And you see what was a mystery
for all of those, for all the ages. It has been disclosed,
even though through the prophetic writings it has been made known
to all nations, even though it was sort of not even grasped
or proclaimed through the prophets. Now it is proclaimed. Hebrews
1 come to mind. Many times, in many ways, God
has spoken to our forefathers through the prophets, but in
these last days, He has spoken to us through His Son, whom He
appointed the heir of all things, who is greater than the angels,
who is greater than all of creation that He created by Himself and
through Himself and for Himself. He is greater than Moses. He
is greater than Abraham. He is greater than the temple.
He is greater than Melchizedek. He is greater than all. Because He is preeminent. Colossians
1. It should just run like water
in your mind. If you read the Word of God,
it should just mix into your mind like this incredibly smooth,
jello-like blend. Not all one color, but beautifully
meshed. When you hear words like these,
the rest of the exhortation to the saints from Paul and others
should just sort of come to mind. You might not even know where
it is, but you should hear these words as they resound in your
heart. Because in that resonance, listen to this, in that resonance,
that's the strength of Christ in you. It's been made known to all nations.
Why and how, according to the command of the eternal God, to
bring about the obedience of faith. Now, I've got to talk again.
I've got one more week in this. One more week. It's too important
to close out quickly. To bring about the obedience
of faith. Now, keep in mind what Paul wanted to do here is just
say, now to Him, to the only wise God be glory forevermore
through Jesus Christ. So it is. But he couldn't help himself. He had to put all of that, who
God is, and what He does, and how He does it, and why He does
it, and to what end He does it, and with what power He does it,
and all of these different things, for whom He does it. And now
you know this God. His name is Jesus and you are
strengthened in him. Paul says it no clearer than
this when he says, I no longer live. But it is Christ who lives
within me. No, I can't do it. I can't stand
firm. I can't keep faith. I can't remain
obedient. I can't do all sorts of things.
I can't love the way I'm supposed to, live the way I'm supposed
to. I can't desire the way that I'm required to. Christ did all
that for me. He's not causing me to do it.
so that I'm worthy, He's the only one that's worthy, and I
get credit for it. That's why I want to talk about
the obedience of faith. Christ and His gospel, it is
Christ that lives within us. It is Christ that lives within
us. Therefore, Paul says, continuing there, I live by faith. Means my assurance, my confidence
is in Christ Jesus who loved me and gave himself for me. See the gospel is encompassed
in that reality. Or the reality of the gospel
is encompassed in that statement. It's not I who live. It's not
you who lives. It's Christ who lives within
you. So by faith we live this life. We live this life by faith
in the Son of God who is alive in us. He's alive in us. We are
sealed. By God. And we are strengthened
by him, even when it feels and appears like no hope is there,
hope has already won. Forevermore, through Jesus Christ.
Let's pray. Lord, what a fantastic ending
of a letter. And I pray that as we we shuffle
some things around next week and we close out this teaching
in Romans and those 7374 sermons, Lord, it is not sufficient. This
is as we call it, our reading. I believe it would take 78 years
to properly exegete this text thoroughly. I'm going to start
over again and keep on going. Father, for what you have desired,
you have accomplished. Your Word has not returned to
you empty. It is not void because of its
brevity or because of the depth in which we might approach it,
Father, or in the intelligence by which we may dissect it. But,
Father, it is doing that which you intended for it to do in
the manner in which it was written, even if we read it in one sitting
and moved on. But we have the luxury of going
through at a slower pace and eating of the bread of life. Father, help us to hold to the
spread, not by our own strength, but by your faithfulness. That our faith would be in your
faithfulness to save. And that we would not lose sight
of the power of Christ in us. That we might pray, and even
when we can't, know the promise that you've said that your Spirit
would pray for us. That we might love, but even
when we can't, that your Word has promised that you loved us
first. And that even when sin lies crouching at the door and
jumps on us in a way that we fear that we will never escape,
we have already escaped it. We've already been put to death
with Christ, and His death was not condemnation eternally, but
it was propitiation. And now we've been raised with
Christ, and we are found in Him perfect and sanctified forever,
never to be, never to be separated from You. In Jesus' name we pray,
Amen.