The Apostle, as he closes out
the book of Romans, if you look at verse 19, he says, for your
obedience, the obedience of the Roman believers, the church at
Rome, and again now the church at Rome here is true believers,
a congregation, an assembly of sinners saved by grace, And he
says, your obedience has come abroad unto all, all men. In other words, people were aware
that there was a church, that God had raised up a church. You know, the church means the
called out ones. The church refers to God's elect. It refers to the redeemed of
the Lord. And their obedience in the gospel,
that's what he's talking about. He's not talking about their
morality. We promote morality, and Paul
promoted it here for the Roman believers. But he's not saying
just that your morality has come under a broad and dominant, but
it's their belief in Christ. Because this was an issue that
many times brought danger and peril to the people of God, especially
in Rome, where Caesar reigned. You see, Rome was the capital,
the center of the Roman Empire. And Caesar ruled. And many times,
whoever was the Roman Caesar, by the providence of God, there
were many of them who just turned against any form of Christianity
and went after it. We know that Nero did later on.
that he persecuted Christians and they arrested Christians.
But now these were, at this point in time, they were enabled to
exist in the city of Rome and still worship. And it was their
belief of the gospel, their belief of Christ, their identification
with Christ, their message, and their obedience in that had come
abroad unto all men. It was well known. People were
focused on what's going on in Rome. Paul wanted to go there.
And he says, I'm glad therefore on your behalf. And this is something
Paul rejoiced in. And remember the context here
now. Remember he had just told them
to mark them which cause divisions and offenses among them, contrary
to the doctrine. And so this is kind of like an
encouragement. He urges them to be careful.
and to be wise in God's word in order to judge good and evil,
to know the difference between what glorifies God and exalts
Christ and what unites and edifies brethren and what does not. And so he didn't want them to
be deceived. Beware. He wanted them to beware
and to be wary of spiritual contamination by false preachers. And he exhorted
them to judge and expose and avoid them. And their obedience
in all these matters, their insistence upon staying with the truth,
the knowledge of that had come abroad to all men. And Paul rejoiced.
He said, I'm glad, therefore, on your behalf. He says, but
yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple,
that is harmless, concerning evil. Now we talked about that,
you know, those, the Lord told his disciples, remember when
he sent them out to preach the kingdom, tell people the kingdom
of God was at hand, Christ had come, the Messiah had come. He
told them, he said, now when you do this, he said, be wise
as serpents and be harmless as doves. And so what Paul is saying
here is that in your endeavors to get the gospel out, to witness
the gospel, in your endeavors to stand for the truth, use some
wisdom and be harmless. Now, the gospel message is a
message that men and women by nature hate. It's offensive to
them. And that hatred will react against
the people of God in different ways and different degrees. Most
of the time in our day, it's just simply people ignoring us.
Or people, they don't want to talk about religion with you,
because they may have heard what you believe, or they may think
they know what you believe. So they just kind of like isolate
themselves from you in a religious way. Back then, and then even
sometimes today, I think, people react violently against it. And so Paul's saying, now you
use some wisdom and you be harmless in this and be skillful in the
word of righteousness, study to show yourself approved unto
God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, to witness to
Christ, to tell lost people of the only way of salvation, which
is by God's grace through the blood and the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way. And so
this is the issue. He says in verse 20, He says,
and the God of peace, that's who God is. And what he's talking
about, he's not talking about peace at the expense of the truth.
He's not talking about peace that is brought about by compromise. But God's the God of peace, peace
between God and sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
Prince of Peace. What we want to tell people is
that the only way that you can have peace with God is through
the blood of Jesus Christ, the blood of His cross. His righteousness
imputed. God is reconciled to his people
because he made Christ to be sin for us, Christ who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That's the ground of peace with God, the imputed righteousness
of Christ. And so we beseech sinners, be
ye reconciled to God on that same ground. Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he says this God of peace,
This God who is reconciled to us through Christ and to whom
we are reconciled through Christ shall bruise or shall tread upon
Satan under your feet shortly. Now that's an interesting way
to put it. He's gonna tread upon Satan.
What's Paul talking about? You know, you see the word bruise
there. Sometimes, and if you have a
concordance there, It probably says something like tread. He'll
tread upon Satan. In other words, he's going to
defeat Satan. Now, you remember back in Genesis chapter 3 and
verse 15, how the promise of the gospel there with the woman's
seed, that's Christ. It said that Satan will bruise
his heel, that he will bruise Satan's head. That word means
crush. And that prophecy was fulfilled
fully at the cross. That's when Satan was cast out.
And so in time, Satan's always been under the sentence of condemnation
and under defeat. Satan has never had a leg up
on God, you might say. There never was a time where
God in the Lord Jesus Christ was ever in danger of being defeated
by Satan. But for God's purposes, Satan
has been allowed to run wild sometimes in the world, especially
under the Old Testament. And then in the last days, it
says that Satan who is bound is going to be released to deceive
the nations. I believe that time has come
because there's so much false religion, and that's what Satan
does. Satan doesn't work in the realms
of obvious evil, that's evil even that which the natural man
sees. Satan is a deceiver. Satan appears,
the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11, as an angel of light. And so many times, Satan will
be behind the pulpits of America preaching a false gospel. A gospel
of conditional salvation, free willism, work salvation, and
calling it Christianity, calling it grace. And that's why we have
to be careful. You know, Peter said that put
on the whole armor of God that you stand against the wiles of
Satan. Satan does not expose himself
in an obvious way. He comes in stealthily through
false preachers. Even though his defeat is imminent,
he's already been defeated at the cross. He's been loosed to
deceive the nations, and so it's a continual battle. If you look
over in Revelation chapter 12, there's a good description of
this issue. It talks about the great dragon,
beginning at verse 9, Revelation 12 and verse 9, and listen to
what it says. It says, the great dragon was
cast out Remember Christ said that he was cast out at the cross,
the prince of this world is cast out. That old serpent called
the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world. Now that's the
world in general, that's the unbelieving world. That's not
everybody without exception. He doesn't deceive God's children. He may for a time, but at some
point in time, God's children are gonna be called into the
kingdom and enlightened by the revealed word. They're gonna
know God, they're gonna know Christ, they're gonna know themselves,
they're gonna know the way of salvation, and they won't be
deceived by Satan. But Satan will still attack,
and he'll attack from without, he'll attack within. He'll bring
in confusion, error, division, all of that. And he says, Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world, and he does it by false religion.
He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out
with him. In verse 10 he says, I heard a loud voice saying in
heaven, now is come salvation. That's Christ. And strength,
the power. Who is Christ? He's the wisdom
and the power of God. And the kingdom of our God, and
how do I know that's Christ? It's the power of his Christ. And the accuser of our brethren. Now that's saying accuses. Now
what does he accuse us of? Well, we're sinners. I'm a sinner,
and I deserve nothing but death and hell. And he accuses them
before our God day and night, verse 10, but look at verse 11.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the
word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto
death. How do you overcome Satan? When he accuses you of being
a sinner. You are a sinner, I am a sinner. But we plead the blood. We plead the righteousness of
Christ. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, risen
again, and seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living
to make intercession for us. And so Satan, the accuser, he'll
attack the church, but he won't win. And what Paul back here
in Revelation 16, turn back to it, I mean, Romans 16, he says,
the God of peace shall tread upon Satan under your feet shortly. That means Satan's shortly gonna
be defeated. How shortly? Paul didn't know,
none of us know, but Satan's final defeat, verse 20, he says,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. That's our only
hope. That's our only, the three greatest enemies of the people
of God. The world, the flesh, and the
devil. And our only hope of victory
in that battle is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
us, amen. It's not gonna be by our goodness
and our works and our power and our own personal wisdom, it's
all by the goodness, the works, the power, the wisdom of God,
the grace of God. Now Paul begins to mention some
names here. He mentions Timotheus, my work
fellow, that's Timothy, Books of Timothy, we're familiar with
them. Lucius, Jason, Socipiter, my kinsmen, salute you. And then
in verse 22, this causes some, what we call Bible scholars,
some problem, but it should. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle,
salute you in the Lord. Now, who wrote this? Paul or
Tertius? Well, I'm gonna tell you who
wrote it, the Lord did. This is the word of God. And
he wrote it through the apostle, he revealed it through the apostle
Paul, and Tertius was like Paul's secretary, who recorded it while
Paul dictated. Now that's what I, I'm sure this
is the way it was. You see another instance of that
in the Old Testament in the prophet Jeremiah. The prophet Jeremiah
received the word of God, and he dictated it to a man named
Baruch. And he wrote down, and you see
in the book of Jeremiah and the book of Lamentations. So Tertius
is writing his own little personal note here as the recorder of
the words of God through Paul. And he says, I salute you in
the Lord. And then he mentions, verse 23, Gaius, mine host. So Paul was staying at the home
of a man named Gaius. And this is in Corinth, you know,
that's where Paul was when he wrote this letter. and of the
whole church, every member of the church, saluteth you." He
mentions a man named Erastus, who was the chamberlain of the
city. That means he was the treasurer of the city of Corinth, and that
must have been some job. Corinth was a major, major commercial
port. And this man, Erastus, was a
man of authority, a man who was known and respected, but he was
a believer. And so that means that, that
shows us you don't have to give up the positions that the Lord
has given you, unless that particular position causes you, in order
to attain it or to maintain it, you have to compromise the gospel. And you don't do that. So he
says, Erastus, the chamberlain of the city saluted you, and
Cortus, a brother, And then he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you all, amen. Again, we know that there is
no hope for any of us in any time, whatever hard times we're
going through. We've been spoiled in our day,
I know my generation has. And we're just not used to this
kind of thing, you know, this kind of quarantine and all of
this. And our tendency is to complain,
and of course, you know, when we put things in perspective,
we know that our complaining is ultimately against the Lord.
We ought to be ashamed, and I know we should be and are, but We
know that in whatever age we live, whether it's a golden age
or whether it's an age of trouble, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
is the only thing that's gonna get us through. We know that
whatever trial or trouble we're going through, it is no indication
that God is bringing his wrath down upon us because we're not
under the wrath of God. The wrath of God is totally gone
for God's people because Christ took that wrath upon himself
as our sins were imputed to him and he went under the wrath of
God at the cross. So though we may be inconvenienced,
we may be troubled, we may be sick unto death, it's no indication
of the wrath of God for the people of God. Now Paul closes, in these
last three verses, he closes the book of Romans with a doxology. You know, we sing the doxology.
Well, what is a doxology? It's an inscription of praise
to God. It's an expression of praise
to God. And listen to how he closes out
the book of Romans. He says, now to him that has
a power to establish you, to ensconce you in the safety. And when he talks about power,
he says, power to establish you according to my gospel. This is establishment in the
power of God unto salvation, wherein the righteousness of
God is revealed. And he says, and the preaching
of Jesus Christ. See, this is the whole thing.
First Corinthians chapter one tells us that Christ is both
the power of God, Christ is the wisdom of God, and the preaching
of the gospel is the power of God to those who believe. Christ
is my wisdom. Christ is my righteousness. Christ
is my sanctification, setting me apart. Christ is my redemption. On the cross, he redeemed me
from my sins. When he comes again, he'll redeem
me from this world, so to speak. He already bought and paid for
his people. And so it's all according to
my gospel, Paul says. He calls it my gospel not because
it originated with him, not because this is exclusively Paul's message. When I was in seminary, where
by the way I was lost and there was no gospel there, they would
talk about Paul and John and Peter as if they had three different
messages. And so it's kinda like saying,
well, if you're gonna follow Paul, you're gonna follow Peter,
you're gonna follow, no, they had the same message. And it
was the same gospel. It was the preaching of Jesus
Christ, the glorious person, and the finished work of Christ.
And Paul says here in verse 25, according to the revelation of
the mystery. And what is that mystery? The
mystery which was kept secret since the world began. Well,
he's talking about the mystery of the gospel. The revelation
that is of God, which is uncovered of the whole gospel, which men
by carnal reasoning and understanding could not know. Over in 1 Corinthians
10, he said this thing, this mystery. Now remember, a mystery
in the Bible is not something you get clues and try to figure
out. A mystery in the Bible is something
that has to be revealed by God. You're not gonna know it unless
God reveals it. And in 1 Corinthians 2, Paul
wrote that this mystery, this salvation, this gospel, which
is the power of God unto salvation, wherein the righteousness of
God is revealed. What is the righteousness of
God? It's the merit of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which God has imputed to his people, charged to his
people. That mystery has never even entered the minds of the
greatest thinkers of this world, religious or otherwise. And so
it's the according to the revelation of the mystery. Now God reveals
it not mystically. It's not mystically revealed.
It's not a mysticism that can't be explained or cannot be stated
or declared. He reveals it through his word. And so we know these things are
so because this is the word which teaches us that. This is our
authority. And he says, which was kept secret
since the world began. Now it's been revealed to various
ones down through time. But it's been kept secret since
the world began. God revealed it to Adam and Eve.
He revealed it to Abel. He revealed it to Enoch. But
it's been kept secret from the world since the world began. They who are of the world, they
don't know it. And that's why when he reveals it to us, he's
calling us out of the world and into the kingdom of his dear
son. And he says it in verse 26, now look at this. But now
is made manifest, made known. And by the scriptures, the written
word of God, of the prophets, that's the Old Testament that
Paul's referring to. You see, the New Testament at
this time is in the process of being written, but the prophets
spoke of these things. This same gospel, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, Daniel, go on and on. According to the commandment
of the everlasting God and made known to all nations, not just
to the Jews, And not to everybody without exception. Think about
it. He says made known to all nations,
or made known in all nations. He said it's been kept from the
world, but now it's made known to all nations. In other words,
Jew and Gentile. God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, which he chose before the foundation
of the world, whom he justified by his grace through the blood,
the righteousness of Christ imputed, whom Christ redeemed on that
cross, and who will be brought under the preaching of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the preaching of Jesus Christ, his glorious
person, his finished work, and they will, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, be born again and brought to faith in Christ and
repentance. That's what he's talking about.
God's elect, not only among the Jews, but among the Gentiles.
And that was so significant in that day because many of the
unbelieving Jews, even some who claimed to be Christian, were
trying to put a fence around the gospel and make it a Jewish
issue rather than an issue of God's grace for saving sinners. And then he closes in verse 27.
To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Everything in salvation, everything
in the salvation of sinners, everything in the preservation
of God's people, and obviously everything in the final glorification
in and by Christ is to be attributed to the infinite wisdom of God
and is to be aimed towards the glory of God in the person and
finished work of Christ. Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter
one and verse six, he said, all of this, the whole purpose of
God, it is all to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein
he hath made us accepted in the beloved. All right, may the Lord
bless his word to our hearts.