Please turn with me this morning
in Romans chapter 16. Romans 16. And I'll begin reading in verse 17. Paul is concluding this great letter to the Romans,
this epistle that has been so used of God to help
so many people. But he says in verse 17, Now
I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and
offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid
them. For they that are such serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good
words and fair speeches deceive the heart of the simple. For your obedience is come abroad
unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf,
but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and
simple concerning evil. And the God of peace shall brew
Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you. Amen. Providentially, I came to one
of the verses in this text this week, and I wasn't able to shake it. It's like it stuck in me like a fishhook with a barb,
just kept going over and over in my mind. I've always said that there are
two people that I'm afraid of, that I don't want to have anything
to do with. Those who are willing to unite
around everything. They're willing to compromise
God's glory, God's word, for the sake of unity, I fear that
individual. And also, I fear and want no
part of those who are willing to divide over anything. Just
the least little bit, the least detail, the least unessential
thing, they're just willing and ready to divide over anything. Regardless of brethren, regardless
of anything, they just are willing to divide. And I want to say also that these
verses have been used by men to justify needless division
and strife. They've been misused. Many people,
as Paul said, rest the scriptures to their own destruction. And they've been used to justify
division and separation, which are more over minor points and
personalities and selfish motives. So to avoid such things as that,
we must remember what God says in all the scriptures. What God
says and teaches everywhere and seek to learn what he means by
the spirit of God. But at the same time, Many have
failed to heed this warning. Many people have failed to heed
like warnings and compromise the gospel and not contended
for the faith once delivered to the saints. Because both types of such individuals,
they both can appear to be right. They both can appear to be good. Let me read you what Paul says
in II Corinthians. II Corinthians 11, and listen
to what Paul says. He says in verse 12 of II Corinthians
11, but what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion
from them which desire occasion, that wherein they glory, they
may be found even as we are. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ, transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light. a messenger of truth, a messenger
speaking for God, a messenger to do one good. Therefore, it
is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works." Their end will be according to
their works, not Christ's works. But according to their works,
they're transformed and show themselves to be as ministers
or angels of light, of righteousness and truth. But I want you to notice here
that the Apostle Paul, he speaks with the most sincere earnestness. He says, now I beseech you, brethren. He knows there's no need. to
worry about individuals who are not the people of God hearing
and heeding this warning. That's what some people don't
understand. Only God's people heed the warnings
of Scripture. They're only sent to the Lord's
elect That they be not deceived, they will not be deceived, as
Christ said. It is impossible that the elect
be deceived, but they're helped from that by these warnings. He's in earnest here. I beseech
you, brethren. And he says, I beseech you, brethren,
mark them. That means to take heed of, that
means to beware of, that means to watch for, to be aware of
such individuals. And I've often thought that when
I don't hear something that sounds exactly right, I noticed this
in scripture, he says, where the spirit of the Lord is, there's
liberty. And something is wrong if when
I hear something or somebody says something or teaches something
that just somehow that the Spirit of God won't give me liberty
to believe it. He says here, mark such individuals
because they cause divisions and offenses contrary to the
doctrine which you have learned, which you have heard and learned."
What did they do? They divide men from the things
that are clearly taught in the scriptures. They have teaching
that draws men away from what is said in the scriptures. It's sometimes almost mystical
sounding. It's sometimes things that they
say they cannot understand or explain. But nevertheless, he's
not saying from old religious traditions or customs that are
generally heard or ideas we've always naturally accepted. That's not what he's saying that
they draw people from. But he's saying here that they
are drawing people, dividing people from what they had been
taught by the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're dividing them from this
word. They are dividing them. And this
is the same, our same rule and test. always, in everything,
because it's not what men say about the Word of God, but what
the Word of God says. Almost every confession of faith,
generally accepted, begins with something like this somewhere
at the front, at the beginning of it. We believe that the scriptures
shall be our only rule of faith and practice. If that's true, then they ought
not put anything else. There is no need to put anything
else. Because oftentimes they leave
that first statement and they do just exactly the opposite. They set forth things that are
not true according to the scriptures as to what is to be believed
and what is practiced. You see, everything that God's
people are to believe is bound up in what thus saith the Lord. And the Bible says that the sheep,
God's sheep, that they will hear the shepherd's voice. I don't spend a lot of time worrying
about this one or that one as to whether they'll believe or
not believe. I know this, that the sheep will
hear the shepherd's voice. And true undershepherds, that
is true preachers of the gospel, they want what they say to be
tested and tried by the word of God. I want you to take your Bibles
and check what I say out. I don't want you to take what
I say just for face value because I've said it or because you like
me or respect me or any of those things. I do not speak ex cathedra. That's how they say the Pope
speaks, ex cathedra, as God. I don't speak as God. And I only
want you to be a follower of me, as Paul said, even as I'm
a follower of Christ. When I follow the words of Christ,
when I follow the words of the prophets and the words of the
apostles, that's what we are to follow. That's what we're
to believe. Because he says this, all scripture, all scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. We learn from the prophets and
from the apostles And from the Lord Jesus Christ, what is God's
doctrine? So, in this epistle, especially
here in the book of Romans, we have exactly what Paul's doctrine
was. You don't have to wonder what
Paul's doctrine was. You may listen to some preachers
and it may be months before you find out what they really believe,
but you didn't have to wonder what Paul... This is one letter
he wrote. It's his doctrine. And the amazing
thing is that Paul is talking about The doctrine he's talking
about is not simply one point of doctrine. He's talking about the gospel. He's talking about the doctrine
of Christ. Hold your place here and look
back in Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6 and verse 17. He's writing to these people
who were believers. And he says, but God be thanked
that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. He says that they obeyed from
the heart, and he's talking here, he's equating believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ with this. You obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine that was delivered to you. Now Paul, what he says here was
not fit into today's religion. Because in today's religion,
doctrine, that word doctrine is a dirty word. But what does it mean? It simply
means teaching. You have obeyed from the heart
that teaching that was delivered unto you. Paul saying that he
was a preacher of the gospel. He delivered them this doctrine,
this doctrine of the gospel, this doctrine of Jesus Christ. And so we abide by that. Listen to some references in
scripture. The prophet Isaiah prophesied
concerning the age in which we live, concerning those people
of God that would be called out in that day. And he says, they
also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they
that murmured shall learn doctrine. They're going to come. John says
he's given us an understanding. And they that murmured, they
that murmured about God, murmured about all other things, they
shall learn doctrine. Matthew 7. And it came to pass,
when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at
his doctrine. What was his doctrine? His sayings,
the things he said. It was the things he said, not
the things he did, that caused them to want to stone Christ,
but the things he said. And his doctrine was so contrasted
to man's doctrine. That's why they hated it. Listen to this, Matthew 16. Then
understood they how he bade them to beware, not to beware of the
leaven of bread. He talks about a leaven that
they were to be weary of or worrisome of, but he said, but of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. What the scribes and the Pharisees
and the Sadducees taught was not good doctrine. John 7. Our Lord said, He answered
some folks and He said, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent
me. The doctrine of Christ is the
doctrine of God, the teachings concerning Him, the truth concerning
Him. In Acts 2, it's speaking of the
early church, it says, and they continue steadfastly in the apostles'
doctrine. Not just any doctrine, but the
apostles' doctrine. And the apostles' doctrine is
clear, it's plain, it's evident, it's objective, it's what is
written in these verses in the New Testament. II Timothy, he
says, for the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine, but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears. In other words, They'll look
for a church. They'll look for a preacher that
tells them what they want to hear, and they will find it. They will find them. And that's
what people do, they go rather than being subjected to the word
of God, to the apostles doctrine, they go and look and search until
they find some preacher and some church that believes what they
want to believe. And I can tell you this, what
you want to believe by nature, What you want to believe without
the new birth is not the gospel. Is not the gospel. Paul writing to Titus says, holding
fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may
also be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the
gainsayers. What is our tool? What are we
to use? What are we to preach? It's always
sound doctrine, the apostle's doctrine, the doctrine of God. And then again in Titus he says
this, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Not just sound doctrine itself,
but the things that are consistent with sound doctrine. Lately I've
heard people talking about that there is no good works, no good
works. I understand what they may be
trying to say. They may be trying to say and
make sure that nobody believes that they are justified by their
works, that their works have any part of what they are standing
upon, the foundation of their justification. But the only problem
is the Bible says that there are good works. We're to speak
the things that become sound doctrine, and sound doctrine
is the only thing that produces good works. Because a good work is done at
the command of God. A good work is done for the glory
of God. A good work is done, and one
thing that especially makes it a good work is that it is never
trusted in or relied upon as any part of our salvation. Turn over to 2 John. 2 John. And listen to what John says. This is so essential, so necessary. 2 John verse 9, he says, whosoever
transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ. Sound doctrine, the apostles'
doctrine, the doctrine of God is the doctrine of Christ. Now, he says, hath not God. That's just the way it is. He
that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father
and the Son. If there come any unto you, and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him God's speed. Don't receive him as a true witness. don't receive his doctrine, and
don't even wish him well. Well, we couldn't do that, could
we? We better. We better. Because the doctrine of Christ
is simply the gospel concerning God's Son. Paul said, we preach Christ,
not like the Pharisees who garnished the tombs of dead prophets and
killed the living ones. God being my helper. I will never,
if I remember, if I'm in my mind good, I will never make appeal
to any old preacher and any old writer concerning the scriptures
as to the final authority on what anybody's to believe. I may quote somebody that says
it right. But I will never, to any confession,
or to any preacher, or to any writer, or commentary, make it
as a standard by which we are to believe or preach. It is only
the doctrine of Christ. Doctrine of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? Now I can call out some like
the Jehovah Witnesses in a single solitary breath almost. He's
God. There they go. We must always contend for the
deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was none less than God manifest
in the flesh. If he isn't God, he isn't who
he said he was. If he isn't God in the flesh,
then his sacrifice has no benefit to save a multitude. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. That's essential. And secondly,
the doctrine of Christ always, I believe, maintains the sinlessness
of Christ. What some have called the impeccability
of Christ. He did not sin, and He could
not sin, because He was God. My question is, is he God? Yes, they say. Could he sin? Not if he's God. Not if the scriptures in their
entirety almost seem to singly sound that same note and theme,
he was without sin. He knew no sin. He's undefiled,
harmless, over and over again. And we maintain that as the cardinal
doctrine of Scripture, the doctrine of Christ. I've had so many letters and
emails lately from people in various churches One person not
even giving me their name. I don't care. But saying that
their pastor had somehow been preaching something that they
were in question about. And they just wondered what was
the truth of the matter as regard to Christ being made sin. They
said, he seems to be saying that Christ was made a sinner and
all these other different things. And they didn't give me the name
of the pastor. They didn't give me their name.
And they emailed me later and said, thank you for calling me
back to the scriptures as to what the Bible says about him. Thank you. We say what he is in his offices. He's the prophet. He's the one
who is God speaking to us. God hath in these last days spoken
to us by his son. He's our priest, one priest forever,
whose sacrifice he took himself and by himself entered into that
holy place in heaven and obtained eternal redemption for us. He
didn't try. He's our king. I hope I always preach in one
way or another the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he's
the one on the throne, that he's the one running the show, that
he's the one ruling it, and not say what he can do, but what
he has done and what he says he'll do. Yeah, we believe God is sovereign,
that God can do anything. Yeah, but you don't believe what
he's done. You don't believe what He says He's done. We preach
Christ, and we preach most especially Christ crucified, His death. We preach Him as the Lord, our
righteousness, as the only righteousness there is. You won't hear me talking about
imparted righteousness. You won't hear me talking about
the righteousness that God establishes in ourselves, or in us, or all
the things done by us. There's only one righteousness
in this universe, and that's Christ. And if God doesn't impute his
righteousness to us, if he doesn't charge that righteousness to
our accounts before him, before his law and justice, we'll never
be saved because we'll never be righteous. What did he accomplish in his
death? You see, we haven't really preached
Christ, even though we've preached Him in His deity, though we've
preached Him in His sinlessness, though we've preached that He
died, unless we preach what He accomplished in His death. What
did He accomplish in His death? He accomplished absolute success
in His death. He accomplished what he purposed
to do. He accomplished what the Father
wanted him to do, and that was to save some people and to accomplish
their redemption and by himself purge their sins and die for
them as a substitute before God. To bear in his own body the penalty
for their sins. To suffer the just for the unjust
that he might bring them to God. To deliver them from this present
evil world. All that was necessary to save
them. All that was necessary to glorify
them and bring them accepted in himself before God. That's
what he did. We don't preach what people are
to do. We preach what Christ has done. We preach who he did it for. There's no gray area in who he
did this for. He purchased the church with
his blood. He laid down his life for the
sheep. He saved his people from their
sins and all that was necessary to do them, to do for them, to
save them, that's who he did it for. He didn't die for everybody. If he did, everybody would be
saved. There would be no hell. If God sends anyone to hell for
whom Christ died, he'll be unjust. There's no gray area in that.
That's just foolishness. And the doctrine that Paul is
talking about, the doctrine of Christ, God's doctrine, sound
doctrine, is the doctrine of grace. The doctrine of grace. You see,
men may come to what they call the doctrines of grace. But until the doctrine of grace
or the grace of the doctrine comes to you, you're lost. It's not an add-on. It's not
elective. It's not higher learning. It's
not gaining the victory or anything like that. If we haven't heard
the gospel of grace, we haven't heard the gospel. The gospel of sovereign grace. God is God and he'll be gracious
to whom he will. The grace that's in Christ Jesus. The grace that saves entirely
and is never at any time a mixture of works. Look over at Titus. Titus chapter 3 and verse 5. Listen to the way this is worded.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. Now what don't we understand
about that? not by works of righteousness which we have done, only by His mercy, only by His
own purpose and grace. And it says here, He saved us. Preachers might stand and say,
The only way God will save you is by grace. It's too late. Those He saves, He's already
saved by grace. All they do is learn it, find
out about it, have it revealed to them in this gospel. But in
this gospel, in this doctrine of grace, doctrine of Christ,
they don't, are never told to do anything. that they might
receive it. Well, you say salvation is conditioned
on faith. No, it's not. Salvation. He saved us, and therefore
we believe. He saved us, and now a consequence
of him saving us is that he causes us to believe. He gives us the
gift of faith. He says, which He shed abundantly
on us, abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being
justified by His grace, we should be heirs according to the hope
of eternal life, This is a faithful saying, and these things I will
that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed
in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are
good and profitable unto men, but avoid foolish questions,
genealogies, contentions, strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable
and vain, and a man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition
reject." Who? Being justified by his grace. which God has shed upon us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we preach these faithful
sayings, these faithful gospel sayings, gospel doctrine, that
they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain
good works. That's what grace does. It makes
us thankful to God. It makes us want to glorify God. It makes us want to obey God.
Not that we might get, but that because we have received everything
in Jesus Christ, all righteousness in Him, we desire to glorify
Him. We desire to be careful to maintain
good works. Turn over to Romans 4. Romans 4 and verse 8. He says, Now to him that worketh
is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of death. In other
words, if you're working for salvation, you're expecting God
to pay you based on you, an indebtedness from God because
of what you've done. In other words, to earn it. But
to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David
also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes
righteousness without works. Everywhere I go lately, somebody
tells me to be blessed, have a blessed day, all this kind
of stuff. I've been blessed. I'm a blessed
man. I'm a sorry, low-down sinner. I'm a man that can only take
fellas like Jacob and Peter to be like me, but I'm a blessed
man. Because I'm the man to whom God
imputes righteousness without works, saying, blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Well, you say
you're poor. I'm poor, but I'm blessed. You
say you're an awful sinner. I sure am, but I'm blessed. You
don't know what you ought to know. That's true, but I'm blessed. I'm blessed because God has not
imputed my sins to me, but to Christ. I'm blessed because he
has imputed righteousness, the righteousness of God in Christ,
to me without works. You can't get any more blessed
than that. A man is not a heretic because
somebody says he's a heretic. Now, don't ever fall for that
one. Paul said, after the way that they call heresy, so worship
I the God of my fathers. But a man is a heretic to the
degree that he departs from this written word. That's right. To the degree he
leaves this book with its plain statements and its objective
revelation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, to the degree
that he leaves that, he's a heretic. Paul said, I pray that we be henceforth no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the slight of men, by cunning craftiness whereby
they lie in wait to deceive. Why do they do that? Why do they
do that? Well, they just love to deceive.
No. No. He says in verse 18, for they
are such which serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their
own belly. That word belly there means cavity. They desire to do these things
that they might fill their own cavity of fleshly desires, whether
it be the honor of men, the praise of men, the respect of men, the
power over men, or material things or whatever it is. They just
desire to fill their own cavity. And by good words and fair speeches
deceive the hearts of the simple. Of the simple. Of the unsuspecting. That's what that word simple
means, the unsuspecting. What are they, are they using
non-biblical words? No. They're using good words and
fair speeches. They're eloquent. They make it
sound logical. Let me tell you, logic is the
most obvious enemy of faith. Because logical is not scriptural. If it sounds logical to you,
it is to be questioned in the light of the scriptures, because
believing God is believing what he says in his word. If I don't, he said, whosoever
shall be ashamed of me and my words, I'll be ashamed of them. For your obedience has come abroad
unto all men. I'm glad therefore on your behalf,
but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good. I'd
have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning
evil. I've got to hush. But let me
show you one more thing. This is the thing that caught
me this week. Verse 20. And the God of peace
shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The word bruise there is a little
bit misleading in light of the way we think of bruise. I get
bruises all the time, but it's really not all that serious,
because I take an aspirin every day to thin my blood, and when
we have to take blood thinners and all like that, we get bruises. The older you get, you get bruises,
but it's not all that serious. The word bruise here in the Greek
actually means to crush completely. Satan, this deceiver, God will
crush under your feet completely shortly. Oh, when that deceiver finally
and fully is crushed completely. That is a glorious day. But the truth is, He says shortly, and He says
under your feet, that is under the feet of true believers and
true preachers of the gospel. Satan is crushed completely every
time that God reveals the truth in the midst of all of his deceptions
when Christ reveals the truth to a sinner. He crushes Satan. And every time a believing sinner
is confronted and almost embraces all these floating around errors
and deceptions and Things contrary to sound doctrine going around
these days. Every time that someone like
the lady who wrote me the letter, every time one of his sheep hears
his voice rather than the voice of a preacher lying and is brought
to the truth, Satan is crushed. Every time. It's not by anything I do. That's
not by my ability to persuade or anything. His sheep hear his
voice. And they will embrace what he
says above what man says. And when they do, it's a crushing
blow to Satan. I long for the day that all such
error and nonsense and unglorifying stuff about God is finally purged
from this earth and Satan is finally and ultimately crushed. But don't you forget, God is not weakened. God has
not changed. God has not lost any power to
save and to keep his people. And even now, with his gospel,
with his truth, with that which gives all the glory to him and
comforts and saves and helps his people, he is by that truth
crushing Satan even now. We look around us, we see so
much error. We look among professing believers
and we see so much error that they're heeding and hearing. But don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. The God
of truth, he'll prevail. He is prevailing. And he will
crush Satan completely in all his deceptions. Deceptions. And when we stand in heaven, there won't anybody be there.
for those who believed the doctrine of the apostles, the doctrine
of grace, the doctrine of Christ. Because you know if God says
for you to not even let them in your house, he won't let them
in his heaven. Our Father, this morning, we thank you that you are ever victorious. You're the God of peace, bringing
peace to your people, making peace by the blood of your cross,
and at the same time, crushing Satan. under their feet day by
day for your glory and for their good. We praise you. We thank you for your truth,
for your word. It truly shall be the only rule
of faith and practice for your people. We need no other We need
no addition. We need no new revelation from
preachers. It's forever the same, as you are forever the same.
And we thank you. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.