Well, we're going to read in
Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16. And we'll read from verse one.
I commend unto you Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of
the church which is at Cancria. that ye receive her in the Lord,
as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business
she hath need of you. For she hath been a succorer
of many, and of myself also. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my
helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their
own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the
churches of the Gentiles. Likewise, greet the church that
is in their house. Salute my well-beloved Eponiatis,
who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ. Greet Mary, who
bestowed much labour on us. Salute Andronicus and Junia,
my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles,
who also were in Christ before me. Greet Amplius, my beloved,
in the Lord. Salute Urban, our helper in Christ,
and Stachys, my beloved. Salute Apelles, approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus'
household. Salute Herodion, my kinsman.
Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the
Lord. Salute Tryphaena and Tryphosa,
who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which
laboured much in the Lord. Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord
and his mother, and mine. Salute Asyncretus, Phlegon, Hermas,
Petrobus, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them. Salute Philogos, and Julia, Nereus,
and his sister Olympus, and all the saints which are with them.
Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ
salute you. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions
and offences 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 hearts of the simple. For
your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad thereof
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
bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Timotheus, my work fellow, and
Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you. I, Tertius,
who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord. Gaius, mine
host and of the whole church, saluteth you. Erastus, the chamberlain
of the city, saluteth you. And Quartus, a brother. The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now to him that
is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the
preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery
which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made
manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets according to
the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith To God only wise be glory through
Jesus Christ forever. Amen. And amen. May God bless to us this reading
from his word. Thank you very much again for
listening to this scripture reading which comes at the end of our
study of the Book of Romans. And I wanted to take this whole
chapter this evening and bring it together as a single piece. And I thought as I endeavoured
to do that, that the consequence might be that the sermon appears
somewhat complicated. And the reason for that is that
while I have only got three points this evening, Each of those points
has a whole number of sub-points. So I think we will need our thinking
caps on as we come to think about this chapter this evening. And
what I wanted to do first of all, as my first point in that
sense then, was to give an overview of this whole chapter. And as
it were, divide it into five sections. And just look at the
chapter for the five sections that the Apostle Paul has here
given us. The first is to think about the
way in which he recommends Phoebe in the first couple of verses. And then to look at the greetings
that he gives to the brothers and sisters that are at the church
in Rome. And then that would be from verses
3 to 16. And then to think a little bit
of the warnings and the encouragements that he gives in verses 17 to
20. And then the salutations that
he brings from his own friends, where he's writing from in Corinth,
and that's 21 to 23. And then finally, just a few
thoughts about the doxology in verses 24 to 27. So my first
point is just to have a brief overview of the chapter in the
context of these five sections, which we see together. here in
the close of the book. And the first point is this,
this recommending of Phoebe. And we're told in the first couple
of verses that Phoebe was a servant, that she's a minister and that
she's a deaconess there, because that's what that little word
servant means. And the lovely thing about Phoebe
is that she is spoken of as a servant or a minister of the church.
And you'll remember with me that the Apostle Paul has been speaking
quite liberally and emphatically in the recent chapters about
the service and the ministering that we are to give to one another. He has spoken of the Lord Jesus
Christ being a minister of the church. He has spoken of himself
being a minister to the Gentiles. And he has laid upon each one
of us the obligation of ministering one to another. And so I find
it lovely that here he sets forth, as it were, this picture of this
delightful sister, this sister Phoebe. And he has committed
into Phoebe's hands the delivery of this letter, this epistle
of the Romans. from the place where he is, which
is Corinth, and we see there that Phoebe is from the church,
which is at Cancria. Cancria was a little port. I think the name means millet,
and it suggests that it was a place where there was grain, either
imported or grown around about the port, but it was a very important
port, and it was the port, or one of two ports, that Corinth
had. And this little place, Caincrete,
probably not so very little, was probably around five miles
from Corinth. It was a harbour town and that's
where this lady Phoebe lived. Now while we speak of her as
a minister, there should be no confusion that she was a preacher. She wasn't a preacher. And the
Apostle Paul has been quite explicit on the subject of who has responsibility
for preaching. And that is a role that falls
to the men in the congregation to be preachers and teachers. So, Phoebe wasn't, while she's
a servant of the church, she wasn't a preaching servant, but
she nevertheless was a lady who used the opportunity to serve
the saints, to serve the congregation. And the Apostle Paul says to
her, assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you,
because she has been a helper, a succorer, of many and of the
Apostle Paul himself. And so he is showing us here
that this lady who is now bearing this epistle from Corinth to
Rome is a lady who has been a helper to the church for a long time. And here we see that this service
that she is to receive from the church at Rome is an opportunity
for the church to reciprocate. And it's almost as if Paul is
saying, I know that if I were to come to you, you would look
after my needs. I want you to look after Phoebe's
needs as if I was coming to you because she has looked after
me. Receive her in the Lord. Receive her as you would receive
the Lord himself. Receive her as becometh saints. And this is a picture of this
care and service that we are to give to one another as the
Lord's people. And I want you to note something
here. that while this lady is called a servant in the church,
it is the function rather than the title that is important. You know, a person could be called
a minister or a deacon or an elder or a a priest, or a bishop,
or any number of titles that religious people take to themselves. And people imagine that if they
are appointed to be an elder, or a deacon, or a minister, or
a pastor, or a preacher, that in some way they have some status. Rather, let us think about the
status that flows from the function. The status that this lady had,
the recommendation that she had was because she was a helper
to the apostle and she served as she was able and that is something
that we can all do. The second point that I want
to draw your attention to in the chapter is the way in which
the Apostle greets all the brothers and sisters that are in Rome. From verses 3 to 16, there are
well over 30 believers specifically identified. in this list of names. And they are a mixture of Greek
names and Roman names and Jewish names. And I think that's a lovely
point, the way in which it seems as if these different traditions,
different heritages, different nationalities are being blended
together, melded together, joined by the Lord in the testimony
of the Gospel. And here is a worshipping church,
a church indeed that the Apostle says their witness has gone forth
throughout the world. So it's a church that has been
established for some considerable length of time. And while it
may not be a large church, our fellowship here in Great Falls,
probably numbers around 30. And I suspect that the Apostle,
having begun the list of names, would probably list as many of
them as he knew of. And perhaps that suggests the
sort of size that the church was there in Rome. Of course,
it may have been considerably bigger than that. But he lists
these names. Some of them are well known.
Others are not familiar to us. Some of the well known ones are
Priscilla and Aquila. And the fact that these two are
in Rome, I think again is significant because it shows us that there
was some considerable movement of believers between different
churches during this period of time. We know, for example, that
Priscilla and Aquila served at Corinth, and they served at Ephesus,
and here they are serving as well at Rome. And it's delightful
to see the way in which the Apostle is always eager to praise and
to voice affection for those saints that he knows. He speaks
of their commitment to the gospel. He speaks of their dedication
to one another, the help that they have given to him. He speaks
about the love that he has for those individuals, even calling
one of them his mother. Such was the closeness of the
bond that he felt. And it is just a delight to almost
feel that personal affection that the Apostle has for these
individuals that he's writing to. Then he goes on, thirdly
in this section, to speak a word of warning and encouragement
to the people here at Rome to whom he is writing. And he says
that it's wise, he wants to encourage them to be wise to the good. and simple to evil. He wants them to mark false doctrine. He wants them to be aware of
those who would cause them trouble. And as we drop down the chapter
and go to verse 17, we can see there how he says, I beseech
you, brethren, you to whom I have written, you to whom I have expressed
these personal affections, I beseech you, I have a burden in my soul
for you, my brethren, my dearly beloved. Mark them which cause
divisions." And so he's telling them that even at this time,
even in these early days of the church, there were those who
were divisive in the church, who would cause problems. And
he says, mark them, mark them. Mark them so that you know who
they are. Mark them so that you can identify
these false teachers and their false teaching. You know, when
we think about that and his injunction to avoid those who cause division,
we see that this was written 2,000 years ago but still it
could have been written about the churches today because very
little has changed. He is speaking about the dangers
that there are from the world, the dangers that come into the
churches of the Lord Jesus Christ and the dangers from our own
hearts. And here is this concern reverberating,
re-echoing down through the ages of the church that we are to
mark those who cause division. We are to mark those who bring
in false doctrine and we have to avoid them. I like the Apostle's
emphasis here. He's not saying that we are to
do something about them. He's not saying that we have
to take the law into our hands, that we have to do them damage
or to do them hurt or to do them down. He said just you keep away
from them. You preserve yourselves from
them. You close the door on these people.
You don't listen to what it is that they're trying to say. You
identify the troublemakers and you separate yourself from them. And it's good advice that he
gives to these people. Avoid them. Imagine that you've got to keep
separate from them. Imagine that you've got to keep
a certain distance from them, that you've got to isolate yourself
from them. What could we possibly use as
an example of that kind of activity today? Oh, I know. Let us be careful of those who
would come in close to us with these false doctrines and these
false teachings. The Apostle says they don't serve
the Lord Jesus Christ. They're serving their own bellies.
They're motivated by fleshy things. They're looking to feed off you,
to enhance themselves, their wealth, their reputation, their
prominence from off your backs. And he says they bring good words,
they bring fair speeches, they're eloquent and persuasive these
people, but they are deceptive. They are designing their words
and their speeches and their actions to deceive the hearts
of the simple. So be wise concerning these people,
because there are plenty, and we see them all around us, who
have itching ears, who are interested in hearing these good words of
the deceivers, these fair speeches of the persuasive. who talk to men of universal
love and of free will and of man being able to do things to
please God and to enrich themselves with the righteousness that is
pleasing to God. Be careful of these, he says.
And then to move on in this fourth section of the chapter, he speaks
about salutations from friends. Having given his personal greetings
to the church at Rome, the apostle also includes the greetings from
his own fellow travellers and his fellow ministers to the church
at Rome. I can almost imagine the Apostle
sitting at his desk. It seems that he worked with
a man called Tertius. Tertius explains that he is the
transcriber or the the scribe who is writing the apostle's
letter and there the two of them are sitting perhaps in a room
or in a tent somewhere and they're working away at the table and
people pass, people pass the entrance of their door and they
say, are you still writing that Paul? make sure you pass on my
greetings, make sure you say hello from me. And so Timothy
and Luke and the hosts that he has in Corinth and even Tertius
himself all convey their goodwill and their greetings to the Church
of Rome. Here we see how the Apostle as
well had a number of men around him who were bringing their gifts
as they were enabled of the Lord to the service of the testimony
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Timothy was just a young man,
a preacher, whom the Apostle Paul, it seems, was closely affectioned
to. had a great love for him as a
son in the Lord. And Timothy was learning from
the apostle to be a preacher, to do the work of the evangelist,
to serve as a minister of the gospel. And in days to come,
Timothy would be given charge over a congregation in his own
right as their elder and as their preacher and as their teacher. Now he was at Paul's shoulder
learning from the apostle. Luke was this one who was the
writer of the book of the Acts and We have so much of the testimony
of the Apostle Paul and his various missionary journeys because Luke
went along with him and wrote about the things that were happening
to the Apostle. And here Luke is with the Apostle
in Corinth at this time, which we learn from these greetings. And Tertius, we don't know anything
about Tertius except that here he is. listening to the Apostle
Paul's words and writing the letter as he dictates it to him
that would go to Rome. We think about the Apostle Paul
writing this wonderful letter to the Romans. And we think about
the Holy Spirit granting the Apostle the wisdom and the insight,
the doctrinal astuteness to be able to put these things down
so clearly and so helpfully that have been such a boon and a benefit
to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ all of these years. And
here, what do we discover at the end of this little book?
That there was another link in the chain. This man called Tertius,
who transcribed the words of the apostle and whose writing
it was that was there in the letter that went to the Romans. You see, each of us has a gift
to bring to the Lord. Each of us has a contribution
to make to the well-being of the church, to the benefit and
the blessing of one another. And each one brings his gift,
or her gift, whether it's Phoebe carrying the letter, or Tertius
writing out the words, or whether it's Timothy learning to preach,
or Luke giving us the history of the apostle. Each one bringing
their own to the work of the gospel. Erastus seems to have
been Chamberlain of the city, probably a very important role
in the city, especially if it was Corinth, such an important
place with many, many civic and governmental responsibilities.
And here's Erastus, surely a man of some prominence and honour
and prestige in the city of Corinth. And here's Quartus. What skill
has Quartus got? Quartus is a brother. And whether
it's Erastus the Chamberlain of the city or Quartus a brother,
here we are together worshipping the Lord, serving in the capacity
that we are able to do. And then the concluding section
here in this point is the doxology, right at the very end, verses
24 to 27. A doxology is a statement that
gives God glory and praise. And this is what the apostle
does at the end of his letter. We might say, what a wonderful
letter this is. But the apostle Paul, by this
doxology, makes us look away from the apostle, deflects our
attention away from him, and points us to the Lord Jesus,
points us to God, points the reader to God and says as much
as, while I have written these things to you, these are the
very words of God. This is the gospel of God. This
is the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's not mine. He speaks there at the end of
my gospel, but he says it's the gospel of God. I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he acknowledges where
the praise and the glory are to be found. So to whom do we
give our thanksgiving? But to God. To whom is our gratitude
due? But to our God. And the grace
and the goodness of God for our salvation from start to finish. is the theme of our praise and
our worship and our thanksgiving. Glory be to God on high, the
doxology that the Apostle leaves us with. So that was the first
point that I wanted for us to think about, the, as it were,
the overview of the chapter. The second thing I wanted to
lead us is to just reflect very briefly about what this chapter
tells us about what has gone before. And here's the point
that I mean. This chapter tells us that the
Apostle Paul knew personally the people that he was writing
to. There is a very personal dimension, a very personal aspect
to this letter, the letter to the Romans. The Apostle Paul
knew these people and he loved and valued these people at Rome. That is very clear from the greetings
and the salutations that he gives in this final chapter. These
were friends of his, people who had done him good, people that
had supported and encouraged him and comforted him in his
ministry and in his labours and for whom he carried a great longing
in his heart. He wanted to be with them, he
wanted to see them. He says that at the beginning
of the letter and he repeats it at the end of the letter.
How great a burden he has to go and see them, that he's longing
to be with them. And yet, too, we discover that
he is burdened for Jerusalem. We thought about that last week,
how that he was saying, I want to come to you, but I have to
turn in the other direction. And this great dilemma that the
Apostle Paul faced, and this perhaps just helps us to shade
in a little bit, to colour in a little bit the elements of
this dilemma. Here are people that he loves
and longs to see and that he hopes to see because he is still
planning to visit Rome soon. So he writes them a letter. He
writes them a letter because instead of coming to them now,
he is to turn and go in the opposite direction. So he sits down and
he pens them a letter. You know, I was thinking about
this and I was thinking to myself, if this was me. It would have
been like a little note. It would have been a short note
that I would have written. It would have been such a short
note that we could have called Phoebe, Post-It Phoebe. She would have had a little yellow
Post-It tag to take to Rome, which would say on it, I'm hoping
to come and see you very quickly. I've got lots to say to you,
but I've got to go to Jerusalem. I'll catch up with you soon.
But that's not what he did. He wrote the longest epistle
that we have in the New Testament. What he did was he sat down and
he wrote a very significant letter. And the Holy Spirit thereby,
out of that passion that the apostle had for these brothers
and sisters at Rome, ordained the writing of the epistle to
the Romans. Paul's at Corinth. Rome is to
the west. Spain is beyond there. He longs to go to Spain to continue
his ministry. He'll call on it Rome in his
way there. That's his heart's desire. That's
his burden in the preaching of the gospel. Jerusalem is to the
east and there is danger there for the apostle. There is compromise
in the church at Jerusalem. There is confusion amongst the
believers at Jerusalem. There is the very real possibility
of death at Jerusalem for the apostle. And this brave man,
denies his personal affections for the church at Rome and for
the preaching of the gospel in Spain and he turns instead to
Jerusalem and thereby he gave us the book of Romans. John Gill speaks of this book
of Romans as an excellent and valuable epistle. That's a lovely
phrase. It's a lovely comment to make
about this book. This book that the Apostle Paul
sat down and wrote, this epistle that he sent, this letter that
he sent by Phoebe because he had to go to Jerusalem instead
of going to his friends in Rome, speaks of deep and profound gospel
truth. The purpose of the Apostle's
writing was to give such a clear statement of the doctrine of
justification, of how God makes a sinner righteous. And so from
the beginning of chapter one right through to chapter 15,
and then in these final words in our chapter 16 of this epistle,
the Apostle Paul has been clearly setting out this great truth
of the doctrine of justification, how God makes sinful men and
women fit for his presence, fit to be brought into his court,
to be united together with him. And what we've learned in this
book is that it is not by our faith, The world and the churches,
they speak so much today about justification by faith. Justification by faith. And they
say, do you believe in justification by faith? And it's as if it's
the touchstone by which we know whether or not somebody is saved
or not. We're not justified by our faith. We've been through these chapters.
We've learned these truths. And I trust that as we reflect
upon this letter that the Apostle sent to the Romans, we've come
to see that we're not justified by our faith, but we are justified
by our Saviour's sacrifice and by His blood and by God's own
free grace and goodness and mercy towards us. This is what Paul
calls the gospel of power that saves sinners. That is the message. That is the empowering message
of the gospel. The gospel is the revelation
of God in the person of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the good
news of what God has done to save sinners from a lost eternity
and bring them into his presence. It speaks of those who are guilty
and condemned in a state of nature. that all men are, whether they
be Jew or whether they be Gentile. And in those early chapters of
the book of Romans, the apostle speaks of the fact that men have
turned their backs upon God, whether they were the philosophers
of the Gentiles or the theologians of the Jews. It didn't matter
what law or what wisdom or what righteousness they pursued. They
all fell short of the glory of God. He shows that we learn righteousness
not by nature, not by natural wisdom, not by personal obedience
to Moses or whatever legal structure we happen at one point in time
in one place in the world to be constrained by. but by the
free gift of God in Christ, by the death and the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the benefits of God's grace and goodness
flow to us. as he gives us the gift of faith
by which we can see what he has done for us in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are given grace by the Father,
by the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. The Father having planned and
purposed this way of reconciliation, this way of peace by the covenant
that he established between himself and his son. And the Holy Spirit
brings all of the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ as he
stood for us in that covenant role in that mediator place and
fulfilled every obligation that the Father had for us, his chosen
people, for us, the people of his love. And yet we discovered
that as the work of the Holy Spirit in applying these gifts
of grace to natural men and women unfolds, There is a continuing
battle in the flesh, a warring in the spirit, a struggle that
goes on in the soul of the believer. And the Apostle Paul in the middle
chapters of this book has spoken of his own personal experience. And he has shown us that while
he had a desire to do those things which were honouring to God,
he found that there was an inability in himself to do so. A war and
a struggle that went on between his flesh and his spirit. And then we come to the glorious
description of predestination and how we are told in chapter
8 and 9 and 10 of the work of God's grace in the love that
he had for his people in sending the Lord Jesus Christ into the
world to be our saviour and deliverer. And he speaks there of the plan
of God, the purpose of God, and how all things are providentially
working together for good to them that God loves and them
that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose. And in Romans 8, 29 we read,
for whom he did for know, speaking of that love that he had before
time, that everlasting love. that love that picked one and
another and laid the grace of God upon them, that foreknowing
love, which led to our predestination and led to our being conformed
to the image of the Son, that he might be the firstborn amongst
many brethren. That's what we were talking about
in this union that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. in John
Kent's hymn, to which Jesus and the chosen race subsists a bond
of sovereign grace that hell with its infernal train shall
ne'er dissolve or rend in twain. This was God that made this bond
exist, that we have through love in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are predestinated. Then we are called through the
preaching of the Gospel, called into that experience of the righteous
union that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ, by which we understand
the justification that we have. and we see that glory that we
have in union with him as he is seated in heavenly places
and we are seated together with him. The Apostle goes on to confirm
how the Gentiles have been accepted into the body of Christ That
great problem that afflicted the Jewish church for so long
after the Great Commission was given to them. What was the place
of the Gentiles? Well Paul tells us in this book
of Romans that they have been grafted in and that the Jewish
nation as a nation had been cut off. and that the only union
that we have is where there is neither male nor female, where
there is neither Jew nor Greek, but that we are bound together
and one in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is concluded with a number
of practical observations and obligations for authority and
for mutual care in the body of believers and for his future
plans to minister in Spain and come via Rome and his friends
on his way to Spain. And so we can see that this personal
dimension, it has been in this book right from the very beginning
that Paul was writing to his friends, showing them and teaching
them the things about the righteousness of God and justification, eternal
justification, justification from eternity according to the
covenant purpose of God. worked and secured by the precious
blood of Jesus Christ in his surety ship role and as the mediator
of that covenant of God's purpose to his people. And then we see
that we have the third point before us. And this is simply
to make three concluding points that are highlighted in this
chapter. So this is my third and final
point. I hope you've been able to follow
me thus far. But I want to draw your attention
to a couple of things which I think are just little gems in this
chapter, which it will do our souls well, I trust, to just
touch upon and dwell upon for a moment. Look at verse 7. And I just want to stress that
there's no misunderstanding here in verse seven, where it speaks
about Andronicus and Junia. So we're told about these two,
salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. So they had clearly been in prison
at some time with the Apostle Paul. He had been imprisoned
many times. We don't know about all the imprisonments
that the Apostle endured. But here we're told that Andronicus
and Junia had served in prison with him at some stage. They
were fellow prisoners and who are of note among the Apostles. So they were well thought of
amongst the Apostles. who also were in Christ before
me. And this is the point that I
want to draw your attention to. There are those who would suggest
that the work of salvation brings us into union with Christ. That when a man chooses to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, when a woman is brought to that place
of conversion, that we are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ and
from that point we are in him. But that's wrong. That would
be a mistake and an error of serious significance and consequences. Rather, what is being referred
to here is that these two were in Christ before Paul insofar
as they were converted. before Paul. Indeed, it may well
be that these individuals, if they were known to the apostles,
were members of those who were around about the Lord Jesus Christ
during the Lord's own ministry. Not of the 12 disciples, but
perhaps of the 70 that were sent out as preachers. And here are
two that the apostle Paul and the other apostles have grown
to love and appreciate and value. and they were in Christ before
me, says Paul. but all believers are in Christ
in eternity. And that's the point that I want
us to realise. As we made mention before in
that last section with respect to the testimony of the apostle
with regard to our union with the Lord Jesus Christ, it is
a union based on everlasting love, based on God's foreknowledge,
on the predestinating purpose, on election, and the decrees
of God, and placing that elect people in Christ, in the eternal
covenant of God's peace and grace and mercy. And that is the people
that have been loved from eternity, chosen from eternity, called
and sanctified from eternity, who receive the benefits of the
Lord Jesus Christ's death in time, and who are brought into
a knowledge of those benefits through the preaching of the
gospel and the application of that gospel to them in conversion
and faith. And this is the great principle
of the gospel that the Apostle Paul has here been preaching.
So let us not misunderstand this little phrase that he uses in
verse 7. The second thing I want to point
out to you is that Satan's destruction is imminent. Here's another little
gem in this chapter. Look at verse 20. The apostle
says there, Christ is going to bruise Satan
under our feet shortly. Think on that. Think on that,
brother and sister in Christ. Think on the fact that Jesus
Christ will do it. Having risen from the dead, we
were thinking about that on Lord's Day morning, how that he must
rise again. He must rise again and having
risen again for all of those points that we made, that he
must rise again because it was God's decree that he would because
it was in the eternal plan that he would, it was according to
the covenant of truth that he would, that it was for the benefit
and the blessing of his church that we rose with him. All of
these things are our possession because the Lord Jesus Christ
was victorious over Satan, over death, over the grave and he
rose again. But that's not the end of it
because Satan still continues to serve God's purposes and Satan
serves God's purposes in this world. We sometimes don't understand
why that should be. Why is Satan allowed to tempt
us? Why is Satan allowed to exhibit
such viciousness against the church? Why is it that the Lord's
people have to endure trial and difficulty? Why is it that he
seems to be able to hurt us? Well, Satan is God's devil. Satan is a tool in God's hands
that God uses in order to keep his church and his people always
looking to their saviour, never becoming too proud of their own
abilities, never becoming pompous or presumptuous in our own strength,
never imagining that our own works of goodness or righteousness
are in some way so well-pleasing to God that God is indebted to
us. Rather, we are constantly and
always in need of his help. And Satan fulfills that purpose
of showing us our constant need. But here's the thing, every time
that the child of God, in that feeling of inadequacy, in that
troubled experience, in that time of trial, looks away from
themselves to the Saviour, looks away from themselves to where
their true help lies, then Satan is bruised under our feet. Every time we confess our unworthiness
before the Holy God and lay hold upon the blood sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the righteous goodness of God's grace to us,
Satan is bruised under our feet. Every time we exercise faith,
we look to Christ, we trust in Him, we persevere in this life,
Every time the Lord Jesus Christ is bruising Satan under our feet
and even in our death. Satan will be bruised under our
feet. You know why? Because Satan has
this vain imagination that he possesses our bodies. Our bodies
are fleshy. Our bodies are of the earth.
This is Satan's domain, he imagines, and he has a right to our bodies
and our flesh. Remember he contended for Moses'
body with Michael, the archangel? He would contend for the bodies
of the saints. But these bodies, even these
fleshy bodies, will be preserved until that resurrection morning. You know what God does? God says
to the grave, you look after them, they're mine. And we will
put Satan, or Satan will be bruised under our feet, even in our death,
because he cannot exercise the rule or the rule over us that
he would. This is not our works. but it
is the God of peace who accomplishes this and places Satan, bruises
Satan under our feet. Christ uses his people, uses
our experience to exhibit and display the devil's demise and
destruction and his degradation. He who has hurt the church and
hurt the people of God will be trodden underfoot as the people
of God march to glory. And this is of comfort and encouragement
for the weary, tested, tempted saints as they go through this
life and as we go through the trials of our experience. And
the third and last point that I want to make is simply this. that the apostle ends with these
little doxologies. And he says, the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you. He repeats it, twice he says
it. It's almost as if he can't bring his letter to an end, such
as the affection that he feels for these people. So he repeats
himself, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. This is the mystery that he is
referring to in the doxology. He says that there once was a
mystery according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept
secret since the world began. What is that mystery? Salvation
by grace. And the Apostle Paul is a preacher. This is his gospel. This is the
gospel that he has preached all over the known world at that
time. It's what he desired to preach
in Spain. He desired to preach amongst
the Romans. He would preach again in Jerusalem. This was his message. This was
the message that the Lord Jesus Christ had committed to him.
Salvation by grace, not of works. lest any man should boast. This
is the gospel revealed. This is the revelation of this
mystery that had been hidden for so long. Not completely hidden
so that there was no one who understood, for truly the Old
Testament prophets and patriarchs did understand. But now in the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the fullness of this revelation,
we see that the church will be gathered through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God. Faith gifted, granted, freely
given to the church. that we might exercise that obedience
unto God, which is not of works, not of good deeds, but of simple,
trusting faith in the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
in the efficacy of his blood, in the loveliness of his representation,
in the Lord Jesus Christ standing for us. and taking and carrying
all our sins and being our surety and our deliverer. This is our
Redeemer and this is our Gospel. And so we come to an end of the
Epistle to the Romans. I trust you have enjoyed it.
I have. And I would just like to say,
dear Paul, you don't know me. But thank you for your letter. I'm sorry, Paul, for all the
trouble that you had in Jerusalem, but I'm glad you went to Jerusalem
and wrote this epistle to Rome instead. Thank you for your gospel. Thank you for telling me all
about the grace of God in Christ. Thank you for being faithful
to our mutual Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.