Two Journeys

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Psalm 50. The main subject of the sermon is how God commands His people to be genuinely thankful for His mighty work done for them.

 Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday, and no, it's not because it's my birthday, so thank you for those of you that sent messages encouraging me, and it was encouragement, but it's only my birthday, I guess, once every seven years. But I love Thanksgiving, and I thank God for it, because I just think that we have a tendency toward thanklessness. I just think it's our native state apart from Christ. Romans chapter 1 says, "Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him." And so I think we have to be shaken out of that thankless state, and so it's a blessing for us to have a day, one day in the year to give thanks to the Lord.

In December of 1620, I still marvel over it, what it must have been like to land on a beach in Cape Cod in December, not having any shelter. But the pilgrims did that and having survived their perilous Northern Passage across the Atlantic Ocean in late fall, they started too late because of some difficulties, they landed there, and it was all they could do to just sink to their knees and give thanks to God for their lives, little knowing that they're about to face the most difficult year of their lives, most difficult winter of their lives. And when that year, that winter was done, and it was difficult, as many of them died and the living had to care for the sick and dying and had to bury the dead at night for fear of Indian attack when that year was done, and God blessed them with an abundant harvest, they felt that it was right again to get down on their knees and give thanks to God and to praise him for his many blessings to them. And so Thanksgiving is rightly a part of the Christian life. We should be enriching our lives with it constantly. You know, it cuts off grumbling and complaining, when you're filling your mouth with praise and thanks for all the blessings of God. And so it is, that it is right for us to give thanks.

Now, when we come to Psalm 50, you might think initially, it's a Psalm of Thanksgiving. In one sense it is, but in another sense it really isn't, in another sense it's a Psalm of judgment, in which God, the judge of all of the earth, calls his people to give an account and specifically addresses two problems with the people of God, the problem of formalism, and the problem of hypocrisy. What God wants is genuine thanksgiving. He wants hearts that are genuinely moved by his grace, especially to us now in the new covenant, his grace in Christ, move to give him thanks and praise. That's what he wants. He doesn't want the wheels of religion churning and turning endlessly and no heart behind it, and so he's calling his people to him for judgment so that he can deal with them and bring them to a better place, a stronger and healthier place, a place of genuine thanksgiving. Over two weeks, this week and next week, we're gonna look at the Psalm.

Next week, I'm gonna focus on just one verse in the middle, verse 15, And so I'm gonna give it light treatment today, though it is really the focal point of the whole Psalm. And the next week, I'm gonna share with you one of the greatest sermons that I've ever experienced, from one of the greatest preachers I think that ever lived. Charles Spurgeon focused on this one verse, "…call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." But today, I'd like to look at the entire Psalm, go across it and try to understand it in its context. And it begins with the summons from the God of all the earth for judgment. We see immediately God's universal rule as King and judge and lawgiver. Look at verse one. It says, "The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets." 

Now, he gives us right away three titles for himself, we get the title “El”, which is just the common word for God, but it also means the one who is mighty. The mightiness of God is established in that name, and then we have “Elohim”, which is God as is the object of worship and reverence throughout the Old Testament. But then we have God's special covenant name, “Yahweh”, by which he revealed himself to Moses in the flames of the burning bush. He is the great “I Am”. And so God heaps up names upon himself here, stacking up titles as though the sovereign, the king were calling out to his realm and saying, "This is who I am and I'm summoning you to come to me for judgment."

You know, monarchs frequently will list their titles. I think we Americans we're not much on those kind of things, heraldry and titles and all of that, but they're really big in countries where there are kings and queens. And so the kings and queens, they like to accumulate titles to themselves based on things they've achieved or their ancestors have achieved, some of them are hereditary. The longest set of titles I found was for King Juan Carlos I of Spain. He had 45 of them. I will not bore you by reading all of them. I'll read some of them though. King Juan Carlos I of Spain, King of Spain, king of Castile, king of Leon, King of Aragon, King of the Two Sicilies. I didn't know there were two Sicilies, but he's king of both of them, and King of Jerusalem. I paused there. I thought, Now, that's interesting, how did Juan Carlos I get to be king of Jerusalem, but I think it was connected to a conquest by Spanish Knights during the Crusades. It struck me as obsolete, but at any rate, it's still his title. 

And then I think how blessed is it that God's titles never become obsolete. Amen? And wouldn't it be wonderful? You see, He's the king, Juan Carlos, the king of Castile, because one of his ancestors conquered it, and the king of Leon, because one of his ancestors conquered and the king of Aragon, because one of his ancestors conquered it. I'm thinking, wouldn't it be great if God's title included all of our names, we who are rescued from the dominion of darkness? The King of Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, and of Andy Davis, and of each one of you who have trusted in Christ. He is your king as well. But that would be a long time to get through his titles. So he just gives us three here at the beginning, showing his greatness, that he is worthy of worship and honor.

And here he gives us a summons, a terrifying summons to judgment. Look at what he says, "The Mighty One, God, the LORD speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets." He is God of all the earth, as Abraham called him before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. He said, "Will not the judge of all the earth do right." He is the judge of all the earth, as in verse 4, "He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people." So the word summons is a sense of being called to the bar for justice. And when God gives his summons at the end of the world, it will be called Judgment Day. This is therefore a terrifying summons. We are summoned to stand trial before the judge of all the earth and to face his judgment.

Now, there are two ways to hear this summons. The first is to hear it by faith in his Word, that we read it in the Word and we believe it, that God is summoning us to come to him spiritually. And by faith, we come and we face Judgment Day early, we who are Christians, we do it at the cross, we come to the cross and we face our own sinfulness there, and we see our wickedness and the way we have transgressed God's laws. And in the cross of Christ, we find our salvation, and so we experience Judgment Day early and not fully, because Jesus is our substitute, he has downed for us, the cup of God's wrath completely and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so we come to judgment early, and we do it by faith because we believe this book, and they're not just words on the page, but actually the word of God speaking, and so we believe that God is summoning us, and we do it by faith. That's one way to hear it.

The second way won't require any faith at all. You just will need to hear him, and that will be Judgment Day, and he will call you and he will call everyone that's ever lived. And we will stand before him and give an account for our lives. And as I said, you don't need faith on that day. You will come because he will summon you. And so Jesus says in Matthew 25, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." And so that will be a summons, we all must obey, there will be no choice in the matter and no faith required. That will be a summon of the God of all the earth.

Now, I think this summons is reminiscent of Mount Sinai. There in Exodus 19, God came to his people and descended on that mountain in fire, and he caused an earthquake and a trembling, and there was a command that if anyone went up on the mountain they would be stoned to death, put to death just for going up on a mountain, and God spoke in a voice so loud that the people were terrified of it, and God created all of these emblems around the giving of the law so that the people would fear him, they would know his great power and his great holiness. And so it says in Hebrews 12:21, “The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, ‘I am trembling with fear.’” But God knows how to make us afraid, and I think we see a similar thing here. In verse 3, it says, "Our God comes and will not be silent."

Though it seems that God is silent now about our lives and our decisions and our behavior patterns, he is not silent. He speaks now in his word. He has told you what to think about everything, about how you live. So he's not silent, he speaks in his word, but some day he will speak directly to you and to me about our lives, and if we don't have Christ and if we don't have a savior, we will be condemned for sin. So God comes and he speaks and he's not silent. And he may seem silent to the unbeliever. He may seem silent to the one who has no faith, but we should know that God will bring us to judgment for all of our decisions, and that we must have Christ. 

In Ecclesiastes 11:9, it says, "Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment." So God will not be silent then, and he is not silent now, but we can hear him speak now, only if we believe his Word through the prophets, through the Scripture, then we can hear him speak. God comes to speak to us and he sets the stage, as I said, with awesome displays of his power, with emblems of his majesty, with manifestations of his greatness. As he did on Mount Sinai, so he does here in Psalm 50 verse 3. It says, "A fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages." Fire, a symbol of God's purity and holiness. “[For] our ‘God is a consuming fire,’” it says in Hebrews 12:29.

Fire is a terrifying thing to us. By fire, we can lose our possessions and our property. By fire, we can lose our loved ones and our lives. How much greater the fire that burns for eternity and will never be extinguished. The fire of eternal torment, mentioned in the book of Revelation. "He too,” it says. “[The Rebel]… will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of his holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest day or night." That is a fire that rages from the justice of God. God also comes with a great storm, a tempest, a hurricane of winds, a devastation of his power.

And I've witnessed some great storms when we were missionaries in Japan. I happen to enjoy typhoon season, as long as no one got hurt and no property damage was done, and that's a big request, but many times it happened that way. And I remember spending the night at my brother-in-law's house and the wind came and it just got louder and louder and louder. They had these aluminum shutters that were used at times like that, and they were rattling, and you heard the groan and the creek of the very timbers of the house and you wondered if it would survive. And the next day we went and looked at the ocean, and there was still the effects of the typhoon was going through and it was churned into a frothy mass, and we just stood there and looked at it, and it was just so awesome, the power of God.

Notice that it says, "…around him, a tempest rages." Not within him. God is at peace all the time. He says, "Enter now into the joy of your Master." He's not storming within, but around him a tempest, rages. This is God coming to speak a word of judgment. Now, why does God do all of this? Why these emblems of fear and terror and all that. Well, I think he said it at Mount Sinai, in Exodus 20:20. Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." That's why. So that the fear of God will keep you from sinning. And so it's a bit of a mystery, Exodus 20:20. Do not fear, because the fear of God has come. It seems to me, if you fear God, you need to fear nothing else. If you fear God, you need not fear Judgment Day or Hell or any of those things, because God has taken all of that away in Christ. If you fear God, he'll keep you from sinning. And so that's why he does it here. But notice what it says, and this is rather shocking to us, perhaps. He summons the whole world, but specifically his own people for judgment. He starts with his own people.

Look what it says in verse four and five, "He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people: Gather to me my consecrated ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice." And then again in verse seven, "Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God." So he's speaking to the covenant people in the Old Testament's Israel. And why does he start with his covenant people? Well, because of the perfect beauty of Zion, the centerpiece of what God is doing on earth and in history. Look at verse two, "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth." Now, Zion is the dwelling place of God, but it also represents Israel, the people of God, where God will set up his dwelling place. And he means for Zion, to be pure and holy. He means for it to be clean. He wants God's radiance and glory to shine forth from Zion. In new covenant language, he wants the bride of Christ to be pure and spotless without any blemish or any such thing, but holy and beautiful, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He wants us clean. And so he speaks concerning Zion and out of Zion, and he summons the people of God first to his courtroom for judgment. 1 Peter 4:17 says this,

"For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” And if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner. He starts with the people of God. That's where it begins. Now, I already mentioned how that's true of us. It starts with us, when we come to faith in Christ. We came because we felt we needed a savior, and so the judgment started with us. We have felt the judgment, the sentence of God against us, and so we have fled to the cross, but that doesn't end it there. There's ongoing trials. 1 Peter 4 is talking about trials and the sufferings of the people of God, and we must continually be purified and we must face our own weakness, and we've got enemies around us, and the judgment begins with the family of God. The purity of God's people is essential to what he's doing in this world. We must be visibly holy, not perfect, we cannot be, but we must be striving after holiness. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." That hunger and thirst must be put on display. God lights a lamp and it gives light to everyone in the house, and so he wants this house to be pure, and so he's entering into judgment with his people on two sins, specifically. The sin, first of formalism, and secondly of hypocrisy.

Let's look at the first one, this issue of formalism. Verse seven though13, "Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?" And so God calls his people to judgment. And note the seriousness of the statement. God testifies against his people. Here he is their God, specifically theirs by covenant.

Now, I believe this first category of people are genuine believers, but they slipped into a kind of formalism in their relationship with God. They've fallen into the sin of formalism. Now, what do we mean by formalism? Well, friends, it's going through the forms of religion without the heart behind it, going through the forms of religiosity without the true heart of repentance and faith and love for God behind it. That is so easy for us to do. Isn't it? Well, look what he says here, verse eight, "I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me." You're not lacking that. There's plenty of animals dying. Isaiah took up the steam in Isaiah one. He says, "’The multitude of your sacrifices-- what are they to me?’ says the LORD. ‘I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings!’”

That's what Isaiah is talking about, meaningless offerings. It's formalism. It's going through the outward trappings of religion, and they were grossly misunderstanding God and what he truly wants. They imagined that their salvation depended on keeping the wheels, the machine of religion going.

They had misunderstood what it was all about. They imagined that God would be pleased with them and give them good crops and harvest and blessings, as long as he got his pound of flesh. If God gets his pound of flesh, then we're fine. It's like putting coins into a vending machine. You put your coins in, you get what you want out. You give God his pound of flesh, and he gives you what you're hoping for. But they never stopped to consider their ways and try to understand what the animal sacrifice was there to teach, that all sin deserves a death penalty and the death penalty can be paid by a substitute, and the substitute cannot be an animal. They must be looking ahead to something more than that. God doesn't want more and more and more animals. How much does adultery cost? One bull? It's worth it. He doesn't want that. He wants a genuine heart repentance.

Now, formalism is based on the misunderstanding of God. They failed to see the purpose of their religious deeds. All human beings tend to overestimate the value of their religious service and underestimate the significance of their sins. We all do it, don't we? "Oh, God, he has gotta be pleased with this. Now, this is something that I've done here.” And then our sins, our peccadilloes or small things, white lies, fibs. And even worse, these people forgot that God owns everything that they have and that the sacrifices they are making really are not truly sacrifices because they already belong to God. God is not a debtor, he will never be a debtor in any transaction, ever.

He says, "I have no need of a bull from your stalls or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine [already].” “You're not bringing me anything that's not already mine." He is not a debtor. Even more significantly, God is not needy, ever. He doesn't need anything. Verse 12, "If I were hungry, I would not tell you." I like to read it like that. It's the way Tony read it. I love it. "I wouldn't tell you, of all people." That's humbling, isn't it? Well, of all the people, would you tell me? Of all the six billion, would I be like the number one person you would tell if you were hungry? He said, "I'm not gonna ask any of you if I were hungry, for all of the world is mine and everything in it." God is not hungry and neither is he thirsty. He says, "Do I eat the flesh of bulls? Do you see me as a carnivore or a blood drinker? Because I am not." 

And formalism leads to a sense of burden after a while, doesn't it? In Malachi one through 13, the prophet spoke there about the people bringing these sacrifices, one after another, and they sniff at it and they say, "What a burden!” Listen, if you're going through a formal religion, I guarantee it's gonna feel like a burden to you. It's gonna feel like a burden to do the things you do for God. If that's what you're going through, let me tell you something, let's trace it backwards. If you're feeling the burden of your religion, then you're in formalism.

Let me tell you something, God doesn't need our church attendance. God doesn't need our tithes and offerings. God does not need our evangelism. God doesn't need us to go through those Lottie Moon prayer guides. He doesn't need us to give $80,000 to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. He doesn't need us to go as missionaries. He doesn't need us to worship Him. He doesn't need us to have our family altars or family devotion times. He doesn't need anything like that. He, frankly, doesn't need anything at all. He is the source of everything. You can't bring water to a bubbling mountain spring. What does it need with that? God doesn't need any of these things.

This is the truth that God made clear in the doxology in Romans 11, “’Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! [and ever] Amen." This is also the truth that Paul made clear to the idolaters in Athens in Acts 17. He's talking to them about their formal religion, idolatry at that point, and he said, "The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. [Now listen.] And he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else."

Imagine for a moment, and perish the very thought that God needs you to do the things you do for him. Actually, the shoe is quite on the other foot. Look at verses 14 and 15, "Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will glorify [honor] me." So who is the needy one here? Is it not you? The one who needs deliverance from the day of trouble? God is calling his people here in verses 14 and15 to genuine salvation. Let's sham religion of formalism as a counterfeit. He wants genuine heart religion. He wants true sacrifices offered by faith. He doesn't want us misunderstanding his position. He doesn't want us saying, "God needs me. Isn't God fortunate to have me?" We fancy ourselves irreplaceable in the Kingdom of God. Religion is felt somehow that God needed some of their animals and what a gross lie. And so also, every mental ability, every spiritual gift, every dollar, every second, every relationship, it's all his already.

The question is: what about your heart? Have you given it to Jesus? Have you trusted in him for your salvation? And are you still trusting in him? Have you given yourself to him? And if you have given yourself, then he will accept all the sacrifices from your hands. The fact is, we are the ones in trouble and we need deliverance. And I'll talk more about that next week. But look at verse 15, "…call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." I don't know how many different days of trouble there are in front of me right now. We'll talk about that next week, but I've gotta say something about it. You may be in a day of trouble now and you can't wait till next week. Well, God tells you here in verse 15, what to do if you're in a day of trouble. Call upon him and he will deliver you, and you will glorify him.  And that will be a genuine religion at that point. That will be a genuine offering of Thanksgiving when that happens. Apart from Christ, we have no hope. But in Christ, we have full salvation, so call upon him. And Jesus Christ is the true sacrifice.

In the very next Psalm, Psalm 51, David knew that there was a limitation to animal sacrifice, "You do not delight in sacrifice [animals], or I would bring it…The sacrifice of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” “Bring that with your sacrifice and then I'll take the animal." Yes, God commanded them to be made in the old covenant. Yes, Jesus is the fulfillment of the sacrifice in the new. But the fact has been the same across all the years. It's the heart of faith and repentance that saves, and that's what God wants from us. The fact of the matter is, God doesn't need us to serve him, but we need him to serve us.

Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." The night before he was crucified, Jesus was with his disciples and noticed that their feet were dirty, and he got down on his hands and knees and he washed the feet of his disciples. “He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ’Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize what I'm doing, but later you will understand.’ ‘No,’ said Peter, ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me." We must have him wash us. We must have him serve us. He must die for us, or else we cannot be with him. And so it's not that he needs us to serve him, it's that we need him to serve us.

And that's not done, by the way. We need him to continue to serve us. That was the point of the foot washing. He said, "Then wash my hands and my whole body." The person who's had a bath has already been bathed. He needs only to have his feet washed. You need to have your feet washed. And so we've got to have him continue to serve us, continue to serve us, until we are done being saved. So it is not the case that God needs us, but rather that we need God.

And so we see this issue of formalism, but then we see more devastatingly, the issue of hypocrisy. And oh, that I didn't have to talk about this. Oh, that I didn't have to talk about the fact that among the so-called people of God, there are some hypocrites. Among those that assemble at the place of worship, whether old covenant or new covenant, there are some who are not genuinely converted. I wish I didn't have to talk about this. It is uncomfortable. For me, it may be one of the most uncomfortable and staggering thoughts that I could be self-deceived about my relationship with God. That it would be about me that he would say. Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles." Then he will tell me, plainly, "I never knew you were away from me, you evil doer." But there are ways that we can be assured of our salvation. Scripture speaks clearly about that, yet it warns us here about hypocrisy. 

Look at what it says, verses 16-21, "But to the wicked, God says: ’What right do you have to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips? You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you. When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterous. You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You speak continually against your brother and slander your own mother's son. These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was all together like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face.’" Here, the people take the words of God on their lips. They take the covenant of God on their lips, but their hearts are far from God. They actually hate his instruction, and they cast it behind them. You can see it by the way they live. 

Three of the Ten Commandments are dealt with. Theft, adultery, false testimony, and they throw themselves in with it. They love it. It's interesting, of the three, he talks the most about the sin of the mouth. Look at verse 19 and 20, he says, "You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You speak continually against your brother and slander your own mother's son." This is a habit. We are actually skillful at doing this to each other, talking about each other, slandering people, pulling them down, laying somebody low like a bombing run. And you can do it so cleverly, more than just sharing a prayer request or sharing prayer concerns. We know about that. There are more techniques and that, friends. But we can do it. I've caught myself doing it. But these folks, they love doing it. The character assassins, just like they love theft and they love adultery. A true Christian doesn't love any of these things and is deeply yearning for all of them to be gone, not just from their own heart, but from the world. And yet we struggle. Romans 7, you mentioned last time. 

But these are hypocrites. These are old covenant hypocrites. Gospel hypocrites are even worse. The sin is in proportion to how much revelation you have. The more insight God has given you and you sin anyway, the worse it is for you on Judgment Day. That's what we learn from Matthew 11. And what is the end of the hypocrite? Look at verse 21, "These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face." Can you imagine having God as your accuser? I would much rather have Jesus as my savior. I'd rather have him stand and defend me against the accusations and say, “I died for that. I died for that. I died for that. I died for it all.” But to have God as your accuser, how devastating is that?

Now we see how God is misunderstood. We've already seen it in the formalist. The formalist misunderstands God and thinks that he needs them somehow. But the hypocrite misunderstands God differently. He thinks God is like him, all together like him actually, that God actually enjoys some good adultery or theft or false testimony from time to time. God actually enjoys that kind of thing. Kind of like the Greek gods, like Zeus is kinda coming down and doing some things behind Hera's back all the time. What a bunch of losers they were. Who could ever worship those gods. I mean, they're like Hollywood stars and starlets. Brothers and sisters and friends.

God is not like that. Our God is holy. He is not altogether like us in our sin. He is unlike us and salvation is where he transforms us and makes us like him. People misunderstand the silence of God, don't they? They think because God is silent, it means God approves. Well, he doesn't approve. He has already disapproved in Scripture, and he will disapprove on Judgment Day.

And so the hypocrite needs to be warned and not imagine that God is like him. Instead, God wants genuine thankfulness. It is the fruit of salvation. Look at verses 22 and 23. "Consider this, [he says] you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with none to rescue: He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God." The animal sacrificial system prepared the way for God to show the salvation of God and Jesus. That's how it prepared the way. But the Psalmist ends here with a warning to the hypocrite who forgets God. He threatens condemnation and eternal judgment. Now, beautifully in verse 15, he has already offered deliverance from the day of trouble. What is the day of trouble? Ultimately, the Judgment Day. He has come to deliver us from it. Everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. And so he's come to deliver us from that. But here, he threatens a trouble from which none can deliver. 

I wanna finish with a story from a mission trip I made in Haiti. I'll never forget this. This was incredible. I saw a young man there, a teenager who was wearing a shirt that had on it a picture Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. And it had some words across, I couldn't read, something like "They didn't bow, they didn't bend, they didn't burn," or something like that, I've been told. I think it's a Gospel song. I haven't heard it before, but something like that. And through a translator, I asked this young man if he knew what the story was about. He said, "No." He didn't even know it was a Bible story. It was just a shirt with a picture on it. A cool picture too, guys in the middle of fire and all that. So a group of young people gathered around and through a translator, I told them the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from Daniel chapter 3. 

And I told them of evil King Nebuchadnezzar and this terrible idol that he had set up and he commanded that they fall down and worship the idol, and if they didn't, he would throw them into the fiery furnace. "…then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?"  he said. Well, he's about to get an education, isn't he? "Our God is able to deliver us from you, O king. Watch what God can do." And they were enthralled. These kids, their eyes were like saucers. They were on to it. It's a great story. It's awesome what God did. Then at the end, I wanted to talk to them about Christ. I said, "You know, there is a fire, an eternal fire on Judgment Day. And according to the scriptures, God will throw people in there. And if God puts you in that fire, then who shall be able to deliver you from God's hand?" They were totally silent, and then they all said in unison, "No one." I said, "Well, that's not entirely true. There is one who can rescue us from God's hand, and that is God. He's the only one who can do it." "…call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you shall glorify me." 

Now we come to a time of sacrifice of the Lord's table. It's not an actual sacrifice, but it's a sacrifice of praise. The Old Testament sacrificial system has been completed, but now we have an opportunity to give thanks to the Lord. That’s what the Eucharist is, the Greek word for giving thanks. You should be giving thanks to God for sending Jesus as your sacrifice. We are going to eat the bread and we're gonna drink the juice, and those are going to symbolize Jesus' body and his blood. We're going to ask the Holy Spirit to come and to infuse this time with the power and the sense of the presence of almighty God. We're gonna ask him to do that. I would like to ask that if you have not trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior, while we are doing this, repent and trust in Christ as your Lord and Savior. Don't leave this place without having come to faith in Christ. Believe that his blood shed on the cross is sufficient for you and do not take from the Lord's supper. But if you have repented and trusted in Christ and testified to that by water baptism, you are welcome to join this table. So come now to the feast.

Some time ago, I received a tape, which I really enjoyed, from John MacArthur’s ministry called "Jet Tour Through the Book of Revelation." And he took the hearers through 22 chapters of Revelation in one hour. You're going to get a jet tour of the Book of Romans today. And I don't know how in the world I'm going to do it, but I've asked God for help and grace. The thing that's amazing is the Book of Romans is itself a synopsis of Paul's doctrine; that synopsis has unfolded now into this, the 120th sermon that I've preached on Romans. Far more could have been preached, have been preached in church history on Romans.

It's rich, and now we're taking a synopsis and folding it back down into one sermon. But there's incredible value for all of us that our hearts would be kindled a fresh in the cross of Jesus Christ, that we would see the lavish promises that are ours in Christ, that we would be filled with joy and thankfulness at what God has done, that we would look again into the mirror of God's word and find out what we really were apart from Christ, just how bad it was. And having been reminded, we're not left to languish in there in despair, but rather are lifted up to the very heights, into the very presence of God by His promises and by His provision in Christ. That's what's in front of us today.

Augustine and Romans

John McArthur said that Romans has the ability to strip you bare and then clothe you in the finest robe. And so it's a very powerful book. Throughout Church history, this book, this letter, has transformed more lives than any other piece of writing in history. You think about Augustine who 16 centuries ago came to Carthage and to North Africa, burning with lust, struggling with sin, sexual sin, a conscience raging against him, afraid to die and go to hell, unable to free himself from it, threw himself down under a fig tree desperately crying out to God for something, hearing a children's rhyme, a bunch of children playing, and they're singing, "Tolle lege, Tolle lege." Take up and read, take up and read. And there was a copy of the book of Romans right near him, and it was open to Romans 13 where it says, "Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy, rather clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh."

And at that moment, he understood that the very thing that God was commanding him, he was willing to give Him freely, namely righteousness, and at that moment, he was saved simply from reading a couple of verses in Romans 13.

Luther and Romans

Twelve centuries later, another desperate man a German monk named Martin Luther was trying to calm his terror of hell, a terror that had been kindled in him very powerfully by a lightning storm, and he threw himself down in the mud and bargained with God saying, "I'll become a monk if you just won't kill me." And that whole bargaining system of medieval Catholicism brought him no peace. He tried through monkery, through being the greatest monk in history, to calm his raging conscience, but he couldn't do it.

A pilgrimage to Rome only made it worse. Going up the Holy Staircase on his knees and praying a paternoster on every stair, it did not calm his fears. What freed Martin Luther? A single verse from the Book of Romans, Romans 1-17: "For in the Gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed that is from faith to faith, just as it is written, the righteous or the just will live by faith." And he said, "When I read that, then the doors of paradise were flung open and at last I realized this righteousness of God is not that righteousness by which God sends us to hell, but he's talking here in context about a power of God for salvation, about living, about life itself. And it was just a gift." And he realized at last, God was willing to justify him by faith alone apart from works of the law.

Wesley and Romans

A couple of centuries later, a man named John Wesley, again a raging conscience, no piece before God, no sense of His salvation, been in a near shipwreck with a bunch of Moravians. They were at peace, ready to die, could take it either way, like Paul in Philippians 1. Wesley wasn't ready to die. And He went unwillingly, he said, to a meeting at Aldersgate Street, and May 24th, 1738, and he says at about a quarter to nine he heard someone reading from Luther's preface to the Book of Romans; hearing about the changes that God works in the heart through simple faith in Christ. And he said, "I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation, and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." He marked his salvation from that point forward.

An anonymous poem captures the spirit and the message of the Book of Romans. This is what the poem says, "Along in dark the stairs I trod with trembling feet to find my God, gaining a foothold bit-by-bit, then slipping back and losing it. Never progressing, striving still with weakening grasp and faltering will, bleeding to climb to God while He serenely smiled not noting me. Then came a certain time when I loosened my hold and fell there by down to the lowest step my fall as if I had not climbed it all. Now when I lay despairing there, listen, a footfall on the stair. On that same stair where I, afraid, faltered and fell and lay dismayed, and low when hope had ceased to be, My God came down the stair to me."

That's the Book of Romans. It's God bringing us a righteousness and giving it to us as a gift, which we could never have earned through our own labors of climbing the staircase to Heaven.

The message of Romans is summed up in verses 16-17 of Chapter 1, and by the way, I urge you to follow along in Romans as we go through, see these words on the page. This will not be the last time you look at Romans. Maybe the last time I preach it from this pulpit, but it will not be the last time you read it, so let your eyes look at the words. Verses 16-17: "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, the righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith."

The Primary Problem of the Human Race

The primary problem of the human race is summed up in one statement, in Job 25 Verse 4: "How then can a man be righteous before God?" How can a man be righteous before God? Linked with that is an earlier verse in Job, "If a man dies will he live again?" That's what's facing us: Our unrighteousness and the death penalty that comes as a result; that's the problem for us.

The Primary Problem of Almighty God

As I read Romans, the primary problem for God was this: How could he be both just and the one who justifies wicked sinners and lets people like us into Heaven; that was the problem for God. If God allows sinful man into Heaven, what will that say about His perfect righteousness? What will it say about the laws that he gave and we flouted? Will he then be a just judge, or would he not rather be an unjust and weak judge? How is He going to let David into Heaven, that murder and adultery whose hands are stained with Uriah's blood? How is He going to let him into Heaven?

What about the thief on the cross? How is Jesus going to pay for the statement, "Today you'll be with me in paradise"? What has that man done? He was an insurrectionist, a murder and a robber. What has He done? "Today you'll be with me in paradise." How can God be both just and the justifier of sinners like us?

The Theme of Romans: Sinners Made Righteous by God

That is the theme of Romans; it is sinners like you and me made righteous before the holy eyes of God. The Gospel is power, real power from God. Power to change a person's eternal destiny from hell to Heaven, power to change a person's heart from sin-loving and God-hating to sin-hating and God-loving. Power to change a person's body from a corrupted mass of decaying flesh to a resurrected body of eternal perfection. Power to even change our universe, which groans under the effect of our sin until it's liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into an eternal perfection that we can't even describe. That's the power of these words. The words of Romans, the words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just words. But they're not just words; they're God's words. He's speaking to us today. He's speaking to you today. He's spoken for 20 centuries through this book. He's speaking to you today. He's already spoken to me today, and He's telling us that we are righteous simply by faith in Christ. That's the message of Romans.

But that's not all Roman says. Actually, Romans gets quite specific. It starts to talk to us about righteousness, and I want to follow that idea of righteousness right through the book. I want to start by talking about our own righteousness. It's rejected entirely. We have none. And that's the message of Romans 1-3. Then I want to talk about God's righteousness imputed or credited to our account simply by faith. That's Romans 3, 4 and 5. And then I want to talk about a righteousness that's actually imparted to us through sanctification by the power of the Spirit, worked out day-by-day, Romans 6, 7, and 8. Then I want to talk about how God's righteousness is vindicated in the case of the Jews who are almost universally rejecting the Gospel, how that does not impugn his righteousness. It does not make him a promise breaker. But rather His word is still upheld, so we have to see God's righteousness vindicated concerning the Jews; Romans 9-11. And then we're going to see God's righteousness applied to various aspects of daily life, Romans 12-16. That's the theme of Romans. It has to do with how the righteousness from God comes to us as sinners.

The Universal Sinfulness of Humanity (Romans 1:18-32)

Let's start by talking painfully about our own righteousness. In one sense, you could call it a very short topic. We have none, naturally, but Paul is specific. He says in verse 18 of Chapter 1, "The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth in righteousness." That's true of all of us, the whole human race. Romans 1, some commentator say, speaks to the Gentile and Pagan world, but I really think it speaks to all of us. We suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness, hold it down, don't want to hear it. We "exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship created things more than the Creator who's forever praised. Amen." We exchange natural sexual relations with unnatural homosexual relations. We show the perversion of our minds and hearts by doing that. We are wicked as a race. Not righteous.

And so the end of Chapter 1 culminates in the worst sin list in the entire Bible. Look at it, verse 28 and following: "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree, that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them." That's us; that's the race we belong to. That's our kith and kin. That's me and you.

The Universal Sinfulness of Jews (Romans 2:1-29)

And then in Chapter 2, he talks about the righteous self-righteous person, the religious person, the one who thinks that by following the law of God or by some moral standard or system, they can pull up out of that muck and be better than other people. And so these are the righteous ones, these are the virtuous ones, the religious ones who look around and compare themselves to others, and he deals with them right away in verse 1 of Chapter 2: "You therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else. For at the very point you judge others, you're condemning yourself because you who pass judgement, you do the very same things." He addresses the Jews very plainly in the second part of the Chapter in which he says, 2:23, "You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?"

He's very plain in Chapter 2 and 3 that no one keeps the law. No one keeps it. It just stands over us and condemns us completely. And so, you can't earn your way to Heaven by obeying God's laws. What they do is they show you your sin. And so, there's a summary statement of all of this in Romans 3, 9-18, "What then shall we conclude? Are we any better?" That's a good question to ask yourself. I'm I any better? Am I any better than the homosexual? Am I any better than the abortionist? Am I any better than the terrorist? Am I any better than any of the wicked people that we think are so... Am I any better? No. "We've already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one." Find yourself there, or don't find yourself. You're not there. You're not righteous; neither am I. "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Ruin and misery. Mark their ways, and the way of peace, they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes." That is our race, brothers and sisters; that is us.

It could just stop there. It could have. This could be God reading our sentence, "And therefore I hereby send you to hell." And that would be it, and what could we say? What could we say? God is not unjust in condemning us for these things. We've done them, but there's a second part.

"But now," it says, "a righteousness from God has been revealed." Oh, praise God for that "but now." We could have been sent to hell at that moment, but instead, God wants to save us. And so He says, "But now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance, He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished." Like David's: Unpunished. "He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time. So as to be just. And the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."

The Glowing Heart of the Gospel: Romans 3:21-26)

Here's where God solves His problem. He solves it at the cross. This is how he can be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. This, my friends, is the glowing heart of Christianity. Romans 3, 21-26, this is the heart of it all; this is my only hope on Judgment Day. All the rest of the book is an out-working of the truths that are here.

First of all, a righteousness from God, this is a simple gift of righteousness imputed or credited to our account. Christ's perfect righteousness draped about us like an asbestos robe, pure and white, that will survive the fire of Judgment Day, and nothing else will. Your threadbare robes of self-righteousness will not survive the scrutiny of God's judgment. But Christ's righteousness will. It's perfect. And he was born of a virgin, protected from original sin; he walked moment by moment perfectly through this world, never stepped on a landmine of sin, never yielded to a single temptation, walked perfectly through this world, did the most difficult ministry in history perfectly, did everything his father wanted him to do right to dying on a cross.

That righteousness, God is willing to drape about you from this point and forever, simply by faith. Oh, how sweet is that? Oh, how sweet is that perfect righteousness that he's offering to give you as a gift? And it's apart from law; you're not going to earn it, you can't weave it together with threads through your own fingers, you'll never be able to make a garment so fine.

Apart from law. Now, the law and the prophets, they testify to it, it's not a whole new thing, like a new religion out of nowhere. God had set the table for it by making promises and having shadows and prophecies in the Old Testament, but Christ is the reality. He's the fulfillment. The law and the prophets, they testify to it, but Jesus fulfilled it. It is a righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Not by works; by faith.

But not just any faith. Oh, some Muslims have faith; they'll strap bombs to their bodies and blow themselves up for Allah. They have faith. Some Hindus have faith; they're willing to bow down before idols. I've seen them do it. And make long pilgrimages into all kinds of little acts of Pooja, of worship, to earn their way up through to their view of Heaven. Oh, they have faith. The Buddhist, they'll be willing to sit there trying to gain enlightenment, meditating conundrums that can't be figured out, trying to come on the seven-fold path of enlightenment; oh, they have faith. None of those faiths saves anybody, and a thousand other pseudo-faiths. It is faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross that justifies. That's what justifies.

And it says we're justified freely by His grace. It's a free gift. Charles Spurgeon put it this way,

"I tell you, Sir, if you bring in any of your deservings, you shall never have it. God gives away his justification freely; if you bring anything to pay for it, he will throw it in your face, and will not give his justification to you. He gives it away freely. Old Rowland Hill once went preaching at a fair; he noticed the merchants selling their wares by auction; so Rowland said, “I am going to hold an auction too, to sell wine and milk, without money and without price. My friends over there,” said he “find a great difficulty to get you up to their price, my difficulty is to bring you down to mine.” So it is with men. If I could preach justification to be bought by you one gold piece each, who would go out of the place without being justified? If I could preach justification to you by walking a hundred miles, would we not be pilgrims to-morrow morning, every one of us? If I were to preach justification which would consist in whippings and torture, there are very few here who would not whip themselves, and that severely too. But when it is freely, freely, freely, men turn away. What! Am I to have it for nothing at all, without doing anything?” Yes, Sir, you are to have it for nothing, or else not at all; it is “freely.”

It is freely given through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Oh, don't imagine, though, that it was absolutely free; it wasn't. It was extremely expensive, you just didn't pay the price. Somebody else paid it for you. The immensely valuable, immeasurably valuable, price of the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He paid the price, that's what redemption means. We were bought out of slavery at the payment of a price, whom God presented as a propitiation. Some translations say, "sacrifice of atonement," that's fine, but I like to keep propitiation in there so you stub your toe on it.

So you stop and say, "What's that?" And so that somebody who knows can tell you that it's the turning away of the wrath of God by the payment of a blood sacrifice; that's what the whole animal sacrificial system was there to teach us what it was. Propitiation. Jesus is our propitiation, he turned away the wrath of God, and don't imagine for a moment that God has no wrath against sin. He is energetically, passionately wrath-filled about every sin, and there are two great expressions of that wrath. One of them is eternal hell, eternal burnings and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. That is the display of God's wrath against those who do not believe; those who will not repent. The second great display of His wrath is at the cross of Jesus Christ, where He tortured his only begotten son instead of us. And so we are free forever from condemnation.

Free forever from the wrath of God. Free. Romans 8, 1: "There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." How sweet is that? Jesus is our lightning rod. He attracts the lightning strike and takes it safely away from us down to the very ground.

Oh, praise God for that. God did it as a demonstration of His justice so that we couldn't stand or Satan couldn't accuse him of injustice in getting people like David and the thief on the cross, and you and me, into Heaven. He is just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus; that's the center of the Gospel. Now let me tell you something: If I went through every passage with that level of detail, we'd be here for the next two weeks. Amen, alright. Some of you say that; others are like, "I have a lunch date to make," or something like that. We're not going to do it, but I had to slow down because this was the heart of it all. If you don't understand this, you don't understand Christianity. This is it; this is the Gospel.

Justification by Faith: The Law and the Prophets Testify (Romans 4)

Now, he said, to which the law and the prophets testify, Romans 4 shows us that. What did we discover that Abraham found in this matter? What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham was justified by faith apart from works of the law. God took him out on a starry night, had him look up at the stars, made him a promise, words; it's just words, just words. He made him a promise. "So shall your offspring be."

But they weren't just words to Abraham. He considered the source; he said, "This is God speaking it. It's going to happen." And that's the way we are with the Gospel, isn't it? If we're believers. Like God said it, then it's true. It's going to happen. I believe it, and God credits it to us, to our accounts, as righteousness. What did David discover? Well, we know all about David's nasty sin and how wretched it was. Psalm 32 talks about it, and David celebrates something. He celebrates that he's not going to hell, which he deserves. And he says, "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." Oh, how significant is that word 'covered'?

David tried to cover up his own sin, just like Adam and Eve tried to cover it up. That's what we always try to do. God said, "Don't cover it up. Bring it to me, I'll cover it. I'll cover it with the blood of Christ. I'll cover it with an ocean of grace. Bring it to me and let me do it." And so David discovered the same thing. Romans 5 talks about assurance. How can I know? I don't get anything, do I, like a certificate? Like in Pilgrim's Progress, something I can hold in my hand. It's just words, isn't it? Is it true or not? I don't know, I've never seen Jesus. I don't know, am I justified? Do I get something? I mean, how do I know?

Steps to Assurance: Romans 5:1-11

And so Romans 5, 1-11 are steps to assurance: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Already we're starting to rejoice in some things. And not only so but we rejoice in our sufferings because we see the transformed character that the suffering brings. We're reacting differently than we would have before. Things have changed for us.

It's different now because God has come to us. And we can reason it out. If when we were wretched and awful, evil sinners, God gave his highest and greatest gift, his only begotten son, how much more now that we're adopted sons and daughters of the living God and Jesus isn't dead on the cross, he's alive at the right hand of God and interceding for us, how much more will this salvation journey definitely be finished? It's a done deal, friends. It just hasn't happened yet. It's going to happen, though. Absolute assurance; it's an unbreakable chain of assurance. Romans 5, 1-11. It's right there on the page.

If you're struggling with am I a Christian, am I assured, whatever, look right there. It's assurance that's reasoned out in the mind by faith; it's assurance that's worked out in the life as you see changes happening in your life. It's an assurance that's poured out directly into the heart by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us. That's assurance.

Original Sin

He also reasons with us based on deep theology. Second half of chapter five, it's the doctrine of original sin. We learn just as the whole human race died in Adam, so also all of God's people, the righteous, all of us, the many will be saved through one man. It's the many and the one, the many and the one, God's done it twice now. He did it with Adam, and now he's doing it in Christ. The doctrine of original sin.

The second major section in Romans is sanctification by the Spirit, God's righteousness imparted. So you mean I can sin as much as I want it, like I'm totally forgiven, right? Totally forgiven. I can sin, I can just do whatever I want? Romans 5 ends "where sins abounds, grace abounds all the more." Grace is an ocean, it'll extinguish any sin we put in it, right? Well, let's throw a bonfire in there.

May it never be. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that you have been united with Christ? When he died, you died. When he rose, now you have risen with Him into a whole new life. And it's that new life that Paul talks about in Romans 6-8. Righteousness actually imparted to you so you become, practically speaking, righteous day-by-day. How does it happen? Well, step-by-step, moment by moment, growing into Christ's likeness. Yearning to be righteous, wanting to follow Christ, moment by moment, becoming more and more like Jesus. But the foundation of it is a fact, a spiritual fact that's true of you. It's based on our justification, that we have been moved from one country, in effect, to another. We have been moved from sin and law and death into the blessed kingdom of the son that He loves. We've been transferred.

And that old regime has no power over us whatsoever. Oh, praise God for that, that means every temptation that will ever come to you the rest of your life has no authority whatsoever. You can tell it all, no, all of them, you never need to sin again, ever, the rest of your life.

The Insanity of a Christian Who Persists in Sin

Imagine... Here's an analogy. Imagine languishing in a communist country in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Imagine being arrested for agitating against the government; you're interrogated daily by the brutal secret police. Imagine being beaten everyday; you have open wounds that are untreated, rats in the cell that'll come after your wounds if you go to sleep, rancid food to eat, that makes you sick, screams of other prisoners being tortured. Imagine the smell of raw sewage, and the dark, wet dungeon feel of your cell. This represents life in slavery to sin; though you don't see it, that's what it is. Sin is a brutal master beating up its prisoners daily.

Now, imagine a commando raid being sent by the government of a free country. They break in in the middle of the night and they rescue you. They run you through a hail of bullets to a waiting helicopter and fly you away to safety. Imagine you seek political asylum from the rescuing country, and it is granted. That free country has now become your new home and you are a citizen of that country. The old communist regime no longer has any power over you whatsoever. This represents the rescue of Christ and the transfer into his kingdom; the old domain of sin no longer has any power to command you. Now, imagine getting a summons from the old communist government; you're being drafted into their army. Why in the world would I want to go back there and serve that regime? I hated that regime. Why serve in their army? You look at it, laugh, and you rip it up. A week later, you get an invitation, like from a travel agency, to an all-expenses tour of your old prison, and you can tour the prison and meet the old guards, they'll even beat you up a little for old times' sake, and you get to eat that old food again. Two weeks, all expenses paid. Imagine going to your wife or husband and saying, "You know, I think I'm going to go just to feel what it feels like to be back in that prison again." That is what the sin of a Christian is like right there. Though you don't see it, that's what it is. Why in the world would you want to go back and do that when God is offering you immeasurable joy in obedience? And yet we do. It's insanity, but we do, and why do we?

The Vicious Battle with the Flesh: Romans 7

Well, Romans 7 tells us why; it tells us that we have sin living in us, and as it is, a separation has been made between us and the sin. It's no longer I who do it, but it's sin living in me that does it. Some day it will be gone forever. Oh, I look forward to that, when this body of sin and death has been done away with. This body is trained and expert in sin. The mind, the body, this thing, it knows how to sin. Been doing it for years. And when new temptations and stuff come to me, it just knee-jerk reaction. That's what it does. The body of sin. And we want to be free from it, don't you? Who wants to be free from the body of sin and death?

I want to be free. Oh, how I want to be free, but I'm not. And so, day after day, Romans 7, I have to face this indwelling monster, which actually responds to filth around me. It's unbelievable. I'm shocked by it. The very thing I hate, I do. And the very thing that I love and want to do, I somehow can't do. Romans 7; but even there, it ends in triumph. "What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And then in Romans 8, the Spirit filled life, the power of the indwelling Spirit. We don't just have sin living in us, we have the Holy Spirit of God. How strange is that? The Holy Spirit of God and indwelling sin in us. Oh, how strange. How strange is the sin of a Christian, how bizarre is it. But what does the Holy Spirit do?

The Holy Spirit basically dresses you for battle every day. It says, "Come on my child, get up, back at it again. Put on your armor, put on your helmet, put on your breast plate, pick up your sword, pick up your shield, and go fight." Romans 8, 13 and 14, it says it very plainly, "It says If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die, but if by the Spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live because those who are," look at that, 8, 14, "led by the spirit of God, those are the sons of God." You want to be a child of God, then follow the Holy Spirit. Where is he leading? Into battle every day.

So no, I'm not a perfectionist. I know you never need to sin again, but I think because of the power of sin, we are going to face temptations and struggles everyday. And God has come to give us the Holy Spirit, to give us power, and He leads us every day into battle, every single day, and we won't be free of it until we are done with this world. But you know it's not going to go on forever. Thank God, thank God. It's not going to go on forever. We are going to be glorified, and frankly our present sufferings of which the worst is this battle against sin, the present sufferings are not even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. And not just in us, but in the physical creation, which is groaning to be released, yearning to be made more beautiful. It wants to; it yearns for it, to be the new earth and the new Heaven where we will dwell forever, and so we hope for it and wait for it patiently. And so what can we do but celebrate God's sovereignty and his great promise? What shall we say in response to this?

"We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called, and those He called, He also justified, and those He justified, He also glorified." No one gets lost; everyone that's foreknown is predestined. They're justified and they will, all of them, be glorified. He doesn't lose anybody. And so all of the stuff that happens to us, it's all part of His divine plan to get us there. A we have final confidence in the sovereign plan of God, at the end of Romans 8, in the total victory of God. "In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us in the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." Oh, what a triumph for the sovereignty of God over our wretched sinful selves.

But Romans 9-11 brings up a problem. What about the Jews? They are almost universally rejecting the Gospel. Doesn't that prove that God's word fails? It's a great tragedy. Paul says, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish." So they're going to hell apart from Christ, the ones that are not believing in Christ like the rest, children of wrath. So it's a great sorrow, but even worse, does it mean that God is a promise breaker? If God's a promise breaker than we have wasted the whole first part of all that I've said. We wasted it. You understand that? Because God's made us all these promises, and He's not going to keep them.

And so Paul has to vindicate the righteousness of God concerning the Jews. He says, "It is not as though God's word has failed." And he gives three answers concerning the problem:

Answer #1: God’s Sovereign Election (Romans 9)

First is that not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. There's an elect group within the larger group of the nation of Israel. And those people are the ones Paul was referring to in Romans 8, that none of them will be lost; they'll all be glorified. Basically, if you get saved, you get saved by God's mercy, and He gives it freely as he wills, as He chooses. It's His sovereign choice. He has that power, and so it says right there in Romans 9, 15 and 16, He says to Moses. "I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort but on God's mercy. Verse 18, "God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden." That's the first answer; God's word hasn't failed because God didn't promise that to every single, solitary, physical descendant of Abraham.

Answer #2: The Need for Repentance and Faith (Romans 10)

The second answer is in Romans 10. It's not like God's asking us to go to the moon, okay? It's not like he's asking us to go to the other side of the ocean or up to the heights or down to the depths. He's done it all. All you have to do is believe the word that is very near you. The very word that they have heard preached; all they have to do is repent and believe the Gospel. That's it. And they are not. "That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." That's it. "For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it's with the mouth that you confess and are saved." As it is written, 'anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.' There is no difference between Jew and Gentile; the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses anyone who calls on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Stop just a moment. Just a moment. I can't believe that everyone who's sitting and listening to me here today has been regenerated. I have to believe there at least some people that are brought by the sovereign hand of God here today who have not yet trusted in Christ. Come to Christ now. All you have to do is trust in Him, give your life to Him, look to the cross of Jesus and not to your own righteousness, trust in Him, repent, and turn from sin. I'm calling to you. I'm asking. It's a simple way of salvation, all you have to do is repent and believe the Gospel. And like Augustine, like Luther, like Wesley, you will find your soul satisfied with the richest of fair. You'll find forgiveness in Christ as a free gift. Oh, please do it. Don't walk out of this place unjustified. Call on the name of the Lord, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Be saved.

Answer #3: God’s Future Mystery: Israel Will be Saved (Romans 11)

The third answer that Paul gives concerning this terrible, difficult problem with the Jews is that the story isn't over yet; there's still more to come. In the future, he says, "I tell you a mystery. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved as it is written. The deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn Godless-ness away from Jacob." Do you see the sovereignty of God there? He turns it away. "And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins." God has absolute power, and in the future there'll be a mass revival in one generation of physical descendants of Abraham who will turn to their Messiah, and they will cry and mourn for Him as for an only son, and they will believe in him. They will look on the one that they have pierced, and they will love him and trust in him.

And Paul finishes this doctrinal section of Romans with this incredible praise, "Oh the depth of the riches, the wisdom, and knowledge of God, how unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen." Thus ends the theology.

How then shall we live? How are you going to live your life? Sunday's going to be over pretty soon. Even this sermon will be over pretty soon, I promise. But then you're going to go into your everyday life; how are you going to live? How are you going to live your life? Well, you understand how closely we're connected, Chapter 12-16, to all we've just said. Justified by faith, totally forgiven, indwelt by the Spirit, a battle against sin, but you got to present your body, the parts of your body as said in Romans 6, "present your hands, your face, your eyes, your feet, every part of you. Present your body to God as one who has been brought from death to life. The instruments of your body as instruments of righteousness." He just says that same thing again here in Romans 12, 1 and 2. This is the most important practical application of any Christian sermon. Romans 12, 1 and 2 answers the question, how then shall we live? "I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and to prove what God's will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will."

Get up in the morning and get down on your knees and say, "God, I'm yours. I'm yours. You bought me with the price, my body is yours, I want to serve you today. I want to put sin to death, I want to serve your people, I just want to serve you." That's the most important thing you can do; that's worship, that's true worship. Do that. But then immediately after that, he talks about spiritual gifts. And each one of you, if you're Christian, have been given spiritual gifts. You heard me earlier in the new member thing. Those folks are counting on us to give them our spiritual gifts that they might grow up in their salvation. Keep growing. We're counting on them to give their spiritual gifts; that we're banding together, and some teach, some pray, some give, some lead, some serve. There's all kinds of gifts. We need to do that; that's what we're going to do. Spiritual gift ministry.

And then he talks about loving people inside the body of Christ. We're not always easy to love. I know you're always easy to love, but I'm not always easy to love. So we have to find a way to love each other deeply from the heart; be zealous for Christ, that's inside the body. Outside of the body, there's a bunch of enemies out there. Government, for example; submit to government, Romans 13. Do what it says. Even if your neighbor is a persecutor, don't seek revenge against him or her. Pray for them. Do good to them. Leave revenge to God. Some of them might end up being converted. And we live in a filthy, nasty, sick world filled with temptation. Just like Augustine found, don't get involved in that river of debauchery, but rather clothe yourself with Jesus Christ. Don't think about how to ratify the desires of the flesh, but be clothed with Jesus.

Dealing with Disputable Matters in the Church (Romans 14-15)

Romans 14 and 15, he talks about unity in the body, talking about debatable issues, well, we could spend the rest of the day on them. Let's debate about things. I'll roll out the top six most controversial topics. Let's debate them. Oh my goodness, Paul has three concerns in Romans 14 and 15: Gospel purity, Gospel love, unity and Gospel freedom. Those three. Freedom from legalism, but that shouldn't lead to sin, so Gospel purity, nor should it lead to judgmentalism. We should stay together and help each other. Don't judge each other, don't condemn each other. Let's stay together. Romans 14 and 15.

Paul’s Example as a Missionary (Romans 15)

Second half of Romans 15, Paul talks about his own life as a church planting, trail blazing apostle to the Gentiles. He's saying, "I wish I could stay with you, I love you guys, but I've got to go on through to Spain. Wouldn't mind, though, if you'd help me in my mission there because there's some unreached people there." "It's always been my ambition," Romans 15, 20 and 21, "to preach the Gospel where Christ was not named so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as is written, those who were not told will see, and those who have not heard, they will understand." So he's going as a frontier, trail blazing missionary, and so we as a local church, we should hold the rope for those that are going, or we should go ourselves to see the advance of the Gospel.

Final Greetings and Encouragements (Romans 16)

Romans 16 ends with a bunch of greetings to people you have never heard of in your life. That's alright. They hadn't heard of you either, but you know what? In the end, we're all going to be brought together. People from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. Don't think Romans 16 is insignificant. God knows your name, and some day we'll know each other's names. Now you know what you'll be doing for eternity, okay? Learning names, from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, a multitude greater than anyone could count, from all over the world. You've got a lot of learning to do. Lots of brothers and sisters. And we are together, and God has made us so.

And he finishes the entire book with this doxology: "Now to him who is able to establish you by my Gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God so that all nations might believe and obey Him, to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen."

Most important application, I gave you about five minutes ago: If you're not a Christian, come to Christ; that's it, come to Christ.

Second most important, I got from CJ Mahaney's book "The Cross-Centered Life." Just ripped it right off. I spent with a group of young men studying that book, CJ Mahaney's "The Cross-Centered Life." He said the Cross-Centered Life is made up of a series of cross-centered days. Quoting John Stott he said, "The cross of Christ is like a bonfire that kindles our love for God, but you got to stand near enough so that the sparks fall on you." So how are you going to stand close to these truths? He gave five applications that I'll go through very quickly; get his book. It's very short, you can read it easily in an afternoon.

First, memorize the Gospel. Choose some key passages from Romans and memorize them. William Tyndale said you should memorize all 432 verses. You think it's impossible, but it can be done. But start with this, just go through and choose some of the key passages and memorize them.

Secondly, pray the Gospel. I would urge you in your Thanksgiving celebration, just take the truths of Romans and pray them up to God. Just go through, "Thank you, God, that though I was wicked and unrighteous, now you have accepted me with Christ's righteousness. Thank you, God, that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. Thank you, God, that having been justified by faith, I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that there's no condemnation waiting for me on Judgment Day. Thank you that I have a spiritual gift ministry. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." And then you can thank Him for the food. It'll be cold by then, but then you can thank him for the food. But rich thanks in prayer.

Sing the Gospel. We're going to sing "How Deep The Father's Love For Us" in a moment. It's one of my favorite songs. Think about the words; sing them. Now, the young men that were there weren't thrilled about that idea. And I understand; when I was a young man, I wasn't much for singing. You don't have to sing, though, in front of other people. Some of you may be ought not to accept in large groups like this. That's me, okay? But sing because you're happy. Worship God. Make music in your hearts to God.

Fourth, review your own history. I gave you Augustine's history. I gave you Luther's history. I gave you Wesley's history. What's your history with Romans or with the Gospel itself? What has God done in your life? Thank Him for it, but review it. Write your testimony. And then finally, study it. Don't stumble on words like propitiation or redemption or reconciliation, learn what they mean. Learn what they mean and enrich your heart and your soul. Close with me in prayer.

And so we come to the final verses in Romans. We do not come to the final sermon in Romans. Next week I'm going to preach one sermon on all 16 chapters. How in the world I'm going to do that, I don't have the first idea, but I have this week to figure that out. But these are the final verses that I'll be carefully expositing for you. I began this sermon series years ago, well over 100 and, maybe 110 sermons and now we come to this closing doxology. And I think it's important to finish well, don't you think?

I mean, so many people begin things and they don't finish them. I know that's a besetting sin of mine. I'm not going to stand up here and bear my soul to you, so I'll talk more in the abstract about things in general that have begun and not finished, not that I have that problem. I'm not talking about that, but I could. But the fact is we struggle finishing things. You begin a letter and you don't finish it, and you find it a few weeks later, and now it's in no condition to send, wrinkled up or something like that. Or a hobby, you buy a kit and it looks good to you on the outward package, but then you look at the 76-page manual of instruction and you think that "I'll never get this finished," or a dress that you're sewing or something like that and you get it halfway done and you can't finish it. Or then there's the workout regimen that you bought complete with the training video and all that, found that in the storage a little while ago, never got to that.

You know we begin things and we don't finish them, and that's a problem for us, but it is not a problem for Almighty God, amen? What God begins, He finishes, and not only does He finish it, He finishes it gloriously with a glorious flourish. We see that in the physical creation in Genesis chapter two, a summary statement after God had created heaven and earth. And six days, it says in Genesis 2, "Then thus the Heavens and the Earth were completed in all their vast array and by the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing. And so on the seventh day, He rested from all his work." He surveyed everything that He had made, and behold it was very good, finished it gloriously. But even better is the work of redemption in Christ. Think about what Jesus said the night before He died. In John 17:4, He said, "Father, I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do."

Oh wouldn't it be beautiful to say that for just one day, to say I did everything you wanted me to do today, Father? But Jesus said it for His whole lifetime. But of course there was something else yet to be done, and He did it the next day, and as He was finishing that, namely our blood atonement on the cross as his life blood was being poured out and all the scripture prophecies had been fulfilled, after He had tasted the wine vinegar, everything was completed. After He had tasted that, He said, "It is finished." It's perfect. And then He died. And so He finished his atoning work for us gloriously.

But that wasn't the end either because God raised him from the dead on the third day, and He did it with glory in a resurrection body, a glorious body, so it says in 1 Peter 1:21, "God raised Him from the dead and glorified Him." And so He's glorious now. And then how about the new heavens and the new earth? What God begins, He finishes and that with great glory. Revelation 21, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband." Oh, how glorious will the church be then.

And what a glorious time that will be for us. Later in that same chapter, one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, and it shone with the glory of God. And its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. Oh, what God begins He finishes and that gloriously. And that's true of each one of us in our own personal journeys of salvation. What He begins in us, He will finish, and that gloriously.

Says in Hebrews 12:2, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." He isn't just the one who begins our faith, He perfects it. Or Philippians 1:6, "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." And in that day, you will be glorious. "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father." For it says in Romans 8:30, "Those whom He predestined, He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified, and those He justified, He also glorified." You see, what God begins in eternity past, He will finish and that gloriously. So we come to the final words of the book of Romans, the greatest letter ever written. And what God began through the apostle Paul, he now finishes gloriously with this incredible doxology.

Now as I look at this and the Book of Romans and I have this week to kind of draw it together in one message, to try to understand what it's all about, I come to this, that it's about the gospel. And ultimately God is the gospel. The word gospel is good news and God is the gospel because God is so good and he's bringing us to himself. He is what we get after all of this. He's our very great reward, as He said to Abraham. And so what better way to finish the book of Romans than a total focus on God Himself? And so Paul writes, "Now to him who is able to establish you, to the only wise God, be glory forever." There's a focus in these verses on God Himself.

And so we focus completely on Him. Now it's a theologically thick, dense statement just as the whole book has been theologically thick and dense. And it's reasonable for us to close this way because Romans is the greatest statement of the gospel in the Bible. And ultimately, God is the Gospel. And notice how this exactly is how Paul began the letter. If you were to go back to the very beginning of Romans, this is how it starts. "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God, the gospel of God, the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, it's a predicted gospel He promised ahead of time in the Holy Scriptures through the prophets, regarding His Son, Jesus Christ, who as to His human nature was the descendant of David, and who through the spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the son of God by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." That's how He begins and that's also how He finishes so beautifully.

God’s Ultimate Purpose: To the Praise of His Glory

Now God's ultimate purpose in this gospel is the praise of His glory. That's why He does all things. We should never tire the topic of God's glory or the praise, but we never will tire of it. It's an infinite topic and it will consume our full attention in heaven, forever and ever. God saved us in Christ for one ultimate reason, and that is the praise of His glory. He says that three times in the book of Ephesians to the praise of His glorious grace. He says it again and again, and that's why He saves us. And so He brings us at last to the real purpose of this gospel and that is the praise of God and of His glory. To the only wise God, be glory forever through Jesus Christ.

Now there are wonderful benedictions and doxologies throughout the scripture. And I think they're there to remind us that that's our point. That's why we were created. We were created to praise God, to speak words of praise to Him. That's what our mouths are for. They have other purposes too, but our mouths are ultimately to be filled with praise for God. And so there are these sweet doxologies throughout scripture. We sang one of them earlier, that beautiful one in Jude, very similar to the one we have here. "Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault, blameless and with great joy to the only God our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all ages now and forever more, amen." Very similar. A focus on God who is able. In our doxology, God is able to establish us. In Jude, God is able to keep us from falling and to present us before His presence, blameless with great joy. He is able.

And so there's these benedictions, and they're throughout the Bible. If you were to go through the 150 Psalms, there are five books of Psalms, to organize, the Jews did into five books. And at the end of each one is a doxology, a glorious praise, and the whole thing ends with Psalm 150, six verses of praise to God. It reads like this, "Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power. Praise him for a surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet. Praise him with harp and lyre. Praise him with the tambourine and dancing. Praise Him with the strings and flutes. Praise Him with the clash of cymbals. Praise Him with a resounding cymbals lest the cymbals be too quiet the first time. Praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord."

 Oh, how glorious is that? That's the way the Psalms ends. Glorious praise to God. And that's the way your life, if you're a Christian, will end as well in eternal praise for Almighty God. And boy, you're going to enjoy it. And so will I. Can't wait. And so Paul ends with this focus on God and on His glory. He focuses on God who is the gospel.

Now let's look at it a little more carefully. First, it's the gospel that establishes believers. Look at verse 25, "Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel." Unbelievers are essentially unstable in their lives. Because Satan, their king, is an unstable being as we saw last time, very unstable. He was cast down from heaven to earth and now he roams restlessly over the surface of the earth looking for something to do, and it's always bad. He's always reacting to God and trying to mess it up.

He's a reactor, not an actor. And so he's trying to just find whatever God's doing and forded, and frustrated. But he himself is a frustrated being. He's filled with rage because he knows his time is short. In effect he's somewhat like a homeless drifter just passing through. We are the permanent owners by the grace of God. The meek will inherit the earth. He's just passing through causing a lot of trouble, and how good it will be, as we talked last time, when he's finally on his way. But he's essentially unstable. He's not a permanently rooted fixture here. The world itself that he created is passing away. So also demons are passing away. They are restless creatures seeking someone to inhabit because they have no rest, and therefore non-Christians are essentially unstable. They have no roots. They're drifting in life. There's a great instability there.

Well, it says here, "Now to him who is able to establish you." And here is the focus on God. It is God who is able to do this. Do not look to yourself to establish yourself in Christianity. It can't be done. You can't do it. You don't have that power. If you're a Christian now, I mean, genuinely born again, you will be one in 20 years. And that's only by the power of God. God is at work in you and he's able to root you and to establish you in this gospel. "Now to him who is able to" do this, the focus is on the ability of God. We are constantly tempted to look to ourselves, aren't we? To look inward to see if we have the resources to meet the challenge. I tell you, you do not have the resources to meet this challenge. But God does. "Now to him who is able," it says,

And it talks about establishing. Now this Greek word "establish" means to set an unshakable foundation, to strengthen and reinforce. When I was a student in the Boston area, they were always building, and there was one, a building in particular, it was a skyscraper they were building in Cambridge, and every day, I'd walk across and I'd listened to the rhythmic beat of these tools that were driving the piles down and it was just giving me a headache and I'm wondering when are they going to be done? And I was told they've got to go as deep down into the earth as the skyscraper goes up, so it'd be rooted and established, especially there in the Back Bay, which is landfill of Boston. The Back Bay's very unstable there. And so every day as I'm walking across, my foot steps are, is driving the pilings down. God wants to do that with the gospel truth in Romans into your heart.

You're not done with Romans when I get done preaching here. I hope you know that. You'll never be done with Romans and neither will I, besides which, there's only one person in the sanctuary who is here for all of those sermons that I preach in Romans, it's me. I'm the only one. I think I was here for most of them anyway. I was. But at any rate, we need to be saturated in the book of Romans the rest of our lives. It's not just to bring you to initial faith in Christ. It's to develop your maturity. Develop your faith, to finish saving you. And so we'll be established by this gospel to the end. Keep reading it. We're never done with it. This is the very thing that Paul wanted to do in his visit to the Roman church back in chapter 1:11. He says, "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to establish you." It's the same idea. He wanted to do it but he couldn't.

We talked about that in Romans 15 why he couldn't go there. But he sent on this letter. But it doesn't matter because it really isn't Paul who can establish us anyway. It is God who establishes us and He is able to do it and He does it by these words by Romans. Isn't it beautiful that God is able to put solid ground under our feet? It says in Psalm 40:1-3, "I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit." That's sin, friends. "He lifted me out of the slimy pit out of the mud and mire and he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. And he put it in the song in my mouth and a hymn of praise to our God." If you're a Christian, that's what God's done for you and He's not done doing it. He's going to put even more solid ground under your feet, eternal ground, the new heavens and the new earth. It'll never move. It's permanent. How sweet is that? God is able to meditate on that. Don't meditate on what you think you can do and what you plan to do. Meditate on what God by His infinite power is able to do in you. He is able to establish you.

God Establishes Believers Through the Gospel

Now it says he's able to establish you by "my gospel." Don't you love that? "My gospel," says the apostle Paul. Now we should not think that Paul's gospel was different than everybody else's gospel. Well there's my gospel and then there's that gospel that Peter is preaching and the one that John's got over there. No, it's all the same. Paul is not saying that his gospel is unique from the other apostles. He's not saying that, neither is he saying that he wrote it or invented it. "You know I'm the author of the gospel. It's my gospel, you know? But I'll let you have it, or borrow it anyway." He's not talking like that. Actually in Galatians 1:11-12, he talks exactly the opposite. He said, "I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preach to you is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ." That's the gospel that Paul's talking about.

But yet he calls it "my gospel." Well I think he's identifying, "This is the gospel I preach. This is the gospel that I've been writing about here in these 16 chapters. This is my gospel." And I think more than that, there's a sense of passionate ownership here. "This is the gospel that saves my soul," says Paul. "This is the gospel that is my hope. This is the gospel that is my pearl of great price. I sold everything to get this. This is the treasure hidden in the field and I sold everything to get this treasure. It's my gospel. It's the salvation of my soul." Can you say that today?

You've come to church today, but have you come with a gospel that's yours? It's your gospel. You've signed your name to it. You've committed yourself to it. It has saved your soul. Have you seen Christ crucified as your savior? Is this your gospel? It's mine. Is it yours? I beg you, don't leave this place today without making it your gospel through simple faith. Look to Jesus. Look to the one who is the author and perfecter of faith to Jesus hanging on the cross that you might have eternal life. Make it your gospel. But Paul says, "It's my Gospel that establishes believers." And this gospel, which we're going to go over in one swoop next week is the gospel of message of Romans, a gospel that talks about universal sin. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is no answer within us.

But God from the outside sends the answer. He sends his only begotten son. And Jesus, by his blood propitiation, he turns away the wrath of God and he brings God at peace with us and we are reconciled through simple faith. And having been reconciled, we're given the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are told to work out our salvation moment by moment by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices. That's sanctification. And then in the end, he is going to glorify us. He's going to finish the saving work in us. That's Paul's gospel. And by that he is able to establish you.

By ongoing exposure to the truth that Paul preached. It is also the gospel that proclaims Jesus Christ. He says, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, all roads lead to Jesus Christ, Christ is the center of the Gospel, He's the center of the Bible and He is the center of all human history. And so therefore the proclamation of Christ has ongoing power to establish you. You need to hear Christ preached the rest of your lives, because it's able to put those pilings under your soul so that you're not easily moved.

And it's by the proclamation of Jesus Christ. Why is it so? Well, because faith, the faith that justifies you, it comes by hearing. It came the first time that you heard the gospel. I mean really heard it. Not the first time you heard the words and didn't make much sense you but I mean the first time you heard it with your heart and faith sprang up inside you, because you heard the truth. Well, that faith that justifies you, it's a living thing, and it needs food. You need to feed it. You know what feeds it? The word of God. The hearing of the proclamation of Jesus Christ, that's what he's talking about.

So he says, the proclamation of Jesus Christ is able to establish you. Now, this was Paul's entire work. The word proclamation here is the work of a herald. Remember the guys back in the Colonial era, the town clerks standing with a bell?

Herald, that kind of thing. And then he came with a message from the King and you would listen. King couldn't get everywhere, didn't have the internet or text messaging or any of that stuff, so they would send out these heralds. They go by horse about whatever, and they'd go into your locality and they would proclaim the message from the King. Paul was that kind of a herald.

He says, "Of the gospel, I was appointed a herald and an Apostle and a teacher," he's there to ring the bell and say, "Listen to this, this is a message from the King and it's about Jesus Christ." This was Paul's supreme commitment to preach Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2, he says, "When I came to you brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling."

That's not much to look at. The human messenger, it's not really spectacular. We preachers, we can't compete with all the multimedia images and all that. We're not trying to. According to the wisdom of God or what's called the foolishness of God in 1 Corinthians 1, it's just preaching that establishes your soul, the preaching of Jesus Christ, the proclamation of Christ. And this Gospel proclaims the glory of Christ from A to Z as we'll see next week.

"Now to Him who is able to establish you," He says "by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ." This is also a Gospel that reveals mysteries. Look what it says in verses 25-26, "According to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God." Before the foundation of the world, before God said, "Let there be light," before there were any angels, certainly before there were any demons, before there were any people, before there was sun, moon or stars, before any of that, God had worked out the salvation plan. It was in the secret counsel of His own mind.

God had worked out the whole plan before the foundation of the world. It was hidden for long ages past. And as redemptive history unfolded, God paid it out a little at a time, gave out a little more insight, a little more wisdom, a little more of the gospel story acted out in types, a little more prophecy coming. Little by little, we see it, He's paying out this mystery. Deuteronomy 29 says, "The secret things belong to the Lord, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever." So how does He reveal them?

He reveals them through the prophets. He speaks these mysteries out. Now, when we talk about mysteries of the Bible, we're not talking about something like an Agatha Christie deal or Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, what is that hound? The monarch hound? How did he try to work out that thing or the game Clue, Colonel Mustard with the lead pipe in the conservatory, it's nothing like that. The mystery of God is something that God has within Himself that you cannot know if He doesn't reveal it. And if we talk about redemptive mysteries, it has to do with God's redemptive plan that He's holding to Himself. And then He pays some of it out a little at a time.

: And so there are all kinds of mysteries in the Bible. There's the mystery of godliness, 1 Timothy 3:16. The mystery of lawlessness that's about the Antichrist, 2 Thessalonians 2. The mystery of the rapture: "Brothers, I tell you a mystery, we'll not all sleep, but we will all be changed." It's a mystery. There's the mystery of the Kingdom of God in Mark 4:11. There's the mystery of Christ's will in Ephesians 1:9. The mystery of Christ Himself in Colossians 2. The mystery of marriage, the relationship between a husband and wife, picturing in some way, the relationship between Christ and the church. Paul says it's a profound mystery, but he is talking about Christ and the church. Mystery of the Gospel, he says in Ephesians 6:19, the mystery of "Christ in you, the hope of glory," Colossians 1. The mystery of the faith, 1 Timothy 3:9.

And then Book of Revelation is filled with mysteries. There's all kinds of mysteries in Revelation. We're going through in our men's Bible study on Thursday. And so there's the mystery of Babylon the great and all kinds of other mysteries that are yet to come. When the New Testament uses the word mystery though, most frequently it talks about this one mystery, and that is how could Gentiles, like you and me, if you're a Gentile, how could we end up in some spiritual sense like Jews, children of Abraham, somewhat mysteriously grafted into an olive tree, that is of Jewish heritage and we are circumcised not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, by the word of God and by the Holy Spirit of God? That's a mystery. And that's what he's talking about here, the mysteries of the Bible.

Revealed by the Prophets in the Scriptures

And they've been revealed by the prophetic writings. If you ask me how I know that Christianity is true, it's these prophetic writings. The fact that we are time-bound preachers. I had some great witnessing opportunities on the plane. I always try for them. I don't always get them, but woe to the talkative person who sits next to me in the plane. If you're talkative, it's definitely going to happen. We're going to get a good gospel presentation. I don't know that they'll come to faith, that's something I cannot do. Only God can produce new life in a heart, but they're going to hear the gospel. And I kind of parse it... I get, alright, 80 minutes, we'll go 40 minutes them talking as much as they want about whatever they want, and I will be interested in that and listen for clues, and some things I could say. The second half is going to be gospel, though they know it not, when they're sitting next to me. That's what we're going to do.

But I was talking to one man, an engineer working in Norfolk, Virginia on flight simulators and I love that engineering stuff. There's still engineering inside me, it's still there, but I love the Word of God, too, but I love listening to servos and computer stuff and all that really geeky, and I was enjoying that. Alright, tempted just to talk about that the whole time. But I knew the Lord would call me to account on Judgment Day for that witnessing opportunity. This guy believes in reincarnation, believes in all kinds of things. He said, "How do you know what you're saying is true?" Because I said to him, reincarnation might be true and resurrection might be true, but they can't both be true, one or the other. We've got to figure it out.

Now, I have certain reasons why I believe it's resurrection and not reincarnation, but none of us has been in there except Jesus came back to tell us. So how do you know? So I used an illustration. I said, "We are now flying into Atlanta. Suppose there was someone on the plane who believed we're actually flying into Las Vegas, passionately believed it, would that change the destination of the plane?" He said, "No," I said, "What would you think of that person?" "They're nuts, or they got on the wrong plane, or greatly deluded." I wonder how you would do that. You got on the wrong plane. But their belief that they're going to end up in Vegas doesn't change the destination of the plane. I said, "What matters is where are we really heading not where do you think we're heading. What is the truth? He said, "Well how can you know the truth?

I said, The Bible. He said, "How do you know the Bible's true?" I said, "One of the ways is prophetic writings. We are locked into time, we don't know the future. We don't even know what the weather is going to be like tomorrow really, for sure. But God knew things a thousand years in advance of Christ, that Jesus would be crucified, His hands and His feet pierced, Psalm 22. That He would shed His blood for the sins of the people, Isaiah 53, that He would be raised and his body would not see corruption, it would not decay, Psalm 16. That He would be worshipped as deity, as God by people from all over the world, Daniel 7. These things were all predicted long before any of them came to pass. You can't orchestrate that. Only God can do that.

And so, by the prophetic writings we know that this is true. This is how God has revealed the mysteries through prophets. It is His glory to tell us ahead of time what's going to happen and then it happens. He's the only one who can do it because he's the only sovereign king. Everything else is subject to whether he says so or not. So we say "If the Lord wills," but if God says it, the Lord wills, because he's saying it. And so, the prophetic writings tell us. And these are revealed by the apostles, the apostles were stewards, 1 Corinthians 4, of the mysteries of God. They were held accountable to how they dealt with these mysteries and Paul wanted to be a faithful steward of the mysteries of God. And so, he was preaching them.

Now, as I look at the Bible, I think the whole thing is summarized in two phrases. A friend of mine, Mark Dever wrote two books, one, a whole book summarizing the Old Testament, another whole book summarizing the New Testament. Old Testament promises made. New Testament, promises kept. That is God. He is the promise maker and keeper. Old covenant promises made. He said to Abraham, "Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be blessed." He's fulfilling it now in Christ. That's how we know that it's true.

Now, this Gospel also is a Gospel that produces obedience among the nations. Look what it says, "but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey Him." It's a gospel that produces obedience among Gentiles, among peoples. Now he mentions the command of the eternal God. God has commanded that these mysteries be revealed. He commanded Isaiah to write Isaiah 53. He commanded David to write Psalm 22. He commanded David to write Psalm 16. He commanded Jeremiah to write of the new covenant that was coming in David, the branch of David that was coming. He commanded these things. And he commanded the apostles to get up and preach it on Pentecost and thereafter. By the command of the eternal God, this word goes out.

But what is the word? The gospel itself is a command. The gospel is a command that must be obeyed. How did Jesus begin preaching? He said, "The time is at hand, the Kingdom of God is near, repent, and believe the good news," that's a command, friends. Repent, turn away from sin, believe the gospel. These are commands given by a king.

And so this is a Gospel that must be obeyed. Remember how the apostle Paul was standing in Athens, he is debating with those Areopagus philosophers just sat around talking about and listening to the latest ideas all the time. That's what they did. And so in comes Paul, and he is despised, they think nothing of him, he doesn't have that eloquence and all that sort of stuff, and his philosophy seems bizarre. A Jewish carpenter, some guy from Nazareth dies on a wooden cross, under the condemnation of the Romans and He's the Savior of the world. It seems like foolishness, but that's what he preached. But Paul was so bold, so bold. And he says very plainly, talking about their idolatry in Athens, he says, "I see that in all the city, it's filled with idols." In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. The Gospel is a universal command given by Almighty God, the eternal God, to the human race. Repent and believe the good news. That's what he's called it.

Now, what I get out of this is that you want to know how do I know I'm saved? How do I know I have saving faith? Well, is there a pattern of obedience in your life? There is an obedience that comes from faith. If there's no obedience, friends, there is no faith, it's that simple. God has saved us to bring us back under the yoke of Christ. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you…" Take your neck and put it under my yoke submit to me, let me be your king. My commands are not burdensome. Bring your life under obedience, the obedience of the Gospel," this is an obedience that brings faith. And it's the obedience of the nations.

Finally, it is the Gospel that is the wisdom of God. He says "To the only wise God." All the wisdom of God. We talk about the ancient world. And Alexander the Great was confronted when he invaded Asia Minor with a problem traditionally, this maybe a mythological story but I think it's true, with the Gordian knot. Now, it had been prophesied that this tangled up knot of rope could only be untied by the one who is the rightful ruler of Asia. Alexander was not much of a thinker, I don't think at this moment, at least. So he pulls out his sharp double edged sword and slices the thing, so much for that, right through, "Enough of the Gordian, I don't have time for that, I'm the rightful ruler," power of the sword. Power, you see, domination.

God had a Gordian knot to untie. He had to figure out how to take wretched sinful people like us and transform us, bring us back into His Kingdom, glad to obey Him, but giving Him all the glory and the credit. How did He do that? And He did it by taking our punishment on Himself in the form of His only begotten Son. The wisdom of God, the intricacy of God's fingers, is He untied the knot of how to save sinners in a way that humbles them, but makes them incredibly happy, at the same time, eternally joyful in our humility. And He did it in Christ. It's the wisdom of God in the gospel. It's a full display of the attributes of God, of His power, of His wrath, of His justice, of His mercy, of His compassion, of His patience. You see it all at the cross. It is the wisdom of God. And Christ is the wisdom of God.

Now, what does Christ give us? Well, He gives us salvation, the chief wisdom of God is to give us a wise savior like Jesus, who speaks wisdom with us saying things like "What would it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul?" He speaks words like that, like "Come to me, believe in me." That's the wisdom of God. What does He give us for that wisdom? He gives us eternal joy in heaven. He gives us salvation. What does He give to His Heavenly Father?

Well, it says it right here at the end, "To the only wise God, be glory through Jesus Christ, forever and ever, Amen." that's what Jesus gives to His Father, He gives Him glory. "That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father." Jesus sought His Father's glory and He has it. He has glorified His Father and He will for all eternity.

Now, we've come to the end of Romans. What application do we take just from this doxology? The first is simply, come to Christ. As I urged and begged you in the middle of it. Just coming to church is not the command. Come to church, that's not it. It's come to Christ, believe in Him, trust in Him for the salvation of your soul. But those of you that have come to Christ already, focus on the God who is able, just take that from it. "Now to Him who is able," just take that phrase. God is able. He is able to save me, He's able to answer my prayers, He's able to solve my problems, He's able to address my needs. He is able to save me to the uttermost. He is able to do that.

And keep saturating your mind in the Book of Romans. Read it through, you could read it through in probably an hour. It's not that long, 432 verses. Read it through, read it an hour, saturate your mind in it, and keep thinking, "I'm not done being saved yet. I've been justified, but I'm still being sanctified. I haven't yet been glorified, I need to keep growing." Saturate your mind in it, in the book of Romans.

And assess your obedience. It is faith that produces obedience. If there's no obedience, friends, there is no faith. Look at your obedience. Are you living an obedient lifestyle? Are you by the spirit putting to death the misdeeds of the body? Is there obedience in your life? And then finally, delight in the future glory of God in Christ. You're going to see it. If you're a Christian, you're going to see it, more than you can possibly imagine, delight in it. Close with me in prayer.

A Christian man walks through the city. It's dark, and the street light is out. He passes an alley and hears some low voices, perhaps a drug deal being consummated. His heart rate escalates, he begins to sweat. He chides himself for even being in this foolish predicament because he had a parking ticket that he procrastinated paying off, and now the authorities have put the Denver boot on his car. So now he's walking through a particularly rough area of town. His eyes dart back and forth, and he sees a woman wearing alluring clothing walking on the other side of the street. She smiles at him, but he knows that it's not a smile of affection, but rather an attack on his soul.

He feels for his wallet as he sees a group of teenagers coming toward him. They're cursing and punching each other, aimlessly looking for some fun on a Saturday night. They spot him and come toward him. He panics and wants to run. They chase him. They knock him to the ground, and they steal his wallet. But a police siren one block away scares the young men and saves his life. He staggers to his feet and manages somehow to get to a payphone to call his wife. She comes and picks him up, she's understandably worried because he's late. And as they ride together, she starts in on him for not taking better care of his affairs. It's not good timing. His anger flares, he bites back at her, and soon they're in some kind of a stress-induced argument, saying things they ought not to say to each other.

The argument continues until she goes to bed. He decides to stay up and watch TV. That was a mistake. He restlessly scans the stations of his satellite TV service, and soon, images come on that he ought not to be looking at. Ashamed that there's any appeal within him at all for that kind of thing, he wonders again why he hasn't canceled the service as his wife has urged him to do time and again. He overcomes by the power of the indwelling Spirit, turns the TV off. He remembers that he woke up too late that morning to have a quiet time and that his accountability partner is going to ask him tomorrow about his devotional life. More out of duty than desire, he opens the Bible and begins to read. He gets down on his knees and prays, but while he prays he's distracted by all the things that have gone on to him that evening. He can't keep his mind on his prayers, he begins to worry about the car that he left on the street and about the money that it'll take to get it back, if he even can get it back.

And soon he falls asleep on his knees. His prayer time ended ignominiously in the sounds of his snoring. After a couple of hours, he wakes up, staggers to bed forgetting to brush his teeth. And as he lays there next to his wife, somewhere in the invisible spiritual realm above his bed, there is a malevolent and intelligent figure plotting his downfall for the next day. Now if this were a Frank Peretti novel, we would have the name of the demon and we'd be talking about glinting red eyes and about leather wings and other things like that.

I'm going to stop here and not go beyond into the invisible spiritual realm. But we have arrayed against us a powerful enemy. Satan is his name, the Devil, that ancient serpent that we heard about read in Revelation 12, who is plotting our ruin every day. Who wants our misery, who would like our very souls if he could get at it. And in the midst of all of that shines brightly the promise from the single verse that we're going to look at today, Romans 16:20, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Hallelujah. In the midst of this darkness and the struggle that we have every day against the unseen forces of evil in the heavenly realms, we have the promises of God, and this is one of them. "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Oh, what a thrilling promise is that. And it's my job this morning, my delightful job, to help you hear, stealing on your ear that distant triumph song that we sang about in that hymn for all the saints.

Some day we're going to win. The victory is guaranteed through the blood of Christ. And if you know that and if you really believe it, you'll fight differently than if you don't know it and don't really believe it. And that's what I'm after today. Your energy and your strength in the internal journey of holiness and that external journey of evangelization and mission work, that's what I want today.

Now what is the context of this promise? Well, it's the Book of Romans, in which he's unfolding Gospel doctrine, 11 chapters of magnificent explanation of the doctrine of salvation, ending in a tremendous doxology in Romans 11, and then five wonderful chapters of practical everyday life application of that Gospel doctrine. And now we've come pretty much to the end of that. And in Romans 16, we have many saints greeting one another, he's sending greetings from some and asking that he be remembered to them. And then after that, he warns the church about those who cause divisions and put obstacles in their way that are contrary to the doctrine that he's laid out. "Watch out for those false teachers, they're coming. Protect yourself." And then at the end of that, he says, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet."

So within the context of the coming, the impending attack of false teachers on the church at Rome is this promise. But I believe the promise goes far beyond just that local church and their struggle against false teaching. I think it's a timeless, eternal, transferable principle and concept that we should meditate much on today. And so this whole sermon is just a meditation on what it's going to be like when God at last destroys Satan.

What Does the Scripture Teach Us About Satan

But we have to begin by trying to understand who Satan is. What does the Scripture teach us about him? Well, first of all, Satan is the enemy of God, and therefore, he is the enemy of God's people. He is a spiritual being created good, an angel, I believe, created good originally. But he fell into rebellion because of pride in his own beauty and power. He led a vast rebellion of angels who fell with him, he was defeated and thrown to the earth, as you heard about in Revelation 12. He was given a finite amount of time and a finite amount of power to wield on the earth. He tempted Adam and Eve to join in his rebellion, and all of us joined that rebellion in Adam. We joined Satan in his rebellion against almighty God, the human race fell at that point in Adam. In so doing, Satan led the world into its present state of general rebellion against God.

Now what effect does the Scripture say Satan has in this world? Well, he is the tempter. He tempts people to do evil. Says in Matthew 4:1, "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil." It also says in the Lord's prayer, a little more careful translation of the Lord's Prayer would give us this: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." Not just generally from evil, but from the evil one who's plotting to lead us into temptation. He is called "the god of this age" or "the god of this world" in 2 Corinthians 4:4. He puts stumbling blocks in our paths, Matthew 16:23. Picture this: You're walking along the road of salvation, just making your way through your life following Christ. Suddenly, something happens, you stumble and fall in some way into sin. You're hurt, you're wounded, you feel guilty, you feel dirty, what happened? You stumbled over a stumbling stone. Satan put it there. He puts stumbling blocks in our ways.

And then he accuses us of our sins. The ultimate hypocrisy. He lures us into sin and then turns around and accuses us of the very things he was luring us to do. But it says in Zechariah 3:1, "Then I saw Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at His right hand to accuse Him." As a matter of fact, the Hebrew word "Satan" literally means "accuser." The verb form is "to accuse." He's the one who accuses us. And so also in Revelation 12:10, it calls him "the accuser of our brothers." It says, "The accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down." Day and night, he accuses you to the Father. He directly opposes the advance of the Gospel. He fights against it every moment. He does that by blinding eyes, again, 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God." So he blinds unbelievers in seeing the glory of Christ.

He also snatches seeds that are sown. The parable of the seed and the sower, that which is sown along the path, the birds come and eat it up. Jesus interprets that saying the devil comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. They don't give it another thought, not even thinking about it, because the devil has taken it away. He also hinders the evangelists that are bringing the message. He strategically hinders them, he makes their lives difficult and harasses them. In 1 Thessalonians 2:18, the apostle Paul says, "We wanted to come to you, certainly, I, Paul, did again and again, but Satan stopped us." So again, there's a strategic blocking there by the power of the devil.

Satan causes material ruin and financial calamity. He also kills people. We get this out of the book of Job. By the power of Satan, Job lost his oxen and servants to a raiding party of evil men, his sheep and servants to lightning, his camels and servants to another raiding party of evil men, and finally, his own children who are eating together to a natural disaster. All of this ascribed to the work of Satan. He causes physical pain and suffering through disease and illness. Again from Job, Job 2:7, it says, "So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his foot to the top of his head." The apostle Paul said he had a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment him. So he causes physical pain.

He tests us and sifts us like wheat, with intelligence, malevolent intelligence. As Jesus said, "Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail." Oh, never forget this: Jesus' prayer is more mighty than Satan's sifting. And he will sift us and he will test us, but Jesus has prayed for us that our faith will not fail. Will Jesus get what He asked for? Yes, He will. Our faith will not fail, but yet there is Satan sifting us and testing us. And what followed for Simon Peter that night was the most wretched and miserable night of his entire life. He began at a spirit-empowered, strong servant of Christ, saying, "I can do anything, I'm ready to go and die." He ends up a craven coward saying to a little servant girl, "I never heard of Jesus," calling down curses on himself. That's what the devil can do to any of us in one night. He can enter people and take them over. As soon as Judas took the bread, John 13, Satan entered into him. "What you're about to do, do quickly," Jesus said. Isn't it wonderful that Jesus can give Satan orders? I love that.

Satan is a liar, and therefore he leads people to lie. He is a murderer, and therefore leads people to murder. We get both of that out of John 8:44, Jesus speaking of the Devil says, "He was a murderer from the beginning not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." Now if he's the father of all lies, therefore he's the father of all false religions, he's the father of all cults, the father of all con games and deceptions. He's the father of all government cover-ups and corruption. He's the father of every deception. He's also the father of all murders. He's behind all gang-related violence, all the school shootings and post office shootings, every murder connected with drugs or domestic violence. Satan is the father of murder. And since Jesus linked murder to anger in the Sermon of the Mount, Satan is also the father of all sinful anger. He stimulates anger in relationships. He foments dissensions and factions and envy to divide people. He's just ultimately the father of all broken human relationships. Wherever there's brokenness in human relationships, Satan's work is there.

I do not discount the role of our own sinful nature and our own flesh, but he is the schoolmaster of that sinful nature. He's been training it all these many years. He makes schemes and plots against God's people. Ephesians 6, "Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." He masquerades as an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11:14. He doesn't come and say, "Here I am, I'm a wicked, evil being and I'm here to destroy your life." He doesn't say that; instead, he entices you and appeals to something that you think might be beautiful or attractive. He sows false seeds among the true ones, false teachers and false brothers among those that are true, Matthew 13, the parable of the wheat and the tares. Jesus interpreted it this way: "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the one who sows them is the devil." Thus all non-elect, all the non-elect, the unbelievers and the rebels who never will come to Christ, ever, they are, Christ calls them, "sons of the evil one," "sons of the Devil."

And Jesus said it directly to the Jews that were opposing Him, "You belong to your father, the Devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire." Satan has an organized kingdom on earth. Matthew 12:26. It says, "If Satan drives out Satan, how then can his kingdom stand, since he is divided against himself?" He is, in Ephesians 2, the ruler of the kingdom of the air. Ephesians 6, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." So there's an intelligent arrangement of evil against us. He is "like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour," 1 Peter 5:8. Lions are cunning, powerful, vicious beasts of prey, have been known to weigh as much as 700 pounds and be 11 feet in length. Their roar can be heard five miles away. It is better to have a lion coming after you than Satan. He is able to do counterfeit miracles to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. He will do so through the anti-Christ at the end of time 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10.

He has a throne in a dwelling place on earth, for it says in Revelation 2, "I know where you live, where Satan has his throne," he said that to the people of Pergamum. He is called "a great dragon…who leads the whole world astray," Revelation 12. He is filled with rage because he knows his time is short, more on that later, thank God. He's filled with rage because he knows his time is short, and sinners who never come to Christ follow his rebellion to his destruction, because the King will say to those on his left, "Depart from Me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels."

Satan’s Effect on the Lives of Christians

Now what effect does Satan have on the lives of Christians? Well, the first thing to know is that Satan's effect on our lives is limited by the sovereign power of God. He's on a leash, praise God, and he can't just have full at us because if he would, then what happened to Simon Peter that night would happen to us immediately, and that would be it. Satan's effects on believers are limited by God's sovereign protection. Job 1:10, Satan complaining to God saying, "Have you not put a hedge around him in his household and all his possessions?" Do you sense the satanic frustration there? "I just can't get at him! Love to, but I can't, because You have protected him." And thus, every temptation and test that comes our way must first pass God's filter. "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation, will provide the way of escape so that you can stand up under it." Every temptation is filtered.

However, Satan's effects on us are immense and pervasive, even still. Jesus was extremely concerned about leaving His small band of followers in the world where Satan still was, and so in His high priestly prayer, in John 17, He says this: "I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name. While I was with them, I kept them safe and protected them by that name You gave Me. Father, protect them that they may be one and none of them may be lost." Do you see the passion of Jesus and His concern for leaving us here where Satan is? We are hurt daily by the Devil's wicked attack on us. Every temptation you felt since the moment you gave your life to Christ can be traced to Satan's attack on the people of God. He is your enemy, the Devil, prowling to seek your very life. Pain, suffering, anguish, death, financial ruin, fear, anxiety, regrets, depression, unbelief, and guilt: They are his truck and trade, that's what he does. These are Satan's weapons to make you and me miserable.

And meanwhile, we're surrounded by a malevolent world system intelligently put together to drag us away from Christ every moment. We're surrounded by Vanity Fair with all of its evil allurements, with its lust and sparkly materials and enticements. That world is Satan's special creation, a filthy, lurking, enemy of your soul. It gives you not a moment's peace, and it pulls on you constantly, to abandon the Savior that you profess to love.

Now, let me ask you a question. What do you think just one day would be like, totally free from his influence? What would it feel like? What would it feel like in your stomach, what would it feel like in your mind? What would your thoughts be like? What would your prayers be like? What would your evangelism be like? Just one day free from this influence, completely free. You know what's incredible, God has promised us not just one day, he has promised us eternity like that, free forever, from all of the things I've been talking about. And you're probably saying, "I thought this was going to be encouraging sermon. This has been rather dreary up to this point." Well we're about to turn, because this is the one that the Lord has come to destroy. Satan's total defeat is promised in the text.

Satan will be Crushed

Look at it again, look at verse 20, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Satan will be crushed. Now, this word is a powerful word, both in the New Testament and in the Old Testament. The Greek translation of the Old Testament. It's a powerful word. The demoniac of the Gadarenes ripped to shreds the chains with which he was bound, broke them and shattered them. That's what God's going to do to Satan. It's what Samson did to the lion that attacked him in Judges 14:6, "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson in power, so that he tore the lion apart as one would tear apart a young goat." That's what God is going to do to Satan. It's what the voice of the Lord does to oaks in Psalm 29, "The voice of the Lord is over the waters: The God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders, over the mighty waters, the voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is Majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the Cedars. The Lord breaks in pieces the Cedars of Lebanon." Well, let's get past the Cedars of Lebanon and go right to Satan. What did he say? The Lord will break him in pieces and there'll be nothing left of his kingdom. Satan, his person, his kingdom will be totally and completely shattered. That's what's promised here.

The God of Peace Will Do the Crushing

And it says, the God of peace will be the one to do the crushing. He will crush Satan. All glory, honor and power will go to God for that crushing. We will know it was not by our strength that the crushing happened, it was God who crushed him. Satan may be the most powerful created being God ever made, possibly. No clear text on that in Scripture. But the evidence seems to point in that direction. There was a spiritual being, so powerful that the Archangel Michael had to have the help of the archangel Gabriel or vice versa, to just get past this evil being, and they struggled for 21 days until they could finally get an answer to Daniel in his prayer time.

How would you like to face that evil being alone, unaided? You would lose. So we have a sense of the magnitude of Satan's power, but Satan cannot compare with the Creator of the ends of the Earth. He cannot compare with the Lord God who rules over all things. They are not equal in opposites. God is the creator and ruler of the universe and he can pull the plug on Satan anytime he wants. Now you may wonder why he hasn't done it yet, he has his own purposes, but some day he will do it, the God of peace will do this crushing. Now why is it say, The God of peace, what does that mean, the God of peace? Well, first and foremost, peace simply characterizes God, it is his nature, he is a peace-filled being, he is at peace within himself. There has never been the slightest shadow or shade of disagreement between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, and there never will be. God is completely one and at peace within himself.

Like a placid tranquil lake that for a 1000 years has been untroubled by a single pebble or by a single breeze, without a single ripple, that is the nature of the tranquility, the peace of the heart of God, He is characterized by peace. He's not troubled by the upcoming crushing that's going to happen and he's not troubled by anything that Satan is doing. He's not threatened in any way by it. He is the God of peace. But secondly perhaps, Paul calls him the God of peace in this context, because there's an immense contrast between Satan and God, on this point. They're very different in this regard.

Satan is constantly churning and angry and frustrated. God never is. So also, all of Satan's demons who Jesus say, roam the earth, restlessly seeking rest and they never find it. So, also, are all the wicked who follow his evil ways. Isaiah says, "The wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. 'There is no peace,' says my God, 'for the wicked.'"

In the immediate context of Romans 16, the false teachers who are going to come and cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the way of teaching that I've given you, they are not at peace either. But the God of peace is at peace. But most of all, I think that Paul calls him the God of peace to speak of the peace that he will give his children when he does the crushing. What's it going to feel like to be that at peace? I don't think any of us has ever felt it. I think we can scarcely imagine it. What a rich peace it will be to sit and watch a perfect sunset over perfect mountains. Perfectly at peace with God, and with every single human being, redeemed person on Earth and in heaven, what will that even feel like?

What a rich peace it will be to see Christ walking toward you in a fragrant orchard, smiling and greeting you, knowing that, unlike Adam, cowering in the Garden of Eden, you have nothing to hide. You don't need to run, you're glad to see him. What a rich peace it will be to have a conscience that is at rest in a world free from all evil people, in a new creation, free from all curse. And what a rich peace it will be constantly to approach the throne of grace with confidence, and know that he has welcomed you, as an adopted son, and daughter. That's the peace that will happen after the crushing. The God of peace is going to produce that in your heart and soul and in the world around you, if you're a Christian.

Mystery: The Crushing Will Be Under Our Feet

Now, the mystery of this text is that the crushing will somehow be done under our feet. Now how does that work? How will the God of peace, crush Satan under our feet? Well, it may be that God will empower us in some military way, in some final way to crush Satan at the great time of the Second Coming. And so in Revelation 19, when Christ returns, and he's dressed in white, and his robe is dipped in blood, and he is the Word of God, and there's written on his thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords, when he comes back, it says in Revelation 19, following him, are the armies of heaven dressed in white riding on white horses and they have come to conquer and they're not going to lose. And we'll be involved, and we get to be part of that final crushing by the power of God. Perhaps it's in a judgment role. It says in 1 Corinthians 6:3, "Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life."

Most probably it would be that God will in some mysterious sense, make Satan lie down and we get to put our feet on his neck. As happened in Joshua 10, when Joshua was conquering the promised land and five kings came out to fight against the people of God and their hearts were afraid. But, Joshua said, don't be afraid, God is basically being really efficient here. We'll just take care of them all at once, get them all together and we'll do them all at once. And they won by the power of God and the five kings were there. And Joshua made them lay down on the ground. And he invited the men of Israel to come and put their feet on the necks of the enemies of the people of God. Thus will God do to all of your enemies. But what happened in the physical realm, by the physical sword and the conquest of the promised land in the Old Testament is nothing compared to what will happen in the ultimate and eternal spiritual conquest, when the God of peace will crush Satan under our feet.

Satan boasted to Christ, that the kingdoms of the world had been given to him and he can give them to anyone he wants. Remember that? Corinthians does call him "the god of this age." He is, in some sense, the king of this world. Well, guess what, the kingdom is going to be taken away from him, and you know who it's going to be given to, it's going to be given to the people of God. For the meek will inherit the earth. We get it. Oh, he's roaming to and fro, he's the god of the age and all that, but someday we get what used to be his. The powerful mighty warrior has been bound by the power of a greater one and he is being plundered, and all of that stuff is going to be given to the people of God, to us. It says in Daniel 7:18, "The saints of the Most High will receive the Kingdom and will possess it forever." Yes, forever and ever. And Satan will be nowhere to be found. He'll be gone forever. More on that in a moment. But he'll be gone forever.

Now, what does the text say, about the time frame? The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Soon. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking, not soon enough, let it be today. Amen, come Lord Jesus, let it be today, if he so chooses. But it does say soon, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Now, you may be troubled by that word. You may think, "Ah, here at last, there's an error in the Bible. It's been 2000 years since Paul wrote this." Well, you know very well that the whole Bible ends in the word soon. Almost the last concept, Revelation 22:12, "Behold said The Lord I am coming soon." Jesus is coming soon. Well soon has been 2000 years, right? And we're waiting for it. But remember with the Lord, a day is like a 1000 years and a 1000 years is like a day. It's coming soon, friends, this crushing, very soon.

Now, there's an idea in theology, especially eschatology, the study of end times, the idea is that of the already and not yet. Those things that are already ours in Christ and those things that are not yet ours but they are coming.

There's a sense in which we can already experience the end time things and a sense in which some of those are yet to come. Already and not yet. And so therefore, I think that Satan is already crushed and not yet crushed. I believe that Jesus crushed Satan, at the cross. This is the very thing that God predicted would happen in Genesis 3:15, the first inkling of the Gospel in which God spoke to Satan, that serpent in the Garden of Eden, and he said that the seed of woman will crush your head and you will bruise his heel. This I think is a prediction of the crucifixion of Christ in which Christ would destroy the evil one. And so it says in Hebrews 2:14, that Christ became a man, and died on the cross, "so that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death. And by his death, he might free those who all their lives, were held in slavery captivity to their fear of death." Christ did that at the cross. Or again, it says in Colossians 2:15, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities," that's Satan's realm, "He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." So the cross of Jesus Christ is the crushing of Satan. And it happened 2000 years ago.

Well, Satan's crushing, has been extended for 2000 years by the advance of the Gospel through evangelism and missions. God was not content with a quick kill, in this matter. He wanted a 2000-year kill at least and so Satan has been being crushed now for 2000 years. How? By the advance of the Gospel, by the simple sound of the tramp of human feet over the roads of history. The advance of the Gospel over every hill, over every raging mountain stream, beyond every turbulent sea, through every satanic obstacle that he's thrown up for 2000 years, he has not been able to stop it. "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." And so Christ has, through us, built his church. Isaiah prophesied this trampling of the evil satanic city. In Isaiah 26:5-7, it says there, "He humbles those who dwell on high, He lays the lofty city low. He levels it to the ground and casts it to the dust. Feet trample it down. The feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor. The path of the righteous is level. O, upright one, you make the path of the righteous smooth." Yes Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you. Your name and renown are the desire of our hearts." Isaiah 26.

Now, what is the sound of the feet tramping the evil satanic city? It's the advance of the Gospel. And so it says in Romans 10:15, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news." It's the last time the word feet was mentioned in the Bible. So I thought I'd go back to that one, Romans 10:15, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news." God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. When the Apostle Paul's feet, carried him across the Dardanelles, over to Philippi, and he led Lydia to Christ and began the evangelization of Europe, Satan was crushed a little bit more. When the feet of Roman Christians carried them courageously into the Coliseum that their blood would be shed by lions and gladiators for the entertainment of pagan people, and unflinching-ly they went to their death singing praise songs to Jesus, Satan was crushed a little bit more.

When the missionary Raymond Lull in the 13th century, drew up his courage, and got on a boat and went to the Saracens, the Muslims to lead them to Christ, and they eventually martyred him, but he led numbers of them to Christ, Satan's kingdom was crushed a little bit more. In 1521 when Martin Luther's feet carried him to the Diet of Worms to defend the rediscovered Gospel of Jesus Christ. And he said, "I'll go, even if there are more devils than tiles of roofs, opposed against me." Satan's kingdom is crushed a little bit more. Every time that George Whitfield went up the stairs to a platform to preach the Gospel of the new birth during the Great Awakening, Satan's kingdom was crushed a little bit more. Whenever Hudson Taylor went to a new village in the inland regions of China to preach the Gospel to those that had never heard the name of Christ in the inner regions of China and vast numbers were brought to Christ, the God of peace has crushed Satan a little bit more under his feet.

And when you go across the street, or across the office and share the Gospel with somebody, bring them to faith in Christ, the God of peace has just crushed Satan a little bit more. Like I said, "God has not been pleased to kill, to kill Satan's kingdom quickly. He wanted a 2000-year kill at least. And every time we advance the Gospel by sharing the Gospel. Reach out, every time you get on a plane and go on a short-term mission trip or as a career missionary, anything you do to advance the Gospel of Christ, the God of peace is crushing Satan under your feet. But you know, I'm not satisfied with that. I want the final crushing don't you? I want the absolute total complete thing. I want to go to whatever the Greek word means and have that happen to Satan. That's the full crushing, that's the not yet thing. This has been going on, that's the full crushing. That's just a foretaste of the crushing. I want the whole crushing.

And the whole crushing happens when Jesus sends Satan to hell. Now don't imagine for a moment that Satan will like it. God is not stupid. What is the Lake of Fire for? It's a punishment for Satan. He doesn't miss his mark and create something that Satan actually likes. It's a destructive place and that's why he's filled with rage, because he knows he's going to hell and there is no Gospel for him. There's no possibility of redemption for him, or any of his demons, and therefore the demons are trembling in fear in front of Jesus. They're not fighting as equals and they know it, they are afraid of it. And do you see the devastation that he can actually bring human beings with him into the Lake of Fire?

Any of you who are listening to me today, if you have not trusted in Christ, that is your future. But unlike the devil, you can repent, there is a Gospel for you. You don't need to walk out of this place and continue the road to hell, you can actually turn and repent and believe today. The blood of Christ sufficient for all of your sins if you just simply trust in him. His fate doesn't need to be your fate, but it is his fate. Listen to what it says, Revelation 20:10, "And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented, day and night for ever and ever."

Alright, after that, what? What will it be like when he's finally there and we're still here in the new heaven and the new earth? It's called in 2 Peter, "The home of righteousness." And we will be perfectly righteous, not by our own works, but by the blood of Christ, and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, we will be perfectly righteous and therefore, fit for that beautiful place.

We will be transformed, we will be in resurrection bodies. What will life be like apart from Satan? Well, there'll be no temptation at all. Imagine not a single pull in the slightest way, away from Christ. Nothing, no temptation. There will be no accusation of past sins, no feelings of guilt. It's been swallowed up by the ocean of grace that flowed from the cross of Christ. There'll be no guilt, no recriminations, no sense of, "If only I had done this." Or, or, "If only I hadn't done that." None of that. We'll be free from that. There'll be no evil world system and no wicked people. You'll be able to walk through the city and not be afraid of anything. There'll be no laws, because, "The laws" it says in Timothy, "are made for the wicked, the adulterers and perjurers, and slave traders and all those wicked people." We're not under the law, and so therefore we won't need any law. We'll be at a higher level. We will love God completely, and love our neighbor as ourselves completely. And so there's not going to be any, no trespassing signs, friend. When you see a beautiful meadow, just go there and walk through it. Private Property, No Trespassing. Will shoot on sight, and all that kind of stuff. Gone for good.  No death, no mourning, no crying, no pain, no danger of future fear or trouble, nothing, no curse on the Earth.

And so, as I began with a bit of imaginative prose I'm going to end that way. Imagine a single day in the new heaven and the new earth, what will it be like? You walk through the New Jerusalem. Your perfect eyesight sees the vivid colors of the city wall, sparkling in the supernatural light of the glory of God. You stand at a street corner without any fear whatsoever of being mugged or attacked in any way. As a matter of fact, those fears and anxieties are totally foreign to your peace filled mind. Every sight you see points you to Christ. Every thought that fills your mind, heightens your love for God. Your resurrection body, far from pulling you away from God as your flesh used to do, now with constant energy and power draws you close to God at every moment. You stoop and drink water from the River of Life flowing clear as crystal through the center of the city. Now, this is going to be a busy day as steward of your inheritance, you're very own possession, some eternal real estate, more spectacular than any mansion this present age ever dreamed about.

You walk through the magnificent gates of the city of God each one of them, it says made of a single iridescent Pearl and you go through to the green grass of the new Earth. You climb energetically to the top of a well-situated hill and your ears are filled with the songs of birds, and the sounds of animals perfectly at peace with each other. The leaves on every tree, glow with the light of God and are lifted and caressed by a soothing gentle breeze. You sit on the hill and look out over the valley. The River of Life which originated at the throne of God flows serenely at the bottom of the valley. No insects annoy you, no ants swarm around you, no mosquitoes whine in your ears. You feel completely at peace with no sense of time-pressure anxiety. It's not like the end of a long weekend and you soon have to be back at a job you hate. Nothing like that crowds your mind. You see some of the brothers and sisters in Christ walking up the hill towards you and your heart leaps for joy. There's no diminishment of the experience by having them there.

You have no fear whatsoever that they're going to attack you, or insult you or diminish your peace in any way. Rather, you're delighted in them, they're gloriously radiant with the light and the glory of Christ, just as you are. You greet them by name for they're familiar to you, and they sit and join your peaceful gazing out over the fruitful valley. You sit and talk about the power and love of God and all his saving works of grace. It's as though joy compels you to speak out your worship. Every word you say, enhances the joy of your companions and so also their words do the same to your heart. The aroma of the fruit trees and flowers fills you, as you breathe deeply. You share some of the fruit with them and they with you and one single joyful idea fills your mind. Maybe not these words, but this concept. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise, than when we first begun.

You are at last kings and queens on the earth ruling under Christ for eternity. This is your Father's world and he's been pleased to give it to you. Satan. Oh yeah, him. He's the farthest thing from your mind, he's gone. He was the loser of the past age and he's gone now, he's been crushed forever. Death, mourning, crying, pain, gone forever. So also the curse on the land and the fruit of your hands. Everything you put your hand to will prosper under the power of God.

That sounds good, doesn't it? Until then, what? Well, the verse doesn't end with, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." There's more in the verse, do you see it? What does it say? It says, "The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you." We're going to need it friends, because you're going to walk from this sanctuary and go out to whatever will happen out there and Satan is going to be involved in it. He's going to try to tempt you and hurt you in some way. You need grace, future grace and it will be there for you. It will be there as much as you need to get you to this place. Are you ready? Have you come in here today in a graceless state, you've not trusted in Christ? Don't walk out that way. Trust in him, believe in him for the salvation of your soul. If you came in here knowing Christ, but your knees are weak and your arms are weak, then let the distant triumph song steal in your ear and give you strength and bravery to fight. Stand firm against the devil and his schemes. He's a loser. Why would you want to join him in his losing? Say no to the sins of the flesh, and advance the Gospel. Rescue more people from the dominion of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of the Son that God loves. Close with me in prayer.

The year was 1347, one of the pivotal years in the history of world civilization, although I'm sure they didn't know it at the time, and many of you may not know it now. But the place was the Crimea, a little peninsula down into the Black Sea, and there was a Genoese outpost, a trading outpost, there in the Crimea. The Genoese were known all over the Mediterranean Sea and on into the Black Sea for their prowess in navigation and sailing, their ability to set up trade routes, even into Asia and India, and this distant trade outpost was very lucrative for the Genoese. 150 years later, their favorite son, Christopher Columbus, established, for all time, and for the history of the world, the prowess of the Genoese in navigation, in sailing. But here was this outpost in the Crimea, distant from Italy, and an avenue of wealth for their home port, but they were in trouble in 1347, for they were surrounded by an invading army of Kipchak warriors.

Now, the Kipchaks were actually a Mongol-speaking people who came from the steps of Asia, from Siberia, and were part of that vast Mongol-speaking empire, which is vast as the world had ever seen that established by Genghis Khan, and they're part of what came to be known the Golden Horde, and they surrounded this Genoese outpost, and were besieging it. Within the walls, were some strong warriors, I think they felt confident that they would be able to withstand the siege, that is, until the Kipchaks hurled at them their most... Their deadliest weapon.

And I don't think they knew it at the time, just how deadly it was, but they used catapults to hurl over the walls some disease-ridden corpses, and they were ridden with the disease the dreaded bacillus Yersinia Pestis, which is transmitted by the rat flea, what came to be known as the bubonic plague. It started there in the Crimea. Within 36 hours, those defending the walls had large swollen lymph glands under their armpits and in their groins, and within a week, most of them were dead. However, a sailing vessel sailed from that outpost and went back to the port city of Genoa, and that's where the real trouble started. For the next four years, the Black Death, as it came to be known, spread over all of Europe, killing, estimated, between a quarter and a third of the population of Europe. Tens of millions of people died. And it reached everywhere, from the courts of kings down to the dirt-floored huts of peasants. Everyone was affected by it, there seemed to be no cure. All kinds of superstitions came around it, there were persecutions of the Jews and others because they thought that it was brought on by them. They didn't understand germ theory. They didn't understand the role of the fleas and of the rats. All they knew is that people were dying in numbers they had never seen before.

It was the greatest plague in the history of humankind, the greatest biological plague, that is. As I look at our text today, Romans 16:17-20, I see a greater plague than this one. For the last 20 centuries, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been the only hope of salvation for our sinful race. There is no other power of God for the salvation of sinners than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is an irresistible force for the salvation of men and women and children all over the world, and yet, Satan has been attacking it now for 20 centuries. And I think the greatest plague has been what he has catapulted over the walls of the church, and that is false teaching for 20 centuries. For 20 centuries, he sought to attack the doctrine of the Gospel. And I think it's fair to say that there's no specific significant or even some insignificant aspect of doctrine that has not been attacked by the devil, by false teachers.

And so, what we have here in Romans 16:17-20 is the deadliest plague. We have the plague of false teaching. We have the Apostle Paul, out of love for this church in Rome, out of love for the people of God, warning them, as he's just about to finish this letter, warning them against false teachers. And, this morning, the Lord... As I was praying for you, the Lord gave me a love in my heart for each one of you, my deep desire is that you would be protected from the scourge, the plague of false teaching, that you would be protected from being destabilized by doubts and fears about the Word of God, that you would hear right teaching, and that you would accept it and understand it to be such, and that you'll be protected from false teaching from this pulpit and any place you go. That's my desire.

Abrupt Warning

And that, I think, was Paul's desire as well. We come to the danger of false teaching here in Romans 16, and it comes rather abruptly. We had 16 verses of greetings, greet so-and-so, and greet Asyncritus, and Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and all these folks. Oh, and, by the way, I warn you about false teachers. It seems to come in the middle of nowhere, in Romans 16. Some people think that this was not originally written by Paul, it seems so abrupt, but it was. Paul frequently does this. He did it in Philippians 3. Philippians 3:1 says, "Finally, brothers, rejoice in the Lord." And then verse 2, he says, "Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh," the circumcision party. He's warning them about false teaching immediately, right in the middle. He wants them to be joyful. And then he says, "You want to be joyful, then guard yourself against false teaching, because false doctrine robs your joy."

Satan a Personal and Worldwide Enemy

Now, we have, in this text, a personal enemy, and that is Satan. I don't know if you noticed, but many of our worship songs talked about the power of Satan, and about our conquest of him, our victory over him by faith. But Satan is a powerful foe. It is a chilling thought, when you think about it, that you have a powerful and personal enemy who is seeking to destroy your soul, who is dispatching forces, demonic forces every day to try to make the progress of your soul and of the Gospel around the world impossible. He hates you, and wants to destroy you. But we have a personal enemy, 1 Peter 5:8-9 says, "Be self-controlled and alert, your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering." So there it is, your enemy, that's a personal enemy, your brothers throughout the world, that's a worldwide attack, that is the devil, and the power of the devil. It's even more chilling when you consider just how powerful Satan is. Satan may be the most powerful created being in the universe, he is clever, crafty, and vastly more experienced in spiritual matters than any of us here. He's been at it a long time and he's seen harder than you and he's defeated harder than you.

He is deeply malicious, more vicious than any tyrant that's ever lived. We know of the cruelty of the genocidal maniac, Adolf Hitler, and also the cruelty of his contemporary, Joseph Stalin, and others. 20th century was specialized in cruel and brutal dictators and tyrants. But none of them compare to Satan. Actually, I believe he was behind every one of them, the maliciousness of the devil. Satan hates the church and will do anything he can to stop it and oppose it. In 1529, Martin Luther wrote his most famous hymn, we sang it this morning, a mighty fortress is our God, and there, he talked a lot about Satan. Actually, if you look through the verses, there's a good deal about Satan in those, in that hymn. And Luther said, "For still, our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great. And armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal." So that puts you in your place, doesn't it? You are not equal to say, "Did we, in our own strength, confide." If you had put your trust in your own strength, our striving would be losing. Were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing, dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he. Lord Sabaoth. Lord Almighty is his name, from age to age the same, and he must win, he will win the battle.

By the way, next week, whole sermon, God willing, whole sermon on one verse, verse 20. There was just so much on Verse 20, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet, that I've been working on that sermon for six weeks. It's now 24 pages long. Come ready to listen. I'm just kidding. But I just want to go, using my imagination, to think what life will be like without Satan and his demons. Oh, I can't wait for next week, and I can't even more wait for the fulfillment of the truths that are in Romans 16:20.

False Teaching the Most Dangerous of Satan’s Weapons

But we have a mighty and a powerful foe. Satan has, as I've mentioned before, and I never tire of warning you, three great weapons that Satan hurls against the church, worldliness, the appeal to lust, and to sin, and to worldliness, persecution, namely, that our neighbors, or the prevailing government would be against our Christian faith, and make our lives so wretchedly miserable that we are tempted to turn away from Christ, persecution, but the third is the greatest, and that is false teaching, and that's what's in front of us today. And why is this the deadliest of all of the attacks? Well, because it attacks that which is the power of God for our salvation.

And not one of us has finished being saved. As I've mentioned to you many times before, you need to keep hearing the Gospel, you need to hear it every day, you need to be coming back to the cross again and again, you need to have the full work of the 16 chapters of Romans in your heart all the time. You need to be saved, you're not done being saved. And so, when false teaching comes in, it attacks the salvation process, the very thing which God is working to the salvation of our soul. Romans 1:16, "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, and then for the Gentile." Therefore, Paul constantly upholds the need of church leaders to fight for doctrine. 1 Timothy 4:16, Paul said to Timothy, "Watch your life and your doctrine closely." Watch it closely. I need to do that. You're never set and done, doctrinally. There's a constant development, constant growing. And we should be developing in our understanding of Christian doctrine. You got to watch it all the time, Timothy, if you're a pastor, watch it closely. Constant vigilance is needed, and why? Because history is full of attacks on sound doctrine. As I've said, there's not a single significant doctrine in the Christian faith that's not been attacked, historically.

For example, the inspiration and authority of the Old Testament was attacked by Marcion in this very church, the church at Rome, 100 years after Paul, denied that the Old Testament was inspired. The deity of Christ was attacked by Arius. Original sin and salvation by grace alone, by faith alone, was attacked by Pelagius. The full humanity of Christ was attacked by the Gnostics and the Docetics. The sovereignty of God and salvation was attacked by the Semi-Pelagians. The inspiration and authority of the whole Bible attacked by higher critics and Liberals. The Trinity was attacked by the Unitarians. The imminence and active rule of God and day-by-day providence attacked by the Deists. The rogues' gallery of false teachers is terrifying. In addition to these that are already listed, we have also Joseph Smith, that bizarre dowser, who came up with Mormonism, the strangest new religion in history. And yet, they claim to be Christians, and are not. Charles Taze Russell, who resurrected Arius's old false teaching. And now we have the Jehovah's Witnesses. Mary Baker Eddy, originator of Christian Science. Jim Jones, founder of the Peoples Temple. David Koresh, who persuaded a bunch of people, through his sweet-talking, to fight against the US government, and they died in a fiery conflagration in Waco.

In every age of the church, we can trace out a history of heresy, and the attacks of Satan through false teachers, therefore, we must have constant vigilance to maintain doctrinal purity.

Now, in this text, we see, first and foremost, the techniques of false teachers. Look at verses 17-18, "I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them, for such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the minds of naive people."

False Doctrine

So the first technique of false teaching is simply false doctrine, to contradict the doctrines that were given, to say that is not so, this is so. False doctrine. That is their primary danger because they attack even the doctrines that Paul taught here in Romans. Paul has laid out a majestic structure, doctrinally, in Romans. It's marvelous. And he said, "Watch out for those who contradict the things that I've taught you here. These people will come, and begin to oppose it. Verse 17, They "put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching that you have learned."

The greatest stumbling block is false doctrine, it says in 2 Timothy 2:16-18, "Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly, their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some." Now, what a cheerful message that is. You missed it, not just the secret rapture, you missed the resurrection, you can imagine how discouraging that would be. They destroy the faith of some. And so, false doctrine.

Deception

They also use... Their technique is deception. They use deception. Look at verse 18, "They deceive the minds of naive people." They trick them, they fool them into believing a lie. This is the stock and trade of all false teaching. The first lie is that the false teacher himself is a godly man who has your best interest at heart. That is a lie, he is actually a ravenous wolf masquerading as a sheep. Did you see the picture on the cover? What a chilling picture that is, a flock of sheep, and there, in the midst, a wolf.

It's a terrifying thing. And Jesus said, "Watch out for these false teachers. They come secretly disguised as sheep, but, inwardly, they're ravenous wolves." So deception is important, the false teacher has to conceal his real motive, which I'll discuss in a moment, but his real motive is fleshly and self-seeking. He has to trick the people, deceive them, and hide his real intentions. Paul calls it putting on a mask. 1 Thessalonians 2:5 says, "You know that we never used flattery, nor do we put on a mask to cover up greed. God is our witness." So it's a putting on of a mask. This is, literally, in the Greek, the word hypocrite is an actor, somebody who would put on a mask, and play a role.

And so these false teachers are putting on a mask, and they're playing a role. They have to use deception. Behind all of it is Satan's alluring deception, he masquerades in enticing form, 2 Corinthians 11, Paul said, "For such manner, false apostles, deceitful workmen masquerading as apostles of Christ, and no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness." Now, you may wonder why does verse 20 suddenly talk about Satan. It's because behind all false teaching is Satan, and all false teachers are servants of Satan. And so they masquerade, they have to act like Satan, they have to hide who they truly are. I mean, can you imagine if Satan came to you hideously? Ugly, powerful, malevolent, and said, "Here I am, I'm Satan. I'm here to ruin your life." Can you imagine if sin just came and told the truth, said, "I know I look good on the outside, but really, I'm going to be poison for your soul." That's not the way.

There's gotta be some deception. And so they use deception, they use a masquerade. They also use smooth talk and flattery. Smooth talk is oratorical skill, fine-sounding language. The root word is kindness or goodness. The idea is kindly speech, smooth talk that panders to the ego. Thomas Brooks put it this way, "They know sugared poison goes down sweetly, so they wrap up their pernicious soul-killing pills in gold," end quote. So they're using smooth talk and flattery. The seductive woman, in Proverbs 7, the wayward wife, uses smooth talk to seduce the young man in Proverbs 7. She talks to him with persuasive words, she leads him astray. And all at once, he goes with her, and he doesn't know it's gonna cost him his life. Well, the same thing happens with the false teacher. Or then there's the case of Absalom. Remember how Absalom used to stand by the side of the road, and whenever anyone would come to bring a case to his father David, he would intercept them, and he would flatter them, and say, "Oh, if there was someone that would listen to you, someone that would care about you, someone like me. If they would just come, I would hear their case, and you would get justice from me." And if they would come over to kiss his hand, 'cause he's a prince, he would intercept them and kiss their hand. Smooth talk, flattery. In this way, it says in 2 Samuel, he stole the minds and the hearts of the people.

Smooth Talk & Flattery

The use of smooth talk and flattery by the adulteress, and by the usurper is nothing compared to the use of smooth talk and flattery by the false teacher. He seeks your soul, your very soul, he wants to destroy you, and so he uses smooth talk. Now, the problem is that people like it. That's the big problem. We like it. We want to hear good things. We want to be told sweet things. And so, it says, in Jeremiah 5, "A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land, the prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way." Even more blatant is Isaiah 30:9-11, in which the prophet says, "These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord's instruction. They say to the seers, 'See no more visions,' and to the prophets, 'Give us no more visions of what is right. Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.' Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel." They don't want to hear it, they want to hear pleasant things. And so, the problem isn't just with the false teachers, but it's with the people who want to hear that kind of stuff.

The doctrine that Paul laid down in Romans tells us the truth, tells us who we really are, it tells us of depravity and of sin and that all of our thoughts are turned away from God, unless he moves by grace, we'll be running in the opposite direction. "There is no one righteous, not even one." And it tells us of a bloody sacrifice. Jesus shed his blood on the cross, as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. It's not a beautiful picture, it's actually quite jarring and quite ugly, but it tells us the truth of how the wrath of God was appeased at the cross, and by simple faith in Jesus, apart from any works of your own, you can be completely forgiven of sins. Oh, I pray and hope that if you come here today in a graceless state, that you're not a Christian, that you hear what I just said, all of your sins can be forgiven if you just simply look to the cross.

If you just look to the blood of Jesus and trust in him, all of your sins will be forgiven. But it's not a beautiful picture, it's a jarring thing to be told that you're a sinner, and that you need a Savior, and that the Savior had to die in order to save you, but it's the truth. But the people want to be told that they're okay, they're fine just as they are, they want to be instructed on how to find the champion inside you, and those books will sell like hotcakes. These Bible teachers will find the doctrines that everyone agrees about, and they'll preach those. You listen to a false teacher, you can get them on the internet or whatever and just... You just sit and listen to them, and you find yourself agreeing with a lot of what they say, maybe with all of what they say. And then, in the back of your mind, comes that warning that Jesus gave in Luke 6:26, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for in the same way they spoke of the false prophets of old."

Why would all people speak well? Because they're saying things that everyone agrees about. They are carefully and diligently avoiding topics that divide people. Jesus said, "Do not suppose that I came to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I've come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's enemies will be the members of his own household." And why? Did he come to do that directly? No. But that's going to be what happens when people hear the truth and they don't want to hear it.

Recently, a very well-known pastor was interviewed on Larry King Live. And Larry King asked him, "But don't you think if people don't believe as you believe they're somehow condemned? Like they're going to hell if they don't believe what you believe?" Here's what the pastor said, "You know, I think that happens in our society, but I try not to do that. I tell people all the time, preached a couple of Sundays about it, 'I'm for everybody. You may not agree with me, but to me, it's not my job to try to straighten everybody out. The Gospel is called the good news. So, my message is a message of hope, that God's for you, you can live a good life, no matter what's happened to you, and so I don't know, I know there is condemnation, but I don't feel that's my place.'"

Well, Larry King didn't let it go. He persevered. What if you're Jewish or Muslim or you don't accept Christ at all? Oh, be careful at this moment, if you're on TV. Better not to be on TV than to say this. I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't go to heaven. I don't know. Larry King said, "If you believe you have to believe in Christ, they're wrong, aren't they?" "Well, I don't know if I believe they're wrong. I believe, here's what the Bible teaches, and from the Christian faith, this is what I believe, but I just think that only God can judge a person's heart. I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I don't know all about their religion, but I know they love God. And I don't know. I've seen their sincerity, so I don't know. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have a relationship with Jesus."

Wow. Wow. John McArthur commenting on this interview, said this, "Divine truth is more important than anything else. And do you know why Jesus always escalated the conflict? It's because he always spoke the truth. If I ever do end up on Larry King or some other program like that, and somebody says to me, "Will Mormons go to heaven?" I will say, "No." If they say, "Will the Jews go to heaven, who reject Jesus as their Messiah?" I will say, "No." Do I want to start a fight? No. Do I want to be resented? No. Do I want to tell the truth? Yes. That's the issue. Jesus didn't escalate the conflict by being insensitive. He didn't escalate the conflict by being ungracious, the conflict escalated of itself because he spoke the truth."

So we've seen the methods of false teachers, they use false doctrine, they use deception, they use smooth talk and flattery.

But what are their motives? Look at verse 18. It says, "For such people are not serving our Lord Christ but their own appetites." The word in the Greek is literally their belly. They're serving their stomach, and that represents their drives, their bodily drives, their earthly desires.

Lust

Like Philippians 3, it says, "For I've often told you before, and now say again, even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ, their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame, their mind is on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven." That's what these people want. For example, lust, lust, 2 Peter 2, it says, "Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures, while they feast with you, with eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning." And so, we see lust. 

Greed

Or then there's greed, Peter calls them experts in greed. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, "Unlike so many, we do not peddle the Word of God for profit," we're not selling it. "…Peddling the Word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ, we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God." these false teachers want earthly pleasure. In order to have earthly pleasure, they need to have a lot of money, and so what they'll do is they tell the people what they want to hear, and the people pay them to do it.

Power and Control

That's the motive of the false teacher. They also want power and control, they want to be in charge. There's a lust for power, the ability to dominate people's lives. In 2 Corinthians 11:20-21, Paul was talking about false... The false apostles, and he said this, "In fact," speaking to the Corinthian church, "You even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantages of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. To my shame, we were too weak for that."

 You see the domination of these false teachers, they like to be in charge, to dominate people's lives, to run them, and so we see the motives of false teachers.

We see also the devastation wrought by false teachers. Look at verse 19, he says, "Everyone's heard about your obedience. So I'm full of joy over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil." Here is a beautiful little church, the Roman church, they are obedient to the gospel, they're growing. It's like a little garden of Eden. And here is the serpent coming in, and he's going to bring false doctrines. And so, here is this, sweet growing, healthy, obedient Church, and the devastation that false teaching will bring cannot be measured. It's a strategic church, they're right there in the capital city of the Roman Empire, and the serpent is coming. He's going to bring his false teaching.

And so, what is the devastation? Well, people deceive, they're tricked. They give up their faith, people's progress in the two infinite journeys is halted. We're supposed to be making internal progress, to be more and more like Jesus, the Gospel is supposed to make external progress to the ends of the earth, so that unreached peoples hear about Jesus, but false teaching stopped both dead in their tracks.

Paul says in Galatians 5:7. "You were running a good race, who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?" Also churches are divided. What's going to happen is some people will believe the false teachings and some won't, and they're going to argue, and there won't be any resolution to it. The church will split. Churches get divided over false teaching. They cause divisions, it says, and they put obstacles in your way that caused you to be tripped up. As a result, the witness is ruined and the innocence is lost. Paul says that false teachers deceive the minds of naive people. He says, "You know, I wish you were naive. I wish you didn't know anything at all about evil."

You know, when the Lord's done finishing his saving work, we're all going to be clean and pure as driven snow. And that's what this word means. They deceive the minds of naive people. Actually, the same word is used of Jesus, that he's undefiled as our high priest, he's pure. But this has a sense of immaturity to it. Like these folks are wet behind the ears, they're like babes in the woods, they can't handle the level of warfare that's going to be needed when the wolves come, so they're naïve, and he doesn't want them to be. He'd like them to continue naive to evil, but the enemy is coming. And so we see the devastation of false teachers. What is the remedy?

Well, first of all, he tells them to watch out. Look at verse 17. "Now I urge you brothers, [I beseech you, I beg you to] keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances," literally, to mark them. In some communities, there's laws in which people who have been convicted of child molestation, other sins like that, have to identify themselves to the community. Well, I say that false teachers are far more of a threat to the church than those folks are to the community they're in, and they have to be marked. He says, "Mark them out. Say these folks are false teachers." Paul names names, Hymenaeus and Philetus, whoever they are. Well, I know they're false teachers. Mark them out. Let people know what they're teaching, and be vigilant all the time, watch for it, and be willing to fight for sound doctrine.

Jude 3. It says, "Dear friends, although I was very eager to write you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write you and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." Contend for the faith, fight against false doctrine. The best thing you can do, though, I mean, in every level, saturate your mind in true doctrine, just saturate your mind in the Bible, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, understand the Bible. That's good for all things that's good for growing in godliness. But also, you'll be able to test those who claim to be apostles, but are not, and you will be able to find them false. You remember, in Acts 17, the Bereans, who are more noble-hearted than anyone else because they took the scriptures and they searched to see if what Paul said was true.

Oh, I pray that you would do that with my sermons or any sermons you hear in this pulpit. Take them back to the scripture and say, "Is it true?" Is Paul, in fact, warning the Roman church about false teaching in Romans 16:17-20. Don't just assume because I say so that that's what he's doing. Go back and read it yourself, and see if it's really biblical and true. Saturate your mind in true doctrine and right doctrine, and avoid these people, stay away from them. I know you think, "Oh man, I could take them on. Just me and Joseph Smith. That's kind of exciting, isn't it? I can win. Like the ego starts to come up, I know some scripture. Alright. I'm an expert in these things. I can take him on. I'll take on the Jehovah's Witnesses. Actually, I do, I enjoy taking on the Jehovah's Witnesses.

I've spent two hours with one in my house, thinking, I'm going to use up all their time. The odds that they're going to convert me to Arianism are close to zero, alright? But, at any rate, at least they're not with someone else, where their odds might be better, but, at the same time, I want to tell you, just speaking of myself, when I first got to seminary, and for the first time, really started reading Liberal theology, it really had an effect on me, it made me feel sick, it bothered me, it hit levels that disturbed me.

The attacks on whether Moses wrote the Pentateuch or whether the Old Testament was inspired the way we understand, these kind of things, they hurt me and it became hard for me until I went back to one thing that saved me, Jesus's view of the Old Testament, and that healed me. I said, "Jesus had an infinitely high view of the Old Testament, so should I." So much for the German Liberal higher critics, see you later. Alright, Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you? And so, I was healed. But I'm just telling you, it has an effect when you read that kind of false teaching. So avoid them, stay away from them, he says.

But, ultimately, our only defense is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 20, the second half of the verse, "The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you." As I was flying back from India, I was with Jenny, and we had some time. I do not sleep on planes. I envy you brothers and sisters who can sleep on those 18-hour flights, alright? It's nine hours plus nine hours, felt like 1800 hours and I just... You're sitting there. And what do you do with your head? Where do you put it?  I would like to remove it and put it in a box somewhere, plug it back in when we arrive, but I just couldn't get comfortable, and I don't think Jenny could either. And so, I don't know. It was just perpetual darkness because we flew before the sun came up, we're going in the direction of the earth, so it was just forever, two hours before sunrise. And it was just never getting any lighter. And then they're bringing us food, and is it breakfast? Is it dinner? What is it? And I can't tell, you know what I'm saying? It's eggs, it must be breakfast, but I have no idea where I am or what I'm supposed to eat. And so there it is. So we started going through. I said, let's redeem the time, so we started going carefully through 1 John, verse by verse, just talking through 1 John.

And got to 1 John 2:20, and what a sweet verse. And there, it says, "But you have an anointing from the Holy One and all of you knows the truth." Isn't that sweet? KJV gives us an unction, you have an anointing you know the truth, if you're a child of God, if God's grace is on you, you will know false doctrine when you hear it. And you'll know true doctrine when you hear it. Even if it's something you've never heard before, immediately, the Spirit testifies in your heart, that is true, that is right. You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know the truth. John says, I don't write you because you don't know it, but because you do know it.

Isn't that beautiful? So we have the grace of our Lord, and so therefore, we cannot be deceived. If we are the elect, if we are the sheep of Christ, John 10:5, he says, they will not follow the voice of a stranger, because it's a stranger's voice, and they don't recognize his voice, they will not follow. Even when the Antichrist comes with deceiving signs and wonders to deceive, Jesus says in Matthew 24, even the elect, if that were possible. But it's not, because the grace of the Lord Jesus will be with you and he will protect you from false doctrine. Amen and Amen.

Now, the end of Satan's kingdom. Next week, we'll talk about that. Alright, a full sermon. I had some things, but it just developed and developed and I said, "Oh, let's celebrate it. Let's spend a whole day next week celebrating. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. What applications can we take from this? First, come to Christ. I've already invited you. Come to Christ, trust in him for the salvation of your soul. That is true doctrine. Apart from Christ, you have no hope. You will die and go to hell. Your sins will testify against you on Judgment Day, but there is a remedy and the remedy is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you simply look to the cross, to the blood shed on the cross, you will be forgiven of all of your sins, past, present, and future. Come to Christ. If you've already come to Christ, can I urge you to just start by being thankful for the anointing you have from the Holy Spirit, that you know the truth, and be thankful for the gift of God in your life, which is faithful teachers of the Word of God? If anyone is a faithful teacher, Sunday school teacher, radio preacher, a book writer, even if they're dead, had been dead for three centuries, but if they're faithfully teaching the Word of God, they are a gift from Christ to you. 

Thank God for right teaching. Saturate your mind, as I've said, in good doctrine, and be vigilant against false teachers. I am not insulted if any of you pray that I be protected from saying anything false. It doesn't insult me. I need that kind of prayer. I mean, I've done a lot of talking here in the last eight years. There's got to be something wrong in there. All those hours of talking. Pray that I'd be guarded and protected from saying things that are not helpful to the people of God. But pray also for yourselves that when I say things that are true and right, you put them into practice. That may be the greater threat, because it's a threat for me too. I see what's true, but am I living it? That's the issue. So pray that you put into practice the good doctrines, and rejoice... As we'll get to do for a full sermon next week, rejoice that Satan will soon crush... That God will soon crush Satan under your feet, that false teachers will not, in the end, win over the church of Jesus Christ. Close with me in prayer.

When I was a college student at MIT, there were a lot of courses that were just crushing burdens, the kind of courses that you just hope to survive, and you think you might not get through. And then there were other courses. They weren't called underwater basket weaving, but close, alright. And one of my favorites was a course on American cinema. I got to watch movies for college credit, and I will never forget this December evening. I went to the place where we watched them and I saw for the first time what became one of my favorite movies, and that is, It's a Wonderful Life. Now it's on every year at Christmas time. I'm sure you've seen it with Jimmy Stewart, George Bailey, the American hometown hero, who doesn't like his life working at The Bailey Building and Loan, and wish that he could have done more, could have gone, traveled, seen great things… And he reaches a crisis in his life where he just doesn't see any value, any worth whatsoever in his life. And a crisis comes where he might be facing prison for something he didn't do. And he wants to throw it all away and dive in over a bridge into the water.

Now I'm not vouching for the theological precision of this movie. You understand that. But at that point God sends Clarence the angel to come and help him. Alright, and Clarence comes and basically Clarence mission is to try to convince him that his life was worthwhile, and at one point Jimmy Stewart says, "Well, I guess you're right. It wouldn't be better for me to kill myself. I wish I'd never been born." And then somehow he gets to see what life was like if he had never been born, and it's absolutely chilling to him and there comes a point where people he's loved, the people that he's been with don't know him, don't recognize... His own wife runs away screaming from him, and he just wants it back, even as bad as it was, he wants it back, that he was living that same life again.

And the lesson is very clear, the value and the worth of a single human life. And at the end of the movie, the climax comes after he wants to live again even as bad as it was, and God enables him to step back into that tough situation. The door of his home opens and friends come flooding in the door, bring in money to try to pay for that which was lost and free him from the burden so that he won't have to go to prison. And it's just streaming in and it's just a tremendous climax of friendship. And he sees a book on the tree, and he opens it up and there's an inscription there and it's from Clarence the angel. Remember, I did not vouch for the theological precision of this movie, but there it is. There's an inscription from Clarence the angel and says, "Remember, George, no man is a failure who has friends."

Now as I come to Romans 16, and you may wonder, is our pastor really going to preach an expositional sermon from these greetings? Can it really be done? Well, yes, it can, I hope.  We'll find out over the next half hour or so, but yes, I think it can be done. And what I get out of this is I look at name after name, and I want you to go up and encourage Ryan after the service, this man did yeoman duty standing up and pronouncing all of those proper nouns one after the other. So let's go and encourage the dear brother, thank you for your courage.

Alright. But these are friends in the ministry of the apostle Paul. He lists no less than 27 people by name. Verses 21-23, there are some that are greeting back the church at Rome, and they want to be remembered. And so there are people that Paul wants to greet, and then there's people around Paul there in Corinth where he wrote the letter and they want to greet their friends in the church at Rome. And it's amazing insight into first century church life and the preciousness of friends in Christ. And I'll tell you this, the Gospel is a treasure trove. You just open up the box, and there's just one rare and beautiful gem and treasure after another. The greatest is reconciliation with God through the blood of Jesus Christ. All of our sins forgiven, we saw Tommy testifying to the value of that to him through water baptism, all of our sins forgiven.

And then it just flows from there, a new nature transform within a heart of stone taken out a heart of flesh, given in. We have the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have adoption into the very family of God, we have a gloriously bright future, and every day, every toilsome and suffering day in this world brings us closer and closer to that. The future is gloriously bright, but along with all of that, we have brothers and sisters in Christ who make the journey with us, and that is precious, it's unspeakably precious. And in the end we will get to look each other in the face when we are done being glorified, and we will just smile and with joy we will say, "God did it. God saved us. He brought us through that toilsome journey and look where we are now." In the meantime, we have each other. We can look at each other, and we can encourage one another and they can encourage us. And that's what I see in these verses today.

Now I just like to draw out some themes. I'd like to look at the names, look at some of the details of those things that are said about these folks, and try to learn some things together. We're not going to exhaust this passage, we're not going to understand everything, but there's some good things that we can learn. And we begin with this woman Phoebe, as Paul commends this woman Phoebe. And throughout these verses we see him valuing the ministry of women. It's really quite a remarkable thing. I think this may have been the most precious letter delivery in history. Can you imagine being entrusted with the only copy of the Book of Romans ever? Tertius wrote it down. We learned later on that he was his secretary in effect, we think perhaps Paul's eyesight wasn't good enough, and so he dictated the letter and there is Tertius. He's the one who actually wrote the letter, but after it was written, it seems entrusted to this woman Phoebe, and she was going to carry it to Rome.

Now why do commentators think that Phoebe carried the letter? Well, it's because she's placed first in this chapter, the first and the greetings and it could be she's the very one who's standing there, having handed the letter over to the leaders of the church at Rome. And so he's writing basically a letter of commendation for the messenger, for Phoebe and it says there in verse 1, "I commend to you, our sister Phoebe, a servant to the church at Cenchreae." Now this word commend is an official term, it literally means, I stand alongside her, she's in effect standing in my place in handing this letter over. And it also could mean I demonstrate her worthiness.

Now frequently in the ancient world, letters of introduction had to be written so that people who had never seen another person by face would know who this individual was and would treat them properly. This was the days before the lightning quick communication that we're used to through email and text messaging and all that kind of thing. And it's to the point with virtual conferences, you can have a relationship with somebody you've never seen and never we'll see, but you know what their faces look like. You could know it the next day if somebody does some significant issue in history or in the news, you know what their face looks right away, looks like right away. But these folks they had to have letters of recommendation. So we see this whole issue in 2 Corinthians, chapter 3:1, there, the apostle Paul says, "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need like some people letters of recommendation to you or from you?" So we're talking there about the issue of a letter of recommendation, again, in connection with the big offering that was being taken among the Gentile churches for the Jewish believers in Judea.

In 1 Corinthians 16:3, Paul says, "When I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem." So it seems to me that Paul is here writing a letter of introduction for Phoebe, in effect, so that they will accept this letter as from the apostle Paul. It seems to me, I think, reading between the lines, that Phoebe was a wealthy woman, more on that in a moment, and she was planning on going to Rome. Paul perhaps heard about that and wanted to take advantage of it. And so he sat down to write the book of Romans, and what a good use of time that was. I don't know how long it was that Phoebe was going to leave, but he made a good use of his time. She, Phoebe, was from the city of Cenchreae, which is very close to Corinth. Corinth is across a very, very narrow isthmus of land and Cenchreae is just on the other side, it's the port city on the other side of Corinth, and that's where Phoebe was. It could be that that church at Corinth planted the church at Cenchreae and Phoebe was a member there. Therefore, she was entrusted with the most precious letter delivery in history.

I can't recount to you all of the people whose lives have been transformed by this book of Romans. How many people will be in heaven because they say they read or heard a message preached from the Book of Romans? We know Martin Luther was one of them. His soul was transformed, his soul was saved by Romans 1:17, The righteousness from God, that is simply by faith, he read about it in the book of Romans. Imagine being Phoebe holding that letter as she boarded a ship perhaps, or traveled over land to Rome.

If the ship had sunk in a storm, or if highwaymen had been able to strip her of her possessions and destroy the letter as of no value whatsoever to them, it would have been lost. But let me tell you something, God has sovereign power over the entire process of getting the Scripture to us. Isn't that marvelous? The same God that inspired the apostle to write it and guarded him from all error, was with Phoebe when she traveled to get it to the church. It was with the church when they read it and recognize it to be apostolic and authoritative, and then it was protected until they started to copy it, and it was protected through all the centuries that they copied it by hand, until finally in the 15th century, the printing press was developed and they could mass produce them. And now there are literally millions and millions of copies of this letter. God sovereignly watch over all of it, and now we have it today.

Phoebe: A Remarkable Woman

Well, who is this woman, Phoebe? She's a remarkable woman. But I will say this, apart from this one mention here in Romans 16, we know nothing else about her, and that's going to be true of many people in Romans 16. We have no other information about Phoebe than what we have here in this account. Paul clearly has admiration for her, he calls her our sister, so she's part of the family of God, she's a believer in Christ, and we're going to see later in the message the tender affection that Paul has for every member of the body of Christ. But he calls her sister, but he also calls her, and a literal translation would be a servant of the church at Cenchreae. Now whether this means more than servant we'll talk about it in a moment, but at least it means that she has taken up the role of a servant to Jesus Christ. Remember that Jesus commended this role as the highest that we can do in this life. The best thing we could ever do and be in this world is a servant of Jesus Christ.

It says in Matthew 23:11, "The greatest among you will be your servant." And so servanthood is of the essence of our Christian faith. Now, Paul asked the church at Rome to receive her well and to take care of her needs. Look at verse two, I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and to give her any help she may need from you. Now saints should be receiving each other gladly, and we should be helping each other in each other's journey, and Christ will never forget anything you do to help a brother or sister in Christ along in their heavenly journey. To speed them along in making progress in Christ, in the internal journey of sanctification growing in grace becoming more like Jesus, in the external journey of worldwide evangelization, all of you that came and stood around us a moment ago and prayed. And all of those of you that prayed from the pew, you helped us in our journey and God will never forget. And so he wants the church to help this woman in her journey and to receive her well.

This is especially so back then and the fact that there were no hotel chains, there was no Motel 6, no place to spend the night except a network of friends and contacts, and then some irreputable places that you really probably wouldn't want to be for the evening. And so he wanted them to show her hospitality and to care for her needs, and why? Well, because of her past ministry. It says in the NIV, she has been a great help to many people including me. The word great help, comes from the Greek word which means a patroness to some degree.

My take on Phoebe is that she was a wealthy business woman, perhaps in the pattern of Lydia, who made a great deal of money dealing in purple cloth in Thyatira, that's Lydia. We don't know how Phoebe may have gotten her money, but I think that she was probably in some way a financial patroness to the apostle Paul. And we see the exact same thing in the life of Jesus in Luke chapter 8, verse 1 and following, it says, "After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna, the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means." So here's a group of women around Jesus, kind of funding and supporting him as he goes about his work of preaching the good news. And I think that it probably was that Phoebe was this kind of a patroness.

Now the question is in front of us, was she a deaconess? Some of the translations will give us perhaps deaconess as one of the possible translations for this Greek word. Now, the Greek word translated here is diakonon, and you can hear the similarity between diakonon and deacon. Frankly, the deacons themselves were simply servants. The word originally meant table waiter. For example, in John chapter 2, when Jesus changes the water into wine, it says there that the headmaster didn't know where the wine had come from, but the servants who waited the tables, they did. It's the same word. So these are just table waiters, but it's a term of honor, isn't it? To be a servant of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 20, "Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." Frankly, this exact same word, and I mean to the letter, to the Greek letter right across, this exact same word is used of Jesus. If you look back one chapter in Romans 15:8, it says there, "For I tell you that Christ has become a servant to the Jews on behalf of God's truth to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs…" A servant, it's diakonon, the exact same word.

Now, I would say no one is arguing that Jesus was a deaconess, certainly. They may be arguing that he was a servant of some sort. So the term servant can apply to any Christian at any time, and I might say to you that if the only evidence we had for deaconesses in the early church life is Romans 16:1, it's very scanty. However, in 1 Timothy 3, in a chapter on deacons where there's more extended treatment, there is some scriptural evidence that women were to be deacons. They just were not to have authority or leadership over men in the very previous chapter, in 1 Timothy 2, Paul says, "I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man, she must be silent." But in the very next chapter, there's a section on elders and then on deacons, and as he's going through the section on deacons, suddenly there's some descriptions to women or to the wives, some translations go with wives and some with women. It may very well be that some women were identified in some way, and they would minister to the needs of the poor, they would instruct younger women on how to respect their husbands according to Titus 2, so the Gospel might be adorned, etcetera, and it may be that they held that role.

Others see exegetical reasons for saying no even then they were not identified deaconesses. So, I really, bottom line, don't know. Here I stand in front of you and I say that I don't know if Phoebe was a deaconess. But it's okay because you know what? I think throughout this chapter we see the value and worth of the ministry of women, and we're going to see that I think very, very plainly. I see also that there are good reasons for accepting either way. So I don't reject evangelical churches that established male leadership according to 1 Timothy 2, but have women deaconesses doing other types of serving ministries. I don't think that's wrong. I respect those churches that say we can't see that in the text. I respect those things as well.

The Ministry of Women in Romans 16

Now concerning women's ministry, we see it throughout this whole section in Romans 16. Look in verse 6 of how sweetly Paul speaks of maybe seven or perhaps even eight women that are mentioned and commended for their service to the Gospel and to the church. Look at verse 6, it says, "Greet Mary who worked very hard for you." And then verse 12-13, "Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord." Well, those are beautiful names, aren't they? If you're going to have a daughter, consider that, Tryphena and Tryphosa. They may have been twins, actually, sisters, we don't know for sure. The names mean dainty and delicate. So you've got dainty and delicate. Imagine having twin girls and one of them is dainty and the other one's delicate. But at any rate, these women were hard workers for the Gospel. Paul thinks very highly of them. And then here's this woman "Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord." And then we get Rufus, "Rufus, chosen in the Lord and his mother, who's been a mother to me, too." More on that in a moment. And then in verse 15, "Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister…" by the way, if there's any difference in my pronunciation, from Ryan's, Ryan is right and I'm wrong, okay. But anyway, I'm going to take my crack at these names and do the best I can, and "Olympus and all the saints with them."

Bottom line is Paul was delighted, delighted to do the work of the Gospel and the ministry with many women as he commends here. He's delighted to have sisters in Christ as friends and co-laborers in the Gospel. Based on Romans 16 alone, it is obvious that women have amazingly vital and wide-ranging ministries that are indispensable to the life of the church. That's what I get out of Romans 16.

Now, there's some other lessons in these greetings that I like to pull out. Again, we're not going to get them all, but let's just look at some aspects of early church life from these greetings.

The Richness of Devoted Friendships

The first I get as I began with the message today is the value of devoted friendships. People measure wealth in different ways, don't they? You can measure wealth financially, the amount of gold that you might have bought over the last number of years, or bonds, or stocks, perhaps in real estate or in some other holdings. You could measure your wealth and finances. Some people measure their wealth in terms of knowledge, maybe academic degrees, one degree after another from a good institution. Or, perhaps some people measure it in terms of experience, maybe work experience, the ability to switch out an engine in a car, which is quite amazing to me, or to re-decorate a bathroom, which is more amazing to me than it ever was before I did or tried to do mine. So experiences, wealth of experiences, or saying, "I laid on a beach in Tahiti and I was at Rio during the festival down there. I have been and walked along the Rive Gauche, Paris, or I've taken a cruise along the Alaskan shoreline. Been there and done that." Rich in experiences, etcetera.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you're a Christian, you are rich in friends, you never need to be lonely in the Gospel. You have brothers and sisters in Christ around the world and right here in this very room, who are deeply devoted people and who could be your friend. If you're feeling lonely reach out to them. There is no reason ever to feel lonely in the Christian life. And many of you can say, with me, that my Christian friends, my Christian brothers and sisters are some of God's richest blessings to me in my daily life. So we see the richness of devoted friendships here, and we've seen it throughout in the life of the Apostle Paul. Time forbids me from going through this, but in the Book of Acts, in chapter 20 and 21, one group after another is weeping with Paul, kneeling on a beach to pray with him, urging him not to go to Jerusalem, because he's going to get arrested there. And when he's determined to go, then they say, "The Lord's will be done." And they put their arms around and pray. We see Paul drawing from people tears and love and commitment because they saw from him the same level of commitment that he gave to them everything he had. He stayed up late at night counseling with them or praying with them, pouring into their lives and building them up in Christ, and so we see that friendship.

The Family of God

We also see, secondly, the theme of the family of God. Paul uses a lot of family language and there's three different senses of family here. First, we get Paul's own relatives. Now, the word is translated in some cases, kinsmen, but I actually think Paul is talking about his extended family here. I respect those that think he's just talking about other Jews, but I think he is actually talking about family members, because he mentions them by name. He says, "So and so, my kinsmen or my relative." So he's got his relatives. Look at verse 7, "Greet Andronicus and Junius, my relatives who have been in prison with me." And then again in verse 11, "Greet Herodion, my relative." So we see Paul's family and I think that... Can you imagine being family to Saul of Tarsus? And it says of Andronicus and Junius that they were in Christ before Paul was. So imagine praying for that troublemaker relative of ours, Saul of Tarsus, almost being ashamed that he's our relative. He's destroying the church. Imagine Andronicus and Junius getting down on their knees and praying for Saul, cousin Saul, or third cousin twice removed. I don't know he's a relative, but they would get down and pray that Saul would be converted. Imagine their joy when they heard what had happened on the road to Damascus, tears of joy at answered prayer over family members.

We see also Paul's used more generally and spiritually of the idea of the family of faith, that when you're a Christian you're in a family. Look what he says in verse 13, "Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too." Now, Rufus is a fascinating individual. If you were to look over in Mark 15:21, in the Gospel of Mark, Mark, most scholars believe was writing to the church of Rome, and he mentions a significant man at a significant moment in Jesus' life. Jesus is making his toil some way up the cross, up the hill carrying the cross. He's going to Calvary, he's going to Golgotha to die for our sins. And a man watching is pressed into duty, his name is Simon of Cyrene, he's pressed into duty to help Jesus carry the cross. Mark mentions parenthetically that Simon is the father of Alexander and Rufus. Now, he wouldn't have put that in, except that they would have known him. So I think that Rufus is the son of Simon, the very man who physically helped Jesus carry the cross at Golgotha. What that means is that Rufus' mother is Simon's wife.

Now, what's the relationship to Paul? Well, I think no biological relationship. He's not saying, Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord and his mother, who is a mother to me, too." If he were write into his mother he would have said, "Hi, mom, it's your son. I'm fine. I'm eating my vegetables. I'll see you soon." There was nothing familiar like that. He's saying she's been a mother to me, it's like having a mother in the faith. And I can testify to the value of godly older men and women in my life who have been like that for me. It's such a rich thing. And then more horizontally brothers and sisters in Christ, etcetera. And to some degree, even other people's children feel like children of mine as well. So it's a sweet thing to be a member of the family of God. He also uses this common brother and sister language that speaks of our kinship in the family of God. When He says in Verse one, "I commend to you our sister, Phoebe." And then in verse 14, "Greet Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the other brothers with them."

House Churches

The final way that Paul uses family language, concerns household churches. In other words, churches that are meeting in people's households and Gospel having spread along household or family lines. May I say to you, the church growth flourishes best along family lines. History has born this out. More people have been brought to faith in Christ, by far, by parents than by any other category. More than by pastors, more than by friends, by college members, roommates, more than by missionaries and evangelists, more have been brought to faith in Christ by their mom and dad than by any other category of person. And may I stop and just say to you, if you're a parent of growing children, you have a weighty responsibility to share the Gospel of Christ to your children. You need to evangelize them. If they are new-borns, you need to bring them home from the hospital and share the Gospel with them. And keep sharing the Gospel and keep sharing the Gospel. May they say, "I never knew a time I didn't know Jesus. I never knew a time I didn't know that he had shed His blood on the cross for sinners like me. I never knew a time that I didn't need to repent and believe in Jesus, for the salvation of my soul." Never be derelict in your duty.

Charles Spurgeon, talking about his own conversion, remembered specifically the time that he overheard his mother and she didn't know he was listening, but she's down on her knees praying for her children, and she said, "Lord, they have heard the Gospel from me and may it not be that I will have to stand up and bear swift witness against them if they continue in their sins." And as a child, loving his mother, he did not like that idea of his mother bearing witness against him, that she shared the Gospel boldly, with him, and he never repented. He remember specifically his mother putting her arms around his neck, and crying and praying, "Oh, that my son may live before thee." Oh parents, please share the Gospel with your children. Don't leave it to the Sunday school, don't leave it to the pastor, don't leave it to anybody, it's your responsibility. God will ask you on judgment day about your children. And after they've made a profession of faith, be sure that they're working out their salvation with fear and trembling, that they're making their calling and election sure. Do those things that will feed their souls, feed them in the Gospel.

And so we see these house churches and we see the development there. The house churches developed along the family lines as well. Now, you may imagine and say, "What is a house church?" We're used to larger churches, big rooms like this. This sanctuary is built in 1927, and it is a benefit for us to have a place to meet, isn't it? Isn't it better to be here, especially when it's cold and rainy etcetera, to have the weather off of us? But the church is people, it's not a building, it's not a location. And many churches in the first century, they were house churches, and so we see these house churches. Look what he says here. We have an example of them in Priscilla and Aquila. Look at verse three through five, it says, "Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I, but all the churches, the Gentiles are grateful to them." Look at verse five, "Greet also the church that meets at their house." So Priscilla and Aquila had a house church there in Rome.

Well, what's amazing is, according to 1 Corinthians 16:19, when Priscilla Aquila were in Ephesus, in Asia Minor, they had a house church there too. Because it says there, "The churches in the province of Asia send you greeting. Greetings, Aquila and Priscilla. Greet you warmly in the Lord and so does the church that meets at their house." Oh, they were consistent people, weren't they? But their home was Rome, that's where they were at originally. And the Roman Emperor Claudius had driven all the Jews out of Rome. Well now apparently, they've been allowed to come back, and guess what they did when they got to Rome? They opened up their home in hospitality to have a house church. Now, we don't have so-called house churches here, but we do have home fellowships. And many brothers and sisters have been glad to use their gift of hospitality and open up their homes on Sunday evenings to these home fellowships. Are you involved in one? If you're involved in one, in a committed way, you will testify, can testify to the value of getting to know brothers and sisters in an unhurried and comfortable hospitable setting like that. Please be involved in those home fellowships. We see these house churches.

Hard Work for the Lord

We also see the issue of hard work, hard work. Look what he says here again, we've seen it in verse six and 12, "Greet Mary who worked very hard for you." Again in verse 12, "Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord." And then, "Greet my dear friend, Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord." But Paul himself can testify that he didn't leave the hard work just to women, but he himself was an incredibly hard worker in the Gospel. He says in 1 Corinthians 15:10, "By the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was in me."

You see, Paul was a tent-maker, and I think what he did was at night, late at night, he made tents for a living. And during the day, minister to God's people. He deprived himself of sleep. It says in 2 Corinthians 6:5, "In hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger." At the beginning of my ministry here, I wrote those three phrases or words across on a card and put it in front of me, at my computer terminal; hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger. That's a standard. I'm not saying I live up to it, I'm saying that's what Paul did. That's what he did to establish the church. How can we do any less?

As you look at your own life, would you say that characterizes you in your service to Christ? Hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger. I yearn for that level of dedication in my life. We see hard work. So I say to you, it's not the lazy, but it's the diligent who are going to advance the church of Jesus Christ. So don't be lazy, but labor. Labor in the scripture, labor in prayer, labor in evangelism, labor in your spiritual gift ministry, labor for the Lord, fully convinced that your labor in the Lord is not in vain, but rather that God will remember all things and then he will cause it to flourish in the day of Christ Jesus.

Affection

Finally, I'd like you to look at affection. Note the affection that the Apostle Paul has for these people. He says, in verse five, "Greet my dear friend, Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia." What joy that must have brought him. It's brought me incredible joy to get to know, Tommy. It's just been a great joy. I wonder if Epaenetus was like that for Paul. The first one in Asia. What a close relationship that they must have had, what a close friendship. And then look at verse eight and following, "Greet Ampliatus, whom I love, in the Lord." You see his affection there. "Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ and my dear Stachys. Greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ." And then verse 12, "Greet my dear friend, Persis." You see this sense of affection and he puts it in writing. Can I urge you, just very practically, take time to express your affection to each other. Write it down, write a note of encouragement to some brother or sister. Say, "Your ministry has blessed me hugely." Take the time to write it. Those things are precious and they're actually pretty rare that someone would take the time to speak words of encouragement.

Now brother and sisters, there are many stories left untold. And they need to be left untold because I need to be on a plane at 3:10. And I got a hurry out of here. I don't want to leave undone what I plan to do today, but there are lots of stories that cannot, really literally cannot be told by us, because frankly many of the names that are listed here in Romans 16, we don't know anything more about at all. Nothing. Some of the folks have little phrases after them or little identifiers and we know something, some of them are just... They're just listed, they're just names, we don't know anything about them at all. Have you ever read the genealogy, the First Chronicles, name after name after name? And you're like, "Why do I have to know all the descendants of the Gadites? Is there some reason I have to know these names?" And then just in honoring the Word of God, you think, "Well, God is not foolish. There must be a reason that there are so many names in the Bible of men and women." You have no idea who they are or what they did. I think there's a couple of things we get out of this.

One is that, God is the loving historian, and you may not know any of their stories, but He knows all their stories. He knows what was the best day of their lives, He knows what the worst day of their lives was, He knows the day they came to faith in Christ, He knows what sins plagued them and how they struggle with them and how they overcame them. He remembers it all. If you wanted to say, "Lord, tell me about at Apelles. I want to know about him." He'll say, "Let me tell you about Apelles." And off you would go. What that means is that, everything we do in this life matters. The message of, "It's a Wonderful Life" is true. Our lives are significant, incredibly so. And even though you don't know somebody else's story, God does. And it's all been part of an intricate network that's brought us to this point. There are no insignificant human lives. People matter and so do their lives.

Let me pick up on that and say, in four or five generations, if the Lord tarries, doesn't return, there might be as many as eight or nine billion people on the face of the earth walking around. I have no idea, but there might be. It might very well be that not one of those nine billion people will know anything about you at all. None. It might be. So therefore, can I urge you to invest in eternity? Can I urge you to invest in the record book of God, where He keeps a record of every cup of cold water that's given to one of the Lord's servants, every dollar given to serve and advance the Gospel, every prayer for those who have gone out to preach the Gospel. He remembers all of it. Invest in eternity, not in what your neighbors and co-workers and other people think of you, that doesn't matter. It's dust in the wind. Build an eternal legacy by living to God, and to God alone.

And Paul writes here, secondly, this letter of commendation. I can't say anything more important to you than this. She took that letter. And if it is indeed a letter of recommendation or commendation from the Apostle Paul, on Phoebe, he was introducing her to the congregation of the assembly there at Rome.

Can I say to you, not one of you, none of you will get into heaven without Christ commending you to the Father. If he doesn't commend you to the Father, you're not getting in. You won't be let in, you'll be stopped at the door. And so therefore, if you have come here today and Christ has never commended you by name to the Father, then you're on the outside looking in. Oh, come to Christ.

It says in Romans 5:1-2, it says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained introduction, commendation into this grace in which we now stand." Has Christ introduced you to the Heavenly Father, has he commanded you into the heavenly assembly by faith? Don't leave this place without trusting in Christ and having Christ commend you for the glory of God to the throne of God. Close with me in prayer.

Would it trouble you if I were up here without a plan? Would that bother you? If I just said, "What should we talk about? We got some time together. What should we do?" I know it would trouble me. That's not the way I'm put together. I like to plan out my messages. I like to think about it ahead of time. It seems reasonable to do so. I think we are planning beings, aren't we? Some more than others. My wife is definitely more than I am, more of a planner than I am. And that's a good thing. Everyday we make plans, and as we're looking at Romans 15:23-29, we're looking at the plans and priorities of the Apostle Paul. Paul reveals what he's intending to do, what his plans are, what he hopes to do, etcetera. It got me to thinking about the issue of planning. And it occurs to me that we hardly make it through life without being planners. We make plans for small things like putting together a grocery list. Woe to you if you ever go to the grocery store hungry and no idea what you're there for, okay? You'll buy far more than you ought to. We plan out a work day or a work week. We figure what's the best way to spend our time, Monday, Tuesday, all the way through Friday.

From small things like that all the way up to larger things like career planning or financial planning or life planning. There are financial planners that will meet with you and talk about things like debt strategies or saving plans, investment plans, planning for college, long-term investments, even retirement. They'll talk to you about that, and they're skilled in that ability and that discussion to help you make those plans. And also world history has been formed by those who have made plans and have executed them. I was reading recently about the Marshall Plan. In 1947, the United States government Secretary of State George Marshall wanted to help rebuild Europe. Part of it was a buttress against encroaching communism. They wanted to see, especially Western Europe, strengthened and rebuilt so that those economies would be able to stand up and be vibrant. And so $13 billion was apportioned through the Marshall Plan to the rebuilding of Europe after World War II. Architects spend their whole career planning out buildings down to the very detail, kind of windows and structure and the artistic appearance, all of that. Engineers plan out projects down to the nuts and bolts. That's what it is, we do planning all the time.

And in this way, I think, we reflect the character of God. We are created in the image of God, and our God is a planning God. We believe from Ephesians 1 that he planned out, before the foundation of the world, to call a people for himself, for his own name and his own glory, that they should be holy and blameless in his sight. And it says, "In love he predestined them and called them according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose or plan of his will." Our God is a glorious planner. And thanks be to God, all of us who are Christians can say this, "Thanks be to God that his plan extended even to me, and that God worked in history and orchestrated things so that I would come to faith in Christ." God is a planning God. And we are in his image and therefore we are planners as well. It says in Proverbs 22:3, "A prudent man sees danger coming and takes refuge, but the simple keep on going and suffer for it." So the ability to look on into the future, to use your imagination and to think what's coming, and then to make plans accordingly and carry them out, now that's in the image of God.

Now, the ant in Proverbs 6 is held up as an example against the sluggard. "Go to the ant, O sluggard," we're told, and why? Because he stores up his food when there's an opportunity, in the summer. Stores it up so that when winter comes he'll have enough to eat. And so we're enjoined to be planners like that. But I tell you that human planning is at a much higher level. The Christian I think in this area of planning is trained to think in three senses. First of all, we're trained to think, "The Lord may return or I may die tonight. So I need to be ready right now to face my judge and maker unafraid." It could be that you came here today not a believer in Christ. You need to come to faith in Christ, and why? Because you don't know for sure what a day will bring about. You need to look to Jesus who shed his blood on the cross that you might have eternal life. You need to trust in him for your personal salvation, because you don't know whether you'll even be alive tomorrow. So that's the first sense a Christian is trained to think about planning. We need to be ready to die, we need to be ready to face our judge and maker unafraid now because we might not even have tomorrow. We need to think like that.

But secondly, the Lord may not return tonight or I may not die tonight, and so therefore, after the ant who stores up when there's an opportunity, I need to make plans for the future. I need to think about the future as though I might live another 30, 40 years. Knowing all of that is in the hand of God, I might not, but I need to plan for it. I need to keep working and plan for the future. And there Isaiah 32:8 stands and helps us. There it says, "The noble man makes noble plans and by noble deeds he stands." So that's a planning verse for you. We are to make plans and we're to live and act out according to those plans. And those plans are to be noble plans, and by those noble deeds, we will stand righteous and with a life that's worth living. So that's the second way we're trained to think about planning.

Thirdly, having planned, we're supposed to go back to the first concept that God is sovereign over all things and that he may overturn many if not all of my plans. And that that shouldn't frustrate us, it actually should delight us. I want my bad plans overturned, don't you? I want my lack of foresight not to be the final determiner in the end. I want God to make the final decision, and he does. He rules over all those things. Now, we'll talk more about some aspects of that, but I think that's a good way for Christians to think about planning. Now here in Romans 15, we're going to get a look at the Apostle Paul's plans. How he thought, what he planned to do, and how the Lord finally would dispose of those plans in the end, according to wise counsel of his will.

Now first, we get a sense that Paul's planning to go to Jerusalem and then to Spain. Now, let's review Paul's relationship with the church at Rome. Back in Romans 1:13, Paul expressed a deep desire to visit the church at Rome. Romans 1:13, he says, "I do not want you to be unaware brothers, that I planned many times to come to you, but have been prevented from doing so until now in order that I might have a harvest among you just as I've had among the other Gentiles." So Paul had already made many plans but they weren't getting fulfilled the way he wanted. And now here in this text, in verse 23 and 24, he says, "I've been longing for many years to come, and visit you. I plan to visit you when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and have you assist me on my journey there after I've enjoyed your company for a while." That's his plan, that's what he's planning on doing.

Now, we already talked last time and the week before about why Paul hadn't visited Rome yet. We saw previously that Paul made clear his priority structure was to focus on unreached people groups. To be a frontier, trail blazing, church planting missionary or apostle to the Gentiles. That's what he was called to do. Look at verse 20 and 21, again by way of reminder, "It has always been my ambition," Paul says, "to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as it is written, 'those who were not told about him will see and those who have not heard will understand.'" This priority led to Paul's activity, and his activity is from Jerusalem all the way round to modern day Yugoslavia, Illyricum, he has been fully preaching the Gospel of Christ. He's been active in all these strategic urban centers, following the main perhaps Roman roads, going to places like Corinth and Athens and significant places, and also some that were a little bit smaller but that God led him to. In Asia Minor, in northern Greece, which is Macedonia, and down in Southern Greece, which is Achaia, he'd been faithful in preaching the gospel all the way to the border of the Adriatic sea. He's been faithful in doing that.

Secondly, we also saw that the Roman church was a mature church. He says in Verse 14, "You are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to counsel one another." And the idea there is, therefore, you don't need me to come. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be a fully blessed time. He actually does say that in verse 29, "I know that if I come it will be with the full measure of Christ's blessing and that there'll be a good time of rich fellowship and there'll be harvest among those Romans that haven't heard yet, etcetera." But what he's saying is you're a healthy, strong church and I'm not going to spend a lot of time there. That's why he hadn't visited Rome yet, so Paul hadn't come. But now Paul makes an amazing declaration. Look at verse 23, he says, "But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions…" Wow, there's no other place to go if I'm looking for a frontier here in Asia Minor and in Northern Greece, Macedonia and down in Southern Greece, Achaia. There's no more place for me to go. The gospel has been fully proclaimed in all these areas.

Oh, what an incredible statement that is, that is a rich and powerful statement. He's not saying that there's no one there that hasn't heard the Gospel, everybody's heard the Gospel. He's not saying that, but he's saying he can see the hand of God in laying out a strategy where there are centers of strong gospel preaching churches in each of these regions, and he wants to move on now to a place where there's no churches at all, that's what he's talking about. And so he wants to go to Spain. It was a new horizon of fruitful ministry, a new trail to blaze and we'll talk more about that in a moment. But that's his desire, he's going to go on because there's no more place for him to work. Now here he expresses his plans, he says, "But now, since I no longer have any room to work in these regions and since I've been longing for many years to come to you, I hope to do so in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present however," verse 25, "I am going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints." So there's the plan, first to Jerusalem bringing some aid to the saints, second to Spain. Going to stop by in Rome on my way through. Those are my travel plans. That's what he's talking about.

But we know from scripture that all plans are subject to the sovereign will of God. There are many verses in the bible that teach us this. For example, Proverbs 16:9. Proverbs 16:9 says, "In his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Or this one, again, Proverbs 16:1, "To a man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue." In other words, you can make your plans, but God's going to be sovereign even over the words you speak. All plans are subject to the throne of God, that's what it's saying there. Or this one, Proverbs 19:21, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." So we make many plans, and we ought to, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails.

The strongest teaching on all this in the New Testament is in James Chapter 4, and there James is dealing with people who are confident, fully confident in tomorrow. They're actually more than that, they're fully confident in a year from now. And so James addresses this arrogant confidence that has this confidence that we'll be alive and be able to do business even a year from now, in some very strong words. James 4:13-15, he says, "Now listen, you who say today or tomorrow." Today or tomorrow is equally certain to these people. "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You're a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'if it is the Lord's will we will live.'" Stop right there. That there is careful meditation. If it is the Lord's will we will live. That's not morbid, it's theologically accurate. If it is God's will I'll be alive tomorrow. If it is the Lord's will we will live and do this or that. Even my own plans are in the hands of God. That's the way we ought to think.

Now even the great apostle Paul, the one who is caught up to the third heaven and saw inexpressible things that man is yearning to know about but no one can put into words, is not even permitted to try; even the great apostle Paul who wrote the Book of Romans made plans that didn't work out. Planned to do certain things, and he's got to explain himself at least to one local church. Here he describes his plans to the Romans, but it's not clear he ever made it to Spain as we'll talk about it in a minute. But in 2 Corinthians, he's got to deal with the fact that he had planned to visit that church and didn't go anyway. And he needs to uphold his apostolic authority in light of that.

And so in 2 Corinthians 1 he talks about the change in his travel plans. He said, "I planned to visit you first so that you might benefit twice. I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and then to have you send me on my way to Judea. When I planned this, did I do it lightly, or do I make plans in a worldly manner? So that in the same breath I say yes, yes and no, no? But as surely as God is faithful our message to you is not yes and no." The issue is that an apostle who changes his plans like this seems unstable, uncertain, unsure, unleader-like, unreliable, therefore not worthy of following. So he's got to deal with it in 2 Corinthians, his change of plans. Nothing could have been further from the truth in Paul's case, he's just establishing that God rules over our plans finally in the end. Knowledgeable that God rules over our plans, however, does not mean we ought not to plan. And so here Paul is making his plans.

Five years ago on the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was packed up to go down to Washington DC to meet with some leaders, Christian leaders in Congress and Christian senators, for a meeting together with some pastors. So I was all packed up to go on the morning of September 11th. My car had the luggage in there, I had my suits with me, I was all... I'd planned to go, until I saw that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon, and that they had sequestered all the members of Congress and hid them in some secure places, and that the whole highway which I was going to travel on right by the Pentagon was closed down to all traffic. I knew immediately, among many other things, I wasn't going anywhere today. My travel plans had changed.

And so it is in our lives. We can make plans, but in the end, it's God who decides what happens. They rescheduled the meeting for a month later, and so we went, I went, and that was the weekend of the anthrax scare. So I was there when there was plastic all over the air ducts and stuff. I came back saying to my wife, I was complaining of flu-like symptoms four or five days later, she didn't think it was funny. But I never did get anthrax and that was an amazing time. But just walking around through the Capitol building and looking at all that, and just the intensity was so strong at the time, and the time of prayer. But that was what God planned, not my original plan. You see, God makes the decisions in the end. We still need to plan.

So what was Paul's mission to Jerusalem? What was he going to do? Well, he wanted to serve and unite the church. Look at verse 25-26, "Now however, I'm on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there, for Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem." The issue here is money. It's a love offering that was taken from Gentile churches in Greece. Macedonia as I've said is Northern Greece, Achaia is the southern part. Macedonia, that's where you get Philippi and Thessalonica, and all that. The southern part is Athens and Corinth and those cities. And he said both Macedonia and Achaia together these Gentile churches were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Now this shows an attitude of fellowship. Paul... Actually the word contribution in the NIV is the word "koinonia." They're pleased to make a "koinonia", a fellowship is what it was. It's money, but it's coming out of a theology of oneness, that we're part of one body of Christ together, and Paul is there in service to the unity of the Body of Christ. Not like communism in which government decrees that everybody's stuff belongs to everybody else, but rather, from an open and glad heart, a desire to share. That was the fellowship they had.

Now, the money was for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. These were Jewish believers who because of their faith in Christ were put at a great societal and social disadvantage or economic disadvantage. It was already declared in John's gospel in John Chapter 9. Remember the man that was born blind? And it said right there that they had already decided that if anyone said that Jesus was the Messiah, he'd be thrown out of the Synagogue. Well, you can't imagine what effect that would have if you're living in Jerusalem, if you've been thrown out of the Synagogue. Perhaps you're a Jewish shopkeeper and nobody comes to your place and buys anything. Maybe you're a Jewish farmer and nobody buys your crops. Maybe you're a Jewish merchant and you invest in a big caravan coming from some other place and they bring in all your wares, big investment, nobody buys them, or you have to sell them at bargain prices because nobody will take them. You've been shut out. You've been blackballed.

And as a result of this societal problem because of their faith in Christ, they were poor, very poor. Now these were the very people that the leaders in Jerusalem begged Paul and Barnabas to remember as they went out in their mission to the Gentiles. In Galatians 2:9-10, "James, Peter and John those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. When they recognized the grace given to me, they agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they would go to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." So one of the things they mentioned, these pillars in Jerusalem mentioned, these men, is please remember how much the saints here are suffering. Could be that there's some Gentiles who have come to faith in Christ, and they could help us out. And Paul says, "We are eager to do it."

And so they went out, not only in the name of Christ, but once people were established and the churches were flourishing, and they said, "You know something, there are issues back in Jerusalem. Is there any way you could help?" And so they started taking a collection, money, from these Gentile churches. He mentions it in depth in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. If you want to know more about the offering, there's more reading about it there, but let me just read a few verses from that. It says in 2 Corinthians 8:1-4, "And now brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches."

Now let me stop a minute again. Macedonia is the northern part of Greece, Achaia the southern part. Corinth was in the southern part. The northern churches have already given. What he's doing is he's saying look at the example of your brothers up there in the northern churches. Now you who are in the southern churches in Corinth, you ought to give too. That's what he's saying to these brothers in Corinth. He says, "We want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they pleaded with us urgently for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints." Oh, what a sweet attitude among these Macedonian Christians. They're poor, but they give everything they can for the saints in Jerusalem. And he uses that example to motivate the Corinthians to give as well.

And Paul stresses here in verse 26, Macedonia and Achaia were pleased. So, apparently, they gave as well. The Corinthian churches, the church in Athens perhaps, they gave as well. And so there's this big offering collection that has been taken. And he stresses the pleasure that these Christians had in giving. They were pleased to do it he says. He says it twice, they were pleased to do it and yearned to do it. There was a pleasure in the giving. Oh, that's a heavenly attitude.

I don't want to be chained to my money, do you? I like to send it on ahead by giving in the Lord's work. It's the only way you can really invest in heaven. You know how they say you can't take it with you? Well, that's true, but you can send it on ahead, you can wire it ahead. Give it by faith in the Lord's work as the Lord calls on you to give cheerfully and generously, because God loves a cheerful giver. Give. That's what he said the church in Macedonia and Achaia did. They were pleased. Now, back in those days, you couldn't send it on ahead, you couldn't wire it like you can do Internet banking these days or wire some money to an unnumbered or a numbered account in the Grand Cayman Islands or some private bank in Switzerland or something like that. You can do all kinds of stuff with money by electronic means. Back then, if you're talking about silver coins or even gold, you had to carry it, there wasn't paper money. And so, he's got this big amount of money and he's got to get it to Jerusalem. That's a big job, isn't it? And so it'd be on animal back in a caravan perhaps, or on one of those slow moving vessels that would go through the Mediterranean, hugging the shore and eventually get to Jerusalem.

So Paul was going, he's going to bring that money, and he's got some brothers with him who can protect the money, perhaps somewhat at least, from highway robbery, and get it eventually there to the church at Jerusalem. That's what he says he's going to do.

What Was Paul’s Motive in the Mission?

Now what was his motive in the mission? Well, he talks about the service to the saints. It's related to the word for deacon. He's a servant to the saints there in Jerusalem. He wants to serve them. But why? Because they have real needs. They're hungry, they need food, clothing, and shelter for their children, for themselves. They're not able to make a living and support themselves. And so they really have become wards of the church at this point. It's a very tough situation for them and he wants to serve them. But he also has a higher purpose doesn't he? We've seen throughout the Book of Romans, but especially here at the end, how much Paul yearns for Jew/Gentile unity to be put on display. And so he wants the Jews and the Gentiles, who both believe in Christ, to be openly and visibly together and one as Christians. He wants to show the power of the gospel to make former enemies brothers, friends in Christ.

And so he talks about this, the unity that they have in Christ. A very open obvious tangible way to display this unity is for Greek churches, Gentile churches to give a lot of money to a Jewish church and help them out. And so he displays a rather remarkable attitude about this offering. He certainly describes how gladly willing the Greeks were to give, but he also goes beyond it and says they actually owed it to them. They actually owed it to them, they were pleased to do it, and indeed, they owe it to them. Huh. Wasn't it Bill Cosby that said, "After all, it's my money, okay?" Well, that's an attitude in our hearts, you look at it and say... We can relate to that. In one sense it's true, there is such a thing as possession. It is ours. As the Lord said to Ananias and Sapphira, "Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold?" "It was yours." But there's a sense of obligation here that Paul's talking about among the Gentile Christians. Well, what's his logic?

Well, he says They're pleased to do it, indeed they owe it to them, for if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings." It's amazing logic. Basically, he's coming at it from this point of view. Remember how Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "You Samaritans worship what you don't know; we worship what we do know..." You know why? Because "salvation is from the Jews." It's the very thing that had been said to Abraham way back at the call of Abraham, "Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed." It is a Jewish fountain that has opened up the river of living water for the nations to drink at. You have received lavish spiritual blessings. He already talked about this in Romans 11 with the image of an olive tree, remember? The Jewish olive tree has Jewish roots, the patriarchs, and it's been growing up, it's a cultivated olive tree. And you Gentiles you've been cut out of a wild olive tree and you've been grafted into a Jewish olive tree, and now you share in nourishing sap flowing from the Jewish root system. You have received spiritual blessings from the Jews. And therefore the Gentiles owe it to the Jews to share with them the lesser blessing of material things. That's the way he's arguing. That's an amazing thing.

What Was Paul’s Reason for Telling the Church at Rome about the Mission?

Now you might ask, Why is he telling the Romans about it? Well, could it be that he's trying to motivate them to think the same way about their money? Could it be he's motivating the Roman Christians to think that way about Jews and to evangelize Jews or to Jewish Christians to promote unity in the church at Rome? As we've already noted, it's a mixed church. And he's going to be... Oh, how shall I put it, hitting them up for money in a minute. He's going to be asking them to support his mission work, and if they're clinging to their money as though it's their own, they're not going to be open-handed and generous. They're not going to think about their money rightly. And so he wants to show them the example of Macedonia and Achaia.

Alright, well, what's Paul's mission to Spain? We've talked about his mission to Jerusalem, for the unity and service to the church. What is his mission to Spain? Well, it's to advance the Church. Simply put, he wants to preach the gospel to people who've never heard of Jesus. Now, there's some good evidence that the Old Testament place known as Tarshish is actually Spain. Do you remember the story of Jonah? How Jonah didn't want to go to those nasty Gentiles in Nineveh? Didn't want to preach the gospel to the Gentiles so he said, "I'm going to run." Maybe he had never read Psalm 139. "Where can I flee from Your spirit? Where can I go from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. Even if I go to the far side of the sea, you are there." And actually, you're never going to make it, Jonah. I'm going to send a storm, and you're going to go to Nineveh. You see? Many are the purposes of a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails. Where is he trying to go though? He's trying to go to Tarshish. That probably was Spain.

You think about the Mediterranean, and if that's all they really knew, that is the distant most parts of the earth. That's the end of the world as far as they're concerned. Well, we have already learned from Scripture, The ends of the earth belong to Jesus. To the distant shores, it belongs to Jesus, the distant islands will worship him and praise his holy name. God said in Isaiah 49 to Jesus, "It is too small a thing for you to be the savior of the Jews only. I will also make you a light to the Gentiles, that you may declare my salvation to the ends of the earth." Paul says that's for me. I want to take Jesus' name to the distant most regions of the world, very different from Jonah. He's not running from God, he's not running from the Gentiles, he's running to Tarshish to preach the gospel there.

There's another prophecy so beautifully in Isaiah 66:19, and such a powerful prophecy speaking to the Jews, of the Jews, the people of Zion, this is what he says. God says, "I will set a sign among them and I'll send some of those who survive to the nations. To Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians, who are famous as archers, to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations." Paul's a direct fulfillment of that prophecy. Isaiah 66:19. Look it up, "I'm going to send them to Tarshish I'm going to send them to Greece and they're going to hear of my glory, the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Paul says, "That's for me, I want to go. I want to take Jesus' name to the ends of the earth." And why? Because it's not just these two prophecies. There are many of them. Psalm 2:8, God the Father says, "Ask of me and I'll make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession," speaking to his son. Psalm 22:27, "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of nations will bow down before him." Psalm 67, "May the peoples praise you O God, may all the peoples praise you. Then the land will yield its harvest and God our God will bless us. God will bless us, [listen] And all the ends of the earth will fear him." Isaiah 45:22, this was Charles Spurgeon's conversion verse. Isaiah 45:22, "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other."

So we look unto God and are saved, and this one gospel is good not just for Jerusalem, and not just for Judea and Samaria, but to the uttermost parts of the earth, to the ends of the earth. And Paul wanted to go to Spain. And what did he want to do in Spain? Well, he wanted to plant a church, actually many churches. He wanted to establish healthy strong gospel centers. And if the Lord had given him time, he'd have said, "Now, is there anything further than Spain?" Maybe history would have been changed. Christopher Columbus wouldn't think anything of it. Maybe the Lord would have led him to even distant shores, who knows? But he wanted to push the Gospel as far as he could go. He wanted to go to Spain and preach the gospel.

Did Paul ever make it to Spain? Well, there is no New Testament evidence that Paul ever made it to Spain. Never got there. Some scholars reading some of the church fathers think he got there, but I think the church fathers are just reading Romans 15 and talking about it. There's really no evidence that Paul ever made it to Spain. As a matter of fact, as people put together the chronology of Paul's life, try to figure it out, New Testament scholars, it may be that that trip to Jerusalem was the last free trip he ever took. That he was put in chains, was brought through the shipwreck on Malta to Rome, and there he stood trial before Caesar and died for the gospel, and never made it to Spain. We don't really know. But either way, God eventually got the Gospel to Spain, didn't he? Eventually the Gospel made it there, and why? Because it is the Lord's will that the distant most parts of the earth, even to the furthest shores and islands hear of the glory of Jesus Christ. Even if the Apostle Paul doesn't have the honor of doing it.

 Now, how did Rome fit in? Well, it was their job to understand and to help Paul's missions. He wanted them to support him on the way. Look at verse 24, he says, "I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there after I have enjoyed your company for a while." Verse 28 he says, "So after I've completed this task [in Jerusalem] and have made sure that they have received this fruit, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way." So he wants help from them. He wants financial assistance, maybe some personnel, some people who will go with him and help him plant that church in Spain. That's what he wants. He also wants somewhat to reduce their expectation. Since they're full of goodness, complete knowledge and competent to instruct one another, they don't need Paul to be their pastor, so it's like, "Oh, would you mind? We actually have a pulpit committee and we've been looking, and you are looking really good for us. Is there any way we could convince you to be our pastor?"

Paul says, "Look, before I even get there, just know I'm passing through. You can help me, we'll have a good time together. We'll bless one another. There'll be some fruit. I trust that some Romans will come to faith in Christ, but then I'm moving on, I'm going to Spain. However, when I come, verse 29, "I know that when I come, I'll come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ." Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to say that? Let's say a Christian family invites you over for dinner this afternoon. You say, "Well, I want you to know, I know that when I come I'll come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ. You'll be blessed to have me." You say, "Well that sounds arrogant." No, that's not it, it's just my desire is that you will be blessed in Christ by my coming. I yearn to have that kind of sweet fellowship. I yearn to leave the sweet savor of Christ after we left, not, "I couldn't wait for them to leave," but rather that it was a rich blessing of fellowship, and that's what he's saying in verse 29.

Now, what application can we take from these verses? Well, can I urge you to be planners, godly planners? Can we start out at eternity with our planning? I would like you to plan for death. Because it's appointed to each one of us to die, and then to face judgment. So I want you to plan for judgment. I want you to plan to stand before the judgement seat of Christ, and to give him an account for everything done in the body, whether good or bad, plan on that. Plan on it, plan on giving Christ a full account and work backwards from there. Then I'd urge you to plan for 10 years from now. Say, "Lord, if you give me time, where do I want to be in 10 years?"

We often talk in this church about the two infinite journeys. What kind of person do I want to be in 10 years, how do I want to grow, what are my habits, what do I want... Spiritual disciplines, what Bible chapters and books do you want me to memorize? How do you want me to develop as a prayer warrior? Right now I'm paying X amount of time, I'd like to pray three or four X every day. I want to be more of a prayer warrior. I want to be more faithful in evangelism. What kind of person you want me to be in 10 years? And in terms of the external journey, what do you want me to do for the kingdom? What's my mission, what's my calling? Plan 10 years down the line, knowing you might not ever even make it, but just plan for it and prepare for it. And then work backwards. What do you want to do next week? What do you want to do later this afternoon? Plan for eternity, plan for 10 years from now, plan for later this week and tomorrow. Be planners, but know that God holds all of those things in his hands. The noble man makes noble plans and by noble deeds he stands. Plan for that.

Now, if you've come in here today and you're not a Christian, come to faith in Christ, don't plan for anything other than that. I don't ever want it to be said, Somebody came to this church and didn't know how to come to faith in Christ. They've been going to all these other churches, heard other messages, no one ever told them how to be saved. It's as simple as this. You look to the cross of Jesus Christ, the blood shed on the cross, trust in him and not in your own righteousness for your salvation. And then after that you can make noble plans by the power of the Spirit. Close with me in prayer.

It was five years ago this week that I preached a sermon from Psalm 46, which says, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in time of trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging." I preached that because of the attacks, the terrorist attacks, on the World Trade Center. It was a very destabilizing thing, wasn't it, to see these mighty skyscrapers melting, almost literally melting, and just coming down to the ground as if sucked back to the earth? And you could wonder, what then is stable, what then is secure? This is stable. The Word of God is secure. And we praise God that we are no less secure now than we were then.

The headline this morning was, "Are we any safer?" Well, if the question is are we any safer from terrorist attacks, I don't know who could answer that. There are cells all around the world plotting their evil things. And if we're going to look to military or political solutions, I don't think we're any safer. There's been a number of terrorist attacks since then, one in England, one in India, one in Indonesia, one in Spain, one in Saudi Arabia. And who knows where the next one is going to be? Sometimes they're thwarted by government agencies, sometimes they're not.

But I praise God that we stand on a rock that'll never move. The Lord Jesus Christ is under our feet, if we have trusted in Him. And I praise God for that, even if the earth give way and fall into the sea. I praise God that Jesus is eternal and secure. And that if you are trusting in Him as your Lord and Savior, you are eternally secure, praise God for that. Find your security there. Find your security in the Word of God that will never change, not in this political solution or a CIA operation that uncovers this or that cell, or this thing that happens over in England, or that thing that happens in Afghanistan or Iraq. That's not where security is going to be found. It's found in the Word of God. And I praise God for that, don't you? I thank God for it.

And I just want to say, so often at the end of messages, pastors speak to those that have never trusted in Christ. And I'm determined to move it around in the sermon, because people tend to close up their Bibles at that point and not really listen. I think it's important that you hear me. If you came today, and you've never trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are not secure. You're actually in great danger. Do you realize that three people die every second? That means that almost a quarter of a million people die every day. Almost 3000 died at the World Trade Center that day, but almost a quarter of a million slip off into eternity every single day.

And here's the kicker, none of us knows when it's going to be our time. You don't know when you're going to die, neither do I. But the Gospel stands. The Lord Jesus stands and invites all sinners to come to Him, to repent and trust in Christ, that His blood shed on the cross is sufficient for your sins and mine. And that is secure, isn't it? It's a promise written in the heavens. "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in Me will never die." My question to you is the same as that of Jesus to Martha at that time, "Do you believe this?" Have you trusted in Christ? Don't leave this room today without trusting in Christ. And furthermore, if you know somebody close to you, and the Lord is laying that person on your heart, don't let today elapse without picking up the phone and calling them about their soul. Talk to them about Jesus. You don't know when their day or your day will come. That's where security is found, and in no other place.

Why We Study the Apostle Paul

Now, the Apostle Paul, who we're going to study today, he knew that and he preached to secure Gospel. Now, today we're going to look at Paul's missionary strategies. We're going to look at Paul's missionary goals, and his success and his humility. And you may wonder, "Well, what does that have to do with my life?" Well, I can tell you this right now, the Apostle Paul doesn't need us to have a tribute dinner for him tonight. He's up in heaven. He already has all the commendation he will ever need when the Lord welcomed him with "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful in a few things, now I'll put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your Master." He had all the commendation he ever wanted or needed.

So, we're not studying Paul this morning so that we can think well of Paul, or so that next time we see him, we can praise him for all of his good work. Rather we're studying Paul this morning so that we can be faithful in our good work, so we can have a strategy to reach the people God's laying on our hearts, that we, as a church, can strategize better. The very thing I talked about last week, to be faithful and active and going to frontier missions, and to be sure that what's happening once the missionaries go is biblical, that there are churches being planted in biblical ways, solid churches that will complete the great commission. That's what's my concern today, not that we praise Paul or, from a distance, study and say, "Oh, what a wonderful or marvelous man he was."

Last night. I changed around the family devotions that we've been having. We've been in Jeremiah and it's been a wonderful study, but I felt it was important for us to take a step back and look at the whole Old Testament, get a sense of the flow of redemptive history. And so we went back to Genesis and we looked at Genesis 1, and we're just going to be moving a little bit faster through the whole Old Testament, so my children and my wife and I will understand the big picture a little bit better. That's what we're doing.

The Light of the Gospel, Going Around the World

And I was thinking about that incredible chapter, Genesis 1, in which God creates the heavens and the Earth, and you know how He said, "'Let there be light,' and there was light." And He said there was evening and there was morning the first day. And then on the fourth day, God created the sun to give light to the Earth, and then the moon and the stars for light at night. And I started thinking about this thing, God set up the physical universe in such a way that half of the world is in darkness all the time. Isn't that a marvelous thing? Did he have to do that? No. He could have set up a solar system in which there would be light given to the whole surface of the earth. And as I read the Book of Revelation, there will come a time there'll be no more night and all will be filled with the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. It's going to be glorious. But God set up a globe in which half of the world's population is in darkness now. That's an amazing thought, isn't it?

And you know why I think He did it, at least in part, maybe this? That when Isaiah, the prophet, said, "The people living in darkness have seen a great light," we will know what that's talking about, that we will know that a work has to be done to take people spiritually out of darkness and bring them into light. Two thousand years ago, God ignited a light and the light shines in the darkness and it will never be extinguished. It's the light of Jesus Christ, the light of the Gospel. It's the light of salvation. Now, was God the Father capable of creating that light in such a way that everyone in the whole world instantly saw it, instantly understood it, instantly was brought to faith in Christ? Yes, He could have done that, but instead He ordained that light bearers would go out from Christ, from His immediate circle, His apostles, His disciples, that they would start in Jerusalem, they'd go through Judea and Samaria, they'd go up through Asia Minor, and on in to Greece, and they'd make their way to Rome, and hopefully go on to Spain, and make their way across the Earth, gradually, little by little to the glory of God for 2000 years.

And the work has made immense progress to the glory of God. Many tribes and nations and peoples and languages have heard this Gospel, the Gospel of the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. They've heard it and they've found salvation, but the work isn't finished yet. There's still work to be done. And I want to know how to finish it, I want to know what strategy we should take. What are we going to try to do for them? There's still 6600 unreached people groups, 1.6 billion people at least have never heard the name of Christ, maybe more. That's overwhelming isn't it?

Do you ever wonder what it would have been like to stand on the side of that mountain when Jesus taught all those people and the feeding of the 5000, you remember? And it's getting late and the disciples say to Jesus, "Send them away, they got to go home and get something to eat." And Jesus says, "They don't need to go away. You give them something to eat." Wow. And immediately the disciples did what you would have done, start looking in their pockets and passing the hat, and saying, "We came up with 14 dinari, but I don't think that's going to do it." And then here's this boy with his lunch. All I want you to do is just feel the feeling of overwhelm, of just being overwhelmed, of saying, "This is too big for me." And that's what I feel when I think about unreached people groups. "And I want to know, Lord, what are we going to do? What's our strategy going to be?"

And I think one of the texts we could look at today is Romans 15:14-22. We've already looked at just one verse, the competent to counsel verse, and we talked about biblical counseling. Last week, we looked at just one aspect of these verses, and that is that Paul had an intense focus on unreached people groups. He had an intense focus on the frontiers of the Gospel. And I pulled that idea out and I said, "So also must you have a focus to your life, you need to have a calling in your life. You need to not just eat every ham sandwich to the glory of God, but you need to have an overarching grand, glorious vision for your life so that when the time comes and you present your life before God, you are faithful to do all of the good works that He had ordained for you to walk in ahead of time, and so that you would live for a grand, glorious principle." I also made the case that every Christian, every local church, every church and every Christian needs to be involved in frontier missions, in either going or sending. And so I challenged, and a number of people came back with emails and with conversation, saying, "I feel God calling me to go." Praise God for that. That's exciting. And we need to stand around those people or we need to go ourselves and be faithful.

I hope we've rejected forever that third option, go send or disobey. I don't want to do the disobey thing to you. I don't want to stand in front of Jesus and will say, "Well, I chose disobey." I don't want to stand in front of Him and talk to Him like that. I want to be faithful. And if I'm not going down into the whole of heathenism, as William Carey said, "I want to hold the rope for those that are." And I want our church to do that. That was all last week.

Now, this week, what I want to do is I want to look at all of these verses and the details that are in it, and try to learn from Paul how he went about his work. I want to learn what his strategy was, and I want to learn it so that I can apply it in my own life, so that we can apply it here in this church. Whether you're going to be a frontier missionary, whether you're just going to work tomorrow morning, you have a mission field to work, you have something that God is calling you to do. He's calling you to be a witness, and I think it'd be good for you to have a strategy and follow it the way Paul did.

Now, let's look at it. Let's start with the first aspect, and that is the founding of all things on the Word of God. Now, I find it a couple of places in this text. Most plainly, you look at Paul's ambition, we'll get to it again later, but verse 20-21, it says, "It has always been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as it is written…" Now, just stop there. You see what Paul is doing there? He's founding his whole missionary strategy, on the Word of God, as it is written. Dozens of times Paul has done this in the Letter to Romans. Again and again, he's founding his doctrine, he's founding his whole approach on Scripture, on the written Word of God, "Rather, as it is written…" from the Book of Isaiah, "Those who were not told about Him will see, and those who have not heard will understand. And this is why I have often been hindered from coming to you."

So Paul founds his strategy on the written Word of God, the Book of Isaiah in this case. At the front end of the passage, in verse 15-16, we see Paul talking about his own writing. And he says, "You're competent to counsel, you're full of wisdom, completing goodness, and competent to counsel one another. Nevertheless, I have written you. I've written you boldly," he says, "on some points, as if to remind you of them again because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles," etcetera. So, he's talking about his own writing there. And that's the New Testament, the writing of an apostle. And Paul knew he was an apostle, and he knew he wrote authoritatively. He didn't say things like, "Well, you might want to consider this way of looking at things," etcetera. That's not the way he wrote. He was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he wrote doctrine to them. And so we see right up front that Paul founded all things on God's written Word.

Secondly, we see that Paul founded his ministry on a clear proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Again, 15 and 16, "I have written you quite boldly on some points as if to remind you of them again because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, with the priestly duty of proclaiming the Gospel of God." Now, when Paul came to a new community, didn't matter what it was... Maybe it was Pisidia and Antioch, maybe it was Troas, maybe it was Philippi, maybe it was Athens, it didn't matter. The first thing on his mind is, "I need to preach Christ." It was proclamation, like a herald going out from a king. He's going with good news, and he's going to stand in the public square and he's going to proclaim the kingdom of God. He's going to proclaim forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name. He's going to set up the cross of Christ in their minds through his preaching. He's going to preach the Son of God crucified and risen for sin. He's going to preach that, that's what he's going to do. He preached the person of Christ, His deity, His humanity. He preached His works, His words. He preached Christ crucified, that's what he did.

Now, this is the Gospel that He described at the beginning of this epistle, Romans 1:16, as being the "power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." Paul believed that. He believed this was the power of God to get people who are walking in darkness, to see a great light and be saved. He wanted to go to a dark pagan community and preach Christ, they'd never heard of Him before, and see the light shine in the darkness to the glory of God. He wanted to preach that message. It was a preached message.

Now, in the modern times, missions can involve a lot of complexities. There can be all kinds of interesting things that missionaries can be called to do and some of them very necessary. Some missionaries go and build church buildings or other kinds of buildings, because the community needs it. Some build hospitals, some work as doctors and nurses in those hospitals, some missionaries go as tent makers and establish a professional presence in a place that otherwise would be a closed country that would not welcome a missionary.

I was going on a short-term mission trip once to a closed country, and the country that was giving out the visa questioned me quite closely, actually called me from the embassy, to ask me what my profession was. Very interesting. Teacher apparently wasn't good enough for them. They want to know what kind of a teacher, and I said, "I'm a pastor." And they asked me a lot of questions about my intention in that country, and they sent back a visa and on the visa it said, in one word, no spaces in between, "missionary work, not allowed." "Missionary work, not allowed." But they misspelled "missionary," so I decided I wasn't going to do that, whatever that was. But I was going to be faithful to preach the Gospel because the Lord had called me to do it. So, I didn't do that thing. I still don't know what the definition is, and I don't want to do it, whatever they've commanded, I will not do it. But I'm going to do the missionary work that the Lord has laid on my heart.

The point I'm making is that you need, in some of these countries, Muslim countries, some of these other places, you need a reason to be in there. Some people run powerful radio stations and they put out signals, and they go all over in that whole region with the powerful radio signals. And all of those works and others are necessary. But the center of all true missionary work is the verbal proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the center of it. And if that isn't going on, then true missionary work is not happening.

Thirdly, speaking and living God's truth. Romans 15:18, it says, "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done." Do you see that phrase? "By what I have said and done," God has led the Gentiles to obey Him. What does this mean, "by what I have said and done?" Well, I think there's a twofold pattern of Paul's strategy. He's going to speak God's truth, and he's going to live God's truth. He's going to speak right doctrine, and by this now, I mean, more than just the milk of the Gospel... The Gospel is beginning doctrine, that's how we start, but there's more doctrine than that. And Paul would settle into a community, sometimes for two years or perhaps even more, and he would be faithful to speak the Word of God very thoroughly and very completely.

Some people have noted, because Paul later in this section, in Romans 15, asks the Roman church for help in his missionary journey to Spain. They said, "Well, I conclude that Romans is a missionary support letter." Well, that's wonderful. It's got to be the greatest missionary support letter in history. It's an awesome missionary support letter. But let's accept that, that's fine. But I say this, it is an unfolding of the doctrine of the Gospel unparalleled than all of Scripture. And we see therefore that Paul considered the fullness of the doctrine to be essential to his mission. It wasn't just the simple ideas of Christ and Him crucified. In Romans, you have far more than that. Romans 1, 2 and 3, you have unfolded very plainly the doctrine of universal depravity and sin. "There is no one righteous, not even one." He's very careful in unfolding this. In Romans 3 and 4, we have the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And there again, he asks that question, founding everything on scripture, he asks about Abraham. What does the scripture say? But he's trying to found his doctrine and Scripture. He's unfolding deep doctrine.

Romans 5, he's talking about original sin and Adam, and how the whole human race sinned in Adam. These are deep thoughts. Romans 6, sanctification, putting sin to death. Romans 7, the bitter struggle with sin. Romans 8, we have the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit for this fight that we have against sin and for the fulfillment of the work of God. In Romans 9, 10 and 11, we have the deep doctrines of predestination and God's sovereignty applied to the troubling case of why the Jews are almost universally rejecting the Gospel. Deep doctrines. And Paul doesn't shy back from speaking about the truth of God. He said in Acts 20, to the Ephesian Elders, he said, "Now, you remember my ministry and how from house to house I didn't hesitate to proclaim anything that would be helpful for you, but have taught you publicly and from house to house." He also says later, "I did not shrink back from proclaiming the whole counsel of God's Word."

And so, based on what Paul said, he builds the kingdom. But here's the thing, he's there. He's living in the community. They watch his lifestyle. "It's not just by what I've said, it's also by what I've done." Remember how he said in Philippians Chapter 4, "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me, put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you." Wow. How would you like to say that to your disciple? "Whatever you've seen in my life, put it in practice and God will be with you." But Paul set himself up not arrogantly. We're going to see later in this message he's not an arrogant person, but he knew that part of the missionary work was incarnational. You live in there. They see the way you live. And it's not just what you say, it's how you live. It's an integration of truth and life that was key to his strategy.

Fourthly, we also see the issue of signs and wonders. And here, many of you may be saying, "Well, see, now this is where we're going to be different from the Apostle Paul." And you would be right. Because the Apostle Paul was an apostle. I'm not saying miracles don't happen today. I've been on the mission field and I've heard clear testimony, from brothers and sisters in Christ whose lives I respect, of supernatural acts of God. But they are different in essence, I think, than the apostolic miracles that Paul did. But there it is, look at Verse 18-19, he says, "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done." And then in Verse 19, "By the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit."

Now, I think 21st Century Americans are a little bit squeamish when it comes to signs and wonders. One great missionary article I read was called The Flaw of the Excluded Middle, how American evangelicals tend to exalt God in the heavenly realms, and see God up there in the heavenly realms, and believe in the invisible God by faith, they accept that, and they live in a workaday world, the physical practical world, and they accept that, but they don't see a lot of interaction between the two in the middle realm of signs and wonders, also of demons and angels, and all of that stuff that most of the world accepts readily. And it's in the Bible. It's all part of the biblical world view. And they'll extend the squeamishness even to reading about what the Apostle Paul did and say, "Well, you know... " And they try to minimize the role of signs and wonders in the apostolic ministry. We should never do this.

Paul here clearly ascribes the power of his ministry, at least in part, to the effectiveness of signs and wonders done by the Holy Spirit of God through him. And he said these were the things that marked him as an apostle. That's why we're different than Paul, we are not apostles. But these things marked Paul as an apostle. 2 Corinthians 12:12 says, "The things that marked an apostle, signs, wonders and miracles, were done among you with great perseverance." Now, these signs and wonders had evangelistic power. They had evangelistic power. Jesus himself said in John Chapter 14:11, "Believe me when I say I'm in the Father, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." There, He linked saving faith to the power and the evidence of the miracles. There's nothing wrong with saying that miracles have evangelistic power when coupled with the message of the Gospel.

Miracles also help prove the truthfulness of the apostolic Gospel message. In Acts 14, talking about Pisidia and Antioch, Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to do signs and wonders among the people. He confirmed it, He said, "This is a true message. Look, these people have been healed," etcetera. They also were very effective for drawing a crowd. It is where, in Acts Chapter 3, Peter and John went up to pray at the time of prayer, and they heal a famous beggar, and a huge crowd comes running. And Peter says, "good preaching opportunity." And that's exactly what was happening again and again through the Book of Acts, a sign or a wonder would be done, huge crowds would gather, and they would preach the Gospel, by the power of signs and wonders.

They also had the power to encourage the church. Remember the story of Paul in Troas, and he's probably never going to go there again. And so he spends hours and hours teaching the people. And seated in the window was a young man named Eutychus, probably a teenager, and so he's just sitting there and listening, this young man, that's probably what he was, listening to the Word of God, interested in what Paul was saying. But it was getting hot, it was getting late, Paul was talking on and on, is what Luke wrote in the Book of Acts. They got the oil lanterns in there, there's not electricity, and it's just... He fell asleep. The only problem was he was on the third story, he fell out of the third-story window and was picked up dead. Paul went down and threw himself on this young man and said, "Don't be alarmed…he's alive." God raised him from the dead. And this is what Acts 20 Verse 12 says, "The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted." They're greatly comforted at a clear display of God's power over death. God is the death conqueror. He is sovereign. He's powerful. And even if He doesn't do it every time, even if He doesn't ever do it again, just know that God is powerful. They were greatly encouraged and comforted by these apostolic ministries.

Fifth, there was also a display or a demonstration of the Spirit's power. He says, "By the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit." Let me tell you Paul's missionary strategy, it basically went like this. "I'm going to follow where the Holy Spirit leads, I'm going to speak what the Holy Spirit tells me to speak, I'm going to do it in the open and obvious power of the Holy Spirit, I'm going to rely on the Holy Spirit's power to convict and to convert and to plant the church, I'm relying on the Holy Spirit's power to protect that little church after I have planted it." Everything was done as a display and a demonstration of the Spirit's power.

Paul's ministry was a constant display of the power of the Holy Spirit in the midst of his own weakness. 1 Corinthians Chapter 2, Paul talks about this. He said, "When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God." That wasn't it. You don't have to go to speaking school, eloquent school, to be an effective missionary. That's not it. What was it then? He said, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. My message, my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on man's wisdom but on God's power." He basically wants to plant a church in such a way that everyone can see, "It must not have been Paul."

Remember how one of the Corinthians said, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is rather unimpressive…" Not a great speaker, just a simple message of Christ and him crucified. And look what sprang up. Look what happened. A church was planted, lives were transformed, pagans gave up their paganism, rich people gave up their concern about wealth, poor people understood that in Christ they could be rich. Everything was changed and a church was planted. For eternity, lives were changed. That is a demonstration of the Spirit's power. That's something nobody can do. I could preach for 100 years and if the Spirit is not here, I have wasted my time and yours. I prayed this morning on my knees, I begged that the Spirit of God would be here today, or else I would waste my time and yours. And I'm convinced He is. I'm convinced He's at work in your hearts and mine, too, a clear demonstration of the Spirit's power. Not in technique, or you got to have Paul or nothing happens. "I'm leaving," Paul said. He's going. He's going to plant the church and go. You need to know that from here on out, the Holy Spirit's still with you and you're going to still make progress in the Spirit, a demonstration of the Spirit's power.

And then sixth, venturing or Christ was not known. We've already covered this, but it's a clear technique. Paul said, "I'm passing on. I'm not going to stay here. You're not going to rely on me forever and ever. I'm going to get the church started, I'm going to establish Godly elders and train them, get them in place. I'm going to give you the best I've got for a couple of years, teach you everything, not shrink back from anything, but the rest is up to God by the power of the Spirit. I'm moving on." He was going to continue to move on to those unreached people groups.

And so we see a brief display of Paul's missionary strategy, founding all things on God's written Word, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, speaking and living God's truth in an integrated way, performing signs and wonders, a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit of God, and a commitment to go to unreached people groups, to continue to move on.

Now, what were his goals?

A Display of the Glory of God

Well, the top goal of the Apostle Paul was that God would be glorified as a result. He says in Verse 17, "Therefore, I glory in Christ Jesus, in my service to God." Just as He had said in Verse 9, "so that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy," he wanted the Gospel ministry to be for the praise of God's glory, that's why he did everything.

The Fulfillment of His Priestly Duty

Secondly, his goal was to fulfill his priestly duty. God told him on the road to Damascus, "I'm giving you this work to do. I'm giving you this work to do. I want you to do this work." And his priestly duty was to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles. He says in Acts 26, "So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. First to those in Damascus, and then to those in Jerusalem, and now Judea, and to the Gentiles also. I preach that they should repent and turn to God, and prove their repentance by their deeds." Paul was given a priestly ministry. He said, "I wasn't disobedient."

Can I just stop and ask you a question? We asked last week, do you have a task that the Lord Jesus gave you? Are you running a race that Christ set in front of you? And if you say, "Yes, I know what it is, I know what my calling is," the second question is, Have you been disobedient to that calling?" See, the Apostle Paul said to King Agrippa, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but I did what God wanted me to do. That was my priestly ministry." You see, we are priests of Christ. We are given a priestly duty. Paul's was proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles.

The Ultimate Offering of the Gentiles

He also says the result of that would be the ultimate offering of the Gentiles. He was like a Levite or ironic priest. He was offering up sacrifices to God. Now, the Levites, the priests, they offered up bulls and goats, blood sacrifice. Paul is not doing that. You know what he's offering up? Gentiles. And this is how it worked. He'd go into a place steeped in paganism, the people are dead in their transgressions and sins, without hope and without God in the world. He simply preaches the Gospel by the power of God, and as a result, lives are transformed. What happens? In those individual lives, the call of God goes, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God." And so all of a sudden, you got all these Gentiles who are converted, their minds are changed, and now they are offering their bodies every day as living sacrifices, so that the Gentiles might become an offering to God, acceptable, pleasing to God by the Holy Spirit. That was his goal.

The Glad Obedience of the Gentiles

And finally, that their obedience would be the offering. See, the Gospel needs to result in obedience. This is the Alpha and the Omega of the Book of Romans. Perhaps you haven't noticed it before, but they are in Romans Chapter 1 Verse 5, Paul says this, "Through Christ, and for His name's sake, we receive grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith." Dear friend, if your faith is not producing in you a lifestyle of glad obedience, it is counterfeit and you're not saved. Obedience. For the obedience of the Gentiles, that was his work. Glad obedience, that's the Alpha. And then at the end, in Romans 16:26, probably just look over on the same page that we're on, Paul preaches the Gospel so that all nations might believe and obey Christ. So, Romans 1:5, Romans 16:26, the Alpha and the Omega, right straight through, it is a Gospel that produces glad obedience. Look at your life. Is it characterized by obedience to the commands of Jesus Christ?

Finally, what was Paul's success like? Well, he says, "From Jerusalem, all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ." That's amazing geographical spread. He's gone basically 1400 miles, from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria, up into Asia Minor, across to Philippi, Macedonia, down into Achaia, and over as far as modern day Yugoslavia, right across from the Adriatic, from the Italian boot, he's made 1400 miles of preaching in frontier regions, preaching the Gospel. And he says, "There's nowhere else for me to work. I have so saturated that region that there's no frontier here anymore." It doesn't mean that everybody has heard the Gospel, but what it means is, in every area, in every region, there are significant healthy, growing churches who can finish the work, including in Rome. Now, he says he's going on to Spain. That's amazing success.

Now, you might think all of this would go to his head. Right? "Look at all I've done. Look at all the things that I've achieved." But instead, he had a very appropriate humility. Look at Verse 17-18, "Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done." He says, "I'm not going to boast in myself." One of the big differences between us and lost people, between Christians and lost people, is this... This is in John Chapter 3. It says there, "Everyone who does not live by the truth, hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." They don't want to come into the light because they don't want to show what they've done, the despicable deeds of darkness, they don't want to show it.

But, John 3:21, "Everyone who lives by the truth comes into the light." Why? "So that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." We're going to get up there and we're going to carry with us a whole truckload of acts of obedience done by faith in Christ, our ministry, our life work, and we are going to present it to God. And it will be made plain and obvious at that time, that each one of those good things will be refined by fire, 1 Corinthians 3, but there, each one of those jewels in the diadem were accomplished by the power of God in us. That God, by His power, led us to lead this person to Christ, or to plant this church, or to pray this prayer, to give this money. All of it was done by the power of God working in us and to the praise of His glory. And there you'll have your diadem, your crown, and may it have many jewels in it, and there you will lay it down at the feet of the one who deserves it, because all that we have accomplished, Isaiah 26:12, he has done through us and to the glory of God. And so therefore Paul is appropriately humble.

What's the application for you? Well, as you look at the life of Paul, last time the application was you needed a concentrated focus to your life and you needed to be concerned about frontier missions. And so you do. What I get out of these verses that we've studied today is you need to have a strategy. How are you going to go about doing it? Suppose the focus right now in your mind is your family. Maybe it's a parent that doesn't know Christ, maybe it's a brother, a sister. What's your strategy? What's your approach? How are you going to take these principles and bring it to bear in that life? Perhaps it's a workplace. Maybe you're going to go to work tomorrow, don't let it be just another day. You've got a mission field there. What is your strategy? How are you going to bring these principles to bear in that workplace?

Perhaps it's a dorm floor, fraternity or sorority, and on a college campus. What's your strategy? How are you going to go about leading those people to Christ? Perhaps you're preparing to be a frontier missionary. Maybe you're at the seminary at Southeastern. What's your strategy going to be when you get to that unreached people group? How are you going to do this over there? What's your approach going to be to the glory of God?

Now, I'm going to end where I began. And if you don't know Christ as your Savior, you don't need a strategy. You need to come to Christ today. You need to believe in Him and trust in Him for the salvation of your soul. Just about every week, when I sit out in the pew and I worship, I look at this wooden cross up here and I remind myself of the price that was paid for my salvation. I think about it every week. I think about what Jesus did when He went up that hill carrying the cross. I'm saying to you, if you don't know Christ, you're not ready to die. This afternoon, we're going to do a funeral. I'm saying, you're not ready to die if you don't know Jesus. Trust in Him for the salvation of your soul. Close with me now in prayer.

I want to begin this morning by asking a searching question. Why do you do what you do? Why do you do everything that you do? Do you know why you do what you do? The story is told in the days after the October Revolution, that brought communism to Russia, that the leaders of the communist movement were looking for future leaders of the nation, and so they set people to different tasks, to different jobs, and there were three men that were assigned to build a brick wall. And after they'd been working a while, the leaders went to the first man and asked him, "What are you doing?" He said, "I'm putting this brick up on that wall." They went to the second man and said, "Comrade, what are you doing?" He said, "I'm building a brick wall." They went to the third man and said, "Comrade, what are you doing?" He said, "I'm building a new world." They chose the third man to be the leader out of those three, because he had a vision for what the communists were trying to do. Now, history has proven, the 20th century has proven that vision was empty, it was really a satanic lie. Wasn't a new world they were building, but that's what that man thought they were doing. And so, I put to you today, what is your vision for what you're doing? Let's take a test case of why you came to church this morning.

Why did you come to church this morning? Well, it's what you do on Sunday, I'm putting this brick up on that wall, you see. Well, because I want to be a good leader to my family, and my dad, he took me to church, and I want my family to be raised right, I want them to learn the right way to live, and I think you can't do that without church. I'm building a brick wall. I come to church because the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has saved me, and he's building a kingdom that will never end, and to the praise of his glory, I want to live for him. And I want to be sharpened in my own gifts, and I want to be prepared to advance the Gospel, and I can't do that unless I go to church. And furthermore, he, being the Lord and master of my life, has commanded me to do this. I'm building a new world. What's your view of why you do everything you do? I think we're going to get a glimpse this morning into why Paul did what he did.

And I want to begin by asking a simple question about the Apostle Paul that comes right up out of the text. And the question is, why hadn't Paul visited Rome yet? That's the question I want to put before you. Comes right out of the text. Why hadn't he come yet? Paul is seeking to answer that question. Now, last week, we had, somewhat unusually, a whole sermon, essentially, about one verse. I don't do that often, and thank God for it. Alright. We'd still be back in Romans Chapter 6 with no end in sight. Alright. So as one sermon... And I think it was useful and beneficial to focus in on one verse, and to try to understand Biblical counseling. And that's fine, and good, but now I want to take a step back from the careful consideration we gave to that one verse. And, by the way, every verse of scripture bears that kind of careful scrutiny, and more. We're not saying that. But I want to just take a step back, and look at the whole context of why Paul talked about competent to counsel. What was he getting at there? And I think, in this section of Romans 15, he's seeking to do three things. First, he's explaining to them why he hadn't visited Rome yet, why he hadn't been there yet. Secondly, he's asking them for help on his way to Spain. And thirdly, he's preparing them for a very short stay in Rome when he's on his way to Spain. I think those three things he's doing, among some other things, such as explaining his whole strategy for missions, which we'll get to, God willing, next time.

But I want to say to you that Paul deeply wanted to visit Rome. The Roman Christian should not, in any way, feel slighted by the fact that Paul hadn't been there yet. It wasn't as though he didn't want to come. It wasn't as though he felt... He thought very little of their progress in the Gospel, or felt that they weren't a strategic church. No, no, no, far from it, Paul affirms several times in this letter how many times he wanted to come to them, and how deeply he yearned to have fellowship with them. Right in chapter one, verse 8 and following, he says this, "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world." So, no, you're not an insignificant congregation, you're right there in the heart of the Roman Empire. And then he said, "God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the Gospel of his son, is my witness, how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times." So, no, I don't fail to care for you, I care deeply for you. And I pray that now, at last, by God's will, the way may be open for me to come to you. "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong, that is that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to see, but have been prevented from doing so until now, in order that I might have a harvest among you, as I've had among the other Gentiles."

So, no, Paul didn't fail to desire to come, he wanted to go to Rome. So, if Paul deeply wanted to share Christian fellowship with them, and if it would have been a richly blessed time if he had come, then why hadn't Paul been there yet? Well, that's what he's seeking to answer here. And why would he only be passing through quickly on his way to Spain? Again, that's what he's seeking to answer here. And I think, in answering these questions, we're going to get an insight not only into the intense, passionate, focus of the Apostle Paul, but also to answer question, what kind of intense passionate focus should we have to our lives? And what role, what priority should frontier missions have for us, individually, and for this local church?

That's what I'm about this morning. Basically... Let me say, quite directly, when I get done, I would like you to feel a sense of a passionate focus to your own life that's, to some degree, tailor-made for you. And if you don't have it, to go seek it this afternoon until you get it. And secondly, I would like us to be about, in a very intelligent, clear way, a strategy for advancing the Gospel to those who have never heard of Jesus before. That's what I'm about. So, individually, I'd like each of you to have a passionate focus that's connected to the Great Commission and tailor-made to you and your spiritual gifts.

And secondly, I want this church to take its rightful place along with the other churches around the world in advancing the Gospel to the frontiers. I guess I'm done, aren't I? I don't need to do anything more. Well, I'd like to do a little explaining, with your permission, and I like to ground it in text, because it's there.

Paul’s Calling Had Prevented Him From Visiting Rome

Why Paul hadn't visited Rome yet. Well, let's go to the end of our section, and work a little bit backwards. Verses 20-22 are the key to answering the question of why he hadn't been to Rome yet. Paul there says, in verse 20, "It has always been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as it is written, 'those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.' This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you." Do you see the answer to the question?

What is the answer to the question? I hadn't been there yet because my calling prevented me from it. And what was Paul's calling? Well, he was called to be a frontier, pioneering, trailblazing, church-planting, evangelizing apostle to the Gentiles, that's what he was called to do, and he knew it. He was called by God to be the apostle to the Gentiles, with the priestly duty of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ to them. And his understanding of that call was that he was to give priority in his life to the regions of the world that had never heard of Jesus before.

And, as we learned last week in verse 14, now you see it in context, the Roman Church was a mature church, with good leadership, with brothers and sisters that were full of goodness, complete in knowledge, and competent to counsel one another. And therefore, they didn't need him to come, you see. Now, it doesn't mean that everyone in the city of Rome, had heard of Jesus, that wasn't it. But it wasn't a frontier, not by his definition, it had a good solid church, and they were able to have a harvest among the Romans there, and that's why he wasn't going to go. Although, he says in verse 15, he had taken the time to write them boldly, to remind them about a few points, yet, they were a fully mature church.

And so, here, we get a glimpse into the central calling of Paul's apostolic life, and here we get a glimpse also into Paul's passionate, concentrated, white-hot focus.

In 1987, I went on a mission trip to minister to Afghan refugees, and these refugees had been chased out of their country by the communist Russians who were carrying on that satanic worldview that we talked about back in 1917. And the Muslims had toppled the communist government in Kabul, and so the Russians came in to restore order. And in so doing, they made lives a living hell for thousands and thousands of refugees who fled to Pakistan. And I think there can be few earthly circumstances more miserable than fleeing from your country because of helicopter gunships, running to a country that only partly is willing to tolerate you there, but has no plans to take care of your needs, knowing that every relative that you've been separated from, there's a likelihood that at least some of them are dead, those could even be your parents, your siblings, your children, your spouse, you may never see them again. And you've been stripped by the experience of every single worldly possession you have, and the future is looking very dim indeed, and worst of all, from my perspective, you don't know God.

Without hope and without God in the world, that's what they were. What a dreadful, dreadful situation. And so, we start to minister to them, and one of the things we wanted to do... The problem there is that there weren't a lot of trees, and so therefore, they couldn't make fires to cook their food. And so, we brought them solar ovens to cook their food and boil the water, which is very important to purify the water, and all that. These things were designed to concentrate the sun's rays, to catch them and focus on a certain place, where if you put a pot of water or some meat, it could boil water as fast as your stove, almost as fast. Or it could cook meat as quickly as an average oven. It was really amazingly designed. The concentration of the sun's rays on the central point, it was hot enough to boil water. And I think I see that in Paul's life. I see it in the internal journey in Philippians 3, when he says, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, one thing I do, I press on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." There's a concentrated focus on the internal journey.

But when it comes the external journey also, he has an ambition, he has an ambition. Now, let's look at that word ambition. He says in verse 20, "it has always been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known, so I wouldn't be building on someone else's foundation."

A World Full of Ambitious People

You know, the world is filled with ambitious people. You look at Napoleon, for example, an empire-builder, you know what he said about ambition? He said ambition is never content, even on the summit of greatness. Oh, he had a vision for the world too, didn't he? And he was willing to pay in blood, not his own blood, but he was willing to pay in blood to see his vision, his ambition realized. And the measure of his commitment to his ambition you could see in the blood tracks of the French army coming out of the snows of Russia. He was an ambitious man.

There's all kinds of ambitions, great and small. Athletes have ambitions too. I was reading about Ted Williams, who, early in his career, said, "It's been my ambition since I was a boy that when people saw me walking down the street, they'd point to me, and say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter that ever lived.'" Now, I'm hoping along the way that he found our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because that's not going to do very well for you on Judgment Day. But that was his ambition, to be the greatest baseball hitter that ever lived. Businessmen, look at Bill Gates, he's a man of soaring intellect, amazing comprehension of the software industry, and of, almost, I would think, a ruthless ambition to make Microsoft, in its industry, what the oil, Standard Oil was in the 19th century. Or some of these railroad magnates who were called, by some, the robber barons, they were ambitious men and they were willing to build an empire of business. Ambition is somewhat of a neutral thing. It totally depends on what it's connected to. If it's a good thing in the eyes of God, then ambition for that good thing is itself a good thing, but if it's plugged into something evil, it's a wicked thing.

Ambition drives a lot of achievement in this world, for good or evil. Ambition overcomes every obstacle. It organizes life and power and concentrates it, like that solar oven, in a single direction, so that things get accomplished. It drives a person to make great sacrifices to achieve that goal. That's what ambition does. But ambition can also drive an individual to self-worship, to ego gratification.

A Holy Ambition

Now, Paul had a godly ambition. Look again at verse 20, "It's always been my ambition," he says, "To preach the Gospel where Christ was not known." Here, he identifies the grand and glorious ambition of his life of ministry. He's called to be a trailblazer, to go where no man had gone before, he's called to survey the terrain, to level the ground and lay the foundation of a new work for the glory of Christ, in location after location.

He was called to be a pioneer and to open up new works for others to follow. Now, the word, the Greek word for ambition here is made up of two smaller Greek words, which means love and honor. For the love of the honor of doing it, that's what it is. And he yearned for the honor of being able to go into some pioneer trailblazing place, and advance the Gospel of Christ. Now, Paul's whole life, I think, as we know it in the scripture, was characterized by drive, wasn't it? He was an ambitious man before he met Christ. He was a ladder-climbing Jew, a Pharisee who wanted to become the greatest Jewish man that ever lived, I think. And so, in Galatians 1:14, he describes himself, "I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age, and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers." So he was ambitious.

And in that zeal and ambition, he went on the road to Damascus, with letters in his hand from the high priest, to arrest any in Damascus who were Christians, and bring them back to Jerusalem for judgment, breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. That ambitious drive wasn't crushed on the road to Damascus, it was just redirected, is that how we should put it? How about 180 degrees, the opposite direction? Turned around, entirely, a different way. And why? Because he saw the glory of the risen Christ. He saw the glory of God and realized his ambitions were small and petty, they became, Philippians 3, like rubbish to him, nothing to him.

From that point on, Paul knew why God had left him alive, he left him alive to accomplish a mission. Now, so many of us lack a single focus to our lives, a drive, a reason for getting up and doing what we do, an overriding vision of life that characterizes and describes everything that we do, and helps us make decisions on whether we should go to Rome or not. Doesn't seem to be a theme that holds it all together, helps us decide what to do, where to live, how to spend our money, how to spend our time, what our job should be, what our career should be. To change the analogy a bit, it's like going through life like a sailing vessel, but there's no rudder, and the captain of the ship has no idea where he's going, he's got no charts, no compass, no sexton, it's in the fog, just drifting wherever the wind blows it.

Let me tell you something, Paul was not like that. He knew exactly why he was alive, and what work Christ had left him to do. For Christ had met him, with killing power, if he had wanted to, on the road to Damascus, and decided to let him live. He deserved to die, and he knew it, but he decided to let him live. "As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly, a light from heaven flashed around him… and he heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' 'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.'" Now, the words, "I am Jesus" changed his life. For the rest of his life, he knew that Christ had risen from the dead. "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Now, get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." That is the Lord speaking. He is giving direction to Paul's life. Paul would bend the knee to Christ the king, the Lord, and he'd say, "What do you want me to do, Lord?" And he said, "I'll tell you what to do, you'll be told what you must do."

So, from the start, there was a sense that Paul's life was forfeited. He deserved to die, and anything, from that point forward, was Christ's to do with, as he saw fit. Have you come to that place in your life? Have you come to realize that you don't and you didn't, apart from Christ, deserve to live? And anything you live from this point forward should be for his purpose, and his glory alone? Paul came to that point, and he expresses it clearly in this moving farewell address to the Ephesian elders. He said, "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the Gospel of God's grace." Complete the task. Finish the race.

Do you have a task?  Do you have a race that you're running, or are you just living from day to day? Paul knew what his task was, the task the Lord Jesus had given him. And even names of the task, of testifying to the Gospel of God's grace.

The Application of Paul’s Godly Ambition

Well, okay, that's his worldview, now he's going to apply it to a specific question. Should I go to Rome or not? Should I go to visit the people in Rome? He applied it first to his life of preaching, and he said, from... His whole focus was he was going to preach where those who had never heard of him, heard of Christ, would hear of him. Look at verse 21, he was going to occupy his time fulfilling an ancient prophecy. "Rather, as it is written, those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand." This is a direct quote of scripture, Isaiah 52:15, which is the introduction to perhaps the greatest prophecy of Christ in his atoning sacrifice, in the Old Testament, it's an introduction to it. The glorious suffering servant of Isaiah 53. Well, this is the introduction to it. Isaiah 52:13-15, this is what the prophet said six centuries before Jesus was born, "Behold, my servant will act wisely, he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him, his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness.So will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand."

The suffering servant, the one whose appearance is disfigured beyond human recognition, he's going to sprinkle many nations, and kings will hear about them, but they haven't heard yet. Paul read that, and said, "That's my life calling. That's what I am called to do, so that those who have not heard will hear, those who have not seen, they will understand."

Bringing the Light to the Gentiles

That was his life calling. He made this intensely personal, these ancient prophecies about Christ, they became the marching orders of his private life. Speaking to the hostile Jews in Pisidian Antioch, they were rejecting the Gospel, and getting angry and hostile, and opposing him.

So he said, "Look, we had to speak the word of God to you first. That's what we're called to do, to the Jew first. But since you rejected, and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles, for this is what the Lord has commanded us." Oh, you could circle that word "us" in Acts 13:47, this is what the Lord has commanded us, "I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." Now, that is fascinating. It's a quote from Isaiah 49:6. One of the greatest prophesies of Christ ministry to the Gentiles is in Isaiah 49:6. He says, that's God says, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light to the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." That, my friends, is a conversation between the father and the son, what theologians could call an inter-trinitarian conversation. The father says to the son, it's too small a thing for you just to save the Jews. I'm not sending you into the world for that. That's too small. I'll do that, but I'm going to do more than that. I'm going to send you into the world to be the light of the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation, my name, to the ends of the earth. That's why he sent Jesus as the apostle of our faith, he sent him into the world for that. It's too small a thing for you just to save the Jews.

Paul read that statement and he applied it to himself. This is what the Lord has commanded us. It's too small a thing. He's commanded us, concerning Jesus, that you may take my salvation to the ends of the earth. He's commanded me, he's commanded you, he commanded Paul and Barnabas, he's commanded us to take his name to the ends of the earth. This is what the Lord has commanded us. And so, I've been busy doing it, from Jerusalem all the way around to Yugoslavia, that's Illyricum, very hard word to pronounce, and to understand. But it's Yugoslavia, right across from Rome. I was close, I could have jumped on a ship and come right across, but I didn't have time, I was doing frontier evangelism so that the ends of the earth would hear about Christ. That's why. Verse 22, "I have often been hindered from coming to you." "I have been busy preaching the Gospel." Basically he is saying, "You brothers and sisters at Rome, you're mature, you're well-lead, you're competent to counsel, you're all of these wonderful things. You don't need what I have come to bring. I could help you. We would share each other's fellowship, and some mutual encouragement, and some spiritual gifts, but I am not staying long. I am going through to Spain and I need you to help me on my way." We'll get to that next week, God willing, and the following week. "I'll have you help me on my way to Spain, but I'm not setting up shop in Rome, I'm not buying a house, okay? I'm just moving on through." Do you have a focus like that?

Do you have a compelling reason to live everyday? Do you know what God is calling you to do with your life? Is your ambition holy or is it self-gratifying, ego-gratifying? Does your passion get applied ruthlessly to rule out lesser things that are not connected with your calling, like for Paul going to the church at Rome? Now, when we were doing the baptism, I said, "You know, the greatest thing that could ever happen to you is to have your soul saved by faith in Christ," just as Jimmy did. Praise God for you, brother, and praise God for what God's done in your life. But there may be some in a congregation this size that have not been saved, you've not been justified by faith in Christ, that is your task, that's the race in front of you. Don't leave this place today without trusting in the Messiah. Don't leave this place today without looking to Christ for salvation. Trusting in his blood and his righteousness alone. You're not ready for judgment day yet, if you haven't. And then, God will give you a race to run, he'll give you a work to do.

Now, not everybody's going to get the same race. I want to say that very directly. There are variety of roles in fulfilling the Great Commission, a variety of them. Not everybody is called to the same ambition. We already covered this in Romans 12, as you remember when I preached on Romans 12. Romans 12:4-6 is the teaching of the body of Christ and "just as each of us have one body with many members, and the members don't all have the same function, so, in Christ, we, who are many, form one body, and each belongs to the other, and we have different gifts according to the measure of grace given us." We have different callings.

Now, I want to make this plain and clear by looking at two words in the text today. One is the word foundation, and the other ambition. Let's look first at this word ambition. It's used only three times in the New Testament. I want to take what I consider to be the foremost one, and that's from 2 Corinthians 5:9. There, Paul is explaining how to live in light of Judgment Day. Judgment Day is coming, and according to 2 Corinthians 5, all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one of us may render to him an account for the things done in the body, whether good or bad. So, in light of that, how should you live your life? Paul said, "I'll tell you what your ambition should be, and mine is too." "So whether we are at home or away we make it our ambition to please him [Christ]. That is a soaring ambition over every single Christian life. And that goes down to the details of your life, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. You can, as I said earlier, eat a ham sandwich to the glory of God. You can wash dishes to the glory of God. But let me tell you something, on the final day, when you stand before God, and all you did was eat all your ham sandwiches to the glory of God, you will have wasted your life. Be strategic. So that's one use of the word ambition. That's for everybody, make it now your ambition to please Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:9.

The second use we've looked at here in our text. Paul's ambition was to be a frontier trailblazing missionary, to tell people who have never heard of Jesus who Jesus was. That's his ambition.

There's a third very interesting use of the word in 1 Thessalonians 4:11 and 12. Listen on this one. There, Paul tells the Thessalonian Christians, "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody." That wasn't Paul's ambition. Lead a quiet life, Paul did not need a quiet life. So if he intended to lead a quiet life, he was bored of his ambition, but that wasn't his ambition.

This is speaking, perhaps, to heads of families, to homeowners, to people who have families, and they're in a community, in a culture, and they're not called to be frontier trailblazing missionaries, they should settle in and make their life a light to the Gentiles around them, to live for the glory of God in that way.

So we have three uses of the word ambition, and they show that we don't all have the same calling in life. Let's look at this word foundation. He said, "It's been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not named so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation." Well, Paul, what's wrong with that? Is that a sinful thing, a bad thing to build on someone else's foundation? Not at all. As a matter of fact, Paul was counting on faithful people to follow him up and build on his foundation. He just wanted them to be sure they did it right. So in 1 Corinthians 3, just a few pages later, in Romans, but in 1 Corinthians 3, go ahead and look there, 1 Corinthians 3: 10-13, just about four or five pages over. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul is talking about his ministry, and Apollos's ministry. Paul went first to Corinth and preached, then Apollos came after him and followed it up.

And in 1 Corinthians 3:10 and following, Paul says this, "By the grace of God, I laid a foundation as an expert builder. And now someone else is building on it." Do you see that? It's not a bad thing to build on someone else's foundation. There's nothing wrong with it. "Each one should be careful how he builds, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ, if any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the day will bring it to light, it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work." So Paul said, "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow."

We Must All Help Advance the Great Commission

We have different tasks according to the assignment of the Lord. There it is. We are called to different things. Now, what's my point? I think that each of us must have a passion, a drive, a desire in our lives, but they're going to be different, but we must all help to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Those are Jesus' final words to us, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always to the very end of the age." Just as he said in Luke 19:10, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Is that the center of your life and ministry, or is it just to eat ham sandwiches to the glory of God, to be sure you thank God for all of the blessings he gives you? Will that be enough for you on Judgment Day, to stand in front of him, and say, "That's what I did. I always sought to eat my ham sandwiches to the glory of God, and give you full thanks for the blessings you gave me in my life."

In 1906, James Fraser was studying engineering at Imperial College in London. Later, he became a legend, as Fraser of Lisuland because of his frontier evangelism and church-planting in the Yunnan province of China. The turning point of his life was in college, when he read a two-penny pamphlet about the needs of the Chinese. And it began with these two sentences, changed his life. James Fraser read this, "If our master returned today to find millions of people un-evangelized, and looked as, of course, he would look to us for an explanation, I cannot imagine what explanation we should have to give. Of one thing I am certain, that most of the excuses we're accustomed to make with such good conscience now, we shall be wholly ashamed of then," end quote. That's what he read in the pamphlet. He said, "Oh, I'm not living right."

He may be eating his ham sandwiches to the glory of God, but he wasn't living right, he wasn't living for the glory of God, for an overriding passion for the unreached people groups. He was never able to escape the power of those sentences. Many years later, John Piper, who's a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, was preaching at Bethel College, and he talked about James Fraser of Lisuland. And this is what he had to say,

"A few years ago, when I had to preach my first mission sermon at Bethlehem, I took the Yellow Pages of the Minneapolis and Saint Paul phonebooks and counted the number of churches in the Twin Cities. There are more churches in the Twin Cities than there are North American Protestant missionaries to the 1.9 billion people that make up the 10,000 unreached people groups, the Muslims, Hindus, Chinese, and Buddhist unreached people groups. Let me say that again. There are 1.9 billion people in 10,000 unreached people groups, served by about 700 North American missionaries, but there are more churches in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul than that."

John Piper continued, "I can only think of one explanation for the state of affairs, disobedience. What will we say to the master who commanded us 2000 years ago to make disciples of those 10,000 peoples? It was a personal crisis for me, like it was for Fraser, and I told my congregation that I would have to resign and engage more directly in frontier missions if I couldn't be convinced that by my staying the Gospel could advance more readily to those frontiers than if I went myself."

He had to filter his own future in pastoral ministry through that filter. Well, I was disturbed by that. I read that and said, "Have I filtered my own future here at First Baptist through that?" Have you filtered yours? That the Gospel could be advanced more readily if I stay than if I go.

So I have come to the conclusion that there are three options for us, then, in frontier missions. What are frontier missions? It's the unreached people groups, people who are identified by culture and language and geography, they are in a certain area that have no viable witness to Jesus Christ. There's no foundation laid there. Joshua Project, www.joshuaproject.net, they give constant information about unreached people groups. They estimate 6,622. You know how important the Joshua Project number is, eternally? Not very, except that it motivates people to get going. You know the real number that matters? The one that God thinks, okay? When he says the work is done, then it's done. But why are the frontier missions so important?

Let me give you two reasons: Number one, because Jesus said that history won't end until they've been reached with the Gospel, that's the finish line of the human race. Matthew 24:14, "This Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come."

And secondly, because in the book of Revelation, in Revelation 5 and 7, there are people mentioned there from every tribe and language and people and nation. Revelation 5 says they've already been bought by the blood of Jesus. Revelation 7 says they will someday be around the throne with white robes. So it's already a done deal. It just hasn't happened yet. That's why frontier missions are important, and should be, for your life.

Three Options: Go, Send, Disobey

So what are the three options? You ready? You can choose one, you have to decide what you're going to do. I'll try to make it clear. Your three options are as follows: You can go, you can send, or you can disobey. Those are your three options, you can go, you can send, you can disobey. So choose one. I fear that too many of us are choosing the comfortable third option. Maybe they didn't know they were disobeying, but that's what they're choosing.

700 North American missionaries to the 1.9 million people in 10,000 unreached people groups. Could it be that some people didn't hear God call them and give them their race, their finish line, and they never went, and they should have? Well, let's focus on those who send. We're a sending church. Do you realize that 12%, goes to the Southern Baptist Convention automatically, so you're automatically advancing the Gospel just by giving money to the church, right? Is that enough? Oh, well, toward the end of the year, we have the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, and the giving here has more than doubled in the last eight years. That's very encouraging. So if you give a gift in December, are you sending at that point? Is that enough?

William Carey, the first Protestant missionary, he preached what was known as the deathless sermon, attempt great things for God, expect great things from God. Out of that, came a small Baptist mission-sending group. It was so small that the first meeting was in somebody's parlor. That's all that that deathless sermon produced. But he said, "I will go down into the dark hole of heathenism if you will hold my rope. That's what sending is, you're holding someone's rope as they descend into the dark hole of heathenism. You're holding someone's rope as they go down to the unreached people groups, and none of them that are left will be easy to reach. Some of them will only be reached by martyrs. You're holding the rope as somebody goes down into the hole. Are you holding the rope? Are we holding the rope? That's my question.

I would love to see our church, in '06, '07 adopt, very clearly, an unreached people group, find out what missionaries are called there, or if there are none, than pray until some come, until some of you decide to be our unreached people group missionaries, and go get the requisite training, and go, until that group has a viable church planted among them, and then, when we feel they're strong enough, then we'll adopt another one.

I would urge us to do that until the Lord returns. To me, I think that's what holding the rope is about. So, as I come to the end of the message today, let me ask what I asked at the beginning, why do you do what you do? Why do you go to work? Why do you come to this church? Why do you get up in the morning? Are you just putting a brick on the wall, day after day, eating each ham sandwich to the glory of God? Do you understand? Do you have a bigger vision of wanting a good family, a good family life, to live for the glory of God in that way? Etcetera. You building a wall, or are you building a new world by the power of God? Do you have a world-changing vision that Jesus shall reign from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more, that the nations are Christ, but not all of them confess him yet. What are you living for? Close with me in prayer.

I'm essentially preaching a whole sermon on one verse today, so that must be a good verse, and it is. It's a verse, that's the foundation I think of a movement called Biblical Counseling that is growing in strength, to the glory of God in our country and around the world. The November 29th, 1993 issue of Time magazine had as a cover article, a picture of Sigmund Freud with his head kind of unraveling in some kind of a three-dimensional puzzle and getting put back together. One of those artistic renditions, like that. And it asked the question, "Is Freud dead?" When I saw it, I thought it's a good thing that Time asks easy questions to answer. The answer is, yes, Freud is dead. But obviously they're meaning more than just, is his body in the grave. They're really asking a deeper question, "Is the influence of Sigmund Freud and his approach to psycho-analysis, is that dead?" And the answer to that is No. Though Freud has come under some severe questioning even by people who maybe originally believed in his theories.

Yet his influence is increasing. You know the picture of mustache, goatee, a man sitting there dignified with a notepad and a pen, and somebody laying on a couch, and spilling out their lives and telling him their dreams and all this sort of stuff, and he analyzing all of that. That's a lasting image and it's had a tremendous effect on our society, and our culture and a tremendous effect on the church of Jesus Christ. At present, there are over 200 identifiable talking cures in America today, with between 10 and 15 million Americans doing the talking. We live surrounded constantly by people who are feeling in their lives, in their marriages, in their homes, the devastating consequences of sin.

Sins ravages are visible everywhere, in addictions, in dissolving and hurting families, in escalating mental anguish, in increasing temptations, we're surrounded every day by people who are crying out for help. And the world's response is, "Get some counseling." If you can just get some counseling. And more and more counseling is coupled with medications. Prescriptions for mood and behavior altering drugs are proliferating. More and more that seems to be the solution.

Now, all of this, all of this is intensely important for us as Christians, who should be, and who are, genuinely concerned about the welfare of our co-workers, and neighbors, and family and friends, that they would know and love Jesus Christ. Franklin Graham, the evangelist said, the key, one of the keys to evangelism is taking your finger as it were, and rubbing it around the inside of the rim of the cup of their lives, and trying to find the places where sin has left its cracks and that's the place where the gospel can begin to work in people's lives. But psychotherapy stands as a direct challenge to the spiritual healing ministry of Jesus Christ and the Gospel.

Remember that Jesus said in Luke 5:31-32, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." That's the essence of the healing that Jesus has come to bring. That's the essence of what the Gospel does, it bring sinners to repentance, to a healed relationship with God and therefore with one another.

A History Lesson on Psychology

Now, psychology over the last 100 years has gone through some interesting twists and turns. It started with Sigmund Freud in his office in Vienna, and he wrote a book on the interpretation of dreams and that started the modern psychotherapy revolution. His basic ideas were that the key to psychosis, mental illness, is what happened to you in the past and many of the most significant issues that happened to you in the past, lie repressed in your memory. Sometimes it comes out in dreams or under hypnotism or other things, but the key is what happened to you in your past. Perhaps your mother was too protective or your father was too harsh, or there was a school bully that beat up on you and abused you in some way. And the purpose of counseling then, is to dredge up these past memories and to deal with them. In recent years, we've heard more and more about these repressed lives and repressed memories, and they're these thoughts that come out that get incredibly bizarre and challenge the way people even see reality. Tales of satanic ritual abuse, and there's no historical evidence that any of it happened but these repressed memories and it's all part of the Freudian approach to healing, bringing out those secret memories.

And if you could just understand them then you could be healed. Now, many of Freud's theories actually showed more about him than they do about the true nature of man. Some of his own psychosis and perversions come out as you study his approach. However, I'll say this, for all the attacks on Freud, his basic ideas still remain and are pervasive in our culture. Man is not responsible. Guilt is imaginary. The key to therapy is digging up the past. These things are still with us. Now, after Freud, came other schools of counseling, like BF Skinner for example. The behaviorist model, the idea there is that man is totally conditioned by external training, by circumstances, by positive and negative reinforcement. To understand behavior, you have to understand the environment that shaped it. To change behavior, you have to change the environment, re-train the mind. So therefore, man is nothing more than a machine to be programmed. And if we're going to see a difference in behavior we've got to change the programming. That's BF Skinner.

Then there is Carl Rogers who came up with this reflection approach to counseling. "Human beings," said Rogers, "are basically good and like all living creatures, they will try always to make the best of their existences. Evolution has given us everything we need for being all that we can be." A counselor's job according to Rogers then is to help the person find their own solutions to the problems that they face. The idea is that they know themselves and their situations far better than the counselor ever could or would, therefore, the counselor's job is simply to reflect back to the counsel-ee, their own feelings and their own thoughts. The goal is to help the person reach their own highest potential. And so the counseling session involves the counselor simply repeating back to the person what they're saying. Like a mirror. So it would go something like this.

"So you're saying that you'd really like to quit your job, but you're afraid of the consequences." Or, "you feel that your husband doesn't appreciate you the way that he should," or “it seems to me you feel like you wish your son would be a little more responsible," or "you feel like you're on a roller coaster, going up and down, and there's no way to get off." Listen, if you ever come to me and I start doing that sort of stuff, just slap me. Okay. I'm going to cut right to the heart of the matter, alright. That's called reflection. Okay. The key question in this kind of counseling is, "How does that make you feel?" So we're trained to ask that question over and over. How does that make you feel? And so we write down how it makes the person feel and at some point, after 14 years of counseling they'll stumble upon the solution that was embedded in their own heart and lives, all along.

Twenty-first century counseling: widespread chaos

I was reading one particular author, Dr. Arthur Janov who was a secular counselor, and he's analyzing his field of expertise, he's not a Christian, but he's analyzing the field so that he can lay it waste and bring his own counseling approach as the primal one, the central one. But his analysis, I think, is mostly accurate about the field of psychotherapy in America today. He said this. "In no other area of medicine is there such disagreement about the nature of a disease, what its symptoms are, how it manifests itself, not to mention its causes. In short, the field of psychotherapy today is nothing less than chaotic." He went on to talk about the whole different ranges of approaches that psychotherapists are using to try to heal people. He talked about obviously prescribing drugs, using hypnotism, analyzing guilt into oblivion, acting out kind of therapies like gestalt, where you get to act out what you're really thinking and feeling. Or using mild shock treatment, re-training people to think differently about their actions and to redefine them. Biofeedback therapy, day dreaming and image therapies. And what Janov says, as he looks at all of these things is that none of them, not one treats the genuine causes of neuroses, they only ever treat the symptoms.

Well, the sad thing is that the Christian church is kind of imitating these types of approaches in what it's called, what is called Christian counseling. And I'm going to make a distinction, this morning between Christian counseling and Biblical Counseling. Not all Christian counseling is biblical. You can get a lot of Christian counseling that's not biblical at all. Now, my training at Gordon-Conwell an Evangelical seminary in Massachusetts was essentially Carl Rogers mirroring techniques with a thin veneer of Christianity painted over the top. And I mean a really thin veneer. I took that book, it was sitting on my shelf. It's been sitting there for the last eight years. I hadn't looked at it once, and good thing too. It wouldn't have help me at all.

But I took it down and I skimmed it very, very carefully, and I did not find anywhere, a single Scripture quote in over 250 pages. Practical Psychology for Pastors is the name of the volume. It was written for the Christian pastor, but there's no scripture, there was a whole chapter on dealing with anger and anxiety. I can think of a couple Bible verses that might help. Not one of them were quoted. This is how I was trained to do counseling, in my seminary. It was a good seminary. Biblical in every other way, but in this one way it wasn't. And we were told that in our counseling sessions, we should refrain from doing any of the following with the people who come. We should refrain from ordering, directing or commanding, warning or threatening, giving advice, making suggestions, providing solutions, persuading with logic, arguing or lecturing, moralizing, preaching, telling them their duty, judging, criticizing, disagreeing, blaming, agreeing, approving, praising, shaming, ridiculing, name-calling, interpreting or analyzing, reassuring or sympathizing, consoling, questioning, probing, withdrawing, distracting or changing the subject. Now, you may be wondering with me, what's left for me to do? I think I ought to just buy a big mirror, and set it up in front of the person and they can talk to themselves because that's all I'm doing.

"So you feel that such and such etcetera." Obviously some of those things I would never want to do, but others, it seems that's exactly why they've come to me that they would have some insight and know what to do. In this approach, when the time came to give solutions, the basic role was to help them solve their own problems. Christian counseling all over the country, is often very little more than worldly counseling. One of the insights I gained from going to a counseling and Biblical Counseling seminar in the last year, is that the basic approach of secular counseling, the basic premise is, that the heart of man is essentially good and the problems are on the outside, therefore all the problems come from outside, and the solutions all come from inside. Brothers and sisters, you know, the Bible teaches the exact opposite, the problems come from inside, and the solutions come from the outside, a Savior named Jesus Christ. The Word of God that comes from the outside in and gives us good counsel. That is a significant insight I believe.

Now, one of the problems with counseling with the Christian counseling, is that pastors are told and Christians are told even more, that they are not qualified to solve these kinds of problems, and they should refer people as quickly as possible to trained professionals. Now, in 1970, a man named J. Adams, brought a radical revolution to this whole approach with a book entitled Competent to Counsel. He got his title from the verse that I'm preaching on this morning, Competent to Counsel, brought about a revolution and something he called Nouthetic Counseling. Now, I'm going to define Nouthetic Counseling for you in the sermon this morning. But basically, it has to do with Biblical Counseling. The basic premise is that the Bible is sufficient to solve people's problems, it is sufficient for the cure of souls. His ground-breaking work has led many to call Jay Adams the father of Biblical Counseling. Five years after the first publishing of Competent to Counsel, he started a ministry that we know as NANC. 1975 National Association of Nouthetic Counselors.

And the center piece of NANC is that the Bible is sufficient for the counseling needs of God's people, and that God's people completing goodness and knowledge are themselves Competent to Counsel.

The Bible is sufficient, the people of God, fully trained are competent to administer those treatments. And the key verse on Christian counseling is Romans 15:14. Look at it with me, if you would. And there it says, "I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and competent to counsel, one another." So we live in a world surrounded by people who need good counsel. The second point I want to make to you this morning is that the church is competent to give that good counsel. The two fundamental doubts of secular psychology is number one, the insufficiency of scripture for the cure of souls and number two, the incompetence of common Christians for the cure of souls. Those are the two basic assumptions. Sadly, the Church acts like it agrees with these basic premises. More and more psychology is weaving its way into ministry. More and more pastors get up and preach, not so much the text, but they preach psychology to the people.

So also in pastoral counseling, and in actual Christian counseling, there's very little Biblical wisdom or insight given to people who need it so much. And so the church acts like most problems of the soul can only be solved by trained psychiatrists or at least by professional counselors. So therefore, assuming that most serious problems will have to be solved by medications anyway, and buying into the presuppositions that the Bible is insufficient to solve human problems, and afraid of getting sued, and in awe of secular degrees, PhDs and all that in highfalutin terms like obsessive-compulsive disorder, and transference and blocking and all these kinds of things, and fear of the commitment, that it will take to really get down and dirty in somebody's life and try to help them grow through very troubling sin problems. For all these reasons, and some others, the church abandons its ministry of curing souls and leaves it to the trained professionals who are not for the most part, using the Bible to do it.

But let's understand a fundamental thing. Psychology is literally the study of the human soul, that's what the word means, it's the science of the soul. And my friends, if this Bible is not sufficient for that, then what was it given to us for. The Bible is sufficient to study and analyze and cure the human soul from its sin problems. Amen. And so I believe the fundamental conviction as Christians, we have to have is the answers are found in this book. Let's try to find what they are.

Paul’s Context: The Roman Church

Now Paul's context we already know, he's writing to the Roman church. He's well-acquainted with their faith. He'd never visited them before. He doesn't know them personally. But he says in Romans 1:8, "First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world." They were a very famous local church because they were there in the heart of the capital of the Roman empire. Now, Paul has completed over 14 chapters of doctrine and exhortation. He's in his 15th chapter now.

And Paul's assessment of them in verse 14, is he says, "I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers that you yourselves are full of goodness, and filled with all knowledge, competent to counsel one another." He's persuaded, he's satisfied about them, he's investigated their conversion and their spiritual growth since they were converted. He is convinced about the statement he's about to make, Therefore, I say to you that it's not a given that every Christian is competent to counsel, not in the way the Paul means in this verse. He had to be persuaded or convinced that they were competent to counsel. But I also believe that every Christian could be competent to counsel other Christians on these matters.

Now, Paul gives two criteria for competency in counseling. Notice neither one of them talks about a degree from an accredited higher institution. He says, "I'm convinced that you yourselves my brothers are full of goodness, and filled with all kinds of knowledge." Full of goodness, filled with knowledge. That's the criteria that he gives.

1) Full of Goodness

Now first, full of goodness. Now, I said already, the essential problem of Freud and Skinner and especially Carl Rogers is that they're coming at it from a perspective of the basic goodness of the human heart, basic goodness of the human heart. Well we've already had our basic anthropology, back in Romans chapter 3. Romans 3 told us, "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned away, they have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one." In this Jesus already established, very plainly, when the rich young ruler came to him, and said, "Good teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" Jesus picks up on this word good. He said, "Why do you ask me about what is good? No one is good but God alone." That's Jesus assessment of the human race So, how did the Roman Christians get to be full of goodness? Now that's a very fascinating question, isn't it? If Romans 3 is true, that, there's no one naturally righteous, no one who seeks God, all have together turned aside and there's no one who does good, not even one. Then how is it that now he's making the statement that they're full of goodness?

Well, I say to you this, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to make wicked sinners good. Isn't that awesome? The Gospel has the power to make evil people good. The blood of Jesus Christ has that kind of power. And so, in Ephesians 5:8-9, it says, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light. For the food of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth and find out what pleases the Lord." We were, apart from Christ, darkness, but having come to the gospel, believing that Jesus's death on the cross, his blood was shed for us, having faith in Christ, we were cleansed of all of our sins, the righteousness of Jesus Christ was imputed to us and we were made good in the sight of God.

But Paul goes beyond that. Not just good positionally, he says, "You are filled with goodness, full of goodness." Now, that's a different matter. It's built on the foundation of the imputed or given goodness that we receive by faith in Christ. But then there's a building on that goodness, it's what we call sanctification. And so by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become more and more filled with goodness, as it says in Galatians 5:22, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control." Goodness then is something that the Holy Spirit works in us by His power as we grow gradually and become more and more like Jesus. And so we can actually be full of goodness.

Now, my question in the matter of counseling is, "Why is it important, essential even, to be full of goodness?" Well, true counseling must involve a genuine love for the person you're ministering to. You have to genuinely love them. You're trying to help them, it's a genuine commitment to their well-being. Without genuine goodness ulterior motives could pollute the counseling session. For example, some counselors, secular counselors charge as much as $135 an hour, for the counseling session. Is there not a temptation for that kind of money to string the person on for 15 years? We're making real progress. Keep on coming we'll see again, Tuesday, 3 o'clock in the afternoon, $135 a week. What a temptation that is, but if you're full of goodness, you're not into that. You want to see them genuinely move past these sins, put them to death, by the power of the Spirit, see triumph and victory in their lives. Full of goodness is essential to good Biblical Counseling.

2) Filled With Knowledge

Secondly, he says filled with all knowledge. Literally, it says, Having been fulfilled with all knowledge. It's a strong statement of their full training having been completed. They are fully trained as Christians. Now, we're not talking about omniscience. You don't have to know every single Biblical doctrine, it's not that, but rather you are fully trained. Jesus talked about that, "No student is greater than his master, but when he is fully trained it is enough for the student to be like the master." So there is a point of being fully trained, and he says "You Roman Christians you're fully trained." Now, this implies a full training in Christian doctrine, a knowledge of the deep things of God. Well, how does that happen?

Well, no one is born again into the Christian faith having full knowledge. Basically you subject your mind constantly to the renewing influences of the Word of God. You sit under a good preaching or teaching ministry. You imbibe as much of the scriptures as you can. You saturate your mind in the Word of God, and over time you can reach a level where the Apostle Paul might say about you, "You are filled with all kinds of knowledge."

Now, why is it essential to be filled with knowledge in order to be competent to council? Well, let me tell you something. If you're just going to do Rogers reflection, you don't need to be filled with anything. You actually kind of need empty yourself and forget about yourself and just reflect back constantly. And that's the allure of it, it seems so Christian, it seems so other-centered. You don't have an opinion in the world, you don't have a thought about anything, you're just reflecting back what they're saying. But I say to you, the people who are desperate for wisdom and counsel, they need to know what the Word of God says about their situation, and they don't.

Maybe a Christian couple, a husband and wife want to know how to have a godly marriage after perhaps each of their families were divorced and they grew up in homes that were not filled with Christian influence. And they don't know how to do it and they're running into some problems now with conflicts and they don't know how to resolve conflicts. Or someone else is struggling with habitual lust through internet pornography. Or somebody else is battling depression in their daily walk, perhaps they've even toyed with thoughts of suicide, though they know it's a sin, but they're just discouraged, they're depressed.

Somebody else wants to know how to discipline their children so that they can grow in grace and they can be fruitful, productive Christians, when they're done being trained. Maybe somebody else is battling laziness and procrastination. Or maybe a wife is married to a non-Christian husband and he neglects her, mocks her faith. Or another person has an alcoholic family member and they want to intervene in some way and help them break their sin pattern. This and 100 other cases come into the life of the church and those folks, they don't just need reflection. They need to know what the Bible says about those situations. The Scripture says very, very plainly that everything we need for life and godliness has been made known to us by the Word of God, by the promises of God. 2 Peter 1 says that. The Bible is sufficient to handle every sin and character case we could ever face in life, the Bible is sufficient for all of it. But you need to be full of knowledge in order to wield the sword of the Spirit, well, skillfully to know which verses to apply to which situation full of knowledge is essential. And as a result, we are competent to counsel one another. Paul's phrase is able or powerful or competent, qualified perhaps, a sense that we have this ability then to counsel one another.

Well, thirdly, how should we define good counsel? Here we've left out one word, and it's the word noutheteo. It's from that word that we get the nouthetic and National Association of Nouthetic Counselors. Now, the word nouthetic is odd to everybody. You shouldn't look at it and say, "That's an odd word. I guess I'm not used to those kind of words." I think that Jay Adams specifically wanted to retain the word so that we could bump into the concept and try to understand what noutheteo means. It's a Greek word, and it's made up of two smaller Greek words. Nous meaning the mind and Tithemi meaning to put or place It has to do with putting something into the mind of another person, making them mindful of something.

And the basic premise of this kind of counseling is that the mind leads and the life, the body, follows where the mind goes. It is bad thinking that leads to bad living. If you want to live differently, you have to change the mind. The Biblical word for the change of mind, is repentance, and by repentance, we can change the way that we're living. That's the basic premise of Nouthetic Counseling. Jay Adams frequently translated the word, to confront nouthetically. The basic idea here is that of warning or admonition. A sense of a serious word given in a serious situation. Paul uses the word in Acts 20:31, that's his final address to the Ephesian elders. Very serious and somber moment, and he's got the leaders of this local church around and He says to them. "So, be on your guard. Remember that for three years, I never stopped warning each of you, night and day, with tears." With tears, warning them for three years, night and day. Noutheteo. Note the passion, note the love, note the sense of warning Be on your guard against false teachers who are going to come in your midst, like ravenous wolves, not sparing the flock. He's warning them, warning them about the danger of sin.

A second use we see in 1 Corinthians 4. The Corinthian Church was, in their own minds anyways, upwardly mobile. Trying to get better and better off in the world. Thinking... Having all their neighbors and their family and everybody think better and better of them, going up. But as they're going up, they're passing the apostles who were going down, like Jesus, down, becoming more humble, more rejected by the world. Paul says it seems to me that we're the off-scouring of the scum of the earth. But look at you, you're getting better and better. And so he writes very poignantly in 1 Corinthians 4, trying to show them how they're not thinking properly, about their lives in this world. And so he writes this, after all of that, he says, "I'm not writing this to shame you but to warn you as my dear children…" Again the affection, a sense of danger for them that they're not seeing the Christian life properly.

Or again in Colossians 1:28. Paul says this really sums up his whole ministry. "We proclaim Him, admonishing [there's the word] and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ." This is both Christian and non-Christian. There's a sense of warning somebody based on the gospel and then continuing to warn and admonish in an ongoing sense.

And then fourth, Paul says we should be doing this for each other all the time. In Colossians 3:16 he says, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom." So we're supposed to be doing this for each other. This noutheteo, we're supposed to be noutheticing each other all the... Is that the right word? I don't know, noutheing each other. We're supposed to be nouthetically confronting one another all the time. There are many other uses of the word but I've given you those four to give you a sense of what the word means? Let's sum up the Biblical evidence then. Good Counsel is Nouthetic Counseling and it involves a loving concern, like a father for children or like a brother for another brother.

It definitely involves a sense of danger or warning. Now, you might say, "Why do we need a warning? Everything's fine in my life." Do you realize you have two mortal enemies of your soul outside of you and one mortal enemy of your soul inside of you? The two outside of you are the world's system, and Satan who runs it. The mortal enemy inside of you is called your flesh or your sin nature, which is actually attracted to that stuff out there. You are in great danger and so am I. And we will be as long as we live in the tent of this body. And so we need to be warned, we need to be protected from our own sin and from the sins of others and therefore, we have to be admonished by the Word of God.

Now, Jay Adams gave three aspects of Nouthetic Counseling. First, there's a problem to be solved, there's a problem that needs to be solved. Second, the problem is solved by verbal means. Now, I'm not going to talk this morning about the role of medications in all this. I think the human mind, the brain is incredibly complex. There are brain chemical issues and all that, but let me tell you something, no sin issue in life was ever solved that way.

Even if medications were used in a way that would please the Lord, it's to clear the space, so that the Word of God can then deal with the sin problem in the person's life. It's not chemicals that solve sin problems, it's repentance and the blood of Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Word of God, that's what solves sin problems. So there is a problem to be solved. Secondly, the problem is solved by verbal means. And the third is that the purpose of the counseling is to benefit the counselee. Now there's Nouthetic Counseling, that either does go on or doesn't go on in the Bible. Adams sites the example of Nathan. One of the most courageous men in Biblical history went to face David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Bathsheba's husband to cover up his adultery, and then a year later, he's still sitting in his sin, and Nathan comes and tells a parable that draws him in to the point where he is very upset, and then Nathan points a finger and says, "You are the man." He's confronting him, nouthetically.

And then there's Eli who had sons that were sinning wickedly. They were priests in the priestly family, and he never confronted them. Finally, when it was too late, in 1 Samuel 2:23, he says to his sons, "Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours?"

Nouthetic Counseling has much more to do with what than it does with why. Have any of you parents ever asked your kids, "Why did you do it?" And then listened to what came back. There is no possible answer. You can try for years and you'll never figure out the why questions. We already know the answer to the why question. Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that's why. We don't need to plumb the depths of why. Instead Nouthetic Counseling focuses on what. What happened? Remember how God said to Cain concerning his brother Able, "What have you done? What have you done?"

Nouthetic Counseling starts there. What have you done? What problem is in your life? What approach have you taken to solving it? What does God's Word say about this? You see it focuses on the what, not on the why. And the purpose of the counseling is to benefit the counselee.

Fourthly, I say to you based on this text, that all Christians can and should grow in their competency to counseling. I already said, not every Christian is fully competent to counsel. Paul had to become convinced, or persuaded that the Roman Christians were full of goodness, complete in knowledge and thus, competent to counsel one another. It's not automatic. Some Christians make very little progress in their sanctification over decades and decades of church attendance. They would not necessarily be competent to counsel. But others make remarkable progress in even short amounts of time and they are full of goodness, and complete in knowledge and therefore competent to counsel. Now I think that any Christian, spirit-filled Christian is more competent to counsel, than any non-Christian on most issues. Just the basic knowledge of scripture that you have is better than some worldly philosophy that's going to screw you up.

But I believe every Christian should become more fully competent to counsel than we are presently. We can keep growing, we can keep moving and there's proof from the text. Look at Verse 15. Paul, look at his train of thought. He says they are already full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to counsel one another. But verse 15, KJV gives us, "Nevertheless, on some points I've written you very boldly by way of reminder." You see? So even a congregation that is competent to counsel, can still get more training or be reminded, be further sharpened in their ability to counsel their brothers and sisters in Christ. And so he wrote the book of Romans. And so now you're more competent or more trained than you were before you read Romans. So there's ongoing counseling training needed for all Christians. The fifth point I want to make to you this morning is that Biblical Counseling is essential to the two infinite journeys that God has set before each Christian and before this church. The two infinite journeys are the center piece of our ministry here. The internal journey of growth to become more and more like Jesus Christ, that's called sanctification, that's an infinite journey, because it takes infinite power to do it

The second infinite journey, is worldwide disciple making based on the great commission, "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded." Do you see how Nouthetic Counseling fits into both? How would you prepare yourself to become a better counselor except by immersing yourself in the Word of God and growing in your own goodness and in your love for others who are hurting and who need you to do it. That will help you to grow as a Christian. It'll help other people to grow as they get the good counsel from you. It also helps you when you're having problems that you could go seek some good counsel and get over your problems too. It helps the internal journey. It also is fundamental to the external journey. Paul said, "I wrote you about these things because I was given the grace of God to be a minister of Christ Jesus so that I could present the Gentiles perfect before the throne."

And so, therefore, I want you to admonish one another. I want you to train one another, I want you to use the Word of God to help each other through sin problems, so that we can finish the worldwide mission among the Gentiles. And so, I say that Nouthetic Counseling, Biblical Counseling is essential to the internal journey of becoming more and more like Jesus and the external journey of worldwide evangelization. Let me speak very practically. We have a community of people all around us who need to be reached with the gospel. We can do a number of things, but I'll tell you this, if we had a developed healthy, strong Biblical Counseling ministry and we offered Biblical Counseling to people for free and urged them to come and get Biblical solutions to their problems, I think we might see a river of people getting baptized here as they came to realize, they never come to faith in Christ at all. They don't have any foundation. And so along with the counseling these folks give the Gospel and we're going to see people saved, it's already happening in local churches around this country as they see a Biblical Counseling model even to evangelism and outreach.

Now, what application can we take from this text for ourselves? Well, first, I hope it's already happened this morning.

Understand Biblical Counseling

I'd like you to understand the difference between Biblical Counseling and Christian counseling. Not all Christian counseling is Biblical Counseling. So therefore, I hope you understand, Nouthetic Counseling and what it means. What Biblical Counseling, that's the first application, understand Biblical Counseling. It is the basic idea that the Bible is sufficient to solve people's sin problems.

Seek Biblical Counseling As Needed

Secondly, can I exhort you to be discerning from this sermon time on, to never again settle for anything less than Biblical Counseling? If you're sitting down with a counselor, and they're not opening the Word of God with you, they're not sharing from the Word of God, they are not going to help you ultimately. So therefore seek nothing less than Biblical Counseling for your own counseling needs.

Get Trained!

Thirdly, can I urge you to get trained yourself in Biblical Counseling. I would urge you to consider the NANC Conference is coming up three times in this fall, September 8th and 9th. It's not too late, it's not too late for you to go. And what you're going to find there is a whole world opening up to you that shows the practical application of the Word of God in everyday issues that people face. That maybe even you're facing right now in your life. So, get trained.

Use the Word of God to Solve Problems for Friends, Co-Workers

Fourth used the Word of God, then to help solve problems for the friends and family and people around you in your life. Assume that the Word of God has the solution and minister the Word of God in their lives. Do it with your co-workers, people are going to open up to you be available to that. And then start showing them how the Word of God can be brought to bear on the problems of their lives. Yearn to be a Biblical counselor, a fully-trained competent to counsel, man or woman here in this church, so that you can use your wisdom to minister to men and women as they have needs.

Pray for a Developed Biblical Counseling Ministry Here at FBC

Fifth, pray for a developed Biblical Counseling Ministry here at FBC. It's going to take time. The vision I have for using counseling as an outreach tool in this community is going to take years and years to see it come to full fruition, but no time like the present. Let's start now, let's start this September, let's start with some of the training that Scott Markle and others are going to be doing on Wednesday evenings. Biblical training, be part of that. Say I want to be trained, I want to learn how to use the Bible to help people.

Pray for Evangelistic Fruit

And then finally pray for evangelistic fruit, as a result of all this. Wouldn't it be exciting to see people brought to faith in Christ that way? See them get up in the baptismal area and just say, "This is what God's done in my life, my whole life, has changed. I came to realize that I didn't know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Everything has changed. Thank God for Jesus. Thank God for the Gospel and for the Word that has the power to change lives." Oh, I want to hear those testimonies. Pray for evangelistic fruit. And if you're here today and you've never given your life to Christ, Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor, he's the one that gives the good advice through the Word and through other believers. Come to faith in Christ. Trust in him, that his blood is sufficient for your sins. That's why he came. "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Close with me in prayer please.