Our text words this morning will be from Romans 16, verses 1-16 that our brother Ward just read. And it is a bittersweet day today for me and my family, as this is my farewell sermon to you, our beloved congregation, as you have voted last Lord's Day as a congregation to officially send me to Oklahoma to plant a church. And I bring you encouragement from the work there that has continued to grow more quickly and in ways that we did not anticipate. We didn't anticipate needing to go this soon, but the Lord has brought things together in an amazing and encouraging way. And today, I hope to encourage you and the Lord We thank God for you and all that you've done for us. We could never express adequately in words. Our theme today from this text is simply this, a roll call of faithful saints. A roll call of faithful saints. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we praise and honor and worship you. who from before the foundation of the world chose a people in Christ, and that in time Christ came in His incarnation and purchased that people. And by the power of the Spirit poured out from the Father's right hand on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit that proceeds from the Father and the Son, you are bringing about the salvation of all your elect. You're raising up churches of Christ throughout the world, even to the end of the age. We thank You for the promise of Christ our Lord who said, as we go forth baptizing and teaching all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit that our Lord promises, I am with you always to the end of the age. We thank You for this church of Christ here in Mansfield that You raised up back in the early 1980's and that You've sustained through all these years. and now who has planted one other church in Georgetown and now is endeavoring to plant another church in Oklahoma out of this church. Oh God, we give you all the glory and all the praise. We pray for the continued blessing of God upon this church, upon its ministry, upon its deacons, and upon every member. We pray that you would sustain and protect it. We pray that it may plant many, many more churches and invest itself further in world missions and the work of the gospel. And we pray now, oh God, would you bless the preaching of the word to the strengthening and help of your people and to the salvation of sinners, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. When you watch documentaries that do interviews of combat veterans, You'll notice something in common with nearly all of those interviews. You'll find that when the interviewer asks the combat veteran about their experience in war, most of what they talk about is the fellow soldiers that they served alongside and the heroic and self-sacrificing deeds of those comrades that they knew. That's what's impressed upon their soul. Many times it's men that they knew that didn't make it back from combat because they died in action. In one World War II documentary, they're interviewing a soldier who had served in the Pacific Theater. And he told of a comrade of his, Tony Stein, who was a U.S. Marine Corps corporal. And there, in that fierce battle at Iwo Jima, as the U.S. Marines were trying to take the hill and trying to establish a beachhead there, there was that corporal, Tony Stein, who had grabbed a heavy machine gun that was meant to be mounted on an aircraft, but he was so strong he carried that big heavy machine gun. And he would run straight into the face of those enemy positions, those concrete pillboxes, and would take out that enemy position on his own at great risk of his own life. He would run out of ammo and then run all the way back down to the beach to grab more ammo and then run back. And he said that he saw Tony running by barefooted. He'd taken off his boots so he could move faster. And eight times that day, Corporal Tony Stein ran up and down and up and down and up and down that hill. for the sake of his men and to fulfill the objective that he had to take those enemy positions. He's 23 years old, and just about a month later, he fell in combat. Was rewarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service. Those are the kind of stories you hear when they interview combat veterans. The amazing and self-sacrificing soldiers that they served alongside. That's what influences them. That's what sticks with them all these years later. And you'll see those men with tears running down their face as they recollect and they remember the deeds of those comrades. Well, that's how Apostle Paul felt when he thought about these believers. Over 30 different people that he names here as he's longing to go preach to them in Rome and he thinks about them and their service to the Lord with him in the Kingdom of God. And out of the three different basic kinds of speech that you could give, you could give a persuasive speech where you're seeking to persuade the audience of a certain doctrine or practice. You find Paul doing this all the time in his letters. You could give what some call an enabling speech, which is to show them how they are to do a certain thing. You find that in Paul. But there's a third kind of speech that Paul is doing here in this section of the letter, and that is one of praiseworthiness. He is praising And he is glorifying the fateful deeds of the audience that he's writing to. When I think of you, dear believers here at Heritage, the pastors and deacons and all the members, I think of you in the way that Paul thinks of these Roman saints here. You brought me and my family here nearly four years ago. for me to study in seminary and to serve in a pastoral internship here and then brought me on as an elder nearly a year ago. You've poured finances. You have taken risk for us. You have labored and worked and served diligently, not only toward us, but we've witnessed as you have served one another and loved one another and remained in unity with one another. We've learned so much from you and from the time of training here in seminary, I could never even put it into words, how much more we feel like we're on a solid foundation now going back to do church planting again. And not just what you have given us, but what you remain to give us in your unity and support as a congregation, standing behind us as we go to another place so that others may have the blessed, robust means of grace that God has blessed us with here. So I want to take this speech of Paul, this section of this letter where he is praising And He is giving thanksgiving, and He's giving attention, and He's giving memorial to these saints. You find a similar thing when King David passed away. In the Old Testament, there is a long recording inspired of the Holy Spirit and included in Scripture that names His mighty men, it names their heroic deeds. You might feel like you're forgotten or people don't notice what you do. Maybe you grow discouraged in what you do. God notices what you do. God has recorded these things in Holy Scripture, and He is recording your works, dear believers, and He will rehearse them before the whole world at the end time, at the last day, at the final judgment, to show forth the very righteousness of Christ that He is working in you and through you by His Spirit. Now Paul is writing this letter. to the church at Rome. He hasn't been there and preached yet. He's telling them, I long to come and preach the gospel. I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are at Rome also. So if he hasn't been there, how does he know all these believers that he's naming? Well, history tells us most likely what is the scenario that the Roman Emperor Claudius, about 49 AD, had banished all the Jews from the city of Rome because he said they were stirring up controversy over a man named Crestus. In all likelihood, he had misunderstood what he meant was Christ, Jesus Christ, because the unbelieving Jews kept stirring up mobs and controversy and rallying to the government to try to get something done about these Christian Jews. This is probably the controversy. Banished them for five years out of the city of Rome. And Paul, during his travels across the empire, preaching the gospel and planting churches and visiting other churches, would have met these believers. And some of them may have been converted under his ministry. At least one of them definitely was. Well, after about five years, Claudius was no longer in power, and Emperor Nero came to power, and he allowed the Jews to come back into the city of Rome. So all these Jewish believers, and some of them Gentile, that had been out, and Paul had met them in different parts of the empire, now they come back to Rome, to the church of Rome, and it's the occasion that Paul is writing this book to give them the unity and doctrine and practice that they need to function together as a Jewish and Gentile congregation at Rome. Dear believers, there's truth recorded here for us in these inspired scriptures that will help you as a believer to understand who you are in Christ and to help you understand the way that Christ is reflecting His own beauty and glory in and through you as a church. how God commends you for the way that you are reflecting Christ's glory and beauty, how that He reproves and rebukes us to grow and to press on further in growing in these ways, and to take hope of the final glory and the reward that is ahead of you. So with this in mind, I want to give you this roll call of faithful saints. We'll see four different basic categories. and reasons for Paul to give thanks and to heap praise upon the members of this congregation whom he knows. First of all, this is a roll call of faithful saints. And here at Heritage is a roll call of faithful saints, first, because of your labors in Christ. Because of your labors in Christ. I can't help but think about when I think about this church. I think about all the times that I've seen. And I've heard of you. And you know who you are as individuals. You know who you are that work together as teams behind the scenes to labor and to work for the kingdom of God. And for the good of this church and not only the work that has to be done here, but. Those of you who labor in your job. You work and you toil. And part of your motivation of getting up and going to work in the morning is not just to provide for yourself and your family, but that you may have to help those in need through benevolence here or in the offerings to sustain the ministry of this church or the ministry in Cuba and those around the world that you support through missions. This is a church that is marked by its labor in Christ. And I commend every one of you that are engaged in this, and I commend also you as a diaconate, you deacons here, are such an example to all of us, an example to other churches elsewhere. God has greatly gifted and graced and helped you in this. And in these labors, we see a number of different descriptions that Paul gives. In verse 1, he says, I commend to you Phoebe, our sister. This is likely the one carrying the letter to the saints at Rome. Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Sancria, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you, for indeed she has been a helper of many, and of myself also. You're a roll call of faithful saints because of your labors in Christ, helping labors like Phoebe. Her name means bright or radiant. And she, like some of these others, her name is affiliated with the pagan Greek gods. This is a testimony to God's grace of saving them out of that dark background and into the Christian faith, but they still bore the name that they were given at birth. Her name means bright and radiant and, oh, dear sisters, those of you individuals who have labored in tedious work and serving others for our congregation, for home visits to the sick and taking food, for our association meetings here, for the seminary that we host here. What a bright and a radiant beauty is Yours in Christ. Christ's own glory reflects forth from You. And when I think of Your face, Think of what they said about Stephen's face being like the face of an angel as he reflected the glory of God like those angels do around the throne. What a beautiful thing this is. Your labors in Christ are not only helping labors and helping others, being a servant to others, but they're faith-filled labors. You might say risky labors. In verses 3-4, he greets Priscilla and Aquila, that husband and wife team. You always hear of them together. You always see them together. And what a beautiful and wonderful thing. You couples who have been married for decades and you've stuck together and you can't think of one without thinking of the other. And you're in the yoke together serving Christ alongside one another. This is what they were doing. He says of them in verse 3, My fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles likewise greet the church that is in their house." Priscilla and Aquila in their co-labors with Paul as fellow laborers with him, he says they had risked their necks This may have been when persecution broke out under his ministry, and they also were in danger. But oh, I commend you, dear congregation here at Heritage. I commend you for the faith-filled risk that you've been willing to take through the years. You've been willing to invest in world missions when you had to give until it hurt. you've been willing to plant churches. And there's always a risk. When you sent out Brother Steve Garrick to go to Georgetown and plant that church, there was a risk that the church may not take off. It might just fizzle out over time. And then you've poured all the finances and you've sacrificed by sending one of your elders out to plant another church. You're taking risk now in sending me to Oklahoma City and in pouring all the finances that you've poured into that. But yet you're looking at this not as a business venture, but you're looking at it with the eyes of faith that Christ has promised His blessing and His presence with His church to the end of the age by His Spirit, and you take Him at His word, and you keep taking that risk and investing in something you cannot see the end of right now. Because as we sang in the 126th Psalm, you believe God's Word that He that goes forth sowing, bearing precious seed, will doubtless come again bringing His sheaves with Him. He'll come again rejoicing. I commend you for that willingness to take that risk. You took a risk by bringing me here from Oklahoma nearly four years ago, not knowing me very well, and the elders had Driven all the way up to Bowie time after time after time and met me halfway there at the Mexican restaurant. We would sit and talk for hours and that helped me work through doctrinal matters and practical matters when I was coming into the Reformed faith and trying to become a confessional Baptist. They took the risk to spend that time and to pour all of that energy and effort into me and my family and the work. We'll never forget it. We praise God for it. This is an act of faith. This is a faith-filled labor. And you're taking risk now in Oklahoma City with people who most of you have never met. But I wish you could see their faces. You know how we hear about today how dark Generation Z is, our current generation that's coming on. Those basically that are in their teens up to late 20s and how that it is the most anti-religious generation yet in American history. It's the largest proportion ever by far when they do the surveys asking their religion. They call them the nuns because they say none. A large percentage of them say we have no religious affiliation. You know all of the perversion and the downward spiral of our society with the gender perversion and the abortion industry and pornography and all of these abominations that have so astronomically and exponentially multiplied in this generation due to the use of technology that we've never had before. And you know the effect on this generation and all of the new high-powered drugs. Fentanyl killing people left and right. But I'll tell you there in Oklahoma City already, just after meeting there sporadically since June, We've got now at least five young families that are all Generation Z. They're on fire for the Lord and receiving God's truth. They're zealous for truth. They are gladly receiving the Word. I've preached there absolutely nothing but what we preach here and what I have preached here, and they're soaking it up. They're hanging on every word. They're receiving the Word gladly. They're staying for one to two hours after every service until we have to close the building, asking questions, deep, serious, doctrinal and practical questions, and fellowshipping one another, bonding with one another. The norm there across the religious world is for there to be shallow preaching that does not expound the Word, that is not Christ-centered preaching. It does not point them to Christ. And also the charismatic movement. Those are the norms among churches. And some of them have been starved and are so hungry for the Word and so appreciative of it. And I tell you that just to remind you that though you're taking risks right now and investing in this work, You might get to see these believers I'm telling you about, you might get to see them in the future. If you're able to travel there, they're able to travel here. But this is our ultimate hope, that you will see them in glory. And as your elders labor here to bring you to the fullness of eternal glory, that's their main objective is to present you to the Lord on that day, the great judgment day, and as a congregation, as you enter into glory and you know that God used the means of the preaching of the Word as the means of grace to make you persevere to glory. Oh, may you look on the faces of these whom you haven't even seen yet and enter into glory with them knowing that you had an investment, you had a part, you're willing to take the risk, you're willing to sow the seed like the faithful farmer and the seed may not grow, you may have a drought, you may have disease that hits that crop, but then again, God may give the rain and God may give the increase. And my hope is you'll enter into eternal glory with these beloved ones whom you haven't even yet met. It's a fateful labor. It costs something, it's risky. As we've already heard it last Lord's Day, as Pastor Vincent said, it hurts. Hurts for us to leave and it hurts for you, for us to leave you. It reminds me of the little girl. She always wondered why her mama wore gloves, and one day she climbed up on her mama's lap and said, mama, why do you always wear gloves? And her mama removed the gloves, and her hands were hideously scarred all over. She said, I wear these gloves to cover up my hands and all these scars on my hands. Because one day when you were a baby, the house caught on fire. And the only way that I could rescue you was to put my own hands in the fire to get through that door and to open the door and to grab you out of your crib. And now I wear these gloves to hide my ugly hands. And the little girl, they said, kissed her mother's hands and said, oh, mama, these are the most beautiful hands I've ever seen. Whatever hurt you experience now, whatever risk you experience, whatever self-sacrificing that you engage in, there'll come a day when you and others will acknowledge the very beauty of Christ that is manifest in and through you and your faith-filled labors. Your labors in Christ are multiplying labors. He said here of Priscilla and Aquila, not only does He give thanks to them, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. One faithful Christian husband and wife, by the grace of God, had had so much impact that all the Gentile churches across the Roman Empire knew about them and were grateful to them and were indebted to them. Glory to God. Those of you who invest in the seminary, labor in the seminary, those of you who invest in the preached word here, invest in the kingdom of God and missions and in the Cuba ministry, You never know how far-reaching of an impact that you are having and will have. Not only were all those churches, but specifically, he says, greet the church that is in their house. This one couple was so given to the work of God that they hosted an entire congregation in their own house. What a blessing. Keep hosting. Keep extending hospitality, you that do. You never know what kind of reach it will have. These were multiplying labors. They're generous labors. In verse 6, he says, greet Mary who labored much for us. Some of them he just says they labored, but about Mary he says she labored much. You who have given much time, much money, much work that's to be commended. These were partnering labors. In verse 9, he says as he did of Priscilla and Aquila, he says here of Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ. They got in the yoke alongside Paul and helped pull the load in the kingdom of God. You know they say that when you've got an ox in a yoke pulling a wagon, pulling a load, if you hook up a second ox in that yoke, what would you think? It doubles the pulling power? You got one ox, you get a second ox, it doubles the load he can pull? No, it triples the amount he can pull. Keep laboring together using the gifts God has given you in His kingdom in this partnering work. Your faith-filled labors or your labors in Christ are varying labors. In v. 12, he says, greet Trephina and Trephosa who have labored in the Lord. Greet the beloved Perses who labored much in the Lord. He could say more about Persis than he could Tryphena and Tryphosa. They labored, but this other lady labored much. And in this, there's a word for you that haven't yet labored much, that have just kind of taken it easy. And while others are cleaning up, or while others are stacking chairs, or others are working behind the scenes. Maybe you haven't really volunteered. Maybe you haven't really stepped up to help in the labor and the work. Maybe while others give sacrificially, you haven't really learned to give substantially yet. Maybe you've labored, but not much. There's a word for you in this. I encourage you to take the example of these more mature believers, and all they are doing is following the example of Christ. who infinitely above all our best labors labored for us and our salvation. And I encourage you to overcome, if you have tendencies, some of the stereotypes of our younger generations. I'm a millennial, and I know a lot of you young people here are Gen Z, those of you that are teens up to late 20s. What's one of the stereotypes of millennials in Gen Z? Snowflakes, right? Adversity comes, and we just melt away. Lazy, entitled, self-centered. We expect everything to be done for us. And while the old Gen Xers and Boomers are laboring and working, we're just kind of sitting back, taking it easy. We're out having me time. That's a stereotype of this generation, but not in Christ. In Christ, we overcome sinful stereotypes. These girls' names, Trifina and Trifosa, their names mean delicate and dainty. And if you have kids, you know how that there's always something about their name that reflects accurately on who they are. But here Paul says that Miss Delicate and Miss Dainty had labored in the Lord, learned to labor in the Lord. And for those of you who have labored much, you roll up your sleeves and work, you might even have a workaholic tendency. I encourage you don't look down on those that haven't learned to work as hard as you. And I encourage you, humble yourself to ask help of them and not just step in there and do it all on your own. And in all of these labors, all of your labors in Christ, the only reason they count for anything is because they are labors in Christ. And all you're doing, and all they were doing, was simply reflecting the glory of Christ who lives in you by His Spirit. And when you think of these labors, think of the labors of our Lord Jesus. Helping labors as He came in His incarnation to reach down and to help us, to come alongside us fallen sinners that could never reach up to God. And He comes alongside as our elder brother and not ashamed to call us brethren. We were without strength as Christ lives and dies for us. Think of His faith-filled labors, how that He not only took great risk, but He went to the cross knowing full well and embracing that death of all deaths, embracing the drinking down of the cup of the wrath of God for us, that infinite price that we could never pay. He assumed it all. He took it all upon Him as He became sin for us. What a multiplying labor our Lord Jesus gave Himself to. As Isaiah 53 tells us concerning His passion and His resurrection, that He shall see His seed and rejoice. He'll be satisfied. As through the labors of Christ, His life unto death labors, God is bringing many sons to glory. A number without number, including you, and including now those in Oklahoma. and many more yet to come by God's grace who He will bring into His Kingdom. How much more so if the Romans and if you have done generous labors in Christ, how much more so our Lord Jesus? who gave His all for us. He gave His own body to be broken and His blood to be poured out which you will partake of by faith in the Lord's Supper in a little while. How that He held nothing back. He poured out His soul unto death. Isaiah 53 told us. Think of His partnering labors. As Paul names these fellow workers in one text, he tells us that he's a fellow worker with God. And as you labor in the kingdom, Christ is there with you by His Spirit. He is working in and through you in all of your labors. And in these varying labors, as some believers labor, but some labor much, It reminds us for those of you that struggle with laziness or softness that Christ died for you just as much as He did for the most diligent worker on earth. And Christ is working in you just like He's working in the most diligent. Keep looking to Him. Keep growing in your labors. Keep seeking to put to death self-centeredness and giving over to comfort and laziness and put on diligent work in Christ, dear believers. For those of you who are diligently laboring, grow in this. Continue to grow in it. Continue to labor. And keep in your mind that final reward that is coming, the very reward of Christ that He by His labors has earned for you and now is letting you participate in by His grace. You're a roll call of fateful saints because of your labors in Christ. Secondly, because of your identity in Christ. Some of these people, he doesn't mention any work of theirs or any other distinctive. He just says they're in the Lord. Of one, he says that he's accepted in the Lord. This is the foundation of everything else you can say about us as Christians, is that we are in Christ, and without this, nothing else matters. And if there's not yet anything to really magnify about your works, even if that is the case, dear believer, if your works, if you've just been saved, not very long, Your fruits and works as a Christian are just tiny and just starting to grow. You know, like you go out to the apple tree, we have an apple tree in our backyard, and you see those tiny little apples starting to grow. It's going to be a while before they're ripe and ready to eat. Maybe you're not bearing really ripe fruit yet. You are bearing fruit, but you're just starting out. There's encouragement for you, too. Because you are in Christ who is producing that fruit. This is our identity as a church, our union with Christ. My heart was grieved the other day as I saw a church sign that had the name of the church and for their slogan it said, loving God and loving people. Now why would that grieve me? Isn't that true? Isn't that the two tables of the law? Love God with all your heart and then love your neighbor as yourself? Yes, it is. But that's exactly what troubles me, is it seems as though many churches identify themselves not by what God has done and is doing for them in Christ, but for what they're doing for God and what they're doing for others. If our focus is, if our identity is, oh, we love God and we love others, absolutely we're going to fail. We are not going to make it. But this is our identity. God loves us. And God has chosen us in Christ. Christ has redeemed us. Look at all God has done for us and is doing by His Spirit in us. And then only out of the overflow of that, only out of the blessing of our justification and our adoption and our union with Christ, only out of that can we love God and love neighbor. Christ and our union with Him is our identity and it's yours, dear saints of God. Theirs and your identity in Christ is that you're effectually called. He says in verse 5, likewise greet the church that is in their house. Greet my beloved Epinatis who is the firstfruits of Achaia. The firstfruits. The first convert in that entire region. Glory to God. I guarantee you, If you ask any preacher here, tell me about some of the first converts of your ministry, they'll be able to name names. And I guarantee you they have gone back in their memory over the years glorifying God and worshiping God when in their feebleness they went to the pulpit and in their weakness they preached Christ in a stammering way. And then God takes that Word and effectually works it into a heart. And next thing you know, this new believer is professing faith in Christ through their baptism. And then they're persevering in the faith. And they are the first fruits of your ministry. Or maybe you remember the first fruits of the church here. Or the church plant in Georgetown. Eponantis' name means praiseworthy, and this brings glory to God, and firstfruits always give the expectation this is the first and best of the crop, but it's just a foretaste of all that is to come when the rest of the harvest comes in. You have been effectually called. In your identity in Christ, you are also beloved. You're beloved to God because you're in His own beloved Son in whom He is well pleased, and you are beloved to the people of God. They might not appreciate you at work like they should. Your own blood kin might not appreciate you, but I guarantee you the family of God counts you as beloved as He tells in verse 8 and 9, greet Amplius, my beloved in the Lord. In verse 9, greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved Amplius' name means literally amplified. You might know a brother or sister, you might be a brother or sister like that that talks just a little bit too loud. Or maybe like they said of one young man who's really zealous, a really zealous Christian said, yeah, I guarantee you he'll make it to heaven if he doesn't run past it. But these were beloved to Paul and you are beloved to God's people and to God in Christ. Your identity in Christ is being approved in Christ. In verse 10, he says, Greet, Appellus, approved in Christ. Now we know we're approved in our status before God because of our justification that God has declared us righteous in Christ, imputed all our sins to Christ, and has imputed all of Christ's righteousness to us. We know we're approved in that way. But likely what Paul means here is that Apellas has been tested, he's endured the fiery trial, and he remains faithful, just like Paul told Timothy to study or to be diligent to show himself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed. This is the approval that Apellas had. This is an aspect of perseverance. You are still turning from sin. You're still trusting in Jesus Christ. After all the temptations, after all the battles of indwelling sins, after all the failures, after all of the trials and afflictions, and all of the attacks from Satan, you have been approved. You're approved in Christ. You have stood the test of the fiery trial and are still persevering. And you will persevere to glory because this is Christ working in you. He mentions here his own countrymen in verse 11a. Greet Herodian, my countrymen. Greet those who are of the household of Narcissus. Likely, this was a fellow Jew. It could have been somebody from the same nation of origin, the same area of origin as Paul from Cilicia. But either way, he had something secondary in common, and he makes note of that. And I'll tell you, in the kingdom of God, we know that there's no male or female. There's neither Jew nor Greek. We're all one in Christ. And we don't divide along national lines or ethnic lines or cultural lines. We don't segregate by color. We don't segregate by any other thing. We are unified in Christ. But isn't it a special blessing to you when you hear about somebody from your home state or your hometown that's also been converted and is being edified in the robust beauty of the Reformed faith? It's encouraging to me serving along you fellow citizens of the United States of America who are in Christ and have been redeemed out of my home nation. It's encouraging these North Carolina boys here that as we worship alongside each other and work alongside each other, to know that God by His grace has reached to my own home state and has put us in the Reformed faith together, has put us in Christ together. It gives me hope for the rest of my people there. You can think about this of whatever region you're from, whatever nationality you're from. I guarantee you, that Brother Hotneil and the Perez's rejoice when they see conversions there in Cuba and when they see the churches flourishing in Cuba. Yes, they rejoice about the churches everywhere, but there's a secondary and a special blessing. And oh, praise God, God's working among my people. Your identity in Christ. is one of being in the Lord, specifically your union in Christ. We read that in verse 11. Those of the household of narcissists who are in the Lord. Since he refers to it as a household, it was likely slaves that were converted. You might know what it's like to work for a narcissist. That's what Narcissus' name is named after, the mythological character who was so self-centered he would go gaze at his reflection in the water every morning and admire and swoon over his own beauty. You may be in a home like that. Ladies, you may be married to a husband, an unbelieving husband like that, but I encourage you, you are in the Lord. That is your identity, not one of being these of being a slave, or you of whatever your state in life, but of being in Christ. They in you, in your identity in Christ, are chosen in Christ. As he says in verse 13, greet Rufus chosen in the Lord and his mother in mine. What an encouragement. We think about the church here that God has sustained now since 1983 and through all the storms and battles. We think about the church God has raised up out of this church at Georgetown. And now as the Lord is raising up a church in Oklahoma City, we get to see the present fruit, the present manifestation of the kingdom of God. But it's such an encouragement, is it not, dear believer, to always remember This has been in the heart and mind of God from eternity past. Every church and every blood-bought individual member in every church has been chosen by God before the world was. This is your identity in Christ. The whole world rejects you. You're chosen in Him. The last aspect of their identity and your identity in Christ is that you're part of the family of God in Christ. In v. 13, the latter part, he says, of Rufus, he says, and his mother and mine. There was such a closeness in the family of God that even though Paul wasn't blood kin with Rufus, Rufus' mom was like his mom. You know who you are, dear ladies, extend hospitality to people that need it, and you extend encouragement, and you love on people, and you become close to people that need help. You're there for them like a mother. Glory to God. You know why you're doing that? It's because you're part of the family of God in Christ, and that Christ is working that in and through you. And those of you, dear men, who do the same, who take people in, Maybe somebody that's awkward. Maybe somebody that's problematic. Maybe somebody that's immature. Maybe somebody that's lagging far behind for their age, and yet, you love them like a parent would love their child. You don't give up on them. You don't toss them away. Keep living in that motherly and fatherly way because you are part of the family of God And in this, your identity in Christ is the most important thing about you, dear believer, and I remind you to remember that. Keep your whole life, your whole hopes, your whole present, past, and future wrapped up in Christ who died and rose again for you and intercedes for you. I encourage you to repent of any sin, of any religious pride, of any self-righteousness that would take you off of the center of your identity in Christ and put it somewhere else. Oh dear believers, you know it's a blessing when we have groups and do things together. get together at one another's houses, maybe do certain hobbies together. That's a blessing and that's good in its place. But oh God, help us not to align and group ourselves and make the test of our fellowship something besides Jesus Christ and his truth. It ought to always be that the most elderly member of this church can have fellowship with the youngest and most immature. The most cool and fashionable and with the times ought to have just as close fellowship with the one that is isolated from society. Our identity is in Christ and it will be forever and forever. When you enter into those gates of glory. It will be in and through Jesus Christ, your perfect representative. Thirdly, they and you are a roll call of fateful Saints, not only because of your labors in Christ, your identity in Christ, but third because of your sufferings in Christ. He speaks of a couple of different parties here who had suffered. And I remind you, dear saints, I give you this comforting word of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though He did give a severe rebuke to the church at Ephesus, Yet He gave these words of praise in Revelation 3, 7, and 8. That's not the reference for Ephesus, but He does tell Ephesus. that I know your works. He tells him that before he gives him the rebuke. He tells the church at Philadelphia, I know your works. He tells the church at Smyrna, I know your works, tribulation and poverty, but you're rich. And I know the blasphemy of those who say they're Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. Some of the most comforting words you could ever know in your sufferings is these words from the Lord Jesus Christ, I know I know your tribulation. And our Lord Jesus does not just know it from afar. He knows your tribulations and sufferings by experience because He suffered in your nature. And everything you can ever suffer or will suffer, Christ has already suffered it and far more than you could ever suffer. There were some of them that had experienced distressing sufferings. In v. 4, he mentioned Priscilla and Aquila who risked their own necks for my life. There were some who had experienced physical sufferings. In verse 7, he says, greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen and my fellow prisoners who are of note among the apostles who were also in Christ before me. Fellow prisoners, those who had suffered physical persecution for the name of Christ. We might say, well, we haven't had anybody in our congregation who suffered physical persecution. Nobody's been stoned or put in jail or tortured for their faith. No, but I'm confident if that's God's providence for us, I'm confident you'll survive it. You'll remain faithful and steadfast. You know why? because I have seen you endure lesser forms of persecution in the Beatitudes when Jesus said, blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake. You know what one of the things is there that he says? When they say all manner of evil against you falsely for my namesake. I have seen you as a church be slandered and lied upon and to have shame and humiliation heaped and heaped upon you and false accusations. And I've seen you as individuals. I've seen you as men who preach the Word and as deacons who labor faithfully to be lied upon and slandered. And yet you've remained faithful by the grace of God. That gives me confidence. that God's working in you and He'll continue to work in you and you will persevere whatever sufferings may come. I've seen you, dear believers, while we've been here these nearly four years, who've experienced the death of loved ones. Some of you have experienced extremely and unusually tragic loss of family members. of dear children. And I can never forget, and the other saints here, we all have this imprinted in our hearts and minds. There's always the time in these dark tragedies. There's the time during and the time after when your heart is so concerned, oh, are they going to make it? Are they going to hold up? It's such a crushing load. It's such a dark valley, the valley of the shadow of death. And you think, oh, I can't imagine what they're going through. I can't imagine what they're suffering. I cannot imagine the temptations coming upon them right now as Satan will try to get you, as Job's wife tried to get him to curse and deny God. And yet when we observe your life and we behold your witness, we see the glory of God in Christ resting upon you. And through difficult and impossible circumstances, you continue to confess Christ. You continue to praise God. And praise God even for the affliction. This is not natural. This is supernatural. This is evidence of the mighty grace of God in Christ working in you and through you and doing in you what you could never do for yourself. And oh, what glory this gives to God. And oh, how edified it is to all of us other believers. I commend you who have suffered with these kinds of loss. Those of you who have suffered with the loss of health, and you hurt and you ache, you experience severe ongoing pain, and yet every time you're able, you come hobbling into the house of God to worship with the people of God. You come limping in. to come limping in to preach the Word of God, to study the Word of God, and to minister to God's people. This is praiseworthy, and God takes note of it here in this inspired Scripture of the sufferings of His people. He takes note of your suffering. I praise God for you, as He says of these who had been His fellow prisoners, you who are more mature in the faith, He says concerning them that they are of note among the apostles. And He said that they were in the Lord before Me. Some of you believers have been trusting in Christ longer than I've been alive. And you have weathered storms that I've never even dreamed of. And what an encouragement to our faith. Oh, younger Christians, take note and glorify God. God notices and God recollects the faithfulness and the sufferings of these people, and we ought to as well as believers. And in this, all of your fateful sufferings in Christ are but a reflection of Christ's sufferings for you, dear believer. the distressing sufferings of the cross, infinitely more than we could ever suffer in 10,000 lifetimes, the physical sufferings that He endured. And because of that, you'll never have to experience one moment of suffering as the penalty for your sins because Christ suffered it all. those excruciating distresses and pains in body and soul. He did it for you, dear believer, and He is in and with you by His Spirit in your sufferings to make you persevere like He persevered. I encourage you to not shirk back from God's providential afflictions, but to embrace them in Christ, knowing He's with you. knowing that God commemorates your faithfulness in suffering. And just as much as these words are penned in Holy Scriptures, the deeds of your works in Christ, dear believer, God is recording in the books in heaven, and when those books are opened, He will rehearse it to the entire universe, to the praise and the glory of Christ. So persevere until that day when you'll never suffer again. with supreme satisfaction, you will behold the glory of God forever. These believers in you are a roll call of faithful saints because of your labors in Christ, your identity in Christ, your sufferings in Christ. Fourth and lastly, because of your unity in Christ. We sang this in the 133rd Psalm earlier. Oh, how beautiful. What a pleasant thing when you as Christians dwell together in unity. Here, He praises them because of their unity with each other in verse 16. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you. If they were bitter enemies at each other's throats, biting and devouring each other, he would not have been able to tell them to greet each other with a holy kiss. They still practice something similar to this in Europe, including France. It's just part of the overall culture there. When you go to church, there's a kiss on each side of the cheek, and they do it in Middle Eastern countries. This is a gesture among friends and family, not bitter enemies. Oh, I praise God, dear believers, that I've seen you, and I know you enough to know, and you know me enough to know. I know there are people that get on your nerves, and I know I get on some of your nerves, maybe all of your nerves, at some point or another, at least. And yet, you love each other, you keep sticking with each other, you don't give up on each other, you keep worshiping one another, you keep working alongside one another, you keep being patient with one another, Glory to God. This is how it's supposed to be in the church of Christ. And when the dust clears, the dust settles and the smoke clears, there you are still loving on each other after the fiercest battles and the controversies. There you are centered on Christ looking unto Jesus. Loving God and loving each other because God who first loved you and Christ who is working in and through you by His Spirit. Not only among each other, but your unity with your sister churches. Regionally, in our Texas Area Association, what sweet unity you've expressed with our fellow churches. Nationally, in our National Association, the Confessional Baptist Association, with missionaries and churches around the world, with the churches in Cuba. And now, the church God's raising up in Oklahoma and Lord willing, other confessional Baptist churches that we will be going into association with there that you will be able to have sweet unity with. All of this is simply the reflection of your Lord Jesus Christ in and through you. of whom we sang in the 133rd Psalm and that beautiful anointing oil, that sweet fragrance of the anointing oil that ran down Aaron's head and down his beard and down his garments as our Lord Jesus Christ has been anointed with the Spirit without measure for His priestly office here on earth and now in His intercession and mediation for us. And oh, that sweet oil of the Spirit drips down and soaks and saturates and permeates you, His body, just like it did Aaron's garments. So every time that you, by the grace of God, give Satan a black eye, and Paul says this to these Romans that God will trample Satan under your feet, Shortly, you know one way that God does that is when Satan tries to bring division and hatred among you tries to get you to give up on each other. You do like your Lord Jesus and you don't give up and you keep loving each other and you keep working with each other. You keep attending and worshiping with each other. You keep praying for each other. You keep bearing with one another. Continue to give yourself to that, dear believer. And don't ever, oh, dear church, oh, dear congregation, oh, please don't ever let gossip and slander and division and pride enter in among you and split you apart. Stick to each other. Cleave to one another in the body of Christ as you're all members in this one body anointed with the sweet oil of the Spirit. And keep doing this until that final day when you'll be perfectly in fellowship with one another with never even a temptation for division again in glory. We've seen how that these believers at Rome and you are a roll call of faithful saints, not because of anything of you, but simply because of Christ who is working in and through you by His Spirit. And in this, you're counted faithful because of your labors, your identity, your sufferings, and your unity in Christ. And just as much as faithful soldiers in the U.S. Armed Forces, like Tony Stein that day in the U.S. Marine Corps at Iwo Jima, just as much as their faithful labors bring glory and honor to their nation, Your faithful labors, dear believer, bring glory and honor to your Lord Jesus Christ. And it magnifies and it beautifies His name and it makes for a sweet-smelling fragrance and aroma. It makes for an atmosphere like Paul tells the Corinthians where an outsider comes in to worship and he falls down on his face because he knows God is in this place. Oh, what a blessing. Give yourself to this. And I remind you, in all that we've seen, do you see the beauty? Do you see the beauty of Christ reflected in these believers at Rome? And you think about your fellow church members here. You can see that beauty reflected in them. Well, rejoice. Because what you're seeing is nothing more than God's sovereign work of grace in and through you and these others in Christ. It's nothing of yourselves. Rejoice that God chose you before the foundation of the world. Rejoice that God called you out of this world. We who used to hate each other, now we're united in Christ. Rejoice that God is working and will continue to work and complete this work in you until the day of Jesus Christ. Rejoice and be glad as so many throughout this world have never even heard the Gospel. They're perishing in their sins. And then so many even in our nation who have heard the Gospel, and yet they're deceived that the Gospel has never come to them in the effectual power of the Spirit like God has sent it to you. But here you are. Here you are, lights in the midst of a dark generation. It's because God has called you out. God has done great and mighty things for you even as He had for these believers. Rejoice and give glory to God and be encouraged and be amazed and overwhelmed at God's grace to you in Christ. Dear believers, continue to grow in all these things. from the most immature to the most advanced of you. Seek and strive in the power of the Spirit to grow in your labors and in your centering in identity in Christ and in your unity with one another and in your fateful sufferings. Grow and increase more and more and put to death every sin that would draw you back to this world and make you live for yourself instead of God and your neighbors. And, oh dear believer, in this, keep on pressing on and press on and press on, because right ahead of you, not very far, is eternal glory. Keep pressing to that mark. And dear sinners, oh dear unconverted ones here, those of you still in your sins, oh dear children, Maybe adults here that are still in your sins. You do not have this reflection of the beauty of Christ radiating from you. You have only the filth and the ugliness and the hideous, horrible, disgusting nature of your sins, the darkness of your sins. festering forth from your life like the Old Testament leper covered in oozing rotten sores. Your entire being emanates sin. You stink in the nostrils of God. You're so hideously ugly in the nostrils of God because of your sins. Living for self. Living against God. Shaking your fist in God's face. Full steam ahead on a bullet train straight to hell with no brakes. And you don't even care. But, oh, dear sinner, the same God that saved these wicked sinners and this wicked sinner that's preaching to you, that same God in His grace and mercy is well able to take you, to declare you righteous in Christ, to sanctify you by His Spirit and make you from a hideous, ungodly sinner, to remake you in the image of God to live as a beautiful reflector of the glory of God in Christ. Come now. Come to Christ now. Trust in Him now. And join this roll call of faithful saints. Amen. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your faithfulness to Your people in Christ and by Your Spirit that is reflected the labors and faith and perseverance of your people, including these here recorded in Romans 16. We pray for your great blessing and help upon Heritage Baptist Church, upon every member and upon the ministry and your sustaining grace for them. And we pray that you'd preserve and keep them to your heavenly kingdom. We pray for the work in Georgetown that you continue to multiply them and also this work being planted in Oklahoma City. Oh God, that you'd raise up a strong confessional Baptist church. And we pray that we would be a blessing just like the churches of the Gentiles took up offerings to send back to the mother church at Jerusalem. We pray that the church and Lord willing churches in Oklahoma would not only receive blessing from this church, but also would rise up to be strong to contribute and be a blessing back to this congregation. Oh God, increase our love for one another and we pray that You'd preserve the unity of this church and we pray that they would thrive spiritually. We pray that You'd add to our number in Your time. We pray that You would save all of our children and bring in and save sinners from our community roundabout and make us a bright and a shining light and salt and light also in this society, we pray. And we commit all this to You and ask You for Your grace and blessing, in Jesus' name, Amen.