I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you've been taught. Avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you. So do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother, Cortus, greet you. Now to him. who's able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith. To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word this morning. It is a privilege to gather together, to assemble as one body and praise the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. That is our prayer this morning and we ask it in the name of your son, the Lord Jesus, amen. You can be seated. Well, we have arrived at the end of the book of Romans. I was thinking this is sort of Paul's sound of music, so long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye. And like the music, his goodbye takes a few rounds. He circles back a few times before his final exit. This ending is amazing. It truly is a great passage. I love it, and in light of recent events, it couldn't really be more relevant. Paul's ending includes, as you can see in your outline, a warning, a call for discernment and encouragement, Some final exhortations or greetings and then a doxology. But this warning Paul starts off with could not be more relevant for us as a church. I want to look at this starting in verse 17. I appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. Avoid them. It almost seems out of nowhere, but Paul closes his letter with this strong warning about false teachers and false teaching. They cause divisions. They create obstacles contrary to what Paul has taught. Paul says to watch out for them. I think of Proverbs 6, among the seven things that are detestable to the Lord, the writer of Proverbs lists in the most emphatic position a man who stirs up dissension among the brothers. It's actually incredible to me, it's intriguing to me how much material is given in the New Testament and the Old Testament on false teachers and false teaching. I wanna look at one example in particular, Acts 20, you can turn your Bibles there, but listen to these other passages while you do that. Matthew 24, 11, many false prophets will arise and lead many astray, Jesus says. Also Matthew 7, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Now 2 John 2, for many deceivers have gone out into the world. 1 Timothy 4, now the spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. 1 John 4, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they're from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. Galatians 1, 9, as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. In 2 Peter 2.1, Peter says, false prophets also rose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. There will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies. Paul goes on in our passage in verse 18, for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ with their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. There was a paraphrase, I believe Eugene Peterson wrote on these couple of verses. I thought it was well said. He said, one final word of counsel, friends, Keep a sharp eye out for those you take bits and pieces of the teaching that you've learned and then use them to make trouble. Give these people a wide berth. They have no intention of living for our master Christ. They're only in this for what they can get out of it and aren't above using pious sweet talk to dupe unsuspecting innocence. Elsewhere, Paul warns about a different gospel and a different Christ, different Jesus. Well, in Acts 20, we see one of the great examples of this, and it's Paul's speech or his farewell address to the Ephesian elders. And he says in Acts 20, verse 29, it's very similar to what he says in our passage. He says, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Paul wasn't really an optimist when it came to false teaching. He didn't say, well, this is probably going to work itself out. Chances are false teaching is going to die out. Most likely, people trend towards figuring out the truth and getting it right. You guys will be good. I know that when I leave, false teaching will dissipate. I know that your best days are ahead for you. You know, turn that frown upside down. False teaching will mellow out. Don't be so animated. Chill out. No. On the contrary, Paul was certain that false teachers would come in among the flock. The wolves are coming and they don't give a rip about the flock. The flock will not be spared. The wolves, contrary to the shepherds, don't care about the flock. They don't care about the collateral damage. They could care less if they ruin people, ruin people in their church. Paul does not specifically say who these wolves from without are. He just refers to them as fierce wolves. who are from outside the flock, who won't spare the flock from destruction. Now, I don't know about you, but as a parent, I can hardly think of anything that elicits more emotion for me than the thought of a sexual predator. The thought of a groomer enticing or deceiving my children for their own twisted pleasure makes me feel visceral emotions, as I'm sure every parent would say the same. If a parent knew if there was a danger, we'd do absolutely everything we could in our power to protect our children from predators. I think that's the feeling we're supposed to have when we read Acts 20. That's the feeling, the emotion we should have of protecting our children is the same kind of emotion we should have when we talk about false teachers and false teaching. We need to protect the little lambs. Paul goes on in verse 30 of Acts 20, from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw the disciples after them. There will be an internal threat actually. There's a book on my shelf called Our Man in Damascus, Ellie Cohen. It's a really fascinating story about espionage, true story. The story is told of Cohen who grew up in Egypt as a child of Orthodox Jews. He must have been brilliant. He was fluent in many languages, had a really good memory, and the Israeli government Excuse me recruited Cohen and sent him to Buenos Aires Argentina to establish his cover as a Syrian immigrant He was disguised as sort of this extremely wealthy nightlight nightlife loving, huge tipping political guru with the Syrian people in Argentina. And the government kept his bank account plump to keep his cover. He was eventually invited to Damascus and worked his way up the political and societal ranks to become one of the most trusted confidants of the political leaders of Syria who were intent on destroying Israel. In fact, his closest friend ends up becoming the president of Syria. He was the only civilian who joined the tour of colonels and generals along the Israeli border before the Six Days War. Cohen told by a minister of defense that the only way their military bases could be destroyed was by direct air attacks. Well, one memorable day, Cohen was overlooking the Golan Heights that bordered Israel and suggested to the president that maybe he plant eucalyptus trees near all their military stations to disguise the secret activity that was going on. Well, Cohen was discovered as a spy not long after that and he was hanged, but during the Six-Day War that followed shortly after, the Israeli Air Force had little problem knocking out all of Syria's military in the Golan Heights. They were all marked by eucalyptus trees. The Golan Heights today are in the possession of Israel because of an imposter. disguised as the real thing. And he infiltrated the Syrian government from the inside out. His approach? Look like one of them and then lead them astray. That's exactly what Paul is talking about here. From among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Several years after Paul's meeting in Miletus, this very thing happened in Ephesus. Men like Hymenaeus and Alexander and Philetus arose from within the church speaking, quote, twisted things. They claimed the resurrection had already happened. These men, Paul wrote, Timothy, had swerved from the truth. Their teachings, he warned, will spread like gangrene. They were already, quote, upsetting the faith of some, and they needed to be stopped. By the way, that statement, twisted things, in verse 30 is worth highlighting. It's similar, back to our passage in Romans, similar to verse 18 when Paul says, smooth talk and flattery. It's worth highlighting because it gets to the core of how false teaching actually works. It's Satan's most popular strategy. Twist the Word of God. Distort the Word of God. You don't have to study the Bible very long to discover, again, the enormous amount of material on false teaching. teachers and false teaching. Satan, as Jesus said, is the father of lies. This is his native tongue. His power is in his lying. That's where his power is. And so his main weapon becomes, as you'd imagine, misinformation, false teaching, misemphasis. 2 Corinthians 11, I'm afraid, Paul says, that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. This is satanic, Paul is saying. Satan is the master at deception, and his main weapon is false teaching. And the very first thing the serpent says in the garden is, did God really say that? casting doubt on the Word of God and the sufficiency of the Word of God. In fact, the first doctrine denied is the doctrine of eternal judgment. You shall not surely die. Satan challenges the Word of God. He denies the Word of God. He twists the Word of God. You might say, Satan is ambiguous. He's not clear. This is why the exposition of the Word of God is so powerful. In fact, as Jesus says, as the seed of the Word of God is sown, what's the first thing that happens? Satan comes and he snatches the Word. There's a spiritual warfare happening right at this moment. As the Word of God is going out, there's a spiritual battle. The preacher, the Christian, is to bring clarity. Satan muddies the water. Satan brings ambiguity. False teachers, you read their books, what are they saying exactly? It's ambiguous. It's confusing. False teaching is similar to a plague. It spreads. The Black Death killed millions of men, women, and children all over Europe. It arrived in 1347 and lasted until 1350. By the end of 1348, it reached the north coast of France. One year later, it crossed the English Channel and gulfed England, Ireland, Scotland by 1350. It completed its devastation spreading through Germany and North through Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland. Once it arrived in London, it never completely left for over 300 years. It was estimated to have killed, this is amazing, between 30 and 60% of Europe's population. reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. Well, I think Satan's strategy is similar. It's not a biological warfare. It's not a virus, but it is a kind of spiritual virus, a spiritual warfare, and it spreads like gangrene. It warps. He's a liar, and again, his native language is lying. He distorts the truth, denies the truth, and it's subtle. It's not always obvious. It's not always overt, but his disease spreads, and people are his carriers. sometimes without even knowing it. Again, back to our passage in Romans 16, Paul lists four descriptions of the false teachers. They're divisive, and that's what wolves do, they divide the sheep. They contradict sound doctrine, again, verse 17. You know, did God really say that? They have smooth talk and flattery, verse 18, they're deceivers. They have huge egos also. Douglas Moo out of Wheaton said it well. They are divisive, self-centered, persuasive, teach what is contrary to the gospel and must therefore be avoided at all costs. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the great English preacher, made a great comment on this. He said, we have somehow got a hold of the idea that error is only that which is outrageously wrong. And we do not seem to understand that the most dangerous person of all is the one who does not emphasize the right things. That's a great point. So what's our response, church? What is our response? Paul says in verse 17, here's your response, you avoid them. Avoid them, we're not to debate them, we're not to dialogue with them, we are to avoid them. He says something similar in Titus 3, 10, as for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him. Knowing such a person is warped and sinful, he's self-condemned. I mentioned to you, if you were here last week, this local cult that has targeted me and targeted our church. This week, I spent a large part of my week talking with people who've come out of this cult, who've contacted me, apparently from my announcement last week. I've talked to the pastors who initially installed him and ordained him. and then later withdrew their commendation. But they told me how this man, this false teacher, targeted them. They're a church in Michigan, writing a deluge of negative reviews, Google reviews on their church, friending friends of the pastor and then slandering him. I talked with a local church, I didn't know about this, a local church here in town that also had a number of members show up a couple weeks ago to a Bible study they had, just like they did to Our Lady's Bible study a few weeks ago. And when they asked them to leave, when they found out who they were, they started yelling obscenities. Some of the former members of this church told me how every week they'd have to confess their sins personally to the pastor, and if they didn't confess that week, they were under automatic church discipline for six months. Separating children from parents, forbidding parents to talk to their children, the pastor gives salvation, he takes away salvation. The stories of spiritual abuse honestly were nauseating, sickening. I have been inundated this week with more and more people. I think of what Peter says in 2 Peter. He calls it destructive heresies. It's exactly right. It's the perfect way to describe it. It produces destruction. They destroy families. They destroy individuals. It's satanic, and Paul would say, avoid them. You avoid them. Don't debate them, don't dialogue with them, don't engage them. Such a person is warped and sinful, self-condemned. As a practical application here, just a few thoughts. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, we need to test everything. It's actually the shortest verse in the Bible. It's not Jesus wept. It's actually, in the Greek, test everything. Test everything. Be discerning. Be scrutinizing. One of the besetting sins of evangelicals is gullibility. We're not to be gullible. We're not to just go along. We're to test everything, like Bereans, looking into the scriptures daily to see if these things are so. So testing would be, does it agree with scripture? Does it glorify Christ? Does it make much of Christ? Colin Smith has some other tests for us, a good checklist. A different source, where does the message come from? A different message, what is the substance of the message? A different position, in what position will the message leave you? A different character, what kind of people does the message produce? A different appeal, why should you listen to the message? A different fruit, what result does the message have in people's lives? A different end, where does the message ultimately lead you. So church, let's heed the apostle's warning for us here and pay attention, be alert. Let's look at this next point, verse 19, Paul's call for discernment, kind of piggybacking on what we just looked at. He says, for your obedience is known to all. so that I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil." Now, Paul does not say our obedience saves us. But for Paul, obedience is a sign of salvation. It's a sign of covenant membership. Their obedience, Paul is saying, was notorious, it was evident. This is the result of the gospel. He'll say something down in verse 26 similar to bring about the obedience of faith. This brings about rejoicing for Paul when the nations obey the king. Look back actually at chapter 14 of Romans verse 18. He says, for I will not venture to speak of anything. Maybe it's verse chapter 15. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed. That is the result of the true gospel. It produces lives of obedience. And one of the marks of this Denver-based cult is that they actually make works and obedience the mode of salvation, not the result of salvation. And essentially, it becomes a kind of salvation by works. Again, it's a false gospel. But let me say this, we don't want to overcorrect and somehow disparage obedience. We don't want to minimize the importance of obedience. Paul doesn't. Paul rejoices in obedience. He sees it as the proof in the pudding. It's the mark of authenticity. True, saving faith produces changed lives. Getting pagan, God-rebelling Gentiles to obey God is the heart of the letter of Romans. He keeps going in verse 19, but I want you to be wise as to what's good and innocent as to what is evil. You may immediately recognize this is almost verbatim what Jesus says. I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be wise as serpents, innocent as doves." Serpents carries the idea of being clever, be prudent, be sensible, don't be naive, don't be gullible. Innocent as doves, unmixed, different from the world, holy, prudent. Innocent. Another way to say all this is that Paul wants them to be discerning. Again, we mentioned this, test everything. Have a healthy skepticism. That's a good thing. Examine the scriptures. By the way, this doesn't mean we become warriors for our framework or for our perfect systematic theology. Sometimes Christians can end up defending a system and not Scripture. We need to be careful here not to confuse our traditions with Scripture or our framework with Scripture. And this, I think, can happen to all of us. This is a warning for everyone here, myself included. We can end up defending Luther or Calvin's interpretations more than Paul or Jesus. Scripture needs to be our final authority. Again, this goes for me too. I'm doing my best to be faithful to the scriptures, but you should be testing everything I say with the scriptures. I don't know my blind spots. I'm sure I have them. I want to grow and learn and conform more and more to scripture. And I think that's what Paul's saying here. He wants the church in Rome to have theology and lives that are innocent to evil, different from the world, obedient to the Lord. Let's look at verse 20. He gives an encouragement here. And he says, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The God who makes peace, the God who offers peace, the God who created peace through his son is also a God who makes war. He's a warrior against Satan and the powers of darkness. And Paul highlights the cosmic battle between Satan and God, the drama unfolded in the garden with the serpent. And that's being called to attention here, the proto-euangelion, the first time the gospel's mentioned in Genesis 3.15. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. The resurrection has already humiliated Satan and the darkness, but the final consummation of that victory is still yet to come. At present, the writer of Hebrews says, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him. We don't yet see it all. We're still living in the tension. In the meantime, there's a spiritual war, a battle that we're in. And it's a battle that will be won by God because it's already been won by the Messiah on the cross. The day is coming when we won't have to fight false teachers. A day is coming when we won't have to fight bad doctrine. We won't have to fight false teaching. A day is coming when we won't have to be alert. A day is coming when sexual scandals and temptation and false teaching will come to an end. So I think Paul's saying, be encouraged. And he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Paul begins and ends every letter with grace. the unmerited favor of God. God has been so kind to you in Christ. He's been so kind to you through Jesus. Be reminded of his grace. He's welcomed you to the table. Chapter 15, verse 7. We see some final greetings again. Here's his sound of music, round two, verse 21. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you. Sodilucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. Aetertius, this was his scribe, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, who's host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer of Rome, quite a big deal. And our brother, Cortus, greet you. Without going through each name, I just want to highlight yet again the team aspect of the of the early church. Chapter 16 is sociologically interesting. It shows the great diversity of the church. Scholars have mentioned this list includes slaves, freedmen, merchants, artisans, the socially advanced classes like Erastus, the city treasurer. So from the city treasurer all the way down to former slaves and slaves themselves, all of them now worshipers of Jesus the King. All part of a fellowship, part of the same body. It's a story I remember hearing a preacher tell about a time he got to go sailing on a professional racing team. There's I think around 15 people on these crews and he told how he was invited to be one of the members of this crew there Boat in the middle of this race happened to be in second place and as they were rounding the final corner Final lap the captain had time to pause and make a little speech and he said something like Team we are we are almost the victors here. We're in second place. The finish line is in sight and We've got one last corner, one last turn. It's a technical turn. But you've trained for this. You can do this. We can do this. And the captain went around the ship and one by one called out by name each member of the crew and said, Jeff, we need you. We've got to have you. We can't do this without you. Bob, you can do this. You've done this. We need you. Got to have you. Aaron, you know what you need to do. We cannot do this without you, we need you, we gotta have you. And the pastor said by the end, every crew member was so pumped, so amped, and they won. And it reminds me of Paul here, like a good leader, he goes around the horn and he highlights the team, he thanks the team, he welcomes the team. 27 names, he just got done listing, he lists more. He very much sees himself as part of the same body, members of the same team. And these names live on as memorials. And it raises another application for us. What is the phrase that people will remember you for? What's gonna be on your gravestone? Hopefully it'll be something like this, fellow worker, you know, worked hard in the Lord, Mary. Faithful in his devotion to Christ, obedient to the Messiah, a warrior for his Lord, Jesus. Hopefully it won't be, well, he started off great, Yeah, he sold out. She really loved her stuff. He didn't end well. Yeah, he ended up leading a cult. Look at these last couple verses. You might notice that in your translation, your Bible is missing verse 24. See if you can find verse 24. Some of the early manuscripts have this section in a different order before the final greeting. Some have it at the end. Not a big deal either way, but frankly, this is the perfect ending to Romans. He sums up really some of the major themes of God, the glory of Christ, the Messiah, the nation's obedience, the good news. Look at verse 25, this incredible doxology. Now to him who's able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. So he, if you remember, reaching way back here, but he ends his letter as he began, way back in verse 5 of chapter 1. I read this a few times the last couple of weeks, but, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations. But what Paul, what's worth highlighting here is that Paul says that God uses this good news to strengthen you. That's the prayer, may God strengthen you with the message about Jesus, the good news about Jesus, the preaching about Jesus, the Christ. Paul proclaims the Messiah, he proclaims Jesus as Lord and King, the true son of David, who will rule on this earth, the promised one, the deliverer. And he makes mention of this statement, or I wanna make mention, my gospel, so specific. It's doctrinal, it's objective. We don't get to define Paul's gospel. We don't get to define Jesus. This isn't subjective, it's objective. There's a story I remember hearing about a youth pastor who had a jar full of jelly beans, and he asked his students to write down the number of how many jelly beans they thought were in it. And then he asked them to write down the name of their favorite song. And then he gives the number of the jelly beans and the class looks to see if they were right. And then he asks which one of these songs is the right one. And he says, when you decide what to believe in terms of your faith, is it more like guessing the number of beans Or is it more like choosing your favorite song? And the youth pastor said, interestingly, that more often than not, the students say that choosing their faith is more like choosing their favorite song. But it's not. It's objective. It's either true or it's not. And it reminds me of when John MacArthur was on Larry King and this new ager said to John, you know, well, my Jesus would never say that. famously responded and said, with all due respect, sir, your Jesus doesn't exist. Paul says, my gospel. If anyone preaches a different gospel, let him be accursed. The gospel is not a system of ethics or a cultural program or a spiritual mantra. The gospel is the proclamation of the news about the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah and God's reconciliation to the world through him. According to, he goes on, the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages. Now, this mystery is that God is saving the Gentiles, bringing them into covenant relationship through Jesus. You could say it's no longer a mystery. It was once hidden, now it's revealed. Donald Gray Barnhouse tells the story of his secretary who was a single woman, he was terrific, and as far as he knew, never dated anyone. This was fine with him because he didn't want a loser. One Sunday morning as he parked his car, someone said to him, Max and Elizabeth are engaged. And he didn't believe it. When he got to the church, someone else said the same thing and they saw his secretary beaming. And he said this, and I think this is a great way to describe what a mystery is. He says, this is mystery in the New Testament sense. It had been completely hidden, absolutely unknown, totally unsuspected. Then suddenly it was whispered to one person and the news spread like leaves in the wind. True, after we knew that the young couple were engaged, we could look back and remember certain circumstances which might have led us to suspect if only we'd been thinking in that direction. Well, this good news, which certainly was prophesied in the Old Testament, was kept secret, you could say, but no longer. Verse 26, but now it has been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations. Paul's gospel is about the nations being included in the covenants and promises of God. And I know we don't maybe normally think of the gospel in this way, but that's how Paul summarizes it, interestingly. Let me ask you a question. Play a little trivia here. In Galatians 3.13, Paul says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Now here's my question to you. It's not a trick question. But in your mind, without looking at it, why did Christ take the curse upon himself? For what reason did Christ take the curse upon himself on the cross? How would you, don't blurt it out, but how would you answer that? I would say usually we tend to think of being forgiven or we tend to think of substitution. He did it so we could be redeemed. He did it so we could have eternal life. But listen to how Paul answers this question. Paul says in the very next verse, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus. so that they, that by faith, we might receive the promise of the Spirit. My point is we tend to answer that question individually, vertically, in salvation terms, and that's not altogether wrong, but I want you to see that Paul actually answers it corporately, horizontally. The nations are included. Now, again, the gospel is vertical. Our union with Christ and our reconciliation with God through Christ. Christ who's seated at the right hand of God. We're clothed in his righteousness by grace. That's part of the good news. But there is a horizontal aspect that is punctuated in Romans. And that's actually what Paul chooses to highlight, both in our passage and in Galatians 3. The good news has been made known to the nations. It's good news of great joy for all the people as we think about Christmas. He goes on, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith. So this is according to God's word, his command. This is his idea. This is God's idea. It's his doing. But notice it's the result. It was to bring about the obedience of faith. Again, getting pagan, God-rebelling Gentiles to obey God is the heart of the letter. And again, put yourself in Paul's shoes or the shoes of the Jews. The Gentile nations had no God. The nations were orphans, without hope, without God, without the covenants, strangers to the promises. That's their mindset. And if you're in that world, what Paul is saying in Romans is, again, stunning. The nations are abandoning their gods and turning to the God of Israel. This again is a plot twist no one really saw coming. It was a mystery but no longer. Now every nation needs to hear, every person needs to forsake their idols and attach themselves to this Jewish Messiah who is Lord and King and coming back to rule and reign among the nations. The essence of this mystery is that through the faithfulness of Jesus, God brings the Gentiles into faithfulness. Or as Paul starts off Romans, from faith to faith, or from faithfulness to faithfulness. The true saving gospel is validated by faithfulness and obedience. Now again, I want to be careful here. We are not saved by obedience. We are not saved by our works. But a faith that does not produce obedience to Christ is not the real thing. Doesn't mean we're suddenly perfect, doesn't mean we no longer sin or struggle with sin, but it means that the normal Christian life is a life that is willing to abandon idols and submit and bend the knee to Jesus. That is the normal Christian life, conforming to the image of Jesus, imitating him, forsaking our disobedience and sinful ways and attitudes and repenting and adjusting towards God. And if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. So what's our response, church, to this? Well, it's praise and worship. Verse 27 ends the letter. To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ, amen. I'm not a huge fan, as you know, of videos during sermon time, but I think in my 20 years of preaching, I've only made one exception, and it's a video I want to show you now. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. This is a story of Rick and Dick Hoyt. Rick was an Ironman triathlete and has done a number of marathons. But I want to play this video, and then we'll close this up. Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning? And who told the ocean you can only come this far? And who showed the moon where to hide till evening? Whose words alone can catch a falling star? My Redeemer lives I know My Redeemer lives All of creation testifies This life within me cries The very same God that spins things in orbit Runs to the weary, the worn out, the weak And the same gentle hands that hold me when I'm broken They conquer death to bring me victory Now I know my Redeemer Testify, live this life with a regret Thank you. I know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I, know that I There's going to be a day when we're going to cross the finish line and there's going to be a lot of praise, but it's not going to be for us. There's going to be a lot of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. And this gospel that Paul has proclaimed is not meant to make us feel good about ourselves. It's supposed to make us feel good about God and what He has done. All glory goes to him, and that's how he ends. Soli Deo Gloria. To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ, amen? Let me close this. Father, we thank you for your word. The word, the good news, the good word, the gospel. Lord, that you have redeemed us and saved us We, Lord, people who had no, nothing going for themselves, worshiping idols, Lord, you have brought us out of that into a covenant relationship. And we praise your name. We give you thanks. We give you glory. We show our appreciation. And we think of this meal that you've invited us to. Lord, what a picture of grace, what a picture of accomplishment. And truly, Lord, from Littleton Bible Chapel, may all glory, honor, and praise go to you. So we thank you for the book of Romans and the message and how it highlights your glory. We give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.