Chapter 16, the concluding verses of this study. We began this study a couple of years ago. I can't believe we're through it already. Some of you are not thinking that. That's okay. What a study it has been. The gospel. The power of God. Today, looking at these final greetings and a closing benediction that actually turns into a doxology. Romans 16, verses 21 to 27. I want to point out something here. Most of your versions will not have verse 24 in it. That is a discussion for textual experts about whether or not that verse is in the preponderance of manuscripts. If you've been with me any time at all, you know that I choose, I'm gonna stand before God in heaven and have him fuss at me. I want him to fuss at me because I included a verse that was historically in the other translations, rather than fuss at me for leaving one out. Okay, that's the decision I've made. So, your Bibles may not have verse 24. I'm gonna read that in part of our reading today. It's not a reflection on anything defective about your Bibles. It's a translation decision by those Faithful Translator. 21. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you. Lucius and Jason and Sosipata, 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, Quartus, greet you. the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now to him who is 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 and 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. May the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen. What have we just read together? We've read the inerrant, infallible, all-sufficient Word of God. And I pray today that we will see the care taken and learn to appreciate the sense of community that the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ had in the first century and needs to be recovered today in the 21st century. Thank you, please be seated. Well, we've come to the end of this wonderful letter. I told you at the outset, this is Paul's magnum opus. This is his chief statement about the gospel. This is what he would teach when he went to start the church in Corinth, start the churches in Galatia, Start the church in Colossae, start the church in Philippi, and the other places in Thessalonica where he planted churches. This is something of an outline of what he would deliver there. When he writes to the church at Rome, he has not been to Rome. So he's spelling out for them what he wants to be sure they know. There were lots of people spending a lot of energy to undermine Paul's ministry. anywhere from Jews who had taken an oath not to eat again until they had his head on a platter, identifying him as a blasphemer of Judaism, that group, to the Gnostics, a couple of branches of Gnosticism, who were emphasizing different aspects of the person of Jesus, undermined by Paul if Paul is teaching the truth, to the Judaizers, Jewish people who profess to become Christians, but were intent on bringing Christians, not of Jewish backgrounds, under the yoke of the law. Paul was fending them all off, and you see this if you read his letters with understanding. And so he wants to be sure the church at Rome understands that the gospel and the gospel only and the pure unmitigated, simple gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, ascended, returning. That is what is preached in the churches. That is what is depended upon. That's what's declared. That's what's defended. So we have this long 16 chapters given to us. And he comes to the final statements. We've already been through in the earlier section of the 16th chapter his greetings greeting a lot of people in Rome, sending some greetings from his companions. This is the final effort that he gives. So two things I want you to see here today. First, final greetings from Paul and his companions, verses 21 to 24. And then a closing benediction that turns into a doxology, verses 25 to 27. Fascinating way that he closes this letter. First of all, the final greetings from Paul. and his companion. So he says, Timothy, my fellow worker, Timothy really needs no introduction. We've studied through 1 and 2 Timothy here, Paul's letters to his young apprentice that he was training to expand the ministry God had given to Paul. Timothy pastored in Ephesus. He's going to be mentioned when we undertake our study of Hebrews in the near future. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you." So he's there with Paul in Corinth from where he writes the letter to the church at Rome. So do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. We could take this name and then do a search through Acts and find some people with similar names. Some suggest that Lucius is another way of saying Luke. Perhaps a reference to Dr. Luke, the author of the Book of Luke and the Book of Acts. Jason, we know of a home where Jason was there and housed Paul when Paul was under attack. Dulce Potter, we don't know much about. But he calls all three my kinsmen. Now, if you've been keeping up, this is six people he's identified in the 16th chapter of Romans as my kinsmen. Possibly relatives. It's not a stretch to think that he would have been, had kinship with six people in this whole group of people he mentions in chapter 16. My kinsmen. Think about that. How encouraging that must have been for Paul. Who himself was breathing out threatenings against the disciples of Jesus. who was opposing Christianity, assigned with the responsibility of stamping out the way, which is what the Sanhedrin called it. Jesus described himself as the way, the truth, and the life. And so he was the leader of the way. These were the followers of the way. How heartening that must have been. To be able to identify six people in the family of faith who were kinsmen. I want you to think about that for a minute. Perhaps you have people in your family, some who maybe were raised in church, but they're not committed disciples of Jesus Christ. They're not following Christ. Perhaps you have some who've grown up to be antagonistic to Christianity, and you carry them on your heart. I pray you carry them on your heart. I pray that you pray for them, that it's a burden to you until you see Christ formed in them. And I pray for you that the day will come when you can rejoice and speak of them as followers of Christ and say, they are my kinsmen. No greater joy as a parent than to see your children come savingly to Christ. A joy that almost matches that, I suppose, is to see your grandchildren come to faith in Christ. But a different kind of joy is when you have a child who's been raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, who's gone astray, is functionally a prodigal on the faith, who returns home, who returns to the Lord, who comes back to confess faith in Jesus Christ, to repent, be forgiven, and follow Him. There's great delight in that. like few delights in the world. And then we have this insertion. It may catch you off guard, it seems sort of odd. I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. We would have expected Tertius to wait until the very end to identify himself, and we have no real explanation as to why he would have inserted himself in, but if you're not familiar, there's a term, amanuensis. Paul had several amanuenses, people who would write for him. If you read his letters with discernment, you know he had eye problems. You know he was beaten often. He probably had difficulty holding on to a quill to write consistently. I want you to just follow me on some passages real quickly. First Corinthians 16, 21. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. It was not unusual for him to let someone else write the letter he was sending to the church. He would dictate that letter. And then, because there were people who were out there with counterfeit letters, this is a letter from Paul, he would sign it. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Galatians 6-11. See with what large letters I'm writing to you with my own hand. Perhaps a reference to his eye problem. Colossians 4.18, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Great to be with you. And 2 Thessalonians 3.17, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine. It is the way I write. And so you can see they took great pains to be sure to authenticate these letters. Tertius, which, by the way, if you're interested in family names, typically if you name your child Tertius, in the first century world, he's number three child. Not very creative. I think Alcortes must have felt, one of the guys who's listed here later. Number four, Atertius, who wrote this letter greets you in the Lord. He wants to be sure. And this is the flavor you pick up here. And I want you to catch this flavor more and more. My heart filled and my eyes filled with tears while I go. We saw our brothers and sisters in Haiti eat. Eating. Notified that the orphans were fed. Not just with rice. a chicken, a feast by their standard. And you did that. You did that. Your contributions, your commitment, your action we've taken in the past to say, yes, these extra monies we have, we want them to go to Haiti to help them. You did that. God has blessed that. And I hope you were filled with joy as I was filled with joy. We can see these babies actually getting to eat when food is so scarce. Brothers and sisters, that's the heart. That's the heart that beats when Christianity is vital. It's too easy in the West to be focused on me, my, mine. There's a world out there. We read every week. I hope you leave here today with your heart heavy for our brothers and sisters in Christ in Morocco and praying, dear God, protect these Christians there. Maybe some of you thinking, I need to go find my Bible. I don't know where my Bible is. If they're found with a Bible, they're imprisoned. Oh, the communion of the saints. Tertius can't stand it. He doesn't wait until the end. I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Then he continues taking dictation from Paul. Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church. This is Gaius now. Gaius must have had a very accommodating place to live. He hosts the church. Remember, when Paul is writing this, well into the second century even, Buildings where congregations were unheard of. They met either in the catacombs, that is in the caves. They met in homes. They met in openings under trees. Guess who's still doing that today? Our brothers and sisters in Christ in Haiti. Conditions in which they meet. Many people in the West would say, well, I can't go. I'm not going back to that church. It's just not comfortable. That's where they meet. That's where a lot of the church meets today. Gaius, what a precious blessing he was to the church, who is host to me, that is to Paul, and to the whole church. Preach you. Our host, who makes sure that we have a place to meet for worship, sends you greetings. in an unusual name, Erastus, the city treasurer. Think about it. We read from Paul in other places that Christians in Caesar's household, the gospel had made some fascinating inroads. Here's a man who's a city treasurer, prominent, would risk his job to be identified as a follower of Jesus Christ, and yet there he is. He's a member. of the church at Corinth. And then our brother Quartus, number four, greets you. We don't know anything about Quartus, like we don't know anything about Tertius. But they were there. They were part of this group of companions. As Paul is finishing up this letter, they're around him. They were within speaking distance of him. And he feels it incumbent that the church at Rome who does live in the eagle's nest under the shadow of the emperor, that they know they're not forgotten. One of the great messages we can send to one another when one of our brothers or sisters is walking through this valley of the shadow is you're not forgotten. We bear your name on our hearts and on our lips. to the Lord, whether it's a difficult set of providences you're going through, relational struggles, we pray for you. We want you to know that. We intercede for you. We offer ourselves to the Lord and say, Lord, can we be used in any way to help shoulder that burden? If you're under a financial load, Lord, can we be used in any way to shoulder that burden? If spiritually you're struggling with depression, Father, help us to be an encouragement, physically. Your body is being reminded that we're in this tabernacle that is decaying. We pray for your healing. We plead for your healing. That's the way the church operates. It's not a church if you're ashamed to let people know how you're doing. Now, this could be on you. It could be a pride thing you need to slay. But if the climate in the church is such that you don't want, you don't feel comfortable with people knowing how you're really doing, antenna ought to go up for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are a family. We're a family. I have blood kin. Texas and Florida and Mississippi and different places. but you are my family. If you hurt, and I know it, I hurt. If you struggle, and I know it, God being my helper, I want to marshal the resources to get under that load, not to, so that you don't have to struggle. In this world, we will have difficulty, but so that you know that there are other people under the load with you. I don't want you ever to think you're going alone on this. We operate here, try to operate here. Our church covenant states it clearly when you read it with us every month. We take God seriously when He said, it's not good for the man to be alone. Paul is sending a clear message here as he includes his companions in the closing verses to say to the church at Rome, you are not alone. Easy enough for a congregation like the folks in Morocco to wonder, is anybody thinking about me? Does anyone know we're here? We don't want that ever to happen to you. We believe in the gospel too strongly. Let that happen to you. So these greetings come, and then this verse that's questionable, I suppose. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Is it unbelievable that Paul would have said that? Not at all. Paul's heart beat that way. He knew the only hope The only blessing people have in this life is if the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with them, not just an idea. Oh, I know about grace. No, are you experiencing the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? I want it to be with you. I want it to accomplish you. I want it to envelop you. I want it to strengthen you, establish you. That's his desire. I'm gonna let it stand in the text. Second thing I want you to see. This closing addiction that turns into a doxology. This is fascinating. I challenge you, if you have English skills, I challenge you to go home and try to diagram this. You'll collapse under the weight of it. I've tried. It's like, where do I go now? Listen to it. Now to him who is 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 and 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. He didn't finish. How do you explain that? I want to make a suggestion to you. If you recognize this in Paul's writings, it's not unusual for Paul to be writing about the goodness of God, the glory of God, the grace of God, and just get lost in the wonder of it. Remember, he carries with him for his whole life the reality that he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He had memorized the entire Old Testament. Some of you here have difficulty memorizing the scripture of the week. He memorized the entire Old Testament. All but to not. The law, the prophets, the poetic writings. In his zeal, wanting to please God. I think he volunteered to go after the followers of the way, who in his unconverted state, he saw them as blasphemers. How can these people go around saying that this Jesus of Nazareth, this carpenter's son, this fella who came of a speculative parentage, I mean, there was something about Joseph and Mary being found with child before they were married. How can they say he, is the Jews' Messiah with a zeal that knew no bounds. I believe he volunteered. Gamaliel probably commended him. I have this student, Saul. He's risen above most. He has great promise. Assign him to go stamp out this uprising led in the name of this dead Jew. Paul carried that with him. How could he ever overcome, move beyond the fact that, as he describes himself, as a blasphemer, persecuting the church, authorizing the stoning of Stephen, How can he do that? How can he ever live in himself? There's only one reason, folks. I don't know what your background is. There's only one way. When you become convinced that the glory of God is greater than your sin. That grace, we sing a hymn. Grace, grace, marvelous grace. Grace that is greater than all my sin. It's the only way you ever come to rest in that. But he never gets over this. And you see it reflected, I think, in this closing benediction. But I want you to hear where this shows up in a couple of other places in the New Testament. In Hebrews 13, 20 to 21, Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with every good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Tremendous benediction. Jude. 24 and 25. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forevermore. So, What's he saying? What's he saying? Well, he's trying to communicate now to Him. A benediction. I want you to know I'm commending you to Him. That's the idea that he opens up with. I'm commending you to Him. To who? The One who is able to strengthen you. The word strengthen here, folks. You could use the word stabilize you. Is your life shaky? Are the foundations around you shaky? Is the culture coming apart at the seams? Has insanity, moral insanity, political insanity, social insanity, become the order of the day? I want to commend a book to you. It's coming out from Founders Press. The beauty of the binary. The beauty of the binary. The precious truth that in the very beginning, God who created them made them male and female. Period. Exclamation point. We will not play along. I refuse to play make-believe in a society that has set its sights on the assault of my creator. You shouldn't play along either. We need somebody standing firm. Paul says, I'm commending you to the God who is able to do just that. He's able to strengthen you, to stabilize you. He says similar things to Ephesus, the church at Ephesus. Put on the whole armor of God. Standing in the evil day, having done all to stand. Folks, when the smoke clears, and the smoke will clear one day, I don't want you having to pick yourself up Because you came to the culture. My desire for myself and for you, when the smoke clears, here we'll stand. We'll stand. Because you know why? First of all, it'll honor God. Secondly, when the smoke gets heavy and the fires unfurl, there will be people looking for someplace safe. You hear a lot about safe spaces, safe spaces. The only safe place in the world is to be standing on the rock which will not sink like sand does when the winds and the waves blow. Paul says, I'm commending you to this God. Folks, I commend you to this God. He's able to strengthen you. How? According to my gospel. The gospel. Make much of the gospel. Be clear on the gospel. Preach the gospel to yourselves every day. Preach it to someone nearby you that you love. God so loved sinful people that he sent his only son to live a perfect life, sinless life, perfectly obeying the law of God all through his days in the fullness of time. When challenged and tempted to compromise, he would not. He stood, and because he stood, he was nailed to a cross as a common criminal. And yet on that cross, he bore our sin on the tree. He satisfied divine justice by suffering and dying under the hand of God, who poured out his wrath upon him. It looked dark. Bless God it wasn't long. Three days he rose from the grave. Infallible. I showed you that last week. Not even a question. I started to say last week and I did not want to say it today. I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. Alright? I have faith in facts of Jesus' life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and soon certain return. He rose. He ascended. He's coming back. Probably sooner than any of us think. The gospel. Know it. Believe it. Share it. Declare it. My gospel. There's only one. Joshua leads us in a song about that. There is one gospel. And only one. There's not different. deviations or derivations of it, there's one gospel. Paul goes ahead and intensifies it, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, which is his gospel, by the way. He's just repeating that for instance. And what's it according to? According to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages. We discussed in Sunday school this morning. Difference in the terms. Let's get the terms. Let's don't be like people who sit down to eat and there's a big bowl in front of us and you notice in there, you notice it looks like a salad, maybe an appetizer, probably the main dish, a vegetable perhaps, perhaps a dessert, just all mixed together. You don't eat that way. Definite and distinct. Revelation is that which was once not known that is open and made known. Inspiration is that which is spoken out by God. All scripture and only scripture is inspired by God. You may see an inspiring sunset, you may read an inspiring poem, but it's not inspired, it's not inspiration. And then illumination is where most of the people of God who are saved live, The Lord opens up truth to us. I hope while I preach to you that God's opening up truth to you. That you're seeing things, connecting things that you were not otherwise. According to the revelation of the mysteries. The word mystery, I've told you before, it's just, it's not even translated here. It's the Greek word musterion. And when you write it down in English form, it turns into mystery. Wasn't known before. Kept secret. Little hints of it along the way. When Jesus comes, though, the light bursts on the scene. The mystery is unveiled. Now, being made known to all nations. Jesus said at the Ascension, all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth. As you go, make disciples of all the nations. That was woven into the prophetic language of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. Just not clear. Definitely clear when Jesus gets ready to go back to heaven. All nations. This gospel's been made known to all nations. according to the command of the eternal God. Either here, his commandments, ten commandments which stand forever, never to be altered, honor in father and mother, and the fifth commandment still means honor father and mother. And it doesn't mean unless somehow you have a daddy who can get pregnant, nonsense. Utter and absolute nonsense. The beauty of the binary. We're committed to that. And disclosed. Through the prophetic writings. According to the command of the Eternal God. Either the Ten Commandments, or the command that says, you shall be witnesses to me in Judea, Samaria, the outermost parts of the earth. That command is true for us today. Each of us here has our Jerusalem. Typically, you walk outside your front door. You're looking around at your Jerusalem. Unless you live in the middle of no man's land, you're meant to walk down the road a little ways to see your Jerusalem. You have one. Judea, the enlarged area. Samaria, now you're getting into territory of folks you're not comfortable with. in the outermost parts of the earth. You're commanded." He said, you shall be witnesses to me. Not I would like for you to be witnesses. If you find time in your schedule, no, you're going to be busy. No, you shall be witnesses to me. I promise we saw in Sunday school this morning that the Holy Spirit would come and he would ensure that you would declare the gospel. Why this command? To bring about the obedience of faith. You know some folks, anybody can say, I believe. I believe in God and all that stuff. That doesn't impress me, I'm sorry. The future talks about the obedience of faith. How do I know you believe? By the way you act? The way you act. The word here is a compound word, by the way, just so you know. It's the word to hear, akuo, with a preposition, yupa, which means you hear under. Real quick, you have children, you tell them to do something. Did you hear me? Uh-huh. Which I hate, by the way. That would be yes ma'am or no ma'am, but that's another discussion for another day. Did you hear me? What did I say? Uh-huh. You know what? The shrug means, I didn't hear you. I didn't hear you with a view to doing. I didn't understand. I did not take in what you said seriously enough that I wanted to put it into practice, act upon it. That's the word here, the obedience of faith. Faith in Jesus Christ is a gift of God. We don't teach here to have faith in faith. Faith in Jesus Christ, his person, his word. And you do that, you're enabled to believe in Jesus, because the Holy Spirit comes into your life, bringing you from death to life, giving you the new birth, be born, we call it. And in that, He gives you the enablement to repent of your sin and to believe in Jesus Christ. Paul calls it here, the obedience of faith. Now, he stops there. He does not finish the thought. But then he goes ahead and says, in summary, to the only wise God, be glory forever through Jesus Christ, amen. It's a benediction. I'm gonna bless you. It turns into a doxology. Because folks, here's the truth. You can't think long about Jesus without breaking into doxology. You can't talk long about Jesus without breaking into doxology. I dare you, you share with someone today about how the Lord saved you, and see if you can do it like somebody doing the weather. You can't do it. Not if you've been saved. Now you don't need to be like I am, but I'm gonna tell you something, it's hard for me to this day to speak about the saving mercy of God who saved me from dead religion, rescued me from being religious. We're gonna have a good time studying through Hebrews. That's what Hebrews is about. Jesus Christ is superior. He is superior to everything you can muster that has any religious implications about it at all. to the only wise God. Where do you find the wisdom in this world? I'm telling you something. There's some people talking that are utter lunatics. When I hear a fella, clearly a fella, I mean, because a woman can't even be as ugly as this guy, a fella who's pretending to be a woman, who's telling us about health and human resources, and how we need to create safe spaces for our children so they can be mutilated surgically. He's an idiot. He's an idiot. We don't listen to insanity. We used to try to treat it. Now they reward it. The only wise guy. Let me tell you something. The only place you're gonna find wisdom, the only place you're gonna find wisdom is in this book right here. This is it. We went through the whole book of wisdom. Went through Proverbs on Wednesday night. Wow. How rich that was. The glory. He's the only one who gets the glory. For how long? Forever. I think I've run out of ways to glorify God. No, you haven't. You're getting worried. Just read the Psalms for a while. Joshua was talking about it earlier. Sometimes we have to engage the Scripture to get our hearts warm for worship, but this much is true. The more you lift up your voice in praise to God, the more you want to praise Him. The universal truth. He says all of this, by the way, through Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, the life. There's no other way to the Father except through Him. Have you come to Him? Do you know him? I didn't ask you if you had a religious experience. I had a religious experience when I was 10. I don't know what to say. Do you know Jesus Christ? You've been born again. Transformed. A transformation so obvious. But you have to say, it was like coming from death to life for me. It was like not being born to being born. It was like being blind to seeing. Like being crippled to being able to walk. That's how radical the transformation of the gospel is in your life. If you haven't had that saving encounter, please seek me out. Not because I think I can save you, but because I can tell you about the one who will. Who promises he will not turn away any who come to him. Have you met him? Do you know Him? The gospel is the power of God. Have you experienced that power in your life? That's my great hope. That's my desire for you. If you haven't confessed Christ as Lord, do so today. Perhaps you're thinking about church home. I would commend this one to you. Not because of the preacher, but because of the people God's assembled here. Precious, godly followers of Jesus Christ, who love one another, strive to love one another as Christ has loved us. I would commend the family of Bethel Baptist Church to you, to investigate and see if that's where the Lord would plant you. I extend those two invitations to you today. If you have not trusted Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, let aside religion. Come face-to-face with Jesus, repenting to Him, asking for forgiveness, and you'll find the transformation that only comes in Him. And we commend this church for you to consider applying for membership. Let's pray. Dear Holy Father, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Oh, we bless you. We bless you. We read this passage, and what a blessed assurance it is to know that you are ours and we are yours. We thank you. We thank you. Oh, God. Help us to walk and live in the gospel that is the power of God to salvation. Forgive us when we seem to live like the rest of the world lives, defeated, when you said we're more than conquering. Help us to offer a message, an example, a testimony that is hopeful, that offers hope to people who are not hopeful. Help us to empty ourselves right now of ourselves and fill us in a new and fresh way with your Holy Spirit to use us, to bear witness, for the greatest, the greatest experience of a lifetime. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone, for the glory of God alone.