Well, it's good to be back together as we continue in our study of Romans. Last week, we saw that it's not only doctrine and theology that's important to Paul, but also people. And we saw that as he went through that list of 26 people that he was thanking the Lord for as they were helping and co-laboring for the sake of the gospel. Today, we're going to turn our attention to the next section of verses in Romans 16. If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn to Romans 16. We'll be looking at verses 17 through 20 today. Beginning 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. 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. So I want to look under this passage today under four headings on your handout. The first we're going to look at the fruit of the false teacher, which we see in verse 17. Secondly, we'll look at the characteristics of the false teacher, verse 18. Then the characteristics of the Christian, which we'll see in verses 19 and 20. And then the third, benediction, we'll also see in verse 20. So let's begin by looking at verse 17. Notice, first of all, the warning that Paul is giving to the Christians in Rome. These Christians to whom he is writing are no doubt growing and they're maturing in their faith. He's been encouraging them in that process of sanctification after having come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus. And so he wants them to be on the lookout for those who will seek to undermine everything that they have been taught and learned. Paul is genuinely concerned about them and he wants them to continue in the faith and to not lose ground. It reminds me of the verse that says, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, 1 Peter 5a. I wonder if you've noticed this in your own life. You go through a period of growing in grace, being more consistent in personal worship, in family worship, in your prayer life, and who takes notice? Well, certainly the Lord does. And he delights in that. But Satan also notices, and he will not let that growth in your faith go untested. Much like what we read in Job chapter 1, Job was a righteous man, committed to the Lord, growing in his faith. We read, there was a man in the land of Uz named Job. He was a man blameless and upright, one who feared God, turned away from evil, He would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. Job 1, verses 1 and 5. What happened? Well, Satan took notice, and he was determined to strip Job of everything he had to see if he would denounce God. Of course, we know the end of that story. Job remained faithful, even though his friends and his wife encouraged him to curse God and die. Well, like Job, Satan is going to attack the righteous. He will tempt you to curse God. He will take things away from you that you hold dear. He will test you almost to the breaking point. And he will send false teachers to accomplish his purpose. And so with that context in mind, let's look at verse 17, the fruit of the false teacher. We see two things. They cause divisions, and second, they create obstacles that are contrary to what we have been taught. Now, you may say to me, Kevin, how can fruit come from something bad? How can a false teacher yield fruit? Well, we see that in Matthew 7, 15 through 20, Jesus saying, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the lake of fire, thus you will recognize them by what? Their fruits. And so Jesus is saying the difference between a genuine Christian and a false Christian or a false prophet is in their fruit, by what they actually produce, we could say. So back to our passage today, notice first the false teacher causes divisions. Now in the Greek, to divide means to separate something into parts. Those of you that are homeschooling moms out there know this well because you teach your kids math. And there's something called division, right? So you have something larger and you divide it into something smaller. Paul is saying, this is one of the false teacher's works, is to divide, to take something bigger and make something smaller from it. As it pertains to the church, which is Paul's meaning here, the false teacher lures people to follow him. and sometimes start a smaller church. James Boyce writes, these new teachers begin to push a particular point of doctrine to the exclusion of other equally important truths. And they are critical of people who do not see things as they do or join them in pushing their personal concerns. When everyone does not go their way, and not all people do, because God always has some in the church who will not be so easily taken by it, who care for other believers and are not serving themselves, these unbalanced and divisive teachers pull followers away and start another fellowship, which is always presented as a more biblical, more faithful, or truer church. Second result of the false teacher's work is they create obstacles that are contrary to true doctrine. Now, the Greek word for obstacle carries with it the idea of an impediment, a hindrance, a hurdle. It's the same word from which we get scandal. In other words, the false teacher causes the true believer to question what he has been taught in a way that actually stunts or hinders his growth in the Lord. How does he do that? Well, in some regard, the false teacher may do this through extra-biblical teaching. This is what the Pharisees did, right? They imposed stricter than what was actually biblical requirements and rules as it related to the Sabbath day, dietary requirements, and observance on many of the holy days. Many people will do this, these false teachers, and they're not denying the essentials of the Christian faith, but rather they're insisting on adding to Scripture. thus providing obstacles, hindrances to the Christian to grow in grace. Well, Paul says in verse 17 of Romans 16, our response to false teachers should be to avoid them. We should run. We should turn the other way. We're to turn and reject what they teach. We remain steadfast. and know from scripture what we know to be true. We are not to be tossed to and fro by the waves and carried by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes, Ephesians 4, 14. We've identified the bad fruit of the false teacher, but now let's consider their characteristics. We see this in verse 18. They don't serve the Lord, rather they serve their own appetites. So they're selfish. They have smooth talk, flattery, and are ultimately deceptive. First of all, notice they don't serve the Lord, but rather their own appetites. John MacArthur writes, no matter how seemingly sincere and caring false teachers or preachers may appear to be, they are never genuinely concerned for the cause of Christ or for his church. They are often driven by self-interest, self-gratification, sometimes for fame, sometimes for power over their followers, always for financial gain, and frequently for all of those reasons. Many of them enjoy pretentious and luxurious lifestyles, and sexual immorality is the rule more than the exception. In other words, these false teachers are selfish. They care more about pushing and promoting their own agenda rather than the Lord's agenda. Stuart Aliot writes helpfully, Paul's comments reveal that just as there is a connection between true doctrine and godliness, what he's been mentioning in previous chapters, there's also a connection, as he says here, between false doctrine and selfishness. Well, secondly, their speech, notice in verse 18, is characterized by being smooth and flattering. Now, the word smooth talk here renders a word that's only found here in the New Testament, but it's described as being smooth, plausible speech. Flattery is used in the New Testament many times in a good sense, but here Paul is describing those people whose conduct is actually base, but whose words are excellent. In other words, these are people of low character. They say one thing, but they live out another way. Their words and their actions do not match. Thirdly, we see they are ultimately deceivers. They lead people away by their smooth talk and flattery. They may look good on the outside, but they're evil on the inside. They intentionally mislead people to comply with their own selfish agenda rather than the Lord's. Jesus warns against such people, see that no one leads you astray, Matthew 24, verse 4. We are told in our culture now, we hear this all the time, don't we? Trust yourself, follow your heart, and yet the Bible speaks emphatically against this. Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? So who can we trust? Well, the Lord and the Lord alone. Thus we must be careful and wise regarding what we are listening to, regarding what we are, who we are watching. We must be wiser than the serpent. And this means that when you hear a pastor or you hear a teacher, what should you be doing? You should be hearing those words and you should be seeing the word of God and listening to that in light of the word of God and seeing if it's congruent. As I teach week in and week out, which is one of the most humbling things I've ever done in my life, you all should be doing that. Making sure that what I'm actually saying is in accordance with the word of God. Several men have been known to be false teachers through the years. These men have been incredibly successful in the world's eyes, accumulating wealth beyond measure. Paul Crouch once said, we are gods. I am a little God, I have his name, I am one with him. Ken Hagen, a faith healer, once said, you are as much the incarnation of God as Jesus Christ was. What a blasphemous statement. And yet he was heralded and led many people astray and continues to do so. Kenneth Copeland once said, God cannot do anything for you apart or separate from faith because faith is God's source of power. How wrong that is. Frederick Price once declared, God has to be given permission to work in this earth realm on behalf of man. Yes, you are in control. When God gave Adam dominion, that meant God no longer had dominion. So God cannot do anything in this earth unless we let him. And the way we let him or give permission is through prayer. How incredibly blasphemous all of these statements are. And yet it sounds good to a selfish person who wants to be in charge of his own life, right? When in fact, all of these statements are denying the triune God who is sovereign over the affairs of man. Wow. How does our faith actually control God? Our faith is something that God has given to us, right? You see how all these men are promoting man, demoting God, ultimately denying his sovereignty over the universe. All of them, and there's many, many more, are false prophets, false teachers, we could say. And there continue to be people today that rise up with the same ambitions, to lead people astray. So we've looked at the false teacher, we've looked at their fruit, their characteristics, now let's consider the fruit of the genuine believer. First of all, we see in verse 19, obedience. Paul says, your obedience is known to all. Now he said already in Romans 1.8, he was commending them on their faithfulness. He says, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. So he's already commended them for their faith, Now he's going to commend them for their obedience. First of all, let me say how wonderful their obedience must have been, that it was known throughout the entire Greco-Roman world. May it be said of us, dear friends, even years from now, that our obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ is known among those around us. What does this obedience look like? Well, it certainly means a life being led to the glory of God, fulfilling the Ten Commandments, doing what He tells us to do. If you have an obedient child, how many of y'all do have obedient children? We pray for obedient children. You give them an instruction and they do it. They obey, right? God gives us instructions in His Word and we actually do it. We take Him seriously. This is His words of encouragement to us and his commands, we are to obey them. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments, John 14, 15. Secondly, Paul exhorts him to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil, verse 19. In other words, since we have Satan as the ultimate deceiver who is attacking us and trying to make us fall, and we have false teachers who act in his name for the same purpose, we need to be wise. Jesus told his disciples, Matthew 10, 16, behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. So it is for us today. We need wisdom to detect the authentic versus the counterfeit. The wolf will surely attack the sheep and kill the sheep. if the sheep is not wise and skillful in his movements. We, like the sheep, need to be wise and skillful, outsmarting the enemy, relying upon God who gives all wisdom. Furthermore, we're to be innocent as to what is evil. John MacArthur writes helpfully here, to be innocent in what is evil is not to be ignorant of it or disregard it. We cannot abhor evil unless we have some idea of what it is. But to use a popular analogy, the only reliable way, listen, to recognize a counterfeit bill is to be completely familiar with the genuine bill. The only reliable way to recognize evil is to be thoroughly familiar with the good. And the only reliable way to learn what is good is to learn God's word. So true. Many, many years ago, in fact, decades ago, I worked as a bank teller when I was going through chiropractic school and through college. And what he's saying is true. There could be many different variations of a counterfeit bill that takes on a lot of different forms. So how do we know what a counterfeit bill is when it crosses the counter? It's only by knowing what the true one looks like, what the authentic one looks like. So what does that mean for us today? Well, we need not be completely familiar with the world's ways and systems in order to recognize the evil. Rather, we need to be completely familiar with God's ways so that we do recognize what is evil and what is the counterfeit. We also see in verse 20, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Now, this is partly a reference going back to Genesis 3.15, which says, 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. Now, one could look at this and say, well, didn't Jesus already defeat Satan on the cross of Calvary? So why will Satan soon be crushed under your feet and under my feet? Well, the answer lies in the three tenses that can be used. James Boyce writes, When we speak of salvation, for example, we sometimes say that we have been saved, we are being saved, and one day we will be saved. In a similar way, when we speak of Jesus' victory over Satan, it's possible to say that Satan has been defeated, that he is being defeated, and that he will, of course, ultimately one day will be defeated. The first and the third victories It's something that the Lord Jesus accomplishes alone. We have no part in it. But we do have a part in the second of these battles, Satan's being defeated, which is why Paul can say the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. So how do we actively combat the evil one and defeat him? Well, Ephesians 6, spiritual armor, right? specifically the word of God and prayer. You gain victory over the evil one when you say no to temptation, when you resist the urgings of the flesh, when you choose to speak kind words that build up others instead of tearing down, when you promote peace rather than gossip. Day by day, we struggle with good and evil, and so let us continually Stay in the Word of God, praying the Lord will reign in our lives that we might more and more be able to withstand the attacks of the evil one, that Satan would be crushed under our feet. Finally, notice at the end of verse 30, or the end of verse 20, excuse me, the third benediction found in Romans. This is also the last benediction found in this book. The first one was Romans 15, 13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. So the idea was hope there in that first benediction. The second benediction, remember, was Romans 15, 33, may the God of peace be with you all, amen. So there was peace in that one. And now this one, there's grace. Romans 16, 20, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And when we think of God's grace, we remember it's something that God gives us that we do not deserve. In his commentary, James Boyce differentiates between common grace and saving grace. See, all mankind experiences grace. Common grace is that which is extended to everyone. This common grace includes God's daily provision. of food, transportation, housing, clothing, basic necessities of life. Common grace includes even the delay of judgment to give more time for drawing in the elect from every tongue, tribe, and nation. Common grace includes the restraint of sin. As bad as it is, the world could be worse. Why is it not worse? Because of God's common grace, restraining sin, preventing total anarchy. in this fallen world. Common grace, we see everywhere, everyone sees it, but it's not effectual for salvation. Saving grace, on the other hand, is effectual to bring someone to saving faith. This special saving grace of God comes through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. When we think of God's saving grace, we think of electing grace, redeeming grace, and efficacious grace. So in our time remaining, let's just go through that. First, God's electing grace is his predestinating us to eternal life in accordance with his perfect and pleasing will. We read in Ephesians 1, 4, and 5, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will. That is God's electing grace. Secondly, God's redeeming grace. This was accomplished on the cross when Jesus Christ atoned for our sins. Now, we've discussed this briefly before, but just to remind us, God the Father ordains our salvation. He plans it. Jesus Christ, God the Son, accomplishes our salvation. and God the Holy Spirit applies it. James Boyce writes, this is so helpful, y'all, listen to this carefully. Redemption is a commercial term meaning to buy in the marketplace so that the object or person purchased might be freed from it, which is what Jesus did by dying in our place. In this illustration, we are pictured as slaves to sin, unable to free ourselves from sin's bondage. Instead of freeing us, the world merely gambles for our souls. It offers everything that is its currency, fame, sex, pleasure, power, wealth. For these things, millions sell their eternal souls and are perishing. But listen to what he says. But Jesus enters the marketplace as our redeemer. He bids the price of his blood, and guess what? God says, sold. Sold to Jesus Christ. There's no higher bidder than His, so we become His forever. Do you get that from that illustration? That's God's redeeming grace for you and for me, sold to Jesus Christ. such that now we are the adopted children of God, we are co-heirs with Christ, and he is our fellow brother because we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. That is his redeeming grace. Thirdly, we have efficacious grace. which is the sovereign expression of God's work through the Holy Spirit to make salvation effectual in drawing the sinner to himself. A powerful example that shows God's grace calling a dead sinner is in John 11. Jesus shows up at the tomb of Lazarus. He speaks, come forth, and Lazarus comes forth. Even today, the Holy Spirit works powerfully through the means of grace, primarily through the preaching of the word, to draw sinners like you and me to himself. When light of this passes today, let's just do a few things. One, we have to be on the lookout for false teachers, and we have to avoid them and warn others. Secondly, let us live our lives in humble obedience, to the Lord, who has been so incredibly gracious to you and me. And in light of the grace that he has bestowed upon us, let us grow in that grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ as we submit and consecrate our lives to him and for his glory. Let's pray. God in heaven, we're grateful for this word, Father, that you've given to us in Romans. We recognize that there are false teachers who are doing really the work of the devil. And so, Father, help us to be on the lookout. Help us to be wise, that you would give us that wisdom, that everything that we hear from your pulpit or taught from your word, that we would hold in light and in view of scripture, that we would see truth, that we would know it, that we would live it, that we would proclaim it. Father, how we thank you for your grace. that not only has caught us to yourself, but also sustains us day by day. In Jesus' name.