Well, here we are. This will be the last time in this series that I will say, open your Bibles to Romans chapter 16 here. We have made it through the book of Romans and this is the last message that we will have on the book of Romans. If I counted right, and I could have been off with this many, I counted, I should have done one more. I counted as of today with this sermon here, 129 messages in Romans. And a lot of pastors go a lot more than that. Volumes have been written, and we're probably on the short side. We've been in Romans for over three years. Now, we started in January of 2020, But then COVID hit after the first message, and we really didn't pick it back up until June 28th of 2020. So, you know, you think about June 28th, that would have been last week, maybe two weeks ago, it would have been on that last week of June timeframe. That's a three years now, right now, right at three years, a little over if you're gonna count when we began. Really, it's three years, right at three years. that we've been in the book of Romans. Leah wasn't married three years ago. How old were you, Emily, three years ago? Only seven years old? Can you imagine Emily being only seven years old? Some of the kids, I think Ivy's got a birthday this month, she's gonna turn seven. That's how little you were. as you were the same age Ivy is now. And that means Ivy was only four. If you Smith kids would line out your ages, all the other kids, are there some kids here that wouldn't have been here three years ago, right? All the little ones, all our little two year olds weren't here. Liam was just, would he have just been born that winter, right? In that COVID time. Yeah, Liam was the first of that series that group and and say he was just an infant and all these little ones weren't even here when we began the Book of Romans so that is a long time a long time we've been in the Book of Romans and I've been blessed by it and I've forgotten most of it really really and I go back and if forgotten some of it yeah I mean go back to what did we learn about that and But we have access to all of this, and it was a blessing to go through it together as a church. The next thing we'll do when I get back, I think we'll do the Life of David. And we'll do a, I like to do those. You know, we've done Life of Abraham, Life of Elijah, Life of Joshua. Who else, I remember everyone we've done, but now we'll do Life of David. I think that's gonna be a blessing, and we'll go through, and really it'll be First, Second Samuel that we'll be going through. Well, as we look here at the end of Romans, what we've got to remember is that the theme of Romans, if you were to put a theme on it, you could think about the gospel, of course, Jesus. Yes, yes, that's one of the right answers, Jesus. But it's God's righteousness, to be more specific. God's righteousness in the gospel. God's righteousness brought to us in Christ, the gospel of Christ. God's righteousness by faith. God's righteousness in our sanctification, in our glorification. God's righteousness in how we live out our lives. And all of God's righteousness is presented to us as a theme really in the book of Romans. Now what we're gonna look at here as we get to the end, I think you could say the purpose for writing. Now certainly Paul wanted to teach, he wanted to bless. But if you get to the end here, you'll notice that when we read this, he's talking about being established. So you could say that the purpose of the book of Romans is to establish us in God's righteousness. And that's what we're gonna look at this morning. That's why I think the point is here is Paul closes his letter, he wants the Romans, he wants us to be established in God's righteousness. And so for our scripture reading, we're gonna read verses 25 through 27 here on this last passage in the book of Romans. Romans 16, 25. Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest, and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith, to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever, amen. Let us have a word of prayer as we begin our message time. Father, we do pray that you'd bless this time as you've blessed the rest of the service. Your word would penetrate our hearts. And Lord, we come to this truth that you establish us. Lord, you are the one who set us on a rock. and that these gospel truths, these doctrinal truths, practical truths, Lord, these words that you've given to us by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul can establish us. You're able to establish us and you do that by means of the gospel, by means of your word. Pray that each believer here is becoming and is established before you. according to the gospel, according to your word. I pray your blessing now as we look into your word, in Jesus' name, amen. Paul ended this letter with what is called a doxology, and a doxology is glorifying God. The other letter ends with a benediction, which is pronouncing a praise or a blessing on people, thankfulness or praise. This is a doxology. And the doxology is to God, glorifying God for His ability to establish us. So you see that in the sentence, a very complicated sentence to really sort out. There's a lot in it. He says, now to him who is able to establish you, and now you have all the prepositional phrases. But if you go back, go right to verse 27 and skip the explanatory words there. Now to him who is able to establish you, verse 27, to God, that's who he's talking about, that's him, to God alone wise, glory through Jesus Christ forever, amen. This is a doxology glorifying God for His ability to establish us. And Paul is bringing this at the close of his letter. We see here that this word able is meant to talk about power to do, like I can. Only God has the miraculous ability to establish us. And you see this definition of this word establish, it means to firmly set, to be stable, to be grounded, I remember when we were talking about Dave at the funeral, Stuart Dick, who gave the eulogy and the message, talked about Dave with the bridges and finding a foundation, and you have to set things on a solid foundation. You have to dig down and find out where to set your foundation. It has to be firmly set, it has to be stable, it has to be grounded. That's what God wants for us. And we can look at the definition of this word and I hope we all go, yeah, that's what I need. Sure, I need to be set and stable and grounded on a foundation. Well, that's the technical definition of the word. Now we got something to work with. God is able and he's the only one who can make it happen to ground us, to stabilize us. Now let's go through some verses that are in the scriptures that talk about what it means to be established. And if you have your notes, you'll see on the sermon notes some different verses. Let's warm up our fingers and let's turn to the first one in 1 Thessalonians chapter three. We're just gaining some cross-references in the scriptures about what God means when He says to be established. The scriptural definition of a Christian being grounded. 1 Thessalonians 3.13, you see this is in the context of Paul's prayer for the church, verses 11, 12, and 13. Now in verse 11, the God, Father himself, of our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all just as we do to you so that he may establish your hearts. Now what can we learn about what this establishing means? Right here, blameless in holiness before our God. at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. God intends to establish and ground Christians blameless in holiness so that their life is a testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ, that people will see that they are the real deal. They have blameless and holy lives. I hope you want that. I hope you're searching and seeking out that kind of grounding in your life, to be blameless and holiness before our God. Let's turn now to 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 17. I won't read this entire prayer, but notice again, Paul praying for the church, beginning in verse 13, but we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord. And he begins to have his prayer there. And he says in verse 17, to comfort your hearts and establish you. Well, what kind of establishment? In every good word and work. Do you want that, brother and sister? Do you want to have a good, stable life so that you're established in word and deed? What you do is for the Lord. What you say is for the Lord. Your whole life is blameless and is holy living. And word and deed, you're established, you're set. Now let's look at 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 3, right here in the same book. He says here, the Apostle Paul, Here we're taught that to be established, God is able to establish Christians against evil. Aren't we coming up against a lot of evil? It's Satan's world and it's his evil and we're bombarded by it every day. Yet, God is able to establish us against that evil so that we won't be shaken. So that when, on the worldly perspective, the rug is pulled out from under us, we stand firm. That's the kind of establishment that God can do for us against the evil one and against his evil in an evil world. Let's turn to James now, James chapter 5. Scott mentioned this topic related to this in his Sunday morning Sunday school class. Churches don't teach on the end times much. And I think that's causing instability in those Christians' life. They take a whole area of doctrine and theology and important teaching that we're gonna see in this passage that God uses to stabilize us, and they just don't talk about it. And I think there's instability in many of their lives. In James chapter five, James is talking about being like a farmer, being stable, and dealing with patience, against adversity and evil. And he says in verse 8, you also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. God is able to establish Christians in patience. And part of the ability to do that is we have a focus on the Lord's return. We think about, yeah, this is really tough. I don't know what's gonna happen. This world is unstable, but I need to be patient. I need to persevere, and I need to be long-suffering in this, because Jesus will return. He'll return for me, and he will return, and he will make this world right. So I will stand for what's right, because I know in the end, God will make it right. You see, the end times, the motivation that the second coming brings to our lives for holy living, and here, patience. Part of that is a teaching, a doctrine of the Second Coming. God is able also to establish Christians through suffering. Let's turn to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 5, speaking about suffering, suffering against evil, suffering against persecution, suffering against opposition, suffering against this world that intends to tear us apart. The Apostle Peter says at the end of his A letter in 1 Peter 5, verse 10. But may the God of all grace who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, because that's coming, after you have suffered a while, perfect, there it is, establish, strengthen, and settle. You all synonymous words there that mean the same thing. to be mature, to be set and grounded, to be strengthened and bolstered up, and to settle so that you have this kind of direction in your life that isn't moved from the left to the right. They're all synonymous kind of words. This suffering of this world causes us to be unsettled. but here God is able to establish us. You know, we can look at the grammar, and we do that, and it's important, but many times the grammar isn't the only way, the grammar or the word definition isn't the only way to understand what the Bible teaches. What we have done is we have gone through each one of these verses, and there's really a couple more that are related to being established, but not so directly like the ones we looked at. What we have seen here is a theological definition of being established. And that theological definition, if you was to sum it up, it's all the parts there you could say is being grounded and stable in your faith and practice. I mean, isn't that what you want? I hope you want that. I'm tired of being tossed to and fro. I know the world will take you for a spin. The rug will get pulled out from under you. Things will come toppling down. Nothing in this world will be able to give you the kind of stability that you're looking for in life. Whatever it is you're trusting, at some point it'll give out, it'll break down, it'll fail you. And there are people who have lived in this world, they've done pretty good. And they've gone 60, 70, 80, and 90 years trusting in the things of this world. They've had plenty of money. You talk to somebody whose life is coming to an end. You talk to the older people who see the things around them failing and maybe they still have their money but they can't go out and spend it. It doesn't bring them any more enjoyment. Someone's honest and I think the Lord sometimes allows these people to live long lives where their bodies have become so weak that they realize they're just a testimony of it. Look at that. Everything that person has ever had and done and trusted in has failed him. See, if you're trying to find some stability by trusting in the things of this world, that'll fail you every time. And brother and sister, we as Christians understand this. I don't think I'm saying anything yet that probably the brothers and sisters here wouldn't say, well, yeah, amen, amen, preaching to the choir. But isn't it like this for us? We're here and we understand this and these truths mean everything to us and we go out those doors and when the world slaps you in the face, it's like there's a pull. It just starts to shake everything. There's an erosion that takes place throughout the week at our job site and dealing with the unsaved and dealing with the lost world. It's a corrosion that's happening. The foundation seems to be weakening. This is why the Lord has us in a rhythm of coming together on the Lord's day, at least once every seven days, to be bolstered up by the Word of God, encouraged by the saints. He doesn't want us, as Ephesians 4, 14 says, to no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. You know what, if you go back to Romans 16, when Paul says, now to him who is able to establish you, isn't he saying the same thing the Bible says in so many other places? Think about the book of Psalms. The whole perception, the whole, what's the word I'm looking for? Outlook, what you gain from reading in Psalms as David expresses his heart is the world is trying to be, is an unstabling force. And he's crying out for stability, for establishment. And in those Psalms, it's a crying out to God and a trust in God. It's a whole book of Psalms, most of them, it's like that. What about Psalm 40, verse two? Some of you will remember this. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock. and established my steps. Same thing. God intends to bring some grounding and establishment and some stability to his people's life. He offers this to any who'll come to him. If your life today is unstable, you need Christ. You need God in your life through Jesus Christ. And brother and sister, we need more Christ. We need him every day and we need the word because everything's working to unstabilize us, but God's intention is to stabilize and establish and ground us in faith and practice. Now what we're going to look at is Paul gives an explanation. That's why you have all of the prepositional phrases and he's gonna tell us then how this happens. How it unfolds. Well, the first thing we see here is he's going to do this according, he says, to my gospel. According to my gospel. You know, when Paul talks about the fact that it's that it's his gospel. I mean, the cure on my notes here. All right. You could say it like this. The epistle to the Romans is an explanation of the gospel, according to Paul. I mean, when he says this, it's not pulling out of thin air. What we have, I think here, is the book of Romans is expanding on what his gospel is. I'm making something here on my notes different. This same phrase is when you look in the Bible, now these aren't inspired words, but there's prescripts over the four gospels. The gospel according to Matthew, the gospel according to Mark, according to Luke, according to John. Now, in those writings, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have written down in what's called a gospel, but what have they written down? What would you say that the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are about? What are they about? Jesus. And they're about Jesus, and what they have laid down, written down, is a narrative of Jesus, a narrative of his life, death, and resurrection, in narrative form. Well, when Paul says, according to my gospel, at the end of the book of Romans, what he has laid down then for us is a theological and a practical application, explanation of the gospel of Jesus. And that's how we can see Romans, and by extension, that's how we see the epistles. The gospels give us the narrative of Jesus' life. The book of Acts gives us the history and the beginning of the church, what this looks like. It's in a narrative form also. Then you have the epistles. Well, it's just explaining the teachings of Jesus, explaining what's going on in Acts. And this is why Paul calls it my gospel. It's an explanation of the gospel that he preaches. Now what we're seeing here is that the gospel is the means to be established and teaches us how... Excuse me, I'm getting ahead. There's ways to understand what Paul meant then, according to my gospel. He's talking about the book of Romans. Then the idea is, what does he mean that the gospel is the means to be established? That when you believe the gospel, that when you learn the gospel, that is the way God establishes you. That's certainly true. Your life before you're saved is very unstable, right? So unstable it's on shaky ground that you might fall into hell at any moment. And when you get saved, he puts your feet upon a rock. And so, yeah, it brings grounding in your life. Now you know the true God. Yeah, the gospel is a means to be established, and yes, the gospel teaches us how to be established, talking about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, talking about Jesus. But I think something more is being said here. We need to add to this what he means by God is able to establish you, and what he does is he does it according to his gospel. The idea is God's ability to establish Christians in faith and practice is the gospel. That's what the book of Romans is about. How a Christian can know what's true and base his life on those truths and be certain of them. And how a Christian can then practice those things and be certain of what he's practicing is the will of God. There's instruction in there. And what the gospel does is it takes an unsaved person and puts them in a right relationship with God and a right life and a right way to live. And so you'd say that establishing Christians is the whole goal of what God's trying to do, so that Christians are grounded in a truth in their life. Now, on contrast to that, let's turn to 2 Peter 3, to contrast being stable The danger for us, brother and sister, is that there, I mentioned before, there's always these forces at work. It's Satan, it's the evil, it's the world, it's our flesh. False teaching, so we're gonna see here. That being unstable can lead to destruction. We have to be on our guard for instability that is continually creeping into our lives, attacking the foundation we stand on. And in 2 Peter 3 verse 14, the Apostle Peter is saying here, Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless. Doesn't that sound familiar? And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul. according to the wisdom God has given him has written you as also in all his epistles speaking in them these things in which some things are hard to understand. Has everything in the book of Romans been so easy to understand? Let's be honest and say, no, I'm still sorting. And I am, too. I'm still sorting out some of the things went over. Like I said, when I say I forgot, it's just not that I wasn't paying attention. It's just there's some complicated things to set in order in our minds. And that's how all of the word of God is. And aren't you thankful that the word of God is not so easy to read as a comic book? I really like the Action Bible. I've given one of them away and Emily borrowed and read it. You parents want to give your kids a good birthday gift, get them the Action Bible. They sell it at Walmart. I think they do a pretty good job. You know what it is? It's good for anyone. It's a comic book Bible. And they've just simply laid out the narrative and the stories in comic book form. And I think they've just done a good job. They stay as narrow and simple to what the Bible says. They don't get too elaborate. And when you come away reading that, you get the story of Joseph and Daniel and the life of Jesus and Paul. You come away with that. But you and I both know that the Bible is much more than that. It's like, OK, learn the stories and now let's spend the rest of our life trying to understand them and what the truths are in them, what they mean for us. And when we do that, it brings some stability in our life because I'm spending my life investing in this, building my life upon a rock. But here we're told that they are hard to understand. It's supposed to be that way. If you find the Bible difficult to learn and hard to understand, it's supposed to be that way. Cry out to God and ask him to help you. You gotta be born again to understand it. But it's a lifelong pursuit. But look what he says. Here's the danger. Which, in verse 16, which untaught, and there's our word in the opposite, unstable people. Instability in life. Unstable people that aren't grounded in the truths of the scriptures. They're not grounded in the doctrines that we've learned. They don't ground their life and root it into the Bible and the truths. They're untaught, they're unstable people and they twist to their own, they twist the word then to their own destruction as they do the rest of the scriptures. There's a real danger in this instability. And what Christians are doing, and I know some of them, and so do you, they might even be in this church, there's an instability that begins to creep into life. And that instability is a result of not being grounded in the Word, because the Bible speaks to all the issues of life. And somewhere, brother and sister, you and I have a breakdown. We're not following, we're not obeying, we're not understanding what the scripture's saying. That's why usually when someone's confronted by these things, they say, yeah, I know the Bible says that, but, and then they say, but I'm in an unstable way not doing it. And we try to say, well, look, your life wouldn't be so difficult and erratic and unstable if you'd bring that life and set it on that particular truth. But there's a confession, I don't wanna do that. So I learned this saying today, this past week studying this, and this really stuck with me. Our ability to sin, our ability to sin, brother and sister, talking about Christians, our ability to sin is directly proportional to our ability to rationalize. Now, think about this as someone that doesn't know God. They're doing that too. Well, the rules say don't do this, like, oh, I know it says that, but if I can do it without them watching, and is it worth it, I'll get caught, but then I'm gonna, that's what they're doing, they're rationalizing. And they're weighing out, is it worth it? Yeah, it's worth it, I'm doing it. But brother and sister, aren't we guilty of that? That's why I say, I know the Bible says it. Why aren't you doing that? I mean, here you are in your life, and it's difficult now, it's shambles, it's bringing tears even, and yet come and say, well, you know the Bible says, but we're rationalizing too much. I know it says that, but I can't do it. It's too difficult. It's not that easy for me. Those are the most obvious self-centered excuses, aren't they? But if you and I would come to the scriptures, do you believe they have all the answers for life? All of the wisdom and direction and truth and guidance that God has for us? I hope everybody goes, yeah, we do. And we come to the Bible and say, well, let's just do what it says. And don't you know that if you did everything it said in here, then your life would have some grounding and stability, wouldn't it? Yep. I mean, and then when life did hit you and the rugs pulled out and Satan attacked, you'd know where to go. You'd deal with it. And it might shake like that, but, oh boy, I just about tipped that over. You'd hold on, wouldn't ya? You'd have something to hold on to. And you might even cry, the only thing I got is what God says in his word, because he's taken everything else away from me. But your life would be stable because that's all you need is Jesus, right? We know this. Well, let's go back now to Romans 16. Talking about according to my gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. According to the scriptures, expand that out. Why did he die? What's his resurrection about? Well, expand that out. And that's what we have in the book of Romans in an explanation. Expand that out. God intends to save us. He intends to set us on a rock. He intends to guide and direct us and ground us in the truth. Brother and sister, watch out for instability. You get caught up in that instability, your life becomes a vortex when you get caught up in other people's instability, and you might just spin out of control, and that's when you know somebody, well, I thought they were saved. But that instability crept in, and it began to spin and spin and spin, and the force of it spun them all the way out of the church, all the way out. Well, can you lose your salvation? That's not what I'm saying, but there's a danger with that, and the Bible warns us. Stay stable according to the word of God. Now, together along with according to my gospel, you see the and there in verse 25, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, they go together. Paul didn't have a gospel he taught in Romans that was separate than what the other apostles preached. He didn't preach one thing to one place and then wrote the book of Romans to another. When we preach Christ, we're preaching the truths of Romans. The truths of Romans are the same Christ that ought to be preached by every Christian. And so the preaching of Christ, Paul's gospel message, Paul's gospel is the message about Jesus Christ. And that's what He's saying there, according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. Even the preaching of Jesus Christ. It is Christ's likeness. talking about preaching Christ. It's what we ought to be as Christians. Everything comes down to Christ. You want to talk about something that revolves around, not some vortex that revolves around sin or this world, but around Christ, around the gospel of Christ. It's death, burial, and resurrection. Bring it back to that if you have to. He died on the cross for those sins, for me. He rose again. He is the Lord. See how simple it is? Just center it on that. It's all about Christ. The preaching of Christ, and when we talk about the preaching of Christ, that's our proclamation. That's what we have. I have found these words in my study in two this week that I wanted to share with you. When Charles Spurgeon dedicated the Metropolitan Tabernacle, they had to build a bigger facility because they were gathering there by the thousands to hear Spurgeon preach. And when he dedicated that building, he said this, and I think it ought to be a rededication. I'm sure they said the same words about our church when they dedicated this building. He said this, he said, I would propose that the subject of the ministry of this house, as long as this platform shall stand, and as long as this house shall be frequented by worshipers, shall be the person of Jesus Christ. Amen? I am never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist, he said. I do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist, he proclaimed. But if I am asked to say what is my creed, I think I must reply, it is Jesus Christ. That's ultimately what we stand on. And brother and sister, that's what I've always thought was important about Village Bible Church. I've talked about holy living and loving the Lord in each other. Christ, likeness, that's what this church needs to be known for. Not programs, not community outreach, not all the activities. but certainly that there are people here that love the Lord. And because they love the Lord, they love each other. And because they love the Lord, they serve him and they live holy lives before him and they love the word of God and they grow in their faith and they grow in their practice. That's what we need to be known for. Believers are established by God in Christ, the preaching of Jesus Christ. You know, that's what the book of Romans has been about. And you go to the book of Romans, chapters one through three, That's what a life without Christ looks like. Chapters four and five speaking about justification. Well, that comes through faith in Christ. When Paul taught in Romans six and seven, he talked about sanctification. That's living in Christ. And in chapter eight, it's about glorification. That's the eternal life with Christ. Don't you want all those things? And Romans nine through 11, that's Israel's relationship with Christ. And in chapters 12 through 16, when you get practical, that's living for Christ. That's the practical Christ-likeness. It's what it looks like when a group of people, brothers and sisters, and a church and a body is gathered together. We're established by God in Christ. And I wanted to say that I have seen that testimony in a real strong way, and I think you have too this past week. Philippians 121 says, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Really, I could take it on back a few more weeks ago. That's what Ken Will said in his life. You sit and talk to him really for several weeks and some months when he knew he was growing weak. He would have summed up everything he said, huh, Marilyn? For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And when you know Dave's testimony, and for those of us who knew Dave more personally, I didn't know as close as others, but isn't that what his life was all about when you knew him? Was there any doubt that he had a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ? Didn't his best friend who knew him his whole life say, how did he say that? If there ever was a Christian, or what a Christian should be, Dave was it. Did I paraphrase that good enough? Something like that? her life. Where else can she go? Nothing in this world is going to make sense of the loss. And brother and sister, you and I at any moment can face even a greater loss of family, of our health. We might all expect a tragedy. What can happen to any of us? But I tell you, when those things happen, you're not ready. And the Lord to test us has a way to bring those tragedies in a way we never really expected. You might expect your father to pass away at some point. But like, but that way. And what the Lord is doing is he's demonstrating through us that there is a real stability and grounding that only he is able to give. And when we trust Him and we ground our lives in this gospel, then we won't be shaken to the point that we fall forever. And we're established by God in Christ. There's more explanation then. The way he's going to establish is according to my gospel, which is the explanation of the gospel by Paul in the book of Romans, which really is the preaching of Jesus Christ that all is about him. According to the revelation, what is it about Christ? Well, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began, the gospel was not revealed until Christ. And when it was revealed in Christ, we see that in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Look where he came, and he was born of a virgin, and this is how it happened, and this is how he lived, and this is what he did. Wow, and I was going over the story of Jesus healing the paralytic man, and he says, what's easier to say? Your sins are forgiven, arise, take up your bed, and walk. And I was sitting across the table from Bruce, Marie Parson's son, who has a terminal illness. And I said, what do you think Jesus means here? Which is easier to say? It just clicked. He says, I suppose it'd be to say your sins are forgiven. Yeah, because if Jesus says, rise up, take up your bed and walk, he'd really have to rise up. And Jesus says to show that he has the power to forgive sins, he says to the paralytic man, rise, take up your bed and walk. See, those truths in Christ are being revealed to us They were kept secret. We didn't know that about Christ. We didn't know that it would be in Him, that He would be the one from just the Old Testament. Promised one, but we didn't know who and didn't know how. And that's why Paul says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek. It's being, it was not revealed until Christ came, and now it says, but now made manifest, in Christ, in the New Testament. The gospel reveals some interesting truth here. See, I've mentioned some things about Jesus, what he did, the book of Romans is explaining all of that, but here's another interesting truth that wasn't revealed in the Old Testament that we now know from the New Testament. That not only are we saved in the person and work of Jesus Christ, but the gospel reveals that salvation I'm sorry I have a misspelling in my notes and I did that on the word of Christ it looks like. Does your notes have that misspelling? I apologize for that. Now the gospel reveals that salvation in Christ is being like God's Son forever. Didn't know that in the Old Testament. But Romans 8, 28 says, and now we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are being called according to his purpose, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined. And here it is, a wonderful truth you never would have known except that the Apostle Paul stated it very clearly in Romans 8. to be conformed to the image of His Son, that God would send His own Son and become a human being, a man, a person, and that when He saves those who put their faith in Him, you get to be just like God's Son. What a wonderful salvation to reveal. You don't just get to walk through heaven's doors, you get to become like His Son. So here it's made manifest, it's revealed all of the things about the person work of Christ and his work in us and through us. The prophetic scriptures are made known. The truths of the gospel are contained in the Old Testament scriptures. And Peter spoke of this, he says, of the salvation, this New Testament salvation in Christ. The prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come. They talked about it, they wrote about it, God told them about it, but they didn't quite grasp it. It was like in a shadow or through a veil. They couldn't quite get their minds wrapped around it. How would he suffer and how could the suffering lead to glory? It didn't make quite enough sense to them. But when you see these truths in the Old Testament that are there, opened up by the New Testament, did you know when we went through the Book of Romans, there are 65 Old Testament quotes in the Book of Romans? I mean, you gotta know the Old Testament. 65 times Paul quoted verses from the Old Testament. Four out of Exodus, eight out of Deuteronomy, 13 times out of Psalm, and 18 times out of Isaiah he quoted. Isaiah says a lot about Christ, doesn't it? More obscure books like Leviticus he quotes twice out of. 2 Samuel, Job, Habakkuk, Hosea, Joel, Malachi. Most of those verses we turned to and we looked at all of them. 65 quotes from the Old Testament. The New Testament is leaning on the Old Testament and its truths. And then opening them up to us. And the scope is to the whole world. Everyone can know these truths. Not just a secret few. They're not secret truths for some secret order that you must somehow become a member of. That's how most truths are made known. I might tell you and you can be part of my little club. That's all bunk and wrong. But these truths are available to every single person. By taking the scriptures and they're right there for us. To the nations. According to the commandment, God has commanded that the gospel is the only way of salvation, right? He has said and declared in a form of commandment, this is the only way. When Jesus was speaking about himself in John 10, 18, and he's talking about his death on a cross, he says, on his own life, he says, no one takes it from me, my life. No one comes and takes my life from me. But I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again. This command I have received from my father. It's God's will. That's the command. This is what is going to happen. And when God says something's going to happen, it happens. And here he says, according to the command of the everlasting God, the gospel is his way of salvation. Didn't Jesus himself say, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. And Scott talked about ecumenism today in the Sunday school class. And ecumenism and the way most churches are, they would never tolerate, as much as there's tolerance, the fact that we come and say, yeah, the Bible says that God has commanded. That God has said the only way is through Christ. That's what we believe here, right? The only way of salvation. You can't just love your idea of God or in your religion who you perceive as God. You cannot have some other way through works or through ceremony, but it's only in Christ, faith in Christ, that is it. By commandment of the everlasting Father, there's no other way. And then lastly here, for obedience to the faith. Obedience to the gospel, well, once you learn Jesus died and rose again, well, what do you want me to do? I got some money, how do I get in on this? Ceremonies, dancing, religious ceremonies, no. Obedience to the gospel consists of faith. Obeying God is believing the gospel. Believing, there is no other way, you can't earn it, but you must put your trust in Christ. You must believe him and you'll be saved. That's how you obey God. And then Paul finishes up, to God alone wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Only God is wise enough to have invented. I mean, he, this comes from his heart and his eternal mind from eternity past. He knew exactly what he would do. That Christ would be the Savior. That only God is wise enough to have invented and planned a salvation like the gospel. that all people, we're trying to get unity in the world, you can't do it, but there's unity in Christ. You can meet someone from anywhere in the world, and if they love Jesus, you got a unity with them, don't you? Only God is wise enough to have planned a salvation like the gospel. And we're amazed when we read the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, how Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies, how they tried to stop him, how Satan tried to stop him, but couldn't do it. and all glory goes to God for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen?