Parting Words

I'm always fascinated by the greetings that people use, including the ones I find myself using from time to time, so I decided just to Google parting words, find out what came up. Interesting, the kinds of things that I've heard most of not all of these as parting words, the things that people say when they're ready to say goodbye. There are, of course, the formal, uh, partings in a formal letter, sincerely, truly yours, respectfully yours. There are the common parting words, goodbye, or bye, or see ya, or take care, or until next time. Then there are the more casual, um, informal greetings that most people use. Peace, see ya later, see ya soon, take it easy, shoving off now, gotta go, gotta run, have a good one, catch ya later. Gimme a holler, which in West Virginia could be a request for a land transaction as well, but uh... Have you heard this one, don't work too hard? I'm not sure what people mean by that. You know when they're saying goodbye, don't work too hard, what kind of parting words is that? Or maybe you're familiar with the media farewells. Live long and prosper, if you're a Star Trek fan, you'll recall that one. May the force be with you, such an unbiblical parting word from Star Wars. Or if you're a Terminator fan, hostile of Easter baby, you remember that, I'm not a Terminator fan, but uh... That's on here. And can you remember some of you in this audience will remember the broadcasters, the news broadcasters, of years ago. Remember Walter Cronkite's familiar parting, and that's the way it is. Or maybe you recall NBC news when Chef Huntly and David Brinkley did it. Every night it was Good Night Chat, Good Night David, and Good Night for NBC News. Remember that? Or John Cameron Swaisy, even going back a little further. Glad we could get together. Or this one I love, a little more current. Charles Osgood always ends his by saying, see you on the radio. Well, parting words, when I come to the end of Romans, I am glad that when Paul gets ready to give us his parting words, he did not say, see you later, or shoving off now. You know, after this masterful theological treatise of the book of Romans, chock full of the greatest truth in all of scripture, I'm glad Paul did not say, don't work too hard. And I'm glad when he came to the end of this masterful letter which pours out his passion for God and his glory. He didn't say something like, that's the way it is. No, no, Paul's parting words are more substantial. Substantial enough, in fact, for us to take some time on this morning. Substantial enough to not skip over, but to devote a message to. And so that's what we intend to do this morning. Is take some time to look at Paul's parting words to the Romans at the end of chapter 16. Now, last week, we were in chapter 16 in Romans and we saw that Paul really is giving his greetings and kind of parting words all the way through this chapter. But we saw last week that pulling back that curtain of time to give us a glimpse into the first century church, allowed us to see that it was a church of people. Paul references 37 people by name and others whom he calls household or saints or brothers or sisters. All of these people are mentioned here in this book. So it was a church of real people, people like you and me with real life, real families, real jobs, real heartaches and blessings. So it was a church of people, but Paul also gives some other words, some other parting words. And we find today in verses 17 through 20, for instance, that Paul says the church is also not only a church of people, but a church of problems. Some of his parting words have to do with the problems that exist in the early church in Rome. And he is not shy about in his parting words warning them about these problems. Yes, the early church that everybody wants to go back to had problems. They had warrants just like every church does, just like our church does. Every church has its share of problems and warrants and things that we wish were not true. Paul talks about three kinds of problems in these verses. Let's look at verse 17 where he begins with this church having problems with subversion. Subversion. That's an ominous sounding word. I know it almost sounds like a terrorist kind of word, subversives and subversion. And in a sense what we are talking about here really is spiritual terrorism for the church. He's warning about subversion. And let's see what he says about subversion in the church basically by false teachers or anyone who seeks to divide the church. Notice what he says, first of all, in verse 17 about the presence of subversives. He says in verse 17, I urge you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you've learned. Keep away from them. Okay, warns us about the presence of subversives people who would cause what he calls divisions in the church. Now the word divisions here is a word which literally means dissension people being pulled apart from each other. The word could be actually translated polarize or polarizations. And the idea really is someone pulling people away from someone else and we'll see who our allegiance ought to be to here, really the Lord. But pulling people to themselves, pulling people into an allegiance to them, that's the kind of divisiveness that Paul is talking about. Anyone who polarizes the church, who draws people into their circle against some other group or person in the church is what he's talking about here. Now this presence of subversives, he says, not only calls as divisions, these people not only calls divisions, they also put obstacles in your way. The kind of obstacle that he's talking about here is a hindrance or a trap. Literally the word could be used for trap. Even though these subversives may try to appear to be helping or doing the church a favor, they are actually laying a trap for the church and for other believers. And notice he goes on to describe their presence as this. They cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. And because of that statement, most people that Paul was addressing those who introduced into the church, false teaching, false doctrine. Of course he could be talking about anyone who seeks some kind of pull toward them or allegiance toward them, which then creates divisions because that is also contrary to the teaching that Paul had given the church at room. But let's focus for a moment upon the hindrance, the divisiveness, the subversion of false teaching. Some people just have an uncanny ability to create factions, an uncanny ability to create allegiances for themselves. They are masters of stealth, they are masters of the one-on-one conversations and meetings and behind the scenes angling and manipulation to get people to them, to be allegiance to them. Even when they think they may be doing the church a favor, even when they think it may be trying to help, presence of subversion or false teachers. And there are many people today doing that in the church by introducing false doctrine and false teaching. It happens all the time. I've had this happen in all three of the churches that I have pastored. Fourth one that I have pastored wasn't there long enough to really know and see this, to sniff it out. But in three of the churches where I've spent some extensive period of time, I've seen it happen in everyone. First church I was in in North Carolina. There was a man in our community who had pulled out of his church, all churches. He was disillusioned with all organized churches. I felt like all of them were bad and wrong and he had gotten some new teaching that he was going to promote. So one Sunday evening I walk up to our church from the Parc region and there he is in his van with loudspeakers on top in our parking lot. Half hour before the church service is supposed to start. People are going to start arriving in any minute. His daughters are already out there singing and he's getting ready to speak. Now I'd already been warned about him doing this several other churches in the area so I walked right up to him and said if you do not get off of the property right now, I'm calling the police. Well he kept going. I warned him again and finally I think he thought I was serious and he left. When I was in Indiana, I remember a man that I would occasionally see after the service has pulled two or three people to himself in the lobby and he'd be opening his Bible and talking to them back there and kind of raised some red flags in my mind and later on I found out what he was doing. He was a real devotee, a real follower of a certain preacher and he had all of his books and all of his commentaries and everything. After every service he would gather these two or three people back in the lobby and tell them what that preacher said about the text that I was preaching on especially what he may have disagreed with me about. He was gathering a little following. A few months after I left the church in Indiana to come here in 1990, that man led those three families out of that church to start his own little church. I remember a time here when a man began attending our church, it's not the one you're thinking of, it's someone else. A man began attending our church and he began to try to introduce 7th day Adventist doctrine into our church. He was talking with people, he was giving me literature and tapes and trying to convince me after I preached that I was all wrong about the day of worship and so forth. I'll never forget a time he kept after me about this and I was preaching through the 10 commandments and I remember the commandment preaching on the Sabbath and I preached about the role of the Sabbath in Israel's history and the fact that it was no longer a part of Christian worship. His face was red as a beat after the service. He made a beeline for me and reamed me out out in the lobby. I still remember exactly where I was standing. I wrote him a letter that week, two pages later, I've still got it on my computer just in case I ever need it again for evidence. You said, no, no, this is what I said. I told him, I said, the Bible warns that we're supposed to warn a heretic once, warn him twice and then have nothing to do with him. If you come back to our church, I will say this publicly from the pulpit. You are no longer welcome at Johnson Chapel and I will no longer talk with you about this. Thankfully he never came back. Except one time to Amin's breakfast where he started passing out literature and I ran him off again. You're going to see in just a moment the Bible gives pastors that responsibility and it is a sacred responsibility. I take that very seriously, very seriously. Paul says there are people who will seek to divide, put traps in the church by introducing false doctrine, creating a little following for me and notice what Paul says. Not only about the presence of these subversives, but the motive of subversives. Look at it in verse 18. This is their motive. He says, for such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. Now they may appear to be wonderful. They may try to project an admirable image, but deep down they're not interested really in serving the Lord Christ. They're interested in satisfying their own appetites. The word appetites is a broad word here. It can mean your own pleasure or ease, but it can also in the New Testament refer to your own ego that you're just trying to gain a following for yourself. So some people, their appetite is to gain a following. For some people their appetite is to get more money. And particularly when false teaching goes national, it's published in a book or it's on a TV program or something and people really start getting a following, the motive becomes money oftentimes. Sometimes the appetite is for power or attention or control. But anyone who seeks to gain a following is serving their own appetites rather than the Lord Christ. Paul says, the motives of subversives, whether or not it is the introduction of false teaching or if it's just seeking to cause division by gaining a following, the motive is not to serve Christ. It is to serve your own appetite, the desire for control or power or attention or a following. But Paul goes on to talk about the methods of these subversives, these spiritual terrorists. What are their methods? Look at the middle of verse 18. By smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the minds of naive people. Some of these people can be very eloquent. Some of them can be great speakers. And they are able to talk smoothly. They are able to use flattery. They make you feel good. They are the kind of person that you enjoy being around and they make you feel good. But by that very method that they use to gain a following, they sweep people off their feet. And people don't realize that they are even being pulled into a faction or they are being fed false teaching. It happens all of the time. And the goal of these people, the target of these kind of people is, as you see, they deceive the minds of naive people. He is talking about spiritually naive people. The word can mean unscould. People who have not yet been trained in the word of God. And because they don't know their Bible well enough, they are easily swept off their feet by people who can talk well. By people who are eloquent, are very flattering. Or people who have the kind of style that just is entertaining. I want to say something this morning that I hope you will never forget. The content of any presentation, preaching or teaching of the Bible. And there is a difference, by the way, between preaching and teaching. Whether someone is preaching with the goal of moving the will, proclaiming the word of God or teaching for information, the scriptures, whatever the content of the delivered message is always more important than the style of delivery. Please never forget that. The content is always more important than the delivery style. You can easily be swept off your feet, all of us can, by someone who is very smooth, very eloquent, very personable and likable, flattering. If you don't know your Bible very well, you may have a sincere desire to follow God to obey Him, but because you may be somewhat spiritually naive, you can be caught up in false teaching. And it's why the church needs to constantly be warned and be on guard against this kind of false teaching. There should be no one, no one, that ever has an allegiance in this church other than Jesus Christ. Not me, not any other pastor, not a Bible fellowship teacher, not a Bible study leader, not a small group leader, anybody. Nobody should gain our allegiance except Jesus Christ. And it is Him and His Word that we are to be committed to. I'm telling you, you need to gauge and test everything that comes from this pulpit, including from me by the Word of God, because that's where our allegiance should lie to this book and to Christ our Lord. Nobody else is our Lord. But the methods of subversives is to undermine the truth of God's Word by seeking to gain a following through flattery, through smooth talking, through persuasive mannerisms. And by the way, I'm not against a boring style. I'm not against purposely putting people to sleep. I've put enough people to sleep. You know, I'm not against boring people intentionally. I know a little bit about some things that need to be done to be able to keep people engaged so they can hear. But the style of presentation is never as important as the content. Always gauge the content. Don't be bowed over by someone's style. The content, the method of subversives is persuasive, eloquent, entertaining delivery. But what is our response to these subversives to be? How are we supposed to respond to this? Paul is very clear in verse 17, two responses. I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you've learned. So watch out for them. And then secondly, notice what he says at the end of the verse, keep away from them. Watch out. In other words, keep your spiritual antenna up. Keep the radar screen up. Make sure you're alert and aware of what's going on. Watch out for those who would cause this kind of division. And then if need be, warn and separate from them. Keep away from them. Now, I want to impress on you this morning how serious this is in the church and how serious this is in Paul's warnings in the Bible. Time and time again. Paul will warn churches and his young protege, Timothy and Titus, whom he entrusted to pastor churches that he had founded. Time and time again. He warns them about this. I'm not going to take much time to comment on these verses, but let's just see them. I've put together several verses where Paul does this in addition to Romans in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 17, after talking about the tendency to be pulled into idolatrous feasts, idol worship. He says, therefore come out from them and be separate. Says the Lord, touch no unclean thing. And I will receive you. He says to the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 3, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you brothers and sisters to keep away from every believer who is idol and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. Now, this is in a lifestyle. This is in a lifestyle that is contrary to the word of God and defames the name of Christ as a poor testimony. Paul says there comes a point where you got to separate from those folks. Notice what he says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, after describing the false teaching that will grow in the last days. He says these people have a form of godliness, but denying its power, have nothing to do with such people. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women under TV sets. Paul doesn't say that, but I think that's what Paul would have written if he were writing today. Okay, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires? Paul is warning, warning again, Titus 3. He says this, but avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law. 7th day Adventism. This is a very passage I used against that man who was trying to disrupt our church. He says because these are unprofitable and useless, warn a divisive person once and then warning him a second time after that have nothing to do with them. This is serious business. Serious. Notice what Paul or John says, adding his same thought to this in 2 John verses 10 and 11 after talking about the doctrine of Christ, the true teaching about Christ. He says, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome them. And this is not hospitality here. Church is met in houses in that day. So he said, don't welcome him to your church service. Don't give him platform time. Don't let them teach a Bible study. Don't allow that. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work, he says. This is pretty serious. This is very serious. There are warning after warning after warning about this in the New Testament. This means that by all means the church is to be protected. Truth is to be defended. Error is to be recognized. Surface. Brought out into the light. Rooted out. Separated from. By the way, this is the particular role of pastors in the church. Among others, pastors have the responsibility to guard the flock against false teaching. Particularly, that is my role as the one who is responsible for what comes from this pulpit. The teaching pastor of this church. I am responsible along with our other pastors to make sure no false teaching takes root in this church. Notice how Paul, again, a few verses I've pulled together here to show you, Acts chapter 20 warns pastors about this. He says to the elders of the church of Ephesus, keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. These elders are overseers, bishops, a word for pastors in the New Testament. And he says, be shepherds of the church of God. One of the things a shepherd is to do is to guard the flock and warn the flock. He says, be shepherds of the church of God which he bought with his own blood. I know, Paul says, that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. See the appetite there for following? So he says, be on your guard. Remember that for three years. I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. Paul warns his young protege, Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 4. He says, if you point out these things to the brothers and sisters, what things earlier verses he's talking about, false doctrine, false teaching in verses 1 through 5. He says, if you point out these things to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Again, to Timothy, he says in 2 Timothy 4, preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season. In other words, when it goes across well, when it doesn't. Correct, review, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. Why, Timothy? Here's why. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths and to Titus, he warns when he gives the qualifications for pastors. He says, he, an aspiring pastor must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught. In other words, as it's been inscribed in the word of God so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. You see, there are many people today who want certain strands of Bible teaching, a little bit of truth here, a little bit of truth there, but some of it they don't want, don't like. And that's how false teaching starts. An unwillingness to be honest with all of scripture. My youngest daughter, Missy, has told me about a new form of radio called Pandora. Some of you are familiar with it on the internet. It's an absolutely new concept of radio. Typically, when you turn into a radio station, whether it's a terrestrial station or satellite station, you can change the station, but you can't change the programming. I mean, you just get whatever they put out for you. Not so with Pandora. Pandora is radio on your computer on the internet where you log in your favorite kind of artists and style of music and so forth. And they have an algorithm of mathematical computation that picks apart your kind of music. Does it have a lead singer? Is it soft rock, heavy rock, classical pop? Is it easy listening, style of music? Is it group? Is it individual artists? And they put on this station on your computer. They will send you the kind of music you like to listen to. And each song has a thumbs up or a thumbs down and you can say thumbs up and that further causes that algorithm to reinforce that kind of music. And you pick your own music. You don't have to listen to anything on the radio except for the kind of music you like. That's what a lot of people are doing with the Bible. I like the God of 1 Corinthians 13, the God of love. I don't like the God of 1 Corinthians 11 talks about the role of women in the church or 1 Corinthians 14 talks about correction of tonguespeaking. I don't like that God, but I like the God of love in 1 Corinthians 13. I like the God of grace. I'm not sure I like all those passages about holiness. So I'll give a thumbs up to the grace ones and that'll be my Bible. That is how false teaching takes root in a church. Is the Pandora approach to the Bible? So what Paul says and he's very serious about this is that pastoral leadership in a church is to constantly scan the flock. Watch out for those who cause divisions. Then if there is false teaching, a willingness to confront that and if necessary, distance yourself from it. Keep away from them. He says, now please don't misunderstand me here. I think those of you know me know that this is not a paranoia type thing. This is not a demon under every rock or false teacher in every pew kind of suspicion. This is not a heavy handed approach that anybody who's teaching anything has to get it first of all from the senior pastor and you can't teach anything other than what he teach is not that kind of approach at all. But Paul is saying, stay vigilant, stay on top of things, make sure you do not tolerate false teaching and be willing to confront it and separate from it if necessary. I spent a little time on this because it is so critical. Paul uses some of his parting words to warn about subversion in the church. And since he does so so consistently and so many of his epistles, this is a big deal, a big deal. We need to be careful about subversion. But notice there is also a problem in the church in Rome with sin, at least potentially the problem with sin, not only subversion but also sin. Verse 19, everyone has heard about your obedience so I am full of joy over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. Paul says, here's your approach to evil. First of all, he gives us the best antidote to sin. What's the best medicine for sin? It's obedience. He says, I've heard about your obedience. Everyone's heard about your obedience. I'm full of joy over the fact you're obedient. If you have a problem with a particular sin, what the book of Hebrews calls a besetting sin or in the more modern translations of sin that so easily entangles you. One that is in your face all the time, one that you're tempted with every day, one that you have trouble with falling into over and over and over again. If you have that kind of sin problem in your life, you need to rethink how you look at that. Don't look at it as well. I got to try harder, I got to do better. I got to you know, I got to clean my act up. I got to frame the difficulty in terms of disobedience to Almighty God. And the fact that as a believer, you do have a heart desire to be obedient to your Lord and Master Jesus Christ. Framing in terms of obedience, the greatest antidote to sin is obedience to Jesus. Not trying to do this or that in regard to the sin, but obedience to Christ. I'm his. I want to please him. The greatest antidote to sin. But you know what the greatest protection against sin is. The best protection against sin is inexperience. You see what Paul says there in verse 19. He says the end of the verse, but I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. The word innocent literally means unmixed or pure. In other words, you don't have to have a little bit of evil in your life to understand what it's all about. You don't have to have tasted it. You don't have to have lived it in order to really understand the grace of God. Paul says I would much rather that you be very wise about what's good, but you be innocent, unmixed, pure, naive, inexperienced, not practiced in the ways of sin. We need to hear that in our culture because there's a twisted thinking that goes around in our culture that it's okay for me to experience this stuff as long as I realize it's wrong. Maybe even getting a little taste of it would help me realize how bad it is. And you know, we reinforce that sometimes in the Christian community by making superstars out of people that have those kind of testimonies. I did this and that and the other. I was this bad and we kind of raised them up to this level of superstar. I thank God for the grace of God in everybody's life and anybody's life who's been delivered from whatever kind of past, but never should we glory in that. And sometimes I think are talking about it over and over and over and over again to simply a glorying. Look how tough I was. Look how bad I was. Look how mean I was. Look how simple I was. Are we sending the wrong message to people? I think maybe we are. Thank God if you never touched a drop of alcohol. Thank God if you never used any illegal drugs. Thank God if you never laid your eyes on any pornography. Thank God if you never were involved in immorality. Thank God if his grace brought you out of all that. But thank God if you never experienced it. Thank God for your testimony of never having experienced that because that's the way Paul wants us to live. Never being experienced or practiced in the ways of sin. That's the best protection against sin. So this early church had some problems. They had some problems with subversion. They had some problems with sin. They also had problems with Satan. You see it there in verse 20. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Now some of you are thinking, crush Satan under your feet. That sounds familiar. Doesn't that. Then it is. I think Paul probably in his own mind and heart maybe purposely is referring back to that great prophecy in Genesis 315. Where God as he's declaring judgment and a curse upon the serpent because and actually through the serpent Satan because of his part in the fall of Adam and Eve. God says to the serpent and a Satan and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and here's where it kind of slides over to Satan, the real person between your offspring and hers. He, in other words the offspring of the woman singular, New Testament makes clear that's Christ. The offspring of the woman Jesus will crush your head Satan and you will strike his heel. In other words Satan would inflict a temporary wound on the Lord Jesus from which he would recover but in that same act as he's getting that bite in the heel he would crush Satan's head. They happened at the same time at the cross. When Satan inflicted a temporary wound on Jesus which he recovered fully from in three days when he came out of the tomb. But in that very act of dying on the cross like Jesus would say the night before he died now is the prince of this world judged John 1231. He's judged. His judgment is coming now. Satan was defeated at the cross. The sentence hasn't been passed out yet. He's still doing a lot of damage but that sentence is going to be carried out someday when Jesus comes back to set up his reign on this earth. Satan will be incarcerated for a thousand years not able to do his work on this world. And then after that time Satan will be hurled into the lake of fire for punishment forever and the sentence will be fully carried out. I think Paul has that in mind. The historical prophecy about Jesus crushing the head of the serpent. The fact that it was carried out historically at the cross. It anticipates full fulfillment in the future. But even now Paul is saying in your own experience the God of peace will soon crush Satan. Some people say that's referring to the second coming. It's really not. That's not the terminology Paul uses for the second coming. He's talking about now in your own experience. Satan can be crushed and he will be crushed as you are obedient to him as you stay away from evil as you deal with subversiveness in the church. Satan will be defeated in your own experience. It's a promise that will be fully and finally carried out in the future but it can be real now in your own experience. Which leads me to believe Satan was active in this church. If Paul was saying this will shortly happen you'll get victory over Satan. I think Satan was active there and whenever God is doing something Satan is active right. Whenever God is at work Satan is also at work trying to sow seeds of destruction in the work of God. So we have to be unguarded against the three problems. Paul warns the church at Rome about subversion. Sin. Satan. We're involved in a spiritual warfare. Let's pray with all of our hearts. We're in a spiritual battle. Commit ourselves to fighting that battle in a way that will glorify God and the power of his spirit to overcome Satan's attacks. Problems. Paul doesn't stop there. Paul has more parting words to say. And in so doing he shows us that the early church was not only a church of people the church of problems was also a church of praise. The church of praise. The last few verses of this book. Paul I believe takes up the pen to write. You see as we saw last week Paul usually used a secretary to actually pin the words that the spirit of God was putting in his mind to give and evidently transcribing those words. Tertius tells us in verse 22 that he wrote the letter of Romans as Paul dictated it to him. But Paul's consistent pattern was to take the pen into his own hands and write the last few words. Maybe the last few verses. He tells us that in second Thessalonians. Look at this verse. When he writes to the Thessalonians, I Paul write this greeting, the last verse of the book, in my own hand which is my distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write. So because of bad eyesight Paul typically did not write out in full all of his letters. He dictated it to a secretary who wrote them. But at the end Paul wanted to make sure the people were realizing this is from Paul. This is legitimate. This is real. This is me. And so he would take the pen and write the closing words in his own hand writing. And I think it's probably here in verse 24 that he does that. Although I can't say for sure. I think it's probably here in verse 24 that he does that. Verse 24. What's he going to do? How's he going to close this letter? What words will he close with? I can just watch him as he takes the pen. Tertius, it's time for me to write now. He takes the pen. Maybe Paul's for a moment. Maybe he's gathering his thoughts because the Holy Spirit uses his personality, his thoughts and his words. And as he begins to jot down. I'm thankful it wasn't. And that's the way it is. Shouting off now. It was a doxology. It was a hymn of praise to our great God. And notice in this hymn of praise he mentioned several things that we should be thankful for about our great God. And in verse 24, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you. Amen. The grace of God. The grace of our Lord Jesus. Some of you have that in your in a footnote in a more modern translations because it was only found a few manuscripts. And most scholars believe it was a repeat of what he said in verse 20 at the end of verse 20. And the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Twice he has said that here. The grace of our Lord Jesus. Be with you. Be thankful for God's grace. If it were not for God's grace, none of us would be here. That's not I along with several others. We saw in our church attended the musical of the message presentation at the Chuck Matina Center. We were saying three songs. It just lifted the roof off of that place. And one of the songs was, were it not for grace? What a tremendous message in that song. I don't remember exactly the words, but there's a line in that song that I just love. Ever running the race and losing were it not for grace. You know, if your salvation were up to you, it's like running a race forever striving toward the finish line, but you're always losing ground. How hopeless that is. And that's a beautiful picture of what it means for anyone who tries to get saved on their own. They're always running the race. Oh, run a little harder, run a little faster. Maybe I can always losing ground. We're at not for grace. Thank God for his grace, the free gift of salvation through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. Thank God for his grace. Secondly, thank him for his keeping power. Verse 25. Now to him who is able to establish you, the word established literally means to prop up to calls to stand so that you do not fall. And the fall here is one of destruction. It's not just a stumble. It is a fall of destruction. God is able to make you stand so that you are not destroyed so that you are not consumed. And it's not just standing when you get up out of bed in the morning. He's talking about standing in your salvation because notice how he describes it. He is able to establish you to call you to stand by my gospel. What is the gospel about the proclamation of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God. This gospel, this good news of salvation in Christ that every person, Jew, Gentile, everybody in the world can hear the message of Christ, the proclamation of Christ, and be saved. That message which was not fully disclosed in Old Testament times, but is now revealed to the apostles and prophets in the New Testament. That message given to Paul, his gospel, which he shared with others and which we still preach today, that is what we stand in. That's what we're established in. What he's talking about here is eternal security. The gaining of your salvation and the keeping of your salvation is not up to you. It is up to the one who is able to make you stand to keep you from being destroyed to having that kind of fall. He is able to do that. You're not able to do that. You can't save yourself. You're not able to keep yourself. Only God can do that. Any promises to do it? Philippians chapter 1 verse 6. Paul says, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ, till the day we see him. Not up to me. It's up to him. He will do it. He will carry it on. I love the way Jude talks about this eternal, establishing, standing. When he says to him, who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy to the only God our Savior. Be glory, majesty, power and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord. Before all ages now and forevermore, amen. That's great stuff. Great stuff. God is able to keep you and present you to himself. Someday we will be presented to him, thoughtless in heaven. And he's able to keep us until that time. Thank God for his keeping power. Thirdly, thank God for his eternality. Notice there in verse 26, the command of the eternal God. God is eternal. Thank God for the fact that he's eternal. You say, well, big deal. Oh, yes, it is a big deal that God is eternal. Do you realize what that means? The fact that God is eternal means that he has always existed. He's always existed. He never started. He was never brought into being like we are. Just think about that sometime for about a half hour till the smoke starts rolling out of your ears. He has always existed. But the fact that God is eternal also means that he is above time. The past, present and the future is always before him and always has been. He's eternal. It also means that God is not bound by time. God's actions are not reactions to developments because from eternity past, God has ordered what he's doing right now. Because the past, present and future is always before him, always in his presence. He's eternal. He does not mark time like we do. And so what happens to you today or what's going to happen to you on Thursday will not come as a surprise to God. Because the past, present and future is always before him. He's above it. He's above time. And his actions are not reactions to developments. God never says, what do we do now or oops. God never says that. He's never surprised by anything. He's above time. He's eternal. Thank God. He is eternal. What a wonderful blessing to praise him for. Fourthly, thank God for his universal love so that all nations, Paul says, might believe and obey him. If you do Gentile, anyone across the world, all nations, God's love is universal. And he wants everybody to hear the gospel. That's not only something we should praise him for. It's something we should take seriously to carry out. Please do pray for the mission team in Trinidad this week. Pray for all of our missionaries across the world. Be willing to go to your own neighborhood. Carry God's heart with you. Praise God also for his uniqueness. You see it there in verse 27 to the only wise God. That word only. God is unique. He is the only one who is wise in the perfect sense of that term. But he is unique in all of his attributes. He has all power, all knowledge. He is everywhere present at the same time. Even attributes which we can share like faithfulness in love and mercy. He is infinite in those attributes. He's perfect in those attributes. He is unique. Our unique God, the only wise God. And then thank God for his wisdom. Thank God for his wisdom. God is able to devise perfect ends. And the perfect means to reach those ends. What Paul's talking about here, the only wise God. He's talking about his eternal plan. He has the perfect means to a perfect end. He knows exactly what he's doing. He's wise, all wise, only wise, he eternally wise, infinitely wise. Thank God for his wisdom. And thank God for his eternal glory. Verse 27 to the only wise God. Be glory forever through Jesus Christ. He deserves our praise forever. Forever. He deserves our praise. And then I love the way Paul ends this book with the simple word, Amen. Amen in our English. This is more than just a closing word in prayer. We've taken it to mean that. Okay, I want to let everybody know when I'm done praying. So I'll say, Amen. So by no one done. That's me know I'm done. I can wake up now. All this word is so much more than that. The word means truly or so be it. The word, Amen. So be it is a word of commitment. And what Paul is saying, what better word to close this book with. Amen. So be it, Lord. In the book of Romans. As it closes this book, he's looking back over the whole book. God, you have taught me that I need your righteousness because I'm a sinner. So be it. So be it. You can't get saved without that kind of an attitude. You can't get saved without recognizing. Amen. So be it to the fact that I need God's righteousness. I'm a sinner. So be it. God, you've told me in this book chapters three through five that you're willing to declare me righteous in your courtroom in heaven, put righteousness on my record. If I will, but accept the free gift of salvation, given to me, offered to me through Christ, who died to pay for my sins on the cross. So be it, Lord. So be it. I trust Jesus as my Savior. Lord, you've told me in chapter six through eight of this book that this righteousness should be growing in me as I understand my position in Christ and yield myself to you. And as I understand, I can't do this on my own chapter seven. And I must be sensitive to the working of the Holy Spirit in me to give me the power to live for you. Chapter eight, you've told me that so be it. Lord, so be it. May I live that way. Lord, you've told me in chapters nine through eleven that Israel is your chosen and beloved people have rejected that righteousness, but you still have a plan for them. You still have a purpose for them in the future. You will restore them to your place of blessing, your olive tree. So be it, Lord. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem. So be it, Lord. Bring your people back. And Lord, you've told me. That I must practice this righteousness on a daily basis by yielding myself fully to you and your will by serving faithfully with my gifts, by getting along with other Christians and by treating unsafe people kindly and with grace. You've told me that I must live out this righteousness by being submissive to the governing authorities over me by living in the here and now with an eternal perspective of commitment to you right now, making every minute count. You've told me not to make a big deal in an issue with my brothers and sisters over the issues of Christian liberty. You've given me a pattern of ministry and service to follow. So be it, Lord. So be it. Amen. May I live this way. Amen. Amen. Amen. Oh God. Amen. Father, thank you that you've shown us that we need you. We need your righteousness. That you've offered it freely through Christ. That you give us the power through your spirit to live as we should. We can rejoice in your perfect eternal plan and live out this righteousness every day of our lives. And as we think of that, Lord, all we can say is so be it. So be it. Amen. Amen.