Romans 16: Greetings, Warning, & Exhortation

If you want to flip to the book of Romans, we're going to go there. For starters, if you remember, because we concluded Romans 15 not too long ago, it's this third of four sections, Romans 12-15, that Paul underscores two primary points. And if you're heading for Romans, the first point he makes in this section, Romans 12-15, is he stresses that God expects for us to grow. This one comes up a number of different places and points in Scripture. If you're in Romans 12, Romans 12 we oftentimes read Romans 12-1 and 2 as memory verses, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

And then verse 2 reads, Romans 12-2, again, Paul writing, well, Tertilius is writing, but it's Paul's words, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So we see here that God expects growth. If you go to the latter part of just this section of Scripture, Romans 15, if we jump forward, Romans 15, we'll only read one verse here, because here's again the point that's being made about God expects growth. We make a commitment of baptism, and then we're not to remain stagnant. We are to grow over that duration of however long, whether it be Christ returns or we die, and wait for the resurrection. But verse 13 says, you may know, now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound, may grow in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. So what you get here is you get an indication that we are to grow. You know, 2 Peter 3, 18 says, growing grace and knowledge, that theme is evident in Romans 12 through 15. The second major theme that shows up between Romans 12 and 15 is that God makes plain that our calling requires that we care for one another. And here's where it's going to fit so nicely with the first message from Mr. Bannon. Romans 13, verse 8. Romans 13, verse 8 reads this way, Oh, no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. That we could read so many spots here along this second major point theme, that, you know, any number of scriptures. But what we should grab or gather from what appears between Romans 12 and Romans 15 is that we have a responsibility of not just loving those who we want to like. I'll stop for a second. So in class, in the relational communication class, we talk about our predisposition to like certain people that we're drawn to and to not like other people. Because they're different oftentimes. In the church, when called in the church, when called into the body of Christ, we have no option of a dislike group. Nothing doesn't come up.

Nowhere in scripture do we find that it's okay to dislike someone for what they've done to you, or they've done to me. And that was a hard one to go, isn't it? In fact, we had spent some time, and I talked with my father-in-law, and I think I shared this at one point. He was talking about his 38 years working for Chrysler, and he talked about how it was commonplace in the shop for for guys to kind of go after each other from time to time. So he shared a story one morning over breakfast. I think he was making a pancake that morning. And he said, well, I had this guy that needled me over and over. He was a troubleshooter on the line for Chrysler vehicles, and so they oftentimes would go and play cards until they were called. The line went down. They were the guys who came in and fixed it. And he said there was one guy that he would oftentimes play cards with, and repeatedly this guy would needle him, would bother him, would poke at him. And he said to me, are you telling me that I'm supposed to love this guy? And I said, sure enough, you got it. You are.

And that's what we pick up here, Romans 12 through Romans 15. Now, the issue with the church at Rome, if you recall, was that we already had Jewish converts, which generally, now this this happens to be 25 years removed from the Feast of Pentecost, who were the mainstay of the church.

But if you recall, as we go back, the Gentile converts were coming into the church, and we were not to have, Paul is paying attention here, we were not to have two segments of people.

Even as you read this, what we're reminded through all of this section is that we are to love everyone in the church, and the designation, as does God, love everyone, to not differ between Jew or Gentile. So as we see here, and see even this section of Scripture, concluding in Romans 15, we see Paul the seaching those in Rome to follow him as he follows Christ. I'm in Romans 15, just prior to jumping into Romans 16. Romans 15 verses 15 and 16 reads this way, Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you. Now remember, he was an apostle to the Gentiles, specifically called to the Gentiles. Peter was told to go to the Jews, Paul was told to go to the Gentiles. More boldly to you, on some point, as reminding you because of the grace given to me by God. God's given me an instruction to do certain things. Verse 18, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. And what you get, and then read through even the remainder of the chapter, is the idea that Paul is saying we shouldn't have, you know, in any congregation green lights and red lights. Everyone should be a green light for us. Everyone in the congregation we should have care and concern for. And so he makes this very pointed theme evident. God inspires it through Paul, through these three chapters. As we move into Romans 16 then, this becomes the fourth and last section of Romans is oftentimes broken down. And if you may remember what appears here, it's just a long list of names. Well, most of it is. Most of it is simply a long list of names. But as we, before we ever get into it, I should note this is a list of names that's unlike other lists we oftentimes find in Scripture. We had a conversation with someone over in Atlanta a while back, and the individual said, I just have such a hard time with genealogies. Why would God put them in there?

It's almost like punishment. I said, yeah, but those genealogies tell us there's importance in terms of, you know, the lineage of Christ, whether it be, or the lineage of the kings of Israel, whomever it might be. So you can go, and I'm not going there now, to Exodus 6 verses 13 through 16, and we can see a long list of names and how God blesses the 12 tribes of Israel.

Or you can go to Matthew 1 and see the genealogy of John. So there's relevance there. This list of names is different. This list of names is a list of admonitions. Paul does something interesting here, where he points out in the congregation, and there's more than the 26 names that we'll actually see here. He points out these people, as he's well familiar, as being particularly helpful in terms of the contribution they're making to the church at Rome. And so as we get here, and we'll see 26 names mentioned, we actually see 28 people referred to, and you'll see how momentarily, we see Paul making very personal comments about these people. Now here's the interesting part about this. Paul had never been to Rome. He had no idea what the whole man they met at, the church they met at, the multiple churches they met at. He had no idea. But he still talks very intimately about the contributions they made in the church at Rome. So how can he do this? Well, that's one we can answer a little bit later on, but that said, in the meantime, let's wait our way into Romans 16. And I thought, given that, again, most of this is names, I brought the slides from this last feast. And so I've entitled this message, which is what you can see here, because we're going to break this chapter down three ways. Greetings, a warning, and then exhortation. So there's the breakdown of the chapter. So here's with the tremendous blessing of my traveling colleagues, principally my wife, in this case. We're going to look at what Rome looks like today, and then we're going to go back, because it's been about four months since we were there, which sounds really strange. It feels like that's almost an out-of-body experience. Like I didn't go, someone else went for me. But the idea that we went, and that we have the pictures to show, I keep reminding us. So that said, we know that Jerusalem's around here, and then over here is Italy, and Rome. We're going to go about, you know, part of the way up the boot. And we're going to look at modern-day Rome, just for a few minutes to gain some context. And then we're going to put ourselves back, and I'll revisit some past pictures that I had, just so we have an idea of who the time in which, and who Paul was writing to. So on the many exclusions that you have in going to the feast, this was one of them. Here's the Colosseum. I was doing some background work here, and again, this would have been built, the Colosseum would have been built a little bit after this, was 15 years after it was written. So the Colosseum started being built in 70 AD, roughly there, 71, and then it was finished in 80 AD. But the architecture, here's why I'm doing this, because the architecture is partially reflective of what the people in Rome lived in at the time. So the Colosseum was one. We have a hard time seeing this, and I showed this. This happens to be the Forum, and the Forum would have been built...

There's actually a series of arches that are so important for that Forum area, where all the business was done. The first arch was built in 29 BC, so well even before Christ's time and Paul's time. The bulk of the Forum area was built in 81 AD. So you get some sense, at least, of what remains. So we have structures that are 2000 years old there. I wanted to kind of give you an idea. Again, these are Sarah's photos, and she was kind enough to share. On our trip, whenever we were there, one of the things I wanted you to also see is some of some of the other structures. So I'm going to do the best I can here in terms of the name. Forgive me here. I've got to get the name right. Oh, this is Vittoria Emanuele. So this structure was actually built in 1865, 1877.

So it's more recent. No surprise here that it's built in the same kind of Roman architecture as we saw in the Forum areas and the Colosseum. Here happens to be the streets that you walk when you're there. The streets are really not that much different than they were 2000 years before, where those in the church might not have had the same height. There was a discussion even in some of the tours about how high these buildings were. The thought was that in many cases they were maybe two stories, three at most. But as you can see here, many of the structures today are even higher to accommodate more people. This happens to be the Pantheon. The part about the Pantheon that I found interesting was this happened to be the site or a location of a church or a temple that was set up by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BC and it existed through 14 AD on that exact site. Whenever we traveled here and got a chance to look at it, the part that I think is most telling here is at one point the Catholic Church took over. There was a temple there. Then they built a military structure there and then at a given point the church said, hey, we'd kind of like that building. And so they took the building over and since then it's been a part of the Catholic Church. But this structure was then built in 113 to 125 AD between those time periods. The really cool part about this, and I have to show you the picture just to tell you the story, is when you go inside the architecture is so perfect. There's a hole in the ceiling and the hole supposedly gets you direct access to God.

But when it rains, they've built the floor in such a way so that when the rain comes in, it's built with a slight slant all the way to the edge. No rain ever, or no water ever remains on that floor. It always flows off to the edges and into a gutter system. It's really pretty amazing to see. There happens to be another street, and I'm kind of doing this in the same order we traveled, even on our trip there. We had two separate. Trevi Fountain by background was built well after the time of Paul, built in 1732. And again, it was built in the architecture of Rome, that Roman architecture. And I should have... this happens, and it's difficult to see in this light, but this happens to be a site of the city. Spanish steps were built at the given point here, and it just kind of gives you a sense of some of the street lines and what Rome looks like.

Here happens to be the Vatican, and there's no way I'm going to do justice to all you see in the Vatican. We had Dr. Holiday touch on a lot of that. You know where this is. On Easter Sunday, guess who stands there and speaks? You got it, the Pope. That's where he goes out. There's his perch right there. It's really amazing to walk into some of those structures and see the ceilings at 80, 90, 100 feet. Just as astounding. It certainly makes you feel small, which is exactly what they were after. They wanted to give you a feel, and between that and the architecture, and the holy smoke, and everything else they got going, it feels like a religious Disneyland, which most people are in awe, even as you're there. This obelisk, and I have to get the name right, of Monticello was actually one of three obelisks in the world. This happens to be in a plaza where we concluded and got on the bus, but this happens to be one of three that was actually taken from Egypt. So the hieroglyphics, whether you know this or not, that go up all the way up to that obelisk. If I get this right, the obelisk was actually created in 15... no, 595 BC. It was brought to Rome in 10 BC by Roman Emperor Augustus, and there are only, again, three of these in the world, and so they went and confiscated this and stuck it in Rome, so they could see this.

So I show you all that because that gives you a sense of modern Rome, and if you walk around and get a sense of the architecture, now if I go backwards and give you some sense of what ancient Rome would look like, you have kind of a better idea of what the city looks like. So this drops down into some of the... this might be the Forum area, if I remember right, and some of these palaces that were there that were erected by the Caesars were just astounding. You may remember that. And then those streets, you know how those streets look like even as we dealt with that?

This gives you some sense here of what the streets look like. So this was the time period, roughly, what it looked like at the time Paul was writing to the Church as he concludes his letter. So let's break down this one chapter of Romans, and I have it broken down into three parts. The first part is greetings. This is going to fit with my title. Greetings to those in Rome. And if it helps, the greeting section actually is broken in 1 through 16, verse 1 through 16, and then 21 through 24.

And then part two is this warning that Paul is inspired to give about, do not be divided. Remember how we just talked about you're responsible for loving one another? So he provides this strong admonition at the end. And then lastly, there's an exhortation to follow God that appears in these last few verses that we'll touch on. So you got in a sense, at least by picture, what the audience who received the letter would have been experiencing. Let's go to Romans 16. You know, a whole lot of hard names. You're going to have to bear with me today, because if you've read these names, they're a challenge to deal with. Let's go, first of all, greetings to those in Rome. I commend to you, Phoebe, our sister, verse 1, is a servant of the church in Tintria. So I'll highlight a number of different things. Phoebe happens to be the first of 10 females listed out of our 26. 28 total.

26 by name, but 28 individual mentions. Phoebe is our first female mentioned. And the term in this case, servant, is diacono, which happens to be in the Greek. It's the same word as used for deacon, and you may have that marked 1 Timothy 3, verse 8, and Philippians 1, verse 1.

Both indicate, because the term deacon and deaconess were used for males and females, the same language, depending on sex, it was likely that Phoebe was a deaconess at the time, and we see this offered in verse 1, that you may receive her in the Lord, in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you. So many commentaries will give indication like Phoebe was likely playing a role oftentimes.

We didn't know this or not. Even behind the scenes, Mr. Bill Brown, Mr. Bob McCurdy, they'll oftentimes keep records. Mr. Steve Holliday oftentimes keeps records. And in terms of responsibilities for the congregation, I get feedback in order to compile monthly reports. What we would trust, and the commentaries indicate, is that Phoebe was one who was a record keeper for them.

So in this case, she's traveling, and Paul is saying, help her out. She has need of your help, the middle of verse 2, the latter end of 2. For indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also. Verse 3, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also the churches of the Gentiles. Now he would pay close attention to this. Just as we read in that Paul was responsible for going to the Gentiles, he was very attentive of those who showed care and concern for the Gentiles. And so Priscilla and Aquila's name maybe is not a surprise, given what you probably recall a little while back.

Let's go to Acts 2, because we see their names pop up a number of places. We see them in Acts 18. We see them in 1 Corinthians 16, where we see Aquila and Priscilla salute you. And it might be helpful again to give attention that Priscilla's name is mentioned first here. We're not sure of why Priscilla being the female of the two, we're not sure why her name is mentioned here, and 1 Corinthians, Aquila's name, is mentioned first, and we're not sure of that.

But if you're back in Acts 18, remember by background how they're written up here as Luke writes, Acts 18, verse 1, After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy.

So again, they're serving Gentiles, but they're Jews, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. At a given point they were pushed out, and then he came to them. So because he was of the same tribe, he stayed with them and worked for by occupation, they were tent makers. So they had a number of commonalities. The notion of being of the same tribe, they would consider themselves, I don't know if we would go so far, as family.

There's speculation here a number of different places about, is this of the same name? Is this of blood? Similar relations? Is this kin? Well, we don't necessarily know that, but we know that there was a connection here. And we know that Paul not only appreciated them for them extending a room and a bed so that he could sleep, but they were of a similar occupation, because he was a tent maker. Oftentimes you know this, he had to, even in his duties, he had to go about with an occupation in order to support himself.

So he had connection here. And if you drop down to verse 18, we're going to just hop, skip, and jump through this section of scripture to see how they're mentioned. So Paul still remained a good while, then he took a leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and the Quora were with him. And he had his hair cut off at Crencia, for he had taken a vow. And I'm not going to go into the hair here, I'm going to ask you to go to verse 26.

So he began to speak boldly. So who's speaking boldly here? A Jew named Apollos began to speak boldly. So he had been converted, and he began to be used by God. And in verse 26, And when Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained him the way of God more accurately. So this was one who was great on zeal, and I'm not going to say, you know, doctorally inaccurate, but he was missing some of the elements of truth that he needed to be preaching.

So Aquila, the note here, Aquila the man is being mentioned first here, and Priscilla heard him, took him aside, and they explained more accurately what the truth was. And when he desired to cross Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him. So what we see taken from that is he's not offended. We don't see Apollos, you know, completely crushed by it all. But indeed, what we see is that he takes the admonition. So we know, again, Jewish background, that Priscilla and Aquila were servants, and we see Paul addressing them here. You know, I will note one thing that one commentary says that for whatever reason, Priscilla may have been more outgoing in connecting to the Gentiles a little more effectively than Aquila, which is why he would note her first at the tail end of this greeting.

Again, there's not necessarily sure why that takes place, but there are enough commentaries that indicate that. And I should note here, he is indebted to them because, as noted, they didn't just help him.

That language there about risked their own necks. Their lives were on the line for them to help Paul. They knew that. And deep inside them, they said, whatever happens to us happens to us. We're going to make sure that those in the church, that Paul, as he serves the church, has cared for, whether we lose our lives or not. Whether we're beheaded, which is what some of the commentary said, whether we'll be headed for this or not, we're going to help. And so that's what we see up through five.

And I will note on five, excuse me, that's offered there on four. In five, we see indication that there were... Okay, I'm going to keep reading. I'm getting a little crisscross on my notes here. I'm going to read because I haven't read five yet. Likewise, greet the church that is in their house. So they obviously had a congregation that was meeting there. Greet my beloved Epinetus, who is the firstfruits of a cave to Christ. You know, the commentaries gave indication that at the time Epinetus happened to be the first one who was a cave to Christ. You know, the happened to be the first one who was converted in that area, which would be the province of Asia.

The one note here that at least might be valuable is, and several commentaries noted this, it wasn't until the third century that the church had formal buildings to meet.

Here, and I take for granted that we're going to go to church somewhere on Mo-Savis.

Congregations themselves did not have buildings, structures, until roughly about the third century AD by record. And most of the time what then happened, whether it be Rome, and we kind of have indication here because a number of different churches were held in homes, is that the groups themselves may have been separate in different parts of the city, because the city was a large city at the time. As a world-ruling empire, it was a huge city. But what we get here is that likely they were meeting in the largest home in a given area, so they can accommodate everyone. Priscilla and Aquila then had a church in their home, and we see other mentions of churches in home in such places. 1 Corinthians 16, 19, finally in 1, 2, and Colossians 4, 15. And I just note them, they're just noted a couple of the different places. Great Mary, another female who labored much for us.

She happened to be a likely, we would gather from, uh, Maryam being a complementary name here, she would be a Jewess as well. Uh, great Andronicus and Junia. Andronicus we would know to be a male name.

Uh, Junia, in most cases, commentaries would indicate is a female. We would have every reason to believe here that this was a husband and wife team again. My kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, so they'd gone to prison with Paul, who were of note among the apostles, which meant that the apostles had to be talking about these two. I might ask you a question because every once in a while this crosses my mind. Even as we read something like this, and it fits with your first message, this first message, do you ever wonder what people say about you when you're not around?

The apostles were talking about them, obviously in a favorable manner. And that's what the language here in verse 7 indicates. Who were also, who also were in Christ before me. So they had been converted even before he had. This language in terms of countrymen, again, the, it's difficult to make a connection here. It likely they would contend were not immediate family, but they would have been blood relations, and they would have acknowledged this at some point. We're not necessarily sure where Andronicus, Junia, and Paul were in prison together, but he makes unmistakably clear that they were together. And certainly they were well, their reputations were well known by the apostles. Greek amplius verse 8, my beloved in the Lord. The language here just shows closeness. Verse 9, Greek urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and stakus, my beloved. Again, the closeness here, urbanus would have been male, stakus would have been male based upon the origin of the word. It looks like urbanus may have been the minister in this case. The notion of fellow worker gives us indication every reason to believe that. And even as we've seen up through verse 9, it should make us at least consider that Paul was one who really cared deeply for these people, and he wasn't hesitant expressing it. Verse 10, greet a pelis approved in Christ. That notion of a pelis, meaning he had been tested, the notion of being approved, he had been tested over and over. Now we don't know if he had gone through physical problems. We don't know if the city or state had been oppressive in terms of his keeping of God's commands in terms of the church. But for whatever reason, the language here indicates that he had been tested over and over. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. Forgive me there. Aristobulus. Not really not sure which Aristobulus there is. If you go look, I went and looked at commentaries. Man, who knew that this was a popular name?

You thought Joe or Mike or Steve were popular names. This one shows up all over the place.

So we're not really sure necessarily who this is. There is, though, indication even as we read the latter end of 10 and we move on to 11, that this was lineage of Herod the Great. There is some sense here of Aristobulus and then 1st 11 Greet Herodian, which happens to be an easier name, to make a connection to. Again, Mike Kinsman, for whatever reason it sounds like that there was a connection here we would trust might be a Jew, might be a cousin. Again, the commentaries say any number of things. Greet those who are of the household of narcissists who are in the Lord.

He doesn't say narcissist, but he actually says his household, which the indication here is that this individual may not have been a part of the church, but his household may have been. So the head of the household may not have been in the church, but several family members had been in the church or were in the church at the time. Greet Trifina and Trifosa. Many would contend that these are both females, and we have every reason to believe that they might have been twins who have labored in the world. Greet the beloved Persis who labored much in the Lord. Again, the notion of labored much means this was a hard worker, Persis being another female.

So all three ladies, all three names in verse 12 are females. Greet Rufus, chosen an award, and his mother and mine. So Rufus in this case being a male, but we don't know Rufus' mother. We just know Rufus' mother obviously was to be greeted, and we would believe that she had served Paul well, that he had cared for her, and had actually treated him as his own, as her own offspring. Verse 14, greet Asimchritus. Why do they make these names so hard? Asimchritus.

Flygon, Hermes, Perobus, Ermis, and the brethren who are with him. Again, this is likely a group who met in a home, a church. So we've already seen a couple of churches that are evident and noted.

Greet Phyllogus and Julia. Phyllogus being a male, Julia being a female.

Nouris and his sister, so Nouris being a male and his sister a female, and Olympus and all the saints who are with him. So even as we see this, again, he's mentioning, he's personalizing, he's aware of these people. Verse 16, greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you.

Sometimes people will make a big deal of this. This happens to just be Italian Roman tradition, and if you go there for the feast, oh my, I'm drawing a blank here. Who is the coordinator there? That Mr. Anastasi. I don't do not think you ever have a conversation with Mr. Anastasi there for the feast where he's not hugging you. The conversations themselves, you know how America will come up and I'll stick out a hand to Steve Holliday or Alan Edge or Michael Bannon, and I'll go, hey, how are you? And I'll maintain my distance. The first thing Mr. Anastasi does is he comes up and puts his arm around you and he starts talking to you like this. And we noticed that, you know, a number of different times when we were over there. I think one of the parts that was interesting to me is even some of the Americans who happen to be of Italian background, boy, they were quick to jump on this one. We were hugging every time I turned around. It was whom I gonna hug next. And that happened to be common for the day. And that was simply involved a kiss on each cheek, which is what we understand. Now, we don't stop at verse 16 on this greeting section. I'm going to ask you to drop to verse 21 because Paul has put in his greetings. Now he's going to greet people on behalf of those people he was with in Rome. So verse 21 reads, Timothy, my fellow worker, we know Timothy, in terms of a fellow minister, and Lucius, Jason, Sospeter, hopefully I didn't mess that one up too badly, my kinsmen greet you, I, Tertullius, or Tartuus, forgive me, I suck an L in, Tartuus, who wrote this epistle, greets you in the Lord. So what we get here again in terms of language is those people who are sending their greetings in addition to Paul. Gaius, verse 23, my host and the host of the whole church greets you. So again, this can't be the same church. These are separate groups that are meeting in homes. Gaius greets you, Erastus, the treasure of the city, greets you, and Cortis, a brother. So as we go all the way through this, Gaius is Paul's host in Corinth. We can see that. Erastus happens to be an overseer, likely a steward of affairs, a manager of certain finances likely at the time, but the language indicates that he has a specific role that's important. In verse 24, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, amen. So the front end of chapter 16 is Paul's greetings. All of the individuals he's with, we then pick up as greetings there in verses 21 through 24. So that takes us through that first section of Scripture, that first part. We get then a warning. He makes all these greetings, and he offers a warning in verse 17.

Now I urge you, brethren, know those who cause divisions and offenses. Now I don't know about you, but if I'm listing a whole range of names, go acknowledge all these people. I don't think it would necessarily fix me in my gut to go, okay, now it's time for a warning. Paul being responsible for the Jews and committed to caring for them says, okay, even as we come to the end of this letter, don't miss something here. As noted in we read there in verse 17, do not cause divisions and offenses. Note those the latter end of 17 who speak contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them. So what he's doing, even as he offers by name so many individuals, is he says, don't you dare be suckered by someone who comes along and offers a separate doctrine. If you go look at the commentaries, and I got really interested in this, and maybe this is part of the way I think, it was, so this is all about those who cause, those who bring false doctrine that cause division based upon the way it's written, and I thought, well, they bring false doctrine, and because of that there's division, but that's not the way this is written. It can actually be interpreted two ways. One is they bring false doctrine, they introduce it, and then that causes division, but separately it can also be read as they come in and they cause division separate from raising false doctrine. Now oftentimes the two go hand in glove. Does that make sense to you? But the reality here is he says, stay away from these people. They have ulterior motives.

Verse 18, for those who do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly.

And by smooth words and flattering speech, deceive the hearts of the simple. The simple would be those newer converts, who are the newer converts. Well, that might be Jews, but likely it was Gentiles who were coming into the church. So what is Paul doing? He kind of sounds mother hen-like. He's saying, protect those Gentiles who've been called into the church.

Don't offend them. Don't bring false doctrine. Don't raise false doctrine, and don't cause division however it shows up. There are probably a number of places in scriptures that we can at least be aware of here. I will backtrack momentarily because I think the word note in verse 17, at least in New King James, is telling. The term note, root word by Greek, is scopio. If this sounds familiar, it's, you know, we oftentimes talk about microscopes.

It says, pay attention to these people. Be aware of these people. We oftentimes talk about if you have a gun, put a bead on that, whatever your game is, be aware of whoever this is. Fix your eyes upon.

Mark these people. Be well aware of this. Now, I won't go there now, but number 16 verse 21 offers that story of Korah in the rebellion where he tried to stand against Moses and we see that. The same point is made here. There is a danger to anyone who brings in divisions and causes offenses, and Paul is taking note of that in 17, and what he contends in 18 is these people have ulterior motives. Halt! Do not stay near these people. Verse 19, for your obedience has become known to all. So he says, even as you followed, your reputation speaks volumes. Your obedience has become known to all, therefore I am glad on your behalf, but I want you to be wise in what is good and simple concerning evil. You know, I actually note here, even as I'm reading the text here, the reference for the term simple, at least in my Bible, is remain innocent. Remember how we talked about in other places the importance of being childlike? It's important that we remain innocent. If you want to backtrack and leave a marker there, I'm only going to go to one verse.

Proverbs 22.1 reads this way. Proverbs 22.1 offers this, A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. So I was with my children today and I have no idea why I know what I was thinking. I was thinking about how God blesses us all and provides for our needs. And for whatever reason, this morning at 4 a.m., when I'm up walking around thinking, why is it so hot in the house and the heater's on 70, I was thinking, man, you know, I don't ever think much about how the heat always comes on. I don't give a whole lot of thought to how blessed we are in terms of just having homes and we don't worry about food and we have a bed delay. I don't worry about any of those things. So as I said to Jordan and Jasmine, even on the way over here, and I think sometimes even as parents we have to say this and it's good for us to say this for our kids. I said, you have no idea how much God has blessed mom and me in terms of just life. The things we have, the only reason we have them is because God blessed us all along the way. And I'm reminded of that, you know, over and over and over again and the importance of acknowledging that. The latter end of verse 22 reads this way, loving favor, oh, all the riches there, you know, that's what I was kind of thinking about this, loving favor rather than silver and gold. You know, in this world society itself says, get all you can get and then get out.

I think I told you the one guy who was the founders, and I shared this, one of the founders of Facebook, he offered that talk at Stanford University and he was one of the ones, if you've seen this, there have been three or four guys of late from Facebook who have said, Tim Cook of Apple said, I won't let my kid do any social media. And then these guys from Facebook who've said, I think we may have messed up. We knew what we were doing in terms of the dopamine, and I think we may have done a bit too much here. Now, when I know that, it's not like Facebook is the bad thing, but they recognize that the form it's taken and the influence it's had on a number of people is dangerous. And so when we say that, you have to at least be mindful of social media, even as we use it. But his comment there at the Stanford presentation is, he said, forgive me, I don't remember this guy's name, it's a long name, he's Indian by descent, forgive me, I don't remember which guy this is, but he said, he's talking to these kids at Stanford, they're asking him, so what are you telling us to do with, you know, all the technologies and all of these high-end companies that are moving us further ahead technologically in terms of interconnectedness? And he said, get in, and he uses some profane language, get in, make your money, and then get out.

And I thought, you're just fueling the system. You're part of the problem, then. Isn't that, that's the same thing? You just told us how bad this all is, and yet you want us to get in, make our money, and step out, and do not have our family connected with social media.

Boy, if that's not representative of the way Satan looks at the world, get in, get your money, work people over, abuse them to no end, squeeze everything out of them you can get for yourself, and then get out. So there's a real shame, even as we see this in verse 17, 18, 19, and that notion of obedience, which is key, so remain innocent. Verse 20, and the God of peace will crush, here's the author, will crush Satan.

Prophetically, we knew Genesis 3 said this would happen.

Will crush Satan under your feet shortly.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. Now, I have in my notes, and I guess I'm curious why I put it here. Leave a mark in there. Let's go to Mark 3. Why did I put this here? I'll find out in a second. It will be discovery for you and me. Mark 3 verse 24.

Here was the controversy over Sabbath word, this notion of fulfillment of prophecy.

I wonder why I put it here. I'm going to read it. And the Pharisees said to him, look, why do you not do what's lawful on the Sabbath? And he said, have you never read that David did when he was in need and hungry and he and those with him? Now he went in the house of God in the days of Abathar, the high priest and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests and also gave some to those. I don't know why I put it on. I'm meeting too. That's why. You people should just stop and say, what are you doing? Thank you. Just wave at me. Could you stop? This makes sense. If a kingdom is divided against itself, what if it's so much nicely? That kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he has an end. And we know inevitably, here and elsewhere, that it's a matter of time before Satan is removed. God of this world, little gee God, for the time being, is able to influence those of this world.

But it won't be that case, and his time is shortening, and he knows that.

So we've moved through the second section here. We jumped ahead, that warning to avoid division that Paul provides, which takes us just to the last few verses here on exhortation, and that's in verses 25 to 27. Verse 25, Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ. Who would this be? This is the God of Father.

According to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began. There are two words that stick out here that at least we need to give attention, and you're well aware of them.

According to my gospel. What gospel? Well, the gospel of the good news of the kingdom of God, which on the latter end here has been a mystery for all humanity. There are only a select few firstfruits. You and I who have opportunity to prepare for the Passover are some of those.

And you can go see James 1 verse 18 in Romans, as we see here in Romans 16 verse 5 a little bit earlier about the importance that we are firstfruits, and we've been given a privilege to know God's truth now. It has been the minds of humanity have been blinded since Adam and Eve said, no, we're not going to take from the tree of life. And in every individual since then, with the exception of those whom God has called and Christ has worked with, have lived without this mystery. But you know it. You and I both know it. Wow, what a privilege. Verse 26, but now has been made manifest and by the prophetic scriptures has been known to all nations according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith. God, as we know, desires to save everyone. You know, I will go here to Revelation 20.

This is one marker. You can leave there a marker. Revelation 20 verses 11 and 12.

We hit on this repeatedly and justifiably so with the realization that God desires all to know His truth. Revelation 20 verse 11, then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.

And I saw everyone who's ever lived. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. You know, the idea here is the realization that God is going to provide everyone, but not just the 26 people who sit in this room now, not just the roughly 65 to 70 people that are over in Atlanta, not just the 7,000, 7,500 that are currently in United, or if you saw recently the numbers in terms of the feast numbers are usually about, what, 12 to 13,000? I think the United News has a circulation of 16,000. Not just that select group, not all of the other groups who happen to still hold to God's truth, but everyone will have an opportunity to know God's truth. Everyone, right down to the person, and here's where we can put an ex on you or me, will have the responsibility of knowing and then obeying. So it becomes then the Romans, our responsibility to do so. Verse 27, to God alone. Isn't this beautiful? Even as he ends it, he takes it all the way back to God. To God alone, wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.

So we come to the tail end of the book, and he offers that encouragement, exhortation.

So I have a couple of lessons I'm going to ask us to pay attention to before I throw up a final scripture. Paul really does two things even as we move through this. One is he recognizes the works of others. He is not limited in honoring them, showing them honor as they have served God. Let's go to Proverbs 16 verse 24. Proverbs 16 verse 24. Proverbs 16 and verse 24.

I need to offer here, as a reminder, and you know this, Paul had no wife. So for Paul to rely, to speak so intimately and familiarly, that's a word, lovingly, about all these people, he really appreciated what these people were doing for him.

Proverbs 16 and verse 24. Pleasant words are like a honeycomb. Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. There's an old rule of thumb, and you may know this, but as we live our lives, whether it be privately or publicly, those relationships that we appreciate most are the ones that have roughly a five to one ratio. Five times as much positive as negative. When that ratio we fall out of that equation, that balance of words, five positives to every one negative, then we tend to feel like, I'm not sure this relationship is working so well.

I'm a little uncomfortable. I'd like to hear more positives in this relationship, just as we should be more likely to give more positives to others if we turn this back to ourselves. You know, as we see here, and we're reminded, Paul sets a beautiful example here, because here's the longest section of Scripture that any commending commendation of brethren shows up in Scripture. Paul says, I'm going to list the 28 people here, the 26 by name, and I'm going to be specific about the different ways they serve. I found myself even here asking, do I do this enough? Do I give credit where credit is due? Do I do so with my wife or my kids? My wife may say, not enough. Do I do so with you? When you accomplish something, even in the areas, I interact with you. As brothers and sisters, do I say, hey, way to go!

Melissa Bannon, way to go! Do I do this?

Or do I even know the people in here?

It's my responsibility to do so. You know, duck Steve Holliday brought up an interesting point, even as we went through all of these names and the recognition of works.

And I've already tipped my hat here, and duck Steve can't answer this. What name should show up here that doesn't show up? According to the Catholic Church, Peter doesn't show up.

Isn't that interesting? So how many different times, when we were on tours, walking around the Vatican, did our tour guide talk about the primacy of Peter?

Do you find this interesting? The name doesn't show up! It doesn't show up one time here.

They would have contended, the Catholics will contend, that he would have already been there.

So this had to be another Peter, and we know this, we've made mention of this, likely Simon Magus, Acts 8. You know, we don't necessarily know where Peter is. We have indication from 1 Peter 5 verse 13, in that he was Apostle to the Jews, that he was likely in Babylon, orchestrating things. But, boy, this really throws, I'm thinking of the Australian term, a spanner into things. Throws a wrench into everything. Because if you're the Catholic Church, and Peter is prime, and he's not being mentioned, what's the problem here? So we would have every indication he wasn't there. But Paul didn't recognize the work of others, so it's helpful to note that. The second point that I'll make, or we should take from this, is that Paul stresses God's calling requires vigilance. The term vigilance, and I've played with a number of different words here, is a state of action, of keeping careful watch for possible dangers or difficulties. So sometimes, you can come into the truth, and we can go, oh, I'll just click it on autopilot for a while. Remember years ago, there was the guy, and I don't know why this story comes to mind, there was a guy years ago that got into a van, and I think he put it on cruise control. He was driving one of the freeways around Dallas-Fort Worth. I don't know why this story comes to mind. He put it on cruise control. He went in the back, because it was a decked-out van that had a refrigerator and everything. He went in the back to make a mixed drink, and the car wrecked, and the police showed up and said, what were you doing? And he said, I put it on cruise control. I thought it was autopilot. It never even occurred to him that he had to keep driving. Now that's been 30 years since I remember reading that story. But that said, you can't operate in terms of our Christianity. You can't, I can't on autopilot. It can't work that way. It doesn't work that way. Our responsibility is to be alert and aware and be vigilant so that we do exactly what we've been called to do to grow in grace and knowledge. So I'll take you to two scriptures, if you will. Proverbs 6. I made a lot of connection with Proverbs this time. Proverbs 6, verse 16 through 19. This is only going to reinforce what appears in that second section of scripture. And here is again a listing of things that God hates. Proverbs 16. Did I say 16? I said, let's go to Proverbs 6. I gotta get this right. Make sure I'm in the right place. We'll give this a shot. Here we go. Verse 16. Proverbs 6, 16. These things the Lord hates. Seven are an abomination to him. A proud look. A lying tongue. Hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked plans. Feet that are swift and running to evil. False witness who speaks lies.

And one who sows discord among the brethren. Boy, if you don't want to get on God's bad side, this becomes a list that we're well aware of that we are to avoid.

Proverbs 16. I was in Proverbs 6. Let's go to Proverbs 16. I'll read one more verse.

Proverbs 16 verse 26. Proverbs 16 verse 26. The person who labors labors for himself for his hungry... Am I reading that right? That looks right. There's a... The person who labors labors for himself. For his hungry mouth drives him on. You know, the idea here is that there has to be a faithfulness and truth. That doesn't look right. Oh, I made reference. Okay, I know why. I wrote it down wrong. It's Romans 16.26, and we just read that section. I'm back to my marker. I will go back there and read that even as we close. And now, as has been made manifest by the prophetic scriptures, has been made known to all nations. According to the command of the everlasting God, our responsibility to ladder in the last five words to this verse. For obedience to the faith, our responsibility is to be obedient, to be vigilant. You know, we started this message by posing the question, since Paul had not traveled to Rome at the time of his writing, how in the world did he know these people? Well, again, it's helpful to remember that human beings will be human beings. Rome was really the center of the world, and there was travel all the time.

What generally Paul was relying on is, in some instances, personal relationships, but mostly it was on word of mouth. So, in a case like this, whomever is listed, he was well aware information was traveling back and forth. People talked then. They talk now.

People are going to be people. People talked then. So, he felt intimately connected with these people because he heard repeated stories about the service and their commitment to the truth. Paul knew of those that were mentioned. We might ask ourselves, even as we end, what would someone write about us?

Would we show up at the back end of someone's letter and be offered as a good example?

The Book of Romans is important for many reasons, mainly because of how it treats a number of topics that are of importance to our calling. Law, grace, propitiation of sins, justification are all dealt with so well by Paul here. Paul begins Romans by making clear God's desire that we are to be righteous, once called. And he ends by noting the importance of obedience. And he does so also by recognizing, by allowing us to see that what you and I know is not known by everyone. It's a mystery. Because of that, we should honor and privilege it. While the Book can be challenging in spots, Romans provides what we need in order to be in God's kingdom. So as we conclude the Book of Romans, let's not be daunted by certain sections of its delivery. Rather, let us be energized by the content that's provided and the unbelievable reward that God makes clear will be given all those who are tried true and faithful. It really is a wonderful book.