The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 34: To The Only Wise God

Episode Date: September 9, 2018

God’s sovereign purpose for all of creation is to glorify Himself by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as He crushes Satan underneath our feet through the power of the gospel. Amen.

Amen and amen. If you would please stand for the final reading of the Book of Romans, not the final ever in our church, but just the final in this 34-week series. By the way, church, have you been blessed by the book of Romans all 34 weeks of it? Amen. Romans 16 verses 17 to 27. God's word says this, I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.

avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all so that I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Timothy, my fellow worker, greet you.

So do Lucius and Jason and so Cipater, my kinsman. I, Turchas, who wrote this letter, greet you and the Lord. Gaeus, who is host to me, and to the whole church, greet you. Arastus, the city treasurer, and our brother, Cordas, greet you. Now to him who is able, to strengthen you, according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith to the only wise God.

Be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. Amen. Would you please pray with me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the book of Romans. we thank you for the miracle that preserved this ancient document for thousands of years that we could have it this day and we thank you even more that it's more than just an ancient document it is your word breathed out by your spirit for your people and it is for us today holy spirit would you do what you always do as we open up your word may it never return void or in vain but god may you

change us as we read your word may it read us for the glory of your name we prayed in jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, here we go. 34th week. Again, have you been blessed by the book of Romans? 34 weeks in it? I hope so. I'm almost sad to see it go. I don't even know what we're going to do from now on, do you? We broke all the church growth rules. You're not supposed to do according to the church growth experts of which I am not. You're not supposed to do a series more than four weeks, and so we overshot it by 30. You're supposed to be real creative. We creatively entitled this Romans. And here's why, man, because the power is in the gospel, the power is not in the presentation. Through the preaching and teaching of the book of Romans, there have been

almost 1,100 people who have surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Amen. So, and we have been over every single word. We didn't skip any of it, the hard parts. We said circumcision about 53 times the first few weeks. And last week, we even went over all of those names that here at San Pablo, Pastor Adam did a great job walking through the first part of 16, and then at all of our campuses, the campus pastors preached, and we went through all those names. In case you weren't here, if you were with child and you're looking for a good baby name, I would encourage you to go to Romans 16. There's some beautiful names there, like Rufus.

I tell you, you name your little girl Rufus. You don't have to worry about her dating in high school, so that could be a thing that you go with. Or narcissist, that was one of the names. If you just want to hate your kid, name them that. Anyway. Last week, though, the reason that there's those names there is because this is an actual person, the Apostle Paul, writing to real people in a real church. This is not like a long time ago when a galaxy far, far away.

These are actual historical events. That's why these names are in here. And just when it seems to kind of get sappy, right, he's wrapping up this letter and he's like, say hey to my buddy and that guy and this guy and I love y'all and say hey to my mom over there. That's kind of what he's doing. And then in perfect Pauline fashion, he's going to pump the brakes on the sappy stuff and he's going to give a warning. And I think the reason he gives a warning is this. You may not know this, but everybody in church ain't awesome.

I know that's a shocker. Really? Really? And so he gives this warning. It says, I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles, contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. and the doctrine that he has been teaching is the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, period. And anybody that teaches anything other than that, Paul would say these next two words,

avoid them. Avoid them. Now, unity matters, but unity for the unity's sake is pretty worthless, that we are to be unified around the truth, and the truth is Jesus, and Jesus is all about the gospel of Jesus Christ. which means this is that there are just some core doctrines of the Bible like the authority of the Word of God, the gospel itself, the character and nature of God, and if anybody teaches something other than those things, if anybody moves away from those doctrines, then you should move away from them. This is what he is saying.

That's also here at this church. If there's any time, there comes a day when somebody's teaching anything other than the gospel, go gather your things, get your kids, and leave, and don't ever go back. The reason is because that is where the power of the gospel is. If you move to another city and you were looking for a church, I don't care how good the programs are, I don't care how good the music is. If the gospel is not priest, there is no power in that place. It is just kind of a powerless civic organization that just gets together and does some karaoke and tries to high-five each other on the way out. that is not what the church is to be. Now, remember, he's talking, remember back in chapter 14, he talked about how do we get along

when we differ on secondary issues? He's talking about secondary issues here. Remember, we have unity in the essentials. We have grace in the secondary issues. We have love covers all of them. So I'm not talking about you avoid your cousin because they baptized their baby, and you're like, oh, in our church, we only baptize believers. Get out my face.

That's not what I'm talking about. You see, there are some Christians. that are kind of like a drug dog. Here's what I mean. My brother, who's a police officer, he used to be a canine agent or whatever. He trained dogs, and the dogs would sniff drugs. That's all they live for.

He rewarded it when it found drugs. He trained it to find drugs. It's just what it did. It was a German shepherd, which is like part dog, part crocodile. That's what it was. And if it found drugs, it would just eat your face off.

And then they would give it treats. Good job. Way to eat his face off. That's what they did. And he was super good at finding drugs. You know what he wasn't good at? Welcoming visitors to my brother's house. It wasn't awesome.

Every time you walked in his house, he thought you were a drug dealer. He was sniffing you. You're like, whoa, stop, man, stop. There are Christians like that that can't even be blessed by a sermon because you're just waiting for anything that's wrong. Don't do that. This isn't what Paul is talking about. Paul is talking about that we are so rooted in the doctrines of grace

that if there are people that are teaching things other than that, You avoid those people. Now there's a big old difference between a wayward sheep and a wolf. I mean, there can be some people, and they've got to kind of twist it up a little bit on some sort of theological issue. Just because they were a wayward sheep. They heard some. They grew up a certain way, whatever it is. And what we are to do to the wayward cheap is to extend the right hand of fellowship.

And reconcile them back unto the body of Christ. But to the wolf, we are to extend the right foot of fellowship. And here's how Paul. Paul would say, okay, here's how you. to tell the difference between a wolf and a waiver cheat. Verse 18, for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but here's what they serve, their own appetites. So they're not serving the mission of God, they're serving me.

They serve their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. In other words, where their own self-justification overtakes self-denial and what it means to follow Jesus, and by smooth-talking flattery, they try to get a little crowd to follow them, it creates, by definition, what is a division. Division just means two visions. There's one vision for this church. We're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. If anybody wants to make this thing into anything else, that is by definition a division. And Paul says, watch out for that sort of thing. Verse 19, he says, for your obedience

is known to all. Obedience matters. Your obedience is known to all so that I, I rejoice over you. Man, that kind of caught me off guard. Maybe just because I'm a preacher. I travel all over the world to church conferences. I have never heard any preacher talk about their church this way. People will say, how's your church going? And I've never heard anybody respond with, they are abounding in obedience.

And somebody go, I rejoice over that. No, they're primarily just talking about how many people are showing up. But according to Paul, in the book of Romans, obedience matters. Obedience is evidence of God's inner working in our lives, not just individually, but as a church. For your obedience is known to all so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent to what is evil. That means I want you to be a black belt in good and a newbie in evil.

I want you to be a PhD in good and kindergarten in evil. Part of what he's saying here is like Church of Rome, you have such a great reputation. It would be ashamed if you were divided by the enemy because people were teaching false doctrine. because I'm telling you, Satan would love nothing more than to either bog you down in a powerless church. A powerless church is a church without the gospel. Or to divide a prevailing church by deception by getting people to believe any doctrine other than their doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember, Matthew chapter 16, Jesus takes the disciples up to Cessario Philippi. Cessaria Philippi is like the sin city of the first century.

like the Vegas of today. And there's some crazy stuff happening in Cessori of Philippi. And Jesus says, who do people say that I am? And Peter's going to talk first. Peter's going to talk most. And Peter says, well, people say you're just like a rabbi, a teacher, kind of a holy guy. And he goes, but who do you say that I am? Maybe the most important question you'll ever deal with.

Who do you say that Jesus is? And Jesus, you know, if you talk enough eventually, you say good stuff. And so he says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus is like, stop the press. This idea did not come from you. it was revealed to you by my father in heaven. And I will change your name from Simon to Peter. Peter means rock.

And he says, upon this rock, not upon Peter, upon the public declaration that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. In other words, upon this gospel, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. You see, the enemy would love nothing better than to bog Christians down in a powerless,

gospelist church, or to take a prevailing church built on the gospel and try to divide them over some goofy stuff. And speaking of Satan, I think this is why he goes here next. Verse 20. I should do a four-week series on this one verse. Ready? The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The God of peace. Now listen, why does Paul introduce God here as the God of peace in the verse where he's talking about crushing stuff. That doesn't seem to fit, does it? Seems like he would be like, and the God of power will soon crush Satan. Or the God of creation, or the God of justice, or the God of wrath, or the God of justice,

the God of righteousness. But he doesn't. The God of peace. The God of peace will soon crush Satan. Maybe this is why. Because peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is the absence of evil. and it will take great conflict to eradicate evil.

See the cross. You see, peace in our society, we think peace is just the absence of conflict. But according to the scriptures, the Hebrew word is shalom. It means oneness with God, rightness with God. It means wholeness. And peace is not just an absence of conflict. Peace is the absence of evil. It will take great conflict to eradicate evil.

And what does that mean? It means two things. It means internally and institutionally. In my world right now, a bunch of preachers are fighting over social justice and should the church be involved or not. Let me tell you, first and foremost, conflict to eradicate evil starts in the heart. It begins in your own heart. The most evil thing you've ever come eyeball to eyeball with is you. Nobody's lied to you more than you.

Nobody's deceived you more than you. Think about this. every bad decision that you've ever made, you were a part of it. In fact, you're the one that talked you into that thing. You were a great salesman for you. Are you not? Should I text her? No, I shouldn't.

I think I will. Are you crazy? Uh-huh. That's the answer. And so God sends his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to eradicate that evil from your own heart so that we could be at peace with God. but it does not in there as Christians once we are saved not in order that we would be saved but because we are saved by the grace of God in our lives through Jesus Christ

then every single believer should be a part of fighting or eradicating evil institutionally in this world that means that we fight not only the evil in our hearts but we fight against systemic evil we fight against systemic injustice like this man we fight for the right to be born there's a fight. We fight against racism. That means personally in your own life and we fight against any institution or system that would perpetuate any sort of racial behavior or thought. As Christians, that's what we are called to do. We fight against sex trafficking. Why? Because every one of those little human beings being used as a commodity or image bearers of the most high king. We fight against poverty, not just right here in Jacksonville, but all the way around the world.

We fight against corruption. We have been called as Christians to go to war. Why? Because peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is the absence of evil, and it takes great conflict to eradicate evil. But here's the difference, man. Is that as Christians, we fight with love. Our weapons are different.

Our weapons are grace. And Ephesians 6 tells us that our battle is not against us. flesh and blood. We don't fight with people. We fight on behalf of people. We fight for the glory of God. Why? Because God went to war for us. So when we fight internally and institutionally to help what Jesus prayed to happen that heaven would come to earth, listen, our battle is not against flesh and blood. So listen, your problem may be. You problem ain't Trump or Kaepernick. Did I get everybody? Everybody covered? Okay? Anybody else mad at somebody right now? Just raise your hand. We'll pick it. That's not the point. The enemy is the enemy. And every human being you've

ever come eyeball to eyeball with is an object of God's grace and he poured his blood out for them. And so I think this is why, this is why God has introduced here as the God of peace. And he says the God of peace will soon crush Satan. To which you look at that and you're like, soon, Paul, it's been 2,000 years. What do you mean soon? Apparently Paul and my son, JP, have the same idea of soon. Hey, buddy, you're going to take the trash out? Soon, okay? The next 2,000 years you'll get that done? Appreciate you. But we find out in 1st Peter that with God, a thousand years is like a day and the day is like

a thousand years. You ever notice this in the scripture? God's never been in a hurry. I mean, why do you create everything in six days? Why not just one word? He could do it, and yet for some reason, because he's the sovereign king of the universe, he's like, I got this. I do it on my own timetable. And so, according to God, it's only been a couple days since Jesus pushed up on his nail pierce feet and said, it is finished. The God of peace will soon crush Satan.

I think Paul here is thinking of Genesis 315, the proto-evanglion is what old dead deologians call it. It means the first gospel that Adam was created as a lot of the first gospel that Adam was created as a shallow man, God breathes the breath of life into him. He opens his eyes and he has an unadulterated view of the glory of God. He is in a face-to-face relationship with his Heavenly Father. And then God gives him this gift, Eve, his wife, and together they're in this perfect relationship,

and then they are deceived by the serpent, the enemy. And he comes in and he gets them to question God. Is that what God really said? Did he really say that you can't do that? You see, he's just jealous, he's just insecure. You make a better God than he would make. And so they went for the bait. They went for the bait.

And that perfect relationship was broken. It was twisted. And so God pursues them in the garden. And to display his righteousness, he judges them. He kicks him out of the garden. But to display his grace, he sheds the blood of an animal for the covering of their sin. And in Genesis 315, he looks at Eve, and he says, I will put enmity between your offspring and this enemy, this serpent.

And one day he will bruise his heel, but he will crush his head. And for the whole rest of the Old Testament, I feel like I talk about this all the time. The whole rest of the Old Testament, the serpent crusher, is on his way. And you see, here, as Paul is wrapping up Romans, he says, in the God of Peace, we'll soon crush Satan. This is what God was telling Eve all the way back in Genesis chapter 3. three, that this enemy will bruise his heel, but my son will come and crush, crush the head of the serpent that deceives my people. You see, the reality, though, anytime you talk chronologically about the eternity of God, it kind of gets weird. It's kind of hard to describe. So there are three things

that are true about the crushing of Satan. It has already happened. It is currently happening, and one day it will fully and finally happen. You see, when Jesus pushes up on his nail pierce feet, and he says, it is finished. The death blow to Satan has been made. It is over. It is finished. The penalty is paid for. Now, at this point, at this point, the enemy can still like jack around with you.

He can steal, kill and destroy, but he cannot damn you. Because our record of debt has been nailed to the cross and has been paid for. Which means this. We are fighting from victory. We are not fighting for victory. That's what that means. That means that we are in the victory formation, and there is nothing, nothing, nothing that he can do about it.

It's like the fourth quarter of the Georgia game, man. We just run and play is for the heck of it. Hey, who wants to play? You want to play? Come on, get it here. What's your name? Here, take the ball. First down.

Wow. See, the game is over. Because he has been crushed. And yet, simultaneously, the crushing of Satan is happening over and over and over. with every salvation, with every victory over sin, with every church planted, with every addiction broken, with every marriage restored. Why? Because the enemy has been disarmed and he can't even fight against us anymore. And then also true one day, fully and finally, Satan will be crushed and thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20, verse 3, he's thrown into the pit for a thousand

years, he's brought back out in Revelation 2010, he's thrown into the lake of fire forever more to be crushed. When I read about that, when I read about that, I can tell you what I think about it. It makes me think of a very gospel-centered movie, 300. Remember 300? Do you remember when the messenger from Persia comes on behalf of Xerxes to talk to Leonidas? Remember him? And he comes walking in looking all crazy, look like he fell into the tackle box, and a bunch of it got stuck. Remember that? He's all... And he says, He says, Xerxes believed he was a God from Persian. He said he demands a sacrifice, a sacrifice of earth and water.

In other words, he's saying, why don't you just give, if he just give him a little bit to show that he is powerful and that you submit to him, then he'll be cool. Sound familiar? It's like the message of the enemy. Just give me a little bit. Just bend your knee to me. And then you remember Leonidas gets all ticked off? Remember he's standing there, like in his underpants and his abs, just looking awesome with his beard. And he does this a little talk about Sparta.

We don't bow to anybody. He pulls out his sword, sticks it to the messenger's throat. He's like, what are you doing? I tell you what he's doing. He's about to do this verse. The God of Peace will soon crush Satan. And then you remember this? And then he does this little talk, Sparta bows to no one.

And he does this kick, man. Boom. Now, I can only get my leg about this high, but in the movie. Because I got my pants on. If I was just in my underpants, like Leonidas and my abs, I'd be up there, right? I'm pretty sure. I'll try it later, but that's... Think about that.

And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under whose feet? Your feet. Do you realize this church? That the crushing is through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He just uses our boots to do it. That he's using our feet, that we are the body of Christ, that Christ is crushing Satan under our feet. He uses us to preach the gospel.

He uses us to love people. He uses us to point people to eternity. because we're fighting from victory, not for victory. Look, every worship service is the victory formation until he decides to come back and fully and finally crush him once and for all. Amen? Amen. And that means two things are true, and they're kind of in tension with one another.

You see, because he will soon crush Satan, this means you and I can take a breath. That it's not all up to us. God still got the whole world in his hands. He's never been surprised, never been caught off guard. He's never looked at your situation and went, what in the name of me is going on there? Never, ever, ever, which means you can just slow down and take a breath.

A bunch of pastors were on a retreat this last weekend, and we were talking about one of the greatest sermons ever preached from this stage. It was by Ray Cortez that saturated a couple years ago. He was talking about the imputed righteousness of Christ. And he said, because it is finished, you can slow down and walk behind your kids and enjoy them instead of walk in front of them and say, hurry up. And yet, because it's under our feet, we never get lazy. Because he's using us and our feet, we pour ourselves out for the sake of the gospel.

We take as much ground for the kingdom as we can. We take everything that he has given us all the treasures of this world, and we treasure him above everything. We don't waste a dollar. We don't waste a minute. We don't waste our life. We don't waste a relationship. We do everything we can because we are a part of the victorious team that is in Jesus Christ. Amen?

And the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath your feet. And then he says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. You're going to need it because we're at war. And then Paul shifts into like greeting mode. And the reason that he's got these names in here again is because these are real people. and I think, I don't know, this is total speculation, but I think, you know, he's dictating this letter in a room in Corinth, and he looks around and his boy Tim's there, and he goes, Timothy, my fellow worker, he greet you. And so to Lucius and Jason and socipiter, that's a fun one to say. McKinsman, verse 22, I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.

All this means is that Paul would dictate these letters and that somebody would, like, scribe for him. some people think that paul maybe had a bad eyesight i don't know people just make stuff up but four times and four of the epistles paul gets to pin himself himself and basically says hey you can tell this is my handwriting because it's terrible that's kind of what he says but he just that's who turtius is he's writing this stuff down verse 23 gaias who is host to me and the whole church greets you arastus the city treasure check that's out that from the very beginning this jesus movement was a movement for all people. It's not just fishermen from Jerusalem. It's a city official from the city of Corinth. And our brother Cordes greet you, verse 25. Now, let me ask you, how do you close the greatest letter

ever written in the history of letter writing? I mean, you've heard me say this before, that Romans, I mean, the Bible itself is the greatest book. It's not really a book. It's six, six books. It's kind of like a library. but of all the things written in the history of humanity, there is no more influential piece of literature. There's nothing greater than the letter of Romans. It is the greatest letter ever written talking about the greatest subject. Now listen, when people talk about the greatest, people love to argue about it. And a lot of people love to argue about subjective things. Like you'll argue over the greatest basketball player of all time.

I'm just telling you, it is subjective to you. If you're young, you think it's LeBron. If you're old, you think it's Jordan, okay? Because you think you're awesome, your generation is awesome. You're not that awesome. You can argue about the greatest football team, okay? There are subjective things to argue about. Then there are some things that are just objective, and you just can't even argue.

There's no argument about it. Greatest movie of all time? Braveheart. You might as well not even fight about that. It's done. Greatest Christmas movie? Die hard. It's just true.

And Romans is the greatest letter ever written in the history of humanity. So how do you wrap that? dude up. So what Paul is going to do, if you've got a Bible that has like the little headings, it has the word doxology, because that's how Paul's going to end. He's going to end this letter with doxology. Doxology just means this. Glory, words of glory is what it means. Words of worship, words of praise, which is honestly the only way you can wrap up the gospel. It is. It is where our lives are heading in the gospel. To forever glorifying God. You see, I've thought about this. There have been times where I've heard other people said,

and I've said it myself, and now I don't believe what I said anymore, where I've said this, if you don't like the worship, you're going to not like heaven. Because what we're going to do in heaven is we are going to worship God. That doesn't necessarily just mean singing, but we are going to bring God praise. But the reality is that when we breathe our last here and our next face-to-face with God, we will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye, we will be glorified in our bodies so that we will want and be fulfilled by the best thing in all creation, and that is to glorify God. So that is what will happen. That our lives should be lives of doxology. So this is where Paul's going to go. He's going to wrap it up with the doxology. So he says, now to him. Not to us. That should be one of

those freeing things you could ever get your brain around. Listen, God is for you. Anybody that for you is for you. And if God is for us, who could be against us? Yes and amen, that is true. God is for you. It's just not all about you. It's all about the glory of God. And so he says, now to him who is able to strengthen you. Do you know that's what God wants to do? He wants to strength. He does not want to beat you down. He wants to build you up. And listen, this is kind of a weird thing for a king to say. All throughout human history, evil kings, egomaniac-driven kings, have always been suspect of their people. Because I'm going to tell you, an evil king, the most dangerous thing to an evil dictator is a strong people, is an educated people,

is a lifted up people. And all throughout human history, what kings would do to get glory for themselves is they would step on the broken backs of their people, but not our God. He's not that kind of king. He's a sovereign, omnipotism. omnipotent, loving king of the universe who just happens in Christ to be our heavenly father and he wants to strengthen you. He is for you. He is not against you. And how does he do this? Not with cash and prizes, but he strengthens you this way. According to my gospel is what Paul says. According to my God. Now when I first read that, I don't know why I'm still surprised by the Bible. It called me off guard that Paul would not say the gospel.

He said, my gospel. That seemed kind of weird. It seems kind of weird to me. Not you just staring blankly at me, but that's fine. Then I begin to think, I'm telling you, until the gospel is personal, it has not penetrated your heart. That all the demons believe in, they believe that the gospel is real. But it's not a personal God.

It's not their gospel. You see, I would much rather you taste and see that the Lord is good. I would much rather you experience at the personal level, the grace of God for you. then be able to quote to me the order to salutis. You don't even know what it means. That's Latin for the order of salvation. A relationship of God is not passing a theology exam.

It is just that a relationship with him. And so Paul says now to him, who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel? You see, the only way that you're going to be strengthened is through the gospel, because that's where the power is. You remember this is how he kicked off the book of Romans, 116. for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it, for the gospel is the power of God for salvation. To everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek,

that the only way, listen, that you will be strengthened, that you will not find it in you. In fact, you are your own worst enemy. You are your biggest problem. You are not your own solution. That the power is in the gospel. You need God to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. He says, now to him who is able to strengthen you, according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ.

This is what the gospel is. Gospel means good news. In order for news to be news, two things have to be true. One, it has to happen. We're not talking about fairy tales here. We're not talking in a galaxy long ago and a bland far away. We are talking about an event. This thing happened.

God's son showed up on this earth, proved himself over and over and over, ultimately lived the perfect life, died the sinner's death, and then resurrected on the third day, and he told us he was going to do it. You see, it is good news. And not only does news have to happen, but you have to tell somebody. Because if you don't tell, it's not, it's just a secret. And the gospel is not a secret. The gospel is good news.

It happened for us. You see, I've told you this a million times. First sermon never preached, man. Coach Lee looked at me and said, boy, you're going to get up there and talk. I said, coach, what do I talk about? And he said, you talk about Jesus? you talk about 30 minutes. That is the gospel. All right, and I've graduated beyond 30 minutes, but I'm still just talking about Jesus.

He says, now to him, who is able to strengthen you, according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of all the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but now has been disclosed, and through the prophetic writings, has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God. He's talking about the person and work of Jesus revealed to us today through the scriptures. That's what he's talking about. You see, back when God tells Eve, I'm sending a serpent crusher, that for thousands of years, the way that was going to happen was a mystery to the people. They didn't know how this thing's going to play out.

They knew that we are sinners and God is holy and somehow we are separated and need to be reconciled. But how in the world are we going to be reconciled to a righteous God, and we are so unrighteous. And so God began to give them like foreshadowings of it, like a temple system and a sacrificial system, and they're shedding the bloods of lambs on the day of atonement. And they're scratching their head going, I kind of see it, but how does this work?

And then he sent the prophets. These are the prophetic writings like Isaiah would show up and say, a man of sorrows will come, and God will be pleased to crush him, and by his stripes we will be healed, and upon his shoulders will be laid the chastisement of us all. And people like King David in Psalm 22, who said that he was pierced for our transgressions.

Again, it was a foreshadowing of what would happen, but it was a mystery held in secret until one day. Until one day. John the Baptist is out there baptizing people. And he says, behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the entire world. And the mystery is revealed that the plan is a man in his name is Jesus. And then God would love us enough and be so gracious to us

that he would give us these scriptures so that we could know who he is. And that the mystery is that God is not a tribal God just for the Jewish people and that one little sandy part of the world over there. That God is a God for all people and all nations are called unto him and everyone is called

and everyone gets in the same way and the way has been paid and Jesus is the way and the truth in the life and no one comes to the Father except through him. And the mystery is the invitation goes out to anyone, anyone who would believe. And this mystery has been revealed. And that Jesus didn't just come for the forgiveness of sins,

but he came that we would be adopted into the family of God. It's not enough that Jesus would forgive us of our sin. It would not be enough. That may take care of the past, but how in the world would it make us right with God going forward? You see, Jesus lives that perfect life and dies a sinner's death. And that our sin is condemned. his flesh at the cross, that his righteousness would be imputed or counted or credited to us for

anyone who would believe. Paul say it this way in 2 Corinthians 521, and God made him who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God. That God would love you enough, not to just forgive you, but to adopt you and bring you into his own family as a co-air with Christ, this is the mystery reveal. And so his doxology is now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel in the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith.

Now, I know that you remember week one when Paul said the reason that he was writing this was an obedience of faith. There's only two places that little phrase is used. Chapter 1, chapter 16, the beginning of the book and the end of the book. Sometimes it looks like Paul is just doing this kind of theological rambling all over the place, but he's not. He was talking about the obedience of faith. He started out the book of Romans this way.

I, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. That's all the gospel. Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about, here it is, obedience of faith for the sake of his name among the nations, including you who are called to belong to Christ Jesus.

You see, what Paul is saying is the gospel results in obedience, not the other way around. And it's obedience of faith, not an obedience for faith. That little preposition changes everything. Because there's a lot of folks that believe, if I obey, then somehow God gives me faith. If I obey, then somehow I will be accepted. And the gospel is the exact opposite of that. The gospel is, I am accepted, not because of anything that I have done, but I am. am accepted because of what Christ did for me on the cross.

And faith is believing in Jesus. Faith is believing that somehow when Jesus died on the cross, that counted for me. And then that results in obedience. It changes the way I live. And the reason is not about you. The reason is all about the glory of God. This whole book, the book of Romans, is about faith and glory. Faith and glory.

Faith and glory. You see, chapters 1 through 8 is about faith that we are justified by faith alone in Christ. The chapters 9 through 11 is about God's faithfulness to keep His covenant. And then chapters 12 through 16 is about how our faith leads us to obedience and action. Not to us, verse 27, to the only wise God. To the only wise God. Now, is Paul saying that there are a bunch of gods that are unwise, and if you want to pick one of them, pick one of them, but they're unwise, and there's one God that is wise.

Sort of he is. He is. Here's what he's saying. Money is an unwise God. Or another way to say that is money is a really dumb God. There's a bunch of us in this room that worship the God of money. And let me tell you, that's dumb. That's dumb.

Because here's why, when you put your trust in money, it can't bring you the security that it promises. And, man, you might be making bank. Glory to God. You go online and check all your accounts and all those. numbers add up and you're like, whoa, man, I'm feeling it. What are you doing when the doctor calls and you have cancer? Get good treatment? Congratulations. You realize all the security's gone.

Or you look, you trust in the God of money to bring you satisfaction and it just doesn't satisfy. We talk about this all the time here. We lovingly call it the cul-de-sac of stupidity. I'm not saying stuff is stupid. I'm saying you're stupid. Because you think a new half-bath and a new ride is going to make you feel something? It does for a minute, but then it's just your car. Right?

Whoever's got the sweetest car here. Somebody has the sweetest car here. And it's just your car. It's as many french fries in yours as there is in mine. It's just your car, man. And if you think some next stuff is going to do from you what the last stuff couldn't do for you, it's just a cul-de-sac of stupidity. It makes a terrible God.

Sex makes a terrible God. A terrible God. It will only complicate things than let you down. Sex is like cotton candy. It's awesome for a minute. Will not sustain you. Feed your dog cotton candy. They will love you and die.

Status is a dumb god. See, here's the problem with status, man. It's when you attain that status, guess what? You still got to go to bed with you. And there's just this thing in your soul. It's like, is this it? I mean, I'm there. Everybody salutes me.

Everybody says, yes, sir. Everybody does what I say. I got the name tag, and yet what is wrong with me? You see, you are a really dumb God. You are not worthy to be worshipped. And if you worship at the altar of you for your entire life, no one will let you down more than you, and you will live a really disappointing and disappointed life.

And one day you will wake up and realize it's not everybody else in your world that is letting you down, but you can't hold you up. So he says, to the only wise God, here it is, be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. Underline that word glory. Be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. The whole book of Romans is rooted in the gospel.

It's about faith alone in Jesus Christ, but not for ourselves. It's all about the glory of God. Now glory is a church word that's hard to define. You see, I can define a deer. Like if you didn't know what a deer was, I'll tell you about a deer. Okay, they're about this high. They're brown. They've got hair on them.

got horns and they taste delicious. All right, that's a deer. And if you saw one, you'd be like, I think that's what he was talking about. But how do you define glory? It's like defining beauty or love. I mean, it's hard, right? And yet you get a sense of it. Some synonyms are like majesty.

It's like when you are part of something that's not about you, but it's bigger than yourself. My team, the Bulldogs, we sing it glory, glory to old Georgia. And if you're in that stadium and there's all that red and we score and then you sing, you realize this is about something bigger. It could be heresy, but I'm just telling you, it helps you kind of think about it for a second. Psalm 19 says, the heavens declare your glory. You see, glory is not something just to be described. It's got to be something that's experienced, and I'm telling you, there's something in every single one of us who have had a taste of the glory of God. Like you see a wave that's enormous, or you see a part of his creation that just screams,

the bigness of God. You see, I could give you the dimensions of the Grand Canyon, but it would not describe the glory of the Grand Canyon. You'd have to sit at the edge of it like my man, Jerry Bowser did. He's the drummer here at San Pablo. A few years ago, he's sitting on the edge. You know what nobody thinks when they sit on the edge of the Grand Canyon? Nobody thinks, I'm awesome.

Nobody sits up there and goes, I play drums at the San Pablo campus. Blah, ha, ha. Nobody's like, I do CrossFit. It can do many pull-ups. No, no, you feel like an itty-bitty little nothing. You see, we were created for the glory of God. In fact, if you want to get a good understanding of the book of Romans,

you could just trace the word glory all throughout all 16 chapters. Paul talks about the glory of God in 13 of the 16 chapters. You see, he starts it this way. It doesn't use the word glory, but you'll see what I mean here. He's talking about God's glory. We've already been over this verse, chapter 1, verse 5, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name.

That's about God's glory among all the nations. In other words, when God created Adam and Eve, they had the gift of the glory of God, unadulterated reflectors of God's glory back to him. It was perfect. It was perfect. It was a gift. They worshipped him, they adored him, they were fully satisfied in him, They were in the fullness of joy in him.

It doesn't get any better than that. And yet what we did with the glory of God, verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise. They became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God. For images resembling mortal man and birds and animals, and creeping things.

This is what every single one of us have done. Instead of saying, you know what, I want the glory of God. We go, now I just take porn or drugs or gossip, whatever it is. And we exchange it. And all of us, every single one of us, every day of our lives, essentially say, forget you, God, I'm a glory hound and I want the glory for me. I got this. So when you get to chapter 3, verse 23, this is how Paul describes sin.

He says, for all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God. That sin is not just immorality. Sin is treason against the king of the universe who offered to us his glory as a gift. And we reject it and say, forget you. I could be a better God than you. Now, we either reject them in rebellion, sex drugs, and rock and roll, or sometimes we reject him in religion. Forget you.

I can obey the commandments. And we fall short of the glory of God. is not when we mistreat one another. Sin is when we mistreat the glory of God in one another. And praise God it doesn't in there. You see, as you walk through chapter three, God tells us that because of his justice, sin must be paid for, because of his mercy, the payment is delayed, but because of his grace, he makes the payment. He is the just and the justifier. Romans 5.8 will tell us that God demonstrates his love for us and this, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us.

That the ultimate reason that Christ died is not because you're awesome, but to display to the world, to all of the cosmos, how awesome God is. That he didn't wait until you got your act together and then you earned your way to be on his team. But God's glory was displayed by the grace of Jesus at the cross. Romans 5 1 and 2. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access by faith in this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. A part of what salvation is is not just our sins are forgiven,

but glory is restored in its rightful place that we say, God, I place all of me into your loving hands that my life is for your glory and then what begins to happen is your life begins to reflect the glory of God. So we get to Romans 8.1. He says, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. None. And to get to 828, some of our favorite verses, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who were called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

is what this means. Listen, being saved doesn't just mean you got to quit cussing. This means that we are made right with God, and when we get face to face with him, not only will we behold his glory, we will become his glory. We will be glorified. Somehow, I don't know how this works, but somehow the glory of God on display forever and ever will rightly be reflected off of us back to him, and it will be a joy unspeakable. and it will be a joy unspeakable.

This is why when you get to Romans 1136, it says, For from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory. He is the initiator, the sustainer, and the object of his glory. Which is why Paul would close it this way. To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. And then he ends it this way. Amen. That means so be it.

Or if you grew up where I did, get her done. That's what that means. It means we live a life that is no longer about exchanging the glory of the immortal God for our own way and will. But surrendering our way and will to the only immortal, glorious king and finding life in that. Here's my attempt at Romans in one sentence. God's sovereign purpose for all of creation. That means you too, me too. God's sovereign purpose for all of creation is to glorify himself by grace through faith in Jesus Christ

as he crushes Satan underneath our feet through the power of the gospel. Amen. That's the book of Romans, 34 weeks. So the only right way I know to close down the gospel is to ask you this, so do you know him? So what the whole thing has been about. Have you been trying to earn your way to God and realize maybe for the first time by works of the law? No one could earn a righteousness. But God did for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Every single one of us were created for that same thing that Adam experienced when he opened his eyes and he's face to face with God. And yet that relationship was broken or fractured because we have an enemy. They want to steal, kill, and destroy. And one of the greatest lies he's ever gotten us to buy into is this. God, I don't need you. I got this. And by the gracious conviction of the Holy Spirit, maybe for the very first time you get to the place in your life where you go,

uh-oh, I don't got this. I've got some really, really good news. We have explored some deep theological and doctrinal concepts and truths in and around soteriology. That means salvation. here's the good news you don't have to fully understand to fully trust you don't see the disciples

they were pretty much clueless and God chose them and so what it means to put your faith in Jesus is to claim I believe when Jesus died on the cross that did crush the head of Satan

in my own life I believe that when he says it is finished somehow that can counted for me, and by faith in that, I am justified. I am made right with God. So I would like to give you that opportunity. If you were ready to admit it, hey, I'm not just a mistakeer and needs to try harder. I'm a sinner that needs a savior. That I believe that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me, and I'm ready to confess him as my Lord, not me be the glory hound

that I have been, but to surrender my life to the Lordship of Christ. then you can do that right now and be saved. If you would bow your heads and close your eyes. And if you would say, yep, that's me. I'm ready to admit that I'm a sinner, believe that when Christ died on the cross, that counted for me. And I am ready for the very first time to confess Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Would you lift your hand high where you are and say, Father, here I am. Save me. I admit it. I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. I believe that Christ died on the cross. And that counted for me. And I confess you for the very first time as Lord and Savior. our good and gracious heavenly Father God we thank you and we praise you for the gospel of Jesus Christ

God we thank you that you are the just and the justifier that you are the propitiation for our sin that God through your blood we are made right or righteous with the almighty king of the universe and that you have given us a spirit of adoption to cry out to you Abba father so may we never run back into a spirit of fear because we are sons of the most high king we pray it In Jesus' name.