Romans 16:17-27 Inexpressible Joy!

Romans 16:17-27  I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned.  Keep away from them.  For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites.  By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.  Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.  The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.  The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.  Timothy, my co-worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my fellow Jews.  I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord.  Gains, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings.  Erastus, who is the city’s director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings.  Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith—to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ!  Amen! 

Jesus warned the disciples about false prophets coming either to scatter or destroy the flock of believers.  Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.  (Matthew 7:15)  Paul warns the elders at Ephesus of the coming of the wolves after he leaves them.  I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.  Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.  So be on your guard!  Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.  (Acts 20:31)  Peter was even more direct, explicit in his description of the false prophets.  But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.  Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.  In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories.  Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.  (2 Peter 1-3)  The energizing force behind every cult is the basic nature of man, his desire to be central in God’s plan of redemption.  Many cults or aberrations of the gospel hang onto the necessity of doing something to make a person acceptable to God.  For the wolves, salvation, rightness with God, must originate in man’s efforts, his works, not in God’s works.  The false prophet will say if man does not save himself through his own deeds, he is lost from God’s acceptance.  In the eyes of the wolves, man must prove his dedication to God by doing something worthwhile or make himself holy, honorable, righteous, God-like in nature.  Of course, this harkens back to the Garden when man attempted to improve God’s plan by eating of the Tree of Knowledge.  Man in that futile attempt to govern God and his creation brought on himself destruction, shame, and death.  From that time on mankind has been in a struggle with death itself, his dread of his finiteness walks with him daily.  Waywardness in the Christian faith does not usually start with a great bang, or with an entirely new revelation outside of the scriptures.  Normally, this kind of distortion of the truth starts with skewing the scriptures, placing an emphasis on a few scriptures and ignoring the whole context of the Bible.  By focusing on a few scriptures, placing them above all over scriptures, a division begins in a community of believers, creating a small tear in the fabric of the gospel.  This tear grows until it separates some believers from the others, and a cult is born.  No wonder Paul urged his brothers and sisters to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in their way that stray from the sound teaching they have learned.  The people who started this rift in the church will claim that those who serve God in faith, trusting in his grace and mercy of God, need more to fulfill their understanding of God.  The separatists have found a new secret, a more sure way of knowing God.  By removing themselves from the household of believers into a new community, they will know all the mysteries of God.  Paul is extremely sensitive to this kind of contrary division.  His whole message to the Romans centers on faith in God’s work and not man’s work.  He begins this book with the statement: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.  For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,  just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”  (Romans 1:16-17)

Paul’s statement describing God’s righteousness is complete and correct: a righteousness that is by faith from first to last.  Otherwise, acceptance from God is assured, for we have a holy righteousness that comes from the hand of God through the works of Jesus Christ.  This is the whole story of the New Testament, from first to last.  The work has been completed; there are no other cards to lay on the table; we have the winning hand because of Jesus Christ’s work.  At his death on the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished!”  (John 19:30)  The battle was over, Christ had won.  He had paid the price for sin and death.  This kind of talk is anathema to the cultish people.  They want an extra card thrown on the table to acquire the winning hand.  Of course, this card is their card, their input into winning God’s acceptance.  For two thousand years, individuals and groups have come to the table of life with a card in their hands with the inscription written on it: my works.  How satisfying for the carnal person to say I need to put “my works” on the table.  We deny the scriptures when we hold that idea in our hearts, that we could possibly add to God’s eternal plan.  For God gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him will have new life.  He, the Creator, creates new life.  He alone can place the DNA of God into our hearts.  This cannot be done by our own works.  Our DNA has been corrupted by sin.  Look at the history of mankind, look at the violence and corruption that has existed in every race, every ethnic group, in every place man has occupied.  Look at the rapes, pillaging, killing that every group of people has done.  This is mankind’s basic DNA, our innate nature.  The people who are participating in this breakfast today, have this damaged DNA code within them.  Their ancestors, their lineage have done these horrific acts of sin.  We cannot escape this truth.  When we try to sculpture a new man out of our own efforts, we are using crass material, material that will never stick together in righteousness.  Our sculpture will always crumble to the ground under pressure, for we are flawed.  The resultant acts of the flesh are sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  (Galatians 5:19-21)  Of course these acts lead to killing, rape, and pillaging; wars and holocausts of every kind.  Without God’s creation of righteousness within us, we are lost in our old nature; good for nothing but destruction.

But praise God, good news has come to the world: But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  (Luke 2:10-12)  The cults and aberrant messages will always follow behind the church of God, much like the prostitutes that follow the armies of the world. They will attempt to pick off a few, causing the deceived to go off in a wrong direction.  But the message of God is strong: He has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  (Hebrews 13:5)  If we stay firm in the faith, knowing that God is the Creator of all things and keeps his word, we will always be safe in the household of God.  The righteous will live by faith.  We, who are around this breakfast table will live by faith.  We will believe as Abraham believed: he believed in the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.  (Romans 4:17)  Otherwise, he believed in the resurrection and that God can make something out of nothing as the Creator of all things.  We who are alive IN CHRIST are new creatures.  He made something out of nothing, that which was destined for destruction.  We are NEW CREATURES, POSSESSED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT BECAUSE OUR TEMPLE IS CLEAN, PURIFIED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS.  Paul wrote, For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:10)  Also, praise God, WE WILL BE RESURRECTED TO BE WITH GOD FOREVER.  This sums up Abraham’s faith—our faith.  All else, additions or subtractions from this faith, is cultish.  We will be forever with God because of God’s work in us.  We place our trust in God’s words, in his faithfulness, in his everlasting love.  As eternally damaged goods outside of God’s mercy and grace, we have been made new, forever pleasing to God.  We have been made acceptable by the work of the cross.  We died with him when Jesus went to the grave; we arose with him as He came out of the grave victorious.  As He is the first of many in the resurrection of the biological flesh, we follow him in our own resurrection to the household of God.  This is known as THE WAY in the New Testament or the GOOD NEWS.  Let us rejoice with the angel, good news has come to the earth that will cause great joy to the world.  God has come to abide with us for eternity.  We who are alive IN CHRIST have this hope for we have been empowered with the power of God for our resurrection: the Holy Spirit.  For all that Christ has done, we can say with Peter: Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.  (1 Peter 1:8-9)  Amen!