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Turn with me please to Romans chapter 16 as we come to the conclusion of this letter this letter to a fourth benediction and um in my
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opinion the most powerful benediction in any of Paul's letters
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going to begin in verse 20 where we ended last week and kind of overlap a little bit from last week to this Romans 16 begin verse 20 and the God of peace will soon crush
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Satan under your feet. Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Timothy our fellow worker greets you and so do Lucius and Jason and Sauseter my
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king kinsmen. I Tertiius who write this letter greet you in the Lord. Gas host to me to me and to the whole church greet you.
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Arasus the city treasurer greets you and the brother. the brother. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
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Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which has been
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kept secret for long ages past. but now is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal God has been
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made known to all the nations leading to obedience of faith. To the only wise God through Jesus Christ be the glory forever. Amen. Let us pray.
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Father, we ask that by your spirit you would enable us to even enter in to that spirit-led mind of the apostle as he
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writes these final words in his letter to the Roman church. Words that are imbued with power, hope, and victory.
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and victory. words that are beyond anything that we could hope or expect and yet we know to be part of your purposed plan.
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So we ask that you would teach us by your Holy Spirit through your word. Gird up our loins for battle. Strengthen us with the helmet of salvation and enable
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us to wield the sword of the spirit, your most holy word, with both strength and precision. and precision. We ask that you would do these things for the building up of the church, the
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body of Jesus Christ. And we ask on behalf not only of this congregation, though certainly primarily, but for all those who name the name of
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Jesus Christ throughout the world that your glory and your glorious name might cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. We ask in Jesus name.
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crushing Satan under your feet. I've long pondered and meditated on that verse. As I mentioned last week, it is clearly a reference to the protoeangelium in Genesis chapter 3 where God promises
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that the seed of woman would crush the serpent's head. But the way it's phrased here by the apostle is uh quite unique, singular, and um I
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think at the very least thoughtprovoking. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
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What will that look like? I experienced the charismatic movement when I first became a Christian. I've
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seen some of it in the years since. But one thing I I took away from that experience was that I did not think that the charismatic church understood what this
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passage means. passage means. As I mentioned last week, I do not believe that it signifies somebody prancing around a stage claiming all manner of victory over the devil, casting out this and that spirit and
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claiming that wherever they stand is holy ground. I do not think that is at all what Paul means by this verse. I also don't think as most reformed
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commentators do that this is entirely esqueologgical. I I do not think that Paul has given any evidence in this letter especially in this chapter that he's thinking forward
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to the peruseia. He has much to say about that in other letters but not here. He's talking about the church in Rome and what the church in Rome is dealing
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with within the church at Rome and without. He's talking about the unity and the harmony even with disagreement within the church of Rome. Romans 14, a classic
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example of how we accept one another because we are all beloved in Christ and that Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit is the tithe that binds and binds strong
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enough that there can be people from different cultures and different heritage and and different strengths as he mentions it. The strong and the weak who can yet worship together and love
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one another. But there's nothing about the second coming there. There's nothing about the consummation of the ages. And so I think to take this as referring to
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the the ultimate crushing, the ultimate casting of the devil into the lake of fire, I I think that's taking it well out of context. But then if we take it in context that
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he's talking to a local church, a congregation of believers known as the church at Rome, what would it look like
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for the church of Rome to crush Satan under its feet? Or I should say better, for the church of Rome to see God crush Satan under their feet. What would it
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look like for Fellowship Bible Church to see God crush Satan under our feet? Again, I I don't think that it would mean that everybody was going to be
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wealthy and everybody's going to be healthy. I don't I don't think that everybody's going to be perfect in that sort of situation, that we're going to reach some degree of sinless perfection.
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I don't think that's what he means. And it it has occurred to me over the years that Matthew 12 and Hebrews 2 hold the key to Romans 16 verse 20.
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And Matthew 12 is Jesus in debate with the Pharisees with the leaders of the religious community in Israel over the
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authority by which he cast out demons. They claim that he cast out demons by the prince of demons. And Jesus responds that a house divided
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against itself cannot stand. He says if Jesus cast out demons by the prince of demons then then Satan's house
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cannot stand. He's divided against himself and it will fall. But he says if he casts out demons by the spirit of God then the kingdom of God has come upon
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you. Then he goes into a enigmatic statement concerning a a strong man and and how one would go about
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plundering that strong man's house. That's a rather strange teaching from our Lord teaching his disciples how to plunder strong men's houses. We should
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have a class in Sunday school how to plunder. But I really think we should if we understand what Jesus means here. I don't know that those who were hearing him at the time understood what he
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meant. I imagine that they may have walked away thinking that guy is a bit strange. We didn't say anything about plundering a strong man's house. What is he talking about? Well, the context is that he's
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casting out demons. And demons are the operatives of the evil one. They are sent to do his bidding and his bidding is destruction.
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is destruction. His bidding is bondage and bringing people into bondage. And so when Jesus says that how can anyone plunder a strong man's house until unless he first bind the strong
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man, then he will plunder his house. What did he mean? Well, I think the writer of Hebrews tells us what he meant.
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In Hebrews chapter 2, we read, "Since then the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same,
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that through death he might render powerless, read, bind, that he might render powerless him who
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had the power of death, that is the devil." And why would he do this? That he might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all of their
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lives. Plundering, lives. Plundering, binding and plundering, rendering powerless the one who has the power of death, the devil,
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so that he might deliver those who through fear of death have been bound all their lives. The plunder. That's what it looks like to crush Satan
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under our feet that God should add daily to their number those who are being saved. It is not some magnificent
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evidence of the spiritual gifts. It may not even be personal victory over besetting sins, things that we will continue to struggle with until we lay
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aside this tent. It does not, as I've said time and time again, it does not mean that we're all going to look alike. It does not mean uniformity. It does not mean that we're
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going to agree on all points of doctrine. What it means is that by unity and harmony in love, we will be a place that the father can
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say, I will add to their number those who are being saved. The plunder that our Lord is taking from the house of the strong man need a home to go to.
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And it has been my vision and my desire for 35 years that that would describe this congregation
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this congregation that it would be a place where God could add to our number daily those who are being saved. being saved. and what it looks like in terms of the
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the manifestation of the church at Rome or here in Greenville at Fellowship Bible Church. I think it looks like a people living together
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in the obedience of faith because of what Jesus Christ has done through his death and resurrection. That is how he has rendered powerless
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the one who has the power of death. The devil is bound.
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The strong man has been tied up. And the Lord of glory is plundering his house by bringing those out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, his own kingdom.
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own kingdom. That's the plunder. And yet Paul can say as the scriptures say that God, the God of peace will crush Satan under our feet.
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That by his grace we are permitted to participate in that plunder. The the language again is is enigmatic talking about stealing, thieving, but
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it's it is a glorious theft. It's a liberation of souls that have been bound by the fear of death all their lives. And so what does it look like? Well, it
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looks like salvation. It looks like conversion. It it doesn't look like evangelistic rallies. It it doesn't look like evangelism explosion or or campus
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crusade or the or the Roman road or or all the programs that the church has tried to develop in order to facilitate evangelism. I think we have to admit o over our own
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experiences and certainly the history of the church that in much of our myology of our evangelism as a Christian church I don't mean this congregation necessarily but
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but the church over the ages we have we have imitated not the apostle not our lord but rather the pharisees that we go thousands of miles to make
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one procelite and then turn him into twice the son of hell as we are ourselves. And I think in our myology and in our evangelism, we don't usually stop and
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ask the question, where will these newborn babes go? Where will they be nourished in the word, the milk of the word? Where will
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they be accepted in the beloved? Where will they be loved? And as they bear their own burdens, where will others help them bear
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burdens? Where where will they go is not a question that is asked in the evangelistic rallies and admittedly so even by the Billy Graham organization
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which has published a report claiming that less than 10% of those who have come forward in those rallies were still attending a church two years
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later. Where will they go when there's no place to go? to go? Where will the newborn babes grow and even survive when there's no nourishment
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of the word of God? Where will they learn how iron sharpens iron? When they have churches that will not brookke disagreement.
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to a congregation that is devoted to the Lord and to his word. A congregation that is open to the distribution of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, recognizing that every believer is a gifted joint or
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ligament within the body, but that also that that body is working together to build itself up in love into the the one man, Jesus Christ.
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Paul's description of the body of Christ is the description of Jesus Christ who is the one promised to crush the serpent's head. We are his body
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and therefore we have that privilege of participating in the ultimate victory. The victory over the evil one, the accuser of the brethren, the power of
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this world. this world. And I think we see it in small things. I think first of all we see it in the
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generations. We live in a time of atomization of the nuclear family. It is simply assumed that when the children grow up, they
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will move away. They will find a job. They will go where that job leads them. and and we hope and we pray that they'll find a good church
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until we find out too late that they don't even care to. And we accept that in the American church. It's just the way things are.
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I never have accepted that. And and I know that that has
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caused people to claim that this particular congregation is a cult because it's actually considered a measure of freedom to be able to leave
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your parents' church. I I don't know that we realize how odd it is in our culture for children, adult children
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to worship in the same congregation as their parents their parents or grandparents or grandparents watching the baptism of their
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grandchildren because that's gone in our culture and nobody thinks it's worth the effort to bring it back. And and yet our children are our first mission field.
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Passing along our faith to our children is like number one. It's like the foundation of our myology.
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What does it say of a man's testimony to his co-workers, to his neighbors if that testimony is repudiated by his children? Wisdom Jesus said is proven by the
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children. And so I think the first line is is again it's not this grand plan of of evangelistic rallies and satellite beaming and all of that. No. It's first
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judgment begins in the household of God. And I think evangelism begins in the household of believers. And and so I say that in in a sense I
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say that rejoicing and and and by the grace of God um with gratitude that we we have so many children,
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grandchildren coming to the Lord. And I think that that's that's small evidence. I think that maybe we have not by the grace of God and the power of the
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Holy Spirit completely crushed Satan under our feet. But I don't think he likes this place. I think it gives him at least a headache.
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And and I'm not saying this to boast us in pride. No, because it is by God's grace. But I hope you realize that that it is an important manifestation that the spirit of God is among us and
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that even with our disagreements over the years, there has been that striving for the unity and harmony and for the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ that
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Paul refers to here that we desire to pass that on to our children and then to see it passed on to our grandchildren.
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And so I think that's the first evidence of God crushing Satan under our feet. I think um think um another evidence
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another evidence is that we provide a haven for believers who are withering in faithless churches.
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We've long maintained as elders that we're not on purpose. We're not sheep stealers and we don't maintain in our website or any form of evangelism that believers
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ought to come here. churches. I I remember years ago the knock at the
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door um only one person so I knew it was safe. The others travel two by two, of course, inviting me to their church.
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And I said, 'Well, I appreciate the invitation, but I I actually pastor a church. That didn't stop them.
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It didn't I could not possibly pastor a church better than theirs. No, that's not that's not way what we do. And yet I think we do realize that there are many professing churches whose
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lampstand has been removed. There are many pulpits that don't even open the word, much less preach or teach from it. And there are many true brothers and sisters who are starving
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for the word of God. And so I think a a second place that we can see the God of peace crushing Satan under our feet is when we see those
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when we see those who are withering come and receive the milk of the word and and you see them revive. You see as as with Jonathan when he ate the honey,
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you see their eyes brighten. you see the excitement of of God's word that they haven't felt in their whole believing life or haven't felt for a
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very long time. These are those for whom Christ died Christ died and wherever they may be, they're not being fed.
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being fed. So I think we've we've been that a place where our desire is to worship our God in spirit and truth to be led by the Holy Spirit through his word.
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And that provides a place of nourishment, maybe a temporary one, hopefully a permanent one, so that the comfort that they have received might
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then be given to others who are withering on Christ's vine. So our children bringing them to the Lord, bringing them to faith, watching them as the Lord
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brings them to himself. our brothers and sisters withering in churches that no longer preach Christ. Churches that though long no longer give
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the authority do the word of God. And then finally of course the lost as I said earlier where where will they go? Born again new creation child infant
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in Christ where will they go? Well, likely they'll they'll go to whatever church was influential in their
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salvation. That's how most of us made our way early on when we first came to the Lord, especially if we were adults at the time, is that we simply followed
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whatever the teaching was that brought us to the Lord. I mean, in some cases, we were just following Balam's donkey, but we didn't realize it yet.
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We didn't realize that these were not indeed evangelicals, that the teaching was was not according to the word of God. But at least we had that.
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And I think God is not a surrogate father. He he's not what is often lamented in many subcultures of our nation, and that is men who simply birth
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babies and then provide nothing for their upbringing and their nourishment. care nothing about their advancement and growth. God is not like that.
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I I believe he knows where to lead. And I do believe that if we develop as that type of a body of Christ, God will add
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to our numbers those who are being saved and we'll begin to see the lost. And this is not an easy field to harvest. Greenville, South Carolina.
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It is almost as burnt over a district in terms of people believing themselves to be Christian who are not. As was once said of northern New York
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after the second great awakening, there are people here who are hardened in their Christianity who are not even Christians.
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So this is not an easy field to work. And I think that's evidenced by how many churches we have in Greenville. And so I do think we live, as Jeremiah said, in a
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day of small things. But I don't think that because of that, we need to change our program, get with the program, be more culturally relevant. No, I think we need to seek the old paths because
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that's where the truth lies. And those who are not brought to God in truth are not brought to God at all. And that's why I I believe that what
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Paul is saying here, especially in these latter chapters, is so vitally important to the local congregation that in spite of our differences in
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heritage as Jew and Gentile in Romans 14, in spite of our differences in strength and faith, the weak and the strong, in spite of our disagreements and
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doctrine, things that really are important but not that important, In spite of all those things, we can hold together. We can love one another because we have one purpose and that is
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standing firm steadfastly for the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're not in it for ourselves and we're not in it for one another. We're in it
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because he put us in it by his grace. He baptized us into a body. We're in it for the glory of God through Jesus Christ. and we're kept in it by the unity of the
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one spirit that we all have in Christ. And I think that will manifest the God of peace crushing Satan under our feet.
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And so I think we have cause for for hope. As I said, I think it's important that we can see by God's grace and we should be very thankful for it. Our children
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come to the Lord and our children stay and continue to worship and minister in the same body as the previous generation and then raise their
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children in the honor and admonition of the Lord in the same body. That cohesiveness of generations strengthens the body. I think it is something to
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give thanks for that we do provide a place where the the withering believer can come and be nourished and and I hope personally to see that
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ministry expand ministry expand and I hope to see God by his grace bring those people to us that they might
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be fed that they might even they might even learn that they need to be fed because Many don't even know that.
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And I have always believed that if we strive to be the body that God intends us to be in Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 and 14, Romans 14:15,16,
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all of these passage, if we strive to be the type of body that is united by one spirit and one Lord, then he will add to our number those who are being saved.
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And we will have the joy not only of seeing souls saved, but eventually of of sending out men and women from our body to the mission field
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to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think Romans 16:20 is the most astounding promise yet unfulfilled in the modern church. I do not think it was
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intended to be an endtime prophecy. I intend I think it was intended to be the manifestations of God's purpose in the church by his holy spirit through
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time. I do not believe that the church will bring in the kingdom. I don't want to be misunderstood. I do not believe that that we will be successful in all generations, but I
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think it's incumbent upon me at least to rejoice when we are successful within our generation. And I think it'd be something we can strive for together.
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And so Paul is saying something here that that is incredibly astounding. And then he comes to this benediction that I think is so incredibly powerful
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that I am not going to exedute it. I think we would learn lose the forest for the trees to take apart each and every word.
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in a sense, um, this is my validictory sermon. And though I I did not plan it this way, except I did plan to finish Romans,
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I did not plan it this way, I believe that it provides uh provides me with a with a situation
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that was similar to Paul's at the time. It is only in Romans that he refers to the gospel that he preaches as my
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gospel. And I think he does that primarily because he had not planted the church at Rome. And I know that he does not seek to contrast his gospel with Peter's
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gospel or John's gospel or heaven forbid James's gospel because we all know they disagreed as the liberals have assured us. He's not saying that my gospel
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compared to someone else's gospel. It's my gospel. It's the gospel that I have labored in throughout Asia and now by your gra by God's grace and your help I
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desire to take to Spain. It's the gospel of the preaching of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And so it gives me today an opportunity
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to consider my gospel. many years ago. I don't remember exactly when except that um Ariel was a teenager, so I shouldn't say many years
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ago. That's some years ago, just the other day. We had a young man who uh had been
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visiting our church for for quite a while. Um and and all of a sudden he announced to me that I as an elder that I did not understand the gospel and that
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I needed to step aside on his behalf that he needed to become an elder and preach the gospel because I did not know what the gospel was and and I asked him
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if he would inform me what it is I'm missing and what what uh what part of the gospel that I didn't get and he couldn't do that or wouldn't do that.
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But it was uh a situation that caused me to to ask myself the question, do do I even understand the
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gospel? Do do I preach the gospel? And many of us have experienced what is known as gospel preaching, which is essentially nothing more than a
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a a salvation message that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Jesus loves me. Yes, I know you're a sinner. You need salvation. That's the
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gospel. But when we're talking about the Trinity or we're talking about justification, we're talking about sanctification or or the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that's not the gospel. So, we've kind of labored
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under this view that gospel preaching is directed only toward sinners and toward their salvation. their salvation. I don't think so.
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I think the gospel is the entire purpose of God to create for himself a new humanity called by his name that are regenerated by the Holy Spirit
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through the power of Jesus Christ. I think that's the gospel. I think 2 Corinthians 5 is the gospel as much as John 3.
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John 3. Behold, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. but also that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation that we might preach be reconciled to
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God. For he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God. All of that is the gospel.
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And and so over the years I have analyzed in my own time, my own study the gospel and what what does it mean? Well, I think Jes I think Paul tells us
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here. He says, first of all, the preaching of Jesus Christ and and I I don't think it's John 3:16 only. I think the
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preaching of Jesus Christ begins in Genesis 1 and takes us all the way to Revelation 22. Revelation 22. I think the preaching of Jesus Christ is in the types and the shadows as well as
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the light of fulfillment. And so I think the preaching of Jesus Christ is as as Paul said to the elders at at Ephesus. He said the the whole council of God and I have not held back
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from you the whole council of God. Because the whole council of God points to his son Jesus Christ our savior our
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lord and to his glory. He goes on to say, "The unveiling of the mystery of the ages." The unveiling of the mystery of the
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ages. Well, again, I I think what Paul is saying here is not really a list of things, but rather different ways of looking at the at the gem, looking at
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the different facets of the gem of God's redemptive plan being unveiled, not only in his word, but throughout history, the history of his people, but also the
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history of humanity. And we've reached a certain point in that history that history where certain things have happened and are finished. And by the power of those
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things that have happened, we now look to the present and the future with even greater hope and deeper faith than those
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men and women mentioned in Hebrews 11. Because of what Christ has done, he said this. He said, "Greater things will you do because I go to the father."
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And so the unfolding of the mystery of the ages is, I think very simply, the son of God being made flesh, the son of man. That mystery, the mystery of
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godliness that Paul speaks of in first Timothy. It is hard sometimes for us to understand. But God has revealed himself to us. And as he promised in the Old
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Testament, he has now revealed himself in us. in us. The mystery of a new creation, of a new humanity, the mystery of a of a true and living temple,
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living temple, the mystery of Emmanuel, God with us. He goes on to say, manifesting the redeeming, the redemptive plan of
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God through the prophetic scriptures. And and maybe this is the one that has guided me the most over the decades. And that is my realization when I was a
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very young believer that the modern American church has little place for the Old Testament scriptures. And so there has been an emphasis in
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this congregation and in our teaching ministry on trying to unpack and unfold the prophetic scriptures prophetic scriptures to show that we're not some new plan
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that Paul wasn't initiating some new church and again that he did not have have his own unique gospel but rather as he begins Romans in chapter 1 that all
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of these things have been foretold by the prophets in the holy scriptures. And so to deepen our faith and our understanding of what God has done,
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we have spent we spend and Lord willing, we will continue to spend a fair amount of time in the Old Testament trying to understand more and more what
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God has purposed to do, has done in Christ, and is doing now through Christ in his church.
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Finally he says he mentions again second or third time in the letter this concept of the obedience of faith. This is not academic. This is not systematic theology.
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This is not you're going to have a test at the end of your life and if you pass you go to heaven. Doctrine is important. I think that should be manifest or
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should be obvious that vigorously pursuing a false doctrine is not beneficial to the church or glory glorifying to God. So I I do
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think that that the churches the congregations should be guided by sound doctrine by the pattern of sound words that Paul mentions to Timothy the pattern of sound words.
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So doctrine is important. Yes. But doctrine without faith, without works, as James says, is dead. The obedience of faith.
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What that means is that faith that is true is faith that works. It's faith that obeys. that obeys. It's faith that loves. It's faith that
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hopes. It's faith that trusts and that's the obedience of faith. It's not legalism. It's not a set of man-made rules by which we all identify one
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another because we don't do certain things and we do do other things. That's uniformity. It's a kind of obedience that manifests manifests itself according to the
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individuality of the gifts of the spirit. It's the kind of manifestation that looks like a body of various members all working together.
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working together. That's the obedience of faith. I think that with in spite of the charge that has been leveled against our congregation that we are a cult.
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I honestly think in looking back over the decades that we are not a cult. that there is no top-down organization of your behavior,
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that there is no established rule book by which we must all play, but rather an attempt to meet each person where they are
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and help them guide them through the scriptures to where they ought to be. I think what I have sought personally in my teaching
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my teaching is not to tell you what to believe but to teach you how to study the scriptures. Because you have, if you are a believer,
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you have the one who tells you what to believe. The one who was given to guide each one of us into all the truth. And his name's not Chuck.
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His name's the Holy Spirit. Now, now clearly I have my opinion of of how we ought to do things, but I
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think Peter teaches the elders, both those who have been and those who are becoming, are becoming, that we are to lead by example.
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And I hope that we have done so. And I hope that we will continue to do so. And that example is trusting in the Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth of God's self-disclosure in his word.
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Trusting in the Holy Spirit to guide us into our decisions, to guide us in our teaching, to guide us in our learning. Because those who teach must constantly be learning.
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If they should stop, then the quality and the content of their teaching will be immediately apparent.
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I have tried over the years to pattern my gospel after Paul's gospel, which I believe is the true gospel and the only power of God unto salvation for the
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world. Let us pray. Father, we do thank you for the gospel, not just the words, but the reality
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that you have made a way that you have indeed lifted our feet from the miry clay and set them on the rock who is Jesus Christ. That though our sin has made a separation between us and you, you have
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torn the veil. You have opened the way to your throne and you have bid us to come in not as suppliants but as sons and daughters
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being able to cry out to you aba father. I do pray that this congregation would be such a place
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that you would rejoice to send those whom you have called and you have saved from before the foundation of the earth
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when you call them in time that you might bring them to us.
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those of our upcoming generations, those of our sisters and brothers who are withering under anemic or false teaching, and those who have not yet been called by
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the power of the gospel through your Holy Spirit. We ask that we would be a suitable home for your children.
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That we might witness you crushing Satan under our feet. We give you all the praise and the glory forever in Jesus name. Amen.
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Please rise. Please rise. I'll give you two guesses as to the
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Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now
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is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith, to the only wise
