 Well, today we're in Romans chapter 16. We're going to conclude our series here in the book of Romans by looking at verses 20 through 27. And so as we begin our study here in Romans chapter 16, I'm going to read verses 20 through 24. I'm going to give you a reminder of some of the things that we've looked at already in order to establish a context and then move on in through the rest of the chapter. And when you get to verses 21 through 24, that's going to just be just a few mentions because you're really not going to get a whole lot out of that by itself. And then we'll conclude by looking at verses 24 through 27. So let's begin reading at verse 20. I'll read to verse 24 and we'll get into our study. Romans chapter 16, beginning at verse 20, reading to verse 24, Paul writes, and the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, amen. Timothy, my fellow worker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sassapotter, my kinsmen, greet you. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, greet you and the Lord. Gaius, my host, and the host of the whole church, greet you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you and Cordus, a brother. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, amen. And so he basically gives to us two benedictions. You see one of them in verse 20, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, and then you see it again in verse 24, two blessings or concluding blessings. But as we look at this, we see that Paul is concluding his letter, the letter that is called, what we call the epistle or the letter to the Romans. And in chapter 16, as we've been going through chapter 16, Paul has been extending his greetings to members of the church, and we saw that in the first several verses. And then last time we were together, we looked at verses 17 through 19, where Paul actually issued an exhortation, a warning concerning false teachers who had begun to infiltrate the Roman church. And so as we look at this, and as we've been looking at the book of Romans, I want you to remember those who have been with me since the beginning, that I mentioned as we began this particular study in Romans, I mentioned to you that the book of Romans has been referred to as Paul's systematic theology. Now, the words systematic theology, some of you may not be familiar with what that means. What is a systematic theology? So a systematic theology is a discipline of formulating a well-ordered, rational, united, and logical account of the Christian faith and beliefs. It's also called dogmatics. And so what Paul has been doing is he's been putting in order the faith of Christ, our religious beliefs, the essentials that every believer needs to hold fast to in order to qualify as a genuine Christian. And so throughout the book of Romans, Paul has clearly presented what are called the essentials of the Christian faith. And so from the very beginning, when we looked at the first three chapters, for example, he wrote concerning the sinful condition of all humanity. He also wrote concerning the need for salvation. He wrote concerning justification through faith alone, through Jesus alone. He wrote concerning the reason for Jesus dying on the cross, which was clearly presented as our means of salvation. He spoke of the process of sanctification, of God's work with the nation of Israel. He wrote concerning the spiritual gifts. He wrote concerning what is called body life or church life, our relationship to human government. And last time we're together, he spoke concerning the avoidance of bad doctrine, that we are to avoid being tainted by those who bring in bad teaching. And so as we've been looking at the book of Romans, we have seen that it is a systematic theology. And if you were to boil it down to an overall theme, it could be stated in a few words. Romans could be summarized by simply saying, the gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the just shall live by faith. And that's what we have seen as we've gone through the book of Romans. Now, he's been giving an exhaustive systematic teaching. And that means that because he's been giving this systematic teaching, that the church ought to be equipped to recognize false teaching. If you get into the word of God and the word of God gets into you, then when somebody brings something that is false, you're going to be able to discern or recognize it. That was the purpose of the book of Romans. So for those of us who have been through Romans from chapter one to chapter 16, if you've been able to be in the teachings, you ought to be now equipped to be able to essentially defend the faith because that's what Romans was established to do. And so the church is to be equipped to recognize when the false teacher enters in, by being properly taught, they now can examine the claims of others and they can determine whether those claims are true. Now, some people say, does that really matter? The Bible says, yes, it does. And some would say, but do we really have to be such judges of what people have to say? And the Bible would say, we must be. In 1st Thessalonians chapter five, verses 20 and 21, Paul said it like this. He said, do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said, hold on to what is good. It's not that we reject the word of God being presented or someone speaking a word to our hearts through the spirit of God, but we're supposed to test those things, prove those things. How are you to do that? You do that by the power of the Holy Spirit, the discernment that God gives you, and you do it by God's word. You test those things to see whether those things are so. So all of this had led to Paul's command to note and avoid false teachers, which he had said in verse 17. You see, the message of the gospel is not just one message out of many messages. The message of what we call the gospel, the good news, is actually the one message that we are to hold fast to. And we're not to corrupt that message. It's a heavenly message in its origin. It needs to be held fast to. Paul would say that, he did say that in Galatians chapter one verses eight and nine, he said, but even if we are an angel from heaven should preach a gospel, other than the one we preach to you, let them be under God's curse. As we've already said, so now I say again, if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse. Now there's always been people proclaiming the way to God, but not telling the accurate truth. And sometimes the message that they give is appealing to the one listening and it's accepted as truth. But the Bible also says in Proverbs 14, 12, there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Jesus said it very clearly. He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father, but by me. So the gospel is a message committed to mankind that must remain pure. It's a message that communicates most clearly how we can get to heaven. And therefore it needs to be held fast too. In Romans one, we saw this in verses 16 and 17 when we began our study, how that Paul had said, for I am not ashamed of this good news about Christ. It is God's powerful method of bringing all who believe it to heaven. This message was preached first to the Jews alone, but now everyone is invited to come to God in the same way. This good news tells us that God makes us ready for heaven, makes us right in God's sight. When we put our faith and trust in Christ to save us. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the scripture says it, the man who finds life will find it through trusting God. And so Paul has been speaking concerning this, how that we are to hold fast to this message. It's not to be corrupted. And therefore we need to discern when someone is speaking to us, whether what they're saying lines up with what the Bible actually teaches. When we looked at verse 18, verse 18 gives the motives as well as the methods of the false teacher. He speaks concerning their carnal desires, which is their motives, as well as their polished lies, which was their methods. And so through personality and false promises, he said the innocent could be entrapped. And thus we need to be aware of that. But he had closed in verse 19 and spoke of their obedience. And it was through their faithful obedience that they would be preserved because they were clinging to what is true. And they were preserved, they were secured, they were to avoid plunging back into the world. And if they were holding fast to what was true, it would protect their walk. And it would confound those who reject the gospel. So as he's been speaking about that, he moves into verse 20 and he continues by saying, and the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, amen. Two things we'll notice. One, notice how he says the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly, the God of peace. Peace originates with God and God is the one who is called the God of peace. And it's his message of truth that provides the ability for us to actually have unity. So we have peace with God when we accept his gospel, we're reconciled to him. We can have peace with ourselves within ourselves because the fruit of a relationship with God will be peace. And we can also have peace with other people because when we're at peace with God producing peace within us, we can have peace with other people. This is all gonna come through the gospel because the gospel has been given to us by one who is referred to as the God of peace. And when God's peace is presented to us, it's presented in a way that is referred to as being truth. So truth is intended to unite those who have both embraced what is true. The truth, in other words, is intended to unite believers. When Paul was writing to the Philippians, he said, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. So we're to have a conduct, a lifestyle that is worthy of the gospel of peace. And so we can have peace with one another because we're united. In James, when James was speaking in chapter three, verses 17 and 18, he was speaking concerning this wisdom. And he said, the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. Gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. He goes on to say, now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And so when you have a relationship with the God of peace and you're united in the word of God, then you sow peace amongst other people because the gospel brings peace. But on the other hand, there's one who likes to stir up discord and division. He likes to produce conflict and that's Satan. And so discord and conflict, discord, conflict and division is going to be an earmark of his influence. So James says it like this, if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. And so the gospel is intended to unite us. False teachers come in to disrupt it, to create discord. Paul says, note them, have nothing to do with them, avoid them because the fruit of what they're going to do is going to be a disuniting of the body of Christ. And by the way he's saying, you will be under spiritual warfare for some time because spiritual warfare continues. And so he's speaking concerning this spiritual warfare. Now notice how he says the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. So the believer, the faithful believer is needing to be encouraged to know that spiritual war will come to an end. So what's going to happen? Eventually the spiritual war that we're battling in is going to come to an end. I was mentioning recently that just this last Friday, December 27th, I celebrated my 43rd year of coming to faith in Christ. I was 20 years old when I came to Christ and I came to faith in Christ December 27th, 1970. And I can still remember a few things about that. I can still remember that I was seated at a Maranatha concert, a Christian concert at the Hollywood Palladium. I remember that there was a speaker by the name of Arthur Blessed and that he was an evangelist and Arthur began to share the gospel and how that he gave an invitation and he asked people that if you want to give your heart to Christ and get right with the Lord, he said then you can do that. He said, you just need to stand up to your feet and proclaim that you desire to do so. And I remember as I was seated there amongst these 4,000 young people and they didn't provide chairs or benches or anything for us. We were hippies, we all sat on the carpet and I can remember as I was seated there on the carpet, I remember praying because I knew that I wasn't a Christian. Up to that point had you asked me whether I was a believer in Christ, I would have said I was. If you'd have asked me if I was a Christian, I would have said yes. If you'd have asked me, do you believe the Bible is God's word? I'd have said yes. If you asked me if there was such a place as heaven and if I believed that there was a place called heaven, I would say yes. The majority of the questions that you would ask me, I would answer in the affirmative because I agreed at least intellectually that these places existed and these things really were true. I just didn't embrace them personally but I actually thought that they were true and I actually thought that at that time that I really was a Christian, I just wasn't practicing my faith. And so that's why when people would talk to me about Jesus Christ, I would just smile at them and say, yeah, yeah, I already know that. I already know that. And in my mind I did, but in terms of did I ever embrace Christ as my Lord and Savior? Was I born again? Was I going to heaven? I didn't have any assurance of salvation whatsoever because I had never done that. So there I am seated amongst the people when the invitation is given and the spirit of God who convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment is convicting me that I am not saved. And so when Arthur Blessed says, if you want to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior stand to your feet, I remember very well praying within myself just saying, God, I know I need to stand up. I know I need to get saved, but I'm shy. I can't stand in front of people, you know that. But if somebody would stand with me, I would. And no sooner had that phrase gone through my mind, if someone would stand with me, I would. Arthur Blessed says, perhaps you're afraid to stand, but if somebody were to stand with you, would you stand? And my friend George Adams tapped me on the shoulder and said to me, David, if you want to stand, I'll stand with you. And that's how I got saved. And I know that's a remarkable story to some because that's not how it happens for everybody. I mean, I was praying and saying, if someone with a very direct request of God, if someone were to stand with me, and immediately the words hadn't ceased being formed in my mind when Arthur Blessed speaks and says exactly what I had prayed, I knew God heard that prayer and that's why I stood up and gave my heart to Christ. And I have to tell you it was exciting. And then I went home and first I went across the street and I spoke to some people about the Lord. I just gave my heart to Christ. Then I went to my house and I walked into the den and mom and dad Madeline and Becky were there watching TV and I said, mom, dad, Becky, Madeline, I love you, praise the Lord. And I walk out and my mom freaks out, my two sisters begin to follow me and my mom goes to her room and does a rosary because she's afraid that I've lost my mind and my sister Madeline is speaking to me, what happened to you? And I said, I gave my heart to Christ tonight and I changed and Madeline goes home and she gives her heart to the Lord that night. She was the first person to ever come to faith in Christ to my testimony and within three weeks, I've led my mom and my dad to Christ. Within a couple of years, my brother Frank comes to faith in Christ and I'm teaching a home Bible study at my brother's house in Ontario. I'm driving from Norwalk to Ontario in 1974 and as I'm doing that to teach a Bible study, he starts inviting friends from work and a young woman named Marie shows up at this Bible study and she doesn't know the Lord but two weeks later, my sister Madeline leads this young woman to Christ and then Marie needs discipling so desperately, I begin to date her and later on we get married and I'm still discipling her to this day. My sister Rebecca spends 27 years in the lesbian lifestyle but she commits her heart to Christ to the power of the gospel of Jesus and she's been serving the Lord since 1998 and I see what God can do through the word of God and yes, I think it's worthy of an applause. God is great. And so you go through these things, right? And yet I have to tell you that for 43 years that I have followed the Lord, there have been 43 years of spiritual wars. 43 years of spiritual battles. And so when Paul makes this powerful statement here and it is a powerful statement, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly, I say, well praise the Lord, 43 years, that means it's sooner now than it was before, right? You're gonna do that Lord and the answer is yes, he is, he will take care of that. We have spiritual warfare. We have had battles, you have had battles as a believer in Christ. When you got saved and you entered into faith in Christ and you heard that message and the joy of the Lord came upon you and all and you thought that every day would be just a great day and then you discovered that there can be some very strenuous times in life and all of that and you begin to cry out, God, how long? God, how long? He says shortly, shortly you will have the victory ultimately, he will be crushed. We have spiritual victory. We are assured of spiritual victory through Jesus Christ. It's like what John said in first John 2, 14 where he said, I have written to you fathers because you've known him who is from the beginning. I have written to you young men because you are strong. The word of God abides in you. You have overcome the wicked one. He goes on in chapter five of first John verse four and he says, whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. And so it's a faith battle. So you wake up in the morning, you make sure your spiritual armor is on. Your feet are shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace. So your loins are girded with truth. You have the breastplate of righteousness. You have the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And you go out into battle, that's what it's like. But we are assured of victory. We have overcome through Jesus Christ. We are the winners, we're on the winning side. And we have this victory, but we are awaiting the permanent victory over the Lord. At this time, over the enemy. At this time, he's not completely subdued, but the time where he will be subdued completely is not that far off. Now how do we battle against this? Well, he says in verse 20, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. In the face of false teachers and attacks from the enemy, God's grace sustains us. Again, Romans five, one and two, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We are sustained by the grace of God. That's why the Psalmists could say, for you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears and my feet from falling. The Lord is with us and by his grace, he sustains us. Now, as he's speaking concerning this, he moves quickly into his conclusion with greetings from fellow workers. In verse 21, he says, Timothy, my fellow worker, Lucius, Jason, and Saspater, my kinsmen, greet you. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, greet you. Erastus, the treasure of the city, greet you. And Cortis, a brother. So he begins to mention several names. We're not going to spend time with them. We know the name Timothy because Timothy is mentioned quite often in scripture. He was a young man who was born to a Jewish mother and had Jewish heritage and he was well-schooled in scripture, but his father was not a Jew. And so Paul had actually been instrumental in Timothy coming to faith in Christ and Timothy became his protege. He became a young man that Paul mentored and ultimately, we know Timothy, he's found throughout the New Testament. Timothy became the pastor of a church in Ephesus and he received first Timothy and second Timothy as letters instructing him concerning how to be a pastor in a church. So we have Timothy. We also have Lucius. This person here is relatively unknown. There are various people wondering concerning him. Some say that this may be a reference to Luke because Luke and Lucius are basically the same name. Others say that he was related to Paul. Some say he may have been from a place called Cyrene. Acts chapter 13 mentions one name Lucius, but nothing is clearly known about him. You have Jason in sauce butter. He refers to them as kinsmen, so they're relatives. If not relatives, then they may be kinsmen according to his Hebrew heritage. Then you have the person that actually wrote out Romans. His name was Tertius. Paul dictated this letter to him and he mentions himself. You have Gaius and Gaius is Paul's host and the church met in Gaius's home in the city of Corinth. You have Arastus, who is the city treasurer of Corinth. He was a prominent man, politician. And you have Quartus. He's simply a brother. It could be the brother of Arastus or he may be made in reference to a brother in Christ. And then in verse 24, you get a second benediction when he says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, amen. And then he finally closes by saying this. 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 was kept secret since the world began but now has been made manifest. And by the prophetic scriptures has been made known to all nations according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith to God alone wise. Be glory through Jesus Christ forever, amen. Notice how he closes. He's blessing God who is able to establish us through his word. The word establish speaks of us being firm and stable in a mental sense. We're rooted and settled in other words in the truth of this message. This is where I want to get as practical as I can. If somebody were to say what do you think is a great concern right now in the church? If David Rosales, if you have a concern at all about the body of Christ, not just in the local fellowship that you pass or just in general, what is the most concerned thing that you have? What is the most concerning feeling you have? It would be very quick. I'd be very quick to be able to state it. It's that a lot of people don't really have a relationship with God through the scriptures. They don't know the Bible. They don't spend time in the word of God. They don't have a close walk with them. My great concern is that the average Christian doesn't have what is called a devotion. The average Christian doesn't get up in the morning and spend time at all in the word of God. That the average Christian, as I know them, the average Christian basically just thinks they're too busy that they've got other things to do. And the idea of waking up and actually personally spending time in prayer and worship and meditation on the word of God to actually pick up the Bible and read a chapter or two and to think about what was said there and to pray and say, God, how can I do that today? You've given me insight into what it means to be a believer. Well, the average believer just doesn't do that. The average believer as I see it is a person who has the right language who's able to say, well, I was born again. I gave my heart to Christ. I've been regenerated. I did so on a certain time in a certain place and I'm saved and I'm going to heaven. That's the average believer. But when you begin to ask the average believer, can you give me some scripture as to why you believe this? Why do you know that you're born again? Can you tell me how that happened? I'm sad to say that in the church in the United States, overwhelmingly there are people who are incapable of doing that because overwhelmingly they're not in the word of God. So that concerns me. How can a person really speak with knowledge about the Lord if they're not spending time with him? If they're not praying and if they're not fellowshiping with him in worship and if they're not reading the word, how can they really have a relationship with him? How can they really know him? You have to spend time with the person to get to know him. We know that, don't we? My wife and I have a good marriage. The first date we ever had, I picked her up at her apartment at 11 o'clock in the morning. We had a double date and we took off for the whole day and then get back until one o'clock. So for 13 hours, Marie and I talked. And that's what we've been doing now for all of these years is we have talked and talked and talked for many years. And so I've gotten to know my wife. I can tell you that one of the first Christmases, I don't think it was the very first, it may have been the second. I can tell you that I didn't really know what kind of gifts she liked. And so I went out to buy her some Christmas presents and I went to a swap meet and I bought her all kinds of things. I mean, oh man, you can get all kinds of things. I got all kinds of pants and I got tops and I mean, I was loaded up and I only had to spend a hundred bucks. Did you know that you could buy a gallon of perfume for just like five dollars? I mean, and so I was all excited and I came home and I wrapped them all up and put the bow on the whole nine yards and I threw them under the tree and then I waited and I waited for her to open up those presents and then one after another, I got this look from her like, what red pants? What green pants? And she looked at me, what? This leg is longer than that one. Oh, no wonder it was so cheap. So I learned something. I learned that I'm not going to go buy her anything. But I do buy her one thing. I'll buy her a purse every year because I know how to select that because I've learned and I'll take her and she can select anything within a reason that she would like and I'm with her and part of the gift is just being with her when she purchases. So she can have what she wants and all of that, I've learned that but I will give her one gift. And so I only go shopping once a year for Christmas presents for only one person. It's for my wife. And so Anna, my daughter and I last week before Christmas went to go buy Maria purse and we went into the store that I usually buy her purses in and we go walking into the store and I know exactly where they have them and off Anna and I go and I'm standing there and I'm looking at all of these purses and I finally look at this one and I say, I know your mama like that. Oh, your mama like that. And Anna says, no, dad, don't get it. I said, no, no, no, your mom, dad, no, dad, don't touch it. No, your mom will like that purse. Dad, don't get it. So I get the purse and I look at it. It's got this soft leather. I mean, it's so soft. I say, oh, she liked this. She liked this. Yeah, dad, but leave it alone. No, she liked this. And I open it up. It was a Burberry. Okay, somebody knows what that, I don't know what that is. Burberry sounds like something you put on your bread with butter, you know, Burberry. A $1048. And I said, Anna, you're right. She'll hate this purse. She would, she would hate this purse. She wouldn't want this purse. She wants that little plastic one over there, the red one with the little hello kitty face. I mean, she'd love that one. She could see her makeup and everything. $1048, are you kidding me? So we have to keep looking and we finally find one. And Anna is saying, I think mama would like this, daddy. And I said, well, I don't know. I don't think so. I don't, well, I don't think so, Anna. No, I think she'd like this, daddy. Look, it's got this, I said, yeah, I know, but I know your mama likes certain things. And I don't, she'd like, Anna, it has tassels on it. And mama's not into tassels. And she goes, oh no, dad, it's the latest. You know, these tassels, they're cool. I said, yeah, I don't, no, I don't, oh, dad, you know, why not? I said, look, Anna, I said, okay, baby. I said, I want to get mama purse. And I said, everything else seems to work. It looks like it would work, except for those tassels. I'm telling you, mama doesn't like tassels. Oh, it's okay, it's the newest thing. And you know, she can always bring it back. And I'm, yeah, okay. So I buy the purse and I bring it home. And then I have the purse comes in this box and it has this little case that you put over it. So I take the purse out of the case and my son, David, had left some old tennis shoes in the house, so I put one of the shoes inside where the purse would go and wrapped it back up and gave it to mama for Christmas. So everybody's gifts have been open and we're seated there when I come on. I do this every year. She knows just wait, dad's going to get me a purse. And I come walking out with the box and she looks at me like, yeah, I knew. She opens it up and she's kind of moving this little bag around to you. What's this? And she opens it up and there's this dirty white tennis shoe in it. And then I laugh, ha, ha, ha. But after that's over, I handle the purse and that face is a face I remember some red pants from the swap meet. I knew it, I knew it. Oh, honey, thank you. I say, you don't like it. No, it's fine, fine, fine. That's not good. Fine, it's fine. No, it's not. Baby, you can take it back if you want. No, no, no, it's okay. Okay, fine, those are not good words. That's not, I love it. Oh, this is the best. No, it's just okay and fine. So I said, all right, look it. You can have it in, no, no, it's okay, okay, all right. Three or four hours later, which is the way it works with us, you don't really like that purse, do you? Well, the tassels, the tassels. I said, tassels are cool if you're a cowboy, right? But on a purse, no, no, I don't think so. She goes, yeah, she goes, I said, well, maybe, she says, maybe we can untie it. And I said, that's fine. So the whole point of that is this. Yeah, I bought her a purse and yeah, I knew she wouldn't like it and all of that. But how did I know she wouldn't necessarily like this? Spending time, getting to know her. Walking with her and seeing her eyes light up when she sees something that she likes. My mom, when I was growing up, could speak to me without a word. Your mom's probably some of you had the same mama. They'd look at you with a look and you knew death is on the doorstep or you just know, it's that look. And when my mom and I used to talk, there were times when my mom wanted to distract my attention from her so that I could look at something else. And you know what she would do, the same thing that many of you experienced and perhaps do also. My mom would keep her face looking at me, but with her eyes, she'd look someplace else. So I knew I'm supposed to follow her gaze to see what she's looking at because she's directing my attention without calling attention to the fact that she's directing my attention somewhere. And there's a scripture where the Lord says, the Lord God says, I will guide you with my eyes. I learned that a long time ago, all that means is this, if you're looking into the face of the Lord through his word, then whatever he's looking at, he will direct you to see the same thing. I learned that in a practical way by having a mom who would direct me with her looks or their gaze. Even if her face was facing me, her eyes were looking somewhere else and I knew she wanted me to see something other than her. And I learned this a long time ago that when you study the word of God, you actually get to see what God is looking at. And that's how you learn what is pleasing to him. I can all day long give him red pants and a purse with tassels and he didn't want them. He doesn't want them. Those are my good works. Those are my attempts. Those are my best efforts. But I'm not looking at what he's looking at. I'm not knowing his heart. And the way I get to know his heart is by being in his word. By being in his word. By reading it and saying, oh, he likes this and he doesn't like that. He wants this and he doesn't want that. That's how I learn. And I have learned how to love my wife and learning how to love my wife by fellowship with her and hearing what she has to say. Every husband in this room who has a good marriage knows exactly what I'm saying. It's not a sign of weakness for me to wanna please my wife. It's a love I have for her as long as this pleasing is within the framework of what is acceptable to the Lord. And that's how we do what we do. But how am I gonna know what my wife likes if I don't spend time with her? The Bible says, Peter said it this way, his husbands dwell with your wife according to knowledge. Make a study of your wife and you'll know the things that she's pleased with and the things she's not pleased with. Study her, spend a lifetime learning her. That's what we husbands do. Well, how am I gonna know what God likes or doesn't like if I don't spend time with him? How's that gonna happen? He equips me to do the things he likes by his word and by his spirit. I can get myself all emotional and try and do things in my own flesh and it doesn't work. I was watching the, I didn't watch the whole game. I never have. It was an SC game. I don't do that. It's kind of like a sin for me. But I know I have SC friends. Anyway, they were playing Fresno State. How many of you saw that game? So I know if I'm reaching anybody, okay. I'll talk to you, bro, okay. The Fresno State captain was getting all excited, right? Hey, we're gonna show respect. They're gonna learn, yah, yah, yah, yah, yah, and he's running around slapping hands. I love you guys. I love you guys, right? Yeah? Then they go get smeared by SC. They got wiped out, you know? And I was busing up. You can exhort people all day long, but if you don't equip them to win, they're gonna lose. I don't care how much you scream at them and yell at them and excite them. Yah, yah, yah, we're gonna go out. Yah, yah, yah, yah, yah. They're all beat up. They come out and stretchers at the end. Exhortation is kind of like that. I can stand up here all day long and say we need to do this and let's go do this and we got to do this and God can do this, but if we're not together on this, if we don't have the power of the spirit and the word of God with us, guiding and strengthening us, then you're gonna go out there going yah, and you're gonna just get all wiped out because the enemy's after you. But when we're united in the word and we're united in prayer and we're united in heart and we have proper doctrine, the exhortation isn't falling on deaf ears. It's actually equipping, encouraging people to do what God says we can do. But where does that come from? That comes from the word of God. And so Paul is making it clear, you are established in the gospel. You have taken this gospel, not only to your own heart, but you have taken it throughout the world, preaching this message of salvation. That's what he's talking about and that's why he's giving praise to God. Again, verse 25, 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 was kept secret since the world began, but now has been made manifest. And by the prophetic scriptures has been made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith. So he's speaking concerning the fact that the Romans did not have a relationship with God because the Romans were Gentiles by and large. God had relationship with the nation of Israel but he welcomed the Gentile world in which was called a mystery in the book of Ephesians. The Gentile world in because the Gentiles, non Jews had no relationship with God. They were without God in the world and lost. But through the gospel, the Romans heard the message were brought into the family of God and this message that reached from Jerusalem to Rome is also to go throughout the whole world. And that's what were to be established on God's word. And so because that is true and this mystery has been revealed, the Romans are now in Christ and one with the Jews as believers in God through Jesus Christ through the preaching of the gospel they have now become heirs of God's promises. And for that he says in verse 27 to God alone wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Through Jesus Christ God revealed his great grace as well as his deep wisdom. It is this wise mind that divides such a tremendous plan for redemption and we praise God for it through these prophetic scriptures. That were written hundreds of years before the fact before Christ was born, these prophetic scriptures. I was mentioning and I'll close with this these prophetic scriptures that one of the things that helps us to understand the power of the word of God is a word of prophecy. And I was mentioning how that there was a particular professor. He's a professor emeritus from Westmont College, Peter Stoner. And that to illustrate the amazing prophetic element of scripture, he had mentioned that that there were some 456 prophecies related to Messiah. But he said, what are the chances of somebody fulfilling just eight of those prophecies? And so he had a class. They actually had many students who worked on this. These are people who worked in statistics. Then he presented his findings to a particular organization that is able to review the findings and to say where the errors are. And they said that his findings were correct. But he said the chances of one man fulfilling just eight of the prophecies that related to Messiah would be equivalent to a 10 with 17 zeros after it. To illustrate what that means, 10 to the 17th power, he said it would be equivalent to the entire state of Texas. Being, the entire state being filled two feet deep with silver dollars. The entire state, two feet deep with silver dollars. And somebody has especially marked silver dollar. And they go over Texas and wherever they feel like it, they release it. They just throw this marked silver dollar out. Then all of those silver dollars have to be stirred up till the one that was marked is hidden somewhere in the two feet deep silver dollars through the entire state of Texas. Then you blindfold a man and you send him off to walk through Texas. And wherever he stops and reaches down into a pile of silver dollars and pulls it out, that is equivalent to 10 to the 17th power. The chances of one man fulfilling only eight of those prophecies, 10 to the 17th power. In other words, Jesus Christ, who fulfilled over eight, over 300 specific prophecies. It is incalculable that one man should have been able to do that, and yet he did. So when Paul is speaking here and he speaks concerning the prophetic scriptures, those are the scriptures we hold fast to. The word of God, because the word of God is God simply revealing to us what he already knows. That's prophecy. He's just letting you know what he already knows because God knows all things from the beginning to the end and all things in between. And so he's just letting us know what he already knows. And so these scriptures that prophesied Messiah to come are the same scriptures that we take to people to say he has come and he's coming again. And in order for you to know the Lord, it will come through you knowing his word as God speaks to you about who he is, he can draw you to himself. And that's the message that had reached out from Jerusalem, went to Rome and from Rome was still spreading to eventually one day it reached the United States. And we have been blessed and fortunate enough to embrace this same message that began 2000 years ago. A message that was given to us in the book of Romans.