Stand Firm, Holding Fast to the Truth

Transcript

GR 2273
05/02/2021
Stand Firm, Holding Fast to the Truth
Romans 16:21-27
Gil Rugh

We’re coming to the book of Romans and the end of chapter 16. Paul has expressed concern as he wraps up this letter for dangers that would face the church. It’s never ending because remember this is a spiritual war. The devil doesn’t need to sleep at night. The devil doesn’t need to take a break. That’s one of the things he can do, he just wears us down. He can wear a church down.

I shared with you on different occasions because I think of it often. A former pastor who was now a professor when I was taking some classes, in fact he was an advisor for one of my papers, we were talking one day, and he talked about pastoring. He said Gil I just got tired of the battles. I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I can understand but the Church can’t quit! We’ve got all eternity to relax and enjoy what God has prepared for us who love Him. This isn’t retirement day. This is workday! We must work while it is day. The time will come when our work here is done. Then we have the endless times in eternity.

So the battle, we talked about that in verses 17 to 20. It says “keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching.” That’s the foundation. We can’t become weak in the doctrine, in the truth, in the teaching because if we do become weak we’ll be less discerning. If we are less discerning then we won’t recognize error as it begins to find its way. As we talked, one of the things we have to be careful of is that we just don’t give up on fighting error and let it take hold. I think the Church as a whole is experiencing some of that in these days. The error keeps coming, keeps coming so over time we adjust the theology to fit more, and we allow the world to shape us.

Paul is concerned about it. The church at Rome is a great church but it’s not enough to have been a great church or to be a great church today. We must continue and finish well. So, he had strong warnings about being careful. Being careful about teaching and teachers who infiltrate among us. That’s what he’s talking about, those who infiltrate among. We talked about the book of Jude. We went through Jude. Jude said that was happening in the churches he was writing to. The false teachers had “crept in unnoticed” and were beginning to disseminate teaching that was undermining the foundations of the Church “which is the pillar and support of the truth.”

Paul now is ready to wrap things up. The end of verse 20 he said “the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” Now he has some of those who are with him who are going to join him in sending greetings. “Timothy my fellow worker,” he’s the one we know most about here. Paul picks up Timothy on his second missionary journey, Acts 17. He’s with Paul. Paul’s last letter is written to Timothy as Paul was anticipating his own execution. You appreciate Timothy and the role he played in being faithful. He wasn’t an apostle but he was greatly used of God in Paul’s life and ministry and then in the ministry of the churches Paul established. He’s a man that could be trusted to go to some of the churches. He’s at Ephesus when Paul writes the letters to Timothy to help deal with things there that need to be dealt with. You need a person that’s strong and sound and won’t be moved and can bring the church along. He sends greetings. Others here, a couple of them we know a couple things about from other references. We’re not going to spend time on looking at those. Gaius, his hosting, “he’s a host to me and to the whole church.” Here’s a man who gave of his time and opened his home obviously. He greets you. Different ones, the city treasurer Erastus. There were people who had influential positions. “There are not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble called” but there are some, the city treasurer. There’s a man in a position of influence and also a believer and he’s known to the Romans, they send greetings. Others here, a brother and he’s ready to wrap it up.

In verse 25 you have this concluding benediction, if you will, that in some ways is similar to the other letters also. He wants to tell them that they need to be firmly established and that’s God’s intention to exercise His power to establish them. We were talking about the power of God at the end of Ephesians 1, how it operates in bringing life to the spiritually dead. That power operates continually in the life of a believer, in the life of the church which is the body of Christ. He wants to remind them they need to be firmly established and that will happen as God’s power works through God’s word. It’s not complicated. God’s power working through God’s word. If the devil wants to short-circuit, undermine, sidetrack however you want to put it, what’s he do? He can’t stand and stop God’s power but if God’s power is working through God’s word where will the devil put his attention? To undermine the word of God. That’s why Paul talked in verses 17 and 18, “be careful about those who would turn you away from the teaching that you’ve learned.” We have to stay true to that truth. The truth is the truth. It’s not something, well the alterations that happen over time we grow and mature. We want to be careful we don’t depart.

So that’s what he’s going to talk about in verse 25 again. We could go back to chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, “the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Again, it’s God’s power working through His word, the truth of the Gospel. Can people be saved without God’s word? No! He dealt with that in chapter 10 of Romans remember, how shall they believe who have not heard? How shall they hear without someone to tell them? So, we know where the devil will concentrate his energy, his attention. Weaken the Church as the pillar and support of the truth and that will hinder God’s working in power. We know that. Try to keep people from hearing the gospel because if they hear the gospel that’s the occasion for the Spirit of God to use it. Paul says in verse 25 “now to Him who is able.” Now, “to Him who is able.” We have a little chorus we sing “He is able, He is able.” That’s the word for power translated “able” here. We’ve talked about it in Ephesians. We talk about it in Romans. We get English words from transliterating this word over into English, dynamic, dynamo, dynamite. Words related to power. Now to Him who has the power “to establish you” but note, “according to my gospel.” This is the power of God. He is able. God can accomplish His work. He does accomplish His work. He is the one who was powerful to establish you.

Come over to Ephesians, chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. We’ll get here someday. We are in chapter 2 but come to chapter 3 verse 20. Paul uses a similar expression, “now to Him who is able.” Keep in mind who is powerful “to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us.” God’s power is the power working in us. We saw that in Ephesians chapter 1. Now he is writing, remind them He is the one. It’s His power. We get to thinking I don’t think I can do this. Well wait a minute! Yeah, we can’t. We sing it in the songs. We see it as it’s expressed in the scripture.

Come over to Jude. All the way back to that little book just before Revelation. The book of Jude, as Jude wraps up this short one chapter letter that called the believers to step, do battle for truth. He says in verse 24 “Now to Him,” here we go again, “who is able.” We are not talking about our abilities, our strength. We are talking about the power that cannot be resisted, it cannot be stopped, the power of God. “Now to Him who is able,” who is powerful, “to keep you from stumbling, to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior.” That’s the emphasis here. The Church can’t lose that perspective. It seems like the world becomes overwhelming and we can begin to feel weak. What can we do? How do you stem the tide so we think we have to get the right people into position. Wait, wait, that’s never been the answer. We’re here to do something unique.

Come back to Romans chapter 16. We’re going to wrap it up as Paul draws this long letter talking about “Him who is able,” who has the power “to establish you.” It’s fixing something firmly. That’s that word “establish.” Who is able to fix you firmly. Only God’s power can do this. We can’t stand in our own strength against the devil. It is God’s power. The things that come into our lives, we are in this world and the things that come into our lives personally, that we deal with as a church but God is powerful to “establish us.” What we would wilt unto He can strengthen us, fix us firmly.

Come over to 2 Thessalonians 3:3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, look at verse 3. The Thessalonians were a persecuted church, the church at Thessalonica. Verse 2 said “we will be rescued from perverse and evil men.” Paul wants them to pray for him because this is a battle. The unbeliever is opposed the truth. He is opposed to people who believe the truth. But look at verse 3. “But the Lord is faithful. He will strengthen.” There we are. He will firmly plant you, “and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord concerning you.” What do they have to do? Stand firm. Hold firmly to the word of God as Paul instructed Timothy. We are to hold fast to the truth. That’s how the devil weakens us. If we weaken our hold on the truth what are we left to do? We are left to get caught up and carried on in the current of whatever is going on. “The Lord is faithful. He will strengthen and protect you.” Plant you firmly, same word, strengthen we have back in Romans 16.

Come back. “He “is able to establish you,” strengthen you, fix you firmly “according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ.” It’s the truth. What has Paul laid out in Romans? The gospel. That marvelous work of God encompasses our salvation from what we were as sinners and the righteousness provided for us in Christ and enabling us in our holiness of living and His sovereignty in it all. “It’s according to my gospel.” That’s why we have to remain firmly fixed in the Word then God’s power is enabled to work. How often have you been in situations where you just say Lord I just claim Your promise. I just hold on to Your Word. You can feel overwhelmed, but Lord, I don’t get overwhelmed because You don’t get overwhelmed. That doesn’t mean there won’t be difficulties and trials. Paul’s going to get martyred. God didn’t get overwhelmed. Paul’s ministry was just done. He was in control and Paul could end that ministry saying that he was confident. I’ve fought a good fight. I’m looking forward to what the Lord has stored up for me. He’s not going out defeated, well I fought as long as I could but the enemy is winning and he’ll win. No! I win! I finished what God appointed for me to do. So “according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ.” Now he’s writing to a church but it is applicable to every individual believer. He’s writing to the church at Rome. What happens to churches along the way? Why are churches that at one time stood for the truth somewhere along the line just drifted away. Where did they go? What happens? Well, sometimes God is no longer doing the work that He once did. That church still has to be faithful, but our world is moving toward destruction. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but he couldn’t turn the world to God. He was a faithful preacher of righteousness. When all was said and done Noah and his family, eight people, get on the ark.

So I want to be careful. God’s doing what God does. My safety and security is staying firmly planted on the Word not beginning to look around. I’ve shared this before. In some studies, many years ago, part of the studies was the program of church growth. They learned principles that worked to build a church but wait a minute, the theology can be a variety of things. Well then it’s not the church that Christ is building. We want to be careful. I have to be satisfied with what God does and I want to be satisfied with what God is doing, in our church and in my life personally. That doesn’t mean I’m glad for difficulties, pain, whatever but Paul’s life is a testimony of God’s faithfulness even as he takes them through. We think of Job in the Old Testament.

What we want to do is stay true the gospel. Want to know what the gospel is? Go back and read Romans. That’s what the gospel is. We can summarize it in a couple of statements. It’s the truth that fleshes that out, it’s the preaching of Jesus Christ. This is a “according,” “according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past.” “The mystery that has been preached.” What is “the mystery?” He explains it. It’s something that was kept secret in the long ages past. Something that you couldn’t know before. Now you didn’t need to know or weren’t responsible to know it because God hadn’t revealed it yet. We are responsible for truth that David did not know about, that Isaiah did not know about, Jeremiah didn’t know about, Ezekiel didn’t know about. Remember the end of the book of Daniel? Daniel had things revealed to him but he has to tell the angel I don’t understand. What was he told? “Go your way” Daniel. These are things for the future. You’ll need future revelation to put together some of the things that have been made known to you and that’s what we have as our New Testament. It’s the “revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past but now is manifested.” So that’ what a mystery is. Have this fixed because I was reading some things in current theology and part of what they are doing is redefining “mystery” so we can change some of the teaching regarding the Church and Israel and so on. We want to be careful. In subtle ways we begin to undermine the scripture. He defines it for us here. “It’s the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret” in past time but now is being revealed. Don’t come up with your own definition of that. God defines it for us. This is additional truth. It doesn’t change past revelation.

For example, we could go to Isaiah 43 and know that the Messiah was going to be crucified, buried in a rich man’s tomb, but He would be alive, be resurrected. Peter preached on that on the day of Pentecost. We say, well there. See that’s not a mystery. No, it’s not. What is the mystery? What God is going to do with the redemption that Christ provided. Well He’s going to save the Jews and everybody that converts to Judaism. No. He’s going to do something new. He’s going to establish the Church and He’s going to bring together the Church comprised of Jews and Gentiles but it’s primarily going to be a Gentile church encompassing the world, far beyond the boundaries of Israel. In fact, Israel is going to be under the judgment of God for their unbelief. We saw that in Romans 11. Until the Church is complete, Israel as a nation is sidetracked. That wasn’t revealed in the Old Testament. You don’t find the Church in the Old Testament. People begin to redefine with their own definition and alterations so they can change scripture. Be careful.

I could have brought you examples. Mystery is defined here. I was a little taken back as I began reading somethings that are more current. Now they are redefining mystery and the word mystery doesn’t mean that because these were thing revealed in the Old Testament. Paul under the inspiration of the Spirit tells us they were “kept secret for long ages past but now is manifested.” Don’t tell me these things were revealed in the Old Testament. Don’t pick out things and say well, the death of the Messiah and His burial and His resurrection to life, that’s all revealed in the Old Testament. Yes but that’s not the mystery we are talking about.

Come over to Ephesians. We’ll get here but you see how it all ties together. We’ll get to this as we get further down in chapter 2 and then into chapter 3. You see how the scripture weaves together. That’s why we want to be in it as much as possible and take in as much. What he’s talking about in verse 11, for example, of chapter 2 of Ephesians. “Remember that you, formerly the Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision” and so on. “You were separate, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, you had no hope in the world, you were outside the covenants.” Except for the provision of the covenants the Gentiles that convert to Judaism and the God of Israel, yeah they could be saved. They are then converts to Judaism. But Christ did something. He broke down the wall and “now we are fellow citizens” and we are part of what God is building now on the foundation of new revelation. We’ll get into the details of this like verse 20. Then you come down into chapter 3. I want you to know why I know this because you won’t find it in the Old Testament, this unique work of God. You’ll find the conversion of Gentiles in the Old Testament. Don’t get led off. You don’t find God doing a new work with Gentiles as the focus. Again, it’s those that were to become converts to Judaism. He says in verse 3, “by revelation there was made known to me the mystery.” This is what Paul, this is not material that you would find in the Old Testament. There are pieces in the Old Testament, but you couldn’t put them together to know what God was doing in the Church. Now we can go beyond the Church and get to the Tribulation and we’ll know something about that, and the kingdom we’ll know something about that and the provision of all that is centered in the redemption that’s provided in Christ. The fact that God was going to put Israel on a sidetrack for now two thousand years and concentrate His work of redemption in the Gentiles, no. We don’t find that there. Now it’s revelation made known to me, I’m telling you this, verse 4 “so you can understand why I have insight into the mystery of Christ.” This is material that wasn’t before revealed at the coming of Christ. It was what? It was to offer a kingdom to Israel but the rejection of their Messiah shut down, if I can put it that way, God’s program of redemption focused in the nation Israel. Remember, Israel is still the focus of God and His work until the death of Christ. The Church doesn’t begin until Acts chapter 2. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are under the Old Testament economy, the Mosaic Law. This is new material which, verse 5, “in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it is now been revealed.” What is it? Verse 6, “Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise” and so on. Even the angels, you get down to verse 10, are observing what is going on in the Church because this is something new. How much the angels know about the future of God’s plan we don’t know. They are not omniscient, so they only know what God has revealed to them. This is something new God is doing as Paul unfolds it here.

Go back to Romans 16. All of this because these kind of things become very important. I read these now who are writing and doing exegetical work, but they are redefining the word “mystery.” It’s just that major because now they are saying the Church was revealed in the Old Testament, so you lose the distinction of what God is doing. This is new material. Old Testament saints weren’t held accountable for knowing that. They just had to believe what God had revealed to them. That’s all that was necessary. Now we have new material. We are responsible for this additional material and understanding it and interpreting it properly. That’s crucial. It’s the “revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past.”

I shouldn’t read this stuff. I’m reading some who are opposed to this approach to scripture. What’s he say? Oh, according to the view of those who take these prophetic portions literally, and they go on and all this, God when Christ got crucified had to change His plan. That’s not what it says! It says God had kept this part of His plan secret. He didn’t have to make any changes. He had planned this from eternity past. How offensive is that? Well, if you’re going to do that, what you’re really saying is that when Christ was crucified God had to change His plan. God didn’t make any changes in His plan that was settled in eternity past. He just hadn’t revealed this part of His plan before. Is that not pretty clear reading this? Do you come to this with an agenda that you want to adjust the scripture to fit what you have decided you would like it to say? You don’t want to see a distinction between Israel and the Church and that God’s promises in covenant relationship to Israel are irrevocable? You cannot twist the scripture to fit your own idea. It seems you don’t have to have advanced degrees or in-depth knowledge of language. We just read it. It was a mystery which means it was kept secret in long ages past, now is manifested. Paul told us in Ephesians 3 it was being manifested through him and through other New Testament writers as the New Testament unfolds this truth. “It is now manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal God which has been made known to all the nations leading to the obedience of faith.” That’s what’s going on.

Remember in the Old Testament there is no evangelism program. I’ve told you this but never forgot my Hebrew professor in seminary. He just shook his head and said those people who find evangelism in the Old Testament are really confused. There’s no missions program. Now I realize Israel was to be a light but after four hundred years of the land of Canaan descending into spiritual darkness and multiplying their rebellion against God, what did God do? He sent Israel in as an army of missionaries. What did He tell them? You kill every man, woman, and child and when they don’t they will be held accountable. That’s not an evangelism program. They weren’t going around, let me share with you the gospel before I execute you. It wasn’t there. The prophets are prophets to Israel. When there is one that goes outside of Israel, like Jonah. You look at Jonah in context, it’s because of what God was going to do with the Assyrians in punishing Israel. And Jonah realizes that. Remember? What happened? He went and preached to Nineveh the capitol of Assyria and they’re converted. What would happen if you went out and shared the gospel and our city got converted? We’d be having a celebration! Jonah is out pouting under his little plant. “I told you this would happen, God” He’s furious, why? Because he didn’t want the Assyrians to get saved. Why? He knew what was on the horizon for Israel. What God was doing was staying the judgement. But Assyria is coming. So, they don’t go outside as primarily an evangelism program. Everything is in the context of the nation, which is the apple of God’s eye. That’s changed now. It’s a world church. So, that’s what he’s talking about here.

The prophets prophesy, this is in accord with the prophets of the Old Testament, but we get new revelation from apostles in New Testament prophets. But he started out, come back to Romans 1. Started out, “Paul a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures.” So, the gospel was promised, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ in that summary. But then the unfolding of what God was going to do with that work of redemption, is new material that comes as a result of Israel’s rejection. It’s consistent. So, it’s not that the new revelation is changed things. God’s program for Israel has not changed. We know how that goes because after the rapture of the church, there is a seven year tribulation. What’s God going to do during that seven years? Bring Israel back to Himself. So, by the end of that seven years, they’re crying out for the coming of their Messiah. They grieve that they rejected Him. They’re crying out, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. And then He will come, and they’ll be ready to accept Him as their Messiah and the Kingdom will be established. And we move into Revelation 20. So, nothing’s changed. Oh, now God changed His plans. There’s no change in plans. God has to do what He promised. These subtle changes people make, they look like not much at the beginning. But at the end, that’s what happened to churches over time. It can take a longer time, a shorter time, but the seeds have been, now we’ve departed from the faithful consistent interpretation of scripture. Well, where are we going? Well, it doesn’t seem that major to begin with. But the further you get away, then pretty soon you’re just wandering. John Calvin, his commentaries are still worth reading today. They are still printed, the commentaries of John Calvin covering the scriptures. Not every book but most of the books. He was a great expositor. Too bad so many that would claim John Calvin as a forefather don’t read John Calvin’s sermons. What happens? You depart, you depart, you depart, you depart.

Alright, back to Romans 16:26, “According to the commandment of the eternal God.” There’s no change, He’s the eternal God. We saw that in Ephesians 1. We’ve seen it in Romans, we saw it in Romans 9, 10 and 11, has God cast away His people? Me genoito, King James says God forbid us, it can not be. It can not be, it’s inconceivable, God can’t cast away His people. We saw that in Romans 9, 10 and 11, that’s part of the gospel that He is unfolded in this book. So, I don’t understand those who would say God is done with Israel and the adjustment. Well, the church and Israel, they’re the same, there’s one people of God. Another expression you have to be careful of, one people of God as if we’ve really blended Israel and the church. And there is just one people of God. And the promises of Israel are really fulfilled in the church. Wait a minute, no, they are unique promises to Israel that can only be fulfilled in the physical descendants of Abraham, Isacc and Jacob. Now there was provision for Gentiles, that’s why it’s consistent with Old testament prophecy. In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed, God told Abraham. But they had no idea what that meant, that we are doing today, a church primarily Gentile. And that’s true around the world. That was included there. But they couldn’t understand until additional revelation came. Verse 26, “The eternal God has been made known,” and you see here again, what he’s talked about in the contents of Romans, is to all the nations. This is God’s plan, to all the nations bringing them to the obedience of faith. And when the church is complete, what do we see in Romans 11? Then He’s going to resume His program with Israel, and fulfill that. Then Jew and Gentiles, the church, with it’s unique position, will be unique through eternity. Israel will be unique through eternity. But there will be other nations as well in eternity. Because when we get into Revelation 22, we find that the nations of the earth were in eternity there. Revelation 21, 22, the nations will come up to the new Jerusalem. Now we’ve got Israel, “the nation” at the center of that eternal kingdom. And we have the church, the bride of Christ, as unique in God’s plan, sharing in that. Right now, God’s working to bring about the obedience of faith among the nations, and some Jews. But those Jews, like maybe a few of you, are part of the church. That’s your identity. But you’re being saved as a Jew as we saw Paul, God hasn’t cast away His people, I’m testimony of that. He’s still saving Jews, but now they become part of the church.

Verse 27, “To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever and ever.” How else to say it, “the only wise God.” I mean that’s where we have to come, we can’t find this on our own. It’s not about, well if you study theology and extra-biblical things. This is another thing that troubles me, might as well get it off of my mind. The more recent commentaries, they spend as much time evaluating extra-biblical things. Almost overwhelmed as they tell you about all the extra-biblical, the danger that happens is that they begin to re-interpret the bible through the extra-biblical things. I realize we want to have the historical context, but to re-do the bible, we find apocryphal literature, which is fanciful prophetic kind of literature made up by unbelievers. But now they want to talk about the Bible has apocryphal literature. They don’t call it prophecy anymore. We don’t call the book of Revelation a prophecy, we call it apocryphal literature. Be careful of that, because in apocryphal literature things weren’t taken literally and they were fanciful. That’s what’s going on out there. This is prophetic literature. Now, maybe the Devil has mimicked some of it, but I want to be careful I don’t turn things upside down. Evangelical commentators, that’s a foundation for not taking, well you have genre of literature. And it’s important that we interpret it according to its style or kind of literature. Revelation and some of Daniel is apocryphal literature. That means we don’t interpret it literally. And of course you have to have scholars that tell you this, because if you interpret it literally, you just show how unscholarly you really are. If you knew what the literature of the times of that period was like, you would know this is just like that. But what does the Devil do? He makes imitations. So, I know the world, they do that with Genesis. Genesis is creation genre literature. And you have the Babylonian account of creation. You have these other accounts and they all, they weren’t meant to be taken literally. So, that’s not a literal account, it is a way of expressing that God was at work. Wait a minute, what do we end up with? As one seminary professor, we’ve created a priestly elite in our evangelical schools. They think they are the ones who must tell us what the Bible really means. Well, they then infiltrate, and the church gets corrupted. And then we have, we’re back to verse 17 of chapter 16. Dissensions are caused. Divisions are caused because the men that come out of these schools become the pastor of churches. And you know, we’re just common ordinary people. But remember, the Bible was written for ordinary people. And it was written by in large by ordinary people that God pulled out. They didn’t have to go and study languages and all this other stuff for ten or fifteen years. When Jesus walked along, Peter, James and Jonn, they are fishing, put the gear aside, come follow Me. Then they’re going to be used to write scripture. And it’s not all about fish. But they could use language and write it. We want to be careful, we’re not going to give this over to anyone else. I don’t care how scholarly and knowledgeable they are. Try to keep up with the recent commentaries and I’m using a number of them on Ephesians. They’re the exegetical commentaries. But I got to read so much that, doesn’t really help me with the passage. Well, sometimes they’re good but all this extra biblical stuff and if you don’t quote the Germans, you’re a nobody. And of course you’ve got to get the Latin in, you’ve got to get the French in. And some of it I say why? What light did that shed on this passage? It showed me he has far breadth of knowing about things outside the Bible than I do but does that mean that he’ll necessarily know more about the Bible than I do? Know more about the Bible than you do because he knows more about things outside the Bible than you do? You don’t find Paul quoting all these people. He can quote everything I think that’s been written that would have anyway connected, and he’s got some good stuff, but my word, I could reduce the 900 pages to about 250. He said he didn’t put a list of the books in a separate bibliography because it would add 100 pages to the commentary. It’s already over 900. He’d have 100 pages of just the books he referred to. I’m impressed, you are much smarter than me, but that doesn’t mean you know more about the scripture than me. More about the scripture of the average person who may not have finished high school if they’ve learned to read and take it seriously. I mean these people are being held accountable to know it. Think about the Romans, we spent this time going through the book of Romans, they sat there and heard Paul’s letter to the Romans read, without chapters, without verses and they’re going to be held accountable.

Well, come back and we’ll read some more to you. And we’ll read more. And then we’ll read again, because they couldn’t take it home with them. These are just average, ordinary people that are working. Some of them are slaves, their education might have been minimal. They were to know it. I say that because we’re wrapping up this letter, he’s closed by warning and then reminding us, God’s power will establish you according to the gospel. According to what I’ve written here. Well, I’m encouraged, it’s a book for us. It’s a book for you, for me. Now teachers are gifted, they are supposed to study it and help explain it. We have that, but you ought to know it. You ought to be able to tell when I’m taking you through, is that what it says? Where in the world did he get that? That’s not what my Bible says. Then, want to be careful, there may be an explanation, but basically it’s written for us. I’m just a help, but you have your Bible. You look at it and say, yes, I can see that, it’s, that helps me, it’s clear. The word mystery there, I don’t have to read somebodies intellectual work that goes into all the extra biblical material on how the word “mystery” might have been used and then come back the the Bible and overrule. So, we’ve ended this great book, but we’re not done with it because that’s what our life is about, right? We do it again and again. We’ll be in Ephesians, and we’ll see overlap with Romans and everywhere we go in Scripture. In the Old Testament it didn’t have the fulness of revelation as does the New Testament but it was laying the groundwork, the foundation. Now things are clarified. How blessed we are. Now we have it here in one book and some of you are carrying it around on an electronic device, a little phone that fits in your pocket. You’ve got the whole bible and you open it up and you can go anywhere you want. God expects us to know it and to live in light of it.

Let’s have a word of prayer and I want to share something from the morning sermon with you. Thank you Lord for the riches of Your word. Lord we are repetitive, but we want to emphasize, Lord, that Your word is sufficient. You are sufficient. It’s seems trite to say it, but Your power is all we need. It is the power of the universe. It is the power that rules overall. All is under the authority of Your Son, our Savior, seated at Your right hand. Your Spirit who was involved in bringing creation into existence and brought about the resurrection of Christ from the dead is the power that is working in each one of us as believers and in our Church as we are a body together. Lord, we want to be faithful. There’s no excuse for us to do otherwise. May these truths grip our hearts. May they control all we do in the days of our lives. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

I said something this morning I just want to clarify. Most of you here are probably aware but I made a point as I talked about sin that we are sinners from the beginning, we are born sinners. Psalm 51, David speaking in Psalm 51:5, I quoted this morning, “In sin did my mother conceive me.” That means from the moment of conception, it’s not the sexual act that brings about conception is sinful. God planned that. Remember in the garden before sin He said, “be fruitful and multiply,” “fill the earth.” So there’s nothing wrong with that but what happened with sin and in Romans chapter 5, remember in Adam all sinned. One man sinned and all his descendants have that passed on to them. So, when conception takes place that goes back to Adam, the ability to reproduce humanity but now the human nature is corrupted by sin. So that happens from birth.

Where does that leave children? I don’t want to leave a misunderstanding. Well, they’re born sinners. Salvation comes when you believe in Christ. What about babies? What about those who may not develop the mental ability to understand biblical truth and the gospel? Are they lost? I think the Scripture is clear as we put it together. I want to say there’s not one verse, one passage. It’s not like we can go to Paul and he says let me explain to you what happens to infants who die and the death of infants would have been a more common experience in those days because they didn’t have the advance of medicine and so on. It’s more common for women to die in childbirth in those days and down toward much more recent history. I was reading this past week some biographies of Puritans and reminded his first wife died in childbirth with the birth of their first child. His second wife died when she was giving birth to their third child. These things just went on. Three of the children that were born died but two survived to adulthood. Those things went on. So it was going on in Paul’s day. It’s not directly addressed but I think there are indications that God in His grace, the death of Christ will bring redemption to infants. That’s an encouragement to those who have children who die in infancy. What happens? Well praise the Lord, they were spared the trials and difficulties of this life. They may have lost the pleasure of their being your family, but you have the joy of knowing they are in God’s presence there’s something special about that.

I think there’s several indications that children are saved. Maybe go to one reference that’s often used. In 2 Samuel chapter 12 when David’s son that he fathered with Bathsheba God says that baby is going to die because of David’s sin. Well, that baby didn’t sin, David sinned. But that baby was born a sinner. There would have been no death of babies if Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned. As we saw in Romans 5, death came into the world as a result of sin. It was not part of the original creation. If it hadn’t been for sin Adam and Eve would be alive today and so would everybody else who had ever been born because death came into the world because of sin. But after the baby dies, in verse 23 of 2 Samuel chapter 12, if you want to write it down, they ask David why have you stopped mourning now that the baby died? You usually think, well if a baby dies that’s when I start mourning. But David was mourning and beseeching God to spare the baby because God had told him he was going to die. He wouldn’t eat. He didn’t get showers or baths but now the baby dies, and he says I’m going to get cleaned up. Prepare me dinner. That’s why they ask the question. He says in verse 22, while the child was still alive I fasted, I wept, I said who knows maybe the Lord will be gracious and the baby may live, but now he has died. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, he will not return to me. Some take that to mean, well the baby would be in heaven and David says he’s going to him. That may be there but I don’t think you could depend on this verse for that. David may be simply saying I can’t bring the baby back to life. That’s what he does say here, can I bring him back again? No. I can’t bring him back to life. In fact what’s going to happen is I’m going to join him in death. The Old Testament just doesn’t talk a lot about life after death. There was and the Old Testament tells us that David would reign when the Messiah reigns so some of those things. There is resurrection. Job said I know in my flesh I will see God. So there are those indications, but life after death is not developed so I wouldn’t say that may not be but the simplest explanation is David is just going to say I couldn’t do anything to bring him back to life. Just the opposite of that I’m going to die.

Come over to Ezekiel chapter 18. This is one very key chapter if I was going to say one chapter that I would use to say babies will be saved I would use Ezekiel 18. I think there’s other evidence but this would be the one chapter. In Ezekiel 18 what Israel is saying, the complaint of Israel at this time, the Jews were saying at the present time, well, we didn’t do that much bad stuff. It’s our parents that did the bad stuff and we’re suffering for our parent’s actions. Like today some kids blame their parents. My parents were the bad ones and I just have suffered because of what they do. Their expression was in verse 2 of chapter 18 Ezekiel, “the fathers eat sour grapes but the children’s teeth are set on edge.” We’re paying the penalty for our parent’s sin. God is offended by that. You don’t try to pass off your sinful actions by blaming someone else. No one else is ever to blame for your sin. Now they may have made it easier for you to sin. They may have contributed. All this may be so but each of us are accountable to God for our sin, for not doing what God says we should do. “As I live declares the Lord God, you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore.” I’m going to come down so hard on you that you have no out but to acknowledge it was my sin, not my parents sin, not somebody else’s sin. Then he goes on, “behold all souls are Mine.” They are all under His control, His authority. He makes the decisions. “The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.” What he is saying is that each one is accountable for his own sin. A key passage. It’s developed in later scripture, but it’s laid out as clear as could be. I don’t care what someone else does to me, how they treat me, it will never be an excuse for my sin. Could God put it any stronger? Everybody is accountable to Me. All souls are Mine. That’s the context here. The soul of the father, the soul of the son. The soul that sins will die. Every individual is responsible for his own sin. Then he goes on, you practice righteousness and so on then you get rewarded accordingly.

You come down, we’re not going to read the whole section, but I encourage you to read it. It’s not connected. Verse 10, a godly man may have an ungodly son. Just to summarize this, you’ll have to read the in between for yourself firsthand, then this man, he walks in my statutes verse 9, he is righteous, he’ll live. He may have a violent son who sheds blood and does all these bad things though the father didn’t any of them. Well, the son will bear the responsibility. There’s no guarantee. A godly parent doesn’t guarantee a godly son. An ungodly parent doesn’t guarantee your son will be ungodly. That’s what he’s going through here. Everyone is accountable for their sin. It’s a reminder we are all going to stand before Christ at one of the judgments. There will be no excuses. Well Lord, for slaves, well I had a master who was the worst of the masters. I know. I gave you that master. Now how did you conduct yourself? Well, I couldn’t help it. It’s not an excuse. You could have done what I told you to do. You could have been a righteous, godly slave and endured that. You know we all know this. We try to shift the blame. We want to be careful here. This is a serious matter. Nobody is going to shift the blame. Remember God will try the motives of the heart, He’ll see the inner recesses. I the Lord try the motives. We saw that earlier today in Jeremiah 17: 9, 10. Paul said I’ll wait until God judges the motives of the heart. He knows my motives. I don’t even know for sure my motives ultimately. I know of anything against me, but I can’t declare myself home free because God knows my heart. He’ll judge my motives. We want to be careful we don’t delude and deceive ourselves. So he goes both sides here. A godly parent may have an ungodly child. An ungodly parent may have a child who is godly.

Come down, he says that the child won’t die for the sin of the father. Well if a baby, we’ll take it is still born, get it as early as we can, dies in the birth process, that baby didn’t have an opportunity to commit any sin on its own. So if it’s going to go to hell it’s going to hell because of Adam’s sin, the Adamic sin passed on. So I take it in that context, I think this is supported by the fact that all the judgments of scripture are based on works. Works are a manifestation of our heart. Now we are not saved by our works but when God transforms us on the inside, makes us a new creature in Christ then our conduct is transformed. So everyone will be judged by their works but no one is going to heaven on the basis of their works. Here, verse 20, “the person who sins shall die,” will die. “The son will not bear the punishment for the fathers iniquity nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity. The righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself. The wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. God may put me in a context with very wicked people. That will not be an excuse for my wickedness. It may make it easier for me to practice wickedness but my own wickedness comes from my heart. So I think we see no way for babies, little children who may die to be sentenced to hell. The Great White Throne, the book of their works is opened and they are judged out of the book on the basis of their works. But be careful, that doesn’t mean that you earn salvation because the next verse says everyone whose name is not found in the Lamb’s book of life is cast into the lake of fire. Our works simply reveal what we are. When God transforms us He makes us new. “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.” So since all the judgments of scripture are based on works I don’t see how an infant, a child who does not come of age where they could be accountable and held accountable for their actions or someone who never develops the mental ability to process these things.

I think the death of Christ is provided for all. Now if God chooses to take a life at that stage before they would be able God can justly apply the work of Christ to them because He does not hold them accountable for the Adamic sin they inherited. That seems perfectly consistent. That would be true for one who never develops the mental ability to understand or grasp. So I think the scripture would support that. You could go other ways. Every time that children are used in scripture as an example like in the life of Christ, Matthew 18, Mark chapter 10, He takes a little child and says you must become like a little child. He doesn’t use them, let me take this little child. Here’s an example of a hell-deserving sinner. No, He uses them as an example that you have to have a childlike faith. So they are not in a position to be held accountable because you must hear and believe the gospel to be saved and they have not. They have not become accountable. You can see little babies, in them expressing something of the sin nature inherited because there’s a certain selfishness. They cry when they want attention. They think they should get what they want, when they want it but they don’t have the ability.

Now when are they an adult? I don’t know. When our kids were in the cradle I used to practice the gospel on them. I went in at night and they’d coo at their thing that hangs over and I’d say, let me tell you about the fact that you’re a little sinner. Your sin is serious and as you get older you’ll rebel. I don’t know when they could understand it. I don’t think they really cared at that stage. Whenever they get old enough to believe it and hear it and know it, and we pray for them. But I can’t guarantee. God says He was the father of Israel, but they were rebellious children. He say, you were so bad. Even the animal world knows who their father is. The animals know their parents but Israel, my children don’t know Me. So I want to be careful we don’t say, well we take a proverb, ‘train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it.’ That’s a general principle as the Proverbs are. They don’t guarantee that every situation is going to work out. There are certain things. We see unbelievers who were trained properly. My parents raised me to be obedient to authority. They held me accountable. That was good for me. They were believers at the time so there’s certain principles that are true in God’s world, the creation that He has created to function and so on.

So those principles have application but they are not a guarantee. If you raised those like it is a guarantee then you’re saying that God failed somewhere along the line because He said that He was the Father to Israel and Israel didn’t turn out. They are still under the judgment of God. He’s the one who said they didn’t.

So, I want to be careful, but I didn’t want to leave any misunderstanding, well Gil said that we’re sinners from birth and we’re going to hell because of sin but we have to bring in the love and graciousness in the provision. You see Christ’s death was a provision for everyone. It is not applied to anyone until they believe or Christ, His death is applied by the grace of God to one who never could believe. That doesn’t mean the people who never hear have an excuse because they manifest their sin and rejection of God, that was Romans 1, but it does tell us that God in His grace, and you have societies where infants die perhaps in larger numbers because they don’t have the medical facilities. God may be calling out some of those children for Himself. Another way to put it is only elect babies die so you could put on the tombstone of a baby, elect in the plan of God. How do you know? Because they died before they could have been old enough to be accountable. I don’t know of an age of accountability, so I think God probably didn’t tell us because we’d wait too long. Like I said, I thought well, start early. When you’re rocking them to sleep talk to them about Christ. That doesn’t mean they understand but get in the practice. That’s the conversations we have so when they become grade schoolers, teenagers, and then you really know that they’re sinners then we share. It’s just the atmosphere we want to create.

Let’s have a word of prayer. Thank you Lord for Your word. You are a God of grace and love. Lord Your love is overwhelming. You are a God of mercy and we need have no fear. You do what is right, what is consistent with Your character. You’ve provided a salvation that is abundant, that is overabundant. It is a provision you made for all knowing that all would reject. We thank You for Your grace that brings salvation to individual hearts. We thank You for the salvation that we have entered into through faith in Christ. We pray for the week before us. Whatever You bring into our lives, the difficulties, the trials and the blessings, Lord may we receive them as from You and draw upon Your strength to handle them in a way that is honoring to You. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.