A Final Word of Warning

Transcript

GR 2272
04/25/2021
A Final Word of Warning
Romans 16:6-20
Gil Rugh

We are looking at the end of the book of Romans, Romans chapter 16. We are moving toward the close of this extensive letter of the apostle Paul. He’s covered the main body of the letter. In chapter 16 he’s pulling things together. Paul has never been to the church at Rome but he’s looking forward to coming. As we saw in chapter 15, verse 24 he was planning on an evangelistic trip to Spain. Paul’s passion, remember, was to take the gospel to a place that it had never been taken before. He’s focusing on the Gentile world, obviously. His anticipation is to go to Spain, make a stop in Rome, visit, have some ministry there to be encouraged by the saints but it’s amazing how many people he knows or has had contact with in one way or another in his ministry. It has impacted many lives.

He’s moved into talk about them. The only ones we know in this list that really goes down to verse 16, we know anything else about Prisca and Aquilla that he mentions in verse 3 and has some comments about them. We looked at them and Paul’s contact with them in his ministry. The others in many ways are just names to us but I think it is important in that God has seen fit to have them included here. The Spirit moved Paul to put these comments there and they serve as a reminder to us even though they are just names to us of how God works in bringing people together and the role everyone plays in the ministry of the body.

One thing Paul does stress in this section from verse 2 down to verse 16 particularly are that these are people that are all “in the Lord,” “in Christ.” He’s talking about these are people that I have a bond with because of the redemption we have with “in Christ.” Let me just point these out to you. In verse 2, “receive her in the Lord.” A reminder this is a spiritual connection. He’s referring to Phoebe here who is our sister, a fellow believer. “You receive her in the Lord.” Down in verse 3, “greet Prisca and Aquilla, my fellow workers, in Christ.” Down in verse 7 he talks about Andronicus and Junias, we’ll mention those. That’s where we’ll be picking up. “My kinsmen, who were in Christ,” the end of verse 7, “before me.” “In Christ” and again “greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.” “Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ.” “Appelles, the approved in Christ.” Herodion, Narcissus, “who are in the Lord.” Twice in verse 12 as he mentions the people there, “workers in the Lord.” “The one who is beloved who has worked hard in the Lord.” “Rufus, a choice man in the Lord.” This repetition down in verse 22, he’ll mention “Tertius greet you in the Lord.” This repetition of the reminder we are together in Christ. We are bound together in the Lord. Each of these have had a part to play. Paul appreciates their fellowship in the ministry of truth. By and large they are part of the church in Rome so they’ve become, obviously, somewhat of a larger church because these are those that Paul can comment on by name. He has had some contact with them and you think of how many there would be since he hadn’t been there who he didn’t have a personal relationship.

We’re going to pick up with verse 7. We talked about those down in verse 6. We didn’t say much because all we know is the name Mary which was a very common name. It says she has “worked hard for you” so Paul kept contact with a variety of people, and he could talk about them. They are people that those in Rome know and that Paul knows. Mary is a name, and she has “worked hard for you,” on your behalf. That’s a great compliment. He obviously doesn’t go into detail. We don’t know any more about her than that.

“Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen, my fellow prisoners who are outstanding among the apostles who were also in Christ before me.” We have a little more information on them. It’s not like Prisca and Aquilla that we know about the ministry they shared with Paul, but we see something about them. We don’t know any more about the context, they are his kinsmen. Evidently they are related to him, physically. It is interesting Paul doesn’t talk about his physical family but evidently some of them had become believers, perhaps as a result of Paul’s salvation. That would be the logical connection.

We won’t go back there but in Acts chapter 23 remember when Paul was imprisoned, and the Jews had bound themselves together in an oath. I think there were forty Jewish men who bound themselves in an oath that they wouldn’t eat or drink until they killed Paul. Then they wanted to sit up a case where Paul would be brought before them. He’s under Roman authority now. The Romans have arrested him. The Jews were going to get the Romans to say let’s have a meeting here and then they were going to kill Paul. What is interesting to us is it says the son of Paul’s sister heard about it and told Paul and Paul sent him to the Roman authority. Then they transported Paul under the cover of Roman soldiers out of town. There we see Paul’s sister’s son. He’s having contact with his family and they are favorable toward Paul. When the sister’s son overhears this conversation, he carries the information to Paul and so on. So just a little bit here when he says, “my kinsmen.” We don’t know what kind of kinsmen or what kind of relatives they were but indication of something in Paul’s family.

“And my fellow prisoners,” those who had shared imprisonment. We don’t know if they were imprisoned with Paul when Paul was on an occasion, 2 Corinthians tells us that Paul experienced this. We know of some of it, or they had been in prison for the gospel at a different time than Paul, maybe in a different place but nonetheless Paul considers them “fellow prisoners,” because they are in prison for the truth. You see something about what was going on. The scriptures are only concerned with following a certain line and we are grateful for that because if it was filled with all the details of all these people we’d have multiple volumes that we just wouldn’t be able to work through. So, it’s not surprising but it’s interesting to see “my kinsmen,” “my fellow prisoner, who are outstanding among the apostles.” You can translate this a variety of ways. They are well known among the apostles. Some translations translate it that way and that is a good translation of the Greek. I think it is probably the best translation that gives you the force of it here. Where this becomes an issue, now that we’ve talked a little bit about it, is on Junias. Is that a masculine or feminine name? It really becomes an issue because with the rise of feminism and what is called sometimes, I think an oxymoron, “evangelical feminism” we begin to look for ways in the scripture to promote women to a higher position. So some take this to be a woman and she’s outstanding among the apostles meaning she was an apostle like Paul. I think you are really stretching here. It’s hard to find out is it a male or female. I’ve got down the uses. It’s a very rare name. I have three names listed, one from close to the first century, Plutarch. This was the name of the sister of Brutus. Then you had two men from the fourth century, one of them, and they are both drawing from Romans 16. So you see we’ve got one name here outside of Romans. Now we have two men in the fourth century referring to Romans 16. One of them used it as a woman and the other uses it as a man. So you get into this kind of, I don’t want to say pay your money and take your choice, but that’s probably not a good way to handle scripture. It’s that open ended. I think the simplest explanation, I’m fine. Andronicus is a man’s name. If Junias is a woman and it depends on how you accent it, it’s probably a husband and a wife. We saw Prisca and Aquilla, a husband and a wife down in verse 15 you have a man and a woman named, Philologus and Julius, that’s a man and a woman. Joined together like that may well be a husband and a wife so I think that’s the simplest thing here. Andronicus and Junias who were relatives, one being a relative and the other by marriage, just like we’d talk about a sister and her husband, you’d call them your family because they become family whether it was birth, by marriage here. So that’s a simple way to take it. They are well known among the apostles, they do have this connection with Paul. They “were in Christ before me.” That tells us some of these relatives were saved before Paul which is interesting. “They are my kinsmen.” Just what level but they were “in Christ before me.” I mentioned the Acts 23 and maybe some of Paul’s family were saved as a result of what happened to him. Maybe Paul had been prepared but it took the direct intervention of God in Paul’s life, so he never says, well it was through the testimony of so and so and so and so. He was at the stoning of Stephen earlier in the book of Acts, but he doesn’t indicate that his testimony when we martyred him made such an impact on me. How did God get a hold of him? On the road to another town to persecute the believers there. No indication that the truth that God had graciously exposed him to had softened him in any way but yet God directly intervenes and takes hold of him. But there has been at least, these exposures that Paul had to the gospel, but he doesn’t tell us enough about them. Here is as much as we might find out about relatives. They “were in Christ before me,” sort of a surprise to see that but God was working.

Alright, so as far as people, and you’ll see this used, you can get pages. In fact I have a few pages of notes on the issue of Junias. We’re just not going to go there tonight. No matter if it’s a man or a woman you don’t want to build a case that she was an apostle and on the level of Paul and build a whole case this is one of the reasons why when Christ came He changed the role of women. Then you have to deal with Paul writing to Timothy at Ephesus, “I don’t allow a woman to teach or be an authority over a man. So I just think simply it is probably a husband and a wife. They were well known among the apostles. Their testimony was evidently strong because they’ve been to prison as Paul had, so outstanding people. They are noted well in heaven and their names have been preserved in the word of God.

Then the other names you go down here, and the way he describes in verse 8. He’s “my beloved in the Lord.” I love him “in the Lord.” When Paul talked that way about a person you expect there is some personal connection but we just don’t know any more.

“Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ,” and then the next name, “my beloved.” Paul feels a personal connection with these people and maybe at different times he had travelled even though he hadn’t been to Rome, he had had contact with them in various settings and the fellowship of believers would have been small. Remember Paul is the key person in opening the Gentile world to the gospel so here we find people, Jew and Gentile alike.

Another one in verse 10 who is “approved in Christ.” In Greek those who are just of the household of Aristobulus which might mean either that he was a believer who had passed away. He’s evidently known so he uses his connection but he doesn’t mention Aristobulus but maybe Aristobulus wasn’t there but some of his family were.

Another one of Paul’s kinsmen in verse 11, “Herodion my kinsman.” So God had worked in Paul’s family and it would always be interesting to and I wonder, you are raised as a Pharisee, in the family of Pharisees, in that line. Now people are getting saved. The impact and how did they deal with it? Well we know some of the family had gone to prison, evidently been released. Here’s another one we know, Herodion, my kinsman.

Another one, the household and they are “in the Lord.” Paul, this is important to him, fellow Christians. Then you have several other workers “in the Lord” in verse 12. So we looked at the “in the Lord” but you see how he describes the different ones, “beloved,” “the workers,” “in the Lord.” “Greet Persis,” in verse 12, “the beloved, who has worked hard in the Lord.” How did Paul know about all of this? You didn’t call people, you didn’t email, things took a while to circulate but Paul knows about this church. “Rufus” in verse 13 is “a choice man in the Lord and I view his mother as my mother.” Just the closeness of the family. He’s a “choice man in the Lord,” and he also wants to greet his mother. She’s a mother to me too. There’s been some personal contact even though Paul hasn’t had the privilege to be at the church at Rome. Some where along the line He’s met these people and developed a relationship. Then you have a list of names. I want you to greet them and the brethren with them, so this is not a complete list. And another list and all the saints that are with them in verse 15. “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches greet you.”

So the church at Rome, you are at the center of the Roman empire. The world empire of the day. This is an important church. It’s got people that are solid believers. They are not the just the famous ones, but they are famous in the right sense, their names are in heaven. They are well known there. Many of them Paul knows. Some of them he has to just group together, “all the saints that are with them.” I wonder how large the church in Rome was. Evidently it had grown to be a sizeable group.

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” That was the standard way of greeting in biblical times like our bumping elbows, shaking hands, giving a hug. I don’t know that it means we have to do that anymore than some other command but there is to be a warmth in our relationship with one another. We care about one another, we’re family. Our spiritual family in the final analysis supersedes our physical family. Paul mentions some physical family of his here but it is because of their connection spiritually. They were “in Christ before me.” That’s all about being “in Christ,” “in the Lord.” We love each other. We are willing to sacrifice for each other, to work hard for each other. “All the churches of Christ greet you.” To summarize, he doesn’t go into a list but normally it doesn’t mean every church in every place but every one that he’s had contact with he wants them to know they want him to pass on their greetings, so the encouragement there is.

Now we’re going to get closer to the end. “Now I urge you brethren,” you have to be careful. We talked about these people in the church but there are those who would infiltrate the church who are not family, and they will cause problems. You get the idea that this already had potential error. Maybe that’s why Paul had to deal with some of the things he did in the letter and clarify for Jew and Gentile their situation and condition. This was a constant issue in Paul’s churches. “I urge you brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. For the report of your obedience has reached to all therefore I am rejoicing over you but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” it’s a constant concern of Paul and it needs to be a concern for all of us. He brings us together in a family. We were the children of the devil. Now we are the children of God. We were the slaves of sin, now we’re the slaves of righteousness, but that doesn’t mean that Satan goes away and leaves us alone. He has got fracture and damage the family. His goal is to infiltrate and undermine the work of God.

Come over to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. A familiar passage but it comes up repeatedly in the letters of the New Testament, so I just picked this as an example of another church. Verse 1 of chapter 11, “I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness but indeed you are bearing with me, for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I betrothed you to one husband, that is to Christ, that I might present you as a pure virgin, but I am afraid as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you’ve not received or a different gospel which you have not accepted you bear this beautifully.” The danger is that believers would be gullible because we want to be a welcoming congregation. Those who profess to belong to Christ, we want to welcome them, we want them to feel at home, but we have to be careful because the devil is trying to infiltrate. Part of it, the truth is what the church is about. This is a battle being waged today. The name “evangelical” is rapidly losing any real significance. It’s like the name “Christian” and pretty soon we look for another name because all Protestants are calling themselves Christians and all Roman Catholics are call themselves Christian so we’ve go to find something else. Then we come up with “evangelical.” What does that mean? It’s come to mean a general agreement on basic gospel truth. We talked about inerrancy and errancy. Is the Scripture inerrant? Well, there’s a major movement among those who call themselves “evangelical” that say that’s not important. What’s the foundation for everything we believe? The trustworthiness of Scripture.

So, these things make there way in and we as Christians want to be wise but not gullible. We want to be discerning. Everyone’s welcome to come and hear the Word but we are not accepting of people who would come and teach contrary things to what we understand the word of God to teach. Well then people will think we are narrow, we are exclusive. Well, we are! We want it to be in a biblical way. We don’t want to draw lines beyond the Scripture like the Jews did. They came up with a whole list of rules and regulations to protect the laws of the Mosaic Law. Pretty soon you’ve got your human laws built on biblical laws. We want to be careful. What the word of God teaches is what we have to hold.

Come back to Romans 16:17. We want to pick up some specifics here. “I urge you brethren,” these are believers, “keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances,” and you note the standard. “Contrary to the teaching which you learned.” The truth that’s been taught. This is not just tradition. This is truth that’s been taught. Paul has worked through the gospel. We want to be careful that people come in and would corrupt that. He dealt with some of that issue when he dealt with the issues of the Law when you got into chapter 2 and how the Law and so on because sometimes Jews would come into these Gentile churches; it’s a constant struggle. Galatians was written to deal with this problem as well. Well yeah, you Gentiles, yeah, we agree with you Jesus is the Messiah. We believe He died on the cross and was raised from the dead. We are with you, but you Gentiles have to understand. God gave the Law to Moses and those laws are still binding so you only have part of the gospel. Paul didn’t give you it all. And they could have all kinds of reasons. There were false letters that were circulated that Paul references, as though a letter came from me teaching that. In those days you couldn’t just get on and check it or check what someone else taught and believed. So, they said, well you know, it makes sense, and they know the Old Testament better than we do. Now you’ve corrupted. Remember Paul started out Galatians so strong “even if an angel from heaven preaches another gospel” he’s cursed. So the concern here.

“Keep your eye on those who cause dissension.” “Keep your eye on” we get the English word “to scope.” You know we say go scope something out, look it over, check it out, we use it we have scopes and things like that. It comes from this. We’ve just transliterated the form of this word over. It means to keep your eye on something. Look in Philippians chapter 3. We were in Ephesians, just after Ephesians from our morning study, Philippians chapter 3. He uses the word, but he uses it in the opposite side, keeping an eye on those who were teaching the truth. Look at Philippians chapter 3 verse 17. “Brethren, join in following my example and observe” and there’s our word. It’s translated “observe” here. It’s the same word. “Keep your eye on,” “those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.” Why? “For many walk of whom I have often told you and now tell you even weeping, they are enemies of the cross of Christ.” They are not believers at all. They are on their way to destruction. We saw this when we studied Jude. But somehow they have maneuvered their way into the church and they’re there and they do great damage. This happens in our schools and our seminaries. We talked about this, we’ll talk about it a little bit more in our discussion time. One person, we have to be careful, can do great damage. We have to be careful we don’t go to the other side and become so closed that maybe an immature believer gets closed out. We want a place for less mature Christians to grow. We want to be careful. That’s why we try to be careful as people take on responsibility and so on. That we don’t just move people along because they’ve, as churches do, give a lot of money or do this. There was a point in my ministry where a couple that gave a large money, and I don’t know that most of you would know them. They’re both deceased for some time. But I talked about Roman Catholics and they came into my office that week, and said if you talk that way about Roman Catholics again, we will not give and we want all of our money back. What happened, one of their kids had married a Roman Catholic. Well, what do you do? Do you compromise truth? All I can say is the ministry is not for sale. I mean, what do you do? But if we’re not careful, people get in, these are nice people. They had taken us to dinner, offering their time. They couldn’t have treated us any nicer. But, the truth is the truth. So, we want to be careful, these little ways people get in, we get attached and then maybe the truth can be altered. And we try to stretch it. Well, we don’t always have to be pointing out what’s wrong with other people. And just back off. Well, where does that stop? Somebody else has the problem with this and pretty soon we just want to have a church that is open. And we just deal with the essentials. Well, what are the essentials? I thought God decided the essentials, He put them here. Then we become God’s editor. Like the professors I eluded to, who said, well I believe in inerrancy, but I don’t believe it’s necessary for other professors in our school to believe in inerrancy. Wait a minute. Then you don’t believe it, in the sense that it’s something that is important. I believe that baked potatoes with pepper taste better than baked potatoes with sour cream. Is that the way you hold it? You’re a sour cream guy? I’m a pepper guy. He’s an inerrancy guy, I’m a none inerrancy guy. And all of a sudden it becomes a matter of taste. Then, where does it stop?

Alright, Romans 16:17, “I urge you, brethren, keep your eye.” I mean, we want to be alert! We want to pay attention. They “cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.” That teaching is not acceptable. I purposely point out. I’m going to reference a book this evening I’ll recommend to you. He’s going to point out names. I think it’s important that those who influence Christians, we know about them. They don’t have to come personally to our congregation. If you imbibe their teaching, wherever you get it, it influences you. Want it to be clear, I see there is error in that, it’s contrary to what we as a church teach and believe the word of God teaches. It’s not acceptable teaching because, well they’re not here, why do you have to bring them up? I mentioned a teacher in evangelicalism a while back and someone came up and said, I thank you for teaching that. It was recommended to me by a number of Christians so I’ve been getting on the intranet and reading their material. I didn’t know that they held some of those things. The Devil is a master at disseminating His information. We see a lot of that in the world broadly. But we’re concerned about it biblically. And we as believers get tied into it, and if we’re not careful we lose the protection because, I like them and I relate to the way they present it. And if we’re not careful, we get out from under the umbrella of the mature leadership. This is what Paul had to deal with. It’s contrary to what you’ve been taught. The truth, like he taught it in Romans. We’re dealing with the same kinds of things. Just because he’s effective, they’re flattering speech is effective. No one is denying that they are effective communicators. But if they’re not communicating truth, they’re communicating error, then they are more dangerous. So, they’ll cause dissention. They eventually will split churches. I’ve given examples before, I won’t go back and give others. And it keeps going on. What did he say about them? I mean he’s been so warm. They are my beloved in the Lord. They are approved in Christ in the way he’s described. But when you get outside of those who are faithful to truth, Paul’s not that warm softy. Verse 18, “For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ.” I like the way he puts it, Our Lord Christ, who is sovereign here? As we saw in Ephesians this morning, the head of the church which is His body. He is Lord! They’re “not slaves of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites,” literally their own belly. The selfishness of it. They’re here for their own motives, own gain. “By their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.” That’s why God put an order in the body of Christ, in the local church. Remember Acts 20? Paul appointed Elders. And then he called for the Elders of the church at Ephesus and they met with him. He warned them, they were responsible to guard the purity of the teaching of the church. These days everybody goes their own way. It’s not new. Paul has to deal with it. We read that in 2 Corinthians 11, what? You’re open to those who come and preach their own gospel. And then that undermined their confidence in Paul. Paul had to provide evidence. He says, you made me become a fool. I shouldn’t have to be defending myself from what I teach to you. But they did and that’s the way people are. And you know, it’s a constant struggle. And the smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. There’s a reason the Holy Spirit appointed Elders. It doesn’t mean that Elders are perfect and Elders can make mistakes. Elders can get off track. It is a constant task for us, to be sure we’re being faithful to truth. And it’s not just Elders, others. We’ve got to be careful that the very men we have teaching the truth, and that’s a strength you have to have, wherever they are. But you know, when it comes to the most immature and they’ll talk to me like I don’t know anything. How did they get so smart so quick? They want to point out all the ways I don’t know what I’m talking about and it just goes on. If they did it to Paul, I surely expect they’ll do it to me. They’ll do it to you. But we can’t change. And they get on the internet and want to talk about it. I mean, can’t do anything about it. But we want to protect the body. Want to be sure the truth is the final arbitrator. And we look to the mature godly people to be anchored in the truth. That has to supersede family, physical family. That has to supersede friendships. Remember, Jesus said, I came to divide families. That’s what the truth does. It’s like a knife. And if they’re not believers and then we’re battling because they can’t do that here. That can not be promoted here. If it’s not dealt with, the division will spread. It doesn’t go away. I told you examples of seminaries, I’m amazed. It’s like the disease that gets in the body, it holds on. And the earlier you get it and the more you deal with it, but it doesn’t mean that battle is over. The Devil is relentless. That’s one of His great strengths, if I can put it that way. He’s relentless. He just wears you down. Sort of like your kids, you know? When our kids were going through the teenage years, I remember saying to Marylyn, you know, they might win. You just think, they won’t quit. Everyday comes a new battle. Some parents give up early. They don’t even spank those little sinners. But at any rate, where we are spiritually. So, we don’t want to be the unsuspecting. Well no, I’ve got discernment. Well, verse 19, “For the report of your obedience has reach to all.” So, he’s not rebuking them to put them down. I’m just concerned that you stayed on that track of obedience to the truth. Just because we’re obedient to the truth today, doesn’t mean we will be next week. I don’t want the Devil to come in and destroy the health of the body. “For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you.” So, don’t misunderstand. But we have to finish well. It won’t be good enough to say, well you know, our church was faithful to the truth for ten years, or whatever, thirty years. But no, we have to finish well, individually and as a body of believers. “I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil.”

As Jesus talked to His disciples on the same idea. Wise and innocent, we don’t get drawn into these things. We don’t allow them to come in and be the problem. Verse 20, “And the God of peace.” You know the problem is, conflicts come and we take our eyes off the focus. I have to say it happens every time we have a conflict as a church. Once you take your eyes off of the focus on truth, which is the issue here, and get on personalities. How I feel about it. Where are you going to go with that? Years ago I set up appointments and I had people come in, and they want to start the conversation, this is not about disagreements over doctrine. But we’re leaving because of. . . Wait a minute, we’ve got to nail this down. We all stumble and we all stumble in many ways. So, that’s not the last word, I don’t want it. But the peace of the body gets unsettled, and then. But we have to hold to the truth. So, when all the dust settles, the church is still about truth. And some of those who stumble, recover. Some of those weren’t believers to begin with. I have serious questions about the teachers who promoted that. That’s true in the seminary I attended and some of the other seminaries. Where are these people that brought the dissention? Were they believers to begin with? Even so, some of them are still well respected in the evangelical world. The destruction they caused, people seem oblivious to it. Don’t underestimate the enemy. And he connects that, where did this come up with? The God of peace, He’s the one who brings the peace. Because what unites us, is the bond we have in Christ and that’s founded on the truth of God’s word. Verse 20, “And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Where did this all begin? Back in the garden and what is often taken as the first mention of the gospel and it’s form. Where the serpent will bruise your heal and the head of the serpent will be crushed. Satan is going to be crushed. The ultimate source of it, as we’ve talked about in Ephesians, and we will get to there, is the Devil infiltrating, infiltrating, infiltrating. And He won’t quit. You fight one battle and and then another, and then another. Pretty soon, you get tired of fighting the battles. Then you say, I’d like to go to a church where they just have peace for a little longer time. But that would be a church that the Devil doesn’t bother. Where would that be? If it’s about truth because He hates truth. Yes, we always have to be ready for the battle, but to enjoy the peace and want to promote the peace.

Verse 20, “The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” That’s how he wraps up. He’s got some concluding comments that we’ll have to go through. And they’re important but the word of warning he ends on. I don’t want to be turning every rock and inspecting everybody with a microscope, that they might be off track. You know, he’s open in his love and appreciation. But I don’t want to stop be watchful and aware. You look around and see what’s going on. Take it out of the spiritual realm, how does a country go where it goes? Look at our country, things unravel, wait a minute. Did it happen overnight? No, it didn’t! Did it happen in the seminary I went to? No, it didn’t. One person got in, began with flattering speech, smooth flattering speech and won hearts. And built the relationships. When all is said and done, the place is destroyed. How do churches happen? Somebody came to see me awhile ago and talked about their church. They said we had a great bible believing church, we taught the word. And we had, this person came in. We just loved him. When all said and done, the church destroyed. Last I talked to someone, it’s just a struggle, you know, it’s hard to put back together what’s been so torn apart. It’s like a bomb got exploded in the building, now you say we’re going to rebuild it. Those things go on. So, we want to be committed to truth.

Alright, let’s have a word of prayer, then I want to talk with you about a few things. Thank You Lord, for Your truth. Lord, thank You for the book of Romans and the rest of scripture. What a treasure we have. Lord, we would not take it for granted. Thank You Lord for all of those You’ve brought together in this body. The love we can have for one another. The commitment to be committed to one another, to building one another up. To be faithful to the truth in all we do. And Lord, we want to be careful, that we would not become so complacent that we think we wouldn’t be influenced and infected by error. We want to trust You and Your Spirit to guide us and keep us. Bless even the things we’ll talk about now together. In Christ’s name. Amen.

First, let me recommend to you a book. George Strough, pasters in the Phoenix area, Maranatha Bible Church. He and his men, he told me, are going through this book and we have it in Sound Words. And I think you’d find it interesting. It’s the Titanic and Today’s Church, a tale of two shipwrecks. And if you like history, he weaves the history of the Titanic through the book and does it in a very interesting way. But the writer, Warren Smith, has written much on New Age Movement and the danger it places to the Church and that. And he shows things that happened to the Titanic along the way, that ended up with such a disastrous conclusion. And then he’ll come back and show what’s going on in the church and the influences there. And the things that people are ignoring. Warnings that they should be aware of. And he brings up evangelical, within the evangelical framework, I had a question about Joel Osten, he’s mentioned in here. And there are others closer to where we are. So, some of what they do, so it’s an interesting book, done a little different ways. The weaving in of history. Keeps you from maybe being overwhelmed with some of the other. But, if you’d be interested in it, it lists for $15, Sound Words has it for about $13, but she’s running a special, $5 off, so you can get it for about $8. So, if you’re involved in your reading schedule, you can’t fit another book in, that’s fine. But for some of you, maybe you’re wondering what you’ll read next, I’d recommend that too you as a, done a little differently, but I think his concerns are well put. And just an example and a reminder of how these things come into the church. And he’ll talk about what’s going on in the world, and how some of these things are brought into the church and what happened to the Titanic. And it’s interesting, you say, how could those people not be paying attention? And that they ignore things and then tying it to the church. So, recommend that to you. You can pick it up at Sound Words if you’re interested.

I had a question about Seminaries in light of my comments about Seminaries the last couple of weeks. He asked about, you know some of our men have gone to Seminary. And some of them have taken recently, Adam and Duane did Seminary work and worked through Seminary and did well there. How do we fit this? And what are Seminaries like and how they’re influenced? I think one advantage to the way, for example you use them, not to put them on the spot, but to use them as good examples, of staying in the church and also then, benefiting from the Seminary work. If time, if the Lord would not want to lead them to another place, they have that which helps other churches know what they did. Getting harder to find a place these days to go to Seminary. Harder to find churches that will except truth. But, what do we think about Seminaries? I think the plus of that is, they stay involved in the church and involved with the ministry of the church and sorting through things together. The danger often comes when you go to any kind of higher school of learning. We might say college, we’re working on degrees or advanced degrees, you get immersed in that culture, and those professors. I shared with you, my experience when I went to one Seminary for some post graduate work and I finally just went in and told the Dean I couldn’t stay. You know, I was concerned. Can I be sure I will come out where I need to be and not be influenced. There’s something about that, part of their graciousness, Gil, we love having you here. We know you have different views on things, but we like having you have different views here. That kind of thing, you think, well yeah, we can work this out. They understand and I understand, but it softens you up. We say no, I can’t, because I’m not sure I won’t change. And I don’t want to change because I know what the word says and I know that’s not biblical. So, the danger is, I come out. I think there is pluses for that. I’m asked here, what Seminaries I would recommend. If you’re going to do studies from here, and Seminaries are moving that way. And I think that’s a good thing. The church stays more the focus. That helps you keep sorting things out as you go along. Not going from one class to another where you’re bombarded with this stuff. And you sort out what you’re reading. You need to learn to do that, so that’s a plus. Academic Institutions, and Seminary becomes that, I have some examples. The pressure is always there to be more scholarly, and to lose your focus. And to be scholarly, you want to be accepted and recognized as being scholarly. Now, that moves us out of being a biblical school, to a school that meets the standards of the world. For example: The kind of degrees that are acceptable for your school to be accredited by an accrediting association. Well, maybe they’re not schools that are helpful in the equipping men and so on. So, the pressure for school, your library has to be of a certain kind and have a certain balance, certain number of volumes and all those things go on. Seminary is supposed to be a place to teach Pastors. So, I’m going to use Masters Seminary as an example. I have great appreciation for John MacArthur and the ministry he has and has had. And his faithfulness to the word. And appreciated Masters Seminary where a number of our men went. A number of years ago, we had more men from Indian Hills at Masters Seminary than any other church in the country except John’s church. I have appreciation, the men that have been there. But I am concerned where they’re going. My last journal, this was from the fall of 2020. They publish a theological journal. Some of you get it. It’s available online. They have a new president, John is no longer the president there. The new president may be a good man, I don’t know very much about him. But, the Seminary begins to take on, and this has been going on for some time. To get academic credibility by Crediting Associations. For example, there was one man there who was a professor. He preached here. He didn’t have a doctors degree, but he’s a good man and he’s pastored churches and he pastored as well and has taught there. Solid theology, but he was told, if you don’t go on and get a doctors degree, we cannot keep you on the faculty, because the Crediting Association requires men on this level to have earned their doctors degree. He ended up leaving the faculty because he said, I’m just not interested in spending the time doing that. He went on to pastor a church. The new president has the editorial in this journal from the fall of 2020. One of the goals, and I’m not reading everything, one of the goals in Masters Seminary journal is to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the same doctrinal truths that have marked this institution since its inception. I question the honesty of that. I’m familiar with Masters Seminary from its inception. I talked with the men who were involved in the founding of it. I think their doctrine is changing. It was dispensational, it’s moved to more Reformed. In fact, the first article in this journal is by a man who’s a professor of a Reformed Seminary. And he’s relying on a man he recommends who is a reformed man. I don’t think, I think the doctrine subtly changes. It just makes it’s way. I don’t know where all the men that are there are. Most of the men that I knew at the Seminary were solid, strong, dispensationalists have passed away, moved on. But I know those men that started it, where they were. I know where John was. We’re going to have a seminary that’s a three year Seminary. We’re training Pastors, we’re not interested in getting into the other things. Well, then the three years to train Pastors becomes four years to get another master’s degree. Then well, we need to train men to be scholars, to teach in Seminaries, so now we have a PH. That caused some disagreement among the original faculty. I don’t want to get into that. We need scholars, but we want to be careful. So, what’s happening now with the journal? Historically, the Master’s Seminary Journal has been written for the laymen. But now, we have blogs. The Master’s Seminary has a blog. So, we don’t need to have a journal that’s addressed to laymen. So, what Pastors and Church members need, are faithful academic resources. I’ve been a Pastor for awhile, I don’t need anymore academic resources. We’re doing the book of Ephesians. I have more commentaries on the Greek exegetical evaluation of the book of Ephesians that I can read. And the some of them are so academic I don’t bother reading them, because I can’t understand them. Now, here’s what he goes on to say, The church waits for the scholarship of men and women who fear and tremble before the word of God, and then speak truth into issues thus far saturated with liberal scholarship. This is the new direction for the Master Seminary Journal. We’re no longer geared to just ordinary people who want to know the word. And basically I tell you, they are no longer geared to Pastors. I’ve read the articles. To me, it’s like Bib Sac. I’ve gotten Bib Sac for since about 1965, you figure out how long that is. I’m not renewing. It’s not talking about things, and the things they talk about, when I can understand it, I don’t agree with it. It’s a little bit of everything, for everybody. And the book reviews, I used to think, well at least the book reviews, I get up, I’m thinking they’re really approving this? They really think this is something helpful for believers? I don’t think the move toward, we’re making this for scholars. So, as I say, the first article, the man may get his masters degree at Masters Seminary. They went on to get a doctors degree of a Covenantal Seminary and has gone on to be a professor at a Covenantal. And I’ve read one of his previous books, and he is an out and out Covenantalist. I thought we were holding to the doctrine we had? He is writing an analysis of this particular person. I don’t want to go into who it is and how he helped to do biblical theology. But he’s covenantal. Then I get another, or second article in it. I mean we’re getting, this is a methodology for Genus Parallelism, you’ll want to get this one if you’re a teacher. But he’s a PH candidate at Cambridge University. I don’t doubt he’s a scholar. It goes on and on. Some of the articles will still be ok. But we’re moving. We’re for scholars. What about that conversation I had once with, it doesn’t matter who, we’re just going to be a Seminary that teaches Pastors. Three years and out into the Pastorate. Well, now we’re a scholarly group. I remember when I talked with the person building the library. Well, we’ve got to build a library. They come in and evaluate it and our library doesn’t meet their standard yet. We have to do that. Then the men don’t have degrees, well if we get a man on faculty that has a PHD from Cambridge, that will count. Who got into all this? Well, you remember George Elton Ladd? He thought men who wanted to go into the ministry ought to go to Harvard and get a doctor of theology degree. Well, what kind of theology would you get? But, you will be recognized in the scholarly world. We just drift. And I’m ragging on, but I still have appreciation for there. Would I recommend men to go there for Seminary? Probably not. Where would I recommend them? Talk to Duane and Adam. Do it online. Say here. Not that we’re the perfect place. If you’re online watching us and you’re in a great church and thinking of Seminary, do it at that church and do it online. I’m not saying this is the end of your search for the perfect church. Perfect Preacher, yes, perfect church, no. But really, what’s going on? I’m thinking, I tracked this place from it’s beginning and how long does it take to go off track? And I knew it was coming, there were professors that I knew there that said I’m not going to the conference their having because the theology of the men they’re bringing in for the conference is so bad, I will not sit and listen to them. I said, who’s bringing these men in? Well, you know, you have to be broader. This killed Dallas Seminary. Well, you know, they were too inbred and so they didn’t get scholarly acceptance, so they sent people to Europe to get degrees and think they’ll come back ok. I was going to read you some book reviews from Bib Sac, but I’ll spare you that. I read the book review and it’s, I’ll just read you the title. I mean the title ought to tell you something. Reading While Black African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope. You know, this whole idea that different nationalities, different races, male and female, all interpret the bible their own way. I thought there’s one Bible and one interpretation. Remember, you do hermeneutics, there’s one interpretation of every text. I don’t have to learn how another race interprets the Bible. I don’t know how we have to have women who bring their expertise, so we learn how to interpret the bible from a woman’s interpretation. You see what’s happening? All objective truth is out the window. And it’s not that they are pointing out the dangers of these books, they’re recommending them and say how great they are. Well, you know, that’s like the world, you have your truth, I have my truth. Men have their truth, women have their truth. Asians have their truth. White’s have their truth. Blacks have their truth. Brown’s have their truth. And we all interpret the bible our own way. So, we have to be open to learn from one another and somehow we’ll come to what? Some kind of muddled mixture. This is objective truth. It’s not any different for a man than it is for a woman. That’s how they got women into seminary. Well, they are going to be teaching women.

I had a seminary professor from an evangelical school. He said you know what they did? They brought women in and then they took seminary classes. They were supposed to be training pastors. Then women are good at languages, so you know the next thing they did? Men may not be as good with the language so they had the women become the tutors for the men in language and that helped the men get adjusted to having women teach them. This was the seminary professor who was there when this was all going on. Now they are professors at the seminary writing. I don’t know, it’s going on all around us. Where does it stop?

I was looking at a seminary, I mentioned it with the elders. I can tell it’s one of the best to be around yet but they make the note, all of our degree programs are open for females. That was the word they used. What is that if you are training pastors? Well, it’s in there, we understand women are going to have ministries to women. You know what we’ve decided as a church. Men are to be teaching the truth. If there’s not enough truth being taught for men we have to teach men. If there’s not enough truth being taught for women we ought to teach more truth. This is the way it comes. Now you’re going to train them the same as you trained pastors and then tell them you can’t go out and be a pastor. We just trained you to be a pastor. Is that what we do with a medical doctor? We’ll train you to be a medical doctor, but you can’t be a medical doctor. Well, they’ll be for women’s ministries. What does that mean? This is a change! When I went to seminary, I know, back when I rode my horse and went. Dallas seminary didn’t have any women. I’ve got the article when they started in my back office where every place I have as a flat place stacks up, when the president explained why they would be including women now in their training program. Every seminary comes up with the same excuses and none learn from the other. You know what? If that seminary I said was the best, where they say they are open to women, you know who teaches the languages at that seminary? Yes. A woman. And you know who was a guest professor there? A non-dispensationalist and his wife has classes for the wives of male students. How long can you hold the line? It’s like you open the door but we’re not opening very wide. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. So I am not discouraged. I am disappointed. I don’t know where to recommend people to seminary these days.

I know we want to be grounded in the word and maybe they’ll have to be grounded in the word and then what church will you go to? Are churches looking for men who will come and teach the word? I was blessed to come here and people wanted to hear the word. I don’t have people calling and asking can you recommend any men who can teach the word, our church is looking for someone. You may have to go out, take an evangelist with you and beat on doors or else, I don’t know, come to town and try to get a few Indian Hills people to come with you, a new church. I’m fine. I told the Lord in my prayer time years ago, Lord if what we do is help train good people for other churches, I want to be happy with that. I want to be glad for that.

I shared with some people lately, I told the Lord I didn’t mean that many people for other churches, but Lord, You’re doing what You know is best and I want to be happy with that too.

Alright, let’s have a word of prayer. Thank You Lord for Your blessings. We are blessed. We are Your church in this place. We thank You for other churches in this city that are committed to truth and teaching truth. Other churches in this country. I realize as we move toward perhaps the time when You will bring judgment on this world we can expect things to become more difficult. People more closed to truth, more opposed to truth, more in open opposition to truth. Lord our responsibility will be the same. How blessed we are to be entrusted with this truth. We want to be faithful. I pray for the week before us as we are scattered out in different places, we face different situations. You take us through trials. You take us through blessings. Lord wherever we are, whatever we are doing, may we be faithful with lives that are a testimony to Your grace. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.