Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Remain standing, if you're able,
and let's hear God's Word from Romans,
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Chapter Sixteen, Verses Twenty Five through
twenty seven, and these are the last
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words of the book of Romans.
Almost two years going through this book,
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Thankful for God's faithfulness to us and
the ways that he's worked in me in
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deepening my own faith and theology in
preaching through this book. I pray that
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that has been in true for you
as well. As we consider the great
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things that we've heard in this book, the things that God has been teaching
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us over the last few years,
let us lift our hearts, even as
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Paul lifts his, to the Lord
and praise to God. Romans Sixteen,
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Verses Twenty Five through twenty seven.
Now to him who is able to strengthen
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you according to my gospel and the
preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the
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revelation of the mystery that was kept
secret for long ages but has now been
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disclosed through the prophetic writings, has
been made known to all nations, according
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to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith
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to the only wise God be glory
forevermore. Through Jesus Christ, a man
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may be seated. If you have
one of the Pew Bibles, and probably
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in most of your bibles, you'll
see right above this section a little word
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doxology. Now that word is not
the text of scripture. It's inserted by
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the editors of the Bible that we're
reading from and that many of you likely
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have. It's inserted there. It's
just a heading to help us know what
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section of the book were in.
Doxology it is a kind of speech.
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It's a way of speaking. There's
lots of ways of speaking right there are
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commands, there are questions, statements
of fact. There's also doxology, praise,
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giving glory. That's the comes from
this word Docsa, which means glory.
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It's the word that's used in verse
twenty seven when it says to the
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only wise God be glory, Docsa
forevermore through Jesus Christ, docxology. So
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this passage and others like it are
often referred to as doxology. If you
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are a member here regularly attend,
you recognize that word because at the end
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of every morning service I call us
to sing a doxology to God. In
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fact, the one that we sing
and will sing at the end of our
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worship services. I'm so ancient and
so common. It's simply called the doxology.
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We just to call it that.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
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Praise him all creatures here below,
praise him above, Ye heavenly host.
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Praise father's son and Holy Ghost An. All right, that's familiar to
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us. It's doxology, it's praise
to God, it's glory to God.
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But of course there's other doxologies to
like the one we sing in the evenings
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and old him dating back to the
second century. We call it the glory
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of pottery, not because it's not
a doxology. We just can't have two
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things called the doxology. Doesn't work. So we call it the glory of
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pottery. It has other names to
it's called the glory of pottery because of
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the first words pottery, or father. Glory to the Father, glory to
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the father and to the son and
to the Holy Ego. Most as it
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was in the beginning, is now
and ever shall be, world without an
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Amen Amen. This phrase world without
end is just an old English way of
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saying ages without end or for all
eternity or, like our passage says,
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forevermore glory forevermore, on and on, on and on. Roman sixteen,
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Twenty five and twenty through twenty seven, then, is one of the biblical
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reasons, then, that we end
our services with doxology, similar following the
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pattern of the apostle here, who
ends his letter with doxology. It's always
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a great way to end things right, to lift praise to God, to
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give glory to him. But Paul's
doxology is more than a conclusion of his
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letter, just as our doxology is
more than the conclusion of our worship.
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Doxology is not just the end of
what we say to God. Doxology is
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also the entrance into our speaking to
God. Doxology is a way of life.
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Doxology is a way of living in
the glory of God and unto the
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Glory of God. I want to
tell you what that means, what it
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means to glorify God as a way
of life. But in order to do
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that we have to first understand just
a little bit about the structure of this
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passage. I think, especially for
those who are not who are new or
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inexperienced readers, I'm particularly in English, the structure of the passage is not
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overly tricky, but just a little
more subtle than some of the other things
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we've looked at. It's has a
certain amount of poetic beauty to it and
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I want to show that to you. Just as a side note. The
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fact that the doxology is magnificent or
majestic or beautiful makes sense. God is
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high and lifted up. It makes
sense that are praised to him should be
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as well. Just a quick overview
of the passage. It begins with a
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sort of address. Now to Him
who? Now to Him who? It
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goes on to say, who is
able to strengthen you? Okay, now
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to him who is able to strengthen
you. This is who Paul is a
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is addressing. He hasn't given us
a name yet, although we might take
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a guess. But to him who
is able to strengthen you. And then
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that thought finishes at the end when
it says not just to him who's able
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to strengthen you, but to him, to the only wise God. That's
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the end of the dress. It's
sort of split up a little bit.
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Then he concludes with this kind of
desire or praise or doxology, when he
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says glory or be Glory forevermore through
Jesus Christ on men. So you could
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put it this way. Now,
to him who is able to strengthen you,
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who is the only wise God,
be glory forever through Jesus Christ men.
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That's sort of the the the the
main point, the core thought.
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But then what he does is he
splits those and in beds in the middle
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of that. Some reasons for that. There's three, according tos all call
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them just for convenience, three things
and they're similar to each other, but
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they help us to understand the manner
in which we are strengthened by God,
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the wisdom that he pours out into
this world, reasons for us to glorify
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him, and that he will be
glorified whether we choose to or not.
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There are three reasons here, you
see, the according to my Gospel and
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the preaching of Jesus Christ. That's
the number one. Number two is according
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to the revelation of the mystery that
was kept secret for long ages, but
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now it's been disclosed those through the
prophetic writings. And then the final one,
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according to the command of God.
We can simplify these by saying that
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the manner in which we are strengthened
by God and one of the reasons that
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he will be glorified and that we
ought to glorify him. The manner in
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which this happens is through the preaching
of men, one who preach Christ from
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the Bible to according to the command
of God. Three. So all of
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this, I think we can put
very simply by saying this passage is about
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this eternal glory be to God,
who makes us strong through Christian preaching.
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It's kind of an amazing thing that
he's saying here, that he, Paul,
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is saying that all the glory and
all the things that God deserves in
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praise should be happen and will happen
because of preaching. This is how God
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makes us strong, this is how
God glorifies us. Before we think about
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these three things, though, it's
important that we understand our weakness right.
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This is the assumption when it says
to the God who is able to strengthen
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you, right, it's assuming something
about a need that we have. There's
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this unstated assumption here that we need
to be strengthened, that there's something lacking
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in us that only God can supply
and will supply to his glory, that
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we might live this life of doxology
in him and for him and unto him,
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there's something lacking, a lacking in
us that only God can supply.
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Now, for most of us,
this is obviously true to us. Perhaps
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you've come here this morning and you
know very well how much of a mess
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you're in. You're scared, maybe
you're anxious and worried, maybe you're sad,
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maybe you're tired, tired of things
not going well, tired of troubles
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that continue to plague you, tired
of fighting the same old things. You
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say, yeah, I know I'm
weak, you don't have to tell me
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now. Some of US affirm that
because we know we ought to from that.
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Others of US know it because we're
experiencing it right now. Some of
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us are very awakened and alive to
the fact that we are weakened, that
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we are humble, that we are
in a place of lacking. Others of
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us like to pretend that we ought
to say that, but that we don't
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really feel that way. We feel
more or less selfsufficient. We say strength
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might be nice, but I'm doing
okay, of course, until the next
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thing comes and then we remember,
how many more times do I have to
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go to the doctor? Without a
real diagnosis. How many more TRIPS DO
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I have to make to therapy before
real improvement is made? How many more
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arguments will we have to have before
the two of us can finally work it
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out? We could the list could
go on and on and on. We
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get tired, weak, we have
problems that we don't know how to solve
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in our bodies and our souls and
our relationships with God himself, struggles that
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we have in believing him and trusting
him. There's nothing wrong and bloating our
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weaknesses. In fact, being honest
about the world we live in, in
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the kind of people we are,
is the first step to strength. and
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that's not just psychological Mumbo jumbo.
It's true, because leaning on a lie
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is the beginning of failure. If
you set something, if you set your
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faith, in your hope on something
that's not true, it falls apart like
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a house built on sand. But
confessing the truth is a path to strength,
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to healing in God. It also
magnifies the glory of God, doesn't
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it? When God's glory is revealed
in the salvation of weak people, God
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is glorified. Jesus came into the
world, he humbled himself he endured all
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sorts of persecution, loss curse,
all the way up to the point of
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being whipped and humbled and hung on
across. He then rose from the dead
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ascended into the heavenly places to take
a seat of authority and Power and glory.
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If we're really all doing okay,
then this whole this whole magnificence saving
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work of God doesn't really make any
sense. Right. If it's true that
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we're all essentially doing okay, that
there aren't really sinners and we're not really
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sick, then this work of Christ
is not so magnificent and it takes on
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the tenor of the false gods who, sort of going on the a sort
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of feudal missions, find themselves doing
silly things. Not According to wisdom.
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Oh Jesus, why are you doing
all this? Why are you suffering in
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this way? It didn't need to
do this. We're all doing fine.
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But of course that's not the case. If that was the case, there
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would be no glory to God.
It would be an embarrassing mission. Right,
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God, the father would send the
son to do what? Nothing?
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But that's not what's happened. Instead
that God has been glorified in this amazing
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way, because we are weak,
because we are sinners, because we're dead
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in our trespasses, and since he
doesn't merely give us some water and help
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us feel better, he raises us
from death to life. He rescues us.
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My chains fell off, I was
set free. So this is what
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God has done in this is why
he is glorified in these things. You
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think about earthly ways that God has
saved his people. The parting of the
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Red Sea, for example, piling
up the waters on either side in huge
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heaps as the Hebrews marched through on
dry land. That's glorious, isn't it?
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The waters then consuming and crushing Pharaoh
and all of Israel's enemies, in
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all of their pride and all of
their confidence, being put to death in
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a watery grave in a moment.
That's glorious, a glorious salvation, powerful,
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amazing to think of. The flood
is another example, and the waters
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fill up, God fills the earth
with judgment and then lift snowing and his
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family up this kind of seed pod
that would become the new creation. Glorious,
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Right, God's glorious salvation through these
things. Now our baptisms are like
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this. They're not outwardly as glory
as this, but they're much more dramatic
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in a way, because they signify
and even greater salvation, the salvation that
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has talked about here in Romans,
the salvation that has been preached to us
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again and again, that in Christ
we have been saved from eternal judgment and
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hell, not just earthly enemies but
spiritual ones, hell itself. We've not
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just been brought into a new can
and we've been brought into the heavenly places,
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the New Jerusalem Mount Zion. This
passage assumes our weakness, our frailty.
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We must assume it as well if
we are to glorify God, if
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we are to live in his glory
and according to his glory. We can't
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be about glorifying ourselves. We have
to recognize our weaknesses and find our salvation
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in him. We have to assume
our weaknesses because there is no lasting life
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in pride and because by recognizing our
weaknesses, we better see the glory of
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God in our salvation. Now how
does God then strengthen us? Here are
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the according to us, the first
one, according to my gospel and the
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preaching of Jesus Christ. Have you
ever been amazed at a family member or
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a friend WHO's able to use some
kind of common household object to accomplish a
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fairly important thing. He's just a
paper clip for that. Some ways I
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feel this way about preaching. I
and every other preacher are broken and weak.
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We have sins and struggles, blind
spots, misunderstandings. Same as true
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for Paul. Paul was not Jesus. Paul was not sinless, and yet
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he says here, by inspiration of
the Holy Spirit and an according to all
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the wisdom of God and all truth, that God is able to strengthen you
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and us, according to my Gospel
and the preaching of Jesus Christ. When
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we think about this mission that God
sent his the God the father sent his
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son, on, we have to
then ask ourselves, well, if Jesus
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Christ has done all of this great
work, if you've earned salvation and for
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all the elect well then, how
can I have a pardon that? How
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can I know Jesus? How can
I belong to Jesus? How, as
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Paul asked the question in verse fourteen, how then will they call on him
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in whom they have not believed?
How do we connect to the Cross and
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the work of Christ to the people
that he died for. He answers that
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question. This is back in chapter
ten. Says how will they call on
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him, whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in
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him whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone
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preaching? And how are they to
preach unless they are sent? As it
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is written, how beautiful are the
feet of those who preach the good news?
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Paul answers it. Answers the question. The answers the question we were
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asking with a series of questions,
but you saw the connection. Right.
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Salvation in Jesus Christ comes through the
preaching of Jesus Christ. People have to
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hear him, they have to hear
the word of God. And that's why
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Paul, when he says according to
My Gospel, he doesn't mean the good
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news about Paul, because he says
according to the preaching of Jesus Christ.
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Jesus is the content of the Gospel. Jesus is the good news. But
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it is Paul's Gospel. He owns
it, it belongs to him. It's
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not because he made it up.
It's not his in that way. It's
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not because he earned the Gospel somehow
it's not because it's different than the gospel
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of Peter James, John, Matthew, Mark Luke or even Christopher. It's
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Paul's Gospel because God entrusted him with
this message and it was his to preach,
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it was his to deliver, it
was his to harold around the gentile
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world. Paul knew that he was
a servant of God, that he had
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something given to him, that he
was called to deliver. This echoes actually
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the words back at the beginning of
Romans, in Chapter One, in Chapter
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One, Verses Eleven and twelve,
Paul begins his letter and he says,
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for I long to see you,
that I may impart to you some spiritual
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gift to strengthen you. It's the
same word. I want to see you,
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I want to come to you,
that I may impart a spiritual gift
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to strengthen you. And then he's
explicit about what that is. He says
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that is that we may be mutually
encouraged by each other's faith, both yours
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and mine. There's this strengthening that
happens within the body of Christ because of
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our union with him. He works
in US and through us together, and
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part of that comes through preaching.
A large part of it comes through preaching.
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It's the focus of what Paul is
saying in terms of how these people
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will be strengthened, while the gift
comes through him, though he is not
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the gift itself. He says that
it is his Gospel, but the content
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is Jesus Christ. This is why
we call preaching a means of grace.
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It is the way or the manner
that we receive the grace of God.
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We believe that through Christ centered preaching, preaching that is according to Jesus Christ,
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that's about Jesus Christ, that Harold
Him, proclaims the good news in
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Him, that we receive God's grace
through that, that a connection is made
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by the Holy Spirit, through Jesus
Christ himself and his works for us and
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our very own hearts, God gloriously
strengthens, serves and saves us through the
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preaching of men. This is why
we confess in our larger catechism that the
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substance of Christ and the Covenant of
Grace is administered through the preaching of the
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word. Let me read one other
catechism question to you. This is one
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hundred and fifty five. How is
the word of God made effectual unto salvation.
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How is the word of God made
effectual? How does the affect and
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the power of it actually happen in
our lives? How are we strengthened to
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the glory of God? Here's the
answer. According to scripture, the spirit
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of God maketh the reading, but
especially the preaching, of the word and
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effectual means of enlightening, convincing and
humbling sinners, of driving them out of
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themselves and drawing them unto Christ,
of conforming them to his image and subduing
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them to his will, of strengthening
them against temptations and corruptions, corruptions,
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of building them up in grace and
establishing their hearts in holiness and comfort through
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faith, unto salvation. Why do
we believe that preaching is so powerful?
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Because, Paul says now to him, who is able to strengthen you according
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to my gospel and the preaching of
Jesus Christ? That's why we believe that
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Paul goes on. It's not just
preaching in general, as we've said,
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it's the preaching of Jesus Christ.
We must preach Christ from the Bible.
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There's nothing special in a guy in
a suit getting up and talking or even
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saying really nice things or even biblical
things. No, he says it's according
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to the revelation of the mystery that
was kept secret for long ages but has
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now been disclosed through the prophetic writings. What is this secret? What is
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this mystery that has been revealed to
us through the prophetic writings? It is
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Christ. I won't do it here, but there are a number of places
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throughout the New Testament that make this
point. Christ is the revelation, he
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is the one who has come and
is revealed light and life in the world,
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the light who shines in the darkness
and the darkness has not overcome it.
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This is Jesus Christ, and this
is not sort of something that is
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made up in Paul's mind, though
he was certainly taught it directly by Christ.
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He says it's been disclosed through the
prophetic writings. That's why I preach
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the Bible, because I want you
to know Jesus and Jesus is made known
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in the Bible. It's very simple, isn't it? Very wonderful and and
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very important, and it means that
in every aspect of my preaching I work
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hard to think carefully over and over
again. How does this passage reveal to
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US Christ? How does it show
this to him, to show US him?
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How is he made known to all
the nations of the world? How
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do we come to know Jesus?
And that's an important way point. I
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don't just want you to know about
Jesus, I want you to know Jesus.
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I want you to know him as
he has been revealed, to be
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closer to him, to be strengthened
by him. Again, verse twenty seven,
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to the only wise God be glory
forevermore through Jesus Christ. There's no
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glorying in God, there's no living
a life of doxology apart from him.
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So we read the word careful,
we listen to the word carefully, we
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think about how, how it applies
to our lives in knowing Jesus, Paul
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says that if you hear another Gospel, if you hear another good news and
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quotation marks there, that's not according
to this gospel of Jesus Christ, even
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if an angel would proclaim it,
it's false. You should flee from it.
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It's dangerous. This is why we
send good preachers, this is why
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we support good preaching, this is
why we send people to seminary and make
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sure they're trained and the Biblical language
and systematic theology and Biblical theology and all
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this, because we want to make
sure that they understand right how to give
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us the Bible. Because we want
Jesus we don't want his ideas, we
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don't want his own word. He
might be smart, he might be nice,
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might be all kinds of wonderful things, but if he doesn't give us
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the gospel of Jesus Christ, he's
failed at the task. Because we want
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to be strengthened, we want to
glorify God, we want to know him,
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and that's what God wants to this
mystery that has kept secret for long
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ages but now has been revealed through
the revelation of Jesus Christ, has been
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revealed by God, the son of
God himself. This is not just Paul's
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work, it is God's work through
his servant. And that brings us to
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the final of these three according Tos, according to my gospel and the preaching
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of Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery, according to the
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command of the eternal God. This
command as a kind of divine command.
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It's powerful and sort of divinely sanctioned
command, which is emphasized by this phrase
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of the eternal God. They're all
kinds of implications of this, but one
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is that we see it is God
who is ultimately doing the work here.
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Paul didn't come up with a great
program and then has sort of gone out
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into the world to accomplish something great. For God, God came up,
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the all wise God, the only
wise God, according to his will,
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has desired to save the world and
is now sending out his servants to all
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nations and all people's to bring about
obedience of faith. That's why, ultimately,
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we don't go wow, Paul,
good job and glory to you.
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No, we say glory be to
the only Wise God, glory forevermore to
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the eternal, forever faithful God.
There are other implications of this command.
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One is the limits of the preaching
of the Gospel, that the preacher ought
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to confine himself to the preaching of
the word. It also has to do
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with the zeal and the way that
he preaches the Gospel. We have another
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catechism question that addresses this that I'd
also like to read to you. How
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is the word of God to be
preached? Here's my job description. Westminster
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larger catechism one hundred and fifty eight. How is the word of God to
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be preached on the basis of what
Paul says here in Romans and other passages
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as well? Answer? They that
are called to Labor in the Ministry of
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the word are to preach sound doctrine
diligently, in seasoned and out of season,
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plainly, not in the enticing words
of Man's wisdom, but in demonstration
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of the spirit and of power,
faithfully making known the whole counsel of God,
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wisely applying themselves to the necessities and
capacities of the hearers, zealously,
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with fervent love to God and the
souls of his people, sincerely aiming at
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his glory and their conversion, edification
and salvation. We see much of the
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basis for this question right here in
Romans Sixteen, Twenty five through twenty seven,
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with an aim towards their conversion,
right the obedience of faith, with
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an aim towards their edification, that
strengthening, that building up, with an
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aim towards a salvation, which is
how it is we are saved. It
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is the good news that Jesus Christ
came to same sinners the command of God
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sort of shows, sort of it
shows us the importance of sound doctrine,
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of Diligence, of zeal and faithfulness, many other things. These are the
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three according to us. These are
the way in which God is able to
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strengthen us. Let's read it again
and put it all together. Now,
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to him who is able to strengthen
you, according to my Gospel and the
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preaching of Jesus, according to the
revelation of the mystery that was kept secret
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for long ages but now has been
disclosed through the prophetic writings, has been
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made known to all nations, according
to the eternal according to the command of
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the eternal God. And here's God's
reason to bring about the obedience of faith.
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And actually there's one other reason.
It's a little embedded up earlier.
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When it says to make known to
all the nations, they're parallel phrases and
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intended to show God's intentions. And
all of this, according to these things,
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God strengthens in order to make known
to the nations and in order to
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bring about obedience of faith in all
the nations. Well, to the only
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wise God be glory forevermore, through
Jesus, Christ men, all of this
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work, all of this effort and
energy that Paul is expending to write to
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the Romans, to go out into
the world to preach the Gospel. It's
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for a reason and ultimately it's for
the glory of God. Even our salvation,
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as important and as wonderful as that, is embedded within the glory of
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God. That's what the God of
Glory, the Glorious God, is after
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His Majesty, His might, his
glory. What is the chief end of
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man? To glorify God and to
enjoy him forever. This is what God
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is doing in us. How do
we respond solely Dale Gloria? For one,
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to use a reformation phrase, to
God alone be the glory. We
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repeat it, we sing it,
we live it and we do it in
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Jesus Christ, through faith in Jesus
Christ, attending to him, particularly in
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the means of grace. If the
pharmacist says I'm sending prescription to all Greens
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on the corner of Vina and La
Choya, you better go to IINA and
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La Choya and pick up your prescription. If God says I'm going to give
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you myself in the preaching of the
word of God, you better show up
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and attend to the preaching of the
word of God. It's a simple point.
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Of course, God can use all
kinds of other means. God isn't
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restricted like our medical system is.
But this is where he says he will
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meet US and greet US and change
us in the preaching of the word.
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So to use the language of the
catechism one more time, what is required
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of those who preach the word?
What is your job description, according to
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the Bible? Well, given what
we know about preaching, given what we
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know about the Gospel, given what
we know about the glory of God,
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it is required of those who hear
the word preached that they attend upon it
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with dilace, preparation and prayer,
examine what they hear by the Scriptures,
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receive the truth with faith, love, meekness and readiness of mind as the
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word of God, meditate and confer
of it, hide it in their hearts
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and bring the fourth the fruit of
it in their lives. These are high
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callings for me and for you.
The glory of God. It is a
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high calling. There is nothing higher. How will we achieve it? How
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will we come to it? By
the Work of God working in us through
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the preaching of the Gospel through the
revelation of the mystery of Jesus Christ in
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our lives. He will do it
and he will strengthen us, he will
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build us, he will work in
us. First, Peter ten, after
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you have suffered a little while,
the God of all grace, who has
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called you to his eternal glory in
Christ, will himself restore, confirm,
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strengthen and establish you. Do See, beloved, what God is doing in
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the world, what he did in
the world with the Apostle Paul, all
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in his continued to do as we
lay and rest upon that apostolic doctrine,
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the prophetic writings, the word of
God, Jesus himself. He is building
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up his church, he's doing it
even here among us, and so we
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ought to praise God, we ought
to give him glory and raise our voices
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and be full of joy for what
he's doing in our lives, in our
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community, in our church, and
to trust him that, in all of
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our weaknesses and all of our tiredness, in in all of the darkness that's
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in the world, that he is
working in us. The Jesus Christ's intimately
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connected to us, that we belong
to him through the spirit of God as
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we have received him in the means
of grace. It's my prayer that is
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you hear of Jesus, as you
come to know him more and more and
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more clearly and and better, that
you would trust him, they would believe
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on him, and then you would
give all glory to God as he works
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in your lives. Amend let us
pray
