Romans 16 Greetings, Commendations & a Final Warning Jimmy Draper

In Chapter 16 of the book, the author discusses the importance of unity in the church. He mentions Paul's ministry and his relationships, which included both high-ranking officials and slaves. Paul greets his friends in Rome and sends greetings from others with him. He also warns about false teachers and the need for unity. The author emphasizes the significance of unity in the church and shares personal experiences of diverse church members. The chapter concludes with Paul commending Phoebe and listing the names of his friends in Rome. The author explains the significance of some of these names, such as Priscilla, Aquila, and Rufus. The chapter highlights the importance of relationships and treating others with respect. All right. Good to see you. We spread out a little bit. In many ways. She said in many ways. Well, we're now in Chapter 16, and a lot of people think that Chapter 16 is just a farewell letter, well, a farewell part of the book. That's not entirely true, because he touches again on many of the same major things he's talked about the whole book. For instance, he's going to end this up in Chapter 16, talking about unity. Remember, Jesus ended his life in his high priestly prayer, John 17, and he only prayed for one thing. That was the unity of the church. Paul's already devoted two chapters to it. Now he's going to end up the entire book talking about it. So we're going to see some things in this chapter that expresses the scope of the ministry of Paul and the depth of his relationships. Paul was someone who made deep relationships, and his relationships included the dignitaries in the Roman Empire, as well as those who were slaves and former slaves. Big extreme. In fact, there's a verse over in Philippians where Paul talks to the church at Philippi and says, all the saints in Caesar's household salute you. Well, who were those saints in Caesar's household? Well, just remember, Paul was a prisoner of house arrest for two years and had a soldier chained to him. Can you imagine being chained to the Apostle Paul? So naturally, many of them got saved. And so there were saints in Caesar's household that got saved. So it's a fascinating ministry that he had. It was broad in its scope, included everybody. And he starts out this chapter greeting those that he already knew in Rome. There were people, perhaps, that had been saved in other places and migrated to Rome over the years. So they were close friends. He established relationships that were lasting relationships. And so these people had been saved. Their lives had been transformed. And they made their way to Rome. And so he wrote the first part of this chapter. He's writing to friends that he has in the church at Rome. Then he comes along and he's got a bunch of folks with him. So he sends greetings from the people with him to the church in Rome. And then he ends up with a warning about false teachers. And by a very strong implication, the need for false teachers create chaos and disunity and the need for unity in the church. Now, I'm going to talk a little bit more about unity in the church. And just pray for me because what I actually said to some church members in the past would probably not be appropriate for me to say to you. I didn't cuss them. But it's just anyway, we'll talk about that. Here's the point that's important about this. In the church, everybody is somebody. In this passage, he's going to talk about a guy named Rufus. We'll come to him in a minute. He was a city treasurer where Paul was. And Jack, I guess that was in Corinth or Sincrea. We have both of them mentioned, but I think it was in Corinth. He was a city treasurer in Corinth. At the same time, we have at the end, we'll look briefly at that, Erastus and Quartus. Now, Erastus is a name. And there still is a name that's very common, particularly in the African-American community. My young oldest son's best friend in Oklahoma was an African-American boy named Erastus. A biblical name. The other name is Quartus, Q-U-A-R-T-U-S. Who in the world is Quartus? Nobody knows. But it means the fourth, number four. Because Quartus is number four in the language. And it may be that he was a slave that didn't have a name. He was just number four. That's possible. Now, isn't it interesting that here is Rufus, who is the city treasurer, and Quartus, who is the number four slave, worshiping, serving in the same church. That's what the gospel does, the transformation that it brings. And that's why unity is so important. I sat one morning when I was pastor here and looked up into the choir and I saw people from nine different countries singing in the choir. Creates a lot of problems because they have a different background than we do. Have you ever been to a Russian wedding? We had a whole group of Russians back then and not a one of them spoke English. But we had a young lady in our church who was getting her master's degree in Ohio State University in Russian. And when she finished up and came back, I talked to her. And so we went to the little small FM transmitter that you could do. And she translated my sermons to that Russian group. They never understood a word, but they participated. They invited us to a wedding. You say, well, big deal. Well, it was a big deal. It took about three and a half hours. And the bride didn't walk down the aisle. The groom did. It was a long time. Now imagine, they'd never seen one of our weddings. They were not familiar with a lot of our customs. Imagine them trying to adapt to a church and imagine us trying to figure out how to help them. Well, that's what the gospel does. It just bridges all the differences between individuals, young and old, and different languages, different countries. And that's the way it should. That's what we had in the church that Paul is speaking from, where he's talking to the Romans, sending greetings. And he sends them from these two people that represent every strata of society. Prominent and obscure, everybody, somebody in the body of Christ. And that's a very, very important thing. Paul spoke in verse 4 of the multitude of the churches to the Gentiles, as well as to the individuals in Rome and beyond. He spoke to all segments of the Roman Empire. He had friends all over the Roman Empire. And in fact, back then, the big saying was, all roads lead to Rome. And that was literally true. Nearly everybody, as the years went by in that time, many, many people migrated from very biblical areas into the city of Rome. And doubtless that Paul's ministries had touched people throughout the Empire, and many of them had made their way to Rome. And in this chapter, again, he emphasizes the importance of unity and sound doctrine in the churches. So I've just divided it up there. First of all, he commended Phoebe in verses 1 and 2. Now, letters of commendation were widely used in the ancient world, and they were probably necessary. Can you imagine Phoebe, who nobody knew, showing up saying she had a letter from Paul? So Paul, at first, introduces the one who brought the letter to the church in Rome. That was Phoebe. That was her task. And it certainly would be appropriate for him to commend her and introduce her to the church. And he calls her as one who is worthy of their respect. She was a prominent person in the church in Syncria, which is down near Corinth. And he wanted to be sure that they knew who she was, and he also wanted them to know how they ought to treat her. You know, there is a certain way that Christians ought to treat other Christians. And none of it is in anger or bitterness or caustic language. My dad taught me that. He said, son, defending your beliefs don't have to be brutal. You can be kind. And he told me what I've told you many times, and Robert Jeffress even quoted me on that in Dallas in the last month. My dad told me that, Robert didn't say that, I always say my dad told me, but be kind to everybody because everybody's having a hard time. Every one of us. You know, life's not a bed of roses. Sometimes the thorns are there with the buds. You know, it's not always easy. Anyway, he wanted them to be sure that she was somebody worth respecting and they were a church worthy that needed to be respectful to her and treat her in a Christian and kind way. So the first part of it, he is greeting Phoebe to deter who she is. Secondly, the next part of Romans 16 is the greetings of his friends in Rome. Verses 3 through 16 are just a list of names. And Carol Ann said, what are you going to say about all their names? Well, that's a bunch of names. Now, it's possible that the names had some meaning. You know, back in those days, usually there was some meaning attached to names, but there are about 20 names here. So what value would it be for us to know all the names of people who we will never hear about again? So we're not going to go into what the names may have meant. Some of them, he mentions Priscilla and Aquila. Now, Priscilla and Aquila were mentioned first because they were some of the closest friends and strongest supporters of the Apostle Paul. And in verse 4, he even says, they risked their lives for me. Now, we don't know where that was, but obviously it was in one of the riots. Paul often found himself in a riot, did one of those riots, so maybe they risked their lives in defending him, I don't know. But it just shows you what deep relationships he had with Priscilla and Aquila. Now, Rufus, this really gets kind of interesting because of the relationship that he had with Rufus. Here in these verses, he says, he greets Rufus and then mentions that Rufus' mother had been like a mother to him. That's a pretty deep relationship, isn't it? And it's the highest indication of a close relationship. It says he was chosen, and that probably means he was chosen to be a leader in the church. And then, as his surrogate mother would indicate, their relationship was strong and bound together in a big way. And Rufus is identified as the, what did I say? As the city treasurer. And so that's somewhat of some importance. He was chosen to be a leader in the church. He was a very recognized and well-known citizen in the city. And so he's very, very important. In verses 14 to 16, there are nine individuals named. Five of them are men and the brothers and sisters who are with them. So he includes a group. And then he includes the section by instructing them to greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send you greetings. That's in verse 16. Now, what on earth is a holy kiss? Well, if you watch closely, when you see Middle Easterners and Asians, it's not unlikely that you will see, when they greet each other, they don't shake hands. They kiss each other on the cheek. That is a tradition that goes all the way back into ancient days. And we don't know exactly if that's the kind of thing he was talking about. But likely, this was not anything sexual or anything that would be compromising of your morality. It was simply a greeting of indicating respect and love and relationship. And so that's what he is talking about. It was practiced in the early church as a form of greeting. And it's still practiced throughout the culture of the Middle East and Asian countries. Now, we'll go on down. And we'll be through early today. We're skipping a lot because most of the chapter is names. And as I said, it's important because it shows us the depth of the diversity in the church. And probably a good reason why he emphasizes unity so much because you get cross-cultural and cross-generational churches and you've got a lot of people to mobilize to work together. So, here in verses 17 through 20, he says, I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles compared to the teaching that you've learned. Avoid them because such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words. Now, that's his warning. It's a reminder that believers are all part of the family of God and the standard of conduct and belief is found in the Word of God. How we ought to treat each other and others that are not believers is clearly outlined for us in the Word of God. And I said to you several weeks ago, there are two chapters in 1 Corinthians 3 and 6 that end up in the same vein talking about that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In those verses, it says also that if anyone destroys the temple, which is the church in this instance, and he says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, so it has a word to say about how we take care of our body, but he says if anyone destroys the temple, speaking of the church, I will destroy him. Now, folks, this is not table talk. This is serious business. This is how God views people who cause discord in the church. Peace in the church does not mean we agree on everything. It means we agree to disagree, but we still treat each other as part of the family because we are all part of the same family. You know, I will not speak concerning your families. I don't know anything about your families, but I do know of families who are basically like the Hatfield and McCoys. They fuss and their family reunions are like draw swords, you know, take aim and then fire. I mean, it's a bad news. And they can't really have a family reunion because they don't like each other. That's not the way the church is. And yet, I've been preaching now for 74 years, and it's rare to preach in a happy church. And they're never arguing over anything significant. They're not upset because one person believes in a post-millennial rapture and another one believes in a pre-millennial rapture. That never splits churches. They're not arguing about sovereignty of God and accountability of individuals. That's a mystery. I can't understand that. But God has no problem with it. So don't explain it, just preach it. God is sovereign, man is accountable. We learn that in here in Romans. And so, we are part of the family of God. Now, we don't know who the people he's referring to might be in this passage. They could be the Judaizers or the Antimonians, Panthenomians, any numbers of enemies in the church. But Paul calls them false prophets. Peter warned about that in 2 Peter 2.3. Paul warned about it in Colossians 2.4, in addition to this. Here's the thing that I want you to remember. Remember, disunity is never very far from the church. We have, as far as I know, a sweet fellowship in our church here. But disunity is just around the corner if we're not careful. It's kind of like pulling weeds in a garden. You don't have to plant weeds. They're always there. And the seeds of disunity always exist in the church. And the seeds of democracy are also the seeds of the destruction of the democracy. If we are free as Democrats or Republicans and independents or whatever, we can use that freedom to create a lot of chaos. And I don't need to suggest to you that you wouldn't know that from watching the news channels today. I remember when Tip O'Neill and Lyndon Johnson in the Senate would fight like cats and dogs on the floor of the Senate floor and then go have lunch together. They fought, but they never broke their friendships. That's not true anymore. I can remember when there was no real difference between the Democratic platform and the Republican platform. You really were choosing an individual, not a platform. They're both so much alike. That's not true anymore. The Democratic Party, within the last four years, has voted God out of their platform. It was a vote of their convention. He's not in there anymore. Republicans, at this point, still have a reference to God. The point I'm making is not for there to be Democratic or Republican. There's just disunity today. And that's not what God wants in the church. Don't be like that. It's always close. There will always be those who are slick talkers and flattering speech, but it's for deception. Beware of the slick tongue and the deceptive speech of the enemy. To counter the false prophets in verse 20, Paul reminds them that God is a God of peace. Now, let me just give you some personal illustrations. Carol Ann and I pastored in San Antonio from 1960 to 1963, almost four years. And then the Lord led us to a mission church in Kansas City, Missouri. Now, we would never have gone there if we didn't have the overwhelming sense God wanted us to go because there was nothing there attractive. We went and preached in view of a call. Oh, by the way, we were a mission church still, or a mission, and I had to preach for the mother church and then had to preach at the mission church before they actually called us, but the mother church had to approve us. And so we got there to preach for the church, and it was May 1st. Now, May 1st that year was about like today, temperature-wise. And they put us in a downtown hotel down on Independence Boulevard, right near the river in Kansas City. The mission was 20 miles, 15 miles south of there, out almost to Grandview, Missouri. And why they put us downtown, I do not know. But there was not one green bud on any plant in Paseo, which we traveled for 15 miles to get to the church from the hotel. There was not one thing that looked like it was growing. Everything was stripped barren. It still looked like the middle of the winter. And so as Carol Ann and I observed, and we both agreed, this is the ugliest place we have ever seen in our lives. And so we got out there, and I preached, and lo and behold, they called us with only three negative votes. And we had such a... And see, we were not impressed at all. The fellowship was split. The most prominent man was a former Church of Christ that apparently joined the Baptist Church because he was a builder and needed to make a good example there. And the most prominent woman was a Pentecostal. They did not even like each other. I mean, the church just, you know. So we had nothing that said you ought to come here. There wasn't any smiling face that, well, we'd like to be here to be pastor of that family. No, no. There was nothing that said we ought to go, except God said we ought to go. So we resigned a wonderful church in San Antonio. We love San Antonio. They loved us. Yeah, they loved us. That was the big thing. They loved us. We get to Kansas City. They didn't love us. We found out that Missouri really is the show-me state. I mean, once they know you, they'll make a decision. And by the way, it was like Camelot after a few tough months. But we get to Kansas City. Now, the process in Kansas City was that I had to meet, and my key deacons, about three or four, enough to fit in one car load, had to drive into Bethany Baptist Church, which is a residential community almost on the Missouri River, just east of downtown Kansas City, and we had to meet the mission committee. We had to report to them every month. Well, we did that. And by the way, I really got in trouble with that committee because I didn't know this, but the chairman of the personnel committee's brother-in-law had built the church that I was preaching in. Bethany would buy five acres of land, and they'd build a church, and then they'd have people come, and they'd have five acres of church paid for. And I didn't know that this man had been the builder, but I did know that when I started to fill up the baptistry, it took several days to fill it up because they had put a quarter-inch water line from the street to the church. Now, I'm not a builder, but I know that a quarter-inch water line is a residential water line, not a commercial party line. And so I made the statement when I had to meet with the personnel committee and also the deacons, and so I was giving a report to the deacons and the personnel committee, and I said, look, we're doing fine. I said, I would suggest that we found a problem, that there's a quarter-inch water line from the street to the church, and that was not enough. If you flushed a commode, you couldn't get water out of the water fountain. I mean, it just wasn't any water there. And I made the statement, which I've always been one that sometimes said things that I wish I hadn't said. But I said, I just wanted to tell you this, that it's not a problem. We've already paid for it, so you don't have to pay for it, but you might want to be careful who builds your next building. Well, little did I know what I just told you, that the chairman of the personnel committee, the brother-in-law built the building. Well, Luther Dyer was the pastor that contacted us to bring us to Kansas City, and I don't really have time to tell you all this, so I'm just going to cut it short. Anyway, the guy, I won't tell you his name, but the guy that was chairman of the committee came into the pastor, Luther, and you have to know that Luther Dyer was not a real tall, but a real man, had coached one national championship football team in junior college in Oklahoma, and a great athlete, and he didn't take any stuff off anybody. And this deacon walked in and told him basically what I, well, of course, he knew I'd said it because he was there, but basically warned him to fire me. And the deacon introduced himself when he came in and said, I want to reprimand you, to which Luther slapped his testament down on the desk and said, you'll not reprimand me at all. If you're going to speak to me, you'll speak to me man-to-man. And needless to say, the only reason I know that sharp, because we were at the Kansas City Athletics baseball game, and I get a message at a baseball game that I need to come to Bethany Baptist Church really quick. And so I had to leave the game, leave the family, we got church family, they take Caroline home, they took me over to the church. So I knew about it firsthand. But the point is, every kind of rumor got started in the church about us. I mean, they, you know, Caroline had to have drapes in the parsnips, you know, but she didn't, never said anything about it. And I mean, stuff like that. They didn't accuse me of being immoral, but I guess if it had gone on long enough, it would have. And then coming home, that group of men that went to the missions committee that I kind of confused you up, we're still on that group now. We got there, and in that meeting, one of the mission committee members said, we understand we're paying you more money than you're supposed to get. Now, when I left San Antonio, I was making $9,000 a year. I mean, no, no, I was making a little over $10,000. When I got to Kansas City, I never discussed salary, so I never knew what I was going to make until I got anyplace, because I figured important things, God bought me there, not how much they were going to pay me. And so they said that I was making more money than I was supposed to make. Well, I was making $7,000 in Kansas City, which was about 30% less of what I was making in San Antonio. So when I got out to the car, and I'm going to take a risk here, and I turned to the men, the four guys were standing there, and I mentioned that, and I said, look, I want you all to know that I took a 30% cut in salary to come here, that you're not paying me more than you're supposed to be paying me, and crap like this has got to stop, or we're not going to put up with it. And one of the men spoke up and said, well, Pastor, as long as you call crap, crap, we're going to be okay. That's not normally in my vocabulary. But nevertheless, nevertheless, the point is that you're going to have challenges in every church. In this church, when Robert Wagner came here, we had a wonderful church pianist, June Caldwell. Wonderful lady. One of the best pianists I have ever seen. Well, when we got to talking to Robert, he wanted his wife to be the church pianist. So I went to June Caldwell and to Bob, and I told them the situation. I said, you know, if we call this man, he wants his wife to be the church pianist. June said, I'll be happy to step aside and let him have his wife as a church pianist. So I made sure that they knew about it. Well, fast forward just a little bit. Linda Cantwell, don't even remember what your maiden name was then, back or married name. I had married Linda's first husband when I was at First Church Dallas. And so we got to be good friends. The funeral was down in Ennis. So Linda became very special to Carol Ann and when we came out here, she came out here. And that's how she met Sam. But Linda came to me one day and she said, you need to know that there's talk. She named the lady. She's telling everybody, you have mistreated June. You're trying to get rid of her and it's not fair for you to do that. Well, it just happened that a few days after that, that lady showed up in my office. She came in. She said, I'm mad at you. I looked at her and said, well, I'm mad at you. Sit down and let me tell you why. And I told her what I had heard. And I said, I want you to know that I'll fight you to hell and back before I let you create chaos in this church. It is not acceptable. And then I told her what had happened. I said, I'm not mistreating June. She offered that. I did go to her before we ever called Robert. And she offered that. What you're saying is a lie. It's not true. And I said, I won't have it anymore. Sometimes you have to take seriously people that you can identify that are causing problems. I had a deacon in Dell City who one Sunday morning walked up and down the halls of the youth division and criticized the youth pastor. I got word of it. Called him on the phone and said, I want you to meet me at 5 o'clock at the church this afternoon. Called the youth minister and said, I want you to meet me at 5 o'clock at the church. We sat down. I looked at him in the face. I said, I want you to know you violated your office as deacon this morning and you were wrong. I said, you walked in the halls and criticized the youth minister. I said, that is inappropriate and it's not acceptable. He began to weep. He said, you're right. And he asked forgiveness. And it was over. But sometimes you have to do that. When I was at Cana Baptist Church, I had been there about six weeks. The previous pastor had been there for 25, 30 years. And I mentioned in a sermon that I'd had lunch with him. Well, after that service, I hadn't been there for about six weeks, this man came up to me and he said, I'm upset with you. I said, well, why are you upset with me? He said, well, there's some of us who didn't approve of the way the former pastor, if you called him by name, said he was leading the church. Well, immediately I realized that this was not just his opinion. He'd been talking to other people about it. And so, I probably said to him, I think what I told him was, well, you've got the same clothes to get happy in. I hadn't been there very long. But I got home and that began to eat on me. So I wrote him a letter. Now, I'm famous for writing letters. Most of them are good letters. And this was a good letter. It just let him know. It was single-spaced, two pages. And I said, first of all, I want to comment on your comments to me this morning. I said, first, you don't know me well enough to tell me something like that. I haven't been here in the church that long. You have no business telling me something like that. Number two, the pastor does not exist to please you. His job is not to make you happy. His job is to preach the Word of God that you administer to your family. And it is not your place to spread gossip and rumors and dissension in the church. And I said, I know you've been doing that because you said, some of us, which means you've been talking to other people. And I basically said, that is inappropriate. And I really hit him hard. Now, he had been known to be reprimanded before, I found out. And usually when he was reprimanded, he just didn't show up for a while. Well, I had two staff members there. They both said, well, he won't be back for a while. Well, the next Sunday, he was back. And after the service, he came up to me and said, I wanted to thank you for your letter. He said, I know it took a lot of courage for you to write that letter. And I was wrong, and I want you to forgive me. Sometimes you have to realize that casual things that seem unimportant but that create distrust and disunity is abhorred by God. God says, you destroyed that temple of the church, I'll destroy you. Anyone who maliciously destroys the unity and the fellowship of the church is under God's wrath. Don't do that. You don't want to be arguing with God. You'll never win that discussion. Sometimes, and that's why Jesus spent so much time praying for one thing in John 17. And Paul just can't get away from it. He's dealt with in two chapters out of 16. Now it comes back to, beware of false prophets because they create disunity. They tear down the fellowship. They create chaos. That's something that we ought to avoid at all costs. Now, let me quickly conclude this. Paul now, after all of this, he gives greetings to the church in Rome from the companions that he has. He's got people with him. And he earlier greeted the believers that he knew in Rome, and now he sends the greetings to those who are with him. Timothy's the first one who mentions. Timothy was one of his closest friends. Paul was near the end of his ministry, and Timothy was at the beginning of his ministry and would be a strong leader in the future. He also mentions Tertius, the one who was used by the Holy Spirit to record this. The amanuensis for him was Tertius. Gaius was the next one he mentioned. That's where he was staying. Paul lived in the house of Gaius while he was in Corinth. And so he was staying. And it's also likely that Gaius' house was where the church met that met at Corinth because he said the whole church sends their greetings. How would he know that? Well, because the church met in his house. That's how he knew it. So he was a very important people. And then he mentioned Erastus and Cordus. And I've already told you about that. But just imagine that the high official of the city was born again and a man just known to be number four who was a slave was born again, and they both stood equally together sending greetings. That's the way it ought to be. What a wonderful savior we have who can take a galley slave and a city official, and they become blood brothers, join heirs with Christ, and they stand together to send greetings to the church in Rome. What an amazing thing that is. No wonder Paul could come to the end of his life and look death in the eye. And when he wrote Timothy, this is what he said, I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith. There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, gave me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearance. Not surprising how he did it. Oh, now he explodes into a doxology. This is one of the most incredible doxologies that you will ever hear. And I know we had one this morning in Brother John's message. But let me read you his doxology beginning in verse 25. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages, but now revealed and made known through the prophet in Scripture, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all the gods, to the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to him be glory forever. Amen. What a great way to end the book of Romans. Now, what can we learn from Romans? I'm just going to read these to you. I think you have most of them there. Maybe I didn't write them all down. First is that the guilt of mankind and the wrath of God is real. That's the first thing we can learn. Secondly, God is a righteous God. Third, all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. In the process of telling us about that, he discusses God's sovereignty and man's accountability. By the way, there could be no unpardonable sin if man was not accountable. Unpardonable in case somebody did something they shouldn't do. There would be no unpardonable sin if it was all up to God and we didn't have anything to do with it. No, man is accountable and God is sovereign. And I don't understand that, but I don't need to because it has no problem in the Word of God. He teaches both, so I tell young pastors, just preach them both. Don't argue about either one of them. Next, our sanctification is a lifelong process. Through the process of sanctification, there is that continual battle of Romans 7. Just remember that. What I want to do, I don't do. That struggle within him. He's compelled to fight the battle that rages within every believer. Number six, the indwelling Holy Spirit is a source of believers' victory over the practice of sin. We're not going to keep practicing sin. It doesn't mean we don't sin. We just don't make it a habit. God's covenant with us is irrevocable. God's covenant with Abraham was still active at this point and is still active today. Number eight, God guides and empowers us to be genuine servants of his and how his love flows through us. Number nine, the gospel brings people from every level of society who believe in him into the family of God. What a great gospel we have. Whoever believes in him will have eternal life. That's an amazing gospel. Rich and poor, young and old, Russian, English, Indian, Canadian, Mexican, American, all nations can come to know him. It's a comprehensive, full gospel for us. We ought never to take it for granted. One of the tragedies of being a pastor is that you get kind of numbed by everything you're preaching. You don't always realize how serious is the message you deliver. But every pastor, every teacher is accountable to God for how he delivers the word of God. Don't criticize another person's servant. Jesus came as the servant of God himself and as God himself. And he's the one who will pass judgment. Let's be careful that we love one another, we treat each other with kindness and courtesy, and it's going to end up okay. I can tell you now, God's going to keep his promises and he's going to keep us accountable. And that's serious business. So the message of Romans is believe right, then act right. What you believe ought to affect how you act. That's Romans in a sentence. God bless us as we look to God's Holy Spirit to help us become like that. Father, thank you. We love you and bless you. Thank you for the book of Romans. It's deep in its concepts. It's simple in its conclusions and it's divinely written through the Holy Spirit and we're grateful for that. So teach us to be servants and to be family and to treat each other with respect and to anticipate that glorious day when you return in the clouds to bring us home. Thank you, in Jesus' name, amen.