And Amen. Go ahead grab a seat. Well, good morning, brothers and sisters. It's great to be back from Uganda and here to see so many of you this morning. Thank you for all of you, who were praying for me and Matt Shew on our trip. And the last time I preached was in Uganda, at Community Bible Church of Kubamitwe, and they have a translator for me. So, I'm preaching in English. He's translating. And when I've worked with translators before, I know I can't say as much because I can only talk some of the time. The translator talks the rest of the time. So, when I was going to preach, I took out some of what I was going to say, so it would fit in the time. But this translator they’ve got in Uganda, this brother Simon; this guy, he cooks, as the young people would say these days. This guy, he could preach. He could translate as fast as I could preach. I was looking at this guy like, brother, I love you, man. I would come in hard with the right hand. Simon, he comes in hard with the left hand. He's like, translating my body language. I'm like, yes, this is amazing. And so, this might shock some of you. So, the sermon is very short. It's like a 38-minute sermon, because I cut it out, thinking it would take a long time. And Simon, he's like, on it.
But I don't see any translators here today, everybody. So, I want to invite you to open your Bible and turn with me to Romans 16:17-20. Some people are heading for the exits right now. If you want to go to Romans 16, I am so excited to get to the end of our study of the book of Romans, and I'm really excited for what Paul brings up here as he's closing up his master class on the gospel. Paul has something to say, a warning that he wants to give to the saints in Rome, a warning that all of us need to hear here today. In fact, there's a word that Paul's going to say that, when we start preaching on this word, unfortunately, even people at church these days will think this is a bad word. And when I preach this sermon today, some people will think I'm a bad person for preaching about this. People will call me a legalist for talking about this. People will say, I'm taking our faith and I'm making it about works. People will say after this sermon that I should have focused more on what Jesus has done and less on what we're supposed to do, because the word that Paul highlights here is, “obedience”. And he acts like obedience is a great thing for Christians to do, that they're known for their obedience, and he rejoices in their obedience.
And today, obedience is almost a bad word you're not supposed to talk about. People are hesitant, like, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. And so, we need to really hear what Paul teaches to the saints in Rome and make sure that we're thinking what Paul is teaching, not other things that we've heard today. So out of respect for God's word, I invite everybody to stand up for the public reading of Scripture; I encourage you to give this your full and undivided attention, because this is the Word of God. This is Romans, chapter 16, starting in verse 17. Please follow along as I read.
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
That's the reading of God's Word. Go ahead and have your seat. And I just want to show you that, in your bulletin, there is a handout; if you want to take that out and you want to take some notes, we're going to learn three things from these verses, three very practical things that Paul leaves the Romans thinking about towards the end of his letter. And you'll notice that in verse 19, he says, “your obedience is known to all.” So, he highlights their obedience as a good thing. He commends them that that's their reputation, that other people know these people obey the Lord Jesus. He rejoices in them.
In fact, if you come back next week for our last sermon from Romans, obedience will come up again. If you jump ahead to the Doxology here, at the end of the book of Romans, you can see he ends with, “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith.” See, here's Paul at the end, saying, I'm so thankful. I rejoice in your obedience, because what the gospel really produces, what the command of the eternal God reveals, is the obedience of faith. And so, I rejoice in that obedience that you guys have, that he's ending his letter with that thought, like, keep obeying out of your faith. Now before we get to that obedience, though, in verse 17, he gives a classic Pauline warning, which is, hey, I want to encourage you brothers. Hey, there's one more thing I want to urge you about here. You’ve got to watch out. You’ve got to be on the lookout. You’ve got to beware, because those who cause divisions and create obstacles are coming. He's talking about people who are going to come into the church and they're going to divide and they're going to create stumbling blocks. They're going to take something that is true, and they're going to cause one part of the truth, and they're going to like, pit one part of the truth against other parts of the truth. And it'll cause divisions. People will start arguing at church. Like, they'll start arguing that this thing is more important than this thing, or this Bible verse is more important than that Bible verse, and they'll cause people to stumble. If you don't think the same way that we do about this, well then you're going to stumble over it. So, he's saying, hey, you’ve got to be on the lookout. Literally, the Greek word here is “scopeo”. Like, you’ve got to get your scope out. You’ve got to get your telescope to look at the stars. You’ve got to get your microscope to really zoom in. You’ve got to put your scope on your hunting rifle and be on the lookout, because the wolves are coming in, and so you need to be watching out.
Let's get this down for number one: We want to “Scope out the deceivers.” Scope out the deceivers. That's literally the Greek word there, scopeo, like, be on the lookout is what he's telling them to do. Hey, if you’ve got a solid church, you'll hear people say, I go to a strong Bible teaching church. And their implication is, because I go to a strong Bible teaching church, everything's going to be fine at my church. That's not what Paul says. He says, watch out, because they're going to come in and they're going to try to divide you. They're going to try to get you to stumble. They're going to come in and they're going to be given this message, and it's going to be a smooth message. It's going to go down easy. In fact, it's going to flatter you. It's going to tell you what you want to hear. And they're going to try to get you to follow them; not really so much following Jesus. No, come listen to me, because I've got like, the secret sauce to Christianity. And here's what it's really all about. And if you get deceived, if you're one of the naive who get deceived, you’d better watch out. That's what he's saying here. Get your scope out and be on the lookout. Don't think, well, because I go to a Bible teaching church, everything's going to be fine. That's not how Paul talks. He regularly warns the believers to watch out for false teachers creeping in.
Go over to 2 Timothy, chapter 3. Let me show you some of these warnings that Paul would put in his letters on a regular basis, just to show you we shouldn't be surprised that he's saying this at the end of Romans, because this is classic Paul teaching here, where he would put this warning, especially sometimes towards the end of what he would say, like you can see it here in 2 Timothy 3:1-9. This is all one big warning here. He says, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant…” See if this sounds like the local grocery store right here, everybody, “proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” So, notice, here's that same idea, avoid them. Turn away from them, have nothing to do with them. And then look at how he describes these people who creep in for among those, “For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.” Those two men who opposed Moses back in Egypt.
See, in your lifetime, how many famous pastors, how many celebrity Christians, how many Christian musicians, Christian authors, Christian podcasters, how many of them have been found to be in sin? How many of them have been found to be in sexual immorality? How many of them have been found to be in the money? And a lot of time we say, oh, that's so sad that that leader fell. Well, with some of them, they didn't fall. That's who they were the whole time. And they were creeping in. And so many people were naive, and so many people followed them, so many people gave them their money, so many people turned away from hearing the Word to listen to these folks. And you don't want to be one of the naive who gets deceived. You want to have your scope out. You want to be on the lookout.
Go over to Titus, chapter 3, just a couple pages over to the right. You'll see he ends the book of Titus this same way. He's telling Titus to appoint elders in all these churches in Crete, strengthen up the churches. And then he warns him. Titus 3:10-11, “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” In fact, go back to Titus 3:9. Look what he talks about, “avoid,” stay away from “foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law.” That's how they're going to do it. They're going to come in and they're going to say, well, actually, out of all the things the Bible says, this is the real thing you need to pay attention to. And they're even going to appeal to you. Are you a mom? Are you single? Are you into business? Well, this is who you are in Christ. This is your identity, and you should make that thing that you relate to, that you think is really important, you should make that the most important thing, and that should define you. And this other stuff over here? Don't worry about that other stuff. This is what Jesus has for you. And then, all of a sudden, you’ve got people at church debating verses versus verses, obedience versus obedience, saying, hey, no, I'm going to be about this, not about that. And now there are dissensions. And he's saying, when you see those people, have your scope out and understand that they're trying to deceive you. And stay away from those people. Avoid them.
Now, let me just tell you, if you come to this church, Compass HB, we’ve got snipers on the roof every Sunday. All right? We’ve got our scopes out here at this church, okay? And we've been doing this now for ten years here in Huntington Beach, and we've had some of these people show up at church. And they'll show up at church and they'll be like, hey, you know what? God really blessed you that I came to this church. This is a true story. This is how it goes down, because I have gifts from the Lord. And I'd like to tell you what I've done at my previous church, and now I've decided to come here to help you out, to really be a blessing to your congregation. And so, I could teach this class, I could lead this ministry, I can do this. This is my first conversation with this person, and they're telling me all these things, and I'm like, well, hey, we're happy to have you here at the church. Thank you so much for joining us. What we'd really like to do is we'd like to put you in a Fellowship group with these brothers and sisters over here, and you can encourage one another. You can open up the Bible together. And they look at me like, I'm not going to a Fellowship group with the commoners. I'm not going to a Fellowship group with the brothers and sisters. I could teach that group. I'm on an elite status. I can move straight to something else. And I'm just like, we’ve got them right here in this scope. We got them. You can't come and fellowship with the brothers and sisters. You won't be doing anything else at this church. We don't need you coming in and getting everybody to follow you. We're already busy following the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay, now, but here's the thing, we’ve got the scopes out here at church. We're trying to apply this warning that Paul regularly gives, but we're not at your house. And a lot of people these days, they're like, oh, well, I was listening to this Christian podcast. Oh, I was watching this Christian movie. No, I was following this Christian Instagram account. So, I know it must be good, because in the bio of the Instagram account, it said it was Christian. And they told me this. Okay, let me tell you not everything that claims to be Christian is actually about Jesus Christ. Are you in on this? If you roll with the Christian sub-genre of social media and entertainment and all these things, that's where the wolves are. That's what Paul calls them. In Acts 20, he calls them the wolves. Go to Acts 20 with me, when Paul is giving this warning to the elders of the church in Ephesus. Go to Acts 20, and look at how he says this. These are guys that Paul invested in. He spent more time in Ephesus than any other city on his missionary journeys, and now he knows he's never going to see these guys again. He's saying goodbye. They're hugging one another. They're crying tears. And this is more part of what he leaves them with here in Acts 20:28, he says to the elders of this church, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God.”
See, that's the difference between the real leaders of the church and the fake leaders of the church. The real leaders of the church actually are there for the people, they care for God's people, but the people that are creeping into the church, they don't care for God's people. They want to take from God's people. They want to get from God's people. They're in it for themselves, and they're going to use God's people for their purpose. No, the real elders, the real overseers, they're there for the people. And he says, you need “to care for the Church of God, which he Jesus obtained with his own blood.” If these are the people that Jesus died for, how should we then care for these people? And then he says this in verse 29, “I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in.” And where will the wolves be, everybody? They'll be in the Christian Instagram accounts among you. If the wolves out there are howling at the moon, let them howl. It's when the wolf gets in the middle of the herd, it's when he gets in there among the flock, it's when the wolf comes and wants to lie down with the sheep, that's when we’ve got a problem.
See, we're not talking about the big bad world out there. We're talking about things that will announce themselves to be Christian, and they will have truth, they will have something real that they are saying, they will take something from God's Word, and they will elevate that one thing to where it even divides against other things that are in God's Word. And they'll get you thinking, this is the most important thing right here. Follow us to this. And if you are naive, you will be deceived into following them. And so, they are coming for you, and we're going to try to protect everybody here, not let the wolves get in here among the sheep. But the wolves are out there, and they're calling themselves Christian, and they're putting out a good message. And the whole time they're just like, take, give me, and they're in it for themselves. Their platform is to get you to follow them, not really following Jesus.
And so, you have to have the scope out at your house. You have to be on the lookout because, he even says this in verse 30. He even says, “and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things.” See, it's some truth, but it's a twisted version of the truth, and draw away the disciples after them; therefore, be alert. Well, I go to a solid church, so everything's good. That's not how Paul talks about it. He's speaking to the elders of a solid church, and he's warning them the wolves are coming. Get your scopes out. Be ready. If you don't think the wolves are coming, you're probably already deceived. Don't be naive in thinking that everything that is Christian is actually Christian, or that everybody who comes to church to help is actually here to help. Watch out. Be on the lookout. After all, didn't even Jesus say this in his Sermon on the Mount? Didn't he say, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” They are people who have an appetite for themselves. Watch out for them, because they will come and they'll be sitting right next to you, and they'll be saying, subscribe to me, follow me. Click that Like button for me. That's what they'll be saying. Watch out.
Go back to Romans 16, where he particularly highlights obedience. Obedience is what the Romans are doing. Obedience is what he wants them to keep doing. Obedience is the thing that these guys might take them away from. And this has already happened, okay? I'm speaking to a room full of American Christians in 2025. This has already happened. The podcasts have already been spoken, the books have already been written, the songs have already been sung, all in the name of Christianity, where there is already this idea that faith is such a pure and good thing, and obedience not really that important, not really that good. In fact, this entire idea that he's warning them about has already happened in our time, where, if you preach a sermon about what Jesus has done, that's a good sermon. If you preach a sermon about what we're supposed to do, that's a bad sermon. It's already happened. We've already separated obedience and faith, and we've created some kind of false dichotomy, where they don't go together. Obedience is no longer of faith. Like Paul says, obedience is the natural overflow of your faith. If you trust Jesus to save your eternal soul, should you trust Jesus to do what he says today? The answer to that is, yes. But don't tell that to the American Christian, because obedience then means, you telling me what to do, when it's really about what Jesus has already done? And we've separated two things that, in the book of Romans, were never meant to be separated.
So, before I can even preach this sermon, we’ve already got people saying, I don't know if we need to hear about obedience. Shouldn't we be hearing about what Jesus did? No, if you really believe in what Jesus did, guess where it ultimately leads you to? Obedience. There's no separation. That's what the wolves have done. That's what the false teachers have done. That's what the deceivers have already done. If they've gotten you to think that somehow faith is really good, and obedience is not as good. It might even be bad. But then Paul's here saying that the gospel, this glorious message now revealed through the prophets, the Mystery of the Ages, now made known, it will bring about the obedience of faith.
Here's Paul saying obedience is exactly where faith leads us. So, who are you going to listen to? The false teachers, or the apostle Paul in the book of Romans? Now, I want you to see that obedience has been a theme throughout the book of Romans. This isn't just something Paul's bringing up at the end of the book. This is the book end of how he began the book, like he's been talking about obedience throughout this book of Romans. Go back to Romans 1, and let's just remember something that we studied now, almost three years ago, right? And how great was it to hear Sean's testimony that he came in when we were on Romans 1, and now here he is, getting baptized as we're finishing the book. Praise the Lord. People have gotten saved going through the book of Romans here in Huntington Beach. And when we started, we started with the gospel. That's how Paul begins here in Romans 1:3-5, “concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of” what, everybody? “Faith.” Your obedience comes out of your faith “for the sake of his name among all the nations.” In fact, look at verse 8. Look at how he starts out his greeting to them here. “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.” So, you see how, in Romans 1:8, he says people are talking about your faith all over the world. But later on, in Romans 16:19, he says, “your obedience is known to all.”
So, if you really study the book of Romans, you will find that Paul uses these words interchangeably, like, at one place he might say faith, one place he might say obedience, because in Paul's mind, there's no division. There's no dissension between the two. Anyone who really puts their trust in the Gospel of Jesus and sees that Jesus is risen from the dead, that he is Lord, well, how could you not trust Jesus as the Lord of your life to save you from your sin? And then say, but I want to keep living in my sin, that makes no sense. If you really have trusted in the Lord Jesus, then what will you want to do? You will want to obey and walk in his ways and be careful to listen to all of his commands. He's the Lord. He's your Savior. How could you not want to follow Jesus' ways?
So, Paul's talking about obedience and faith, like, of course, if you have faith, you have obedience. He talks about that interchangeably. Go over to Romans 5. Let me show you some reasons that Paul taught obedience was so important. Here in Romans 5:19, he's comparing the one man Adam to the one man Jesus here in Romans 5, and he says in verse 19, “For as by the one man's disobedience,” by Adam's sin, “the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience,” Jesus, “the many will be made righteous.” Okay, so how could we be against obedience when it is the obedience of Jesus? He was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross to pay for our sins. Jesus was righteous. I mean, that's the real theme of the of the book of Romans, is the righteousness of God is revealed, and God's going to have wrath towards unrighteousness. But through his son Jesus, there's a way that we can be righteous now by the works of the law? No. One will be made righteous. There's nothing you can do to get righteous before God. No. God has to justify you. God has to declare you righteous. And there is one way that you can be declared righteous. It's by God's grace. He gives it to you as a gift, and it's through your faith in his Son, Jesus, because his Son, Jesus, is the righteous one, who was obedient in everything that he did. He went out into the wilderness and was tempted by Satan, and yet he obeyed the commands of God. He was baptized. And John the Baptist, is like, why am I baptizing you? You don't need to be baptized. And Jesus says, “Let it be so to fulfill all righteousness.”
Jesus perfectly kept the law of God. He perfectly obeyed every command, so that he could then offer himself with a perfect track record of righteousness. And when he sacrifices himself, yes, he takes on your sin, but he offers you his righteousness, his perfect obedience. God made him who knew no sin to be sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. See, we don't have our own righteousness. We have to have righteousness given to us, and the only way that righteousness is imputed and credited to your account is when you put your faith in Jesus. And guess what, you're trusting in the obedience of Jesus Christ. How could we be against obedience when it is the obedience of Jesus that is our righteousness? And so, Paul here, he's teaching about obedience, and see here in chapter 5, he's really proving our justification by faith, and that's what his emphasis has been in chapter 3 and chapter 4 and chapter 5. But then in chapter 6, there's a turn in Paul's argument. And Paul asked this question, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” What's the answer? “By no means.” We've learned this. So really, the book of Romans has such a clear presentation that the only way to be declared righteous, the only way you can be justified, is solely on your faith in Jesus and what he did.
Justification by our faith alone, is a super clear doctrine in the book of Romans through chapter 5, but there are 16 chapters. So, what is he writing about starting in 6 to 16? Is he always just going back to faith? Or does he start to talk about how your faith in Christ leads to the transformation in your life, and how you should no longer continue to walk in the sin you once walked in, because you are actually in Christ, now dead to that sin, and you are now alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And so, no longer submit yourselves as slaves to sin, but now you should live as slaves to righteousness. And let's start talking about this new life that you have through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he talks about it in chapters 6 and 7 and 8, and then, if you were here, in chapter12, he started to give very specific commands, like, hey, if Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice for your sin, doesn't it make sense to you that you should offer your body as a sacrifice to Jesus? Hey, shouldn't you stop being conformed to this age, but be transformed to God's will, that which is good and acceptable and perfect? So let me tell you some things to do. Here's what you should do at church. Here's what you should do when the world does evil to you, don't do evil back. Here's what you should do with the governing authorities, with other Christians who disagree with you, here's what you should do to build one another up. I mean, we've been going through chapter after chapter where he's saying, do this. Don't do this.
You can't say the book of Romans is just about faith. No, the book of Romans is about the obedience of faith. And so, how do these false teachers deceive so many people in American church right now? How do so many people think, don't talk to me about obedience, just talk to me about Jesus and my faith in him. How did we get stuck in just the first five chapters of Romans and miss the next eleven chapters? The deception among American Christians is intense, and you need to make sure. You need to search your heart. Do you have some kind of negative view about obedience? Because obedience is not workspace salvation. No, there are no works you can do to get righteous. But once you put your faith in Jesus, you really are righteous. And so, what should you do? Now that's what Paul writes about, starting here in chapter 6. Look how he describes it in verse 16. This is Romans 6:16. “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey?” He's like, hey, let me just ask you guys a question. Do you guys think you're free agents? Do you guys think you're just kind of out there, doing whatever you want? Don't you understand that you are obeying someone, and you are slaves to someone? You're either of sin which leads to death, or you're of obedience which leads to righteousness. Who are you serving? Because everybody here is serving somebody.
And some people will say, well, I'm serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, okay, if you're not serving the Lord Jesus Christ, who are you serving, everybody? See, I had this brother the other night in our group, we were talking about having self-control. We were talking about the thing we talk about a lot around here at the church, how do we put off who we used to be and how do we put on the new person that we are in Christ? How do we learn the way of obedience to his commands? And I love this brother saying, I remember one time we talked about, you're either serving Jesus or you're serving Satan. And ever since that day, I've been thinking clearly to myself, I don't want to be serving Satan today, and so I'm here to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this is saying. You're obeying somebody. If you think obedience doesn't matter, watch out, because you're obeying somebody. It says, in fact, look at the very next verse, “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” He says, you were graced with this teaching, and when you heard the teaching, the gospel of Jesus, the true way, you obeyed from the heart. This was a part of your response to the gospel. As you transfer your trust to the righteousness of Jesus, you find in your heart this new desire, both to want and to actually be able to do God's work in your life. And so, I thank God that when you guys heard the teaching, you had a response of obedience from the heart. That's what he's looking for here. That's what faith produces. In fact, look at what he says in verse 22, how he continues this thought. “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” See, now that you're no longer serving sin, now that you're really serving God and offering your body as a living sacrifice to him, well, now we're going to see this fruit in your life. Now we're going to see God's work in your life. You're going to be sanctified. You're going to be less and less like who you used to be, and you're going to be more and more like who you are now in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Go over to Romans 15:18. Look at how he says it here in chapter 15, verse 18, when Paul's talking about all these Gentiles who have believed, all these churches that have been planted. And he was sent out to the Gentiles, and he went and preached the gospel to them, and the Jews hated that; they persecuted Paul. This was the tension that would end up costing Paul his life. And look what he says about the Gentiles in Romans 15:18. He says, “For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to” what does he say there, everybody? “Faith.” That's what he says. I brought the Gentiles to faith. That's what you would hear today. I was there when the Gentiles raised their hand. I was there when the Gentiles prayed that prayer. I was there when they had some moment where they believed. That's not what Paul says. See, in Paul's mind, you could say faith, or you could say obedience, because real saving faith will always produce obedience in someone's life. You cannot separate the two. Don't be deceived. That's how Paul thinks. He can say the Gentiles came to faith, or he can say the Gentiles came to obedience, and it's the same idea, because obedience comes out of our faith, and so we’ve got to make sure at our church that we're thinking about obedience like Paul is writing about it here in the book of Romans.
And if you've ever gone through our one on one discipleship Partners, in chapter one we have these equations, and let's put the first equation up here. If you hear the good news that Jesus died and rose again, and you respond with repentance and faith in the Gospel, and you have to do good works, then you will be saved. Is that the right equation? No, we know there's no works you have to do to be saved. You're not capable of doing righteous works to be saved. So, this must be the equation, then. Hear the gospel, the good news that Jesus did the work, you respond by putting your trust in Jesus, now you're saved. This is what a lot of Christians today would say, yeah, that's the equation. Except that's not the equation. This is the equation, that when you hear the good news of what Jesus did, and you transfer your trust to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus, you are saved. In fact, you are created in Christ Jesus for what, everybody? For good works. Now that you have the salvation of Jesus, guess what? You will bear fruit. In fact, what could we call those good works? The fruit that will be there because Jesus has really saved you. We could call that a lifestyle of obedience.
So, yes, we need to be one hundred percent against people thinking they can save themselves by what they do. But if Jesus has saved you and you've trusted in Jesus, there will be good works in your life. Everyone who abides in Jesus will bear much fruit, and they will obey his commands. When Jesus gave us the mission that we have here in Huntington Beach, when he sent us here to build his church, he told us to make disciples, not just baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but he said this. He said “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” This is what Jesus told his disciples to do in Matthew 28:20 he said, you're supposed to go and teach, that's who disciples are. They're learners. Teach those disciples not all that I did for them. No. Teach those disciples how to keep all the commands. So, do you see how this has become a very awkward situation, because I've been told by Jesus to teach all the disciples at our church how we would go and keep all the commands that Jesus gave us? And people are coming to church like, why are you telling me what to do? Why can't you just tell me about what Jesus did for me?
So, there are people at church, in direct opposition to what Jesus told us to do. Do you come to church to get commanded by your Lord? Do you come to church to get the action items that he wants you to go and obey? Because that's what he's telling us to teach here. We're supposed to not leave any command, not just exalt this command, not just exalt this command. We're supposed to teach all of the commands like they're all meant to be obeyed, like everything that Jesus is telling us not to do. The reason he's saying don't do that is because it will kill you. It will destroy you. And the reason he's telling you to do this is because that's the way of blessing, that's the way of life, and we're supposed to teach you. If Jesus said it, and he's the Lord, it must be very important. So, let's keep all of his commands. That's the mission he gave us. So, if you're like, well, I don't want to hear about obedience, well then how are we going to do the mission? Because he said we're supposed to teach all of us how to keep everything he commanded us. In fact, this is how it works in the book of Romans, everyone who is justified is sanctified, and everyone who is sanctified is glorified. You can't pit these things against each other. These are three parts of one story of salvation.
The Book of Romans does not just teach justification by faith alone. Some people are misusing that to be like it's just justification alone. No, it goes on to teach about sanctification. It goes on to teach about glorification. Yes, when you trust in Jesus, God declares you righteous, and once God saves you, you will always be saved. And guess what? God will continue the work he has begun in you. God, he's faithful to complete the good work he's begun in you. And so, he will sanctify you. He will make you less like who you used to be, and he will set you apart for his holy purpose in your life. And as you grow in your faith, you will become less and less like your old self, and more and more like Jesus. And someday you will see Jesus revealed in all of his glory. And on the day you see Jesus, you will be made like him. You will be perfect as he is perfect. You will be holy as he is holy. So, this idea, well, I've already been justified. There's nothing else I need to talk about or think about or be about. That's not what Romans is teaching. Everyone who's justified, is sanctified, and everyone who's sanctified, will be glorified. You will be conformed into the image of God's Son, to the praise of his glorious grace, forevermore. That's going to happen to you. And so, this is the teaching of the book of Romans.
Get this down for number two: “Romans teaches, justifying faith leads to sanctifying action.” Romans teaches that justifying faith leads to sanctifying action. Everybody who has believed in Jesus to be saved. There is now a continuing work of God in your life, and you can walk in that work of God. God has given you a desire to obey him, and the ability, by his Spirit, to obey him. And so, as you obey God's commands, you are living out his will for your life. You are walking in his ways. And Romans is saying, I know how your obedience is known to all, and I rejoice in your obedience. He's commending them for their obedience. In fact, if you go back to Romans 16 with me, he's going to try to encourage them to continue in their obedience. Okay, so this is how Paul is teaching, and we’ve got to make sure we're hearing his whole teaching. We’ve got to really try to process the whole book of Romans, not just certain chapters that people want to elevate against the other chapters. And so he says here, after he commends them for their obedience that's known to all, and he expresses his joy over their obedience. He says, “but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil, because the God of peace will soon crush,” who does he bring up here in verse 20, everybody? The adversary, the opponent, the one who's behind all these false teachers, the ultimate deceiver himself. Okay, I want to encourage you to continue in your obedience, because Satan is about to be crushed. So, he's trying to encourage them, but I love this. See, Paul, he's very wise. He knows how this goes. He says, I see your obedience. I rejoice in it, but I want you to make sure you know about what is good, and I want you to be innocent in what is evil. If there's a way you should be naive, it's not to be deceived. No, where you want to be innocent or naive is in the way of evil. You don't want to know about the way of evil. And if you just obey the commands of Jesus, if you listen to what Jesus says, don't do, and you listen to what Jesus says to do, you'll be wise in what is good. You'll be walking in the way of life and blessing. But see, when Satan comes to deceive, how did he deceive Eve? Hey, Eve, don't you want to have the knowledge of good and evil? This is how Satan works. It's so crafty. Hey, that TV show that everybody's talking about, that movie that just won those awards, don't you want to know what's going on in that show? Hey, that conversation that those people are having over there, you can tell there's some trauma, there's some controversy in that conversation. Don't you want to know what they're talking about? Hey, that experience you heard somebody raving about, don't you want to try it? Don't you want to know what it feels like? Don't you want to know what it's like? See, this is the temptation to evil?
Are you happy just following the way of Jesus and obeying his commands, or do you want to know the other side? Do you feel like you're missing out? Do you feel like the whole world knows about something that you don't know about? Here comes the deceiver. Don't you want to know what evil is like? And a lot of us are so proud and so immature, we're like, yeah, I can totally watch that show and it won't even affect me. I'm just going to check it out. Oh, I can listen to what those people are saying, maybe I'll even correct what they're saying. Yeah, sure. Oh, I can try that sin. It won't take a hold on me. It won't have a problem for me. There are a lot of foolish people among us who think I'll just check out the evil, like I'm just kind of doing some kind of customer review on the evil that everybody else is doing. It won't get to me. I'll just see what's going on for everyone else. And Paul's saying, no, you don't want to know about that. You want to be innocent. There are things that when people are talking about, if you don't understand what they're talking about, that's exactly where you want to be. You want to be wise as to what is good. You don't want to know about what is evil, because that's how Satan started this whole thing of sin in the first place, preying on the desire to know about the evil.
So, he's saying, you guys have got to continue in your obedience. And he gives them this super encouraging idea that the deceiver who wants you to do evil, the deceiver who came to steal and kill and destroy you, guess what, he's going to soon be crushed under your feet. So yeah, there are those false teachers coming in. There is that deception out there. But if you guys stick with it, you're going to experience the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ soon. He says it's going to happen. You're going to see the enemy defeated. So, the answer with a strong encouragement, he says, our God of peace is going to crush Satan. Is that good news for anybody? Like, if people think God's some kind of passive God, because he's been patient and kind for so long, God's peace is not like, oh, let's just avoid the conflict and say there's peace. God's peace is like, let's overwhelmingly destroy our enemy and declare peace from horizon to horizon. That's how God does peace. Whatever the conflict is, let's resolve the conflict with victory, and then we'll have peace. And when Jesus is revealed, when Jesus is unveiled, when every eye sees Jesus come riding on the clouds, and they see who Jesus really is, Satan will be crushed under the feet of the Lord Jesus, and that's going to happen soon. So, keep going, Romans. I know the deceivers are coming. I know Satan's trying to get you to want to know what evil is, but keep obeying, because soon Satan will be crushed under your feet.
So, what a powerful encouragement he gives. Hey, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, he says, here in verse 20, notice he doesn't say, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was with you when you believed. That's not what he ever says. He says, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” Now, may that grace that led you to faith now be that grace that gives you the strength to continue in the faith, to continue in the obedience of faith. You have all the grace you need to keep living for Jesus all the way to the end. That's what he says. The grace of our Lord Jesus, he's with you, Satan will soon be defeated. What encouragement he gives them! So, he's quoting here. He's referring to Genesis 3:15, so if you're taking notes, you want to write down the protoevangelium, when God is pronouncing the curse because of the deception, when he got Eve on that knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve, they disobeyed God's commands, and now sin has spread to every single one of us. The entire creation has been cursed because of this fall into sin. But in the middle of the curse, God says that he will cause “enmity between the woman and the serpent, between her offspring and your offspring, and the offspring of the woman will bruise your head, and you are only going to bruise his heel.” So, this idea that the serpent will be crushed goes back to God's promise of the gospel here, that Jesus is going to come, and Satan's going to think he gets Jesus, but he only gets him on the heel, when Jesus crushes the head of the serpent. And see, that's what happened on the cross. Here's Satan thinking he's actually doing something by killing Jesus, but it's actually when our sins are nailed to the cross through the death of Jesus Christ, that sin is paid for once and for all, and the power of death is destroyed by the death of the righteous one, Jesus, and all of Satan's authority and power is destroyed by Jesus triumphing over him in the cross. And so, here Satan thought he had him, but really, Satan took the L and Jesus won an amazing victory.
And so, hey, soon we're going to get to see that victory. Because after Jesus rose from the dead, after he ascended into heaven, the Father said, “Sit at my right hand.” This is Psalm 110:1, where Yahweh says to Adonai, the father says to the Son, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies” your what, everybody? Because you're going to come down and you're going to stomp them, you're going to crush them. I want you to stay at my right hand till the right moment, and then I'm going to send you back to rule and to reign. And when Jesus comes riding on the clouds, when Jesus comes out of heaven unveiled, he will destroy all of his enemies by the breath that comes out of his mouth, and he will crush the Serpent. And when does it say that's going to happen? He's going to crush the Serpent under your feet, when does it say? Soon. See, if you've got this idea, well, I guess I just have to obey for the rest of my life. That's never how the Bible teaches you to think about it. No, you need to obey today. Why? Because Jesus could be coming soon. Like every step of obedience, the next step of obedience, you take it like it's your last step of obedience, because you're waiting and ready for the Lord to come. You're ready to share in the victory of the Lord Jesus. Go to Revelation, chapter 3, a very similar passage. Maybe you'll remember it when we looked at it this summer, such an encouraging word that Jesus gives to the church in Philadelphia in Revelation, chapter 3, verses 9 and 10, very similar to what Paul's saying, soon Satan will be crushed under your feet. Well, here's how Jesus says it to this church that's doing the works that he wanted them to do. Remember, Jesus wrote letters to seven churches in Revelation. Five of them had to be corrected. Only two of them were commended. This is one of the churches that got the commendation of the Lord Jesus. Look at what he says to them. Revelation 3:9, “Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.” I know about those people of Satan, the people who think they're right, they're going to come to your feet, and they're going to know that I'm with you. What an amazing thing, your enemies will come to your feet, is Jesus' promise to this church. And then he says this in verse 10, “Because you have kept my word about patient endurance,” he says, “I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth.” I am coming. And when does he say he's coming, everybody? Hey, I see your obedience. I see you keeping my Word. I see you doing what I say. And I want you to know, because you're doing that for me, when this great time of tribulation comes, when this great day of wrath comes, when the judgment is unleashed from heaven, I'm going to keep you out of all of that, and I'm coming to get you, and I'm coming soon.
See, when I'm preaching with this awesome translator, Simon, in Uganda, and I'm just preaching like the shortest sermon of my life, right? And they asked me to preach on the rapture, the moment that we will be caught up to meet Jesus in the clouds. And in the sermon, I was like, look to the air. Can you see him? Not yet, but you're going to meet him there soon. Why are we so busy looking at the ground? Look to the air, he's coming, and when did he say he's coming? And they're all shouting, “soon”. Well, after I preach that sermon, I'm walking around the whole rest of the week, around the village, around where all these people from the church are, and it's like, as soon as they see me, they're like, oh, I know who that guy is. And it's like the smile comes on their face. It's like their eyes light up, and they look at me, and I look at them, and we're both thinking the same thing, and I'll be like, he is coming. And before I can even get it out of my mouth, they're like, soon. I'll be like, Look to the air. They're like, interrupting me. It's like they’ve got all the punch lines. And it's like, as soon as we see one another, we both know what we're thinking. Look at those clouds. Is that where we're going to meet him? Everybody in Uganda, it's like, hey, I'll either come back and see you here, or I'll see you there. And they're all like, yes. Every single day, for a whole week of my life, everywhere I went, people are like, soon. People who can't even speak English, are just like, pointing to the sky. Like, I get it, I get it, man, I wish it was like that here at our church.
I wish when we saw each other, our faces lit up. Smiles came across our faces because we’ve just got to keep obeying, because he's coming to get us, and all the deception, all the evil, he will come and he will crush it all soon. He is coming. See when you really believe that he's coming soon you can continue to obey today by his grace. That's what he's saying to these Romans. That's what we need to hear.
Point number three: “Victory is coming soon.” Victory is coming. When did he say he's coming? Soon. And, in fact, to be more accurate, let's cross that out. “Victory is crushing soon,” is what it actually says. He will crush the head of the serpent. Jesus is going to win an overwhelmingly awesome victory. Every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess, and what are they going to say about him? That Jesus is who, everybody? What are they going to say he is? The who, the name that is above every name the Lord. Now, do you understand that too many people that are Christians, that go to church, they don't understand that Jesus is Lord. Too many people today, it's like Jesus is your bro, and it's like you're walking side by side with Jesus through your life. That's not who Jesus is. Jesus is the King of all kings. Jesus is the Lord of all lords. Yes. Jesus loves us. Yes, he humbled himself, and he was obedient to the point of death for us. Yes, Jesus, he's a master that will even come and serve his own servants. Nobody's ever loved you like Jesus has. But don't get it twisted. Don't make a mistake in thinking that because Jesus will humble himself and serve you and love you, that he's on your level. Jesus is not on your level. No one is on Jesus' level. Jesus is the Lord, and when the Lord tells you to do something, you don't get to decide if you want to do it or not. This is the relationship you have with Jesus. He's the Lord. You're his servant. If he gives you a command, you should what? Oh, I believe that he's Lord. I believe that he has the power to save my eternal soul for forever. I believe that he's God, that he upholds the universe, that he's the only righteous one who could pay for my sin. I just think I have a better way to live today than what he tells me. That's what a lot of people at churches these days think, well, I want Jesus to save me for eternity, but today? Today is mine to choose what I want to do. That's not really knowing Jesus.
Jesus commands my destiny. Jesus says, do this, you will live. Do this and you will die. And the only thing I can say is, yes, sign me up, because I trust you, because I know who you are and what you did for me. How could I not want to obey you? This idea that crept into the church, that obedience is over here and faith's over here, and we should be all about faith, and who cares about obedience? That is a lie, and you need to make sure that you're not thinking that lie. Jesus actually said it, not once, not twice, but three times, to his disciples on the night before he died for us. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will” what? “Believe in me,” trust me. Just remember what I've done for you. If you love me, you'll remember how I loved you. It's not what Jesus said. That might be what the podcast says, that might be what the song says, that might be what the bestselling Christian book says, but that's not what Jesus says. Jesus says, the way you can really know if you love me is if you keep my commandments. The people who really love Jesus will always be the obedient people, and their obedience will be known to all; the other believers will rejoice in their obedience.
The people of Jesus have always been defined, not just by faith, but the obedience of faith. Those are the people who love the Lord Jesus Christ. Make sure you're one of those people who believes that obedience is a good thing because it comes out of our faith in what Jesus did for us. Let me pray for you right now.
Father in heaven, we need you to clarify this deception that has crept in where we're just supposed to talk at church about what Jesus did and not about what he's telling us to do. It's almost like we're supposed to just preach Romans 1 to 5 but never go 6 through 16. And so, Father, we just confess that this deception is among us, and we thank you for this truth that we could study what Paul said all the way to the end of Romans, and that he commended them for their obedience. He encouraged them. He warned them about the deception that was coming, and he called it the obedience of faith. And God, I just pray for everybody here at this service right now that, from this day forward, we will never believe another lie about separating obedience from faith. We'll never pit them against each other. We'll never act like, oh, I've got faith and you've got obedience. No, like James said, we will show our faith by our works, because faith without works is not real faith. And so, God, I pray that we will hear what Paul says, and I pray that we will be encouraged that I do love Jesus, and I do believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and I do believe that Jesus was willing to obey, even to the point of death. So, now, if I'm going to trust in Jesus, if I'm going to follow Jesus, if I'm going to go around and profess that Jesus is the Lord, then how could I not trust him to the point of obedience myself? How could I not hear his commands, take them to heart and want to do what my Lord Jesus says. If Jesus is willing to die for me, a sinner like me, how could I not be willing to live for a Lord like him? And so let us be the people who are known for our obedience, not because we think we're somebody special, but we do believe that Jesus is the one who is special. And if Jesus commands it, we're going to teach it. We're going to not only practice it ourselves, we're going to teach everybody how to obey everything that Christ commanded. Because Jesus is the way, Jesus is the truth, and Jesus is the life. And if Jesus is saying it, then, I'm with it. And so, God, please, let us believe the truth that is in Jesus Christ and not settle for the lies that are creeping in among Christianity in America. Give us this clarity, we pray. And God, now let us sing this song that I heard the brothers in Uganda singing, that we would be near the Cross of Jesus, that we would be in the cross, that it's in the cross where Jesus was obedient to the point of death. That is our salvation. That is what our faith is in. And so, God, let us sing this song now to worship Jesus, the Lord, the Savior, the one who is worth obeying. We pray this in his name. Amen. Amen.