Paul's Greetings of Love

I'm going to go ahead and read this for the recording. It's rather lengthy. And join me with your eyeballs as you're reading or read with me here. I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church, which is at Sincrea, that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may need or have need of you. For she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well. Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life risk their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Also greet the church that is in their house.

Greet Eponidas, my beloved, who is the first converted to Christ from Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. Greet Andronicus, and Junius, my kinsmen and fellow prisoners who are outstanding among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Don't worry, he keeps going. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved. Greet Apellas, the approved in Christ.

Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus, Greet Herodian, my kinsman. Greet those of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord. Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine.

Greet Esencritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Petrobus, Hermas, and the brethren with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Marius and his sister, and Olympus, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

Still going. Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eyes on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites, and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. For the report of your obedience has reached to all. Therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, and so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. I, Tertius, who writes this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, greets you, and Quartus, the brother."

Everybody memorize that yet? It's pretty lengthy. No falling asleep in class and then falling out of your chair and receiving a head injury. Please wear helmets just in case. Or Roman helmets. Did you get to see that art? I made a special one for you. That being said, There are a lot of people in here. There's a supplemental part of the handout at the very last page.

Should be a grid actually showing many of those people in other contexts in the New Testament. That being said, we're not going to go over all those names in that grid because that could be the whole class by itself. It's also a little a little bit more complex. And since our time is limited, what I'd like to do this morning is we're going to focus on the qualities that Paul wrote about the different people that are there. There's a few duplicates in there, but we're going to just cover those concepts once. And it says, through each other with a holy kiss, but I'm not going to kiss anybody this morning. Alright, a real quick list of the attributes and then we'll go into each one individually.

He describes Phoebe as being a servant of the church, a helper. And then going on through some of the other names, they're fellow workers in Christ. They risked their lives. They hosted a church. One of them was a first convert to Christ in Asia. They worked hard for you. Some of them were kinsmen and fellow prisoners. A few of them were esteemed by the apostles. Some of them were beloved. Some approved by Christ.

Slight variation is one is a worked hard in the Lord and then a choice man in the Lord. So we're going to go over each one of those and just kind of briefly look at them. The first question that we need to ask or the first thing we look at actually before we dig in is the environment in which these people were doing these things. Paul's writing from one location to another.

Some of these people know the other people apparently, and there's a relationship there. But what's going on in the church in this first century here? What's going on in the Roman culture that these people are all living in, that they're having these attributes and these qualities.

Was it like 2007 in the United States? Maybe in some parallels. But were they being persecuted? More than likely. In fact, some of what Paul writes in Romans indicates that there was persecution going on of various sorts. So there's persecution going on.

When we look at some places, when you became a Christian, if you were formerly a Jew, you were really persecuted and you may have been shunned and you could lose financial income, because some people say, oh he's left what is true religion to go for something that's false, and some of these people could have really been suffering. And so it's very fascinating to just sit and think about and meditate on the life that they were surrounded by, and yet the life of Christ living through them. Let's take a look at the first one here.

It says, a servant of the church The Greek word there is deacon, but since Phoebe's a girl, we'll call her a deaconess. Paul writes about her that she's a servant of the church. She's a servant of the church. Do we have gals here at Holly Hills that are servants of the church?

I think we could say pretty confidently, uh-huh. Wayne is confidently shaking his head. There are some pretty fascinating and amazing and really cool brothers and sisters in Christ. right here in Holly Hills who are serving. They're the ones that are doing all of the things that are keeping Holly Hills functioning and going and working and it's pretty awesome because I get to walk in here and plug in some stuff into computers that have been set up and the sound system all works and the floor's been vacuumed and cleaned and the toilets are not disgusting and all kinds of things that go on. The lawn is mowed.

Wayne could give us a real thorough list of all the things that get taken care of but Phoebe is apparently an incredible servant in the church, and Paul is indicating that she's going to be here in Rome, and he says, take care of her. Whatever she has need, take care of her. She's earned the reputation of a godly woman who's an awesome servant. In our own lives, that's something that's an admirable attribute. Any questions about being a servant here? There's the potential we could spend a long time discussing nuances. Servant here, he also describes her as a helper.

He actually says basically that she was an assistant to everyone in the church and to himself. That's pretty impressive to be described as an assistant to pretty much everybody. Now the church, we don't know how big it was. I remember going and visiting some churches and they would have an attendance count. Paul doesn't give us an attendance count, but we have a general concept of this Phoebe gal is an incredible helper.

Does she help by the flesh or by the Holy Spirit? It's obviously the Holy Spirit working in their lives. How is that going to contrast to a secular person who's helping in the Roman culture? Today, we can see some of the same parallels. When a Christian helps, how are they motivated? Okay, it's the love of Christ. There's a motivation that's there as a helper. Our world surrounds us constantly with, you deserve, you do this. Here's a classic example in my own life.

When I moved to Texas, I was shocked when I went into a restaurant because the people that were working at the restaurants were incredibly hospitable and did an incredible job of serving our table. Because growing up in Nevada, in the casinos, there was none of that. I went into a nice casino once, and I thought, oh, not a nice casino, a nice restaurant in a casino in Reno.

And I sat down with Jessica, who was my fiancee at that point in time. And I sat down with her, and the waiter came up and took our order and walked away. And she goes, hey, you tried to hit on me last time I was here. And I was like, ah! So I went to Texas, and they were helpers. It's pretty shocking to have a good help experience But their motivation has often been based on the flesh and being selfish. What's my tip going to be?

It's not an attitude of serving and service, it's an attitude of greed that's motivating. The Holy Spirit working in our lives We're going to see other people, it says they're hard workers. We're going to see what that means. It's deeper than just being a hard worker. It's pretty passionate behavior.

Yes, that's not right. I don't know why. I'm going to blame Microsoft. I like to do that anyways because I program. So we have helpers. This is help motivated by the Holy Spirit and it's going to be a different kind of service. And that's the phenomenal thing when you stop and think about fleshly help versus Holy Spirit led help. Here's a gal who's looking for opportunities to serve and the Holy Spirit is opening up those opportunities. Last week we briefly talked about stewardship of gifts in the sense that God provided the need and he provided the person who had the fulfillment of the need and the agent that could deliver those fulfillments. And the same thing holds true for opportunities to help.

God provided the opportunity for somebody at Holly Hills to mow the lawn. So when somebody says, hey, we need somebody to mow the lawn, God provided the opportunity for somebody to mow the lawn and equally provided one of us in the body to fulfill that need as an opportunity to serve.

It's not a very exciting thing. You're not going to see people wearing shirts that say, I've been there, done that, I mowed the Holly Hills lawn. That's not much of a motivator either. But you are going to find that the opportunity to serve is there in the Holy Spirit is going to give you the motivation to fulfill that opportunity wherever it may be. And I'm not saying that so that the lawns get mowed. Well, sort of. Wayne's not giving me any dirty looks or anything, no matter what I say. So after Helper, we've got in here, fellow workers in Christ. Okay. Now that goes beyond just being a helper and a servant locally. It's co-serving. Fellow workers in Christ. That's pretty awesome to see the opportunity that the group was able to work together, at least locally here at Holly Hills.

It seems that we have an annual cleanup day and everybody comes together and we clean up and it's pretty fantastic. I have crawled under some of these bushes in this back corner here a few times and let me tell you, You can't do that in a group. But together we co-labored. Which is probably good, because there's spiders and junk under there anyways.

So they were fellow workers in Christ, and I think that's pretty awesome. Let me just ask, in your own personal experiences, when you have worked with other believers to get something done, is there a reward beyond just getting the job done? Do you perchance get to know that person better? There is an intimacy that comes about from that co-laboring. When various things come about and you work with somebody, yeah sometimes you find some rough edges, I'm sure that lots of people have discovered Randy's rough edges, but you also get an opportunity to develop intimacy. So that's pretty neat to see the opportunity of being a fellow worker in Christ.

Some of them risk their lives. Literally, the translation in the New American Standard says they risk their necks, but the Greek concept is their throat. They put their throat on the line. You kind of need that. Recently, there was a prayer request. Somebody said they had throat cancer. And when you get throat cancer, it's many times fatal because your throat is very difficult to handle. problems in. You have to have it for breathing. You have to have it for supporting with your spine and your blood going up your brain. Your throat's pretty sensitive.

Paul writes about these folks, they put their neck on the line, their throat on the line. That's their life. The gospel is that important to them. That's the passion that they had in Christ. And that's pretty humbling. Now they also, this is Priscilla and Aquila, they hosted a church.

Now we here at Holly Hills, we meet at this facility, and it's an awesome facility to be able to have. But at the time of the New Testament writing, it was pretty common for them to be hosting churches in their homes. And I don't think that it's abnormal, actually, in our New Testament times here as well, in 2007, for us to have Bible studies at our homes, which is quite similar.

If you look at Acts 2.42-47, you're going to see the first church getting started, and part of what's in that passage says that they met from house to house. They met together. They broke bread together. There was an intimacy, and it involved their home.

When we looked at Romans 12, it talked about hospitality. I believe it was verse 16, but don't quote me on that. It talked about being hospitable to one another. Hosting a church in your home, that's pretty extreme hospitality. Oh, hey, so-and-so met somebody today as they were working, and they were hungry to find out about the gospel, or they're a new believer, and so the church grows, and your house doesn't, normally. So it's very extreme hospitality in the sense that things could grow and your hospitality opportunities also grow.

One of these gentlemen is the first convert to Christ in Asia, at least that Paul knows about. Seeing how he's inspired by the Holy Spirit, we're going to call that 100% accurate. The first convert in Asia. You can't really say that we know who's the first convert in many places, but this guy, the Lord decided to document that. That's pretty awesome. It spread, didn't it? He wasn't the first and last. Now the next one I've got on the list here is they worked hard for you. Okay, now it says worked hard. I'm going to see if this thing will turn on now again.

Oh man. See, I'm having all kinds of fun this morning with the technology. It's a good thing I like computers. Okay. Let's see where this thing is at. Worked hard for you. The Greek implies reaching the absolute point of fatigue. Okay. That's pretty serious. These people are working hard. They're going until that's all. I gave 100%. That's their attitude as being led by the Holy Spirit is that these people were working hard. It's an intensity that goes all the way. It's pretty passionate.

The next one he's got here is kinsmen and fellow prisoners. Now here's an interesting thing. What does kinsmen mean? A relative. If you think about Paul writing that these are my kinsmen, when Paul left Christianity he was on the top ten most wanted list of Christians by the Jews. They really wanted a dead or completely stopped Paul. So these are his kinsmen.

That means that his family he was able to have some influence on But those people that he didn't have influence on probably hated him and his kinsmen. That means that the people that did become believers, it's like, oh, good thing Paul and I understand the gospel of Christ.

What a liberating freedom. It's too bad that we're hated by our relatives and the other Jews. So when it says kinsmen there, that's pretty cool for Paul. It's also very sad for all of them because they're thinking of their relatives. And he says, fellow prisoners, now, what's the most awesome thing about a Christian prisoner in the time of Rome, in most cases?

This is something I had somebody teach me, and I was like, I never looked at it like that. If you're a prisoner, especially if you're Paul, and you're chained to a guard, and every 12 hours they change shift, what is that? That's an instant evangelism opportunity.

Okay. Oh, cool! I'm bleeding at the wrist because of the chains. That's a bummer. But you're new. My name is Paul. I'd like to tell you about Jesus Christ. I just told the last guy for 12 hours about Jesus Christ. Fortunately, you got the evening shift. I'm going to have to sleep for a few hours. But when I wake up, I'm going to keep telling you about Jesus Christ.

So, fellow prisoners, some Some people would look at prisoner, oh man, what a shame for the gospel. No, no, no. The people that were guards got witnessing that they were assigned to listen to. Your job is to listen to the Christian talk, because you're chained to him. You're getting paid for it, so at least if you're a believer, you're probably hoping to be chained to Paul, so he can disciple you for 12 hours.

That's not an all bad thing right there either. So, being a prisoner, not such a bad thing for the Gospel, though probably not entirely comfortable. But it is good to at least see some of the Holy Spirit use within the opportunity of imprisonment. Alright, now, we've got on here that this group, or these two guys, are esteemed by the elders.

And I wanted to take a look at this because this is actually one of those tricky passages that some division has come about. So I wanted to take a look. What I came up with was after having read an article on bible.org, and I'm sorry I didn't put the URL in the handout, but the actual text here, let me quickly scan in my Bible here.

Verse 7. Greet Andronicus and Junius, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. You could translate it, outstanding among the apostles, but it seems theologically more consistent based on Junius being the feminine. most likely, that it would be esteemed among the apostles.

Not a huge deal. It's kind of an interpretive thing. But it's just something to be aware of. But they were remarkable or esteemed. The apostles esteemed them highly. That's a pretty awesome place to be in relationship to to things as far as human esteem is concerned. But what it really comes down to practically for us is we're seated in the heavenlies with Christ. So being esteemed highly by the apostles would be a word of commendation. If they show up at your house, invite them in. But in the end, we need to look at their being esteemed as their brothers and sisters in Christ. And no matter who shows up, if they're brothers and sisters, we need to serve them regardless of that.

I did want to just take a moment to point out that variation in the translation there, just so that we have some clarity, but we don't have to spend a lot of time dwelling on it. I'm also not a Greek scholar, so I'm not going to pretend that I can just...

Roy? There's actually a whole group of people that advocate on that. Yeah, that's true. For those of you listening on the recording, there's a whole group of people that will use this passage to advocate women as apostles. I'm personally, I have a real problem with the apostolic succession concept. That's what the Catholics teach. The Pope is an apostle. I've been to several so-called Protestant churches that were apostolic succession.

I could tell stories, I'm not gonna. It's not a biblical concept that we should have, at least in scripture. The Apostles set up what when they set up a new church? What did Paul send Timothy to do? And he writes the letters to go set up elders. The Apostles went home to be with the Lord. Yeah, it's tradition. It's been used by tradition in the Catholic Church and various other denominations. The scriptures don't say, hey, go make more apostles. Paul talks about, he writes to Timothy in chapter 3, verses 1-7. Elders, leaders of the church, they need to have these qualities. The Apostles all saw Christ. They all witnessed Christ. Paul was a little after, and so Christ revealed himself on the road to Damascus. That's how he could have Apostleship. But otherwise, the Apostles are not ongoing. And it's just important to understand that. Yeah. What was the word that you said? I'm sorry, I didn't know. Remarkable, esteemed. Oh, the Greek translation is the N right there, is by or in relationship to. It's because it's one of the, yeah, yeah.

Again, because I'm not a Greek scholar, this is what I read and my dad said he agreed with it, so I'm going to claim the umbrellaship of... By the apostles? Yeah, esteemed by the apostles, but not as an apostle. If you want, you can email me or I'll email you the link. Anybody who wants to read the article, it's scholarly, which shouldn't be a deterrent. I'm just going to warn you that if you're not familiar with some of the Greek language, there's some of that nuance in there that can, if you're like me, you'll go, okay, and glaze over that and say, I'm going to trust their scholarship.

So he writes about others that are beloved. This is a derivative of Agape love. So these people were loved by Paul the Apostle. I was thinking about that. That's pretty cool to have the Apostle Paul say, hey, these are the people that I love. That's pretty cool. I'm glad that I can say that certain people love me in my life. That's pretty humbling and awesome. And I'm grateful for that. That there are people that love me.

But it would be kind of nifty to say, this is the Apostle Paul. We are all reading his text and he's writing, hey, these people I love. We're going to keep skipping through here. We're almost done with this list and then we're going to get into some exposition of some other things here.

Approved in Christ. These ones were accepted or tried. They've been through the trials. and they've showed their faithfulness in Christ. That's pretty awesome. In our own lives, have we seen people approved by Christ? I hope the answer is yes. But if you've ever seen a prayer request from start to finish, then you've probably seen somebody approved in Christ. When the prayer request comes in, something tumultuous, a trial is coming in, the trial comes in, they stay focused on Christ, the trial's over, and they're still focused on Christ. They're approved in Christ. They've seen Christ work in their lives, and they've applied it and lived it out, even in our own lives. That's an exciting thing to see, is brothers and sisters in Christ.

A choice man in the Lord. So this choice there means an elective. This one is chosen by God. Hey, you're a brother or sister in Christ, you're chosen by God too. That's pretty awesome. Paul is writing this admonition. These people are special in their hearts. Let's jump down now to verse 16 if you've got your Bibles open. It says, Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

Alright, when I was a teenage boy, I saw this passage and it was a stumbling block for me because I didn't know what this holy kiss was. All I knew about kissing was what I'd seen on TV and the movies. This holy kiss thing weirded me out. It was like, wait a minute.

All right. But looking at it, it implies a personal relationship and some of it may have a cultural nuance in the fact that the Romans may have greeted and the Jews may have greeted each other with a kiss. It does not imply something sexual, okay? It's completely G-rated. That being said, That's not the way I'm going to affectionately greet any of my friends. I hope you like a hug. I'll give you a holy hug and we'll call it good. I won't consider that dissenting or disagreeing with the scriptures. I'm just saying that's where I'm comfortable. But it's a friendly kiss. There is nothing naughty about it.

Now the next passage or the next section here is going to be Paul's warning the church in Rome about people who have devious tendencies, people who are going to try to destroy the church from the inside out. So starting in verse 17, Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. Keep your eye would mean to take mark on or watch or to spy out. Being aware and looking for these people who are going to try to bring dissension. Shun them among the body. The elders who are there are going to try to reprove. If the elders try to reprove that person and they refuse to listen to the elders' warning, they need to be shunned. Now, this is a tough tough thing.

Because anytime you talk about division in the body of Christ, division comes about in one of two places most often. Doctrine, where somebody doesn't agree with doctrine, like the old Arminian Calvinist argument or something would be a classic example of doctrine dividing. Or fleshliness. Division in doctrine is something that comes about where if believers submit themselves humbly to the Word of God, I believe that can be overcome.

Fleshliness is an act of the will of the person who's saying, I don't care. I want what I want. This morning, as I was trying to get my 22-month-old ready for church, she threw a temper tantrum. She wanted what she wanted, and there was nothing that I could do that was going to change her little will. No amount of discipline wanted to impact her decision. She had made up her mind.

In theology, that's a problem. When it comes to God's Word, we need to be humbly submitting ourselves before God's Word. So, these people are willfully causing division and willfully causing problems, so they are to be shunned. Now, that's not something that we look forward to, and hopefully is very, very rare. That being said, it's possible that it could happen, and we just need to be aware of that. Part of it is pearls before swine.

If you pour a lot of energy into a dissenter, then you may not be pouring energy into a hungry soul. Let's say an elder has been tasked with dealing with dissenter Jobob, and there's a hungry heart that's hungry for God's word. If it takes hours of time to deal with Jobob, then the hungry heart is not being fed. It's an opportunity lost.

So, that's part of the element there, practically speaking. Okay, dissension. Causing disunity or division. Okay, this absolutely contrasts Ephesians 4, 3-6. Would somebody mind flipping relatively quickly to Ephesians 4, 3-6 and reading that out loud for us? Okay, so that kind of sounds like unity if you were to ask me. Holy Spirit directed unity, and this is fleshly directed dissension or disunity.

The next one he says there is watch out for these people who are bringing hindrances. The English word scandal is derived from the Greek word. I'm not saying that they're trying to cause a scandal, but they're wooing you into a trap or into a snare. That's pretty hefty. When you think about it, these people, some of them are causing division and some of them are causing deception and trying to ensnare you.

We're going through the book of Galatians in the main service. The Judaizers would be a classic example of ensnarers. They're coming in saying, oh, we're Christians. We do this Christian song and dance except for you need the law. Gotta have the law. Come on, everybody, come in. I'm gonna woo you into the law. I'm gonna show you why you need to have the law.

Those people are causing hindrances. If you've ever been ensnared by legalism, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Those hindrances are not ones that you can get around without causing some problems with those people that are promoting those hindrances. Once you tell the person that's been trying to woo you in, hey that's wrong, it's going to cause a fight. It's not going to be pretty. You need to stand for truth. But that's part of why Paul is warning them, hey, watch out for these people who are causing division and hindrances, because you don't need that.

Again, body life, the way that the believers interact with one another, gets messed up. It's good to think of this as a disease or a cancer. Don't think of it in a light fashion. That's why Paul says to keep your good eye out for it. Then he says to turn away from them, okay? So the apostle recommended behavior is to shun or turn away from these divisive people.

This division is due to a spiritual attitude and condition and is not motivated by the same source. Or, I'm sorry. Wait a minute. That's a typo. It's not motivated by the same source that brings about unity. Don't read it. It's all wrong. Just kidding.

But it's a spiritual attitude that brings about division. It's a spiritual attitude that usurps the authority of God, in God's word, and the authority of the elders, as God has placed the elders, and the authority of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and instead says, I've got this little niche corner of truth, and you need to do it my way. So they need to be shunned. He says, such men are slaves, okay?

They're carnal, they're fleshly, they're walking in the old man, they're not abiding, they're sinning, they're tempting people to be like themselves, and they're hugging Adam again. Okay? When we started Romans chapter 1, there was kind of that same concept, wasn't there? Romans chapter 1, 18 through the end of the first chapter, which I believe is 32, it lists people who are being fleshly that are trying to woo you to do their thing. Remember all of the lists of sinful things?

People trading in what was natural for the unnatural. People inventing new sins and saying, come do that with me. That was the flesh. Those people aren't even saved that Paul is writing about. Paul is writing about people who are trying to be in the church doing the very same thing here. It's not a chiasm. It's important to understand that these people are being slaves to their own appetites.

Slave is a pretty strong word. If we look at the text, let's take a quick gander back at the text. Verse 18, for such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites. Are we slaves of our Lord Jesus Christ? The scripture says yes we are.

That's pretty awesome. But Paul's saying these are not slaves like you're a slave. These people aren't serving the Lord, they're serving themselves. That's a pretty sad state of affairs. Continuing on there, he says, and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. Alright, so they have smooth language. We've all experienced smooth language.

On Friday I got a letter from the Discover credit card company. And I was so impressed. I sat down and I analyzed the letter because I was so impressed by it. At the top of the page it said something about taking control of your finances. Use Discover and take control. Take control. Oh, what a wonderful concept. Financial control, responsibility, And the whole letter was why you should continue to maintain a high level of debt to the Discover card, but feel like you're in control.

You are a slave to the lender. Scripture says in the Old Testament that the borrower is slave to the lender. And the whole concept of the letter was smooth talking. You're going to be in control You'll know exactly how much you owe us all the time. Just always owe us all the time.

Smooth talking. Impressively smooth talking. I would love to meet the people that put that together and shake their hands and say, do you know Lucifer because he had a snake that talked just like that? Just kidding. I don't want to say that. The smooth talking is part of our culture.

When you watch an advertisement, much of the advertisement's purpose is to use smooth talking to persuade you to do something. Unfortunately, I've had to work on advertisements and I know that my least favorite thing to do is to try to woo somebody in with deception. I'd rather just tell them this is what it does and here's how it works. Do you need it?

If you don't, just keep walking because I don't want to be a stumbling block. The marketing department doesn't like my attitude but the answer is that we need to have honesty with the customers and as a customer you need to be aware whether or not you're being smooth-talked.

But these guys are worse because they're inside of the body of Christ trying to do that and that's where we need to be alert and aware and careful. If the warning bells go off inside your head because the Holy Spirit is saying, hey that's wrong It's probably, if you're not sure, go ask an elder. Go ask somebody who's spiritually mature that you feel confident in saying, is this guy crazy?

Because it's possible that they are. That's what Paul's saying. Watch out. Okay, so their flattering speech and deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. Now it says the unsuspecting, so let's ask an important question. Are you unsuspecting? Maybe, maybe not.

But the truth of the matter is that if we study God's Word, and we grow in our knowledge of His Word, and we grow in our walk with the Lord, you're going to hopefully be a whole lot less unsuspecting. As a new babe in Christ, it's possible to be unsuspecting. But as you grow in the Lord, and you grow in your knowledge of His Word, that unsuspectingness is not going to be there. Partially, because you're going to know the Lord, and you're going to know what His Word says, and you're going to go, Again, I'll use an illustration of Evelyn, the 22-month-old.

Have you ever seen those little block things where you've got to fit the block and match it up? The shapesorter? There we go. Thank you. It's a piece of plastic. Anyways, the shapesorter, the little mind, before they develop their understanding of, oh, that's a rectangle, that's a noble, that's a dodecahedron, or whatever it is, They're trying to cram everything in there. They're just like, alright, that's a hole. It doesn't match. Unfortunately, the unspecting are still ignorant of the fact that these don't line up.

So as believers we need to be seeking God's word and seeking growth so that we can match up the shapes. That's good doctrine. That fits into the match of my position in Christ. That's bad doctrine. That says my position is wrong. Those are very things that practically as believers we can grow and learn in. Alright, verse 19. For the report of your obedience has reached to all. Therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. The report of your obedience has reached to all. That's pretty awesome.

They didn't even have the internet. Okay, the report of your obedience The church in Rome was known for being a church of godly believers. And that's pretty cool. I'm going to say this humbly, but it's pretty awesome to be part of Holly Hills because there are people that have heard of Holly Hills and they go, that's a really cool church to get good doctrine at. That's pretty humbling. And I'm not saying that to puff our chests up and give us pride. If anything, it should cause us to continue to be prayerful about what happens at Holly Hills. But the believers in Rome had an attitude of obedience, and that attitude was notorious in a good way. The attitude was infamous. Oh, those crazy Romans, they have obedient attitudes. That's pretty cool. But he keeps going.

And the last half of 19 and 20, I believe, are throwback references to Genesis chapter 3. He says, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. What happened in Genesis chapter 3? Does anybody remember off the top of their heads? The first half of Genesis chapter 3? There was no food network, but there was food involved. the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In the very beginning, Satan says in verse 5, he says, God doesn't want you to eat that because he knows that you'll know about good and evil. And Paul right here says, I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. As a believer, go back to being somewhat like Adam and Eve in the sense of innocence when it comes to evil. Kind of ironically, Paul goes through a list of evil things in chapter one, but he doesn't want them to have an intimate knowledge of those things.

He wants it to be a superficial knowledge. He wants it to be something, oh, I heard about that. I understand what it is, but I don't know from first-hand experience. That first-hand experience can cost you a lot. God could still use it. Romans 8.28 says that he can use all things. But our knowledge of that which is evil, he doesn't want it to be first-hand. He doesn't want it to be an intimate knowledge. What does he want to have our first-hand intimate knowledge to be of?

That which is good. That's way better anyways, if you think about it. If you think about all the hardships you've been in your life, I'm sure it wasn't for intimacy of knowledge of good. So that is a reference there. The other thing is there, verse 20, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

That's Genesis 3.15.

What does Genesis 3.15 talk about? Does anybody remember? I'll flip back there, but if you can remember off the top of your head, somebody go for it. God says to Eve, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. Satan would have his head crushed by the work of Christ on the cross.

We, in Romans 16.20, we will be unified with the crusher Christ. in that soon, when the rapture happens, the imminent return of Christ. You're going to be with Christ. You will be unified with the crusher. So he says that you will soon crush the serpent's head.

Now that's pretty different language and vocabulary. We're not used to hearing that term as believers. Or are we? Are we more than conquerors? Are we positionally seated in the heavenlies with Christ? This is different language to say the same thing. He's not presenting a different concept. The crushing is not of our own doing, it's the work of Christ on the cross.

And then he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Verse 33 of chapter 15, he says, now the God of peace be with you all. This time, it's the God of grace. As Paul's writing this closing part of the letter, he's encouraging the believers in Rome to have peace. But he doesn't stop there. He says, have grace. May the God of grace, or may the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Our God is the God of grace.

That's the second bell I'm supposed to stop now. Let's close in prayer but if there's any questions afterwards we can still discuss those. Heavenly Father we ask that you just bring to our hearts and minds these things over the upcoming weeks and months and time between now and your imminent return. We ask that you would just quicken to our hearts and minds as people speak to us, as people saying they're brothers and sisters in Christ, that we would compare those things much like the Bereans to what your word says, that we would be discerning. And Lord, we just thank you for your word and the truth that you've given us. In Jesus' name, amen.