Believe And Obey God

Alba 8-14-2022

BELIEVE AND OBEY GOD

Romans 16:21-27

Frank was the manager of an upscale men's wear store in a wealthy section of town and was interviewing Larry for the recently advertised salesman role. Frank looked at Larry's resume and noticed that Larry had never worked in retail before.

Frank mused, "For someone with no retail experience, you are certainly asking for a high salary."

"Well I suppose I am," Larry replied, "but you must understand that the work is so much harder when you don't know what you're doing."

It’s hard to do anything if you don’t know what you’re doing. When we look at what is going on around us it seems that there are a whole lot of people who don't know what they are doing.

We are in troubling times in our nation. A time of rising prices. A time when major cities are seeing a drastic increase in crime. A time when human life is not valued, either by those who push for abortion or by those who shoot to kill because of some perceived injustice.

A time when accusations and lies are told about political opponents. A time when there is no trust in people of different political parties.

What is the answer? Fortunately in our country we have elections that give us an opportunity to change the direction things are going. I am thankful for that, if we have fair and honest elections. But the real answer is deeper than that. We need a revival in our country of true faith and obedience to the creator God.

Today we come to the end of the book of Romans. You may think we took a long time to go through it, over a year. It is said that Donald Grey Barnhouse, who was the minister of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, took 13 years to preach through Romans, and he preached over 500 sermons from this book.

So there is a whole lot more here that you can dig into. But the main message contained in this book is quite simple. It is: Believe and Obey God. That is the answer our nation needs to hear and what we need to live.

Lets read these final verses in Romans chapter sixteen beginning with verse 21. First he mentions those who are with him who share their greetings to the church. He says:

21 Timothy, my fellow worker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my countrymen, greet you. 22 I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, greet you in the Lord. 23 Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you, and Quartus, a brother. 24 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

This amen does not end the letter. In fact Paul has stated the amen several times before as this letter is coming to its conclusion. The people mentioned here were among those who were workers in the kingdom with the apostle Paul.

Timothy we know. He was Paul’s spiritual protégé who later became a leader in the church at Ephesus. Paul wrote him two letters about how minister.

Then he mentions Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater . They are all from the same area that Paul is originally from. He calls them, “My fellow Countrymen.” In some translations he even calls them his relatives, and they are doing work for the kingdom with him.

Verse 22 is interesting because it says, I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord. I thought the apostle Paul was writing this letter.

Well Paul did not take pen in hand and write the book of Romans. He instead dictated it, and Tertius was a slave who was a stenographer, who was a scribe, so he actually is the one who wrote it down.

And it is believed that he was a slave because of his name. His name means third. You see, often the Roman slaves had no names. They were known by numbers most of the time.

The first slave was called Primus. Slave number two was called Secundus. Slave number three was called Tertius. Slave number four was called Quartus, and we meet Quartus down in verse 24.

So these two, even though they likely were slaves, were Christians held in high honor and were leaders among the believers.

Two more send their greetings to the church in Rome. Gaius who provided hospitality for Paul and others. No doubt the Apostle Paul stayed in the home of Gaius eating his meals there.

Thank God for Gaius and other people who through the years have shown hospitality to God’s servants.

Then there is Erastus. He was a man prominent in Corinth.

He is described as the city treasurer. Some translations say he was the city’s director of public works. We can be thankful, and thank God, when we have Christians who are in prominent public service.