The Closing Doxology (Romans Sermon 119)

And so we come to the final verses in Romans. We do not come to the final sermon in Romans. Next week I’m going to preach one sermon on all 16 chapters. How in the world I’m going to do that, I don’t have the first idea, but I have this week to figure that out. But these are the final verses that I’ll be carefully expositing for you. I began this sermon series years ago, well over 100 and, maybe 110 sermons and now we come to this closing doxology. And I think it’s important to finish well, don’t you think?

I mean, so many people begin things and they don’t finish them. I know that’s a besetting sin of mine. I’m not going to stand up here and bare my soul to you, so I’ll talk more in the abstract about things in general that have begun and not finished, not that I have that problem. I’m not talking about that, but I could. But the fact is we struggle finishing things. You begin a letter and you don’t finish it, and you find it a few weeks later, and now it’s in no condition to send, wrinkled up or something like that. Or a hobby, you buy a kit and it looks good to you on the outward package, but then you look at the 76-page manual of instruction and you think that “I’ll never get this finished,” or a dress that you’re sewing or something like that and you get it halfway done and you can’t finish it. Or then there’s the workout regimen that you bought complete with the training video and all that, found that in the storage a little while ago, never got to that.

You know we begin things and we don’t finish them, and that’s a problem for us, but it is not a problem for Almighty God, amen? What God begins, He finishes, and not only does He finish it, He finishes it gloriously with a glorious flourish. We see that in the physical creation in Genesis chapter two, a summary statement after God had created heaven and earth. And six days, it says in Genesis 2, “Then thus the Heavens and the Earth were completed in all their vast array and by the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing. And so on the seventh day, He rested from all his work.” He surveyed everything that He had made, and behold it was very good, finished it gloriously. But even better is the work of redemption in Christ. Think about what Jesus said the night before He died. In John 17:4, He said, “Father, I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.”

Oh wouldn’t it be beautiful to say that for just one day, to say I did everything you wanted me to do today, Father? But Jesus said it for His whole lifetime. But of course there was something else yet to be done, and He did it the next day, and as He was finishing that, namely our blood atonement on the cross as his life blood was being poured out and all the scripture prophecies had been fulfilled, after He had tasted the wine vinegar, everything was completed. After He had tasted that, He said, “It is finished.” It’s perfect. And then He died. And so He finished his atoning work for us gloriously.

But that wasn’t the end either because God raised him from the dead on the third day, and He did it with glory in a resurrection body, a glorious body, so it says in 1 Peter 1:21, “God raised Him from the dead and glorified Him.” And so He’s glorious now. And then how about the new heavens and the new earth? What God begins, He finishes and that with great glory. Revelation 21, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” Oh, how glorious will the church be then.

And what a glorious time that will be for us. Later in that same chapter, one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, and it shone with the glory of God. And its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. Oh, what God begins He finishes and that gloriously. And that’s true of each one of us in our own personal journeys of salvation. What He begins in us, He will finish, and that gloriously.

Says in Hebrews 12:2, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” He isn’t just the one who begins our faith, He perfects it. Or Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” And in that day, you will be glorious. “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father.” For it says in Romans 8:30, “Those whom He predestined, He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified, and those He justified, He also glorified.” You see, what God begins in eternity past, He will finish and that gloriously. So we come to the final words of the book of Romans, the greatest letter ever written. And what God began through the apostle Paul, he now finishes gloriously with this incredible doxology.

I. God IS the Gospel, so to God Be the Glory

Now as I look at this and the Book of Romans and I have this week to kind of draw it together in one message, to try to understand what it’s all about, I come to this, that it’s about the gospel. And ultimately God is the gospel. The word gospel is good news and God is the gospel because God is so good and he’s bringing us to himself. He is what we get after all of this. He’s our very great reward, as He said to Abraham. And so what better way to finish the book of Romans than a total focus on God Himself? And so Paul writes, “Now to him who is able to establish you, to the only wise God, be glory forever.” There’s a focus in these verses on God Himself.

And so we focus completely on Him. Now it’s a theologically thick, dense statement just as the whole book has been theologically thick and dense. And it’s reasonable for us to close this way because Romans is the greatest statement of the gospel in the Bible. And ultimately, God is the Gospel. And notice how this exactly is how Paul began the letter. If you were to go back to the very beginning of Romans, this is how it starts. “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God, the gospel of God, the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, it’s a predicted gospel He promised ahead of time in the Holy Scriptures through the prophets, regarding His Son, Jesus Christ, who as to His human nature was the descendant of David, and who through the spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the son of God by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” That’s how he begins and that’s also how he finishes so beautifully.

Now God’s ultimate purpose in this gospel is the praise of his glory. That’s why he does all things. We should never tire the topic of God’s glory or the praise, but we never will tire of it. It’s an infinite topic and it will consume our full attention in heaven, forever and ever. God saved us in Christ for one ultimate reason, and that is the praise of His glory. He says that three times in the book of Ephesians to the praise of His glorious grace. He says it again and again, and that’s why He saves us. And so He brings us at last to the real purpose of this gospel and that is the praise of God and of His glory. To the only wise God, be glory forever through Jesus Christ.

Now there are wonderful benedictions and doxologies throughout the scripture. And I think they’re there to remind us that that’s our point. That’s why we were created. We were created to praise God, to speak words of praise to Him. That’s what our mouths are for. They have other purposes too, but our mouths are ultimately to be filled with praise for God. And so there are these sweet doxologies throughout scripture. We sang one of them earlier, that beautiful one in Jude, very similar to the one we have here. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault, blameless and with great joy to the only God our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all ages now and forever more, amen.” Very similar. A focus on God who is able. In our doxology, God is able to establish us. In Jude, God is able to keep us from falling and to present us before His presence, blameless with great joy. He is able.

And so there’s these benedictions, and they’re throughout the Bible. If you were to go through the 150 Psalms, there are five books of Psalms, to organize, the Jews did into five books. And at the end of each one is a doxology, a glorious praise, and the whole thing ends with Psalm 150, six verses of praise to God. It reads like this, “Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power. Praise him for a surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet. Praise him with harp and lyre. Praise him with the tambourine and dancing. Praise Him with the strings and flutes. Praise Him with the clash of cymbals. Praise Him with a resounding cymbals lest the cymbals be too quiet the first time. Praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.”

Oh, how glorious is that? That’s the way the Psalms ends. Glorious praise to God. And that’s the way your life, if you’re a Christian, will end as well in eternal praise for Almighty God. And boy, you’re going to enjoy it. And so will I. Can’t wait. And so Paul ends with this focus on God and on His glory. He focuses on God who is the gospel.

II. The Gospel that Establishes Believers

Now let’s look at it a little more carefully. First, it’s the gospel that establishes believers. Look at verse 25, “Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel.” Unbelievers are essentially unstable in their lives. Because Satan, their king, is an unstable being as we saw last time, very unstable. He was cast down from heaven to earth and now he roams restlessly over the surface of the earth looking for something to do, and it’s always bad. He’s always reacting to God and trying to mess it up.

He’s a reactor, not an actor. And so he’s trying to just find whatever God’s doing and forded, and frustrated. But he himself is a frustrated being. He’s filled with rage because he knows his time is short. In effect he’s somewhat like a homeless drifter just passing through. We are the permanent owners by the grace of God. The meek will inherit the earth. He’s just passing through causing a lot of trouble, and how good it will be, as we talked last time, when he’s finally on his way. But he’s essentially unstable. He’s not a permanently rooted fixture here. The world itself that he created is passing away. So also demons are passing away. They are restless creatures seeking someone to inhabit because they have no rest, and therefore non-Christians are essentially unstable. They have no roots. They’re drifting in life. There’s a great instability there.

Well, it says here, “Now to him who is able to establish you.” And here is the focus on God. It is God who is able to do this. Do not look to yourself to establish yourself in Christianity. It can’t be done. You can’t do it. You don’t have that power. If you’re a Christian now, I mean, genuinely born again, you will be one in 20 years. And that’s only by the power of God. God is at work in you and he’s able to root you and to establish you in this gospel. “Now to him who is able to” do this, the focus is on the ability of God. We are constantly tempted to look to ourselves, aren’t we? To look inward to see if we have the resources to meet the challenge. I tell you, you do not have the resources to meet this challenge. But God does. “Now to him who is able,” it says,

And it talks about establishing. Now this Greek word “establish” means to set an unshakable foundation, to strengthen and reinforce. When I was a student in the Boston area, they were always building, and there was one, a building in particular, it was a skyscraper they were building in Cambridge, and every day, I’d walk across and I’d listened to the rhythmic beat of these tools that were driving the piles down and it was just giving me a headache and I’m wondering when are they going to be done? And I was told they’ve got to go as deep down into the earth as the skyscraper goes up, so it’d be rooted and established, especially there in the Back Bay, which is landfill of Boston. The Back Bay’s very unstable there. And so every day as I’m walking across, my foot steps are, is driving the pilings down. God wants to do that with the gospel truth in Romans into your heart.

You’re not done with Romans when I get done preaching here. I hope you know that. You’ll never be done with Romans and neither will I, besides which, there’s only one person in the sanctuary who is here for all of those sermons that I preach in Romans, it’s me. I’m the only one. I think I was here for most of them anyway. I was. But at any rate, we need to be saturated in the book of Romans the rest of our lives. It’s not just to bring you to initial faith in Christ. It’s to develop your maturity. Develop your faith, to finish saving you. And so we’ll be established by this gospel to the end. Keep reading it. We’re never done with it. This is the very thing that Paul wanted to do in his visit to the Roman church back in chapter 1:11. He says, “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to establish you.” It’s the same idea. He wanted to do it but he couldn’t.

We talked about that in Romans 15 why he couldn’t go there. But he sent on this letter. But it doesn’t matter because it really isn’t Paul who can establish us anyway. It is God who establishes us and He is able to do it and He does it by these words by Romans. Isn’t it beautiful that God is able to put solid ground under our feet? It says in Psalm 40:1-3, “I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit.” That’s sin, friends. “He lifted me out of the slimy pit out of the mud and mire and he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. And he put it in the song in my mouth and a hymn of praise to our God.” If you’re a Christian, that’s what God’s done for you and He’s not done doing it. He’s going to put even more solid ground under your feet, eternal ground, the new heavens and the new earth. It’ll never move. It’s permanent. How sweet is that? God is able to meditate on that. Don’t meditate on what you think you can do and what you plan to do. Meditate on what God by His infinite power is able to do in you. He is able to establish you.

Now it says he’s able to establish you by “my gospel.” Don’t you love that? “My gospel,” says the apostle Paul. Now we should not think that Paul’s gospel was different than everybody else’s gospel. Well there’s my gospel and then there’s that gospel that Peter is preaching and the one that John’s got over there. No, it’s all the same. Paul is not saying that his gospel is unique from the other apostles. He’s not saying that, neither is he saying that he wrote it or invented it. “You know I’m the author of the gospel. It’s my gospel, you know? But I’ll let you have it, or borrow it anyway.” He’s not talking like that. Actually in Galatians 1:11-12, he talks exactly the opposite. He said, “I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preach to you is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” That’s the gospel that Paul’s talking about.

But yet he calls it “my gospel.” Well I think he’s identifying, “This is the gospel I preach. This is the gospel that I’ve been writing about here in these 16 chapters. This is my gospel.” And I think more than that, there’s a sense of passionate ownership here. “This is the gospel that saves my soul,” says Paul. “This is the gospel that is my hope. This is the gospel that is my pearl of great price. I sold everything to get this. This is the treasure hidden in the field and I sold everything to get this treasure. It’s my gospel. It’s the salvation of my soul.” Can you say that today?

You’ve come to church today, but have you come with a gospel that’s yours? It’s your gospel. You’ve signed your name to it. You’ve committed yourself to it. It has saved your soul. Have you seen Christ crucified as your savior? Is this your gospel? It’s mine. Is it yours? I beg you, don’t leave this place today without making it your gospel through simple faith. Look to Jesus. Look to the one who is the author and perfecter of faith to Jesus hanging on the cross that you might have eternal life. Make it your gospel. But Paul says, “It’s my Gospel that establishes believers.” And this gospel, which we’re going to go over in one swoop next week is the gospel of message of Romans, a gospel that talks about universal sin. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is no answer within us.

But God from the outside sends the answer. He sends his only begotten son. And Jesus, by his blood propitiation, he turns away the wrath of God and he brings God at peace with us and we are reconciled through simple faith. And having been reconciled, we’re given the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are told to work out our salvation moment by moment by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices. That’s sanctification. And then in the end, he is going to glorify us. He’s going to finish the saving work in us. That’s Paul’s gospel. And by that he is able to establish you.

By ongoing exposure to the truth that Paul preached. It is also the gospel that proclaims Jesus Christ. He says, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, all roads lead to Jesus Christ, Christ is the center of the Gospel, He’s the center of the Bible and He is the center of all human history. And so therefore the proclamation of Christ has ongoing power to establish you. You need to hear Christ preached the rest of your lives, because it’s able to put those pilings under your soul so that you’re not easily moved.

III. The Gospel that Proclaims Jesus Christ

And it’s by the proclamation of Jesus Christ. Why is it so? Well, because faith, the faith that justifies you, it comes by hearing. It came the first time that you heard the gospel. I mean really heard it. Not the first time you heard the words and didn’t make much sense you but I mean the first time you heard it with your heart and faith sprang up inside you, because you heard the truth. Well, that faith that justifies you, it’s a living thing, and it needs food. You need to feed it. You know what feeds it? The word of God. The hearing of the proclamation of Jesus Christ, that’s what he’s talking about.

So he says, the proclamation of Jesus Christ is able to establish you. Now, this was Paul’s entire work. The word proclamation here is the work of a herald. Remember the guys back in the Colonial era, the town clerks standing with a bell?

Herald, that kind of thing. And then he came with a message from the King and you would listen. King couldn’t get everywhere, didn’t have the internet or text messaging or any of that stuff, so they would send out these heralds. They go by horse about whatever, and they’d go into your locality and they would proclaim the message from the King. Paul was that kind of a herald.

He says, “Of the gospel, I was appointed a herald and an Apostle and a teacher,” he’s there to ring the bell and say, “Listen to this, this is a message from the King and it’s about Jesus Christ.” This was Paul’s supreme commitment to preach Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2, he says, “When I came to you brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling.”

That’s not much to look at. The human messenger, it’s not really spectacular. We preachers, we can’t compete with all the multimedia images and all that. We’re not trying to. According to the wisdom of God or what’s called the foolishness of God in 1 Corinthians 1, it’s just preaching that establishes your soul, the preaching of Jesus Christ, the proclamation of Christ. And this Gospel proclaims the glory of Christ from A to Z as we’ll see next week.

IV. The Gospel that Reveals Mysteries

“Now to Him who is able to establish you,” He says “by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ.” This is also a Gospel that reveals mysteries. Look what it says in verses 25-26, “According to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God.” Before the foundation of the world, before God said, “Let there be light,” before there were any angels, certainly before there were any demons, before there were any people, before there was sun, moon or stars, before any of that, God had worked out the salvation plan. It was in the secret counsel of His own mind.

God had worked out the whole plan before the foundation of the world. It was hidden for long ages past. And as redemptive history unfolded, God paid it out a little at a time, gave out a little more insight, a little more wisdom, a little more of the gospel story acted out in types, a little more prophecy coming. Little by little, we see it, He’s paying out this mystery. Deuteronomy 29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” So how does He reveal them?

He reveals them through the prophets. He speaks these mysteries out. Now, when we talk about mysteries of the Bible, we’re not talking about something like an Agatha Christie deal or Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, what is that hound? The monarch hound? How did he try to work out that thing or the game Clue, Colonel Mustard with the lead pipe in the conservatory, it’s nothing like that. The mystery of God is something that God has within himself that you cannot know if he doesn’t reveal it. And if we talk about redemptive mysteries, it has to do with God’s redemptive plan that he’s holding to himself. And then he pays some of it out a little at a time.

And so there are all kinds of mysteries in the Bible. There’s the mystery of godliness, 1 Timothy 3:16. The mystery of lawlessness that’s about the Antichrist, 2 Thessalonians 2. The mystery of the rapture: “Brothers, I tell you a mystery, we’ll not all sleep, but we will all be changed.” It’s a mystery. There’s the mystery of the Kingdom of God in Mark 4:11. There’s the mystery of Christ’s will in Ephesians 1:9. The mystery of Christ Himself in Colossians 2. The mystery of marriage, the relationship between a husband and wife, picturing in some way, the relationship between Christ and the church. Paul says it’s a profound mystery, but he is talking about Christ and the church. Mystery of the Gospel, he says in Ephesians 6:19, the mystery of “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” Colossians 1. The mystery of the faith, 1 Timothy 3:9.

And then Book of Revelation is filled with mysteries. There’s all kinds of mysteries in Revelation. We’re going through in our men’s Bible study on Thursday. And so there’s the mystery of Babylon the great and all kinds of other mysteries that are yet to come. When the New Testament uses the word mystery though, most frequently it talks about this one mystery, and that is how could Gentiles, like you and me, if you’re a Gentile, how could we end up in some spiritual sense like Jews, children of Abraham, somewhat mysteriously grafted into an olive tree, that is of Jewish heritage and we are circumcised not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, by the word of God and by the Holy Spirit of God? That’s a mystery. And that’s what he’s talking about here, the mysteries of the Bible.

And they’ve been revealed by the prophetic writings. If you ask me how I know that Christianity is true, it’s these prophetic writings. The fact that we are time-bound preachers. I had some great witnessing opportunities on the plane. I always try for them. I don’t always get them, but woe to the talkative person who sits next to me in the plane. If you’re talkative, it’s definitely going to happen. We’re going to get a good gospel presentation. I don’t know that they’ll come to faith, that’s something I cannot do. Only God can produce new life in a heart, but they’re going to hear the gospel. And I kind of parse it… I get, alright, 80 minutes, we’ll go 40 minutes them talking as much as they want about whatever they want, and I will be interested in that and listen for clues, and some things I could say. The second half is going to be gospel, though they know it not, when they’re sitting next to me. That’s what we’re going to do.

But I was talking to one man, an engineer working in Norfolk, Virginia on flight simulators and I love that engineering stuff. There’s still engineering inside me, it’s still there, but I love the Word of God, too, but I love listening to servos and computer stuff and all that really geeky, and I was enjoying that. Alright, tempted just to talk about that the whole time. But I knew the Lord would call me to account on Judgment Day for that witnessing opportunity. This guy believes in reincarnation, believes in all kinds of things. He said, “How do you know what you’re saying is true?” Because I said to him, reincarnation might be true and resurrection might be true, but they can’t both be true, one or the other. We’ve got to figure it out.

Now, I have certain reasons why I believe it’s resurrection and not reincarnation, but none of us has been in there except Jesus came back to tell us. So how do you know? So I used an illustration. I said, “We are now flying into Atlanta. Suppose there was someone on the plane who believed we’re actually flying into Las Vegas, passionately believed it, would that change the destination of the plane?” He said, “No,” I said, “What would you think of that person?” “They’re nuts, or they got on the wrong plane, or greatly deluded.” I wonder how you would do that. You got on the wrong plane. But their belief that they’re going to end up in Vegas doesn’t change the destination of the plane. I said, “What matters is where are we really heading not where do you think we’re heading. What is the truth? He said, “Well how can you know the truth?

I said, The Bible. He said, “How do you know the Bible’s true?” I said, “One of the ways is prophetic writings. We are locked into time, we don’t know the future. We don’t even know what the weather is going to be like tomorrow really, for sure. But God knew things a thousand years in advance of Christ, that Jesus would be crucified, His hands and His feet pierced, Psalm 22. That He would shed His blood for the sins of the people, Isaiah 53, that He would be raised and his body would not see corruption, it would not decay, Psalm 16. That He would be worshipped as deity, as God by people from all over the world, Daniel 7. These things were all predicted long before any of them came to pass. You can’t orchestrate that. Only God can do that.

And so, by the prophetic writings we know that this is true. This is how God has revealed the mysteries through prophets. It is His glory to tell us ahead of time what’s going to happen and then it happens. He’s the only one who can do it because he’s the only sovereign king. Everything else is subject to whether he says so or not. So we say “If the Lord wills,” but if God says it, the Lord wills, because he’s saying it. And so, the prophetic writings tell us. And these are revealed by the apostles, the apostles were stewards, 1 Corinthians 4, of the mysteries of God. They were held accountable to how they dealt with these mysteries and Paul wanted to be a faithful steward of the mysteries of God. And so, he was preaching them.

Now, as I look at the Bible, I think the whole thing is summarized in two phrases. A friend of mine, Mark Dever wrote two books, one, a whole book summarizing the Old Testament, another whole book summarizing the New Testament. Old Testament promises made. New Testament, promises kept. That is God. He is the promise maker and keeper. Old covenant promises made. He said to Abraham, “Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be blessed.” He’s fulfilling it now in Christ. That’s how we know that it’s true.

V. The Gospel that Produces Obedience Among the Nations

Now, this Gospel also is a Gospel that produces obedience among the nations. Look what it says, “but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey Him.” It’s a gospel that produces obedience among Gentiles, among peoples. Now he mentions the command of the eternal God. God has commanded that these mysteries be revealed. He commanded Isaiah to write Isaiah 53. He commanded David to write Psalm 22. He commanded David to write Psalm 16. He commanded Jeremiah to write of the new covenant that was coming in David, the branch of David that was coming. He commanded these things. And he commanded the apostles to get up and preach it on Pentecost and thereafter. By the command of the eternal God, this word goes out.

But what is the word? The gospel itself is a command. The gospel is a command that must be obeyed. How did Jesus begin preaching? He said, “The time is at hand, the Kingdom of God is near, repent, and believe the good news,” that’s a command, friends. Repent, turn away from sin, believe the gospel. These are commands given by a king.

And so this is a Gospel that must be obeyed. Remember how the apostle Paul was standing in Athens, he is debating with those Areopagus philosophers just sat around talking about and listening to the latest ideas all the time. That’s what they did. And so in comes Paul, and he is despised, they think nothing of him, he doesn’t have that eloquence and all that sort of stuff, and his philosophy seems bizarre. A Jewish carpenter, some guy from Nazareth dies on a wooden cross, under the condemnation of the Romans and He’s the Savior of the world. It seems like foolishness, but that’s what he preached. But Paul was so bold, so bold. And he says very plainly, talking about their idolatry in Athens, he says, “I see that in all the city, it’s filled with idols.” In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. The Gospel is a universal command given by Almighty God, the eternal God, to the human race. Repent and believe the good news. That’s what he’s called it.

Now, what I get out of this is that you want to know how do I know I’m saved? How do I know I have saving faith? Well, is there a pattern of obedience in your life? There is an obedience that comes from faith. If there’s no obedience, friends, there is no faith, it’s that simple. God has saved us to bring us back under the yoke of Christ. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you…” Take your neck and put it under my yoke submit to me, let me be your king. My commands are not burdensome. Bring your life under obedience, the obedience of the Gospel,” this is an obedience that brings faith. And it’s the obedience of the nations.

VI. The Gospel that is the Wisdom of God

Finally, it is the Gospel that is the wisdom of God. He says “To the only wise God.” All the wisdom of God. We talk about the ancient world. And Alexander the Great was confronted when he invaded Asia Minor with a problem traditionally, this maybe a mythological story but I think it’s true, with the Gordian knot. Now, it had been prophesied that this tangled up knot of rope could only be untied by the one who is the rightful ruler of Asia. Alexander was not much of a thinker, I don’t think at this moment, at least. So he pulls out his sharp double edged sword and slices the thing, so much for that, right through, “Enough of the Gordian, I don’t have time for that, I’m the rightful ruler,” power of the sword. Power, you see, domination.

God had a Gordian knot to untie. He had to figure out how to take wretched sinful people like us and transform us, bring us back into His Kingdom, glad to obey Him, but giving Him all the glory and the credit. How did He do that? And He did it by taking our punishment on Himself in the form of His only begotten Son. The wisdom of God, the intricacy of God’s fingers, is He untied the knot of how to save sinners in a way that humbles them, but makes them incredibly happy, at the same time, eternally joyful in our humility. And He did it in Christ. It’s the wisdom of God in the gospel. It’s a full display of the attributes of God, of His power, of His wrath, of His justice, of His mercy, of His compassion, of His patience. You see it all at the cross. It is the wisdom of God. And Christ is the wisdom of God.

Now, what does Christ give us? Well, He gives us salvation, the chief wisdom of God is to give us a wise savior like Jesus, who speaks wisdom with us saying things like “What would it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul?” He speaks words like that, like “Come to me, believe in me.” That’s the wisdom of God. What does He give us for that wisdom? He gives us eternal joy in heaven. He gives us salvation. What does He give to His Heavenly Father?

Well, it says it right here at the end, “To the only wise God, be glory through Jesus Christ, forever and ever, Amen.” that’s what Jesus gives to His Father, He gives Him glory. “That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.” Jesus sought His Father’s glory and He has it. He has glorified His Father and He will for all eternity.

VII. Application

Now, we’ve come to the end of Romans. What application do we take just from this doxology? The first is simply, come to Christ. As I urged and begged you in the middle of it. Just coming to church is not the command. Come to church, that’s not it. It’s come to Christ, believe in him, trust in him for the salvation of your soul. But those of you that have come to Christ already, focus on the God who is able, just take that from it. “Now to Him who is able,” just take that phrase. God is able. He is able to save me, He’s able to answer my prayers, He’s able to solve my problems, He’s able to address my needs. He is able to save me to the uttermost. He is able to do that.

And keep saturating your mind in the Book of Romans. Read it through, you could read it through in probably an hour. It’s not that long, 432 verses. Read it through, read it an hour, saturate your mind in it, and keep thinking, “I’m not done being saved yet. I’ve been justified, but I’m still being sanctified. I haven’t yet been glorified, I need to keep growing.” Saturate your mind in it, in the book of Romans.

And assess your obedience. It is faith that produces obedience. If there’s no obedience, friends, there is no faith. Look at your obedience. Are you living an obedient lifestyle? Are you by the spirit putting to death the misdeeds of the body? Is there obedience in your life? And then finally, delight in the future glory of God in Christ. You’re going to see it. If you’re a Christian, you’re going to see it, more than you can possibly imagine, delight in it. Close with me in prayer.

Finishing well:

So many projects in life are begun well, but finished poorly: a letter begun and not finished; a hobby project like a model ship of homemade dress that got too complicated to finish; an exercise program, complete with training video that you bought but never implemented

So many things we start with good intentions and then the busyness of life crowds us out and we never finish what we started

God is not like that… WHAT HE BEGINS HE FINISHES, and HE FINISHES with a flourish of GLORY:

■         God’s triumphant completion of creation

Genesis 2:1-2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

■         Christ’s final assessments of His life

John 17:4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

■         Christ’s accomplishment of redemption

John 19 Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

■         Jesus’ triumphant resurrection… a glorious end to His ministry on earth

1 Peter 1:21 God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him

■         The Completion of the New Heavens and the New Earth:

Revelation 21:1-2 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Revelation 21:9-11 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

■         AND our own personal salvation:

Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith Philippians 1:6 he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

What God starts, He finishes with abundant GLORY!!!

Therefore, we should imagine that the most gloriously clear description of the gospel should be finished well, with a display of glory… AND IT IS; we come to the end of the Book of Romans and we end with a doxology, a word of praise to God

I.   God IS the Gospel, so to God Be the Glory

A.  Finally: Focused on God Who IS the Gospel

1.  Paul is ending this glorious letter… a survey of the doctrine and application of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

2.  What better way to end it than to focus on the glory of God

3.  This is a closing doxology that focuses totally on God

“Now to him who is able to establish you… to the only wise God be glory forever…”
a.  Paul ends by focusing totally on God the Father

b.  It is a thick, dense, theologically rich statement

c.  But don’t lose your focus… it is a word of praise for God who deserves our eternal praise

4.  It is reasonable to close this way, because Romans is the greatest statement of the Gospel in the Bible, and ultimately God IS the gospel

5.  Note also this is exactly how Paul began this letter… so we have come full circle:

Romans 1:1-4 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God– 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

B.  God’s Ultimate Purpose: To the Praise of His Glory

1.  God saved us in Christ for one reason: for the praise of His glory

2.  God redeemed us to praise Him eternally

3.  Paul reveals this clearly in Ephesians… three times in Ephesians 1

Ephesians 1:4-6 In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will– 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

4.  So Paul brings us at last to the real purpose of the Gospel: the praise of God’s glory

“to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ”

C.  Benedictions in the Bible

1.  Many doxologies and benedictions… FOCUS ON GOD

Jude 1:24-25 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy– 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

2.  Psalms:

a.  the Psalter is divided into five books

b.  each of the books ends in a doxology

Psalm 150:1-6 Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. 2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, 4 praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, 5 praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.

D.  Praise the Chief Employment of Heaven

1.  Book of Revelation saturated with praise

2.  The twenty-four elders, living creatures and a hundred million angels are constantly praising God and giving Him glory, honor, and thanks

3.  Jonathan Edwards, meditating on this, preached a sermon entitled “Praise: The Chief Employment of Heaven”… at the center of our heavenly reward is an overwhelming experience of delight in the presence of God

E.  So “It Is Right to Give Him Thanks and Praise”

II.   The Gospel that Establishes Believers

Romans 16:25 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel

A.  Non-Believers Unstable and Insecure

1.  Satan is the ultimate, unstable being

a.  He was cast down from heaven to roam the earth

b.  He is filled with rage because he knows his time is short

c.  In effect, he’s a homeless drifter just passing through, while we are eternal heirs of the earth

d.  So Satan is pictured as restless, roaming the earth

e.  So demons are also pictured this way

f.  So also are wicked people pictured this way

g.  UNSTABLE

2.  The world itself is passing away… and everything not planted by the Father will be rooted out

B.  God Establishes Believers

1.  How different for us!!!

2.  Greek: “To establish” means to set on an unshakeable foundation; to strengthen, and reinforce

Illus. Student in Boston area, used to watch the building of a skyscraper; the basic law of such buildings, especially in the marshy back bay of Boston, that the foundation needs to go down as far as the building goes up; so day after day, you could hear the massive, automatic pile-driver machines pounding steel foundation pilings deeper and deeper into the earth; the rhythmic pounding of the piles was the beat to which I walked to my morning classes

GOD does that to our SOULS by the constant ministry of the word, of the Gospel… hearing its truths again and again and again drives the truth into our hearts

3.  This is the very thing Paul wanted to come and do for them by his spiritual gifts

NAU Romans 1:11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established

But even if I can’t come and do that, God can!!!

4.  God is ABLE to establish us! He is able to set us on a foundation and to make us strong

Psalm 40:1-3 I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

5.  God is ABLE… meditate on that! He is able to establish you, to give you a solid foundation, to put the unshakeable rock of Jesus Christ under your feet, to make you strong against the storm, established, firm, unmoved

C.  God Establishes Believers Through the Gospel

Romans 16:25 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel

1.  “My gospel” = the gospel that Paul preached

a.  The exact same gospel as Peters, John’s, and all the other apostles

b.  Paul is NOT saying it is the gospel he invented or made up

Galatians 1:11-12 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

c.  Rather Paul is identifying the message he preached: gospel he has unfolded in Romans

d.  More than that, though, is the sense of passionate ownership: MY GOSPEL

i)  The gospel that saved my soul

ii)  The gospel that is my life’s treasure, the pearl of great price that I sold everything I owned to purchase

iii)  The gospel is my hope, my strength, my life, my peace, my everything

2.  It is Paul’s Gospel that establishes believers

a.  A comprehensive message of full salvation from sin

i)  Justification through faith alone

ii)  Sanctification by cooperation between the Spirit and the believer

iii)  Glorification at death and the resurrection of the body

b.  Continued immersion in this gospel message is essential to the finishing of God’s saving work in us

c.  God establishes believers by ONGOING EXPOSURE to the gospel Paul preached

God establishes us by the gospel

AND by the proclamation of Jesus Christ

D.  Review: What is Paul’s gospel? Next week, overview of the full book of Romans

1.  All have sinned

2.  Justified freely by grace through the shed blood of Christ

3.  Sanctified daily by presenting our bodies to God and our members to His control; putting sin to death daily by the power of the Spirit

III.   The Gospel that Proclaims Jesus Christ

“… and the proclamation of Jesus Christ”

A.  All Roads Lead to Jesus Christ

1.  Christ is the center of the Gospel as He is the center of the Bible and of all of human history

2.  The proclamation of Jesus Christ has ongoing power to establish the soul

3.  When we first heard of Christ, faith sprung up in our hearts

ESV Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

4.  So also faith is nurtured by hearing Christ proclaimed

a.  Even mature believers are not done needing to hear Christ proclaimed

b.  Our bodies need food, our souls need Christ… specifically to hear Him proclaimed

B.  The Preaching of Christ: Paul’s Supreme Commitment

1.  “Proclamation” = work of a herald

2.  Paul says he was appointed a “herald” of the gospel

A herald is a messenger sent from a King or some other leader who bears official tidings Colonial era, the “Town Crier” rang a bell and proclaimed news vital for everyone to hear

3.  This was Paul’s supreme commitment

1 Corinthians 2:1-4 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,

C.  The Gospel Proclaims the Glory of Christ

1.  Proclaiming Jesus as the fulfillment of ancient prophecies glorifies Christ

2.  Proclaiming the full deity and full humanity of Jesus glorifies Christ

3.  Proclaiming human sin as an otherwise unsolvable problem glorifies Christ… He is the only Savior of the world

4.  Proclaiming the death of Christ, His blood shed on the cross as the power of God for the satisfaction of His justice and the appeasement of His wrath glorifies Christ

5.  Proclaiming the resurrection of Christ as the hope of our future resurrection and the liberation of all of creation from its bondage to decay glorifies Christ

6.  This Gospel is about Christ from first to last, and it brings Him great glory

7.  Proclaiming the glory of Christ is essential to the completion of our salvation

Romans 16:25 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ

IV.   The Gospel that Reveals Mysteries

Romans 16:25-26 according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God

A.  God’s Secret Counsels Gradually Revealed

1.  Before the foundation of the world, God the Father established the plan for the salvation of the human race

a.  “hidden for long ages past”… before time began

b.  God had worked out the plan and kept it hidden

c.  As redemptive history unfolded, God paid out the truth a little at a time

2.  These counsels were hidden in God but became revealed at the proper time through the prophets

Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever

3.  It is part of the blessing of the Gospel to God’s chosen people that He reveals everything to them plainly and clearly

Matthew 13:11-12 He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

B.  “Mysteries” of the Bible

1.  Not like Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes

2.  Definitely not like CLUE: “Col. Mustard in the conservatory with the lead pipe”

3.  Rather a Biblical mystery is something hidden in God that we can never know unless He reveals it to us

4.  Many mysteries in the Bible

a.  The mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16)

b.  The mystery of lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:7-8)

c.  The mystery of the rapture (1 Corinthians 15:51)

d.  The mystery of the Kingdom of God (Mark 4:11)

e.  The mystery of Christ’s will (Ephesians 1:9)

f.  The mystery of Christ (Colossians 2:2)

g.  The mystery of marriage as a picture of Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:32)

h.  The mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 6:19)

i.  The mystery of Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:26-27)

j.  The mystery of the faith (1 Timothy 3:9)

k.  Unexplainable mysteries of the future in the Book of Revelation (1:20, 10:7, 17:5, 17:7)

5.  Central mystery of the New Covenant: the salvation of Gentiles as if they were Jews, through faith in a Jewish Messiah, through adoption as Abraham’s sons, through being grafted into a Jewish olive tree, through the circumcision of the heart not the flesh

C.  Revealed by the Prophets in the Scriptures

1.  Old Testament prophets spoke the mysteries of Christ and of the Gospel

2.  BUT they didn’t understand them fully

3.  Genesis 3 spoke of the Seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head

4.  Genesis 12 spoke of the seed of Abraham through whom all peoples on earth would be blessed

5.  The Law of Moses spoke of the Passover Lamb whose blood saved Israel from the Angel of Death; and of the Atoning Sacrifice poured out on the Mercy seat

6.  Psalm 22 spoke of the Crucifixion of Christ and the glories that would follow

7.  Isaiah 53 spoke of the Suffering Servant

8.  Psalm 16 spoke of the resurrection of Christ

9.  Psalm 110 spoke of the Christ sitting at the right hand of God

10.  Daniel 7 spoke of the Son of Man who was given authority, glory and sovereign power and who would be worshiped by all the nations on earth

D.  Revealed by the Apostles in the Scriptures

1.  The fuller revelation of the mysteries of the New Covenant

2.  Paul says he is a steward of the mysteries of God

ESV 1 Corinthians 4:1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

3.  He says God used the holy apostles and prophets to reveal the mystery of the Gospel

E.  Promises Made and Kept

1.  The whole Bible can be summed up like this: Promises Made and Promises Kept: the Old Testament is “Promises Made” and the New Testament is “Promises Kept”

2.  This mystery was spoken of to Abraham, a promise made to him

Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

3.  Now in Christ’s death and resurrection, and in the coming of the Holy Spirit, and in the spread of the Gospel to the Gentile nations, and in the great ingathering of the Gentiles by the power of God, this promise has been kept

V.   The Gospel that Produces Obedience Among the Nations

Romans 16:25-26 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God,

A.  The Command of the Eternal God

1.  God is eternal: He is above time, the creator of time, not the servant of it

a.  God knew all these things before the creation of the world

b.  That is the foundation of predictive prophecy

2.  It was the will of God for the apostles and prophets to reveal the mystery of the Gospel

Matthew 11:25-26 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

3.  God gave the command and the word went forth

4.  God chose to reveal His Son in all His glory… and to make Him the Savior of a countless multitude from every tribe and language and people and nation

5.  The prophets obeyed the command to write their prophecies about Christ

6.  The apostles obeyed the command to preach in Jesus the fulfillment of the ages

B.  The Gospel Is a Command to be Obeyed

1.  In like manner, the gospel itself is a command to be obeyed

Romans 16:26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him

2.  What command? Look at Jesus’ first proclamation of the gospel

Matthew 4:17 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

3.  So, the gospel is a command:

1 Peter 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

Hebrews 2:1-3 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.

[in other words, the Old Covenant had to be obeyed and disobedience was punished; so also the New Covenant must be obeyed, and the punishment for disobedience is eternity in hell]

C.  Obedience the Mark of Saving Faith

Romans 16:26 so that all nations might believe and obey him

1.  It is impossible to separate genuine saving faith from obedience to God

Romans 1:5 Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.

a.  Seen clearly in the parallel expressions at the beginning and end of this letter

b.  What was famous about this church in Rome?

c.  Chapter 1

Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.

d.  Chapter 16

Romans 16:19 For the report of your obedience has reached to all

e.  Paul almost can’t separate the report of their faith and of their obedience

f.  Saving faith ALWAYS produces a lifestyle of obedience to God

2.  The essence of sin is rebellion against God the King

3.  Saving faith is the remedy to the rebellion of sin… and full submission to Christ’s kingly yoke is the essence of our salvation

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

4.  Therefore a lifestyle of obedience to the commands of God is the surest proof of saving faith

Romans 6:16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey– whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Romans 6:17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.

Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed– not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence– continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling

James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

D.  The Obedience of the Nations

1.  Paul speaks of the obedience of the nations… of the Gentiles

2.  The Gospel of Christ is a command given to the entire world, to all nations, to turn from wickedness and rebellion

[to the Areopagus philosophers] Acts 17:29-30 Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone– an image made by man’s design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

VI.   The Gospel that is the Wisdom of God

“To the only wise God…”

A.  The Highest Display of the Wisdom of God: The Gospel

1.  The very thing that Paul celebrated with the doxology at the end of Romans 11

2.  The gospel message is infinitely wise

a.  Exalting God’s perfections: His justice, His mercy, His wrath, His compassion, His sovereignty, His foreknowledge, His love, His patience, His power

b.  Nowhere are these attributes seen more clearly than in the cross of Jesus Christ

c.  Only a perfectly wise God could work out a way of saving rebellious sinners in every age of human history and in every tribe and nation on earth SUCH THAT their pride is laid low and their hearts lifted into eternally joyful praise

d.  Only a perfectly wise God could craft a way to save both Jews and Gentiles alike and make them one in Christ

e.  Only a perfectly wise God could make this plan and carry it out

B.  Jesus Christ: The Wisdom of God

1.  In the end, Christ Himself is the wisdom of God

2.  All of God’s wisdom is wrapped up and hidden in Christ

3.  Christ Himself was the wisest man that ever lived

a.  Before Christ, that honor belonged to Solomon

b.  The Queen of Sheba visited Solomon to see if his reality equaled his reputation; she tested him with hard questions, and nothing was too difficult for him to answer; and she saw the arrangement of his palace and how perfectly orderly it all was… she was overwhelmed

1 Kings 10:1-8 She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. 7 But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. 8 How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!

c.  Solomon seemed to know about everything under God’s blue sky… no question was too difficult for him

d.  But Solomon was nothing compared to Christ:

Matthew 12:42 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.

C.  What Does Christ Give Us? Salvation

1.  Christ’s wisdom lay not only in His answers to difficult questions but in His perfect life and His mission:

a.  His perfect life: the only man who ever faced every single temptation hurled at Him and defeated them all

b.  His mission: to die an atoning death on the cross and give us full forgiveness for our sins and perfect righteousness for Judgment Day

2.  This is the wisdom of God in Christ… the salvation of our souls

3.  This has been the message of Romans… the message of wisdom from God

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God– that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

D.  What Does Christ Give God? The Glory

Romans 16:27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Application:

❖  Come to Christ

❖  Focus on God WHO IS ABLE TO ESTABLISH YOU

❖  Keep saturating your mind in the Gospel (Read through Romans)

❖  Assess your obedience

❖  Delight in the glory of God that will be your inheritance