In the sermon 'Keep Your Church Strong,' Scott Brown discusses the conclusion of the study on Romans, specifically focusing on Romans 16. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining church unity by being vigilant against those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to doctrine. Paul instructs believers to mark and avoid such individuals to preserve peace and unity. The sermon also highlights the affectionate nature of the early church community and the importance of greetings and relationships in fostering unity. Brown stresses that the strength of a church comes from God through the preaching of the gospel, which stabilizes and grounds believers. He concludes by underlining the need for constant biblical preaching as essential for the church's strength and unity.

Please open your Bibles to Romans 16 and find verse 17. Romans 16, 17. Romans 16, 17. We began this journey in Romans on May 24th, 2023. Here we are in the last sermon in Romans.

This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey word of God. Now I urge you, brethren, to Note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore, I am glad on your behalf.

But I want you to be wise in what is good and simple concerning evil, and the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. Timothy, my fellow worker, and Lucius, Jason, and Suscipitor, my countrymen, they greet you. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, greet you in the Lord.

Gaius, my host, and the host of the whole Church, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you. Quartus, a brother. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for the obedience to the faith, to God alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for these words to direct us here in this local church. These words of life, these words of truth passed down to us for our benefit, for your glory.

Oh Lord, I pray that you would give us such an understanding of how we might walk in them here as we depart from this place. Amen. Please be seated. So here we are, the final words and the greatest letter that was ever written. It really is a feast of sound doctrine that you find in the book of Romans in the first 11 chapters this remarkably detailed doctrinal foundation of The pickle that man is in reprobation justification sanctification in the first 11 chapters And then the Apostle Paul turns in chapter 12 to begin to speak of the application.

What do you do about this great doctrine because doctrine is always intended to produce the works of faith Doctrine without practice is dead. And so the Apostle Paul doesn't let the Roman Church just sit with doctrine brewing in their heads. It has to be put on the street. And so as we made our way through Romans and and up to chapter 16, If you recall the last time we were in Romans in Romans 16 1 through 16 It reads like it reads like a family photo album There's all this energy and activity and devotion that's just oozing out of the pages. There are 33 people that are mentioned in the first 16 verses.

And it's a picture of a mix of people and all of their labors of love together mingled in the church. The people are very engaged in church life in Rome, not disengaged at all. It's just a refreshing picture of church life, and you know, especially in a sort of a church environment that we often have today that's marked by consumerism and individualism and easy beliefism, what you had in the Church of Rome were people who were really ministering to one another. And it reads like a church directory. And what we learn there in the first section in chapter 16 is, you know, Romans 16 is not a theology textbook, it's a family photo album with all kinds of captions and you see all this beauty.

But then when you turn to verse 17, it's really a shocking change of all this beauty and there's this stern urgent warning that Paul gives us in verse 17. And you'll see the outline that I want to move us through here this morning They're really just three points a danger to confront verses 17 to 20 and then encouragement From Corinth to the church in Rome and then finally the true strength of a local church. So we'll walk through those. But we start with this danger to a church, to a unified church, and he says this, now I urge you brethren, note the seriousness, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them. So the apostle is giving instructions for how to deal with divisive people.

And what's very clear here is that a strong church is going to have protective measures against division and people who start trouble among one another. And what the apostle Paul is also doing, he's setting expectations. He's really saying, this is going to happen, okay? Don't be surprised when it happens, here's what you do about it. So it's very simple in that sense.

You know, this is such a contrast. Previously in the chapter, all these warm greetings and embracing everyone with open arms and now he's telling us there's some people you should you should give the cold shoulder to and and he's saying that this is something that the whole church does collectively on the lookout with the shared duty for those who are causing divisions. And he gives two commands. First, vigilance, watch out. In other words, mark them, keep your eye on them.

Everyone is on guard. And this is just an admonition for people in the church to make sure that they they don't just ignore people who cause divisions. They do something about it And it's our love for peace and unity, to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace that causes us to actually take action and to face them head on. And you begin this process by taking note. In other words, you don't just brush it off.

But the second thing that he tells us to do is to avoid. The words to avoid them actually carry the meaning of to shun, to be aloof, to get out of the way of that person. I like the way Matthew Henry explains this. He says, shun all necessary communion and communication with them, lest you be leavened and infected by them. Their word will eat as does a canker." So these are just very strong warnings.

And then he gives two reasons for it. And first of all, there are two words, divisions and offenses. Those are the two problems. The divisions have to do with contention surrounding particularly doctrinal disagreements on important issues. Offenses, they most likely refer to things that are contrary to Christian behavior, Christian ethics.

And they're stumbling blocks. They have to do with slanders. They have to do with unloving behavior. They have to do with, perhaps, gossip or unkindness, harshness, lack of forgiveness, those kinds of things. Those are the kinds of things that cause the tumult that he's talking about.

And he says that these things are, notice the words, They are contrary to the doctrine which you learned in Other words, they're contrary to the obvious Laws of love they are contrary to the obvious you know pillars of sound doctrine in the church and there another way to say this they're just contrary to the Bible And people are treating one another in a way that's contrary to the Bible. And I believe he's talking about two different kinds of truth that has being that that division is being fomented. It's a doctrinal truth the the particular doctrinal truth claims of the Bible and also the moral and the relational truth that God calls his church to. And so this is the body of doctrine that if you move away from it, believers should move away from you. And it is, as he says, against the doctrine.

So Christianity is not only doctrinal, but it's also relational about how we live together in the body. It's very interesting to preach a sermon like this, because I'm not aware of dividers in the church. Maybe you are, but I'm not at all. So it's kind of nice to preach a sermon where it's not actually happening so far as you are aware of, or as the elders, we're not aware of anything like that going on right now. So we're not trying to nail any of you particularly, but all of you corporately for some day in the future so you know how to act.

So that's what we're doing. Now this is just, this is standard fare for what the Apostle Paul recommends to different churches. Well he's just doing this to Rome. For the Corinthian Church in 1 Corinthians 5 11 he says, I've written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is a reviler. Well he names other things sexually immoral, covetous, and idolater.

He says the same thing to the Thessalonian Church. In 2 Thessalonians 3 he says we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which you receive from us. And he speaks to Titus. We're headed to Titus next in our studies. In Titus 3 10, the apostle writes, rejected divisive man under the after the first and second admonition knowing that such a person is warped and sinning being self condemned so how do you how do you apply all this friendships with divisive people is dangerous We just came off the section where he said greet one another with a holy kiss and now he's saying greet these people with a stiff arm and it's not everybody's job to try to win a divisive person.

That's sort of our tendency. We want to try to do that. Paul says don't you don't try to win them. You'll only cause more harm. In a way he's saying when you see this disease what are you gonna do?

You quarantine that disease and it is it is loving to isolate a divisive person and Calvin said this he said a pastor should have two voices, the voice that calls the sheep and the voice that drives off the wolves. And you should expect that from your elders when they see that now he says that there are reasons particular reasons in verse 18 to avoid them They for such as do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ That's one thing. This is this is the diet. This is the reason they're not serving the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly and by smooth words and flattering speech. You can detect them, get this, not by how mean and ugly they are, but how smooth they are, and how compelling they are, and how flattering they might be.

They might compliment you. They might bring you into their confidence, you know, to tell you something that maybe other people don't know, but you know. And now they are your friend and you are their friend and they speak winsomely and they appeal to human reason this is just what skillful predators do and they're nice people often they use smooth words that's what the Apostle Paul is saying but he says but they do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ and it's very interesting to notice who they target He says here that they deceive the hearts of the simple. In other words, they go after people who might be unguarded, they might be untaught, they might be vulnerable, they might be naive, they might be the kind of people who believe everything. And a divisive person can smoke those people out and find them.

They might be unclear about ethical commands, they might just be easily led astray. But what the Apostle is saying that they deceive the hearts of the simple. Then Paul makes it very clear how good this is for the church. Look at verse 20. And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly To To shun the divisive person is a way that you crush the feet of Satan in the church and you stop his activity in your church and this crushing of Satan makes for peace.

Every believer can be involved in crushing Satan's feet in this sense. So while I'm not aware of dividers in our church right now, you know, is there anybody you should stop talking to? Is there is there anybody that actually needs a stiff arm or anybody, you know, who needs to get this marking and avoiding. Those are the two things. You mark them, in other words, you take note, and then you avoid them.

So those are the instructions. Interestingly, Again, this comes right after this picture of this beautiful unity of the church where people are serving, and then bam, he urges us to take note so that we do what we can to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. God wants his church to be a place of love and so this is how love is preserved. And then in verses 21 through 23 you have more greetings. We experienced those earlier and now again these are greetings from the believers in Corinth.

Paul is in Corinth and he's sending greetings from the people in Corinth to the people in Rome, you know seven or eight hundred miles away verse 21 Timothy my fellow worker and Lucius Jason and so Sipiter my countrymen greet you I Churches who wrote this epistle greet you in the Lord. Gaius my host and the host of the whole church greet you. Erastus the treasurer of the city greets you and Quartus a brother." So now these are people from Rome, I mean from Corinth who are greeting the people in Rome and they're all different kinds of people. Timothy, Lucius, Jason, Socipator, probably fellow Jews. Tertius, he's the one that transcribed Paul's letter.

He wrote the letter with his own hand. He took Paul's words and he was a scribe. And then Gaius was a host to Paul and the whole church. You can see these different kind of people involved in this church and then you have Erastus, a city treasury, he was a public official, and in fact you know archaeological excavations have found Erastus' name as a city official there in Corinth. And you know, Christians hold offices in pagan governments, praise God.

That's what Erastus was. And then Quartus, he is a fellow brother. So what you have here is just an example of the affectionate Christian community. Hundreds of miles away, there's a church in Corinth that cares about the people in the church in Rome. We saw that last time when we were in Romans 16, earlier in the chapter where the Apostle Paul is on a journey and he is he's collecting money from the churches in Macedonia for the poverty-stricken and persecuted church in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem planted the Macedonian Church and now the Macedonian Church, again hundreds of miles away, cares enough about the Jerusalem Church that they're going to collect money to help them. Now you have the Corinthian church that Paul is in and they're sending their greetings to the Roman church. So you have this this beautiful picture of the body of Christ and you know some of these people mentioned that they're they don't seem to be very important. You never hear about them again. But they are important.

And Paul thinks they're important because everybody in the church is important. And then he says in verse 24 to wrap this up, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. In verse 24. And then the apostle turns to something that we need to really understand as a church. And he speaks of the true strength of a local church.

And it comes out as a prayer. This is Paul's final prayer. There were other prayers in Romans, this is the final prayer in Romans. And these are the last words that the Romans will hear until Paul gets to Rome and makes his way there on that long journey. So verse 25, we learn how God strengthens his church.

He strengthens his church through the preaching of the gospel. Let's read it. Verse 25. Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began." So let's break these statements down. Now to him, to him who, now to him the one who made you, the one who rules nations, the one who raised his son from the dead the one who chose you before the foundation of the world now unto him now unto him and I think what he's saying here is that you do not have this the resources to make yourself strong but God does because Christian strength is a borrowed strength.

It's never self-manufactured. It always comes from the outside in to the believer. And it's the gospel that gives you the strength that you don't have on your own. Now to him who is able and God is making it very clear that he extends his hand and he pulls you up. And Paul is saying that it is God who is able to establish you.

That's the heart of the matter, to strengthen you. He's able to strengthen you. It carries the idea of making stable, causing one to be steadfast, to be rooted, to be planted, to be settled, even mentally settled to be strong in that sense. And the gospel is the power of God to settle your life, to ground you. Now we know that the unbeliever is unstable in all his ways and we know that the unbeliever is under condemnation and we know the unbeliever has exchanged the truth of God for the lie, but in contrast you have a person who is stabilized while the unbeliever is unmoored in his mind and he's taken wherever the cultural currents will take him.

The believer is not like that. The man or the woman who is centered on God will be strengthened. And how does God strengthen you? Well there's a method. The method is preaching.

This is how God has designed to strengthen his church is through preaching. This is God's method. It's primarily God's method for strengthening his people is through the preaching. So you have the method, the preaching, and then you have the message, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began." Now one thing that's so apparent here is that God, God is in the business of strengthening you. God comes and he saves your soul, and then he stabilizes you, and he continues to stabilize you all through your life.

And The more you grow in the Lord, the stronger, the more stable you are emotionally, mentally, and relationally, and all these different kinds of ways that God engages us in his world. And he strengthens us through the preaching. And this is described in verses verse 26 through preaching through Jesus Christ now made manifest by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to faith. So what encompasses this preaching? It's the preaching of the gospel message.

It's the preaching of Jesus Christ. It's the preaching of the revelation of the mystery. It's the preaching of the prophetic scriptures, the whole council of God. And it's the preaching, the commandment of the everlasting God that encompasses the whole council of God. And constant biblical preaching is the greatest need in any local church.

And in our church, it's our greatest need.