Romans 16:17-27 | God Roots

Tis the season for boating! I used to do a lot more of that when I didn’t have 4 little kids. I would barefoot and ski out on the river with a few of my buddies that had boats, but we all have kids now and boating just doesn’t happen as much as it used it.

In our day and age we don’t really think about this much because our boats have engines and in a lot of ways we have tamed the seas and the waters. We point a boat where we want it to go and hit the throttle and we’re off, but it wasn’t always like this. Back in the day you were either towing a boat down a canal with some real horse power, or you were rowing a boat with some man power, or you were sailing a boat. That was how you had to navigate water and that’s why in the Scriptures when the sea is spoken of, often times is used metaphorically to represent chaos and danger. That’s because to an ancient person, the sea was chaos and danger! They didn’t know what creatures lurked beneath the depths. Which actually we still don’t totally know and I don’t know about you but when I swim in the ocean, I’m always keenly aware that I’m not on the top of the food chain out there!

But beyond that when storm set upon the seas, there just wasn’t a whole you could do. Unless Jesus was in your boat and was going to speak to the storm and tell it to settle down, you were just sort of along for the ride. You didn’t have an engine to help you navigate, the best you could hope for was that you had a good anchor and that that anchor would hold.

Now, as I said, the sea doesn’t really conjure up in our modern minds the idea of chaos and danger the way it did for the ancients, but when we start to think about our culture I believe this metaphor becomes increasingly relevant.

The waves and currents of culture are raging in a storm of crazy these days. A tsunami of moral dilemmas is thrust upon us on the regular. Waves of wokeness, political currents and sexual squalls whip around us, inviting us to rethink ourselves in our own image and follow our most basic desires in the name of freedom! Culture right now is to us what the sea was to the ancients. And in fear, many Christians desire to retreat to the shores. They desire to hunker down and hide out for fear of being swept up into the chaos. They think if we could just beach the ships so to speak and remove ourselves from culture we would be safe!

But friends that’s not what God is calling us to. He desires for believers to be salt, a preservative of the good and righteous in this sea of culture. He also desires that we would be light, like a light house, giving guidance to the ships in this chaotic sea!

We cannot just hunker down and hide out! God doesn’t want us to be like the world, but He has given us a mission to live in it!

You’ve all heard the phrase, be in the world not of it, but do you know where that comes from? It comes from John 17, where Jesus prays for you and He prays for me! He prays for all believers that will come after Him. He says,

John 17:15–20 (NIV)

15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. 20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,

You and I have been sent into this crazy world and into this crazy culture and in James we’re told that God and His wisdom desires to be for us an anchor in this storm. He says through a close relationship with Him, where we confidently ask Him for what we need in faith because we know Him personally and He knows us, in a relationship of trust we ask Him for what we need in the storms of life and that request made in faith will be an anchor. He will root us down deep into Him so that we aren’t double minded and constantly doubting. He will root us down deep, He will anchor us, He will establish us in Him and the gospel so that that waves of culture won’t sink us or our faith or our children’s faith after us!

And this, Church, this establishing of your faith and my faith, and our children’s faith is precisely what Paul speaks over the Roman Church in the closing of his letter to them!

He acknowledges that if there is not now, there will one day be a group of people who seek to infiltrate their gathering and they will come with wise-sounding words of new interpretations of the Scriptures and persuasive arguments seeking to deceive Believers! But he says these people are not rooted or established in Jesus, they are driven by their passions and desires. Feelings and emotions rule the day for them and he says to watch out for such people and to keep away from them!

But even as these waves of culture rage, we must keep the faith and also hope because we are fighting a battle that He’s already won! God has, is and will crush Satan under our feet!

And after commending a few more people that God has used to help the lost get found and the found live free, Paul concludes his letter with a reminder that God is powerful enough to establish you and to establish me in the gospel message of Jesus Christ!

He essentially says, the gospel is the way into Jesus and the gospel is the way on in Jesus! We don’t ever need to leave the gospel! We need to keep coming back to it every day, every Sunday and reminding ourselves of the love, justice, mercy and power that are on display in the good news that Jesus died in our place and raised to new life so that for whoever trusts in Him, they are being saved and will one day ultimately be glorified with Him in heaven!

He says this faith is to produce joyful obedience here and now and into eternity and all of it will be to God’s glory, where at the end, when this world is over and we all feast around a table in paradise and think back on what we lived, our mouths will hang open in wonder at the goodness and wisdom of God’s plan and faithfulness to His people!

Now let’s read it and talk about it a bit.

Romans 16:17–27 (NIV)

17 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.

Paul tells the Church in Rome not to be naive. There will come wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing tell you and me what our itching ears want to hear. There are parts of scriptures you and I struggle with, especially in today culture where we’re constantly told that tolerance is love! If you don’t accept me as I am and embrace and celebrate me as I am, then you hate me! That’s what we’re told, but that’s not what scripture tells us is love. Love is patient and kind… yes yes, but love is also not self-seeking. Love risks losing a friend to speak the truth! Because love always protects and love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth! Love always perseveres! That means love sticks with people, it never fails people! It never fails them how? It never fails to bring about conformity in them to the likeness of Jesus.

Listen Church, I’m not sure of a group of people that wouldn’t acknowledge that Jesus was a pretty great person. If you asked a random person on the street, do you think Jesus was a nice guy? Do you think he was a model person for humanity in the way he loved and treated people. Honestly I don’t think many people would argue with that! And if he was the model human, and folks the Bible tells us that He was. He never sinned! Not once in a thought or motive even! Don’t you think that helping people learn to live more like, to be more like Jesus would be the most loving thing we could possibly do for them!

This is how God loves us, Church! He does accept us as we are, which is a beautiful and gracious thing, but He loves us too much to leave us there! After He finds, us He wants to free us!

And what is it that He desires to free us from? Our sinful appetites, our confused emotions and feelings that fluctuate like waves on the ocean!!

Now this summer we’re going to be in the Psalms with is a book about all the emotions. Are emotions aren’t bad and our emotions don’t offend God! He gave them to us, but in our currently sinful and broken state, we simply can’t always trust them. So God gave us the Book of Psalms to help us be ok with our emotions and know how to process them with Him in a healthy way without allowing them to be the controlling force in our lives! That’s what we’re going to unpack this summer, but that said, I think all of us could acknowledge we could use some greater freedom from the things we feel!

Who in here doesn’t want to be more steady, more anchored and able to cope with all the emotions of life in a healthy way without having mental break downs or falling off the wagon in addiction again! We all need freedom from our appetites and emotions and that’s what God wants to and can give us!

So Paul says to the Church, watch out for people who live guided only by their feelings. If it feels good do it. Don’t you think God wants me to be happy! Of course He does! He’d never tell me not to do this or do that! Be ware of people driven and guided solely by their appetites! They are only in it for themselves!

God didn’t find you so you could be free to do whatever you want or whatever your sinful desires and appetites and cravings call you to! No, He found you to free you to obey Him and experience joy!

19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.

Paul says, watch out for folks that teach otherwise and keep your eyes on the truth given to you in the Bible!

17 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. 19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.

This is why we preach the Scriptures Church. Every Sunday. It’s why I say and open your bible to… Because we need to constantly be reminding ourselves of what we’ve learned and continually be learning from the Scriptures so that we’re ever growing in wisdom about what is good and staying innocent about what is evil!

And in this battle to stay attentive to God’s truth, it’s vital that we keep an eternal perspective. Some days it’s gonna feel more like we’re loosing than winning. We’re gonna feel hard pressed like the world has us in a vice. We’re gonna feel confused about what is going on and what God is up to? We are going to be singled out and alone. We are going to get knocked down. But as 2 Cor. 4 tells us God won’t allow us to be crushed in that vice! He won’t allow the confusion to drive us to despair. He won’t allow us to ever be alone! We won’t abandon us! And even as it appears we are knocked down, God won’t ever let us be destroyed! As it gets darker in our culture and laws are passed that make it more difficult to love people with the truth of God, when our emotions tell us to give up and give in, Paul says don’t look to what you can see! Remember you’re fighting a battle that He’s already won!

20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Remember through our study in this book of Romans. Remember what Grace is! It’s the reality that because of Jesus, God is always happy to be with you, that He’s always happy to see you! Whether you are doing good works for Him or your life is a mess and you’re barely crawling along in faith, because of Jesus God is always happy to be with you, He’s always happy to see you and this God who’s always happy to see you ain’t some weak, effeminate, pale Galilean! He is the God of the universe that speaks to waves and says this far you will come and no farther!

You ever try to surf! I have once. And I got man handled by a wave! It tossed me like a rag doll… a little 5’ wave, it wasn’t even one of the big ones! God speaks to the big waves and says this and no farther! That’s who God is, the God who’s always happy to be with you because of Jesus! He’s a wave stopper. A servant crusher! He speaks to the dead and says of them, they are only sleeping (he says of the little girl who died, she’s only asleep because to Him that’s all death is, a nap!), then he calls to them (Lazarus! Come out!) and they raise! That’s who this God is and in this battle we’re fighting we would do well to remember it!

20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Paul lists a few more names and then comes to the bow he places on top of His letter. If the book of Romans were a present, these last few verse are the bow on top!

25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with 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, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith—27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Church, if you get anything out of the book of Romans I pray it’s this. You can’t establish yourself. You can’t root yourself. You can’t anchor yourself! No matter how hard you try. No matter how many good works you string together, how pretty or presentable you make yourself. No matter how much money you make or how often you attend church and do all the right things, none of it will establish you in eternity! You can’t do it.

Fathers in here. I know it’s fathers’ day, and I know I haven’t said much to you yet this morning. This here is the best I’ve got. Here’s what you need. You don’t have what it takes. You never did!

You and I are too weak. We are too sinful, too frail. Too bound up and too broken. You and I are too lost, but God. That’s the gospel friends, but God did and God does for those He gifts with faith!

We can’t even choose faith for ourselves. I don't know how it works but God has to gift it to us. We play some part in the process but the more time I spend with Jesus and study His word, the more I realize, I’ve brought even less to this equation than I first thought! God chose me! In Christ you’ve been chosen too! Choose Him back friend! Choose Him back Fathers! And then expect to be established by the power of God and the power of the gospel!

Expect for this faith to bear the fruit of obedience in your life! That’s what being established looks like friends.

When God connects your puny stalk to the Vine of Jesus Christ, fruit comes forth! The fruit of faith is obedience! It’s not what you work, it’s what God works in and through you by His power!

So Dad’s, we love you. God loves you. Please know how special and important your job is and as you think about what God wants you to do as a Dad, never leave the gospel! Stay there with Jesus, in Jesus! You can’t. You can’t, but God! God can and does! Stay close to Him. Lead your family close to Him, if you stray come back and bring your kids and wives with you! Use all the might you have not to make money, or provide for your family or practice sports with your kids or build your career, no use all the might and strength you have to cling to Jesus and watch as He proves himself strong in your weakness and you begin to see the fruit of obedience bloom in your life and life of your family!

This is what Jesus does friends!

And why? Why does He do it? For His glory!

Again so that at the end, or perhaps it’s more appropriate to say at the beginning, when you and I kick off eternity with Christ in glory, we can spend the rest of our endless days marveling at His majesty!

Look at what God did! Look and what God did with me! Look at what God did with my family!? With my job!? With the mess I made! Look at what God did, and look at who God is! Wow… just wow!!!

And now, May the Wave stopper, May the Serpent Crusher, May the Life speaker, may He strengthen and establish you according to the good news about Jesus so that faith bears the fruit of obedience in your life and God gets all the glory forevermore through Jesus Christ, Amen!