Doxology

Believe it or not, we have arrived at the last sentence in the Book of Romans, the last paragraph, if you will, the last section, the last word here in the Book of Romans. Our journey has been long, and it has been fruitful. And yet as we come to the end of this letter, Paul does not disappoint. It has been said that orthodoxy always leads to orthopraxy. In other words, right believing will lead us to our right behaving. Eventually, if we don't believe rightly, we will not behave rightly. But it is also true, and perhaps even more true, than orthodoxy always leads to doxology, doxology or praise. When you know God rightly, you cannot help but worship God. And it is quite ironic that there are those in our day and those in our culture who pit our knowledge of God over against our worship of God, as though we have to choose one or the other, as though we can either be heady Christians who know a lot about God, or we can be spiritual Christians who experience a lot with God. That is a false dichotomy. Nothing could be further from the truth. You cannot fully worship what you do not know you will never worship God rightly unless you know God rightly. And here is the beauty of it. Because the knowledge of God is inexhaustible, we will spend an eternity growing in our appreciation for appreciation of and worship of the Almighty God. You cannot exhaust the knowledge of God. You cannot exhaust and understanding of what He's done, of who he is. And because of that you cannot and you will not stop growing in your doxology or in your praise. And so as Paul has walked through this his magnum opus in the Book of Romans, and as he has dug deeply, more deeply than anywhere else in the New Testament, into this doctrine of our justification, it is only fitting that as he comes to the end, he leaves us with this parting statement. And if I had to give a title to this parting statement, it would be Praise God for the Gospel. That's basically where Paul finishes, Praise God for the Gospel. And I couldn't help as I read this passage and reread this passage, and worked through and thought through all of the implications here of this passage, I couldn't help but see a stark contrast between what we understand as worship and what Paul does here as worship, because again, culturally, we've come to this place where we believe that worship is purely experiential. Worship is about our experience with God. It is not about knowing God rightly. It is about encountering God passionately. And you listen to if you don't listen to if you really want to understand it. If you read the lyrics of much of what we call worship music today, what you will find is that it is by and large not about God at all, but about our experience of God, about the way God makes me feel about me. And so when we gather, oftentimes our desire is to sort of bring ourselves to this cathartic experience of overwhelming ecstasy in how much God loves me and how central I am in the grand scheme of things. We gather to make much of me. When what Paul does here at the end of the Book of Romans is not to pause and talk about his experience with these great truths, but basically to pause and say, before I go, let me remind you to praise God for the Gospel join me here in verse twenty five, this rather complex sentence structure that we'll try to wade through. Now to him, it's very familiar phrase in doxology. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed, and through the prophetic writings, has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the Eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith to the only Wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, basically what you can do. There's a bunch of prepositional phrases and subordinate clauses in that sentence, and that's basically a sentence there, folks. Basically what you could do is if you take all those prepositions and all those other clauses away, here's what you get now to him, stopped there, because who is qualifying to him? Right? Just stop there. You just put a sort of line there, and then he picks up in verse twenty seven. You have another phrase there, to the only Wise God. Go right after that, because that goes to describing this him. So if you put a line right after the only Wise God, and you put a line right after him, and you just connected those two, here's what you'd find. Now, to him be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. Amen. That's his statement. Now, to him be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. Amen. The rest of this sort of explains why and how there is glory to him through Jesus Christ forevermore. So, as we plow through this statement, let us not lose sight of what Paul is actually doing here praising God for the Gospel. First of all, because the Gospel magnifies God. Now to him, God is being magnified here. To him be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Why through Jesus Christ. Because the Gospel is the good news about what God has done in Jesus Christ, and that magnifies God. The Gospel magnifies God. That is why we worship God. That is why we thank God for the Gospel. That is why understanding the Gospel leads you to the right worship of God. Now, as I looked at this, I thought through some of the statements of guys, I know we talked about the gospel. I know there was a message several messages here where we talked about the gospel, what the gospel is, what the Gospel is not, And I realized that it was at the end of chapter nine. Now, if you've been keeping track, that's about a year ago. I think maybe it would be okay if we reviewed just a little bit here now about the gospel. Amen, We've talked about the gospel again throughout this whole thing. But that idea of being clear about what the gospel is and what the Gospel is not is incredibly important now as we understand that it is the Gospel that actually magnifies God. Notice, first of all, what Paul says here about God. He says that God is able. He goes on to say that God is eternal. You look there not to him who is able. Then if you go down and look at verse twenty six, the last part of that according to the command of the eternal God. So God's able, God's eternal. He also says that God is singular to the only God, and that God is wise to the wise God. So we see here a picture of God as able, as eternal, as singular, and as wise. So God is magnified here even in the words that Paul chooses to use to describe God. So as he comes to this point of praise, as he comes to this point of worship, what he says is, if you've been listening and following all the way through the Book of Romans, I've pointed you to God. I've pointed you to God by explaining to you the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As I've explained to you the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we've seen that God is able. Amen. We've seen that God is eternal. This is not an afterthought. We've seen that God is singular. There is no other God. And we see that God is wise. You couldn't have figured this out on your own. But beyond that, the Gospel itself magnifies this powerful, eternal, singular wise God. We understand the Gospel rightly. And this is why this review is important, because for the most part, we do not understand the Gospel rightly. We basically make four mistakes when we talk about the gospel. Let's think what the gospel is not four mistakes? Last time I gave you three. So this is a review with an addition okay, mistake number One, we see the Gospel that's the plan of salvation. Two we see the Gospel as the Great Commandment. Three we see the Gospel as the Great Commission, and four we see the Gospel as personal testimony. All four of those are common errors of our day that pollute and pervert the Gospel and rob God of the praise that is due to his name. What I mean by that, first of all, the Gospel as the planet of salvation. You ask the average person in our culture what the gospel is, the average Christian in our culture what the gospel is? What is the gospel? And they will not give you an announcement about what God has done. They will give you steps by which you get said. The Gospel is the planet salvation. Here's the danger in that when you see the Gospel as just the plan of salvation, all of a sudden, your understanding to the gospel is truncated. So you are saved by the gospel, but you're sanctified and kept by something other than the Gospel. If the Gospel's just the planet of salvation, that's a huge problem. Look at verse twenty five again. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel. He doesn't say save you according to my gospel. If you've read the book, you know that God is able to save you according to his gospel, the gospel. He's not ashamed of the gospel, because it's the power of God that you go. God is able, it's the power of God under salvation to all those who believe. To the jew first and also to the Greek. But he says here that God is able to strengthen you or to establish you. God is able to keep you, to make you firm by the Gospel, the gospels, not just how we get in the gospels, not just the plan of salvation. The gospels, not just for spiritual laws. That's a wrong headed understanding of the Gospel, and it leads to a truncated view, and it robs God of worship because when we view the Gospel as just the means by which we are saved and not the means by which we are also sanctified and kept, then we believe God does the initial work and we do the rest. That's a problem. Second, the Gospel is the Great Commandment. And when we talked about this that those who believe that the gospel is basically, you can boil the gospel down to love God, love people. And we actually went through a list of church websites and we saw these websites where there are thousands upon thousands upon multiplied thousands of churches out there whose statement is basically, you know, we're so and so church, and we're about loving God and loving people. And what it's supposed to be is this sort of encapsulation of the gospel is a small problem. That's actually not an encapsulation of the gospel. It's an encapsulation of the law. See that love God, love people. It actually comes from Jesus and Matthew twenty two, thirty seven and thirty nine. You know, Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? Legitimately, there were probably arguments about whether he's gonna say number one, or he's gonna say number five, or he's gonna say number ten in various different camps. When you look at the commandments, what's the lynchpin, what's the one that holds them all together? It's probably, you know what they were taking bets on, which scholar is he going to align himself with. What's the greatest commandment? There Jesus says, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. By the way, that's the summary of the first four commandments, or the first table of the Law. Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? His response, I think one through four, and then what does he saying? The second one is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. That's the summary of commandments five through ten. Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? I'm gonna have to say one through four, followed closely by five through ten. Love God, love your neighbor, love God, love others. That's not a summary of the Gospel. It's the summary of the law. It is bondage. It's bondage. What does that mean that we don't have to love God and love our neighbor? Absolutely, But it's only the Gospel that frees us to do that. It's the Gospel that empowers us to do that. If you replace the Gospel with love God, love people, you have actually replaced the Gospel with the Law. There is no salvation in the Law. By the works of the Law, shall no flesh be justified that's not the gospel. It's the opposite of the gospel. Thirdly, the gospel is the great commission. The gospel is the great commission. In other words, when Jesus says that you are to go and make disciples of of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe whatsoever I've commanded you, they're those who say that's the gospel. The whatsoever I've commanded you, that's the gospel. Oftentimes, these people will use phrases like discipling the nations, that that's what we're about. We're about discipling the nations. There's a problem with that. The problem with that is that that is another instance of replacing gospel with law. What is the gospel. The gospel is going out and teaching people to obey everything that Jesus commanded. Folks, when you're teaching people to obey something, it's not gospel, it's law. The gospel is not all the moral teachings of Jesus. That's wrong. Then there is the gospel is my personal testimony. There are many evangelism training methods that teach you to go out and share the gospel with people. And what they mean by that is share your story with people. Here's the gay. Do you know how ironic that is? The Gospel is Christ's story and you replace it with yours. Who do you think you are? His story is not powerful enough? They need to hear mine. Listen to this from Rob Bell. I believe. I believe because I see, I see the resurrection all around me. If people only had your life and they were asked the question, has Jesus risen from the dead, how would they answer has he? May you be a yes to the question, has Jesus risen from the dead? And may you come to see? May you understand that you are the good News? You are the Gospel? God help us? And this is before he wrote his heretical book about Hell. This is before that you are the good News, You are the Gospel. Go let people see your life. By the way, this is just the rehash of Saint Francis of ASSISI preached the gospel at all times when necessary, use words. What was Saint Francis saying you are the Gospel, Go be the gospel. It was heretical then and it's heretical now. What is the gospel. This is what the gospel is not. But it's what you and I encounter all the time in our culture when people say the gospel and why is this important? Because Paul is saying here, praise God for the gospel. If you don't know what the gospel is, you are praising God for the law, or you are praising God for yourself. May it never be. May it never be, praise God for that which saves you so that you can keep yourself. You're robbing God of his worship. Praise God for the law that you keep so that you could be a Christian. May it never be. Praise God for the Great Commission, which is another law that you keep a speaking. May it never be. Praise God for your story that is the power of God unto salvation. May it never be you are robbing God of glory when you misrepresent the gospel in this way. The Gospel is an announcement. It is news. It is God centered news. It's an announcement of what God has done. It is Christ centered news. It is announcement of what God has done in Christ. It is Cross centered news. It is an announcement of what God has done in Christ through the cross to save sinners. The Gospel is grace cinnered news. The Gospel is an announcement of what God has done in the person and work of Jesus Christ through his Cross, through his active and passive obedience, laying down his life on behalf of sinners who are saved by the sheer grace of God as that death is applied to them. And the Gospel is eschatological news. It is news for the now and the hereafter. It has implications for every aspect of our lives. Implications for how we love God and love people. Implications for how we carry out their gay commission, implications for how we understand let alone tell our story. The Gospel has implications for all those things. The Gospel is an announcement of news. You are not the Gospel. The Gospel is not your story. The Gospel is not something that happens in you. The Gospel is something that has happened outside of you. Secondly, not only does God does the Gospel magnify God, but the Gospel displays God's power. The Gospel displays God's power. There's that phrase, look at him again verse twenty five. Now to him who is able. Amen. By the way that's a good enough doxology right there. That's your benediction. Now to him who is able. Amen, let's go home. That's enough God is able that you can spend the rest of your life unpacking that one right there. Amen, Now to him who is able? But what has Paul been writing about? By the way, there is in this last sentence a recapitulation of the major points that Paul has been making. It's glorious when you see it. Listen to this statement by James Edwards. This benediction is a majestic conclusion of Romans. Anyone who thinks that the early Christians breathed only the rarefied air of shaker like simplicity has yet to come to terms with the theological sophistication of Romans. Nor has such an individual breathed the liturgical incense of this doxology. It gives eloquent testimony to the rich and formulaic blood was circulated in the veins of earliest Christianity. Structurally, it reviews the history of salvation by scanning the major summits of the epistle. Paul goes back here, and I'll show you how he goes back. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to My Gospel, Him who is able to strengthen you by the way. In Ephesians chapter three, there is a doxology in the middle of the letter that sounds just like this. It says, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us Fijians chapter three, verse twenty. In Jude verse twenty four, Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. Again another doxology, that one at the end, and here there's a reference to him who is able. Now to him who is able. This goes back to chapter one, verse four and chapter one, verse sixteen. And chapter one verse four we read and he was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ, our Lord. And again chapter one, verse sixteen. We all know this, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the jew first and also to the Greek, this is not just our justification. You go to Romans chapter eight, and it's the whole golden thread. This gospel is not just how God gets us justified, but it's how He gets us adopted Romans chapter eight, and sanctified Romans chapter eight, and glorified Romans chapter eight, all of it right there in that chapter. The whole order salute is right there in Romans chapter eight. And it is the gospel by which this is accomplished. To strengthen you, he says, that goes back to chapter one, verse eleven. For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. What's the spiritual gift that will strengthen them? The gospel? The gospel, The gospel displays the power of God, my gospel that takes us back to chapter one, verse one one, verse nine, one sixteen and two sixteen. In Romans one to one. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle, set apart for what the gospel of God again one sixteen and two sixteen. On that day when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus, we see the power of God here, the power to save us, the power to strengthen and sanctify us, and the power to secure us. Paul says, praise God for the Gospel, because the Gospel does just magnify God, but it displays his power. God's power saves, God's power strengthens, God's power keeps. Isn't it interesting that here in this doxology Paul doesn't say, now, in the light of what I've given you, hold on tight and work real hard. By the way, he's not against holding on tight, and he's not against working real hard. But you have to understand that you're holding on tight is not what keeps you, and you're working real hard is not what keeps you. It is a byproduct of the only thing that keeps you, which is the Gospel. The Gospel also unfolds God's providence. Now on to him who was able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. Now here's this other phrase, according to the revelation of the of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but now has been disclosed through the prophetic writings, has been made known to all nations. According to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith. What does he recap here Salvation history. He starts off by talking about this Gospel that is able to save not only the jew but also the Greek, and by the Greek, the Gentiles, all of those nations outside of the Jews. We've talked week after week after week about how Paul, the Jew, the Pharisee, the Benjamite, was anticipating the fulfillment of the promises that God made to his forefather Abraham, and is now seeing in the conversion of the gentile world the very fulfillment of the promises that he's longed for. And beyond that, he gets to walk the ground and watch it happen firsthand. So when he says, praise God for the Gospel, he cannot help but recount Salvation history and what it is that God has done. We see this also throughout the Letter, that which is revealed or manifested. That goes back to chapter one, verse seventeen and Chapter three, verse twenty one, Romans one seventeen, For in it righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Chapter three, verse twenty one. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. Paul's pointing back to that here in his doxology. Praise God, but not just praise God because I really feel warm and fuzzy about God right now. Praise God because of the things that I told you earlier. Praise God because of what I said in chapter one. Praise God because of what I said in chapter two, Chapter three, chapter four, chapter five. Praise God because of all these things that I have just unfolded for you. Praise God for that which was present even in the writings of the prophets, but his own now being fully understood. Praise God for his timing and bringing these things about in the fullness of time. The prophetic writings. He makes reference to that again we've already said three verse twenty one. But in chapter one, verse two, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Again, Paul is not just praising God because he's finished writing. He's praising God, and he's pointing back to what he's written, much of it in the first chapter. Again, this is a bookend the obedience of faith and the idea of all nations of the Gentiles that goes back to chapter one and verse five, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations. Paul says, this is why I'm here to bring about the obedience of faith. By the way, this obliterates the idea that the Gospel is just what saves us and then somehow there's something else that keeps us, because this reference here to the obedience of faith is tied directly to what the Gospel praise. So now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. Then he goes on to explain the gospel that he preaches. He goes on to explain this revelation points back to chapter one, verse five, and this idea of the obedience of faith, and particularly the Gentiles being brought into the obedience of faith. And what is it that made them obedient? We taught them to obey everything. No, we preach the gospel, and the gospel turned them into obedient sons of God. Praise God for the Gospel. Because it unfolds God's providence before us. How can you hear the Gospel and not pause in awe of the unfolding providence of God? How can you not in a few moments, when we stand here before these elements and partake of the Lord's Supper and talk about the night when he was betrayed? How And Paul, Paul didn't even have this experience. He probably envyed this experience of being a Jewish man who, year after year after year, had partaken of this meal, been reminded of his sin, heard the bleeding of sheep out in the field on the way to slaughter. And here is this meal that they are partaking of. And the one that all of that pointed to says to them, this is my body, this is my blood. And all of a sudden, even that night they don't even get it. But the next few days changed everything. He is the passover Lamb, is the blood of the Covenant. He is our Master, Savior, Lord, king, and friend. And we lived with him and walked with him and ate with him, and we didn't even know it. Can you imagine the conversations. Can you imagine a guy who asked the question and acts one six. Hey, you know, this whole resurrection thing was great, but you know, now, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? I imagine that guy spent the rest of his life going, do you know what I asked Jesus one time after the resurrection? And yet, in the providence of God, it unfolded according to his plan. The Gospel reveals God's wisdom, It magnifies God absolutely displays his power. I mean, we get to see it unfold as providence, but ultimately it reveals his wisdom. And that's where Paul ends to the only wise God. Sometimes he says to the only God. Sometimes he says to the wise God. Here he says to the only wise God. Now, don't be confused. Here Paul is not saying that there are other gods who are not wise. He is saying to the only God, who is the wise God. This takes us back to Chapter three, verses twenty nine to thirty. The only God, or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of gentiles? Also? Yes, the gentiles? Also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Here is the beauty and the beauty of this trinitarian reality. Paul makes no qualms about saying that God is one and that God the Father is not the same person as Jesus the Son or the Holy Spirit. But he's one God who reveals himself in Three Persons Chapter eleven, verses thirty three to thirty six, we see the wisdom of God. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments, how inscrutable his ways? For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for From him and through him and to him are all things? To him be glory forever. Amen, Do you remember chapter eleven where it just it got so good to him? In chapter eleven he had the doxologize right there before he even finished. And what was he praising? The wisdom of God. This is the same man who earlier admitted that he was heartbroken over the condition of his country and the Jews. I'd almost be willing to be cut off for their sake if it meant their salvation and from that anguish that is real. He comes to the place where he says, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and not knowledge of God. God doesn't always do what I want done, And that's good news because he's wise and I'm not. It's God's wisdom. See. And when you praise God for the Gospel, ultimately that's where you're in God's wisdom. See. If the Gospel is just about how we get saved, and then there's some other way for us to be kept, then you need some other wisdom to keep you. If the Gospel is ultimately just shorthand for the law, then somehow you've got to rely on your wisdom to keep the law. If the Gospel is it's basically your story and your encounter, then ultimately you have something about which to boast. And when we have this understanding of the gospel, this truncated understanding of the gospel, and when the Gospel is not at the core and the foundation, we run off in all sorts of directions trying to fix this and that and the other, and we assume the gospel instead of proclaiming the gospel, and it's lost. Listen to this from Don Carson. Perhaps more common yet, is the tendency to assume the Gospel while devoting creative energy and passion to other issues marriage, happiness, prosperity, evangelism, the poor, wrestling with Islam, wrestling with the pressures of secularization, bioethics, the dangers of the life, dangers on the right. The list is endless. This overlooks the fact that our hearers inevitably are drawn toward that about which we are most passionate. Every teacher knows that my students are unlikely to learn all that I teach them. They are most likely to learn that about which I am most excited. If the Gospel is merely assumed, while relatively peripheral issues ignite our passions, we will train a new generation to downplay the Gospel and focus zeal on the periphery. Moreover, if in fact, we focus on the Gospel, we shall soon see that this Gospel, rightly understood, directs us how to think about and what to do about, a substantial array of other issues. These issues, if they are analyzed on their own, as important as they are, remain relatively peripheral. Ironically, if the Gospel itself is deeply pondered and remains at the center of our thinking and living. It powerfully addresses and wrestles with all these other issues. That's the wisdom of God. That's the wisdom of God. Are these other issues unimportant? No, but you can't understand them rightly apart from the Gospel. And I'll use this illustration that we've used before. A couple comes in and they have problems with their marriage. Let's focus on marriage and the stuff of marriage and the relationship of marriage. Let's dig down deep into the things that are happening here with their marriage so that we can fix their marriage, because their marriage is our focus. And we got to find out what's wrong with the marriage, and then, you know, fix those things that are wrong with the marriage, and so on and so forth, because our focus is the marriage. Is that how Paul dealt with marriage. Actually, know, when you get to Ephesians chapter five, Paul root's marriage in his understanding of the gospel, and at the end of his teaching on marriage, what does he say, This mystery is great, but I'm talking to you about Christ and the church. So what does Paul say marriage is unimportant? No, Paul says marriage is extremely important because it is one of the very important implications of the Gospel. And if you want to understand marriage rightly, you start with the Gospel, not with marriage. It is only when you understand the Gospel rightly that you understand marriage rightly. And it's only when you come to marriage with an understanding of the Gospel that you are able to identify what is broke in a marriage and offer counsel as to how to get what is broken fixed in a marriage, because ultimately it needs to be realigned rightly with the Gospel co dely different perspective, raising our children, managing our finances, impacting our culture, you name it. Ultimately, our understanding of these things must be rooted in our understanding of the Gospel. Why now to him who was able to strengthen you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed, and through the prophetic writing has been known to all nations according to the command of the Eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith to the only wise God be glory forevermore. Through Jesus Christ. Amen, What does your marriage need needs to be strengthened. So, like Paul says, that's what the Gospel does. What happens when you're being disobedient and that's impacting your marriage, seems like you need to bring about the obedience of faith. That's what the Gospel does. This is where we live and breathe. This focuses our mind's attention and heart's affection rightly upon the God who is worthy of our worship. This guards us against our natural tendency of self worship and self reliance, which always leads us to despair. Paul is not being trite here by a long shot. This is Romans we're talking about. In Romans that plums the theological depths of our understanding of the Gospel and its implications. Paul would not dare be trite, and yet he can be very simple. Praise God for the Gospel because it's enough. In fact, it's more than enough. And the more you explore it, and the more you believe it, and the more you abide in it, the more overwhelmed you will become with its sufficiency, its magnitude, and its magnificence. Let's pray