FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, 7-10-11 PM NOTES
“TO GOD BE GLORY FOREVER”
ROMANS 16:21-27
# 73 in Series, “Verse-by-Verse Through Romans”
“[T]his epistle is the principle and most excellent part of the New Testament and most pure evangelion, that is to say, glad tidings, and that we call gospel, and also is a light and a way unto the whole Scripture; I thank it meet that every Christian man not only know it, by rote and without the book, but also exercise himself therein evermore continually, as with the daily bread of the soul. No man verily can read it too oft, or study it too well; for the more it is studied, the easier it is, the more it is chewed, the pleasanter it is; and the more groundly it is searched, the preciouser things are found in it, so great treasure of spiritual things lieth hid therein.”
—William Tyndale (1494-1536)
“[It] is unquestionably the most important theological work ever written.” —John Knox (1514-1572)
Philippians 2:22 (ESV) “But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.”
I. To God Be the Glory for His Ability to Establish Us (v. 25a)
Acts 14:21-22 (NKJV) “ 21 And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to
Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and
saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.’”
Philippians 1:6 (NKJV) “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Jude 1:24 (NKJV) “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.”
1 John 2:19 (HCSB) “They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.”
“Paul wants to bring us to the place where we are secure and unshakable. He wants us to be so mature that we do not get frustrated by circumstances or question God’s goodness every time things don’t go our way. It is God Himself who establishes us. We willingly cooperate with Him in this process, but we are not ultimately responsible for our own maturity and stability. That’s God’s job. God took an idol worshipper named Abraham and established him as the father of our faith.
God took a runaway named Moses and established him as the deliverer of the Hebrew nation. God took a murderer and adulterer named David and established him as a man after God’s own heart. God took a hardened Pharisee, a persecutor of the church named Saul, and established him as Paul the apostle, author of nearly half of the New Testament and the greatest missionary evangelist of all time.”
—Ray Steadman
“Jesus Christ did not come merely to preach a gospel; He Himself is that gospel. He did not come merely to give bread; He said, ‘I am the bread.’ He did not come merely to shed light; He said, ‘I am the light.’ He did not come merely to show us the door; He said, ‘I am the door.’ He did not come merely to name a shepherd; He said, ‘I am the shepherd.’ He did not come merely to point the way; He said ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’”
—J. Sidlow Baxter
Luke 24:27 (NKJV) “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

II. To God Be the Glory for the Revelation of the Mystery (vv. 25b-26)
Mystery—something that was hidden and thus unknown until God revealed it. It is something that was unrevealed or at least only partially revealed in the Old Testament.
1 Corinthians 4:1 (NKJV) “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”
 The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 13:11)
 The Mystery of the Olive Tree (Romans 11:25)
 The Mystery of the Rapture of the Saints (1 Corinthians 15:51)
 The Mystery of Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32)
 The Mystery of Christ Indwelling Believers (Colossians 1:27)
 The Mystery of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:7)
 The Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:16)
 The Mystery of God Finished (Revelation 10:7)
Ephesians 3:3-6 (NKJV) “ 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: 6 that the
Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel.”
Romans 1:5 (NKJV) “Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name.”
“So in the beginning and the ending of this letter Paul says that the gospel and his apostleship (and, by implication, our ministry and your life!) has this great aim: that Jesus Christ would be seen as glorious—magnificent—among all the peoples of the world by means of the obedience of Christians which flows from their faith in Him.”
—John Piper
III. To God Be the Glory for His Wisdom (v. 27a)
Wisdom—knowing what the greatest goal is in any situation, and what is the best way to achieve it. —John Piper
Romans 11:33 (NKJV) “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”
IV. To God Be Glory Through Jesus Christ (v. 27b)
The glory of God is His infinite beauty that is the sum of all of His perfections.
Hebrews 1:3 (ESV) “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…”