Here’s the outline for my sermon on Romans 16:25-27, preached at Cross of Christ Fellowship in Naperville.
“To God Be the Glory!”: Romans 16:25-27
Intro: After 62 sermons in Romans, today we come to the end!
-It has been a wonderful journey, and I’m sad that it is now ending.
-But what a great ending: a doxology praising God.
-We see that after all has been said, the right response to who God is and what He has done is worship.
CONTEXT: The end of the letter
-Paul wrote his letter to the Roman Christians, and the theme of Romans is the gospel
-Gospel has been explained, clarified, and applied.
-After all has been said, Paul expresses a doxology, worshipping God.
-Paul gives God all the glory and revels in God’s supreme greatness
-We are meant to join Paul, and worship God too, and say ‘To God be the Glory!’
APP: IT IS HARD TO BE A CHRISTIAN IN A PLACE LIKE NAPERVILLE!
-There are so many beautiful, nice, exciting things around us that steal our hearts, affections and attention.
-Jesus warned about this in soils (thorns: ‘choked by the cares & riches & pleasures of life’ Luke 8:14)
-Does your heart find God to be greatest object of worship and love today?
RELEVANCE OF TODAY’S PASSAGE: God’s Word brings us back to the truth.
-God is supremely wonderful and He deserves our worship.
-As we look at this doxology together, notice with me 5 things about God that leads us to worship Him.
-TODAY, I want you to observe 5 truths which lead us to worship God.
1. God is Able to STRENGTHEN Us (25a)
It is not easy to live the Christian life. At times it is very difficult
-Cultural pressures, temptations, challenging relationships, indwelling sin, taking up our cross and following Jesus
-Where do we go when we need fresh strength, fresh help, fresh resolve?
-We go to God, who is able to strengthen us.
-God is able to strengthen us: Now to him who is able to strengthen you
-The living God, has the capability to provide strength to His children.
-FRESH STRENGTH illustration—battery on drill, recharged.
-God gives fresh strength to follow Him and worship by the Holy Spirit.
–One Way Strength Comes: according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
-One way we experience fresh strength to follow God is through mediating on the gospel.
-We consider ourselves and situation and preach the gospel to ourselves.
-Preach the GOSPEL to yourself daily! (MLJ Quote from “Spiritual Depression”)
-The fact that God is able to strengthen us, gives a reason to worship God.
-No one is like God in His ability to strengthen us to walk in holiness.
-God is kind in His help for His children. Psalm 103:13-14
2. God has made KNOWN to us the gospel (25b-26)
A common view we find at our meetup ministry is that of agnosticism.
-Agnostics believe that God may exist, but no one really knows.
-Christians believe that God exists and has revealed himself to us (in Creation and Scriptures)
-Sin does make it difficult to know God (false views out here, resistance within)
-But God has revealed Himself in a way that He is known to all (Rom 1)
The next part of the doxology is a complicated sentence to follow, but the heart is this:
-God has made known to us his gospel.
–Gospel is described as a mystery revealed (25b)
-Mystery in biblical terms= Something that was hidden, but now revealed.
-Mystery of the gospel is this=The Messiah came to save Jews & Gentiles & make them one people (Eph 3:6)
-Mystery was hidden for long ages (25c) was kept secret for long ages
-God’s people did not fully grasp it, but waited.
-Mystery has now been disclosed (26a): but has now been disclosed
-The disclosure took place at the arrival and preaching of Jesus.
–Mystery Made known through the Scriptures (26b) and through the prophetic writings has been made known
-“prophetic writings” refers to the OT Scriptures.
-Hints and statements were there and pointed to Jesus, but not fully understood
-Kingdom of God, Everlasting King, Salvation of God’s people, Sins atoned for, Messiah
-Jesus explained how all the Scriptures pointed to him (Luke 24:27, 44-47)
-The Decision to Make This Known Was by God’s Command (26c) according to the command of the eternal God
-God commanded this making known—He wanted us to know!—and He is powerful enough to bring it about.
-The aim of the Gospel Proclamation (26d) to bring about the obedience of faith
-“obedience of faith” is the obedience of Christians which flows out of faith.
-We are saved by faith, but this faith will show itself in obedience to Jesus.
-God desires the salvation of lost, and has made known his gospel that it would take place.
REFLECT: God has revealed to us the plan of salvation for sinners!
-Isn’t God amazing that He made for us to be saved and made it known?
-Isn’t it a wonderful message: God loves sinners and sent His Son Jesus to save us!
APPLICATION: Our task is the GREAT COMMISSION (Matt 28:18-20)
3. God is ETERNAL (26b)
Sometimes you hear the question meant to stump Christians, ‘If God created everything, then who created God?’
-But as Christians we believe in and worship an eternal God, a God who transcends space and time.
-Our Eternal God: command of the eternal God
Eternal: Never was a time when God as not, nor will there be a time when he is not.
NOTE IMPORTANT FACT: God is ETERNALLY holy, righteous, good, and loving.
-REFLECT: The eternal nature of God leads us worship Him!
-Consider the past and how God was there. Consider the future: God will still be God!
4. God is the ONLY WISE God (27a)
When I look back at my younger self, I see many ways where I was not very wise. I made foolish decisions!
-We need to grow in wisdom. -God is unlike us: He is infinitely wise.
-If God made mistakes or was sometimes foolish, He would not be worthy of worship.
-SEE THIS: to the only wise God
CONSIDER: God is not foolish, but is absolutely wise.
-God graciously gives His wisdom to us through the Scripture
-God turns us from foolishness and sin, to wisdom and life: (Titus 3:3-7)
-When the Queen of Sheba encountered Solomon, it ‘took her breath away’
-God works all things out in our lives by His wisdom! It takes our breath away when we ponder it!
CHALLENGES US: Are there areas where you wonder if God’s wisdom is actually wise?
5. God gets the GLORY FOREVER. (27b)
Over 50 years, remained a record in baseball most thought unbreakable: 2,130 consecutive games played (Gehrig)
-In Sept 1995 Cal Ripken Jr broke that record, and went on to set a new record of 2,632 consecutive games
-In 2007, he was enter into the MLB Hall of Fame.
-People remember his achievement and amazed by the glory of such an accomplishment
-As humans we marvel at greatness, and want to give to glory to what we find great.
-In truth, there is nothing and no one greater than God Himself.
-God is the greatest being there ever was, is, or will be.
-We worship a God who will get the glory FOREVER! be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
-Unto the farthest reaches of eternity, God will get the glory
-We’ll never get bored of God.
UNBELIVER: You have traded in a lesser glory for infinite glory (Rom 1:22-23).
In the gospel, you can have your sins forgiven and begin to live for a glory that never ends!
CONCLUSION: The gospel is such good news. The only fitting response is worship and for us to say, ‘to God be the glory!’ Keep reading and pondering Romans, and may God lead us all into ever fresh experiences of worship and delight of Him.
