Peter Barnes | Romans 16:19-20
SERMON NOTES
ENCOURAGMENT, DISCERNMENT, AND VICTORY
(Romans 16:19-20)
Context is the coming of the false teachers in 16:17-18.
1. Be encouraging.
– 16:19. Having warned against flattery (16:18), Paul is encouraging (see 1:8; 15:14).
– remember that Rome was not Paul’s child, as it were. F. B. Meyer prayed for his neighbour, Campbell Morgan.
2. Be discerning.
– 16:19; see Matt.10:16 (not the same Greek word for ‘wise’) and 1 Cor.14:20
– Grotius: we are to be ‘too good to deceive, too wise to be deceived’.
– unlike Scripture Union’s chaplaincy training with the homosexual community in Tasmania
3. Know the assurance of God’s victory.
– 16:20; see Gen.3:15.
– Christ wins the victory (Psalm 110:1) and it is shared with all those who are in Christ (Eph.1:20-23)