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Before Paul closes this great book of Romans, this colossus of inspired and inerrant doctrine and practice for the Christian life, he hangs two signs on the back door, two final words that need to grip our attention and our hearts, a word of warning in verses 17-20, and a word of wisdom in verses 21-27. The warning braces us for the battle we face, and the wisdom thrills our hearts with a grand doxology. First the word of warning.
YOU NEED DISCERNMENT FOR THE BATTLE YOU FACE
Romans 16:17, Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.
Paul isn’t kidding around when he says, “I urge you.” He’s dead serious. He used the same word in Romans 12:1 when he urged us to present our bodies to God as living sacrifices and in Romans 15:30 when he urged the believers to pray for him. Now he is urging us to develop a discerning spiritual eye. Paul wants us to know the precious truths of Romans and everything he wrote will come under attack, and we need to discern false teaching that contradicts what he wrote.
If you weren’t aware, we Christians are in a war. The war is over the truth. A lot of spiritual warfare teaching is pure sensationalism and superstition, but the real war is over the truth of God’s Word, things “contrary to the teaching (or doctrine) you learned.” False teaching reroutes or changes the signs and directions to confuse the flock. Doctrines in Romans have been attacked, maligned, and rejected by false teachers. They claim God is not a God of wrath, Paul isn’t condemning lesbianism and homosexuality in chapter one, man is not totally depraved, Christ’s work on the cross is not sufficient to save, justification is not by faith alone, and Adam wasn’t a real historical person. False teachers say salvation is through the sacraments of the church like baptism, man has a free will and chooses God before God chooses him, God does not have a future for Israel, and much more. Satan hates God and he incessantly attacks God’s truth, especially these key doctrines in Romans.
So, Paul says in verse 17, “keep your eyes open.” The word is “scopeo” in the present tense, to keep on scoping out your surroundings. Have you ever watched a chipmunk come out of his hiding place to find a snack? As he scampers around, he’s always scoping out his surroundings. Even while he’s stuffing some morsel into his cheeks, he’s still watching, listening, eyes peeled. The slightest movement and poof, he’s gone back to hiding. Many Christians aren’t nearly as alert to false teaching as that little critter is to his enemies.
Paul says watch out for these wolves who will be coming among you and try to tear up the church with their false teaching. He warned the Ephesian elders the same way.
Acts 20:28-31, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 29 “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 “Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.
Christians need to be wise enough to realize we live in wolf territory. These wolves bring dissensions, divisions, and they set traps or hindrances to trip up God’s people. In Galatians 2:4 Paul says false brethren sneaked in bringing legalism with them. Jude 4 says certain persons have crept in unnoticed and turn God’s grace into license to sin, which is antinomianism. We can call them “sneakers” and “creepers.” They come with the goal of drawing away disciples to themselves. Be on the alert. Wolves have been attacking the church and God’s truth since the first century.
Are there wolves, sneakers, and creepers trying to worm their way into churches today? Absolutely! Rosaria Butterfield, a converted former lesbian, exposes current dangers facing the church in her book Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age: homosexuality is normal, being spiritual is kinder than being biblical, feminism is good for the world and the church, transgenderism is normal, and modesty is outdated for women.
Recently I saw a commercial of an attractive, nicely dressed, wholesome looking couple and I thought, this must be good. The commercial for this organization highlights all the things Christians value – family, marriage, wholesome living. But that’s the bait. The hook is the false doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, known as Mormons (learn what Mormonism teaches at gotquestions.com).
Then there are those who find all kinds of secret codes and messages hidden in the Bible that no one ever saw before. They are like Bible magicians, reaching into the Bible and, hocus pocus, they pull out all kinds of rabbits. This happened on this day and this other thing happened on that day, you add them all up, and the second coming is just around the corner. Several years ago John Hagee and Mark Biltz made a stir with their four blood moons teaching. Hagee’s book was titled Four Blood Moons: Something is About to Change. That got people’s attention. Beware. If it sounds weird or something you never heard before or something you wouldn’t learn from reading your Bible, it’s probably not true. Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding, California, teaches weird things, including “grave sucking” in which you lay over the grave of a buried preacher and “suck” his spirit up into yourself. So utterly false, but it grabs some people’s attention.
These wolves just make hay off of gullible, undiscerning religious people including Christians. Paul says “Keep your eyes open.” By the way, some of these wolves are really attractive. Satan’s agents come as angels of light (2 Cor. 11:13-14). And they are convincing speakers. If you listen to them, you’ll be convinced they care more about you than biblically sound preachers do. They’ll say, “We love everybody,” which means they don’t call anything sin. Even the greatest perversions are justified as normal and God loves everybody. We as believers in God’s Word must keep scoping out the surroundings. There are wolves out there.
What does Paul say we should do about these wolves? God has only one command for us regarding false teachers. When you are aware that a movement or church or book or anything has changed the labels and is teaching false doctrine, there is only one thing to do. TURN AWAY FROM THEM (vs. 17c). Don’t get emotionally attached. Truth is so precious you must let nothing cool your love for it. David prayed in Psalm 119:104, “From your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.”
FIVE DESCRIPTIONS OF SPIRITUAL WOLVES
Romans 16:18, For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.
First, they are not slaves of Christ, no matter what they say. They can talk about Jesus all day long, but if they don’t honor and submit to the Word of God, they are not slaves of Christ. John MacArthur in his commentary on this passage says, “No matter how sincere and caring false teachers or preachers may appear to be, they are never genuinely concerned for the cause of Christ or His church. They are often driven by self-interest and self-gratification, sometimes for fame, sometimes for power over their followers, always for financial gain, and frequently for all those reasons.” 2 Peter 2:14 describes them as having eyes full of adultery and driven by greed. This describes many false teachers who are finally exposed for their evil deeds. We’ve lived long enough to see one after another fall from their perch. I have books by some of them.
Second, they are slaves to their own interests. The KJV and the Greek says slaves of their own bellies. Paul describes them in Philippians 3:18-19 as enemies of the cross and whose God is their bellies. Paul is talking about their desires, their egos. They’re in it for their own self-gratification. Juston Peters has videos of Super Bowl Sunday in some of these mega-churches. The so-called “worship” is blasphemous. The leaders are entertainers, not serious preachers of God’s Word. They thrive off the applause of the crowd.
Third, they are excellent speakers. By their smooth and flattering speech they deceive. “Has God really said you shouldn’t…” “Go ahead, be your own authentic self. Don’t let some legalistic church or God tell you who you are or what you should do. You were born one way, but you have the power and right to change that and we’ll give you ‘gender-affirming care. Plus, we want to provide you with reproductive care.” The word “smooth” means “kind talk.” They want to help you. Flattering means they dress their poison in nice-sounding words – “eulogia”. Thayer’s Lexicon says they use polished language that is artfully adapted to captivate the hearer.
Fourth, they are deceivers. They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. Just like in the technology world, there are religious scams going on all the time. Satan is the biggest scammer of all. Deception is his trump card. He’s the great deceiver! Jesus called him the father of lies (John 8:44).
Revelation 12:9, And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
We are Satan’s target. He’s out to deceive us. We must measure everything we hear by the Word of God. Mrs. Butterfield explains, “You know you’ve been deceived when you are fully convinced of something that is not true.”
One of the centuries-long scams is predicting the second coming of Christ. Jesus clearly told us no one knows when He’s coming back. Matthew 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” How many date setters do we need to convince us they are all blowing smoke? In 1806 a chicken was laying eggs that had “Christ is coming” written on them. Can you believe it? You’d be a fool if you did. Turns out Mary Bateman wrote it on eggs and then reinserted them into the hen which laid the egg a second time. Do you remember 88 reasons why Jesus is coming in 1988? Then Harold Camping came along and said Jesus is coming on September 6, 1994. It didn’t happen so he changed it to September 29, then to October 2, then May 21, 2011, and finally October 21, 2011. He was very convincing. These guys are unrelenting. They go out on a limb, the limb breaks, then they go out on another limb, which breaks again. There are broken limbs scattered across the church landscape.
Whenever the Middle East heats up with wars and skirmishes, whizbang books about the end times fly off the shelf and are best sellers for a time. After a year or two you can find those books at a garage sale for a dollar or a dime.
Fifth, they prey on the unsuspecting. You must know your Bible in order not to be bamboozled by the latest online voice finding rabbits in his Bible. The unsuspecting are Christians without discernment. They just can’t believe anyone would use religion or God for their own personal agenda. Several years ago, some of us sat in the last T4G (Together for the Gospel) conference we ever attended when David Platt got up there and tried to convince us how we were all racists. We went home knowing we’d never be back to another T4G conference. Without discernment, Christians can blindly follow false or power-hungry teachers and end up emotionally bonded to the false teacher. Paul describes false teachers as “deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13).
So, Paul says, “Wake up and keep your eyes and ears open! Keep a lookout!” This doesn’t mean we’re hyper-critical or finding wolves behind every bush, although you might shake it a little to see. As elders we are concerned that only biblically sound books by trustworthy authors make it into our library. Christianity is not a little paradise on earth. It’s a battlefield in the spiritual realm, a war primarily for the truth of God’s Word.
That’s why Paul calls us to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. “Put on the full armor of God so you can stand firm against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:10-12). There are teachers with impure motives who tell people what they know they want to hear, like how to be healthy, wealthy, and prosperous. They are ear-ticklers saying what people want to hear (2 Tim. 4:3). They draw the unsuspecting into their webs and then, like spiders, they try to get the juice out of them, usually money. But don’t despair – there is good news.
GOD PROMISES PROTECTION FOR HIS PEOPLE
Romans 16:19-20, For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
Obedience. Nothing protects your soul like your obedience to your Savior, Jesus Christ. Paul rejoices in their obedience which he has heard about even all the way down in Corinth. They loved Christ and were submitted to His authority over their lives. They were eagerly being obedient and faithful to God.
Innocence. Keep your mind full of God’s goodness. Discern what is pleasing to God, which means you are submitted to God’s will, fighting the war against your flesh, the world, and the devil. And then be innocent of what is evil. The less evil you bring into your mind, the better off you are. You don’t need to go crawling into the garbage can to know there is garbage there. You discern evil by listening to God, not by listening to the world. If God says something is evil, count on it, it’s evil. If God says it’s good, it’s good. Stay out of the garbage can. Beware of what you are being taught in school…college, high school, and even elementary. Parents, you need to know what your children are being exposed to and taught. Does it square with God’s Word? Let me give you one other reference for developing discernment.
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, 21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; 22 abstain from every form of evil.
Boldness.
Romans 16:20, The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
It is God who brings peace or reconciliation through His Son. He’s the God of peace, but He’s also the Warrior God and the Jealous God against sin, idolatry, deception. Satan tries to destroy our peace with God, but the God who brought us peace is going to finally crush the head of Satan under our feet because we’re in Christ. This is our confidence and boldness. Even though we face the fires of a Nero, our enemy is defeated through Christ and doesn’t have authority over us who are in Christ – “greater is he in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). And the best news and the final word about Satan is, we win! This battle started in Genesis 3:15 and it will end in Revelation 20 in the lake of fire made for the devil.
The one ingredient that is essential for our warfare is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must depend on His grace. We don’t have the power in ourselves to fight this battle. His grace is sufficient for us, and His power is made perfect in our weakness. His grace and power will arm us for the spiritual conflict. Equipped with the Word and filled with the Spirit who manifests Christ’s grace through us, we will prevail over the devil as Luther wrote in his song, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.
And though this world with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim—
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! His doom is sure—
One little word shall fell him!