In an in-depth study that started in August, today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl invites us to explore the final page of Paul's magnum opus, Romans chapter 16. Tucked among Paul's final greetings are names like Tertius, a scribe, mentioned right alongside wealthy city officials. Why is this snapshot of these men so surprising? because grace erases all human hierarchies. And that's not just interesting, it's convicting.
It begs the question, will we become a rare person of grace who sets people free or hold them in bondage? Turn, please, to Romans chapter 16. We are Getting toward the end of our study of this letter, and we have come to the 20th through the 24th verses of this last chapter of the letter to the Romans. Romans sixteen twenty. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you. and so do Lucius, and Jason, and Socipitor my kinsmen. I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you and the Lord. Gaius Host to me.
and to the whole church greet you. Erastus, the city treasurer, Greet you. and Quartus the brother, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be with you all. And everyone said, Uh Amen.
You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook by going to insight.org/slash offer. Chuck titled today's message, Putting Down Evil, Lifting Up Friends.
Well, you may have thought we had forgotten about Romans, but we're back. After all, it's just the 43rd message. Why should we be in a hurry, huh? Reminds me of when we were finishing the book of Job. It was uh eight-year-old.
boy that leaned over and said to his dad as I was finishing it up, Daddy, was I three or four when Pastor Swindahl began? Joe.
Next Sunday will mark the 18th. Month. That we have spent in this grand Graham. Letter. Clearly, Roman stands as the magnum opus.
of the great Apostle Paul. What the Fifth Symphony was to Beethoven. What the B minor mass was to Johann Sebastian Bach. What the Messiah was to George Frederick Handel. The Sistine Chapel ceiling was, to Michelangelo, and the incandescent lamp to Edison Romans is to the prolific.
Apostle Paul. Coleridge, the British poet, realized the profound effect of the letter. when he wrote, it is the profoundest piece of writing. in existence. It changed the life of Martin Luther.
Not surprisingly, Luther was so taken by it. He referred to Romans as the chief book of the New Testament. It deserves to be known by heart, word for word, by every Christian. If that sounds like too daunting a challenge, pause and think what we would be like if the terrorists won. Ultimately, invading churches and boarding up our doors and sending us off in all different directions to live the rest of our lives, if in fact they allowed us to have our lives.
in camps. with high fences and walls around them. The Bibles would be burned and removed. And we would be left only with our memories. How much of the scriptures Could we bring back to life?
If you are laying God's word in your heart and committed you to the discipline of scripture memory, you would be of enormous asset. in a place like that. You would be for many of us a source. of incredible strength. And so I remind you.
The writings of this man who Was constantly contemporary and consistently relevant and regularly engaged in life. Are just as appropriate for today as they were in the century in which they were written. Never underestimate. The authority or the power of God's inspired word. It sets people free.
It puts people on a rock. In the midst of these sandy cultural times in which we live. It gives us hope. not just in life, but beyond life. And it holds us.
close to the heart of God. Never underestimate. The importance of the exposition of the scriptures. May this church forever be known for its expository pulpit. for its faithful preaching of the Word of God.
Man, I've heard so many amen since we started this place. Wonderful. And I know you agree. My wife and I remember the time in our lives when we were adrift spiritually and we hungered for the word of God. Finally, found a place that taught it, and it was like an oasis in the desert.
for our souls. We feasted there. And truth be told, by the time I got to Dallas Seminary for the first couple of years, honestly, I learned a few new truths in my theology class because of the things I had learned from the teaching of God's word in the church where we had attended. Praise God. for the teaching of his word.
I love the way the Apostle... provides a balance. Obviously, his is the most Astute of theological minds in the first century, save that of Christ our Savior. But he is also a people person. For 11 chapters, he hammers away at the great doctrines of the faith.
the constitution of the Christian life. set forth in chapters one through 11 of Romans, and we learn of a God who justifies by faith and who gives us his peace and provides us. His power and enables us to live the Christian life and sovereignly watches over the affairs of life. But when you get to chapter 12, All the power of the vertical is then shifted and Added to it is the horizontal of The transforming life set forth in Romans 12, 1 and 2. And then before long, you find Paul dealing with the most practical of subjects.
And you realize he is not some distant, dusty-minded scholar hiding away in some room removed from life, but he's engaged in the world in which we live. And uh He mentions names in the 16th chapter of this letter, most of which we find nowhere else in any part of the scriptures. And we'll mention more today to tell you what kind of a people person he was.
So, just an added word here to all of us: never get so intellectually caught up in the scriptures that you begin to lose touch with people. And so Heavenly minded, you're of little earthly good. to folks around you. And never let it be a source of pride. But a reminder that That God has graciously opened your mind to His truth to change your life.
That to use it to share with others. As you get to the end of the chapter, He levels a very strong warning in verse 17. He said, I urge you. Keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances. That's a very practical warning.
They are the ones who Whose teaching is contrary to the truths you have learned, turn away from them. That takes courage. to live that kind of truthful life. It takes being willing to be misunderstood. He says such men are slaves not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites.
Guard yourself when you are around evil. Just as you lock your doors at night, just as you lock your car when you walk away from it at the mall, just as you watch over your children when they're out in the public places, so watch over your lives so that evil doesn't encroach. And take up root. In fact, at the end of verse 19, I love the way he puts it. I want you to be wise in what is good.
But I want you to be innocent. in what is evil. Isn't that a wonderful balance? Traffic in the good. When you encounter evil, don't be experienced in it.
Stay naive about the evil, if you will. By that I mean an experience. Not in your protective mindset. But don't traffic in it.
Now, appropriately, he turns immediately to the God of peace. He uses those same terms in chapter 15, verse 33 of this letter. And don't pass this off as insignificant. John Stott puts it this way: God's peace allows no appeasement. of the evil.
With God, peace pervades. not with evil. Where you find evil, you will not find things calm, but rather chaotic, or at least moving toward the chaotic. Where you find peace, you find the removal of evil influences and you are at peace within. Only through the restraint of evil can you know that prevailing peace of God, and He will sustain you because He is a God of peace.
And then he offers this hope and a promise. This God of peace will soon crush Satan. under your feet. What good is that? Literally, the word means to shatter, to smash.
to annihilate, to subdue completely. We need to turn back to the first prediction of that in the Bible. Hold your place at Romans 16 and go to Genesis chapter 3, will you? Genesis 3. What a chapter.
Everything until chapter three is talk about innocent, talk about peaceful. The Garden of Eden. All of the things are created. Adam and Eve are placed in it. They have magnificent harmony with one another and with their God.
There is a sense of intimacy, like we cannot even imagine. Until the serpent comes and tempts them. To do the very thing, in fact, the only thing that was prohibited, and that was that they not. partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't go there.
But that's the very thing Satan used in the form of the serpent to tempt them, and they. Took of the tree. And Eve was Seduced, and then she brings Adam into it, and he is. And the Lord comes back, and waiting for the regular walk in the cool of the day, as we read of it in verse 8, and he finds that the man and his wife are hidden from the living God. That was a first.
They're now hiding. When he brings them out in the open, Look at what the man says, verse 12. The man said, the woman. You gave to be with me. She gave me from the tree, and I ate.
And then the Lord looked at the woman, and the Lord God said to her, What is this you have done? The woman said, The snake. The snake deceived me. Isn't that interesting? We are forever.
blaming someone else for what is our problem. I thought of that when a friend of mine gave me this. Fun story of a man who feared his wife was losing her hearing, didn't know what to do about it.
So we went to the doc, and the doc said, Oh, there's a simple, simple test. Stand about 40 feet away from her and in normal conversation. Speak. If she doesn't answer, move another 10 feet closer and speak in normal conversational tone. If she doesn't speak, move another 10 feet closer.
If she still doesn't get a response, then go right up near her face and say it again, and you'll find out.
So he said to her that evening. At forty feet away, honey, what's for dinner? No response.
So he moved up 10 more feet and he said, Honey, what's for dinner? There's still no response.
Well, next he moves into the dining room, gets closer to the kitchen, about 20 feet away, he says, honey. What's for dinner? She doesn't even turn around, and so he gets 10 feet away. Honey, what's for dinner? Still, there's no response.
So he gets right up behind her and says, honey. What is for dinner? She says for the fifth time chicken It's always the other person we think is the problem.
Well, interesting, the snake doesn't blame it on anybody else. Verse fifteen. God has him, if you will, pinned to the ground now. And he says, I watch closely. I will put enmity between you and the woman.
Notice the first level of conflict. Is between Satan and the woman.
Next, between your seed and her seed So, this is between those who follow Satan and those who will follow in faith in her train. And he says He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him. Uh on the heel.
So there will be another conflict between Satan and Christ. James Montgomery Boyce, in his fine work on Romans, writes this: We know what Satan did when he was able to strike Christ's heel. It included hatred from the religious leaders, mocking by the crowds, severe beatings, and eventually the terrible agony of crucifixion. Satan might have thought he had won. But it was only a bruising, not a defeat for Christ.
Because on the third day after the crucifixion, Jesus. Rose from the grave triumphantly. And Paul writes of this in Colossians chapter. 2 verses 13 to 15. Where he Triumphs over the forces of evil.
Never forget that. He won the victory over the power of the devil at the crucifixion, at the resurrection, and Satan. living this deluded life. Thought he was the one who won that. I like Jonathan Edwards' words.
Satan is the greatest blockhead the world has ever known. For although Satan is exceedingly knowledgeable and cunning, he was supremely stupid to suppose that he could outthink the all-wise God or overpower. the Almighty. Every move Satan makes is like playing a game of chess with a master. He moves closer to checkmate.
Every year we live, Satan is closer to being crushed. Wiped out, removed, annihilated. You read of it in Revelation chapter 20. The first two verses and then the tenth verse. where he is thrown into the lake of fire.
And there he is left. Forever. That's a wonderful thought. But look at what Paul says in Romans 16:20. The God of peace will soon crush Satan.
And he wrote that in the first century. This is the 21st century. What's soon all about?
Well, we have two ways of Using that particular term rendered soon, one is just around the corner, or I'll be there soon, meaning right away. if not immediately. There's another kind of soon which means quickly. It will happen quickly. It won't take long.
And when you read of the crushing, ultimate crushing of Satan and the removal of him from this planet or from time and eternity, you don't read of any wrestling. There's no lengthy struggle. There's no fight. I mean, the Lord doesn't have to roll up his sleeves and take him on and spend the next 30 years defeating him. It's just, you're through.
Exit. Out. And that's the promise right here in verse 20. When it happens, it will happen quickly. And aren't you glad he then adds, the grace of our Lord Jesus.
Be with you. Grace. This magnificent subject really has the signature of Paul all over it. If you find yourself a demon fighter, if you will. Locating the evil in every turn, you will not be a person of grace.
When you operate in the realm of grace with a grace mindset, it is remarkable. Uh what that will do to you. Grace, of course, is what God does for us, which we do not deserve. And we will never err and we cannot repay. It is the great cry of the reformers.
Salvation by grace alone. Through faith alone. In Christ alone. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy, by His grace. Unmerited favor.
I shudder when I realize how Rarely I'm around a person of grace. It's hard to find. We talk of grace. But we live under guilt. And shame.
We think we embrace grace, but we seem to prefer works. We encourage grace in others, and then we judge them when they fail. We even sing a doctrine of works at times. I looked through an old hymnal I have and found a gospel song that I sang as a kid. And I thought, this is not good theology.
I am satisfied with Jesus. He has done so much for me. He has suffered to redeem me. He has died. To set me free.
Well, that's great.
Now you're talking, but you get to the chorus. Listen. I am satisfied. I am satisfied with Jesus. But the question comes to me as I think of Calvary: Is my master satisfied with me?
That's shaming you. Yes is the answer, but the writer doesn't want you to think yes, he wants you to think no, and I have to work hard for him to be satisfied with me. Another, put it best: nearer, still nearer, nearer I cannot be, for in the person of his Son, I am as near as he. Grace, grace. Great.
Operate in grace, my friends. Lewis Berry Chaffer wrote this: Any recognition of human guilt or shame. Any recognition of human obligation, any recognition of human merit. And grace cannot exist there. How important.
You know what moves us? Citizen. Law, it isn't judgment. It's mercy. It's grace.
Uh In the final portion of his letter, Paul mentions several of his colleagues, and this glimpse into Paul's personal life gives us a picture of God's mercy and grace. This is Insight for Living. We're midway through Chuxwindahl's study in Romans chapter 16. He titled today's message, Putting Down Evil, Lifting Up Friends. We'll hear some closing comments from Chuck in just a moment, so stay with us.
Keep in mind that our verse-by-verse study in Romans will conclude this coming Tuesday.
So now is the time to request the Bible study resources that are offered for this teaching series. Earlier I mentioned the Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbooks for Romans. They come in two spiral-bound volumes, and you can place your order today by going online to insight.org/slash offer. Insight for Living is made possible by people just like you who rely on Chuck's teaching as a guiding light every day. and it might surprise you to learn how many people listen to Chuck, yet how few actually get in touch with us.
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Well, thank you for your kind words. You can also give a donation when you call us at 800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org slash donate. I'm Bill Meyer, inviting you to hear Chuck Swindahl's practical message about putting down evil and lifting up friends. Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Putting Down Evil, Lifting Up Friends, was copyrighted in 2008, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R.
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