From Valley to Victory, Part 21

Thank you for listening to Leading the Way, the Bible teaching of pastor, author, and evangelist Dr. Michael Youssef. And as he completes what has become a very popular series for listeners, this is in the book of Romans, we have a quick reminder that Leading the Way is listener supported. That means that Dr. Youssef and the team rely on God's provision through the generosity of those who are blessed by the teaching of Dr. Youssef and the ministry of Leading the Way. So please consider a gift today. Just call a ministry representative at 866-626-4356. Or you can go online, ltw.org.

Go online with your computer or with your mobile device and know that when you give, we'd love to know how you connect with us. Now though, let's go with Dr. Michael Youssef to Romans chapter 16 with a look at characteristics of faithful followers of Jesus. Three things. First of all, we see in verses 1 to 16 that a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ has to have a loving heart. And then in verses 17 to 20, he says that disciple has to have a protective heart. And thirdly, in verses 21 to 27, he says the disciple of Jesus Christ has to have a grateful heart, a thankful heart.

Let's look at these very quickly. Having a loving heart. Now this long of list of names that Paul mentions here, particularly the first 16 verses and then he mentioned more later, this is a clear indication that Paul cared deeply about each individual person, not just as a group. No doubt, Paul prayed for these believers by name and in the cities that he has been to. And this one, actually, he hasn't been to yet. Paul did not fall in the trap and say, God bless everyone everywhere.

You know what I'm talking about? The kind of prayer? God bless everyone everywhere? Or God bless those people in Ephesus? Or God bless those people in Corinth? Or God bless those people in the church of Rome?

No. He focuses on individuals within the churches, even the ones he hasn't been to yet, like Rome. Now here in this chapter, he names 33 names and two households.

24 of these are in Rome. The church hasn't visited. In the last message, we saw it clearly. While he is so grateful to the Lord for using him and yet he gave all of the glory to whom? Christ. He gave all of the credit to Christ. Sure God helped him accomplish so many things and yet he comes here to chapter 16 almost without even taking a breath from chapter 15 and then he says, guess what? While all of the credit goes to the Lord, while all of the glory goes to the Lord, while God did it all and yet, and yet I could not have done it without all these people, all the partners in the ministry, these wonderful fellow believers. And he was in a sense overwhelmed not only with the grace of God but with the commitment and the loving dedication of the believers in every city. To be effective in the work of God in the ministry in any church, the church has to have a loving heart.

A loving heart. Beloved, listen to me, without the manifestation of our love for one another, we would just be another institution. I thank God for the emails and the letters I get from visitors who come and they say, we came to Apostles and we found such loving congregation, welcoming congregation.

I thank God for you every day. That is what sets the church apart. Love for God and for his word but love for one another as well.

Now the sad part is that in many cases the church is cold, in fact colder than the world and you'll probably be into some of those churches, I have. And Paul is saying that a church must show affection. When he talks about holy kiss and of course that takes different expression in different cultures but nonetheless the point is that Bible-believing Christians must be warm and affectionate toward each other and that's why I thank God deeply for the loving people in this church. First of all, we see that a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ has to have a loving heart. Secondly, he says that disciple has to have a protective heart. In our 21st century church, most people are fine with that loving heart bit and I'm going to explain to you why. But they balk at the thought of having a protective heart that is just, they don't like that bit.

Why? Because they have lowered the meaning of the word love to the point with just mere sentimentality, it doesn't mean much, everything goes type thing, that's what they mean by love. By love they don't mean agape, the purest form of biblical love, no no no no, because agape love includes warning people, includes exhorting people, it includes correcting people but that's not what they mean by love.

To them love means live and let live. It means no wrong, no sin, it means no falsehoods and no biblical immorality. Beloved, this is a total contradiction of biblical truth. Look at verse 17 with me again of Romans 16, I urge you brethren to watch out for those who cause division, why?

By preaching falsehoods, by not telling the truth, the full truth as it's found in the gospels, by embracing things that are contrary to biblical truth, by winking at teachings that causes many in the pews to be lulled into sin without conviction, and they call that love. Now beloved, it is the nature of biblical love, it is the nature of biblical love, to warn against harm to those whom they love. But what is that greatest harm that you warn people against? The undermining of God's truth.

That's the greatest warning you can give somebody. Hear me right, love always, listen, always, always, always forgives all evil. I don't care what it is, forgives all evil. But love does not ignore or condone evil, especially inside the family of God, inside the church of Jesus.

The mark of maturity in the Christian faith is to discern the mind of the Holy Spirit, who authored the Bible is to discern the mind of the Holy Spirit, not one's own fancy, one's own ideas. No, why? Because this is his business. We are workers for him.

We are not in business for ourselves. This is God's business. The church is God's business. In fact, the Greek word that Paul uses here for keeping an eye on those who embrace falsehood or those who proclaim falsehood, the word is scopio, from which we get the root word for telescope or microscope.

That's a root word. In days gone by, we used to exhort pastors, protect the flock of God, protect them from falsehoods, protect the people of God. Paul himself in Acts chapter 20, when he was saying goodbye to the elders in Ephesus, and he warned them, he exhorted them, he said, protect the flock of God, protect the people of God.

What is happening today at this moment of history in which we live, we don't do that anymore and I'll tell you why. Because now the pastors are the ones who are misleading the flock of God. Now, we have to protect the flock from false preachers and pastors. There are pastors who twist the text of the scripture almost like a pretzel and they twist every text in the scripture to fit their own theory of prosperity gospel, every text. There are pastors who twist the text of the scripture in ways that becomes unrecognizable to make people feel that salvation depends on the power of positive thinking. There are pastors today who twist the text of the scripture in order to deny the relevance of the Old Testament. We're seeing it all over the place.

The list goes on and on and on. Question, why does Paul say that these false teachers divide? Beloved, I'm going to answer that, listen carefully. Because in the church of Jesus Christ, we have only one true bond. We come from different backgrounds, we're young and old and then everything in between. We come from different ethnic backgrounds. Only one bond which bind us together, only one bond we have and that is the truth of the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit who wrote the word of God.

The spirit of Jesus and the word of Jesus, the word of God is what binds us together as a church. You know, not to be alert to the falsehoods and warning others against these falsehoods would be like a shepherd who watches the wolves coming in devouring his sheep and he says and does nothing. Or be a builder who worked hard to build a building and then he sees somebody tearing that building apart and he says and does nothing. Do you know the one thing that the wolves are absolutely afraid of is the watchdog. You know, the sheep dog. Who's going to defend the sheep, protect the sheep at any cost?

That's who the wolves don't like. So what are we supposed to do? Verse 18, thank God I don't have to answer that, the Bible does. We are to withhold fellowship from such individuals who divide us by false teaching. Listen, there are some Christians who think that we should not have anything to do with non-believing people.

That is utter falsehood. It's not in the scripture. You read the Corinthian passage, you read here. No, otherwise how are the world going to know Jesus and come to believe in him other than through us? So that's not whom we're supposed to break fellowship with.

We should be in the world but not of it. We are to witness, we are the light, we are the salt. Ah, but the fellowship is to be broken with the professing Christian who deliberately proclaim falsehood. We're to break fellowship of a sinning believer who refuses to repent. Look at verse 18 again. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ but their own appetites, their own fancies.

Smooth talking, flattering, they deceive the mind of the naive people. They make their own rules as they go along. They make their own principles as they go along. They place their own interpretation above the Word of God itself.

They use their own rationale and go against the Word of God. Look at verse 19. Be wise in what is good but innocent in what is evil.

What does that mean? It means that you are so familiar with the truth of the Word of God that you know what is good and what is true. And you get to know it so much and so well that as soon as you see a falsehood you recognize it immediately. And you immediately not only recognize it but abhor it, not wink at it, not accommodate to it, not pretend that it's not there.

Why? Because when alert believers get united together under the Word of God, you know what they are doing? They are trampling Satan on the foot.

That's what they do. That's the Word of God here. Ah, but the day is coming when Satan completely going to be trampled under our feet. Notice that Jesus trampled him on the feet. See when Jesus went to the cross he crushed his head.

When Jesus died on that cross he crushed Satan's head. And now Jesus gives power to the believers to defeat him. But we also look forward longingly to the day when our spiritual war is over. When those who are instruments of Satan who disseminating falsehood will be judged.

When faithful believers are going to be rewarded. Listen to me. So don't be discouraged my beloved friends. Don't be discouraged. Don't give up.

For soon and very soon and maybe sooner than any of us think we are going to see our victorious Jesus and he's going to be crushing Satan under our feet. Come on. I want you to do that. Just tap your feet.

That's right. Let the hell hear it. Let Satan hear it. Because that's what's going to happen to him.

He's going to be crushed under our feet. Satan is the one who tempted us. Satan is the one who caused us to occasionally fail and be defeated. Satan is the one who deceives us. Satan is the one who harasses us. Satan is the one who constantly troubling us. Satan is the one who constantly try to convince us that we're standing alone. Everybody has given up.

You might as well give up too. That Satan soon and very soon is going to be trampled under our feet. Praise God. Praise God. Having a loving heart. Having a protective heart. Finally having a grateful heart.

You know one of the saddest things I see across the world actually not just in the West is that gratitude and thankfulness is becoming a rare species. Look at verse 25. Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery hidden long past but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God so that all nations might believe and obey him. Question, what is that mystery? What is that mystery that Paul is talking about?

And he talked about it in Ephesians as well. What is kept secret long ago now manifest? Well actually it's twofold. It's like two-edged sword. One side is the fact that God became man. That's the mystery. And to this day many of our Muslim friends have said, no, no, no, no, no.

That can't happen. How can God become man? That's why it's a mystery to them. They never understand it. They will never understand it unless God opened their spiritual eyes. And the second part of that mystery is the fact that the Gentiles are going to come in the new covenant and be equal to the Jews in the sense that they both are going to come under the covenant of grace as one unit. That's the mystery. Even the disciples had a hard time in the early days of Acts.

The Gentiles coming in and becoming equal to us, you see, that wall of hostility has been destroyed, had been removed. Actually in reality it wasn't really a mystery. I'm going to explain that to you because some, very few, read about it in the Old Testament and they understood it and they comprehended it. So it wasn't mysterious to some but it was to many. You see, from God's point of view, this again and again and again was repeated in the Old Testament but the people would not believe it.

They would not understand it. It's repeated in Isaiah 53, 11, Jeremiah 31, 31 and 33 and Ezekiel 11, 19 just to give you a few samples. It's all over the Old Testament but their spiritual blindness, they did not want to believe it.

They did not want to believe that the Gentiles are going to be recipients of grace just like they are. Hear me right, you cannot read the epistles of Paul without recognizing that Paul was one grateful dude. He would talk about all the torture and the stoning and the building and the whipping and everything else that had been through the shipwreck. I'm grateful to the Lord. He is one grateful dude. He was not only grateful for his salvation but he's also grateful for his sanctification. He was not only grateful for his redemption but he also was grateful for the sustaining power of God during that time, earthly life. Paul repeatedly taught that our God does not only save us but he sustains us in that salvation. Our God not only cleanses us when we come to him but he continues on cleansing us day by day. Our God not only calls us but he keeps us from permanently falling away.

How do you know that? Again, thank God it's not up to me to give you the answer to the next verse because the word established here, God establishes you being standing firm. I mean absolutely firm, immovable. You're standing firm.

He's the one establishing you. He's holding you firm on the rock of ages. Those who are united in the truth of Jesus Christ and the word of God are people who are always firm in their faith. The wind will blow and the wind will howl and the wind will threaten but they are immovable.

They are firm. On the other hand, those who cause division and dissension are people who are being blown by every wind of doctrine. Well, whatever the latest thing that Dr. Smelfunga said, we go with it. Those who do not have their foundation on the infallible and inerrant word of God, these people are easily persuaded by every slick and smooth talking preacher. Those who have no foundation will crumble every time there's a crisis. Paul said, my gospel.

A lot of people will stumble over that. What does that mean, my gospel? Is this his private gospel, his own private interpretation of the gospels?

No. He's saying I'm preaching the same gospel that Peter preached. I am preaching the same gospel that James preached. I am preaching the same gospel that John preached. I am preaching the same gospel that Jude preached. And he is saying here that that's exactly the gospel that I'm preaching. When you and I heard the gospel for the first time, remember that time?

I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. I remember that day like yesterday. Pray to God, never forget it. The first time when Christ brought us to himself and we responded to his invitation, God called fallen, corrupt, vacillating, drifting, insecure, uncertain, confused minds like mine, and he established us.

Not for a day or two, but for all of eternity. God bless you. God took doomed souls and firmly established them on the truth. Establish. Again, what does it mean? Listen carefully. It means to stand firm against the temptation to drift and wonder. And temptations are all around us. Beloved, listen to me. They are all around us. It means you have solid footing when everything and every other person that you know is drifting.

It means that you are firm in your convictions and you refuse to be dragged into silly self-serving arguments. Having a loving heart, having a protective heart, having a grateful heart. Beloved, that's my prayer for me. And it's my prayer for you. My daily prayer for each of you. So as I conclude this series from one of the greatest epistles in the New Testament, I couldn't think of better words.

I could never improve on the word of God. So I'm going to conclude with a word that Paul concludes the epistle with. To the only wise God, be glory forever and ever and ever through Jesus Christ. Amen and amen and amen. Give God glory. Give God glory.

Encouragement to have a loving, protective and grateful heart. Thank you for joining listeners from your neighborhood and from neighborhoods just like yours all around the world for Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. We encourage you to learn more about Leading the Way.

Go to ltw.org. Building upon the strong infrastructure established by your faithful and generous partnership, Leading the Way's open door campaign will focus on three strategic areas where the greatest need and opportunity exist. The first is in North America, where only 4% of adults have a biblical worldview.

Churches are distracted and losing relevance in today's secular culture. With your support over the next five years, Leading the Way will multiply its efforts to encourage the revitalization of the Western Church through far-reaching media ministry on traditional TV and radio, Finding True Peace National Evangelistic Project, Dr. Youssef's Awake America prayer movement, mobilizing millions of people in prayer for our nation, citywide events to challenge the local church, biblically-based publications like My Journal and My Devotional. Through each of these outreaches, Leading the Way is reaching into homes, cars and communities with the gospel of Christ. We stand at a crossroad of history, and we can walk through these doors of opportunities that God has opened for us, or we can look at our current economic conditions and take counsel of our fears and do nothing.

We have the choice. Leading the Way is committed to using every available resource to reach every available person at every available moment. The door is open, and only God in heaven knows when will it be closed. Will you commit to joining me to boldly walk through these open doors together? Join Dr. Youssef in the Open Door Campaign. Be part of impacting lives all around the world when you call us at 866-626-4356, or you can visit us at ltw.org. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect further with audio and video content at ltw.org, or through your favorite social media platform, including YouTube, Facebook, X, previously called Twitter, Instagram, and more.