And as you do so, turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 16, verse 17 to verse 18. Just realized after our brother leading us in song finished his announcements that we had forgotten to pass on to him the African Christian University announcement concerning the enrollment that has begun for the scholars program and also for the degree programs. So just take that as official notification and we'll try and keep that up for the rest of this month and into December. In fact, we've now put a permanent billboard in that corner there. I'm sure some of you saw it. Just keep reminding us. that the time for enrollment for next year is now. Romans 16, we will read verse 17 down to verse 20. The Bible says, there I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles. contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. Avoid them, for such persons do not save our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience, which is the text we are looking at this evening, this 19 and 20, for your obedience is known to all so that I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crash certain under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Well, brethren, again we are in the concluding words of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, giving us something of a backstage view of what was happening within the context of the early church, within the context of the church in Rome, and within the context of the Apostle Paul himself. What we noted was that there appeared to be a break in the greetings that the Apostle Paul was going through. Beginning with verse 3 of chapter 16, all the way to verse 16, it is greet and greet and greet and greet. And then when we skip from verse 17 down to verse 20, verse 21 downwards, again begins greetings all over again. Remember what I said? Some people have concluded this must have been a letter addition to the letter of the Apostle Paul. But if you look at verse 16 and see that it is talking about this affectionate greeting, greet one another with a holy kiss, you can then begin to understand why he brings in verse 17. It's as though to say, hang on, not everyone who is in the context of the church deserves such a hearty, affectionate greeting. There are some whom you must hold back such a greeting, there are some that you must avoid altogether. And really that's what verse 17 downwards is all about. So we're able in that sense to then see why the Apostle Paul took what I would call a small detour for at least four verses dealing with how to deal with a divisive church member. And we noted, first of all, it is to mark such a person, and then secondly, it is to avoid such a person And then thirdly, it is you are to both mock and avoid such a person because they easily deceive. And in being deceiving, especially of those who are naive, those who are young believers, the end result easily becomes a division in the church, a splitting in the church, a failure to have peace and unity in the context of the church. Well, that's what we saw last time. Today we deal with the second part of this small detour, and it is the reputation the responsibility and the realization of an obedient church family. I've called my sermon title, The Joy of an obedient church membership, the joy of having such a church. And that's really what we have here as the Apostle Paul is about to get back to the greetings. He's speaking about a church that he really rejoices in. A church that he was not part of beginning, he was never the one who began the church in Rome. In fact, up to this point, he hasn't even yet visited that particular church, and yet he rejoices in it. What are some of the lessons that we can learn from this text? Well, first of all, it is this. have reputations among other churches. And obedient reputation, the testimony of obedience is a joyful one. Let me say that again. Churches have reputations among other churches. and the reputation or the testimony of obedience is always a joyful one. This is what the Apostle Paul says about the church in Rome and says about how joyful he was about this church. Verse 19 and the first part. It says there, for, giving a reason, and I'll explain that in a moment, your obedience is known to all so that I rejoice over you. Four, your obedience is known to all so that I rejoice over you. The point that the Apostle Paul is making there is that you have already gathered a lot of spiritual capital in your wings. Don't lose that. That's basically what he's saying. Don't lose that. Now, if you've ever run what is called a relay race, you'll understand what I mean by that, in that there are a number of you put in a row. And usually, we, at least those who are coaches, advise that you put the fastest runners as the very last ones. so that in case you've lost any ground, they are the ones who will regain that ground. But every so often, you are doing very well, and then you pass on the baton to somebody else, he may even start running pretty well, and then somehow he trips himself and lands on the ground. And all the gain that you had is literally lost in that moment, in the hands of this individual who has the road in his hands. So when the Apostle Paul is talking about for your obedience is known to all, he's basically saying the reason why I am concerned that you do not allow divisive brethren to divide you is that this reputation that you already have, you can easily lose. What is this reputation? It's that of obedience, that of obedience. And why should the Apostle Paul be rejoicing in this particular reputation? The answer is quite simple. It is the fact that obedience is the primary fruit that the gospel produces. Obedience, as we heard earlier on from our brother leading us here, it is obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the primary fruit that the gospel produces. Instead of the natural instinct of fallen creatures, which is rebellion. That's what it is. It's rebellion. Instead, the gospel produces a people who are obedient from the inside out. Already the Apostle Paul has been rejoicing in this fact as we look at chapter 1, chapter 6, and chapter 16. Chapter 1, chapter 6, in fact we'll squeeze in something in verse 15, rather in chapter 15, and then we'll end with chapter 16. Look at what it says there in chapter 1 and verse 5. Speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith. for the sake of his name." In other words, an obedience that is inspired by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ among all the nations. And when he says among all the nations, he's really talking about the Gentile nations. In chapter 6, he speaks about this same fruit of the gospel again, but this time he is putting it as a matter of fact. Chapter 6 and verse 16. He says there, Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey? And here is the fact. which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. Verse 17, but thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient, listen to this, from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. And having been set free, you became slaves of righteousness. In other words, you became obedient. How did this come about? Purely when you responded to the gospel in repentance and faith. There was a very real transformation. a miraculous transformation that took place in you from the inside out. And hence, you became obedient. In chapter 15, which we saw just a few months ago, the apostle Paul is rejoicing in seeing this happening as he has been preaching the gospel. Chapter 15 and verse 18. It says there, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, and it is this, to bring the Gentiles to obedience. It is to bring the Gentiles to obedience. God has done this in my ministry. I've seen individuals who were evil sinners. becoming obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this, I rejoice. And then lastly, in the final benediction of Romans chapter 16, we have looked at this before, but let's get back to it. You can never get back to it enough. Romans 16 and the doxology, sorry I said benediction, the doxology, verse 25. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel, there it is again, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, and listen to this, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith. To bring about the obedience of faith according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. So that's the whole mark of the gospel. It is this change, this glorious change, this miraculous change that takes place in human hearts when the gospel is blessed by God's Spirit and changes individuals from the inside out. They go from being rebellious, Even if sometimes it's hypocritical but rebellious, they become lovers of righteousness. So it makes sense that the Apostle Paul should rejoice in this. It makes a lot of sense because that's the right kind of reputation that the church should have among other churches. It is that here in this church family, are a people that have embraced this obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Their own ego has been put aside and now at the center of their lives is Christ, His honor, His glory, His service, His worship within the context of a peaceful and joyful church. That's the reputation we should want. That's the reputation we should hope is out there. Rather than a reputation that a church is doing well because we now have so many cars parked outside. For that matter, powerful cars. Yes, that's nice. But it should not be the primary reputation that goes out there. It should not even be that our programs are running so well. Our Sunday school runs so well. Our music department runs so well. And this and that runs so well. Again, I want to repeat, that's good. But that's not what makes the church the church. What makes the church the church is this obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. Because all these wonderful things can happen with just proper management and proper training and proper this, that, and the other, attracting the right crowd out of Lusaka and you can have, yes, all the right things happening in the car park. But the church will be full of scandals. after scandals, after scandals. You just have to lift the mat, to lift the carpet, and you see so much that has been swept under it so that on the outside it looks okay, but really on the inside there is wickedness and evil and sin. In a word, lack of obedience altogether. But where the grace of God has truly worked, and that's the reputation you want, there must be obedience. And those who are spiritual, that's what they will be rejoicing about. In this particular case, as I already said to you, Paul was rejoicing about this in a church he did not even plan. And isn't that the way it's supposed to be to us as well? That even churches that we ourselves were not involved in, the reputation we hear about them being obedient to Jesus Christ should fill our hearts with joy. That's the church I want to go to. And for those of us who are church leaders, that's important. Because every so often, our members move around. They'll go to a different part of the country for work. And often they come and they say, can you recommend to me what church I should go to? And when in that particular town where they are going, there's a church that has the reputation of obedience, we don't even hesitate. We say, this is where you should go. and you will truly grow spiritually. It's the same with us. A lot of our own growth as a church does not happen through conversion. No. It happens through individual Christians who are moving town. Just yesterday after the wedding, I was being told by Felix's previous pastor that when he finished his studies at CBU and said, pastor, where should he go? The pastor said, I told him exactly where to go because I knew the reputation that Caboata Baptist Church had. And so I said, Caboata Baptist, just go there. It will be for your own good. Well, he didn't know that he would even find a wife here. That's a bonus to an obedient church. All that to say the reputation of a church matters. And so here's the question. What reputation has Kawata Baptist Church among the churches? What reputation? Is it a good one? Is it? Is it one worth rejoicing over? Now Paul's concern is this. that when a church develops the reputation of division, of people as it were being on each other's throats, of an absence of joy and peace and love, just know that that church will stagnate. and die. It's a matter of time. So then, what's our responsibility? Remember, the first point was reputation, the second is now responsibility. What is our responsibility in order to maintain or preserve such a reputation? Well it is this, the church's membership needs to exercise wisdom and remain innocent. Exercise wisdom and remain innocent. This is what inspired the caution that the Apostle Paul gives to the brethren in Rome. Let's see once again verse 19. Romans 16 and verse 19. For your obedience is known to all so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. To be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. This is the way in which you will preserve your reputation as a church. This is the way you as an individual member should conduct yourself. What does it mean by this being wise as to what is good and innocent? as to what is evil. Let me summarize it to you this way. All he's saying is this, that make sure that you are making good and right decisions in the midst of his brethren that are causing divisions. We dealt with it to a large extent last week when we were hearing the the Apostle Paul speaking in terms of mark them, avoid them. Now that is what he's talking about here in terms of making the good and right decisions in those moments when you need to. And then avoiding being identified with evil. avoiding being identified with evil. That's what it means by innocence. It's the word purity. So with respect to evil, when you are tested, they don't find any evil in you. It's like a virus. When they undergo you, when you undergo a test, they don't find the virus in you. You are pure. You are innocent as with respect to that evil. Now thankfully, the Lord Jesus Christ used this phrase in Matthew chapter 10, well, not in exactly the same way, but very close to it, and you will see that it's more or less the same idea. And chapter 10 is talking about being within a context of persecution, within a context of evil. How should you conduct yourselves as Christian brethren? Look at the way he puts it in verse 16. Matthew 10 and verse 16. Behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So if you are careless there, what happens? Well, the wolves have you for dinner. So how should you conduct yourself in the midst of such danger? Here it is, be wise as serpents and yet be as innocent as doves. In other words, be clever, but at the same time, don't sin. Be clever, but don't sin. The story is told of a gentleman. I don't know whether the story is true. There are stories about Charles Haddon Spurgeon. But somebody came wanting to kill him. He came to his home. And said, I'm looking for Mr. Spejo. Now, Spejo opened the door, and the man said that to him right there. Whether he had a gun or a knife, I don't know. But whatever it was that he had in his hands, Spejo knew that he wants to kill this Spejo. So what did he do? He acted, as it says here, as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove. In that moment, God gave him enough inspiration for him to say, well, come in, come in. This is where he lives. And as the man went right past him, he quickly overpowered him and removed the weapon from his hands. Now, he would have said, I don't know him, which would have been a lie. He acted in that moment in such a way that he was sharp, he was clever. Without lying, he leaves here. And as he went past him, he quickly got the weapon of him. So it's something of that, being sharp enough, because you are being taken into enemy territory. So make the right decision, the good decision in that moment of time, and yet at the same time, do not allow yourself to be caught up with the impurity of sin. Well, 1 Corinthians chapter 14 also has a similar phrase. 1 Corinthians 14, and this time is simply dealing with avoiding being childish, childish in handling situations that are dicey, and often divisive situations can be dicey. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 20. It was a church in which there were fights, divisions over gifts, and especially the gift of tongues versus the gift of prophecy. It was causing divisions within the church. And the apostle Paul says in verse 20, brothers, Do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In other words, if there is an area where you should be individuals who haven't thought through things because you're not handling those things, it's with respect to evil. But when it comes to being thinkers over issues, you should be mature. You should be mature so that you can make good and right decisions. Well, friends, that's our responsibility. If we are going to avoid divisions wrecking the church, It is when we learn to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. Therefore, we will make the right decisions in the spur of the moment instead of like a horse just charging into battle, and in the process, ourselves being destroyed, and of course, the church being destroyed as well. Be wise. Be wise. Now, what I love about this statement is that it's a statement of human responsibility. In other words, when divisions are coming into the church, just realize that if you are careless, you destroy the church. Not because you are the one bringing in the divisions, but it's because you don't know how to responsibly react in the moment when you are being tempted to have something to do with those divisions. Human responsibility. And then the next verse, although we'll come to it in a moment, but I just want to touch it right now, deals with God's sovereignty. Look at verse 20, God's sovereignty. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. God will do it. But notice its connectedness to human responsibility. Human responsibility. And it is this, that you must be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. In other words, brethren, for how long the reputation of Kawata Baptist Church will continue among the churches in Lusaka, in Zambia, across Africa, around the world, depends on you as individual members of the church and how you allow yourself to either be wise or be a fool, to be swept off your feet or to remain firm, wise, good, and pure as far as evil is concerned. It's up to you as to whether Satan will be defeated or Satan will wreak havoc in the church. It's up to you, and it depends on human responsibility. Let's quickly hurry on to the last part, and it is where wisdom and innocence are maintained in the church, remember, human responsibility. The evil one will soon be defeated, listen, by God himself, by God. And that's where these two work together. This is what the apostle Paul goes on to mention here in verse 20. He mentions it as a statement of fact. the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. And then he gives them the prayer, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. It's obvious then that when the Apostle Paul was warning these brethren not to give this affectionate greeting to those who cause divisions, he was not speaking about something theoretical. This wasn't just Bible study in which they're being told that in case this ever happens, this is the way you should behave. This was real. It was threatening the church now. And that's why he was saying, mark such individuals and avoid them altogether. Because it was real. It was happening in the church. The church itself, which had a wonderful reputation among the churches, its reputation was in danger. And so the Apostle Paul is saying, if only you can ensure that you are wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil, the God of peace. He already called him that at the end of the previous chapter. Remember, chapter 15, the very last verse, may the God of peace be with you all. The church needed to be one. Now we all know what was threatening the peace of this church. We all know what it is. We saw it in chapter 14. We saw it. As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. So for a whole chapter, going into chapter 15, the Apostle Paul has been busy trying to ensure that the church does not allow divisions over qualms. Because of our backgrounds and the kind of things that we have come with into the church, It was threatening the church because some individuals were hell-bent on making sure that everybody behaves either as a Jew or a Gentile. And the only way this matter could be settled is this, that we must save the first Baptist Gentile church on this side of the road, the first Baptist Jewish church on the other side of the road. And the Apostle Paul said, no. No. The church is one. The body of Christ is one. You don't part ways over disputable matters. Don't! And he's saying, if we can only be wise as to what is good, innocent as to what is evil, this trial will soon be over. It passes. It passes. So when he says, the God of peace will soon crash Satan under your feet, he's not referring to what will happen when Jesus Christ returns. No, he's talking about what is happening right now in the church. The phrase crashing under your feet, if you read about it in scripture generally, speaks about bringing rebellion under control. Bringing rebellion under control. And basically that's what he's saying here. Satan has put his foothold in the church. The church is under threat. But if you can just learn to mark the instigators of divisions, avoid them, be wise with respect to what is good, innocent with respect to evil, it won't be long before this disturbance will be squashed. And as a church, you will continue to move on with your reputation. And hence, the apostles' benediction here, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. In other words, ultimately, it's God who does this, ultimately. When the season of trial is over, and you've remained intact as a church on the other side, you won't be proud of it. Rather, you'll be glorifying the Lord. He crushed Satan under our feet. Yes, it was under our feet, but he did it by his grace. Oh brethren, very quickly as we close before Paul goes back to the greetings. We've seen here the reputation, the responsibility and the realization, realization in terms of achieving, the realization of an obedient church family. And the point is where the gospel, I've already talked about this, where the gospel has done its work in our hearts, we will love the church and its peace. We will not easily want to throw a grenade into the church and cause things to splinter, no. We will love the church's unity because united we do so much together. United we take on the world. United, we preach the gospel. United, we send out missionaries and plant churches. United, we are enabled to worship the Lord with pure hearts rather than arrows that are digging into each other's back. United, there is a church that pleases the Lord. Where the gospel has done its work in our hearts, that's the kind of church we want to see. We want to see a united church. We want to rejoice in such a reputation of a church. And then, as I said, Where there is such a church, where the gospel has changed our hearts, by which there is obedience, there is love for the Lord and His church, a season of disturbance will pass, leaving the church unscathed. Unscathed. God himself crashes Satan under our feet. But where you already have a lack of obedience in the church's DNA, where everyone is a maverick, it is always, no, but me, but me, but me. Just know that when the evil one plants his foot into the church, he wreaks havoc. He wreaks havoc. So then, brethren, We are responsible. We are. We now know what not to do and we also now know what we ought to do. What should we not do? It is to fraternize with divisive individuals. giving them warm fraternal welcomes and greetings. Don't do it. Instead, what ought we to do? Maintain our reputation. Be wise with respect to what is good. Be completely innocent. Have nothing to do with that which is evil. When we learn to do that, the church will have a better day. So let us do it. Let us do it. And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet. Amen.