Romans 16, we have come to verse number 21, and it kind of, well it does, doesn't kind of, it picks up with a list of names, and within the list of names was this parenthesis of this out-of-nowhere warning that Paul felt necessary before he closes out this book and this letter. And so we looked at that on Sunday, so now we're getting back into the list of names, and in Romans 16, verse 21, we'll pick it up there, the Bible says, Timotheus, my work fellow, now Timotheus, That is the Greek rendering of Paul's name. Remember, his father was Greek. But anyway, the name Timotheus, it means one who honors God. And I'd say Timotheus lived up to his name, wouldn't you? Paul writes to him in 1st and 2nd Timothy. That is where Paul calls him his own son in the faith. And so that was who Timotheus was, Paul's own son in the faith. But what he was, that's who he was in the book of Timothy, but what he was shows up at the end of Romans 16. And what he was was a workfellow. And that word workfellow, that means someone that is engaged in the same work with someone else. And you can have folks that you might work with, but they might not be eye to eye with you on a lot of things. That wasn't the case with Paul and Timothy's relationship. They both had a high priority on what was most important. And in that sense, they did the same work. They preached the same gospel, and they had a heart and a burden to establish the church. And so in Romans 16, he says, man, Timotheus, that was my work fellow. They were mind to mind, eye to eye. They were just in unity on those two important things, the gospel and then the establishment of churches. And praise the Lord, we need more of that today. people that are on board 100% with that. Today, the high priority is the American dream. And a lot of people come to America for that American dream. And in many ways, you could say that those that share that same American dream are work fellows. They share the same vision. And, um, You know, you can get the house, you can get the cars, you can get the boats, you can get the lavish vacations, you can get all that in America. Um, but if that's what it means to make America great again, I don't want to make America great again. I want to, I want to, I want to make America born again. I want to make America where it has churches that are lighthouses and those lower lights are burning. Like we preached about and talked about a few weeks ago. That that's what I, that's what our church, I personally, and I trust you would too. And our church would desire. And it just seems that each generation as, as, as time goes on in our nation, each generation wants more convenience and more materialism. And it's this goal to somehow get what our parents didn't have. And so now we have to make sure we have what they didn't have in this, this cycle. It doesn't really, is that what we're going to call progress? Really? I'm hoping that we have a next generation that's raised up in Pilgrim, that has the gospel as the preeminence and the establishment and discipleship of the folks, their work fellows in their local church. And, I mean, we get to labor together with God. We can be a work fellow with God. And let's take a side trip real quick in Philippians 2. in Philippians 2. Look at verse number 19 in Philippians 2. The Bible says in Philippians 2 verse 19, But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you. That's a blessing. That's a blessing to Paul. And I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. Watch what he says. For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. But ye know the proof of him, who's him, Timothy, Timotheus, that as a son with the father, He hath served with me in the gospel." I can't think of a better workfellow to have than somebody that you can serve with in the gospel. That's a glorious thing. So that's Timothy or Timotheus as rendered in Romans 16. Go back to Romans 16 and let's look at what's listed next. Romans 16 verse 21, Timothy is my work fellow, and then look at these three names. Lucius, that's the masculine name. Lucia is the feminine name. Lucius, that means light. It's the masculine form of that name. At the end of that verse, it says, my kinsmen. So Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, they're kinsmen to Paul. So they're his kin, they're his blood relatives. So this Lucius in verse number 21, it couldn't have been Luke, the beloved physician, because he wasn't kin to Paul. So it couldn't have been him. Maybe it could be Lucius of Cyrene, that prophet and teacher of Antioch who was mentioned in Acts 13.1. It's quite possible, we can't say that with certainty, that it was that same Lucius that was mentioned in Acts 13.1. You can note that and look at it later. But the next one that's mentioned is Jason. His name, the Greek meaning of that is healer. The Hebrew meaning of the name Jason is, the Lord is salvation. Who this Jason is, it may be the Jason of Acts 17. The Jason in Acts 17 is the one who risked his life when the unbelieving Jews rounded up a posse, and Jason housed Paul and Silas, and he ended up having his house raided for it. It's quite possible that this is that same Jason. And then who is listed is Sosupater. Sosi, the first part of that name in Greek means save. And pater, that's the Greek word for father, save father, or soci pater. That means, that name means the father who saves. That's a pretty strong name to have. It's not something we hear nowadays. We don't know this for sure. I'm giving you just something to chew on and some possibilities that this socipater mentioned in Romans 16 could possibly be the soprator of Berea who is mentioned in Acts 20, verse 4. But we see that all three of them are akin to Paul, and they're listed here at the end of this letter. And then verse 22, this is another verse that's kind of a curve ball. It's kind of like right out of nowhere. And then it says, I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord. Now, why that is, why I find this verse so interesting is that, well, first off, Tertius, that name means third, Tertius or third. He is the one who wrote Romans. Yeah. Tertius was Paul's scribe or his personal writing secretary. And so tertius is the one who's writing it. Paul is the one who's dictating and he has a literary secretary, which was common. Um, now this is what is amazing to me to the Bible. Cause when I get the verses like this, I think to myself, God, Paul is dictating to Tertius and Tertius is writing. And what God said to Paul is inspired. And Paul's telling Tertius, here's what you're going to write down. But now all of a sudden the Holy Spirit couldn't have said to Paul, I Tertius. It's like, it's like the Holy Spirit is like, hold on a little bit, Paul. I, Tertius, you write that down. It's like Tertius just writes a little person. It's like his little John Hancock, his little signature at the end of this. And that's a, that's pretty good. God allowed him to be his inspired word. He allowed him to be in there. It's like the Holy Spirit is speaking right to him. Paul's having him write stuff down, and all of a sudden, Tertius looks at Paul and says, hold on, I'm getting something from the Lord. And he writes, I, Tertius, I thought that's pretty good. I thought that's pretty good. Here's why Paul, go to Galatians 4. I'll take another little side trail, and we'll get back to Romans 16 in a minute. But get to Galatians 4. Galatians chapter 4, look at verse 13. Galatians 4, verse number 13. This verse here, okay, yeah, that's right. Verse 13, you know how through infirmity of the flesh, I preach the gospel unto you at the first. This is Paul speaking under the Holy Spirit's inspiration. And he says, in my temptation, which was in my flesh, ye despised not, nor rejected, but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. That's a good thing, that's a blessing. And then he says, in verse number 15, where is then this blessedness ye spake of? For I bear you record that if it had been possible, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me." This is how much they receive Paul, this is how much they love Paul. This is the verse that seems to indicate that Paul had trouble with his eyes. He had vision problems. And it seems like these Galatian believers loved him so much that they're like, Paul, if we could, man, we would just give you our eyes. Now that's some love. that, that you talk about receiving somebody, I don't get any better than that. You imagine for a minute, and it's hard because we do have it so good. And believe me, I'm thankful we have it this good. And I'd like to think that if we didn't have it this good, I'd still be on fire for God, at least in my mind, I'd like to think that. I'll keep believing that. You keep encouraging me to believe that, and I'll do the same for you. However, Paul didn't have it this good. I mean, you get beaten as much as Paul's been beaten. You get stoned and shipwrecked, and you take lashings and whippings as much as Paul did. You don't have a physically strong body, folks. You have a body that's beat up from the feet up, and it's just worn. And you just imagine living like that. That was Paul. Now that's somebody to have as an example, because you know as well as I do that when your back hurts, you don't feel like getting out of bed, you want to rest another 10 minutes. It's just common to all of us. He was a physically weak man and his body didn't, not only did it not look right, you talk about ugly. Think of the, have you ever seen a fighter who spent his life fighting and then you look at his face and it's just beat up? Imagine looking at Paul's face or his arms and his hands. How many of you can take a stone to the face? He would have some really ugly marks and a really beaten and battered body. On top of that, Galatians seems to indicate is where his eye had trouble. So he still was powerfully used by God, and the way they received him is just a blessing. Go back to Romans 16. He says, I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord. No man of God can do all that God would have him do, Paul, without the humble help of others. It doesn't happen. I'm thankful that I have, the Lord has given me the time to be able to study and prepare and teach from the Bible. I love doing it. But I can't do the YouTube editing stuff, but we have an editor that can. Praise the Lord. And I can't do this and do the sound, but praise the Lord that there's a uh, a sound scribe or, or, or someone that can do that work. And that's a blessing to have that done. Almost saying Paul, just like any preacher. needs the help of others. And guess what? Tertius' work was just as important as Paul's work. It had to get down on paper. God used Tertius' hand to write it. Paul's mouth, God breathed it, and it all comes out good because the Lord is directing all of it. So praise the Lord. Let's look at verse number 23. It says, here's somebody else that's mentioned, Gaius Mainhost, and of the whole church, saluteth you. Mainhost, he was the hospitable one. And every church has one, if not two or three or four of just the hospitable ones. That's a blessing to a local church. The local church needs that. I'll give you my opinion on Gaius Mainhost, it says, I think that, I think it was his house that was used for the Corinthian church. I mean, why else would he be listed there? I guess there's other reasons he could have been, but I think it was his house that the Corinthian church met out. This is being penned, and these lists of men here are from Corinth, and you have A verse back in the Old Testament, it speaks of Solomon and it says, it talks about his wisdom and his understanding was exceeding, but then it also goes on to say, his largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore. And I believe that verse fits with Gaius' hospitality, mine host. He had a big heart. He welcomed all the saints. And if it was his house that that church met in, You got to have the finances and you've got to have the means to be able to host. Hosting isn't cheap. And Gaius, he was just a hospitable guy. And, and, and that's a, that's a good thing to have. It's a good thing to have. The other thing about Gaius, the guy that's hospitable mind host is that for us, some application, um, I don't think it's wise for us to count the things that we own as our own. Look, I believe the Bible teaches personal property rights and all that, so I'm not going down that road. But what I'm suggesting is that we should count them as Christ's. And I know that the Lord Jesus Christ isn't on the deed to your house, but nonetheless, if God has blessed us with things, it should be used for Him. That's why we should raise our families for the Lord. We should do here, it's for the Lord. Everything that we do is for the Lord, and so if someone has a need, well, it's the Lord's, and the Lord let me borrow it, so I guess I'll let you borrow it, that type of thing. And that was Gaius. He was a hospitable guy who, and they could just use his house. Jesus said, he that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. We should have that receiving reciprocal spirit about ourselves. Gaius was an example of that. All right, next guy mentioned is Erastus. And watch what it says about Erastus. He's the chamberlain of the city, and he saluteth you. It's a Christian who served as a city official. He's also mentioned in Acts 19.22. If you want to go back and look at that later. His faith didn't exclude him from that function as a city official. So, this is your verse that you use if someone tells you that a Christian can't run for, you know, freeholder or mayor or hold office in the PTA or any of that kind of stuff. Why? Orastus. Now, it's still up for grabs whether, and I don't know this for sure, it's still up for grabs whether or not this was prior to him being converted, because you have to remember at this time, You know, it's not like we can take what America life is now and like transplant it to Paul's day. I wouldn't like that. So he was living in today where you, you need to be careful who you told you were, it was a Christian. There are a lot of persecution going on. So whether or not he kept that job, we don't know, but we do know that he held city, uh, city office and, um, you know, was in charge of finances, the financial affairs of the city. So if you had a guy like that in your church, if you had an Erastus who was able to make sure that the city runs well, you know why it's a blessing to have him at the church? Have a guy like that at the church? Because there's business that has to happen at the church too. You want Erastuses at the church, guys that can understand the money and the finances and the organization of those things, and they can help things run well. You want Erastuses. And so he's mentioned there. And it's a blessing that a Christian who has kind of a high status in society as a city official can still get plugged right into a local church and he can be right there. What I'm trying to tie in here, what I find interesting about Erastus is that he is mentioned in the same sentence as Quartus. Why is that interesting? Because you know what it says of Quartus? A brother. You got Erastus, he's a Chamberlain. Then you got Cordus. What's Cordus do? He's just a brother. Somebody of high society is listed right in with somebody that's just a brother. And look, we're going to have just a brother or just a sister. That was us at one time where all I knew I was saved. I'm here. He's like, you know, your first time I show up at church was like, who's this guy? Why is he dressing like that? Why is he acting like that? How come, you know, when you, you know, you get a guy pull up in the parking lot, he rolls down his window, all the cigarette smoke comes out and you're like, who's this? Well, that's just some brother. I mean, he, he don't know anything about that, but he's here. He's saved. We all start off. That's just who that's. It's all we are. But you know what? He's listed here. I'm not big on the titles and all that. I never really was. And so I like just being a brother. I'm a brother in Christ, just like you're a brother in Christ. And, you know, you get in the professional world, I guess you got to kind of, you know, have your letters and your titles and all that. But you know what? It's good to just be a brother and sister in the Lord, isn't it? I believe that's right. But you get a common brother or a common sister, they don't know much doctrine, and they may not have even found a place to serve yet. But that's okay, they're here, and we should rally around that. A lot of stuff gets done around here just because a common brother or a common sister in the faith would get it done. We have the reason why when people come, I know we're not a large church, but when people come and they can use spotlessly clean bathrooms, it's because there's a brother or sister in the church who wouldn't even want to be mentioned that gets that done so people can use clean and spotless bathrooms. Now that's a blessing. And all the stuff that got done, all the little details, from just common brothers and sisters, and they get it done. And they don't want to be listed. They don't want to be named. They just want to serve. You can learn a lot from just seeing these names mentioned. Quartus means fourth. I told you tertius means third. I've got an opinion on this. It may not be right. I'm not saying it is. It's just something to chew on. I'm not saying it as absolute doctrine or truth, I find these names that are numbers, they could have been formerly occupied as slaves, and their occupation was they weren't named, they were numbered. So that may be some connection there. But the big thing to take away from this list of names is this. How are people going to sum up your name? If you were to be written in this book, in this letter, what would they say about your name? I'm asking myself the same question. Look at verse number 24, last verse we'll deal with. We'll deal with this evening. It says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Amen. Grace is not just a word, pilgrim family, that we throw around lightly. It's a word that should be used purposefully with an unwavering belief and stance on salvation by grace. If it's not salvation by grace, We're not even looking down the road, the other road. We're standing firm on sola scriptura, salvation by grace. And so we use that word very humbly and we must use it humbly because contrasted with that humility is the absolute power of God to save somebody by his grace. And we live in a dark, just dry desert of a world. And it's full of grief, and it's full of heartache, and it's full of sorrow. And you know what put it all away? Grace. Grace put our sin and heartache away. Grace. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. It's like we're just a band of pilgrims, and we're coming together around salvation by grace, and we just got joy in our hearts. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Here's the last appeal for you this evening. Are you saved by grace? If you are, What is it that you want to do? And many of you are doing, if not all of you. So if you are doing, what else is it that you want to do? And if you already have a full plate, maybe the question is, who else may need your help in finding what else they can do? There isn't any sense in having one couple blow their hearts out doing everything. If you need a place to serve, if you need to have your name listed as just to start off with a brother, great. But if you're saved by grace and we're a band of pilgrims who have a heart full of joy, let's find our spot. Let's find our lane. And maybe if you're in a lane, maybe you need to be in a double lane, you know? And maybe if you're already in a double lane, maybe you need to find someone who isn't in a lane yet. And instead of you picking up another task, help them to merge into traffic. See if they can get in there and build them up. The bottom line is this, we all can do something. And brother Eric isn't going to show up Sunday and play the piano, but somebody is. Hannah isn't going to take a skid steer and tear up the driveway and fix it all up and make it nice, but somebody is. Lily can't be on the back of a float hand in gospel tracks out because maybe she's too little and can fall over, but somebody can. You're not going to go on and do the YouTube editing, but somebody can. If you can't be a Gaius, be a Quartus. If you can't be a Quartus, who are you going to be? Be somebody. Be who God wants you to be. Find some connection with the names listed here. But ultimately, you gotta spot, you just gotta find out what it is and get good at it.