CCC Livestream - It's All About The Gospel - Romans 16:17-23
Live Worship Gathering: 3/8/2026
Preaching: Jason Purdy
I invite you to take your copy of God’s word and turn to Romans 16.
We will look at verses 17-23 today.
We are in the final section of the book of Romans.
This is sermon 45 of 46 through the book.
And I mentioned last week that Paul has completed the body of his letter that
spanned eleven chapters of laying out what God has done to save us from our
sin and His wrath through Christ.
And he has completed chapters 12-15 which lay out for us how we are called and
empowered to live in light of the great mercies of God toward us in the gospel.
Then, last week, we walked through verses 1-16 of chapter 16 where we were
commended to greet one another through deep relationships in the body of
Christ and to grow in love and affection for others by learning their stories and
honoring one another as those who are in Christ.
Yet, just as soon as Paul commends us and commands us to greet one another
in the Lord, he makes an appeal to us about a kind of person we must watch out
for, a kind of person that we are not to greet with love and affection should they
come among us.
While the church of our Lord Jesus is to be kind, hospitable, and impartial
toward those God brings to our fellowship, there is a type of person that once
revealed, we are commanded to avoid and separate from.
Would you follow along as I read God’s word to us?
Romans 16:17–23 ESV
17 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. 18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites,
and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. 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. 20 The God of peace will soon
crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
21 Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater,
my kinsmen.
22 I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.
23 Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city
treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.
1. Watch Out For False Teachers And Avoid Them
Paul has not used the language of appealing to his audience since the beginning
of chapter 12 when he appealed to them in light of the great mercies of God to
offer themselves as living sacrifices to God.
He then fleshed out what that looked like in chapters 12-15.
He is now making a final appeal to the church in light of what he has just said
about greeting one another with love and affection.
And when he writes, “I appeal to you, brothers,” he is appealing to the whole
congregation both men and women, just like if I said “Listen up guys,” I would
be addressing all of you and not just the men in the room.
And his appeal is that while we are to be kind, gentle, hospitable, growing in
love and affection for one another, and passionate about pursuing unity
together, there is a kind of person that we must watch out for.
And that kind of person is those who cause divisions and create obstacles
contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.
You see, we are tempted to believe that we must either sacrifice truth for the
sake of unity or sacrifice unity for the sake of truth.
But the biblical reality is that truth is the foundation that supports our unity.
But there is a kind of person that comes into the church who causes divisions
and creates obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.
It will serve us very well at this point to understand that the Bible provides for us
a standard of doctrine, which simply means teaching,
And the standard of doctrine that the Bible gives us is limited.
Here’s why that is so important.
Because God is infinite in terms of time and space, and because God is the
Creator of all things, and because God is so vast in his riches of grace and
kindness that he will stun us with new facets and realities of his riches for
eternity without end,
We are sometimes tempted to believe that the teachings about God are
unlimited as well, but that is not the case.
Now, of course, you can grow in your knowledge and wisdom regarding God and
his truth throughout a lifetime, but that does not mean that the teachings of
God are unlimited.
Consider a few passages:
Romans 6:17 ESV
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become
obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were
committed,
God has given us His word to provide for us a standard of teaching.
A set of doctrines that are limited and defined.
2 Timothy 1:13 ESV
13 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the
faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
There is a pattern of sound words that lead to genuine faith and love for Christ
Jesus, so that also means there are a lot of words that can be said about God
and Christ that do not follow that true and sound pattern.
Jude 3 ESV
3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common
salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith
that was once for all delivered to the saints.
In this passage, Jude is using the word faith in the same way as when we talk
about the Christian faith.
When we refer to the Christian Faith, we are referring to the body of teachings
that was once delivered to us through God’s prophets and apostles whom he
carried along by His Holy Spirit to write the Holy Scriptures, and those
Scriptures are limited to the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of
the New Testament.
And when the final apostle died, the limited teachings God chose in his
providence to give to us ended as well.
So, one of the easiest ways for us to obey the command of our passage to watch
out for those who cause divisions and obstacles contrary to what you have been
taught is to watch out for anyone who claims they have a new revelation from
God, claims that they are a modern prophet or apostle in line with those of the
Old and New Testament, or claims that any word or teaching should be either
added or subtracted from God’s word.
Those are the easiest types to watch out for because they are obviously going
beyond the limits of the doctrine that God has given us through His word.
The apostle Peter would also warn us in the book of 2 Peter that there are
ignorant and unstable people who twist the meaning of Scriptures to make
them mean what they do not mean, and they do it to their own destruction.
Consider those who teach that giving money to their ministry is like planting a
seed that will come back to you one hundred fold?
This is twisting the Scriptures that teach on the principle of sowing and reaping.
Watch out for anyone who denies a key teaching of the gospel like Jesus being
born of a virgin, being both fully God and fully man, Jesus’ cross being an
atonement in our place for our sins taking on the wrath of God, or Jesus
physically rose from the dead.
Beware of anyone who says they have reached a spiritual state of perfection in
this life and you can too.
Finally, beware of any new or novel teaching.
If you have been a Christian, reading your Bible consistently, and in the church
for a few years, it should become very rare for you to think, “I’ve never heard
that before.”
Also, beware of any teaching that requires a certain level of spirituality to truly
grasp.
Like someone saying, “I have come to a deeper knowledge of the biblical text
that is not clear on the surface.”
No, the Bible is clear in saying what it means to say. There are not secret keys to
unlocking hidden meanings within the text.
We are always tempted to think some kind of new and novel teaching is finally
going to launch us into greater spiritual heights, when the truth is, applying the
clarity of the gospel to our lives by continual confession, repentance, and faith
through prayer and the clear teachings of the Scripture is what leads us to
spiritual growth and obedience.
The command for us is a false teacher were to come among us is that we avoid
them.
What does that look like? Once you have watched out and you are convinced
they are peddling something false, do not continue to relate with them as if
nothing is wrong.
Warn them, call them to repentance, do not receive them into church
membership, if they are already a member, talk with the elders and make a plan
to prayerfully confront them, do not go golfing like everything is okay, warn
others not to follow their teaching.
Part of the pastor/elders covenant commitment to the body is to watch out for
and help deal with false teachings.
Let me just note at this point, the command to watch out for false teachers and
avoid them does not give anyone the right to be a theological bulldog who is
ready to sniff out a wrong interpretation of any and every text at every turn.
If someone in your community group says something you disagree with
regarding a doctrine or an application or implication of a certain passage that in
no way indicates that they are a false teacher.
Someone who thinks differently about the tension between God’s sovereignty
and human responsibility than you is in a whole different category as someone
who is denying the resurrection or leading people to question if Jesus is God.
That’s why it is helpful and wise for the church to affirm a statement of faith in
order to identify those teachings which must be affirmed versus many other
things in Scripture that some of us might see a bit differently.
Notice what verse 18 tells us about the false teachers:
For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by
smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.
A heart breaking yet necessary reality that you come to realize as a follower of
Jesus in His church is that not every person who chooses to engage with God’s
church is acting in good faith and love for Jesus.
False teachers are not desiring to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, they are desiring
to serve their own desires for fame or money or power or influence or control.
Notice, false teachers are not going to be mean, harsh, blow hards who seem
obviously destructive.
No, they are going to be kind, winsome, smooth talkers, flattering you and
making you feel special and important to their cause.
Consider what Paul said in:
2 Timothy 4:3–4 ESV
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having
itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own
passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into
myths.
Watch out for teachings that promise you that you will get what you truly want if
you will just put your faith in Jesus.
Some of America’s largest Sunday morning gatherings gather to listen to a
preacher tell them that with enough faith, Jesus will give you the idols of your
heart.
The health and wealth gospel says that enough faith in Jesus will keep you from
sickness and will keep the money flowing.
The Bible does not say that your greatest problem is no physical sickness or
financial poverty.
And the gospel is not Jesus came to give you the life your sinful flesh has always
dreamed of.
The gospel is that you were created to find all of your needs met and all of your
desires satisfied in God alone.
But, we have all rebelled against our Creator God desiring to be our own God
and choose right and wrong for ourselves.
And because we have been separated from the author of life, we rightly deserve
God’s punishment and death due our sin.
But while we were spiritually dead in our sin, God sent His son Jesus, fully God
and fully man,
To live a life of worship in love for God and others,
Then, Jesus died the death we sinners deserved in our place for our sin taking
the punishment we deserved onto himself.
And three days later, God rose Jesus from the grave defeating sin, Satan, hell,
and the grave for us.
And all who will repent of their life of sin and rebellion and trust in what God has
done through Jesus’ death and resurrection will be saved from God’s wrath,
forgiven by God, and reconciled to a right and perfect relationship with God,
In order that we may proclaim that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord,
And to live the rest of our days learning to obey him as we worship and find our
needs met and desires satisfied in him.
The gospel is never come to Jesus and he will give you what your flesh desires.
The gospel is come to Jesus and you will be forgiven, reconciled to God, and
filled with the Holy Spirit to desire Go more than anything else.
So, watch out for those who would seek to divide God’s people or create
barriers with false teachings that are contrary to sound doctrine.
Do not be naive to their charm and flattery but avoid them.
2. Be Wise As To What Is Good And Innocent As To What
Is Evil
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.
Would you be encouraged that the same Roman church that Paul commands
not to judge or despise one another is the same church that he tells that he
rejoices over them for their obedience to Christ?
In light of God’s great grace, we do not have to be perfect in order to be
commended for our love for God, our faith in Jesus, and our obedience to His
word.
This church wasn’t perfect by any means.
For any of you who know the kinds of craziness that went down in the
Corinthian church, consider the fact that Paul began his letter to this this way:
1 Corinthians 1:4–8 ESV
4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was
given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all
speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed
among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the
revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wow! God’s grace is a lot more gracious than we oftentimes imagine it to be.
You see, sometimes we will struggle and question our salvation because of the
remaining sin we see in our lives.
But, even when these churches had many sins and flaws, Paul was able to
commend them for their obedience and rejoice over them because God’s grace
does not wait for you to be perfect before He commends you.
God’s grace commends you by the perfection of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice in
your place,
Then you walk out your Christian faith daily in the commendation of God’s
grace.
Listen, Satan will use your remaining fight with sin to try to keep you from
rejoicing in God’s grace and commendation of you, and rejoicing in the small
steps of obedience God has empowered you in, when the gospel that has
broken all your guilt and all your shame is what gives you to power to continue
to walk forward with Jesus even though you still struggle.
Paul doesn’t want the church to think that because he is warning them about
false teachers that they themselves have already been deceived.
No, instead, he is encouraging them that he rejoicing in their clinging to the
truth that has led them to obedience.
But, what he does want to make sure they do is to be wise as to what is good
and innocent as to what is evil.
Jesus used a very similar phrase in the gospel of Matthew as he warned his
followers to watch out for wolves
Matthew 10:16 ESV
16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as
serpents and innocent as doves.
Jesus called false teachers wolves in sheep’s clothing.
So, Paul is picking up on Jesus’ teaching and saying in the midst being a church
that is seeking to love and follow Jesus, you must watch out for and avoid false
teachers so that you can be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
Being wise enough as to what is good and true in order to spot the fake.
Being innocent enough toward evil because when you spot it, you don’t
welcome evil, you don’t make the person a member, you don’t allow the evil to
stay within Christ’s body, you avoid it and if necessary weed it out through
church discipline in order to protect and maintain the church’s innocence
through the pure teaching of the truth of God’s word and the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Do you consistently keep yourself acquainted with the teaching of Scripture and
sound doctrine?
Do you daily read God’s word in order to continue to discern what is good and
what is evil?
Are you ready by God’s grace to stand up for the gospel of Christ when an
opponent comes brining a new teaching, false doctrine, or twisting Scripture in
order to deceive the hearts of the naive?
And do not be tempted to believe things like that could never happen in our
church.
I promise that are many apostate churches who for the sake of unity and the
desire to be accepted by the world have denied doctrines that their founding
members would have been shocked if they had learned.
Be wise as to what is good, so that you can be innocent as to what is evil.
Now, you may be reading along in Romans, and get to this point and think, right
after we just had that wonderful message in verses 1-16 where the gospel grants
us unity and the ability to greet one another with love and affection and care
deeply for one another,
We are right back to the warning of having to watch out for evil and deception as
if it is around every corner.
When will the threat of evil and destruction finally end?
3. Live In Light Of The God Of Peace Crushing Satan
Under Your Feet
Verse 20: The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
When we are tempted to feel weary that we must continually be on the lookout
for evil,
And when we feel weary of the battle with sin that still wages in our own soul,
We must remember that in the very beginning when mankind first sinned and
suffered the consequences of sin,
God made the gracious promise of salvation.
Genesis 3:15 ESV
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
It was a promise that a seed of the woman would come and bruise the head of
the serpent who is Satan.
And God’s people lived in light of that promise for thousands of years until the
time that Jesus came and bruised Satan’s head when Satan and evil had him
nailed to a cross.
But, when God raised Jesus from the dead, Satan’s defeat was sure as Jesus
rose defeating the one who comes to kill, steal, and destroy.
And did you notice that in our passage, the promise is that the God of peace will
soon crush Satan under your feet?
He will finally be crushed and defeated under the feet of the people of God - the
church - because he has already been defeated under the feet of King Jesus.
Listen, God knows that as the people of God, we long for peace.
We long for the day when we can greet one another with love and affection in
the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and not have to warn one another about
false teachers who created divisions and obstacles.
We long for that day because we have been saved from worshipping lies and
idols of this world, in order to worship and serve the true and living God who is
the God of all peace.
The moment you repent and place your faith in Jesus, you have peace with God.
The God of all peace has made peace with your sin by nailing it to the cross.
Your remaining sin and struggle does not make the God of all peace waver in the
peace He has made with you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with you, and even when we are faithless,
He remains faithful.
For He knows all who are His and He will keep them in perfect peace whose
minds and hearts are set on him.
Remember that you live in victory won for you at the cross.
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
If you think that Paul’s promise of this happening soon betrays the fact that it
has been over two thousand years,
Just remember the words of Peter:
2 Peter 3:8–9 ESV
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill
his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that
any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Paul has already sent his greetings to the Roman church, but he has gospel
coworkers with him who wish to do the same.
Verse 21: Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, so do Lucius and Jason and
Sosipater, my kinsmen.
Timothy was Paul’s closest companion in the ministry and became a pastor to
the church in Ephesus.
These others were believers with Paul at the time.
Verse 22: I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.
But I thought Paul wrote the letter?
It was very common for someone like Paul to have a scribe who wrote the letter
down while Paul would dictate the words to him.
It seems from other passages that Paul had bad eyesight and have to write
really big if he did write.
So, Tertius was his scribe.
Verse 23: Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus,
the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.
Gaius apparently had the means to host the whole church in Corinth in his home
where they met.
We know nothing more about the final two men who give their greetings.
As we close, are you living in the full light of the grace of the Lord Jesus with you
and the victory that has already been won for you?
Are you defeating sin, anxiety, worry, depression, fear, and doubt by the
practice of the presence of the Lord Jesus through constant engagement with
God’s word, prayer, and living at peace with others as far as it depends on you?
Are you living in light of the fact that the God of peace has made perfect peace
with you and he will soon crush Satan under your feet?