May God be Glorified in Us – Romans 16:25-27

 Unless Kraig and Rochelle visit, we usually only have one dog at our house. But that one dog has learned from an expert and is an excellent beggar. When Mom starts cooking a meal, his nose begins to work. By the time that the food is on the table, if his olfactory factory has given its approval, he joins us at the table like any of the rest of the family. In fact he joins us at the table even if his olfactory factory hasn’t given its approval. There is always hope that something there will taste really, really good. Then begins the begging process. But he has learned that barking or whining are detrimental to his cause. Generally speaking whining or pawing the humans earn no scraps. But he knows that if he sits patiently, particularly if he stares, eventually something will come his way. In other words he begs without begging – he begs without speaking a word.

We will probably come back to these closing verses next week, looking at some of the particulars, but I’m going to leave that to the Lord. Tonight, I’ve decided to make an over-look look at these verses. And our first observation is that this is a prayer which isn’t really a prayer – beseeching without begging. This is not a petitionary, intercessory, or begging prayer. There are no requests presented to God, nor are there any requests for the Romans to pray. Paul doesn’t list any of the things about which he was praying regularly. But this is still a very full and complicated sentence, full of prayerful thoughts. Because “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, it is therefor profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” meaning that this is worthy of our deliberate consideration.

Secondly, we are looking at it, because it might be taken as an illustration of praying without ceasing. When I Thessalonians 5:17 exhorts us to pray without ceasing, it could mean several things: Obviously, it can’t mean, never do anything else but verbally petition the Lord in Heaven. Some say that it simply means: pray regularly, such as morning, noon and night, without interruption for holidays, family emergencies, national crises or church camps. Others think that it simply means that we should pray very, very often. I think that in addition to regular, intentional, and vocal prayer, it refers to an attitude of prayerfulness. Ideally we should always possess an awareness of the presence of the Lord. Our day-to-day lives should be filled with interjectory, ejaculatory, spontaneous thoughts and words of thanksgiving and dependence upon the Lord. We should all be somewhat like Jackie’s dog, possessed with a devotion and dependence upon his mistress which controls every moment of his waking hours. We should be in constant contact and communication with our Master whether or not we ever say a word. That is one of the lessons of these three verses.

Do you remember the old grammatical exercise of diagraming sentences? These three verses make up one sentence, but with a colon two-thirds of the way through. It is a somewhat complex sentence, and I don’t want to go into a lot of detail, but the subject is God – God, the only wise. This sentence is talking about the God who has power to stablish you. The predicate of the sentence is God’s glory. The elemental statement in this complex sentence is: “Glory to Him that is of power to stablish you.” This is a prayer, it isn’t a prayer, and then it is much more than a prayer.

Paul’s non-petition here is for the GLORY OF GOD.And which God are we talking about? God, the only wise. I remember years ago, buying a book of sermons by Spurgeon, called “Twelve Sermons on Humility.” It took a couple of days to read, and when I was finished, I came out feeling like I had just spent twelve rounds in the boxing ring with the heavy weight champion. My soul and spirit were black and blue all over, and I even had my ear bitten off. Since then I have read other books which have done the same, but never with the same effect. Spurgeon might have taken one of his texts from this scripture. Only God is wise and only God is glorious – you and I are nothing in comparison to Him.

This verse isn’t saying that Jehovah is the only wise God among the many false gods in the world – although that is a true statement. This is saying that there is no wisdom whatsoever anywhere in creation except in the Lord. Wisdom doesn’t exist outside of the Lord, and that is part of what those two books were teaching. We aren’t wise enough to know how dependent we are upon the Lord. On our own, we don’t possess wisdom enough to come to the House of God. We aren’t smart enough to know that we need to pray, except that were given us of God. We are incapable of a wise thought or deed, except it be given us from above. Verse 27 doesn’t say Jehovah is the only wise God; it says “only God is wise.” And next chapter declares: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom.

I wear glasses because I HAVE to wear glasses. I know lots of people who find glasses useful for some specific task like reading or driving. I sometimes hear, “Oh, I forgot my glasses,” and yet they continue driving or trying to read. If I got in a car without my glasses, it would be like a loaded pistol in the hands of two-year-old. I’d kill someone, probably beginning with myself. My spectacles are not an accessory to my wardrobe, they are a part of my face. And just as I need glasses, I need the Lord who is my wisdom. We are all wisdomless and sightless without the Lord to whom Paul prays. We are a menace to ourselves and everyone around us without His blessing. Get it out of your mind that you are important or self-sufficient – each of us and all of us are nothing.

The God Whom Paul wants to be glorified was wise when it came to creation. He is wise in His sovereign administration and maintenance of that creation. He is wise in the dispensing of judgment, justice and Christian chastisement. He is wise in sovereign salvation. There is no such thing as true wisdom in this world apart from the Lord.

For which God is Paul praying for glory? The God who has power to save us, keep us and stablish us according to the gospel. It doesn’t take much to catch, convict and carry out capital punishment on some of the really wicked people of this world. But to convert and save a sack of sludge like most of us it takes the omnipotence of the Almighty. “And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God, only wise.”

Paul’s non-prayer was for the glorification of the all-wise, and gracious God, whom we know as “Jehovah.” He wants to magnify the name of the One who saved him, the chiefest of sinners. That the Lord could and would save a murderer like Paul, and then stablish and keep him – is worthy of eternal praise. And may He be glorified who has stablished you as well. How can we go through a month, or a week, or a day without truly and properly worshiping Him? Paul’s fantastic Epistle to the Romans closes with a non-prayer for the glory of God.

And by what means does Paul pray that God, only wise, be glorified? Through the Lord Jesus Christ.Without pretending to understand the eternal decrees of God, it appears to me that the Lord originally created man to bring Him glory. If man had continued in his original sinless innocence there would have been glory to the Lord. But man chose a rebellious course, and as a result all his children have all been born rebels. Of course this was not a surprise to God, but a part of His divine decree. But the point is – there is not one thing that the rebel can do to bring glory to God. There is not a Robin Hood among us. We are all despicable and worthless Absaloms, Jezebells, Judases and Cains. There is not one thing that the rebel can do to bring glory to God. Except perhaps to receive the Lord’s judgment for his rebellion. So in the wisdom of God, it was decreed that He be glorified through the Son of Man instead of the sons of Adam. “To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.”

If we diagramed the long and complicated sentence that makes up these three verses, we’d get bogged down in verses 25 and 26. It talks about a great mystery and then of the revelation of that mystery. It talks about the scriptures of the prophets and the preaching of Paul’s gospel. All of which is background material to the primary thought of bringing glory to God, the only wise. But it boils down to this: “When fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” How is God to be glorified? Through God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity. As Ephesians 3 says, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

And by what means does Paul here pray that the Lord be glorified? By our establishment. “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel.” The word “power” is “dunamis” – Now to him who has strength enough to stablish you. The word “stablish” speaks of making something stable and strong. This is talking not so much about the eternality of our salvation, as it is the earthly part of that salvation. It’s referring to our doctrine, our consistency, our determination, and our firmness in the midst of spiritual attack. It’s talking about our spirituality in the midst of the world which hates the Lord and hates us. The Lord is able to make us strong and useful Christians even when everything around us hates a strong and useful Christian. This God can make us strong enough to stand against the current and even to swim against it. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

And by what means does the Lord stablish us? Both these verses in Romans and those in Psalm 1 declare that the means of our strength is the Word. It is impossible for a Christian to stand and bring glory to God apart from the strength of Word of God. We must be impressed, immersed, imbued, impacted, and improved by the constant ministration of the Word of the Lord, or we’ll fall to the ground like a termite-riddled old barn.

Paul’s concluding remark to the Romans was a implied prayer that God be glorified by the Christian’s establishment. May God also be glorified by OUR establishment.