Romans 142
Brian Kocourek
Romans 16: Now to
him that is of power to stablish you
according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation
of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is
made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the
commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience
of faith: 27 To God only wise, [be]
glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
Now, in these closing words of
this Great Epistle spoken from the lips, heart and mind of the Apostle Paul, he
begins by saying, Now to him that is of power to stablish
you…
I love these words for without
God we are nothing. Without the Blood of Jesus Christ we are but as the rest of
the World, lost in sin, hopeless in a wicked and chaotic world that is falling
apart. But we have hope that others do not share. We hop in our Lord Jesus
Christ, and that God is a God of His Word. And this is what Paul is telling us
here. He says, Now to him that is of power (that
is dunamai which is miracle working power, it also means He has the authority
to execute that power, and it also means he has the Will to bring that power
upon whomsoever He wills). And so in Closing, Paul says, Now to Him that is of power (To HIM who is of such a nature
that He is all powerful, and able, and willing)to stablish
you… and the Greek word that stablish was translated from
is sterizo {stay-rid'-zo} and actually means: To
make stable, place firmly, set fast, fix: to set one's face steadfastly, keep
the face turned, to strengthen, make firm; to render constant, confirm, one's
mind. So Paul is talking about God having the ability to make your mind
firm and stabilized, constant and strengthened. It is the mind that we have so
much trouble with, and it is the mind that we have these assuring words that
God will do this strengthening of our mind for us.
So He is speaking of HIM and
what He will do for you. Now, isn’t that what this entire Gospel is all about.
What God can, and will do for you? IN fact is not that what the entire New
Testament and in fact the entire Bible about? What God has done and will do for
His Children? That is what Paul is saying here. He says, that is what the
entire Gospel is about. God establishing, strengthening, and upholding His own.
Listen again to these words
that he says here, Now to
him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel,…According
to my Gospel… Now, to God who is able and willing to strengthen and establish,
and confirm you’re your mind according to MY Gospel, according to the way I
read the Gospel, according to the way I interpret the Gospel, according to the
way I read and perceive what the Gospel is telling me. That is what He is not
only able to do but more than willing to do.
Now to him that is of
power to stablish you according to my
gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according
to the revelation of the mystery,
which was kept secret since the world began,
Notice how Paul tells us that
not only the Gospel tells us this but the preaching of Jesus Christ confirmed
this and the preaching of Jesus Christ is the revelation or the unveiling of
this mystery that had been hidden since the world began.
What a great hidden mystery to
know. What a great thing to know that God is not only able, but that He is more
than willing to strengthen us in our minds. What a great thing to know, that
God is not only willing, but that He has the power to strengthen you in your
mind.
Then what people ought we to
be. He wants to confirm your mind more than you want to be confirmed. For that
is the will of God to establish you in your thinking, and to strengthen you in your resolve. For without
this transformation of the mind, you can not receive a change of the body.
Now to him that is of
power to stablish you according to my
gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according
to the revelation of the mystery,
which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest,(which now has been openly
declared, which now has been visibly manifest through Jesus Christ, God’s Son…
and in which was revealed through) and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the
commandment of the everlasting God, (He hath) made known to all nations for the obedience of
faith: 27 To God only wise, be glory
through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
Notice this final thought here.
To the ONLY Wise God, and the word only means there is but one and one alone.
Then there is only One God and this One God is the wise God, and he concludes
by saying, To God only wise, be glory through Jesus
Christ for ever. Amen.
Now, notice these words, TO God
be Glory THROUGH Jesus Christ, Amen.
In other words, The Apostle
Paul has been telling us that God is not only able to do something for your
mind that will strengthen it, and confirm and establish it, but He is willing
to do so because He has already manifested to the world that it can be done and
He did do it through His Son Jesus Christ. He says here, To God only wise, (To God who is alone in His
Godhood, to Him who is full of wisdom, to Him may His own Glory be manifested
through this man Jesus the anointed. To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
Paul tells us the wisdom of
God, the Glory of God, that which had been hidden from age to age. That which
had been hidden since the world began, was finally revealed to us through the
manifestation of God in His Son Jesus whom He anointed.
That I what the Gospel, or Good
news is all about. And he tells us that through this God is also able to
strengthen our minds, to confirm our minds that we might also stand with Him in
the understanding of this Great mystery of How He revealed Himself to the world
through the instrument of His Son.
Jesus did not come into this
world to make himself known to the world? He came to manifest the Father. There
were two beings, that shared that body. Why is It the Scriptures tells us
almost nothing of the childhood and young adulthood of Jesus? Why is it that we
wait until he is 30 years old to begin the daily encounter of this man? It is
because there was nothing to tell, well, hardly anything to tell until God also
entered into that body.
Yes, two beings sharing one
body. God indwelling His son. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
Himself.
II CORINTHIANS
20 Now then we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's
stead, (or on
behalf of Christ, or for the sake of Christ) be ye reconciled to God. (Why?) 21 For he hath made
him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him.
That we might be made
the righteousness of God? Yes, that we might be made the right-wise-ness of
God. That we might know God in a right way, and act in a right way. PROVERBS 12:5 ¶ The
thoughts of the righteous [are] right: I
JOHN 3:7 Little children, let no man
deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
So righteousness if the act of
doing what is right. Then to have right-wise-ness is to do what is right. You
act right because you think right. You speak right things because you think
right things. So we are looking at being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ
that we my think and speak and do the right things. And what are the right
things? Those things that are of and for God.
ROMANS
ROMANS 14:7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to
himself. 8 For whether we live, we
live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live
therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
ACTS 17:28 For in
him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets
have said, For we are also his offspring. 29
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think
that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and
man's device. 30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now
commandeth all men every where to repent:
COLOSSIANS 1:25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the
dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God; 26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from
ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27 To whom
God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28 Whom we preach, warning
every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man
perfect in Christ Jesus:
CHRIST IS THE MYSTERY 63-0728
57-5 Notice.
But now, the Church has the preeminence. God's great secret has always blinded
the wisdom of the world. They can't get it. They just don't understand it.
Satan don't understand it. None of the rest of them understands it, but just
those who are predestinated to understand it, how God and Christ are One. They'll
make Him three every time. See? They certainly will.
58-1
Notice. Next--secondly, the manifested Christ in you, the hope of glory.
That great manifested God in Christ, now Christ manifested in you. We'll hurry.
Look. What was once God's great secret, great mysterious secret in His mind, is
now put in the hearts of the believer, that is the Body of Christ. What was
God's once great secret in His mind before the foundation of the world is now
made manifest. Think of it, friends. Oh, I'm--I'm sure we don't--we don't get
it. Well, I--I can't see it the way I ought to, and--and I'm sure you don't.
See?
58-3
But God's great mystery, what the eternal God had as a mystery, has now
been unfolded in Jesus Christ, then was given out down to His Church. What was once
in God's mind is now in the Body of Christ, Jesus making love to the Church,
His Bride, whispering secrets to Her. You know how you tell your wife things,
you know, the little girl you're going to marry. You love her so much, you just
tell her the secrets, and get her up next to you, and love you and everything.
You know how it is? That's what God--Christ is doing to the Church. See? He's
letting Her know the secrets--just the secrets. Not these flirters; I mean His
Wife. See? All right. Now, look. No.
58-4
By having the revelation of His secret made known to them by His grace,
how the grace of God... People, I know it. I hope you don't think this sounds
personal to a bunch of people, or this, that, but the secret that God is
sharing with the whole Church, if they would just receive it. See? It doesn't
mean just me or just you; it means the Church, that He's trying to get into it.
And you say, "Well, why don't they receive it?" They can't receive
it. He said again... He said these things. And how could they? Because Isaiah
said they can't see it, See? And He's always said...
58-5
The prophet Paul said, "In the last days the people would be heady,
high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; truce breakers, false
accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good. (Heady,
high-minded. See?), having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof;
from such turn away; for this is the kind that goes from house to house and
leads silly women laden away with divers lust (with shorts and bobbed hair, and
everything else)--led away with divers lust," and say, "It's all
right. Ah, they're crazy out there. Don't pay no..." See? Never able to
come to the knowledge of the Truth.
And these men resisted it as Jannes and Jambres
withstood Moses: Able to produce a church and produce a group of people just
as... But their folly will be made manifest when Jesus takes His Bride and sets
Her up here and says, "This is Her," and away He goes with Her.
That's right. Their folly will be made known.
59-2 Look it.
Having the revelation of this secret made known to them by His grace. Look,
when this great revealed mystery is made known to you, then you denounce all
the things of the world.
WHERE I THINK PENTECOST FAILED 55-1111
E-43 Oh, my. And the people today who claim to
be filled with the Holy Ghost, and is afraid to trust God for a toothache.
Hallelujah. Brother, cross
E-44 When you cross Jordan,
it's death; you go into that veil I was talking about last night, inside the
holiest of holies, where your Light is no more of the world. You'll walk in
fellowship side by side with Christ in you, the hope of glory, the Holy Ghost moving
and living in the mortal being. And if maybe I told you tonight, that the
spirit of some great artist was in me, you would expect me to paint a picture
like the artist. If I told you the spirit of John Dillinger was in me, you'd
look for me to have big guns, and be a desperado. And If I've told you the
Spirit of Christ was in me, I have to do the works of Christ. And if you
profess to be a Christian, depart from sin and selfishness and tempers, and
live like Christ did, a peaceful, humble, God-blessed life. Amen. That's right.
PROOF OF HIS RESURRECTION 55-0410M 133 Notice. As he went along, a stranger
stepped out of the bushes and greeted them, "Good morning," perhaps.
And them, all sad, broken up, saying, "Oh, I loved Him. I seen Him stand
by the grave of Lazarus, when a man had been dead four days, and said,
'Lazarus, come forth.' Oh, how could that Man ever fail? How could He ever let
us down like this? And now we stand in shame and disgrace. We're going back
home to start up our fishing and carpentering again." See? Isn't that just the
modern Christian today? Oh, let the healing take place, and they're shouting
the victory. Let the power of the Holy Spirit fall, and they're shouting the
victory. And those who are really filled with the Holy Ghost, remains that way
down through life's journey. But the man that's still walking with the carnal
mind, let a little discouragement come up, something go wrong, and they go
away, saying, "Well, I thought it was all right, but, oh, my, look at it
now. I thought that little church would never fail. I thought this
person..." You got your mind on the wrong thing. See? Put your mind on Him
that can't fail. Let your conversation not be about your church, but about your
Lord. That's the One. Not about your neighbor, but about your Lord, let your
conversations be of Him.
136 Then, as they journeyed
along talking, all of a sudden a Man, just an ordinary Man... He wasn't a great
scribe. He wasn't educated. He had no education. As far as we know, He never
went to school a day in His life, but He had wisdom beyond any man that ever
lived. When the Pharisees saw His wisdom, they said, "What school did He
go to? Where'd He come from? Where do you find these words? How does He do
this? We never come through our seminaries. He doesn't talk like one of our
people. Where does these words come from?" And there were offended because
He didn't belong to their groups. He didn't associate Hisself with them. He
stood out, conspicuous, for He was God. There He stood, and made Hisself known.
He said, "If you can't believe Me, believe the works that I do. They
testify the Father sent Me." He said, "And My education..." In
other words, like this, "If My education doesn't satisfy your longings, if
My degree, which, I have none, but My degree, My diploma, is not from your
seminaries. My diploma is the works that I do, that the Father sent Me. They
are My diploma." That's the best diploma I know of. God, give us more of
those diplomas. "The works that I do are a vindication that the Father
sent Me. If that isn't sufficient, believe them then instead of Me."
139 Now, notice Him. Oh, I love
Him. As I see Him walking along there, and He said, "Why are you so sad?
What makes you feel this a way? What a beautiful day. Look how everything looks."
He said, "Yeah," said, "I know, but we trusted..." Said,
"Are You just a stranger around here? Why," said, "don't you
know that, Jesus of
142 What did He do? Went back
in the Old Testament, the books of Moses, and begin to speak about Moses and
about the different ones, how that they said that Jesus would come, how He
would suffer and what He would do. He said, "Don't you know this, the
Scripture, the Word?" Said, "Don't you know that that Word that was back
there has been made alive? Don't you know that Christ should've raised from the
dead? And there..."
"No, we didn't know that." Good people, loving
Him, but didn't know that He was risen from the dead... So is it today, same
thing today exactly, brother, sister. Oh, may God wake your innermost being.
People doesn't understand that He's raised from the dead. He's not dead. He's
alive.
145 And He walked out under
disguisement. He appeared to them in the form of a man. He might appear to you
in the form of your neighbor. He might appear to you in the form of a--a
minister, or your mother. Christ appears to you in people. Then treat everybody
right. Be kindly; be neighborly; be loving. Christ is in the person.
"Christ in you the hope of glory." And as you go along, and people
appears to you, a kind person begins to speak to you, listen to them. You don't
know, it might be Jesus speaking to you. See, He appears. "I--I'll be with
you, even in you. And as you do unto these, you do unto Me." Oh, when you
get to looking at it that way, the old tradition falls away. See? It doesn't
become a form of words and a declaration of so many words puts together. It
becomes a living reality that Christ is in us now, the Holy Spirit moving back
and forth, through every human being, surging through the hearts, searching,
condemning the ruins life in there. And As you confess it, He holds it before
God, and the Blood cleanses it. Amen.
148
And then as they went along, now look, it was getting towards evening
time. Oh, I just love this. Wish we had a little more... Oh, my. I didn't know
I was that long. Look. It was getting towards evening. I'll close. Did you
notice? Now, listen close. It was getting towards evening. And He made out like
He was going to go on by and leave them, but they persuaded Him to come in. I
wonder how much persuading we would do today? Wonder how much you're doing
right now? "O Lord, the resurrected One, let me persuade You to come to my
heart. Come in with me. I want to believe You. I've lived a halfway Christian
life so I--just by believing in a knowledge faith, and so forth, intellectual
faith. But I want to know You in the power of Your
resurrection, for this is the only time I'll have to make preparation. I want
to know You when I lay my head down to rise up no more.
I want to know You in the power of Your resurrection.
I don't want no just guessing about it. I want to know You.
Will You just come in and abide with me? The day's far
spent."
152 Notice, when they got
inside, closed the doors, He could talk to them then.
What a difference He made out of these people. Them
standing on the bank didn't know Him. They'd been with Him a long time. But
when Christ, once on the inside... Not Christ on the outside, reading it,
saying, "Yes, that's right," but Christ on the inside, saying,
"That's right." you get the difference? Christ on the inside... And
He said... Once inside, the door is closed. Then He made Himself known to them
by the way He done something. He took the bread and He broke it. And they
looked and said, "There's only one Man on earth could ever could do that,
and that's Him." Just the way He done something, not the way He formed His
sermon, 'cause they had plenty of theologians doing that. Not the way He
dressed in the
THE WAY BACK 62-1123 E-68
"These signs shall
follow them that believe". "The works that I do shall you do also". "Christ in you, the
hope of glory". "Let the mind that was in Christ be in you"." If that same
mind's in there with the same power that's in there, you'll do the same works
that He did.
Therefore The Apostle Paul
concludes this wonderful letter to the Romans in bringing them into reconciliation
with God’s own mind, and assures them that the whole intent of God revealing
Himself through His son is to bring us also into this relationship with
Himself, and thus bringing the very mind of God into His children. Thus the
whole redemptive story may be found in the Book of Romans and remember, redeem
means to buy back or bring back to it’s original condition, which in the
beginning we were hid in Christ, or as Paul says, we were in Christ before the
worlds were made.