The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse – Part 12
07/16/16 (5/11) Video Broadcast
We are just about ready
to embark on our final
portion of our study into
the book of Romans, and we
are now into Part
12, the 12th segment.
I kind of thought we might
see twelve or so segments.
I didn't want to go 16,
but 12 CDs, 12 DVDs fits
nicely into case. I think we're probably gonna develop a DVD series out of this broadcast as we are currently working on the health series as well. It's just I don't have the time that I like to have around here to do things. But it's something that I've been working on. Anyway, 12th segment, book of Romans verse by verse. We have gone through, all the way through chapter 14. We spent quite a bit time on chapter 14 in our former segment. And we're gonna being with the tail end of chapter 14. I want to kind of bring out a little bit different aspect of the thing that's being spoken of here in Romans 14. Actually, into verse 19 through 21, and also verse 15. But, it says here, let us pursue the things which make for peace, and the things by which we may edify another person. Our goal is to be in Shalom, to be in peace with our brothers, and to do things that would result in their edification, it's out of love, so that we can build up the body of the Messiah. It says, do not destroy the work of Elohim for the sake of food. All things are indeed pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended, or is made weak. So our goal is to build up the body of Messiah, not do things that would result in someone stumbling or falling or having a difficult time being faithful and obedient to Yahweh. We see, verse 15 earlier. It says, yeah, if your brothers grieve because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. You are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food, the one for whom Messiah died. As we talked about last week, this is all in reference to food offering to idols. Actually the worry here, meat has to do a sacrificial meat, and so is admonishing those in Rome to not grieve one another, to build one another up, and be sure that we're doing things that result in edification. Now, there's a principle here taught in Romans, I think, that we need to heed in our generation. We don't have so much the food being offered on the altar to idols and so on. But we do have, I think, something here that we can learn from. First Corinthians 8:12 says, but when you thus sin against a brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against the Messiah. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. Now, this can cover a lot of areas. We're talking about walking in love, okay.
For instance, if normally, you know, somebody would have a glass of wine with their meal, not to get a buzz or to get drunk or anything like that, but just as health reasons or some other reason.
But they know that someone is going to be coming to their home that evening for dinner, and that person has a weakness with alcohol. To be walking in love toward that person, that
evening, they should refrain from that glass of wine, because they don't want that brother who's joining them for dinner that night, to be caused to stumble. Alcoholism is rampant in our society today. It's one of the reasons I don't want anything to do with it. I don't drink wine or beer, anything, not because it's wrong necessarily, but I don't want my children to stumble, I don't want my wife to stumble, I don't want anybody to stumble. I don't want myself to stumble. I mean, how many millions of lives have been destroyed through alcoholism. So, I just refrain out of choice. But we see here, even in something that we might feel we have the liberty to do, we should not do it if we know it might cause someone else to stumble.
Now, as brothers and sisters in this walk, our goal is to edify, to build up one another, not be an agent for temptation, for tearing down the body of the Messiah. We don't want to be used by the enemy to bring temptation into another person's life. We need to walk in love, not sin against the brethren by wounding their weak conscience and causing them to stumble. Now, in the first century, eating might have been offered to an idol was one way of doing this. But another very common way of doing this can be found in our day and age. The most common way I see this being done is through believers choosing to adopt the immodest trestles. Now on the first century, I mean, women were covered for the most part. Maybe some of the high class women, or temple prostitutes or something, maybe not. But for the most part, people cover themselves. Those who had less clothing were considered to be poor and in need of financial assistance, clothing the naked and so on. But in our day and age, we have clothing styles that are of such that purposely less clothing, so as to allure men with the eyes. This is a form of pornography, in a sense. Only it happens to be live. We have, the latest craze is that women would show
cleavage in their chest. It started with the world and their desires for immodesty to allure. Now we're seeing it in churches, and even in some messianic circles. I'm noticing this tight shirts, tight pants, tight skirts, tight dresses. These are all being developed by clothing designers so that women can allure and gain the attention of men, and women will buy their clothing. It's so common place nowadays that women and girls may not even know that they are being a temptation for men. But we live in a sexualized, sex-crazed culture, it's just crazy. Fornication is so rampant and so common. I mean, surveys now tell us that more people think it's wrong to wear a fur coat than to commit fornication. More and more couples are living together and even raising children instead of getting married, to the extent that here in the United States, 4 out of 10 children who are born, are born out of wedlock. That's 1.6 million children who are born out of wedlock every year. In more liberal countries, say Iceland, 65%, vast majority of children are being born into a mother, there's a mother and a father who are not married. That's what it means to be out of wedlock. Now, in former generations, this was almost unheard of. But since about the 1960's, really even before then, it started to be more common. But it really started to get worse in the 60's. But believers in Messiah, I feel very strongly, should not be contributors to a culture of lust. Believers in Messiah should have a culture of purity building up, not tearing down. Congregations should not be placed where women are wearing the kinds of worldly clothes that provoke lust in the hearts of men. Now if a man chooses to lust, it's his fault and his fault alone. He cannot blame anybody else. He alone is guilty of his own sin. Don't get me wrong, he is 100% guilty. He cannot blame anybody else any more than Adam could blame Eve for handing him the apple, or not the apple, but the fruit. While the woman is not guilty of what the man has done, the woman is guilty of not walking in love. By principle, we should be pursuing the things which cause edification, the things of purity, the things that will build up, rather than the things that will tear you down. Otherwise, we are not walking in love, and she would be guilty of doing things that would cause another person to stumble or to be made weak.
I can tell you, a lot of men are struggling in this area. It is the era we live in. Everywhere you look, advertising, television, everywhere, lust sells. It draws the eye, it gains ones attention, and so, especially among us as believers who do not want to be agents for sin, but agents for righteousness, the body of the Messiah needs to rebel against the clothing styles of the world, and seek to dress in such a way that will not create temptation through the lust of the eye. Now, those who lead congregations tend to be all kind of wishy, washy and oh well, yeah. But what I'm seeing here in Yahushua's words to the assembly at Thyatira is, verse 20, in chapter 2 in Revelations. It said, nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow, you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality, and eat things sacrificed to idols. This is talking about temple prostitution and engaging in idolatrous things. I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality. She did not repent. Indeed, I will cast her into a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her, into the great tribulation, unless they repent their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the congregation shall know, I am he who searches the minds and the hearts. I will give to each one according to your works, to teach and to seduce. Women who have Jezebel's spirit are nearly always dressed immodestly. Not always, but most of the time. Jezebel's spirit has to do with seduction, spiritually in a sense of turning people away from truth. Here we see physically, turning people away from righteous conduct through the alluring. Ahab was faulted for this, for allowing Jezebel to
influence his decisions. First Kings 21 verse 25 says, there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness on the side of Yahweh, because Jezebel, his wife, stirred him up. He sold himself. We need to not be selling our self to the prostitutes of the world.
This thing, this kind of thing where, okay, you're not actually doing the thing yourself, but you're tempting others to do it, is called the doctrine of Balaam. Revelation 2:14 says, but I have few things against you because you have those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block,
to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. See, Balaam didn't actually do this himself, but he taught the king of this other country to send the women down to Israel, so that they will sin, and thy will fall out of favor with Yahweh, that's the doctrine of Balaam. As believers, we need to not have the doctrine of Balaam in our congregations. Because believe me, his doctrine is alive and well today. Balaam is speaking in the hearts of pastors, elders, and spiritual leaders saying, it's okay, yeah, those women are stumbling blocks. Don't send anything to them, it might offend them. They never teach modesty. But as believers, we need to walk in love.
When Yahweh told Israel completely wipe out the inhabitants of the land because of the danger of stumbling blocks and snares. He said, take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the habitants of the land we are going, lest to be a snare in your midst. Exodus 34 in verse 12, he says, don't have them in front of you all the time. Get rid of, don't have anything to do with, don't make covenants with them. But they did not listen, and what happened? The leaders did not lead, they made these people slaves instead, and they paid for it dearly. How does Yahweh feel if we ourselves are being a snare to Yahweh's people through the way we dress? We may not even realize that we are, because it's so common in our culture, this thing is normal. It's like going into some place in South America or somewhere all the women have no shirts on. The women think it's no big deal, everyone sees it as normal. Well I can guarantee you, the men don't feel that way. I can guarantee it. When Yahweh sees what we are doing, we need to be
very careful we are not imitating the devil, by creating temptations for others. But I think we're sort of like, nakedness, according to biblical standards, is not covering the area from the shoulders down to the knees. To expose that area of the body is considered nakedness in scripture. Women wearing shorts and things, they think nothing of it, because everybody else is doing it. But what I see in scripture is, that's nakedness. In the same way, walking around with no shirt on would be nakedness. But with our culture it's so common that we don't think it's all that big of a deal. But it is a sin against another person to be a stumbling block to them. When you sin against the brethren, and you sin against Messiah by wounding the weak conscience, and causing them to stumble. That's our responsibility. Their responsibility is not do the sin. Our responsibility is to not do something that would cause another person to stumble. In that case, it was food, our modern era, I really see it, the way women dress today. Yahushua is very serious about this, getting rid of the stumbling block in our congregations, to the extent, he even says this, he says, in the book Matthew chapter 13 verse 41, the son of man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom, all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness. Not only the things that those who are practicing lawlessness, but those who are creating this kind of stumbling block, these offenses in other, because they are imitating, whether they know it or not know it, they are imitating the enemy. I will cast them into the furnace of fire. There should be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now, I'm not trying to sit around here and condemn anybody for immodest dress. I'm saying, maybe you didn't know these things were in the scriptures. But they are there, and we have responsibility to bear up those who are weak, not tear them down. It's the very basic principles of walking in love. That's why it says in Romans 15, 1 through 2, we who are strong are to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. The word scruples has to do in the Greek with weaknesses. So many times I hear women say, well, some man's looking at me the wrong way, because of the way I'm dressed, that's their problem, not mine. Wrong. It's his problem, but it's also your problem. If you are dressing in such a way to provoke those things, you have a responsibility to bear with the weaknesses of the weak, and do things that lead to edification, rather than ever so proudly saying, that's their problem. The lesson here in Roman 14 is that we do have a responsibility for one another's spiritual well-being, we do. We are our brother's keeper. We should care about one another, we should care about loving one another. First John 3:14 says, we know we passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother, abides in death. It's serious. Romans 14:15 says that if your brothers grieve because of your food, or whatever may cause him to stumble, you are no longer walking in love. If something, it doesn't have to be4 food. I mean, if you want to look at the bible as some kind of legal code where okay, as long as it's just in the realm of food, I don't have to worry about it. Well, this has nothing to do with food Tom, please. The bible is all about principles, not just precepts. It's about looking at the reason behind something that's being said, the spirit of what's being said, not just the written word. He says, do not destroy with your food the one for whom Messiah died. I say, let's not destroy with the way we dress, the one for whom Messiah died. Think about that. Messiah had to die for that person. Look at all that Yahushua went through to save that person's soul, and what are we doing, are we tearing them down now, after all that Yahushua went through? Now, men can be a temptation for women, not necessarily with our dress, although it is also with our dress, and I believe we need to be just as modest as women. But usually, a little stronger way of temptation is through how the men would relate to her, especially young men relating to young women, or young boys relating with girls. If a boy, or a young man pays special attention to a female, gets emotionally involved with her, does special things for her, he is toying with her heart, which is very precious, and fragile in Yahweh's eyes. Men and young boys need to be very careful about that. You may not realize it, but there are young girls who are very weak in this area, they can become infatuated or have a, what they call a crush on young men who are doing these things. Brothers, be careful, you're not causing harm,
because we are called to purity, not just physical purity, emotional purity, save that for whomever Yahweh has chosen to be your wife.
Let each man have his own wife, let each wife have her own husband, and not interfere with the process. Brothers, you have to be careful you're not causing harm in how you treat women in certain ways, that cause them to be drawn to you.
Now, scripture says, we who are strong, ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, or the weaknesses of the weak and not the weak, and not to please ourselves like each of us pleases neighbor for his good, lead to avocation, for even Messiah did not please himself. As it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell upon me. Yahushua was not all about himself in his own image.
He was willing to be reproached in the eyes of the world. If you wear modest dress, he might be reproached.
But that's the way it is, we give of ourselves. We're not about pleasing ourselves. Besides, you're not the one who made you. Your body is not your own. Your body is Yahushua's body. He bought you with a price. I see so many people who, and especially on Facebook, young women, there's 50,000 pictures of themselves on there. It's like what is this all about, is this vanity? Is this all about you? Who is this about? Alluring eyes and immodest dress. You did not make yourself, Yahweh made you. He then should be glorified in whatever you're doing. Yahushua was willing to be reproached in the eyes of the world so that he might be the ultimate edifier.
Remember, everything Yahushua had to go through, in order to save your brother, or save your sister, now would you want to be the one that came in and did something to pull that very person in the opposite direction? I hope not. It is serious, it is very serious. We need to love and care about one another. Now, if there was anything that scripture taught me about Yahushua, I know that he was willing to undergo the worst kind of agony, so that we would be saved. We should not do anything, anything, that might
result in a person being pulled in the opposite direction. Verse 4, for whatever things were written before, were written for our learning that we might through, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.
In verse 5, now, may the mighty one of patience and comfort grant you to be like mind and toward one another, according to Messiah Yahushua, that you may be with one mind and with one mouth, glorify the mighty one, and father of our master Yahushua, Messiah, therefore receive one another, just as Messiah also received us to the glory of Elohim.
Rather than judging each other and putting each other down for whatever we're doing, let's instruct, let's admonish, let's build up, let's pursue the things which lead to edification. I want to say this, I'm sorry my sisters that your brothers are so weak, I'm sorry. In many ways, the clothing styles are the fault of the men. Because if the men said no, I don't want women to wear clothes like that, then women would have not pursued those kinds of clothing styles. They would have pursued clothing styles that were really what the men wanted. But the problem is, in our culture today, the men want to lust, and so, what happens? I fault the men for the whole problem, I really do. We're the ones that's supposed to taking the lead, and we're taking the lead in the wrong direction. We're not speaking up and saying, I don't like that kind of clothing. If we had a culture in the body of Messiah that said, I don't like that kind of clothing, I like pure, modest apparel, then what's going to happen in the body of Messiah? The women are gonna rise up, they're gonna grow up in a culture where, they're going to seek to wear the kinds of clothing that would result in getting the attention of men, which would be modest clothing. Wouldn't that be an awesome thing? It's not all about men, I understand that. To some degree, it's about what you prefer to like, what you happen to like to wear. Sometimes it's about what other women will think of you, and that can be a source of pride. You have to be careful about that. But our goal as a people, as a body of Messiah, is to build up, to undergird, to lift up, to edify like Yahushua did. Rather than judging each other for our weaknesses, and I'm sorry young ladies that this culture we live in is putting so much pressure on you because of your appearance. But your appearance is not what determines your worth. Yahushua already made the determination of your worth when he died for you 2000 years ago. Let him be who determines your worth, not the culture, not even congregations, let Yahushua be the source of your worth and your value, not the attention of any human being on the planet. Verse 8, now I say that Yahushua Messiah has become a servant of the circumcision for the truth of Elohim to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the gentiles might glorify Elohim for his mercy. As it has been written for this reason, I will confess to you among the gentiles and sing to your name. Again he says, rejoice oh gentiles with his people, and again, praise Yahweh, all you gentiles, love him all you peoples. Paul, and again, in the spirit of receiving one another, points us to the scripture that speak of how Yahweh desires for both Jew and gentile to praise and glorify him together as one people, that love him. We've talked about this already quite a bit, so I don't need to go over all these scriptures. But this is Yahweh's will, is that people of all nations, all races, all creeds, will come together as one people to honor him, and glorify him. In Verse 14, now I myself in conflict concerning you, my brethren, that you are also are full of goodness, fill with all knowledge, able to admonish one another. He knows that they're a mature group. He acknowledge that they're a mature group. Never less brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, reminding you, because of the grace given to me by Elohim, that I might be a minister of Yahushua Messiah, to the gentiles, ministering the good news of Elohim, that the offering of the gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. He was given grace, and so he was chosen to be a minister to the gentiles. His goal was that the gentile offering would be acceptable, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Now I shared on the previous segment, the Roman assembly seem to be more mature, had less problems, than what we say, you know, in First Corinthians. But though he was confident of the spirit to maturity, he just wanted to write more boldly, remind them of things, especially as a minister to the gentiles, who are turning their hearts to Yahweh. He wanted to see that they were getting good instruction, and he would reaffirm and remind people of these things. He, as a minister to the gentiles, was given a tremendous amount of wisdom, a deep level of knowledge. That was what the gentiles were sort of after. It says that, the Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach, Messiah crucified, the Jews, a stumbling block to the Greeks' foolishness. But to those who recall about Jews and Greeks, Messiah, the power of Elohim, the wisdom of Elohim, because the foolishness of Elohim is wiser than men, and the weakness of Elohim is stronger than men.
The gentiles of that era were very fascinated by knowledge and wisdom. They had their philosophers, and explained the mysteries of life. Yahushua imparted to the apostle Paul tremendous amount of deep wisdom, which can be twisted if read and misinterpreted by the wrong kinds of people. But Yahushua used Paul to explain to them, he went into great depth here in the book of Romans, to give them the deep things of Elohim, that they enjoyed. To counter the, so called, wisdom of the world that they had been trained in and grew up in. To expose those things as foolishness, because a lot of the Jews felt, or a lot of the gentiles felt, these things were just foolish, he called it. To the Greeks, it was foolishness that a Jewish man would die on a stake to save the whole world. To them that was just incredibly foolish. But as he explained the depths in Romans 6 and 7 and 8, all the depths of why these things were happening, it was beautifully, beautifully stated to see and to share wisdom. All right, so he prefaces these things by the statements here in 15, 12 and 13. Again, Isaiah says, there shall be a root of Jesse, he who shall rise to reign over the gentiles, in him the gentiles shall hope. Now may the mighty one of hope, fill you with all joy, and peace, and believe that you may bound in hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is prefacing these things in verse 14, being confident of the things he has taught them, and is reminding them to reach, his ministry is to reach the gentiles, to build them up, to edify them, to instruct them, in these deeper matters. Sorry I skipped that earlier. Looking back again at Romans chapter 15 in verse 17. It says here, therefore I have reason to glory in Messiah Yahushua, and the things was pertained to Elohim, for I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Messiah has not accomplished through me, in word, in deed, to make the gentiles obedient.
In mighty signs, in wonders. By the power of the spirit of Elohim, so that from Jerusalem, and round about to Illyricum, I have fully preached the good news of Messiah. Paul did not speak of anything above and beyond what he had been taught, he experienced himself, and the things that Messiah had accomplished through him. He only spoke from the things that the himself had learned and experienced through his relationship with Messiah. I have made up my aim to preach the good news, not where Messiah was named, lest I should build another man's foundation. But as it is written to him, to whom he was not announced, they shall see. Those who they have not heard, have not heard shall understand. For this reason, I also have been much hindered from coming to you. He was hindered from going to those in Rome because there were other people there, Priscilla and Aquila, were there, people that had already established congregations there. Now he's quoting here this prophecy in Isaiah, which I find pretty interesting. Because in Isaiah 52 verse 13 to 15, this is the messianic prophecy, it's saying, behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. Just as many as were astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man. His form more than the sons of men, so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at him, for when they've not been told, then they shall see, and what they had not heard, they shall consider. Paul was chosen by Yahushua to fulfill this messianic prophecy, him and others too. But in verse 15 we see, sprinkling many nations. Kings shutting their mouths at him. The Hebrew word translate as sprinkle here as actually only used in reference to the sprinkling of blood or sprinkling of water. Throughout the Torah, it speaks of the sprinkling of blood, as a cleansing agent. We know that the blood sprinkling obviously is because of Yahushua's shed blood for the cleansing of others, as it says here later in Isaiah 53, a few verses down. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened up his mouth. He was led as a lamb for the slaughter, as a sheep before it's cheer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and he will declare his generation, he's gonna do it, we are, for he was cut-off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people, he was stricken, and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, he died, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He put him to grief when you make his soul in a sham, in Hebrew, offering, for sin. He shall see his sea, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many. Justification, for he shall bear their iniquities. His death is predicted to result in the sprinkling of all nations, sprinkling of the gentiles. Yahweh used Paul as a servant to get the message of Messiah out to the gentiles. It's no wonder he was a bit forceful with Ananias here in Acts 9:13 where Ananias was told by Yahushua himself to go and meet with Saul that time. He said, master I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. Here he has authority from chief priests to bind all who call on your name. But the master said to him, go, go, he's a chosen vessel of mine, to bear my name before gentiles, kings and the children of Israel. He had a trifold ministry. But, this was the thing he had, gentiles and kings, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake, just as he cost others to suffer, he will be caused to suffer. This was all predicted in the prophecy of Isaiah 52. Paul was not the only one, but he certainly did quite a lot, being Yahweh's chosen vessel, he did, he did know things. He had tremendous amount of knowledge, he grew up under the feet of Gamaliel, a very highly respected Torah teacher, and Yahweh showed him, some amazing things. Now he had to testify before kings, it says there, and magistrates. We're gonna see here shortly, this is one of the reasons why he appealed to Caesar, but in Acts 25 verse 11 it says, for if I'm an offender, or I have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying. But if there's nothing in these things which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them, I appeal to Caesar, in his defense here. So then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, you have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go. He had a reason. He was called to bear his name, bear the name of the Messiah before kings. The prophecy in Isaiah 52 had to be fulfilled, and he chose Paul to do this, so he did, sprinkling many
nations, and kings shutting their mouths at him, it was all predicted in the prophets.
And it turned out that Caesar's household ended up coming to faith in Messiah. We see here in Philippians 4:21, it says, greet every saint in Messiah Yahushua, which is Paul riding from Rome, the brethren who are with me greet you, all the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. Caesars' household, Caesar's household. Now the emperor at the time of Paul's letter was Nero, Nero.
Now, kind of read between the lines here a little bit, you might think, well, okay, Nero had knowledge of this, he had to have known about it. Quite possibly, he was, maybe even enraged that people of his own household would become believers in Messiah. Maybe his servants or family members, came to receive the Messiah, and quite possibly, he couldn't say anything against it, so he just kind of let it go. Maybe word got around that some members of his household became believers, and maybe he was embarrassed by that. So, after he made the mistake of burning down the city, as we talked about on segment number one, he blamed the believers in Messiah, and maybe that would squelch any rumors that he himself had, any sympathy toward believers in Messiah. Now that's just a could be, but kind of reading between the lines kind of a thing, but it seems plausible, it's a possibility, because kings are said to have shut their mouths at him, and that's what happened when he testified to multiple leaders. Maybe that's all part of fulfilled prophecy. Now back in Romans 15 verse 22, it says, and so I've made up my aim to preach the good news, not where Messiah was nameless, I should build on another man's foundation, but as it is written to whom he was not announced, they shall see, and to those who have not heard, shall understand. For this reason, I also have been much hindered from coming to you. Because he wanted to go to places, as that scripture in Isaiah 52 said, to those who had not yet heard, so that that the scriptures might be fulfilled, and we can still do this today. We can go to the places where Messiah has not yet been heard of. We can go to places where the good news has not yet been preached, and that should be an exciting thing to do. One of the exciting things that we can do as believers in Messiah, because the scripture does say, the good news will be preached to all the world, and then the end will come. To be a part of that fulfilled prophecy is really awesome, and that's one of the reasons I like the internet. Because here I am from my chair, able to reach out to people all over the world. And I'm looking here right now, and there are people all over the world listening to this broadcast, and watching the broadcast. It's a blessing. Now, it's not the only way to do it, we have to go out in the trenches and reach people. But this is one way of doing it. He goes on to say, now, no longer are we having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you for I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you. If first I may enjoy your company for a while. But now I'm going to Jerusalem, to minister to the saints, and well, has the time of his riding, which is somewhere around late 50's AD, I guess, Paul had pretty much already, a priest and a multitude of places, and there were a number of congregations planted throughout Asian Minor. Paul is believed to have written this book of Romans, actually, while he was in Corinth, in Acts chapter 20 verses 3 through 6. He was actually revisiting a congregation at that time, it had already been established. Probably, he felt the freedom to go ahead and see other places that would have already been established as well. His next step then was to go to Jerusalem, minister there, and if you look at Acts 21, you find out he's falsely accused, he's arrested while ministering to the saints there. One of the reasons he's going there actually, was to bring an offering from various assemblies. He's talking about this here, Romans 15:26, pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among saints who were in Jerusalem. He's going toward Jerusalem, to administer to the saints with these contributions that he had gathered. It pleased them indeed, and they are debtors. For if the gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Now, we see here, gentiles consider themselves as partakers of the saints, what the saints had done in Jerusalem. That's where the leadership was, and they
want to return the blessing. They saw that as their duty, to minister material things toward those who had given spiritual things to them. This kind of echoes what Paul had said in First Corinthians 9, he said, do you not know that those who messed with the holy things, either things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar, partake of the offerings of the altar. Verse 14, even so, the master has commanded that those who preach the good news shall live from the good news. Paul was referring, was bringing its offering to the brothers and sisters of Yerushalayim. I am to bless them for their labors in getting the message of Messiah out to the whole world.
That's what happens. It pleased them in Macedonia to make a contribution, and provide the material things for those who had given them spiritual things. Therefore, when I had performed this, and have sealed them to them, this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. Paul planned to visit Rome after his visit to Yerushalayim, to Jerusalem, and that's actually what happened, but maybe not in the way that Paul expected. He expected, okay, I'm just gonna go to Jerusalem, and then he kept getting these warnings from brothers, saying, oh, they're gonna persecute you there. But he thought he would get free, or something would happen, he would make his way back up to Rome, or up to Rome to finally visit the people up there, many of whom he already knew. Because what happened is, he ended up appealing to Caesar, and so he ended up going, getting arrested and tried, and he appealed to Caesar. Then ultimately, Acts 28 verse 30, it says, Paul dwells two years, two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the king of Elohim, and teaching the things which concern the master Yahushua Messiah, with all confidence, no one forbidding him. During his two years, he is said to be under house arrest. Others had to come to him, and then he would share the good news with the kingdom there, and it happened that just as Paul wanted, but, so he ended up going to Rome, but maybe not the way he had expected or hoped. Now, this is actually the last two verses in the book of Acts. We don't know for sure all the things that took place after this. But commentators suggest that based on his letter, he was released and then later tried a second time,
and ultimately convicted and put to death, according to tradition. But some of those are speculation. But in the theory that Paul actually had two Roman imprisonments, does have some merit. For instance, Paul seemed to be anticipating his release in the book of Philippians, chapter 2.
Also, in another book, I'll actually quote this, I'm trying to remember if I quoted these too. I guess I didn't put them on there.
These other books that he's written, his epistles that he had written, he had anticipated his release. He actually asked in Philemon verse 22 that he said he wanted a guest room to be made ready for him. It speaks of Paul visiting Crete and Acropolis, which were two areas, there was no record of him visiting in the book of Acts anywhere. On Second Timothy, therefore may have actually been written during a second imprisonment, but it's not actually mentioned in the book of Acts. Verse 29 in Romans 15, it says, but I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the good news of the Messiah. Now I beg you brethren, through the Master Yahushua, Messiah, and through the love of the spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to Elohim for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judaea, who do not believe, and that my service for Yerushaliyam may be acceptable to the saints, but I may come to you with joy by the will of Elohim, and may be refreshed together with you. Now, the mighty one of peace be with you all, amein. Paul asked the believers in Rome for their prayers that he will be delivered from the Judaean unbelievers, who certainly had it out for Paul. Their prayers were apparently answered because, although it took an appeal to Caesar to get it done, it happened. They came to Rome. Sometimes Yahweh doesn't answer our prayers the way we expect. In fact, it looked pretty bad for Paul there for quite some time, but it turned out, he preached the good news every opportunity. May he share his testimony to the crowds in Jerusalem, after his arrest, and then to Sanhedrin. After his testimony to the Sanhedrin, Yahushua told Paul, he said, in Acts 23:11, he says, the following night, the master stood by him and said, be of good cheer Paul, for as you've testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome. That's why he appealed to Caesar. He shared the good news to Felix, the governor, and then two years later, Festus, the one who took his place, and then King Agrippa. King Agrippa actually said, he was nearly persuaded. Then he testified to the rulers of the people of Malta, as they fell, ship wrecked on the island, and the n the Jewish leaders in Rome, and finally, to Caesar. For a man who was imprisoned, he sure did a lot of preaching, and to some pretty important people in the process. Yahweh, so Yahweh ultimately did answer these prayers of the believers in Rome, but maybe not in the way it was expected. How many times I've had that happen in my own life. I'd be praying for something, and all of a sudden, something happens that with by all appearances eliminate that prayer from being answered, and yet, and the very opposite of what I prayed for seemed to be happening. But then all of a sudden, unexpectedly, I begin to see how Yahweh was going to answer that prayer through what was happening. It's just not the way I thought it was gonna happen, but it happened. That's kind of, he experienced is what I think a lot of us probably have. For you, you may be praying for something, and you're thinking, it's gonna happen a certain way, and he doesn't always answer things in the way that we expect. Sometimes it can be quite unexpected and how he answers things. So don't be discouraged at all. Anyway, moving forward to Romans chapter 16, he
said, I commend you to Phebe our sister who is a servant of the assembly in Cenchrea, that you may receive her in the master in a manner worthy of the saints, and a sister in whatever business she had need of you, for indeed, she had been a helper of many, and myself also. Now, because of how it's worded here, some people believe that Phebe was actually the one who delivered this letter to the Romans, and that's quite possible. He said, I commend to you Phebe your sister. But, you know, we're talking, in an earlier segment, as we went over Romans chapter 12, we're talking about spiritual gifts. Here is a woman who, had a position of prominence in a congregation, exercising her spiritual gifts of ministering and supporting Paul and the other apostles. He actually says, she has been a helper of many and of myself, also, so help her out in whatever, and however you're helping her, she will be helping me and helping others. We see this that women have an important role in the body of Messiah. We see also in Matthew 27:55, it says, and many women who followed Yahushua from Galilee, ministering to him. They were ministers, female ministers, ministering to Yahushua, where they were there looking on from afar, among whom are Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons. We see also Luke chapter 8 verses 1 through 3, is said, and it came to pass afterward that he went through every city and village, preaching and bringing glad tidings of the kingdom of Elohim, and twelve were with him. And certain women, who had been healed of evil spirits, and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene out of whom have come seven demons. Joanna, the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for him from their substance. Yahushua had an entourage of women who were ministering to him. They were not in the position of preaching, and teaching, but their function was nonetheless important. In every good army, every good army has the ones on the frontlines, doing battle, and the support troupes behind them. Without the support troupes, those on the frontlines would not be effective. Phebe, Mary Magdalene, the mothers of James and Joseph, Joanna, Susanna, many others were all supporters of those who were on the frontlines. Phebe, and also we'll see Priscilla, as we're gonna see here, as we continue reading chapter 16, they're all supporters in this ministerial effort among the apostles. In verse 3, Romans 16, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Messiah Yahushua who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the congregations of the gentiles. Priscilla and Aquila, they have been expelled actually from Rome, when Claudius expelled all the Jews. But they are allowed back in under the reign of the emperor Nero at 54AD. They were among the disciples in Corinth for a time, actually, if you read, Acts 18, it talks about them. But maybe they were converted possibly through the teaching of Paul. Verse 5, likewise greet the congregation that's in their house, greet my beloved Epaenetus who is the first fruits of Achaia to Messiah. Greet Mary who labored much for us, greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen, my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Messiah before me. Greet Amplias, my beloved in the master. Now notice that Priscilla and Aquila, they have this congregation in their house. They were hosting services in their home, and that's fairly common, actually, in the first century. They practiced the same thing in Corinth, First Corinthians 16:19, talking about Aquila and Priscilla and also had a congregation in their house there in Corinth and they continued that practice as they went back to Rome. Colossians 4:15, Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the congregations in his house. Nymphas had a congregation in his house. We see here in Philemon 1:1-2, Paul, a prisoner of
Messiah, and Timothy our brother to Philemon our beloved friend and fellowlabourer to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and the congregation in your house. Aquila and Priscilla were doing this. Philemon was doing, there's all these examples of house congregations. I choose to say congregation instead of church, and part of the reason I do that is because a lot of times people associate a church with the building, rather than the people in the building. We see here that the congregation is the people in the building and that's evidence by the fact that they met at homes. You don't have to have a special building in order to have a congregation or in assembly and we see that those in Rome simply met Priscilla and Aquila's house that was where they were apparently meeting. Now, down here in verse 7 it says, Andronicus and
Junias, my fellow, fellow countrymen and my fellow prisoners. They actually the word translated countrymen here, is also translated relatives eight times in the scriptures. Now, Aquila and Priscilla were Jewish, but you never see them called countrymen or any thing. It's quite possible, again I'm reading between the lines. I'm just talking theory here quite possible that He got upset and that's part of what was driving Junias, Andronicus were blood relatives of the apostle Paul and he knows that they were in Messiah before he was. I find that interesting, because maybe Paul had
his desire to persecute. some family members that converted to Messiah and maybe just as in theory rising Nero got upset.
Nowadays, you see somebody going down a wrong path and now in all the sudden near a missionary and gets whatever that wrong path is. That's how he was perceiving it anyway and so a persecutor of those who were going down that way. If he had relatives that it converted in King the Messiah before Him, that may explain why he was so passionate above and beyond those who were of His generation. Now I want notice here that it says, He's people are of note among the apostles. Some people have interpreted this as female apostles. The word translated "of note" has to do with notoriousness, either in bad sense like Barabas who was called a notorious prisoner or in a good sense as we see here. It doesn't mean that they were apostles on that they were well known among the apostles. Probably because of their kinship with Paul and being imprison with him. He says, they were my fellow prisoners and they were well known among the apostles.
I find it interesting that they came to know Messiah that before Paul because again that will explain you, how he in ignorance was so passionate against it. Again as just conjecture, I'm not going to go any further than that. Verse 9 says, Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Messiah and Stachys my beloved, Apelles approved in Messiah. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. I probable say that wrong. Greet Herodion, my countrymen. Greet those who are in the household of Narcissus who are in the Master. Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who have labored in the Master. Greet the beloved Persis who labored much in the master. Now, Tryphaena and Tryphosa these are two feminine names in the Greek and if it doesn't
have the "S" on the end that's probably a feminine name in the Greek. They were among the women who were working and using their spiritual gifts in laboring in ministry. We see in scripture ladies, Yahweh has an important role for you, if you're willing to adopt it and fulfill that. He acknowledges them. He can see the other work as being important. I say this because some people think Paul has a hang up with women or something. I hear that from time to time. Well, Paul has something against women. No he did not. He was even if agreeing them, acknowledging them and praising them for the work that Yahweh was doing through them. He found that there ministry was very useful and helpful. Verse 13 Greet Rufus, chosen of the Master and his mother and mine. Now he could be talking spiritual mother in the same way that, when Yahushua looked at John, he says behold your mother talking about his mother. He wanted John to take care of his mother. May not be literal but maybe spiritual so. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brethren who are with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, and Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The assemblies or congregations of Messiah greet in all this. Greet one another with a holy kiss was very common in eastern cultures. You might remember, remember that Judas betrayed Yahushua with a kiss. Right now, we're not talking about a deep kiss on the lips here, okay, but a kiss on the cheek as an expression of holy affection and love between brothers. Now, it was commonly practice in early church history. I haven't seen in practice very often today except I've know some of that on my congregations but in line of the admonition and there's other four other apostles wherein by Paul, he's saying, "Greet one another with a holy kiss." I'm sure it was quite commonly practice, when greeting brothers in the faith. Now, I know a lot of people will view this as cultural and to some extent yes, I see that. They would might say the equivalent today would be just a hand shake. It just seems to me that when we greet one another, we have to be a little step above the common greeting. I mean you greet everybody with a hand shake, but with brothers I mean we're family, right? It seems that our affection act to be above what's normal. We are all a part of the body in Messiah, right? We all are part. Our affection, I'm just thinking that the admonition here is good and our affection should be above was commonly, the common greeting. Psalm 2:11-12 says, Serve Yahweh with fear, rejoice
with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blesses are all those who put their trust on Him. The idea is not completely without scriptural spiritual support. How would I apply this in modern times?
As I mentioned sometimes I'll actually, I'll greet brothers with a kiss on the cheek, as certain brothers greet be that way as well. As people I know I'm not just anybody, but I do greet brothers with a hug. I mean sometimes the first time meeting them because I always just feel this kinship with believers, my brothers. Now, not so much sisters. I don't want to be inappropriate in anyway if they initiate maybe a side arm hug or something. I always thought it was normal because what I've always done with brothers, I came out of a time period brothers when I first came into this walk back in the early 1990s, I actually gave my life to Yahushua in '89. I kept my first Passover in 1990 and we always hug when we saw each other because there were so few of us, we're so happy to see each other. To me it was so normal but I learn in recent years and some people talked about this at our men's meeting at one of the festivals to be hosted in
Missouri that they were shocked I gave him a hug. They didn't know what to do with that but I'm thinking, you know, aren't we a family? I mean is this a family members do? I mean you even see sports figures doing this, hugging each other after a victory or something. I just seems to be ought to be. It just seems like we ought to be a step above the local car salesman. We're a part of a family. Now, the holy kiss thing we see are more reserved. I once met a brother who practiced this and whenever he did it, he got a little close here to my lips and I felt a little bit uncomfortable with it. I later found out he fell away from the faith and then I found out before he came to faith, he was struggling with homosexuality and he went right back into it after he fell away from the faith. That kind of thing, I mean it wasn't even in my radar with him that he would be thinking inappropriateness but in line of that I'm realizing more and more this kind of thing can actually be a stumbling block with a certain man.
Like I said, early on broadcast, I don't want to be a stumbling block to anybody. If you see this, it's even becoming more common in our culture. You can see the President of the United States coming to people and hugging them and things. It just seems to me, it should be call in place among us and don't want to be a stumbling block to anybody and maybe some brothers were uncomfortable with it for a one reason or another. Maybe some had been abused by older men when they are children. They're uncomfortable with affection. I don't want to hurt. I don't want to cause offense. By enlarge it seems like we ought to be one step above a handshake somehow, at least a warm hand shake or something. Anyway that's my thoughts on that. Verse 17, Now I urge you brother and note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Master Yahushua Messiah but their own belly and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. Now, there are certain people who are simply divisive. They have ulterior motives in their hearts. They're after themselves but you might never know
because they speak so smoothly and so commonly and they seem so gentle in their demeanor. I once had an experience like this. Local fellowship I was meeting with, we had a really great thing going. They're meeting each other's houses and fellowship was sweet and the families were all getting together so great. We're very like-minded and everything and there's this new family who's attending the meetings and he was a former pastor of our traditional church and I find out his wife was a co-pastor of the church and he seemed to be fairly spiritually minded. He started to become close friends with one of the brethren in the congregation.
He was smooth but anyway he started to speak against me. No, I had no desire to be the leader of the group. I did some teachings but I had no desire to be a pastor or anything. This man, he wanted to be the rabbi.
He had political aspirations. He would put me down secretly behind my back and whispered in other guys here and division began to happen. After I quit coming because of all those, it became really ugly. I just quit going and they started going into some things I felt were unscriptural. He wasn't done to when he was there he tried to be Mr. Rabbi of the group and the other people weren't totally on board with that, caused division there so then he was meeting them. He was down to one family left and then he ended up getting the hot for this guy's wife and running off with his man's wife and then he took that guy's wife. He took he's guy's house. He took his children away from him. They accused him of things that weren't true. It was ugly because we were not on guard against
divisions and offenses contrary to what doctrine we had learned. He was smooth as silk. I'll tell you what, he was smooth and I find out he got involved with other ministries and he did the exact same thing. We have to be on guard and if this family had the brother who was leading his family had seen the pattern. This guy is divisive. He's creating division here, here, here. With me he won't create division, wrong. He divided up his own family and caused his family to turn against him and his own wife left him and joined with this man. They walked around the local festival here, it was no big deal. I said to him personally I looked to him I said, "Where's your wife?" because he left his wife to be join this man's wife and he goes, "Right back here." I said, "That's not your wife." He said, "Yes, it is." I said, "You're a snake." I told him what he was because that's what he was because he was creating division wherever he goes. There are people in the body of Messiah and sometimes it's hard to tell because they're so smooth but their fruit, they're bearing is division where there should not be division. I learned this thing the hard way, okay? Where should there be division and where should there not be division? One thing I've learned to be on guard against is people who have what I call political aspirations. They want to have a following. They want to have people following them.
I'm on guard against that. If you want to go in the first study on this topic, I have actually two studies. They're both similar, sectarian and elitism. It's on the transcripts page if you click archives. The very top of eliyah.com and it'll take you to the transcripts page here, eliyah.com/transcripts.
There's two studies, one called sectarianism and elitism. I shared this study at a unity conference a couple of years ago. The next one here is one I did here from the broadcast building called "Exposing the Elitist, Sectarian Spirit" actually I think this is 2013 if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty sure it's 2013 but just check. Yes, it's 2013. This one here the 2013 say does go into more detail but the 2014 study has done in a form of congregation. I do have a little bit more of a different demeanor when I'm talking to a group than I am behind the microphone. I don't know what it is. It was also a shorter study but we went through that. We need to know the signs. We need to know the signs and recognize those causing division among us and avoid them as the scriptures tell us. He says to avoid them. Verse 90, For your obedience has become known to all, therefore I am glad on your behalf but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. We don't have to know all the ins and outs of how evil people can be but we do need to be on guard against them. The mighty one of peace will cross Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Master Yahushua Messiah be with you, Amein. Timothy my fellow worker and Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my countrymen greet you. The Elohim of peace, the Elohim the mighty one of peace will crush Satan under your feet and the king that Yahweh who is one who loves and promotes shalom and peace among their brethren will crush Satan on their feet and therefore will bring unity and peace instead of division. Now I find this kind of interesting that he said, you'll crush Satan under your feet because six or seven years after Paul writes this letter Nero begins persecuting believers and Messiah and killing them... He blame them for the fire that he, himself had set. Let me tell you. A few things I noticed, few things will unite brothers and sisters quicker than prosecution. All of a sudden we see a common enemy. All of a sudden all these little pettily things attend to divide people. It's freak at all that stuff. We got to get together. We become less finicky about the petty things that might divide people and realize that we did in each other more and more. Now, what about those who might cause division? The pretenders among us who aren't really sincere, you are looking for a following, looking who Elohim is their belly so to speak. Well, they're not going to be with us because they don't want the persecution. They're only pursuing their own interest anyway. The pretenders flee. The more serious ones remain. We find ourselves truly be at more peace with each other. By that seeing this crashed. While Satan is trying to destroy us was actually happening as he purging of the evil doers and the pretenders among us and by that we are at peace with one another against a common enemy. This was after the fall of the USSR.
There were some KGBA agent that stormed into a house congregation with their weapons. This is all right guys. All the pretenders, the ones aren't really believers, you go unlike half the people in the group left trying to avoid being persecuted. There were some who remain and refused to deny that they were believers. The men put down their guns and they said "Okay, we want a fellowship with you."
You never know. We have to be faithful to Yahweh, right. Persecution has a way of purging out the ones who aren't real, the ones who aren't really in it. The ones who are really in it they tend to be sticking with it and willing to die for their faith. Why do they want to die for their faith? That glorifies Elohim because when we're persecuted and we stand firm these people are going to know. What is it with this people?
It's speaks of the living and the true Elohim who is living in us. That maybe happening in our lifetime, so be ready. Romans 16:22-24, I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, who wrote this epistle greet you and the Master. Gaius mine host, and the host of the whole assembly, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city greets you and Quartus my brother. The grace of our master Yahushua Messiah be with you all, Amein. Tertius, if I'm saying his name correctly. Was dictating the words that the Paul epistle to own the right. This is very common I suspect it maybe again a maybe, because Paul had poor eyesight. I think he did because he mentioned one time he had a thorn in the flesh his body presence was weak. He mentioned another place, Galatians 4 he said, Because of his trial he thought that even in Galatians with poor poke out their own eyes and give it to him. He mentions he uses large letters when he writes. He used letter writers on his behalf possibly because of poor eyesight as it mentions here. Citation of Paul with my own hand which is a sign every epistles so I write 2 Thessalonians 3:17. This is Paul's final salutation here in verse 25 I think. I'm not a 100% sure. It's some beautiful words here. Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Yahushua. Now when He says my gospel it'll be like me saying what my Bible says this. He's not denying that this is the true gospel. But he is affirming that he has taken possession that was he has received it and he teaches it. A preaching of Yahushua Messiah according to the revelation of the mystery kept secrets since the world begin but now I may manifest and by the prophetic scriptures may known to all nations according to the commandment of the everlasting Elohim for obedience to the faith to Elohim alone wise, be glory through Yahushua Messiah forever. This good news Yahushua the Messiah had kept secrets since the world begin yet was spoken them in the prophetic scriptures.
In fact prophetic scriptures tell us that not everybody is going to believe the report but that He would enlighten the gentiles and many of the gentiles and so was made known to all nations. With receive him and it's a glorious plan really because Yahweh commanded this way because he's bringing to nothing the haughty among t[he Jewish people. He's going to bring the nothing the haughty among the gentile people. He alone as ultimately the one He was wise as His wisdom, He should be glorified through the Messiah Yahushua our master forever and ever, Amein. What's zero in here row briefly on this word, Amein before we close out our message today. There are some people who feel this word "Amen" you should not say it at the conclusion of the prayer or even say at all. They believe this word "Amen" is from some pagan language because it happened to be this Egyptian idol by the name of Amen-Ra but actually "Amen" in the Egyptian language is actually a mispronunciation of the idols name. An Egyptian and actually even Hebrew it's pronounced "AMOWN" not "AMEN." There is zero at a monological correlation between the two words. The correct pronunciation of this in Hebrew is actually it's not "AMEN" it's not "AHMEN" it's "ah-MANE" with the stress on that final syllable.
It carries a connotation of firmness and certainty. Its first usage in scripture actually is in the reference to confirming and ought back in numbers 5:22 and also the confirmation of curses that are given in Deuteronomy 27.
It can be found in the conclusion of a prayer in Psalms 72:19-20, and blessed be His glorious name forever and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen, and Amen. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. He ended with "Amen" and "Amen" that's how it's pronounced in the Hebrew language. Now, if you're praying with another person saying "AMEIN" is affirming your agreement with that prayer. We see in 1 Corinthians 14:16, otherwise if you bless with the spirit talking about speaking in tongues how will he who occupies a place of the uninformed say "Amein" that you're giving a thanks since he was not understand what you say. For these reasons I really think it's appropriate that we end our prayers with "Amein." Righteous been involve used it Yahushua and most manuscripts. Matthew chapter 6 ends the master's prayer that way. Remarkably these word "Amein" is from the same Hebrew word family "Emeth" which means truth kind of interesting. This "Amen" and there is "Ameth" both of the words are related to one another. There's a connection seen here when Isaiah 65:16 says so that He who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the Mighty one of truth. The Elohim of "Amen" in some translations. When we say "Amen" we're actually affirming as true. We say people say "Aymen" various congregations especially in the South. You may remember Yahushua actually said "verily, verily I say unto you" or "most surely I send to you" or "truly I send to you." You know the word he used there was "Amen", "Amen, Amen I say unto you." Actually if you look at the Greek manuscripts they did not translate it into Greek they actually transliterated it and you actually see the word "Amen" in the Greek text when they're quoting it. In fact out of 154 instances of this word "Amen" in the New Testament 109 are quotes from Yahushua. Maybe that's because Yahushua is the "Amen." Revelation 3:14 the messenger of the assembly of Laodiceans write these things says the Amen. The faithful, the true witness and Amen and faith
and true these are all from the same Hebrew word family. He's a true witness. He is the faithful witness. He is the Amen witness. The firm witness. The word has a sense of firmness and truth. The word "family" has to do with firmness and truth. That's not all. This word "Amen" is faithful or faith it actual the word "Emunah" is the Hebrew word for faith. "Amen, Amunah and Ameth" ameth is truth. Emunah is faith or faithfulness. Amen means truly so be it and so we close our prayer. Were not only affirming what was said to be true but we're saying in a sense with faith. This Hebrew word "family" actually carries the attributes of truth, firmness, affirmation, support, faith, fidelity, certainty and belief and they're all connected together. They all point to Messiah who is the Amen, the faithful, the Emunah, the Ameth the true witness.
Belief and faith, truth in Messiah are all necessary elements of our walk in our prayers. He is the living word. Yahweh's word is truth and worthy of our Emunah, our faith. When we close our prayers with Amein were saying we affirm these words in truth with faith and firmness. As Paul closes out his letter to the Romans as we end this segment. He closes out his prayer, his words with Amen. Why don't we do the same?
Thank you Yahweh for the abundant instruction we received from your throne, to the inspiration of a Holy Scriptures to the master Yahushua Ha Mashiach. The things you've written through Paul father Yahweh has been so amazing, so beautiful, and so incredible. We desire to know the height and the depth and the width to know the love of Messiah was passes all understanding. To disdain a little slice of your eternal wisdom and I pray Father Yahweh you will use these serious of teachings on the Book of Romans for your glory if there be even one false word that came out of my mouth that you had reveal it to me and I would correct it but Father these words are all true the best of my understanding they are. Use this to reach others hearts, to instruct, to help us understand and unravel some of the confusing parts that are in the Book of Romans. We thank you Father for opening up our ears to hear your wisdom to understand His words and context your words in context, in the context of the entire to council of your word from Genesis to Revelation. I pray father Yahweh that in spite of my failures and in spite of my weaknesses and in spite of my lack of obedience in my own life that you have mercy upon me and upon all of your people. As we your people the body of Messiah are not yet perfected but Father in spite of that, use these things to enrich us, to teach others, to share your word with the unreached those who have not yet known of the Messiah Yahushua all to
the praise of your glory.
To you who are able to establish us according to the good news of Messiah and a preaching of Yahushua Ha Mashiach who has revealed to us the mysteries kept secrets since the world began. Now being made manifest, the things with you spoke about in the prophetic scriptures that you have may known to us to the people from all of the different kinds of nations according to your commandment that we might be obedient to our faith, to you father Yahweh. You alone are wise. To you Abba Yahweh be long all praise, honor and glory and truly yours is the kingdom and power and glory and majesty forever and ever. Through Him by Yahushua Ha Mashiach we pray these things, Amein and Amein.
nicely into case. I think we're probably gonna develop a DVD series out of this broadcast as we are currently working on the health series as well. It's just I don't have the time that I like to have around here to do things. But it's something that I've been working on. Anyway, 12th segment, book of Romans verse by verse. We have gone through, all the way through chapter 14. We spent quite a bit time on chapter 14 in our former segment. And we're gonna being with the tail end of chapter 14. I want to kind of bring out a little bit different aspect of the thing that's being spoken of here in Romans 14. Actually, into verse 19 through 21, and also verse 15. But, it says here, let us pursue the things which make for peace, and the things by which we may edify another person. Our goal is to be in Shalom, to be in peace with our brothers, and to do things that would result in their edification, it's out of love, so that we can build up the body of the Messiah. It says, do not destroy the work of Elohim for the sake of food. All things are indeed pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended, or is made weak. So our goal is to build up the body of Messiah, not do things that would result in someone stumbling or falling or having a difficult time being faithful and obedient to Yahweh. We see, verse 15 earlier. It says, yeah, if your brothers grieve because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. You are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food, the one for whom Messiah died. As we talked about last week, this is all in reference to food offering to idols. Actually the worry here, meat has to do a sacrificial meat, and so is admonishing those in Rome to not grieve one another, to build one another up, and be sure that we're doing things that result in edification. Now, there's a principle here taught in Romans, I think, that we need to heed in our generation. We don't have so much the food being offered on the altar to idols and so on. But we do have, I think, something here that we can learn from. First Corinthians 8:12 says, but when you thus sin against a brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against the Messiah. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. Now, this can cover a lot of areas. We're talking about walking in love, okay.
For instance, if normally, you know, somebody would have a glass of wine with their meal, not to get a buzz or to get drunk or anything like that, but just as health reasons or some other reason.
But they know that someone is going to be coming to their home that evening for dinner, and that person has a weakness with alcohol. To be walking in love toward that person, that
evening, they should refrain from that glass of wine, because they don't want that brother who's joining them for dinner that night, to be caused to stumble. Alcoholism is rampant in our society today. It's one of the reasons I don't want anything to do with it. I don't drink wine or beer, anything, not because it's wrong necessarily, but I don't want my children to stumble, I don't want my wife to stumble, I don't want anybody to stumble. I don't want myself to stumble. I mean, how many millions of lives have been destroyed through alcoholism. So, I just refrain out of choice. But we see here, even in something that we might feel we have the liberty to do, we should not do it if we know it might cause someone else to stumble.
Now, as brothers and sisters in this walk, our goal is to edify, to build up one another, not be an agent for temptation, for tearing down the body of the Messiah. We don't want to be used by the enemy to bring temptation into another person's life. We need to walk in love, not sin against the brethren by wounding their weak conscience and causing them to stumble. Now, in the first century, eating might have been offered to an idol was one way of doing this. But another very common way of doing this can be found in our day and age. The most common way I see this being done is through believers choosing to adopt the immodest trestles. Now on the first century, I mean, women were covered for the most part. Maybe some of the high class women, or temple prostitutes or something, maybe not. But for the most part, people cover themselves. Those who had less clothing were considered to be poor and in need of financial assistance, clothing the naked and so on. But in our day and age, we have clothing styles that are of such that purposely less clothing, so as to allure men with the eyes. This is a form of pornography, in a sense. Only it happens to be live. We have, the latest craze is that women would show
cleavage in their chest. It started with the world and their desires for immodesty to allure. Now we're seeing it in churches, and even in some messianic circles. I'm noticing this tight shirts, tight pants, tight skirts, tight dresses. These are all being developed by clothing designers so that women can allure and gain the attention of men, and women will buy their clothing. It's so common place nowadays that women and girls may not even know that they are being a temptation for men. But we live in a sexualized, sex-crazed culture, it's just crazy. Fornication is so rampant and so common. I mean, surveys now tell us that more people think it's wrong to wear a fur coat than to commit fornication. More and more couples are living together and even raising children instead of getting married, to the extent that here in the United States, 4 out of 10 children who are born, are born out of wedlock. That's 1.6 million children who are born out of wedlock every year. In more liberal countries, say Iceland, 65%, vast majority of children are being born into a mother, there's a mother and a father who are not married. That's what it means to be out of wedlock. Now, in former generations, this was almost unheard of. But since about the 1960's, really even before then, it started to be more common. But it really started to get worse in the 60's. But believers in Messiah, I feel very strongly, should not be contributors to a culture of lust. Believers in Messiah should have a culture of purity building up, not tearing down. Congregations should not be placed where women are wearing the kinds of worldly clothes that provoke lust in the hearts of men. Now if a man chooses to lust, it's his fault and his fault alone. He cannot blame anybody else. He alone is guilty of his own sin. Don't get me wrong, he is 100% guilty. He cannot blame anybody else any more than Adam could blame Eve for handing him the apple, or not the apple, but the fruit. While the woman is not guilty of what the man has done, the woman is guilty of not walking in love. By principle, we should be pursuing the things which cause edification, the things of purity, the things that will build up, rather than the things that will tear you down. Otherwise, we are not walking in love, and she would be guilty of doing things that would cause another person to stumble or to be made weak.
I can tell you, a lot of men are struggling in this area. It is the era we live in. Everywhere you look, advertising, television, everywhere, lust sells. It draws the eye, it gains ones attention, and so, especially among us as believers who do not want to be agents for sin, but agents for righteousness, the body of the Messiah needs to rebel against the clothing styles of the world, and seek to dress in such a way that will not create temptation through the lust of the eye. Now, those who lead congregations tend to be all kind of wishy, washy and oh well, yeah. But what I'm seeing here in Yahushua's words to the assembly at Thyatira is, verse 20, in chapter 2 in Revelations. It said, nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow, you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality, and eat things sacrificed to idols. This is talking about temple prostitution and engaging in idolatrous things. I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality. She did not repent. Indeed, I will cast her into a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her, into the great tribulation, unless they repent their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the congregation shall know, I am he who searches the minds and the hearts. I will give to each one according to your works, to teach and to seduce. Women who have Jezebel's spirit are nearly always dressed immodestly. Not always, but most of the time. Jezebel's spirit has to do with seduction, spiritually in a sense of turning people away from truth. Here we see physically, turning people away from righteous conduct through the alluring. Ahab was faulted for this, for allowing Jezebel to
influence his decisions. First Kings 21 verse 25 says, there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness on the side of Yahweh, because Jezebel, his wife, stirred him up. He sold himself. We need to not be selling our self to the prostitutes of the world.
This thing, this kind of thing where, okay, you're not actually doing the thing yourself, but you're tempting others to do it, is called the doctrine of Balaam. Revelation 2:14 says, but I have few things against you because you have those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block,
to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. See, Balaam didn't actually do this himself, but he taught the king of this other country to send the women down to Israel, so that they will sin, and thy will fall out of favor with Yahweh, that's the doctrine of Balaam. As believers, we need to not have the doctrine of Balaam in our congregations. Because believe me, his doctrine is alive and well today. Balaam is speaking in the hearts of pastors, elders, and spiritual leaders saying, it's okay, yeah, those women are stumbling blocks. Don't send anything to them, it might offend them. They never teach modesty. But as believers, we need to walk in love.
When Yahweh told Israel completely wipe out the inhabitants of the land because of the danger of stumbling blocks and snares. He said, take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the habitants of the land we are going, lest to be a snare in your midst. Exodus 34 in verse 12, he says, don't have them in front of you all the time. Get rid of, don't have anything to do with, don't make covenants with them. But they did not listen, and what happened? The leaders did not lead, they made these people slaves instead, and they paid for it dearly. How does Yahweh feel if we ourselves are being a snare to Yahweh's people through the way we dress? We may not even realize that we are, because it's so common in our culture, this thing is normal. It's like going into some place in South America or somewhere all the women have no shirts on. The women think it's no big deal, everyone sees it as normal. Well I can guarantee you, the men don't feel that way. I can guarantee it. When Yahweh sees what we are doing, we need to be
very careful we are not imitating the devil, by creating temptations for others. But I think we're sort of like, nakedness, according to biblical standards, is not covering the area from the shoulders down to the knees. To expose that area of the body is considered nakedness in scripture. Women wearing shorts and things, they think nothing of it, because everybody else is doing it. But what I see in scripture is, that's nakedness. In the same way, walking around with no shirt on would be nakedness. But with our culture it's so common that we don't think it's all that big of a deal. But it is a sin against another person to be a stumbling block to them. When you sin against the brethren, and you sin against Messiah by wounding the weak conscience, and causing them to stumble. That's our responsibility. Their responsibility is not do the sin. Our responsibility is to not do something that would cause another person to stumble. In that case, it was food, our modern era, I really see it, the way women dress today. Yahushua is very serious about this, getting rid of the stumbling block in our congregations, to the extent, he even says this, he says, in the book Matthew chapter 13 verse 41, the son of man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom, all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness. Not only the things that those who are practicing lawlessness, but those who are creating this kind of stumbling block, these offenses in other, because they are imitating, whether they know it or not know it, they are imitating the enemy. I will cast them into the furnace of fire. There should be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now, I'm not trying to sit around here and condemn anybody for immodest dress. I'm saying, maybe you didn't know these things were in the scriptures. But they are there, and we have responsibility to bear up those who are weak, not tear them down. It's the very basic principles of walking in love. That's why it says in Romans 15, 1 through 2, we who are strong are to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. The word scruples has to do in the Greek with weaknesses. So many times I hear women say, well, some man's looking at me the wrong way, because of the way I'm dressed, that's their problem, not mine. Wrong. It's his problem, but it's also your problem. If you are dressing in such a way to provoke those things, you have a responsibility to bear with the weaknesses of the weak, and do things that lead to edification, rather than ever so proudly saying, that's their problem. The lesson here in Roman 14 is that we do have a responsibility for one another's spiritual well-being, we do. We are our brother's keeper. We should care about one another, we should care about loving one another. First John 3:14 says, we know we passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother, abides in death. It's serious. Romans 14:15 says that if your brothers grieve because of your food, or whatever may cause him to stumble, you are no longer walking in love. If something, it doesn't have to be4 food. I mean, if you want to look at the bible as some kind of legal code where okay, as long as it's just in the realm of food, I don't have to worry about it. Well, this has nothing to do with food Tom, please. The bible is all about principles, not just precepts. It's about looking at the reason behind something that's being said, the spirit of what's being said, not just the written word. He says, do not destroy with your food the one for whom Messiah died. I say, let's not destroy with the way we dress, the one for whom Messiah died. Think about that. Messiah had to die for that person. Look at all that Yahushua went through to save that person's soul, and what are we doing, are we tearing them down now, after all that Yahushua went through? Now, men can be a temptation for women, not necessarily with our dress, although it is also with our dress, and I believe we need to be just as modest as women. But usually, a little stronger way of temptation is through how the men would relate to her, especially young men relating to young women, or young boys relating with girls. If a boy, or a young man pays special attention to a female, gets emotionally involved with her, does special things for her, he is toying with her heart, which is very precious, and fragile in Yahweh's eyes. Men and young boys need to be very careful about that. You may not realize it, but there are young girls who are very weak in this area, they can become infatuated or have a, what they call a crush on young men who are doing these things. Brothers, be careful, you're not causing harm,
because we are called to purity, not just physical purity, emotional purity, save that for whomever Yahweh has chosen to be your wife.
Let each man have his own wife, let each wife have her own husband, and not interfere with the process. Brothers, you have to be careful you're not causing harm in how you treat women in certain ways, that cause them to be drawn to you.
Now, scripture says, we who are strong, ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, or the weaknesses of the weak and not the weak, and not to please ourselves like each of us pleases neighbor for his good, lead to avocation, for even Messiah did not please himself. As it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell upon me. Yahushua was not all about himself in his own image.
He was willing to be reproached in the eyes of the world. If you wear modest dress, he might be reproached.
But that's the way it is, we give of ourselves. We're not about pleasing ourselves. Besides, you're not the one who made you. Your body is not your own. Your body is Yahushua's body. He bought you with a price. I see so many people who, and especially on Facebook, young women, there's 50,000 pictures of themselves on there. It's like what is this all about, is this vanity? Is this all about you? Who is this about? Alluring eyes and immodest dress. You did not make yourself, Yahweh made you. He then should be glorified in whatever you're doing. Yahushua was willing to be reproached in the eyes of the world so that he might be the ultimate edifier.
Remember, everything Yahushua had to go through, in order to save your brother, or save your sister, now would you want to be the one that came in and did something to pull that very person in the opposite direction? I hope not. It is serious, it is very serious. We need to love and care about one another. Now, if there was anything that scripture taught me about Yahushua, I know that he was willing to undergo the worst kind of agony, so that we would be saved. We should not do anything, anything, that might
result in a person being pulled in the opposite direction. Verse 4, for whatever things were written before, were written for our learning that we might through, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.
In verse 5, now, may the mighty one of patience and comfort grant you to be like mind and toward one another, according to Messiah Yahushua, that you may be with one mind and with one mouth, glorify the mighty one, and father of our master Yahushua, Messiah, therefore receive one another, just as Messiah also received us to the glory of Elohim.
Rather than judging each other and putting each other down for whatever we're doing, let's instruct, let's admonish, let's build up, let's pursue the things which lead to edification. I want to say this, I'm sorry my sisters that your brothers are so weak, I'm sorry. In many ways, the clothing styles are the fault of the men. Because if the men said no, I don't want women to wear clothes like that, then women would have not pursued those kinds of clothing styles. They would have pursued clothing styles that were really what the men wanted. But the problem is, in our culture today, the men want to lust, and so, what happens? I fault the men for the whole problem, I really do. We're the ones that's supposed to taking the lead, and we're taking the lead in the wrong direction. We're not speaking up and saying, I don't like that kind of clothing. If we had a culture in the body of Messiah that said, I don't like that kind of clothing, I like pure, modest apparel, then what's going to happen in the body of Messiah? The women are gonna rise up, they're gonna grow up in a culture where, they're going to seek to wear the kinds of clothing that would result in getting the attention of men, which would be modest clothing. Wouldn't that be an awesome thing? It's not all about men, I understand that. To some degree, it's about what you prefer to like, what you happen to like to wear. Sometimes it's about what other women will think of you, and that can be a source of pride. You have to be careful about that. But our goal as a people, as a body of Messiah, is to build up, to undergird, to lift up, to edify like Yahushua did. Rather than judging each other for our weaknesses, and I'm sorry young ladies that this culture we live in is putting so much pressure on you because of your appearance. But your appearance is not what determines your worth. Yahushua already made the determination of your worth when he died for you 2000 years ago. Let him be who determines your worth, not the culture, not even congregations, let Yahushua be the source of your worth and your value, not the attention of any human being on the planet. Verse 8, now I say that Yahushua Messiah has become a servant of the circumcision for the truth of Elohim to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the gentiles might glorify Elohim for his mercy. As it has been written for this reason, I will confess to you among the gentiles and sing to your name. Again he says, rejoice oh gentiles with his people, and again, praise Yahweh, all you gentiles, love him all you peoples. Paul, and again, in the spirit of receiving one another, points us to the scripture that speak of how Yahweh desires for both Jew and gentile to praise and glorify him together as one people, that love him. We've talked about this already quite a bit, so I don't need to go over all these scriptures. But this is Yahweh's will, is that people of all nations, all races, all creeds, will come together as one people to honor him, and glorify him. In Verse 14, now I myself in conflict concerning you, my brethren, that you are also are full of goodness, fill with all knowledge, able to admonish one another. He knows that they're a mature group. He acknowledge that they're a mature group. Never less brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, reminding you, because of the grace given to me by Elohim, that I might be a minister of Yahushua Messiah, to the gentiles, ministering the good news of Elohim, that the offering of the gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. He was given grace, and so he was chosen to be a minister to the gentiles. His goal was that the gentile offering would be acceptable, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Now I shared on the previous segment, the Roman assembly seem to be more mature, had less problems, than what we say, you know, in First Corinthians. But though he was confident of the spirit to maturity, he just wanted to write more boldly, remind them of things, especially as a minister to the gentiles, who are turning their hearts to Yahweh. He wanted to see that they were getting good instruction, and he would reaffirm and remind people of these things. He, as a minister to the gentiles, was given a tremendous amount of wisdom, a deep level of knowledge. That was what the gentiles were sort of after. It says that, the Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach, Messiah crucified, the Jews, a stumbling block to the Greeks' foolishness. But to those who recall about Jews and Greeks, Messiah, the power of Elohim, the wisdom of Elohim, because the foolishness of Elohim is wiser than men, and the weakness of Elohim is stronger than men.
The gentiles of that era were very fascinated by knowledge and wisdom. They had their philosophers, and explained the mysteries of life. Yahushua imparted to the apostle Paul tremendous amount of deep wisdom, which can be twisted if read and misinterpreted by the wrong kinds of people. But Yahushua used Paul to explain to them, he went into great depth here in the book of Romans, to give them the deep things of Elohim, that they enjoyed. To counter the, so called, wisdom of the world that they had been trained in and grew up in. To expose those things as foolishness, because a lot of the Jews felt, or a lot of the gentiles felt, these things were just foolish, he called it. To the Greeks, it was foolishness that a Jewish man would die on a stake to save the whole world. To them that was just incredibly foolish. But as he explained the depths in Romans 6 and 7 and 8, all the depths of why these things were happening, it was beautifully, beautifully stated to see and to share wisdom. All right, so he prefaces these things by the statements here in 15, 12 and 13. Again, Isaiah says, there shall be a root of Jesse, he who shall rise to reign over the gentiles, in him the gentiles shall hope. Now may the mighty one of hope, fill you with all joy, and peace, and believe that you may bound in hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is prefacing these things in verse 14, being confident of the things he has taught them, and is reminding them to reach, his ministry is to reach the gentiles, to build them up, to edify them, to instruct them, in these deeper matters. Sorry I skipped that earlier. Looking back again at Romans chapter 15 in verse 17. It says here, therefore I have reason to glory in Messiah Yahushua, and the things was pertained to Elohim, for I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Messiah has not accomplished through me, in word, in deed, to make the gentiles obedient.
In mighty signs, in wonders. By the power of the spirit of Elohim, so that from Jerusalem, and round about to Illyricum, I have fully preached the good news of Messiah. Paul did not speak of anything above and beyond what he had been taught, he experienced himself, and the things that Messiah had accomplished through him. He only spoke from the things that the himself had learned and experienced through his relationship with Messiah. I have made up my aim to preach the good news, not where Messiah was named, lest I should build another man's foundation. But as it is written to him, to whom he was not announced, they shall see. Those who they have not heard, have not heard shall understand. For this reason, I also have been much hindered from coming to you. He was hindered from going to those in Rome because there were other people there, Priscilla and Aquila, were there, people that had already established congregations there. Now he's quoting here this prophecy in Isaiah, which I find pretty interesting. Because in Isaiah 52 verse 13 to 15, this is the messianic prophecy, it's saying, behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. Just as many as were astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man. His form more than the sons of men, so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at him, for when they've not been told, then they shall see, and what they had not heard, they shall consider. Paul was chosen by Yahushua to fulfill this messianic prophecy, him and others too. But in verse 15 we see, sprinkling many nations. Kings shutting their mouths at him. The Hebrew word translate as sprinkle here as actually only used in reference to the sprinkling of blood or sprinkling of water. Throughout the Torah, it speaks of the sprinkling of blood, as a cleansing agent. We know that the blood sprinkling obviously is because of Yahushua's shed blood for the cleansing of others, as it says here later in Isaiah 53, a few verses down. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened up his mouth. He was led as a lamb for the slaughter, as a sheep before it's cheer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and he will declare his generation, he's gonna do it, we are, for he was cut-off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people, he was stricken, and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, he died, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He put him to grief when you make his soul in a sham, in Hebrew, offering, for sin. He shall see his sea, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many. Justification, for he shall bear their iniquities. His death is predicted to result in the sprinkling of all nations, sprinkling of the gentiles. Yahweh used Paul as a servant to get the message of Messiah out to the gentiles. It's no wonder he was a bit forceful with Ananias here in Acts 9:13 where Ananias was told by Yahushua himself to go and meet with Saul that time. He said, master I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. Here he has authority from chief priests to bind all who call on your name. But the master said to him, go, go, he's a chosen vessel of mine, to bear my name before gentiles, kings and the children of Israel. He had a trifold ministry. But, this was the thing he had, gentiles and kings, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake, just as he cost others to suffer, he will be caused to suffer. This was all predicted in the prophecy of Isaiah 52. Paul was not the only one, but he certainly did quite a lot, being Yahweh's chosen vessel, he did, he did know things. He had tremendous amount of knowledge, he grew up under the feet of Gamaliel, a very highly respected Torah teacher, and Yahweh showed him, some amazing things. Now he had to testify before kings, it says there, and magistrates. We're gonna see here shortly, this is one of the reasons why he appealed to Caesar, but in Acts 25 verse 11 it says, for if I'm an offender, or I have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying. But if there's nothing in these things which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them, I appeal to Caesar, in his defense here. So then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, you have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go. He had a reason. He was called to bear his name, bear the name of the Messiah before kings. The prophecy in Isaiah 52 had to be fulfilled, and he chose Paul to do this, so he did, sprinkling many
nations, and kings shutting their mouths at him, it was all predicted in the prophets.
And it turned out that Caesar's household ended up coming to faith in Messiah. We see here in Philippians 4:21, it says, greet every saint in Messiah Yahushua, which is Paul riding from Rome, the brethren who are with me greet you, all the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. Caesars' household, Caesar's household. Now the emperor at the time of Paul's letter was Nero, Nero.
Now, kind of read between the lines here a little bit, you might think, well, okay, Nero had knowledge of this, he had to have known about it. Quite possibly, he was, maybe even enraged that people of his own household would become believers in Messiah. Maybe his servants or family members, came to receive the Messiah, and quite possibly, he couldn't say anything against it, so he just kind of let it go. Maybe word got around that some members of his household became believers, and maybe he was embarrassed by that. So, after he made the mistake of burning down the city, as we talked about on segment number one, he blamed the believers in Messiah, and maybe that would squelch any rumors that he himself had, any sympathy toward believers in Messiah. Now that's just a could be, but kind of reading between the lines kind of a thing, but it seems plausible, it's a possibility, because kings are said to have shut their mouths at him, and that's what happened when he testified to multiple leaders. Maybe that's all part of fulfilled prophecy. Now back in Romans 15 verse 22, it says, and so I've made up my aim to preach the good news, not where Messiah was nameless, I should build on another man's foundation, but as it is written to whom he was not announced, they shall see, and to those who have not heard, shall understand. For this reason, I also have been much hindered from coming to you. Because he wanted to go to places, as that scripture in Isaiah 52 said, to those who had not yet heard, so that that the scriptures might be fulfilled, and we can still do this today. We can go to the places where Messiah has not yet been heard of. We can go to places where the good news has not yet been preached, and that should be an exciting thing to do. One of the exciting things that we can do as believers in Messiah, because the scripture does say, the good news will be preached to all the world, and then the end will come. To be a part of that fulfilled prophecy is really awesome, and that's one of the reasons I like the internet. Because here I am from my chair, able to reach out to people all over the world. And I'm looking here right now, and there are people all over the world listening to this broadcast, and watching the broadcast. It's a blessing. Now, it's not the only way to do it, we have to go out in the trenches and reach people. But this is one way of doing it. He goes on to say, now, no longer are we having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you for I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you. If first I may enjoy your company for a while. But now I'm going to Jerusalem, to minister to the saints, and well, has the time of his riding, which is somewhere around late 50's AD, I guess, Paul had pretty much already, a priest and a multitude of places, and there were a number of congregations planted throughout Asian Minor. Paul is believed to have written this book of Romans, actually, while he was in Corinth, in Acts chapter 20 verses 3 through 6. He was actually revisiting a congregation at that time, it had already been established. Probably, he felt the freedom to go ahead and see other places that would have already been established as well. His next step then was to go to Jerusalem, minister there, and if you look at Acts 21, you find out he's falsely accused, he's arrested while ministering to the saints there. One of the reasons he's going there actually, was to bring an offering from various assemblies. He's talking about this here, Romans 15:26, pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among saints who were in Jerusalem. He's going toward Jerusalem, to administer to the saints with these contributions that he had gathered. It pleased them indeed, and they are debtors. For if the gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Now, we see here, gentiles consider themselves as partakers of the saints, what the saints had done in Jerusalem. That's where the leadership was, and they
want to return the blessing. They saw that as their duty, to minister material things toward those who had given spiritual things to them. This kind of echoes what Paul had said in First Corinthians 9, he said, do you not know that those who messed with the holy things, either things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar, partake of the offerings of the altar. Verse 14, even so, the master has commanded that those who preach the good news shall live from the good news. Paul was referring, was bringing its offering to the brothers and sisters of Yerushalayim. I am to bless them for their labors in getting the message of Messiah out to the whole world.
That's what happens. It pleased them in Macedonia to make a contribution, and provide the material things for those who had given them spiritual things. Therefore, when I had performed this, and have sealed them to them, this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. Paul planned to visit Rome after his visit to Yerushalayim, to Jerusalem, and that's actually what happened, but maybe not in the way that Paul expected. He expected, okay, I'm just gonna go to Jerusalem, and then he kept getting these warnings from brothers, saying, oh, they're gonna persecute you there. But he thought he would get free, or something would happen, he would make his way back up to Rome, or up to Rome to finally visit the people up there, many of whom he already knew. Because what happened is, he ended up appealing to Caesar, and so he ended up going, getting arrested and tried, and he appealed to Caesar. Then ultimately, Acts 28 verse 30, it says, Paul dwells two years, two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the king of Elohim, and teaching the things which concern the master Yahushua Messiah, with all confidence, no one forbidding him. During his two years, he is said to be under house arrest. Others had to come to him, and then he would share the good news with the kingdom there, and it happened that just as Paul wanted, but, so he ended up going to Rome, but maybe not the way he had expected or hoped. Now, this is actually the last two verses in the book of Acts. We don't know for sure all the things that took place after this. But commentators suggest that based on his letter, he was released and then later tried a second time,
and ultimately convicted and put to death, according to tradition. But some of those are speculation. But in the theory that Paul actually had two Roman imprisonments, does have some merit. For instance, Paul seemed to be anticipating his release in the book of Philippians, chapter 2.
Also, in another book, I'll actually quote this, I'm trying to remember if I quoted these too. I guess I didn't put them on there.
These other books that he's written, his epistles that he had written, he had anticipated his release. He actually asked in Philemon verse 22 that he said he wanted a guest room to be made ready for him. It speaks of Paul visiting Crete and Acropolis, which were two areas, there was no record of him visiting in the book of Acts anywhere. On Second Timothy, therefore may have actually been written during a second imprisonment, but it's not actually mentioned in the book of Acts. Verse 29 in Romans 15, it says, but I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the good news of the Messiah. Now I beg you brethren, through the Master Yahushua, Messiah, and through the love of the spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to Elohim for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judaea, who do not believe, and that my service for Yerushaliyam may be acceptable to the saints, but I may come to you with joy by the will of Elohim, and may be refreshed together with you. Now, the mighty one of peace be with you all, amein. Paul asked the believers in Rome for their prayers that he will be delivered from the Judaean unbelievers, who certainly had it out for Paul. Their prayers were apparently answered because, although it took an appeal to Caesar to get it done, it happened. They came to Rome. Sometimes Yahweh doesn't answer our prayers the way we expect. In fact, it looked pretty bad for Paul there for quite some time, but it turned out, he preached the good news every opportunity. May he share his testimony to the crowds in Jerusalem, after his arrest, and then to Sanhedrin. After his testimony to the Sanhedrin, Yahushua told Paul, he said, in Acts 23:11, he says, the following night, the master stood by him and said, be of good cheer Paul, for as you've testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome. That's why he appealed to Caesar. He shared the good news to Felix, the governor, and then two years later, Festus, the one who took his place, and then King Agrippa. King Agrippa actually said, he was nearly persuaded. Then he testified to the rulers of the people of Malta, as they fell, ship wrecked on the island, and the n the Jewish leaders in Rome, and finally, to Caesar. For a man who was imprisoned, he sure did a lot of preaching, and to some pretty important people in the process. Yahweh, so Yahweh ultimately did answer these prayers of the believers in Rome, but maybe not in the way it was expected. How many times I've had that happen in my own life. I'd be praying for something, and all of a sudden, something happens that with by all appearances eliminate that prayer from being answered, and yet, and the very opposite of what I prayed for seemed to be happening. But then all of a sudden, unexpectedly, I begin to see how Yahweh was going to answer that prayer through what was happening. It's just not the way I thought it was gonna happen, but it happened. That's kind of, he experienced is what I think a lot of us probably have. For you, you may be praying for something, and you're thinking, it's gonna happen a certain way, and he doesn't always answer things in the way that we expect. Sometimes it can be quite unexpected and how he answers things. So don't be discouraged at all. Anyway, moving forward to Romans chapter 16, he
said, I commend you to Phebe our sister who is a servant of the assembly in Cenchrea, that you may receive her in the master in a manner worthy of the saints, and a sister in whatever business she had need of you, for indeed, she had been a helper of many, and myself also. Now, because of how it's worded here, some people believe that Phebe was actually the one who delivered this letter to the Romans, and that's quite possible. He said, I commend to you Phebe your sister. But, you know, we're talking, in an earlier segment, as we went over Romans chapter 12, we're talking about spiritual gifts. Here is a woman who, had a position of prominence in a congregation, exercising her spiritual gifts of ministering and supporting Paul and the other apostles. He actually says, she has been a helper of many and of myself, also, so help her out in whatever, and however you're helping her, she will be helping me and helping others. We see this that women have an important role in the body of Messiah. We see also in Matthew 27:55, it says, and many women who followed Yahushua from Galilee, ministering to him. They were ministers, female ministers, ministering to Yahushua, where they were there looking on from afar, among whom are Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons. We see also Luke chapter 8 verses 1 through 3, is said, and it came to pass afterward that he went through every city and village, preaching and bringing glad tidings of the kingdom of Elohim, and twelve were with him. And certain women, who had been healed of evil spirits, and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene out of whom have come seven demons. Joanna, the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for him from their substance. Yahushua had an entourage of women who were ministering to him. They were not in the position of preaching, and teaching, but their function was nonetheless important. In every good army, every good army has the ones on the frontlines, doing battle, and the support troupes behind them. Without the support troupes, those on the frontlines would not be effective. Phebe, Mary Magdalene, the mothers of James and Joseph, Joanna, Susanna, many others were all supporters of those who were on the frontlines. Phebe, and also we'll see Priscilla, as we're gonna see here, as we continue reading chapter 16, they're all supporters in this ministerial effort among the apostles. In verse 3, Romans 16, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Messiah Yahushua who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the congregations of the gentiles. Priscilla and Aquila, they have been expelled actually from Rome, when Claudius expelled all the Jews. But they are allowed back in under the reign of the emperor Nero at 54AD. They were among the disciples in Corinth for a time, actually, if you read, Acts 18, it talks about them. But maybe they were converted possibly through the teaching of Paul. Verse 5, likewise greet the congregation that's in their house, greet my beloved Epaenetus who is the first fruits of Achaia to Messiah. Greet Mary who labored much for us, greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen, my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Messiah before me. Greet Amplias, my beloved in the master. Now notice that Priscilla and Aquila, they have this congregation in their house. They were hosting services in their home, and that's fairly common, actually, in the first century. They practiced the same thing in Corinth, First Corinthians 16:19, talking about Aquila and Priscilla and also had a congregation in their house there in Corinth and they continued that practice as they went back to Rome. Colossians 4:15, Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the congregations in his house. Nymphas had a congregation in his house. We see here in Philemon 1:1-2, Paul, a prisoner of
Messiah, and Timothy our brother to Philemon our beloved friend and fellowlabourer to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and the congregation in your house. Aquila and Priscilla were doing this. Philemon was doing, there's all these examples of house congregations. I choose to say congregation instead of church, and part of the reason I do that is because a lot of times people associate a church with the building, rather than the people in the building. We see here that the congregation is the people in the building and that's evidence by the fact that they met at homes. You don't have to have a special building in order to have a congregation or in assembly and we see that those in Rome simply met Priscilla and Aquila's house that was where they were apparently meeting. Now, down here in verse 7 it says, Andronicus and
Junias, my fellow, fellow countrymen and my fellow prisoners. They actually the word translated countrymen here, is also translated relatives eight times in the scriptures. Now, Aquila and Priscilla were Jewish, but you never see them called countrymen or any thing. It's quite possible, again I'm reading between the lines. I'm just talking theory here quite possible that He got upset and that's part of what was driving Junias, Andronicus were blood relatives of the apostle Paul and he knows that they were in Messiah before he was. I find that interesting, because maybe Paul had
his desire to persecute. some family members that converted to Messiah and maybe just as in theory rising Nero got upset.
Nowadays, you see somebody going down a wrong path and now in all the sudden near a missionary and gets whatever that wrong path is. That's how he was perceiving it anyway and so a persecutor of those who were going down that way. If he had relatives that it converted in King the Messiah before Him, that may explain why he was so passionate above and beyond those who were of His generation. Now I want notice here that it says, He's people are of note among the apostles. Some people have interpreted this as female apostles. The word translated "of note" has to do with notoriousness, either in bad sense like Barabas who was called a notorious prisoner or in a good sense as we see here. It doesn't mean that they were apostles on that they were well known among the apostles. Probably because of their kinship with Paul and being imprison with him. He says, they were my fellow prisoners and they were well known among the apostles.
I find it interesting that they came to know Messiah that before Paul because again that will explain you, how he in ignorance was so passionate against it. Again as just conjecture, I'm not going to go any further than that. Verse 9 says, Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Messiah and Stachys my beloved, Apelles approved in Messiah. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. I probable say that wrong. Greet Herodion, my countrymen. Greet those who are in the household of Narcissus who are in the Master. Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who have labored in the Master. Greet the beloved Persis who labored much in the master. Now, Tryphaena and Tryphosa these are two feminine names in the Greek and if it doesn't
have the "S" on the end that's probably a feminine name in the Greek. They were among the women who were working and using their spiritual gifts in laboring in ministry. We see in scripture ladies, Yahweh has an important role for you, if you're willing to adopt it and fulfill that. He acknowledges them. He can see the other work as being important. I say this because some people think Paul has a hang up with women or something. I hear that from time to time. Well, Paul has something against women. No he did not. He was even if agreeing them, acknowledging them and praising them for the work that Yahweh was doing through them. He found that there ministry was very useful and helpful. Verse 13 Greet Rufus, chosen of the Master and his mother and mine. Now he could be talking spiritual mother in the same way that, when Yahushua looked at John, he says behold your mother talking about his mother. He wanted John to take care of his mother. May not be literal but maybe spiritual so. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brethren who are with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, and Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The assemblies or congregations of Messiah greet in all this. Greet one another with a holy kiss was very common in eastern cultures. You might remember, remember that Judas betrayed Yahushua with a kiss. Right now, we're not talking about a deep kiss on the lips here, okay, but a kiss on the cheek as an expression of holy affection and love between brothers. Now, it was commonly practice in early church history. I haven't seen in practice very often today except I've know some of that on my congregations but in line of the admonition and there's other four other apostles wherein by Paul, he's saying, "Greet one another with a holy kiss." I'm sure it was quite commonly practice, when greeting brothers in the faith. Now, I know a lot of people will view this as cultural and to some extent yes, I see that. They would might say the equivalent today would be just a hand shake. It just seems to me that when we greet one another, we have to be a little step above the common greeting. I mean you greet everybody with a hand shake, but with brothers I mean we're family, right? It seems that our affection act to be above what's normal. We are all a part of the body in Messiah, right? We all are part. Our affection, I'm just thinking that the admonition here is good and our affection should be above was commonly, the common greeting. Psalm 2:11-12 says, Serve Yahweh with fear, rejoice
with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blesses are all those who put their trust on Him. The idea is not completely without scriptural spiritual support. How would I apply this in modern times?
As I mentioned sometimes I'll actually, I'll greet brothers with a kiss on the cheek, as certain brothers greet be that way as well. As people I know I'm not just anybody, but I do greet brothers with a hug. I mean sometimes the first time meeting them because I always just feel this kinship with believers, my brothers. Now, not so much sisters. I don't want to be inappropriate in anyway if they initiate maybe a side arm hug or something. I always thought it was normal because what I've always done with brothers, I came out of a time period brothers when I first came into this walk back in the early 1990s, I actually gave my life to Yahushua in '89. I kept my first Passover in 1990 and we always hug when we saw each other because there were so few of us, we're so happy to see each other. To me it was so normal but I learn in recent years and some people talked about this at our men's meeting at one of the festivals to be hosted in
Missouri that they were shocked I gave him a hug. They didn't know what to do with that but I'm thinking, you know, aren't we a family? I mean is this a family members do? I mean you even see sports figures doing this, hugging each other after a victory or something. I just seems to be ought to be. It just seems like we ought to be a step above the local car salesman. We're a part of a family. Now, the holy kiss thing we see are more reserved. I once met a brother who practiced this and whenever he did it, he got a little close here to my lips and I felt a little bit uncomfortable with it. I later found out he fell away from the faith and then I found out before he came to faith, he was struggling with homosexuality and he went right back into it after he fell away from the faith. That kind of thing, I mean it wasn't even in my radar with him that he would be thinking inappropriateness but in line of that I'm realizing more and more this kind of thing can actually be a stumbling block with a certain man.
Like I said, early on broadcast, I don't want to be a stumbling block to anybody. If you see this, it's even becoming more common in our culture. You can see the President of the United States coming to people and hugging them and things. It just seems to me, it should be call in place among us and don't want to be a stumbling block to anybody and maybe some brothers were uncomfortable with it for a one reason or another. Maybe some had been abused by older men when they are children. They're uncomfortable with affection. I don't want to hurt. I don't want to cause offense. By enlarge it seems like we ought to be one step above a handshake somehow, at least a warm hand shake or something. Anyway that's my thoughts on that. Verse 17, Now I urge you brother and note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Master Yahushua Messiah but their own belly and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. Now, there are certain people who are simply divisive. They have ulterior motives in their hearts. They're after themselves but you might never know
because they speak so smoothly and so commonly and they seem so gentle in their demeanor. I once had an experience like this. Local fellowship I was meeting with, we had a really great thing going. They're meeting each other's houses and fellowship was sweet and the families were all getting together so great. We're very like-minded and everything and there's this new family who's attending the meetings and he was a former pastor of our traditional church and I find out his wife was a co-pastor of the church and he seemed to be fairly spiritually minded. He started to become close friends with one of the brethren in the congregation.
He was smooth but anyway he started to speak against me. No, I had no desire to be the leader of the group. I did some teachings but I had no desire to be a pastor or anything. This man, he wanted to be the rabbi.
He had political aspirations. He would put me down secretly behind my back and whispered in other guys here and division began to happen. After I quit coming because of all those, it became really ugly. I just quit going and they started going into some things I felt were unscriptural. He wasn't done to when he was there he tried to be Mr. Rabbi of the group and the other people weren't totally on board with that, caused division there so then he was meeting them. He was down to one family left and then he ended up getting the hot for this guy's wife and running off with his man's wife and then he took that guy's wife. He took he's guy's house. He took his children away from him. They accused him of things that weren't true. It was ugly because we were not on guard against
divisions and offenses contrary to what doctrine we had learned. He was smooth as silk. I'll tell you what, he was smooth and I find out he got involved with other ministries and he did the exact same thing. We have to be on guard and if this family had the brother who was leading his family had seen the pattern. This guy is divisive. He's creating division here, here, here. With me he won't create division, wrong. He divided up his own family and caused his family to turn against him and his own wife left him and joined with this man. They walked around the local festival here, it was no big deal. I said to him personally I looked to him I said, "Where's your wife?" because he left his wife to be join this man's wife and he goes, "Right back here." I said, "That's not your wife." He said, "Yes, it is." I said, "You're a snake." I told him what he was because that's what he was because he was creating division wherever he goes. There are people in the body of Messiah and sometimes it's hard to tell because they're so smooth but their fruit, they're bearing is division where there should not be division. I learned this thing the hard way, okay? Where should there be division and where should there not be division? One thing I've learned to be on guard against is people who have what I call political aspirations. They want to have a following. They want to have people following them.
I'm on guard against that. If you want to go in the first study on this topic, I have actually two studies. They're both similar, sectarian and elitism. It's on the transcripts page if you click archives. The very top of eliyah.com and it'll take you to the transcripts page here, eliyah.com/transcripts.
There's two studies, one called sectarianism and elitism. I shared this study at a unity conference a couple of years ago. The next one here is one I did here from the broadcast building called "Exposing the Elitist, Sectarian Spirit" actually I think this is 2013 if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty sure it's 2013 but just check. Yes, it's 2013. This one here the 2013 say does go into more detail but the 2014 study has done in a form of congregation. I do have a little bit more of a different demeanor when I'm talking to a group than I am behind the microphone. I don't know what it is. It was also a shorter study but we went through that. We need to know the signs. We need to know the signs and recognize those causing division among us and avoid them as the scriptures tell us. He says to avoid them. Verse 90, For your obedience has become known to all, therefore I am glad on your behalf but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. We don't have to know all the ins and outs of how evil people can be but we do need to be on guard against them. The mighty one of peace will cross Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Master Yahushua Messiah be with you, Amein. Timothy my fellow worker and Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my countrymen greet you. The Elohim of peace, the Elohim the mighty one of peace will crush Satan under your feet and the king that Yahweh who is one who loves and promotes shalom and peace among their brethren will crush Satan on their feet and therefore will bring unity and peace instead of division. Now I find this kind of interesting that he said, you'll crush Satan under your feet because six or seven years after Paul writes this letter Nero begins persecuting believers and Messiah and killing them... He blame them for the fire that he, himself had set. Let me tell you. A few things I noticed, few things will unite brothers and sisters quicker than prosecution. All of a sudden we see a common enemy. All of a sudden all these little pettily things attend to divide people. It's freak at all that stuff. We got to get together. We become less finicky about the petty things that might divide people and realize that we did in each other more and more. Now, what about those who might cause division? The pretenders among us who aren't really sincere, you are looking for a following, looking who Elohim is their belly so to speak. Well, they're not going to be with us because they don't want the persecution. They're only pursuing their own interest anyway. The pretenders flee. The more serious ones remain. We find ourselves truly be at more peace with each other. By that seeing this crashed. While Satan is trying to destroy us was actually happening as he purging of the evil doers and the pretenders among us and by that we are at peace with one another against a common enemy. This was after the fall of the USSR.
There were some KGBA agent that stormed into a house congregation with their weapons. This is all right guys. All the pretenders, the ones aren't really believers, you go unlike half the people in the group left trying to avoid being persecuted. There were some who remain and refused to deny that they were believers. The men put down their guns and they said "Okay, we want a fellowship with you."
You never know. We have to be faithful to Yahweh, right. Persecution has a way of purging out the ones who aren't real, the ones who aren't really in it. The ones who are really in it they tend to be sticking with it and willing to die for their faith. Why do they want to die for their faith? That glorifies Elohim because when we're persecuted and we stand firm these people are going to know. What is it with this people?
It's speaks of the living and the true Elohim who is living in us. That maybe happening in our lifetime, so be ready. Romans 16:22-24, I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, who wrote this epistle greet you and the Master. Gaius mine host, and the host of the whole assembly, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city greets you and Quartus my brother. The grace of our master Yahushua Messiah be with you all, Amein. Tertius, if I'm saying his name correctly. Was dictating the words that the Paul epistle to own the right. This is very common I suspect it maybe again a maybe, because Paul had poor eyesight. I think he did because he mentioned one time he had a thorn in the flesh his body presence was weak. He mentioned another place, Galatians 4 he said, Because of his trial he thought that even in Galatians with poor poke out their own eyes and give it to him. He mentions he uses large letters when he writes. He used letter writers on his behalf possibly because of poor eyesight as it mentions here. Citation of Paul with my own hand which is a sign every epistles so I write 2 Thessalonians 3:17. This is Paul's final salutation here in verse 25 I think. I'm not a 100% sure. It's some beautiful words here. Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Yahushua. Now when He says my gospel it'll be like me saying what my Bible says this. He's not denying that this is the true gospel. But he is affirming that he has taken possession that was he has received it and he teaches it. A preaching of Yahushua Messiah according to the revelation of the mystery kept secrets since the world begin but now I may manifest and by the prophetic scriptures may known to all nations according to the commandment of the everlasting Elohim for obedience to the faith to Elohim alone wise, be glory through Yahushua Messiah forever. This good news Yahushua the Messiah had kept secrets since the world begin yet was spoken them in the prophetic scriptures.
In fact prophetic scriptures tell us that not everybody is going to believe the report but that He would enlighten the gentiles and many of the gentiles and so was made known to all nations. With receive him and it's a glorious plan really because Yahweh commanded this way because he's bringing to nothing the haughty among t[he Jewish people. He's going to bring the nothing the haughty among the gentile people. He alone as ultimately the one He was wise as His wisdom, He should be glorified through the Messiah Yahushua our master forever and ever, Amein. What's zero in here row briefly on this word, Amein before we close out our message today. There are some people who feel this word "Amen" you should not say it at the conclusion of the prayer or even say at all. They believe this word "Amen" is from some pagan language because it happened to be this Egyptian idol by the name of Amen-Ra but actually "Amen" in the Egyptian language is actually a mispronunciation of the idols name. An Egyptian and actually even Hebrew it's pronounced "AMOWN" not "AMEN." There is zero at a monological correlation between the two words. The correct pronunciation of this in Hebrew is actually it's not "AMEN" it's not "AHMEN" it's "ah-MANE" with the stress on that final syllable.
It carries a connotation of firmness and certainty. Its first usage in scripture actually is in the reference to confirming and ought back in numbers 5:22 and also the confirmation of curses that are given in Deuteronomy 27.
It can be found in the conclusion of a prayer in Psalms 72:19-20, and blessed be His glorious name forever and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen, and Amen. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. He ended with "Amen" and "Amen" that's how it's pronounced in the Hebrew language. Now, if you're praying with another person saying "AMEIN" is affirming your agreement with that prayer. We see in 1 Corinthians 14:16, otherwise if you bless with the spirit talking about speaking in tongues how will he who occupies a place of the uninformed say "Amein" that you're giving a thanks since he was not understand what you say. For these reasons I really think it's appropriate that we end our prayers with "Amein." Righteous been involve used it Yahushua and most manuscripts. Matthew chapter 6 ends the master's prayer that way. Remarkably these word "Amein" is from the same Hebrew word family "Emeth" which means truth kind of interesting. This "Amen" and there is "Ameth" both of the words are related to one another. There's a connection seen here when Isaiah 65:16 says so that He who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the Mighty one of truth. The Elohim of "Amen" in some translations. When we say "Amen" we're actually affirming as true. We say people say "Aymen" various congregations especially in the South. You may remember Yahushua actually said "verily, verily I say unto you" or "most surely I send to you" or "truly I send to you." You know the word he used there was "Amen", "Amen, Amen I say unto you." Actually if you look at the Greek manuscripts they did not translate it into Greek they actually transliterated it and you actually see the word "Amen" in the Greek text when they're quoting it. In fact out of 154 instances of this word "Amen" in the New Testament 109 are quotes from Yahushua. Maybe that's because Yahushua is the "Amen." Revelation 3:14 the messenger of the assembly of Laodiceans write these things says the Amen. The faithful, the true witness and Amen and faith
and true these are all from the same Hebrew word family. He's a true witness. He is the faithful witness. He is the Amen witness. The firm witness. The word has a sense of firmness and truth. The word "family" has to do with firmness and truth. That's not all. This word "Amen" is faithful or faith it actual the word "Emunah" is the Hebrew word for faith. "Amen, Amunah and Ameth" ameth is truth. Emunah is faith or faithfulness. Amen means truly so be it and so we close our prayer. Were not only affirming what was said to be true but we're saying in a sense with faith. This Hebrew word "family" actually carries the attributes of truth, firmness, affirmation, support, faith, fidelity, certainty and belief and they're all connected together. They all point to Messiah who is the Amen, the faithful, the Emunah, the Ameth the true witness.
Belief and faith, truth in Messiah are all necessary elements of our walk in our prayers. He is the living word. Yahweh's word is truth and worthy of our Emunah, our faith. When we close our prayers with Amein were saying we affirm these words in truth with faith and firmness. As Paul closes out his letter to the Romans as we end this segment. He closes out his prayer, his words with Amen. Why don't we do the same?
Thank you Yahweh for the abundant instruction we received from your throne, to the inspiration of a Holy Scriptures to the master Yahushua Ha Mashiach. The things you've written through Paul father Yahweh has been so amazing, so beautiful, and so incredible. We desire to know the height and the depth and the width to know the love of Messiah was passes all understanding. To disdain a little slice of your eternal wisdom and I pray Father Yahweh you will use these serious of teachings on the Book of Romans for your glory if there be even one false word that came out of my mouth that you had reveal it to me and I would correct it but Father these words are all true the best of my understanding they are. Use this to reach others hearts, to instruct, to help us understand and unravel some of the confusing parts that are in the Book of Romans. We thank you Father for opening up our ears to hear your wisdom to understand His words and context your words in context, in the context of the entire to council of your word from Genesis to Revelation. I pray father Yahweh that in spite of my failures and in spite of my weaknesses and in spite of my lack of obedience in my own life that you have mercy upon me and upon all of your people. As we your people the body of Messiah are not yet perfected but Father in spite of that, use these things to enrich us, to teach others, to share your word with the unreached those who have not yet known of the Messiah Yahushua all to
the praise of your glory.
To you who are able to establish us according to the good news of Messiah and a preaching of Yahushua Ha Mashiach who has revealed to us the mysteries kept secrets since the world began. Now being made manifest, the things with you spoke about in the prophetic scriptures that you have may known to us to the people from all of the different kinds of nations according to your commandment that we might be obedient to our faith, to you father Yahweh. You alone are wise. To you Abba Yahweh be long all praise, honor and glory and truly yours is the kingdom and power and glory and majesty forever and ever. Through Him by Yahushua Ha Mashiach we pray these things, Amein and Amein.