Him That is of Power To Stablish You
Romans 16:25–27
25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: 27 To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
We begin first by noting that there is a wonderful parenthetical structure to these verses. It begins first by the dedication of this gospel, “now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel”, and it concludes with the identity of the one to whom the gospel is dedicated, “To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen”.
What we have in these two segments are a parenthesis with the contents in its center to be that which is explained.
The Bible makes use of these sorts of parenthetical structures throughout. Many passages are framed this way, sometimes entire chapters and even books can be seen in this manner.
Genesis begins with the beginning of ALL life, and ends with a coffin in Egypt.
The Psalms begins with the blessed Man and concludes with the blessed God
The book of Matthew begins just prior to The Birth of Christ on Earth and Ends just prior to the ascension of Christ in heaven.
In fact, the entire bible might be considered in parenthesis with Genesis as the book of beginnings at the beginning, and Revelation as the book of the end at the end.
Beloved there is a marvelous structure to the Bible, almost crying out for man to read it and study it.
And just so we have with the final paragraph of this incredible epistle to the Romans.
25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel
‘Stablish’ defined: “From the 16th century there seems to have been a tendency to confine the use of the form ‘stablish’ to those uses in which the relation of the meaning to “stable” is apparent, i.e. where the notion is rather ‘to strengthen or support (something existing) than to found or set-up” OED.
Indeed, this seems to be the case. The Bible contains both the words, “Establish” (119 times) and “Stablish” (16 times), God seems to have a vocabulary that can employ both words.
On the surface, the words only differ in spelling, and so we naturally ask the question respecting purpose, ‘Why?’. If it is precisely the same meaning, why a different word so close in spelling and sound?
The reality is that they do NOT have the same meaning, God desires here to NARROW the definition of the word. While the word “Establish” can be everything from being founded and set up to having it settled, the word “Stablish” is specific in its meaning to make a thing or person “stable” “immovable”, “secured”.
1 Chronicles 17:12
12 He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever.
Here David had desired to build a house for the Lord, but God promises to both build him a house AND to make his throne STABLE for ever. Unlike the establishment of every other kingdom, his will not be moved.
1 Chronicles 18:3
3 And David smote Hadarezer king of Zobah unto Hamath, as he went to stablish his dominion by the river Euphrates.
David, already a king, desires to stabilize his dominion, to secure it. And indeed, we find he did so, his son Solomon has all Israel’s enemies subdued and peace reigned while he was on the throne.
Romans 16:26
25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel,
We have been born again, the original work of the Gospel of Christ and the forgiveness of our sins for eternal life, has already been set forth in us, it has already been accomplished, it was already established, but it is for God to keep us “Stable” in our faith, secure in the knowledge that we might be strengthened and not be overcome.
Colossians 2:6–7
6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
James 5:8
8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
Be settled, be stable, patient as you await the coming of Christ which draws near.
1 Peter 5:10
10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settleyou.
Given to us by Peter with synonymous clarifications!
What an incredible word, and what value it is to understand why the Lord had chosen to employ and retain it!
Now, how are we “stablished”?
We are first stablished according to the Gospel, “according to the revelation of the mystery” (v 25)
Stablished By Mystery Manifested
Romans 16:25
25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
The passage tells us that the gospel itself was a mystery, this is an incredible consideration;
the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
Notice the nature of the words, “the revelation of the mystery”.
It is an interesting concept in the Bible, because it was not that there was absolutely NOTHING in the Bible that spoke of the gospel, or the coming of Christ, or the way of salvation, in fact, it is now seen all through the scriptures of the old testament,
but not apparently, it was not yet “revealed” but kept secret, and yet it is indeed there.
Is it just “hindsight” or did God keep it secret another way?.
The scriptures and all that they are, point to Christ; Jesus said so;
John 5:39
39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Is it hindsight?
Hindsight certainly has the benefit of ease with which someone views history from the advantage of being at its end and looking back.
Someone said that hindsight is like a small creature sitting on the leaf of a huge tree with the desire to get to the trunk near the ground. It will move from the leaf to its small branch, then from that to a larger one, and that branch to a larger branch, each being a landmark to identify it is moving to the base of the tree.
It is infinitely easier to see the way from the leaf to the trunk than it would be from the trunk to the leaf. Easier from the benefit of history to look back as see how we got here, it takes another form of wisdom to see where we are going however.
Revelation of The Bible tells us exactly where the world is going, it is a perfect road map and we are watching all the landmarks pass by us we near the trunk.
Jesus testified to the enquiry of John the Baptist, are you the one that should come, or look we for another? Jesus responded;
Matthew 11:4–6
4 … Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: 5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed ishe, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
To the pharisees who doubted him Jesus said similar words again and again;
I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. (Jn 10:25).
Even Jesus own brothers did not believe on him until after he rose and ascended.
Both the people and his disciples themselves were confused at what he was talking about when speaking of his death.
Ought not the Christ abide for ever? (See Jn 12:34)
There are types and foreshadows of Jesus all through the Old Testament, but Jesus was not revealed until the moment the Veil of the Temple “was rent from the top to the bottom” (Matt 27:51), so obvious was this event that, “when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man” (Lk 23:47).
Paul wrote of the purpose of this mystery and why it was that it should not be revealed until the time purposed by God.
1 Corinthians 2:7–8
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
God had not yet revealed the truth of it, even though the truth of the mystery was in plain sight.
It was seen in their Law, in their Sacrificial system, In their Temple…When Jesus said “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”, he was not doing so by accident, he spoke of his body (Jn 2:19-21), it was as if the entire Temple structure he claimed to be a metaphor for he himself.
So too it is with all the temple furniture, and especially the Holy of Holies where the High Priest alone went once per year to enquire of God, yet the death of Christ tore the veil separating that Holy Place from the people; The Book of Hebrews teaching that the Veil in the Temple, was a figure of his flesh now given to the people, that ALL may go direct to the father in Prayer (Heb 10:20).
- But not only this, Jesus is the Passover of Exodus 12,
- he is the Scapegoat of Leviticus 16,
- he is the unblemished lamb of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and 1 Peter,
- he is the beloved son given as the offering in Genesis 22
- he is the burning bush of Exodus 3;
- The Captain of the Lords host in Joshua 5
- He is the Angel of God who went before the camp of Israel in Exodus 14.
- He is both our high priest, and our city of refuge, Numbers 35 & Joshua 20
Beloved, I could go on and on with all the allusions of Christ and that gospel in which we have been established;
all WAS a mystery, UNTIL he came, UNTIL he died, and UNTIL he rose again.THEN it was REVEALED!
I DON’T BELIEVE IT IS HINDSIGHT!
the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
Turn to Ephesians 3 where Paul gloried that he should be the one to preach these unsearchable riches of Christ;
Ephesians 3:8–11
8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 And to make all men see what isthe fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
Beloved, even this Gospel was that which the angels of God had desired to look into.
YOU ARE STABLISHED BY THE POWER OF HIM WHO REVEALED THE MYSTERY
STABLISHED BY THE MYSTERY MANIFESTED!
Are YOU Stablished YET? Are you confident you are saved? Do you know for CERTAIN your place is reserved in heaven?
Are you overcome by sin so much so that you no longer know?
God alone can STABLISH you.
As he held back the wisdom from those who denied him, so he revealed it to those who desire him!
Stablished By Scriptures Spoken
25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets,according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
From Abel to Zacharias was the gospel of God preached by the prophets, yet are they manifested ONLY through the preaching of the disciples through the commandment of Christ.
God shows through his word that he does not make decisions on the go. He does not sit there and watch how things are panning out and wonder what he is going to do next. Satan works through trial and error, NOT GOD.
We are STABLISHED BY THE SCRIPTURES SPOKEN long ago by the Prophets that we might have faith in knowing we shall not be ashamed.
It is these very scriptures that convert the soul. The word of God, so plain, so clear, so evident to us now as we see Jesus almost on every page.
There was a time before we believed the Gospel that we could not even see the reality of God. We were blinded by our own denial;
“for the righteousness of God was revealed from faith to faith” but then “…the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrightousness of men, who HOLD THE TRUTH IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS” Rom 1:17-18
Why was it that I could not see the reality of God when I was a seventeen year old school boy, yet a sixteen year old school girl could see him so clearly she was able to say to me, “open your eyes and look around”?
So it was with the manifestation of the scriptures of the prophets. Those who believe the Gospel are STABLISHED BY THE SCRITURES SPOKEN.
Let’s consider just a handful from the second last book of the Old Testament written some 400 years before Jesus.
Turn to Zechariah 9
Zechariah 9:9
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
Zechariah 11:12–13
12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
Zechariah 12:10
10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Zechariah 13:6–7
6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.
Zechariah preached after the return of the Jews from their exile into Babylon.
Now if they kept these scriptures alone in their hearts, and passed them down through the next few generations, their children would ALL have recognized Jesus, for the SCRIPTURES WERE SPOKEN to them and read by them.
What of you?
Four hundred years before Jesus every walked the shores of Galilee or climbed the mountains of Judea, THE SCRITURES SPOKE OF HIM. Will you believe it?
God also knows what comes AFTER life. He spoke of Jesus before he came, he speeks of your sin and its consequence now, will you believe him?
NOW is the time to consider of it, as SO MUCH more of the truth of the Bible is being manifested in OUR VERY DAY.
Beloved, there was always going to be a day that the time of the signs would come; is it so strange to you that those days should be fulfilled in YOUR LIFETIME?
Never have we had such a convergence of events pointing to the same list of signs spoken of by Jesus so long ago, ARE YOU GOING TO MISS IT as the Jews did when Jesus came the first time?
Children, what if you come home one day and mum and dad are gone? Caught up to be with the Lord before that great and terrible day?
Husbands, what if your wife and children are gone?
Wives, what if that is true of your family but not you?
Beloved, Christ is coming again, but not as Christ (Messiah), for this time he comes to judge the quick and the dead, ARE YOU READY?
Many are not.
But for those who are, you are STABLISHED BY SCRIPTURES SPOKEN so long ago.
Stablished By Published Proclamation
26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
Her father was a king and she was the most beautiful of all his daughters.
She was loved and desired by one who made a promise to give her a gift if she would comply with his desires. She accepted the proposal and after receiving this gift she refused to comply with the original terms of the agreement.
The gift, as legend tells us, became cursed as a result. Cassandra would be able to tell of all future prophesies concerning her people, but she was cursed to never be believed.
It always interests me to see the pagan world make stories around truths we find in the Bible.
God had sent one prophet after another to his people, and they would speak of things to come and give to the people opportunity to amend their ways that those things may be averted, and, beginning at Moses, the people simply refused to believe.
The PUBLISHED PROCLAMATION had the effect of securing some but destroying others.
Much like the Cassandra of Greek Mythology, the prophets were often murdered by the people they came to warn. Only when the results of rejecting the prophesies came to pass and the people suffered under the yoke of them, did they finally turn back to God and believe him.
BUT THOSE WHO BELIEVED THE PUBLISHED PROCLAMATION WERE STABLISHED.
Unlike the gods of mythology, the God of the Bible is NOT capricious, you can know him and in the knowing of him he is predictable as to his character.
“For I am the Lord, I change not…” (Mal 3:6)
The pagans fall down to imagery they craft with their own hands, they plead with inanimate wood, stone and metal to deliver them, they fall down to the stock of a tree. THESE ARE VANITY AND IMAGINATIONS.
GOD TELLS US WHO HE IS
Turn in your Bible
Isaiah 46:5–11
5 To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like? 6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship. 7 They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. 8 Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. 9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, andthere is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: 11 Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
A public proclamation has gone out into all the world to believe the Gospel. God had sent it out by his prophets of old time and since the time of Jesus Christ, man has had both sense and sensibility to know the revelation of the mystery “kept secret since the world began”, mankind has NO EXCUSE.
The reason you are STABLISHED BY PUBLISHED PROCLAMATION is that you chose to believe that which was spoken by the prophets, AND YOU ARE SAVED BY FAITH.
There are a thousand Cassandras in the world today, warning truthfully about what they see coming upon the world. Some of them speak of it directly from The Book, others simply recognize the sign of the times.
They saw plainly behind the thin veneer of the recent pandemic and they cried out to warn the world.
They have pulled back the Wizards curtain to reveal Central Bankers pulling leavers, and shouting out their “forward guidance” to manipulate markets, all the while hiding the cracks the in largest financial dike the world has ever seen.
And multitudes of GODS PEOPLE; people who don’t have a “YouTube” channel, people who don’t look for Instagram fame, people who have a name that only God knows, are one by one telling people of the soon coming of The Lord to judge the quick and the dead.
Unlike Cassandra, their words have the power of the everlasting Gospel behind it. No man will be bewitched into disbelief, but will choose of his own will to believe or reject this PUBLISHED PROCLAMATION found in the Bible and spoken by those charged to reap the harvest.
Why? Because;
That which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith
Dear evangelist, don’t be fooled into believing that the words you share of God are cursed to never be believed, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER his words SHALL NEVER RETURN TO HIM VOID, but it shall accomplish that which he pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto he sent it (Isa 55:11).
Stablished By The Wisdom of God Through Jesus Christ
25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: 27 To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
Only God could have such wisdom as this. No man could ever have conceived of such a way in which both the hearts of man can be made manifest, and the hope of eternal life found.
Matthew henry notes of it simply saying;
This bespeaks the honour of the gospel; it is no vulgar common thing, hammered out by any human wit, but it is the admirable product of the eternal wisdom and counsel of God, and has in it such an inconceivable height, such an unfathomable depth, as surpass knowledge.[1]
The simplicity and depth of the Gospel could never have been devised by human imagination.
Paul wrote of how the gospel manifests the heart of man, it is able to break through all human wisdom and speak directly to the heart. Turn to
1 Corinthians 1:18–25
18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Can it truly be possible, can all my sins be washed away simply by believing the Gospel? Is it true that eternal life is mine simply by faith in what Jesus had done?
The answer is yes, a thousand times YES. IT IS THE WISDOM OF GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.
It is a gospel, THE GOOD NEWS, that separates the light from the darkness, that separates the wicked from their sins, that gives hope to the contrite and justice to the damned.
It is a discerner of the intent of the heart, able to slice through the even between the joints and marrow.
The Gospel brings to the surface the state of the heart,
- it convicts,
- and it crucifies the motives of man
- and it manifests its reality in the heart of every creature who hears it.
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- This is that gospel that you have been established in,
- this is that gospel that stablishes you and keeps you.
What a firm foundation, what a blessed hope you have looked for and found, what a glory and a joy and what else is there for man to have and to enjoy?
NOW TO YOU, you who are yet WITHOUT HOPE, you who stand on the precipice of eternity holding onto a line no stronger than a spiders web, WHAT WILL KEEP YOU FROM FALLING????
You walk even now over a pit with a covering so shallow that you could fall through into hell before this sermon is concluded.
You walk in darkness day after day, you pass volcanoes spewing the lava from the lake of fire under your feet, yet somehow you still think you will escape it.
You still think that you have planned a way that will avoid judgement….no, that will even avoid death?
Every sin adds to your weight pulling you down, it’s a wonder you have not fallen yet, YOUR OWN WEIGHT IS WORKING AGAINST YOU.
You’ve seen others fall, you have all known the death of someone, you have all the evidence of history to show you that you can’t get out of life alive.
There was one, ONLY ONE, who came back from the dead IN HIS OWN POWER, one for whom the Prophets speak and is written in this Book, whom we are told by the eternal wisdom of God, died for your sins and all you need do is believe him.
It seems foolish on the surface; how can I have heaven after all I have done? How can I be forgiven for all I am? Yet that is what the Bible teaches.
“What must I do to be saved?” was the question asked by the guard who kept the prison that housed the man charged to reveal this gospel to all the world, Paul.
The answer was given in Acts 16:31, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Not only the prison guard, but all his house would be affected with life everlasting.
IF YOU ARE SAVED BY THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST FOR YOUR SINS, YOU SHALL NEVER FALL, HE WILL KEEP AND PRESERVE YOU.
HE ALONE HAS THE POWER TO STABLISH YOU!!!
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
[1] Henry, M. (1994) Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume. Peabody: Hendrickson, p. 2243.
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