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I want to welcome you to day four of our look through Romans chapter 16 and
daily drive time devotions. We're going to be looking at verses 21 to 24 today.
Paul begins some greetings in these verses, some very simple greetings from the
people that he was with for the people in Rome.

This again is a section of the book of Romans that often gets ignored, in fact
maybe even more ignored than what we read earlier, the greetings that Paul gave
to Rome. Here we come to the end of the book and many times when people get to
the end of one of Paul's letters, it's almost like the credits at the end of a
movie. When you go to a movie and the credits start rolling, everybody gets up
and leaves and by the end of the credits, there's no one left in the movie.

We get to the end of one of Paul's letters, we think, "Well, he said this
before. These are the kinds of things he says at the end of every letter," and
so our mind sort of checks out and although we're reading the words, we don't
really see what's there. Well, the value of a study of the Bible together is
that I, like you, am forced to look at these verses a little bit more closely
and when you do, of course there's great meaning in them.

So, Romans chapter 16 verses 21 to 24 says this, "Timothy, my fellow worker,
sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius, Jason, and Socipator, my relatives. I,
Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord; Gaius, whose
hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, send you his greetings; Erastus,
who is the city's director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you
their greetings. " And then verse 24 says, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all.

" Amen. Now, before looking at these names, we should really look at verse 24
first because if you're looking in many Bibles, you'll see verse 24 just has an
asterisk and there's no words there. So, we should talk about that.

In fact, this is one of a few verses in the New Testament where you'll see that.
It's not there in many Bibles. Does that mean that somehow I can't trust the
Bible, that there are some verses that don't belong in the Bible?

What is this all about? How did this happen? Well, there are some verses that
were included in the numbering of the original King James Version where the
verse was not in the original Greek manuscript.

The manuscripts they had in that day had a note that they put in as a verse, but
in the original Greek manuscripts, those were not in that manuscript. There was
nothing heretical in these several verses in the New Testament where this
happened. They were just comments like this that weren't there in the original
but that were, in King James Day, thought maybe to be a part of the Bible.

We've discovered more and now we know that those verses weren't in the original.
Some people look at that and it really bothers them. They think, "Wow, can I
have faith in the Bible then?

" Well, of course you can. In fact, it says to me you can have even more faith
in the Bible. You have faith in the fact that good, strong study has gone into
what is the original New Testament.

What is the original Old Testament? And then a translation of that. If
Christians were trying to hide things, they'd pretend that this never happened.

We'd go ahead and put verses in and we'd pretend that the original was always
there just because there happened to be a verse number. But we have enough
confidence in God's Word to realize that although the Bible is perfect, it's
absolutely perfect, translators are not. And since the days of the King James
Bible, there have been literally hundreds of new manuscripts found.

And with this great confidence that we have in the originals, we can have a
strong, strong idea of what the translations are. How do I know, by the way,
that some translator just didn't slip in today some verse that's not supposed to
be there or some words that aren't supposed to be there? Well, here's how you
know.

Translations of the Bible today are done by 100 or so people. There may be 90,
there may be 100, there may be 120 translating something like the New
International Version or the New Living Translation. And so these scholars get
together and compare translations to make sure it is the most accurate to what
was originally written.

Because everything we're reading today is a translation of the original Greek.
By the way, these scholars who translate these Bibles for us, their ministry is
a little recognized in the church today, but it is of incredible worth. Because
there are so many of them and because they work together with such great
tenacity, such hard work and faith, I'm able to pick up a Bible today and read
it with the strongest confidence that it is expressing to me in English what the
original Greek said.

It took a while to talk about that, but I know it's a question a lot of people
have, so I wanted to answer it. Now to the parts that I really want to look at
in Romans chapter 16 verses 21 to 24, the names. Paul talks about the people
that were around him that sent greetings, and he starts with a name that's very
familiar in the New Testament.

He talks about Timothy. Timothy was Paul's son in the faith. There are two books
written to him in the New Testament.

So, obviously a very familiar name. As you read this name, Timothy, it is
significant to remember that Paul surrounded himself with many others who were
seeking God's will. It's also significant to remember that Paul and Timothy were
very different men.

Paul's problems came because he was bold to the point of being brash sometimes
and pushing people away. Timothy was a different man. His problems came because
he was gentle to the point of being timid, and he had to fight that in his life.

Here's the amazing thing. Paul didn't need to become a Timothy, and Timothy
didn't need to become a Paul. They just both needed to see how God could turn
their weaknesses into strength because God had made them both differently to
have different ministries and a different impact on the world.

Timothy's listed here. And then in verse 22 it says, "I, Tertius, who wrote down
this letter, greet you in the Lord. " Paul obviously allowed him to pen this in
his own words.

Tertius, by the way, means three. It means third. It was a slave name.

Oftentimes, in the Roman Empire, the slaves would be named simply by numbers.
"Oh, you're number one. You're number two.

You're number three. You're number four. " In the next verse, we're going to see
a Quartus, and that means number four.

As you hear that name, Tertius, you ever feel like you're just a number? Maybe
at work this week? Maybe in the world?

Just one of the billions? Here's a guy who could have felt like just a number.
His name was a number.

And God used him. God used him to write down the book of Romans. Paul usually
had a scribe because he had some kind of physical problem that made it difficult
for him to write.

It might have been a vision problem. We don't know for sure. But for whatever
reason, he usually used a scribe.

And Tertius was the scribe for the book of Romans. That meant that as the Holy
Spirit revealed these perfect words to Paul, he had the privilege of writing
these perfect words down. You ever feel like you're just a number when you're
going through the details of life, doing the details of life, just going through
the paces you feel?

You think this isn't that important, it's just a small thing? Here is a man,
Tertius, who in the details of life, simply writing down words as Paul said
them, here's a man who in the details of life did the most significant thing in
his life. You're not just a number.

God knows your name. God has a plan for your life. So read through Romans 16 and
verse 23, Paul mentions three men, Gaius and Erastus and Quartus.

It's interesting to notice the different levels of society that these men came
from. Gaius was apparently a leader in the church. He talks about the
hospitality that the whole church enjoyed.

He may very well be the Gaius in 1 Corinthians 1. 14 that Paul won to Christ and
was a leader because of that. Then he talks about Erastus, who was a leader in
politics, the city director of public works, and then he talks about Quartus,
who was probably another former slave, a leader in the church, a leader in
politics, a former slave, all together in the family of God.

The good news reaches to every person. It reaches into every strata of society
and it breaks down the divisions, the walls that separate us. It's good news
that Jesus Christ can use you to make a difference.

It's good news that the good news has reached me so that I can hear and that my
life can be changed. As we pray today, I'd like to thank God for the fact that
he has a plan for our lives. You might just say, "Jesus, I thank you that I'm
not just a number, one of the billions in this world.

I thank you that you know my name. You have a plan for my life. " Forgive me,
Jesus, for those times when I think I have to do some great, noticeable thing,
some large thing, some big thing, to really serve you.

Serving simply means I do what you ask me to do, and sometimes, like Quartus,
it's in the details of life that I might end up doing, unbeknownst to me, the
most significant service in my life. And so Jesus, help me to know today, what
is it that you want me to do? Who is it that you want me to serve?

What small thing could I do, maybe that no one else notices, but that you could
use to make a difference in someone's life, that you could use to make a
difference in this world? Help me to know today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Well tomorrow we're going to end this chapter, chapter 16, and we're going to
end our look at the book of Romans with a look at verses 25 to 27.