Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Romans chapter 1, the chapter
that we read, and reading from our text, verse 16. And just the first part, really,
of verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, For it is the power of God unto salvation to every
one that believeth. The verse goes on to the Jew
first and also to the Greek. Then verse 17 joins with it really
as well. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Romans 1 and verse 16. Now of course verse 17, the statement,
the just shall live by faith, is what God used in Martin Luther's
case to clearly show him that salvation is by faith in Christ
alone, and not by works of righteousness that we have done. The Apostle, when he writes to
the Romans here, develops this theme and this teaching right
through the epistle, really. And so we have further statements. We have a statement in chapter
10 and verse 11, For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on
him shall not be ashamed. And because the scripture says
that, the verse 10, for with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And those scriptures,
that's are referred to, they are in the Prophet Isaiah. Prophet Isaiah in chapter 45,
again verses 16 and 17. They shall be ashamed and also
confounded, all of them that shall go to confusion together
that are makers of idols, but Israel shall be saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation, ye shall not be ashamed, nor
confounded, world without end. And then in the 49th chapter
of Isaiah, we have in verse 23, and kings shall be thy nursing
fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers. They shall bow
down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up
the dust of thy feet, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord,
for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. Wonderful and
beautiful promise, they shall not be ashamed that wait for
me. And may we be of those that wait
for the Lord, that are not ashamed in the Lord and in his word and
in the gospel. Really, this is a personal testimony
of the apostle. And may we also have such a personal
testimony. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. And he is able to Give a reason
for that as well, for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth. So I want to look with the Lord's
help this evening, what we are to be ashamed of first. And then secondly, what is the
gospel that is spoken of here that the Apostle is not ashamed
of what is the Gospel? And then thirdly, why? Why Paul
was not ashamed of it? And he gives the reason here,
and we may gather other reasons as well, but specifically this
reason here, for it is the power of God and his salvation to everyone
that believeth. But I want to consider it in
the other way first, what we are to be ashamed of. Always a good thing to go back
to the first time things are mentioned or set forth in the
holy word of God. And when God created man, he
made them male and female, and we read that they were naked
and they were not ashamed. Before sin entered into the world
and death by sin, the man was not ashamed of his nakedness. But then when sin entered into
the world, when our first parents disobeyed God, when they believed
Satan, that God was keeping them back from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, for an ulterior motive, because he knew that
they should be as gods, knowing good and evil, and that Eve took
the role above Adam, who was her head, and took of that fruit. And also we think of Satan completely
bypassing Adam, whom God had made first, and made head over
Eve. Therefore, with Satan, a very
direct attack against our Lord, and with Eve, taking up with
that suggestion which was bound up with slighting and blackening
the Lord's name. And yet she was in innocency
then, and willingly, openly partook of the fruit. And in that rebellion
and in that sin, that sin then entered into the world, and death
by sin. Our Lord's command was, in the
day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. He'd already
told them the sentence, and that was immediately enacted in spiritual
death, and it was in due time. And in Adam and Eve's case, many
hundreds of years, but Abel's not so long, but death should
then usher the soul to return back to God and the flesh back
to the dust from whence it was made. But that soul then returning
to God, we must stand before the judgment seat of Christ and
must give an account. And after death then there is
the judgment and after judgment there is eternal death. The sentence is death. The gospel
is to usher in life. It is to proclaim the opposite
of death. It is to proclaim life. But we
see the immediate effect of sin entering into the world that
Adam and Eve were then ashamed. And when the Lord came to walk
with them in the Garden of Eden, They sought to cover themselves
with fig leaves and to hide from the presence of the Lord. They
could not stand in the presence of God. And so being ashamed,
ashamed of our sin, is bound up with the fool. And yet we
read a most solemn thing with even the children of Israel,
in the Prophet Jeremiah, that they were not ashamed. They were so hardened, they were
so removed from the Lord's ways, that they were not ashamed. In Jeremiah chapter 6, we read
of the children of Israel and how that their ministers amongst
them, their priests, they healed the hearts of the people of God
slightly. They were saying, peace, peace,
when there is no peace. Really, they were proclaiming
a so-called gospel. And Jeremiah's day was the day
when he was to see God's judgment and the land taken, the temple
destroyed, and what God said that he would bring upon them
come to pass. But all the while Jeremiah was
warning that this would happen, there was other false prophets
saying, no, Babylon shall not come, Nebuchadnezzar shall not
come. You can just go on in your sin
and on in your way. And though they were Just healing
that hurt slightly, they were false prophets, false teachers. They still continued in their
sin. You know, wherever there is false
teaching, wherever there is not a true witness of the Word of
God, men will still continue in their sin. Where the true
grace and blessing of God is, where the gospel and the power
truly is, then men will be ashamed of their sin and that they will
humble themselves before God and seek the mercy of God and
the pardon of God. But this is the picture of Israel
that had a false comfort and it's such a picture of today. where part of the Gospel is chosen
and part not, and it results in men continuing in their sin. And we read, Were they ashamed
when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed,
neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among
them that fall. At the time that I visit them
they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Then he has this way,
this word for his people. Thus saith the Lord, stand ye
in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the
good way? And walk therein, and ye shall
find rest for your souls. And what was the answer of the
people at that time? Yes, God's ancient people. They
said, we will not walk their inn. And when the Lord said that
he'd appointed and set watchmen over them, they said, we will
not hearken. And so, where sin is, it is a
right thing, a good thing, that we be ashamed of our sin. The Apostle Paul was ashamed
how that he persecuted the Church of God and wasted it. He was
ashamed that he kept the garments of those that were stoning godly
Stephen to death. He was ashamed of those things
that he had once walked in. And again, as he opens up this
letter to the Romans, he says in the sixth chapter of it, And
it is in an answer the context is those that are saying if we're
saved by God's grace, well, does it matter how we live? Can we
not just live as we like? Shall we sin that grace might
abound? And he says, God forbid, that
how shall we just say because we are not under the law and
under grace sin? No. How shall we sin? And how shall we walk in that
way if we are dead to sin? How can we live any longer therein? And so he says to them, when
ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
And he asks this question of them in verse 21 in Romans 6. What fruit had ye then in those
things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is
death. But now, being made free from
sin, become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness
and the end everlasting life. So in the words of our text,
when the apostle testifies that he's not ashamed of the gospel,
In one sense, it's a test of how we view the gospel. How do we view our sin? How do we view our past life? How do we view the workings of
our own natural, fallen nature and workings of our hearts? Are we ashamed of those things
or do we make excuses for them? How do we view that of which
in the gospel we profess to be saved from and delivered from? And so I say in this first point,
what we are to be ashamed of is our sin. is our past life,
is our backslidings, is how we've dealt with the Lord and how we've
walked. Many of us in ministry were shamed
in one sense, not of the gospel, but of our ministry and how far
we feel to come short. and the people of God in all
of their lives, knowing the holiness and purity of God, knowing what
God, shall we say, deserves from us, what we owe unto God, then
how ashamed we are. You know, sometimes I thought
this, that it is said that To do things right in this world,
we should be proud of what we're doing. A child at school, if
they take pride in their work, and they carefully do it, and
they try and get good grades, or a worker working for his employer,
if one is careless and indifferent, couldn't care less, and it's
all sloppy, but another, he takes pride in the work, and I thought,
That doesn't really lie very straight with the Christian way
of doing things, because pride is one of the worst things that
we could have. Rises up against God. But the way to look at it is
this. The apostle says, when you've
done all these things, say we are unprofitable servants, you've
only done that which was our duty to do. And he says, whatsoever
ye do, do it as unto the Lord and not as unto man. And when
we do that, then we will try and do the very best we could. If we knew the Queen was going
to come and come to our house and see our place, we would look
at it so different than if we were having just our family coming. looking at this area and that
area and trying to clear it up and to tidy it up and we'd see
things that were wrong that had been like that for years and
we just hadn't worried about them and we try hard to do it
and when we'd done it all and then the time was come we'd still
look at it and we'd see all the imperfections and we'd be really
ashamed and we've done the best that we could but where's pride? because of the greatness of the
visitor, then there's no room for it because we see all the
imperfections. And if we know the greatness
of God, and see what efforts are being made, the best obedience
of my hands. Why has but as nothing before
the Lord? We have done what we could, but
there's nothing for a poor man to rise up in pride. over. And so really just on that natural
level in whatsoever we do in our lives, instead of taking
pride in it as it were, do it as unto the Lord. Do it as working
for Him and then we'll do the best that ever we could do as
unto the Lord. Tell you that first, what we
are to be. ashamed of. But then secondly,
what is the gospel? And again, I want to divide this
really into two parts. The gospel means good news, and
when our Lord Jesus Christ came, then it was proclaimed from heaven,
the good news of salvation. And the angels declared that
blessing in Luke is very beautiful how it is set forth and the coming
of the Lord. And even with the testimony of
the angels to Zacharias, but then when our Lord was born and
the angels, they came as a heavenly host, proclaiming glory to God
in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. The first coming of the angel,
when the shepherds were so full of fear, was a fear not? For behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. That's a beautiful
description of the gospel. Good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people. You know, in our text, it says
that the Jew first and also to the Greek, it was not to be,
just for the Jews but for the Gentiles in every nation and
kindred and tongue. And then the reason the angels
give for unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour
which is Christ the Lord. You think of what Abraham said
to Isaac as Isaac asked his father, my father the fire and the wood
but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And his answer, my
son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And this is God. This is the
provision. This is God providing himself
the lamb. Jesus, the lamb of God. Jesus
to save his people, to stand in their place, be made under
the law, made of a woman, and to then have the sins of his
people laid on him. and he suffered Calvary to put
away those sins. He paid the debt, he endured
the wrath of God in the place of his people, a substitutionary
offering. The Lord demanded without the
shedding of blood there is no remission, but our Lord shed
his blood. And he rose again from the dead
to prove that that sacrifice was accepted and that the debt
was paid, the wrath of God was extinguished. There is life from
the dead, which is the very thing that man under the sentence of
death looks for. And as we mentioned earlier on
this week at Trowbridge in the passage that Paul writes to the
Corinthians, he emphasizes the truth of the resurrection of
the dead. He doesn't say that because Christ
has risen that there is the resurrection of the dead. No. He says the
dead rise. That was and is the case irrespective,
you might say, of Christ rising. Man was made in the image of
God, he is eternal. and those that are not saved,
those that are not believers, they shall be raised. The apostle
says that there shall be a resurrection of the just and the unjust, one
to eternal life and the other to eternal death, one eternal
torment and the other eternal happiness and life. But the Lord
Jesus Christ in the provision of God is to suffer in the place
of his people. We do not know who his people
are. We know he has a people. We know
that they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. We know by our Lord that they
were given by the Father to him to redeem, and he has redeemed
them. Those beautiful words in Matthew
1, His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. Tells us He has a people, they
are sinners. He shall save them, not might
or maybe, He shall save them, and He shall save them from their
sins. And that will be beginning here
below on this earth. They will want to be saved from
their sins, not to continue in their sins, but to be saved from
their sins and the power of their sins, and saved from the eternal
condemnation due to those sins. So our Lord died, having had
laid on Him the iniquity of all of His people, and we know our
interest in Christ's death, and that He died for us, in that
we then take part in his rising. And that first resurrection for
sinners is when they are called by grace, when they are born
again of the Spirit. We are spiritually dead and the
blessing of Christ is to make us spiritually alive. The good news of the Gospel is
to be set forth to every nation and kindred and tongue, that
in the Lord Jesus Christ there is repentance and remission of
sins. If ever you and I repent and
have our sins forgiven, it is through the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none other name given
among men whereby we must be saved. Our Lord said, if ye believe
not that I am he, ye shall perish in your sins. And so the good
news of salvation, the gospel is a word of life. It is life to sinners. It is a word of hope to those
that have no hope. And it goes even further than
the debt being paid, because to believers, God shall impute
or put to their account Christ's own perfect life of obedience,
as if they had lived that perfect life of obedience. It is not
a case that God's people get to heaven and then they are asked
and said, now let's see what your life is like, because if
you and I were asked that, How a shame we would be, we would
look back over our lives, but it shall not be us that is seen,
but Christ. The beautiful word in Jeremiah,
this is the name wherewith he, that is Christ, shall be called
the Lord our righteousness. And this is the name wherewith
she, that is the Church of God, shall be called the Bride of
Christ, shall be called the Lord our righteousness, the same name
as it were a surname, and the people of God, their righteousness
is not their own, but Christ's. And it is faith that ascribes
that, it's faith that views that righteousness. Again, Paul, when
he's writing to the Romans, In the 10th chapter, he speaks of
his countrymen who were going about ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness, have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And
what he is saying is, there are people that are trying by their
own works, supposed good works, to bring about a case that they
could look upon their own lives and feel that they could stand
in the presence of God with their own works and deeds to please,
and God would be happy with that. Paul says that God will not be
happy with that. He cannot be happy with that.
All our righteousnesses, that's not our bad works, it's our good
works, are as filthy rags. And so it is the righteousness
of Christ that faith views and a believer is given to view this,
the Lord our righteousness. He is our covering. Remember
we mentioned about being ashamed and Adam with his fig leaf righteousness,
his fig leaf covering, that was like a righteousness. But he
was still ashamed, he still hid in the garden, that wasn't any
covering at all. But, you know, the Lord took
the skins of beasts that he had slain, the blood had been shed,
and covered them with that. And that was symbolic of his
own sacrifice and the righteousness then that he would clothe his
people with. God clothed them, God clothes
believers with his own righteousness. It is God's work, God's blessing
on his people. So the gospel, the good news
of salvation, is a way of escape from the wrath to come, is an
answer to our sins, both in paying the debt and in also fitting
us to appear faultless before God's throne at last. And that is the good news of
the Gospel. Now, I said that there was another
side of that. Very often in the Word, wherever
the Gospel is set forth, Where there is a sinner that is safe,
where there is one that is delivered, there's the other side of it
as well. We have the case with Noah, Noah
and his family. And the ark is a beautiful type
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they were saved. But there were millions that
were destroyed, and the wrath of God fell upon them. We have Lot wonderfully delivered
from Sodom. The Lord had mercy upon him.
He lingered. He would have stayed there as
it were. He had his loved ones there. But they took him by the
hand. And they pulled him out of that
city. And that city was then destroyed. And we have the same
picture here as well. Immediately after the words of
our text, and the explanation of it, for therein is the righteousness
of God, revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. And really what is set forth
there, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
But it's almost a circular thing, isn't it? We need faith. The word did not profit them
in that it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it.
But then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
And you say, well, what comes first, the word of God or faith? But you think of a baby that
is being formed in the womb. What comes first? You say, but
yes, there's a gradual forming of that baby. But it's got to
be created and formed in the womb as a whole, as a one. It must happen. Otherwise, part
could not live. Each part of our bodies is dependent
upon the other to live. And when the Lord passes by his
people and bids them live, he gives them eternal life, he gives
them faith. The Lord is the author and finisher
of our faith. But he uses the word of God in
that as well, so that that faith comes through hearing. And the
faith that he gives then makes that word that they hear of a
prophet and a blessing to them and is God's work. It's like
when he formed the earth, let there be light and there was
light. Let there be faith and let there
be the word of God and faith coming by that word and the word
profiting by the faith that is given. He gives grace for grace
and faith moving to faith as well as we have here, the just
shall live by faith. But the point I want to make
here, with the gospel, and especially in the context of not being ashamed
of it, it's got the other side because immediately we have here,
for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. And we might go out into the
world, we might go out into Cranbrook and say, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel. And you proclaim what the Lord has come to do. And
you might have a portion like this and be tempted and think,
well, I'd like to set before people the first part of this
chapter, but I don't really want to tell them the second part.
And there's almost a bit ashamed of that, that God is a just God,
He's a God, that where He does not save by that way that He's
ordained to be saved, His wrath remains on that people. Now the Lord said that those
that did not believe on Him, the wrath of God abides on them. and bound up with the gospel,
the good news, is also that in not embracing and believing that
and not being saved through that good news, there's also the condemnation. There's the wrath as well. We
need to be aware of the two sides to that. Many are so easy to
take up with the idea If they don't believe in the Lord, then
they will perish. But to think that without the
Lord, all would perish. And the gospel is good news,
a way of a hope, a who can tell, a good news to be proclaimed. And so, when we think of the
gospel, It is always to be in the context or balanced with
condemnation. You know, the apostle later on
in Romans, he speaks of Jacob and Esau, both twins in the womb. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. All the time it is those that
are saved and those that are lost. And at the end of the world
it shall be those on the Lord's right hand and those on his left,
those that are saved and those that are lost. And when we declare
and set forth the Gospel here below, it must always be in that
context. Some view the Gospel, well, it's
there if we want it, but if we don't want it, We just want the
idea we can enjoy this life and maybe there's not a hereafter.
But in the proclamation of the gospel, it says that there is
eternal life and eternal death and nothing else in between. And so, the wonder for the people
of God, when they come to Romans 8, There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. But that implies
there is condemnation to them that are not. And the apostle
cannot say, well, this part is the gospel, but this other part,
I can be ashamed of that. I'm not going to to have that
as part of that which I declare. When the apostle preaches the
gospel and sets it forth, and every believer has got to have
those two parts, otherwise we're going to have a very cut-about
Bible, that we're going to choose what we're going to tell to people
and what we're not, and what is acceptable and what is nice
and what is not. And so, when we say what is the
gospel, It has those two sides to it. And the wonder of the
people of God is that the Lord has saved them from the wrath
to come. He's delivered them. He's brought
them up from the pit. Well, I want to look then lastly,
why Paul was not ashamed of the gospel. We're specifically set
here For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth. It is the power of God. And when Paul writes to the Corinthians
in the first chapter and first two chapters of his first epistle,
he makes known to us that though God has given to man great wisdom
and understanding, to make many inventions and do many things. He is not given to man to be
able by his wisdom to search and find out God. That he is
given to the gospel. That he is given to the proclamation
of the gospel through preaching. And he says in the 21st verse
of the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, 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. And what is
the word that our Lord said when he sent forth his disciples,
tarry at Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. And they had to wait until the
Holy Spirit came. And Paul, when he writes to the
Thessalonians, he says to them in the first epistle, first chapter
to them, he says, our gospel came not unto you in word only. We can't do it in word. We can
articulate the word of the gospel. We didn't come just like that,
but also in power. and in the Holy Ghost and in
much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you
for your sake." You know, it wasn't his wonderful orations,
it wasn't what he was, he was almost contemptible amongst them. He was not a man that people
would all follow after, but the gospel was what God owned with
power. and the effect of it, the effect
of that power, and ye became followers of us and of the Lord,
having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy
Ghost." The Apostle Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel because
of that power. God had given it the power, and
he still says he gives it that power. And whenever it's preached,
we look for that power. Whenever it's spoken and set
forth before any, if you and I are saved, it is God's work. It is the power of God that has
brought it about, not our own power. However carefully we may
expound the word and open it up and set it before men. And
this is why he was not ashamed of it, because God has designed
it. It's his scheme. It's not man's. God has appointed that that is
how he will save sinners. And if he's appointed it that
way, who are we to then say we're ashamed of that? We wish it were
otherwise. We'll try and dress it up some
other way. No, no. And the other reason
why he was not ashamed of it was because not only the knowledge
of it being the power of God, but that he had partaken of that
power. The Lord had changed his heart,
and every preacher knows that, and every child of God knows
that. He says, what I am, I am by the
grace of God. It was that power. It was a personal
thing to him. He says when he writes to the
Galatians, He said, regarding the gospel that he had, he received
it, not of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. And he speaks of what he
was. But then he says, but when it
pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called
me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach
Him among the heathen immediately. I conferred not with flesh and
blood." And he says, God did it. God's work, God's power. God opened my eyes. He changed
my heart. He renewed my will. He turned
me from persecuting those that called on the Lord to preaching
of that name that he once sought to destroy. And so he had a reason. May we think upon what reason
we have personally to not be ashamed of the gospel. You know,
dear Peter, he loved his master well. But he was ashamed of him
in front of a maid, denied his master. And we can be ashamed. We can have times that we stumble. We're afraid of man. We can't
clearly set forth God's plan. We want to make it acceptable
to man. But when we realise what the
gospel is in all its parts, May we be, with Paul, able to
say, I, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the
power of God unto salvation, not to some, but to everyone
that believeth. Tis Christ makes a believer,
the hymn writer says, and gives him his crown. A believer is
a miracle of grace. What shall we do, says the apostles,
that we might work the works of God? This is the work of God,
that ye believe in him whom God has sent. And Philip, he recognised
that with the eunuch. If there are believers with all
thine heart, there are mayors. when he desired to be baptised,
and his confession was, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God,
and he is baptised on that profession. Well, may we know the gospel
and not be ashamed of it, and know that power, and where we
have known that power, and may be backslidden or be in low place
and need reviving again, that power is still the same, Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever. So blessed thing to know where
to go for that reviving hand. David knew it in Psalm 51, restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation and the Lord did. And may the
Lord help us to walk with him and to walk with Paul, and not
to be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. May the Lord bless the
word this evening to us. Amen.