Verse 8 of 2nd Timothy 1, be
not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor
of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of
the gospel according to the power of God. Now this exhortation
here from Paul, be not thou therefore ashamed Regards a vital issue
for the people of God and one that's dealt with in Scripture
quite a bit So I wanted to take some time with this our Lord
dealt with this thing of being ashamed of him his gospel his
servants in Mark 8 38 if you'd turn there with me to mark chapter
8 In verse 38 this is the The matter that I want to consider
for a little while this morning Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord nor of me his prisoner But be
thou partaker of the afflictions that's our text now look at mark
838 whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words
in this adulterous and sinful generation Of him also shall
the son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his
father with the holy angels. Now I want us to look at this
verse for a minute, because there's some key words in this verse
that shed a lot of light on our text this morning. Notice he
said, me and my words, whosoever therefore that shall be ashamed
of me and of my words, You can distinguish between Christ and
his words, obviously, the person, the message, but you can't separate
them. If you're ashamed of his gospel,
you're ashamed of him. You see that? Me and my words,
they go together. If you allow this wretched world
to shame you regarding the doctrine of Christ, Regarding the truth
of Christ that we preach that he's sovereign that he does as
he pleases he's done what he pleased He accomplished what
he pleased and he'll always do what he pleases If you allow
this wretched world to shame you regarding his truth, that's
very unpopular So it wouldn't be hard to be ashamed of it to
be shy of telling people, because you don't want people to despise
you. You don't want people looking down on you. But the thing is,
you're denying the Lord Jesus himself. We need to understand
that right up front. One of the main things this is
about is that our flesh doesn't like to be different or especially
looked down on and despised. We like to conform to the crowd. That's our nature, just sort
of conform and fit in with everybody, peer pressure and whatnot. The
flesh finds safety and comfort in being in agreement with others.
But when it comes to the gospel, what we're saying is diametrically
opposed to what just about everyone else is saying. And it's not
just, you know, everybody likes fried chicken and I don't like
fried chicken. These are matters of life and death. The gospel
is something that people vehemently despise. They might think you're
weird if you don't like fried chicken, but if you love Christ
as he's revealed in this book, they're gonna hate you. They're gonna resent you. They're
gonna see you as the enemy. You're destroying their hope.
They don't just think you are, you are. That's what you're doing. You're destroying their hope
and bless God for it because their hope is a spider web. Nobody
likes to be ridiculed and I've been flat out ridiculed over
the gospel. I suspect you have too. Just
flat out made fun of. And I pray, honestly, because
I've thought about some of the people that have done that, I
honestly, before God, by His grace, I pray that the Lord not
lay that sin to their charge. No one likes to be hated and
maligned or disgraced, spoken evil of. I could give you a list
of people that have not even tried to hide their hatred of
me. because of the gospel. And I'm sure you could probably
do that too. There are many, many so-called preachers who
know the truth of the gospel in their head, but they will
not preach it. I know this from experience.
Why don't they preach it? Because they're ashamed of it.
They're ashamed of it. Plain and simple. They care more
about what men think of them than they do about the word of
God and what God says. And I don't want to say what
God thinks, but they would rather please men than God. It's plain
and simple. And the problem with that is
what they abandon for the horrible motive of just being liked is
the only hope that sinners have. Listen, these are the words of
eternal life that the Lord has committed to our trust, Galatians 110, listen to this
carefully. For do I now persuade men or
God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. You know, we kind of let that
verse go through our head. Do we persuade men? Or God? Did you ever think about that
question? If you kind of just think of
it on the surface, you might think, well, we persuade men. You know, we preach the gospel.
We exhort men. We beseech men. But do we persuade men? Are we
trying to get men to do something? Or is it that we want God to
do something for sinners? We plead with God. We're not
gonna change God's mind. Nobody in their right mind would
want to change the mind of the only one that's good and the
only one that's wise. The only one that's, and when
I say he's the only one that's wise, he's the only one that's
not a blithering idiot, is what I'm saying. He's the only one that's not
insane by nature. We want God to do something for
sinners. We're not trying to get sinners to do something for
God. Look at something else now in
Mark 8.38. I was telling you we were gonna
look at that verse for a minute because there's some key words
in that. In Mark 8.38, whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of
me and my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation of him
shall the son of man be ashamed. in this adulterous and sinful
generation. And there well may be more to
that phrase there, more teaching, but no doubt part of the teaching
here is that they are the ones that ought to be ashamed. Will we be ashamed in front of
the shameful? Will we be ashamed of God in
front of these? Freaks, which we would be part
of without his grace. You see what he's saying? Are
you gonna stand before swine and be ashamed of God? Don't you apologize for God to
this bunch of reprobates. That's what he's saying, especially
to them. Don't grovel, don't make God
out to be a beggar in this despicable, proud, shameful world that we
live in. That's what the world's religion,
the so-called preachers of this world's fake gospel do. They
make God out to be begging, begging the leper to do something
for him. Festus said that Paul was crazy. You remember that when Paul preached
the gospel? Before Agrippa and Festus was
there. He said Paul, you're out of your
mind. You're crazy And it would have
been pretty easy to kowtow to Festus and Agrippa since they
had Paul's freedom and even his very life in their hands in a
sense in an earthly sense and but inherent in the gospel message
is the assertion that somebody's crazy here and it ain't me. It
ain't the one telling who God is and what he does and how he
saves sinners. Somebody's crazy, but it ain't
the believer. That's what Paul, he was very
respectful. Wasn't he? Oh, most noble Festus. He knew his place in this world. And he gave respect to Festus. He was very respectful
to him. Most noble Festus. But he didn't
back down one iota from the truth. He said, I'm not the one that's
crazy here, Festus. I'm the one speaking the words
of truth and sincerity here. And by implication, If you think
I'm crazy when I tell the truth, what does that make you? Paul said in Romans 1 15, so
as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you there
at Rome also. I don't think he expected to
live through that. To go to the very seat of false
religion and preach the truth when people were dying all over
the place. He said, we're led like sheep
to the slaughter. But I'm ready to come preach
there to you, because I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
Why not, Paul? For it's the power of God and
the salvation to everyone that believes. Now, just as a practical matter,
if you're not gonna be ashamed of the gospel, you need to know
how to answer when God is blasphemed. You need to know how to answer
when a question's asked or when your God is spoken against. Don't
go around picking fights with people, but silence is not a
good reaction to God being blasphemed. Like I said a while ago, it's
not that you're the only one who doesn't like fried chicken
or something like that. But you are the only one in 10
million that believes that God does not love everybody. You are the only one among a
multitude that believes that Christ saved everyone he died
for. And here's the Here's what I'm
saying. Study to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be, what? Ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of
truth. Know what you're talking about.
If you're not gonna be ashamed before this wretched world, you
have to know what you're talking about. That's one of the reasons
we're here, and that you should study. Don't leave all the studying
to me. Study to show yourself approved,
not to this world. They're not going to approve
if you know God. Approved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed. So what's gonna happen if you
don't know what you're talking about? You don't wanna lose to a wretch that wouldn't know
God if he walked through the door. That's what that's saying. It's not a matter really of winning
and losing, except convincing someone that you know what God
said and telling them what God said and making them maybe doubt. Maybe just put a little crack
in their ironclad false ideas of God and how he saves sinners. That's a big win. Especially if it's somebody you
care about. Rightly dividing the word of
truth. God give us grace to make that
our business. To be ready to give an answer
for the hope that lies within us. Paul said there in Romans 1,
for it's the power of God and the salvation. Regardless of
what people think about us or the gospel we preach, this is
how God saves sinners. What difference does it make
when anybody thinks about me? This is how sinners are saved. What's more important? That's
a stupid question, isn't it? What is the scorn of this world
compared to the glory of God and hope for sinners? What difference
does it make? Look what God has given us. Look
what he's done for us. Go and tell what great things
the Lord has done for thee. Have had compassion And there's really one and only
one thing that will make us unashamed Of the gospel of Christ Look
at verse 12 in the same in our time in the very context of our
verse Second Timothy 112 This is just a little ways down
from what Paul's saying here, for the which cause I also suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed.
I'm not afraid of what this world thinks. He suffered a lot, didn't
he? We don't have to go through the
list, but he's in prison, he said, and he was in prison when
he wrote this. He spent a night or two in the
ocean, shipwrecked. He suffered in the preaching
of the gospel. He was despised. They tried to
kill him for preaching it. I think they did one time. What's that to God? I'm not ashamed because I know
who. That's the answer. That's how
you will not be ashamed of him if you know him. If you know him. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him. Against that day, knowing him,
we're not ashamed. We don't care what anybody else
thinks. This religious world ought to
be ashamed of the pathetic God that they worship. You know what I'm gonna say next?
Elijah mocked those that worshiped a false god. When he didn't answer them, Elijah
said, well, you must be on vacation. Maybe tomorrow you could check
in with him. He mocked them. Because the god
of this religious world is pathetic. And they ought to be ashamed
of him. Your God loves everybody, but it can only save some of
them. What good is the love of your
God to the countless hosts that are damned in hell? You ought
to be ashamed of him. Your Jesus died to save everybody,
even people that were already in hell the day he died. You
can't possibly believe that. And Paul said also here, don't
be ashamed of me. You know, obviously there's a
stigma attached to somebody who's in prison. Well, my best friend's
in prison. But Paul was only in prison for
one reason, preaching this gospel. preaching the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. People aren't gonna understand
that. I suspect Paul was ridiculed and mocked and looked down on.
He's an ex-con, he's a convict. All the rest of his life, he
was probably looked down on for that. People don't understand. You talk about God knocking the
stuff in and out of you. How's your ministry going? How's
your ministry going, Paul? Doesn't look that good. Well,
God sure ain't using Paul much. He's down there in the prison.
God used him to pin the word of God from prison. Who cares what this world thinks?
Who cares what they think? It's not much glory in that for
Paul, would you say? But it's always been that which
this world despises which God uses for his glory Listen to
first Corinthians 14. We are fools for Christ's sake
Everybody that is anybody thinks we're a bunch of idiots because
we believe on Christ But you are wise in Christ. We're fools
for Christ's sake but you're wise in Christ Through the preaching
of the gospel that we preach, this gospel's able to make you
wise unto salvation. We might be fools to this world,
but there are some today that are not fools anymore in the
spiritual sense because we preach. We are weak, but you're strong. You are honorable, but we are
despised. That's okay. That's a small price,
isn't it? It really is. Even unto this
present hour, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and
are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. And labor, working
with our own hands, being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we suffer it. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the
world and are the off-scouring of all things up to this day. You see what Paul is saying to
Timothy in our text? I thought it was worth spending
some time on to think about the glorious gospel that we preach,
and to exhort one another, to encourage one another to never
be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. He said, look at what he said
again, let's look at our text. Be not thou for ashamed of the
testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but be thou
partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. They're gonna hate
you for it. They're gonna defame you. They're
gonna do everything Paul said here. Being defamed, we entreat. Being reviled, we blast. Being persecuted, we suffer it. Timothy, be partaker of the sufferings
of the gospel. What difference does it make?
This is the power of God in saving sinners. So this world hates us, that's
fine. And it's mutual. It's totally mutual, isn't it?
I don't hate the people of this world that I don't know. I don't
just hate people. I kind of do, but you know what
I mean. But here's what I'm saying when
I say it's mutual. If you ask me, what is the most
despicable, disgusting thing in this world? I would not hesitate
to answer that. I would not hesitate. You know
what I'd say? The Pope. Absolutely the most disgusting
thing I have ever seen. You think about that one today
as you're driving home. changed my mind. The Pope, how
repulsive to presume to forgive sins, to presume to speak for
God and have no idea who God is. You talk about sickening,
literally sickening. It's mutual. What Paul said there in that
passage we just read in 1st Corinthians 4 about being persecuted We suffer it That's the next
phrase there in our text would be that partaker Timothy of the
afflictions of the gospel According to the power of God bring it
on I Don't want people to hate me And I don't wanna hate people,
but I tell you what, all things being equal, I don't desire it. But when it comes to that which
in this world is most precious, we talked about that which is
most despicable. This is what's most precious,
Christ and what he did for us. And in light of that, Paul says,
bring it on. Look with me at Acts 5 and closing. Acts 5, 17, you know where we're
going. Acts 5, 17. Then the high priest
rose up and all they that were with him, which is the sect of
the Sadducees and were filled with indignation and laid their
hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. But
the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought
them forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple to the
people all the words of this life. Isn't that beautiful? And this shows us something else
now. This world has no power. Remember what the Lord said to
Pilate, you could have no power over me at all. Pilate's bragging
about, I can let you go or I can crucify you. The Lord said, no,
you can't. You don't have any power at all
except what is given to you by my father. The world doesn't have any power
over us. I'm talking about this religious
world that would just as soon string us up as they would them
back then. These were the religious authorities that put them in prison. God sent an angel to let them
out. Why? So the gospel could be preached.
What a privilege to preach what I'm preaching this morning. What
an unbelievable honor. When they heard that, they entered
into the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high
priest came and they that were with him and called the council
together and all the Senate of the children of Israel and sent
to the prison to have them brought But when the officers came and
found them not in the prison, they returned and told, saying,
the prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers
standing without before the doors. But when we had opened, we found
no man within. Now, when the high priest and
the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these
things, they doubted of them, whereunto this would grow. Then
came one and told them, saying, behold, the men whom you put
in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then went the captain with the
officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the
people. The only reason they didn't kill them right there
is God had arranged it to where they saw consequences for it,
and so they wouldn't do it, lest they should have been stoned.
They'd have stoned him right there on the spot if it was up
to them. And when they had brought them, they set them before the
council, and the high priest asked them, saying, did not we
straightly command you that you should not teach in this name?
And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend
to bring this man's blood upon us. Then Peter and the other
apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than
men. That's getting to the point,
isn't it? That's getting right to the point. That's the point. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree. They arrested him
for preaching and they came in and started preaching. Him hath God exalted with his
right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses
of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath
given them to them that obey him. When they heard that, they
were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them." They're
sitting there thinking, the obvious, aren't they? We put them in prison
and threatened to kill them for preaching, and they're standing
here preaching to us. We got to shut them up. Then stood there up one in the
council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation
among all the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little
space and said unto them, you men of Israel, take heed to yourselves. What you intend to do is touching
these men. For before these days rose up
Thutis, boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number of
men, about 400, joined themselves, who was slain, and all, as many
as obeyed him, were scattered and brought to naught. And after
this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and
drew away much people after him. He also perished, and all, even
as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. And now I say unto you, refrain
from these men, And let them alone, for if this counsel or
this work be of men, it'll come to naught. This is a wise man,
isn't it? But if it be of God, what are
you gonna do about it? You can't overthrow it, you can't
stop God. Must happily be found even to
fight against God. And to him they agreed, and when
they had called the apostles and beaten them, Commanded that
they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let him go And they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name And you think about what we're doing here,
I don't expect to be beaten today, we're doing it But I expect it's worth it That's an understatement. You
know it is You know it is And daily in the temple that
in every house they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus
Christ a person If you know him you won't be
ashamed of it May God causes to say with Paul,
who knew the Lord, oh, that I may know it.