The title of the message this
morning is Not Ashamed of the Gospel. Paul says in Romans chapter
1 verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. He tells him back in verse
15 that he's ready to preach the gospel to the church at Rome. And he identifies the gospel
that he's ready to preach in verses 3 and 4. Which he says
in verse 3, concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead. The gospel concerns Jesus
Christ. It concerns his person as the
Son of God and the Son of Man. We cannot preach one and not
the other or else we have no gospel to preach. We preach His
work as the mediator. The Bible says He's the only
mediator between God and men. There are no other mediators
between God and men. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one. We preach Him as the sinner substitute. He's the one
who died in the place of a multitude of sinners. Now Paul says that
this gospel which is of God which concerns Jesus Christ, he is
not ashamed of. At one time, Paul despised that
name. And everyone who bore witness
to that name, Paul hated them. He despised them. But God saved
Paul. And he saved him by that name.
And Paul found himself to be a servant and an apostle and
a debtor to that name, Jesus Christ. Paul says that he is
a debtor to the Greeks and the barbarians, the wise and unwise.
God made him the apostle to us Gentiles. He gave him his gifts
to minister to us Gentiles. His calling was of God. Therefore
Paul called himself a debtor. He had a responsibility to fulfill. He said, woe is me if I preach
not the gospel. So in light of the grace of God
to him, In light of his calling, he was ready to preach the gospel
to them at Rome. Now Paul says to them in verse
16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm not embarrassed. I am not humiliated by the gospel
that God has revealed to me to preach to sinners. Many were
ashamed of Jesus Christ. The Jews were ashamed of him.
The Jew said, we know who you are, you're the carpenter's son.
They were ashamed of his appearance, poor, common. They were ashamed
of his education. They were ashamed of the crowd
that he drew, sinners, publicans, harlots. They were ashamed of
him and they were ashamed of his friends. He was called the
friend of publicans and sinners and they were ashamed of those
people. Let me give you some things of what it is to be ashamed
of Jesus Christ. First of all, it is not to identify
with Him or His people. When we are ashamed of someone,
we don't want to be seen with them. We don't want to identify
with them. Nicodemus came to Him by night. And then it's not
to tell the truth about Him. There are many who use His name.
There are many preachers who stand in the pulpit They use
the name of Jesus Christ, but they will not preach His person.
They use His name, but they don't preach Him. They lie on it. Some
say they believe the gospel, but if they preached it as it
is, they'd lose their job. Well, they ought to lose their
job. First of all, this is not a job. This is a calling. If
a man really believes the gospel, he'll preach it as it is and
live with the results. To be ashamed of the gospel is
not to submit to the Lordship of Christ. It's not just accept
Him as your personal Savior. It's bow to the Lordship of Jesus
Christ. The Jews said, we will not have
this man reign over us. They said, don't write that he's
king of the Jews, but write that he said that. But the believer, the believer
now is not ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not ashamed
of his person. He's God. He's God Almighty. How in the world could we be
ashamed of God? But to be ashamed of Him also is not to confess
my need of Him. You know, only the sick need
a physician. The Jews realized what it meant to confess their
need of Christ. It means, I am helpless. I am
hopeless. I am depraved. I am wretched
with no righteousness of my own. I'm guilty as charged. Listen,
it takes the power of God the Holy Spirit to bring a person
to this place of needing and bowing to Jesus Christ and not
being ashamed of Him. And then it is a shame to confess
that it took such a death to redeem a wretch like me. When
I look at Calvary, I realize what a death it took in order
for God to save me. What does that say about me?
Well, that says that I am a wretch in the full sense of the word.
And Paul knew that everything, he knew that everything that
he needed to stand before God, accepted, he had in Jesus Christ. And he was not ashamed of him.
And he preached that in Jesus Christ we are complete. He knew
that he was as a bran plucked from the fire. Paul knew that.
He knew that God, like a bran, plucked him from the fire. Also,
Paul was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it was the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. People
are truly saved who believe the gospel. This gospel of Christ
is the dynamite of God. Through the preaching of the
gospel, God effectually calls his sheep out of darkness and
commands the light of the gospel to shine into their hearts and
they see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Through
the preaching of the gospel, Jesus Christ is revealed to them
who is their only hope of glory. The gospel is not do's and don'ts.
It is a revelation of a real living person who is God and
man in one person. Christ is God Almighty incarnate.
And he is a real man with a real soul who grew in wisdom and stature. And he was a sinless man. The
scripture says he knew no sin. This is the Lamb of God. This
man is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. It
is through his blood and righteousness that sinners are saved, that
sinners are justified. He's the high priest who intercedes
for sinners, for transgressors, that's what it says in Isaiah
53. He lived for sinners, he died for sinners, he rose for
sinners, he justified sinners, and he intercedes for sinners,
and no one else. This is the gospel that Paul
was ready to preach at Rome, even if it meant losing his life
for it. Now Paul says that this salvation
is to everyone that believeth. The scripture says faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Christ is to be
believed. We are not to debate this. Christ
is to be believed. He is to be embraced. No man
is saved who does not believe God, who does not believe this
gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved
is what the Bible says. Faith in Christ is essential.
Man dies, doesn't believe, God's gonna perish. Now in the gospel
it says there's a righteousness of God revealed. That righteousness
that we so desperately need and Christ provided is revealed in
the gospel. And it is revealed from one degree
of faith to another degree of faith as it grows in the knowledge
of Christ. And the just, the scripture says,
shall live by faith. He'll live by faith upon Christ.
We continue in faith until we die. Now faith is not our life. Faith is not my salvation. Faith
is not my hope. Jesus Christ is. But faith, God-given
faith, lives upon Christ for all it needs. Now let me give you a sobering
scripture that tells us the consequence of being ashamed of Jesus Christ.
He says in Luke 9 26, For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my
words of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall
come in his own glory and in his father's and the holy angels. Now here's the wonder of wonders.
Here's the wonder of wonders. That he is not ashamed. Paul said this, Paul said I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. But here's the wonder
of wonders. That Christ is not ashamed of
us. that Christ is not ashamed to call us sinners, brethren. It says in Hebrews 2.11, For
both he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all
of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. That, my friend, is the amazing
part of grace. That the Lord Jesus Christ is
not ashamed to call a wretch like me his brother. It says in Hebrews 11 16, But
now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly, wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared
for them a city. The most amazing part of the
gospel is that God Almighty in all His glory, in all that He
is, and we can't even begin to really conceive the fullness
of God. But that God, who is holy, is
not ashamed to call us His people, those for whom Christ died, and
they are but sinners. That's all they are. Not one
of them is worth a dime. Not one of them is worth As the
old saying is, not worth their salt. But he's not ashamed of
me. How in the world, how in the
world could a sinner be ashamed of Jesus Christ? How could a
sinner be ashamed of the gospel? Well, I'll tell you this. If
God ever saves a man, he'll not be ashamed. He'll not be ashamed
of Christ. He'll not be ashamed of the blood.
He'll not be ashamed of what it took and who it took to save
him. He'll give God all the glory. And he'll praise Him now, and
he'll praise Him hereafter for His amazing grace to us in Christ. Until next time, may God bless
His Word.