The title of my message this
morning is Not Ashamed. Not Ashamed. I've been working
on it for a while. Needless to say, in the past
few days, I have, like you, done some thinking about days gone
by and the days that may be before us. And I've given some considerable
thought to the things I want to say in the opening comments
of this message. Let's begin in Romans chapter
1. Romans chapter 1. This is the first thing I want
to declare. Verse 16, Paul says, I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed of it." Now,
for me to make that statement is no great thing. Indeed, it
would be abhorrent if I were ashamed of the gospel. After
all, the holy Lord God declares that He is not ashamed to be
my God. His darling Son declares that
He is not ashamed to call me His brother. How could I even
think about being ashamed of his gospel? Look back up in verse
14 here. I take Paul's words for my own
because his experience is mine. I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor both
to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. That is, I'm a debtor to every
living man. A debtor is somebody who has
a debt to pay, an obligation to perform, a duty to perform. I'm a debtor to you. I'm a debtor to the generation
in which I live because I'm a debtor to the grace of God. So as much
as in me is, I'm ready. I'm ready. Brother Scott Richardson
used to say, I'm sitting on ready. Let's go. I'm ready. Ready to
preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. Here is this
Jew converted by God's free grace, ready to go to the citadel of
paganism. It was then, it is now. He said,
I'm ready to go to Rome. and preach the gospel to you.
Well, what's it going to cost? That's insignificant. What's going to happen to you
there? That really doesn't matter. How are you going to get there?
God will take care of it. I'm ready to preach the gospel
to you that are at Rome also. How come? For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed to believe it.
I'm not ashamed to preach it. I'm not ashamed to own it anywhere
before anybody. The gospel we believe, the message
of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ, the gospel that is
of Christ, that is about Christ, that is Christ. I'm not ashamed
of it. How come? Because it's the power
of God. the explosive power of God. The word power here, I've told
you many times, is the word from which we get our word dynamite.
If you were to transliterate the word, that's exactly what
it'd be. It is the explosive power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believes. In other words, Paul is not saying
if you believe, you're going to make the gospel powerful.
He's saying if the gospel ever comes into your heart and explodes
in life, you're going to believe. You're going to believe. To the
Jew first, and also to the Greek, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. This generation, like most every
generation before it, and I suppose those to come after it, have
been deluded into thinking the gospel is all about grace and
mercy and love. Thank God, it is indeed a revelation
of God's grace and mercy and love. But first and foremost,
the gospel is a revelation of righteousness. It is a declaration
of how that God can be just and justifier of the ungodly. It
is that which reveals to us the righteousness of God, not the
righteousness of His character. Every man knows that. But the
righteousness accomplished by His Son, by His obedience unto
death as the sinner's substitute. And it is revealed from faith
to faith. I don't really know everything
that that means, but I'm sure it at least means this, Ron.
God gives me life and faith in Christ, teaches me the gospel
of His grace, and He puts this treasure in this earthen vessel
so I can tell somebody else about it, and they'll believe too.
It's revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. Now, I've been preaching this
gospel for a long time. I've been preaching the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ for almost 35 years.
I started when I was just a boy, barely 17 years old. And this is what I've been thinking
about a lot the last few days, last few weeks. Can I honestly make this statement?
Is it true? And it is. This lady here will
verify it. Larry Chris has known me longer
than any of you. He'll verify it. In all that
time, my doctrine hasn't changed one hair's breadth. Not a smidgen. I'm preaching the same thing
the day I was the first time you met me. Exactly the same. The message I preach is the message
I preached when I was 17 years old. Now, I hope I've grown in
the grace and knowledge of Christ. I hope I've grown in faith and
love and commitment and consecration. I hope I've grown in understanding
and wisdom. I hope I've grown in patience,
kindness. But my doctrine hasn't changed.
In the very beginning, my testimony was, by the grace of God, I am
what I am. My message was Christ and Him
crucified. The very first message I preached
to you as pastor of this church was Christ our substitute. And
my message is the same today, exactly the same. How come? Because
I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed. Indeed, I'm
a debtor. I'm duty bound, honor bound to
preach the gospel, this treasure that God has put in this earthen
vessel. He's trusted to my hands to proclaim to this generation. And he sent me specifically to
preach to you for the salvation of your soul, for your everlasting
good. Oh, God help you now to hear
and believe the gospel. If God gives me grace to do so,
this is what I'm going to be preaching tomorrow, and this
is what I'm going to be preaching when I've drawn my last breath.
Some years ago, I had a young pup stop by the office, and I
was getting ready to go somewhere to preach, and he saw my lights
on before we ever built the parsonage. He came over and said, he had
something in mind, and he said, you know, I'm concerned about
what we're preaching. And I didn't know he was doing
any of the preaching. I'm concerned about what we're preaching. I
said, what do you mean? He said, well, I think we ought
to not talk so much about Christ and the gospel and deal with
some of those things we don't know anything about. I thought,
well, that makes good sense. And I stopped what I was doing,
put my books down, and looked them square in the eye. And I
said, what was I preaching when you met me? He said, the same
thing you are now. And let me tell you something. That's what I'll be preaching
tomorrow and the next day. And when you're gone and everything
else is gone, if I'm still here, that's all I'll be preaching.
I know whom I had believed. And it's not going to vary. But
don't you fear that your doctrine might change? How can you be
so dogmatic? My doctrine's not going to change. Not unless I
become a heretic, because I've got truth. And I'm not looking
for something new. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
Because the hope the gospel gives forbids shame. Turn over Romans
chapter 5. Christ was delivered because
of our offenses. He was raised again because of
our justification. Therefore being justified. You
see this? Being justified by faith we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we
have access by faith into this grace. this grace of free justification,
complete perfect righteousness, absolute unalterable salvation,
by faith in this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation works patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope. Now watch this.
And hope maketh not ashamed. Hope doesn't make a fellow ashamed,
it gives him confidence. Hope maketh not ashamed, because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. God Almighty has
come into this man's soul, revealing Christ in me, and thereby revealing
His love for me. The love of God, my old heart,
shed abroad in this heart. Now, that doesn't make us unashamed. This hook makes us not ashamed.
Now, let's turn to Romans 10. I want so much for you to know
the gospel. Oh, Spirit of God, call sinners
today to experience the power of your grace in the revelation
of Christ. Here's my desire. Brethren, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for you, for you. I'm not doing any injustice
to the book. I'm talking to you. My heart's
desire, my prayer to God for you is that you might be saved. Saved. That's an old-fashioned term.
Saved. The implication is you're in
bad shape. The implication is you're in
great danger. The implication is you're lost. In such bad shape, in such great
danger, so completely lost, you don't even know it. Not really. But you might be saved. For I
dare you reckon, you, you who hear my voice right
now, You have a zeal of God. I don't have any question about
that. But not according to knowledge. You who are yet without Christ,
oh, you're zealous, moral, upright, but you're ignorant of something.
And here's the problem. The one thing you're ignorant
of, Being ignorant of the righteousness of God and going about to establish
your own righteousness, you've not submitted yourself to the
righteousness of God. You keep trying your dead level
best to do something, to find something, to pick up something,
to muster something that you can bring to God and say, now
accept me. have no idea that righteousness is a finished work
by Christ Jesus the Lord. Here's my delight. Oh, I do delight
in it. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. God Almighty made
me to see that His law demands righteousness. And I can't give
it. I can't perform it. And at the
same time, he made me to see that Christ did. And that's the
end of it. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
by His obedience unto death as a sinner's substitute, has fully
satisfied all the demands of God's holiness, righteousness,
and justice. He is the end of the law for
righteousness. To who? To everybody who trusts
Him. Now, here's my declaration. Done. Done. Romans 10, verse 5. For Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart who shall
ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ
again from the dead. Now let me give you a. A good
paraphrase of exactly what that is. I got it yesterday. I got
a letter from a fellow. He wrote to me and said, he said, what do you and your
church believe a person must do to be saved? That's the righteousness
which is raised in the law. What must I do? And I wrote him,
that's one letter I can answer in a hurry. I answered him and
said, dear, I forgot his name now. I've got it written down.
I said, dear so-and-so, nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nothing. Righteousness doesn't
come by doing. It comes by believing. It's not
accomplished even by believing. It's done by Christ Jesus the
Lord. That's the next line. Look at
verse 8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we
preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. That is, not that with the heart
a man believes and therefore makes himself righteous, or thereby
makes himself righteous, but with the heart a man believes
with reference to righteousness. He trusts Christ. And with the
mouth confession is made unto, that is, with reference to salvation. Now look at this. For the scripture
saith, whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. Now here the Holy Spirit declares
that faith in Christ causes sinners to stand before God unashamed. Let me see if I can milk that
a little bit. Our text begins with an assurance
of divine authority. The scripture says. Now, that
ends all controversy. A very dear friend of mine has
been challenged to some debates recently, and challenged several
times to debate. He wrote to me, asked me about
it. I said, leave it alone. Nothing good going to come out
of it. God's not honored by it. No truth will be promoted by
it. Only pride, arrogance, and further division will do any
good. But how do you convince men of
truth? The scripture saith. That's all. The scripture saith. I stand
before you to proclaim the gospel of God with confidence and with
authority, which cannot be gainsaid. The scripture saith. Others may
tickle your ears and flatter your egos by appealing to creeds,
confessions, historic records, and religious philosophy. For
my part, the only authority for anything I preach is just this. Indeed, the only authority there
is for faith at all is the scripture said. The sole basis of my appeal
to your soul is the scripture said. That's all. That's all. But what about Apologetics. And what about all those ways
by which we prove the things of God? You can't prove the things
of God to an infidel. You might as well attempt to
teach a donkey nuclear physics to try to convince a man of spiritual
truth. It can't be done. It can't be done. You can convince
him of the logic of your religion. You can convince him of the logic
of your creed. But you can't convince him of
the things of God. Only the Word of God is authoritative. Now, when Paul says, the Scripture
saith, there are these three things clearly implied. Number
one, this book that you have in your hand, this book right
here, this book right here, is indeed the Word of God. Infallible, inerrant, authoritative. This is the Word of God. There
is no other. This is God's revelation of himself
inscripturated. God's revelation of himself given
by holy men of old who spoke as they were moved, carried along,
directed by God the Holy Spirit. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. God breathed, and only the Scripture
is profitable for instruction in righteousness. Only the Scripture
will make the man of God perfect, that is, complete, entire, thoroughly
furnished, prepared unto all good works. Secondly, the message
of this book is one. Paul is talking about salvation.
And when he talks about salvation, he says, the scriptures say it.
And he referred to the Old Testament scriptures. Because the message
of the Old Testament and the message of the New is exactly
the same. God saved sinners by grace, through
faith, by the merits of Christ's righteousness in the Old Testament,
just like he saves sinners today. Abraham believed God, looking
to God to fulfill that which he had promised. And that which
he had promised was redemption through Jesus Christ the Lord.
And he was imputed to him for righteousness. And then there's
a third thing. Not only is this book the book
of God, not only is the message of this book one, but the word
of God itself is the solitary basis for faith. When witnessing to men and women,
you folks, you try to tell folks of the things of God, witness
to them. In preaching the gospel, you men who preach and teach
the word understand that the power of the gospel that we preach
is not in our reason, our intellect, our ability, our oratorical skills,
our argumentative abilities, our learning. It's not in the
illustrations we use. The power of the message is the
message itself, the bare, naked, unadorned word of God. You can't
be resisted. I hear folks all the time, preachers
try to convince me ought to be sweeter and meeker as they call
it. You know, you don't have to say things so plain. In other
words, all to compromise and take the sword and wrap it up
in a nice soft velvet cloth and that way you can handle it and
rub up against it and say, my, how pretty it looks and pay no
attention to it. The power of the word is in the
sharp edge of the word. It is the plain, unabashed, bold
declaration of divine truth. And that alone is the power of
God to salvation. All right, here's the second
thing. Our text sets before us a very wide door of hope for
poor sinners. A door that's wide and standing
wide open. Listen to this. Whosoever believeth
on him. Whosoever believeth on him. Sometimes I read sermons and
listen to fellows preach, and they act like they're scared
to death one of the non-elect might get saved. And they're
scared to death. Whosoever. They're scared to death of it.
Read the word real clear. Whosoever. Whosoever. Whosoever. That's not a cuss
word, it's a good word. Whosoever. It's a good word,
don't be afraid of it. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever believeth on Him shall
not be ashamed. Whosoever will, let him come
and take of the water of life freely. Pastor, what about God's decrees?
I don't think I will be accused by anybody of backing off on
that. Don't think so. But let me tell
you something. There is no secret decree from
God Almighty made in eternity or made in time that will shut
any sinner out who believes on his side. No such thing. There is no measure
of sin in your past life that will deprive anyone of grace
who believes on God's Son. There is no unfitness in you
that will keep God from saving you who believe on His Son. God
promises salvation to whosoever believeth on the Son of God. Aren't you glad? I leave it to those who think
they're theologians to wrangle about the ingredients in the
water of life. For my part, I just take a drink
of the water and hold out the glass. Are you thirsty? Are you
thirsty? Whosoever will, let him come
and take the water of life freely. All right, now look at the text
again. Here is a very simple, concise, clear description of
the way of salvation. Oh, God, help me to be clear. We get so wrapped up in defending
our beliefs and doubting our doubts. and defending our positions
and debating our doctrine, we forget that men and women are
slipping into hell. Oh, God, let me never stand in
this place and allow anyone to walk out of this place having
heard my voice who is not made to hear the way of salvation. This is not secondary. This is
primary. This is primary. The scripture
saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. The way of salvation is to believe
on Christ, whom God has laid for a foundation in Zion. But
preaching, what about election? I know you can't believe without
election. What about predestination? I
know sinners can't believe except God ordaining them unto eternal
life. I'm fully aware of those things.
But the way you get God's salvation is believe on His Son. That's it. That's it. Salvation
doesn't come by doing, but by believing. Salvation is not obtained
by believing facts about Christ, but by believing on the Son of
God. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. He that believeth not on the
Son of God is condemned already, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. The Apostle
Paul didn't come to the end of his days and the end of his life
and said, boy, I thank God I know what I believe. Knowing what you believe about
anything won't do you one smidgen of good when you're getting ready
to meet God in judgment. He said, I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed. Whom I have believed. On two different occasions, I've
gone to visit dear friends just as they were leaving this world. I've seen men die with terror
in their eyes. I've seen men die grasping for
every breath because they knew they were soon going to be breathing
the fire of God's wrath. But I've seen some men die in
faith. And this is what they said to
me. One of them said his very last words on this earth, Brother Dodd, I'm thankful everything is under
the blood. I'd rather hear that than hear
him recite the Synod's adored forwards and backwards. The other one said, thank God
for the blood. Thank God for the blood. Thank
God for the blood of Christ. Whosoever believeth on Him, on
Him. Christ alone is the foundation
for faith. Stand with both feet on the solid
rock. Christ Jesus. Nothing else. Not
experience, not feeling, not emotion. Christ. That's all.
Trust Him. Trust Him. Now, here's a glorious
promise. This is where I've been working
to. And I'll try not to be this minute or two, but I want you
to see this. God Almighty, God the Holy Spirit, makes this promise
to every sinner who believes on the Son of God. The Scripture
saith, whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. This promise has failed four
times in the word of God. Each time, the words are used
a little differently. And when Paul quotes here the
passage in Isaiah 28, turn back there if you will. Isaiah 28,
he's not quoting it exactly, but he's giving us the sense
of the prophet, and he's giving us the sense of the whole of
Scripture. He's saying this is the message of God's Word. This
is what God says to sinners. This is what the whole book of
God is all about. Whosoever believeth on him shall
not Be ashamed. Look here in Isaiah 28, 16. Therefore
thus saith the Lord, the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for
a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure
foundation. What a word to describe our Savior.
A laid foundation, God's foundation, a tried foundation, sure foundation. He that believeth on Him. He
that believeth shall not make haste. What on earth does that mean? Shall not make haste. It has
the idea of shame. And what he's saying is this.
He who believes on the Son of God will stand before God with such
serenity and composure of heart and mind, that in times of distress
and calamity, he will not be so frightened as to quit his
confidence. Nothing going to hasten him away
from this rock. Will you also go away? If I did,
where would I go? We believe and assure thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. You have the words of eternal
life. Nobody else does. One of these days, everything's
going to be tried. Every foundation is going to
be shaken to its very core. And the foundation of God alone
stands assure. Now this is our mercy. He that
believeth shall not make haste. Sin and Satan shall not overcome
us in the hour of death. We shall not be confounded because
our hearts stand fast, believing on the Son of God. When Christ
appears in His glory, we will stand forth with boldness in
the brightness of His own glory and find an abundant Blazing
entrance for our souls into the very presence of God shall not
make haste. You are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. And in the meantime, while we
await that day, we just kindly walk. through
this valley of the shadow of death, and fear no evil. How come? Built on the foundation. Jeremiah puts it this way, blessed
is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is,
for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and spreadeth
out her roots by the river, and shall not see, listen to this,
shall not see when heat cometh, But her leaf shall be green,
and drought and heat comes, and all those things that just tear
everybody else up, all those things that make everybody else
pull their hair out, all those things that make everybody else
just bite their fingernails and paint the floor. He'll not see
it. He'll not see it. How come? Because his eyes are
fixed on Him who rules all things. He'll not see when the heat comes.
He shall not be careful. He shall not be careful in the
year of drought. The crops burn up in the field.
The water dries up out of the well. The cattle wither in the
field. The stock market crashes. Everything going to pot. The
whole world going crazy. Nobody knows what's going on.
And the believer. shall not be careful. Shall not be careful. How come?
Because he's fixed. He trusts in the Lord. He trusts
in the Lord. God has not given us. Now listen
to me, listen to me. Now pay no attention to me, listen
to what God says. Listen to what God says. I know we live in this
insane world where everybody's supposed to have a hand on this,
and everybody's supposed to go to the head shrink and get pills to
get them through the day. But I'm going to tell you something
about God's people. I'm going to tell you something
about them. And it's true of me and of you if we're His. And
if it's not true of us, we just don't know what faith is. God's
people are such as God describes and says, He hath not given us
the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. And that'll get me through the
day. That'll get me through the day. This glorious promise is given
again back in Romans 9, verse 33. As it is written, Behold,
I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, and a rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed." This word ashamed means
to be dishonored, disgraced, put to shame, made to shame,
made to blush with shame. A person is said to be put to
shame when he suffers a repulse. or has been deceived with a false
hope. You remember how our Lord said,
who goes to war? What king goes to war doesn't
sit down first to count the cost, to see if he's able to take on
the fellow coming against him, lest he be found ashamed. Who sets out to build a house
that doesn't first sit down and count the cost, lest he not be
able to finish it and be put to shame? When Adam and Eve were
in the garden and found themselves naked, they were ashamed. But he that believes shall not
be ashamed, shall never in this life Or in the day of judgment,
or in the life to come, be disappointed of his hope. Shall not be put
to shame. The Holy Spirit's reading of
the Holy Spirit's word in Isaiah 28, 16 is this. He shall not
be ashamed. Now look at chapter 10, verse
11. Here's the same word. It's translated
exactly the same way. But here the promise is dealing
with a specific thing. In verse 10 he says, with the
heart man believes unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation. For the scripture says, huh,
looks like that's got something to do with confession, doesn't
it? Looks like that's got something to do with confessing Christ.
The passage speaks of confessing Christ and declares that all
who believe on Him will not be ashamed to confess Him. If we're
ashamed of Him, our faith is simply not real. To be ashamed
of Him is to be an unbeliever. I'm not ashamed to confess Him.
I take my place right here. All but preachers, that's so
out of date. That's so old-fashioned. That's so out of step with the
times. I've been out of step with the world all my life. I'd whole
lot rather be in step with God. How about you? I'm going to confess
Him. Confess Him. I'm going to confess
Him before me. I'm not going to be ashamed to
confess Him to you. And I'm not going to be ashamed
to confess Him to His most implacable enemy. Not ashamed. Most people's religion, they
treat it kind of like they do a child. When somebody comes
in to visit, they say, sit down and be quiet. We don't want to
offend anybody. We don't want to be identified
with those radical folks called Christians. I'm not ashamed to
own my Lord, but to defend His cause, maintain the honor of
His word, the glory of His cross. For ever since, by faith, I saw
the stream, thy flowing wounds supply. Redeeming love has been
my theme and shall be till I die. Whosoever believes will not be
ashamed. He'll not be ashamed because his faith will finally
be proved unreasonable. That's not going to happen. He'll
not be ashamed because his faith has finally proved itself to
be disapproved of by his conscience. That's not going to happen. He's
not going to be ashamed because he's going to stand before God
and find that Christ is not enough. It's not going to happen. It's
not going to happen. Look in 1 Peter 2.6. One more
text. The Apostle Peter quotes this
same passage and says, Wherefore, also it is contained in the Scripture,
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect, precious.
He that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Now there,
the Holy Spirit uses exactly the same word, but our translators
take that same word and don't translate it haste or ashamed,
but translate it confounded. I reckon why they did that. Well,
I wasn't there to talk to him about it, but I have an idea.
The fact is the word that's used for ashamed, confounded, make
haste, is a word with such a broad range of meaning that no single
English word could translate it. No single English word could
adequately give out its fullness. He that believeth on the Son
of God shall not be confounded." Before men or before God, no
man on earth, no demon from hell, nothing in heaven above will
cause them to be confounded. Not in this world, not in the
world to come. We shall have confidence in Christ
and not be ashamed at His coming. We're safe now. being built on
this foundation stone. And we shall not be removed from
it, or intimidated by any enemy, so that we are made to flee from
it. We shall not make haste to lay another foundation. We shall
be found on this foundation before the great white throne of God.
What right? What right, Don Fortner, have
you to stand before this august holy board, my justice, God Almighty
may ask? Christ. That's all. That's all. Christ. Christ. Christ. He'll do. He'll do. I'm built on the rock,
on the rock of God. Built on the rock, Christ Jesus.
God dug down deep and built me on the rock. Built on the rock
of God. Why should I fear when the winds
sweep by? Built on the rock, Christ Jesus.
Or shaken be when the waves roll high? Built on the rock of God. Hush my raging billows at His
command. I'm built on the rock, Christ
Jesus. Oh, peace be still beneath his mighty hand. I'm built on
the rock of God. Praise God for our foundation,
sure. Built on the rock, Christ Jesus.
No storms can harm our house secure. We're built on the rock
of God. Amen. Thank you.