I Am Not Ashamed: The Power of God

I Am Not Ashamed: The Power of God

Text: Romans 1:16-17

Theme: The Christian's righteousness is a result of the power of God to transform a life and not the result of our own effort.

Date: 01/17/16 File name: Romans_2016_02.wpd ID Number: 175

My life was forever changed by the grace, and the mercy of God that I experienced on a Tuesday in June of 1973 when the supernatural Power of God regenerated my soul by the coming of His Holy Spirit into my life according to the promise of His Word. In that moment God justified me and declared me righteous in His sight. Hallelujah!

The Gospel is about a righteousness which comes from God “by faith from first to last.”

In the opening paragraph of his letter to the Christians at Rome, the Apostle reminds his readers that the Gospel is all about Jesus. He writes: “the gospel he [God the Father — Yahweh of the Jewish Scriptures] promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 1:2–4, NIV). The righteousness that comes by faith comes by hearing and accepting a Gospel — it is not about performing religious rituals or keeping moral regulations. It is about entering into a relationship with God’s Christ who revealed himself in the person of Jesus.

Why is the Apostle Paul so desirous to preach the Gospel in Rome? And he is eager to come ... “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—” (Romans 1:11, NIV). He is eager to come and preach the gospel because, salvation is desperately needed by a race which rightly lies under divine wrath (v. 18). For humanity has rebelled against God, rejecting the knowledge all men have of Him (vv. 19–20), preferring to create their own gods and follow a pathway which leads inexorably to ever greater depravities (vv. 21–32).

Cast against the dark background of lost man’s corrupt society, what “good news” the Gospel is! Humanity has not chosen to know God. But God has chosen to reveal His love and grace to man anew. In this passage, the Apostle makes three I am statements in connection with the Gospel: 1) I am indebted to the gospel, 2) I am eager to preach the gospel, and 3) I am not ashamed of the gospel.

I. I AM INDEBTED ... To the Gospel

“I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.” (Romans 1:14, KJV 1900)

1. virtually every modern translation says, I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish (Romans 1:14, NIV84)

a. I’ve chosen to quote the KJV because I like the emphasis the word debtor implies rather then merely obligated

1) there is a sense that we may feel obligated to do something, but then never really get around to it for one reason or another

2) but the sense of being a debtor goes further than merely feeling an obligation

3) obligation implies I should and I might, while debtor implies I must and I will

b. the word as used in this passage means to bind legally and morally

2. in vs. 14 the Apostle writes that he has a moral debt to preach the Gospel

a. the Apostle feels indebted to preach to the Greek and to the Barbarian

1) Greeks were considered the most cultured, and sophisticated of all the cultures of that day ... The Greek language was thought to be the language of the gods, and Greek philosophy was thought to be little less than divine

2) barbarians, on the other hand, referred to the uncultured, uncouth, and uneducated masses on the boarder of the Roman Empire, but in its wider sense it was used of anyone who was non-Greek (the people in fly-over country)

a) Paul declares that the Gospel is for both

b. the Apostle also feels indebted to preach the to the wise and the not so wise

1) there are the highly educated of society and there are those who cannot read or right (the intelligentsia vs. those who cling to their guns and religions)

a) again, the Gospel is for both and everyone in between

c. why?

A. THE APOSTLE IS INDEBTED TO CHRIST FOR HIS SALVATION

1. why does the Apostle feel indebted, or obligated to preach the Gospel to those in Rome?

2. because he has received mercy and grace even though he has concluded that he is the chief of sinners

3 the great debt that Saul of Tarsus owed God — indeed the debt that all sinners owe God — is the debt of absolute and perfect righteousness

a. God is a perfect righteous deity, and that righteousness is expressed in His absolute holiness

1) there is simply nothing about God that is “un-right”

2) there is simply nothing about God’s actions that are “un-right”

b. God’s righteousness, therefore, refers to His uprightness

“The LORD is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made.” (Psalm 145:17, NIV84)

c. God is righteous, and all the righteousness in the entire universe has its origin in Him

1) the psalmist exclaims, "Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the highest heavens … Who can compare with you, O God?" (Psalm 71:19)

2) and yet, God demands that all who approach His throne of grace are to be holy as He is holy

d. no one can compare to God, though multitudes keep trying

4. from the dawn of history people have struggled in many different ways to somehow merit acceptance by God; to measure up

a. people have always tried to gain favor with their gods by doing what they believed would please them

1) that’s why Hindus have prayer wheels

2) that’s why Muslims bow down 5 times daily toward Mecca, and

3) that’s why some professing Christians do penance

b. according to the vast majority of people living on earth, righteousness is something they must earn

1) but what does the Bible say?

• “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6, NIV84)

• “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23, NIV84)

5. there is a ledger that God keeps — a record of the debt the unconverted man owes Him — and every sin committed puts the sinner deeper and deeper in debt

a. it is a debt we cannot pay on our own

1) this is why the Cross of Christ is such an offense to the sensibilities of men

b. the offense of the cross is this: That I am so damned, and so lost, and so hopeless that if Christ had not died for me, I’d never know God and I’d never be forgiven

c. the cross is a stark reminder revealing that the best men among men are still vile in the sight of God if they don’t have Christ in them

6. but Paul put his faith in the risen Christ, and like Abraham, by his faith, God accredited him as righteous!

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. ... “ (1 Cor. 15:10a, NIV)

ILLUS. It was the hymn writer, A.M. Toplady, who wrote “Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to the cross I cling.”

a. the Apostle Is Indebted to Christ for His Salvation

B. THE APOSTLE IS INDEBTED TO OTHERS TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF THEIR SALVATION

1. when the Lord called him to salvation and to apostleship, Paul was doing anything but promoting the gospel, but was rather bent on destroying it at all costs

a. here in vs. 14, he seems to be saying to the Romans, in effect, “Don’t thank me for wanting to minister to you. Although I love you and sincerely want to visit you, I was sovereignly appointed to this ministry long before I had a personal desire for it”

ILLUS. Every sincere pastor and Christian worker knows there are times when ministry is its own reward, when study, preparation, teaching, and shepherding are exhilarating in themselves. There are other times, however, when the work does not seem very attractive, and yet you still study, prepare, teach, and shepherd because you are under obligation to God and to those you are serving. Christ is our Lord and we are His servants; and it is a poor servant who serves only when he feels like it

2. Paul was under obligation in at least two ways

a. 1st, he was under obligation to God on behalf of the Gentiles and non-Gentiles alike

1) because God had appointed him as a unique apostle to the Gentiles (Rom. 1:5; Acts 9:15), he was under divine obligation to minister the gospel to them

“But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man [i.e. Paul] is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.” (Acts 9:15, NIV84)

2) this spiritual debtor to the grace of God is now indebted to go to other spiritual debtors to preach a Gospel that will free them from their sin so that they also become spiritual debtors to the grace of God and who will, in turn, now be indebted to go preach the Gospel to other spiritual debtors

b. 2nd, he had an obligation, or debt, to the Roman believers directly, because of their spiritual need

1) when someone is in great danger and we are in a position to help, we are automatically and immediately under obligation to do what we can to save him

2) this is how the Apostle understands his indebtedness — unbelieving Gentiles, like unbelieving Jews, face spiritual death, and Paul was obligated to help rescue them through the gospel

3) this gospel of grace is to be preached to believer and unbeliever alike because faith in free grace saves and faith in free grace sanctifies

3. the gospel of salvation Paul wanted to preach is not only for the beginning of the Christian life, not only for the first day of coming to know Jesus Christ, not only for the initial conversion from an alien faith to the Christian faith, and not only to draw someone across the line from paganism or secularism into the Christian church

a. no, instead, this very same gospel of salvation is also intended and needed for the whole of the Christian life, for an ongoing relationship with Christ and God, for a continuing and deepening conversion of faith and for the increasing maturity of the Christian faith

4. Paul the Apostle Writes: I Am Indebted ... to the Gospel

II. I AM EAGER ... To Preach the Gospel

“That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.” (Romans 1:15, NIV)

1. the gospel of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, is now available not only to the few in Israel but to all in the world who believe in it, to all who trust in the grace of God, to all who accept and receive Jesus Christ

a. this restoration to right relationship with God is accomplished through the preaching of the gospel, the hearing of the gospel, believing in the gospel, and the obedience of faith

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14–15, NIV)

b. that is why Paul was eager to preach

“ ... Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16, NIV)

ILLUS. It was Dwight L. Moody, the great 19th century evangelist, who said, “The Gospel is like a lion. All the preacher has to do is open the door of the cage and get out of the way.”

2. we are separated from these events by nearly 2,000 years of human history, and yet, this same forgiving, life giving grace of God which Paul wanted to preach in Rome is still made available even to us through this very same gospel of Jesus Christ

a. in short, the good news is that Jesus Christ is both the Son of Man and the Son of God, that he died for our sins and was raised from the dead, and that in him we have both the forgiveness of sin and the promise of eternal life

b. this we do not deserve and cannot earn, but we receive it freely by grace through faith

1) thanks be to God!

3. why do we need this Gospel

a. the single, underlying, root cause of all that has gone wrong in humanity and in our lives is idolatry

"For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."

1) this problem of sin is a universal one. It is not limited to the Romans or the non-Romans

2) it is not limited to the Americans or the non-Americans

3) it is not limited to black or white, Asian or Indian

4) it is not limited to male or female

5) it is not limited to poor or to the 1%ers

b. it is universal — we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and thus we all need the good news preached to us, and those who have heard it preached and received it gladly need to preach it to others

4. Paul the Apostle writes: I AM EAGER ... To Preach the Gospel

III. I AM NOT ASHAMED ... Of the Gospel

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16–17, NIV)

1. wonder of wonders — God pours out all the judgment, destruction, and death which we deserve upon his Christ, who did not deserve it

a. he was crucified in our place, he died, he was buried, he was resurrected

b. all in order that we might be made alive in Christ which means forgiveness and living in his abundance and his presence forever

2. here is the gospel: That there has been a wonderful exchange of curse and blessing

a. no wonder Paul was eager to preach the gospel

3. it is a gospel he is not ashamed of because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes

a. vvs. 16-17 express the theme of the book of Romans, and they contain the most life-transforming truth God has put into men’s hands

b. it is in the Gospel that the possibility of a transforming righteousness is revealed

1) it is a righteousness that comes not by being good, or practicing certain rituals or rites, but it comes by faith alone

2) Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved!

A. THE CROSS WAS SHAMEFUL BUT THE GOSPEL IS NOT

1. what men did to Jesus on the cross, was indeed shameful

a. if ever there was a faith to be ashamed of, it was The Way, which is how early Christians referred to the faith

ILLUS. Consider how Jews and Gentiles alike perceived Christianity. It’s originator was an uneducated laborer from an unreputable community, from a rural back-water area of the most troublesome province in the Roman Empire. The community’s founder became an itinerant preacher who developed a huge following only to see many of those followers turn aside toward the end of his ministry. He offended the Jewish leaders and worried the Roman overlords. He was betrayed by one of his followers, denied by his closest friend, and abandoned by all but one of his disciples and a few devoted women. He was tried for sedition, and crucified as an enemy of the state. And yet his followers, after reporting his resurrection, declared that he was the promised Anointed One of God, sent to the Jewish people, and Lord over the created universe. And from the beginning The Way seemed to attract the riffraff of society — the poor, the uneducated, and those on the fringes of society like prostitutes, beggars, outcasts and other “sinners.”

2. and yet this Jesus is the very center of the Gospel

a. to the Jews the gospel was a stumbling block and to the Gentiles it was foolishness

b. still, today, the gospel is unattractive, intimidating, and repulsive to the natural, unsaved person and to the ungodly spiritual system that now dominates the world

3. the gospel exposes man’s sin, wickedness, depravity, and lostness, and it declares pride to be despicable and personal works righteousness to be worthless in God’s sight

a. to the sinful heart of unbelievers, the gospel does not appear to be good news but bad

4. what is unfortunate is when those in the Body of Christ are ashamed of the Gospel

B. THERE IS A GROWING SHAME IN THE GOSPEL

1. there are those in the Church today — mostly liberal theologians, and panicky church leaders — who urgently tell us that the doctrines and moral teaching of the Church must be accommodated to a new secular reality or there will be an alienation of the society from the church

a. the nattering nabobs of theological liberalism promise that if we’ll just adjust Biblical theology to a new age, the new age will be attracted to Christianity

2. not only is that what the Bible describes as apostasy — an abandonment of the faith once delivered — but it is furthermore a recipe for denominational disaster

a. Exhibit “A” is the Church of England

1) English Anglican and their American counterparts, the Episcopalians, are exceedingly theologically liberal having abandoned the inerrancy of the Scriptures decades ago

2) the result of their abandonment of Biblical authority has been a long and precipitous decline in membership and attendance

3) they have sought to accommodate the teachings of the church to make the church more palatable to a thoroughly secularized English and American citizenry

ILLUS. On any given Sunday in the United Kingdom, less than 800,000 show up in church and most of them are referred to as the “silver ladies” meaning that most of those who attend are senior adult women.

b. there is, however, a segment of the Anglican Church in England that is growing — the Evangelical wing — those churches with evangelical pastors, preaching an evangelical gospel are reaching their communities

c. but if you think that the Church of England’s leadership are happy about this, you would be wrong — they are embarrassed

ILLUS. Echoing the sentiments of many of his liberal fellow Primates, the Anglican Bishop of Buckingham, Alan Wilson, said, “Most Anglicans would rather stick their head in a food mixer than become an evangelical.”

1) now just think about what he said ... Here is a bishop of a church where the membership is in a catastrophic free-fall due to their abandonment of the Gospel, and his chief worry is about the increasing number of Britons who might be alienated by those few fellow Anglicans who actual preaching of the Gospel!

2) News Flash Bishop Wilson: The only segment of your Church that is growing is the group that unashamedly preaches the Gospel

d. it’s a bit late for liberals to worry about alienating the culture

3. the word translated ashamed means disgraced or personally humiliated

a. when Paul says that he is not ashamed of the gospel, he is saying his confidence in the gospel is not misplaced

1) there is no disgrace in declaring it

Con. David, the Psalmist, declared in Psalms 31:1, "In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ASHAMED: deliver me in Thy righteousness." My prayer for you is that you will never be ashamed of your Savior or of his Gospel.

The Apostle writes, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”” (Romans 10:9–11, NIV)