2020-11-11 Romans 1:16

Romans 1:16 NASB95

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

I. Are you ashamed of the Gospel? Is it enough for you?

Romans 1:16 (NAS): 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

A. Is Jesus your power, satisfaction, and life?

Romans 1:16 (NAS): 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Illus: I believe there is a disconnect between what we say we believe, and the way we live our lives.

We say that we are gospel people. We say that the powers of God has transformed us.

That said, as you look across the average person who claims the name of Christ, there is little difference from their non Christian neighbor.

One of two things must be true. 1. The gospel is not that powerful or 2. Their life is not built on gospel power.

Is the gospel your power. Is your life defined by an embrace of the forgiveness found only at the cross and the new life given by God.

We would want to say yes, but speaking for myself, many times I claim the gospel, but live a life of self relaiance.

If you look at the scope of most Christian books, most are simply self helped with enough verses sprinkled through to be sold to a Christian audience.

Let’s be honest, we want the forgiveness of the gospel without its surrender. We still want to be in control of our lives.

Does the gospel satisfy you? We are living in a time where personal satisfaction seems to be the motivation of all that we do.

We post online to be satisfied by the likes, we spend our money to be satisfied by our stuff, we live our lives in way that shows that we don’t believe in eternity because we are truing to find our satisfaction here.

When the gospel transforms your heart, Christ becomes more than your first treasure, he becomes your sole treasure.

Every ounce of your being will find contentment in the presence of God.

Is the gospel your life?

Day to day, look at your life. Who are you really living for? Where is your power from? What really satisfies you?

Ashamedness of the gospel is not just denying God public ally, it is also denying him practically by the way that you live.

We may acknowledge God in word, but deny him through the way we live.

1 Corinthians 1:18–25 NASB95

18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

B. Jesus plus anything shows that the gospel is not enough.

Romans 1:16 (NAS): 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Illus: As I think of how we live ashamed of the gospel today I think of when Jesus said, these people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me.

When Jesus made that bold claim he made it about very well intentioned people.

He was saying this about people who gave their lives to strive after personal piety and self righteousness.

Many of the people in the hearing of this statement could quote the first 5 books of the Bible from memory.

The problem was the Pharisees trusted in themselves and the system they set up over the righteousness and forgiveness of God.

Because they were so self focused in their religious pursuit of God, they missed the very person of God in their presence.

For them it was God plus me.

We face the same temptation today. God plus me.

IN righteousness, God plus my work.

In satisfaction, God plus my stuff/experiences.

In life, God plus what I want.

When God says love the lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, he means all. Every bit.

Being ashamed of the gospel is believing that it is not enough... but that you need to supplement it with your work, your experiences, your control.

Ephesians 2:8–10 NASB95

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

II. Are you ashamed of the Gospel? Do you genuinely believe it has power?

Romans 1:16 (NAS): 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

A. The great issue of every person is gospel transformation.

Romans 1:16 (NAS): 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Illus: This year I had the incredible experience of serving on the resolutions committee for Louisiana Baptist at our convention.

The committee’s job is to look at the issues in the world around us and craft responses on behalf of the baptist churches in our state.

This year in the roaring cultural turmoil of 2020, we had many resolutions submitted to our committee that we could have embraced.

2020 has been a cultural garbage fire. Kind of like the book of Judges.

That said, we decided to only write one resolution. It was on the power and necessity of the gospel.

Why? Shouldn’t we respond to the brokenness of the world around us? Don’t we need to respond to the depravity of our culture.

If we don’t speak up, who will. Right?

Hear me out, for as long as I can remember we have attempted to solve the ills of our culture through greater and greater cultural argument and engagement.

Even with poring tens of millions of dollars (or more) into this pursuit, the darkness of the world has only grown greater.

We chose to write one resolution for the same reason I critique the constant culture war fight. Because our engagement in constantly responding to the culture war has led us to abandon the only effective means of transforming our nation.

We have abandoned the gospel because in practice we believe that political and cultural activism will have a greater effect in transforming our nation.

Even after the resurrection Jesus had to get the disciples back on track. They were still looking for political solutions where God brought a heart solution.

We show we are ashamed of the gospel by what we look to for the hope and transformation of our nation.

Acts 1:6–8 NASB95

6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

B. Does the way we interact with our nation show we do not believe the gospel has power?

Romans 1:16 (NAS): 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Illus: As a pastor my job as I preach is to take the always truthful and timeless word and apply to your life today.

I feel like I am constantly talking about politics. Why? Because politics has taken a major place in the lives of my people.

For me not to discuss the unhealthy obsession we have with politics, as it has driven many to desperation and hopelessness, would be paramount to me ignoring sin that is rampant in our church.

Let’s just walk out the facts. We are not as passionate about life giving news of the forgiveness of God as we we are about getting people to the polls.

We do not believe the gospel has the same power to transform our nation as we do a new Supreme Court justice or president.

Our obsession with political power is a symptom of our lack of belief in gospel power.

Where we look for solutions in our nation shows what matters the most to us. Of what we believe holds true power.

Our abandoning of the gospel for a cultural and political war shows that we do not believe the gospel is the power of God and that shows we are ashamed.

1 Peter 2:13–17 NASB95

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. 16 Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. 17 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

III. Are you ashamed of the Gospel? Is it a way of life?

Romans 1:16 (NAS): 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

A. My fear is that we live gospel ambivalent lives.

Illus: When you think about being ashamed of the gospel, you think of a person asking you, “are you a believer,” and you responding “no”

But being ashamed of the gospel is far more than that.

It is living in a way where you may claim the name of Christ but to live where Christ is not everything for you.

To live ashamed is to live where Jesus is not your power, satisfaction, and life.

To live ashamed is to live where you look for the answers of our country outside the gospel of Jesus.

To live unashamed is to live where both your life and your words are saturated with the gospel of Jesus.

To live unashamed is to live bringing the love of God to every person you can.

To live unashamed is to embrace a lifestyle that seems so foolish to the world that all they see in you is the image of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:13–21 NASB95

13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. 16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.