Unashamed

I. The Believer Cannot be Ashamed of the Gospel.

A. To identify the sin it delivers from.

It seems that sin has become a four-letter word today. We are ashamed to say that anything is a sin anymore. Yet identifying sin is necessary in sharing the gospel. Sin is why we need the gospel. It is only sinners who need a Savior and only those who see their sin will seek a Savior.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of the believer to point out sin. To shine the light of God’s truth on darkened hearts.

But the fear of man has crippled many of us.

We don’t want to be called old fashioned.

We don’t want to be called judgmental.

We don’t want to be called narrow minded.

We don’t want to be called compassionless.

Sin therefore has become rampant.

We see the bugs but we’re afraid to call the exterminator.

Can I remind you of that great preacher John the Baptist? Did he preach on sin? Yes!

The Bible introduces John the Baptist by saying he came preaching “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

The Bible says the response to those who heard John was the people came confessing their sins.

You know what the culture said about John? They said he was demon possessed.

Do you know what Jesus said about him? Jesus said he was the greatest man He knew (Luke 7:28). Jesus in the context of describing John said “Blessed is he who is not offended in Me.”

The world called John one thing Jesus called him another.

I’m not concerned if the world calls me old fashioned, judgmental, narrow minded, or compassionless. I’m concerned with what the Lord calls me. If the Lord called John the Baptist great and John the Baptist preached on sin then I’m going to preach on sin. I’m not going to be ashamed to let the world know the danger of sin.

I’m not ashamed in 2022 to say:

Drunkenness is still a sin

Profanity is still a sin

Fornication is still a sin

Homosexuality is still a sin

Racism is still a sin

Laziness is still a sin

There is no salvation without repentance of sin. There will be no repentance of sin if there is no preaching on sin.

Will people get upset with you for revealing their sin? Yes! Your own family may stop speaking to you. You may upset those closest to you. We still must reveal sin.

What kind of doctor changes his diagnosis because he doesn’t want to lose friends?

“Well, if I tell them they have cancer they may get upset and not come back. They may find them another doctor.”

That’s an awful doctor! Too much is at stake to be worried about hurting someone’s feelings. It’s an awful Christian who is ashamed to tell someone they need to repent of their sin and come to Christ.

We should not be ashamed to identify the sin the gospel delivers us from.

B. To warn of the hell it saves from.

Is it necessary to talk about hell? Yes. How do I know? Because Jesus talked about it so often.

Most of what we know about hell we learn from the words of Jesus.

Jesus taught us hell is a place prepared by God (Matthew 25:41)

Jesus said the pain of hell is worse than pulling your own eye out (Mark 9)

Jesus said hell is eternal (Matthew 25)

Jesus said hell was a place of fire (Luke 3)

Jesus said hell is a place to be feared (Matt 10)

Jesus said hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 8)

I could go on for much longer.

Jesus was not ashamed to preach about the reality of hell. This is part of the gospel. We are saved from hell.

I’ve heard people say things like “I don’t think a loving God would send anyone to hell.”

I didn’t think my mama would slap my face either until that night I said something at the supper table to my sister. She surprised me!

God is love but God is just. Justice demands our sins be dealt with. Sin is dealt with either on the cross or in hell.

We ought not to rejoice in hell. We ought not to mention it glibly. When we share hell there should be great compassion. But we should not be ashamed to mention it.

Salvation is a God word. It’s the word He uses to describe what happens when we come to Christ. “Saved” means we are delivered from something. There was a doom waiting on us. There was a sentence. All of that is implied in the word.

If you tell someone they need to be saved and they “From what?” What will you say? If you are ashamed to mention hell, what will you say? Without hell what are they saved from?

Do you see that you can’t even preach the gospel without hell? The gospel is good news because of the bad news. The bad news is if we continue in sin apart from Christ we will go to hell. We should never be ashamed to mention the hell the gospel saves us from!

C. To believe the Bible it comes from.

John 3:16 isn’t the only inspired verse in the Bible. It’s all inspired or none of it is.

You say “Kyle, you don’t have any objections with the Bible?” I’m still trying to deal with all the objections the Bible has with me. If I ever finish that maybe I’ll have time to deal with the other.

I believe in creation- our ancestors sinned under a tree but they weren’t swinging from one.

I believe the rainbow is a sign of God’s promise not man’s perversion.

I believe the prophets, the Law, the Wisdom literature, & the history. I believe the gospels, the letters, the Acts and the apocalyptic writings. I believe the Old and the New Testament front to back.

I believe God split the Red Sea.

I believe David split the giants head.

I believe the walls of Jericho fell down.

I believe Elijah’s chariot went up.

I believe the stories of the bible.

I believe the miracles of the Bible.

I believe the morals of the bible.

We have a supernatural God so I have no problem in believing in His supernatural acts.

I could not imagine that God would leave His creation without instructions. The Bible is the best instruction book I have seen. It tells us clearly everything we need to know about creation and salvation. Are there difficult thing in the Bible? Yes! But no matter what your worldview you will always have unanswered questions.

It was Spurgeon who said “If I did not believe in the infallibility of Scripture- the absolute infallibility of it from cover to cover I would never enter this pulpit again!”

He said on another occasion “I hold one sentence out of God’s Word to be of more certainty and of more power than all the discoveries of all the learned men of all the ages.”

The Bible is our book and we ought not be ashamed of it! It is from this book we get our gospel and meet our God!

D. To love the Name it’s based on.

Our gospel is connected to the wonderful name of Jesus. You cannot separate the two. If you are ashamed of the gospel then you are ashamed of Christ. There is no gospel without Jesus.

Christ has been mocked since He stepped into this world. If you were to go to the Palatine Hill Museum in Rome you would see the earliest depiction of Jesus in the world. It is a piece of Roman graffiti. It was found scribbled on a wall near the Palatine Hill in Rome. It was discovered in 1857, carved out and placed in the museum.

It’s important because it helps us understand the way Christians were perceived. The depiction is of a man worshipping as he looks up at a cross. On the cross is a man crucified but the man has a donkey head. The caption reads “Alexamenos worships his god.”

The graffiti is making fun of Jesus and His followers. It’s calling Jesus a donkey and His followers something more foolish than donkeys.

Christians and Christ being ridiculed is nothing new. The devil has been trying to shame us into silence for years.

Was my God humbled? Yes, but so I could be exalted!

Was my God humiliated? Yes, but so I could be glorified.

Did my God suffer? Yes, but so I would not.

Did my God die? Yes, but so I would live!

He was spit upon, He was beaten, He was mocked, He was crucified but I’ll never be ashamed of any of that. He did that for me! I’m not ashamed of the gospel because I’m not ashamed of Jesus.

When it comes to my salvation:

Jesus thought it, sought it, & bought it. I’ll never be ashamed of His name!

If I could sing, I’d sing

There is a Name I love to hear,

I love to sing its worth;

It sounds like music in my ear,

The sweetest Name on earth.

Oh, how I love Jesus,

Oh, how I love Jesus,

Oh, how I love Jesus,

Because He first loved me!

II. The Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation.

A. What the gospel will not do.

Give you more money.

Make your wife come back.

Heal your disease.

Ensure your life is easy

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation not… popularity, prosperity, matrimony, etc.

If you get saved you may still be broke, single, & sick. God doesn’t promise us that everything is going to be great in this world. If you’re looking for deliverance from your circumstances, if you’re looking for a jailhouse religion, the gospel isn’t for you.

B. What the gospel will do.

But if you want to be saved…

If you want to be forgiven.

If you want your name written in heaven.

If you want to see God.

If you want to be righteous.

Then the gospel is the power of God for salvation unto you.

The gospel works. It worked in the first century, it works in the 21st century and it’ll work in the last century.

That word “power” Paul uses is the same Greek word we get our word dynamite from. Contained in the simple gospel message is the very dynamite of God.

One thing about dynamite, nobody has to tell you when it goes off.

It’ll wake up the neighborhood.

It gets your attention.

It moves things around.

It rearranges.

The gospel shakes men and women up.

The gospel wakes men and women up.

The gospel rearranges things.

The Bible teaches we are powerless. We cannot save ourselves. Jeremiah 13:23 says “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?”

If you’re white you got just as much a shot at waking up as Hispanic tomorrow as you do at saving yourself. It’d be easier to change your skin color than to change your heart. But the gospel has the power to change us.

The preached gospel convicts and converts.

It reveals and regenerates.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. God has chosen to use the foolishness of the preached gospel to bring about the new birth.

I’m not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation!

C. Every person who is saved was saved through the gospel.

I’ll tell you how every person who is saved got that way! They heard the gospel and God did a work in their heart.

It’s the gospel folks. I remember a time when I took my wife to her first revival. It was at Ridgecrest Baptist church in Dothan Alabama. There was a great preacher. It was a large church with more than 1,000 people coming on Sundays. There was good singing and preaching. As we were about to leave I stopped by the restroom. There was a fellow in there and I looked at him and said, “It’s good to be saved isn’t it!” He froze, looked at me and said, “I don’t know, I’m not saved.” I told him he could be. We left that bathroom and went down to the altar and he prayed for forgiveness from Christ.

I’d never seen the man before! I had no bridge built with him. As far as I know we had nothing in common. There was no reason for him to listen to a stranger he met in the bathroom. But the gospel penetrated his heart!

Listen to me Sunday school teacher, the gospel will work in the classroom with a new generation.

Mama and Daddy, the gospel will work in the bedroom beside your child’s bed.

Church member, the gospel will work in the living when you’re out on visitation.

The gospel will work in the classroom, the bedroom, the living room and it will even work in the bathroom! It is the power of God unto salvation!

III. The Gospel is for Everyone.

A. Anyone who believes can be saved. Look at your Bible. It says everyone. Not just go to heaven, but be saved. Anyone can be changed.

Our problem is we have started buying into the worlds thinking. Perhaps we believe everyone can go to heaven but not everyone can be changed.

God never saved a person He didn’t change. If ANY man is in Christ he is a new creature…

Paul is writing to Romans. They are living in an awful culture filled with drunkenness, idolatry, homosexuality, prostitution, you name it. He tells them the gospel is for them.

Paul knows about the gospel changing any man.

He was changed from a murdered into a minister.

From a persecutor into a priest.

B. Our culture is telling us some folks can’t be changed. They’re telling us to stop trying.

They’ll always be a drunk…

They’ll always be an addict…

They’ll always be gay…

Our culture makes folks give up on themselves. We’re buying into that mess.

I’m not ashamed of the gospel. I’m telling you this morning the gospel is the power of God for every person who believes.

It will make a drunk man walk straight and a gay man be straight. There is no one this gospel cannot change. That violent man in prison can become gentle. That thief can become a giver. That Muslim can become a Christian.

The world thinks that’s foolish. They’ll mock you for believing that. I’m not ashamed to tell you it’s the truth. The gospel is for everyone.

What about you this morning friend? Are you ashamed of the gospel?

Are you ashamed to:

Identify the sin it delivers from?

Warn of the hell it saves from?

Believe the Bible it comes from?

Love the name it’s based on?

Are you ashamed to say the gospel is the power of God unto salvation and it is for everyone?

I hope you are not.

Perhaps you need to bow your knee to Christ this morning. Don’t be ashamed.

Perhaps you need to find your courage in the gospel once again.

Don’t be ashamed to do business with God.