I want to look at Romans chapter 1 verses 16 to 18 today.
And I want to address the issue of being unashamed of the gospel.
! Have you ever found yourself ashamed of the gospel?
! I imagine if you are a believer, you have had some instance of this.
I remember one time when I was back in college, I was working retail.
I was a relatively new believer, very excited about the Lord,
and very faithful pretty much to share the gospel when I could.
And I was working in retail and just kind of enjoying life
and the fact that I belonged to Jesus.
I was rescued from my sin and so forth.
And I was whistling as I was working.
And then I went over to a customer and I said,
do you need help with anything more?
And he said, yeah. Why are you so happy?
Golden moment, right?
He asked me why you're so happy.
It's my chance to say, and for some reason,
I don't know if I was in, I think I was intimidated by the guy.
He was a big guy.
I came up with a really pathetic answer.
Instead of saying what I ought to, I said, well, I just am.
And it was just the worst answer.
And I felt terrible for it.
I don't know if you've had a moment like that.
That's not my only moment.
But I'm not here to share my bad moments.
There's that reality of being ashamed of the gospel.
And we do it for different reasons.
But God doesn't leave us there in that place of being ashamed and struggling.
He helps us.
He's given us his word.
His word is living and active.
And he wants to minister to us through it.
And to do that even today.
So if you are someone who has struggled like me with being ashamed of the gospel,
I have great hope for you.
Because God has given us his word.
And by his spirit, he wants to speak to us.
So let's pray.
And ask for his help that we might learn and respond to his word.
I'll pray.
And then we can stand to hear God's word read.
Lord, we thank you for you and your word.
And we thank you, Lord, that you are full of mercy and patient.
And Lord, in you is power.
And your word shapes us and changes us and enables us to walk with you and to walk in your way.
So I pray, Lord, as we look at your word today, that we would receive your word.
And you would grant us power to embrace it and to believe and obey.
And I pray you'd help me, Lord.
I feel weak.
I feel especially weak this morning for whatever reason.
But that's good because you're mighty.
And I pray you would show yourself mighty today as we look at your word.
Your life-giving, your true, your faithful word, your eternal word.
And we ask these things in Christ's name.
Amen.
Please stand as we read God's word.
Romans 1, 16 through 18.
It says, Paul is speaking in the beginning of this letter.
He says,
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.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,
as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Romans 1, 16 through 18.
God's word.
You may be seated.
Paul says plainly here in the beginning of verse 16,
I am not ashamed of the gospel.
Paul says that actually multiple times throughout his writings.
You can find that.
He is someone who is not ashamed of the gospel,
but who also prays for boldness.
He asks the churches to pray for boldness for him.
And really this struggle is at the heart of every believer.
This tendency to be ashamed, to not be bold.
And yet Paul instructs us here in some key ways.
And I want to take a look at these verses because they are Paul's reasons for not being ashamed,
but they are more than just Paul's reasons for not being ashamed.
They are our reasons.
So if you look at these verses, you can see a logic that's here.
First, of course, he says he's not ashamed of the gospel.
And he says because it's the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.
And then he gives the reason or that drives that.
It's because in it a righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.
And then verse 18, the problem behind this is the wrath of God is being revealed
against all the unrighteousness, ungodliness of humanity.
So he's really giving a reverse order.
He says the problem at the end, then the answer,
and then how that drives him not to be ashamed.
And so I want to look at that logic, but the other way around.
So we're going to look at the problem first,
this reality of the wrath of God being revealed.
And then we're going to look at the answer,
the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel,
and then talk about the power of God and then why we're not ashamed.
In all this, at every point that I'm making,
there are reasons in these truths that drive us not being ashamed.
So we'll just walk through it.
So first, we're going to start at the end in verse 18 on the wrath,
God's wrath against our sin.
It says,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
This statement is what is the background
for everything that Paul is saying in this section.
So notice four things.
It speaks of God's wrath.
God's wrath.
Now, God's wrath is not human anger.
God's wrath is not in personal karma.
It is a settled, holy, judicial response
of a perfectly righteous God towards evil.
Second, it says it's being revealed.
It's ongoing.
God is actually revealing his wrath now.
And of course, it will be ultimately revealed in the final judgments.
But it's happening now.
Third, it says it's from heaven.
It's God's wrath.
It's just.
And it's against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
It's universal in scope.
And it's focused.
It's reasonable.
These are truths that are important to understand.
And Paul actually takes time after verse 18
to go through almost three chapters worth of why this is happening
to explain the background.
So I will just pretty quickly walk through that reasoning
and examine it for us that we might understand
this reality of the wrath of God.
The ground for it is not God just being wrathful for any reason.
And it's because of the unrighteousness and ungodliness of humanity.
God's wrath is being revealed against ungodliness, against unrighteousness.
This unrighteousness is a corporate reality for all of humanity.
Chapter 1, he talks about that.
It's a reality that is for all of us.
It's for the self-righteous who think that they don't qualify,
that they don't fall under this diagnosis.
And ultimately, it confronts every human being.
There's no unrighteous.
No, not one.
It's so important for us to understand this,
to understand this dark background to the glorious gospel of grace.
This dark background is really important to understand
because if you don't get the dark background,
the gospel doesn't look so bright and glorious.
Matter of fact, why do we even need this gospel of grace?
If we don't have a serious problem.
This is the right diagnosis for our own situation,
and we need to face it.
And often, it's the failure to understand this diagnosis of humanity,
all of humanity, and all of us also individually.
That is why we're ashamed of the gospel.
We don't understand how dire the circumstances are.
The reality is for all of humanity, is for us, is for your neighbor, is for your family member.
However, we subscribe to some other diagnosis of humanity often.
There's often compromise.
And we let the worldly ideas about humanity seep in and say,
well, we're okay, actually.
We're more or less good.
But that's not what Romans says.
Paul wants us to understand this dire situation that drives his compulsion
to share the gospel with whomever he can,
and his example for all of us as well,
to follow him as he follows Christ.
So chapter 1 goes at length to explain the situation
that we are unrighteous corporately, culturally, as a civilization, as a species,
even though God has displayed his glory and goodness clearly in creation.
No one has an excuse because it's displayed clearly before all of humanity.
Even though it's displayed, even though we are creatures made in his image,
and therefore we know, all of us, every human, every culture,
all of us knows right and wrong.
It's there.
You can study in terms of sociology all different people groups.
They all know right and wrong at a fundamental level.
They all share common morals.
We know we're made in the image of God,
even though we know right and wrong,
even though we intuitively understand the natural order of things,
even though all these things are there,
we have rejected God and pushed the obvious aside.
That's what Romans 1 teaches us.
Not only have we just merely pushed it aside,
we are actually actively spurting it.
That's what Romans 1 teaches us.
From one degree of corruption to another,
we are actively suppressing the truth,
as we saw Paul's statement in Romans 1.18.
This is who we are.
This is what we do.
We have stricken gratitude and reverence from God
from our songs, our stories, our celebrations.
You see that all around us.
God is the awkward and unwelcome guest in our culture, isn't he?
And Romans 1 says,
this is not by accident.
This is on purpose.
This is the situation.
This is the sorry state of humanity.
This is the ridiculous state of humanity.
Humanity has credited nature rather than the creator.
We've marveled at our own accomplishments
rather than the fact that we can do nothing
apart from the grace of God.
We have ignored and rejected and denied
and even raged against God.
It's a ridiculous and terrible tragedy.
That's what's clear here in Romans 1.
The culmination of our folly is actually
exchanging the glory of God
and all of his goodness and glory
as simply revealed in creation.
We've exchanged that for the creation,
for images made in the image of creation,
mankind, animals, birds, and worse.
We are hell-bent in worshiping anything else but God.
And as we pursue this line,
the choices get more and more bizarre.
This is the reality of humanity.
Paul accurately diagnoses us.
And you just need to look around.
Study our own culture.
Look at history.
It's undeniable.
He is speaking the truth.
We know it's spoken in God's very word.
Therefore, it is true.
But it's confirmed by our own observations around us.
And we do this all right in front of God,
living in his house, his world, his universe.
We do it with images, people, celebrities, ideals,
money, sex, power, entertainment, and self,
and self-image on and on without stopping.
And this is a cosmic crime.
And we are all guilty.
The late theology professor Cornelius Van Til
spoke of humanity as a little girl
sitting on her father's lap.
Slapping him in the face.
Telling him he doesn't exist.
That's what we do.
We sit on God's lap.
We sit in his creation amidst his revelation
of glory and goodness.
And we slap him.
You don't exist or you're mean.
It's a cosmic crime.
It's a sad reality.
And as we do this, Paul talks about the results
in chapter 1 of Romans.
We reject God and our universe,
our world, our culture, our relationships,
they unravel.
And so Paul says three times in chapter 1,
God gave them up in their foolishness,
in mankind's foolishness,
our foolishness.
Gave them up to the lust of their hearts.
Gave them up to dishonorable passions.
Gave them up to a debased mind.
God said, okay, if this is your choice,
I'm going to give you over to it.
And here you go.
And there we go.
Abandoning God results in being abandoned
by God to confusion and moral brokenness.
And the picture is appalling.
And we all know it shouldn't be this way.
Paul says that we are filled
with all manner of unrighteousness,
wickedness, greed, malice,
full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,
malevolence, gossipers, slanderers,
God-haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful,
inventors of evil,
disobedient to parents,
foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
This is humanity.
All of us to one degree or another.
So be careful, by the way.
And I'll talk about this.
Not to say, well, I'm not as bad
as those others who do this.
I can't be that bad.
All of us are indicted by Romans 1 and 2 and 3
to one degree or another.
We are all guilty of these things.
We only need to look around
at our current moral landscape
to recognize this.
Our culture's present sexual ethics
are now governed by desire and preference
with personal identity
locked into these choices.
To value myself or anyone else,
the rule goes,
I must support whatever choices
that person makes.
And society has declared
sexual freedom non-negotiable
and treats anyone who disagrees
as the moral problem.
This is our culture,
hating the truth
and suppressing the truth
of God's word.
And in one way or the other,
we are all guilty
to a degree of related sins.
And God,
in his righteousness,
gives sinners
what they choose.
And this is what we see in humanity.
This is what we see all around us.
This is what we see to some degree
in our own hearts.
See, it's not just out there.
It's not just culture.
It's not just history,
but it's in all of us personally.
And so Paul will take time
in chapter 2
to turn the tables
on those who look at the culture
and say,
oh, it's awful.
It's going downhill fast,
but I'm not that bad.
And he will turn the tables
and say,
you also are guilty.
You who say they ought not to do this,
you do it.
Maybe not in the same way,
maybe not to the same degree,
but you do it as well.
Well, I've never murdered anybody,
but Jesus asks us,
have you ever been bitterly angry
with someone?
Have you ever wished
that person just simply
wasn't in your life anymore?
Is that really that different
than murder?
The same heart
that destroys another human
for our own convenience
is there in all of us.
Maybe you've never committed adultery,
but have you lusted
after someone
wanting them in a way
that doesn't belong to you
and is not appropriate?
We all are guilty.
Well, I've never stolen,
but really, have you?
Have you taken advantage
of anybody else in any way?
Taking something from them
that's not really yours to take?
I don't really lie,
but do you lie about others
or promote lies
and propagating things
that are not verified
and maybe slanderous?
That's kind of what happens
all around us in social media.
We are all guilty.
None of us are innocent in this,
and nothing will help us really.
No heightened activity
in church membership.
No knowing the truth
or being orthodox
in your profession of faith.
No amount of good works.
These things will not rescue us.
They will not undo
the unrighteousness
that is in our hearts.
It's dark,
and we don't even know
the half of it.
Can you imagine?
Maybe this will happen someday.
We invent a brainwave detector
that actually can interpret
what's going on in your brain.
So it's a brain.
Imagine if you had
on your phone this app.
I don't think any of us
would want to have it,
but a brainwave monitor
and interpreter
that could take all the things
you're thinking during the week
and actually create videos
and put those on your computer.
And today, after church,
we're actually going to have
somebody's brainwave
for this past week
on the screen here,
and we're all going to
enjoy it together.
Would anybody enjoy that?
Would the person
whose brainwaves are shown,
whose videos are shown,
enjoy that?
No.
That just shows us
the reality that we don't
like to face,
that we are full
of unrighteousness.
It's at least embarrassing,
if not terribly condemning.
This is the reality.
The story is told
that the London Times
once sent out an inquiry
to famous authors
asking them to write an essay
about what's wrong
with the world,
and the famous author
G.K. Chesterton
wrote his essay
saying simply this,
Dear Sir,
I am yours,
G.K. Chesterton.
I am.
He understood
the biblical truth.
The problem with the world
is not what's out there,
it's what's in here
in my heart.
I am also unrighteous
before a holy God.
This is the reality.
Romans 3 tells us,
For all have sinned,
all have sinned,
and fall short
of the glory of God.
You, friend, brother,
or sister,
fall short
of the glory of God.
None is righteous,
Romans 3, 10 and 11.
No, not one.
No one understands.
No one seeks for God.
This is the reality
for all of us
in our natural state.
We are all unrighteous.
We are all polluted by sin.
We're like glasses of water
into which mud
has been introduced.
Stinky, foul, sewer mud.
And some of us,
maybe the glass
is almost all mud.
And maybe you know it
if that's the case.
Others of us,
it's just a little bit
of stinky sewer mud.
Just a little bit.
And we're certainly
not like those glasses
that are all mud.
But are any of the glasses
fit to drink?
Not one.
We are all unrighteous
before a holy God.
And this diagnosis
is so important.
Understanding this truth.
It's important, of course,
because it's true.
It's the ultimate reality.
It's important to grasp
because the world
will give you
every other diagnosis
but this one.
And that will affect you.
And that will dampen
your zeal
to make
the gospel of grace
known
to those around you.
I know it's uncomfortable.
And believe me,
it's really awkward
for me to come as your guest
and just preach what I did.
But we need to hear it.
And we need to realize
it's true.
And we need to realize
that this diagnosis
is not given to us
to condemn us
but to rescue us.
That's the trajectory
of all this.
This diagnosis
of the dark backdrop
to the gospel
of our sickness,
of our moral sickness
is so important
so that we might understand
how much we need to cure.
But not only you personally,
of course,
that's your first priority.
But all those around you,
and all peoples
throughout the whole globe,
need the cure
that comes
in relationship to this.
Because it's not just
that we're unrighteous
but we're unrighteous
before a holy God.
God is holy.
He is pure.
He is pure goodness.
He is infinitely glorious.
And He is perfectly just.
He's not capricious.
He would never judge anything
in a way that would be
just over the top,
excessive.
Dante's Inferno
is not biblical.
But hell is.
And God's perfect justice is.
The wrath of God
is not narcissism
on God's part.
It's His holy, patient,
determined opposition
to evil
and attitude and action
that leads Him
to a faithful commitment
to respond
and eradicate all evil,
to judge it all.
And there is real evil
all around us,
inside of us.
And God is the creator of all
and Lord of all
who is goodness.
And so He must act.
He must be just.
Now we all understand justice.
We do.
When we see something done
to an innocent person,
relatively innocent person,
we're shocked and concerned
if we watched
an elderly woman
get knocked to the ground
and robbed in the street.
We probably would chase
after the guy.
We'd be upset at least.
We understand justice.
That's wrong
and we feel it
and we know it
when we hear of
the mistreatment of children
and all these other evil things.
We're indignant,
appropriately so.
We get justice.
We understand it
but we are often good
at applying it to others
and not to ourselves.
And God is perfect
in His justice.
He must judge
those who have sinned
against the innocent one,
God Himself,
in His goodness and glory,
in our rebellion.
He must judge
sin done against one another,
against those made
in the image of God.
We have all fallen short
and sinned in these ways.
This justice is revealed
from heaven
by a perfect God.
not an offended dictator
but the Holy One.
It's not vindictive.
It's not cruel.
It's not partial.
It's perfect.
Actually,
the saints in heaven
recorded in Revelation 15
celebrate His justice
and His judgment.
Great and amazing
are your deeds.
It says,
O Lord God,
the Almighty,
just and true
are your ways,
O King of the nations.
They celebrate
His perfect justice
and His judgment.
And His justice
is exactly appropriate.
And therefore,
it is appropriately severe
for sinners.
The punishment
fits the crime.
Romans 6 tells us
the wages of sin
is death.
Death.
Eternal separation
from all the goodness
and greatness
of God
and His mercy
and kindness
that we all know
and we all take
for granted.
It is a just reckoning
for those who reject God
and persist in it
who rely on their own
supposed righteousness
instead of running
to Christ for rescue.
That existence
is eternal.
Eternal separation.
We call that
hell.
And Paul teaches
in chapter 2 actually
that those wages
and implications
and the fullness
of God's justice
is accumulating
even now for us
as we continue,
if we do,
continue to reject God.
Romans 2.5,
But because of your hard
and impenitent heart
you are storing up
wrath for yourself
on the day of wrath
when God's righteous judgment
will be revealed.
We are storing it up
if we continue
to live in that place
of sin,
rebellion,
and self-righteousness.
We add to this
terrible treasure chest.
It makes me think
of Marley
in Christmas Carol
as he encounters
Ebenezer.
And Ebenezer
asks about this chain
that Marley
is carrying.
And Marley
says to Scrooge
about the chain
which is
the judgment of God
on Marley
and on Scrooge
he says
it was as full,
as heavy,
and as long
as this
seven Christmas
Eves ago.
You have labored
on it
since.
It is a ponderous
chain.
This is the reality
in God's holiness
and justice.
He will bring
a just reward,
a just punishment
for our sin.
And apart from Christ
we all,
each one,
and all humanity,
each one,
is in serious
trouble.
I take no pleasure
in bringing you
bad news,
but it is the reality.
And I must,
for my own heart's sake,
my own mind's sake,
and for yours,
remind you of this
situation so that you
don't go around
thinking things are
quite alright.
Thank you.
A.W. Tozer warned,
the vague and tenuous
hope that God
is too kind
to punish the ungodly
has become a deadly
opiate
for the consciences
of millions.
And this opiate
is in the air
that we breathe.
In August 2007,
the I-35 bridge
in Minneapolis
collapsed.
Major bridge,
major highway,
killing 13 people.
Part of the tragedy
is that the engineers
knew the bridge
needed repairs.
And because of
budget constraints,
they hadn't gotten
to it in time,
and they assumed
the bridge would
last longer.
They assumed the bridge
would be okay.
Thank you.
And the reality is
that people without Christ,
our beloved family members
and friends and neighbors,
are traveling on a bridge
destined to collapse.
And we, like those engineers,
think, well,
we got time,
and it's not that serious.
They won't really happen.
And we need to recognize,
no,
they're traveling through life
on a collapsing bridge,
and it will collapse.
And we are called
as ones who,
if you know the good news,
to come to the rescue
and sharing that good news,
to have that heart,
to have a heart of compassion
for those who are traveling
on this bridge,
even as Christ had compassion
on sinners.
sinners.
This is the heart
we all need.
This is the heart you need
on Tuesday at the office,
Wednesday around the dinner table,
Thursday with the neighbor
across the way,
each day of the week
as we interact
with those around us,
to have the same heart.
Well,
that's the backdrop.
That's the situation.
That's the diagnosis.
It's not the end of the story.
Thank God.
God has provided
a way of escape
from His just judgment.
And His provided way
actually is also
perfectly just,
perfectly righteous.
He does not compromise
His justice one bit
in His solution
for our unrighteousness.
And Romans 1.17
speaks of it,
for in it the righteousness
of God in the gospel
is revealed
from faith for faith.
As it is written,
the righteous
shall live by faith.
The righteousness of God here
certainly involves
His justice towards sin.
It involves
His perfect character.
But it's speaking
of a righteousness
that comes to us,
revealed from faith
for faith,
that would be given
to those who live by faith.
It's a righteous declaration
given by God,
a verdict in righteousness
of not guilty,
fully approved,
accepted.
And He grants this
to sinners
on the basis
of the righteousness
of another.
Romans 3.
After Paul has spent
all this time
talking about this
dark backdrop,
that is so important
to understand
and apply to our lives.
He transitions
once we recognize
we don't have anything
to stand on ourselves.
He transitions
to God's answer.
But now,
the righteousness
of God
has been manifested
apart from the law,
although the law
and prophets
bear witness to it.
The righteousness
of God
through faith
in Jesus Christ
for all who believe
and are justified
by His grace
as a gift
through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus
whom God put forward
as a propitiation
by His blood
to be received by faith.
This was to show
God's righteousness.
First,
I just want you
to recognize
and we'll talk about
how this all works,
but to recognize
that the center
of this righteousness
is not an idea,
it's not a method,
it's not a system.
It is a person.
His name is Jesus.
He is the righteousness
of God
as we read earlier,
because of Him
you are in Christ Jesus
who became to us
wisdom from God,
righteousness,
sanctification,
and redemption.
It's the person of Jesus.
Jesus Christ
is God Himself
who took on flesh
to rescue us,
to be the fulfillment
of all righteousness
in His life,
in His faith,
in His obedience
as the perfect human being,
to fulfill the promises
of God
that are throughout
the Scriptures,
and then to take
that righteous,
worthy,
perfect life,
that beautiful,
glorious life,
and then lay it down
on the cross
to die for sin.
He who knew no sin
became sin for us
so that in Him
we might become
the righteousness of God.
He became sin.
He took upon Himself
our sins,
our unrighteousness,
the fullness of it,
all the evil,
all the disgusting details
that God knows
in fullness
were all put on Christ,
the Holy One,
bore our sin
on the cross,
and then the Holy One,
the Father,
poured out
holy justice on Him.
God Himself,
Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit,
put forward Christ
as this offering
so that He Himself
would receive
perfect,
complete,
final justice
for your sins,
for all who would believe,
all and any,
whosoever.
And if you're hearing this
today,
maybe for the first time,
that includes you.
The invitation is to
whosoever would believe.
This is an offer done.
In history,
it's real.
And God verified
its historical truth
by what we know
from the Scriptures,
but through the resurrection
of Christ,
it is real
and it is offered
whosoever should believe.
Our sins are placed
on Him
and He pays the penalty.
He is a propitiation.
That word is a word
we don't use much.
It's an offering
to appease wrath,
but in the case of God,
it's holy,
just wrath.
Who put forward
Jesus?
God Himself.
Who is the one
who is perfectly
just punishing?
God Himself.
He offered
the offering Himself
to rescue us.
By His blood,
He died on the cross
in our place
and He bore
the full wrath of God.
God's wrath burned
white-hot in holiness
toward His Son
and He released
perfect vengeance
for our evil
on Jesus.
He is the righteousness
of God in every way,
fulfilling our righteousness
and our righteousness
because when we trust
in Him,
we are forgiven.
We are credited
as if we had never sinned
and our sins
are taken away by Him.
He is our righteousness
in every way
and to Him
be the glory alone.
and it is through simple faith
that righteousness
is from faith
for faith.
It's trusting
in another,
trusting in Him,
trusting in Christ
through simple faith.
What does that faith
look like?
Simply turning away
from our sin,
turning away
from self-righteousness
and trusting
in God's solution
for our unrighteousness
and for our sin.
This is the answer
and this is the only answer
for the terrible predicament
of humanity.
It is the most important thing
that you could tell
anybody you know
because their biggest need,
gravest concern,
ultimate,
ultimate issue
is not how successful they are,
not how their family's doing
as important as that is,
not how well they're being fed
as important as that is.
All those things
have their place.
They're important
but the biggest issue
is they're a separation
from God by their sin
and the solution is Jesus.
They are in dire need
of that solution.
We all are
and that solution
has been provided fully
in God through Christ
and is offered
to any and all.
So your coworkers,
your friends,
your neighbors,
your family members
and the countless tribes
throughout the globe
need this answer
and he is the answer fully.
So stop thinking
that some other issue
and other answer
is more important.
This is part of why
we're ashamed at times
and it just can't be
that important.
This person will be insulted
or whatever it might be.
No, there's nothing
more important.
Their predicament
is their biggest issue
and the answer of Christ
is their biggest solution
that they need to hear
and know.
And so this motivates Paul
because the gospel
is the power of God.
The gospel
is the power of God.
There are lots of things
that are the power of God.
God's power is all around us.
We see it in creation.
It's amazing to think
about the power
that's out there
and things like this.
And I have a science background
and maybe this is why
I'm just geeky.
I just drive around
at times and just think
like that is a continuous
fusion explosion
in the sky.
It's massive
and it heats us
and we love it.
It's amazing.
So it's powerful.
There's lots of things
that are God's power
but the gospel
ultimately
is the power of God.
the most important power
of God
for the salvation
of all who believe.
To the Jew first
and also to the Greek
really for everybody
every type of person
every human
throughout the globe
throughout history
it is for them
the salvation
that God provides.
It's the power of God
for their salvation
in every way
from the penalty of sin
because Christ
takes on himself
that penalty.
No more penalty
when we run to Jesus
and trust in him.
The believer
finds in Jesus
the penalty of sin
paid for
but not just the penalty
but the power of sin.
Paul is going to
go on in Romans
and talk about this.
The power of sin
is broken.
In chapter 5
he just talks about
the wonder of the grace
of God
that the penalty
is taken care of
and then in chapter 6
it says
and the reason that
we don't just go out
and sin
is because
we are now united
with Christ.
We belong to him
through faith
and sin is broken
we don't want to
live that way anymore
and he's given us
his spirit
so sin doesn't have
to dominate us
anymore
we are free
in the gospel.
And then
chapter 8
he talks about
the reality
that ultimately
we are growing
in our walk with God
and putting sin away
and then there will be
a day when we go
to be with him
in glory
and sin's presence
will be permanently
eradicated from our lives
and then in the new creation.
This is the salvation
that is ours in Jesus
and this is
the goodness
of God
this is the power
of God
for salvation.
The gospel
is powerful
it's the most
powerful thing
that you can ever handle.
This room
is full
of miracles
full of those
who have been
raised from the dead.
If you are a believer
you've been raised
from the dead
spiritually already.
How did it happen?
Well the spirit
of God came in
and did it
but how did it happen?
You heard
the word
of truth.
You heard
the word
somebody
was unashamed
enough
to share it
with you
and you heard
this proclamation
of the forgiveness
of God
in Christ
and at that moment
something happened
that changed
your eternity.
Your dead soul
your dead spirit
was raised
to life.
You were given
a new heart
and you received
eternal life
at that moment
and that life
will never perish
and you now
are alive
and hearing the word
and responding
because of the
resurrection life
that's in you.
That's the power
of God.
It changed you
forever
and made it
so that you
could be forgiven
and be formed
in the image
of Christ
and have an
eternity ahead
with God.
That's power.
The greatest
miracle you can
experience
is that
because that miracle
leads to eternal life
and everything else.
The gospel
is the power
of God.
It is the most
powerful thing
you can ever handle
because as you share
God
and his infinite
power and glory
and his purpose
of using the word
works in those
who hear it
to bring life
and it's happening
and I'm sure
it's been happening here.
It's happening
all around the globe.
There are,
we live in an amazing time
as the gospel
is going forward
but yet so many more
need to hear it.
Lives are being changed,
cultures changed,
families changed
in the power
of the gospel.
So that's why
Paul's not ashamed
of it
because he knows
it's the power
of God
for the salvation
of everyone
who believes.
He knows
that in the gospel
is the righteousness
of God
his answer
for our problem
of unrighteousness
and the justice
of God,
the holy wrath
of God.
He knows
that that's
the ultimate truth
and that's
the ultimate thing
that others
need to know.
This gospel.
So,
why?
Why would we ever
be ashamed
of this gospel?
We need to
think about
these truths
by God's grace.
Have them affect us.
Now,
there's lots
of forgiveness
as infinite
forgiveness
in Christ's
atonement.
I'm forgiven
for my pathetic
answer to that guy.
The Lord is gracious
so I don't want you
to live in condemnation
but I want you
as you hear the word
to be motivated.
Lord,
please help me
soak in these things
and propel me
to be unashamed
to share the gospel,
to pray for those neighbors.
Don't,
now,
there are a thousand
qualifiers to this
whole message,
right?
So don't go up
to your neighbor
and be obnoxious.
I'm not saying that.
But,
but,
pray.
Pray for them.
Love them.
Look to do good works
to bless them
because you've been blessed.
Not because you're doing,
like,
if I can just share
the gospel as a result.
We do good works
because of who we are
in God.
But,
but through that,
pray for open doors
for the gospel
and pray like Paul does
who is maybe
the chief unashamed person.
He still said,
please pray for boldness
for me.
Pray for boldness
for one another.
And then be bold.
Be bold
and share the gospel
in those awkward moments.
It's never,
you never get past
the awkwardness
because of these reasons.
Because it's the power
of God
for the salvation
of everyone
who believes.
In it,
the righteousness
of God is revealed
from faith for faith.
The righteous
shall live by faith.
For the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness
of men
who by their unrighteousness
suppress the truth.
These are all reasons
to be unashamed.
So,
listen to the word.
Stop listening
to the rival gospels
that fill our ears,
the deceptions
that are out there,
the other diagnoses
that are there
that will always
diminish these truths.
There's lots of things
that are out there.
Lots of false gospels
of all sorts.
They come in
dressed as politics
on the left and the right,
as social movements,
twisted virtues,
the American dream,
a Marxist utopia,
religions,
humanism and atheism
dressed in lab coats
to look really nice.
It's all foolishness.
Don't be fooled.
Don't be afraid.
Don't compromise.
Don't let the upside down world
define your reality.
let the truth
of God's word
transform you
so that you
and I together
that we might be
unashamed
of the gospel.
Let's pray.
Thank you, Lord,
for your word.
And we need you
so much, Lord.
And those around us
need you so much.
And you deserve the glory
of our bold proclamation.
So I pray you'd stir us
all up
that we would
not stop praying
and loving
and serving
and not stop looking
for every opportunity
to proclaim
the gospel,
the power of God
for salvation.
Use us,
oh Lord.
Fill us.
Lord,
I pray that there
be many
who come to know you
as a result
of these truths
transforming us
for the glory
of your name.
You are worthy.
We love you, Lord.
And we ask these things
in Christ's name.
Amen.