Evening, Romans 1 Series, Part 31, Verses 16-17

Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans. Tonight is study 31 of Romans, chapter 1, and we are going to read Romans 1:16-17:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

In our last study, we were looking at the first part of Romans 1:16:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ…

We were talking about “shame,” and how shame comes with sin. That is how shame entered into the world as sin entered into the world. And mankind ought to be ashamed of our sin before God. We looked at Psalm 25:3:

Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

That is really a sound statement. It makes perfect sense. Why should an elect child of God be ashamed of the Gospel? By the way, as I mentioned, the Gospel is a synonym for the Word of God. We see this, for example, in Mark 8:38:

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Do you see the contrast God is making in our verse or in Psalm 25? Again, Jesus was saying, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words…” You cannot separate the two. You cannot say, “Well, I am not ashamed of Jesus, but I am ashamed of His doctrine.” You cannot separate them because right doctrine comes from His Word, the Bible, and to be ashamed of His Words or His doctrine is to be ashamed of Him.

But notice the stark contrast where He is saying, “ Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation.” Do you see the point He is making? In this adulterous and sinful generation, we find rebellious creatures (fallen man) that have done every abominable, filthy, disgusting, unholy, and ugly acts of sin imaginable – and sometimes even beyond imagination. Have they felt ashamed? Oftentimes, the answer is, “No.” They are proud of their sins. They are proud of the things they have done.

And, yet, on the other hand, perhaps we have felt ashamed on occasion of Jesus Christ or ashamed of His Word – its holiness, its righteousness. The good Lord and God, Jesus Christ and His Word, is all of these things. Perhaps at times we have been ashamed of association with Him and His doctrine. You see, that is the amazing thing and incredible contrast that God is making:

1. here is filthy sin, but man proudly and oftentimes has no problem associating with that;
2. on the other hand, there is the pure, holy, good Jesus Christ and the pure, holy Word of God, both of which are absolute perfection, but there is a tendency toward shame in being identified with this Lord, this God, and this Bible. That is why the Apostle Paul was moved by God to make this statement, and this applies to all the elect because Paul is the pattern of believers.

And God will work this out within His people, perhaps over time, at first, after someone becomes saved. They have the mindset of the world because they had been part of the world, so they may kind of draw back. They understand that the world looks down upon the Word of God, the Bible, and those that would adhere to it, so it causes them to feel shame when identifying with it and the things it says. And, yet, over time, we learn the truth. We learn what is in man. We learn what is in the world. We see the world and mankind for exactly what they are, and we see God, more and more, and we see what He has done for us, and the love He has shown to us in taking our sins upon Himself and dying for them. Then the shame begins to leave, and there comes a boldness that God gives His people in the eyes of the world. It says in 2Timothy 1:7-9:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Then a little further down, it says in 2Timothy 1:11-16:

Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:

Here, we see some references to being “ashamed.” In verse 8, it said, “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,” and that (testimony) is the Gospel. And what is the testimony? It is the Bible. That is the testimony of our Lord. Also, it said in verse 12: “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed.” Let the world do what it will do. It really has no room to speak.

Have you ever heard that expression “consider the source,” when someone is saying something negative about you? You look at the person and you think, “Boy, they have some nerve saying this when I consider the things they say or do or how they behave.” Well, just think of the world, and “consider the source.” God, in this Day of Judgment, is exposing the world and making the true condition of mankind more visible. The ugly hearts of men have come to the surface, and they are in full view for everyone to see. There are people of the world that “roll their eyes” and try to make the elect children of God feel they are the ones that are crazy and have a “screw loose” because we believe the Bible. Will that “wash” anymore? (That is another expression.) Do we give any credence to that kind of attack from the people of the world any longer? No – not when you consider the source. If they are someone that is part of this secular world, they are part of the insanity that we see in every nation on a daily basis, and it is the world that their philosophies, their understanding of science and their beliefs have built. It is the world they support.

It has nothing to do with God, by the way. No – it all comes from the minds of men and the imaginations of men, when we see the things the world is saying and doing concerning “gender neutrality” and gender being a fluid issue; you can be a man one day and a woman the next day (and not knowing what bathroom to use), and all the things that goes with it. No – the world owns these things. They are their doctrines and their teachings, and all the other things that are going on as well. It is a world that does not know the most basic thing about morality or life. They only know the things that are part of the natural world. And they are going to act as if they are the custodians of sanity? They are going to act like they are the ones that possess wisdom and knowledge, and they will be the judges of what is sane behavior and what is insane behavior or crazy?

Of course, God’s people have always realized that the world has this in them, but now it is wide open for everyone to see, and we dismiss it with a wave of our hand. I know people try to do these things, and sometimes atheists have responded to things I have said on Facebook or YouTube or Twitter, and they try to make out as though they have the sound position, but it is utter foolishness. They have no soundness in their positions whatsoever. You know, in Ecclesiastes 9, the Lord gives His assessment of the mental condition of the people of the word, in Ecclesiastes 9:3:

This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

What an accurate summary of a man’s life in this world. It is utter madness. It is insanity to live as they do, and to put off the whole idea of death, and to put off a relationship with God as they live for the moment, and “eat, drink and be merry,” and seek the pleasures of sin from morning until night. Then one night, God says, as it were, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee,” and they are gone. It is all gone. There is no reason or sound logic or sense to living as they do, putting off the reality of true serious condition we are in as sinners that have a Holy God that is angry with us. But mankind has done that, and it has made this world what we see.

What shame can the people of this world heap upon the elect child of God that has been made sound in our minds? When we became saved, we were put in our right minds and we have sober thinking, as long as we are thinking in accord to the faithful things that the Bible says. Yes, the world can “roll their eyes” and call us crazy and act as if that is the case, but it is not true at all. The only thing the world has going for them is “numbers.” They have a majority of people that think alike. However, they think alike in a wrong way. They have a “like madness.” They are all going away from God, and they are thinking in ways that are displeasing to Him, and it will work out the same for all of them. There is evil and madness in their hearts all the time they live, and then they go to the dead.

There is one more thing I want to look at before we get off this topic and on to something else, and that is regarding what it says in Hebrews 2:9-11:

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

Jesus is not ashamed to call them brethren, and that is referring to all those God has saved that were predestinated to salvation. If we are saved, Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren and identify and associate with us, or to make it publicly known that He is for us. He is not ashamed of us.

So this should be the response of the elect child of God as the Apostle Paul is expressing: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” He was not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.

You know, if anyone should be ashamed, it should be the Lord Jesus being ashamed of us because we were shameful beings that have brought shame and disgrace to God. We have done many things that ought to make us feel ashamed before God. But He has never done anything wrong or done any sin of any kind, and are we to be ashamed of Him? No – we are not to be ashamed of Him. We are not to be ashamed of His Word, the Bible.

We read in Hebrews 12:1-3:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Christ endured the cross, though despising the shame. He was made a public spectacle when He was hanging on the cross. And how did the Romans crucify people? With no clothes; Jesus was naked and exposed on the cross. Why was that? Remember what we were talking about in our last study. As soon as man sinned, he noticed his nakedness. In the Bible, “nakedness” identifies with our sins being open unto the eyes of God, so the Lord Jesus Christ (who was Himself sinless) was demonstrating when He went to the cross in 33 A. D. what He had done at the foundation of the world and, therefore, He was “naked.” We have to remember this and constantly point out that the bearing of our sins took place at the foundation of the world, but He was demonstrating that the sins He bore in eternity past had been laid upon Him. They were our sins, and because of that, He was made to be “ashamed.” He despised the shame of the cross. It was just a terrible thing that He experienced such shame, and He was experiencing that shame for His people that had done things worthy of shame and sinned against God. In those sins, there was great shame, and Christ bore our sins and, therefore, He was made to be ashamed on our behalf.

And now for a little while that amounts to a little period of time, we have the world in front of us and we have the Word of God with us, and God would have us to take up our cross. He would have us to bear some “shame” in the eyes of the world – not in His eyes. Remember, it says, “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed.” We are not to be ashamed before God. The world will try to make us ashamed because we believe the Word and the things it says, including creation, marriage and whatever else it says, and they would call us all kinds of names for believing these things: “Are you not ashamed? Do you not feel ashamed because you think the church age is over and it is Judgment Day? Will you not feel ashamed for setting a date?” No – I will not. You may heap shame upon me, and I may be very low in your eyes, but that is okay because I have a very low opinion of mankind as a fallen creature. Actually, I have the Bible’s opinion, and it is a truthful opinion of what is in mankind and what is in the world, and I do not particularly care what you think. I do not particularly care what your judgment is and, as a matter of fact, I find your judgment to be a very little thing, and it is not something that concerns me whatsoever, by God’s grace. Therefore, if the Lord will work in me to will and to do, I would hope that He would give me the privilege of lifting up that cross and carrying the cross before the world, and to experience shame for His name, as He has done for me. Of course, it is nothing in comparison to what He has done and, yet, I hope that God would grant me that kind of blessing.