This document is a sermon manuscript prepared by Pastor Aaron G. Jeffery for Northfield Baptist Church. It includes an opening prayer asking God to renew minds and claim his rightful throne. The sermon focuses on Romans 1:16-18, explaining that Paul was not ashamed of the gospel because (1) it is God's power for salvation to all who believe, both Jews and Greeks, and (2) it reveals the righteousness of God through faith. The pastor encourages believers to stand boldly with Paul in proclaiming this extraordinary message of God's power to rescue all who trust in him.

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Unashamed
A sermon prepared by
Pastor Aaron G. Jeffery
Interning Pastor
To be preached at the morning service
11/09/2014
Northfield Baptist Church, Northfield Ohio
[KEEP BLANK SLIDE UP UNTIL AFTER SCRIPTURE READING]
Opening Prayer:
God our Father, you are truly all powerful. We stand in awe of who you are and return to you the
glory that you alone are worthy of receiving. Your name is above every name. We join in with
the angels and your saints throughout history and throughout the world declaring that you are a
truly awesome and powerful God. No one compares to you. And so we fall to our knees and do
the only thing that we can do: worship.
As we come to worship, God, we wholly recognize our need of you. We are surrounded by a
world that is hostile to you. Rather than worship you, we are more inclined to set up false images
and revere fantasies and ideals of our own making. Our own fleshly desires war against us, Lord.
Search our hearts. Throw down any false gods we may have allowed to creep into our lives,
anything that we have tolerated taking your place. Reclaim your rightful throne as our Lord.
Renew our minds. We lay our lives down as living sacrifices, as you have the rightful claim to
them, having purchased us with the sacrifice of your Son.
Calm our hearts from the storm and battle that rages around us daily. Lift our eyes to you in your
glory. Thank you for calling us to be your children, for giving us the faith that restores our
relationship. Thank you for mercifully not counting our works against us. Thank you for not
leaving us in our sinful state, and instead showing us our lost condition , transforming us in your
tremendous power, giving us your perfect righteousness in exchange for our lifeless existence.
Shape our hearts and minds to be willing vessels of your Word. We need your Word to wash
over us and refine us. Direct our lives through the message today. We pray all this in the name of
Christ and for your glory. Amen.
Sermon:
Last Sunday we had the privilege of observing the International Day of Prayer for the persecuted
church. Stories were shared of men and women around the globe whose lives are at risk every
day, who are living in chains because of their faith. They have faced death for doing what you
and I take for granted every day. It was a humbling experience, to pray for these brothers and
sisters, and the whole time, all I could think of was, “How do they do it?” If somebody were to
hold a gun to my head, or worse yet my wife or my son’s, would I be as bold, as faithful? I
would like to say that I would, but how can I know for sure?
I invite you to open with me in your copy of the Scriptures to Romans chapter one. We will be
reading verses 8 to 18, but primarily focusing on verses 16 to 18. In verse 8, after greeting and
introducing himself to the saints in Rome, Paul writes:

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8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is
proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the
gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that
somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see
you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we
may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want
you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have
been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the
rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to
the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in
Rome. 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. 17 For in it the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall
live by faith.” -ESV
[SLIDE]
These last three verses encapsulate the summarized theme of the remainder of the book, setting
the tone for the chapters that follow. So far, the apostle has said this: “(1) I am called by God to
spread the gospel; (2) I am thankful for and encouraged by what the gospel has produced in the
lives of you in Rome; and (3) I want to come and join you—for your benefit and mine—as we
continue to proclaim the gospel in Rome and as I prepare to push ahead into the nations beyond
you.”
Paul now explains why he is so eager to come to them.
1:16 “For (or because) I am not ashamed of the gospel”,
There’s no sense in declaring that you’re not ashamed of something unless you’ve been tempted
to feel ashamed of it. Why would Paul even be tempted to be ashamed of the Gospel as he
contemplated his trip to Rome? For one thing, the Gospel was identified with a poor Jewish
carpenter who was crucified by his own people. The Romans had no special appreciation for the
Jews, and crucifixion was the lowest form of execution given a criminal. Why put your faith in a
Jew who was crucified? Rome had known many great philosophers and philosophies; why pay
any attention to a fable about a Jew who arose from the dead? To think of a humble Jewish
tentmaker, going to the metropolis of Rome to preach such a message, is almost humorous.
But notice that Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel, which was then as it is today, a stumbling
block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. He had confidence in his message. He spoke
before royalty, rabbis, rulers, and rabble—to him, it made no difference. As he is about to
demonstrate to the Romans in subsequent chapters, all are in need of the gospel, and he has no
shame in bringing it to them.
Paul did not know that this message would cost him his life in Rome, just a decade later. The
days may come when we here at Northfield may face the same fate for the sake of the gospel. It
may come in the days of our children, or our grandchildren. but we can stand with Paul and say

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that this Gospel is news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s
powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him. We can do this because of three primary
factors.
[SLIDE]
First:
“[because] it is God’s power for salvation”
Notice, this is God’s power to salvation, not ours. As Jeremiah puts it, “Can the Ethiopian
change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to
doing evil.” Throughout Scripture we are given the clear picture that if you are looking for
something within your nature to purify your nature, you are looking in the wrong place. You
cannot purify dirty water without a clean filter. We need power from outside ourselves, and only
the power of God, the gospel, is sufficient for that task. In the eyes of the world, the cross was a
failure. But the cross on which Christ died has become the symbol of a faith which has
transformed and sustained millions.
As the group of guys got together for our weekly dorm wrestling match, the reigning champ was
my roommate, Paul, a senior who weighed in at around 250 lbs. A good deal of that was muscle.
His opponent for the night was Derrick, a relatively small freshman who looked like he might
weigh 150 soaking wet. The group of guys gathered around to watch the senior teach the newbie
a lesson, expecting it to be a complete humiliation for this freshman. As the match began they
stepped toward each other, Derrick, the outsized freshman, ducked his head down into Paul’s
arm. Paul, seeing this as a clear mistake on the freshman’s part, wrapped his arm around
Derrick’s neck in a solid hold. All that stood between Paul and sure victory was the time it would
take Derrick to tap out or pass out. That is, right up until Derrick put his arms around Paul, thrust
his shoulder into Paul’s throat, and in a few moments, Paul found that he was actually the one
passing out. Once Derrick helped Paul pick himself up off the floor (which was no easy task),
Paul asked, “How did you do that?”. Derrick cracked a wry smile. “I was Ohio all-state in
wrestling the last three years of high school.” Paul thought he had the power and was going to
put this freshman to shame, but he ended up being shamed himself when he discovered where
the real power was.
We read the gospels and highlight the powerful miracles, but we might glaze over the most
powerful miracle of all. Christ mended broken bodies, but he also healed the broken relationship
between God and humanity. He gave sight to blind eyes, but he also enlightened the eyes of sin-blinded
hearts. He resurrected the dead out of their graves, but he also plucked the spiritually
dead out of Hell and brought them to new life in Him. That, is the power of God, and nobody
and nothing can even come close to comparing to that.
This matchless power of salvation is
“to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

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We will look further into the factor of faith and believing, but for now let it stand that faith is
essential to the power of the gospel.
What is most difficult to some readers is the last phrase of verse 16. “To the Jew first” does not
suggest that the Jew is better than the Gentile; for there is “no difference” in condemnation or in
salvation (Rom. 2:6–11; 10:9–13). Because the Jews were God’s Chosen People, the Gospel
came “to the Jew first” in the ministry of Jesus Christ (Matt. 10:5–7) and the Apostles (Acts
3:26). As the Lord Jesus stated it, “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). So Paul is saying
that the gospel came starting with Jews and then went right on to everyone else, that the gospel is
how all people, of all nations, of all times, are made right with God.
Secondly, Paul tells us he is unashamed of the gospel…
1:17 “[Because] the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel”
[SLIDE]
Now here is a real puzzler. How can this be good news when the righteousness of God is our
problem? The fact that God is righteous and I am unrighteous is the problem. “How can a holy
and righteous God ever forgive sinners and still be holy?” Here's the answer: God demands
righteousness and we don't have it, so the only hope for us is that God himself would give the
righteousness that he demands. That would be good news. That would be gospel. And that is
what he does. What is revealed in the gospel is the righteousness of God for us that he
demands from us. The reason the gospel is the power of God for salvation, the way that the
gospel saves believers is that in it God reveals a righteousness for us that God demands from
us. His righteousness will accept no standard other than His own righteousness. Praise Him,
because that is exactly what He has given us.
God’s righteousness is revealed in the Gospel. In the death of Christ, God revealed His
righteousness by punishing sin, even on His own Son; and in the resurrection of Christ, He
revealed His righteousness by making salvation available to the believing sinner. The problem
“How can a holy God ever forgive sinners and still be holy?” is answered in the Gospel. Through
the death and resurrection of Christ, God is seen to be “both just and justifier” (Rom. 3:26).
Notice that this is not human righteousness. The definition for this righteousness does not lean
upon our input, our social constructs, or human standards. This is “a God kind of righteousness,”
one that is defined by God’s character, that each of us must have and can obtain in no other way
save “from faith unto faith”. It is a revelation from God, this God kind of righteousness that man
unaided could never have conceived or still less attained.
As Paul will soon explain, every person whom you pass on the street today is in need of the good
news of the gospel. Whether an unbeliever oppressed by sin who is trying to create his or her
own salvation, or a believer oppressed by the world who feels powerless living amidst
unrighteousness. For both, the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, and those who
would be righteous will find life by faith.

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Nobody wanted to be at work that day. Half of the employees tried to call in sick, the other half
knew that the bosses wouldn’t let them even it were true. A few even tried to quit. That’s
because it was inspection day. Regional directors would be swarming the restaurant and ensuring
that we matched up to the chain’s standards. The cooks were always deeply scrutinized and the
servers had to work extra to scrub every surface from the front door handles to the bathroom
floors. The only people who really knew the standards were the managers and owners. The rest
of us dreaded what the directors would find wrong.
God’s standard is clearly seen in the gospel. We see in the gospel, day by day, all that is needed
for God to be righteous, and to declare us righteous, and to progressively make us righteous.
That's what the gospel reveals to us day by day. That is what we grasp hold of by faith. That is
what keeps us believing and helps us fight the fight of faith and persevere to the end.
So verse 16 deals with the great concern of our eternal joy (called "salvation") and verse 17 deals
with the issue of the manifestation of God (in particular his righteousness). Things don't get any
bigger. They don't get any more important than this. If you think you have bigger issues in your
life than this, you are not seeing reality. If you think the Ebola outbreak, Obamacare, or ISIS are
bigger, you need to turn off the TV and think for a moment. Ebola might kill the body, but
without salvation, sin will kill your soul. Insurance rates and deductibles might be outrageous,
but God is outraged when we do no bear His image to the World that so desperately needs it.
ISIS might be threatening a physical assault on the church and the free world, but an even longer
attack has been carried out by Satan and his demons since the Garden, and he is after mankind’s
soul. This is as important as life gets. This is an emergency of universal proportions.
Look to it daily in the gospel. Be relieved by it daily from the gospel. Be encouraged by it daily
from the gospel. Be emboldened by it daily. Be empowered daily. You live by an alien
righteousness. Not by your performances, but by God's. This is the gospel we live by and this is
the gospel we will share this week with family and friends. And this is the gospel that will save
us and bring us safely home to God.
So every time the Bible demands you to do something do not think, "I must do this to take away
my guilt or to get forgiveness or to get a right standing with God." Rather think, "I will do this
because my guilt is already removed, I am already forgiven, I already have the gift of God's
righteousness, and so I know that God is for me and will help me. So I will trust him and obey
him and display by my radical, risk-taking obedience the glory of God's grace. And I will draw
nearer and nearer to him in the fellowship of his sufferings and the joy of his companionship.”
“from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”
That is, when the revelation of the gift of righteousness meets with faith it leads to future faith.
Faith is the initial window of the soul that lets the light of the revelation of righteousness in. And
when the light of God's gift of righteousness comes in by faith, it powerfully works to awaken
and sustain and engender more and more faith for the years to come.
In a sentence, Paul believes that ‘righteousness from God … is by faith from first to last’ (1:17).
In saying this, he immediately challenges the Jewish belief that righteousness comes by keeping

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the law. By ‘righteousness’, Paul doesn’t mean living a perfect life, but being in a right
relationship with God. Paul agrees that the Jews were the first to believe in the one true God, but
insists that salvation is now open to Gentiles as well.
Paul is dealing principally with the truth that righteousness is by faith. We may rightly say that
the revealed righteousness of God is unto faith, in the sense of with a view to produce faith; but
we may also say that faith is a progressive principle; that the aim of God’s justifying
righteousness is life, and that the just lives by his faith (Gal. 2:20), and enters into “more
abundant” life with the development of his faith.
Faith is not credulity. It is not believing in something you know is not true. Neither is faith a
substitute for knowledge. Christian faith operates in the realm of meaning, not in the realm of
fact. Faith recognizes fact but it is not out to obtain, contradict, or prove facts. Saint Augustine
knew this when he said, “I believe in order that I may understand.” Faith is actively staking your
life on the claims of God.
There are two crucial truths in this verse that are relevant for Paul's argument. One is that rescue
from the judgment of God depends on faith. That's what Habakkuk 2:4 promises: "the righteous
will live by his faith." That is, it's by faith that you gain your life. By faith you will not be swept
away utterly in the wrath of God. By faith you will live. So "living" in Habakkuk 2:4 and here
in Romans 1:17b ("the righteous will live") refers to salvation from the judgment of God.
The other is that it is a righteous person who gains his life by faith. "The righteous shall live [the
righteous person shall gain his life and be saved from God's wrath] by faith." Habakkuk
2:4 doesn't say in so many words that we get God's righteousness by faith, which is what Paul
teaches in this book and in Romans 1:17. But Habakkuk does link the righteous person and faith.
The least we can say - and maybe we should say more - is that the thing about righteous people
that brings them to life and salvation is their faith. It is a very small step then to say: Well then,
faith is the essential thing about being righteous before God.
Finally, Paul tells us he is unashamed of the gospel…
1:18” [Because] the wrath of God is revealed from heaven”
[SLIDE]
This verse seems ‘abrupt’ because Paul has just spoken of the gospel which is the good news.
Why then does he suddenly shift his attention away from the good news to an announcement of
the revelation of the wrath of God? Because until we understand the prior revelation of the wrath
of God, we will never get excited about the revelation of the grace of God.
The first step in the revelation of the righteousness that God provides for people by faith is to set
forth their need for it because they are under God’s judgment. The human race stands
condemned before God and is helpless and hopeless apart from God’s grace.
Much like his righteousness, God’s wrath is not the same as human wrath, which normally is
self-centered, vindictive, and intent on harming another. God’s wrath is not an uncontrollable,
destructive emotion directed against those God dislikes. Wrath describes His just, holy response

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to sin and rebellion. We have seen some gruesome demonstrations of human wrath in recent
times; stonings, beheadings, and other atrocities. As hideous as human wrath may be, it is
nothing like God’s. Men may exhaust every available excruciating torture method against our
bodies, but God’s wrath afflicts the soul. The body may become numbed, but the spirit will never
be numbed to God’s wrath.
From human perspective shaped in a world permeated by sin and injustice, wrath and love are
seen as polar opposites. In God, however, there is no conflict between His great love and His
terrible wrath. There are times when we should be “good and angry”. If a person looked on at the
suffering in the middle-east, or in downtown Cleveland, or about the human trafficking that takes
place right here in our communities, and they did not become angry, they show their lack of love.
God would not be the truly loving God that He is if He did not react to our evil with wrath.
The revelation of God’s salvation is at the same time a revelation of God’s wrath. There is an
essential relationship between God’s righteousness and his wrath. If God responded to
wickedness with no more than a benign tolerance, his righteousness could be called into
question. God's wrath is the opposition of the divine character against sin; and the determination
of the divine mind to express that opposition in a proper way, by excluding the offender from the
favors which He bestows on the righteous. We admire the character of a father who is opposed to
disorder, vice, and disobedience in his family, and who expresses his opposition in a proper way.
This week we voted on our judges, senators, and congressmen. We admire the character of such
leaders who are opposed to all crime in the community, and who expresses those feelings in the
law. Why would we be any less admiring of God, who is opposed to all crime in all parts of the
universe, and who determines to express His opposition in the proper way for the sake of
preserving order and promoting peace?
It is uncomfortable to talk about God’s wrath. We would much rather talk about the love of our
Savior than the wrath of God. But Scripture does not allow us the liberty to ignore this facet of
God’s character. Since Christ and God are one being, nothing can be said of God that does not
apply to Christ. When Paul mentions here the wrath of God, this is Christ’s wrath too. The next
time somebody asks you, “What would Jesus do?”, you can remind them that throwing tables
and chasing people with a whip is within the realm of possibilities.
When was the last time we sang a song the called us to remember God’s wrath? Read through
the Psalms and you might be surprised by how often God’s people included His wrath in their
worship. The truth is that we need the revelation of God’s wrath as much as we need the
revelation of His righteousness. Without the bad news, there is no perceived need of the good
news of the Gospel. God’s wrath is seen in God’s response to Adam and Eve’s sin in Genesis.
The book of Revelation gives account of when God’s wrath will ultimately be poured out over
the whole earth for sin, and it is touched on throughout all the pages in between. It is square one,
the starting point of the gospel. We need God’s wrath as much as we need His mercy, love, and
forgiveness. Without God’s wrath, there is no need for His mercy. Without God’s wrath, His
love would be taken for granted and held cheaply. Without God’s wrath, we would have no
motivation to seek His forgiveness, and truly could not be forgiven unless there were such dire
consequences to our actions. We cannot ignore God’s wrath. We need God’s wrath.

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Imagine with me for a moment. Imagine you go to the doctor. After a brief inspection, the doctor
tells you that everything is fine, everything checks out, everything is good, but he recommends
that you undergo a surgical procedure. How many of you would take his advice? How many of
you would change doctors as soon as possible? What if the same doctor’s visit revealed a blood
clot that could quickly move to your brain and cause a potentially deadly stroke, or you could
undergo a quick operation that would remove the blockage? Wouldn’t you be a bit more inclined
to follow the doctor’s recommendation then? That is why we need God’s wrath. It lets us know
that something is wrong.
This is what we need saving from in the end. This is our ultimate problem: God's final wrath that
separates us from Himself and casts us into Hell. Only by knowing what the real problem is can
we find the real solution. That is to say, only when we come into the valley and understand that
we are born under God’s wrath that we can look up to the mountain-top of mercy and understand
we need to be born again under God’s grace. We sing the hymn “Amazing Grace”, and it is the
intensity of God’s wrath that makes grace so amazing. If you ask the book of Romans, what we
need to be saved from, the answer comes back – yes, from sin; and yes, from guilt; and yes, from
disunity and bad relationships; and yes, from destructive habits and harmful ways; but
overwhelmingly, the answer is: We need to be saved from God's wrath. To deny or minimize
God’s wrath is to obscure what He revealed in the death of His Son who bore God’s wrath in our
place (Jn. 3:36). It also deflates our future hope, since Christ is coming again to save us from the
future outpouring of God’s wrath (1 Thess. 1:10).
In part, Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel because of God’s wrath. He did not have the luxury
of being ashamed. God’s wrath is being revealed every day. People are dying, souls are entering
Hell for eternity, suffering the wrath of God. How significant is a little shaming in the face of
such an eternal crisis?
“against all ungodliness and unrighteousness”
Two things are mentioned that provoke God to this intense anger: godlessness and wickedness.
Godlessness has to do with our attitudes toward God. Wickedness has to do with how we behave
towards our fellow men when we are not rightly related to God.
God’s wrath is directed against all the godlessness and wickedness of men, not against the men
as such. (God’s wrath will also be revealed in the future; cf. 2:5.) God hates sin and judges it, but
loves sinners and desires their salvation. What if the consequences of some sins are not a result
of God’s forbidding them, but rather a cause? What if God forbids some things because they are
harmful to us, because He knows that, since He created us to live a certain way, there are things
that run contrary to our design and thus damage us? In particular, when we who were designed to
carry God’s image live in such a way that does not identify with Him, that breaks down the
design he engrained into us. What if, because He loves us, he responded in wrath to our
sinfulness?
The actions of the ungodly and unrighteous say, “We want nothing to do with God.” To which
God responds, “Then that is exactly what you are going to get.” When we are angry at

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unrighteousness, while still being self-controlled and willful, we share God’s indignation against
sin, outraged at the insolence against God and injustice against humanity.
“of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness”
Paul is saying that the truth of God is, in some way, pushed down, repressed, hindered, stifled. It
almost sounds like a textbook in psychology, because modern psychologists note that this is
exactly what we do with memories of painful and traumatic experiences. We push them out of
the painful areas of our conscious minds and push them into the deepest recesses and chambers
of our minds.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote a scroll to the king, warning him of God’s coming judgment against
Judah and wrath over their sins. As the king read the scroll, he cut out the parts of the scroll he
didn’t like and burned them. Eventually, he ended up burning the whole thing. Essentially, that is
what some of us have tried to do with the problem of God’s wrath. Unfortunately for Judah’s
king, burning Jeremiah’s scroll didn’t stop the judgment from coming.
Truth cannot be changed, but it can be held down or stifled. Men knew the truth about God, but
they did not allow this truth to work in their lives. They suppressed it in order that they might
live their own lives and not be convicted by God’s truth. The result, of course, was refusing the
truth (Rom. 1:21–22), and then turning the truth into a lie (Rom. 1:25). Finally, man so
abandoned the truth that he became like a beast in his thinking and in his living.
Some of us may have resisted the gospel because of corrupt Christians, wounds that the sin has
given and given the world. Let me make this clear; as angry as that makes you, as repulsive as
that is to you, God is even more disgusted and enraged by it. Our failings, as atrocious as they
are, advertise the fact that Christians, as much as anybody else, desperately need a savior. We are
not perfect, we are not flawless. We still grapple with our old nature. That is exactly why we
need the good news of the Gospel.
Paul gives his readers the reasons for his unquenchable confidence and energy in his calling—a
confidence he wants to spread among the Romans as well: “(4) Am I ashamed to come to the
most powerful city in the world and proclaim our gospel? No, because the power of God will
cast in stark relief the “power” of man; the gospel will reveal the righteousness of God amidst
the unrighteousness of man. And everyone now lost in Rome and the world that embraces the
gospel will be saved—as we have been! That is why I am not ashamed of the gospel!”
Paul is giving the Roman believers a paradigm for life that the contemporary church desperately
needs to understand: nothing will display the righteousness of God (and consequently His person
and glory) to a needy world like the message of the gospel. Not surprisingly, it is a paradigm that
Paul drew from the Old Testament and applied to the believers in Rome. We can draw on both
instances and apply it to our benefit today.
The bottom line to history is that God will judge all human affairs: the Babylonians, Habakkuk,
the Romans, Paul, the church, you, me—all will be judged. His righteousness will balance

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human actions. The message of the gospel—the message of Romans—is that we do not have to
wait for the end of history to discover the effects of God’s righteous judgment. His
righteousness (his judgment) is revealed in the gospel. Paul will go on to show convincingly in
Romans that all have sinned and stand under the condemnation of God, and that the gospel
reveals that fact now. Therefore, since man can know today of his sin and impending judgment,
he can accept today God’s righteousness in place of his own unrighteousness and be saved.
The truth is that gospel creates shaming behavior in those who do not have it. They do not like it,
and will naturally respond with viciousness to anyone who do have it. We came face to face with
the Gospel of God when Christ came in the flesh, and we killed him. The gospel provokes
shaming. So you can avoid the shame by trying to please people, to hide yourself from their
attacks, doing whatever it takes to make them happy. That makes you a slave.
How then do you overcome feelings of embarrassment when you are shamed for believing and
sharing the gospel? Answer: ponder the power of the gospel to bring forgiven sinners to final,
everlasting joy. Nothing in the world can do this except the gospel of Jesus Christ. Judaism (that
stops short of Jesus), Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam – they do not have a Savior who can solve the
problem of separation from a holy God through sin and offer sinners hope by grace through
faith and not works. Only one message saves sinners, and brings them safely into the presence
of God – the gospel of Jesus Christ. It alone is the power of God unto salvation.
The greatest weapon of shaming today in the world of religious claims is the accusation that you
are intolerant and therefore mean-spirited and egotistical (We shouldn’t be afraid of this term, by
the way. The human body is intolerant of poisons and infections). In conclusion, You will be
shamed for the Gospel, but you do not have to be ashamed of the Gospel. Because of the gospel,
we can tell shame, “I despise you. You have no place in my life, in my heart, in my mind.” We
can tell shame, “You have no power here. You can mock me, call me foolish, belittle me, strip
me of my possessions, force me to live naked on the streets, even overpower me and take my
life. But there is nothing you can do that would embarrass me on account of God’s power, His
righteousness, His wrath.” Man’s righteousness cannot compare to God’s. Man’s power cannot
compare to God’s. Man’s wrath cannot compare to God’s. And God is on our side. Thus, we
have nothing to be ashamed of.
Closing Prayer:
Our Great God, you truly are mighty to save, righteous in your judgment against sin, and we
praise you. Lord, your enemies rise up against your people, and we need your protection, your
direction, and most of all, we need you to strengthen our weak and fearful hearts to prepare us
for the battle ahead. We bring before you the brothers and sisters around the world that are right
now facing persecution for your name. Brace their faith with your character. Reinforce their
minds with the power of your salvation, the righteousness that you have given to us, and the
wrath that is reserved for those who oppose you. We pray all this in the name of Christ and for
your glory. Amen.