I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL
Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18-25
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: SANCTIFIED TONGUE?
1. A lady wanted to get baptized, so she asked her new preacher how they do it.
2. "We take you into the baptistery pool and immerse you completely for a few seconds."
3. "I'm sorry, pastor, but I have a phobia about putting my head underwater. How about if I go down under the water, all except my mouth. Will that be OK?"
4. "I suppose so," replied the Pastor, "you’ll be like most Christians who’re all sanctified except their tongue!"
B. THE CULTURE WAR
1. The cultural war entered a new phase 10 days ago with the bombshell that same-sex marriage is now legal in all 50 states, including Texas.
2. It’s not a complete surprise; the culture has been drifting that way for years.
a. Hollywood’s been promoting it;
b. Corporations began legitimizing it;
c. Politicians started to support it; &
d. Liberal denominations began to endorse it.
3. Anybody who doesn’t agree with it has been labeled discriminatory or “bigots.”
4. Some who call themselves Christians will argue that God looks favorably upon Gay marriage and that the Bible really doesn’t say anything opposed to it.
5. Many people on Facebook have changed their profile pictures, draping them with rainbow flags (but the rainbow is a symbol connected to judgment)!
6. Now the Christian suddenly feels like they’re in the minority and out of step with the culture.
7. So what will we do? Will we keep quiet? Will we be intimidated into silence? Will we decide to adopt the majority view to avoid being stigmatized?
8. In Paul’s day (early church), Christ’s crucifixion was called a “scandal” (the actual Greek word). So what did Paul do? He said;
C. TEXT
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” Romans 1:16.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block [skandalon] to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 1 Cor. 1:18-25.
D. TITLE: “I am Not Ashamed of the Gospel.”
I. WHY THE WORLD FINDS IT SHAMEFUL
1. Paul was saying that the Gospel Message God chose for the salvation of the world seemed like foolishness.
2. In fact, the root of the word translated ‘foolishness’ here is the same Greek word from which we get our English word ‘moron.’
3. So, I guess that makes us – if we believe in the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ – that makes us morons. But, really, it’s not foolishness; it only seems so. It’s actually the power of God!
4. To those who are perishing, this Gospel’s not just foolish, it’s offensive. Why?
A. BECAUSE THE CROSS WAS BARBARIC
1. It was offensive in Jesus’ day, and I believe the message of the cross is no less offensive today. It was offensive in Jesus’ because crucifixion was so barbaric.
2. "The cross of Jesus sounds so familiar to our ears, that we are in danger of forgetting just how dreadful, how horrific…it was. Perhaps we should wear an emblem such as a miniature electric chair, or a hangman’s noose - for that is what it is a symbol of - shameful execution. It was the extreme punishment, reserved for the worst kind of criminal." Bruce Goettsche.
B. IT REMINDS US OF OUR SIN
1. Not only is the brutality of the cross offensive, but
what the message of the cross clearly says about us is offensive. The world doesn’t want to hear that it’s our sin that made the cross necessary. Your sin. My sin. Not just the generic “sin of the world.”
2. Romans tells us there is no one righteous, that all have sinned – that’s offensive. “We want to hear about how good we are. We want to hear about how great we can become – the potential for our future.”
3. People want to think of life like a balance scale. Your good deeds go on one side – your bad on the other. Then God weighs them and if your good deeds tip the balance, you get into heaven. Most people are confident their good deeds are good enough.
4. One poll found that less than 4% of Americans think they could end up in Hell. “Good people” are offended when they are told that they are more evil than they would ever dare imagine. Romans 3:9-12 makes it clear: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God…. No one does good, not even one.’”
5. We want to hear how we can be healthy and wealthy. The cross doesn’t say that.
C. BECAUSE WE CAN’T SAVE OURSELVES
1. In the message of the cross, it’s implicit that not only are we sinners, but there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves.
2. Early Americans fought and died for independence, and there’s the idea that we are self-sufficient, and you’ve heard the phrase “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.” We’re to make our own way, succeed completely by our own efforts.
3. The reality is, we all want control. We like to think we’re in control. When it comes to saving our souls, the message of the cross says we’re absolutely helpless & must be saved from outside ourselves.
D. BECAUSE IT’S SO SIMPLE
1. Charles Spurgeon pointed out that the Gospel message offends people because it’s too simple. It’s so simple, it’s offensive.
2. And it paints us all with the same, broad brush of sin. The cross strikes at our self-image, our worth, our pride, our intellect.
II. THE WORLD’S RESPONSE TO ITS OFFENSE
A. OMIT IT
Many ministers or Christians today just leave out or exclude the parts of Scripture they or the culture don’t like.
B. CHANGE IT
1. Many people who don’t like something in the Bible decide to change it. They figure somebody back in time got it wrong, and we’re so smart today that it’s high time we fixed it.
2. So they invent ingenious teachings to make the Bible say the exact opposite of what it says. The Bible foretells they’ll call good “evil” and evil “good.”
3. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” Isa. 5:20.
4. God warns us about changing anything written in Scripture; “If anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City” Rev. 22:19 (Dt. 4:2; Pr. 30:6).
C. COMPROMISE THE GOSPEL
1. Many modern preachers have watered it down.
2. One very popular TV preacher who routinely fills 15-20,000-seat arenas with his positive message, described his own church,
3. "It’s not a churchy feel. We don’t have crosses up there. We believe in all that, but I like to take the barriers down that have kept people from coming."
4. My immediate reply to that was, “What kind of disciples are you thinking you’re going to get with that tactic?”
5. One Christian Singer, Michael Card, said the Cross was “too negative.” That we shouldn’t have to feel like we owe [God] something….Shouldn’t we focus, instead, on the gentler side of the gospel?"
6. Paul said, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” Gal. 6:14.
7. There’s an old adage which goes: “What you win them with, is what you win them to.” If you win them with a compromised gospel, you’ll automatically have compromising Christians!
8. Jesus would rather have a small but pure church than a large, compromising church! “Come out from among them and be separate says the Lord, and I will receive you and you will be my sons and daughters!”
III. WHY WE MUST STAND BY THE BIBLE
A. BECAUSE IT’S GOD’S WORD!
1. The pagan world thinks that TRUTH IS RELATIVE; it’s an evolving concept determined by society. But they’re wrong.
2. The Living God is the Author of truth. That’s why truth can’t change, because truth is consistent with God’s holy nature.
3. The Bible IS GOD’S WORD – THE ONLY WORD FROM GOD TO MAN. The voice that speaks to you from the Bible is the Voice of God!
4. The Bible may look like other books, but it’s not. At book stores, it’s thrown in with other books but it is not at all like them!
5. The words of this Book are ALIVE! They’re words with spiritual power behind them. Jesus said, “The words I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life.”
6. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in
righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” 2 Tim. 3:16.
7. This SAME WORD upholds the Universe (Heb. 11:3). It guides the future to its ultimate fulfillment. God’s Word will outlast the Universe; “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” Mt. 24:35.
8. Only the Bible has power to save you & transform your life! It’s so powerful that even faulty preaching of it has saved people:
a. “Paul & his wife Silas;” “Parable of the 12 Virgins.”
b. Just a fragment of a Gospel, wrapping an item, saved a whole village!
------------------------ILLUS-------------------------------
1. A travelling Bible salesman in Sicily was held up by a bandit at gunpoint in a forest. He was ordered to start a fire and burn his books.
2. He started the fire and asked if he could read a bit from each book before he burnt it.
3. He read a bit from the 23rd Psalm out of one, then the story of the good Samaritan from another, then the Sermon on the Mount, then 1 Cor. 13.
4. Each time the robber said, "That's a good book; we won't burn that one; give it to me." Not a single Bible was burned.
5. Years later the same bandit turned up again. But now he was a minister of the gospel. [Barclay, William The Daily Study Bible: Timothy, Titus & Philemon p201.]
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9. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are verbally inspired of God - the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct.
10. Since the Bible is God’s Word, we can’t pick & choose the parts we want to believe. We must take all of it - or none of it!
11. God says that all sex outside the bond of a husband & wife is sinful. Jesus said Adam & Eve in the Garden is the proto-type (Mt. 19:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:9-10).
B. GOD INTENDS THE BIBLE TO BE OFFENSIVE
1. The Bible SIFTS & SEPARATES. It requires us to yield our Intellect to God’s wisdom; to humble our Pride to His greater purpose.
2. It commands our obedience; it tests our love. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will obey Me!”
3. Jesus said, "If anyone would come after Me, they must deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow Me” Lk. 9:23.
4. To follow Christ, my old self must be put to death.
C. JESUS HIMSELF IS THE OFFENCE
1. The Bible says that Jesus Himself is the scandal
Rom. 9:33; “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
2. Jesus wasn’t afraid to suffer shame for you; are you ashamed of Him?
3. Surrounded by an unbelieving culture, Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” What about you? Are you ashamed to stand up as a Christian?
CONCLUSION
A. ONE BOOK LEFT
1. Alexander Duff, missionary, was on his way to India, when he was ship-wrecked.
2. On the very coast of India, only a few miles from the place that was to be his home, an awful storm struck the ship and wrecked it upon the shore.
3. He had been a great student and had collected a top library of 800 books to instruct his future Indian students with. He had all the classics of philosophy and literature.
4. But all were lost in the storm. He sat mournfully on the shore gazing out into the ocean, hoping to see something float from the wreck.
5. All at once he jumped up. There was something very small floating on the water. When he picked it up he found it was his own Bible!
6. How strange: that out of 800 books, the only one that should be saved was the Bible! He perceived that God wanted him to know that one Book was worth more than the other 799 put together.
7. Alexander Duff took that as his cue and used the Bible only as his teaching source of faith & practice to his Indian students.
8. He started a Bible school and a few years later there were 1,000 Bible scholars.
B. THE CALL
1. The Bible still has the power to set you free! How many will take a stand for the Bible? If you accept the words of this Book as your standard of faith & conduct, then stand up!
2. Let’s renounce any lifestyle that’s NOT pleasing to God. The 4th of July is about freedom. What better time to let Jesus set you free.
3. Will you surrender ALL to Christ?
