Not ashamed

Our Father, we bless Thee this evening for the living Savior. We are thankful that we have ever been brought into this knowledge and that we can rest in Him in deep confidence that our future is not a future of bleak despair, but it is a future of everlasting eternal hope. We thank Thee for the certainty of salvation in our Lord Jesus.

We thank Thee that there is a triumph of the One who was crucified but has been raised out of death, and He is exalted to Thy right hand with power, with majesty, with dignity. And we thank Thee that Thy decree remains unchangeable, that He will be exalted and honored forever. Our prayer tonight is that we may be able to draw closer to Thyself and recognize how great our salvation really is, and that we may have a deepening confidence, and that we may not ever be ashamed to be associated with the name of our Lord Jesus.

We draw near to Thee to beseech Thy gracious blessing upon this gathering. We thank Thee for each one that has come with a desire to hear Thy voice. We ask Thee that Thou would draw near to us, that Thou might give help in the opening up of Thy word, that it may be clear and understandable, and also that it may be living within our spirits.

We ask for this as we commit ourselves to Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus. Let's look tonight first of all in Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. What I have in mind to speak about tonight is the subject of shame, of being ashamed and of being not ashamed. And there's actually quite a bit in the scriptures relating to that, and I think it's a more significant issue to us than we often recognize.

So I want to draw attention first of all to the wonderful reality that He is not ashamed. So let's read a few verses here, perhaps from verse 9. There's a contrast drawn with Adam from verse 6 down. What is man that thou art mindful of him? And so on.

Verse 9. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, 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 sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all of one.

For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will sing praise unto thee. Now I have enjoyed this passage for some time, and sometimes the passage gets so familiar to me that when I get up to speak I think, well I've probably spoken on this before here.

But whether I have or haven't, I think it's still valuable and necessary. He is not ashamed. Not ashamed to call us brethren.

Now that should be really a very stunning, startling thing to think about. The very fact that he calls us brethren. And I want to look at the context of it, the basis for it.

As you know, Hebrews is the presentation of the Lord Jesus, you know, his superiority and all his greatness. And chapter 1 presents to us the glory of his absolute supremacy, uniqueness, the Son of God, distinct from all of creation, greater than the angels. He stands unique in his sonship.

But when we come into chapter 2, we find the wonderful reality that it's not just now the Son of God, it is the sons of God. And so what we have is his identification with us as the kinsman redeemer. And I hope that's a familiar enough expression to you.

The fact that he comes as our near relative. And going back to the Old Testament, that was a familiar custom for the Israelites, that if an inheritance was lost, a close relative could redeem the inheritance and keep it in the family, recover it for the family. And really, Hebrews starts out with the one who is the appointed heir.

The end of chapter 1 is those who are the heirs of salvation. So we're clearly in that same realm of an inheritance lost, of someone who has come to redeem the inheritance. And the tremendous cost for him is that he must give up everything in order to redeem the inheritance.

But he has touched us. He has come close to us, identifying with us in manhood. And so that's why you have Adam referred to, man in verse 6 down.

And really, the question that's being raised there is, what place does man have in God's purposes? Where does he fit in? Why is he so significant? And so when we learn that the Lord Jesus has come out of the glory, come into our humanity, it is obvious that there must be a tremendously significant role and place for man in God's purposes. It is that a man is going to rule the universe. And he is God's son, not only in his uniqueness, eternal sonship, his deity, all of that in chapter 1, but we are also confronted with the reality that in his manhood, he is in a relationship as God's son.

And in that aspect of his sonship, we have been brought into the same connection, the same relationship. So we see here in verse 10 where it says, for it became him, and I would think that the word him there is really referring to God, for it became God 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. So what we have here is the tremendous purpose of God to bring us to glory in the relationship as sons.

Now that has become very, very precious to me in the last few years, to recognize that everything that we have, our blessings, are all fundamentally in this son relationship. Now in bringing us to glory, to be there with God as his sons, he has a captain. He has a leader of our salvation.

And the Lord Jesus as being fitted, and that is what is meant here, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings is really the idea that he has been perfectly equipped to be our leader, our captain, leading us, managing us, taking care of us on the way to this eternal glory. Then verse 11 links us with him, he who sanctifies, they who are sanctified are all of one. Now there is no object stated there, and so you have to complete it with something, all of one father, or all of one family.

They are all of one, all of one origin. And so you could put either term in there, and I think you would have the proper sense of it, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. So what this is saying is that the Lord Jesus in taking care of us now, he looks upon us and recognizes our sonship with God.

He recognizes us as coming from the same father, and so he has a bond with us. Now there's other passages that say the same principle. Romans chapter 8 says that in that day of glory we are to be conformed to his image, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

I don't think we have much of a grasp of just how great that reality is, that we are going to be related to God, and our relationship to everything else in the creation is going to be in this wonderful relationship, we are God's sons, associated with the Son of God in his authority and kingdom, for which cause he is not ashamed. Now I don't know how your family dynamics go in your natural relationships, but there are sometimes we have relatives we're not too fond of, and we don't even like to be known as being related to them, and so sometimes we're ashamed of our families, and sometimes there are some in our families that are ashamed of us. But here you have this bond of acknowledgement and loyalty that is implied here, and I remember an incident way back in my childhood when in the public school days, and the most reproach that I experienced as a young person for being a Christian ironically came from relatives, and what is even more ironical is that they also attended the assembly, but there had been something happen a generation before which I never knew about or understood until quite a few years later, and there was an animosity, and unfortunately it filtered down to the children, and so at school we were mocked as being preacher's kids and all the rest of it, although my dad was never a preacher, but he spoke often and he was an elder in the assembly, and I never really understood that animosity and hatred and so on, but anyway there was an incident that happened.

My one cousin was a bit younger than myself, and he was very decent with me, and anyway we were out in the playground in a section where it was a bit of a mud bog, and as boys do they can't stay out of the mud, and so he got into it and he couldn't get out, and so I went in to help him out, and I got him out, but then I was stuck. Well his older brother had to come and try to help me out, and he was the one that had such a contempt and an animosity, and so he cursed me royally and all the rest of it, and on the way home in the bus he was carrying on with this, going over it and carrying on, and I happened to have an older brother who was I think first year of high school at that time, and he listened to it for a little while, and then he took action and settled the issue rather quickly. Of course it raised another issue somewhat later between our family connections and so on, but so I know what it is for a big brother to step into a situation and defend and take care of someone that he acknowledges as my brother.

Now even now despite what I have come to appreciate about this concept, I still can't find myself calling the Lord Jesus my brother, but I joy in the reality that he acknowledges me as his brother. Now that is something that is almost impossible to really accept or enjoy, but it's given to us to lay hold of by faith. Now I want to make clear that this is not the common brotherhood of man that is being spoken of here.

It is by the new birth we have been brought into a new creation, and in that new creation we are intimately related to God. God is our Father. The Lord Jesus in that closeness of his relationship to the Father wants to make the Father known to us, and that's the context of the quotation that follows, drawn from Psalm 22, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brother.

That's the Lord Jesus in resurrection, and John chapter 20 gives that to us historically. Go tell my brethren. So there's a joy, there is a closeness in this relationship, and it is based upon the one who has come in and redeemed the inheritance.

He has brought us out from under the bondage of sin, and we are really brought with him into resurrection ground and the glory of God. So we have a very faithful friend who looks upon us, and I remember when this dawned on me that in all his relationship to us in his high priestly ministry, that ministry which he is sustaining for us day by day now at the right hand of God, he does it in this relationship. Those are my brothers.

So he's not going to give up on us. He's not going to abandon us. He's going to carry us, sustain us, protect us, and lead us until we are brought into the perfection of the glory that belongs to the sons of God.

Now let's go over to chapter 11, and we find God speaking in similar language. Hebrews chapter 11, and we have the story of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and so on, and verse 13, in giving a summary, says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

Now that's really the word for a homeland, that they seek a native country or a homeland, and truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Now what is encouraging in this section is that those of us who have, in a very parallel way, embraced the promises, we have believed in the invisible realm. We have believed in future promises, which we haven't seen anything of yet, but we have laid hold of them, we have greeted them, we have embraced them, and that has constituted us here as strangers and pilgrims. Now I don't know how much you feel like that, but I think we do sense this.

No matter who we are with, when we are among the unsaved people, no matter how well you get to know them, you have this awareness within you, you are not one of them, and you really do not belong as part of them. We are here, but we belong to somewhere else, and we belong really to the future and to what God is going to usher in in the future. And so we have this reality that here is a people on earth who have embraced the divine promise and are looking for what God has held out for us.

And God, in honoring that faith, he is not going to let us down, and he is not ashamed to associate his name with people who are just strangers and pilgrims. And so we have, in chapter two, we have the relationship in the royal family, but we could say here he has prepared for them a city. We have the residence, a final resting place, a permanent residence in the royal city.

So that's our portion. And we have a God who has us in his heart, and he has something prepared for us where we finally are going to be really at home, where we really belong, and where we're going to be at total rest with those that we are going to be surrounded with. It's going to be wonderful to be so completely at home in his presence and the glory.

Now chapter 12 gets into the section where I want to get to tonight in the issue of being ashamed or not ashamed. And we have the Lord Jesus as the example then for us. Let's just read the verses here, 12 and 1, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, that would be every encumbrance or hindrance that prevents us from making progress, and sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience or endurance the race that is set before us.

And you could really use the word the race course. That is, we have a journey. We have a pathway.

And as we know as believers who enter into difficult times, a journey is not always an easy calm journey. It is a journey that can be very, very difficult, but it is a journey that ultimately ends in the glory. The race course that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith.

Now that may be the exact same word again. I know there's a bit of variation in some of these verses, but it could be the same word as the captain. At least it shows that in my Newberry Bible.

The author, the finisher of 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 or in your souls. So here we really have an important secret in handling this challenge that we have as Christians, despising the shame.

How did he do it? For the joy that was set before him. In other words, the Lord Jesus, as he kept his focus upon the great prospect that was in the future, and went through the present, looking in a sense through the shame to the glory that belonged and would be his, and the joy of having us with him as well. Now I'll probably come back to that and relate it to ourselves.

I'll just give you one more verse here in Hebrews. Hebrews 13 and verse 13, after speaking about the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus and his suffering outside the gate. Verse 13 of chapter 13 says, Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

Carrying the shame. Now I want to just step back for a moment and think with you about what shame really is. Where it comes from, what its origin is, and why we have a problem with it.

Very interestingly when you look back in Genesis chapter 2, the very first time you get the word used, in English at least, it's in the innocence of the garden before sin entered into humanity. And you have this beautiful little expression concerning Adam and Eve. They were both naked and they were not ashamed.

Now I have wondered at times whether there was before sin entered, whether we were clothed with glory. I'm not sure about that. I couldn't prove that, but I could have read it in Hebrews chapter 2, crowned with glory and honor.

I don't think there would have been anything that would have been despicable or unattractive or whatever in God creating Adam and Eve in all their perfection and innocence. And it may be that there was a glory clothed with glory because immediately when sin came into their beings, they were humiliated. And you get that interesting expression in Philippians chapter 3. He will change our vile body.

And it's not that the body is vile as wicked in that context, but it is the body of our humiliation. Our very bodies have been humiliated, defiled by sin. And so shame has its true origin and true connection with sin, with evil.

Now as soon as Adam and Eve sinned, they became conscious of nakedness. There was an uncomfortable self-consciousness. And they instinctively felt that they needed to do something to cover themselves so that they would not be exposed.

And I believe that the literal physical reality corresponds to a spiritual and moral reality. And there's something that we as human beings, and you think of the cultures of the world today, despite all of the brazenness of sin that there is, people still in general feel a need to be clothed. There is such an instinctive sense of shame and fear of being looked at with contempt or disdain.

And the sense that we need to be somehow covered from the gaze of others. Now, I think this is where the vulnerability comes in and why shame has such a power against us as Christians. And I would suggest that it is the greatest stumbling block both to the unsaved and to the saved in relation to the gospel and to being associated with Christ.

And it is basically this, that we have become vulnerable to the shame, to the opinion, the unfavorable opinion of others, whether for right reasons or wrong reasons. And so what is important for us to do is to analyze and recognize where that shame is coming from and to decide whether it is an honest shame or a false shame. Now, I'll read a couple of other verses.

Philippians chapter 3, might as well read it right now. Philippians chapter 3, it speaks about those who are the enemies of the cross of Christ at the end of verse 18. Then verse 19 says, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

Now this is something that I think we would see very clearly today in our present Western culture, that the body has been glorified. There is an obsession with the physical. If anything, we would say that in our culture, we worship the body and we sacrifice the moral and the spiritual to the worship of the body.

Now, when it says here, whose God is their belly, I think that has more than just the appetite for food, but the body and its appetites dominate and is served and yielded to and glorified. Now that seems to be, if you think of the entertainment world, that's what it's saturated with. And that is what people are obsessed with.

Now, notice what it says, whose glory is in their shame. So here is a defiance against the judgment of God, which has come upon us of the sense of our fallenness, the sense of our humiliation and people want to be able to say, I am beautiful as I am, I am glorious as I am, and I deny the God who has imposed this upon me because of my sin. And what we have is that there is an atmosphere of glorying in, exalting in the very things that are our shame, the very things that actually corrupt us and humiliate us and make us worthless in the end.

And so that is, in a sense, in a world of rebellion and defiance of God, evil is glorified and good is vilified. So that is the reversal that is being attempted by a fallen age. Now, let's go to Luke chapter 9 and we have the Lord Jesus confronting this issue very deliberately.

Now just after he is acknowledged by Peter as the Christ of God in verse 20, verse 21, and he straightly charged them and commanded them to tell no man that thing, saying, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected. Now, that would be enough to stop most of us. Just to know that where you're going and what you're going to be involved in is going to make you completely rejected.

That would shut us right down. But here's what he says. Must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the third day.

And he said to them all, if any man desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will, again, it's that desire to save his life, shall lose it. But whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his father's and of the holy angels. Now, you see how the Lord Jesus is confronting something which we tend not to confront very much. When we preach the gospel, we really don't usually talk about this aspect of getting saved, do we? We don't tell people, now, if you accept this, you may lose all your friends.

You may be disowned by your family. You may become an outcast. You may be mocked.

There is a price to pay. The Lord didn't seem to hide this reality. He knew that his coming into the world was going to bring a confrontation, a battleground, and there were going to be sights taken and there was going to be a reaction against him.

There was going to be a reproach, a shame to take sides with Christ. He accepted his cost and he is looking at it from the perspective of looking through the shame, looking through the antagonism and the death to resurrection and the glory that is going to come. That's the perspective that we also need to take in order to be able to look at it as we ought to.

That is why it says, if anyone wants to come after me, you want to follow me, well then you're going to have to deny yourself. You're going to have to look at yourself and recognize that that person is going to become someone reproached, someone rejected, maybe even killed. That's the potential for us as believers here in this world.

Then he gives this very sobering reality. Whoever will confront this and pull back and refuse to associate with him because of the shame that is associated with his name, of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his glory. Now I think in its fullest interpretation, this relates to people who do not get saved.

I remember in the early days of the work of CAP, sitting, I think Murray Pratt was with me as well, we were sitting having a discussion with a young fellow. I mean we were young fellows too at the same time. I think I was probably about 27 or something like that and Murray was about 30.

This fellow was probably about that same age. He was married, a salesman in some furniture store at that time. Some of his friends had gotten saved and they had been preaching to him quite enthusiastically.

He was sitting there with the Bible in his hand. He had been reading and reading and reading. He had listened to us preach several times and he said, I know it's true.

I know this is what you're saying is the truth, but if I accept this, my wife is probably going to leave me. I'm going to lose my job and so on. He went through this list of the cost and he turned away.

It was too much for him to face. The rejection, whatever it would cost to be a true follower of the Lord Jesus. But I would have to say that for many of us, this issue hinders us over and over again because we don't recognize what is happening.

We react instinctively to protect ourselves. So we either stay quiet and don't say anything, don't let the cat out of the bag that we are Christians, that we belong to Christ, or we don't speak up for him or confront an issue that relates to his honor, and we just try to stay kind of neutral. The Lord has not called us to neutrality, but to be followers, disciples, and to hold our association with him as a badge of honor, as a flag to carry.

Now, he speaks about his coming in his own glory, in the glory of the Father, and with the angels. That's what the true future is. We are going to be associated with him in that glory, in that majesty, in that splendor, in that honor and the kingdom that will subjugate everything else.

Now, I remember, again, a young fellow up in Cap. He professed to be saved. Again, you can only say he professed to be saved.

As a young boy, his parents had gotten saved, and I'm not sure, he would have been very, very young when his parents were saved, barely much more than a baby, I guess. So he heard the gospel from infancy, professed to be saved as a young child, and as a little kid, talked to kids at school, and spoke, and all that. You notice this characteristic.

Young children are unashamed, but as soon as we start to grow up a little bit, especially into the teenage years, we become so conscious of our face, our reputation, our position, our acceptance with other people. We become so vulnerable to this danger of being hostages to other people's opinions. So there are things that we will say and not say because of other people there, just to not get this reproach or shame.

That happened very significantly to that young fellow, and he became a very sullen young person at meetings and so on, and finally went off into the world, into the drugs and everything else. And then he professed to be saved, actually, as in his twenties. So perhaps he wasn't really saved before, I don't really know, or else it just was so, he was just so overwhelmed by this, and not understanding the issues involved, and just turned in on himself.

But at least he did finally make a stand in his late twenties. And so I want you to think for a few moments about why we should never be ashamed. What are some of the valid reasons why we should not have and not accept this overcoming us or feeling uncomfortable because of it? Now there's a number of verses that we could look at.

Romans chapter 1 is a familiar one, verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. I'll just quote you a few more verses.

In Romans chapter 5, he speaks about hope making not ashamed. And that's really saying if we have our awareness of the tremendous prospect ahead of us, that makes it that we will not be confused or confounded or ashamed of our Christianity. Romans 9 and 33 says whoever believes in him shall not be ashamed or put to shame.

Now let's go to Philippians again. Philippians chapter 1. And we have Paul in prison for the sake of the gospel, not knowing whether he's going to live or die. And here's what he says in verse 19 and 20.

He's speaking about his rejoicing that Christ is being preached. And he says, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply. And that's really the further supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. Now this is a tremendous attitude to have. Someone who had clearly suffered tremendously for speaking of the Lord Jesus and being faithful to him, yet here he is possibly facing martyrdom and he is not going to be ashamed.

He is not going to stall and cave in under the pressure. He is going to with boldness bring Christ out into display and he's willing to do that at whatever cost. And so to do that you have to have a tremendous appreciation of the Lord Jesus to feel that your life is totally dispensable if only the Lord Jesus is honored and magnified, made known by your life or even by your death.

Now let's go to 2 Timothy chapter 1 where we have more similar language, but it's a much more extended passage relating to it. And here he's presenting the challenge to Timothy who is in a sense replacing him at the forefront of the battle and the conflict for the sake of the gospel. He speaks about the faith that he has seen in him.

So verse 6 he says, Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting out of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear or of cowardice, 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 has saved us and called us with a 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, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who has abolished or nullified death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

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. So it's obvious the challenges were pretty severe at that time.

Christianity was being treated as an outlaw of faith, as illegal, as something that could end you in jail. And Paul is confronting the reality that he is about to die for the sake of the gospel and those who are out in freedom could very well lose that freedom and face the same fate that he was. And so his challenge then to Timothy is to not be intimidated, not be turned inward or turned back by this reality.

But as he says here, that you would stir up the gift of God which is in thee. Now if we were to apply this to ourselves, do we know what kind of service or ministry God wants us to fulfill? Do we know what our responsibilities are in relation to our Christian testimony? Whatever responsibility we carry, we all have a personal responsibility as a witness, as a testimony bearer, and in God's work we all have a share in carrying the burden of maintaining a testimony to the name of the Lord Jesus. And so wherever we fit in, he says I want you to stir up and to fulfill your duties, to be like a good soldier who is willing to face the battle, to recognize there is an enemy, there is that which is totally opposed, that which wants to destroy what you are, what you have, but here's the standing.

And God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, love, and a sound mind. God has equipped us to represent him. And then he speaks about not shrinking back from this testimony and its conflict, but being a partaker or a sharer with the gospel's afflictions.

Not in our strength, but according to the strength, the power of the God who has put this in motion from eternity. There's a beautiful development here of thought that, and if we just focus on verse 9, this would be enough of a reason without going any further. Who has saved us? You know, there are millions of people throughout the world who are looking for an eternal hope, looking for righteousness with God, looking for the right to paradise, and so on, and doing all these difficult things to try to achieve it.

And we have it. We have salvation. We have been saved.

And so if you think about as you, you know, deal with people, are confronted by people and their attitudes, look at them with sympathy. Look at them with compassion, because they're perishing. No matter who they think they are, no matter how intelligent they think they are, and what they know about life and God and the universe and all the rest, they're just perishing people with no hope unless Christ becomes precious to them.

And so we should, in our interaction with them, refuse to feel fear or intimidation. Acknowledge that it's going to be there. Confront it.

Recognize that, yes, no matter where you go, as soon as the name of Jesus is mentioned, it changes the atmosphere. If you want to have peace and quiet, just start talking with the Lord Jesus, and you'll get a sudden quiet in almost any room. It's still there.

It's undeniable. So we need to recognize it, acknowledge it, but then refuse to let it control us, recognizing that it is a false shame. Shame only belongs to evil.

It only belongs to what is wicked and dishonorable. And the Lord Jesus is everything that is righteous, that is noble, that is pure, holy, and eternally valid. And so that is something that is very important for us to acknowledge and face and confront.

He has called us with a holy calling. Yes, our lives are in a on to destruction, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. This should fill us with a sense of awe that God has thought about us.

He has taken our need into account. He has formulated a plan. He has brought the Lord Jesus into our world to become our kinsman redeemer.

And all of this was purposed in his own grace, in his own love toward us. That should give us tremendous confidence and stability of heart as we think about the salvation that we have come into. And not only is it true, whether known or unknown, but it has been made manifest through the appearing of our Savior.

And I would suggest that this word appearing here is used in a general sense to relate to the whole coming of the Lord into humanity, including his life here on earth, including his death on the cross, all that that has brought out into display, and including his resurrection. He has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. I remember somebody mentioning, and you know, sometimes we get our own opinions about fellow Christians, you know.

And some we look at and we think, well, then, you know, they're kind of wonder even what keeps them going as Christians. They don't seem to have much spiritual zeal or power or faithfulness. And you think they're just sort of just there because, well, they've got family that's there in the assembly, and so that's why they're still there.

But this brother, who I tend to have those impressions, he made this interesting comment. And I think this was after his, it would be his mother-in-law had passed away and the funeral. And he said, it's when you're in those circumstances that you see the tremendous difference of what it is to be in the presence of someone who has died as a believer and who knows where they're going, and the whole difference of atmosphere of the believers, of the Christians who are there, the sorrow, yes, but the confidence, the peace, the faith that is still there.

In contrast to the unsaved who have absolutely nothing and for whom it is just horror or denial. And that is the reality. We have come into relationship with the one who has nullified death.

And even though we may have to go through it, there is in a sense the very same thing as relating to shame. We need to see through it. It is something that may have to be gone through, but there is something greater beyond, something that will overcome and nullify its effect, has brought life and immortality or incorruptibility to light through the gospel.

So he says, for which cause? I suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. Why? Because I know whom I believed.

So this comes back to our appreciation of God, our confidence in the reality of our salvation, the certainty of salvation. The more we enjoy our salvation and just simply enter into the greatness of what we have even now as Christians, the certainty that should help us and fortify us that as we move among other people, yes, recognize there is a shame in being associated with Christ. It's there.

But we can either carry it with honor, feeling that it is an honor to suffer reproach for him, or we can seek to protect our little selves and keep from being shamed and run from the conflict. So the challenge for us is to face it. And as we have the example of the Lord himself, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and all that that meant of the animosity, the contempt, the rejection, everything that was so violently there against him, he endured that, despising the shame.

Now, it's interesting that if you were to go back to Psalm 69, which is the Psalm of Reproach, you wouldn't have any sense there that he took it lightly. The word to despise is almost the sense of to look lightly upon something. But Psalm 69 gives you a very opposite impression.

Reproach has broken my heart. Shame has covered my face. So I think it would be good for us to meditate in Psalm 69, as well as Hebrews chapter 12, and realize that he was sensitive.

He felt it. He experienced it. But he also rejected it.

He saw through it, recognized its falseness, and looked through that to the glory, to the joy, to the blessing, to the honor, to the joy of the salvation that he was going to bring for us. And in so doing, he triumphed. So may the Lord encourage us, as we have to deal with this day after day after day, the tendency to run from shame.

And let's be not ashamed, shall we pray. Our gracious Father, we are thankful that Thou art faithful, that Thou art eternally the same, and that Thou art true toward us. We would wonder that Thou would not be ashamed to be called our God.

Thou hast brought us into association with Thy name, and Thou art unfailing in Thy faithfulness and loyalty to us. And we think of the tremendous reality that the Lord Jesus, in coming out of the majesty and splendor of Thy presence, was willing to become a man, and in that manhood to face all of the confrontation with evil, with all of the abhorrence that evil has against good, and to experience the shame and reproach of one who is pure, who is innocent, who is true, who is faithful. Our Father, we rejoice in Him.

We are grateful for Him. We are thankful that He loved us, that He gave Himself to meet our need. We want to be faithful to Him and to Thyself.

We confess at times we are cowards, and we run from conflict, we run away from facing shame, and we try to be self-protective. Our Father, we are sorry for this. We confess it is unworthy to accept this route, and we pray that Thou would strengthen us, Thou has promised that Thou would give us power, the ability to think soundly, the ability to love those who would hate us or despise us, and the ability to endure any reproach that would come against us.

We remember how the disciples, when they were first beaten for the name of Christ, they went home rejoicing, but they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. Help us to have such an appreciation of our Lord Jesus that we would actually think that it would be a tremendous honor to be mocked for His sake. We would look to Thee that Thou would have Thy hand upon us.

Help us, O God, to have a testimony, to have an ability to communicate the truth of the Lord Jesus, and to be able to win some the sight of the Savior. We cry to Thee for this as we look to Thee for Thy sustaining grace in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.