Romans 1:16-17 - Not Ashamed Of The Gospel

I will grab one from the back or if you have it on your phone. This morning, we're going to be looking at, focusing on Romans chapter one, verses 16 to 17. And I know we usually do a chapter or a half a chapter, but these two verses are the key verses.

These two verses are the theme verses of the book of Romans, verses 16 and 17. To understand these two verses, if we understand those two verses, it helps us navigate through the book of Romans. So I'm going to read through both verses, then we'll work through it.

But Paul writes this, he says, "'I am not ashamed of the gospel, "'for it is the power of God for the salvation "'to everyone who believes, to the Jew first "'and also to the Greek or the Gentile. "'For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed "'from faith to faith, as it is written, "'the righteous shall live by faith.'" When I first became a believer, when I first got saved at the age of 16, I would have to say that it was what I would call a pretty dynamic conversion experience. And I won't get into all the details of that this morning.

I'm not here to give my personal testimony. We'll save that for another time. But this one time where I actually knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had met with God and God had met with me and I was born again and saved, I called out to the Lord and on that day on the side of a highway, I was saved.

And I often tell people, don't go by your feelings or your emotions. Lots of people invite the Lord into their life and there's no emotion, there's no feeling and it's just a legitimate experience. But for me on that day, at that time, I felt the power of God from head to toe.

And I have to tell you, I didn't have the words, I didn't have the theological terms to describe it. But I remember saying to myself distinctly, I feel like a brand new person. A new creation is how we would describe it now, being born again.

Literally, I remember thinking that in my mind. I said, I feel like a totally different person now. Something has happened.

And so I experienced God's power to save someone. The power of salvation. Now, of course, I went home and very quickly, very quickly, I got that little red Gideon's New Testament.

Do you know the one kids got in school years ago? I started reading that every day. I read that, it was like the words were jumping off the page. It was better than anything you could ever watch on TV or see in a movie theater.

It was like real, it was alive. It was so powerful to me. And I got to the point where I was reading it for an hour a day.

I was a pretty good student at that age of 16. But I said, I don't care about my school anymore or grades, I just wanna read the Bible. So, well, I had to change that soon enough.

But I experienced the power of God's word is what I wanna say in that. And then over the years, I've experienced the power of the Holy Spirit. I've experienced the power of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

During times of prayer and prayer meetings, I've experienced the power that you sense in prayer. I've been on evangelism teams where we've gone out and witnessed and I've gone out many times and just felt like I was powerless. But then other times we banded together, we prayed, we fasted, and we went out and you could sense the power of God in witnessing.

And Jesus made that promise in Acts 1.8. He said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses. And so that divine power, that divine unction anointing in witnessing, so few Christians experience that. So to sum it up, all of these things that I'm describing are in the Bible are scriptural.

Power of salvation, power of God's word, power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, power of prayer, power to witness. But one day I was reading Romans 1.16 and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had read these verses, I don't know how many times before.

And one day it just leapt off the page, something that I'd seen before, but I hadn't seen before. And in verse 16, look what it says. I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God.

I've read that many times. But then it's like I saw it for the first time. I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God.

It is the power of God. And just the way it was worded, it made things seem so clear to me. I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God.

What's the power of God? The gospel. And so the gospel, when presented clearly and properly, is very powerful. People get saved.

Now, the question we have to ask ourselves this morning is, what is the gospel? What is the gospel? What did Paul have in mind when he wrote this down? The gospel. Now, I'm sure all of us would agree, when we think of the gospel, we think of what? The four gospels, right? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And that is, that's very true.

That's what is meant by the gospel. When we talk about the gospel, it's the message of Jesus. And you could divide it into two parts, discipleship and salvation, the plan of salvation.

When you read through the gospels, the clear message that Jesus says is this, come and follow me. That's what it means to be a disciple. But the entranceway is this thing called the plan of salvation, which is what we often refer to as the gospel.

Really, it is the gospel. It's what we call the plan of salvation. That's why when you read the gospels, 30 to 40% of the gospels are devoted to the last week of Jesus's life, because it talks about the two key things in there that the plan of salvation focuses on.

So follow me on this. All right, follow me on this. So the gospel is the whole message of Jesus, but then there's a part of it which we call the plan of salvation.

When you look at what the apostle Paul did in the book of Acts, for example, what he wrote in his letters, I think you can boil it down to a very clear message, the plan of salvation. Paul preached Jesus specifically, but then he focused on two things, the cross and the resurrection. And when you look at Paul in the book of Acts, he goes into city, on his missionary journeys, he goes from city to city, places where the gospel has never been preached, and he goes in there for the very first time with this message.

For example, I could go through the whole book of Acts, and one day we will, and I look forward to going through the book of Acts. But in Acts chapter 17, Paul rolls into Athens in Greece, and he got up there on Mars Hill where all the philosophers were, and he preached the resurrection. And do you know what they did? They basically laughed at him and mocked him.

And then he left Athens in Acts chapter 17, and in Acts chapter 18, he goes into Corinth, the city of Corinth, sin city. And he says in 1 Corinthians chapter two, verse two, he said that he had decided to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified. So I want you to hear what I'm saying.

When Paul preached, he focused on Jesus and specifically the cross and the resurrection. That's what he said when he was in Corinth. Later on in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, he wrote the greatest explanation of the resurrection, that's the resurrection chapter.

Another example, in the book of Galatians, Paul said, may I never boast except in Jesus Christ crucified, the cross of Christ. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now here in Romans, as we go through this book, he mentions the cross by explaining in detail the sacrifice of Jesus, the atonement, what Jesus did on the cross.

We're gonna look at those things, the doctrine of the atonement and his sacrifice. So it was the cross, but also, a number of times in the book of Romans, Jesus talked about the resurrection of Jesus. And so when Paul uses the word gospel here in chapter one, verse 16, I think he refers specifically to the plan of salvation.

And that's why the gospels, the four gospels, put so much emphasis on the last week of Jesus's life, between 30 and 40% altogether, all right? Because it focuses on his cross and his resurrection, the plan of salvation. It focuses on Jesus and those two things. Now, often I use the outline, and if you go to a men's breakfast, I'll say it at every men's breakfast and every now and on a Sunday morning, I use an outline and I tell people a helpful way to share the gospel is using four words.

Do you know what they are? Do you remember? God, man, Christ, faith. Okay, that was like 1% people remembered. I'm just kidding.

Those four words, you know, God has created you in his image to know him personally. God is holy, perfect, and loving. So that's God.

Man, man is separated from God because of his sin. Sin separates. That sin is like a rift putting you on one side and God in the other, a big gulf.

Christ, he came to bridge that gap. He came, he died on the cross, so our sins could be forgiven, and he rose from the dead so we could have eternal life. And then that's God, man, Christ, and the fourth one is faith.

I am saved by grace through faith. Saved by grace, the undeserved favor of God and faith. And faith is like empty hands that are raised to God.

And so those two things, I mean, I just shared it with you in like 90 seconds, I think. It's a verbal way to present it. You can also write it down.

But I found that so helpful, just those four words. Let's try it again. You say it with me.

God. There you go, you see how easy that was? You know, when you talk about the cross and the resurrection, those two truths are so powerful. That's what Paul means.

He says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God. We've all seen TV shows where somebody's in the hospital and they're in the emergency room and their heart stops and they take out the defibrillator paddles and they put it on somebody and they zap and they hit you. And you know, after they hit the button and their heart starts beating.

Actually, we have one right here by the front door on the other side. We could try it if you want, if I have any volunteers. So what happens is, you know, it's like someone's not breathing.

And technically, I guess they're not living in a sense. And then you zap them and back they come. That's what happens when you share the gospel.

One paddle, the cross, and the other paddle is the resurrection. Something happens. The gospel is the power of God for salvation.

All right, it's so interesting. Paul, he says in this verse, not only that, but look what else he says. The first couple words in verse 16.

He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel. Now, 2000 years ago, sharing with people the idea of a crucified savior would have sounded crazy. That was crazy talk.

Crucifixion was the go-to form of capital punishment for the worst of the worst. Nowadays, we sing songs like we did during communion this morning. I will cling to the old rugged cross.

We have a totally different perception, but that would be like us nowadays singing, I will cling to the high voltage electric chair. You wouldn't sing that song 2000 years ago because of the stigma connected with it. It sounded crazy.

And the idea that a man who died a humiliating death by execution could somehow be my savior. Save me from what? Sounded foreign. It sounded crazy.

Sounded like a strange idea. And so did the resurrection. Both ideas, the cross and the resurrection throughout the entire Roman empire influenced by Greek philosophy.

It sounded way out there, very strange. In Athens, in Acts chapter 17, up on Mars Hill, while Paul was preaching the resurrection to the philosophers, do you know what they called him? It's in the original language. It comes out sometimes in English translations.

They called him a seed picker. That's what it actually means in the actual language there in Acts 17. They call him a seed picker, which means nothing to us.

But in their thinking, the meaning was they were calling him a know-nothing. They were calling him an ignoramus. They were calling him a fool.

Now for Paul, who was a very learned man, that was a very humiliating experience to go through. Okay, keep that in mind. Paul was a learned man.

He knew his theology. He had training. And he says in 1 Corinthians that when he left Athens, when he left Athens, in the first couple chapters of 1 Corinthians, when he left Athens, he came to them with fear and trembling.

And I don't think Paul had an overly positive experience in Athens as he preached the gospel. He had a lot of people coming at him. But then he got to Corinth and things went from bad to worse.

Wherever Paul went in the book of Acts, two things, one of two things usually happen, a revival or a riot. Well, when he got to Athens, both happened, a revival and a riot. Well, so he went to Corinth and he preached in the synagogue.

And well, you know, every place he went, he would always go to the synagogue first, well, to the Jew and the Gentile, just like it says in this verse. But in the synagogue, there were not just Jews, there were also what they called God-fearers. And they were Gentile people who believed in the Bible.

And that's what they were called, God-fearers. And they're often the fruitful ones that he could share the gospel with. Well, you know what happened? He got there in Acts chapter 18, and they kicked him out of the synagogue.

Actually, stay here in Romans one, turn to Acts chapter 18. Get your Bible, you're gonna like this. I'm gonna show you something you may not have seen before.

So Paul in Acts chapter 18 comes into the city of Corinth, and he starts preaching in the synagogue. And in the first six verses or so, there he is preaching in the synagogue. And finally, he has a run-in with them.

Some people have come from out of town. And finally, Paul says in verse six, he says, your blood be upon your own heads, I'm innocent. From now on, I'm gonna go to the Gentiles.

And then it says in verse seven, then he left to go to the house of a man named Titus Justice, a worshiper of God, obviously a God-fearer. His house was next door to the synagogue. So what did he do? Paul got kicked out of the synagogue, and where did he go? He went next door and kept on preaching.

You gotta like that. But then guess what happens in verse eight? Crispus, the synagogue ruler, believed in the Lord together with his entire household. And they were all baptized.

So he gets kicked out of the synagogue, goes next door, starts preaching the gospel next door. And who gets saved? The synagogue ruler. Okay, things are just starting to heat up.

People are really mad at him. And then like people are really starting to turn up the heat on him. In fact, there's so much heat being turned up on Paul that Jesus in verse nine has to appear to Paul in a vision.

And that's what it says, take a look. He appears to Paul in a vision, and look what he says. What does he say to Paul? He says, do not be afraid.

Look, do you think Jesus himself would appear to somebody in a vision and say, don't be afraid? Unless you had fear in your heart? The guy had a lot of fear in his heart. Like this was a bad situation. You can see it.

So Jesus says, do not be afraid. I'm with you. Well, before you know it, he's being dragged into court in front of a Roman procouncil, Gallio.

Verse 12 says that, if you look down. Verse 12 says he was before Gallio. And the people in the synagogue who were against him made a vicious attack against them.

And by the way, when Crispus became a believer in Jesus, he got fired. They got a new synagogue ruler, all right? And what happens is the procouncil, Gallio, listens to the charges and he says, this has nothing to do with Roman law. He throws the case out of court, case over.

Well, if you look at verse 16, it says he drove them from the tribunal. And guess what they did to the new synagogue ruler by the name of Sosthenes. It says in verse 17, and then they all see Sosthenes, the synagogue ruler, the new synagogue ruler, and beat him in front of the tribunal.

So the first synagogue ruler got saved, Crispus. They fired him. They got a new synagogue ruler by the name of Sosthenes.

Sosthenes was supposed to lead the court case against Paul. It got thrown out of court. They're really mad at Sosthenes.

And guess what happened to Sosthenes? He got beat up, the second synagogue ruler. Now, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter one. So after the book of Romans, it's all together here.

It's very close. In 1 Corinthians chapter one, I'm gonna read it. Chapter one, verse one, Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, the second synagogue ruler got saved.

That's pretty cool, isn't it? You see, that is the power of God for salvation. That's the power of God for salvation. And here was the apostle Paul facing horrific opposition.

Things were stirred up against him. Jesus appears to him, don't be afraid. Did he have fear? Yeah, he had a lot of fear.

And then, you know, he's able to write these words because they mean so much to us now. The idea of the cross and the resurrection, when he opened his mouth in the Roman empire 2,000 years ago, the idea of the cross and resurrection, it sounded like a crazy idea. It sounded like a foreign idea.

Listen to me, folks. Nowadays, we live in the 21st century. We've sent things into space, we've got phones, we've got all this technology, and then you turn to somebody and you start talking about a guy who lived 2,000 years ago who died on the cross for their sins and rose from the dead.

It still sounds just as crazy now. It sounded more crazy back then than it does now. It sounded more crazy back then than it does now.

And here's the thing. If you've ever tried witnessing, there is a certain embarrassment. There's a certain, like, when you open your mouth and you start talking about Jesus, there is a certain shame.

You kind of look a little foolish when you put it out there. If you're honest, that's there. And the more you do it, the more you realize it's always there.

It's always there. And so, it's a foreign, it's a strange idea. But like Paul said, to those who are responsive, to those who are hungry, to those who are open, to those who are responding to the call of God, it's the fragrance of life.

But to those who are in hardcore rebellion, we and our message is the stench of death. They hate it, and they even hate us. He says that in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 16.

To the one, we are the odor of death, the odor of death and demise. To the other, we're the fragrance that brings life. And so, people who are open to what the Lord wants to do, when we start talking about Jesus, there's gonna be one or two responses.

Now, in verse 17, let's go back to Romans 1. Romans 1, verse 17, it says, well, I'm gonna read the verse, actually, so that we're in the zone with it. It says in chapter 1, verse 17, for in it, talking about the gospel, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, or faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. And so, Paul here is talking about a righteousness that is revealed, it's hidden, and revealed means taking that which is hidden and making it known.

And so, when we preach the gospel, we're taking this idea and making it known to people. That's what the word revelation means. But Paul here is referring to and quoting the book of Habakkuk, chapter 2, verse 4. He says, the righteous will live by faith.

The righteous will live by faith, Habakkuk 2, 4. Now, this verse, if you're a student of history, this verse was instrumental in the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. This verse profoundly impacted Martin Luther. It led him to the understanding that righteousness is granted by God through faith alone and not by works.

It became the foundational principle of what we call the Protestant Reformation. Of course, you know, you have the Catholic Church, you have the Orthodox Church, which split away 1,000 years ago, and of course, the Protestant Reformation, which happened 500 years ago. And of course, this idea of justification by faith, living by faith and relating to God based on faith was really the cornerstone of the Protestant Reformation that we're the results of.

They have, there was a Latin phrase that described this, sola fide, sola fide. In fact, the Protestants developed a bit of their own creed with what's called the five solas. Sola means only, the word only.

And you can write this down. It's really, it's actually quite good. Sola scriptura, which means scripture alone.

So you don't have to rely on, you know, all the councils of the church, pronounced by the Pope. Our source of authority is scripture, sola scriptura. And then number two, there's sola fide, faith alone, not works, you don't earn your way to heaven with your works or by the works of the law.

Number three, sola gratia, grace alone. Number four, sola Christo, Christ alone. We don't, you don't need to go through Mary and the saints and the angels as mediators.

You focus on Jesus. He's the only mediator between God and man. And that's what it means, sola Christo.

And then the fourth one, or fifth one, sola Deo gloria, to the glory of God alone. Someone put it this way. I like this.

We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to scripture alone, for the glory of God alone. It's a good way to put it, isn't it? Now, I know some of our friends in the reform ranks, Calvinist leanings, they think they own those five phrases, but I think that's for the whole church. I love those five sayings.

They just sum things up so nice. And they're all very biblical. The righteous will live by faith.

You know, if I were to ask all of you here before the service started, to write down on a piece of paper the characteristics of righteousness, just write down what you think righteousness is, what's connected with righteousness. I think all of us would probably, you know, write things like having the right language, having the right thoughts, having the right actions. Those things are all, and they're all true, and they're all, it's correct.

But in God's view, living by faith in his word, living by faith in his promises, living by faith focused on Jesus is what God is looking for. And it's quite the paradox. Non-Christians, it just, so often they just, is that, no, it can't be that simple.

It's so simple. A child could do it. It's so simple.

Why don't you do it? What do you got to lose? Right? I find Christians struggle with it. Christians struggle with it even. Because the only way one can truly be saved is that you have to stop earning it.

The only way you can be saved is to stop believing and thinking, I deserve it. I've said this many times on a Sunday morning, and I'll say it in the future many times. The whole world believes in what I refer to as the universal false gospel.

The universal, what's the universal false gospel? Well, if you ask people anywhere, any continent on this planet, if you ask them this question, if you were to die tonight, and God were to ask you, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say? And 10 out of 10 non-Christians would say exactly that. What? I'm a good person. That is the universal false gospel.

It doesn't matter if you ask people in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia. It doesn't matter what their religious background is. It doesn't matter if it's a Christian culture, a Jewish culture, an atheist culture, a Buddhist culture, a Muslim, a Hindu culture.

They all have the same answer. Every single, I'm a good person. And that is called self-righteousness.

Let's be very clear. That, you know how sometimes people in the world would criticize Christians and say, oh, you're so self-righteous. Isn't that amazing how that's been turned on its head? No, no, that is self-righteousness.

That is the universal false gospel. And that's why the cross of Jesus is such an offense to people's intellect. You need to repent of all your own self efforts and simply, fully rely on the work of Jesus.

And not just when you first become a believer at the age of 16 or whatever it is, but even after 50 years, 60 years, you need to keep leaning into it. That's the only thing you're leaning into. When you put your faith in Jesus, when you rely solely on Jesus's cross, his resurrection, that trust, that faith is proof that you have abandoned self-righteousness.

Second Corinthians 5.21 says, he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. I can barely get my mind around that. That Jesus exchanged my sin on the cross for his perfect righteousness.

And that somehow that is credited to my spiritual account. The righteousness of Jesus is imputed upon me. I am clothed in it.

I can't get out of it. It's who I am now. And it says here in this verse, verse 17, the gospel reveals this righteousness.

The gospel, the good news of God about Jesus. That's what this book's about. The good news of God about Jesus.

You can have actual right standing with God. You can be in a right relationship with God through Jesus. It is the gift from God that no one can boast.

And you are saved by grace through faith. Grace freely offers the gift of salvation. It's grace, undeserved.

But faith, that's the empty hands that you receive it with. And if there's anything in your hand when you lift it up to God, it's not empty. You can't receive it properly.

Grace is the gift, empty hands is how I receive it. That simple. And verse 17 says, from faith to faith, from faith to faith.

In other words, it's by faith from start to finish in the Christian life. When you start the Christian life like me at the age of 16, and whenever you finish it, it's from faith to faith. It never changes.

When you first become a believer, you relate to God by grace through faith. When you're 100 years old, like Abraham was, you're serving the Lord for decades, you relate to God by grace through faith. You know, our flesh just loves to relate to God on its own self effort and works.

You know, you get into church after a while, and yeah, you really are truly born again. You love the Lord, but then you think, well, maybe I just, you know, I'll just start keeping these rules. And you keep these rules and you feel really good about yourself, you start patting yourself on the back.

Man, I read the Bible for 10 days in a row. I am really holy before God. I am something.

God really favors me now. And then, you know, we used to have rules like 60, 70 years ago in the church, especially amongst us evangelicals. You know, the old rules was you weren't allowed to go to movie theaters.

What was it? You don't dance, don't smoke, don't chew, don't go with girls that do. And if you kept those rules, you were pretty good. You were pretty holy.

And if you blew any of those rules, well, you were in trouble, all was lost. We love to relate to God through our own made up rules. The Galatians did that.

They accepted Jesus, but then a group came in and said, well, you need to start following these dietary laws. You need to start, you need to get circumcised. And Paul finally says, having begun in the spirit, are you now trying to finish off in the flesh? You see, walking by faith, simple faith in Jesus and the promises of God is what it is, according to the book of Galatians, to live by the spirit.

And when you start relating to God through your laws, that's how you relate to God, through laws and effort, that's in the flesh. That's what that means. Our flesh wants to relate to God through our good works, even through the Old Testament law.

Don't get sidetracked. Abraham, before there was a law, Old Testament law, 600 years before Moses, he related to God through faith. And that's what Galatians teaches and that's what Romans teaches.

You see, folks, that is how, that's why the gospel is so foreign to people. You have to totally rely on Jesus for salvation. There's no earning it, there's no deserving it.

It's undeserved favor, it's grace. G-R-A-C-E, God's riches at Christ's expense. And that is the theme of Romans.

That is the message of the gospel, the plan of salvation. The gospel is the good news, God's good news to you about Jesus. And that's the theme of the book.

I pray you would grab ahold of it with your hearts and minds this morning. Father, we come to you right now and we thank you for the gospel. We thank you for the good news that God is telling us about Jesus, his only begotten son through the cross and the resurrection.

We thank you for the plan of salvation. And Lord, we pray this morning that we would be like Paul, that we would not be ashamed. In fact, we have to learn and train ourselves not to be ashamed and that the gospel is the power of God, it is the power of God.

And you have revealed, taken that which is hidden and making it known. That's what the word revealed means. You've revealed this righteousness.

And I pray that if there's people here this morning that need to have that revelation in their heart in a new way, in a fresh way, we pray that you would reveal it by your Holy Spirit this morning. Lord, we need you to do a work in our hearts, a miracle in our hearts. And you call us from the time of Abraham down through Habakkuk, down through Paul, down through the Reformation 500 years ago to live by faith.

The righteous will live by faith. And that is the thing you look for. That's the prerequisite.

That's the ingredient that the world would never guess is connected with righteousness, right standing. And so we pray, Lord, that you would just remind us and refresh us and renew us in this truth once again, as we walk with you by faith, Father. We bow before you this morning, Lord.

We thank you, Father. And we dedicate ourselves once again afresh to you. Thank you, Father.

And now Lord, as we go our separate ways, we pray that you would bless us and keep us. You make your face shine upon us and be gracious to us. Lord, that you would lift up your countenance upon us and give us your peace, we pray in Jesus' name.

Everybody said.