Are You Ashamed of the Truth?

Well, you know, we have examples in the Bible of what we would call some great, great men. We have people like Moses and David that we look up to, and we can marvel at how they yielded to God and the things that God was able to work through them. And we have men in the New Testament like, you know, Peter and James and John, who, you know, we read what they did in their lives, the way they were willing to sacrifice, literally sacrifice their lives to God, the way that they preached to the world and made a difference in the world as they boldly preached the truth of Jesus Christ. And we can look at those men and we can be inspired by them. Sometimes we forget that these men were just like you and me. You know, Moses started off as a, he was a Hebrew, who, except for God, saving him, he would have been put to death along with the other baby boys at that time. But God protected him, let him be raised in the courts of Pharaoh. And Moses, you know, became a great leader of Israel because he yielded to God. But, you know, apart from God and what God worked in his life, he would have been just another no one. Same thing with David. He was a shepherd. He didn't really, his father, when Samuel came looking and saying that he was to anoint the king, his father didn't even think enough of him to bring him in for Samuel to meet him. And yet, David had the faith and because God worked with him, he became a great man. But he started off, and without God in his life, he would have just been someone else who history would have forgotten all about. Same thing with the apostles. They weren't great men, you know, before God worked with them. They were fishermen. They were other, every day, every day people, you know, no one, no one special. But when God worked with them, they became someone that we take note of. And it should never escape on us, though, what God can do with any of us when we yield ourselves to him, and when we allow him to work what he wants to work in our lives. You know, one of those men that we talk about and that we look up to is the Apostle Paul. You know, he was a man with a background that, you know, we might say it's even a checkered background, if you will, because before he was called to be an apostle, he persecuted the people of God. You know, if they believed in Jesus Christ, he was seeking them out. He was consenting to their death. He was kind of maybe a rising star in the Pharisee party back there at that time, because look what he would do. He would just be able to go out and find anyone, anywhere, and seek them out. But then God got his attention, and on the road to Damascus, he was called, in a way none of us were called very dramatically, and his life turned around. And he became someone that we look up today, and we look and see how his life was. He wrote 13 epistles. We see the Paul before that he was called, that he was kind of this boisterous, loud guy who was there to capture people and to kill them. That was what he wanted to do. And then we see a man who later on, as God worked with him, he learned how to deal with people.

God says Jesus Christ spent 14 years, 14 years training him in the truth, but also in the way that he would be able to approach people, the way he would be able to relate to them. Because when he first related to people, they were afraid of him, and he had some rough edges around him, but God worked with him, so he was able to not only boldly preach the truth of the gospel, but he could work with people at their level. And so he would say things, as he says in 1 Corinthians, to the week I became his weak, to the strong I'm strong, to the gentile I'm a gentile, to the Jew I'm a Jew. And he learned how he had to deal with people at their own level, because his mission and his life was to get the word out about Jesus Christ and to lead people who God was calling to the truth, to the truth, and that they would be there and receive the salvation that God had for them. Let's turn over to Romans. Romans 1. In the book of Romans, you know many, many of the scholars that are out there will say the book of Romans is the most important book in the New Testament, because in it Paul lays down the doctrine. The doctrine of salvation. He talks to the Jews and the gentiles who were in the Roman Church at that time, how they could live together. They were both keeping the same principles of God, the same lifestyle of God, but they were coming from very different backgrounds. And to meld that church into one that was keeping the words, but then all keeping the law of God, keeping the lifestyle that God wants us and commands us all to keep. They were coming from different backgrounds and he had to work with them differently.

As he writes this book of Romans, he's sending it to a church that hadn't had an apostle visit them before. He had wanted to come to them, but they had grown up largely without any kind of direction from an apostle. Paul is there to kind of help them along their way. In verse 1, as he introduces himself in the letter to them, we can see the attitude of Paul, something that he kept with him all the time. In verse 1 it says, Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God. And as he introduces himself in the letter, he sells us three things there that I believe were always at the forefront of Paul's mind. Helped him to do the work of God, the will of God in his life. He remembered always that he was a bondservant of God.

Yet even though he was going around to various churches around the world, even though he was raising up churches, even though people looked up to him, even though he was boldly preaching the gospel of God, he always saw himself as a bondservant to Jesus Christ. He never thought of himself more highly than he ought to think. And there, the very first thing he kind of tells us, the same thing that Jesus Christ told us, humility has to be, has to be at the base of what we believe.

So he's a bondservant of Jesus Christ. And he says, I was called to be an apostle.

Of course, the words to be are added there. Called an apostle. Appointed apostle. It could be translated. That was what his job was. He knew it wasn't something that he had sought himself, certainly his life up to the time of his calling. He wasn't looking for that at all. But God called him, and God put him in that office. And he accepted the responsibilities of that office. It may not be what he wanted to do initially, but he understood the calling of God, he understood the appointment of God, and he was willing to do whatever God asked him to do.

And thirdly, he says, I'm separated to the gospel of God.

You know, he was separated. Just like you and I, when we're called, God calls us to be separate from the world around us. And he was no longer going to be part of that Pharisee and Jewish nation that he was part of. He was separated to preach the gospel of God.

Just like you and I, when God calls us, he separates us to the truth. You know, Jesus Christ, as he prayed in that last prayer in John 17, before he was arrested, he said, sanctify them or separate them by truth. Your word is truth. And when we follow the truth of God, we still live in the world, we still work in the world, we still do the things of everyday life, but God has separated us to a life to follow him, to be led by him, and to do his will.

And Paul, as he introduces, he tells the Romans, this is what I've been, this is who I am. This is what I've been called to do. And he lets them know that because they've had the very same thing happen to them. Down in verse 7, he says, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, or called saints. And we know what saints are. Saints are those that define in Revelation 14, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, who aren't defiled by other religions and women, and speak no deceit. But they're pure in the eyes of God, and during their lifetime, they've become pure and blameless, if you will, in God's sight.

And that's, he's saying to the Romans, you've been called, you've been separated to be saints. That's what God calls you today. Saints! That's what he calls you and me today. Saints, he sees us as children, firstfruits among the firstborn. And that's what he's called us to be. Our job is saints. Our job is children. Our job is firstborn. Paul's was apostle and saint, and child, and firstborn. But we have a calling just like he did. And if we're going to fulfill that calling, then we need to remember the same things that God, that Paul said of himself. We need to be humble and realize that we are a bondservant of Jesus Christ, that we owe everything to him. We need to recognize the position that God has put us in, whatever that position is. And we all have that common position that we are saints, children, firstborn, firstfruits, that God is working with. And that God has called us out of the world to be separate from the world, not living apart from the world, but separate from the ideals and the ideology of the world, separated to live the life that he expects his people, and that will mark his kingdom in the world tomorrow.

As you go through the book, and we began covering this in the Bible study this past Thursday here, as you'll read through the first chapter of Romans, you see, as Paul gets found later in the chapter, and he talks about how the Gentile nations became as depraved and as vile and corrupt as they did. Now, let's drop down to verse 20 here. Well, let's drop down. Well, we'll read the whole verse here in verse 20. He begins to talk about, this is what happened to the Gentile world, as he is talking to the Gentiles in the church here. Later, he talks to the Jews in the church, in chapter 2. But he says, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. If we would just look around at the world that exists, if we would look at the skies, if we would look what God has done, if we would look at our own bodies, we would realize this isn't an accident. This isn't just a freak of something that happened with no God. He designed it all. It's very evident, if we are really thinking about it, even as an eternal power in Godhead. The fact that it all stays in place and the planets move around and we can predict how the heavens work and the earth works. Even as eternal power in Godhead, so they are without excuse. They want to make excuses. They want to forget, you know, he says that God exists. But they are without excuse because although they knew God, they should have known that God was there. They didn't glorify Him as God.

They didn't glorify Him as God. You know, Paul, I think he, at the forefront of his mind, everything he did, he glorified God. You know, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31, another one of his epistles, he said, whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do, do it to the glory of God. And that was the forefront of what he thought, and that was him. He wasn't just saying words. Paul lived it. You can see it in the words that he wrote and how he lived his life. And it's an admonition for us that if we remember to give glory to God for everything that we have, don't forget and don't let a day go by without giving glory to God and asking Him that whatever we do will be done to His glory. Because although they knew God, they didn't glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful. Glorifying God and gratitude to God. The world, and by and large, has forgotten all of those things today. And so we can see the world around us. What's happening is the same thing as it goes on the chapter that happened to the Gentile world back then.

We need to be people, just like Paul, who are always thankful to God, always remembering it's because of Him. We are who we are. We have what we have. We have the future that He wants us to have.

Never a day goes by that we don't begin our prayer with thanksgiving to God. Philippians 4, 6, another one of these epistles, he says, with everything that you pray. Be anxious for nothing, but with every supplication to God, with thanksgiving. Always remember to give thanks to God. And as we do that, we will have the attitude that God is preeminent and that we owe it all to Him.

Well, let's back up. Because as I was preparing this Bible study for here, there's three verses here that caught my attention in a way that they had never caught my attention before. So I want to talk about those today because as Paul is introducing himself again, he says three things in verses 14, 15, and 16 that are key elements of what we need to be feeling in our lives as well and building into our lives. In verse 14, he says, I am a debtor, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. He's a debtor. We know what debtors are, right? All of us who have a mortgage, we're debtors to those, and we have to apply and comply with what our mortgage company says. Paul says, I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, to the wise, the Greek world, and then the rest of the world who didn't see themselves as wise as the Greeks of that day did. He was indebted to do that. Some translations say, you know, he's obligated. He's obligated to those people. Well, building off what he introduced, you know, it's like this is what my calling is. This is what God has separated me to do. He's called me to be an apostle, or as an apostle, and my job is to be indebted to do the job that God had given me to do. And Paul, in this, when he mentions this, he gives us something that we need to remember. You know, we all owe everything to God. We have a future. We have eternity. We have the hope of eternal life. We know the knowledge of God. We know the plan of God. We know that where the world is going. None of us devised that of our own knowledge or wisdom. God gave it to us. God gave it to us. You know, we are all dead men without Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, and then God resurrected him to give us the hope of eternal life. We're all dead men. We have no future. We are going nowhere, absolutely nowhere.

How much more indebted can you be to someone who saves your life, who rescues you from death?

Paul never forgot that. Paul knew it's because of Jesus Christ, because of what God has opened my mind to see. And he remembered what he was like before. That kind of kept him humble. But he realized he's given me life. He's given me purpose. He's given me the reason that I live. He's given me the hope for eternity and for the future. The same thing God has given to you and me. Paul never took it for granted. Paul never forgot about it. Paul didn't keep it or keep it in the back of his mind. He learned to live with it and make it part of his everyday life to remember who he was and who he owed his life to. You know, later on in Romans, he makes the very well-known statement in Romans 12 verse 1, you know, give your life as a living sacrifice to God, which is our reasonable service. Because if we really appreciate what God has done for us, if we really appreciate that he has saved us from eternal death, that it is our reasonable service. If we accept that sacrifice to do his will exactly the way he says to do it, exactly the way God says to do it. Let's look back at another one of his epistles here in 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6. And as you read through the book of Romans and Paul's epistles, you see themes that he mentions to the churches as he writes to them. And this is one of them that we lo God everything. We are indebted to him. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 20.

It says, For you were bought at a price.

You were bought at a price.

We were all slaves to the world, but Jesus Christ bought us at a price. The price was his own life.

You were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

You were bought at a price. We're indebted to him. We're nothing without him.

Glorify him in your physical life. Glorify him in your spiritual life. They are God's.

That belonged to him. One chapter over, chapter 7, verse 22.

Paul is talking about the state that he calls us in. In those days, he had some people that were called being slaves, others who were free, people he says, For he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freed man.

When God calls us, it sets us free from the slavery and bondage that we have to sin. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freed man. Likewise, he who is called while free is Christ's slave. He bought us at a price.

Now our job is to be indebted to him and to do his will if we accept and if we believe.

Verse 23, you are bought at a price. Do not become slaves of men.

Become slaves of God. Remember to whom you are indebted, to whom we owe.

The gratitude for the salvation that was brought for us because there's only one way to salvation, and that's through Jesus Christ. Remember that, he says, don't become slaves of men.

You know, as we talk about obligations, we all have obligations. Maybe we don't think of them as such. We can mention our financial obligations to our mortgage company that gave us the loan so that we could buy our homes. We have family obligations that we all have. We know that if there's someone sick in our family or someone that needs something weird there, the blood is thicker than water and we're there to help them or be where they need us to be.

We have job obligations and our employer will ask us to be at work at a certain time, get this job done, and we have obligations to him. He's providing something for us, and we fulfill those obligations. I hope we are fulfilling family obligations, fulfilling employment obligations, fulfilling our financial obligations and the promises that we make.

Our obligation to God supersedes them all. Our obligation to God supersedes all those other obligations. It's good to keep your family obligations. It's good and right to keep your employment obligations. It's good and right to keep your financial obligations. If you don't, you aren't honoring God. But above them all, our obligation is to God. That's the first commandment. Put God first. Put God first and His will first. Jesus Christ said, if we love our obligations to family, friends, job more than our obligations to Him, we're not doing His will. We owe Him everything, and He means exactly that. Put Him first.

You know, Paul literally gave up everything. He never had a family. He never married. He never settled down at home that he could just go to every night. He was always traveling somewhere. He was in Ephesus for three years, Corinth for 18 months, but He was always going somewhere.

He yielded His life to God, and God's purpose for Him called for Him to have none of the things that we take for granted. He was willing to yield it all to Him. He put God first, and His life shows that. So when Paul writes, we can believe His words. So when he says in 1 Corinthians a couple times, imitate me as I imitate Christ, that's a high standard to say, but He did. He did that. He was committed to following God exactly the way God asked Him to do. And if we remember that we're debtors, that we owe it all to Him, then we know what choices we need to make when those conflicts arise. But in Romans 1, verse 14, you know, He says, I'm a debtor. I am a debtor. And He always remembered what God asks me to do. What God asks me to do, I put that first above family, above friends, above nation, above my own will. And so as He talks to the Romans, let's go back to Romans 1, He says, I'm a debtor, both to Greeks and the barbarians. I will serve you. I will serve you. That's what I'm here to do. And I will give my life to you because He was dedicated to leading people to the truth of God. And those that God would call, He would give them Himself to help them along that way, however, however He could, at whatever sacrifice He needed to make. It's one thing we can remember about ourselves. We're indebted to God. We may not be apostles. We may not be evangelists. We may not be the things that God says. We are all called to be saints.

We have our responsibilities to God. We have our responsibilities to each other, as His Church, as His body, that He calls us out to be one, and to be there and to be inspirations and encouragers and everything for each other as He works with us. I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor. I'm obligated to do what God asks me to do. And Paul did it to the best of his ability. Let's look at verse 15. He goes on and He says, after He says, I'm a debtor, I'm here to do it, I'm obligated to do it, and I want to do it, He goes, so as much as in me, I'm ready. I'm ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.

He wasn't going to Rome to preach it in person, but He was going to write this letter, and it was going to take some time to write this letter. And, you know, it was His commission to do that, to help them see how they were going to live together, to lay down the doctrines of the church, to work with those things. And He writes to them, He says, I'm indebted to do this, I'm obligated, and I want to do it, but I am ready. I am ready to do it. He just didn't sit down and pen it off. We know that this was done under inspiration of God. He was prepared. He was ready to do what God had said for Him to do. He was willing to dedicate the time, sacrifice His own will, entertainment, whatever it was, to be ready to do it right. And He was ready because He had also implored God and asked God to give Him the words that He needed to write to the Romans, and in essence to all of us, all Christians who have ever, you know, obeyed God and lived His way of life. I'm ready. I'm ready to do it, He said. Let's go back to Luke, because it's really the same words that Jesus Christ tells us. Paul was an apostle, but Christ is speaking to every single one that is called a saint, every single one that's called a first proof, every single one that's called a child of His when He writes in or when He talks in Luke 12. And I know just a couple weeks ago we've read these verses and looking at them in another angle, but let's look at them when Paul says, I'm ready. And the sense of the word ready says he was eager to do it. He wasn't doing it because he had to grudgingly. He was eager to do it. He was ready. You know how it is when you get ready and you're prepared to do something? If your boss says to have a presentation ready on this and whatever, you spend the time and you do it well. You got your PowerPoint ready, you know the facts, you know everything about it, and you're determined, you absolutely know that what you're going to present is the right thing for this company to do. You're eager. You're eager to give it, because you're ready to do it. And that's how Paul, when he talks about being ready, that's the sense of the word. He's ready. He was prepared. He was eager to do it because he had done it the right way. Jesus Christ says thus to the people who live in the end time, the time before he returns to earth. In verse 35, Luke 12, he says, let your waste be girded and your lamp's burning.

Keep boiling those lamps. Have your clothes on. Be ready, is what he's saying. And giving them examples in the time there. Be ready. Let your waste be girded and your lamp's burning. And you yourselves be like men who wait for their master when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him immediately. Ready. Waiting. When he comes there, it's not, oh, let me get my shoes on, let me get my clothes on. You be ready when he returns, so that when he returns. Blessed are those servants whom the master when he comes will find watching. Assuredly I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat and will come and serve them. What good servants who are ready when he returns. It warms the hearts of the master. The master loves people like that. Your employers love people like that. Your family loves people like that, that are ready to do what they need to do. And God loves seeing that in his people, they are ready. They are prepared. They are eager. Verse 38, and if you should come in the second watch, he's running a little bit behind time, or come in the third watch and find them so. Blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.

Therefore, Christ says, you also, to his disciples then, and to you and me today, you also be ready. You be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Be ready. Be prepared. Be ready when he returns, that you can open immediately when he knocks. Be ready, that you're not like the Clyde Foolish versions who have to run around and say, where's oil in my lamp? I'm not ready. I'm sound asleep. I didn't expect him to come now. Be ready, he says, and Paul says to the Romans, I'm ready. I'm prepared. I'm here to do what God wants me to do. Question that we could all ask ourselves, are we ready? Are we getting ready?

Is in our minds we purpose that we will be ready, and all that that entails.

That we have prepared, that we have stayed close to God, like Paul, that he was ready to write this letter. He was ready to write the letter, but he was ready for the other things in his life, too. He wasn't speaking just to the saints, he was called before kings, magistrates. There in Corinth, or there in Athens, he was brought to Mars Hill. And all the people that were around in the site at that time, they didn't want anything to do with this new religion. They didn't want anything to do with Jesus Christ. They were calling it foolishness. They thought it was kind of a waste of time. Who are you doing, Paul? What are you talking about? We have our Greek religion. This is what we believe. The Jews had their religion just well established. What is this new sect you're coming up with? Who is this Jesus Christ? And they would be little, and they would mock, and they would put him to the test. But you know when Paul went to Mars Hill, when he went to the Bema in Corinth, he was ready. He was ready.

He was ready to answer their questions. He was ready because he had prepared, and he knew what the truth was. And he loved the truth. And to the core of his being, he understood that truth, and he was willing to do anything for it. You know, the Bible says at the time of the end, we might be brought before rulers, mayors. We might be brought before those things. And if we're brought there, and if we're told, you explain the reason that you believe the things that you believe. Would we be ready? Would we be ready? Would we be able to handle it like Paul did with boldness, to be able to answer the question that they could see in his mind, see in his heart? This man believes everything he says. Everything he says. That when they heard him on Moribar Sill, they maybe didn't agree with him, but they could see this man is sincere.

He's not being taken by surprise here. He's not waffling at all. He's ready to give an answer.

Over in 1 Peter 3, Peter talks about this as well. Verse 15 of 1 Peter 3 says, Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Be ready!

When someone says, what do you believe? Why do you believe that?

And maybe they come at you with a threatening thing or a mocking thing or making fun of you. What? You believe you have to keep the Sabbath day, the seventh day? Come on, the world's past that. What? You want to believe that? That's the Bible. Isn't that done away with? Come on, we've grown past the Bible. Does that shake you? Does that make us kind of cringe a little bit? Or are we getting ready, like Paul, that we would stand up and we know to our core what the truth is, and we're ready to give an answer? That when they look at us and they hear what we have to say, they know. They believe it, and they are sincere in what they believe.

With all their heart and all their being, this is what they believe. And Paul also lived the life that complemented that. You couldn't look at Paul and say, oh, you know, people tried to do that. Oh, Paul, he's trying to live off of someone else and whatever. And Paul worked. People would try to defame him. They couldn't find anything really in him that was wrong or a sin. Just like they couldn't find anything in Jesus Christ. They wanted to discredit him, but they couldn't find anything in him. They're going to try the same thing with you and me. So part of being ready is how we live our lives. Letting God change us. Open our minds. And when he reveals to us a weakness in character or a sin that we're committing, that we would be willing to give that up.

Even though it may be so appealing to us that when the time comes, we're not discredited because, well, you believe that, but look what you do over here. This is how you handle your employment. This is how you handle this. We saw you doing this. Paul, Peter, James, John, you and me. God holds us to the same standard. He goes on in verse 16. He says, having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers and they will try to do that, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. It will be ashamed of them that they tried to discredit you.

They had to come up with these meaningless things just to try to discredit you because they don't want the truth of God. Now is the time to be getting ready. Paul was in preparation for 14 years as God worked with him and molded him and weeded out the errors in his thinking, worked on his personality and approachability so that he could be an effective apostle. The same time he gives us that he's working with us if we let him do it, if we're dedicated to being ready and getting ready, if we keep in mind that we are debtors, we owe God everything, everything, and living our lives that back up the words that we say we believe and what the Bible says we should believe. So if we go back to Romans 1 and we see what Paul is saying here, as he introduces what he's going to tell the Gentiles and the Jews that live in Rome at that time, I'm a debtor. You need to be. You need to see yourselves as debtors. I'm ready. I'm eager. I prepared. My life mirrors the words I say so that you can't... I'm not going to preach one thing to you and then have you come back and say, you're saying the words, but you're not walking the walk. That's not effective at all. That blasphemes the Word of God. We have a responsibility to be ready and to be getting ready and taking the opportunities that God gives us to learn His Word, to be with each other, to take the opportunities we have, maybe in Bible studies and other things, that we can be together and hear what He has to say and have the opportunity to ask questions and explore what His Word says, taking the time to be ready. Verse 16, and this is the verse that caught my attention when I looked at it, he says he's a debtor. We understand that. We have to do it. He says he's ready. We understand that. We need to do it. And the third thing he says here to the Romans is, verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's an interesting thing for Paul to say.

I'm not ashamed of it. Now, why would he say I'm not ashamed of the gospel?

Maybe, as he was looking around Corinth and Ephesus and even Rome, he saw some who, by their actions, appeared to be ashamed of the gospel. You know, the great word, translator, shame there, is exactly what it says. And we know how it is when we feel ashamed about something.

We can be a little embarrassed about it. We kind of want to hide it. We don't really want it out there. You know, we will admit it. And, you know, sometimes when we're kids, we're ashamed when we get our hands caught in the cookie jar. And we're ashamed when it's all brought to light.

If we're caught in something and, you know, we can be ashamed. You know, I look at things on the news where people are caught in child pornography and I think, man, how do you even show your faith? All other things, too, not just that. How do you even show yourself in public anymore?

It would just be such a shame to have that revealed. We know how it is. We know how it is to feel ashamed. And Paul says, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

You know, when I read that, I thought of Jesus Christ's words. Let's go back to Mark 8 because he says the same thing to you and me. It also repeats it in Luke 16, I think it is. But let's look at Mark 8 and verse 34.

Jesus Christ speaking to His disciples and the people. He's speaking to you and me, too. When we read these words, these are recorded for us. It says, we're going to call the people to Himself with His disciples also, He said to them, whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself. Put My Priorities First. You're a debtor to Me. If you desire to come after Me and take up this cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. If you put your priorities first, you'll lose. But whoever loses his life, whoever chooses Me, whoever puts My principles, My desires as preeminent for My sake and the Gospels will save it. For what profit will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Do you get the gravity, He's saying, of what I'm offering you?

It doesn't make any difference what you accomplish in this life. If you're going to lose your soul, what is the purpose? He's offering us eternity and so much more than this world could ever offer. And in verse 38, He says this, He says, for whoever is ashamed of Me and My words. Isn't that an interesting? Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation of Him, the Son of Man, will also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the Holy Angels. If you're ashamed of Me, if you're embarrassed by Me, if you cringe when I'm brought up, then I'm going to be ashamed of you, too. Shame on you. If God's given you this calling, if He's given you this great opportunity, and you squander it, if you didn't take the heart words to heart and the calling to heart like Paul did, and let God work with you and do the things that He wants you to do, that you didn't let Him get you ready for the kingdom, that you didn't get the gravity of what He called and the tremendous opportunity that He's given to those that He calls, I'll be ashamed of you, too. Because, you know what? You're ashamed if you don't do what God had called you to do. He could have done it, but you just didn't put the effort into it. You didn't follow what He said. You didn't realize you were a debtor. You didn't realize that you needed to be ready. Or maybe you did, but you just decided to let things go by. Let day after day pass and just kind of keep up with the same old, same old. You know, the concept of shame and being ashamed, this isn't a new thing. Christ talks about it. When He says those words, we should listen. And Paul heard those words, and Paul took them to heart. And he said, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Give me back to the society he lived in. He was persecuted. He was beaten. He was imprisoned.

People called him crazy. People wanted him dead.

He could have been ashamed of the gospel. He could have said, oh man, I just hope they don't ask me anything. If I can just go in and work with the people there.

He was not ashamed. He was not ashamed to speak what he believed because he believed it to his core. You know, shame has us beginning way back in the book of Genesis. There are so many things to do. Let's go back to Genesis 2. Genesis 2 and verse 25.

God, chapter 1, creates the earth, or recreates the earth, puts man on it, creates man, puts him in it, tells him to tend and keep the Garden of Eden.

And then in chapter 2 and verse 25, you know, God pronounces that everything is good. He gives him the two trees, the one they should eat of, the one they shouldn't eat of. In verse 25, it says of Adam and Eve, they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they weren't ashamed.

It was what God had created. It was the way that he had put them. Everything was right in the world.

There's no reason to be ashamed. That's the way God had created them. That was the way things were when it was perfect harmony between God and man, and no one had come between man and God.

But in chapter 3, we see Satan enters the picture. He's able to work his cunning ways with Eve.

She believes him, and she takes to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and things change. In verse 7 of chapter 3, it says, Well, they didn't know that before. It was just the way God had created to it. It was perfect innocence. But now both of them were open to their eyes, and they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

Look what Satan attacked. Something beautiful that God had created for husband and wife, and he attacked it. And all of a sudden, as they left these things in their minds, they're ashamed. They're covering themselves up. We don't want to be seen naked. There was no other people on earth at that time, just the two of them, and God and this serpent that had been talking to them.

In verse 8, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and wife hid themselves. They were ashamed. They weren't ashamed before. They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden, and God called to Adam and said, Where are you? And Adam answered, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. Well, shame can lead to fear. We learn from that. Shame, the wrong kind of shame, is a tool of Satan. He can cause us to be ashamed. Here he is, whatever he said to Adam and Eve, all of a sudden they were ashamed, even though it was just the two of them.

Where Paul was concerned, and Peter, and James, and John, and the other apostles, he would do anything possible to have them be ashamed of the gospel. Persecution, people hating them, the religious leaders of the day telling them, don't even speak this anymore. They could have been ashamed of the gospel. They could have said, man, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of these people. I'm afraid to say what I believe. I'm afraid to talk about it.

Paul says, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of the apostles. You can bring me before any king on earth. You can bring me before any magistrate. You can put me up on any hill in any city that I'm in. I'm not ashamed, and I'm not afraid. What I'm telling you is the truth. What I'm telling you is the truth. What I'm telling you is what you need to hear. He spoke straight talk to them. He didn't mince any words. He didn't try to water down anything. He told them what they needed to do, and their job was to do it. If they believed, if they expected and accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, if they were going to follow God, and if they wanted the promises that God had given them. Paul, I have to wonder, maybe when he said that, was there a time in his life when he was ashamed? He realized, I need to work on this.

When that question was asked to me, I kind of wish it just wasn't asked at all. I wish I could hide behind the curtains. I wish I could hide behind someone. Or maybe Paul knew in his former life he was pretty astute at putting people and causing shame to come on them. He could put the fear in them that would make them ashamed of what they believed, and they wouldn't want to talk about it. They wouldn't want to acknowledge it. Maybe he could throw things up in their faces to make them discredit it, or to discredit what their words were. Shame can be positive.

If there's sin in our life, then it comes to light. We can be ashamed of it. We should be ashamed of it. But that shame, then, should be a motivator to us to change what we're doing. We don't let that happen again. We don't forget who we are. We understand that God forgives us. And whatever our past lives were, God forgives. Just like Paul, Paul was forgiven for everything he did, and none of us in this room had a past like Paul's.

He forgives it all. And we don't have to carry that with us, but Paul remembered who he was, and he let that be a motivator to us, just like we can be. That could be a motivator to us. But we don't want to be ashamed of the gospel. Back in 2nd Timothy, we find a protege, of your will, someone that Paul thought highly of. And he cautions him about being ashamed of the gospel. 2nd Timothy 1. 2nd Timothy 1, verse 6.

He's speaking to Timothy here, Paul and this apostle. Timothy is a someone that Paul thinks highly of. He sent them to Corinth. He sent them around to places. He's a minister in training. In verse 6, he gives him some encouragement. He tells him some things he needs to remember as he's walking with God and he's living his life. The same things that we need to remember. In verse 6, he says, "...I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands." Stir up the Spirit.

Don't let it die dormant. Don't grieve it, as the Bible says. Keep it in the forefront. Keep it active and keep it alive. Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Verse 8. Therefore, Timothy, the very first thing he tells him after he says that, don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. Don't be ashamed. He saw something in Timothy and he goes, I see something here, Timothy.

Don't be ashamed. You need to work on that. You need to understand what when you feel that shame or that embarrassment, what it means and what you need to do to work on it. Therefore, don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner.

Yes, you're going to see me beaten. Yes, you're going to see people attacking me. Yes, you're going to hear stories about me. Don't be ashamed of me either, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel, according to the power of God. You take up your role and you work with me in the church. You stand there and you don't let pressures and pure pressure push you aside or make you think, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm too afraid to do it. I'm ashamed of it. Don't do that, he says. Share with me in it. Put your heart into it.

Work with it. But share with me in the sufferings for the gospel, according to the power of God. Who has saved us? Paul remembered, he's a debtor, he's telling Timothy, remember who you owe everything to, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling to be saints, firstborn, children. 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 to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

But has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. To which, he says, I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. That's the role God put me in. Different to the role God has put us in, but he's put all of us in a role, and he expects us to follow it. In verse 12, then he says, For this reason I also suffer these things.

My life's not easy. The things I go through aren't the things that I would choose for this reason, because I owe it all to him, because I understand who I am and that I need to be thankful and bring glory to his name. For this reason I suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day.

Paul is saying, I know what I believe. To the very core of my being, I believe this gospel. I believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah. I believe if I accept him as Messiah, I must do what he says exactly the way he says. I believe that if I am indebted to him, and I believe that I am indebted to him, that I have to put his will above mine. I have to learn, and over the course of my lifetime, become more and more and more like him.

Sacrificing my own desire, sacrificing my own will, sacrificing my own comforts, doing and going wherever he says. He says, I am not ashamed of it. As I read that, I had to ask myself the question, am I ashamed? Are there things in my life that I would say, I am ashamed when these things come up? I went to the Internet, and I read some things, and I read some blogs of people that talked about being ashamed of God and ashamed of the Gospel.

I came up with some questions here that I had to ask myself that I want to share with you. These aren't exactly the way they wrote them, but I put them down. Maybe in some of us, and some of us not, but in some there is. Maybe Paul saw some of this in Timothy when he watched what Timothy was doing. But the questions we can ask ourselves, am I ashamed to read the Bible on a plane or in public? If I'm sitting someplace and I've got my Bible with me, I kind of feel a little embarrassed.

I feel kind of like, you know, I want to read the Bible, but I don't really want to put the Bible out there. I don't really want to have that out on the plane as people are looking around me and reading it. Maybe that doesn't bother you. Maybe some of us, it would bother. We just kind of don't want to go there, and we kind of just as soon hide that, even though we might really want to do it.

Am I ashamed to place the Bible on my desk at work? Would you feel comfortable going to your place of employment and putting your Bible there? Just leave it on your desk, because maybe throughout the course of the day, maybe at lunchtime, you want to read it. Or maybe there's something through the course of the day, you look at the biblical principle. Would you be ashamed to do that? Would I feel ashamed or embarrassed if I mask my opinion on moral matters?

And there's a lot of moral matters to talk about today. Living together before you're married is just a minor one anymore. It's just commonplace. What's your opinion on that, Rick? What do you think about same-sex marriage?

What do you think about this transgender issue? Do we speak boldly what we believe, or do we think, oh man, I don't even want to deal with that issue? I just kind of want to hide in the background and whatever, because I just don't want to deal with that.

Am I ashamed to mention God, Christ, or church whenever I'm with people that aren't in the church? That's just another part of my life, even though it may come up in the conversation, and even though there may be something salient I could say about it, it's like, you know, that's another life I don't need to do that, even though I should.

Here's a door to open, you know, a reason of the expectation of the hope that's in you, but I just won't go there. I just don't want to deal with that right now.

Are you ashamed to say you can't do something? And this may be for some of the younger people in the audience. Are you ashamed to say you can't do something on Friday night or Saturday because it's your Sabbath? Or on the holy days you have to be gone from work and whatever, and you just kind of hope that no one asks the question why? Kind of just want to hide in the background and don't really want to give an explanation. You know, I remember growing up hearing ministers talk about that they hated when someone asked them what they did, and they had to say, I'm a minister. And I thought, well, that's strange. That's your job.

But I'll have to say, honestly, early on, after having worked in a career where I was many other things and titles, when people had asked me what I do now, I would stop and think, do I want to say I'm a minister? And I began to realize, yes, yes, I am, and I'm proud to be it. I'm glad God has called me and given me the opportunity to do it. But I realized in some of these situations we might be ashamed a little of what God has given us to do.

You know, Paul says here in 2 Timothy, and he's telling Timothy, you know, don't be ashamed of the gospel. Don't be ashamed of what you believe.

If we feel a little shame, if we feel a little, you know, uneasy about those things, it says something about us. That should be a warning signal.

Do we believe as deeply as we think we believe? Because if we believed, if we believe the gospel with all our hearts, if we believe Jesus Christ with all our heart and all our soul, we wouldn't be ashamed. We would know it's the best thing that has ever happened to the world, and to say it and answer it boldly, as Paul learned to do, that is the thing that people need to hear. We wouldn't mince words. We wouldn't try to cover it up. We wouldn't try to lower expectations or soften the words. We would just simply say what the Bible says, and that's what I believe. And they would see it in sincerity in our hearts, and they would know he believes exactly what he's saying.

Maybe we need to look at our belief. Maybe we need to believe more down to the very core of our soul, because maybe we don't. Maybe we're reserving something a little bit.

Maybe we need to look at our faith. You know, Jesus Christ, we talked about faith a couple weeks ago, and our unbelief. Maybe there's a little bit of unbelief in us. Maybe there's just this little bit that still isn't absolutely sure of what we believe. We need to work on that. We need to work on that. And the way we work on that is exactly what Paul says. Throw up the Holy Spirit. Go back to God. Go back to God. Deepen your unbelief. Lord, help my unbelief. Give me the faith I need. Give me the belief I need. Go back and review self and review what it is that God has given us, and do the things that he would have us do. Look at ourselves. Understand and live as if we're indebted to Jesus Christ and that he bought our lives. Getting ready for his return so that at what happens we are there and we are doing the things that he says to do. Paul maybe had to do some of these things himself, but certainly Timothy did. For some people, I'm impressed when I talk to some people. And you know what? When they're asked a question, they just boldly say exactly what they believe. And I think, you know what? That is really good. Now, I'm not talking about going door to door. And I'm not talking about standing on the street corner. I'm not talking about trying to force the gospel and everyone. We don't do that. If God calls, but if someone asks, how do we respond? How do we respond? Are we sincere? Do we tell exactly the way it is?

Do we mince words? Or do we try to soften it to make ourselves look like them?

Because we're doing one of two things in life. We're either pleasing God or pleasing men or pleasing selves. We need to come to the point where we're pleasing God, pleasing God, and understand that that's what our job is to do. Let's go back to Romans 1. Paul says in verse 16, For I am not ashamed. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. It is. There is no doubt. This is what they need to know. This is what you can give them. It is. There is no doubt. To the Jew first and also for the Greek, the New Testament has opened it up to all mankind. This is what they need to hear. And when you are asked, simply say it. When the door opens, we'll be ready. Be prepared. Understand who you are. Again, I don't want anyone to go from here saying, go and sell it on the corner. Don't, you know, corner the people at work and start telling them, no. Peter says, give everyone when, be ready to give an answer to those who ask for the reason of the hope in you.

But Paul says, I know. I know and I'm willing to yield. I'm willing to sacrifice my life for it. And he did. He did. He gave up all the comforts of life and all the things you and I have to do God's will. And he literally gave his life, his physical life later, and was willing to do it because he believed in it so deeply. A standard that we can look to and ask God, are we being faithful stewards of what you've entrusted to us?

Are we doing what Jesus Christ said? Or might there be, might there be something that would something in what Jesus Christ said, don't be ashamed of me.

None of us want Christ to be ashamed of us. Don't be ashamed of me, he says.

Let's turn to Isaiah. Isaiah 49.

Oh, you know what? Before we turn there, let's go back to 1 Peter. I wanted to read more in 1 Peter 3 here.

1 Peter 3 and verse 13. 1 Peter 3 and verse 13.

And who is he will harm you? He's asking again in this concept of being ashamed or afraid. Who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?

But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you're blessed.

And don't be afraid of their threats. Don't be troubled.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that's in you with meekness and fear.

Having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.

For it's better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil, just as Christ did. Be willing to do that.

Now let's go to Isaiah 49 in conclusion.

Isaiah 49.

Let's pick it up in verse 22.

Speaking of the end time when Jesus Christ is returned, and the people who God has called saints, firstborn children, first fruits, are reigning with Him. And because in that lifetime they've learned and they live their lives as debtors to Christ, slays to Him, recognizing they owe everything to Him, they're ready.

They're ready and they weren't ashamed of what they believed and they were willing to speak it boldly. God says in verse 22, Behold, I'll lift my hand in an oath to the nations and set up my standard for the peoples. They shall bring your sons in their arms and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings of this world now will be your foster fathers and their queens, your nursing mothers. You'll be the preeminent. I will glorify you when you've learned to glorify me.

They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth and lick up the dust of your feet, and you will know that I am the eternal for they, they, not you, but they shall not be ashamed who wait for me.