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Unashamed - Part 2 (Romans 1:16-17)
3 Plays5 minutes ago
Sunday Message recorded 26 October 2025
by Deacon Stephen Mick
First Baptist Church - Columbus, TX, USA
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
Recommended
Transcript
Welcome and Introduction
00:00:06
Speaker
Good morning, church family. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here again this week. ah Last week, we talked about a single verse. We spent our entire time really talking just about one word, unashamed.
00:00:22
Speaker
And today we pick up again in Romans 1.16 and we'll continue on for a few verses.
Impact of Shame and the Gospel's Role
00:00:29
Speaker
But just to recap what we talked about last week, we tried to understand What causes us shame?
00:00:37
Speaker
And how does shame wage war against us, really experiencing the joy and the abundant life that Christ in his power came to save us for?
00:00:49
Speaker
We talked about three types of shame. The first was the shame of disappointment. And this happens when we have some inability, some weakness, some deficiency we see in ourselves. And because of it, we start to feel ashamed. We start to say no to opportunities because we don't feel qualified.
00:01:08
Speaker
If we're not careful, this type of shame can turn into worse than just an inward feeling. It can turn into a questioning of God, leading to disappointment in God and possibly even rejection. We start asking questions. Why did God make me this way?
00:01:25
Speaker
Why did he put me in this place? Has he forgotten me? Why is life not fair? Is God not fair?
Purpose and Overcoming Shame
00:01:33
Speaker
But the good news is the gospel, Romans 1 16, the gospel is the power of God to save.
00:01:41
Speaker
And the gospel defeats this shame. How does it do it? By giving us a better hope and better expectations so that any shortcoming we see in ourselves, any lack, any deficiency, any missed opportunity, any weakness, we realize what is wrong.
00:02:00
Speaker
what truly is, and what is to come is better. With regards to what is, here's one of the verses we looked at last week, Ephesians 2.10.
00:02:12
Speaker
but This good news tells us that God made you on purpose, for a purpose. You don't have to be ashamed of who God made you to be.
00:02:24
Speaker
We are often, but we don't have to be. God didn't make a mistake when he made you. And with respect to what is to come, here's another verse that we looked at, 2 Corinthians 5.21.
00:02:37
Speaker
what we What we learn is that Jesus did something amazing for us. See, we're often disappointed because we want to be better than we are. We want to be acknowledged as being better than we are. We want credit for the good things that happen.
00:02:51
Speaker
right But the good news is we don't have to worry about taking credit for what we do because Jesus did it all for us. And we get credit for what he did, which is so much better than we could do.
00:03:04
Speaker
And this verse also tells us not only do we get credit for what Jesus does, but he takes the blame for where we fall. So that was the first shame, the shame of disappointment, and the gospel overcomes it, overpowers it.
00:03:20
Speaker
ah The second shame we looked at is the shame of disgrace. And this happens when evil happens to us and we suffer. Oftentimes, we don't just suffer, but suffering makes us feel responsible, like we brought it on ourselves, and we become ashamed of it.
00:03:38
Speaker
And then shame, even worse, begins to lie to us. It tells us, yeah, you did deserve it. You are worthless. You're unworthy. You're unlovable. You're unwanted. You're forgotten.
00:03:52
Speaker
But it's a lie. And the gospel overcomes this shame. How does it do so? Well, we realize that we have a God who understands, who empathizes, and who redeems even our weakness and the the disgrace that happens to us.
Exploring Defiance as the Worst Shame
00:04:13
Speaker
In 1 Peter 2.24, we see that Jesus himself bore our sins in his body. In the last part that I highlighted for you, it reminds us that Jesus had very deep and real wounds.
00:04:28
Speaker
He was betrayed, mocked, abused, abandoned, wrongfully accused, and brutally murdered.
00:04:39
Speaker
But he takes the pain of his wounds and with those heals us. That's the power of the gospel to save us, to redeem the shame. And then we talked about the shame of disobedience. And this happens whether by weakness or willingness, we disobey God.
00:04:59
Speaker
And our response to this shame, rather than feeling the freedom that's to be found in the gospel, we often hide. And because we hide, we don't experience the freedom and the peace and the contentment and the growth and the joy that's to be found in the gospel. So now hiding, hiding our shame, dealing with it in this way, it has consequences for ourselves.
00:05:25
Speaker
for fellow believers and for the lost. And there is a lot to say about this, but we'll get to that in just a bit. So here's the plan for today. We're going to read five verses from Romans. We're going start where we started and stopped last week.
00:05:41
Speaker
Romans 1 16 through 20. And really the ideas of the sermon find find their development through the entirety of Romans, but but primarily Romans 1 all the way through the end of chapter 2.
00:05:56
Speaker
But I figured I wasn't going to read that all to you, because who could pay attention for that long? So we'll read five verses, and that'll give us a running start. So from this text, what we're going to see is there's another shame that we need to discuss.
00:06:12
Speaker
And this is the worst shame of them all. We'll also see that there are two attitudes, two types of people, two approaches that cause people to run headlong into this shame.
00:06:27
Speaker
and And from there, we'll ask and try to answer two questions. How do we avoid that? If it's the worst shame of them all, how do we not get that? And second, well, what do we do to help those who are headed towards it?
00:06:43
Speaker
So if you wouldn't mind, would you stand with me as we read Romans 1, 16 through 20, and then we'll pray.
00:06:52
Speaker
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
00:07:06
Speaker
For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith For faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
00:07:20
Speaker
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodline ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.
00:07:37
Speaker
For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world. And the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.
00:07:51
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Let's pray.
00:07:54
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Lord, I pray that you would bless this time as we look at your word. Help us to see this terrible shame that awaits those who reject you. Lord, help us to avoid it by the power of the gospel.
00:08:07
Speaker
And Lord, let us be your hands and feet to help those who are
Embracing the Gospel versus Facing Rejection
00:08:13
Speaker
perishing. In Christ's name, amen.
00:08:19
Speaker
Now we just got a running start and into Romans through the end of chapter two. I only read five verses, there's a lot more there, but when you read it all, and even in these verses, you can see, and there's the the spoiler alert there on the screen, you can see that there's yet another shame, right? And it's the worst shame of them all, the shame of defiance.
00:08:45
Speaker
So what makes this the worst? The three things to consider. Well, first of all, it's a future shame. but Those who are defiant against God should be ashamed of themselves, but often aren't.
00:09:00
Speaker
The shame that they will will feel is in the future. And then when they do feel it, they'll realize it's a final shame.
00:09:11
Speaker
Because by the time the shame comes on them, those who have defied God, it'll be too late. And they'll feel that shame for all eternity. And third, which I think makes it even worse than the first two, which are pretty bad.
00:09:28
Speaker
But third, it's a personal shame.
00:09:32
Speaker
You see this in Romans 1, 24, 26, and 28, because three times we're told the same thing. That those who defy God, what does God do for them?
00:09:44
Speaker
He gives them up.
00:09:47
Speaker
but This shame of defiance is God giving people what they want most.
00:09:56
Speaker
but They defiantly reject him, so he turns them over to what they want and allows them to spend eternity in their defiance.
00:10:09
Speaker
So we have a choice. so Surrender to the gospel and the power of God, the power that we sung about in so many of the songs this morning.
00:10:20
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Thank you for those, Marcia. They're great songs. Or face the wrath of God. And that's why this slide today has two two doors. There's a choice.
00:10:33
Speaker
Submit to the power of God or face the wrath of God. Die in your defiance and experience eternal rejection. I think the ultimate shame.
00:10:46
Speaker
But if you yield to God, if you repent of your rebellion, if you turn to Christ to save you, then by the power and mercy of God, you will be saved, including being saved from this wrath. But here's an important point.
00:11:02
Speaker
When you do trust Christ, when you are saved but from God's wrath, someone still has to pay that wrath.
00:11:13
Speaker
And this is yet another piece of the good news, the wonderful news for for those who Jesus saves, is that he took our wrath.
00:11:27
Speaker
Romans chapter 3, verse 25. Talking about Jesus through this whole passage says that when God put forward Jesus as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. Now, a propitiation is a technical word.
00:11:42
Speaker
But do you know what it means? One who takes the wrath.
00:11:48
Speaker
We get credit for what Jesus did. And he takes the blame for what we did. and he takes the punishment for what we did.
00:12:01
Speaker
Why would anyone want the wrath of God? Well, Jesus volunteered to take it for us. And yet, there are those who rush headlong into it.
00:12:18
Speaker
If we reread Romans 1.18, we read it earlier, but it was in the middle of the passage, so perhaps you didn't see it. This is where we see the two attitudes, the two approaches and that lead one to experience the wrath of God, to die in the shame of their defiance.
00:12:39
Speaker
So I've got the words highlighted for you, and it shouldn't be a shock. Ungodliness and unrighteousness are different. Otherwise, they'd just be one word.
00:12:50
Speaker
but and But how are they different? Well, it turns out that ungodly, ungodliness, what it refers to is those who are willfully wicked.
00:13:02
Speaker
And the remainder of Romans chapter 1, it gives us numerous visible examples of what this might look like. And it's really quite sad and a bit overwhelming to read the list all at once. But since I've read it multiple times, you will get to hear
Judgment, Unrighteousness, and Community
00:13:16
Speaker
it too. So Romans chapter 1, verse 29 through 31, talking about these people, this behavior, this attitude, here's what it says. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
00:13:32
Speaker
They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They're gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless.
00:13:47
Speaker
and if There's so many words you have to breathe twice reading the list. but What a terrible list.
00:13:55
Speaker
But there are those who are defiant to God, willfully, willfully, They embrace wickedness.
00:14:05
Speaker
Now, if we examine our lives and we conclude, well, none of those behaviors are mine. That's not me.
00:14:13
Speaker
Well, you might conclude that you're doing everything right. But the willfully and secretly defiant are also practicing ungodliness. And that leads us to our second word.
00:14:27
Speaker
Back to Romans 1.18, you also see the word unrighteousness. And what that refers to, now there is overlap, right? This is the're not clear like column A, column B. There's overlap between the two, but the sense of unrighteousness is that it's an active distortion, a twisting of what's good and right.
00:14:49
Speaker
And here's the really troubling part. His unrighteousness, as you look at that the usage of that word throughout the New Testament, is very often mentioned in connection to people connected with the church.
00:15:07
Speaker
Acts 1.18, we learn about the demise of Judas. Judas was a disciple, an apostle of Jesus, one of the 12 closest people to him. you can't get closer, right?
00:15:21
Speaker
But the silver that he was paid for his betrayal of Jesus is described in Acts 1.18 as the wages of unrighteousness. In 2 Peter 2.15, there are people in the church who are teaching false things.
00:15:38
Speaker
They come in pretending to be part of the church. gathering gathering an audience for themselves, but they twist and they distort the truth for their own purposes.
00:15:51
Speaker
And these false teachers, they're described as the unrighteous. but So as we continue reading in Romans, we we see that the words, both of them, they apply to the outwardly religious.
00:16:07
Speaker
It's not just those who are obviously wicked, but they can also apply to the outwardly religious. Romans 2, 1 says this, therefore, you have no excuse. Now in this passage, Paul is talking to religious Jews, people who look like they're faithful.
00:16:28
Speaker
You have no excuse, oh man, every one of you who judges. but And maybe we judged as we were thinking, oh, I know some wicked people. Yeah, they're defiant.
00:16:40
Speaker
Everyone who judges, we're without excuse. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
00:16:52
Speaker
And what's the result? How does this link to the topic of the shame of defiance? chapter Verse 5 connects the dots for us. But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you're storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
00:17:15
Speaker
Right, so this attitude and this practice of unrighteousness is rampant in churches.
00:17:23
Speaker
And that means, hey maybe that's some people here. Maybe the unrighteous have slipped in. Why? Because they try to blend in They have fine-sounding arguments to sway you to their thinking and their practice, but for their purposes.
00:17:41
Speaker
But for these, wrath awaits. but See, and here's the struggle. It's often hard to distinguish between those who have repented and trusted Jesus. and aren't perfect, because we all make mistakes, we're all a work in progress, it's hard to distinguish between those and the original deep fakes, right? Those who look authentic but but aren't.
00:18:07
Speaker
Which leads us to our first of two questions. How do we avoid the shame? Well, let me illustrate this first with a couple visuals. I hope this, not everybody's a word person. Some people like pictures. I don like pictures. I like books with pictures.
00:18:25
Speaker
We see three times, and that's why I'm kind of sad that my kids read chapter books now. I liked the picture books. But there are three types of people. Let's illustrate The ungodly, those are like a city in a complete blackout.
00:18:43
Speaker
There's such a thing as electricity, but they don't have it. And they'd go worse. They don't even want it. They don't believe in electricity. Right? And then Lightning McQueen. Has anybody seen Cars?
00:18:55
Speaker
Okay, a few. So you'll know that you'll remember perhaps in that movie his love interest. Yeah, there's a love interest in a car movie. Okay. But his love interest makes fun of him.
00:19:08
Speaker
Why? Because he looks like he has headlights, but doesn't. And what do they call them? Stickers. Hey, stickers. Because he's faking it.
00:19:19
Speaker
He knows he needs headlights. He needs to be seen as a car having headlights. But they're not real. And then the saved, those who have trusted Jesus, what what are they like?
00:19:33
Speaker
They're like a city on a hill, like a light that's not under a bushel.
Authentic Surrender and Transformation
00:19:38
Speaker
It's something you can see from space. or another visual illustration.
00:19:45
Speaker
The ungodly are like a barren tree, a tree that's dead and good for nothing but to be chopped down and burned after it rains a little more. right Or, I was really surprised, yeah right the unrighteous are like a fake tree and this tree on the right, this is a fake cherry tree, but it looks so real.
00:20:07
Speaker
You can tell it's fake because the face is a little square and it's sitting on the pavement.
00:20:13
Speaker
but But it's hard to tell apart. And that's what the unrighteous are. They're very close, but they twist and distort. Versus those who are saved.
00:20:27
Speaker
Like Psalm chapter 1, it says, like a tree planted by the river that never withers.
00:20:34
Speaker
So how do we avoid the shame of defiance? Well, the answer is to truly surrender to God, to be of those who repent and yield to the gospel and receive God's power to save them, to be saved and by God's power to be a real fruitful disciple, to be saved and by the power of God be a light in the darkness.
00:21:00
Speaker
not just a sticker of the light. So how can you tell? How can you be sure? And this is where I hope to encourage you because Scripture makes it clear we can know.
00:21:11
Speaker
We can be sure. And what I invite you to do is to consider four areas of self-reflection. right Evidence that Scripture says is true of those who have surrendered to Christ, who have repented and yielded ah The first area I encourage and draw your attention to is inner transformation.
00:21:40
Speaker
but One primary evidence that someone has repented and trusted Christ is that they have experienced this inner transformation. what What they desire, what they hope for, what they dream about, they truly, truly want these things begin to change in a way that aligns with what God says is good and true and right and pure.
00:22:05
Speaker
And it's God who brings us transformation. <unk>re We're powerless to change ourselves. But we don't have power to change ourselves, but that's the good news. The psalmist knew this. David, after he transgressed terribly by murdering a woman's husband and then getting her pregnant, then being called out in public in his shame, Psalm 5110, he pleads with God, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. It's God who brings a transformation.
00:22:39
Speaker
You see, the unrighteous, they can only pretend to have inner transformation. But any transformation is powered by self-will. So here's a question for you.
00:22:52
Speaker
A question for me, I've been asking myself these types of questions for years, but what do you truly desire? Do you long for righteousness in your life?
00:23:05
Speaker
Do you actively spend energy to bring your thoughts and your attitudes under the lordship of Jesus?
00:23:14
Speaker
On the flip side, what are you making plans to get away with? What are you trying to hide?
00:23:25
Speaker
Or are are you seeing an increasing dislike and aversion to sin?
00:23:35
Speaker
Okay, here's a fill in the blank for you. A day without God would be like, how would you fill that in? Would your answer be, wow, that's that's what I call Monday.
00:23:51
Speaker
Or would you say, that would be devastating. I couldn't imagine that.
00:24:00
Speaker
Imagine that you had, you went to work tomorrow and your boss said, you know what? You've done such a fabulous job. I'm going to give you a 1,000 day paid vacation.
00:24:17
Speaker
You know psalmist says? God, one day in your courts is better than 1,000 elsewhere.
00:24:28
Speaker
Right? the Those who are saved, those who have submitted to the gospel of Christ, begin to feel that way. Maybe not on day one, maybe day one, but like by day 40 or 50, you're like, ah I don't know, 400 days?
00:24:44
Speaker
but But what's the trajectory? What do you truly desire?
Building Relationships and Accountability
00:24:50
Speaker
Well, a second area of self-examination I invite you to consider is relationships.
00:24:56
Speaker
Because another evidence that someone has repented and trusted Christ is that their relationships develop a God-honoring depth.
00:25:07
Speaker
A depth with Jesus. We see this in 2 Peter 3.16.
00:25:12
Speaker
Where we're encouraged to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Do you share the opinion that God is infinitely interesting?
00:25:27
Speaker
Are you interested in God?
00:25:32
Speaker
Can you go a day not being curious about him and longing to be with him and connect to him? Right? Those who are saved have an increasingly deep relationship with Christ.
00:25:47
Speaker
They have an increasingly deep relationship with other believers. but You begin to see mutual accountability. Yes, scripture tells us to confess our sins one and to another that we might be healed.
00:26:01
Speaker
If you're struggling with something that you can't overcome, it could be your pride keeping you and your shame locked and trapped. Amen. but But those who are saved will eventually, the the power and the need and the desire to honor God will outweigh the shame and the pride.
00:26:24
Speaker
We begin relationship to others, begin spending yourself to help others.
00:26:31
Speaker
And we begin to realize the scripture tells us there are some things that really do matter to God. And because those things matter to God, people, mercy, they really begin to matter to us.
00:26:49
Speaker
See, the unrighteous, they pretend have God-honoring, mutually beneficial, mutually accountable friendships. And don't get me wrong, they can be really, really friendly people.
00:27:04
Speaker
But there's a distinct difference between being friendly and and being a friend. So let me offer for you a definition of friendship.
00:27:15
Speaker
don't know if you've heard it before, but it's a challenging definition, and and i think it's what Scripture tells us. The friendship is this, taking responsibility for the holiness of another person.
00:27:29
Speaker
Is there anyone in your life who can speak truth to your life, who knows your dirt, who knows your shame, who knows where your pride keeps you locked away, and you know the same for them, and you're helping each other follow Christ better.
00:27:42
Speaker
but Those who have been saved see an increasing depth in their relationship to the glory of God, to the benefit of each other, and for the true satisfaction of our souls.
00:27:54
Speaker
A third area of self-reflection I invite you to is one of conduct.
00:28:02
Speaker
Now, I didn't start here because conduct's the easiest thing to fake. But... Here's a way to think about it. It's not just are you doing the right things, you have a checklist items, but are people left better off because they've been with you? but Does your obedience lead to mercy for other people?
00:28:27
Speaker
Last week we read Ephesians 2.10. We read it again at the beginning of this service, but i draw your attention back to it yet again. Why? Because it tells us some really good news that we are His workmanship. We're His masterpiece created in Christ Jesus for good works.
00:28:45
Speaker
There should be good things happening because we're active and engaged. Our conduct should be transformed. And it there it says that we should walk in those things that he prepared for us to do.
00:29:00
Speaker
The unrighteous, now they're quick to point out their holiness. They'll take that list at the end of Romans chapter 1 and say, and I don't do that and this and i see, I don't do those things. But inwardly, Jesus tells the Pharisees, inwardly, like whitewashed tombs, right? Beautiful on the outside, but inside full of dead men's bones.
Perseverance and Active Faith
00:29:23
Speaker
So the unrighteous, they they're quick to point out their holiness. They're quick to try to justify themselves with points of compliance they think that matter. And they also like to point out the lack of holiness of other people.
00:29:38
Speaker
I mean, it could be true. Maybe they did point out something that's correct. But something we used to say, so I had been on staff at a church, not this one, one one in North Carolina. What we used to and say is, it doesn't take any skill to point out a problem.
00:29:56
Speaker
Right, zero skill. We all see the problem, thank you very much. The skill comes in, how do you solve it? What's the solution?
00:30:07
Speaker
And if your method of holiness is to point out how evil other people are, great. What are you going to do about it? but That's the conduct that matters.
00:30:18
Speaker
Not the pointy finger, but the hand up.
00:30:24
Speaker
So is doing the work of God for his glory and the benefit of others something that you find satisfying? Something that you would like actually rearrange your life and your schedule to do?
00:30:36
Speaker
right Those who are saved, those who have submitted to the power of Christ, find themselves increasingly saying yes to that. A fourth area of self-inspection or self-examination I'd encourage you to is perseverance.
00:30:52
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So what have you started for God that you will never, ever quit?
00:31:03
Speaker
i See, the unrighteous, they don't finish well, even if they start for a little while. They quit. They give up. They tell stories about how they were once active for God, but their stories are stale.
00:31:18
Speaker
They boast about the smoke, but there's no longer a fire.
00:31:23
Speaker
And one day, we're going to stand face to face with Jesus. And do you know what he He's finisher. He's a finisher. Right on the cross, he didn't say, well, it's almost complete.
00:31:38
Speaker
Done my part. No. and Jesus said, it is finished. He endured until the end. And it's hard to endure. I'm not trying to make it sound like it's easy. It's not.
00:31:53
Speaker
That's why there's so much encouragement in Scripture to hold on. Galatians 6, 9 tells us to keep going. Let us not grow weary of doing good.
00:32:04
Speaker
For in due season we will reap if we don't give up And Philippians 1, 6 also says, it's not just our effort that makes us keep going.
00:32:18
Speaker
ah Because we're confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus. God's going to help us. But for our part, don't sit on the sidelines.
00:32:32
Speaker
right So maybe you got involved when you were in high school or college and then you get married and have kids and're like, well, life's too busy. I'll get back to it later. No, don't quit. don't get so Don't grow weary of doing good. Find a way to participate.
00:32:49
Speaker
Maybe you got involved when you had kids, but then your kids grew up and you're like, well, I've done my part. You did a part. There's more work to do. Don't give up.
00:33:00
Speaker
Don't grow weary. Or maybe you served during your career and now you're retired. Retirement from work doesn't mean retirement from the Lord, does it?
00:33:11
Speaker
And we have a lot of people in our congregation who have retired from work and continue to tirelessly serve. And I would say, please, please, please keep going because you're such an encouragement to those of us who are watching you.
00:33:25
Speaker
It reminds me of an example. We used to take long car rides with the kids, and maybe your kids did the same. Maybe we were the only ones who said, Daddy, are we there yet? And we hear them all time. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? So we had all our ways of responding to the question, but several times I would say something like this. I'd say, look, you will know that we're there when I park the car in between two parking stripes, I turn off the engine, unbuckle my seatbelt, and get out of the car.
00:33:55
Speaker
Are we there yet? No, daddy. an I know, it's maybe a little harsh, but you know, you're a road trip. You know how it goes.
00:34:07
Speaker
But are we there yet with God? As long as we're on this side of the dirt, as long as we've got breath in our lungs, we can participate.
00:34:19
Speaker
And those who have surrendered to the power of the gospel will persevere. So this is how we can know and how we can avoid the shame of defiance by truly surrendering to the power of God, by humbly examining ourselves and saying, are we ah authentic? Are we seeing this inner transformation within us? What do we really love and hope for by looking at the depths of our relationships?
00:34:47
Speaker
are Are we helping people? Are we helping each other to be holy? By our conduct, are we really participating in God's work and are by our perseverance? Are we pressing in? Are we determined never to stop?
00:35:05
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And then that's how we help those who are headed to the shame, by being authentic. I'm sure you've heard countless examples of people who say the number one reason people don't trust Christ is Christians.
00:35:19
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Mahatma Gandhi was famous for saying, this Jesus, I like him, but I don't so much care for his Christians.
00:35:30
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Humble self-examination, true humility before the Lord, never quitting, never giving up, always persevering, being open and honest about our weaknesses and our struggles, letting the gospel defeat shame in our life.
00:35:46
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That's transformative. to those who are locked in shame and want hope but see it nowhere.
00:35:55
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And should we do these things, it helps everyone. It helps ourself. Because we then begin to experience the power of the gospel and the salvation that he wants to bring.
00:36:06
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It helps each other. like Because you have stories of things you've overcome Well, I'm still struggling and I need your help and vice versa.
00:36:17
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We help each other. That's how mutual accountability works. It helps those who are ungodly. Remember, those who are brazenly, defiantly, visibly wicked.
00:36:30
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Why? Because they tend, when we hide our shame, they tend to see us as unempathetic, self-righteous, naive, and out of touch.
00:36:42
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And when they don't see authenticity in us, it skews their understanding of Jesus. right Jesus told us that the world, those outside of faith, would know us by our love for each other.
00:36:55
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Not just our warm feelings, but the action of love for each other. See, the world, they know we have problems, because the problem's easy to see.
00:37:08
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But they're not convinced we have a solution.
00:37:12
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And until we overcome shame by the power of the gospel, we have nothing valuable to offer them. We just have words. They need to see it demonstrated. So to the extent that we overcome the shame, to the extent we submit and yield to the power of the gospel and see this inner transformation and all these other things, we'll be confused. Like, why am I not effective?
00:37:37
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But as we do see God work through us and in us, His testimony, we lift him up and he brings people to himself.
Transformative Power of the Gospel
00:37:45
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And then to the unrighteous, right? Those who would infiltrate the church, who would twist and distort the gospel to the extent we become more and more authentic.
00:37:55
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Well, it prevents them from hiding. It clears away their hiding place because it draws a vast distinction between those who are yielded and those who aren't. So would you yield to the gospel?
00:38:09
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Would you abandon your pride? would you ah Would you allow the gospel to help you overcome your shame? And could you become unashamed of the gospel? Because it is the power of God to save.
00:38:26
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Let's pray.
00:38:30
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Lord, I thank you so much. that your sacrifice for us, the gospel message that you took, the punishment and wrath for us, that that is so incredibly powerful, that you save us in every way we can imagine, in every way that we need.
00:38:51
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Help us, God, to give ourselves to you. Help us to submit to the gospel. Help us to see healing from our hurts, recovery and redemption to our shame, to our disgrace.
00:39:06
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Lord, help us to be confident that you've made us who you've made us without mistake and you've got works for us. God, we don't have to be disappointed. Lord, cause us to want what is right and good, to to despise disobedience. God, to love you.
00:39:24
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God, help us to be humble and reflect on where we stand. Are we seeing inner transformation? Are relationships getting deeper? Is our conduct becoming more right and good?
00:39:39
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Are we exp extending mercy to others? God, would you steady our shaking legs and help us stand and stay? Lord, help us to trust you in Christ's name. Amen.
00:39:49
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Amen.
00:39:56
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.