the following message is by pastor john piper more information from desiring god ministries is available at www.desiringgod.org in our series on the book of romans we have arrived now at verse 16 and the text is for today i am not ashamed of the gospel that's the way the lord set it up way long time ago and those are the words i want to preach on this morning these verses verses 16 and 17 of romans and i invite you to open your bibles to romans chapter 1 verse 16. these two verses chapter 16 chapter 1 16 and 17 are the the thesis statement of the gospel i mean the whole book of romans and so it'll be fitting that we linger with verse 16 for three sermons at least i think for this verse and probably 2 for verse 17 before we move beyond them into the rest of romans 1. these are huge verses they are very very important verses let me just read verse 16 with you it's a very familiar verse 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 so one message today will be on i'm not ashamed another message will be on how it's the power of god unto salvation for everyone who believes and the third message will be on why does he say to the jew first and also to the greek three messages on this verse over the next three weeks so today the focus is on the words for i am not ashamed of the gospel you notice the little word for at the beginning which links it logically with the preceding eagerness to preach the gospel to those who are in rome and you can see it's very plain it doesn't take any great mental ability to see why this verse 16 supports verse 15. i am eager to come and preach to you who are in rome the gospel because i'm not ashamed of it that's the link i'm not ashamed of it so i want to begin by asking this question and there are a lot of children in the room so i want the children to tune in right now because you may be old enough to ask when would you be embarrassed when would you be ashamed under what circumstance would you feel like you've been made a fool of let me give you a few possibilities suppose that a boy brags in his neighborhood that he can outrun the new skinny kid that just showed up in the neighborhood and he's bragging all over the place that he can do this and so they set up a race once around the block and he and this skinny kid walk the route and they show them where the turns are and what trees you have to go around and then all the kids gather from the neighborhood and somebody says ready set go and this new skinny kid just takes off like a bolt of lightning leaves this braggart in the dust and finishes maybe 40 yards ahead of him now believe me that last 40 yards of the braggarts is going to be a very embarrassed and shame-filled 40 yards he will be so ashamed he will feel like he's made such a fool of himself bragging all over the place that he can outrun this guy and there was no contest here's another example suppose there's somebody at school that you don't like and you know that his father is in jail and you talk about that and you make it known that his father is a crook and you brag that your father is a is not a crook he has a big responsible position as the financial officer at the bank [Music] and then one day you go home and there's tv cameras outside your house and you walk in and your mother's weeping their eyes out and you find out your father's been accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars and he's down at the county jail awaiting trial and you don't want to go back to school the next day because not only are you ashamed of him you're ashamed of yourself and all of the bragging that you've done about your dad and how this other fellow had a dad who was in jail or another example suppose that you put a lot of stock in how you look you always want to wear the right clothes you want to be sure not to dress wrong this morning because we're always supposed to dress right this morning or want to make sure your hair is the right way and so you know that in your new job they're giving a party and you ask your trusted colleague how you're supposed to dress and they tell you and you get there and you are totally wrong in the way you've dressed way overdressed or way underdressed or you thought it was a costume party and everybody's got a tuxedo and you're so ashamed you won't even go in one last illustration this comes closer to home suppose you have a part in a play a small part because you're nervous and you're not very good at acting just two lines just two lines and it comes at a key point in the play and you memorize your lines and the play begins and your heart is pounding and the audience is large and everybody is doing excellently and setting a very high standard and as the moment draws near you can feel your whole body shutting down and at the moment when you're to appear and say your two lines you totally freeze totally freeze and you'd open your mouth you cannot make anything come out there's this horrible silence as everybody realizes this is not an intentional dramatic moment you are frozen somebody whispers to you your lines thinking you forgot them that's not the problem and they skirt you with some nimble theatrical move and you run off the stage and off the planet as far as you're concerned everybody in this room knows what it's like to be ashamed and to be embarrassed and it's a horrible horrible experience now the question is how do you keep that from happening how do you not get embarrassed or ashamed of something and there are different ways well you you could uh have better legs and so you can outrun the skitty guy skinny guy and then you wouldn't get embarrassed or you could have an honest dad who doesn't embezzle and then you wouldn't get embarrassed or you could have a better party counselor so you dressed right then you wouldn't get embarrassed or you could have better nerves so that you could speak your lines and then you wouldn't get ashamed in other words one way to keep from getting ashamed is to always keep yourself in a good light never so act or so perform that others think badly about you that's one way to do it now when paul says in verse 16 i am not ashamed of the gospel is that the way he is triumphing over shame the answer is manifestly not it's exactly the opposite you see believing and preaching the gospel is what's bringing shame on to paul before this verse functions to deliver him from shame it functions to shame him let me just give you some examples of how this works for the apostle paul second corinthians 11 23 when he preaches the gospel in far more labors he says i am in far more labors in more imprisonments beaten times without number often in danger of death five times i received from the jews 39 lashes three times i was beaten with rods once i was stoned three times i was shipwrecked a night and a day i have spent in the deep i have been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers dangers from robbers dangers from my countrymen dangers from the gentiles dangers in the city dangers in the wilderness dangers on the sea dangers from false brethren [Music] paul's way of not being ashamed was not that he keep himself in a good light with other people it was not that he had enough savvy so that he could always maneuver his way through life getting people to approve what he did that's one way to avoid the shame problem in the world always calculate your behavior so that people like you you will be a slave if you do that you will be a second hander and in bondage all your life long if you try to avoid shame by pleasing other people when paul looked out on a huge world of unbelief what did he see look back at verse 14 this is what we were on last week i am a debtor i am under obligation i am a debtor to greeks and barbarians to the wise and to the foolish why did he say that why did he why did he say right across the whole social spectrum i'm a debtor because those people had all kinds of ways of shaming him the intelligent people would shame him one way the foolish and ignorant people would shame him another way everybody has a unique way of shaming those who speak the gospel and i just want to insert here a little princess maybe when paul looked at those people picture a cultured picture today just think of a cultured despiser of the gospel you got one in mind maybe television maybe theater maybe sports maybe politics got somebody a cultured despiser of the gospel they hear the gospel and like the greeks they say foolishness now in our day in america our conservative lifestyle and our biblical orientation is in danger of being so politicized that our fundamental response to people like that is disdain not debt test yourself right now you watch the television you look at political speeches you walk the university campus and see how some may be dressed or whatever and rising up out of your heart is not the feeling i owe them grace but yuck test yourself there is a politicization of biblical values the upshot of it being yuck that's not romans that's not the bible if you come to the world with one colossal well-argued yuck upon your house you won't win anybody to jesus paul felt like a debtor to the despising greeks and to the to the jews who hadn't believed and said it's a stumbling block remember that text first corinthians 1 so i just encourage you pay your debts today without despising and disdaining you are debtors to the greeks and you are debtors to the wise and you are debtors to barbarians however you want to define them and you are debtors to the foolish pay your debt the problem is they don't want your money and they don't want your gospel by and large which means that to defend themselves they're going to figure out a way to shame you they're going to shame you so before romans 1 16 can become the answer to that problem you've got to see that it creates the problem the gospel creates shaming behavior in those who don't like it that's their only defense to shame you i'll close in a minute with an illustration of how the 90s does that differently from the 60s now paul is like jesus here in the way he handles this shame shaming behavior that comes toward him you remember jesus how he did it he was abandoned by his friends he was falsely accused of blasphemy he was beaten with rods he was ridiculed and taunted he was stripped of his clothes in public he was scourged with a whip he was tortured in public and he was made to look like a fool as he hung on the cross and they laughed at him saying you who saved others save yourself and you just took it shame shame shame being heaped upon jesus how did he handle it hebrews 12 2 says how he handled it for the joy set before him he endured the cross despising the shame and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of god what does that mean jesus endured for your sake and my sake by despising the shame how would you put that how would you say that here's what i think it means when shame which was being heaped upon jesus in manifold ways when shame began to threaten his heart as it threatens your heart probably every day in public shame begins to threaten your heart and begin to tempt you to abandon the path of obedience and courage and boldness and witness and truth and love and grace and being a good debtor when when shame begins to have that power in your life jesus looked at shame in the face and said i despise you i despise you i will not yield to you i will not give you any satisfaction you may do with me whatever you please in the short run i will not obey you i will not follow you i will not give in to you i despise you shame and i will not let you rule me that's what jesus did with shame he despised shame he gave shame no place over his life they were dumping it on him and with every truckload of shame that was dumped on jesus he said i despise it all i will give it no space in my heart i will not be ashamed of my father and he walked the calvary road and nothing deterred him not beatings not spit not yanked beard not mockery not purple road not nakedness and not torture nothing deterred him it was nothing like our little test on the streets in a minute how did he do that how did he get the power to despise the shame verse 2 of hebrews 12 says for the joy that was set before him he despised the shame shame was stripping away every earthly support we've got lots of earthly supports i mean this whole service is an earthly support look how many of us are here this is easy this is easy to be here right this is going to be stripped away folks there are some at home today with cancer who'd like to be here it's going to be stripped away it's going to be stripped away young people it's going to be stripped away at college it's going to be stripped away on the street it's going to be stripped away from your health your family it's going to be stripped away someday this easy support that we have right here jesus friends gave way to shaming abandonment his reputation gave way to shaming slander his decency gave way to shaming nakedness his comfort gave way to shaming torture [Music] so when your support when all around your soul gives way when all around your soul gives way what are you going to lean on for the joy that was set before him he looked over the shame and he saw his father and his father needed or wanted his son on his throne paul was like jesus i am not ashamed of the gospel the cultured greeks notwithstanding so how you can overcome your feelings of shame today and tomorrow and the next day you're going to say this the power of the gospel or the gospel is the power of god unto salvation the gospel is the power of god to bring people to salvation you're going to look beyond the immediate shame and you say that's power and the way the 90s is going to shame you i heard aleister begs say the other day on a tape in the sixties my friends used to shame me and blame me for believing in the gospel because i thought it was true today people shame me by believing that there is such a thing as truth and so the way you're going to be shamed today is not by being accused of being wrong but believing that others are wrong or that there is such a thing as wrong the mighty power of god upon us is going to be very very great as we today release our ashamedness so mark it here's my closing word you will be shamed for the gospel but you do not have to be ashamed of the gospel let's pray almighty god and heavenly father i pray that you would come and that you would release us into this ministry take us empower us use us in jesus name amen thank you for listening to this message by john piper pastor for preaching at bethlehem baptist church in minneapolis minnesota feel free to make copies of this message to give to others but please do not charge for those copies or alter the content in any way without permission we invite you to visit desiring god online at www there you'll find hundreds 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