Ashamed Of The Gospel

The Assurance of the Gospel in Hymn and Memorization

Come here, and I remember the first night, it was like they were singing every... I was just waiting for the pastor to go, now on the fourth stanza, but no, we kept going right through the third. It was a shocking thing.

One of many shocks that I got the first few weeks as I came and visited here, but the rest of the hymn anyways was certainly one that I was familiar with, and so when in high school I began a program of scripture memorization, that was sort of a freebie, except I memorized it in the form of the hymn pretty much, which pretty much followed the King James at that time, if I recall correctly.

But it is a statement of assurance. It is a statement that the one that I have believed is trustworthy. That which I have committed unto Him against that day, He is one who is trustworthy for me to play that kind of faith in Him.

2 Timothy 1 and the Call Not to Be Ashamed

Let's take a look at that text together and make some application of it this morning. 2 Timothy chapter 1 will begin at verse 8. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us to the holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher.

For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you. You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phagellites and Hermogenes.

The Lord grant mercy on the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me. The Lord grant to him to find mercy from the Lord on that day, and you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus.

Amen. What we have in these words are words that I felt would be important for us to be reminded of, as once again we look to our calling to be salt and light in our world today. I am convinced that there is an organized, purposeful, well, shall I use the word conspiracy?

No, I think it just flows from the worldview of the secular world around us to seek to silence the witness of the Gospel. And the most effective way of seeking to silence the witness of the Gospel is to make you and I ashamed of the Gospel.

Ashamed of the Gospel, you say? I would never be ashamed of the Gospel. Well, if by Gospel we limit that solely to the message of the cross of Jesus Christ, well, I would imagine that many of us would be willing to stand firm when it comes to the Gospel.

I mean, certainly if someone were to come to us and say, deny that Jesus Christ is Lord. Deny that He rose from the dead. That's one thing. We would stand firmly about that. But you see, the Gospel impacts every aspect of life.

To speak of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is to say that God's law has been violated. There is a penalty for the violation of that law, and that's why Christ had to die. Well, what is God's law?

What does God's law say? And it is when we begin making application, when the Gospel is brought to bear on all of life, it is at that very point that secularism says, no, you're not allowed to do that.

We will punish you. We will make you ashamed of what you believe. It seems that in secular postmodern culture, argumentation, the presentation of arguments and the convincing of the other side on the basis of the merit of one's arguments, looking at history, looking at the facts, thinking rationally and logically, that's not how you get ahead in our society anymore.

No, we need to realize that's old school. Now, it's all a matter of emotion. Who can move the heart? Not the heart that's thinking, but just the emotions, the feelings. Who can bypass the mind, shut the mind down, and just use emotions to get people to do their bidding?

Those are the people who, well, in our society will get ahead, will be popular, and dare I say, win elections. And as such, determine public policy on the basis not of what is right or logical or true, but on the basis of emotions.

And one of the most effective ways to silence the other side is to demonize them. I find it funny that we have the term demonize, don't you? It's a rather theological term when you think about it. But in our secular world, demonization just simply means to make someone look like they're hateful.

We all know about hate speech now, don't we? That's not something I heard much of when I was a young person. It's more of a modern invention. That's hate speech! Well, what's hate speech? Well, hate speech is almost anything that has truth content to it.

It's almost anything that could possibly offend someone. And since anybody could be offended about anything, then hate speech is a very malleable term that basically is used to try to shut down logical and rational dialogue.

And one of the best ways to win an argument today is to pick someone out, demonize them, focus... well, you don't want to say hatred, but really what you're doing is you're making them the object of hatred.

And whether that person doesn't matter, it's the position that they're espousing that becomes the object of the scorn of the people. And to be honest with you, this is exactly how every society in the past has gone down the road towards some form of fatalitarianism.

People don't think any longer. And so you take someone and you demonize them, and by demonizing them, you're demonizing the position that they held. Maybe, sadly, even the group that they represent. This is happening very regularly in our media today on many different subjects, but the one subject I want to raise this morning is this idea of being ashamed.

Our society is now saying to us in bold and clear terms, you should be ashamed of what you believe as a Christian. They're saying that. There is a man from England who has a program on a cable channel that about 40 or 50 people watch here in the United States, but he does get a few people to watch just out of anger, and this past week he announced on his program, his name is Pierce Morgan in case you're wondering, an import from the good old United Kingdom, that the Bible needs an amendment.

Now, he's against a couple of our amendments. He certainly likes the first, at least the free speech part. Not that free exercise religion thing, but he doesn't like the second, and now he thinks that the Bible needs an amendment.

Now, on one hand, I'm sort of glad that Mr. Morgan, at least, is not like the many people who try to twist the Bible into something it's not, and say that, well, the Bible actually supports the idea of redefining marriage outside of the parameters of what Jesus himself taught it was in Matthew 19.

At least he's being honest and saying, well, in reality, the Bible is opposed to this perspective, but we've grown past it, so it needs an amendment. It needs, for those of you who are computer savvy, an upgrade.

It needs a new version. It needs to be changed. Because, you see, if you continue to believe the things it says, well, you should be ashamed of yourself. That would be unloving. That would be backwards, and the world today, our society, is being more and more open about seeking to instill in you, every single one of you, I don't care what your age is, what your calling is, what your station is, if you name the name of Christ and you seek to live your life in light of what God's Word teaches, the world is saying to you, shame on you.

Now, when I was young, my parents used that phrase. Shame on you, Jimmy. Wow. There are a lot of psychologists listening to this going, oh, now we understand. Now we know what's wrong with that guy. His parents put shame on him.

I've told this story before, but when we were expecting my first child, I remember going to my dad, and I said to him, I remember exactly where we were at the radio station. He was the manager, I was working there, and I remember we were in the auxiliary studio, and exactly, it's just amazing the clarity of thought.

I can't remember what I was supposed to get at the grocery store, but I can remember this. And I said to him, and I meant it so sincerely, I said, Dad, how did you get me to be so fearful of shaming you and Mom?

I mean, there were so many times as a teenager that there was a restraint on me. I had opportunities of doing things that would have messed up my life, but I didn't because I thought, oh, man, I just couldn't, I can't do that.

And I was waiting for the words of wisdom to flow. And my dad looked at me and said, Son, I don't have the foggiest idea. Which was his way of saying, Son, you raise your children to fear and admonition of the Lord, but it's going to be different in each situation.

You know, I knew what he was saying, but I was hoping for the easy way out, you know. You know, just the step-by-step, one, two, three, and it's all done. It just doesn't work that way. But you know, they did say, Jimmy, shame on you.

That word has fallen out of vogue. But I started hearing it again. But the amazing thing is where I'm hearing it. Remember back in 2008? This poor little lady showed up outside of a protest in California about Proposition 8.

And it was a group of homosexuals who not only knocked the cross out of her hands, but stomped on it and stood around her yelling, shame, shame, shame at her. Now, at the time, what I was thinking was, wow, talk about an example of projection.

Here are people who experience this every day, and the way that they get around is try to project it on somebody else. That's what's going on here. There's no question about that. But now we're starting to hear the word shame again.

But it's being used by those who promote ungodliness, sinful activities, rebellion against God, and they're using it about people who would say, that's, oh, fast has this society changed. But if you think this is the first time this has ever happened, the Roman Empire was not exactly in the first century the bastion of the highest level of morality.

Timothy's Courage, Paul's Chains, and Onesiphorus

And it seems that Timothy had such a constitution that Paul recognizes that he might need encouragement, and that there's a danger that he might be ashamed. That he might give in to the pressures of the world, and every one of us in this room knows exactly what that danger is.

I doubt there's a single person in this world that cannot, in this room, that cannot think back maybe in the not-too-distant past to a time when the door was wide open for you to speak a word, to say something, to testify, and you didn't.

You didn't. And I'm not talking about those times just because you were too apathetic, focused upon yourself. You looked around and you knew that if you said a word, there's going to be a lot of disapproval.

It might set you back at work. It might cause problems in the family. It might cause a problem in the neighborhood. You were in the small minority. Maybe you were the only believer there. You didn't say what you needed to say.

You were ashamed. You kept quiet. Every one of us has done it. I've done that. You say, you? You've debated Muslims in the East London Mosque. Yeah, so what? It's actually easier to do that than some other situations in life.

It really is. I mean, once I walked in there, I figured, this is it. Might as well go out with a blaze of glory, you know? It's easier in that situation. It's quite different. You're talking about people who know you and your family, know you at work, know you in school, and any one of you, I don't care how young you are, some of you know that I got in trouble in fourth grade.

You all hear that, guys? Fourth grade. I was passing out tracks in the playground. They were not reformed tracks in those days. I won't tell you which ones they were, but they had cartoons in them. I was passing out tracks in the playground.

And I had a teacher in fourth grade, Mrs. Gamble. Mrs. Gamble did not like Christianity, even back in somewhere around 1970-ish. And she sent me to the principal. Now, folks, I went all the way through high school.

I was never tardy to a class. I never got a demerit. I never got a B. Yeah, I'm that guy. And I was a good kid even then. Like I said, my parents had instilled a very strong moral foundation in me. So to get sent to the principal's office, whew.

So I walked in the principal's office. I walked up to his desk. I handed him a track. Then I sat down. And then a few minutes after that, the only thing I really remember was he said to me, I couldn't force anyone to take these.

And I remember trying not to laugh because I wasn't a real big kid. And so the very idea of me forcing anybody to do anything, let alone take one of my tracks, seemed to me somewhat humorous. But Mrs. Gamble did get me back.

She did get me back. I have gotten two C's in my entire academic career, and she gave them to me. She admitted in tears the next year to my mom that I didn't deserve them, but she wouldn't change them.

Even young people, and you know what? I had it easy back then. I had it easy back then. To be a Christian young person at that age now, the world's going to try to make you ashamed of what you believe.

To be any age today, the world is going to be... So look at verse 8,. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. All of this section, this view that the theology is deep, we're not even going to touch it today.

Oh, the theology is so deep. I mean, notice, he talks about the eternal purposes of God, and the grace of God has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life into the eternal life of the gospel.

Oh, it's wonderful. Why wasn't Paul ashamed? Because he knew who he had believed. And he was persuaded that he was able to guard, to keep, what I have entrusted to him against that day. You see, the first thing Paul does to encourage Timothy is to say, Timothy, you have to know the one that you believe in.

Because when you compare the people who are trying to make you ashamed, these little creatures who live but for a little while and then pass away, who know such an infinitesimal amount, an infinitesimal amount of man's knowledge, let alone God's, who cannot control their own destiny, let alone anyone else's, when you compare the ones trying to intimidate you with the one before whom you stand as a servant, well, there isn't any comparison.

And then when you think about what that God has done for you, if we begin each one of our days pondering how it is we have peace with God, pondering the cross, pondering the resurrection, realizing that the power that dwells within us by the Spirit is the very power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, if that is where our minds are, then Paul can say, don't be ashamed of me, Timothy.

You see, there is a temptation for Timothy to be ashamed of Paul. Paul's a con. Paul's in chains. He's living in a cell. Oh, that's your teacher? You want to try to proclaim this message here in Ephesus and your very teacher is being dragged off to Rome to appear before Caesar?

Wow, that's impressive. You see, there is a temptation that Timothy would be ashamed because of his association with one that the world that this man is a troublemaker, this man is causing problems, this man is speaking against the great Roman Empire, you see.

And so he says, Timothy, first you need to know whom you believe. You need to know what he's done. But what really drew my attention to this text is that in the midst of speaking to encourage Timothy, yes, the first thing he does is he makes sure, Timothy, remember what the gospel is.

Remember who you've believed. He focused upon that, but then he gave him an example. Oh yes, Paul's his example in one sense, but he gave him another example. Notice verse 15, You are aware of the fact that Oliver and Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phagellus and Hermogenes.

Now, this doesn't mean that every church and every believer in all of Asia had abandoned Paul. There are a number of different ways in which this could be understood. Some have actually suggested, and it's possible from the syntax of the Greek and things like that, that you're talking about some who had come from Asia, would not stand with Paul there in Rome.

And we don't even know who Phagellus and Hermogenes were, but they are specifically named. But the point is that Paul has had to stand, and he's had to stand in the comfort of the Spirit of God. But there was one.

There was one. Verse 16, his name is Onesiphorus. The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. It's literally, of my chain. Singular. But when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me.

The Lord grant to him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. And you know very well what services he rendered Ephesus. Here is an example, Timothy. Think about what it must have been like to be Onesiphorus.

You come to Rome, the great capital city. Thousands and thousands of people, and you have the Senate there, and there are many important people going up and down the roads in chariots. The center of art and culture.

The great people who practice rhetoric come and they speak in this place. There are plays, and of course, there's eventually, not yet, but there's going to be a Colosseum. But they already have games there at other lesser places.

That's built a little bit later on. Beautiful, beautiful Rome. Intimidating Rome. Because you come into it, and you're visiting, and what do you do? You start immediately, zealously searching for that guy from Judea.

That guy that's chained up. A prisoner. A man who may be executed as a public nuisance and troublemaker, a disturber of the peace. You come in. You're not worried about all this beautiful stuff. You don't take the tour.

It's not like Onesiphorus comes and he's overwhelmed by the city, and then just as he's leaving, he just happens to just pop by and spend a few moments. It's nice to see you, Paul. That's not what he does.

He comes, and he eagerly searches for him. That could not have been easy to do. I mean, I've been to Rome, and it's a fairly decent-sized place, and I got to use a motorized vehicle to get around, and you wouldn't have had that then.

Not much in the way of public transport. And you couldn't whip out your droid and fire up navigation to find stuff. You actually had to ask people. Where's the prison? Why do you want the prison? Because I have friends there.

You're the kind of person we want visiting. He often refreshed him. But the description is, when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me, and he was a refreshment to him. And I just love the phraseology that's used here.

He was not ashamed, and like I said, it's singular, of my chain. Can you imagine what it was like? Here's an apostle of Jesus Christ. Ching, ching, ching. I don't know if at that point in time he was chained to a Roman soldier, chained to the bed, chained to a wall, or just in shackles so he couldn't run or go very far.

But I can guarantee you one thing. Someone with a chain on an arm, on a leg, from the Roman perspective, wasn't somebody that would demand much in the way of attention. That's someone who is not at the higher echelons of society.

But on a thiferus, he didn't care. He was not ashamed of being associated with someone that the world says, oh, this person, this person is to be rejected. This person should be ashamed of his behavior.

Ashamed of his views. Ashamed of what he believes. Remember how the Greeks treated Paul. Up until he said something about resurrection, they listened intently. As soon as he started talking about resurrection, that's ridiculous, Paul.

Which he amongst the Romans, to believe the things that Paul believed, that was shameful. And to be in prison, and to not be willing to change your way of thinking, to fit in, that's what was shameful.

You see, the Romans had come up with a good idea. I mean, if you're going to control all this land with all these different religions and all these different cultures, what you do is you get everybody to just sort of get along.

And what that means is you can still worship your God, just don't do it exclusively. You can still hold your religion, but you need to, you know, we just got to get everybody together here. We need to have peace.

We need to have harmony. And so, don't tell other people they're wrong. We'll tell you you're wrong if you say someone else is wrong. The state always gets to have the final say there, from their perspective anyway.

And so, you see, to be associated with this prisoner, because of his status, his beliefs, there is a temptation to be ashamed of the association. And what Paul does is he points to Onesiphorus and he says to, he's saying to Timothy, Timothy, here is a man, you know his character.

You know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus. Timothy, you know this man. You know his character. And look at what he was willing to do. Look at what he was willing to stand for. He was willing to put his credibility, his standing in society, completely put it aside, that he might serve me.

That he might refresh me. That he might bring service to me, a servant of Jesus Christ, a fellow, bound servant of Jesus Christ. That very same term, ashamed, that's the very term, in fact, it's interesting.

There's only a small number of times that it's used. It's used in Hebrews. Remember when he's not ashamed to call us his brethren. And Jesus used it about being ashamed of the gospel. But this first chapter contains three of about seven or eight, nine occurrences in all the New Testament.

Right here. So you know it's part of what Paul is concerned about is that Timothy might not be strong enough. And so he's encouraging him. And he shows him this example. And I just could not think of a better example for us as we face the world that we face today.

We have spoken of it often. But we are facing a society that has shifted so quickly in what it will call good and evil that it's starting to call what is actually good, evil. And what is evil, it's calling good.

And that's how groups of rebels against God's creative purpose can surround a little lady in California and go, shame, shame, shame because they have inverted the moral scale. They have done what the prophets said back in Isaiah chapter 5.

They call good, evil and evil good. They call white, black and black, white. They become so perverted in their own selves that they begin to identify as good that which is actually evil. That's happening in our society.

And so when we seek to bring the gospel to bear, we need to be prepared. Because what I'm seeing, and what I'm seeing, for example, with Christians and media and things like that is that we still aren't up to speed on this.

We still think that people should have some respect for the Bible. Well, they did in my grandparents' time. Oh, that day has passed. And we think that we should just be able to quote these things and people are going to go, oh, yeah.

No, they've got a completely different worldview now. So we should not be shocked. And I see people, whether they're just not surprised because the microphone is stuck in their face so they actually know they're going on.

They're going to be talking about these things. What happens is you can tell if they are taken aback, they become immediately defensive because of the kinds of questions and the assertions behind the questions that are aimed at them that come from this foreign worldview.

We have to get past the way of thinking that will immobilize us and silence us at this time. Do we want to be believers who when the world looks back at this time of transition recognizes there were those who spoke up?

There were those who counted the cost. There were those who said, no, this is wrong and this is why it's wrong and this is the destruction to life that this worldview will lead us to. Stop, and in fact, will we be known as the people who dared to use the word repent?

Turn back. It is the only way of life. When you're pursuing death with all of your efforts, repentance is a call to life. Is it not? You see, the world would say, if you call someone to repent, you're offending them.

You're being unloving. That's not being unloving. We have to challenge and openly challenge the way of thinking of the world when it comes to what love is and what the proper action of a loving person is.

But we'll never do any of this if we give in. If we give in to the temptation to be ashamed of the Gospel. Or in this case, like I said, to be ashamed of our commitment to, association with, our fellow believers.

The world wants to silence us. To force us into little conclaves and eventually even work at getting rid of those. But that's what the world wants to do. What will we do in response? What did Onesiphorus do?

What did he do? He didn't care what the world thought of him. He didn't care about the looks that he got when he tried to find Paul. And kept trying to find Paul until he was successful. Because you see, those looks come from another half-vanishing vapor.

The only look we should be concerned about is the stare, the gaze, the unceasing gaze of the one who sits upon the throne. He is the one that we want to hear, I don't care if some earthly ruler commends me.

He will pass away. But what the Christian wants to hear is, well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. That's the only person we should be concerned about. We don't want to hear shame on you from him.

That should be our greatest fear. A good fear. A proper motivating fear. And so how about you and I? This week, will we be Onesiphorus? Will we be those who will not be ashamed of Paul's chain? Paul taught all sorts of things that our world today looks at us and says, You can't believe that.

Liberal Christians, quote-unquote liberal Christians, run from so many things that Paul taught. They're ashamed of his teaching. They're ashamed of his gospel. They're ashamed of his chain. How about you and I?

Wherever you are, wherever you know this week, you will face the possibility of the frown, the attack, the harsh words. Face the possibility of being ashamed of the gospel. Don't wait until that moment to think about what you will do.

Make a commitment now. Make a commitment now. Lord, I want to be like Onesiphorus. I do not want to be ashamed. And let me hear the words that Paul addressed to Timothy because I know the temptations that are mine to be ashamed.

When the opportunity comes, may I be one who is faithful. May I be one who is used of Your Spirit to speak forth Your truth. Let's pray together. Indeed, our gracious Heavenly Father, You are the King of all the nations.

You have placed us in this place, in this nation at this time. And Lord, as we have opportunity and we still do, let us not be ashamed. Let us first and foremost be absolutely convinced of the character of the One in whom we believe.

To know that You can care for our eternal soul. That men can do nothing to us but what Your will and Your hand allows. And so, Lord, may we have supreme confidence in You and Your gospel. And as a result, may we be those who are not ashamed.

Ashamed of what the gospel means. Ashamed of the call for repentance. Ashamed even of our association with one another. May we be believers that will be used of You as salt and light in this evil and perverse generation.

And Father, may You be pleased to use our testimony to bring even more of Your people to faith and repentance in Jesus Christ. It is in His name we pray, Amen.