Not Ashamed of the Gospel - part 2

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. Mike Ebendroth here, mikeadnocompromiseradio .com. If you want to order books, 10 or more, mix or match, email me, 40 off, plus a little drop ship fee. It's kind of exciting, a Presbyterian pastor in Australia.

He just ordered 25 of the law gospel primers, and they were just shipped from the Amazon Australia warehouse. In the old days, if somebody wanted one overseas, it cost a lot of money to ship. Now, not too much.

What is going on? American Gospel, a six-part series I'm recording here. And there's three short days on how to teach the Bible. We'll see how that goes. And just back from Europe, like I said. That was fun.

I'm learning Italian on Duolingo. And I don't know, I was doing Latin. Well, I was doing Hebrew for a while. That got too hard, modern Hebrew. And then I was doing Greek for a while, modern Greek. That kind of got too hard.

I mean, I read my Greek New Testament in the morning, and the passage I'm going to preach. Then I switched to Spanish, and I had taken a lot of Spanish in high school and college, but forgot a lot of it.

Yo tengo frio. Then I did Latin, but then I would have kept going with Latin, but it only had a couple lessons. And so now it's off to Italian. Italian, with cornettos and dulces and senores. When do you pronounce the G?

The Gospel Questions in Romans 1

That's the question. Today, part two, the gospel. Gospel questions, part two. We're in the book of Romans, and we're just making sure that you don't assume the gospel, that you're reminded of the gospel.

It's of first importance. You should be preaching the gospel yourself every day, right? As Jerry Bridges would say. So it's no surprise that No Compromised Radio talks about the gospel. Just got asked to do a men's conference in a secret place.

Not Italy, sadly. That would have been good. We've asked these questions so far. Number one, what's the theme of Romans? Answer, one word, righteousness. What should your attitude be regarding the gospel?

Not ashamed, but on the flip side, confident, thankful, joyful. What is the gospel? The gospel is not law, unless you can keep the law, I guess. Or if somebody else kept it for you, that would work. But the gospel focuses on the person, work, promises of who Jesus is, the only begotten Son, sent by the unbegotten Father.

Question four, why do all people need the gospel? Answer, everybody's a sinner. All except for Jesus are sinners. God is holy. There's going to be judgment for sin. Therefore, all need the gospel, Jew and Gentile.

Why the Gospel Is Powerful

Number five, why is the gospel powerful? So that's where we are today. Caught up to this, number five. Question five. In a book that has approximately 80 questions, I give you more questions. Why is the gospel, it says in verse 16 of Romans 1, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

Why is the gospel powerful? Because it saves. It saves dead, depraved, corrupt, putrid, unrighteous, self-righteous lawbreakers. We just went over that last time in Romans chapter 3, the litany there, the string of pearls with all those psalms being quoted.

And here it's the power of God to salvation. It saves. There's an efficacy. There's a power. How do you change people? There's all these self-help books and everything. And I remember early on in my life, I wanted to be a better me.

I knew things were lacking, so I would, as an unbeliever, just read these self-help books. And I'm sure there's some good behavior modification and some things you could learn, natural law, other things.

But how do you love what you hate and hate what you love? How do you do that? How do you get a lion to eat, I don't know, blueberries? Maybe a lion once in a while wants to have a blueberry. I'm not exactly sure.

Are lions strictly carnivores? I think they are. Omnivores? Herbivores? Insectivores? You know, you watch these things on X and YouTube. You don't know what's real or not, right? I just saw one today.

There's a hyena biting a hippo's tail. The hippo runs into the water, flings the hyena off into the crocodiles that eat the hyena. Is it real? I don't know. I don't even want to type in, Grok, is this true?

Grok, is this AI? The gospel's powerful. Power's manifested. You have Diana of Ephesus, and everybody's worshiping her for hours upon hours upon hours. They are idolatrous. They are enslaved to this idolatry.

And all of a sudden, the gospel proclaimed, and it saves, and many people, they no longer love her anymore. They love the Lord. You think about what happens to people. Calvin said, whenever the gospel is preached, it is as if God himself came into the midst of us.

And so if God came into the midst of us, God is powerful. I mean, he made the earth by his power, Jeremiah 10, 12. He's established the world by his wisdom. I mean, there's real power. There's power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb.

There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blessed blood of the Lamb, on the precious blood of the Lamb. I know. There are probably better songs to sing, right? I think there are different songs.

I could sing, but not that. The gospel is so powerful, Spurgeon talked about a pastor that got converted by his own sermon. So you've got an unbelieving pastor. You think there are any of those out there?

Yeah, all you have to do is follow Protestia on X, and you're going to see a litany of the Methodist, liberal, Lutheran, united, Unitarians for unity, crazy, rainbow, all kinds of stuff. I mean, it's almost more than you could take.

But it's out there. Whatever you want is out there. So there are unbelieving pastors, that's for certain. Here's what Spurgeon said. I wish that it might have happened to you as it did with my dear friend, Mr. Haslam, whom God has blessed to the conversion of so many.

He was preaching a sermon that he did not understand, and while he preached it, he converted himself. We know God did. By God's grace, he began to feel the power of the Holy Spirit with the force of divine truth.

He so spoke that a Methodist in the congregation called out, The parson is converted. All the people began to sing. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. I mean, the gospel is so powerful. Jesus is so powerful.

He delivers. He rescues. He saves from sin. And by the way, that should make you very, very happy that you don't have to live a perfect life to save people. That you just might have a little hypocrisy in your life, and you can still be used to the Lord to evangelize.

That you might have lost your temper this morning, but you meet somebody this afternoon, and you preach the gospel to them, but it's the power of God unto salvation. That's no excuse for us to live unholy lives.

But I don't want our unholy lives to be an excuse for, I better clean myself up all the more so that I can evangelize. So I have to explain it again because, you know, antinomianism or whatever. Repent of sin.

Repent of your bad repentance. Live a holy life, a godly life. Shut the mouths of the adversaries by your holy living. That's a biblical principle. But since we still struggle with sin, Romans 7, that shouldn't stop you from evangelizing.

Actually, your evangelism should be a spur into holy living, because I don't want my neighbors whom I evangelize or try to think I'm some kind of rotten person. The word preached is not handicapped by the frail and sinful people who preach the objective work of Christ.

The focus of the message is the person preaching. The audience will be able to attack the credibility of the messenger, trying to discredit the message. But if the message is about Jesus Christ, no assault can ultimately triumph.

Calvin writes,. For among the many noble endowments with which God has adorned the human race, one of the most remarkable is that he designs, or dens, to consecrate the mouths and tongues of men to his service, making his own voice to be heard in them.

Wherefore, let us not on our part decline obediently to embrace the doctrine of salvation delivered by his command and mouth, because although the power of God is not confined to external means, he has, however, confined us to his ordinary method of teaching, which method, when fanatics refuse to observe, they entangle themselves with many fatal snares.

There's power in the gospel. There's power in God's word, because God is powerful. And through it he redeems, he propitiates, he reconciles, he forgives, he justifies, he makes born again, he makes alive.

And you're going to need that, because if you don't think you need God's power, you haven't considered how great sin is, to loosely quote Anselm. Question six. Question six here on No Compromise Radio.

Receiving the Gospel by Faith Alone

What's this one right here? And how long have you been on that medication? When you're old like me, 66 years old, you go into the doctor's office and they ask you for, you know, bring your list, because you're going to forget.

Bring your list of medication. And so thankfully now leukemia seems to be in the past. I will have my checkup in two weeks and more scans in the fall just to double check. I hope I don't have to have another bone biopsy.

That's like taking a wine cork opener and just doing that in your back. Ouch. I don't even know where it is down there. Not lower back, but like, I don't know, some kind of, what's the back part of your pelvis called?

Ouch. I can feel it right now. Like give me some pain medicine. What am I even talking about? I'm talking about me, of course, since that's what we do on the show. No, I'm talking about updates. I'm talking about medicines.

I used to take a variety of things, and I don't think I take any prescription medicine right now. No prescription medicine. That's pretty exciting, actually. So there you go. Bragging. Question six. How do you receive the good news?

I mean, if there is forgiveness, and there is, if there is justification, and there is. If there is reconciliation to God, and there is. How do I? I'd like that. Who would like to go to heaven? Who would like to be forgiven?

Who would like to be adopted into the family of God as a son? Who would like to have the hope of eternal life? Who would love to wait for the appearing of Christ Jesus? Well, how do I receive that? Verse 16 of Romans 1, to everyone who believes.

Verse 17, The means of receiving the benefits of what Jesus has done is faith, faith alone. Not faith plus works, not faith plus sacraments, not faith plus religious things, but faith plus self-denial.

Sola fide, faith alone. Galatians 2, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ Jesus and not by works of the law.

Because by the works of the law, no one shall be justified. Through faith. Knowledge, assent, trust. And, of course, that faith is not salvific. It's not like faith saves. It's faith's object that saves.

The Lord Jesus saves. Faith did not die on a cross. Faith was not raised from the dead. Faith didn't live a perfect life. Faith wasn't, you know, born of a virgin. Heidelberg Catechism 61, Why do you say that you are righteous by faith only?

Answer. Not that I am acceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith, but because only the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ is my righteousness before God. And I can receive the same and make it my own in no other way than by faith only.

Question 62. But why cannot our good works be the whole or part of our righteousness before God? Answer. Because the righteousness which can stand before the judgment seat of God must be perfect throughout and wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y, conformable to the divine law.

But even our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin. Question 63. Do our good works merit nothing, even though it is God's will to reward them in this life and in that which is to come?

Answer. The reward comes not of merit, but of grace. Question 64. But does not this doctrine make men careless and profane? Answer. I mean, this is basically the sum of No Compromise Radio. Answer. No, for it is impossible for those who are implanted into Christ by true faith should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness.

Guilt, grace, gratitude. Sola Fide. How do you receive the benefits of Jesus? Faith plus circumcision, Galatians 1, may it never be. Faith plus baptism, may it never be. No, to trust, to rely, to receive, to have faith in, to believe.

Knowledge, assent, and trust. Receiving. Resting. Looking. From faith to faith. It's all about faith. From the faith in the law to faith in the gospel, is that what from faith to faith is? Hmm, I don't think so.

Faith in the preacher and faith of the hearer? I don't think so. I think from faith to faith means nothing but faith. It's all faith. That's it. Romans 3 .28,. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Faith isn't a good work. It's not meritorious. It does not give God a debt. It's not the cause of salvation. But it's a non-meritorious instrument. Spurgeon, remember this. Or you may fall into error by fixing your mind so much upon the faith, which is the channel of salvation, as to forget the grace, which is the fountain and source even of faith itself.

Faith is the work of God's grace in us. No one comes to me, says Jesus, except the Father who sent me draws him. So that faith, which is coming to Christ, is the result of divine drawing. Grace is the first and last moving cause of salvation.

And faith, essential as it is, is only an important part of the machinery which grace employs. We are saved through faith. But salvation is by grace. Sound forth those words as with the archangel's trumpet.

By grace you are saved. What glad tidings for the undeserving. End quote. Charles Spurgeon. Do you believe? Do you believe? Are you trusting? Are you resting? Have you received? Faith, not church attendance, not Bible reading, not tears, not chapel going, not by absolution by the priest.

Faith. There's an intellectual element, notitia, knowledge. I know this is true. There's an emotional element. Is there? Who just wrote this? I don't think I like that. That's in Berkhoff. Emotional element, a census, which includes a deep conviction of the truth.

Knowledge assent, I agree. I don't know. I don't want to put that in there. I'm going to say I disagree with him. Volitional element, I agree with that. A personal trust in the Savior, including a surrender to Christ.

Uh-oh. I'm going home to check that. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, there we go. What's happening? Knowledge assent and trust, let's stick to that. Let's tell believers to surrender, believers to submit, believers to yield, believers to treasure, and you can even tell believers to keep believing.

Wow! The point is, believe. How do you receive the benefits? By belief. I like to call the gospel of Jesus, according to John, the sola fide gospel. He came as a witness, John did, to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

Many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, and many more believe because of his word. It is no longer because what you said that we believe, for we ourselves have heard, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life. The sola fide gospel. Truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

I told you you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet will live. And everyone who believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this? Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you've seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet believe. That by believing you may have life in his name. That's why all of John was written.

John 20, 31. Question seven. Do we have different gospels for different people? Well, for the poor, we give them the social gospel, and for the oppressed, we give them the liberation gospel. For feminists, we have a feminist gospel.

We have a trans gospel, a white gospel, a black gospel, Jewish gospel, a Brazilian gospel, a Gentile gospel, Puerto Rican gospel. No. That all sounds bad. I see dead people. I do too. This is bad. No.

There's no modifiers. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also the Greek. There you go. Jews and Greeks. Historically, Jews got it first, not because they were better, not because they were worse, but this is just how it happened.

Both sinful, just as bad. By the way, this movement that's saying that ethnic Jews are worse than other people and they're running the world, whether they run the world or not, nobody's more sinful in terms of depravity.

Total depravity affects Jew and Gentile. Right? Right. Every country, every city, every state, every nation needs to hear the gospel, and so Paul writes in Romans 1 .15, I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are also in Rome.

Now, if you thought Rome didn't need social change, well, you were blind. Lloyd, excuse me, S .W. Johnson writes, Rome, a city crammed with social problems, with a social manifesto, or at least a recitation of the primary truths of Christianity in their application.

Did they need that to the social problems of the imperial city? Rome was a city of slaves, but Paul did not preach against slavery. It was a city of lust and vice, but he did not aim his mightiest guns at these evils.

It was a city of gross economic injustice, but he did not thrust the sword of the Spirit into the vitals of that plague. It was a city that had been erected on and had fed on and prospered by the violence and rapacity of war.

But the apostle did not expatiate on its immorality. Apparently, if we were to judge the matter from a strictly biblical standpoint, Paul did not think that social reform in Rome was an evangelical imperative.

Yet these problems would be solved, at least individually, in the hearts of people. One regenerate person at a time. Solved via the gospel. By the way, as a church, we have one great commission. Not two.

No cultural mandate. The church has one great commission. And if you privately want to have a cultural mandate and you want to get involved in politics, I suggest you start with a school board and let's get rid of the people who are doing the transgender library hour for children.

That'd be a good place to start. School board. Library board at school. Michael Horton. If we could resolve our top ten crises in the world today, we would still have the devil on our back, sin mastering our heart, and everlasting death as the penalty for our mutiny.

Wow. Sola Scriptura? Sola Cultura? Interesting. Privately, do as you please and please do. But for the church, our mandate is the gospel. Question number eight. What are the results of the gospel? Answer?

There's fruit in evidence. There's good works. I mean, there's a peace that passes all understanding, but what I'm saying is when God saves you, the ground of your salvation is the Lord Jesus, but things change.

Faith without works is dead. Good works follow. You're united to Jesus, and good works are the fruit in evidence. Not because you want to say, how much do I do to keep my salvation or to earn my salvation, but how do I respond since God has been so gracious to me?

How do I act because God is so good and God has been so kind to me? God doesn't need our good works, but our neighbor does, Luther said, and so there are good works that we do. Christians are to live holy lives, encouraging lives, faithful lives, serving lives, evangelizing lives.

The Judgment for Those Who Reject the Gospel

Number nine, what happens if people reject the gospel? Answer, they have to pay for their own sins. They have to pay for their own sins. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. So don't reject the gospel. Believe the gospel. And then lastly, number ten, does the gospel also strengthen and motivate believers?

The Gospel Strengthens and Motivates Believers

Yes. You see that at the very end in Romans 16, verse 25 and following. Now, to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel. There you go. Strengthen you, believers, according to the gospel.

Would you like to be strengthened by the Almighty God? To be firm, established, not blown to and fro, to bolster, to be strong, firm, stable against sin, against temptation. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.

To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians chapter 3. I want to get through trials well. I want to get through temptations well. So what am I going to do?

I'm going to need the gospel. Well, my name is Mike Ebenroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. Thanks for listening. Tell your friends. You've got YouTube channel, you've got Spotify, you've got iTunes, and hopefully one of these days you're going to get some swag if I can get my daughters to help me.

Thanks for listening.