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Some years ago, I was in a very small assembly in, in Ontario. You will know probably the two other speakers that were there with me. Um, Jay Nicholson was one, and Arnett McEntee was the other one. I made up the third speaker. It was a very small assembly. Matter of fact, it was so small we had about as many preachers as we did, uh, people attending, uh, the conference that weekend. But one thing, out of all that good preaching, I can't remember anything. I don't know if you're like that or not, but you, you can say, boy, it was really, really good.
But you hope nobody asks you what they said because you can't remember what they said, but it was really, really good. But one thing I do remember was this. During, during the break, there was an older man there, and we got talking a bit. And I asked him, I said, how'd you get saved? And he pulled out his handkerchief. And he couldn't get through it. He had to wipe the tears. And, and what, what I'm about to tell you that he said, I have never forgotten. He said, I've never gotten over it, he said.
I've never gotten over it. Are you over it tonight? You say, well, Brother Joe, what do you mean by that? I mean, have you, have you forgotten the miracle? Have you forgotten the moment? Have you forgotten that it took the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, on an old rugged cross, and his resurrection from the dead to secure your testimony tonight? You see, when you get over it, you're in trouble, brothers and sisters. Don't ever get over it.
Romans chapter one is our text. Romans chapter one. I could just ask you to turn to the fifth gospel. Some of you would know that. There's Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul. Paul was a gospel writer too, just a little late, uh, in the order of events here, but nevertheless a gospel writer. I'm going to read the first seventeen verses, and you have some homework. Your homework is to either remember or to mark in your mind the word gospel as I read.
That's your homework. Watch your Bible. Verse one, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God, which he had promised before by his prophets and the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ.
To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.
For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end you may be established, that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, but was let hitherto, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.
So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. I don't know if you've ever been guilty of this or not, but sometimes when we pray, we say, Lord, open a door.
If you can't open a door, open a window. If you can't on open a window, send me a, a message. Uh, give me some sign. Uh, help me, Lord. Uh, lead me in a, in a plain path. Do something, uh, uh, for me that I will know what to do. And it's an honest prayer. It's a sincere prayer. And then you wait for that door to open, for that window to open, for that circumstance to turn out just right, so that you will know that you know that you know. But then the Spirit of God taps you on the shoulder, and the message comes from, uh, the the ages past through the Word of God, and it says this: The just shall live by faith.
You say, oh, but I wanted a sign. I wanted a door open. I wanted something. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Maybe instead of doors open, hey, I like open doors, don't get me wrong. I, I like open windows. I, I like the circumstances to all line up and the providence of God to be very clear in my mind. You go, boy, isn't this great? It's just step one, step two, step three. Perhaps the Lord just wants us to believe. Maybe he just wants us to just step out. You read the word, you pray, you pray believing.
If you don't, you're double-minded, you're unstable in all your ways. You pray believing. Why don't you just step out? Why don't you just believe him? You see, in my puny understanding of God, and I don't know too much about that, I'm learning like you. I believe that God is very capable if I'm going the wrong direction, but I got a sincere heart, he just turn me around. He just do something. You see, when you trust God, you can't lose. Did you know that? You can't lose. You- you've got some decision to make, you've got some- some place to go, you've- you've got some trial in your life, and you go, oh, Lord, I don't know what to do, but based on your word and- and- and on past experience with God, I'm- I'm moving out.
Well, maybe it didn't turn out at all like you thought, but you were committing that to God, and you cannot lose. It is His will. He's the one. What can the thing formed say to the one that formed it? Uh, what, what, what can the piece of clay, uh, say to the potter? Ju- just relax. Just pray believing. Just read the scriptures. Just move out, and you are in that category of the just, and the just shall live by faith. Some years ago, I had the privilege of sharing a conference with, um, uh, Mr.
Phillips. And, uh, Mr. Phillips is, has, has been a, certainly a, a, a Bible teacher and a respected, uh, uh, theologian over the years. He's met- written many books. You might know some of his books. They all start with the word explore. Exploring, uh, Romans, exploring Revelation, Mr. John Phillips, exploring Hebrews, exploring the world of the Jews. Uh, uh, John had, had really written some exciting and uh, God-honoring and and and uh, building up of the faith of the saints. I happened to be with him on one occasion.
Mr. Phillips, as many of you might know, wasn't really a people person. You might know that if you were ever around him. He's a lovely brother, but he just wasn't a people person very much. Matter of fact, he would just as soon go sit in the corner by himself and not have to talk to anybody. Just the way he was. So I was at a particular conference, a rather big conference, and I came into the dining room, and where's Mr. Phillips? He's in the back table by himself. Now, I'm thinking to myself, this guy knows way too much for me not to rub up on him all week. I mean, I just got to do that, like, I just, you know, you just got to get to know this guy.
I mean, he's such a great Bible teacher. So I, I went over and I said, uh, Mr. John, how you doing? O- okay, okay, you know, okay, great. Good, nice to see you. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah, right. So, anyhow, uh, it's a bit of a one-sided conversation, but we're having it, okay, and we're eating breakfast, and we're enjoying this conversation as best we can. And I said to Mr. Phillips, I said, Mr. Phillips, I have an outline for the first seventeen verses of the book of Romans chapter one. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Now, if you know anything at all about John, he's king alliteration.
I mean, everything has got to work. A matter of fact, he didn't say this, but I kind of think if he couldn't alliterate it, he wouldn't preach on it, you know? It was kind of one of those things. And so I said, listen, I got this outline for Romans chapter one, first seventeen verses. He said, okay, what is it? OK, now here's, this is where the plot thickens in the story. I don't want to give it away, but I want you to see this, OK? You, your homework was to look for the word gospel, right? And if you were very observant, and I, I don't think it mattered what translation you had, I think it appears in all eight hundred and thirteen thousand translations.
I'm not sure how many that is, but nevertheless, you will find the word gospel, watch me now, in verse number one, right? Separated unto the gospel. Okay, the gospel of God. Okay. You would also find that in verse number nine. He said, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son. That's twice. And, and then you'll see it again in verse fifteen, Much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel. And then again in verse sixteen, I am not ashamed of the gospel. So I said to Mr.
Phillips, I said, I, I have an outline. He said, okay. And I said, it goes like this. Separated under the gospel, serves in the gospel, shares the gospel, and not ashamed of the gospel. He said, that's not an alliteration, he said. You have to say the last one fast, you know what I mean? Ashamed. I said, well, it may not be a good aliter- alliteration, but I said, I think people will remember. Do you think you could remember that tonight? Separated under the gospel, serves in the gospel, shares the gospel, and not ashamed of the gospel.
Let's look into it. Verse one, Paul says that he's been called, all right, but he also says he's been separated. And he's been separated unto something. Let me suggest tonight that, um, a- apart from the context, apart from the Bible, if, if you are separated to or unto something, you're also separated from something. Now, the word separate or holy or sanctified comes from the same words, means to set apart.
Now, there's a hymn book up here, and this hymn book has been separated tonight. It's been sanctified, actually, tonight. It has been set apart for a particular purpose. That is, the song leader, who did a great job, by the way, thank you very much, uh, came up here, and he, out of all the hymn books in this room tonight, he got this one. And this one, even though it is similar and maybe even identical to all of the other hymn books, this book was set apart. It was separated to the song leader for a particular purpose, and being set apart unto this purpose, it was set apart from the rest of these hymn books tonight.
Don't make your theology hard. We've been separated unto the gospel. That is, if you know the Lord is your savior. You see, Paul could look back on a day of which he never got over. Every chance he gets, even in public, even in court, he gives his testimony, doesn't he? Now, I will look between the lines, but I believe sometime it was hard for Paul to give his testimony. Not that he feared anybody, he probably did not, but because it was so precious to him. He looks back on that day when he's got warrants of arrest.
He's on his way to Damascus. He's got a group with him. You know what they're doing? They're trying to find Christians. They- they're trying to imprison them, beat them up, kill them if necessary. That was his goal. He was faithful to that which he thought was his calling, could I say. But you see, that day on the road to Damascus, Acts chapter nine, you read it sometime, he had an encounter with Jesus Christ that changed his life for eternity. On August the twenty ninth, nineteen seventy, in Anniston, Alabama, at nine o'clock in the morning, I had an encounter with Jesus Christ.
I don't know if you've ever had that kind of an encounter or not. You see, on that day, for the first time in my conscious memory, I heard the gospel. I never heard the gospel before. I was raised in a mainline denominational church in the Bible Belt. I never heard the gospel before, but that day I heard the gospel, and that day I was confronted with a decision. Would I trust Jesus Christ as my savior? For the first time in my life, the pieces of the puzzle began to come together. I saw myself as the sinner. I saw him as the only savior. And by grace and through faith, I just trusted Christ. You say, what'd you say?
I don't know. I don't know what I said. Me- m- maybe something like, Jesus, if you're really real, uh, I- I don't- I don't know what to do or how to do it, but I- I understand that you did it for me, and- and I- I didn't say I wanted to be born again. I didn't ask Jesus into my heart. I didn't make the sinner's prayer. But I know one thing, I was honest. And I reached out with what little faith God might have said to the angel, bring the microscope, you know, I, I think there's some faith down there, but let's look and see for, for sure, you know. I didn't have much faith, but I had faith. A- and that day, by the grace of God, was the day that Jesus Christ came into my life, and he's been in there ever since.
You know, that'll be forty five years ago on August the twenty ninth this summer. Forty five years ago. I don't want to get over it, folks, but I did not know at that moment, on that day, that I was separated under the gospel of God. I didn't know that. I knew one thing, I had a hole in my heart so big nothing could fill it. It was like the Lord Jesus jumped in that hole and said, uh, you follow me and I'll get you out of here. That's what I know that day. That by faith, however little it might have been, by faith, I accepted Christ as my savior.
Little did I know that I was now one of the called out ones, one of the ekklesias now called out from all of these people, and and any of them could be saved, anyone who names the name of the Lord, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord, but those who do call on the name of the Lord, they're separated unto something, they're separated from something. If anyone be in Christ is a new creation, old things pass away. Behold, all things become new, different life. Oh, it didn't happen overnight. I know that. And we would all wear the button. God's not through with me yet. I understand that, but let me tell you, in heaven, my name was written in the Lamb's book of life, and it cannot be erased.
Written with blood. So, I, I got a new life, I just don't know what to do with it. Uh, I, I mean, it's not like, uh, you're, you're unsaved one day and you're a super saint the next day. That, that night I went to a bar. That night I was drinking, I was partying, just like I'd been doing for years. But that night was the end of the drinking and the partying for me. Oh, nobody told me I couldn't do it. No, it wasn't like that at all. It was the one who came in that morning at nine o'clock, and I didn't know that he came in. He began to work in my heart and was almost like he said, Joe, we're not going to live like this anymore.
We got a better life now. We're going to take these things, the old things, and they're going to pass away, and I've got some new things, and the new things are of God, and you're going to have a brand new life. Not an old life with a few new trimmings to it, but a brand new life, a new creation. Separation is a part of that. We know that the Bible teaches that at the moment of saving faith, that we are, uh, placed into the body of Christ. We, we have a, a new union, a new association. Christ is the head, I'm part of the body. That I'm, I'm not in my sins anymore, that I'm in Christ.
I'm not under Adam anymore. I'm under the Lord Jesus Christ, and I have a new, uh, partnership, I have a new friendship, I have a new family, uh, uh, th- things are all different now, and all of that happened. You don't have to wait on that. The part we wait on is the practical experience of that. That is, our lives change from the inside out. Oh, you can dress a guy up, take him to church, give him a big old King James Bible, and say, now, when that preacher makes a point, you say amen. He could do real good, you know? Without even being saved, and that happens all the time, of course.
So God dresses us up on the inside first. He works in our heart, and then with Christ in our life, his spirit in our life, he begins to manifest himself. He begins to come out of our hands and our mouth and our feet and our mind, and we are a different person, and and we're separated not only unto God, this new life, this new gospel, this new good news about the Lord Jesus, but I'm separated from the old life. We have to be careful that we don't expect baby Christians to be too spiritual.
They need a lot of help. The fault that I find with most evangelical, um, outreaches is that we put a lot of emphasis on preaching the gospel, and somebody makes a conversion, all the angels rejoice, and we rejoice, and everybody goes home. Some years ago, uh, I, I met a man who told me that he got saved in a Billy Graham crusade. And he said for three years, a man that worked for the Billy Graham organization contacted him twice a week for three years, either by phone, I don't, I don't have any internet in those days, by phone, by letter, or a personal visit.
And he was a, he was probably about almost two hundred miles from where that fella lived. He said, he did visit me occasionally. Followed him up. That followed him up. He made a profession, he followed him up. And, uh, at the, at the end of that three years, uh, th- this man that I was talking to was in the Lord's work full time by now, and, and he said, you know, if, if, if he, uh, the, the fella told him, he said, I have thirty two other spiritual children that I'm raising. That was his ministry. Not preaching the gospel, not, not, not teaching the Bible. Discipleship, follow up.
Thirty other spiritual children that he was raising. For those of you who know the Lord, who've been engaged in any kind of ministry where there's professions made, whether it be a camp, and that happens all the time, or to some gospel, uh, outreaches, gospel campaign, home Bible studies, uh, however, and somebody makes a profession of faith, have you followed them up? Did you call them? I mean, it would be absolutely ridiculous if a little baby was born and, uh, we gave them five bucks and said, now this Wednesday, but like, uh, you can stay in the hospital maybe two or three more days, or you catch a cab and you come home, okay?
Well, that's stupid, right? They can't do that. Why do we expect a new Christian who, who maybe, let's say, got saved on Wednesday, you know, we say, well, we'll see you in the meeting on Sunday, right? He didn't even know anything about that. He doesn't know anything about the first forty eight hours of a new convert's life is one of the hardest for him. You get in there, you call him, you pray, you visit, you, you do something, but don't let him go by himself or herself. Why? Because they're separated unto something, they're separated from something, and immediately is the war. The warfare is going on now.
The old friends, the old life, the, the, the flesh, the devil, the world, everything's trying to draw them back, draw them back. You need to get in there. Paul said, I'm separated under the gospel, and it would take the rest of his life to practically work that out, but he was separated under the gospel. Now, if I said to you, you got saved, and you said, yeah, and, uh, you're enjoying your Christian life. Well, yeah, not too bad. If I said to you tonight, what are you doing for the Lord? You go, I'm not a preacher. I didn't ask you that. I said, what are you doing for the Lord? You think the Lord saved you for you to just sit there?
I don't think so. We're created in Christ Jesus unto good works, and that's not classified to preachers, missionaries, Sunday school teachers, elders, deacons, evangelists, I don't think. I think it's a whole lot bigger parentheses than that. Y- y- you're not saved just to get saved. Uh, the Lord Jesus has not, has not gone through all of the trouble and all of the pain and the suffering to reach you with the gospel of Jesus Christ for you to say, well, I'm just here, like, I don't, I don't know. And then you get some people go like this, they say, well, I, I can't do anything.
I go, well, you can do something, you know. Well, I, I could, I, well, maybe, maybe I could help. Help? Like, if you can't do anything else, you could help, like the gift of helps is a consolation prize for people who can't do anything else, you mean? Is that what you mean? Hey, you can't even help unless you got that gift. Did you know that? You'll be so frustrated. You'll be so angry. You'll be so contentious. I- it's unbelievable. One of the worst things you can do is try to exercise a gift you don't have. But God has given you a gift. He- he didn't save you to not give you anything to do in the body of Christ.
So I don't know many of you here tonight. I don't know what your gift is, but I know this. You're separated. Please listen to me. You- you've trusted Christ, you're separated on the gospel, and the next thing in our context, in this little progression in these first seventeen verses, is the word serve. Did you get that? Look at verse nine. Look at verse nine. He said in verse one, I'm separated on the gospel. Look in verse nine. for God is my witness. Now, don't read that one too fast. You, you don't ever have any tale bearer prefacing his remarks by saying, God is my witness.
He's just a gossip, or she is. And they kind of go like this. Ah, yeah. They lower their voice, you know? They go, well, I, I heard something the other day, you know? Yeah. This is just for prayer, you know what I mean? Just for prayer. Don't tell anybody. Paul says, God's my witness. He says, God is my witness. What I'm about to say, I am calling on God to verify it. This shouldn't be anything that we pass along to our brothers and sisters that we can't call God on to verify that, folks. We need to do that.
I- I- it's amazing when somebody lowers their voice and kind of goes, you just say, whoa, wait a minute, I don't think this is going to turn out very good. I heard some guy preaching on that not long ago, and uh, he sort of warned us about people doing like that, and uh, uh, yeah. So look what Paul says, verse nine. God is my witness, and he's calling on God, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son. We're created in Christ Jesus unto good works. We're created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Isn't it amazing that the first temptation in the garden in Genesis chapter three was to be godly?
That's the first temptation. The devil says, oh, if you eat that fruit, you'll be like God. Hm. Eh, with the emphasis, God doesn't want you to be like him. That's the emphasis, right? That, that, that was the, the rest of that story. God's mean. Go- God can't be trusted. God doesn't want you to have it good. God doesn't want you to be like him. That's a lie right from the pit. That's exactly what God wants. He wants you to be like him. If you read your Bible a hundred times while you're on earth, that'd be great. If you led a hundred people to Christ, that'd be great, and you ought to try both. You ought to do what you can. But God's plan for you is to be like his son. He loves his son, and he wants you as a believer to be like his son.
He wants you to be conformed to the image of his son, and he's got his hammer and chisel out tonight, and he's working on you, and he's working on me, and he's chipping away and chipping away, and he says, listen, uh, you were saved by the grace of God, you were separated under the gospel, and I want you to serve me. That's God chipping away. And you say, but I, I can't do anything. I, I, I'm, I'm not eloquent. I'm not good. Uh, I- I've got no Bible school. I've got no knowledge of the Word of God. Well, start reading. Start reading. You say, but I never... Start reading. God has equipped you.
You, you, you, you, you've got everything you need to know everything God wants you to know if you're saved. First of all, you got the Spirit of God living in you, and now you got a copy of the Bible, or maybe several copies of the Bible. And as you read the scriptures, the, the Spirit of God points things out to you. Oh, not all in one night. Maybe when you got saved, you thought you read the whole Bible that night. Well, you didn't. You wanted to, but you didn't. And you, but you keep reading, and you keep reading, and you keep reading, and all of a sudden you go, wow, l- look at, come here, let me tell you, look at this. And you go, I found something. No, you didn't. You didn't find anything. It was the Spirit of God showing you something.
That's one of his jobs. That's one of his ministries. You read, you study, you pray, the Spirit of God opens it up, illuminates it to you, shows you a Bible truth. The natural man can't do that. Because the Spirit of God is not living in him, and these things are spiritually discerned, and he can't know it. I mean, he could read it till the, till the Lord comes. He can't get it. The only thing he can do is take a step of faith. That's all he can do. But the child of God can, because we have the Spirit of God living in us. So you read, you study. You say, well, I don't know much. What, how much do you know? Practice that. Look, he says right here, he says, with, uh, wi- without ceasing, I make mention of you in my prayers.
That is the first thing he mentions when he talks about serving. Can you pray? Can you pray? Let me tell you something about prayer. Prayer is hard. I- I- if you say, no, prayer is easy, you ain't praying. Prayer is not easy. You know, you can pray, now lay me down to sleep, or good food, good meat, getting late, let's eat, something like that. I mean, you can pray those kind of prayers, but listen, when we talk about praying, I- I mean, we're talking about talking to God, we're talking about thanking God, we're talking about praising God, we're talking about making our requests known to God.
I tell you what happens to you, and it happens to all of us. We're not careful. You start to pray and you wake up. Do you ever have that happen? Yeah. You start to pray, next thing you know, you're doing income tax. You go, whoo, where'd that come from? Well, listen, it's hard to pray, that's why. But he says this, he says, without ceasing. Now he can't lie, he's under inspiration. Not that he would want to lie, he wouldn't want to lie anyhow, but listen, Paul is telling the truth. I could say to a very small group of people, I pray without ceasing. I could say that, but not to a large group. Every time he writes a letter to all these Christians, he said, I'm praying for you.
I, I don't cease to pray for you. I always pray for you. Listen, that prayer list must have been five miles long that the Apostle Paul had. He said, I'm serving God with my prayers. Can you do that tonight? Can you say, God, I don't know if I can be a missionary or a Sunday school teacher, and I, I can't sing, I can't play, I can't preach to God, but God, I can pray. I can pray, and I'd like to serve you with praying. Notice what else, verse ten, making request if by any means I might come. What- what's he got here? He has a heart to help. That's what he has.
A heart to help. He said, I serve God, and and he said, I pray. That's the first thing. Then he says, I want to help somebody. He says, I long to see you. Here's a man of compassion. Here's a man who cares about others. He- here's a man who says, I'd like to share with you something sh- God has shared with me. I'd like to impart unto you some spiritual gift. You know, spiritual gifts are not... for our benefit as much as they are for the benefit of others and the body of Christ. One's an I and one's an ear, and one's a hand, and one's a foot, and, and, and everybody doing their own part, and the body walks away.
The body is effective and, and functions. Your gift is not necessarily for you, but develop your gift, whatever that gift might be. So he's a man that prays. He's a man that has compassion. He's a man that cares about others. He's a man that wants to see them. He's a man that wants to impart some spiritual gift. Look at verse twelve. He's a man that wants to comfort. This is a missing part of service in the body of Christ, I believe. There are a few comforters, a few. Thank God for every one of them.
There, there- there's too much contention and too much strife and too much mu- murmuring and too much backbiting and too much, it's too much. Start caring for one another. Quit evaluating one another. Quit judging one another. Qu- quit all that stuff and start caring for one another. Start living for one another. Don't think more highly of yourself than you are. Just start thinking more highly of somebody else. Comforting. Notice how they would be comforted in verse twelve, by the mutual faith, both of you and me. My time's running out. I've got to run along, but let me say this.
God wants you to serve with your heart, not with your hands. I learned that the hard way. Your heart. Your heart. Oh, you can be busy, you can be active. You can do all kind of things, but if your heart's not in it, that, that, see, David learned that, King David, he learned that, you know, when he repented in Psalm fifty one. He said, sacrifices and offerings you would not, but a broken and a contrite heart, oh God, you'll not despise. What does that mean? That means David lived under the law. David knew that if he sinned, he had to bring a sacrifice. He knew that, but he said, I got this figured out. It is not me bringing that sacrifice that works, it is the attitude of my heart when I bring it, that's what works.
Activity in itself is nothing. God looks far beyond the hands and the feet and the mouth and all the publicity that we give. He looks into the heart, and if the heart is right, the rest of it will be okay. And if the heart's not right, good luck. And nothing counts. It just don't count. It just must be right with God. So, so much could be said about that. Let's, let's move along. Verse fourteen, sharing. I- I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise. And notice in verse fifteen, as much as in me is. I love that because he didn't have to, uh, in- in other words, he said, look, you don't have to be like Sam or Leroy or Sally or...
you're just yourself. A- and you've been saved, and you've been separated, and you're serving, and one of the ways that you can serve is by sharing. And I, uh, you don't have the gift of Billy Graham or Billy Sunday or any other evangelist that you might know. You don't have that gift, but you are a witness for me. And I want you to do as much as in you is. You'll notice he says here, as much as in me is, I am ready. I'm going to ask you that question tonight. You say, well, I don't know much. That's okay. You know a little bit. Yes. Okay, then as much as in you is, are you ready to preach Jesus Christ?
You say, oh, I'm not a preacher. Oh, oh, hold it. The word just means proclaim. That's over a cup of coffee. That's walking down the street. That's at work. That's at school. That's wherever it is. That's just sharing Jesus Christ, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. You say, well, I don't know much. Will you do it that much? Will you share that much? As much as in you, are you ready? And that word, look it up sometime, means this, willing and eager. Oh, willing and eager. Oh, you might be willing if somebody pressures you into it.
Are you eager? I'm going to suggest that we need to work on that. All of us need to work on that. Ready to proclaim the gospel. And then quickly, in closing, the reason he's w- ready is because he's not ashamed. Uh, the word ashamed comes from a little word that means a feeling of fear that prevents a person from doing something. The Spirit of God taps you on the shoulder and says, now, Joe, you need to, uh, like, talk to that guy over there, and I, and I start arguing with the Lord right away. Well, it's not a good time, Lord. I don't have any tracks, you know. I forgot my sword, you know. Uh, I mean, it's in the grocery line, like, they're not going to get this.
And the next thing you know, you're putting your groceries in the trunk of your car, and no witness has been given. And the bottom line was a feeling of fear that prevented you from doing that. Paul said, I- I- I'm beyond that now. I'm not ashamed. I- I- I'm not going to let a spirit of fear keep me from telling the greatest story that has ever been told. I hadn't been to say but about a couple of weeks, I went to a drive-in hamburger place, okay? By myself.
Lady comes up, ordered a hamburger, uh, she goes away, a car pulls in right beside me, okay? There must have been about, uh, five or six teenagers in that car. They had the stereo on, on a volume from one to ten, they had it on about fifteen, you know what I mean? I'm going boom, boom, I'm in the car next to them, okay? And, um, anyhow, uh, they they're looking at me and they start laughing at me. Now, they didn't even know I was, uh, you know, in the world. I mean, that's the feeling I had. They're laughing at me. Laughing at me, you know. And all of a sudden, the hamburger came. Now, I didn't know much. I'd only been saved a few weeks, but I knew you should give thanks, right? You should give thanks for your food, right? Now I'm in a real predicament.
They're all going like this, looking at me, and here's my hamburger sitting there, you know, and I'm going, what am I going to do? So I pretended that I dropped something in the floorboard of my car, and then I pretended to bend over and pick it up. And while I was down there, I said, Lord, thank you for this food. When I came up, it was all over, you know? Why did I do that? I was ashamed. I was ashamed. A feeling of fear that prevented me from doing that. Um, eh, folks, every time you feel a little bit intimidated by the world, by your own self, by the devil, you just remember this: he wasn't ashamed of you.
Derobed him publicly. He was not a- he... Listen. He despised the shame. He endured the cross. It's hard. I know. Listen, especially in school, you're the only one at work. You're the on- I know that. I know that feeling. But we must remember, I've been separated under the gospel. My job is to serve the, the Master, our Lord God. I have the privilege of serving him. He's equipped me to serve him. I'm a debtor ready to pay my debt. There, there, there's, there's people and places for me to go and, and things to, uh, people to see and, and things to say to these people, and I don't need to be carrying this guilt feeling with me, this, this feeling of fear that prevents me from doing something.
The secret is this. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, now watch your Bible, for it, not me, it is the power of God unto salvation. To the Jew first, also to the Greek. It's not me, it's not my illustrations, it's not my knowledge, it's not how I present it. It's the gospel. Get the gospel out. Tell them the gospel, tell them the good news. I was on a plane, I sat down beside a couple and found out they were Greeks. I said, oh, isn't this nice?
I said, did you know that you're in the Bible? He said, we are? I said, yeah. I took out my New Testament, and I showed him that verse. I said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. I said, look, right there, you're in the Bible. He took it right out of my hand, said to his wife, look, we're in the Bible, he said, right here. And I had the most wonderful opportunity to share Jesus Christ with them. Are you separated? Are you serving? Are you sharing? Do I dare ask? Are you ashamed?
The just shall live by faith. Let's pray. Father, would you be pleased to take these scattered words and use them to build up your people, to challenge anyone here tonight that may not know for sure that their sins are forgiven, and glorify our God in heaven, for Christ's sake. Amen.