Are You Ashamed of the Truth?

(Mark 8:38)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
This morning,
We see something else that was true of Jesus,
Another characteristic that follows
From His great love for Father
As well as from fact that He is the divine Logos
The Word of God made flesh
One that we need to put on
If we belong to Him,
If we know Him
His love for the truth
And His willingness to confess it
In the face of a world that hates it.

The world is becoming

Increasingly hostile to the truth
To the Gospel,
To what God says about the condition
Of those who havent trusted Jesus,
To His moral standards.

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The world is telling Christians
Theyre telling you
That you have no right to your own convictions
That you must adopt their convictions
Or face the consequences.

How many Christian business owners

Have been penalized, fined, sued,
Because they refused to support
Something the world believes to be acceptable.

A bakery was threatened, picketed, boycotted,

And eventually put out of business
Because they didnt want to make a cake
For a homosexual wedding.

A business was penalized by the government

Because they dont want to provide
Abortion coverage to their employees.

A student at a charter school

Was forced to go to the office four times in one day
To write an admission of guilt
Because she invited three students
To a Creationist seminar.

A Disney website censured a 10 year old girl

For mentioning God
When posting what she believed
To be the best thing about the holidays.

A student was turned down admission to college

Because she mentioned religion in her application.

B. Preview.
These few examples highlight the increasing hatred
The world has for Jesus and His truth.
What effect has this had on you?
Has it made you hesitant/afraid to own Jesus
His Gospel,
His truth,
His standard of morality
In the face of those who dont know Jesus?

You really cant afford

To let this fear cripple you
Not just for the sake of those around you
Who will perish if they dont hear the truth
But for your sake as well.

Listen again to what Jesus says,

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful

generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the
glory of His Father with the holy angels (Mark 8:38).
He said essentially the same thing to His disciples
Before He sent them out to preach,
Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before
My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also
deny him before My Father who is in heaven (Matt. 10:32-33).

If you are ashamed of Jesus

Or of what He says in His Word
In the face of this sinful world
If youre afraid to stand up for Him
And live the life He calls you to live,
He will not stand up for you
When it will count the most
On the Day of His Judgment.

This morning, lets consider two things:

1. Jesus and those who knew Him were not ashamed of the truth.
2. If you know Him, neither will you be.
II. Sermon.
A. First, Jesus and those who knew Him were not ashamed of the truth.
1. Its important that we understand
What Jesus means here by ashamed.
The Greek word is used in three ways in Scripture:

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a. It can refer to the guilty feeling you get
When youve done something wrong
And are convicted by that fact:
Youre ashamed that youve done it.

You should always feel shame

When you sin
When you offend the One who loved you
And sent His Son to save you
Even when He forgives your sin.
You should never be able to look back
On any sin youve committed
And be glad you did it
This is one of the things
The Lord uses to keep us humble.

You should be able to look back, though,

And thank God that He forgave you
If youve trusted Jesus.

b. It can refer to the embarrassment you feel

When you believed something to be true,
Or expected something was going to happen,
And even encouraged others to believe and expect it,
But it turns out not to be true or not to happen.

Thats why its important

To make sure something is true
Before you begin to believe it or share it.

c. But it can also refer to a fear

That something you believe
Might prove to be false,
And that youll end up being humiliated
A fear that saps your strength
And so your courage
And your resolve to stand up for it.

Thats how its used here,

And this is what Jesus tells you
That you need to beware of
The fear of unbelief.

2. Obviously, Jesus didnt have this fear,

Nor did those who knew Him.

Now you might think

It was easier for Jesus in His day
Because things werent as bad as they are now.
That isnt what He says.

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Notice how He characterizes the people of His day
Adulterous and sinful.
Human nature never changes.
Since the Fall,
Everyone is born dead in sin
And that sin will exert itself in their lives.
The only difference from generation to generation
Is how much God restrains it.

In many ways,
The time Jesus was living in was worse.

They might not have had

The rampant sexual sin
That we have today
Though they had their share
But they hated Jesus and His truth so much
That they put Him
And many of His followers to death
The church of His day did this.

But knowing this to be the situation,

What was Jesus willing to do?
To speak the truth without apology,
To preach the Gospel,

To correct the churchs faulty understanding of Gods Law,

To reprove them for their sins.
He even made a whip on one occasion
And drove the Jews out of the Temple
Because what they were doing
Was dishonoring His Father.

Jesus was not ashamed of the truth,

Even in the face of a people
He knew would eventually kill Him,
Because He loved His Father,
Because He loved those to whom He ministered,
And because He knew
What He was telling them was the truth.

We see this same resolve in those who followed Him.

Remember what Paul said in our meditation:
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. For in it the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, BUT
THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH (Rom. 1:16-17).
He wasnt afraid to stand up for the Gospel
And to spread it as widely as he could
Even to the Greek Philosophers on Mars Hill
(The intellectuals of his day).

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Why not?
Because he knew it was true.
He knew he had been saved by it.
He knew it was their only hope.
He knew that, It (alone) is the power of God for salvation to everyone who
believes.
He wasnt ashamed of it.
He wasnt embarrassed by it.
And because he didnt care what others
Thought of him for holding it.

Its worth noting

That the Jews on one occasion
Almost killed Paul for his convictions
When they found him in the Temple
And they would have,
If the Roman officials hadnt taken him into custody.

He was eventually sent to Rome,

Released, arrested again a second time,
And then martyred for these convictions.
It was in this second imprisonment
He wrote to Timothy to encourage him
Not to be ashamed of the Gospel
Or of what he had to suffer because of it:

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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 with a 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 light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher
and 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 (2 Tim. 1:812).

Paul goes on to ask the Lord

That He might bless the house of Onesiphorus
Because he also wasnt ashamed
Of this Gospel or of Pauls imprisonment,
Which he showed by seeking Paul out
When he was in Rome
To minister to him (vv. 16-18).

Jesus, Paul, Timothy, Onesiphorus,

And a host of others
Spurgeon, Whitefield, Edwards,
Wesley, Watts, Newton,
To name but a few
Were not embarrassed by the Gospel,
But gloried in it,
Because it was the message
The Lord used to save them from judgment

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And open heaven to them,

And the only message
That would save others.

B. If you know the Lord, you wont be ashamed of the truth either.
Let me just remind you
That though its true
That you must have a firm conviction
That the Gospel
And the whole Word of God
Is true to be saved
(You are saved by trusting Jesus, after all)
Standing up for this truth isnt what saves you.
Its the result of His salvation.
If you have His Spirit
You will confess Him
Before the world
And wont be ashamed.
Paul writes to Timothy,
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline
(2 Tim. 1:7).

It also isnt true

That if you have His Spirit

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You will do this perfectly
Nothing you or I will do
Will be perfect on this side of glory.

After Jesus told Peter he was blessed

Because he confessed Him to be the Messiah
By a revelation from the Father,
In the next moment,
He told him to get out of His way
Because he was speaking on Satans behalf
When he told Him not go up to Jerusalem
To be betrayed and crucified.
Peter would later deny Jesus three times,
And even after being filled with the Spirit at Pentecost
Would be guilty of hypocrisy
As he withdrew from the Gentile believers
Because of some Jews that came down from Judea.

If you know Jesus,

You wont be a perfect example of courage,
But, on the other hand,
Your life will be a consistent pattern
Of standing up for the truth
In the face of a world that hates it.

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You will follow Jesus command

To take the Gospel to those you know.
You will share it with them
Without being ashamed.

You wont be embarrassed

Because you know its true
And because of what the Lord
Did through it in your own life:
You were on your way to judgment,
But the Lord saved you by this Gospel.
You know theres no other hope
For anyone apart from Jesus.

You wont be ashamed

Telling those who are antagonistic towards it
The so-called atheists and agnostics
So-called, because there really arent any:
Everyone knows God exists (Rom. 1:18-20)
Those involved in cults,
Liberal Christians
You wont be ashamed
Because you know theyre wrong
And in serious danger of judgment

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At every moment.

You wont be ashamed to tell nominal Christians

Those who believe theyre already saved
Because they prayed a prayer
And go to church,
But are unconverted
Because you know
What youre telling them is true and right
And that theyre in the same danger
As the atheist and liberal
Unless they repent and believe.

You will stand up not only for His Gospel,

But for all His truth.
Youll stand up for creation
Against the evolutionist,
For sexual purity
Against the immoral of this world,
For sobriety,
Against the drunken of this world,
For holiness and faithfulness
Against those who compromise with this world.
You will stand up for what God says

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Regardless of what the world believes

Or what the world threatens to do to you.
And youll do it without fear and without shame.

If you know Jesus,

His image is being formed in you:
This is what He is like.

Let me say in closing,

If this isnt what youre like
Not if youre not perfect,
Because we all struggle
With obedience
But if you find yourself
Constantly ashamed of the Gospel
And of Gods truth,
If youre embarrassed to bring it up
To tell your non-Christian friends and acquaintances
Of their need of faith and repentance,
Or even to call into question the sinful things
Your Christian friends do
If this describes you,
Listen again to what Jesus says,

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For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the
glory of His Father with the holy angels (Mark 8:38).

If youre ashamed of His truth,

I would encourage you
To repent of your sins,
And to trust in Jesus Christ.
He will give you the strength
To stand up for His truth,
As He stood up for you.
May the Lord give us all the grace to do so. Amen.

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