If you are reading this right now and you don’t know Jesus, you need to repent of your sin and trust in Him. He loves you. He died for you.
Do not despise His goodness. Do not assume judgment will never come simply because it has not happened yet. God has shown grace, kindness, and patience to lead you to repentance. As 2 Peter 3:9 says, He is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
There is no salvation without repentance. You cannot be saved if you refuse to turn from your sin. Repentance is not a negative thing. It is God giving you an opportunity to get right with Him.
Romans 2 teaches that God’s judgment is according to truth. Those who remain hard-hearted and unrepentant are storing up wrath for the day of judgment.
Scripture says God will render to each one according to his deeds. You will not be judged by your upbringing, your parents’ faith, or church attendance. If you are outside of Christ, you will be judged according to your deeds. And on that basis, we are all in trouble.
This does not mean salvation is by works. We are justified by faith. But those who are born again, continue in the faith. There is perseverance and a pursuit of glory, honor, and immortality. Those who reject the truth and live for themselves face indignation, wrath, and anguish.
You must see your condition clearly. Until you do, the gospel will not seem like good news.
There is no partiality with God. Those who had the law will be judged by the law. Those without it will be judged by the light they were given, including their conscience. Every person knows right from wrong. God’s judgment will be perfectly righteous.
It is not enough to hear the truth. It must shape your life. God sees not only actions but motives. Thoughts and intentions are open before Him.
One day, the secrets of men will be revealed through Jesus Christ. Nothing is hidden. Every deed and every motive will be brought into the light. Each of us will stand before God personally.
External behavior change is not enough. Anyone can feel regret when caught. Genuine repentance is coming to the end of yourself, hating your sin, and wanting God to change your heart.
When you come to that place, He will meet you there. He will forgive you, cleanse you, and give you a new heart and new desires. He will make you new.
You must recognize your need. Without that, you will never come to Him.
Will you come today? Will you repent and trust in Jesus?
He loves you. He died for you. Every one of us needs His grace. When you surrender your life to Him, He will meet you there. Circumstances may not change immediately, but inwardly everything will.
And this is what man is guilty of, suppressing the truth and corrupting the truth that they know.
Are you guilty of this?
Are you suppressing the truth in unrighteousness? Are your imaginations about God futile, and vain, and idolatrous?
What world do we live in where people can just identify as this or that and it has no basis in reality? And then people who are actually in charge go along with it. And you and I are sitting here with the revelation of God and the truth of God, and we are going, “What the heck is wrong with people? Why are they doing this?” You never would have thought in your lifetime that you would see some of the things that you're seeing. You never would have thought.
It’s this progression. You suppress the truth, then you corrupt the truth, and then it leads to this.
Verse 24:
“Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves: who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
Here we see, the suppression of the truth leads to the corruption of the truth, and then it always, always, always leads to perversion of life. It always leads to perversion of life.
Here we see God judicially gave them up. Literally, He hands them over. God let them go. That is, He removed the restraint. He let them have their own way. He let go. God gave them over to uncleanness. God gave them over to their desires. God just let them have their way.
There comes a point where you resist things so long, you go so far the wrong way, that God finally just says, “Okay, if that's how you want it, have it!” And it leads to a perversion of life, the removal of all restraints. God abandons them to do what is shameful, and yes, the things that are done are shameful. To dishonor their bodies among themselves.
What God created as good and as holy, now because of sin, because of men's darkness of heart, is dishonored, and shameful, and degrading.
They just released how many documents of the Epstein files? Millions. In our culture right now all over the world, we think that slavery was something of the past. It’s not. You have kids, boys and girls, being trafficked. You have sodomy and homosexual activity rampant to the point where it has become normalized.
This is where a suppression of the truth and a corruption of the truth inevitably leads to, a giving over. It’s one of the clear signs that God has given our nation over, what you and I are seeing. He’s given us over to it.
We’re sitting here thinking it’s going to be the arm of a politician that’s going to change the culture in America. Not going to happen. It’s too far gone for the arm of a politician to do anything. It will take a sovereign act of the living God to come and turn people's hearts back to Him.
It leads to a perversion. That’s why I told you this is the negative part that Paul goes to, and next week’s going to be even worse. So if this is unpalatable for you, if you’re a believer, you need to repent if you don’t like this, because this is God’s Word. You need to repent. Come back to God, the true God. Stop living for idols.
That’s why right now in our culture, what’s the one thing that always gets attacked in Christianity? It’s not the virgin birth. They used to do that. Liberal theology used to attack all those core doctrines. What’s the essence of progressive Christianity? What’s the issue? It’s the sexual ethic. It’s always sex.
What we’re seeing played out is Romans 1. When you suppress the truth, it leads to corruption of the truth, and corruption of the truth leads to perversion of life.
Verse 25:
“They exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.”
They exchanged truth because they liked the lie a whole lot better. When you do that, you will receive what’s false. This is fallen man's predicament.
Now, I know I’m preaching, for the most part, to people who know Jesus. But at one time, we were all, to some measure, in this predicament. The wrath of God was revealed. This is serious.
We all, like sheep, have turned away. We have all gone our own way, every one of us. We all have made an image and bowed down before it. If you have a view of God that’s not in line with the truth, you have made an idol. You are an idolater right now.
We’ve all gone our own way. We’ve all fashioned things, and it’s all led to a corruption of truth and a corruption of our life and a perversion of our life.
You see, that’s why we need the Gospel.
Though the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, there is one who stood in our place and took the wrath, and He bore the punishment, and He took our perversion. He took it all. He bore it all.
His name is Jesus.
We all stand guilty before the judgment bar of God, but one came in, and He stood in our place, and He paid our price. And now we can be saved, delivered, reconciled, redeemed.
Our foolish hearts no longer have to be darkened. We can receive a new mind and a new heart.
Jesus came to save us and to reconcile us.
When you're embarrassed about something, what do you do? You hide it. You put it away. You don't want anybody to know about it. You don't ever bring it up. You don't want people to hear about it.
Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel.” He'd been run out of town. He'd been shipwrecked. He'd been stoned. He'd been beaten. He'd been abused and misunderstood, but he would still say, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel.” Why? Because it is the power of God unto salvation.
God has chosen the Gospel. It is the power. There is power in the Gospel message, power inherent in it. You may be witnessing to somebody and think nothing is happening, that their heart is too hard or that they aren't listening. But don't underestimate the power of the Gospel. Don't underestimate the seed of the Gospel. Don't underestimate the watering of the Gospel. God is able to bring increase from what you cannot see.
What's amazing about a harvest is that you plant it, and you don't know what's happening beneath the surface. On the outside, it may look like nothing is happening, like there is no life. But in an instant, God can spring it to life. In a moment, He can bring conviction of sin, humble the heart, and open eyes. That is the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul said when he came to the church at Corinth, “When I came, I did not come with eloquence of speech and human wisdom, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” He did not come in his own power or ability; he trusted in the Gospel message because there is power in it.
Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. He was born of a virgin in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth. He began His ministry at the age of thirty and went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. He traveled from the Sea of Galilee down into Judea and back again, preaching the good news and calling people to repentance.
At the end of His ministry, He set His face like flint toward Jerusalem because He knew what was written in Scripture had to be fulfilled. He was betrayed by His own people, handed over to the Roman government, and crucified on a cross in weakness and shame, despised and rejected.
On the surface, it looked like an accident, as if God had lost control. But it was there on the tree of Calvary that Jesus paid in full for the sin of the world. Three days later, He rose from the dead, walked out of the tomb, and lives today. That is the Gospel.
To those who are perishing, this message is foolishness. It is folly to those who want philosophy or something more profound. But to us who are being saved, it is the power and wisdom of God. Paul said of that message, “I am not ashamed.” He would not hide it, because that message is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
We do not reach out in our own power. We have no ability to change the human heart. But there is power in this message. God is in this message. He attends to this message. He has chosen this message. We reach out understanding the power of the Gospel.
The Apostle Paul suffered for the gospel.
He was run out of cities.
He suffered at the hands of his own people, the Jews.
He was mocked, beaten, and whipped.
And yet Paul boldly declared:
“I am not ashamed of the gospel.”
He was not embarrassed by it.
He was not going to cover it up, hide it, soften it, or back down from it.
To be ashamed of something means you don’t want other people to know about it.
When you’re embarrassed, you try to keep it hidden.
You don’t speak up.
You hope no one notices.
Paul says the opposite.
“I am not ashamed of the good news of Jesus Christ. I’m not hiding my light. I’m not backing down. Every time I preach I suffer, but I’m not going to stop doing what God has called me to do.”
Paul explains why he is not ashamed:
“For it is the power of God unto salvation.”
That word power is the Greek word dunamis.
It means inherent power, power that produces, power that works.
The gospel may seem simple.
It is direct.
It is plain.
But that “foolish” message has power in it.
It has changed the world.
It has transformed millions of lives.
Here is a fact:
When the gospel is preached, people will be saved.
It may be rejected by some, but others will believe, because it is the power of God unto salvation.
Paul’s confidence was rooted in this truth.
When he preached, he knew the message itself carried God’s power.
Paul says the gospel is:
“To the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
Jesus came first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Paul would begin his ministry in the synagogues before turning to the Gentiles.
But the message was always meant for everyone.
No exclusions.
No limits.
And because of that, Paul says again:
“I am not ashamed of the gospel.”
It may create awkward moments.
It may divide relationships, even within families.
But it is still the power of God unto salvation.
Paul continues in verse 17:
“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.”
The gospel does not just tell us that God is righteous.
It reveals how sinners can be made righteous.
That is the question every human heart wrestles with:
How can I be made right with God?
The answer is not found in ourselves.
We have no righteousness of our own.
Scripture says our righteousness is like a filthy rag before God.
We cannot take ourselves from death to life.
From unclean to clean.
From unholy to holy.
We cannot change ourselves.
Church history gives us a powerful example.
Martin Luther, a German monk, traveled to Rome.
There, he climbed a set of stairs—steps that are still there today.
People believed that climbing those stairs earned righteousness.
They believed they were accumulating merit before God.
People wept and cried as they climbed.
But as Luther reached the top, one verse flashed into his mind:
“The just shall live by faith.”
Righteousness does not come through works.
Justification does not come through effort.
It comes by faith, by trusting God.
Paul says righteousness is revealed from faith to faith.
Faith at the beginning.
Faith at the end.
Faith from first to last.
If you want to be made right with God, it will not be through good works.
It will not be through moral reform.
It will only be through what Jesus Christ has done.
Here is the gospel:
We are sinners.
Spiritually dead.
Unable to save ourselves.
Changing habits does not save us.
Reordering priorities does not save us.
We have broken God’s law.
We have sinned against truth and conscience.
The wages of sin is death, judgment and separation from God.
But then comes the good news.
God loved us, when there was nothing in us to make Him love us.
He sent His Son.
Jesus took on flesh to stand in our place.
He bore the judgment we deserved.
On the cross, the penalty for our sin was placed on Him.
He cried out, “It is finished.”
The veil was torn from top to bottom—
a way was opened for reconciliation with God.
Three days later, He rose from the dead.
His sacrifice was accepted.
Justice was satisfied.
He is the giver of eternal life.
The author and finisher of our faith.
Mighty to save all who come to God through Him.
Everyone who calls on Him in faith,
turning from their own righteousness and trusting in Christ,
will be saved.
There is no catch.
This is not false advertising.
This is truly good news.
He forgives.
He changes.
He holds onto you.
If you feel powerless to change, that is exactly where He meets you.
That is why Paul says:
“I am not ashamed of the gospel.”
It is the power of God unto 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.
Amen.