Grace Is Christianity, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. God coming to the rescue, God giving himself generously in and through Jesus Christ. That's the theological reason behind the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace came to bring the undeserved, unearned, unearnable favor of God. Who wouldn't believe that?

Who wouldn't believe that? Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Notice what he says, verse 12, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against powers, against world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. You see, that's our enemy. That's what we're fighting. We're fighting those spiritual forces. We often think that we need to stand strong and what we need to fight are other people. But the other people that you'd ever need to fight are not your enemy. They're the victims of your enemy. The Bible calls them something else. They call them your mission field.

You see, that's the mission field. That's why we love our enemies. That's why we pray for them.

They're victims of the enemy. Go with me to Second Corinthians, Chapter 10, Second Corinthians, Chapter 10. And verse three, Paul makes it even clearer here. Verse three, Paul says this, for though we walk in the flesh, all that means is we live in the real world.

We just live like we live in the real world, although we walk in the flesh. He said we do not war according to the flesh. He said for the weapon of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofting thing raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. What are we fighting? Ideas. Thoughts.

Meaning of life. Where's the battle? It's between your ears. That's where the battles fought. It's fought right between our ears. Who am I going to listen to?

How am I going to do this? Look, those thoughts metaphorically, almost every thought in the world originates in heaven or hell. You see, that's the way this works, and that's where we fight. He said we have to think about it from that point of view.

That's why he's telling us to stand firm. And so the question comes down to then, you know, how do we appropriate? Strength. How do we appropriate God's light strength? How do we get this power in our lives?

And I think there are four things that I'm very much indebted to David Jeremiah here. And he uses a really good analogy. I think he uses your computer. And he says that the computer has a hard drive and that contains all the applications that you need. And he said, and when you launch a program, you download it from the hard drive to a temporary drive. Once it's on the temporary drive and on the screen, you can see it on the screen and now you can access. He says what you've downloaded, but he said it was always there on the hard drive.

You just couldn't access it until you did. And these are the ways in which he talks about the way we can hard drive it. He said the Bible is our hard drive. And so how do we access? How do we download the power of God?

The first thing he says is this. He said we download the power of God, God's strength from his word. Go with me just for one verse in the Old Testament. Psalm 119 verse 28. Notice what the psalmist says here. My soul weeps because of grief.

I can't tell you how many of you I've been with over all the years and watched you do this. And if you haven't done it, you probably will. Your soul weeps because of grief. The pain is unbearable.

Hard to explain. It's difficult. You never feel weaker or more vulnerable than you do then. Notice what the psalmist says. He says my soul weeps because of grief. Strengthen me according to your word.

Where do I get the strength? From your word. Lord, I need your strength from your word here. Now let me take a New Testament application and then conclude it. Go with me to 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3.

And here Peter says it differently, but I think it's clear to us. He says in verse 3, seeing that his divine, what's it say? Power. How do I get his divine power in my life? He said, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. What's that include?

Let me read it again. Everything in life for godliness. Everything. God says I can supply you the strength and the power you need in everything. Notice, he says, divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. For by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises so that by them we may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. He has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises.

That's his word. Let me ask you, be honest with yourself. You're looking forward to dying? You've been around someone who's dying? Someone who dies?

It's tough, isn't it? Let me ask you, do you really believe that you would like to have a little bit of strength when you die? Because you're going to die, by the way. I hate to say that, but barring the rapture, everyone in here is going to die.

Every single one of us. You see, when you think of that battle, that final battle with pain, as the hymn says, when you think of that, you say, I need strength for that. You know what God says?

I provided it. The Bible says when you're absent from the body, you're present with the Lord. That's what the Bible says, you're absent from the body, present with the Lord.

Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled. He said, you just need to believe in me. In my Father's house and many dwelling places, I'm going to go and prepare one just for you, so that where I am, you'll be also.

And then I'll come and I'll receive you to myself. Here's the question, do you believe that or not? You see, do you believe that or not? Because if you believe that, by the way, where's your strength coming from? From the word of God. God, my strength from His word, He's already promised me this.

You see, that's a difficult thing. One of the songs that we sing here is The Last Day of My Life. It'll be the best day of my life. It was written by Matt because I say it all the time from the pulpit. But the truth of the matter is, that's true.

But some of us probably feel funny even singing it. That's not like my wedding day. That's not like the birth of my first child. That's not like Christmas.

No, it's better. You see, but do you believe that? That's the question. Do you believe it? He said, look, you can appropriate my power. He said, from my word. Secondly, he says that we can appropriate his power through prayer. Go with me to Ephesians chapter 3, Ephesians chapter 3. And I love what Paul does here, starting in verse 14. Paul, like any servant of God, what he wants to tell people is, and who wouldn't, I want you to have God's strength. I want you to have God's strength when you need it in this life.

I want you to have this. So much so that he prays about it. Notice what he says in verse 14.

For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father. He said, from whom every family on heaven on earth derives its name, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened. I pray, he said, that you would be strengthened. He said, with the power of his spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God. He said, look, I would just pray that you would have some grip as to how much God loves you.

I just wish you'd get it. He loves you with more love than any person ever loved you, and it never wavers. Maybe another way of saying it is the way Paul did. He said, if God be for us, you know the verse, who could be against us? God is for you.

He loves you. Paul says, I wish you'd get that, because if you really believed that, you'd have strength. God will work through you.

You'd also have peace. Notice he continues, and he says, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all we ask or think according to the power that works within us. He said, I wish you'd comprehend how much power you have, how much strength you have. We sing the song, but we don't put it in our heart. A couple weeks ago, we all sat here or stood up, whichever way we did it, and we sang, I've got resurrection power living on the inside. Really? Do you believe it?

See, do you believe that? Because if you don't, you never have the strength. We get strength in God's word, and we get strength when we pray. Psalm 22 and verse 19, the psalmist says, you are my strength.

Come quickly and help me. What a great way to put it. Isaiah 33, oh Lord, be our strength every morning. We need strength. God says, I'll provide it.

Just ask me. But you have to believe from his word when we pray. He also gives us strength in a way we'd never imagine. Go back to Isaiah chapter 40 with me for a moment. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 31.

It's a very famous verse. And it's never the way you and I think you get strength. You see, we think of strength as I sort of got to grind my teeth and fur down, and I'm going to give it all I got.

That won't do it. That's nothing like his strength. Here's what he says in verse 31 right after the verses I just read earlier. He said, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. And they will walk and not become weary.

How do I appropriate? How do I download the strength of God when I wait? Don't you just hate that? God says, look, yeah, I want to give you strength. Here's what I want you to do. You stand firm and wait. See, what does it take to wait? Faith. Faith is measured by what it will endure. Faith is measured by what you will wait for. God knows how much faith you have on the basis of how you will wait. And what he says here is those who wait on the Lord will gain new strength. He says they will gain new strength.

Just wait on the Lord. He said they'll mount up with wings like eagles. This is great strength. It's not alone. We don't do that. We try to muster it up with our own effort.

There's a different way of saying it. It's right there. It's my favorite verse in the Old Testament, and that's why it's up there. Be still and know that I'm God. That's waiting.

You just be still. See, that's what God's saying. I will manifest my strength in your life when you wait, when you be still. That takes faith in your part.

I get that. Psalm 27 said, wait on the Lord and he will strengthen your heart. Waiting takes faith. That's why God said, yeah, that's how I'm going to release my strength to you. It's different than what we thought. Elijah was going through a really terrible time in his life.

He was borderline depressed, if not really depressed. And God comes to Elijah out of an earthquake and fire. And you think, and Elijah's waiting for God to do something big. And he gets nothing. God never speaks.

And then later in the chapter, it says that he heard God's small, still voice. Just wait. Just be still. I'm right here. That's what he says to us. We want some big sign in the whisper in your ear while you're sitting in some intensive care unit, wondering what's going to happen.

He says, just be still. I'm right here. I'm right here. The Lord tells me, Bill, I'm never going to leave you nor forsake you.

I'm right here. Even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death. I fear no evil.

You are with me. See, you have to believe these things. If you want the strength of God, you have to believe these things.

That's what he says. So, we download God's strength from his word when we pray and when we wait. And one more, the final one, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

And this one will surprise you probably the most. You can appropriate God's strength through your weakness. God's strength is manifested. God becomes stronger in your life when you will finally realize how weak you are.

Your weakness manifests his strength. He said, yeah, that's the way this is going to work. Earlier in chapter 12, before verse 7, Paul said that he got caught up in paradise. And he said, man, I heard stuff that was unbelievable. I had an experience you wouldn't imagine. He said, I don't know if I was in the body or out of the body, but from our point of view, he was there. He saw everything.

So, he comes back and he says in verse 7, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself. See, I think what if that happened to you? See, what if I went to heaven for half an hour? And I saw it all.

I'd come back, hey, I've been to heaven. It's pretty cool. And I wasn't allowed to talk about it. He said, and I wasn't allowed to exalt myself or be proud of it. He said, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself.

It must have been excruciating for him. He says, concerning this, I implored a very strong Greek word. I begged the Lord three times that it might leave me. And he said this to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I would rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Paul says, I'm weak. I'm really weak. God says, yes, when you're weak, I'm strong. He said in verse 10, therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for the Lord's sake. For when I am weak, I am strong. When I am weak, I have his strength. You see, he manifests his strength in our weakness. Think of the Old Testament judge, Gideon.

What a great story that is for us. God said to Gideon, Almighty Gideon, the angel came and said, you valiant warrior, you're going to be the next judge over the nation. And Gideon said, you got the wrong guy.

That can't be me. He said, there are 12 tribes in Israel. My tribe's the least of the 12. So you're not even in the right tribe. And if you looked at our whole tribe, my family's like the worst in the whole tribe. And if you looked at my family, I'm the worst guy in it.

You got someone wrong here. God says, you're the guy. Gideon becomes a judge of Israel. Why would God do that? I don't know about you, but I can identify with Gideon. God says, no, because it was never about the judge.

It's only been about God. So he took one of the weakest men you could find and made him a great judge of Israel. He said, because it's my power that makes him a judge, not his own power. Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher, said, God does not need your strength. He has more than enough power of his own. He asked for your weakness.

He has none of that himself. And he's longing, therefore, to take your weakness, use it as an instrument with his mighty hand. Will you not yield your weakness to him? Because when you do, you'll receive his strength.

That's how that works. John MacArthur says that it's when believers are out of answers, they're out of confidence, they're out of strength, with nowhere else to turn but God that they are now finally in a position to be most effective. No one in the kingdom of God is too weak to experience God's power. But many are too confident of their own strength. Physical suffering and mental anguish and disappointment and unfulfillment and failure squeeze the impurities out of the believer's life, making them pure channels through which God's power can finally grow.

We can download God's strength through our own weaknesses when we wait on God, when we pray, and from his word. He tries to tell us this over and over. In Psalm 127, he says, unless the Lord builds the house, what, you labor in vain.

It comes down to even your marriage and family. Unless the Lord builds the house, let me do the work, you labor in vain. Jesus said it in John 15.

He said, I'm the vine and you're the branches. All I want you to do is abide in me. If you abide in me and I in you, you'll bear much fruit.

By the way, apart from me, you can do nothing. We don't have strength, but we have his strength. You see, that's the choice we have to make, a choice between our own efforts and God's strength. The Bible says that when we do that, we are more than conquerors through our Lord Jesus Christ. And maybe most importantly, if you think of a single Bible verse to remember, once you allow God's strength, once you choose to have God's strength in your life, you can say and mean the words of Paul. Remember, he said, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Let's pray. Father, our problem is that we are self-sufficient. We try to tackle life with our own strength. But there are certain things in life that make it abundantly clear that we don't have the strength to succeed. And so, Father, we find ourselves fearful, full of anxiety, because the battles seem too big for us.

But Father, you're trying to tell us that they're not too big for you. I just pray, Father, that we understand that we can appropriate your strength in our lives, that those promises from your word, those magnificent promises that are designed to strengthen us, that we can go to you in prayer and ask for your strength. That, Father, that we are able to wait. And as we're waiting, you strengthen us. And that, Father, in our weakness, you become even stronger. I pray that we begin to make this choice.

We choose your strength over our effort. We pray this for our good and for your glory. In Christ's name, amen. . You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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