We Should Spread Grace, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. There are some people you don't mind bestowing grace on. Any of you who have been married long enough, you know how much grace you bestow.

Right? There's a lot of grace in marriage. In fact, if you don't have grace in marriage, you don't have much marriage. There's a lot of grace.

You bestow that on each other constantly. And it's easy for us to bestow grace on people we love. And we can even bestow grace on people we like. And then there's all the other people. And we really don't like bestowing grace on them. Even some certain kinds of people we don't like bestowing grace on. That's a struggle for us.

That's where we really struggle. 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. Some time ago, I read an account. And it said when I read the account that it was a true story.

And there's no reason to believe it wasn't. But it was it was about a young man, a young bachelor who worked in Manhattan. And every year in his office, the boss would give every year the boss would give a turkey to every employee as a bonus. And this young man really didn't want a turkey and didn't know what to do with one.

He had a few of them in his freezer because he didn't know what to do with it. And he really didn't care for a turkey. And he let the other his colleagues sort of know that he didn't really care for a turkey.

So one year his colleagues decided to play a trick on him. And what they did is when the boss gave the turkey, they exchanged it. They had made a a plaster of Paris turkey and wrapped it all up and they gave it to the young man. And so then the young man took the plaster of Paris turkey with him when he left the office. Well, at that time, he was riding on the subway.

And as he was riding on the subway, a man came and sat beside him. And the man was disheveled. He had tattered clothing. He looked really down and out.

And they started up a conversation. And as they were talking, he found out that this man once had had a decent job and lost it. He had children and a wife. And he was really in a lot of despair because of his financial situation. So the young bachelors thought, I have a good idea, then I'd I'd like to be able to give him this turkey.

But I don't want to offend him, so I'll tell him I'll sell it to him for whatever he could afford. And so when he told the man that, the man got out the little bit of money he had left in his pocket and gave it to the young bachelor. And then he left the subway very happy that he had just bought a plaster of Paris turkey. So when the young man came back from the holidays, all of his colleagues ran around them. They were all kind of excited to see what had happened. And he told them the story. And you can just imagine how they felt.

So for the next several weeks, both the young man and the other guys in the office rode the subway. They never saw the man again. Now, here's my question. If you judge the young bachelor by the act itself. He did a terrible thing. He sold a plaster of Paris turkey to a man with no money.

But if you judge his motive of why he did it, then you would say that his giving was thoughtful and benevolent. Now, what's the point of the story? Why am I telling you this?

I'm telling you this for this reason. You and I are not qualified. You and I are not qualified to judge the action of others. You and I are not qualified to judge the actions of others.

And that will come to play as I go on this morning. You remember that two weeks ago I asked the question, why wouldn't everybody, everybody want to believe that biblical Christianity is true? Why wouldn't someone want to believe that? That we're saved by grace and grace alone through faith and faith alone.

Who wouldn't want to receive that? And I said at that time that grace was the undeserved, unearned, unearnable favor of God. I also said that John said that it was the reason that Christ came to earth.

He didn't come to earth to be right. He came to earth to make things right by grace. And John said he was full of grace and truth.

Well, that's true. Last week, I said, though, the problem is that grace bothers us. We struggle with grace. The Bible teaches us that grace is bestowed on all of us, even terrible people like Zacchaeus and Matthew.

The grace of God was bestowed. And to make his point, Jesus taught us a parable last week and said, we're bothered by grace being bestowed on people that we wouldn't want to bestow grace on. We feel that we've earned the grace that we get and people in the parable coming lately and getting the same grace bothers us.

And we talked about that. Now, as we go to the New Testament and we read through it, this last message I want to do on grace is that God expects you and I. To be people not only have received grace, but he expects you and I to be people who bestow grace on others.

He expects that of us. He expects you and I to be the people who bestow grace on others. We're not just to be the recipients of grace. We're to bestow that same kind of grace on other people. The reason is grace makes our world tolerable. It makes it work. Remember the old Christmas hymn we sing and it's a God and sinners reconciled.

Why? Grace. What Christ did, that's grace. God and sinners are now reconciled.

What about for us, though? How does grace work? The same way, I guess an illustration I'd like to use is that grace is the oil.

That allows all of us to function. If you understand motor oil and a motor of a car. The car's motor is precise. It's built with extreme, very small tolerances. Everything in the motor has a function to make the motor fire and run and then eventually go through the transmission into the rear end and run the tire so that you and I go up and down the highway.

Everything works great. But what if you don't have any oil in the car? You see, what happens then? If you don't have the oil, which I think is grace, all of a sudden there's friction. Lots of friction.

There's so much friction that the parts destroy each other. And I think that's exactly what happens in the context for us, that that's what grace is to be. It's the oil by which we relate to all other people. It allows us to live together, to work together, to be together, that we bestow grace to one another.

And that's what he wants to tell us. You see, the thing about grace that makes it so amazing is that it has to be experienced to have any meaning at all. Grace is always in a relationship. You have to either receive grace or give grace. The word grace doesn't mean anything if there's no one receiving it or no one bestowing it. It doesn't mean anything. It only means something in the context of a relationship. That only not only means that for us vertically.

But it also means that for you and I horizontally with other people. Whenever you and I extend grace to other people, you and I are amazing. Whenever you and I extend grace to other people, it's that one time in your life that you're most like your Heavenly Father. Because you bestow grace to other people, undeserved, unearned and unearnable.

And that's where the rub is for us. There are some people you don't mind bestowing grace on. Any of you been married long enough, you know how much grace you bestowed. There's a lot of grace in marriage. In fact, if you don't have grace in marriage, you don't have much marriage. There's a lot of grace.

You bestow that on each other constantly. And it's easy for us to bestow grace on people we love. And we can even bestow grace on people we like. And then there's all the other people. And we really don't like bestowing grace on them. Even some certain kinds of people we don't like bestowing grace on. That's a struggle for us.

That's where we really struggle. Jesus wants to speak to that because he knows our human nature. He knows what the fall has done to us. So I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew 7, the last chapter of the Sermon on the Mount. The most profound words Jesus ever spoke in one setting that we have written in the Word of God. The Sermon on the Mount. Now please understand the context of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus sets up right before he begins to preach. And he basically says this, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll never see the kingdom of heaven.

And I told you when I've taught that, everyone in the audience would have gasped. They view the scribes and Pharisees as the most religious men on earth. And Jesus said, if you don't exceed them, you're not going anywhere.

Nothing good is going to happen to you at all. And so then he begins the Sermon on the Mount. And so we come to this chapter 7. And he says this, do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way that you judge, you will be judged.

And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Now there is a lot of there's a lot of bad ways to interpret this. And we've done them all. Human beings just love these verses to make them say something that they don't say. For example, he did not mean that it's wrong to have judges, laws, courts. He didn't say that. He said, well, who would believe that? Tolstoy believed that. Tolstoy believed that's what Jesus was saying. There should be no laws, no judgment of any human being.

Now, we know that's not true. I mean, we know that's not true because in Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, both Peter and Paul say there's a reason we have government is to punish evildoers. There has to be judgment among people. Jesus is not saying there shouldn't be any sense of justice or a judgment within a culture.

He's not saying that at all. Also, when Jesus before he was crucified, he didn't he he never disputed Pilate's authority. Pilate had authority.

He could draw judgment. Jesus didn't say he couldn't. Secondly, he did not mean that we shouldn't take a stand for moral or doctrinal issues.

That's real popular today. Jesus said, don't judge. You should never take a stand against anybody's morality or anything anybody believes because Jesus said, don't judge. That's not what he meant.

Not at all. I mean, look at verse six. Jesus says right after these five we're looking at this morning, do not give what is holy to dogs. Do not throw pearls before swine.

They will trample underfoot and they will turn and tear you to pieces. Now, notice what Jesus just said. There are apparently people that are dogs and people that are hogs. He judged them. You see, he can't be saying don't do that. He said, no, what I'm telling you is do not.

You see, do not capitulate to hogs and dogs. He said, because they're going to take what is holy and they'll just trample it underfoot. He's not talking about that kind of judgment at all. In fact, in verse 15, he says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing. You need to judge.

You need to be discerning on issues that are moral or doctrinal. Paul, he stood against the immorality of Corinth over and over again in First Corinthians. He told them they were immoral. He stood for that. He told Timothy the same thing in Ephesus.

Timothy, you need to take a stand against such things. He's not talking about we shouldn't stand on judge moral or doctrinal issues. And lastly, he's not saying that it's always wrong to correct any error.

It's not. In Matthew 15, same book, he gives us the outline of church discipline. He tells us that if somebody is sinning, you find out about it, how you should act, what you should do.

What are the steps that we take? So clearly, he's not talking about that. In Galatians six and verse one, Paul says, you who are spiritual in a church should be involved in the restoration of those who are in sin. There's no doubt that he's talking about something else.

In fact, even Paul confronted Peter in the front of the church of Antioch. He's not talking about that either. But what's he talking about? He's talking about something that comes really natural to you and I. A critical spirit. We draw judgments on all kinds of things.

He's not talking about oversight. He said some of us have these critical spirits. He said you can't do that. And the inference here is pretty clear. You can't have a critical spirit and bestow grace to other people.

You can't. And Jesus says, look, I don't want you to do that. He said you don't do that. And he gives good reasons. He said, look, it's only judgment is a divine prerogative.

It belongs only to God. Secondly, he also says, though, when you do it, you invite judgment from God on you. God views that as sinful. So he then says this.

You know the verses. He says, why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but you do not notice the log that's in your own? He says, or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye and behold, the log is in your own eye. This is unbelievable hyperbole. He's taken these extremes to tell us what we're really like when we do this. Now, you think about this.

You see the image in your own mind. Do you ever have someone you're trying to get a speck out of their eye? Get a little Kleenex, right?

They pull the lid on. OK, you're right. That's what you're doing, right? OK, now, how would it work? How would it work if I were doing it like this?

This came in the toddler room between services, by the way. It wasn't my idea, but how would that work? I mean, do you see the absurdity of this? This is absurd.

And that's why Jesus is trying to make his point. He's saying, when you act like that, you're absurd. Why do you do this? Why do you do it? Now, I know what some of you are saying. It's not a speck.

I mean, after all, he's a Democrat. Sometimes it's really personal. I was hurt deeply. I had a father that deserted us with all the kids.

My mother had to raise all the kids, and then late in life, my father got ill and came back and wanted all of us to take care of him. I'll never forgive him for that. Look what he did to us. You see, it's personal. Jesus says, look, no matter how you cut it, though, it's a speck.

You're going to see in a moment as this plays out. The recipients of grace have to be those who bestow grace on someone else. Hold your place here and go with me to Ephesians chapter 4.

The first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul was teaching theology. He's telling us how great it is to be a believer in Jesus Christ. He says, your sins are forgiven.

You're heaven bound. God has blessed you with every blessing in the heavenly places as yours. It's all a gift. It's all grace. Now, he says, how do you behave? How should a Christian act?

You see, that's an interesting thought. How should we act as people? So he says in chapter 4, verse 1 and verse 2, he says, therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling in which you've been called. There is a worthy way in which a Christian should live their lives in gratitude to what the Lord has done through grace for us. Notice the next thing he says, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.

Oh, what's he mean by that? Grace. Show them grace. You be patient. He said, you be patient. You show tolerance.

You be gentle. They don't deserve that. Neither did you. They haven't earned that.

Neither have you. He said, that's what you should do. He goes on in the chapter, as you get near the end of the chapter, starting in verse 25. He says, all these things are our responsibility now as Christians. Lay aside falsehood.

Speak truth to each other. He said, each one of you to your neighbor, we're all members. He said, be angry, but don't sin.

Don't let the sun go down in your anger. He said, don't give the devil an opportunity. If you still stop stealing, he says in verse 28 and verse 29, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only a word that is good for edification according to the need of the moment. He said, so that it will give grace to those who hear. You need to speak grace. No unwholesome, no unkind word. You need to speak grace to people.

It gets worse. He says, verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Don't talk about people.

That's how we talk about people. Notice, with wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and then he says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, and then these words, forgiving each other, just as God also forgave you, Christ. How has God forgiven you? What sins have you committed?

How big were they? How many do you commit? How many are you continuing committing today, tomorrow? And they're all forgiven because of grace. And Paul says, and that means that as a recipient of grace, you should be one who bestows grace on someone else.

That's what you should be. That's what we are known for. We bestow grace on people.

Hmm. Well, back to Matthew 7, he said, how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye? Behold, the log is in your own eye. He said, you overestimate yourselves. When you're critical of other people, you overestimate you. You completely overestimate yourself. Look, you're not that good. The truth is, you're not good at all. You see, there's nothing about you that's good.

Why are you pretending you are the standard? I'm not like him. That's Phariseeism. Remember the Pharisee went to the temple and said, God, I thank you.

Do you like other men, like this tax gatherer? You see, that's not grace. He says, don't do that.

He said, you overestimate yourself completely. In the Luke passage, in Luke 6, there's a parallel passage to this. And there, Jesus says, a blind man cannot guide the blind, can he? Of course not.

Won't they both fall into the pit together? You can't help take the speck out of someone's eye with a plank in yours. You can't.

And if you have an attitude that is critical, you have a plank in your eye. You see, that's his point. He says, you can't do it. It won't work that way. Now, is there a way we do it? He said, yes.

He said, you hypocrite. First take the log out of your own eye. Then you'll be able to see clearly and take the speck out of someone else's. Again with you. You always have to start with yourself. That's the way this has to work. By the way, that's exactly the way Paul did it. That was exactly how Paul acted.

Taking the plank out of his own eye. These are the words of the apostle Paul. I am the chief of sinners. Not I was. Not I used to be.

I am. The chief of sinners. Paul understood who he was. You see, Paul understood that completely. And the other thing that Paul said was, I am what I am by the grace of God. On the basis of who I really am, my flesh, I'm the chief of sinners. Now as this great apostle, I am who I am by the grace of God.

And Paul took the plank out of his own eye. 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 where you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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