Prejudice, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

And I know who I am now. I'm a member of God's household. I'm a citizen of heaven with every other person who through faith accepted Christ. And there is absolutely no place for any prejudice in my life whatsoever, or yours. From 1900 all the way to just around the year 2000, the most segregated time in America was during church services.

Isn't that terrible? That's when we're most segregated. I'm not worshiping Jesus with them, my brother and sister in Christ.

I mean, come on, we bought into the social construct. There's no place for 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. Now, the Greeks are an extremely prejudicial group of Gentiles. The Greeks are prejudice against anybody who's not Greek.

If you're not Greek, you're no good. The Greeks gave us a word from back then that we still use today. They gave us the word barbarian. OK. And the Greeks view a barbarian as this. Everybody who is not Greek speaks like this.

Bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar. That's the way they speak. And they're all barbarians. But we're Greeks. So you take the prejudicial Greeks and you take the super prejudicial Jews and guess where they all find themselves in church.

Here we are now in church. You see, that's not the only problem. The Church of Jesus Christ has masters in it. And slaves. Now, there are some prejudice going on here.

Masters and slaves, slaves and masters. You see, and that's what Paul is trying to address. So he says to the Greeks, he said, the circumcision calls you uncircumcised.

He said, notice, though, there's things about you that are true. One, you're separate from Christ. Two, you're excluded from Israel, the chosen people. Three, you're strangers of the covenant of promise. Four, you have no hope. And five, you're without God in the world.

Paul sets the record straight for that. And so what we're talking about is two completely, completely lost group of people. In our world, prejudice has become a little more narrow, especially over the last six months. Americans are notoriously prejudiced based on race. That's how Americans see it. It's them and us, different races.

That should never be the case for any believer in Jesus Christ. But there's nothing new about it. I want you to hold your place here. Go with me to Numbers, Chapter 12. Numbers, Chapter 12. And if this wasn't so sad, this is kind of funny.

But it said Numbers 12. Verse one, then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, Miriam and Aaron, his brother and sister. Now, by the way, they both didn't speak. Word spoke feminine. Miriam did all the speaking. This is typical of women and men.

Miriam did all the speaking. And Aaron just stood there and nodded. Passivity of men.

He just nods away. But I want you to see something here. It says, then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married. For he had married a Cushite woman.

What? Now, when you read that, normally you just read it and say, oh, it's another ite. There's ites all over the Old Testament, just some other ite woman.

Now you've got to do your homework on this. Moses' first wife was Zipporah. She was in the land of Midian when he was tending sheep all those years. It seems obvious by now that Zipporah has died and Moses has married a Cushite woman. Now, what's that mean?

Well, it means this. She's Nubian. That won't help you much that she's Nubian, but this might. She's from northern Kenya or southern Ethiopia. She's black.

What? Yeah, she's black. She's an African. Moses married her. Huh?

Yes. Now you say, well, who is she really? More than likely, Cushites were put in slavery just like Jews were. So I'm sure she's a fellow slave in Egypt. I also believe clearly that she would have become a Jew, converted to Judaism, wow in Egypt, and left when the Jews left Egypt in the Exodus, she left with them. And Moses married her.

Now here's what makes this, shows you how insidious prejudice is. What's what happens? And they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us as well?

And the Lord heard it. What does that have to do with the Cushite? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Zero. See, Miriam was upset that Moses, she had great power for a woman. She was one of the big three with Aaron, Moses and herself. And she's a prophetess. But Moses got all the ink. Moses is like number one. Everybody respected Moses. She didn't like that.

Now think about this. Her grievance is, why is this concerning Moses? Has the Lord only spoken to him? Then why is verse one even in there? Because it says they spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he married. Because he married a Cushite. That shows you how prejudiced she is. God, look, I have a grievance against Moses.

And let me tell you something, he married a black woman. Yeah. Wow. What is that? Prejudice.

All the way back in Numbers. Prejudice. Her skin's not like ours. Had nothing to do with what was said. Prejudice is right in the heart of every fallen human being.

It's terrible. Now let's go back to Ephesians for a moment. You see, when we get back to Ephesians, the prejudice that Paul was talking about is different, but very similar to the kind of prejudice we have in our country. This is Jew and Gentile, the prejudice. But in America, of all the prejudice we have, there's been one that has hounded us more than anything, and it's the prejudice between blacks and whites. That's been prejudice. And we justify it.

Because we say, well, it's okay for me to be prejudiced because we are of different races. Right? One of my favorite preachers in the whole world is Vody Bockham. Tremendous preacher. He's black. Great preacher. And I'm indebted to him for what he has said about this.

He got to this section and he talked about it and he said, look, first of all, let me tell you something. When you fill out an application and it says race, be accurate. Human. That's what you are. You're a human.

And there are only humans. There's no race. That's ethnicity. That has nothing to do with it at all. You see, race in our country is a social construct. Not biblical at all. It's a social construct.

It's arbitrary. We made it. That's a completely different race.

Wow. Vody goes on and he says, look, if you look at the genetic materials of all human beings, whether they're Indian in the upper Amazon or Eskimos in the Arctic Circle or from Africa or Asia or from Europe and America, the genetic material of all human beings is 99.8% exactly the same. There's only one race because we all come from the same parents. There's only one race of people. But we've bought into this social construct kind of thing.

And it ends up being so damaging to us from that point of view. He goes on and says, look, he said, I'm a black man. And you're a white man. And the difference between you and me is I have more melanin than you. God gave you less melanin and gave me more. Now, look, don't be jealous. Don't get all wound up and go, why did God give you more than me?

But he gave me more melanin than you. That's the difference between us. But that's not how we think, is it? And boy, when you start reading how we justify things, when you read some of the books and sermons from the 1830s, 40s, and 50s in the Deep South by people who would claim to be evangelical Christians, they ended up justifying their prejudice and their hatred into slavery by saying things like, we are human beings and blacks are not. And so we're not enslaving a human being. We're just enslaving a black person.

What? That comes from the word of God. Nothing like that comes from the word of God at all. But it justified our prejudice.

It made us prejudice when it comes to things like that. He goes on then, and in verse 13, there's another great but. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. He just told them five ways that Gentiles were lost. He said, but now it's all different because of Christ.

You're not far off. You've been brought right into the family of God, not because of anything you did, but because what Jesus Christ has done. For he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. There's only one people, and all the work was done by Jesus Christ, not by anybody else.

I love Paul's illusion. He said, you broke down, he said, the barrier of the dividing wall. If you went to the temple grounds, they had a court of the Gentiles and a wall and a court of the Jews. And if a Gentile was found in the court of the Jews, it was a capital offense.

You'd be executed. There's a wall. Paul says, not anymore. There's no wall between Gentiles and Jews at all. That wall went down. Jesus Christ brought that wall down. He said, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments, he said, contained in ordinances so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace. Peace with God, peace with each other, reconciliation. Christ not only reconciled me to God, he reconciled me to all other people. I've been reconciled through Christ, and so have you.

He said, that's what Jesus Christ has done. And he said, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, he said, by it having put to death the enmity. There's no enmity between Jews and Gentiles. There's no enmity between slaves and masters. There's no enmity between blacks and whites. There's no enmity between the rich and the poor. There's no enmity. There is only the body of Christ.

There is no enmity. He said, he goes on and quotes the Old Testament. He said, and he came and he preached peace to you who were far away, the Gentiles, and peace to those who were near. That's the Jews. For through him we both have our access in one spirit to the Father.

Wow. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. So I know who I was, dead in my trespasses and sins. And I know who I am now. I'm a member of God's household.

I'm a citizen of heaven with every other person who through faith accepted Christ. And there is absolutely no place for any prejudice in my life whatsoever, or yours. Things have gotten better in the church in the last 20 years.

Hopefully this year won't set it back. But if you go back 25 years in the church, back from 1900 all the way to just around the year 2000, the most segregated time in America was during church services. Wow. Isn't that terrible? That's when we're most segregated. I'm not worshipping Jesus with them, my brother and sister in Christ. I mean, come on.

We bought into the social construct. There's no place for that. That's what Paul is trying to get across to them. Verse 20 says, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into the holy temple of the Lord, in whom, he said, you also are being built together, he said, into a dwelling of God in his spirit. There's only one people of God, those saved by grace.

There is no one else. And what he's trying to tell them is you can't live with this prejudice between Jews and Gentiles or Jews and Greeks. And I'm telling you, we can't live with the prejudice either. Christ broke down that barrier. There's no barrier between us. I think one thing I've been really thankful for here, when I became pastor of this church, and it's pretty consistent with how I see things, I never prayed for the church to grow.

Never. I figure you established the depth of the church and that God established the width of the church. That's just the way I'd like it. But I did pray for one thing, that we would be an integrated church. The only thing I ever prayed for. And I thank God we are.

And I hope that continues. Because that's what the body of Christ should look like. There should never be this segregated idea based on our own prejudices. And I don't mean just us as prejudice. I mean all sides of this become prejudice.

It's our human nature to be such a thing. And there's absolutely no place for it. Go with me now to Galatians 3, a few pages to your left. Galatians chapter 3, verse 26. And I'll let God speak. I'll let God speak.

326. Great statement for us today. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Notice all. That means everyone who has put their faith in Christ Jesus is the Son of God. That's the only group we identify with.

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free man.

There is neither male nor female. You are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you're Abraham's descendants, heirs of the promise.

That's all there is. There's no artificial arbitrary group that you could put outside of this. Everybody who has put their faith in Christ are our brothers and sisters in Christ. And that's the only group that exists.

And it doesn't even matter. It's not only a matter of social standing or whether you're black or white. One of the ways we segregate and show our prejudice often is if there are people out there that sin in a way different than the way we sin. Then I'm prejudiced against them. I don't like those people. Who are you to?

They're not more lost than you were. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one.

Who are you to say that? There's no place in that for us. It's a delusion on our part. In fact, turn to Hebrew, I mean, Galatians 6 for a moment, and one verse, verse 3. This is something to remember. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Wow. When anyone thinks he is something, when in fact he is nothing, he's just deceiving himself.

Wow, don't do that. The Bible says so many things regarding prejudice. 1 Samuel 16, 7, the Lord said to Samuel, don't be impressed by his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. God does not view things the way people do. People look at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart.

That's how we should look, not by an outward appearance. Acts 17, 26, from one man he made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and fixed limits of places that they would live. So where did we all come from?

One man, one couple. Our ancestry is common. Romans 2, 11, there is absolutely no partiality with God, and why should there be any with us? James 2, verse 1, my brothers and sisters, do not show prejudice if you possess faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. That's a commandment. Don't you show prejudice to anybody. 1 Timothy 5, 21, Paul says to Timothy, before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, I solemnly charge you to carry out these commands without prejudice or favoritism of any kind.

There's no room for it. And at the end of the book of Revelation, I love these, Revelation 7, verse 9, after these things I looked and there was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, every tribe, every people, and every language, standing before the throne of the Lamb, dressed in long white robes with palm branches in their hands. Every, every, every. Revelation 14, 6, then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, and he had an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth, to every nation, every tribe, every language, and every people. The Bible says there's only two kinds of people in the whole world, the saved, that's us, the saved who have experienced the grace of God and the lost who need the grace of God in their lives. That's the way God sees the world.

Is that the way you see the world? In these days ahead, ask God to expose the prejudice in your own heart, and then repent of it. Put it behind you.

Let's pray. Father, I'm very aware of the fact that prejudice is so natural for us. We exercise it on so many levels, there are countless. But we show prejudice against other people or people groups from our group. It's natural, but it's not right. It's not the way a believer should see anyone. We need to see our brothers and sisters in Christ for what they are, our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we need to see the lost for what they are, people who need the grace of God in their lives. They are not our enemy.

They are victims of the enemy. And Father, by showing that kind of concern for them is the greatest hope we have of the gospel of Jesus Christ impacting their lives so that they can join the family of God. Father, help us deal with the prejudice in our own lives for our glory and for our good in Christ.

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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