Grace Is Christianity, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Wait, wait, wait, wait. He's a criminal. He's a sinner. He could be a murderer. He's getting what he deserves.

What do you mean today? Where's the restitution? What does he have to do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Because he can't do any more than you can do, or anyone can do. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's none righteous.

No, not one. You can't let religious people dupe you into thinking religion will make you righteous. It's contrary to the Word of God. 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. You know, Jesus does a lot of stooping because grace stoops.

That's what the kenosis is in Philippians. It says he emptied himself of all of his divine prerogatives. What's he doing? He's stooping. He's the son of God.

He's God incarnate. He becomes a man. He's stooping.

He's born in a manger. He's stooping. He's raised as a carpenter's son in Nazareth. He's stooping. The scripture even says that when Peter was sinking in the water, he stooped down and picked him up. The night before he's crucified, he stoops down and he washes their feet. And ultimately he goes to the cross and stoops. Because that's what grace does. Grace stoops.

Grace is God stooping toward man. And it says something else, though. It says with his finger, he wrote on the ground. Now, if you want to have fun, read about that. And the reason is no one knows what he wrote.

So everybody has an opinion. I mean, there are some said, no, he wrote that he's writing the Ten Commandments. That wouldn't make much sense in the context, but that's what they said he was doing.

I heard a guy this week. I heard him actually say this. He said he wrote, It takes one to know one. I understand why he did that, but I don't think that's what Jesus wrote. Some say that maybe he's just realizing the plight of man, that man just came from dust.

That's how God created him. And here's man. I don't know. I think what makes the most sense is he's just buying time. He's just allowing this time.

Grace stoops. The woman has to be thinking, what's going on here? What's happening here? But when they persisted.

Don't miss that very strong Greek word. Come on, come on. You have to answer us. What's the law say? Come on. Says when they persisted in asking him, he straightened up.

Grace stoops. Truth stands. So do you want truth? I'll give it to you.

I'll give you truth. He said he was without sin among you. Let him be the first to cast a stone at her. Oh.

No one expected that. He said, you're without sin, you cast the stone. If you're without sin, you cast the stone. And you're kind of wondering, like, what's really what? Why is he saying this?

What's really going on here? Jesus knows something about us. We're almost all adulterers. Jesus knows that. Hold your place here and go with me to Matthew five for a moment. Matthew five and verse twenty seven Sermon on the Mount. He says, You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. That's true. That's in the law. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Oh, that's a different group, isn't it? He said, You're missing the point. You're all adulterers.

Remember, they're all men standing there. Jesus says that's the problem with religion. That's the problem with it. You don't understand your own dilemma. You don't understand the depth of your own problem.

You always try to take the easy way out. Back now to John. He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast a stone at her. Listen, guys, if we're looking for justice, none of us have any hope at all.

If you want justice, there is no hope for any human being. That's the point that Jesus is making. Verse eight, he stooped again and wrote on the ground. Grace stoops, grace stoops, truth stands, grace stoops.

It's amazing. It says, Let's give this a little more time. Now they're thinking about it. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones. He was left alone. And the woman where she was in the center of the court. Grace stoops and conviction happens. Stones fall. To the ground. The name callers shut their mouths. They have nothing to say. Conviction enters the human heart.

The oldest first. Why? A couple of reasons. Maybe they're more mature.

Maybe they have a bigger, longer memory and realize just how sinful they are. Grace stoops, truth stands, grace stoops. And now guess what happened? Truth stands.

He stands up, straightening up. Jesus said to her, Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you? I can't imagine what she's thinking.

I don't know if she has any understanding of the depth of what's going on here. She said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said, I do not condemn you either.

Go. From now on, sin no more. Truth speaks. See, grace never pretends that sin isn't sin.

It never pretends that. You go and sin no more. Grace is free to us. But unimaginably costly to him. It causes him the agony of the cross.

He understands that. It is always a serious thing to us. Sin should always be serious. You don't abuse grace. You're grateful for it. It motivates you.

But we never abuse it. Sin is recognized. Grace is applied. And Jesus always gives the assurance that sin will be paid for. We're always being accused.

As I said before, religion accuses. You see, you're not doing it. You're not doing enough. You're not doing it right. You need to do what we tell you. Then you'll be right. You can't be.

You're no different than the woman. Satan always accuses us. It never stops. In fact, in Revelation 12 and verse nine, it says he who accuses us before God day and night.

Day and night. He accuses us. Do you see what Bill did? Do you see what Bill thought?

Do you see what he's doing now? And our high priest Jesus Christ simply says, grace. It's grace.

I paid for that. It's grace. There is a justice behind it through the finished work of Jesus Christ. God doesn't wink at sin. Grace is no abuse.

It's a wonderful, wonderful fact. Satan doesn't have the final word. Christ does. Condemnation doesn't get the decide.

Grace does. We've all been caught in the act of sin, haven't we? All of us. We deserve to be condemned. We can't make restitution. And God offers us the undeserved.

Unearned and unearnable grace of God. And what do we get? We get a clear conscience. We get a clear record. We get a clear heart. We are free from accusation. We are free from condemnation, not just for our past sins, but our present and future ones. Who wouldn't want to believe that?

Who wouldn't want to believe that? I don't understand. Turn with me now to Ephesians chapter two, Ephesians chapter two. And Paul gives us the theology of the story we just looked at. Verse one.

Our situation. In these first through three verses, and they're true. He says, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we, too, all formerly lived in the lust of our own flesh, indulging in desires of the flesh and of the mind. And she, he says, were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. No different than Paul saying all of sin and fall short of the glory of God to the Romans.

None of us can make it on our own merit. He says, But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages that come that he might show the surpassing riches of the grace and the kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. And then these great words by Paul for by grace.

You've been saved. Through faith. That not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. It's not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. You see, is there a place for good works?

Yes. On the other side of grace. On the other side of salvation. We have good works. But we're never justified that way.

We're justified only by the grace of God. It's hard to imagine someone could read that text and not want to believe that. I don't want to believe that.

I hope it's not true. Notice it's all based on the finished work of Christ, and even there, what we see is grace. The last passage I want to look at is Luke. Chapter twenty three. Luke Chapter twenty three.

Verse thirty two. You know, the scene to others also who were criminals were being led away. To put to death with him. The Romans are going to crucify three that day. They have crucified thousands.

These are criminals, most likely either real crimes like murder or they were zealots, political zealots against Rome. And when they came to a place called the Skull. There they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. The first words of Jesus on the cross of the seven things he said. But Jesus was saying. And I love that was saying, by the way, there's a very good chance he said this over and over, not once. Jesus was saying, Father, forgive them.

They do not know what they're doing. Even in the last stooping effort, they mocked him, they spit on him, they beat him, they scourged him, they nailed him to a cross. His response to all that is, Father, forgive them. That's the love of God. And they cast lots dividing up his garments among them, and the people stood by looking at him and even the rulers were sneering at him, saying he saved others, let him save himself if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one. Right to the end, the religious leaders are sneering. It can't be grace.

It won't be grace. The soldiers also mocked him, coming up to him, offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. It says now there was also this inscription above him. This is the king of the Jews.

It could have said this is the king of kings and Lord of lords. One of the criminals who hang there was hurling abuse at him. I don't know how he had the energy to hurl abuse. Once you're crucified, remember the way this works. You're hanging by your hands, and they put a little slanted stoop under your tailbone.

You die of asphyxiation, and the only way you can breathe is to push yourself up by your feet to get yourself up so you can get air in. Talking is something that doesn't happen a lot on crosses. It doesn't work that way, but he's got to get a shot in. He wants to hurl abuse at him. It's an amazing thing. But the other answered, rebuking him and said, Do you not even fear God? Since you're under the same sentence of condemnation and we indeed are suffering justly. For we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds. This man has done nothing wrong. Wow. That's amazing. Sin has reared its ugly head even at the cross, and this man says there's something wrong here.

Hmm. And then one of the most amazing things that happens in the word of God. And he was saying, Jesus. Remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Remember me when you come into your kingdom. How obviously stupid is that? This is a man that deserves to be crucified by his own lips. What does he have to offer? What can he do? You see, what can what is it he brings to the table? He has no bargaining power. He can't make restitution.

He can't do anything. And then Grace speaks. He said to him, truly, I say to you today, you'll be with me in paradise. What? What?

Today. You'll be with me in paradise. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. He's a criminal. He's a sinner. He could be a murderer. He's getting what he deserves.

What do you mean today? Where's the restitution? What does he have to do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Because he can't do any more than you can do. Or anyone can do. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's none righteous.

No, not one. You can't let repeat religious people dupe you into thinking religion will make you righteous. It's contrary to the word of God.

It's even more amazing when you think about this, too, even from certain perspectives. He said, truly, I say to you today. He didn't say, you know, you're going to have to do 10,000 years in purgatory. You're going to have to go work this all off.

No, you're not. Today. Paradise with me. Just like Abraham. Just like David. Just like Isaiah. Just like him.

You're going to be with me. That's grace. That's grace.

This man had nothing to offer. Just like us. By the way, grace isn't fair. It's better than fair. It's amazing.

It's absolutely amazing. No restitution. Wow. Why wouldn't everybody believe in biblical Christianity? What would your reason be? That I don't want to believe in this.

Please remember, I beg you. James said, if you're guilty of one aspect of the law, one stumble, you're guilty of the whole law. There's nothing you could ever do to justify yourself before a holy God. Maybe in other words, every time we sin, it has a gotcha attached to it.

Every time we sin, it has a gotcha. And you know why Jesus came? To get you. That's why he came.

He came to get you. That's grace. That's the grace of God. All he wants from you is this, that you put your trust and your faith in his person and in his sacrifice. He says, and I'll give you everything. That's grace.

Why wouldn't everyone want to believe in biblical Christianity? Let's pray. Father, we have no words to express our gratitude for the grace of God. It has done for each and every one of us what we could never do for ourselves. It is the hope of man. It offers to all men a chance to be forgiven of their sin, to stand in righteousness before you, to have eternity as their destiny.

Or as the Apostle Paul says, we even become joint heirs of everything that you create. Not because of what we've done, but because of what you have done. We thank you for sending your son the instrument of grace. Jesus, we thank you.

The life you lived, the death you died. Just offer us the grace of God. Father, I pray if anybody here is hearing my voice and they've never really wanted to trust that, that they understand there's nothing else they can trust that will ever change their standing before God, that they accept this free gift that Paul talked about in Ephesians 2.

They have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Thank you for the grace of God. In Jesus' name, amen. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .