Five Pearls, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. He deems your life from the pit. Now it's just me, but I love that word. Pit. Your life has been redeemed from the pit. It's just got a wonderful way of saying it. From the pit.

Wow. What's that mean? The Hebrew word means to be in ruin.

It means to be completely in ruin. The prophet said this. He said never forget the pit from which you have been dug. Never forget what life was like before God found you. Never forget that. You see, never forget that.

That's what he is saying. 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. Five pearls. David puts five pearls on the string and he hangs it around the neck in gratitude and says thank you.

I would pray that's what you would do as well. Here's the first one. He says who? You'll notice in every one of these verses starts out who, who, who. Everything is who. He says who pardons all your iniquities.

Think about that. He pardons all your iniquities. All of them. Every single one of them. He will never say to you, I think you've gone too far.

I think that's one too many. He said, no, I, I've pardoned them all. Just think of your life over the last month. How many sins you've committed just over the last month.

Then think back on your life and some of the things you've done that all of us feel ashamed of. Think of it all. He said, I pardoned them all. I pardon every single one of those. Look at verse 10. He said he has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. He said, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. And as far as the east is from the west, so far he has removed our transgressions from us. Wow.

Think of that. How high is the heavens above the earth? Infinitely high. How far is the east from the west? Infinitely. There's no distance.

He goes, Yeah, that's the way this works. In fact, he also says in scripture, I take your sins, I take them to see, I throw them overboard. And I remember them no more. What an incredible statement. I remember them no more.

Do you realize what kind of effect that would have? I've even said it in the past, but do you ever go back to God to acknowledge your sins in your walk with him? And you're using First John one nine and you want to confess your sins and you basically come back and say, or I would say, God, it's Bill again. And, you know, here I am again. I committed the same sin again.

That type of thing. You know what God would say to me? What sin? What sin? I've forgotten it. I have forgotten it. Just think of that. A hundred times you go back, he says, what sin?

I remember it no more. Wow. Steadfast love of the Lord never changes his mercies never come to an end.

They're new every morning, new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. It's incredible what God has done. He pardons all of our iniquities.

Amazing. Secondly, the second pearl, he says, and he heals all your diseases. Oh, what does that mean? He heals all your diseases. Some would say, well, in our prosperity days, that means every disease is healed by God.

It's a promise. Now they realize that that's not true. So they say, well, they'd all be healed if you had enough faith. And if you aren't healed, you don't have enough faith. And that's the only reason that's heresy. Let me be as honest as I can about that.

That's not what he's talking about at all. And you'll see in a moment why. First thing, by the way, is almost all of us will die of disease. Well, heart disease will have some, you know, some tiny internal organ. We'll have pneumonia when we become elderly.

Now, some of us die in accidents, some of us die of other things, but most of us will die of disease. There's no exceptions. So if he says he heals all your diseases, that's simply not true. It doesn't ring true at all. Because that's not what he's saying. There's a couple of things I want you to understand about that verse.

Here's the first one. When David is writing a psalm, he's writing poetry, a specific kind of poetry, Hebrew poetry. Now, when the Hebrews write poetry, they don't try to rhyme the word at the end like we do in English. They use a tool called parallelism. In other words, you write one line and you write a parallel line underneath it. Those two lines are interpreted together. It's called synonymous parallelism. In other words, what is said in the first line is reset in a different way in the second line.

That's what this is. Now, I want you to understand something here. He says, then, who pardons all of our iniquities and heals us from all of our diseases. These two relate to one another.

And in fact, you have to understand. What does he mean about our diseases? What's the antecedent to this? What's he referring to?

What's the subject? Oh, my soul. He's talking about his soul.

Oh, my soul. He's not talking about anything else. He's talking about me, about my soul. He's talking about those soulish diseases that we have. He's talking about a spirit of bitterness.

He's talking about all of these different things that attack our character from the inside. He heals all that. And we'll see in a moment just as to how he does it. Sometimes he does it in this life. And sometimes he'll do it at the end.

But the point of it is he always does it. He heals all of our diseases. The Book of Job is a very philosophical book. It's an incredible book to read. And it's because Job suffers in that book, unlike any of us have ever even imagined anyone could.

I don't know of anyone, and maybe you don't either, had ever suffered like Job. Remember, he was the most righteous man on earth. He was prosperous. He had 10 children.

Everything was going well. And then, through a discussion between Lucifer and God, God said, you can do anything you want to him, but you can't kill him. And so what happened to him? He lost all of his servants. They were all killed. That's tragic. Then he lost all 10 of his children.

I couldn't even imagine what that'd be like as a parent. 10 children are all dead. He lost 10 children. Then he lost all of his wealth. And then he lost all of his respect within the village itself. He lost it completely. And then he lost his health.

And then he's out on the city dump, sitting on an ash heap in ashes and sackcloth with a piece of pottery scraping the sores off his body. You remember that even his wife said to him, she said, Curse God and die. Don't be too hard on her. When the scripture says that Job was the most righteous man in the world, he didn't say his wife was the most righteous woman in the world.

It doesn't often work like that. She can only experience life the way she can experience it. She's unique in her own way. She lost 10 children. She lost all her wealth. She lost all the respect that her husband had. She lost everything.

And she said, You should just curse God and die. And then the story of Job is about friends coming and offering all kinds of advice as to why this happened. And Job is struggling. He's disillusioned. All Job keeps saying is, I just like an audience. I just like to stand before him. I just like to be able to interact with him just like you and I when we suffer. I want to know why. I just want to know.

That's all. And we know at the end of the book, God comes out of the whirlwind and gives Job the business and Job repents. But in that process, I want you to see how God was healing his soul. Go with me now to Job 23. Job 23. And verse 10, Job's interaction with Eliphaz, one of his friends.

But I want you to see along the process, Job is waking up. He's beginning to get some idea about this. Starting in verse 10, he says this. But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. That's an interesting statement on his part.

And by the way, when you read the end of the book, he does come forth as gold when the trial is over. But Job's got some insight into this. He said, My foot, he said, is held fast to his path. I have kept his way. I've not turned aside. I have not departed from the command of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Job is beginning to heal his soul.

He's beginning to understand what's going on here. It's a process. Will it always work that way?

Not always in this life, but it will always work that way. What's the end game for you and me? According to Paul writing to the Romans, we will be completely conformed to the image of Christ. Every one of us will be completely conformed to the image of Christ. Every one of us will have the character of Jesus Christ. And you know what that means? All the diseases of our soul will be gone. You see, all of it. He will heal every single one of us.

That's what he is saying here. God heals all your diseases. Now, back to the psalm.

The third pearl. He redeems your life from the pit. Now it's just me, but I love that word. Pit. Your life has been redeemed from the pit. It's just got a wonderful way of saying it. From the pit.

Wow. What's that mean? The Hebrew word means to be in ruin.

It means to be completely in ruin. The prophet said this. He said, Never forget the pit from which you have been dug. Never forget what life was like before God found you. Never forget that. You see, never forget that.

That's what he is saying. Notice. Just hold your place a second here and go with Psalm 40 with me for a moment. David, again, I want you to see these first three words.

First three verses, David in Psalm 40 says this. I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined his ear to me and he heard my cry. He brought me out of the pit of destruction.

Same word out of the mire clay. That's where we came from. He set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm. He gave me purpose in life. He gave me meaning in life. He gave me direction in life. He said he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and trust in the Lord because what God has done for me. That's what he is saying. He redeemed my life from the pit, from what it was to what it is. But it would have been to what it will be.

Max Lucado says this. God speaking, he says, My child, I want you in my new kingdom. I have swept away your offense like the morning clouds, your sins like the morning mist. I have redeemed you.

The transaction is sealed. The matter is settled. I, God, have made my choice.

I choose you to be part of my forever family. That's exactly what redemption is. That's what God has done for us. He has pardoned all of our sins. He has healed all of our soul diseases. He redeems us in the pit. And now back to the Psalm 103, the next line. Who crowned you with loving kindness and compassion. I'd be happy just to be out of the pit. He says, No, I'm going to put a crown on you. I'm going to crown you.

I don't know how that doesn't make you grateful. Do you realize just how unworthy we are? We come from the pit. You see, we were all born on the wrong side of the tracks.

The Adamic side, all of us. He said, But I'm not just going to save you. I'm going to put a crown on your head. You see, I'm going to put a crown on your head.

And notice what the crown is. He says that the crown here is both going to be loving kindness and compassion. Loving kindness. As you know, my favorite word in the Old Testament, not loving kindness. That's kind of a weak word, but the Hebrew word is chesed. It's the best word ever in Hebrew. There's no English equivalent. That's why they call it loving kindness. Hesed, the word, the Hebrew word literally means stork. What?

Stork. Because of how loyal they are to one another and their eggs. It's the loyal love of God. It's the I will never leave you nor forsake you. It's that kind of love. I love you unconditionally forever with complete loyalty.

No matter what. That's what hesed is. He said he crowns me with hesed. And he said not only with hesed, but he crowns me with compassion. What's he mean by compassion?

Well, look down to what he says here. Verse eight. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness.

Verse 13. He said, Just as the father has compassion on his children. So he said, the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he himself knows our frame. He's mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, he flourishes. And when the wind has passed over, it is no more.

And its place acknowledges it no longer. But the loving kindness of God is from everlasting to everlasting to those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children. He said, That's what I have done.

That's what I have given you. I've given you loving kindness. And he said, I've given you compassion.

Now think of this. That word compassion literally is the word womb. It's the way a woman thinks about a baby in her womb.

The compassion that she has for this child. He said, That's what I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you all that. He said, I crown you with this. You see, you're not just saved. You're his child. If there's anything to remember by Thursday, just remember that and forget the rest.

But remember that. God has crowned you. It's not because of you. It's in spite of you.

It's because of God. What his very nature is like. He said, I have done this for you. He said, I have crowned you. He said, You're ahead.

An amazing thing. Then the final pearl, verse five. He said, Who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagle. This is a great verse.

He satisfies your years with good things. This flies in the face of our culture. You know what our culture says? Once you hit 35, you're going downhill. You're going downhill. It's all bad. Now, you can deny it.

You can dye your hair and get some Botox. You can do some stuff like that, and by the time you're 50, even you'll realize you're going down. OK, that's just the way this is going to be. You know what God says to that? That's not true. That's a lie. That's not true at all.

See, that's an interesting thing. You know what the best time of my life is? Right now. Right now, the best it's ever been. Not the good old days. Now, that's the way it should be for all of us.

This is the very best time. Remember what Paul said? The outer man, not too hard to figure this out. The outer man is decaying. But the inner man is being renewed. You see, you continue to peak spiritually as my body gives way to gravity and age.

My spirit sores. And there's something so beautiful about this because notice he says, he says, so that your youth is renewed. And he says, like an eagle. Guess why he picked an eagle? It's one of the only animals in the world that continually gets stronger as it gets older. Not like us. It doesn't peak in middle age and then decline.

Eagles get stronger as they get older. And that's why he picks it. He said, that's the way it is for you. He said he satisfies your years with good things. That alone would give you a Thanksgiving meal. The good things that God is giving you.

Wow. So many blessings. So much to be thankful for. He pardons all of our iniquities. He heals all of our soulless diseases. He redeems our lives in the pit.

He crowns us with his grace and he satisfies our years with good things. Can't you just say thank you? Thank you.

Thank you for that. There's probably someone here today that's never known life outside the pit. You don't know exactly what I'm talking about. You know nothing about being crowned with the grace of God. You don't really understand anything about a life that's saturated with good things. You think God is distant. You think that in your straw man argument that he's an unknowable God if he's there at all.

But you'd be wrong. I can guarantee you from the word of God. He loves you. He loves you so much. He sent his son for you.

The son loves you so much he went to the cross for you and died as your substitute. And all he asks from you is to put your faith and trust in him. That's always asking. Believe in me. He that believes in the son has life.

You see that's always asking. Use the moment. Make it the best Thanksgiving ever. Thank him for saving your soul. For the rest of us who know him. Thank him today. Thank him on Thanksgiving and thank him the days before. But let me say this. Thank him.

Not in your thoughts. Audibly thank him. Say God I thank you for what you've given me.

Thank you. Develop a heart of gratitude toward God. Such a wonderful thing to have. He has lavished you with his love. His grace is described in scripture as exceedingly abundant and indescribable. He's given it to you. It's a gift. He dispenses his goodness on us. Not with an eyedropper.

But with a fire hose. That's what God does. Our hearts are about the size of a Dixie cup. And God fills it with his grace which is about the size of the Gulf of Mexico.

He said I'll just let it overflow for you. We deserved rejection. And we got acceptance. We deserved wrath. And we got mercy. We deserved an adversary. And we got an advocate. We deserved justice and we got grace. We deserved hell. We got heaven. And all we ask of you is to thank him.

The purest form of worship that exists. Thank God for what he's given you. So thank him.

Today, tomorrow and all the way through Thursday. Tell him just how thankful you are. Let's pray. Father, it's kind of a sad thing that even in your church, we wait to this time of year to focus on being thankful. And for that, Father, we apologize. We should be permeated with gratitude and thanksgiving. And so we thank you. We thank you for all of the blessings that you have given us.

None of them are deserved. But all of them revealing your holy love for us. Father, I pray that we grow, not just in the grace and knowledge of Christ, but in our gratitude toward you. That we become a thankful people, giving you the praise and the glory and the thanksgiving of our hearts and of our lips. Father, may this thanksgiving be like all the other days of our life, filled with gratitude for you. We pray this 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. At that website, you will find on only today's website a link to our website, where you can find a link to our website and listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

At that website, you will find on 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 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. .