God Gives Grace, We Give Thanks, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. That's what God does. God gives grace.

He said, that's what I do. He said, for by grace you have been saved through faith, that is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, says the same thing again. He said, if you don't believe me, or you don't think I'm quite clear enough, let me say in verse nine, not as a result of works, so no one could boast.

You can't work your way toward it. There's no amount of things you're going to do that are ever going to justify you before God. It's a grace by God. God gives grace, that's what he says over and over. As a matter of fact, in the book of Acts, Paul calls the gospel, he says the gospel of the grace of God. The good news of Christ is the gospel of the grace of God.

It's a gift that's offered. 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. The pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts on December the 11th, 1620. They weren't even supposed to be there. They were supposed to end up in New York City, what we call New York City in the Hudson River, and they missed. 102 passengers took 66 days to come from England to the United States. When they got there in the middle of winter, most of them decided to stay on board the ship.

Didn't help much. About half of them died by spring. And then the following year, November of 1621, after a successful harvest, Governor William Bradford organized a celebration feast. We call that in our first Thanksgiving in America. One of the pilgrims, Edward Winslow, wrote this. He said, Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men hunting so that we might have a after a special manner rejoice together. And after we had gathered the fruits of our labors, the four men had that day had killed four fowl.

As with little help aside, he said, And this fowl served us for about a week. He said, Many of the Indians coming among us and among the rest of them was even their greatest king, Massasoit. He said, With 90 men whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and then they went out and killed five deer and they brought it to the plantation and bestowed it on our governor.

And although it was not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, he says, Yet by the grace of God, we are so far from one. The next Thanksgiving, by the way, wasn't until 1676 in the colony of Massachusetts. The third one was in 1776, 100 years later, and that was because we beat the British at the Battle of Sarasota, so they wanted to give thanks. And then in 1789, George Washington, after we had won our independence, said there should be a national day of Thanksgiving.

Not much happened with that after that. And Abraham Lincoln decided that the last Thursday of November would be the day of Thanksgiving here in the United States. And you think, well, it was because of Washington and Lincoln. It was not a day as wonderful, magnificent as Thanksgiving is more attributed to a woman than to a man. The woman's name, by the way, is Sarah Hale. She's called the mother of Thanksgiving. She's a prolific editor and writer and all of that. And for 40 years, for 40 years, she labored trying to get Thanksgiving to be a national holiday in the United States. She was a magazine editor. And you probably know her for her writings. She wrote one of your favorite stories of all time. Mary had a little lamb.

She wrote that. And and so what ends up happening is that in 1941, Congress finally decided to make Thanksgiving the last Sunday of November a national day of Thanksgiving. But what I want to talk about is what the Puritan said. What Edward Winslow said, he said, yet by the grace of God, we are so far from what? If there is one day in our calendar that reveals the nature of God and should reveal, I think, the nature of man, it's Thanksgiving. That's what life is in a nutshell. Thanksgiving should reflect this.

Just two important statements. God gives grace. Man gives thanks. That's pretty much the whole Bible. God gives grace. Man gives thanks.

That's the way this should work. God's glory is revealed when he gives grace. Go with me to Psalm 136. Psalm 136.

Sort of a microcosm of the whole message today, but we won't be here very long. Psalm 136. The psalmist writing. And he says in the first verse, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting.

Now, that sounds great, but what what does this goes on? I give thanks to the God of God says loving kindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the Lord of Lords for his loving kindness is everlasting to him who alone does great wonders is loving kindness is everlasting. He who made the heavens with skill is loving kindness is everlasting.

You notice a theme here. Every single one of these is loving kindness is everlasting. That word loving kindness, as you heard me say in the past, is probably the greatest single word in the Old Testament. And yet it's one word that we really can't define. It's the Hebrew word chesed.

There is no English word that's equivalent to it and there's no Greek word that's equivalent to it. And so the numeric and standard translators use the term loving kindness. It means so much more than that. Loving kindness doesn't really say much. It could be loyal love. It could be infinite grace, mercy, forgiveness, patience.

All those things are in this word chesed. And he keeps saying over and over again, his loving kindness is everlasting. You'll notice he starts out and he says in verse six to him who spread out the earth above the waters is loving kindness. He talks about creation. I won't go through the whole thing. It's a little redundant, but I'll go to the end of it to verse twenty three. And notice what he says there.

It gets personal. He said, Who remembered us in our lowest state for his loving kindness is everlasting, he says, and has rescued us from our adversaries. His loving kindness is everlasting. Who gives food to all flesh for his loving kindness is everlasting.

Give thanks to God of heaven. His loving kindness is everlasting. Because of the fall, the only thing that could save man and the only thing that could save this creation was the grace of God.

And God continues to bestow grace on everybody all the time. And to show you how it reveals his glory. Go with me to John, the Gospel of John, Chapter one, the Gospel of John, Chapter one. Now, this great chapter starts out in the beginning was the word word was with God and the word was God.

It's an amazing chapter from a philosophical point of view. But on the verse 14, he says, And the word became flesh. And dwelt among us. That's Christmas.

We'll get that in about a month. You see, that's the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father. Notice full of grace and truth, full of grace and truth. What does grace look like?

It looks just like Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the grace of God. Now, Paul said that through to Titus, when he wrote to him, he said, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. That's the grace of God, the unmerited favor. Of God.

God's plan. Is a plan of grace. Go with me now to Romans Chapter three. Romans Chapter three. In verse twenty three.

Paul makes his case against all human beings in Romans one, two and part of three. And he basically says something is kind of surprising to us. The first thing he says is, by the way, he said, Really sinful people are separated from God. And we would all say, amen. That's true.

Absolutely. Then he said, Oh, by the way, and all moral people are separated from God. And thirdly, all religious moral people are separated from God. That's his conclusion. All of them are separated from God. There's no one who's not. Wow.

Wow. What's he mean by that? Well, notice what he says in verse twenty three. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Everyone is included in that. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified. That means declared righteous. How do you get declared righteous by God or being justified, being justified as a gift by his grace?

Redundancy there. The words are the same. If the word gift is the word grace, then the word grace is the word gift. It's the same thing, he said, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus. In other words, he says, if man's going to be justified, he's going to have to receive a gift.

That's just the way this works. And that's the grace of God. Now you have to receive it through faith. Turn with me to Ephesians Chapter two. Ephesians Chapter two. And again, Paul writing. And verses eight and nine.

Very famous verses. Paul says to the Church of Ephesus, he said, for by grace you have been saved. So how are we saved by grace? What is grace? The unmerited favor of God.

It's a gift. That's what God does. God gives grace.

He said, that's what I do. He said, for by grace you have been saved through faith. That is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God says the same thing again. He said, if you don't believe me or you don't think I'm quite clear enough, let me say in verse nine, not as a result of works. So no one could boast.

You can't work your way toward it. There's no amount of things you're going to do that are ever going to justify you before God. It's a grace by God. God gives grace.

That's what he says over and over. As a matter of fact, in the book of Acts, Paul calls the gospel. He says the gospel of the grace of God. The good news of Christ is the gospel of the grace of God. It's a gift that's offered. And so God's plan is revealed by grace.

That's the way it works. There's more to it, though. Go with me to First Corinthians 15 10. First Corinthians 15 10. The great chapter on the resurrection.

His conclusion in this chapter, by the way, Jesus Christ was not raised in the dead. None of us have any hope of ever going to heaven. And we all ought to be pitied. He said, of all people, we should be the most pitied. Anyone who believes in Christianity without a resurrected Christ should be pitied.

There's no point in a resident in Christianity without the resurrection. And so that's how he starts out. He says, I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preach to you, which you also received and which you also stand. He said, by which you are also saved if you hold fast the word that I preach to you unless you believe in vain.

And then he goes on. He says that Christ raised from the dead, just like the scripture said he would. He appeared. He said he appeared to the twelve and to see this. He appeared to more than 500 and verse 70 said he appeared to James and the other apostles.

And last of all, he said he appeared to me. He said, I'm the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God. The grace of God reaches everyone. Here's Paul, who is the enemy of Christ. Paul was the one who ordered the execution of Stephen and the first martyr of the church. Paul is the one who hunted down Christians and incarcerated him. And then Paul received the gift of salvation. That's why he says he's the least. And then he says in verse 10, But by the grace of God, I am what I am. That's an incredible statement. By the grace of God, I am what I am.

Do you realize that's true about you and me? By the grace of God, you are what you are. Well, this is tough for us.

No, no, no, no. By the grace of God, you are what you are. You see, we stand in grace, all of us. Every one of us stand in the grace of God. You are what you are because of that. Let me ask you a question. Do you ever think of yourself in a lot of ways as a self-made person?

You see that I am who I am because I'm self-made. And that would be mistaken. Now, there's a lot of circumstances. I mean, that's really important.

We all live in the real world, right? And it's not important what you know. It's important what? Who you know. That's how you get ahead.

It's who you know. That's true, but you haven't gone back far enough. You remember what Jesus said to Peter? He said to Peter, Satan desires to sift you like wheat.

He said, but I pray for you. In other words, if you're a child of God, there's only one reason you're here today. The grace of God. If it wasn't for the grace of God, you wouldn't be here.

You'd be with the Lord, but you wouldn't be here. You see, almost everything in my life is on the basis of the grace of God. When I was born, where I was born, who's my family? Who are my friends? How was I educated?

What's my IQ? It's all the grace of God. God says, Yeah, I bestow grace on everything. And not only just bestowed on you, I bestow common grace on everyone. Humankind, after the fall, would have been without the grace of God extinct. They needed the grace of God.

God says, That's what I do. I give grace. Paul said to the Romans in chapter five, he said, We have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. You see, it's not just grace how you become a Christian.

It's grace because you are a Christian. You see, how do I live the Christian life? By the grace of God.

How do I become a Christian? By the grace of God. You see, God bestows grace on us over and over again.

It's interesting, though, but what about the hard stuff when he seems to be withholding it? Go with me to Second Corinthians chapter 12. Second Corinthians chapter 12. And if you're honest with yourself, have you ever been suffering in such a way and you're praying that it would go away? You know, and then it doesn't. And if you ever had the thought like, I think God's forgotten me. And I think that somehow he's withholding grace from me.

You see, we think along those terms. Paul, it's interesting. This is the famous passage of the thorn in the flesh by Paul. But notice in verse eight, Paul says this. He said, concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. Paul prayed his heart out. Three different times he said, Lord, I can't go on with this, this is too painful for me. This is really a struggle. And he probably rationalized like you and I did.

I could serve you better if I wasn't suffering so much. You see, we all do that. That's what we think.

And so Paul implored him three times. That's what we do. We pray. And then he said and he said to me, notice my grace is sufficient for you.

Wow. You see, his grace is sufficient for everything. Even in the midst of the worst times, he said, my grace is sufficient for you. And he gives Paul a little insight he doesn't give us. He said, for power is perfected in weakness.

That's the principle he said most gladly. Therefore, I'd rather boast of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell on me. Paul said, would you please take away the thorn? And God said, no, I won't take away the thorn.

I'll just give you grace. He said, because Paul, I know the thorns good for you. Now, how many people have a thorn in the flesh think it's good?

None of us do. He said, but Paul, whenever you're weak, you're much more dependent on me. You see, so he said, I'm not removing it. Now, Paul was a Pharisee and he probably struggled with pride. And God said, I'll see to it that you don't struggle with it. So Paul says, most gladly, you see, most gladly.

He said, I would do this. He said, I'll receive my weakness. I understand it, but it's only grace. Now, go with me to Hebrews chapter four.

We get a model here. The book of Hebrews chapter four in verse 16. So what happens when we're suffering? What happens when we're in difficult circumstances?

Have to make a big choice. What happens when we're terrified of a conversation we might have or something? What do you what do we do as believers? Well, here's what the writer of Hebrews says in verse 16. He said, therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. Let us draw near with confidence to where the throne of God, you think it doesn't say that, doesn't.

Where are we going? The throne of what? Grace, the unmerited favor of God. He said, let us go with confidence to the throne of grace. King James says, let's go boldly to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find what? Grace in time of need. God says, when you have a need, guess what I have for you? I have grace. Is that what you want?

Not necessarily, is it? I don't know if I want grace. I want my answer. You see, that's what I want.

I want the answer. I want what I want. God says, I'll give you grace. You see, I'll give you grace because you came into this world because of the grace of God. You've been sustained in this world because of the grace of God. You came to Christ because of the grace of God. You're a child of God because of the grace of God. And everything that happens in your life, God says, I'll bestow my grace on it.

Everything. Because God gives grace. That's his part. He said, that's what I do. Well, if God gives grace, that leaves us.

What do we do? We give thanks. Go with me to Psalm 9.

This may seem odd to you, but the more I've studied this over the last few weeks, the more I've come to this conclusion. In your relationship with God, the absolute most important aspect that you have control over in your relationship with God is, do you give thanks? And I don't mean on Thanksgiving. Do you give thanks every day?

Every single day? Do you give thanks? See, do you give thanks from your heart? Do you give thanks? See, God says, look, I'm going to give you everything. That's grace. It's unmerited. It's not because of you.

It's because of me. What I want from you is just to thank me. Notice how, though, in verse 1 of chapter 9, David says, I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart.

I will tell of your wonders. He said, be glad and exult in you, and I will sing praise to your name almost high. He said, I'll thank you with all my heart. You can't fake thanking.

OK, I know you want to. I've seen it so many times. You've got a four-year-old. Somebody does something nice for him and gives him something. And then he does what any four-year-old. He ignores everyone and just starts playing.

So the parent always comes in. Hey, hey, what do you say? Thanks. Yeah, there he said it. Look, if you're going to say that to God and we do that, don't say it. He knows what you're doing. Thanks.

I mean, come on. He said, no, you give thanks with all your heart. Jesus said, you'll love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, your neighbor as yourself, all your heart.

This is a hard issue. You have to be thankful. You have to become thankful. 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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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.