Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. There are so many signs in our culture that America is becoming something you and I would have never imagined it to become. The question is how does that affect us?
And the answer is easy, not at all. We're one of the only group of Christians in the whole world since the time of Christ till today that have ever lived in a country that supported Christianity, supported the church. Almost nowhere on earth has that ever happened. Christians have been in a minority and a persecuted minority virtually everywhere in the world. And now that it's happening here, we're kind of outraged by it and I guess as an American I can be sad about that. But as a Christian, I don't need to be.
In fact, I think I could even be a little bit optimistic. 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. Happy Independence Day, two hundred and forty five years old. This weekend will be a lot of celebrating in a lot of different ways. I heard that there'll be about thirty five to forty million people on the highway. I'm grateful I'm not out there. About three to four million people flying.
And I'm also grateful I'm not on the plane. But this will be a time of barbecues and family and fireworks parades. And all because something happened in 1776. And so we celebrate the actions of people that we've only ever read about in books. And it's amazing that when you think about what their life was like compared to ours.
No electricity, no indoor plumbing, no Super Wal-Mart, all those kinds of things. And these people still had the gumption and the gall to actually challenge the most powerful country on earth at the time in England. And what's amazing is that when you think about why they did this, they were oppressed.
There's no question about that. They were misrepresented. They were taxed unfairly. But what really is the real reason behind it wasn't the tyranny of the king.
The real reason behind the whole thing was they wanted to worship in freedom. The whole reason we have a country is because of that. Ironically, I think in the way our country is going, that will be eventually erased from history in our country.
And they won't talk about that anymore. They wrote these words, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's America. On this day, I celebrate. I'm grateful for the fact that the pursuit of freedom for self-governance and worship in our country was founded by these people. I'm also very thankful for the fact that they acknowledge at least a sovereign creator, not only in their documents, but on many of the memorials you'll find in Washington, D.C. I'm also thankful for all the sacrifices made and the price that was paid to keep us free. Not those who just won the Revolutionary War, but all of those who have given their lives for freedom since then.
I guess I put it this way, I am grateful to a sovereign God that he has allowed me to live in this place, and I would hope you are too. But the times are changing. I mean, they're really changing. If you lived here long enough, the country the way it is right now is not at all the country that you grew up in. There are things constantly changing in America. Back in the 1970s and the 80s, men like Francis Schaeffer said that America is now going to begin living in a postmodern, post-Christian world. And all of us just nodded our heads and said, I don't know exactly what that means, but it doesn't seem too bad to me. But it's different now.
Schaeffer already saw what was in play and where this would end up going. You can think of just a couple of areas. Look at America's view on something like marriage. You see, marriage not that long ago, and marriage today. Time magazine did a survey and they asked the question, is marriage completely obsolete? Is marriage completely obsolete? Today, among adults in America, 40 percent, four out of ten, said yes, it's completely obsolete. With younger people in their 20s, what they said was that over 64 percent said it's obsolete.
We should be done with it. In 1960, not that long ago, 72 percent of all adults were married. Today, 52 percent of all adults are married. With 20-year-olds in 1960, those in their 20s, 68 percent of all those in their 20s were married. Today, 26 percent of those in there are married. In 1969, two out of every three Americans said living together is a sin. Now, two-thirds of all Americans say living together is great.
It just shows you the way things have changed. Now, a piece of good news, I know I've said it and I've apologized for it now, but everywhere I've read it always said 50 percent of all couples divorce. You may have heard that stat.
Unfortunately, you may have heard it from me. But 50 percent, and so the New York Times, of all places, decided we're going to research that. We wouldn't want to see if that's true or not true. And so what they came up with was interesting, that what they found was there's never been a time, there's never been a time, they said, when the divorce rate was higher than 41 percent for the whole country. It's never been 50. And for religious people, Christians, they mean everything under Christendom, the divorce rate has never been higher than 35 percent.
So I guess that'd be a little better. So marriage is not what it once was. Moral behavior, what a barometer of our culture. These are just things that I've read in the last couple of weeks and there are many more, but I won't even bring them up. Cheating in school and cheating at the university level is higher than it's ever been in our history, which just tells you something about students and probably the technology they now have available to them to openly cheat. CBS did a study of Americans of what we thought of politicians.
This is interesting. Of all politicians, the question was asked, how many politicians by percentage do you think are solid moral people? Twelve percent. American people said 12 percent of all politicians are moral people.
Wow. Nine percent of Congress, by the way, which even ended up worse than anybody else. But that's extremely low. I mean, you're thinking, golly, one out of every 10 people who run the politics is a moral person.
Everyone else is not. I mean, that is extremely negative. As you know, pornography is an all time high. It's beyond belief what Americans are spending on pornography right now. Sex slavery, especially with children, all time high. Human trafficking, all time high. Sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers, all time high.
Suicide among teenagers, all time high. There's something going on in our country from that point of view. Just this last week, I was reading an article about school board meetings. And they have now turned into so much so violent that a lot of school boards canceled their meetings because they couldn't get their people. They were afraid they would attack each other. And they said there's a couple of reasons for it. One was COVID.
Strange as that sounds. Kids were educated at home and for the first time, parents realized what was in their curriculum. And so that made a lot of parents pretty upset. But the one that was the hot issue now was that they want to have a national program in grammar school. To teach grammar kids, young kids, the joy and the normalcy of transgenderism.
It's amazing. And a lot of parents are not going to put up with it. They're really upset with this whole idea. I had heard this last week of an 11-year-old girl who said that she wanted everyone to know she identified as a lesbian. She's 11.
And I thought about it. When I was 11, I'd have definitely identified as gay. Because I only like boys. I didn't even want to be a Rhonda girl. I didn't have any understanding.
How do little kids decide things like this? I mean, the way our culture has changed. I mean, I learned to work another word in the last two weeks. The word was binary. I didn't even know what that meant sexually. I mean, I knew what bisexual meant, but binary is you can change genders as you wish.
You're not anything. It's like, how is this happening in the way our culture works? There are so many signs in our culture that America is becoming something you and I would have never imagined it to become. The question is, how does that affect us?
And the answer is easy. Not at all. It has no effect on us at all.
Nothing changes for you and me. See, one of the things we've been very fortunate. We're the only group of Christians in the whole world since the time of Christ till today that have ever lived in a country that supported the Judeo-Christian ethic, supported Christianity, supported the church. Almost nowhere on earth has that ever happened. Christians have been in a minority and a persecuted minority virtually everywhere in the world. And now that it's happening here, we're kind of outraged by it. Yes, as an American, I can be sad about that. But as a Christian, I don't need to be. In fact, I think I could even be a little bit optimistic. So, does our influence change in a country like this?
I say no. I want you to go to Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 13, the Sermon on the Mount, right in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. One of the things that Jesus says in the Beatitudes that's interesting is that he ends up the Beatitudes in chapter 5. But what he says in verse 10, 11 and 12, he says, Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The word blessed means happy. Happy are the people that get persecuted. Now, do you feel that way? If we get persecuted in this country, you're happy?
You should be. Notice what he says next. He then goes on and says, Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Now, don't miss the last part of that phrase. Jesus is saying when people insult you and persecute you because of him, you should be happy. When they insult and persecute you because of you, that's a different story. You see, the idea is I'm Christian.
And I think some of the stuff in our own country we brought on to ourselves. He says, Rejoice and be glad. Your reward in heaven is great. And in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you. It's always been this way.
Don't worry about persecution. Now, he tells us what our influence should be. He says, You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt of the earth becomes tasteless, how can it be made salty?
It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown and trampled underfoot by men. He doesn't say, I need you to become the salt. He said, You are the salt.
This isn't an elective or a choice for you. You're the salt. The salt is put in, there's a lot of reasons written about it, but the salt is put in primarily to preserve things. And he's saying, You are the preservation of any culture.
You're the preservation, you see, of America and the way it is. You need to be salty. He said, In fact, if you're not salty, you'll be no good at all.
You're absolutely, from that point of view, good for nothing. One of the things that's happened that's a little bit tragic is that in our country, Jesus tells us first. He said, The world will hate you. And then he gives us reason.
He said, Because it first hated me. Jesus was never popular in that sense. Phenomenal, sinless, but not popular. So he tells us we could be hated. But like he said in Matthew 5 here, hated for his sake. You and I can be hated because you're a follower of Jesus Christ.
The world will not embrace that and say it's wonderful. But my question is, among the church, if you were to ask the world in a survey, why they don't like us, what would they say? What I hear most often in our culture right now is the world basically says I hate them because they're haters. Not because they, I've never heard anyone say because they follow Jesus. Never heard that. And I don't like Jesus.
But they say they're haters. That's kind of on us. You see, that's what he says. If we're going to be salt, we have to have influence in the world.
Secondly, our mission hasn't changed. The great commission at the end, he tells us here's what you're going to do in this world. You need to go and make disciples. And the world he's speaking of, by the way, is a world that is, wow, much, much worse than ours. The moral culture of Greece and Rome, unbelievable.
I mean, it was just unbelievably bad. The religious culture of Judaism at that time, incredibly intimidating. Jesus had more harsh word for the religious leaders than anybody when he was alive. But he says, look, you still got to go and make disciples. And in Acts chapter 1 verse 6, he said, you're my witnesses.
You're it. Both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, even at the uttermost parts of the world. So our influence hasn't changed and our mission hasn't changed at all. And it shouldn't. Because nothing in America can interfere with your freedom.
Nothing. You see, there is a freedom that you and I have that as good as America is, it never was, never will be anywhere as close as this freedom you and I have. This is the unchanging freedom that the Christian has.
So what I want to do is I want to go to John chapter 8, the Gospel of John chapter 8, verse 12. Let Jesus speak on this issue of freedom. In verse 12, in this discourse, remember, Jesus is speaking to his religious leader enemies. These are the ones who are trying to trap him. These are the ones who eventually will get him crucified. And Jesus is interacting with them. This is called the third discourse in the Gospel of John. And in verse 12, he said, then Jesus spoke to them and said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but he will have the light of life. And this is one of the great I am statements in John, where Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Now he told you and I, you're the light of the world too. Jesus' light shines through you and I. Now, as he goes on, Jesus says, what's interesting, he said in verse 28, he said, when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, and it says he in my Bible.
There's no he in the text at all. That's an italics in your Bible. It's just, he said, when you lift up, when you crucify the Son of Man, and I think it infers his resurrection of well, when you do that, then you will know I am. Seven times in the Gospel of John, he says this, I am. In Hebrew, Yahweh. This is one of the great themes of the Gospel of John, Yahweh.
The burning bush, remember with Moses? Who am I going to tell Israel that sent me here? And he said, you tell them Yahweh sent you.
I am that I am. That's God's name. Jesus said, yeah, that's my name. He said, when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak the things the Father has taught me, and he who has sent me is with me, he has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. At that moment, then it says, and as he spoke these things, many believed in him. He's been speaking for a long time, but as he brought this to culmination, people believe in him. Now watch what happens. So Jesus was saying to the Jews who had believed, if you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples of mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you what?
Free. Wow, you follow me, you'll know the truth. The truth makes you free. He goes on and he says, they say to him, by the way, when you start talking about stuff like this, religious people never get it.
It's just like if you start talking about grace. They don't get it. They just can't understand it, so his enemy said to him, look, we are Abraham's descendants, have never been enslaved to anyone, how is it that you can say you will become free? Now this is funny.
What did they say? We're Abraham's descendants. We've never been, no one has ever, we're always free. Wait, wait, why don't you go ask the Roman soldier over there?
See all these soldiers here? These are Romans. You're property of Rome.
Rome taxes you. That's why you have zealots you're trying to fight. Right now you're in bondage and you're pretending you're not. You see, that's what they said to him. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever.
The son does remain forever. So if the son makes you free, you're free indeed. So what did Jesus say you and I are free of? Sin. We're free.
Wow. We're free of sin? Is that how you see yourself? How many of you see yourself as you're victimized by sin? You see, I'm trying.
I just can't get over the hump. Is Jesus lying? You see, this is interesting. What does he mean by this?
What he means is this. One thing's for sure. You and I are free from the penalty of sin.
That's called justification. You're free from the penalty of sin. What are the wages of sin? Death. Separation from God. Eternal judgment. You're free of that. You're called justified by God in Romans.
You're justified people. Soon as you came to Christ, you are free from the penalty of sin. The second stage of your life is called sanctification. That's how we live out our lives.
That's what we're living in right now. And we are being freed from what? The power of sin in our lives. And as you know, it's a tough work, isn't it?
It's quite a job for us to go through this. One day, we'll be absent in the body, present with the Lord, and that's called glorification, and we're free from the presence of sin. But right now, we're in sanctification. Now, I want to explain it more from a theological point of view, so go with me to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. Verse 1. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?
Now, this is funny in its own way. Paul makes a statement that no matter how much sin accumulates, there's always more than enough grace to compensate. The more sin, the more grace. So, Paul anticipates what some people may think. Well, then why don't we sin more? I mean, if that's true, let's just keep sinning, and then God can keep giving us more and more grace. You see, it's a good deal.
He's happy, we're happy, everybody's happy. But Paul's going to answer that. That's not true at all.
That's not the case at all. But is it true that grace overcomes all sin? Yes. All sin? Yes.
No matter how many, yes. 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. We'll be right back.
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