Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You see, forgiveness doesn't diminish justice. It just entrusts justice to God. That's why you and I are to forgive. There's a finality in the Bible to this whole idea of forgiveness.
In fact, it's the only thing that can really work in this world. We live on a cursed planet and you and I are sinful people. You see, the only solution to all the injustices and all the things that happen to us in what the Bible calls Satan's world or cosmos diabolicus is to forgive. Injustice and sin have permeated every aspect of life, from your personal life, to your family, to your neighborhood, to your city, to your state, to your country, to this world. It's everywhere, always has been, and always will be until the Lord comes. 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. I would think that for many of us, this whole thing seems like one of the most unusual times of your entire life. Who would have ever thought of it coming like this? Who would have ever thought that we'd be experiencing it on a national and international level what we are? This pandemic has taken away the American's lives and American's lifestyles.
It's taken it away. We don't have our lifestyle anymore. And the thing about it is that the words that come up most often, at least to me, is we don't know. We don't know anything. We don't.
We don't know why it affects some people some way and other people in a different way. We don't know. We don't know when it's going to end.
We don't know if the economy will rebound. We don't know any of this. Over and over again, we just don't know. And you end up sort of watching and listening and what happens to you is you find out that it's frustrating. It's exasperating. And what I'm seeing in all of America and probably in a lot of your hearts and the temptation in mine, is you angry about this?
Who do you trust? Think of the information you get. Even about the pandemic, every couple of weeks it changes.
It's completely different. The whole idea that you find that how exasperating, the effect that it had on businesses. Do you remember when the government was deciding that they were going to give out loans to small businesses and then you find out that the big businesses or the small businesses got all the money right up front?
And the small businesses didn't. Does that bother you at all? You see, what ends up happening is that we see this going on and on and all this frustration. And now we have civil unrest like we've never had.
Weeks and weeks and weeks of civil unrest, like never before in America. And there is yelling, a lot of yelling, a lot of commentary by media outlets. But especially there's just a lot of anger. People are angry. It doesn't matter where they're at, people are angry. Someone has said this, you know, we live in a culture of rage.
What a great way to describe us. And they had talked about this before what's going on right now. They said if you look at our movies and TV shows and newscasts and colleges and neighborhoods and families, you see anger and rage everywhere. People are angry.
And rage and anger is a serious thing. It has ruined societies. It has ruined families.
It has ruined people. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 7, anger resides in the heart of fools. Feel foolish? Anger resides in the heart of fools.
See, my concern is you. Is anger and rage shaping your life, especially now? See, what's the answer?
You probably won't like it. What's the answer to anger and rage? Or put it this way, what's God's vaccine for anger and rage? Well, if you turn on TV, what will the pundits tell you? What's the answer? Political change, right? Because what we have to do is take the people that are in power who are lying to us and put another group of people in power who will lie to us. And that will make America great. Yeah, that's what we need. We need political change. A term that has become, we need social justice.
And if you really study the idea of what is social justice, it's not social and it's not justice. That's not what it is. It's something else. Well, all we need is a good vaccine and everything will be great. But there's more to it than that. Well, all I need is to get my job back.
If I get my job back, I'll be fine. And now we've added to the list all we need to have police forces get better training. And once that happens, it's going to be great. Again. You see, that's what we hear.
But it's interesting. God has something completely different in mind for you and me. None of those things.
Some of those things are worthy endeavors. But God says that's not the answer for you and the answer for me. His vaccine, his solution is just found in one word. Forgiveness. That's what he said. Forgiveness.
You want the answer? Forgive. Wow. I don't mean God's forgiveness of us. That's a great thing and it's wonderful and that's a great that by the spread of the gospel, that'd be good. But what he means is our forgiveness of others.
That's what he means. Of injustice, of all the problems that we're facing. You see, forgiveness doesn't diminish justice. It just entrusts justice to God. That's why you and I are to forgive. It's everywhere in the Bible. You shouldn't be surprised by that. There are over 75 word pictures of just forgiveness in the Bible. I won't bore you with them all.
But some. To forgive is to turn the key and open the cell door and let the prisoner walk free. To forgive is to write in large letters across the debt, nothing owed. To forgive is to pound the gavel in a courtroom and declare not guilty. To forgive is to shoot an arrow so high and so far it'll never be found again. To forgive is to take out the garbage and dispose it, leaving the house full of cleanliness and sweet smelling fresh air. To forgive is to loose the anchor that holds the ship and set it free. To forgive is to grant full pardon to a condemned and sentenced criminal. To forgive is to loosen the stranglehold on a wrestling opponent. To forgive is to sandblast the wall of graffiti, leaving it look brand new. To forgive is to smash a clay pot into a thousand pieces and never put it together again. There's a finality in the Bible to this whole idea of forgiveness.
In fact, it's the only thing that can really work in this world. We live on a cursed planet and you and I are sinful people. You see, the only solution to all the injustices and all the things that happen to us in what the Bible calls Satan's world, or cosmos diabolicus, is to forgive. Injustice and sin have permeated every aspect of life, from your personal life, to your family, to your neighborhood, to your city, to your state, to your country, to this world. It's everywhere, always has been and always will be until the Lord comes.
We're just going through a difficult time, a new time for us. In anger we have torn down kingdoms, we have committed genocide on millions of people, we have brutalized marriages and children, all in anger and all in rage. Also this, if we are unforgiving, and this is very important, if you're unforgiving it will destroy you.
It's just a fact. If you are unforgiving it will destroy you. You'll begin to accumulate offenses against you and you'll set the recipe for bitterness in your life. Bitterness. You take it in and you become a prisoner to what makes you angry. Someone has called bitterness the cancer of the soul.
Boy, it's true. You're going to wreck every aspect of your life. You become shackled to what made you angry. And a lot of us are angry right now. Refusing to forgive is like drinking poison and then waiting for your enemy to die. But the one most affected will be you. Apple trees bear apples.
Wheat stalks produce wheat. Forgiven people forgive others. That's what the word of God tells us.
That's the way this works. Every one of us should be marked by forgiveness. But I don't think we are. Let me give you five reasons why we should forgive. The first one is this. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 5 verse 43. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 43.
And I want you to think of this. My first reason is this, you are never more like God than when you forgive. You are never more like God than when you forgive. Notice what Jesus says, similar in the mind of verse 43. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbors and hate your enemy.
That's what's said. That's exactly how the Jews lived. They love their neighbors, they hate their enemy.
Does that sound at all like us? I love my party, I hate the other. I hate them, but I love my, I hate them people. Really. You see, this is what's been going on in our country for a long time.
People do this all the time. You're in the wrong party, you have the wrong color skin, you live in the wrong part of the country, you have the wrong economic base. And I love people like me, but I don't like people like, I hate people like you. Jesus said that's the way culture is, left to our flesh, this is the way we are. He said, I say to you, now watch this, love your enemies. Don't you hate that word? By the way, it's an imperative mood, it's a commandment. You love your enemies. What? Love your enemies.
Do you do that? Do you love those who are your enemies? You see, we would hope it would say like, tolerate your enemies.
But the Bible doesn't tell you that. It says you need to love your enemies. Wow. He said, pray for those who persecute you.
Wow. So that, he said, that you may be sons of the fathers in heaven, for he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous.
For if you love those who love you, what good word do you have? He said, do not even tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Don't even the Gentiles do the same?
He said, look, God bestows common grace on everybody. When the economy is doing well, the believers do well. Yes. How about unbelievers?
Yes. People who love Jesus Christ do well. How about people who hate Jesus Christ?
Well, they do well, too. He said, yeah, I bestow common grace on everyone. But Jesus is saying, look, that's not the way the culture saw it. God says, that's not the way I am. I am a God of forgiveness. Psalm 32, how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquities. How happy is that man?
Well, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, we're very happy. Isaiah 43, God says this, I wipe out their transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins. That's forgiveness. Think of Luke 15. Got a lost sheep.
You got lost coin. You have a lost son. And what does the father do? Just forgives.
That's the model. You're never more like God than when you forgive. Has anyone suffered more injustice than Jesus in the last day of his life? The whole arresting thing, the mocking, the spitting, the beating, the scourging on and on, the dragging of the cross through the city. And then being nailed to a cross, raised off the ground.
What were the first words he spoke? God's going to get you. Father, forgive them. Oh, yeah, but that's Jesus. Stephen, this great martyr in Acts chapter seven gives this wonderful sermon. They rush him and they stone him to death.
And what are his last words that he speaks? Lord, do not hold this against them. They just stoned a young man to death.
Lord, don't hold this against them. Are you like that? You see, are you like that with the things that annoy you, the enemies that bother you? Does forgiveness mark you? Go with me now to Ephesians four for a moment. Ephesians four. In verse 26.
Ephesians four and verse 26. Paul says this, he said, be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.
Now, that's a very important thing. There are times that will make us angry. And in the Bible, there is righteous indignation. By the way, we all think all of our anger is righteous indignation.
It's not. But Jesus showed anger in the temple. I mean, we know that. But he said, I want to warn you. Don't let the sun go down on it. What's he mean by that?
It will affect you in a very bad way. Notice the very next verse. And do not give the devil an opportunity.
Don't do that. That anger better be short term for you. Down to verse 31. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has forgiven you. Don't miss those two words. Just as.
Not similar to, just as. How is God forgiving you? How often?
How redundantly for the same offense? You see how? He said, that's the way I want you. You forgive the same. You're never more like God than when you forgive.
Second reason. Whatever sin has offended you, it has offended God more. Whatever sin is going on that offends you, offends God more. And if the one who is most offended can forgive, why don't you?
You see, why not? If the one who is most offended can forgive, why can't you? Well, I think my standard is higher than God's.
You know that's not true. You see, I think sometimes even when we see people sin against other people or see people sin against their community and all that stuff, we get really offended by it. But it really is always sin against God.
It's always sin against God. You see, and he's willing to forgive. One of the things that amazed me is when David finally confessed his sin, and if you remember, he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then he had Uriah the Hittite murdered. And then he tried to cover it up. And then he went on for almost a year and Nathan came and actually confronted David and David finally admitted it and he confessed it. But Psalm 51, when he writes his confessional, he says this, against you and you only, I have sinned.
That always seemed weird. Didn't he sin against Uriah? Didn't he cover it up and sin against the people of Israel?
Yeah. But he said that's ultimately not where sin really ends up. All sin is an offense to God. You see, all sin is an offense to God.
David saw sin for what it was. Why is God more offended than you and I are? He's holy. Don't want to shock you. You're not.
You're not close. He's holy. And so the sin really offends God. And so you're never more like God than when you forgive. Whatever sin has offended you has also offended God.
And something I said to you earlier, and this is very important for us, right in the middle. Forgiven people must forgive. Forgiven people must forgive. Turn with me to Matthew 18. Very familiar passage.
Verse 21. It says then Peter came and he said to him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? And then as I've told you in the past, Peter said up to seven times. Now the reason Peter said that is like you and I sometimes in mixed company when you're talking to someone, you want to appear more spiritual than you are.
So you say spiritual things that you think sound right to you. And that's what Peter's doing. The rabbis all taught three times. So Peter, knowing that seven is kind of a special number and way more than the rabbis, he said, how about this, Lord, kind of man I am? How about seven times? You see, I think he was convinced Jesus said, Oh, my goodness, Peter, that's incredible.
Well, he gets a reaction. Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. Now, that's not necessarily literally 490, but that means infinitely. He said, that's the way this is going to work. It's like you could just see the disciples like, what? Wait, I imagine they furrowed their eyebrows and heard Peter say seven. Jesus comes in and says, no, 70 times seven. Forgiven people should never stop forgiving ever.
That's what Jesus is saying. 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 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 invite 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, 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.
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