God's Vaccine For Rage - Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. When you are unforgiving, you are sinful. And as a child of God, you can expect the chastening hand of God in your life. You see, that's what God said.

Don't you dare. And by the way, there are very few things that Jesus ever talks about in this kind of colorful language in the parable of how just upset God is. And he's upset because someone was unforgiving. I mean, it's an amazing story when you think about it from that point of view. Being unforgiving separates you from God.

That's what happens. 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. 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. My 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 in Psalm 51, when he writes this 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 when I heard Peter say seven, then Jesus comes in and says, no, 70 times seven. Forgiven people should never stop forgiving ever. That's what Jesus is saying now for this reason.

Next verse. For this reason, maybe you're not understanding how I think. Let me tell you a nice parable, a story about this.

He's for this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. And when he had begun to settle them, one who owe him 10,000 talents was brought to him. Now, if you're in our culture, you just say, well, it seems like a lot of talents.

OK. It is a lot of talents. But I want you to understand every talent. Weighs 75 pounds. So you're talking about seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Each talent is what would be considered 15 years. Of labor. You could make 50 in 15 years, you could have one. Talent in 15 years. So how many years are we talking about?

One hundred and fifty thousand years. Now, you owe the king one hundred and fifty thousand years of your income. Now, you see why Jesus is saying this.

Now, watch what happens. He said, but since he did not have the means to repay, no one would. His Lord commanded him to be sold along with his wife and his children and all that they had and repayment made. So the slave fell to the ground, he prostrated himself before him. He said, have patience with me and I'll repay you everything. Really? Yes, I plan on living for 150,000 and I'll be able to pay you back maybe even before 145,000 years.

I might be able to get done by then. Lord said to that notice and the Lord of that slave fell compassion. He released them. He forgave the debt.

That's just God. That's just Jesus describing how God forgives. He said for that slave went out and he found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii. OK, 100 days work. He owed the Lord 150,000 years. And. The slave owed him 100 days work.

Substantial, but not much in comparison. He seized him, he began to choke him, and he said, pay back what you owe. So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him and said, have patience with me and I'll repay you. But he was unwilling and he won. He threw him in prison until he should pay back that which was owed.

Now, don't even miss that. This shows you how ridiculous we are as human beings. If you throw the man in prison. How can he repay you? You can't get repaid.

There's no repayment. He's in prison. Yeah, I'd throw him in prison. He's going to stay there or the repays me.

There's no logic in this at all from that point of view. But he throws him in prison. So when the fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved. They came reported to the Lord all that had happened. And then summoning him, he said his Lord, he said to him, you wicked slave.

I forgave you all the debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I have had mercy on you? Now watch these words, he said, and his Lord moved with anger, righteous indignation handed him over to the torturers that he should repay all that he owed. He said, my heavenly father will do the same. He said, if each of you does not forgive his brothers from your heart.

Now, let me apply it. Being unforgiving is putting you in sin. When you are unforgiving, you are sinful. And as a child of God, you can expect the chastening hand of God in your life. You see, that's what God said.

Don't you dare. And by the way, there are very few things that Jesus ever talks about in this kind of colorful language in the parable of how just upset God is. And he's upset because someone was unforgiving. I mean, it's an amazing story when you think about it from that point of view. Being unforgiving separates you from God.

That's what happens. It's not just here in James Chapter 2, James said this, judgment will be merciless to the one who shows no mercy. That's James writing to us. Your judgment will be merciless if you show no mercy to others. The Beatitudes, blessed are the merciful, what? For they shall receive mercy. You're not merciful, you're unforgiving. Don't expect mercy from God.

You know the Lord's Prayer. Forgive us as what? As we forgive others. Is that how you want God to treat you? Do you want God to forgive you just the way you forgive everybody else?

Every injustice you've suffered, everything everyone said about you, every conflict you've been in, every person who didn't like you. Do you want God to forgive you just the way you've forgiven those circumstances and those people? We don't, do we? You see, we really don't.

That's our problem. We are to forgive in that way. You're never more like God than when you forgive. Whatever sin has offended you has offended God more.

Forgiven people must forgive. Fourthly, to not forgive makes you unfit for worship. Now it makes sense because it puts you out of fellowship with God. It puts you in sin. But it makes you unfit for worship. Turn back to Matthew 5 for just a moment in verse 23. 23 and 24, Jesus says this, Therefore, if you're presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering before the altar and go. First be reconciled with your brother, then come and present your offering.

An offering is an act of worship. He said, but if I have conflict with someone else and I'm unforgiving, he says, you better get that straightened out first. Then you can worship me. But don't come worshipping me.

Think of the oxymoron as an unforgiving Christian worshipping. I won't forgive. There's things I just won't forgive.

I'm angry and mad at it. And now I want to come and worship God. God's like, look, I'm not going to do it.

He's already warned us that if you want to receive mercy from me, you better show mercy to others. We have to be forgiving people. And, you know, the word that really gets us all in trouble. It's one of the worst words when we use it in our own lives. And I run into it all the time in counseling. And if you could eliminate this word from your life, you do a lot better. But. I can't tell you how many buts I've experienced in counseling.

Husband and wife. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what God says. I know what he says. But.

If you understood what this man did to me. You see? But. Because we justify it. You see, we justify it. Yeah, I know that we are to be able to forgive. I know that. But you know what this guy did in my business? But, but, but, but.

Let me put a but. But do you know what you did to the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know every sin you committed?

He bore on the cross. I mean, you know that? How many sins has Christ forgiven you of? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions? I mean, you don't even know, do you? I mean, it's so many you don't know. We just don't even know. You see, that's what he's talking about.

This magnitude. Of sins that Jesus Christ has been willing to forgive in all of our cases. We have to be forgiving. I can't worship him, sing praises to him, and then be full of anger and rage and bitterness in my heart. I can't. He won't accept it.

If you remember that. David even said, if I regard iniquity in my heart, if I keep the sin in my heart, he will not hear me when I pray. I won't hear you. You see, you might be praying, you might be one of those people who would say, you know, the trouble with me when I pray, I never get the answer.

I mean, I never get the answers. Maybe God's saying to you, you still regard unforgiveness in your heart. You're still bitter and angry. You see, you're still that way. I'm not listening. I'm not listening. I don't want to make God look foolish, but for some of us, we have so much anger and bitterness, and when you start praying, I think God just puts his fingers over his ears, if he had them, and just says, I'm not going to hear you.

That's what David said. Because that's such an important part of who we are. We are never more like God than we will forgive. Whatever sin has offended us has offended him more. Forgiven people must forgive, and to not forgive makes us even unfit for worship.

One last thing. God uses the unfairness of life to make you and I more like the Savior. Last passage, James chapter one, again a famous passage.

James chapter one. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. OK, let me just ask you this. Is the pandemic, the economy, the demonstrations and protesters in the cities, is that a trial for us? Is that a trial?

Yes. This is a trial. Now, notice what he says about it. Consider it all joy.

All right, show of hands. How many of you over these last three months said every morning, thank you, Jesus, this is as joyful an experience, right? No, but we don't think it's joy, but we misuse the next term. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. We don't even say endurance.

We say it like Eeyore, endurance. You know, hon, we just got to get through another day, another week, another month. God just wants me to... He said, consider it all joy. Consider this all joy.

Why? Because it produces endurance. You see, if I'm not in a trial, I don't have to endure it. So I can't produce endurance unless I have a situation where I have to endure it.

And we're certainly in one of those. He says, and let endurance have its perfect results so that you may be perfect and complete, teleos, mature, you could say there, lacking in nothing. You want to be more like the Savior? Endure the trial with joy.

This is a trial. You see, that's a very important thing God uses. He uses the unfairness of light to make you and I more like the Savior. Peter said it this way in 1 Peter 5, 10. He said, and after you have suffered for a while, the Lord will make you mature. Just amazing. By the way, do you know what the Apostle Paul would say to you and me if he were here today about the pandemic since March, about the economy, about all the protests in the street?

You know what he'd say? You know what these are, people? This is a momentary light affliction. That's what he said, momentary light affliction. In light of forever, this is nothing. This is really nothing. But it is to us. But the worst part of it is so many of us are getting so angry about it.

And I know that. I mean, that's why it's hard to watch the news very much because everybody's angry. Everybody's angry.

It's just one after the other comes up and tells you how angry they are about always the other side of whatever it is. I'm angry. No, I'm angry.

No, I'm angry. And then you and I start feeling this anger and this rage. Never more like God than when you forgive. Whatever sin is offended you is offended him more. Forgiven people must forgive. To not forgive makes us unfit to worship. And God uses the unfairness of life to make us more like the Savior. I'll close with the words of John MacArthur. He said this.

God alone is able to deal with sin, and he always does. He has the perfect and true understanding of the offense. You don't. He has the highest standard. Yours is lower. He has full authority. You have none. He is impartial.

You are not. He is omniscient, eternal, seeing the end from the beginning. You're shortsighted and ignorant.

You can't see beyond today. He is wise and good and acts in perfect holiness. And you are blinded by the sin of anger. You are in no position to be the judge of anybody.

He says, you're not qualified. Leave that to God. God has given us a vaccine to apply to all these difficult, painful circumstances that we're in. Don't get mad at the people that keep giving you misinformation. It happens all the time. Political people, medical people telling you one thing a month later, telling you something, don't get mad at all that misinformation. And don't get mad at the politicians who keep exploiting and lying to you. I mean, don't get mad about that. It's just all part of the process.

These are difficult times. But what I'm saying is don't be filled with rage. Just forgive. You see, just forgive. And you'll be better for it.

Just pray. Father, I know it's in our flesh. We have this underlying anger and rage when we are disappointed by people or circumstances that we find ourselves getting angry. But, Father, the anger that we have festers in our soul. And it breaks our relationship with you. And, Father, we don't benefit from it all in our own lives. Just imagine, Father, if our reputation in this country alone was, wow, these people are so forgiving.

I would imagine some would call us naive, but I think most would say they admire that about us. We don't hold on to a conflict. We don't bear the grudge.

We don't seek out the vengeance. We listen to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And He tells us that we are to forgive everything the way He has forgiven us. He has strengthened us to do so for His glory and our good.

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, at 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.