Full Of Grace And Truth - Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You see, I can't tell you how many of you good people over all these years have said things to me like this. Either I did forgive, but, or I would forgive, but.

But nothing. Jesus isn't going to buy that. No, no, I have good reason not to.

No, you don't. C.S. Lewis said this, to be Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. You see, that's grace. 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 woman at the well should have been uncomfortable with Jesus, but she is overwhelmed by his grace.

Nicodemus should have loved being with Jesus, but he finds his truth hard to handle. You see, that's the way it is then. And that's the way it is now. And that's the way it's always been. Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth that repels some people and attracts other people.

And it's always been that way. But the main point is this. Good people really struggle with the grace of God. Good people, they struggle. Back in the fourth century, there were two great theologians. One's name was Pelagius. And Pelagius was a wonderful man brought up in a fine home, well trained. He was moral, honorable, and most of all, extremely popular.

There was another man. His name was Augustine or Augustine, whichever way you'd want to say it. And with Augustine, it was quite different.

Augustine wasted his youth in immorality. He had a bizarre relationship with his mom. And he had enemies everywhere. But he got the grace of God. And because he got the grace of God, everything went right for him. And Pelagius was a good person who was committed to human effort. He thought you got into the kingdom of God much like Nicodemus must have thought.

He thought he had it all out. And Nicodemus gave the example. Pelagius takes it to fruition and Pelagius becomes a heretic, believing that you work your way. You good your way to heaven.

You see, that's just it. Grace is very, very difficult for good people. The people were nothing like him. Judah in the Old Testament, Rahab, Mary Magdalene, Matthew, the tax gatherers, Zacchaeus, a general tax gatherer. They loved Jesus.

They came right to him. But people like Nicodemus, Saul of Tarsus, Pharisees, priests, Sadducees, good people. They struggled. They were repelled by Jesus's message. Grace attracts. Truth repels. Question. Which one do you identify with?

Are you more like Nicodemus or are you more like the one at the well? You see, let me put it this way. Are you a good person? Because as a good person, even a believer. I believe you struggle with grace.

Not in the sense of being forgiven yourself, but you struggle with grace. And Jesus must have believed that, too, because he speaks directly to us about it. Turn with me now to Matthew, Chapter 20. Matthew, Chapter 20.

And he gives us a general illustration and see how you deal with this. Matthew 20 and verse one for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now, a vineyard there would have been terraced and working the vineyard was seasonal.

And it was always hard work, kind of backbreaking. You had to go and hire the people for the vineyard. And so Jesus says that's what this guy does. And it says, And when he had agreed with the labors for a denarius for the day, he sent them into the vineyard. Now, we don't get that, but it was big in Jesus time.

He decided to give each person at six o'clock in the morning who came a denarius. That is a Roman soldier's day's work. Now, we don't think much of that, but that's a lot more money than a person who usually tends vineyards get.

He's being well paid. They're getting a denarius for a day's work. I imagine they jumped right at it. Well, then Jesus now continues. Then it went about the third hour, which would be nine o'clock in the morning.

He saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And to those, he said, you also go into the vineyard. And whatever is right, I will give you. And so they went. That's all they said. Well, then it says, and he went about the sixth hour noon and the ninth hour three o'clock. And they went.

And then it was about, he says, and about the eleventh hour, five in the afternoon, the workday ends at six at five in the afternoon. He says he went out and he found others standing around. And he said to them, why have been standing idle all day long? And they said to him, because no one hired us. And he said to them, go into the vineyard, too. And they went. So we have guys hired at six o'clock for day's work for a denarius.

Then we have guys hired. And he said, I'll make it right with you at the end of the day at nine noon, three and five. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the labors and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group first.

The reason he's doing that is he wants to see the reaction of the first group. And when those hired about the 11th hour came, each one of them received the denarius. They started at five, they ended at six. Now, you made a deal with him that you would start at six, work, do hard work for the denarius, good pay, and you'll get a denarius. Now, if you started at six in the morning, how do you feel? Because you're a good person. You know, how's a good person feel at six o'clock in the evening when the money is being handed out? See, how would you react?

I'm sure very much like they did. Well, notice, it says when they received it, it says when those who first came, I love their response in verse 10, they thought that they would receive more. Hey, this is good news. He gave a denarius for an hour. We were here 12 hours.

This is going to be great. But each of them received a denarius. And when they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, these last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal for us, who have borne the burden of the scorching heat of the day. And he answered and he said to them, friend, I'm doing to you nothing wrong. He says, did you not agree with me for a denarius? He said, take what is yours and go. But I wish to give, he said to this last man, the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own or is your eye envious because I am generous? And so the last first in the first last. Now, Jesus is teaching that in a parable form, but he's making a really good point.

You see, what do you want to say in that story if you started at six? It's not fair. That's what you want to say, right? Not fair. I mean, you know that we live for you're good people. You live for fairness.

I mean, if you've had more than one child, you tried to break a candy bar in half. Not fair. That's not fair. We're really into fairness. Good people love fairness.

Well. What's interesting about that is, is that. Jesus Christ point is what happens when somebody comes.

At the 11th hour. I think of someone like Timothy. Timothy is one of the great young pastors in the New Testament. And in Paul was so impressed with him, he takes someone as part of the Pauline team. And he says that Timothy, Timothy.

You were taught the scriptures as a small child by your mother, your grandmother. Timothy probably was always right with God. I imagine Timothy was a very moral young man, middle aged man and probably old man. Timothy is a good man. That was Timothy. And guess where Timothy is today?

Heaven. See, he's in heaven. Now, I want you to think of the thief on the cross. He's being crucified by the Romans. And the reason he's being crucified by the Romans, he's committed capital offense. He's like they even murdered somebody. And he is dying.

And he even says to himself justly. And he's on the cross. And by the way, how repentant was he? How much repentance did you see from the thief on the cross? Did he rededicate his life?

No, he didn't have opportunity for that. He couldn't worry about what he was going to do tomorrow. He was going to be dead today. All he said was, remember me. Where is he today? You see, where is he? Timothy, who was right his whole life with God and this man.

You see, it's an amazing thing. You think of someone like Stephen, this great young first martyr who was a Gentile, who was a proselyte Jew and then became one of the early deacons in the church. And he gave this phenomenal sermon, one of the best I have ever read in the Bible, other than the words of Jesus Christ. And as a result of it, he is stoned to death. And then you have Saul of Tarsus, who was right there watching all this, gloating over this, happy to see this young man martyred, who devoted the rest of the beginning of his life, then from that point on of hunting down the church and arresting it and making it as bad as he could for believers. But then he encountered the grace of God.

And where is he today? You see, that's the grace of God. It says, who are you? That's the whole point.

Who are you? He says, to make a difference with it. You see, do you think that is fair or not fair? That you realize that people can live lives of making wrong choice after wrong choice all through their life and come to Christ right at the very end and they go to the same place you do. And they're just as wonderfully saved as you are. See, good people struggle with that.

And by the way, if you don't struggle with that, you're going to struggle with this. Turn to Matthew 18. Turn to Matthew 18. And the reason I say that is probably not any of us are much better men than Peter was.

And Peter struggled with it so much that Jesus gave him a scathing parable because of his response. See, one of the things about God. Grace is wonderful. It's a free gift. You just can receive it. But God's expectation is that if you're a recipient of grace, he expects you to be a dispenser of grace. You see, if you receive forgiveness, he expects you to forgive. That goes with it.

I mean, after all. And so Jesus is explaining that to the disciples in verse 21. Peter came to him and he said, Lord, how often shall I. He said, so my brother sin against me and I forgive him. Peter's figuring this out.

What do people do me wrong? Hurt me. So you've got to love Peter. He's going to try to impress the Lord. He says up to seven times. By the way, the Jewish standard three. The Pharisee standard three.

By the way, we're pretty much into the one standard army. And what I mean by that is, you know, our modern proverb, you know, if you do me dirt once. Right. Shame on you. But if you do me twice, shame on me. Jesus wouldn't be too impressed with that. And Jesus says. I do not say to you up to seven times, 70 times seven.

He doesn't mean that as 490 for those of you who are anal enough to want to keep a list and a notebook. He means infinitely. He's so moved by Peter's response that he gives a parable. And the parable is full of hyperbole.

It's all exaggeration, but it's to make his point. He said, for this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wish to settle accounts with his slaves. And when he began to settle them, one who owed him 10000 talents was brought to him. Now, you know, it's hyperbole because there's no slave that's got 10000 talents. In fact, Solomon's temple, with all that was in it, was valued at 8000 talents. So you don't have a slave with 10000 talents. They've tried all kinds of ways that convert the money.

I've seen it is a little more than up to 10 billion dollars. It doesn't matter. Jesus isn't trying to come up with a man.

He's trying to say this is just a story. But this is an amount so amazing that we couldn't possibly imagine it. In fact, when I read about Solomon's temple, I read that Solomon, on one of his best years, took in 666 talents of gold in one year. And that was Solomon. He was the richest man on earth at the time.

And so this is 10000 talents. And notice, it's a slave. And he said, but since he did not have a means to repay, his Lord commanded him to be sold along with his wife and children, all that he had and repayment to be made that won't even touch this. And he said, so the slave fell on the ground and prostrated himself before him and said, have patience with me now. I'll gladly repay you everything. And the Lord of that slave fell compassion and he released him and he forgave his debt.

He's saying this to Peter and he's saying this to you and to me. Who's the slave? You.

Me. What's the debt? So great we can't pay it. You see, we can't pay the debt. We owe what we owe. God is so immeasurable. Our sins are so many.

So deep. You see, there's so many you can't pay it back. You can't do restitution. He said, but that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii. But one ten thousandth of what he owed and he seized him and he began to choke him, saying, pay back what you owe. So the fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, have patience with me and I'll repay you.

Now watch. But he was unwilling. And he went up and he threw him into prison until he should pay back what he was owed. And by the way, it's all hyperbole because how would you ever raise the money in prison to pay it back anyway?

That's not the issue. What Jesus is saying is, Peter, how dare you? How can I forgive you of so much and you don't forgive others? How can you be a recipient of grace?

How can you do that? How can you receive grace and not distribute it to somebody else? Paul picks right up on that Ephesians says we should forgive as Christ has forgiven us.

How's that grab you? You see, I can't tell you how many of you good people over all these years have said things to me like this. Either I did forgive, but or I would forgive, but.

But nothing. Jesus, I'm going to buy that. No, no, I have good reason not to. No, you don't.

C.S. Lewis said this to be Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. You see, that's grace. And notice Philip Yancey calls Jesus's words in this parable atrocious. And they are to good people.

See, good people really, really struggle to get their arms around grace. And the reason is we live in an ungraced world. You were schooled, programmed, indoctrinated with ungrace. That's how it's worked.

I mean, think of these sayings. The early bird gets the worm. Is that true? Was a thief on the cross the early bird? No, he was a convert at five fifty nine.

In the evening. That's when he converted. No pain, no gain. No pain, no gain. You've got to sacrifice in life.

You want anything. It's true to a certain extent, but that's not grace. That's not grace. Grace is total gain at his pain. Not yours.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. You've heard that. That's not grace. That's ungrace. You see, people get what they deserve. That even rarely happens as justice, but that's certainly not grace. See, it's true of our world view, but not grace, not grace. When I think of grace.

I do not get what I deserve. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That includes me. The wages of sin is death.

That includes me. And instead of getting death. I get life. I deserve justice and punishment and I got forgiveness. I deserve the wrath of God. And I got the love of God. That's grace. That's the scandalous mathematics of grace, as Philip Yanti says, the scandalous mathematics of grace.

He's exactly right. And the beauty of it is everybody's invited. The people who aren't like Jesus and the people who are like Jesus, they're all invited. Good people, bad people, religious people, irreligious people, they're all invited. But the truth of the matter is, is those who are the most not like Christ are more attracted to it than those at the east on the surface that seem to be a lot like Christ.

Good people struggle with the concept of the grace of God. You can have somebody like Dwight Pentecost, who's still at Dallas Seminary, still teaching in his 90s, the word of God and one of the finest teachers of the word of God I've ever heard. And he was asked in a class that I was attending to give his testimony. And he said, I have one of the great testimonies you'll ever hear.

And we all perked up and we couldn't wait to hear it. And Dr. Pentecost simply said this. I do not remember a moment in my life when I did not trust Jesus Christ. Not a moment. He said, I my parents were devout. I was introduced to the Lord as soon as I was a little boy and I have no recollection of when I never believed in Jesus Christ. And he looked at us and said, isn't that a great testimony?

It really is. I think of that. And when Dr. Pentecost goes, where is he going? He's going to heaven. Then I think of a man who had a conversation with me that his church had a prison ministry. And in that prison ministry, they were able to visit on death row Jeffrey Dahmer. And one of the men in their church was able to lead Jeffrey Dahmer to Jesus Christ. The great irony of it, by the way, when they got back to the church, many people in the church were upset. You see, you know who was upset? The good people. The good people are always upset by something like this.

No, no, no. But by the way, if he truly put his trust in Jesus Christ, where is Jeffrey Dahmer today? He's where Dwight Pentecost will be soon. See, that's the scandalous mathematics of grace. That's the grace of God. The other thing we learned this morning, if you like receiving God's forgiveness.

Then you need to give it to others. And by the way, good people struggle with this very idea. These aren't my words, by the way. These are the words of Jesus Christ. And as John said, he was full of grace and truth. And on a certain level, it wasn't fair.

It was much better than fair. It was grace. Let's pray. Father, I love the Apostle Paul's statement when he says, I am what I am by the grace of God. And even though he was a good religious man, he finally came to the understanding there was nothing he could do to right his standing with you. Father, I pray this morning, if there are some good people here this morning who believe in their heart that somehow God will be impressed that they are just good enough to be better than some of the others, that he will let them into heaven based on their goodness. I'm here to tell them that Jesus Christ said that's not true. That all of us enter heaven exactly the same way as forgiven sinners.

All of us punch the same ticket. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life and no one. I mean no one comes to the Father but through me. Father, I also realize that as believers in Jesus Christ, it is so much easier for us to accept the grace of God in our own lives and be grateful for it and thankful for it. But when it comes to being dispensers of grace in the lives of others, we have a tendency not to.

We have a tendency to be judgmental and rigid and even more tragically, unforgiving. So Father, I pray that if there is some issue of unforgiveness that's harboring in any of us this morning, that your Spirit would convict us of us and realize we have no ground to stand on to be an unforgiving, forgiven believer. Father, I thank you for the scandalous mathematics of the grace of God. In Jesus' name, 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, 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. .