Fellowship in the Word

Guest (Male): Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bil Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Bil Gebhardt: Wow, talk about humbling. God becomes a man. How humbling is that? It is worse than you and I becoming a slug. I think I'll be a slug. He became a man, but not any man. He became the servant of all men. The bondservant idea is a slave, isn't it? He became the slave of everybody. He will humble himself further, and not only that, he will go to the cross and die for all men. That is what you and I should be. I do not think you and I would ever have to humble ourselves anything close to this degree.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bil Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bil Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world.

Bil Gebhardt: There is no more difficult thing to be in that time in history in that part of the world than to be a leper. Lepers live an isolated existence, completely isolated from everybody. Every friend you ever had, family members, you do not go near anyone. You are usually put in a leper colony, and that is your life. Here he is, this great king, and you think you got humbled. That was an act of humility what God did to him.

The question comes down, Proverbs says, "Pride comes before the fall." Boy, he fell. This is a terrible thing on his part. For you and I, what does this mean? To me, I would say at least one thing: Please do not take all the credit for what you have accomplished. Do not do that.

Where did you get your IQ from? Oh, you just made it. You are strong-willed, so you raised your IQ a hundred points, right? Oh no, that is not possible. Where did you get that from? What about your gene pool? What did you have to do with your gene pool? Please tell me what you did. You did not do anything, did you? You see how this works. It does not matter what we are talking about. What about your abilities? Your ability to make money or invest well. What about your personality? What about over the course of your life your connections that helped you succeed in whatever you did? What about all the people that helped you? Did you do that, or did God do that?

Who made you different than everyone else? Did you do that, or did God do that? That is exactly what you see. We are all spiritual snowflakes. If you do not guard your own heart here, you and I are very susceptible to pride, especially when we succeed. Based on our pride, look what I did. None of us do this on our own. James said every good gift comes down from the Father of lights. That is what God gives us. He gives us so many things. Was Uzziah a great king? Yes. Why? Because what God had given him. As long as he walked with the Lord, he was fine. And then when he did not and became full of pride, he became a leper. That is a bad way of dealing with it.

I want you to go with me now to Philippians, Chapter 3 in the New Testament and Verse 3. Paul is now talking to the Philippian church. He is in prison. He loves the Philippians. They are by and large a pagan church who came to Christ. They are Gentiles. They were idol worshipers and pagans, and here comes this Jewish apostle, and he leads them to Christ. Now he wants to write to them, and so he ends up saying this in Verse 3: "For we, the Jews, are the true circumcision who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and we put no confidence in the flesh."

Paul is saying that you have to understand, you are Gentiles, but I am Jewish. Is there any advantage in being a Jew? He said he is of the true circumcision. Now, what is the circumcision? Well, the circumcision is the sign that you belong to God that was given to Abraham. And so all Jewish males are circumcised on the eighth day. And that proves that they are set aside. In the Philippian church, there probably was not a person circumcised with the Gentiles, but it was for the Jews. So Paul said he just wanted to let them know where he comes from versus where they come from.

Paul said that although he himself might have confidence in his flesh, if you wanted to have spiritual pride, he is your guy. He has a lot to be proud of. He said if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, he probably has more. Whatever you have accomplished in the flesh, he in his flesh accomplished more than you have ever done. He said he was circumcised on the eighth day. All Jews have to be. Then he says, "Of the nation Israel."

Special? Well, how many nations does God call his own? In fact, what are the Jews called always? They are chosen. He is part of the chosen people, and God chose him. That is a pretty good choice. He was chosen by God. That is who he is. He is from Israel and was chosen by God.

Benjamin. You see, if you are of Benjamin, remember the last of the 12 tribes? He and Joseph, his brother, both to the same mother, the one that Jacob loved. And so Benjamites are considered the top of the line. They are the aristocracy of the 12 tribes. One of their mottos when they go into battle, guess who lead? Benjamites. He was a Benjamite. Not just a Jew, he is a Benjamite.

You cannot get more Jewish than me. I am as Jewish as a man can possibly be. My parents are Jewish. I am Jewish. I go by all Jewish traditions. I am a Jew's Jew. Not just a Jew, but a Jew's Jew. He said, "That is who I am." Then he goes on and says, "As to the law, Pharisee." Now, I know you have a prejudice against them because you have read the New Testament, but you would not if you lived in Israel. Pharisees are the most respected men in Israel, by a mile. As I have said in the past, a Jewish mother would pray that her daughter be fortunate enough to marry a Pharisee. They were the most dedicated men to Judaism on the planet. He said, "I was a Pharisee." It also turned out he was the son of a Pharisee. He was a Pharisee's Pharisee.

As to zeal, he persecuted the church. As a religious Jew, that is the highest standard you could have. When Stephen was martyred in the Book of Acts, Saul of Tarsus was there affirming it and leading it. Let us execute him. You know what the Sanhedrin would say about that, or the priesthood? "Way to go, Saul. You are such a righteous man, you are getting rid of these people."

Returning to Philippians, he says, "As to the zeal of persecutor of the church, as to righteousness which is in the law, found blameless." He does not mean he is sinless. He is blameless. What he means is, in every external way that you look at a Jewish person, do they externally keep the Jewish tradition and laws? Paul said 100%. He did not fail at anything. As to the outward appearance as a faultless Jew, that was him.

Whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as a loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. I count them but rubbish so that I can gain Christ. Paul said everything he had ever accomplished was literally dung. Notice, there was no pride. It does not even compare to knowing Christ. None of it is worthy.

He said he may be found in him, not having a righteousness of his own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. That he may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death in order that he may attain the resurrection from the dead. Everything he was proud about is dung, rubbish, and garbage. None of it is a blessing to him for knowing Christ. That is the difference completely. All the things he did will never make him righteous. Only knowing Christ will. It is not comparable.

Paul believed with all his heart in faith and faith alone and Christ and Christ alone. Here is a man who said he could have really been proud, but he is not. The only thing he is proud of is Jesus Christ his Lord. No wonder then he wrote over in Chapter 2, a little bit before this, the things that he said. Watch what he says in Verse 2: "Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit." So how many things can we do from selfishness or pride? He said, "Zero." Here is a man who had done a lot. He said you cannot do anything from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.

Who is more important than Paul to Paul? Everybody. Every single person. But get this: He is telling us to do that. Everybody you meet is more important than you. Everybody in this body is more important than you. Do you see it that way? You have to be honest here. You want to say you want to believe that, but you think you are better than that guy. Paul said you should not act like that. You should be humble. Put on humility.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. He emptied himself. There is the kenosis of the Book of Philippians. He emptied himself of his divine prerogatives. He could have done anything. He said he would empty himself of that. He took on the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men. Being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Wow, talk about humbling. God becomes a man. How humbling is that? It is worse than you and I becoming a slug. I think I will be a slug. He became a man, but not any man. He became the servant of all men. The bondservant idea is a slave. He became the slave of everybody. He will humble himself further, and not only that, he will go to the cross and die for all men. That is what you and I should be. I do not think you and I would ever have to humble ourselves anything close to this degree.

Notice then what happens. For this reason, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name above every name. So here is the Son of God humbling himself to the greatest degree, and God exalts him. Here is Uzziah, this great king, with all the blessings he had, became prideful, and God struck him with leprosy. You see the difference of what is done here. Only humility can please God, not pride.

First one is this: It is in Matthew 18. Am I willing to come to Christ as a child? Because Jesus said if you do not come as a child, you do not come. Well, how does a child come? What does a child bring? Nothing except one thing: Trust. Just simple trust. That is what a child will do. Children trust. If you have a child that loves you, you ever notice the first time that you are at the end of the pool and they are at the edge, and you say jump? What does a typical kid do? He does not know what is going to happen, but here he goes. He did not ask how deep the pool is or how well you swim. Children trust. He said you have to come to Christ that way. That is the prerequisite. Only have faith. That is all a child has. He does not have the intellect or the past accomplishments; he just has faith.

Are you willing to be last for God? Are you willing? I did not say to be not first, but last. Because Jesus said if you are going to follow him, the first have to be last. You have to be last. Paul said you have to be the servant of everyone and consider everyone as more important than you. They are directing these thoughts at our pride. We say something is beneath us. Think of that. We say that is beneath us, but it is fine for you. I will hire you to do it because it is beneath me. Where does that come from? That is our pride.

Thirdly, if I ever want to lead for Christ, Christ says I have to be the servant of all. In fact, Jesus went out of his way and said you know how Gentiles lead? They lord it over people and they say they are the boss. You cannot do that. You are going to have to be their servant. We do not get that in business school. It is difficult for us because our culture has the Gentile version of leadership. Jesus says leadership is servanthood. Now, it does not mean you do not have responsibility.

Am I willing to take up my cross and follow him? And before you say yes, please understand what I mean by that. When Jesus said you need to take up your cross daily and follow me, it does not mean I am loyal to Jesus. It means way more than that. When you were crucified by the Romans, they had a crossbeam. The post is in the ground, and the crossbeam is attached to the post when they crucify you. So they bring the crossbeam; that is what Jesus carried through Jerusalem. He did not carry the whole cross; he carried the crossbeam.

When you do that, they want you to be affected in a certain way. They give you the crossbeam. They strip you naked. Naked. Not loincloth, naked. Then they hang your crime around your neck so everyone can read. And then they almost always want to take you in switchbacks through the town so that everybody there can see you are going to be crucified and what for. Does that seem embarrassing and humiliating? Yes. That is what happened to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That is what happened to Jesus. He said, "Are you willing to take that kind of embarrassment and humiliation for me? Take up your cross and follow me, because that is where I am going. Are you willing to do that?" The only thing that can stop you from actually obeying his words is your pride.

You have to examine your own hearts today. You have to ask yourselves the question, "Am I prideful?" Or more importantly, do I meet these standards? Do I walk humbly before the Lord? Is there a humility about me? Only you can answer that. Let us pray.

Father, the problem that we have when we are prideful is we often never recognize it. We never see ourselves that way. But I am afraid you do, and even a lot of the time, others do. Father, I just ask you, through your Spirit, convict our heart and ask ourselves the question: "Do I walk with pride or do I walk with humility before my Lord?" We are to have the same attitude that was in Christ. Father, I pray that we are obedient to this calling of humility. I pray it for our good and for your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Jason Gebhardt: You have been listening to Pastor Bil 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 is 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.

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If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bil delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcno la.org. That is fbcno la.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bil'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 this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcno la.org. For Pastor Bil Gebhardt, I am Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.