Fellowship in the Word

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

Bil Gebhardt: By the way, that term "God of heaven," that's the only time it's in the Book of Psalms. It's in Revelation. The God of heaven. It seems like it should have been more common than that. Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His loving-kindness is everlasting.

What's it mean to give thanks to God? Well, obviously it means to say thank you. But what is it when we give thanks to God? What are we doing? We're worshipping. You see, that's what God wants from you and me. He wants our praise and thanksgiving. Why would I praise Him? Because He's God and His loving-kindness is everlasting. And because of that, I thank Him.

Jason Gebhardt: 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: Just imagine what it's like to live without hope. It’s a very important thing for us. When you take away somebody's hope, it's amazing the destruction you do to their spiritual or soulish life. They just take it away. "I have no hope at all."

He says, "Remember my affliction," here’s his prayer, "and my wandering, the wormwood of bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me." His prayer is short: "God, remember me. Please." And here's what's funny about this, in an odd way. It's not so much that God remembered Jeremiah, but that Jeremiah remembers God and His loving-kindness is everlasting. Watch.

"This I recall to my mind." Now Jeremiah says, "I thought about this. You know, I really thought about this. Therefore I have hope." Wait a minute. You just said two verses ago you didn't have any hope and now you have hope. How in the world did you get hope so fast? Watch. "The Lord's loving-kindnesses indeed never cease."

That's just what I’ve been reading in Psalm 136. I thought about this and the Lord's loving-kindness, His *hesed*, His love, mercy, grace, loyalty, it never ceases. And now I have hope again. You see, He's good, He's sovereign, and I have hope. He said, "For His compassions, they never fail." Wow. How do you know His compassions never fail? He's sovereign over everything.

"They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him." Wow. New every morning. No matter how bad you're in a state now or how bad the past has been, no matter what's happened to you or no matter how many things you've done that bring this onto you, this kind of despair and no hope, the Lord says, "My loving-kindness is everlasting and my mercies to you are new every morning, every morning."

Well, what's that mean? It means it can change your perspective. One of the things that a Christian should never live in, ever, is the past. Ever. You see, that's the point. Remember what Paul said? Paul said to the Philippians, "Forgetting what lies behind."

Wait, Paul, you know some stuff lies behind. How about the idea of the arrest and probably death of many Christians? "I forget it. Pressing on to what's in front of me." That's something to remember. If you can't remember that, maybe you can remember this: The windshield is always quite a bit bigger than the rearview mirror.

Try to remember that. That's where we're moving forward because notice what he says. It said His compassion will never fail, it's new every morning, great is Your faithfulness. And that's the way this works. And I'm telling you people, it does work. There's no doubt about it.

These last few months for me have been the most painful of my life. No question about it. But what I want to tell you is that pain was overwhelmed by God's peace. Overwhelmed by it. The peace of God smothered the pain. That's what happens. And the reason for that is the loving-kindness of the Lord is everlasting. It's always there. It's new every morning. It's there for you and it's there for me as well.

Now, back then to the Psalm in verse four: "To Him alone does great wonders." You see, that is summary of that section. Only God can overcome the worst circumstances of your life. Only God can overcome the pain and suffering sometimes that human beings go through.

Now, our medical community would say, "No, but we can numb it. We can medicate you so much that you'll be numb, you won't feel any more pain." But all you've done is numb the pain. God says, "I can take the pain away." And you know why? "My loving-kindness." See, that's His point. You have to count on this. This is such an important thing.

So then the second point is: His *hesed* is evident in all the things He's ever done. So that's what He says. Notice the first thing that He's done. He said, "To Him who made the heavens with skill, His loving-kindness is everlasting. To Him who spread out the earth above the waters, His loving-kindness is everlasting. To Him who made the great lights, His loving-kindness is everlasting. The sun to rule by day, for His loving-kindness is everlasting. The moon and the stars to rule by night, for His loving-kindness is everlasting."

God's creation, He says. But He says something else about it. One thing we know about the creation: it's unbelievably perfect and intricate. One of the sidebars I’ve always loved is astronomy and astrophysics and stuff like that. And it's so interesting to see in the last twenty years the changes that are being made, when you not just think of our Earth, but our solar system, and then you think of the Milky Way, and then you think of the infinite universe that we're in.

And the more science keeps looking at this, you know what they see? Perfection. So much so that there's a whole group of secular scientists now, a whole group called infinite design scientists. This had to be designed infinitely. I can remember not reading long ago that there was a book and it had about fifty different things that had to be perfect on the Earth, in our solar system, and in the Milky Way galaxy, or there could be no life on Earth at all, no matter what. And they just went with one argument after the other scientifically.

If we were a little bit closer to the sun, there'd be no life here. If we were a little bit further away, there'd be no life here. If our atmosphere was a few thousand feet higher, thicker, we'd have no life here. And if it was lower, we'd have no life here. If the sun didn't give us exactly the amount of energy that it gives us when it gives it to us, there'd be no life.

But if the moon wasn't there, in the sense for the idea of our tides and everything, we'd have no life here. And you could go on and on and on with this. So you think, well, yeah, God created it. He just spoke it and there it was. That's tremendous.

But there's something else in this creation. He just gave us the creation and after every phrase about the greatness of God's intricacy, what's it say? The loving-kindness of God is everlasting. What's that tell you? Why did He create it? Because of His loving-kindness.

You see, you remember that? Remember in Genesis when He's writing and He gets the creation and after He creates something, what did He say? "And it was good." Not just great, not like intricate, good. That's God. He said, "If you look at My creation, it's a wonderful thing because My loving-kindness is everlasting."

Now, the second thing He does is He talks about redemption. Notice verse ten. He said, "To Him who smote the Egyptians in their firstborn, His loving-kindness is everlasting. And He brought Israel out from their midst, His loving-kindness is everlasting."

Wait a minute, what's He saying in there? He's talking about His loving-kindness, but what He says is this. Understand this: there's more to Me than just loving-kindness. I'm also holy and just. I do judge sin. And that's why we're so grateful for what happened on the cross.

But the point of it is, those who reject Me, I will judge. Those who accept Me, I will bestow My loving-kindness on. And that's exactly what happened in Egypt. You see, that's exactly what happened in Egypt.

So notice, He goes on then and He says, "He brought Israel out from their midst, for His loving-kindness is everlasting. And with a strong arm," He said, "and an outstretched arm, His loving-kindness is everlasting."

You read the story about all the plagues and then how were they delivered? Under the blood of the Lamb. So they had to put the blood of the Lamb on the top of the doorpost and then they're delivered out of Egypt. And that's an amazing thing because remember when John the Baptist first saw Jesus Christ, what was his first words? "Behold, the Lamb of God." You see, that Lamb was a picture of Jesus Christ.

He says, "To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, for His loving-kindness is everlasting. And He made Israel pass through the midst of it, His loving-kindness is everlasting. But He overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. His loving-kindness is everlasting."

That to me has always been one of the great scenes. The Jewish people were complaining on the way out of Egypt. And they complained the whole time they're in the wilderness. They just complained the whole time. But you could imagine, you got Pharaoh with the Egyptian army and he's right behind you and now you've been you try to get out of there and you face the Red Sea.

Now what are you going to do? You see, now what do we do? We're either going to go into the Red Sea and perish or the army is going to come and make us perish. So Moses says, "Behold, or remember how it works out. You saw the movie. Charlton Heston put his hands like this. And whenever that happens, what happens? The Red Sea parts and two million people go through."

That's amazing. But you might be thinking, if you're one of them, especially in the back, "The Pharaoh army's right behind us. It's going to go right through and slay us anyway." No. God's loving-kindness, His loyal love. Remember, He made a covenant. He made it with Abraham, He kept it with Isaac, and He made it with Jacob. And you are My people and I am your God. And so they went through and the Egyptian army was drowned in the Red Sea.

He said, "You know why I did that? Because My loving-kindness is everlasting to My people." You see how this works? It's an amazing thing.

So then the third stage of this is His provision and protection of His people starting in verse sixteen. He says, "To Him who led His people through the wilderness, His loving-kindness is everlasting."

Now, understand, this had to be a little bit I'm just talking about this. It had to be a little bit unique for the Lord. Once they crossed the Red Sea and they got the Sinai, the time it should have taken them to go into the Promised Land is six weeks. Even with two million people, you can get them there in six weeks.

How long did it take? Forty years. Why? They didn't believe God. We're not believing Him. Send in the spies, only Caleb and Joshua come back and said, "Let's go," and the others said, "Nope, we can't take it."

Now, these people that say, "No, we can't take it. We can't do this." Remember, they saw all the plagues of Egypt, all of them. They got delivered out of the blood of the Lamb. They saw the Red Sea part and they walked through and they said, "We can't do it. We just I don't think we can do it."

The whole time they were in the wilderness, though, His loving-kindness is evident. He fed them what? Manna. My one of my favorite Hebrew words. I like manna. What was manna? Here's what it means: "What's that?" "What's that?" Every day we got some what's that. You go out, "What's that?"

If you've ever had kids and you get a new dish, you know, and you do it, what's the first thing? "What's that?" kids are like that too. Well, they said, "What's that?" And He gave them just enough for that day to sustain them, not enough to store it.

How much water would it take for two million people and all of their animals in a desert? It's all provided by a rock that follows them around. I mean, now I long ago, a guy was trying to explain the size the rock would have to be. Okay, I mean, it was just almost beyond belief the size to hold that much water.

The Rock was Jesus Christ. The Rock was supernatural. The Rock could be any size. You could have a rock the size of a faucet and it's an endless faucet. It's God at work here. He sustains them in their unbelief. Why would He sustain His children in their unbelief? Because the loving-kindness of God is everlasting. It's always going to be there and it was there for them just as well as everybody else.

So then it says, "To Him who smote great kings, His loving-kindness is everlasting. And He slew mighty kings, for His loving-kindness is everlasting. Sihon, the king of the Amorites, His loving-kindness is everlasting, and Og, the king of Bashan, His loving-kindness is everlasting. And He gave their land as a heritage, His loving-kindness is everlasting, even a heritage to Israel, His servant."

Those two kings were mentioned because they were particularly warlike. And he said He gave them to them. Now, do you remember there was a condition on this for them, though, wasn't there? They were to go in and drive out a few of them, right? Most of them. All of them.

Guess what they didn't do? They didn't drive out the "ites." There're "ites" everywhere. You got Jebusites, Moabites, you got "ites, ites, ites" everywhere "ites." And they left them in the they left them in the hill country. They left them they're there.

What happened because of that? They started worshipping the god of the "ites." That's why they ended up in the Assyrian captivity and the Babylonian captivity. They never became the people of God that they should have been. So they were disciplined by God and taken out of the land twice. And yet in spite of that, what? The *hesed* of God is everlasting.

It's unconditional. It's everlasting. It wasn't based on their performance. There was nothing like that. That's the way this worked and they have their heritage. That's the way this worked.

So *hesed* is His very nature. *Hesed* is evident in what He's done. And *hesed* is undeserved and freely offered. Verse twenty-three: "Who remembered us in our low estate." I would change that for me. "Who remembered me in my low estate." You ever wonder that? Think about that. The infinite, holy, omnipresent, eternal, almighty God remembered you. Just you.

Me? You. You're none of those things. All you have is you're a sinner. That's what you have working for you. And He remembered you in your lowest estate. Why would God do that? His loving-kindness is everlasting.

"For God so loved the world, He sent His only begotten Son." You see, it's an amazing thing. That's God. It's and it's offered to everybody. You see, the offer is there. The offer is for everybody. He remembered our low estate, His loving-kindness is everlasting, and even this, "He has rescued us from our adversaries, His loving-kindness is everlasting."

What are your adversaries? Well, Paul spells it out in the New Testament. If I had to say what my adversaries are, it's pretty simple: the world, the flesh, and the devil. That's what the Scripture says. Those are all my adversaries. And it's amazing. And I eventually will overcome all my adversaries.

Why? Because of loving-kindness is everlasting. Not because of performance, not because of what I’ve done, only because of God and who He is and what He's done. That's the way this thing works. There'll be a time when I'm absent from My body and present with My Lord.

The world will have no grip on me, my flesh will be left behind, and the devil will not be able to touch me. Why? The loving-kindness of God is everlasting. You see, it just keeps back to that same redundant theme over and over again.

Then He says this: "Who gives food to all flesh, His loving-kindness is everlasting." You go, "What what's that mean?" There's a picture of God's loving-kindness for everybody. When Noah at the ark was finally brought back to land, guess what God said? "I will now provide for them to live, all of them."

And so does He provide food for all of us? Does He provide rain? You see what I mean? That's called common grace by theologians. The idea is I provide all of it, even to the one who completely rejects Me. In fact, that's what Paul says in Romans 1. It basically paraphrase Paul says God provided everything for people. He gave them creation, He gave them a conscience, He took care of them, and instead of honoring God as God, what did they do? They rejected God.

But God's loving-kindness is everlasting and He's there is a common grace that God gives to every human being, even those who most reject Him. And so when you get down to it all, the final conclusion is an interesting conclusion considering the first verse.

First verse: "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His loving-kindness is everlasting." Last verse: "Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His loving-kindness is everlasting." By the way, that term "God of heaven," that's the only time it's in the Book of Psalms. It's in Revelation. The God of heaven. It seems like it should have been more common than that. Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His loving-kindness is everlasting.

What's it mean to give thanks to God? Well, obviously it means to say thank you. But what is it when we give thanks to God? What are we doing? We're worshipping. You see, that's what God wants from you and me. He wants our praise and thanksgiving. Why would I praise Him? Because He's God and His loving-kindness is everlasting. And because of that, I thank Him. I have to thank You. Over and over again, I have to thank You.

Now, the reason I gave you this reminder today is really simple. It's a simple thing. If you embrace this reminder, I can tell you something. You've got to believe it. You've got to know it, then you have to believe it, and then you have to embrace it. But if you embrace it, no matter what the circumstances of your life are, no matter how difficult it becomes or how painful it could seem, you will have peace.

That's what God gives us through this statement. "I'll give you a peace." Remember Jesus said it? "I give you My peace. Not a peace, My peace." You see, that's an amazing thing. That's why this reminder is so important to us. You see, just say to yourself over and the loving-kindness of God is everlasting. Next time you feel pain, despair, confusion, the loving-kindness of God is everlasting.

Join me in prayer. Father, so often we just take things for granted. There's nothing unusual about the phrase Your loving-kindness is everlasting, and we take it for granted. But Father, what ends up happening when we do that is that when circumstances become difficult and we begin to experience pain and suffering, we start thinking to ourselves, "Where's this God who's supposed to be here to help me?"

And You're there the whole time. And You want to say to us, "Child, My loving-kindness is everlasting. You have to understand and believe that with all your heart because if you do, as Paul told the Philippians, I will give you a peace beyond all comprehension, a peace that comes from Me." Father, thank You so much for this great reminder. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Jason Gebhardt: You've 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'd 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.

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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, fbc-nola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. 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 fbc-nola.org. For Pastor Bil Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.