WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.840 Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim 2 00:00:05.840 --> 00:00:11.160 truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. God always knew that when that 3 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:16.040 opportunity would come by his grace that I would say yes to Christ, he didn't 4 00:00:16.040 --> 00:00:20.640 bend my arm, he didn't make me say yes and oh by the way he didn't bend your arm 5 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:25.840 and make you say no. God is giving you the ability, the gospel is presented and 6 00:00:25.840 --> 00:00:32.680 you choose. Well I'm in the choice. Well get actually so is God. Choose. Use your 7 00:00:32.680 --> 00:00:39.840 choice to go to heaven. Abort your opportunity, bad choice, wind up in hell. 8 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:47.560 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. 9 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:52.880 Today if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled 10 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:57.680 life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us 11 00:00:57.680 --> 00:01:03.280 that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. 12 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:09.320 Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. 13 00:01:09.320 --> 00:01:14.920 What if God? I love that. Those three words. What if God? Because mostly it's well 14 00:01:14.920 --> 00:01:22.040 if I were God. Well you're not. So Hall is saying what if God? Of course he 15 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:30.840 makes his argument. Wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured 16 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:35.560 with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. See first 17 00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:40.240 of all what is it saying? It's saying two things number one. Hall is announcing to 18 00:01:40.240 --> 00:01:46.960 the believers. All right listen. God's play is this. What if he wants to show his 19 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:53.480 wrath two things, his wrath and to make known his power. There's the wrath of God and 20 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:58.880 there's the power of God. Church family write this down if you must. Both are equally part 21 00:01:58.880 --> 00:02:08.040 of God's nature. Both are equally pure. Both are equally perfect. God's wrath and God's 22 00:02:08.040 --> 00:02:16.840 power. That being God's direction, it says that he endures with much long suffering 23 00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:22.160 the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. God knows all things remember it before 24 00:02:22.160 --> 00:02:26.880 you and I were ever born. God knew not only the day that you were born, he knew all about 25 00:02:26.880 --> 00:02:35.880 your life for all eternity. You have always been somebody that God has known in eternity. 26 00:02:35.880 --> 00:02:44.280 He didn't get to know you one day. God knew you. And the great argument of Romans nine 27 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:50.280 is when the gospel is presented to you, what will you do with it? Today we're living 28 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:55.440 in the 21st century. Today you're here in the gospel. Christ died on the cross for you 29 00:02:55.440 --> 00:03:01.120 because you couldn't pay your own debt. Jesus paid the price for you and you run to him 30 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:05.960 and say Lord please forgive me. I see that you paid the debt for me. Well I not only did 31 00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:10.600 that. He would say I rose again from the dead to not only guarantee your sins are forgiven 32 00:03:10.600 --> 00:03:17.240 but I'm the one that will make sure that you are forever saved. I justify you in my 33 00:03:17.240 --> 00:03:23.680 resurrection. It's all of Christ and you go yes Lord. I'll accept that. Thank you for 34 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:29.840 forgiving me and I give you my life. And God would say something like fantastic. That's 35 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:36.360 exactly why I made you and I want to use you now. God, listen God doesn't learn that 36 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:43.800 on the day that you accept Christ. I accepted Christ on June 20th, 1977. I had no idea 37 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:57.680 that on June 19th it was my last day to be a pagan worshiping godless. Well I mean they're 38 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:05.600 all telling me what I easy now. No it's all true. Everything you guys said is true. 39 00:04:05.600 --> 00:04:13.720 And more. I didn't know that was my last day to live my life for me. On the very next 40 00:04:13.720 --> 00:04:19.120 Monday night I would hear the gospel and I learned about God that night and I made a decision 41 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:26.560 that night. God, listen God always knew that when that opportunity would come by his grace 42 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:31.800 that I would say yes to Christ. He didn't bend my arm. He didn't make me say yes and 43 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:37.600 oh by the way he didn't bend your arm and make you say no. God is giving you the ability. 44 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:42.720 The gospel is presented and you choose. Well I'm in the choice. Well get actually so 45 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:48.760 as God. Choose. Do you want eternal life or do you want to abort yourself and wind up in 46 00:04:48.760 --> 00:04:57.120 heaven or hell I should say. Choice. Use your choice to go to heaven. Abort your opportunity. 47 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:03.240 Bad choice. Wind up in hell. God wants you to have life. He wants you to have eternal life. 48 00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:09.520 This entire Bible is all about the glory and the awesome glory that it is this way. His 49 00:05:09.520 --> 00:05:15.680 wrath is even glorious. We don't think of this correctly often. It says that his wrath 50 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:25.560 to show his wrath, his wrath is pure. His wrath is not God losing his temper. His wrath 51 00:05:25.560 --> 00:05:32.600 is just as righteous and just as holy. The word wrath here is his divine anger. The word 52 00:05:32.600 --> 00:05:39.720 means pure vengeance. It's wrath in his holiness. It's remarkable. There's no sin. There's 53 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:48.600 no fault with God. And that's one of Paul's great arguments. The Bible says in Isaiah 45 54 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:56.400 verse 9, woe unto him who strives with his maker. It's unnatural. You want to fight with 55 00:05:56.400 --> 00:06:03.560 God. Don't do that. Surrender to God. Give up and let him lead you. That word strives. 56 00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:08.000 Look at it close with me. The Hebrew word. It's interesting. You don't say it this way 57 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:13.480 but I'll say it the way we say it if it was an English word. Rub. Well, have you been 58 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:18.480 rubbed the wrong way? Well, when you strive with your maker, can I put it this way? You're 59 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:24.720 rubbing him the wrong way. And that is you contend with him. You argue with him. You complain. 60 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:29.360 You find fault with him. You quarrel with him. You disagree with him. You oppose and you 61 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:35.840 blame him. That comes from a heart and from a mind that is lost. God is an ogre. He's 62 00:06:35.840 --> 00:06:42.120 mean. He's rude. He's rude. He's not fair. And the Bible says, don't strive with your 63 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:47.360 maker. It's not good for you. Why does the Bible say that? Because the Bible wants you 64 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:52.920 to come to the one who loves you, the real one who loves you. He loves you without condition. 65 00:06:52.920 --> 00:07:02.040 Think of that. Everybody you know in life loves you with conditions. See, not, not, not 66 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:06.360 my husband, not my wife, not my boyfriend, not my girlfriend. I understand where you're 67 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:14.000 coming from. Just know this. God loved you without condition before you ever knew who he 68 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:22.080 was. And he wants you to be with him, but it's your choice. Romans, chapter 2, verse 4. These 69 00:07:22.080 --> 00:07:29.640 are all things that we need to know about this glorious wrath of Almighty God. Romans 2, 70 00:07:29.640 --> 00:07:34.840 verse 4 starts by saying, or do you despise number one watch? Watch this. Do you despise? 71 00:07:34.840 --> 00:07:39.880 Well, number one, the riches of his goodness, the riches of his goodness. Do you despise 72 00:07:39.880 --> 00:07:46.680 as the riches of his goodness that he shows in your life? This last week I had an opportunity 73 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:57.680 to see a yacht with gold, sprinkle, wash basin, you know, what do you think? This is made 74 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:01.160 there in this part. And this is made in this all handmade. There's no other thing like 75 00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:05.840 it in the world. And it's all this. And it's like, and I was with some other fellow believers. 76 00:08:05.840 --> 00:08:09.360 And we're walking around this thing. I got to be honest with you. And I'm speaking 77 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:14.880 for the fellow believers that were with me. As far as I know, this person doesn't know 78 00:08:14.880 --> 00:08:24.280 Jesus that owns this boat, ship boat, yacht thing. And I get it. This is that. And this 79 00:08:24.280 --> 00:08:28.280 is this. And this is here. And this is that. And I'm thinking, in fact, I leaned over to one 80 00:08:28.280 --> 00:08:32.440 of my friends. And I said, you know, for some people, this is as close to heaven as they'll 81 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:47.240 ever get. Think about that for a moment. And what shall it profit, Jesus said, what shall it 82 00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:54.000 profit you if you gain the entire world and lose your own soul? Bill Gates, what will 83 00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:02.840 it profit you if you gain the entire world? You've already bought half of America. What will 84 00:09:02.840 --> 00:09:10.520 it profit you if you lose your own soul? You understand how poor Bill Gates is? You understand 85 00:09:10.520 --> 00:09:17.360 how poor Elon Musk is without Jesus? You can have the biggest boat in the harbor, but 86 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:29.160 without Christ, your sunk. But God gives us good things, does he not? Have you, look, 87 00:09:29.160 --> 00:09:32.640 we've all said this. We've looked at people who are even wicked and their lives are 88 00:09:32.640 --> 00:09:37.120 prospering. And we say, what's up? What's with that? I work way harder than they do. Look 89 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:43.720 what they have. God says calm down. This is, I'm trying to get them to the place of salvation 90 00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:51.480 with my goodness. This is the awesome, incredible workings of God. He goes on there in Romans 91 00:09:51.480 --> 00:09:56.560 chapter 2. The second thing is this forbearance. God, God's forbearance. Don't think if you're 92 00:09:56.560 --> 00:10:00.960 doing something wrong, if you're doing something illegal, if you're doing something vindictive 93 00:10:01.040 --> 00:10:05.640 and dangerous to other people. Don't think you're getting away with it. God is putting up with 94 00:10:05.640 --> 00:10:13.200 you. He wants you to give his life, your life to him. Thirdly, long suffering. This is amazing, 95 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:20.160 long suffering. And then he says, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance, 96 00:10:20.160 --> 00:10:25.320 verse 5, in accordance with your hardness of your impotent heart, you are treasuren up for 97 00:10:25.400 --> 00:10:32.320 yourselves. Wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Wow. 98 00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:44.000 He wants you in heaven. The problem is, without Christ, the wrath that you have been 99 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:50.480 treasureing up is still sitting in your account. It's rising. Every day that you and I live 100 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:57.480 without Jesus, that account is getting filled up. And that's not a good thing. We talk about 101 00:11:02.440 --> 00:11:09.440 his glory. This is a very, very often overlooked verse. Look at Isaiah 63, verse 10. Isaiah 63, 102 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:16.440 verse 10. Do you know what? You want to know why there's the belief in Christianity from 103 00:11:19.400 --> 00:11:24.880 Genesis to Revelation about the Trinity. People will say, well, I don't believe in the Trinity, 104 00:11:24.880 --> 00:11:28.880 because I can't find the word Trinity in the Bible. Well, you can't find the word Bible in the 105 00:11:28.880 --> 00:11:35.880 Bible either. And there's a lot of words that God is or there is that reality and it's 106 00:11:35.880 --> 00:11:40.880 not mentioned by word. Here's one of those things where when you read the entirety of the 107 00:11:40.880 --> 00:11:46.880 scripture, you find out in this case a very terrifying, yet glorious, description of 108 00:11:46.880 --> 00:11:53.380 God's wrath. Regarding the children of Israel and the wilderness, it says, but they rebelled 109 00:11:53.380 --> 00:11:59.180 and grieved his Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit. There's God, the Father, God, the Son, 110 00:11:59.180 --> 00:12:04.180 and God, the Holy Spirit. If there's two sides to a coin, think of this. There's three 111 00:12:04.180 --> 00:12:12.880 sides to God. One God. And he turned himself against him as an enemy and he fought against 112 00:12:12.880 --> 00:12:18.880 him. Can you imagine God, the Holy Spirit fighting against you? I can't. I don't ever want 113 00:12:18.880 --> 00:12:26.380 to know. But they are those who strive with their maker and you don't want to do that. Why? 114 00:12:26.380 --> 00:12:32.280 Why? Because listen to this message. This is God's heart reaching out in His great sovereignty. 115 00:12:32.280 --> 00:12:39.180 He wants you to experience salvation and forgiveness and that that wrath never come upon you. You 116 00:12:39.180 --> 00:12:47.980 see somebody had to take that wrath and that was Jesus. So why would you dig your heels in 117 00:12:47.980 --> 00:12:57.980 and say no to that wonderful offer? Listen, in Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 5, it says, 118 00:12:57.980 --> 00:13:06.280 even when we were dead and trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved 119 00:13:06.280 --> 00:13:13.080 and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Let me 120 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:18.880 explain this for a second, everybody. This is the 21st century. This was written 2,000 years ago. 121 00:13:18.880 --> 00:13:26.480 But the doctrines of God have never changed because they are one with this person, their eternal. 122 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:34.480 This is an eternal truth. We're reading it. It's in a Bible. It was written down 2,000 years ago. 123 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:41.480 But this is the forever nature of God. So watch this. Let me exaggerate it. Even when we were dead 124 00:13:41.480 --> 00:13:48.780 and trespasses we were condemned sinners. God knew this in all eternity before you and I were 125 00:13:48.880 --> 00:13:56.880 ever born. Here's his, here's him going to work. Made us alive together with Christ. How does that work? 126 00:13:56.880 --> 00:14:05.380 By grace, by gift you have been saved and raised us up together that is a newness of life and 127 00:14:05.380 --> 00:14:10.480 made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It means that those of you who raised 128 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:15.880 your hands a moment ago, according to this scripture, you have your name written down in an 129 00:14:15.980 --> 00:14:26.480 address book so to speak in heaven. And listen, heaven is waiting for you to arrive. Heaven is waiting for you to 130 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:36.080 arrive. Well, I'm just now learning about this. I know. The cool part is God has always known this. That's 131 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:46.480 exciting. Verse 7 says that, oh, this is fun. Verse 7, listen to this. That in the ages to 132 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:56.680 come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Verse 7. How 133 00:14:56.780 --> 00:15:08.680 about this? Verse 7, lived out looks like this. When Adam and Eve sinned, God could have just, okay, that's it. Adam and Eve, excuse me, come over here. 134 00:15:08.680 --> 00:15:15.680 Here's Stan right about here. He could have pressed the button and the ground would have opened up and they're gone. 135 00:15:15.680 --> 00:15:23.680 And then he would have walked over and just formed a new Adam, a second one. Could he not have done it? Why didn't he do it? 136 00:15:23.680 --> 00:15:43.680 I would have done it. Too much baggage. I would have just, if I were God, it would be just the sucking drain sound and Adam 137 00:15:43.680 --> 00:15:59.680 and Eve are just going down the hole. And I just reshaped somebody else. And started over. Did you know that this verse 7 is a verse that guarantees the fact that God is a 138 00:15:59.680 --> 00:16:15.680 redemptive God to the extreme. Meaning what? Meaning this. That what God has created. Listen, he's going to redeem and he redeems all things that he has created. For example, watch how deep this goes from Genesis to Revelation. 139 00:16:15.680 --> 00:16:26.680 Do you remember God telling Moses or excuse me, Noah, I'm going to destroy the earth. Get in that boat and I'll let you know when you can get out. 140 00:16:26.680 --> 00:16:41.680 I'm going to destroy the earth. Listen, did he destroy the earth? Yes and no. Yes, he did. But how did he destroy it? Is the other part of the question and the answer? He destroyed it by how? 141 00:16:41.680 --> 00:16:58.680 Water. He flooded. He washed the entire earth. He washed it and started over. But he started over with that which was redeemed, right? Think about it. The earth was scrubbed. What does Peter tell us? He's not going to use water next time. 142 00:16:58.680 --> 00:17:15.680 He's going to use fire. This earth is going to get scrubbed by fire next time. He's going to destroy it but it's still going to be the redeemed earth. Isn't that amazing? The moon, Jupiter, Mars, it's all going to be redeemed. 143 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:29.680 He's not going to make a new Jupiter. He's going to scrub the one that is, the universe, when it says that he's going to destroy all things. He's going to destroy the surface of all things that are corrupt. 144 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:52.680 He's going to take what is lost and redeem it. Why? That's the nature of our God. Some of you guys and gals are into restoring things. It's junk. I see it. It's junk here. You want it? You can take it. It's junk. And then they turn it around and they sell it for 500 bucks. How do they do that? They restored it back to some of its glory. God does that. 145 00:17:53.680 --> 00:18:06.680 He makes new. He takes what is dead and brings back to life. He's absolutely awesome in all of this. That verse goes on to say in that passage in verse 8, 146 00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:19.680 for by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. How wonderful is that? Also this, his glory is all consuming. All consuming. Verse 23, 147 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:39.680 and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory. Notice the two differences. And what does that place you? What do you want? God in all eternity knows. Yes, it's true. 148 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:59.680 And you're going to say this today, well, I guess I have no choice in the matter. He already knows. So I guess I could just be a vessel of destruction. Could be that you want to be a vessel of his mercy, to display his mercy. Somebody in this room, somebody watching right now, they're going to say, nope, care less. 149 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:19.680 Wow. If you stay in that condition, then you proved God right all along. He knew from eternity that when you were given the chance to get a whole new life, you threw it back in his face. Versus the person right now that is saying, wait a minute, are you saying that I can start my life over again? Oh yeah. 150 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:39.680 This Jack Hibbs podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.