WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.840 Real Life presents the Jack Hibb's podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim 2 00:00:05.840 --> 00:00:09.320 truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 3 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:14.760 You understand this is absolutely crazy. If this was Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, 4 00:00:14.760 --> 00:00:19.960 you'd not hear any of this. This is the creator God of the Universe Saints. Come to me Quint! 5 00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:24.800 I want you saved. I want you with me. I want you born again. I want you to have a new life. 6 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:35.480 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. 7 00:00:35.480 --> 00:00:41.560 Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, 8 00:00:41.560 --> 00:00:47.000 then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying, 9 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:53.360 amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what 10 00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:57.760 God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibb's. 11 00:00:57.760 --> 00:01:03.920 I love this statement by Dr. Albert Barnes. He's now long dead and gone. He says the fact that the gospel 12 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:10.480 has been extended to all nations is proof that it is from heaven. And I love that. You know, 13 00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:15.280 you might say, well, that's not exactly a big deal because Apple computers made it around the world. 14 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:21.360 So did Google and so did you fill in the blank. Yeah, you know what? There was no book ever written 15 00:01:21.360 --> 00:01:27.920 about Google before Google showed up. And what can what can Google do for you anyway? 16 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:35.280 What about Apple? What about Microsoft? What about you filled in all these global entity things 17 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:40.800 that have swallowed up there? Hey, listen, I got news for you. 2000 years ago, the gospel was being 18 00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:46.480 preached and without the internet, it made it around the world. Everybody thinks, you know, 19 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:51.520 especially young people, wow, look at that. That's, that's gone viral. You want to talk about viral, 20 00:01:52.480 --> 00:02:02.720 Bible viral, Bible viral, like the kind of little tune to that. The Bible powered by the Holy 21 00:02:02.720 --> 00:02:09.920 Spirit, the Word of God, because God is one who changes people's lives. And I'm going to tell you 22 00:02:09.920 --> 00:02:15.120 right now that when we think about these things, what do we say? We're talking about the unwavering 23 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:21.920 witness of God in his faithfulness. That's what Paul is talking about. God says he'll save. 24 00:02:23.200 --> 00:02:32.560 But what about that Pharaoh? God says he'll save. But what about Ishmael? God says he'll save. 25 00:02:33.600 --> 00:02:39.760 But what about Issa? All of these things in Scripture, we do well to understand that when God speaks, 26 00:02:40.720 --> 00:02:45.840 He speaks from the nature of absolute love and perfection. And so as we look at this, 27 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:53.040 mark it down if you would, Romans chapter 2 going way back a few weeks ago, Romans 2. As many 28 00:02:53.040 --> 00:02:58.400 as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. This is talking about Gentiles. 29 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:04.240 They don't have the law. They didn't have the law. And as many as have sinned in the law, 30 00:03:04.320 --> 00:03:08.800 will be judged by the law. That's speaking about the Jewish people. They have the law, Moses, 31 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:13.360 the Ten Commandments, and more. For not the heirs of the law are justified in the sight of God, 32 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:21.840 but the doers of the law will be justified. Watch this. For when Gentiles who do not have the law, 33 00:03:22.880 --> 00:03:28.560 think about, you're not going to see a Gentile holding two tablets labeled one to ten. 34 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:35.920 But by nature, do the things that are in the law, these, although not having the law, 35 00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:42.640 are a law unto themselves. I'll explain that in a moment. Verse 15, who show the work of the law 36 00:03:42.640 --> 00:03:47.760 written in their hearts, their conscience, also bearing witness and between themselves, 37 00:03:47.760 --> 00:03:54.960 their thoughts accusing or else excusing them. In the day when God will judge the secrets of men 38 00:03:54.960 --> 00:04:01.440 by Jesus Christ according to my gospel, says Paul, the gospel that he preached. So this is an 39 00:04:01.440 --> 00:04:06.800 amazing declaration. How is it that we now are reading a portion of scripture that is 40 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:13.680 parsing out now, Israel, who had the law in the prophets and the commandments and the Gentiles 41 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:18.800 who were pagan worshipers? I don't know about you. Maybe you can have a blood test. Do your 42 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:24.240 little ancestry.com thing. And you might find out that you're actually Jewish. You could be. 43 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:30.400 People find this out all the time. There are percentage Jewish. I've never done that, 44 00:04:30.400 --> 00:04:33.760 and so I'm just going to own up that I come from a long line of pagans. 45 00:04:35.280 --> 00:04:43.120 High probability, you also. But as I say this today, by design, because this is what this portion 46 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:48.000 of scripture is going to tell us, is that you are in one of two camps today, you and I. 47 00:04:48.960 --> 00:04:54.960 And you might be surprised as to how this unfolds. But if we're Gentiles today, according to 48 00:04:54.960 --> 00:04:59.920 the scriptures here, we do not have access to the law. We didn't have it. We didn't have the 49 00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:04.880 traditions. We didn't have Moses. We didn't have the revelations. We didn't have the prophets. We 50 00:05:04.880 --> 00:05:11.360 were pagans. And so as pagans, we worshiped all kinds of things. That's why as Gentile pagans, 51 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:16.880 we worship the gods of sex. We worship the gods of drugs. We worship the gods of 52 00:05:17.280 --> 00:05:23.360 Jim Beam and Jack Daniels. We worship the god of Phil in the blank, self-seeking pleasure. 53 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:27.760 And you look at all those gods, by the way, and they actually are manifested in and throughout 54 00:05:27.760 --> 00:05:35.200 human culture. Now they're kind of relegated to statues and museums. But there's pan. You've seen 55 00:05:35.200 --> 00:05:40.240 images of pan. By the way, when you worship pan, do you know what it was called when you worship 56 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:48.640 pan? It was called panic. Literally. They ran around, went crazy, and all kinds of bizarre, 57 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:56.560 hedonistic acts. And it looked like a mob. And that's where, from the worship of pan, came the word 58 00:05:56.560 --> 00:06:05.760 panic. What about Janice? What about Zeus? What about Athena? All of these pagan gods. These were 59 00:06:05.760 --> 00:06:10.240 the ones that we went after. You said, Jack, I'll have you know, I never bow down to any of those 60 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:15.520 gods. You don't have to bow down to those gods to worship the spirits that are behind those gods. 61 00:06:16.960 --> 00:06:22.080 The Bible says, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. That means none of us are 62 00:06:22.080 --> 00:06:29.920 perfect. What do you have to say when he says, what shall we say? Well, the number one thing is 63 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:36.320 absolute surrender. I come to this place and I say, God, you need to take over in my life. 64 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:43.040 I realize that as a Gentile, I realize I know that in my life, I've sinned. And how do you know 65 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:48.240 that? The Bible says God has written his law upon your heart. That's true, by the way, for Jew and 66 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:54.080 Gentile alike. Listen, this is important. God doesn't have a section over here for Jews and 67 00:06:54.080 --> 00:07:00.320 a section over here for Gentiles. Listen, did you know, and by the way, I'm going to contradict 68 00:07:00.320 --> 00:07:06.320 some famous preachers that are out there today. Listen up carefully. There are some preachers out 69 00:07:06.320 --> 00:07:12.160 there that say things like this, did you get saved this way and Gentiles get saved another way? 70 00:07:13.200 --> 00:07:18.720 That's blasphemous. They think a Jew is saved by some other thing. Oh no, you Gentiles need to be, 71 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:24.880 what's the word, born again? Excuse me. Who did Jesus say he had to be born again or else he will 72 00:07:24.880 --> 00:07:32.880 not see the kingdom of heaven? Was Nicodemus a Jew? He was the leader of the Jews. He was the chief 73 00:07:32.880 --> 00:07:41.360 teacher. He was the religious grand puba of Israel of the day. And Jesus said, you must be born 74 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:47.600 again to enter the kingdom of heaven. There's only one way and that is Jesus Christ. 75 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:55.520 And so the Bible teaches us also, this is so exhilarating. Romans chapter 10, you have to check 76 00:07:55.520 --> 00:08:00.800 sometimes to make sure it's still in the Bible. Romans chapter 10 verse 8, but what does it say, 77 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:05.680 kind of starts out the same, right? What does it say? What's the scripture's teaching he is announcing? 78 00:08:06.640 --> 00:08:12.800 What do you say about this? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the 79 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:18.640 word of faith which we preach. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in 80 00:08:18.640 --> 00:08:26.720 your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved for what the heart one believes 81 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:32.720 under righteousness and what the mouth confession has made him to salvation. That is epic. 82 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:40.720 But some of you find this offensive. It can't be that easy. That's ridiculous. I didn't say it was 83 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:48.320 easy, but it's simple. How is it? I don't understand it that our God in the Bible speaks to us things 84 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:57.520 that are simple but impossible. God says come to me. That's the greatest challenge I believe 85 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:04.480 that is before all of mankind is when God says come to me and I'll save you. And after that 86 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:10.720 invitation man goes into a mental conundrum with himself. What do I do about that? You just heard 87 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:19.120 him say come, go. I don't know if I should. It's God inviting you, go. And we wind up getting 88 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:26.560 into debate with ourselves. We wind up arguing with ourselves. Why do we do that? Because coming to 89 00:09:26.560 --> 00:09:30.880 God means this. He is the one that died on the cross and rose again from the dead. He is the 90 00:09:30.880 --> 00:09:39.440 Savior which means that we by coming must confess that we have sins and we own them, stop hiding them. 91 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:45.760 You know there's some people they're so deluded. Some people have become so deluded and literally 92 00:09:45.760 --> 00:09:50.800 God gives them up that they're so deluded to their own sin that they think they're so superior 93 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:56.400 to everybody else and everybody can see how wrong they are but they can't see how wrong they are. 94 00:09:57.280 --> 00:10:01.840 They live in their own world, their legends in their own mind. They only keep in touch with 95 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:12.640 themselves. They live in a bubble and everything's wrong except them. And that is self-righteousness 96 00:10:13.520 --> 00:10:19.280 and self-righteousness will kill you. Come to Christ. That's what we're to say. 97 00:10:20.800 --> 00:10:25.600 Secondly, we look at verse 30 and right there in the middle, this is the Gentiles who did not pursue 98 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:31.360 righteousness have attained to righteousness. This is a remarkable statement. You shouldn't mark 99 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:38.160 this down. The pagan worship being godless who did not pursue righteousness have attained 100 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:46.000 to righteousness. They got it. He's speaking about believers who are non-Jews who didn't have Moses. 101 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:52.000 They didn't have the prophets when they heard the gospel. They said, I'm such a rotten sinner. 102 00:10:52.000 --> 00:11:00.480 This is the best news ever. You see, listen, you might say today, Pastor, I was invited here by 103 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:05.040 some friends. You have no idea how big of a horrible sinner I am. I'm the worst in the world. 104 00:11:05.040 --> 00:11:11.680 God would never have me. Excuse me. You're exactly the person God wants, the bigger the sinner, 105 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:18.400 the bigger the display of grace. And listen, you might don't count yourself out. Oh, I'm a murder, 106 00:11:18.400 --> 00:11:24.240 I'm a mugger. I'm a this, I'm a that. Listen, Jesus is saying to you today quickly come to me before 107 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:30.080 you die, before you drop dead, before you get hit by a truck. Come. He wants you with them. You 108 00:11:30.160 --> 00:11:35.840 understand? This is absolutely crazy. If this is, if this was Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, 109 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:40.880 you'd not hear any of this. This is the creator God of the universe saying, come to me quick. 110 00:11:40.880 --> 00:11:45.440 I want you saved. I want you with me. I want you born again. I want you to have a new life. 111 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:52.320 I want you to start all over. I can help you do that. You did it all your own first time around. 112 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:58.080 Let me do it next time. He's awesome. And so we asked the question, what are we looking for? 113 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:06.160 Gentiles who did not pursue the word pursue is an amazingly powerful word. It means look at this. 114 00:12:06.160 --> 00:12:13.120 The word pursue means to strive for or to seek after. Watch this. I love this to act or the act of 115 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:23.520 hunting prey to go after with all your being in desperate pursuit of a desired end conclusion. 116 00:12:23.520 --> 00:12:32.080 Seal this in the positive. Strive. Go after God. Seek him. Stock him like you're stocking prey 117 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:41.440 as a hunter. This is what they, this is what I did not do. I didn't do this. According to 118 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:48.320 the Bible, you didn't do this. According to the Bible, God interrupted your life. I'm talking to 119 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:54.320 the believers today. The contrast as you'll hear in a moment are those who grow up in religion. 120 00:12:55.680 --> 00:13:00.480 They're schooled. They're disciplined. They're walked through the traditions. They do these 121 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:05.840 things. They don't do the other things. They check the box. They've got the clothing. They do the 122 00:13:05.920 --> 00:13:16.000 thing. They're never satisfied. There's always a hole inside of them. That's empty where how will God 123 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:22.000 love me? Why don't I feel close to God? There's an emptiness. Then some bumbling pagan comes along. 124 00:13:22.640 --> 00:13:28.160 All joyful and happy that he's been forgiven of his sins and he's living for God. The Jew looks 125 00:13:28.160 --> 00:13:35.920 at this and says, what's going on? That can't be true. We've got the prophets. We've got the book. 126 00:13:35.920 --> 00:13:45.760 We've got Moses. Yes, but we believe in the Messiah. That's all the difference in the world. 127 00:13:46.880 --> 00:13:53.120 The Bible says by the keeping of the law shall no man be justified before God. How are you going to 128 00:13:53.120 --> 00:14:01.280 get there? What are you looking for? It's remarkable because the fact of the matter is God has it for 129 00:14:01.280 --> 00:14:09.280 you all along the way. God has satisfaction for you in life. He has it. He said, I'd like to have 130 00:14:09.280 --> 00:14:19.280 some of that. Then give your life to him and he'll give it to you. He said, well, I don't know if 131 00:14:19.280 --> 00:14:24.640 I want to give my life to him. What if I miss out on something? What are you going to miss out on? 132 00:14:26.160 --> 00:14:30.800 Think about that. It's not one of the lies that's in our head. Well, if I make a decision for Jesus, 133 00:14:30.800 --> 00:14:38.640 now I might miss out on something and what could that be? We are easily lied to when we speak to 134 00:14:38.640 --> 00:14:46.000 ourselves, when we counsel ourselves. Now I'm going to show you a verse. Are you guys awake? 135 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:49.840 I'm going to show you a verse. I'm going to confess right at front, so I'm not trying to 136 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:56.880 bamboozle you. There is the traditional view of this verse, traditional, and I get it, and I agree 137 00:14:56.880 --> 00:15:01.600 with the traditional view of the verse, but because I'm not normal, I'm going to introduce you 138 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:09.680 another way of looking at it. I think both are true. How do I know for sure? I don't. When we're in 139 00:15:09.680 --> 00:15:16.400 heaven, I'll tell you which one it was. Okay, it's Matthew 13, the great parable chapter, Matthew 13. 140 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:28.960 So keep in mind, legalistic pursuit of God through the law versus the pursuit of God by faith and grace. 141 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:37.440 Jesus is speaking, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man 142 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:44.800 found and hid, and for joy over it goes and sells all that he has and buys that field, and again, 143 00:15:44.800 --> 00:15:51.040 the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found one pearl 144 00:15:51.040 --> 00:15:58.480 of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it, traditional interpretation. Again, 145 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:06.240 the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, when a lost man, somebody who's lost 146 00:16:06.400 --> 00:16:17.600 a sinner finds it, hides and hides and for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys 147 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:24.240 that field. In other words, the field is the treasure that he's pursuing, he's the sinner, he sees it, 148 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:34.080 he sells everything, he buys it. Verse 45, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant, so this 149 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:41.440 is a sinner seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and 150 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:47.360 sold all that he had and bought it. This verse is, and it's accurate, you can argue that this 151 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:53.680 verse is a call to discipleship. Take up your cross and follow me, Jesus said, are you tracking with 152 00:16:53.680 --> 00:17:02.560 me? That this is what you give up to get Christ, and I get it, and I agree with the traditional 153 00:17:02.560 --> 00:17:09.360 interpretation. Allow me to read it a different way. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like 154 00:17:10.560 --> 00:17:16.800 treasure hidden in a field. Is it possible that the field is the world 155 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:26.720 and that you and I is broken and as weary and as worn as we are, are actually treasures to him. 156 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:35.920 For the joy that was set before him, the Bible says, he endured the cross. Is it possible 157 00:17:37.360 --> 00:17:44.640 which a man could this man be Christ found and hid and for joy over it, he goes and sells all 158 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:51.280 that he has and buys that field. Excuse me, but he's the one that was rich and became poor the 159 00:17:51.280 --> 00:17:57.440 Bible says for our sake, he left heaven to come here. You understand? You don't do that. That's a 160 00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:07.120 downgrade. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant. Maybe this is Jesus seeking beautiful 161 00:18:07.120 --> 00:18:14.000 pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. 162 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:21.600 Did he not buy salvation for you? Did he ask you at any time? Can you pay 10 percent? 163 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:28.080 How about a down payment and then you can have it all? He bought it, he did it, he brought it, 164 00:18:28.080 --> 00:18:34.240 he presented it, and he's doing it to some of you today. You're the one that's of great value 165 00:18:35.040 --> 00:18:39.840 in price and you and I've been listening into this world all of our lives about how whatever 166 00:18:40.560 --> 00:18:46.080 issues we have. We've got issues. You've got issues. I've got them. You've got them. We've all got 167 00:18:46.080 --> 00:18:52.880 them. So no one's left out. You got them. I got troubles. You got trouble. All God's people got troubles. 168 00:18:55.280 --> 00:18:59.840 But God looks at you and He says, you're such great value in wealth. I'm going to come from heaven 169 00:18:59.840 --> 00:19:03.920 to earth and I'm going to die in the cross for you and I'm going to set your soul free and I'm 170 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:08.880 going to set your spirit alive and I'm going to resurrect your body someday in glory from the dead. 171 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:13.520 This is the gospel. What an awesome God we have. 172 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:24.400 This Jack Hibbs podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported. 173 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:31.760 Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and 174 00:19:31.760 --> 00:19:38.480 stay connected. You're listening to this podcast. 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