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 --> 00:00:10.820 truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Push the envelope, she wouldn't 3 00:00:10.820 --> 00:00:16.240 mean by that. If you're not sure if you should glorify Jesus in that moment, do it 4 00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:22.720 anyway. I'd rather get an applause from God in heaven for goofing it up rather 5 00:00:22.720 --> 00:00:28.400 than sitting it out. There is no such thing as spectator Christianity. Doesn't 6 00:00:28.400 --> 00:00:30.400 exist? 7 00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:38.640 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. 8 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:44.000 Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled 9 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.840 life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, 10 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:54.000 that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to 11 00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:00.000 listen. Now, open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. 12 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.720 I need all of your attention because I'm gonna, it's not in my notes, but I'm 13 00:01:03.720 --> 00:01:08.360 gonna run through this quickly. Technically, there are two judgments. Watch my 14 00:01:08.360 --> 00:01:13.160 hands because I'm Portuguese and I cannot speak with my word with my mouth 15 00:01:13.160 --> 00:01:20.120 properly. It's the hands. Watch the hands. There's the judgment seat of Christ. 16 00:01:20.120 --> 00:01:27.040 It's in the Bible is known as the Bema, B-E-M-A, the Bema seat of Christ. Christ is 17 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:33.840 the judge. Watch. And who he judges are his people. This is the judgment he's 18 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:37.960 speaking about right here. That Paul is speaking of the judgment seat of Jesus 19 00:01:37.960 --> 00:01:44.680 Christ. I'm gonna be sarcastic now. You've got to know Jesus Christ and he's got 20 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:49.120 to know you to appear at that judgment. You said, wait a minute. I thought he 21 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:53.560 died for my sins at the cross. I thought I passed from judgment to life. You did. 22 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:58.520 Well, then what are you talking about judgment? I thought I escaped all that. We're 23 00:01:58.520 --> 00:02:05.200 talking about the judgment seat of Christ where you and I will appear and we 24 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:11.160 will be before him and we will answer to him regarding our faithfulness to 25 00:02:11.160 --> 00:02:17.840 what he has asked us to do. He's the master. We are the slave, right? And he in 26 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:21.800 this life, in the here and now, he has given us and he has opened up doors of 27 00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:32.000 opportunity for us to advance Christ. And God has his people as I said everywhere. 28 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.480 You and I are gonna be standing before Jesus Christ and we're not gonna be judge 29 00:02:36.480 --> 00:02:42.640 on our sins. This is good news. You should like, okay, now you're talking. You and 30 00:02:42.640 --> 00:02:49.520 I are gonna be judged for our faithfulness. Have we been faithful? Now this is 31 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:56.560 gonna sting though. As a believer, I should ask you what is it that you're being 32 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:02.720 faithful to do that he's asked you to do. It implies you know what you're 33 00:03:02.720 --> 00:03:09.280 supposed to be doing for him. Don't be a Christian and if I or someone were to 34 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:13.200 ask you, so if we're all gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ and be 35 00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:21.760 faithful to what he's called us to do, what did he call you to do? You see, you're 36 00:03:21.760 --> 00:03:27.640 not saved by what you do, but because you are saved, God says, I can use you. I 37 00:03:28.040 --> 00:03:38.800 use all my kids. I meet with people who are being faithful in their cancer 38 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:45.840 treatment. I'm convinced now by the way that this is a huge area of missionary 39 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:52.320 work. I talk to people all the time, Pastor Prave for me, I got cancer. I've 40 00:03:52.320 --> 00:03:58.880 been going through treatment at UCLA and I came to the realization. I got to get 41 00:03:58.880 --> 00:04:02.840 right with God. I love God but I wasn't walking with God and now I'm just telling 42 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:05.840 everybody, you know why they're doing this? They'll tell you why. You might be 43 00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:12.760 here today. They got a death sentence. They could be dying. The doctors are 44 00:04:12.760 --> 00:04:17.600 telling them it's stage four. It doesn't look good. What do they do? They realize 45 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:26.280 they have come to Jesus moment and they realize, wow. Well, here we go. The 46 00:04:26.280 --> 00:04:29.960 oncologist is getting witness to. The nurses are getting witness to. The 47 00:04:29.960 --> 00:04:34.360 technicians are getting witness to. They're singing song. They put on praise 48 00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:41.600 albums in their hospital bed and what are they gonna do? I don't want to 49 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:45.680 get it loud. Turn it up. What are they gonna do? What are they gonna do? You're 50 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:49.640 crying out loud according to them. You're dying. Maybe you are dying but the 51 00:04:49.640 --> 00:04:54.440 thing is this. You've woken up to the realization. Eternity is real. This life 52 00:04:54.440 --> 00:04:58.640 is fleeting. Jesus is alive. He's on the throne. He forgives sins. I'm gonna 53 00:04:58.640 --> 00:05:04.280 let it rip. I'm gonna announce to the world. In your moment when God gives you 54 00:05:04.280 --> 00:05:10.960 the opportunity to share Christ, be faithful to that call. And by the way, 55 00:05:10.960 --> 00:05:15.640 push it. Push the envelope. What do you mean by that? If you're not sure if you 56 00:05:15.640 --> 00:05:21.800 should glorify Jesus in that moment, do it anyway. I'd rather get an applause 57 00:05:21.800 --> 00:05:28.120 from God in heaven for goofing it up rather than sitting it out. There is no such 58 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:35.440 thing as spectator Christianity. Doesn't exist. So ask yourself over and over again. 59 00:05:35.440 --> 00:05:42.200 What am I being faithful to? And you and I will give an answer to Christ on the 60 00:05:42.200 --> 00:05:46.680 day of judgment. That's for the believers. And then there's the great white-throwing 61 00:05:46.680 --> 00:05:51.200 judgment found in Revelation chapter 20 verse 11. You do not want to be there. 62 00:05:51.200 --> 00:05:57.160 That's for unbelievers. And they're judged for all the evil that they've done in 63 00:05:57.160 --> 00:06:01.720 their lives. They're judged for their sins. The Bible tells us that they are 64 00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:08.200 then cast into hell and hell they will suffer equal to the magnitude of their 65 00:06:08.200 --> 00:06:19.400 sins. So imagine, for example, Adolf Hitler. Think about the sins of whatever. That's 66 00:06:19.400 --> 00:06:23.880 why Jesus said you must be born again into the kingdom of heaven. But I just, this 67 00:06:23.880 --> 00:06:30.640 is not, you know, look at the verse 10. It says, for we shall all stand. Stand. 68 00:06:30.640 --> 00:06:37.680 What's that word stand? Means this. To be placed. Look, to be placed beside. I 69 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:42.720 like that beside. I'd like to look at this way to be placed beside Jesus. To 70 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:47.120 present or to present yourself. To make a presentation. To stand in the presence of 71 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:54.840 God. To come before. Imagine walking into the court as it were in standing. We 72 00:06:54.840 --> 00:07:02.160 will stand before Jesus. The world, when it's judged for its sins, they won't 73 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:08.000 have a leg to stand on. They won't be able to stand. The Bible tells us Christ is 74 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:12.200 able to make us stand. And on top of it, the Bible says that Christ is our 75 00:07:12.200 --> 00:07:19.680 advocate. You need an attorney? Boy do I ever. Jesus, on that day, when you and I 76 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:24.560 are judged for our faithfulness, Christ will be our attorney. He's going to 77 00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:28.840 represent our case before Christ, before God the Father. Our Christ will do that. 78 00:07:28.840 --> 00:07:34.600 The Messiah will do that. The world, on the other hand, has no hope. There's no 79 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:39.600 advocate. You stand naked and alone before Almighty God. There's no mediator for 80 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:47.720 you. And you face the judgment. And here's the tragedy of it all. God came and 81 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:54.400 revealed himself in the world to the world as his word proclaimed he would and as 82 00:07:54.400 --> 00:07:59.600 his word proclaimed he did, so that you wouldn't have to go to that great white 83 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:06.680 throne judgment, referred to in Scripture. Why would you go there? It's just 84 00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:13.640 amazing to me. No, no. He's not only going to stand for us as believers. He's 85 00:08:13.640 --> 00:08:18.520 going to make us available or I should say enable us to stand. Verse 11 says 86 00:08:18.520 --> 00:08:23.680 for it is written, as I live says the Lord, every knee should bow to me and every 87 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:28.920 tongue shall confess to God. That's just an absolute blanket fact. He is sovereign. 88 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:33.960 We're not all believers and all non-believers are going to bow their knee to him. 89 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:39.320 Here's the key to all of this. Bow your knee while you're alive here on earth to 90 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:46.520 him. Because you will bow your knee. Who's the famous atheist, the brilliant man, 91 00:08:46.520 --> 00:08:56.440 of neurologist. He's a physicist, neurologist. I think it's Sam. Sam Harris. 92 00:08:56.440 --> 00:09:04.640 An unbelieving Jew. Sam Harris. He says he's a Jew, but God does not exist. That's 93 00:09:04.640 --> 00:09:15.640 the first indicator of idiocy is your Jewish, but God doesn't exist. He's brilliant 94 00:09:15.640 --> 00:09:22.560 and he's like one of the great leaders of the new atheist movement. And the 95 00:09:22.560 --> 00:09:26.240 new atheist movement, they just read title it. It's the same argument of the old 96 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:32.440 atheist. They don't prove anything. They just get all mad and they argue about God the way 97 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:36.000 that I don't approve of what God's running the country or God's running the world. 98 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:44.920 So I thought you didn't believe in God. Richard Dawkins at Oxford University said 99 00:09:44.920 --> 00:09:54.560 that he is a megalomaniac, a maniacal, paranoid. And he's going off describing his view 100 00:09:54.560 --> 00:10:00.280 of the God of the Bible. And then Dr. John Lennox, the professor of mathematics at Oxford 101 00:10:00.280 --> 00:10:08.720 University, said to him, he looks and says, what are you doing? Why are you upset with 102 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:14.960 somebody who doesn't exist? Isn't that great? What do you get all uptight about? 103 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:20.640 He's vain, start popping out. He's a maniacal. He's cruel. And he's like, what if I, how 104 00:10:20.640 --> 00:10:26.560 can you be upset when you don't believe in him? He's like, does that not a great argument? 105 00:10:26.560 --> 00:10:32.280 Ask your friends who don't believe in God. Why not? Well, because this and the universe 106 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:42.520 and that and babies born sick and all this stuff. That's not refuting the existence of God. 107 00:10:42.520 --> 00:10:46.040 That's you saying, I don't like the way things are going. What is it? Technically, I'd like 108 00:10:46.040 --> 00:10:51.080 to play with them this way. You're an atheist, but you're upset the way things are going. 109 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:55.320 We agree on this. This world stinks, man. There's a lot of pain and sorrow and it's 110 00:10:55.320 --> 00:11:01.640 grievous and it's ugly. We agree. But the funny thing is, I'm that peace with God on this, 111 00:11:01.640 --> 00:11:06.120 because I've read his Bible. He said he didn't want this to happen, but this is what we've done 112 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:11.480 to ourselves by disobedience. You, on the other hand, you're about ready to have a heart attack 113 00:11:11.480 --> 00:11:17.960 about somebody you don't even believe exist. Your whole logic is short circadian. You're not even 114 00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:26.760 thinking straights. Just because you don't believe in God doesn't mean this stuff in the Bible's 115 00:11:26.760 --> 00:11:37.160 not going to happen. I have to tell you this. I taught this yesterday in Arizona at a conference. 116 00:11:38.280 --> 00:11:42.040 I was talking about deception and this one word that Jesus used for deception 117 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:54.440 is a word that is the root to some words that you and I know. The word ignoramus is from the Greek 118 00:11:55.480 --> 00:11:59.640 ignoramus. You want to ignoramus is? You ever heard the word? Nobody uses the word anymore. 119 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:07.400 You're not supposed to say that word, I guess. Ignoramus is the same meaning to the word 120 00:12:07.880 --> 00:12:17.800 the agnostic, agnose, an agnostic. What is an agnostic? An agnostic says, well, there may possibly 121 00:12:17.800 --> 00:12:25.720 be a God out there, but I don't want to find out. That's the word to be an agnostic. The word 122 00:12:25.720 --> 00:12:31.240 ignoramus means, I believe there's things to know, but I refuse not to know them. 123 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:39.720 That's why the Bible, Jesus said, they were willfully ignorant. They chose not to know. 124 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:49.640 And you and I experienced this in life. You are family and friends. They know you're a Christian 125 00:12:49.640 --> 00:12:54.440 and they don't want you to say a word about it. Come to Thanksgiving, but don't talk about God. 126 00:12:55.400 --> 00:13:01.800 We're going to invite you guys over for Christmas. Don't bring a Bible. Why are you ignoramus? 127 00:13:04.040 --> 00:13:09.160 Why? What's the matter? What's happening here? And it's strange because listen, 128 00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:14.840 if they only knew the love of God, I'm convinced of this. The church has done a lot of damage to 129 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:20.360 the unbelievers because we've put a bad witness out there, but it's our, listen, it's our calling 130 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:26.120 to love on them in such a way to speak to them and say, listen, this is the God of the Bible. 131 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:31.000 This is what Christmas is about. This is what Thanksgiving is about. This is what life is about. 132 00:13:32.280 --> 00:13:38.520 And let them see the alternative to the world in which they live in, that they can live in a world 133 00:13:38.520 --> 00:13:46.120 of meaning, that the Bible tells us, Isaiah 45 verse 23, Old Testament. I've sworn by myself, 134 00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:53.800 the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that to me every knee shall 135 00:13:53.800 --> 00:14:00.120 bow and every tongue shall take an oath or make confession. What an incredible, awesome statement. 136 00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:05.560 Philippians, we read this last week, Philippians 2 verses 10 and 11, that at the name of Jesus, 137 00:14:05.560 --> 00:14:10.600 every knee should bow of those in heaven and those of earth and those under the earth and that every 138 00:14:10.600 --> 00:14:15.800 tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. See the consistency 139 00:14:15.800 --> 00:14:23.080 here? You bow your knee and confess to God. In the God of the Old Testament, the Book of Isaiah, 140 00:14:23.960 --> 00:14:30.520 hall the Apostle knew that, the Holy Spirit knew that, and so in Philippians, the answer is it's 141 00:14:30.520 --> 00:14:35.720 Jesus Christ that you're going to be bowing to. He's God revealed to us. If you want to know what 142 00:14:35.720 --> 00:14:42.680 God is like, take a look at Jesus in the Bible. Acts chapter 4 verse 11, this is the stone which 143 00:14:42.680 --> 00:14:49.640 the builders rejected which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other 144 00:14:49.640 --> 00:14:56.120 for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Jesus, 145 00:14:57.080 --> 00:15:04.840 Jesus, verse 12, and we'll end with this. So then each of us shall give an account of himself 146 00:15:04.840 --> 00:15:13.800 to God and that word account means it's that Greek word logos, the word, the reason, the answer. 147 00:15:13.800 --> 00:15:21.720 Each of us will give the answer, the word, the reason to the question asked. It means to the question 148 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:27.560 asked. It means it's very specific and we'll end with this. It doesn't mean you leave yet. People love 149 00:15:27.640 --> 00:15:34.200 when I say that they start leaving. I'm not going to say this is the end anymore. We're just going to 150 00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:50.440 keep going. If we're to give an account and we shall give an account, that confession, the 151 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:59.720 Bible is very clear about. And we have a precursor to what is to be the future. When it happened with 152 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:06.600 Peter and I can tell you again another plug for Israel, there's some sites in Israel that we think 153 00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:12.040 this was the area archaeologists will tell us. There's some places that the archaeologist will tell 154 00:16:12.040 --> 00:16:18.040 us this is what it was in an area like this area wasn't here but it was like this and then there's 155 00:16:18.040 --> 00:16:22.920 the area where we get so excited because the archaeologist will tell us this is the exact spot. 156 00:16:24.600 --> 00:16:29.080 And in Matthew chapter 16, we go to the exact spot. It's still there today. It's still standing 157 00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:38.440 after 2,600 years. Here it is. Jesus has taken the disciples up to Caesarea Philippi to take a break. 158 00:16:38.680 --> 00:16:49.160 They've been ministering very hard 24, 7, non-stop ministry and Jesus announces to them. Let's come away. 159 00:16:49.160 --> 00:16:55.400 It's time to shut down. Catch our breath. So he takes them to Caesarea Philippi which you would want to 160 00:16:55.400 --> 00:17:02.120 live there. It's absolutely stunningly gorgeous. It's the headwaters by the way of the Jordan River 161 00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:07.560 comes out of the ground at that point right there. There's a lot of ancient temples that are there. 162 00:17:11.080 --> 00:17:15.720 And so he takes them to a place. I don't know if you want to take a vacation like he took them on but 163 00:17:16.520 --> 00:17:20.760 he took them to this place that was the Jews would avoid that region. It was totally pagan. 164 00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:27.480 And Jesus takes them on a field trip to this spot. Caesarea Philippi and they got the temple of 165 00:17:27.480 --> 00:17:32.200 Diana there. The temple of Zeus is there. They got the temple of the nymphs that are there. They 166 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:37.800 got all these backus is there. So when you're worshiping God in this section you're backus. You're 167 00:17:37.800 --> 00:17:43.960 drinking all the intoxicating drink and then you have sex with their prostitutes. Male or female 168 00:17:43.960 --> 00:17:49.320 didn't matter. It's what you picked. And then you went over here to Athena. They were all there 169 00:17:49.320 --> 00:17:53.480 and then you went to the nymphs and you can figure out what that was all about. And then they 170 00:17:53.880 --> 00:18:03.800 and this was all there. And when you appear before that temple you say great is Diana or great is 171 00:18:03.800 --> 00:18:11.960 Athena. And Jesus takes his disciples on a field trip to that. You see the background in your head? 172 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:21.480 Look at verse 15. And Jesus said to them, but who do you say that I am? Do you like that? Do you see 173 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:28.760 that? All these gods named you being shouted out. Jesus turns to them and says, well, who do you 174 00:18:28.760 --> 00:18:37.960 say I am? Wow. Simon Peter. God bless Peter. He's always great to step up. He said you are the 175 00:18:37.960 --> 00:18:42.520 Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said, and blessed are you Simon, 176 00:18:42.520 --> 00:18:47.000 Barjona? For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. 177 00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:53.400 And I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates 178 00:18:53.400 --> 00:19:00.360 of hell will not prevail against it. When Peter said you are the Christ, you are the son of God. 179 00:19:02.040 --> 00:19:08.040 Jesus said Peter, that fact, that truth that you just proclaimed is what my church will be built on. 180 00:19:08.040 --> 00:19:13.240 And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.