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 --> 00:00:11.120 truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. Every believer in the house 3 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:16.800 right now when things come to an end, for us it's always the beginning. There is no 4 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:22.120 end for the Christian. It's not even possible. 5 00:00:22.840 --> 00:00:29.720 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. 6 00:00:30.360 --> 00:00:36.200 Today if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, 7 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:42.920 then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us that's like saying amen or yes, 8 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:48.440 then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has 9 00:00:48.440 --> 00:00:55.240 to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. The end for the Christ follower is always a very good thing in 10 00:00:55.240 --> 00:01:02.520 Scripture, always. For example, I wrote some things down. It's at the end, my dear brother and 11 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:08.840 sister, after a long and grueling trial, a period of testing that the victory comes. Have you 12 00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:15.480 noticed that? We've all gone through trials, but it comes to an end. And for the believer there's 13 00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:21.720 a great victory on the end of difficulties. Be it death in the family, hardship, financially, 14 00:01:21.720 --> 00:01:27.720 illness, sickness, whatever. God brings us through and there's a great victory. There's an end to 15 00:01:27.720 --> 00:01:32.440 the believer's life that's always good. And then also I thought about this, there's the end 16 00:01:32.440 --> 00:01:39.080 of years of schooling and preparation. And then finally, graduation day comes. And all of a sudden 17 00:01:39.160 --> 00:01:47.880 it comes together. It ends only to open up a door into a new life. And then what about the end that 18 00:01:47.880 --> 00:01:57.480 was when Jesus Christ, after 33 years of living in this world, his life, listen, his life ended at 19 00:01:57.480 --> 00:02:04.200 the cross, but church did it stay ended? Of course not. Three days later, he rose again from the 20 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.800 grave and the end was just the beginning. I submit this to you that to every one of us who follow 21 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:17.640 Christ, every single end in our lives leads to a beginning. And so now that leads us to our study 22 00:02:17.640 --> 00:02:25.160 today, verses 17 and 18, repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of 23 00:02:25.160 --> 00:02:31.880 all men. That's believer and unbeliever. Verse 18, if it is possible as much as it depends 24 00:02:32.440 --> 00:02:39.160 on you, live peaceably with all men. Great words of wisdom here. And by the way, before we go all 25 00:02:39.160 --> 00:02:45.160 the way into this, I love the practicality of the Bible. Friends, listen up. When it says down 26 00:02:45.160 --> 00:02:53.400 there in verse 18, if it is possible, well, stop, I thought all things are possible for us. 27 00:02:55.160 --> 00:02:59.800 They are. This is a challenge and we'll get to it later. This is a challenge regarding our 28 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:08.200 willingness. Are we willing to love our enemies? Are we willing to even ask God, will you make me 29 00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:13.800 willing? You might be here today and you're thinking, I want to choke my enemy. You need to say, 30 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:18.760 Lord, I'm sorry for that attitude. That's not like you. You're not like that. And God, I need you 31 00:03:18.760 --> 00:03:24.200 to forgive me and change my heart. But Lord, I tell you what, I don't have enough spiritual maturity 32 00:03:24.200 --> 00:03:30.200 to press any further beyond that. But I will ask you this, will you cause me, will you make me 33 00:03:31.480 --> 00:03:40.600 to be willing? Will you make this impossible situation be possible in my life? Because God can do 34 00:03:40.600 --> 00:03:47.080 that. And by the way, hopefully, if I'm faithful to what God has put in my heart to teach on today, 35 00:03:47.080 --> 00:03:52.200 you will want to embrace that because it will be liberty for you. And then he goes on to say, 36 00:03:52.200 --> 00:03:57.400 how practical is the Bible? So awesome. As much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all 37 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:03.800 men. That is so cool. Because what that means is, either learn to be more gracious to those that 38 00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:09.240 are around you, especially those that you don't like, to the point where at times you can overcome 39 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:14.760 all that and your enemy can become your best friend over time. Because love conquers a multitude of 40 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:23.640 sin. But there are times when it's just abrasive. You've done your best, they've done their best, 41 00:04:23.640 --> 00:04:30.120 and you just don't get along. And so between now and heaven, when thank God, heaven, we're going to be 42 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:34.600 perfect. No, he's going to be walking up there saying, oh gosh, here comes Jack. Let me, let me, 43 00:04:36.040 --> 00:04:42.120 that's not going to happen. You'll love, you will love me. And I'll love you. And there will be, 44 00:04:42.200 --> 00:04:47.080 do you remember when you took my parking spot? There'll be none of that. They'll be none of that. 45 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:54.200 It will be gone from us. And so we learn this. This is going to hurt. It's going to say this to us. 46 00:04:55.160 --> 00:05:00.520 Come into the end of me means I got to come to the end of me being the judge. I got to stop being 47 00:05:00.520 --> 00:05:06.600 the judge when it says repay no one evil for evil. Now let's be honest, this is ridiculous. What 48 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:13.160 kind of power do you and I have to repay evil upon someone who's done evil to us? You say, well, 49 00:05:13.160 --> 00:05:19.800 Jack, you've not seen me in action. No, no, no, I'm not saying that you can't render evil upon 50 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:24.680 someone who's done you evil. The Bible is saying, what gives you the right to do that? So what 51 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:29.640 they did it to you? Who are you to do it back to them? Who do you think you are? The judge? 52 00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:35.400 And did you know, technically in the purest sense of the word, did you know that? 53 00:05:35.400 --> 00:05:41.640 But luckily there's only one judge and you're not the one. Who's the one judge? 54 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:48.280 God, technically the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says that God the Father has committed to Christ 55 00:05:48.280 --> 00:05:55.400 all judgment. And Jesus is exercising currently no judgment. Did you guys know that? Theologically, 56 00:05:55.400 --> 00:05:59.880 if you were in a theological course, you would have to answer this question, when will Christ 57 00:05:59.880 --> 00:06:06.120 execute the judgment of God? If somebody says he's doing it now, no, he's not, that's coming. 58 00:06:07.640 --> 00:06:15.160 Right now, this is an age of grace. God is patiently, quietly putting up with all of your evil 59 00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:18.680 and shenanigans. If you're not a Christian right now, and for that matter, if you're a 60 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:24.040 Bexlid in Christian, he's still putting up with that in your life. But if you're not a Christian, 61 00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:28.040 and you think, well, man, I've been sleeping around doing drugs, robbing banks, 62 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:33.640 and I haven't gotten in trouble yet, God must be okay with me. Oh, you have no idea that he's 63 00:06:33.640 --> 00:06:40.440 not only gracious, he's sharpening the sickle. In fact, look at it this way. God is gracious. 64 00:06:42.280 --> 00:06:47.160 But with every day that you wake up in your rebellion, just, I don't, I hope this ruined your life 65 00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:55.880 was what I'm about to say. Just hear this, because he is sharpening his sickle of 66 00:06:56.520 --> 00:07:00.040 wrath and judgment against the wicked and ungodly. That's what the Bible says. 67 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:07.640 He's coming back. The second coming is all about him executing his judgment upon the earth. You 68 00:07:07.640 --> 00:07:14.280 don't have to go through that. You can come to Christ today, but know this, we are not the judge, 69 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:23.560 and it is human nature for every single one of us to usurp some form of judgment upon other 70 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:33.320 people in our lives. Every one of us. We do this. And to do so is to sit in the place of being a 71 00:07:33.320 --> 00:07:40.360 judge, repay no one evil for evil. The word repay, let's mark this down. Jesus spoke these words, 72 00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:49.080 Paul spoke these words. It means to give back, to return, to account, or to tabulate, to pay back, 73 00:07:49.640 --> 00:07:55.960 to make a repayment, to hand back what was handed to you. We would maybe hear it this way in our 74 00:07:55.960 --> 00:08:02.440 head. Well, they had it coming. You ever heard that term? They had it coming. What's coming? What 75 00:08:02.920 --> 00:08:10.520 came to them? Repayment for what they did to me. Let's all be honest. Emotions, we can all agree with 76 00:08:10.520 --> 00:08:16.520 that statement. They had it coming. Now, we feel it, think it on the inside. God sees it. We would 77 00:08:16.520 --> 00:08:26.520 never say it out loud. But it's wrong. It's sin as a believer. We can't do that. So, well, they 78 00:08:26.520 --> 00:08:33.000 had it coming in our modern day expression. We also would say things like this, maybe. Good for them. 79 00:08:34.520 --> 00:08:42.440 Well, I'm not surprised. You ever heard that one? Or I just knew as a matter of time. 80 00:08:45.320 --> 00:08:51.160 If we knew so much about their terrible situation, why didn't we do anything about it when we were 81 00:08:51.160 --> 00:08:57.160 pondering all this prophetic news in our minds? They had it coming. What was it that they had coming? 82 00:08:57.800 --> 00:09:01.160 You should have gone to them as a Christian and said, listen, you need, by the way, you might hate 83 00:09:01.160 --> 00:09:05.000 me for this, but you need a repent of what you're doing because God loves you and you're going to 84 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:10.280 destroy your life. And if you can't, you would have said something about it. Listen, Christian should 85 00:09:10.280 --> 00:09:15.720 never be snoopy people. The Bible condemns us being gossips. Did you know that? By the way, 86 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:24.200 God says in the book of Proverbs, I hate gossips. God, you wonder why? Because the gossip assumes 87 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:28.920 that the person that's being talked about is not there. They can't defend themselves. So, 88 00:09:28.920 --> 00:09:33.800 what you do, how many of us have had this happen to us, when somebody says, you know what happened 89 00:09:33.800 --> 00:09:39.800 to Bill, don't you? Here's my, look, I'm an old man. I get to say stuff like this now. Do I need to 90 00:09:39.800 --> 00:09:48.920 know? Right? Because if somebody comes to you and says, well, you know, you know what what Karen 91 00:09:48.920 --> 00:09:57.000 said. Do I need to know that? Number two, if you're going to tell me what Karen said, can I quote you? 92 00:10:00.040 --> 00:10:05.640 Write that down. Write that down. Write that down. You want to know why? By the way, try 93 00:10:05.640 --> 00:10:11.400 it as a test. The moment you say, well, before you tell me, I mean, listen, here's what's really 94 00:10:11.400 --> 00:10:17.400 happening. Excuse me. Before you pollute my heart and my mind about what Karen said, who is not 95 00:10:17.400 --> 00:10:23.480 here, by the way, to defend herself. But whatever you do say, it's going to be in my head forever, 96 00:10:23.480 --> 00:10:29.640 even if she didn't do it. Are you hearing me people? When somebody says something, 97 00:10:30.040 --> 00:10:37.880 we're repaying them. We're putting something upon them by gossiping about them, saying something 98 00:10:37.880 --> 00:10:43.640 about them. We're labeling them. And then you say things like this, I was just kidding. It's too 99 00:10:43.640 --> 00:10:50.520 late. Every time you see that person, you will remember the bad thing first and then you'll have to 100 00:10:50.520 --> 00:10:57.880 try to, yeah, well, he said he was kidding. And you have to defend that person. And God says, I hate 101 00:10:57.880 --> 00:11:05.880 it. And you're repaying people by how you speak about them. But as a church family, we just 102 00:11:05.880 --> 00:11:12.120 all need to get into this holy practice of saying, do I need to know? And secondly, if you're going 103 00:11:12.120 --> 00:11:19.480 to tell me, I'm going to quote you, watch your friends say, you know, I think I left a pot roast 104 00:11:19.480 --> 00:11:26.280 in the freezer. Watch it, try it. I've done it. It works every time. It's awesome. 105 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:36.680 But this is what's done by a spirit of retaliation. I'm going to pay them back. I know God died on the 106 00:11:36.680 --> 00:11:40.760 cross for my sins and I'm a child of God going to heaven, but this person upset me and I'm going to 107 00:11:40.760 --> 00:11:47.240 get them back. I understand, we all understand the emotion. We just need to understand something. 108 00:11:47.880 --> 00:11:53.720 It's come from a bad, bad poison that is still in our heart and God is actually using the situation 109 00:11:53.720 --> 00:12:00.120 to speak to us, to say to us, you need to get that crucified. Jack, you need to get that crucified. 110 00:12:01.320 --> 00:12:05.720 That's why this whole thing has come to your attention. It's not about them. It's about you, Jack, 111 00:12:05.720 --> 00:12:12.920 and me. That's got to get dealt with. Now, shout not judge. We hear that all the time, but why not? 112 00:12:12.920 --> 00:12:21.160 Let's be honest. The Bible says that we shall not judge, and then the Bible turns around and says, 113 00:12:21.160 --> 00:12:28.200 judge one another and judge yourself. This is one of the bummers about us in the English language. 114 00:12:29.240 --> 00:12:35.800 Mark it down please. When the Bible says do not judge another, the word judge in English is very 115 00:12:35.800 --> 00:12:42.920 weak. It should be this way, and it is this way in the original scripture in the Greek language, 116 00:12:42.920 --> 00:12:51.320 thou shalt not condemn. Because we are all called, even by Jesus himself, to be what we say, 117 00:12:51.320 --> 00:12:58.760 fruit inspectors. When somebody says that they're a Christian, we are Christians, and vice versa, 118 00:12:58.760 --> 00:13:04.760 we're supposed to evaluate each other's fruitful life. Do we really live like a believer, 119 00:13:04.760 --> 00:13:12.440 and we make determinations? We are constantly making judgments on all kinds of things. We're supposed 120 00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:18.760 to discern. Do you ever heard the word discernment? Is a conclusion based upon judgment? 121 00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:25.800 But the Christian is not allowed. We don't have it. We don't have the insight. We don't have the 122 00:13:25.800 --> 00:13:32.440 authority. We don't have the place. It's reserved only for God. We cannot condemn. We need to be 123 00:13:32.440 --> 00:13:40.280 careful about that. So repaying somebody evil, because they've done evil to us, it is human, 124 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:46.760 but it's our fault of nature. In Matthew 7 verse 1, I think you already knew I was going to go 125 00:13:47.240 --> 00:13:51.080 here. Matthew 7 verse 1, Jesus says, judge not that you be not judged. 126 00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:59.160 For whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, 127 00:13:59.160 --> 00:14:04.120 it will be measured back to you. In other words, are you being harsh on people? 128 00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:10.760 If you don't repent of that, Jesus is saying, I'm going to exercise the level, the exact same 129 00:14:10.760 --> 00:14:17.560 level of harshness upon you, because that's what you dealt out. Now you might say, well, 130 00:14:17.560 --> 00:14:24.200 isn't he repaying evil for evil? No, he's God. He is repaying evil with righteousness 131 00:14:26.200 --> 00:14:31.880 in his judgment. Verse 3, and why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye? 132 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:38.360 Think about how funny this is. Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye? Do not consider 133 00:14:38.360 --> 00:14:46.040 the plank in your own eye. Excuse me, this is hilarious. You've got a two by four by eight 134 00:14:46.040 --> 00:14:52.360 foot beams sticking out of your eyeball, and you're all concerned about your brother that's got 135 00:14:52.360 --> 00:14:57.560 a speck of dust in his eye. You know you have a speck of dust in your eye right there. 136 00:14:59.800 --> 00:15:04.440 Well, you have a log sticking out of your face. I mean, this is funny, 137 00:15:04.760 --> 00:15:12.760 but Jesus has made to find the optics on this hypocrisy. Verse 4, or how can you say to your 138 00:15:12.760 --> 00:15:21.000 brother, let me remove the speck from your eye. This is getting funnier. Hypocrite first remove the 139 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:26.600 plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. 140 00:15:26.600 --> 00:15:32.840 Is that graphic? That is awesome. Why are we not laughing? I thought, are there any planks around 141 00:15:32.840 --> 00:15:42.840 here? I guess I should be. Wow. James 5 verse 9 says, do not grumble. This is a tremendously 142 00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:50.440 powerful word. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge 143 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:56.600 is standing at the door. Wow. And that word grumble, by the way. Look at the meaning of the word 144 00:15:56.600 --> 00:16:05.080 grumble in James 5, 9. The word is translated, do not hold a grudge against another. The word 145 00:16:05.080 --> 00:16:11.560 grumble means hold a grudge against another, or to hold an ongoing complaint against another 146 00:16:11.560 --> 00:16:15.400 Christian. Okay, this is going to, this, listen, this is a big deal. Are you guys still with me? 147 00:16:16.920 --> 00:16:20.600 Say, I know this hurts, I know this things, but that's why you're in a Bible teaching church. 148 00:16:20.600 --> 00:16:24.680 This is the big deal. We've, for those of us who are getting hit by the Holy Spirit right now, 149 00:16:24.680 --> 00:16:29.000 with that definition of the meaning of the word from the scripture here in the book of James. 150 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:36.040 This is getting us. Boom. Wait a minute. What? Because sometimes, listen, a grudge is something 151 00:16:36.040 --> 00:16:48.440 that we, we keep like a pet. And we, you know, we kind of nurtured along and we feed it by saying 152 00:16:48.520 --> 00:16:58.680 the person's name, or you hear the person's name and you go, you know what I'm talking about? 153 00:16:58.680 --> 00:17:04.680 It's us as humans. This is why we need, this is one of the reasons why we need Jesus so bad. 154 00:17:05.800 --> 00:17:10.360 To hold a grudge against another, to have a complaint, an ongoing complaint against another 155 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:16.520 brother or sister in Christ. What does the Bible tell us? But in Matthew chapter 18, 156 00:17:16.520 --> 00:17:20.280 you have something against somebody? What does the Bible say? Post it. 157 00:17:23.960 --> 00:17:25.080 Is that what the Bible says? 158 00:17:26.760 --> 00:17:34.200 Tweet it. Does somebody do something to you? Did you blab it on the social media? Did you tell 159 00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:40.040 somebody? Instead of going to them, you just send. In fact, it can be argued, you send a 160 00:17:40.040 --> 00:17:45.800 greater sin than what they did to you. Do you have something against somebody? Is there a 161 00:17:45.800 --> 00:17:50.520 Christian that you don't like because of this side of the other thing? You better go to them. 162 00:17:51.800 --> 00:17:57.080 You better go to the mace app. Listen, you're not hearing this message today by coincidence. 163 00:17:57.080 --> 00:18:01.720 God is speaking to us. Get it right. Why? Because he's getting this church right. 164 00:18:02.600 --> 00:18:07.480 I hope Jesus comes back today. But man, listen, some of you need to get right with God so we can get 165 00:18:07.480 --> 00:18:15.400 out of here. And if you think like that, I am not going to do that. Maybe your husband is 166 00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:18.920 nudging your elbow saying, you need to go to her. I told you, you should go talk to her. 167 00:18:18.920 --> 00:18:22.840 Or maybe you're getting nudged and your wife is saying, you need to take care of this with the 168 00:18:22.840 --> 00:18:26.680 kids or whatever it is. You know, that stuff, I can see it from here. That's how I just knew to 169 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:37.480 say that. You inspired me to say that. Oh, they got to take care of that. Because if you don't, 170 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:42.600 it's going to be pride that keeps you from getting healed and from others being healed around you. 171 00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:49.480 The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 31, for if we would judge ourselves, we would not 172 00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:55.960 be judged. Now there's a good judgment. And that's exactly what I just said to you a moment ago. 173 00:18:56.520 --> 00:19:01.720 Judge yourself. Here's what you want to be Christian. You want to take the Bible every day of 174 00:19:01.720 --> 00:19:06.760 your life. And you want to apply the Bible to yourself a little bit more harder than you do to 175 00:19:06.760 --> 00:19:12.200 anyone else on the planet. Make it harder on yourself. You want to know why? Because listen, 176 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:20.680 if you apply the word of God to yourself now, now when it says, if you judge yourself, 177 00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:24.600 you will not be judged. It means this. When you show up before God, God's going to say, 178 00:19:25.640 --> 00:19:34.840 glad you're here. Awesome. Come on in. You mean, yeah, but after, after you get in trouble, right? 179 00:19:35.800 --> 00:19:43.160 No, come on in. But don't you want to? No, listen, here's what you did. You took my word all the 180 00:19:43.160 --> 00:19:48.680 years of your life. You applied my word to your situation. You judged yourself against my word. 181 00:19:48.680 --> 00:19:54.760 You already took care of it. Do you remember? If you sin, if we confess our sins, he's faithful 182 00:19:54.760 --> 00:19:58.600 and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Yes, that's in 183 00:19:58.600 --> 00:20:02.760 1st John 1 9. You did that to you. Come on in. 184 00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:13.720 This Jack Hibbs podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported. 185 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:20.840 Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more 186 00:20:20.840 --> 00:20:23.000 and stay connected.