WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.320 Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, 2 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:15.200 equip the saints and impact our culture. 3 00:00:15.200 --> 00:00:19.440 Listen, I've learned this, maybe you're the same, but I don't need anyone to tell me 4 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:22.480 how messed up I am or when I have the wrong thought. 5 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:26.400 I am so able to beat myself to a pulp. 6 00:00:26.400 --> 00:00:29.200 Thank God for His grace and mercy. 7 00:00:56.400 --> 00:00:59.440 That's where it has to say to you, here is Jack Hibbs. 8 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:30.080 Be a love God in the invisible. 9 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:35.280 1 John chapter 2 verse 18, these are all introductory verses. 10 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:40.960 1 John 2 18, little children, John's writing to believers, it is the last hour. 11 00:01:40.960 --> 00:01:45.920 And as you have heard, the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrist have come, 12 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:53.040 by which we know that it is the last hour, they went out from us, but they were not of us. 13 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:57.200 For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, 14 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:02.800 but they went out that they might be made manifest or known, that some of them, 15 00:02:04.160 --> 00:02:08.960 that none of them, excuse me, were of us, what's going on? 16 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:16.240 Every situation and time our love is being tested, and with all that's going on in life, 17 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:20.720 and all the shaking that's taken on taking in our world, our love is being tested, is it not? 18 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:30.480 Some of you have fallen in love with Jesus since the COVID crisis, for example, or other things. 19 00:02:30.480 --> 00:02:36.960 You've come to know Jesus. Others have left, drifted away. I'm not saying left this building, 20 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:45.600 I'm saying left off from faith, maintaining an invisible love has nothing to do with your 21 00:02:45.600 --> 00:02:53.360 external, fleshly conduct, nor, as Paul would say, circumcision. It's a tremendously powerful 22 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:58.800 argument that he's making. And so church looked by way of review. Number one, we saw that when we're 23 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:04.800 asking the question regarding how do we get acceptable before God, when enough is not enough, 24 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:10.400 we ask the question, how much is needed? And we looked at verse 25, and he's talking about 25 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:17.600 circumcision is profitable. It works only if you keep the law, and immediately everyone should 26 00:03:17.600 --> 00:03:23.680 have thrown their hands up in frustration, right? So how much is needed? The answer is you ain't got it. 27 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:30.560 You don't have enough to provide what's needed to be acceptable to God by your good works, 28 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:36.400 by even the keeping of the law, which is a fallacy because the law is given, as we saw, 29 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:41.360 to show you that you cannot get to heaven by being good enough. The law is that 30 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:48.000 black and white unit with the red light on top. The law is that sign that says stop, 31 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:52.800 or the law is that sign that says yield, or whatever it might be, it's a posted law, 32 00:03:53.600 --> 00:04:01.360 but you'll never find a sign posted in the Bible. Do this and you'll be saved. All of it, and 33 00:04:02.320 --> 00:04:09.840 I say all of it, by singular, all of it leading to one thing. Put your faith in Christ and in Him alone, 34 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:16.960 and salvation is accomplished. The just shall live by faith. You want to experience this liberty and 35 00:04:16.960 --> 00:04:27.600 freedom? Write this down. Stop with the scorecard. Stop with the self-imposed religion that you and I 36 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:33.360 have the tendency to put upon ourselves Satan will seek to do that even in the believer's life. 37 00:04:34.080 --> 00:04:43.200 He will seek to impose upon you the embracing of you doing things, saying things, giving things, 38 00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:52.160 whatever it might be, and you have this invisible scorecard, this thing in your head, 39 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:58.480 this tally, this spreadsheet that's keeping records. And we want to watch out for that. Look 40 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:04.480 at verse 28. This is shocking. And this is why, are you guys with me? You guys, this is why 41 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:13.840 verses 28 and 29 drive our Jewish friends crazy. If a Gentile was saying it, it would not make a 42 00:05:13.840 --> 00:05:20.480 book on the radar, but because Paul the Apostle says it, who, even to this day, no Jew can live up to 43 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:29.280 his Jewishness, he was amazing. He winds up taking all of his personal achievements in his religion, 44 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:38.960 and he throws it under the bus where it belongs. And these two verses shocked the world. Verse 28, 45 00:05:38.960 --> 00:05:50.720 for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 46 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:58.160 Now you see why? When you've got a bunch of people trusting in that very act that it is their mark, 47 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:03.840 their seal of salvation. This guy comes along 2000 years ago and says, this the guy's a lunatic. 48 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:14.400 You'll literally read that there are people today saying he was touched, he was something wrong. 49 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:21.200 And yet everything that Paul points out, he's got scripture to back it up. 50 00:06:23.840 --> 00:06:31.120 We're not here following Paul. We don't worship Paul. I'm saying this because I know what I'm 51 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:37.760 talking about right now because the Jews will say they worship Paul. No, he don't. Paul was a center 52 00:06:37.760 --> 00:06:47.840 just like me, just like us, just like you, the critic. No, when he's announcing this, he says something 53 00:06:47.840 --> 00:06:54.080 church that I just wrote in my own notes to remind myself that for Paul to make this judgment call, 54 00:06:54.640 --> 00:07:02.480 the world would say today, many in the church today would say shame on him. Shame on Paul. 55 00:07:03.440 --> 00:07:11.360 Watch. He says for he is not a Jew, well who made Paul the, who made him the judge? 56 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:19.760 Watch this. This is a big, this is a big deal. It seems like Paul's keeping score. He's not keeping 57 00:07:19.760 --> 00:07:28.640 score. He's tearing down the scoreboard. He's destroying the whole thing about us equating 58 00:07:28.640 --> 00:07:33.680 ourselves to a standard. He makes us announce, but you want to talk about a Jew and that's amazing 59 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:40.560 because do you guys remember last week what the word Jew means? The word Jew comes from Judah, 60 00:07:41.200 --> 00:07:49.600 from the tribe, from Judah, one of the sons. It means to praise God. It means to be a 61 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:56.320 praiser of the Lord God Almighty. Remember I said if your name's Judy, it means that your name is 62 00:07:56.320 --> 00:08:05.120 a praiser. So Paul says a person who's not a worshiper of God cannot claim to be a Jew, 63 00:08:05.840 --> 00:08:14.640 but a person who is a worshiper of God in spirit, in reality, because it's internal, 64 00:08:14.640 --> 00:08:21.200 is in fact a Jew according to who's standard. Is it according to Paul's standards? No, 65 00:08:21.200 --> 00:08:23.920 according to God's standards. 66 00:08:24.880 --> 00:08:34.160 Judas was a Jew. Judas even had a name that was rooted in praise. 67 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:41.760 And yet the Bible tells us that Judas missed heaven altogether. Think of it. 68 00:08:42.800 --> 00:08:48.320 Are you a praiser? Are you a worshiper? For he is not a Jew. So he makes this incredible judgment 69 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:54.800 call who is one outwardly. So look at this. The equivalent today for us would be for me to be 70 00:08:54.800 --> 00:09:04.240 watch so so unloving, so critical, so mean. What gives him the right? If I were to say to you, 71 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:12.800 I've observed your life or you're saying it to me. I've observed your life and I've come to 72 00:09:12.800 --> 00:09:21.120 the conclusion. You're not a Christian. In this day and age, I say right now what Paul said 2,000 73 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:28.480 years ago and the room goes quiet. Because number one, we have somehow fallen into this world of 74 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:34.720 ours that that's unacceptable to look at someone's life and evaluate them and come to the conclusion. 75 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:41.360 You're not a Christian. Now listen, we should be very careful about what I'm saying because we cannot 76 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:51.920 pass that judgment. However, Jesus said you'll know them by their fruit and he goes so far to say 77 00:09:51.920 --> 00:10:00.480 that there are those whose lives actually, they're not sheep of the fold, they're actually wolves 78 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:10.800 on the attack. And they're in and out of the church. So today, in man, I know this, my confidence 79 00:10:10.800 --> 00:10:19.840 level of this going over is like at one. And it's this. We need to walk away from this message today 80 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:27.920 knowing that God wants all of us who name his name to have a love relationship with him. And when 81 00:10:27.920 --> 00:10:34.800 that invisible love affair with God is underway, it manifests that invisible love visibly how we live 82 00:10:34.800 --> 00:10:41.360 our lives. You should be able to move into my home today. You should be able to park out in front of 83 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:48.240 my house. You should be able to observe me month in and month out and come to the conclusion. You 84 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:57.120 follow God. But we don't think like this anymore. And it's wrong of us because we've made Christianity 85 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:06.400 a Western thing. I've told you before in the Middle Eastern world, you eat together. You're 86 00:11:06.400 --> 00:11:12.320 rarely ever alone. Everybody's together. You know your neighbors. You know everybody's talking. 87 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:20.640 Everybody's eating. Everybody's living life. It's all public. In the Western world, we've got a 88 00:11:20.640 --> 00:11:25.440 private church going on. And I want you to know, God's Bible doesn't know anything about that. 89 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:33.760 That if I were to say today, this person is teaching false doctrine. This person's living a false 90 00:11:33.760 --> 00:11:39.920 life. This person is living or doing things that are antithesis to the Word of God. And then they 91 00:11:39.920 --> 00:11:48.800 claim to be a Christian. I could say they're not a Christian who claims they're Christian 92 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:55.680 unless they're a worshipper of God. And you do know what I'm talking about, right? We're not talking 93 00:11:55.680 --> 00:12:00.880 about, well, I worship God. I go to church and I sing. I'm not talking about singing. Forget singing. 94 00:12:01.680 --> 00:12:11.440 A worshipper is eating, breathing, moving, talking, attitude, imagination, passion, right? 95 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:22.080 That honors God. And Paul would say, you, you, who Gentile, uncircumcised, God attributes to you the 96 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:29.600 purity, the righteousness that circumcision represents. It's clear to God that your heart has been 97 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:38.240 circumcised, that you have salvation. It's remarkable. And there's no score keeping. And I'm going to 98 00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:44.960 move on from this, but I have to say this first. Christians, it's time for you to stop beating 99 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:54.080 yourself up for your sin or shortcoming of the day. So tomorrow's Monday. And you start a new day. 100 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:59.600 That's why the Bible says there's new what every morning. There's new mercies every morning. Why? 101 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:05.920 Because you need them. And here's the deal. You get up and you live tomorrow and your desire, 102 00:13:05.920 --> 00:13:11.680 the believer's desire. You judge yourself right now. This is not your desire. The true desire is, 103 00:13:12.400 --> 00:13:17.200 I am going to get up today, being Monday, and I'm going to live my life for God. 104 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:21.760 Lord, open up doors of opportunity for me to share. Give me the boldness because I'm just 105 00:13:21.760 --> 00:13:27.760 scared to death. Lord, you just do this thing. You do this thing, Christianity, in and through me. 106 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:30.880 Here we go, God. And away we go. And 107 00:13:34.880 --> 00:13:42.400 as you fail during the day, you get 20 minutes after praying the prayer. Somebody cuts you off 108 00:13:42.400 --> 00:13:48.160 from the freeway and you say, well, you bum. And then God says, I thought we're going to have a 109 00:13:48.160 --> 00:13:54.160 good day today. You're right. Lord, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. That is so wrong. 110 00:13:54.640 --> 00:14:03.280 Forgiven. Now move on. Did you hear what I just said? With what I just said, the legalist right now 111 00:14:03.280 --> 00:14:08.960 was saying, that can't be true. That's too good. That's why it's called the gospel. 112 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:16.640 Listen, because the true circumcision of the heart is a constant living moment, 113 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:24.800 there's no longer keeping a score. When the Holy Spirit says to you, you shouldn't have thought 114 00:14:24.800 --> 00:14:32.960 that thought a moment ago. God, you're right. You did see me on the inward side, and you do know me, 115 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:37.920 and that was so wrong, and I hated it. And even while I was thinking the thought I knew I shouldn't 116 00:14:37.920 --> 00:14:45.120 been thinking it, Lord, will you please forgive me? And the Bible says in 1 John 1, 9, that he's 117 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:52.720 faithful to forgive you of your sin. If you live like that, you will live a life that's called Christian. 118 00:14:54.640 --> 00:15:03.280 If you do that, you will be called a believer. If you do that, you will know perpetual revival, 119 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:10.960 because it's an ongoing moment by moment experience, and you're no longer stacking up points 120 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:16.000 against yourself, because listen, I've learned this, maybe you're the same, but I don't need anyone 121 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:23.200 to tell me how messed up I am, or when I have the wrong thought. I am so able to beat myself to a pulp. 122 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:32.640 Thank God for His grace and mercy, because I, oh, if you only knew, when I first became a Christian, 123 00:15:32.640 --> 00:15:40.720 I was the most disgusting legalist you'd ever meet in your life. I was horrible to be around. 124 00:15:41.760 --> 00:15:46.720 So legalistic, and boy, did God whittle me down to show me what I really was? 125 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:53.200 And then you throw yourself upon His mercy and His grace, and that mercy and grace is not a ticket to 126 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:58.400 go sin. See, the unbeliever thinks that. The religious person says, well, that's cool. 127 00:15:59.680 --> 00:16:05.040 I'll just keep sinning, asking God to forgive me, and just keep sinning. I can have my cake and eat it too. 128 00:16:05.040 --> 00:16:14.320 Heaven and all of this, nope, the believer doesn't think like that. No more score keeping. 129 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:21.040 The second thing we see in verse 29 is how can you and I experience this freedom for ourselves 130 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:27.840 where we're really set free from what is enough is that you and I start right now with His grace, 131 00:16:28.800 --> 00:16:37.600 the grace of God, the grace of God, an enemy, the sworn enemy of legalism, grace. For example, 132 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:42.080 I mean this with all due respect and with affection, but I mean this directly. 133 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:52.960 One of the most law abiding and publicly righteous person you will experience in life 134 00:16:53.520 --> 00:17:05.120 is a Mormon. Good people, love America, love what's right. Now behind all that is a honestly, 135 00:17:05.120 --> 00:17:16.400 please, please, you know, behind that is a brutal world of legalism. It's so hard and they will 136 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:27.840 say things like this. Oh, so wait, so you're a Christian, yes. So you're a gracer. That's the 137 00:17:27.840 --> 00:17:32.240 word that they'll, among themselves, they'll never tell you this at your door. I know a little bit 138 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:39.200 inside stuff. My family used to live in Utah. I did not. They did. My brother still does. 139 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:49.120 But the Christian who says something like this, God's grace, God's grace is powerful. God's 140 00:17:49.120 --> 00:17:56.000 grace is encouraging. God's grace is ever present. A good Mormon will say, I feel sorry for you 141 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:03.200 because you know, you're leaning on this grace. You're a gracer. You think that He forgives you 142 00:18:03.760 --> 00:18:10.160 like that. You think that God makes it easy for you by going to Him like that. 143 00:18:11.600 --> 00:18:17.920 And they deny that liberty that's available to them through Jesus Christ. Listen, the one true 144 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:27.520 Jesus Christ, the Jesus of the Bible. And Jesus said, even with the Pharisees, you lay burdens upon 145 00:18:27.600 --> 00:18:35.200 people's lives who you Pharisees, you priests, you said you sees and Pharisees, you don't even bear 146 00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:43.520 the load of those things yourself. But you demand that you're fall over still. Jesus said, how dare you? 147 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:56.400 Wow. Billy Graham said, I can live any kind of life I choose to live as a believer. 148 00:18:57.040 --> 00:19:04.000 Listen, I'm going to pause for effect. Billy Graham said, I can live any kind of life I want 149 00:19:05.120 --> 00:19:12.880 as a believer. So you think about that more. I can choose to live any life I want to live 150 00:19:14.320 --> 00:19:22.960 as a believer. And he said, as a believer, my choice is to live for Christ. Isn't that awesome? 151 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:32.560 This Jack Hibbs podcast as well as all the broadcast out reach opportunities are listener 152 00:19:32.560 --> 00:19:40.160 supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn 153 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:50.320 more and stay connected.