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 --> 00:00:09.320 truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 3 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:14.760 Meaning that God calls the shots, God's in control, God doesn't take a vote, it's 4 00:00:14.760 --> 00:00:26.000 not a democracy or a republic, it's not a team effort, God is God, He's the only one. 5 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:33.360 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. 6 00:00:33.360 --> 00:00:38.480 Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in 7 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:42.560 Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. 8 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:49.120 To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. 9 00:00:49.120 --> 00:00:52.480 Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. 10 00:00:52.480 --> 00:00:54.960 Here is Jack Hibbs. 11 00:00:55.040 --> 00:01:00.800 Psalm 100 verse 5 says, for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting and His truth endures to 12 00:01:00.800 --> 00:01:08.720 all generations. That's good news everybody. Psalm 25 verse 8, good and upright is the Lord, 13 00:01:08.720 --> 00:01:16.880 therefore He teaches sinners in the way. Listen, does God want to teach sinners in the way? Yes, 14 00:01:16.880 --> 00:01:24.320 you just read that. If we've got a boogeyman type of God that selects some people to go to heaven 15 00:01:24.320 --> 00:01:29.200 and some people to go to hell and even if they don't want to go, they got to go anyway. 16 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:32.880 Sorry, that's just the way that it is. You don't question God. It's just the way that it is. 17 00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:36.480 If it's too bad you wanted to go, but you don't get to go, that's insane. 18 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:42.960 That is to actually reduce and make small the very nature of the God revealed in the Bible. 19 00:01:43.440 --> 00:01:49.200 His argument to us is I want the sinner saved. Psalm 34 verse 8, Oh, 20 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:54.640 Taste and see, the Lord is good. That's the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trust in Him. 21 00:01:55.520 --> 00:02:01.440 I'll read that more of it's context in a moment, but Psalm 34 verse 8, Taste and see that the Lord 22 00:02:01.440 --> 00:02:09.840 is good. This statement of challenge to us, what is already built into the invite, come and taste 23 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:15.840 that the Lord is good. The psalmist is not saying come and taste the taste and see that the Lord 24 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:22.720 is good. And I hope you like it. It's kind of like taking your friends out to dinner to your 25 00:02:22.720 --> 00:02:31.920 favorite place. Taste this. I hope you like it. Well, listen, when God speaks and when we talk 26 00:02:31.920 --> 00:02:38.640 about tasting and seeing that the Lord is good, we're talking about the appetite of the human soul. 27 00:02:38.640 --> 00:02:44.480 We're not talking about flavor. That when God's truth goes out, it grabs the soul. It's ministers 28 00:02:44.480 --> 00:02:50.160 to the soul. It awakens the soul. It speaks to you and it says that God knows you, that He loves 29 00:02:50.160 --> 00:02:55.360 you, and that's going to plan for your life. And if you are a ranked sinner and you think nobody 30 00:02:55.360 --> 00:03:00.320 cares, nobody loves you. And this is your last moment on earth. If you don't hear some word of hope, 31 00:03:00.320 --> 00:03:07.280 you're going to end it all. Well, listen to this. God says to you, Taste and see, I'm good. 32 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:14.080 And he's inviting your soul to come and to meet him. Personality to personality. God. 33 00:03:15.040 --> 00:03:21.920 In his character, in his nature, the good, good sovereignty of God. By the way, I'm going to read 34 00:03:21.920 --> 00:03:29.600 this. Watch seven times in these verses. You hear the word or the name actually of God. Yeah. 35 00:03:30.480 --> 00:03:35.520 And that is Psalm 34 verse 1 through 8. We just read 8 a moment ago, but look at all of it now 36 00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:42.000 from 1 through 8 on the screen. I'll point this out to you. I will bless the Lord. Now listen, 37 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:47.600 that is to be capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, all caps. That's Yahweh. Yah. 38 00:03:48.320 --> 00:03:55.440 Bless Yah. At all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make his 39 00:03:55.440 --> 00:04:03.840 boast in Yah. The humble shall hear it and be glad, O magnify Yah with me. That's his name. 40 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:09.360 And let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my 41 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:15.360 fears. Well, that's a great verse, isn't it? Verse 4 for the next virus that comes on the scene, 42 00:04:16.400 --> 00:04:23.920 or war, or violence, or mayhem. Psalm 34 verse 4, we should memorize that. I sought the Lord and he 43 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:28.160 heard me and delivered me from all my fears. The moment you and I begin to fear is the moment we 44 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:35.840 get our eyes off of God. Verse 5 says, they looked to him and were radiant. And their faces were not a shame. 45 00:04:35.840 --> 00:04:41.600 This poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles. The angel of 46 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:48.320 the Lord encamps all around those who fear him and delivers them. O, taste and see that the Lord 47 00:04:48.320 --> 00:04:54.320 is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. Say, amen to that church. That is so beautiful. 48 00:04:54.320 --> 00:05:00.720 That is so excellent. John chapter 1 verse 29 marked this down. John 1, 29, John the Baptist has 49 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:06.240 been ministering. He's been serving the Lord and the ministry that God called him to do. And Jesus 50 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:12.400 later on said that John the Baptist came was sent by God in the spirit of the ministry of Elijah, 51 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:22.800 remarkable. And John says when Jesus was walking by and there was a crowd, John says this. The next 52 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:29.520 day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin or 53 00:05:29.520 --> 00:05:36.160 sins of the world. Either way, sin or sins. Nature of sin, Jesus takes that away. It's a huge statement. 54 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:42.240 It's not that God went to the cross and took away sins, but Jesus went to the cross and then 55 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:49.680 rose again from the dead to give to us who trust Christ, the believer, that when you and I are 56 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:53.920 ultimately redeemed, this is why this is dropping dead and going to heaven is a great thing. 57 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:59.840 When you and I drop dead to go to heaven, we cut this anchor loose of this body because this 58 00:05:59.840 --> 00:06:05.200 body is what's plaguing you and I. You know this already. It's the thing that tempts us to sin, 59 00:06:05.200 --> 00:06:10.560 this body. When we let this thing go, listen, you and I are going to inherit in the last step of 60 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:16.880 redemption, which is the resurrection of this body. You and I are going to have no sin nature. 61 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:23.200 We've never known what that's like. You will not be in heaven a thousand years from now and 62 00:06:23.200 --> 00:06:28.720 trip over a fire hydrant in cuss. It's not going to happen. You won't have that nature. Is that good 63 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:40.320 news? Am I going to be tempted to eat donuts all day long in heaven? Because it's heaven, you won't 64 00:06:40.320 --> 00:06:46.400 be tempted, but I think you'll get the eat donuts all day long. And you won't gain weight. 65 00:06:47.840 --> 00:06:52.720 It'll be heaven. It'll be amazing. Of course, I'm joking maybe. I'm not exactly sure that's 66 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:57.040 going to work, but it's going to be great. But mark it down if you would. First things first, 67 00:06:57.040 --> 00:07:04.080 verses 14 to 15, is this that God's good, good sovereignty is rooted in His character. You can 68 00:07:04.080 --> 00:07:11.680 take comfort in that. The sovereignty of God, meaning that God calls the shots. God's in control. 69 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:20.240 God doesn't take a vote. It's not a democracy or a republic. It's not a team effort. God is God. 70 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:28.080 He's the only one that is who He is. There's no other and there's no other coming. He alone is 71 00:07:28.080 --> 00:07:35.360 God. And this character of His, the Bible tells us that He's forever holy. He's forever righteous. 72 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:40.320 He's forever loving. Is that amazing? The Bible says that God is love. The Bible says that God 73 00:07:40.320 --> 00:07:46.240 is holy. The Bible says that God is light. And all of those statements, His holiness will never 74 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:54.000 diminish. Him being the light, His bold, so to speak, His glow will never go down. He cannot change. 75 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:57.440 And listen, what He says in the word of God, He cannot contradict. 76 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:05.760 And this is a great comfort. So what do we know? We know that the good, good sovereignty of God 77 00:08:05.760 --> 00:08:11.360 is not our enemy, but is our great comfort because it's rooted in this character. Number one, 78 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:19.360 He is Himself righteous. Verse 14, Hulsas to them, what should we say then? Is there unrighteousness 79 00:08:19.440 --> 00:08:25.520 with God? And the word in Greek is perish the thought. Remove that thought from your mind. 80 00:08:25.520 --> 00:08:31.200 Cannot be that is God cannot be unrighteous. Well, is there anything God cannot do? Yes, He cannot 81 00:08:31.200 --> 00:08:39.920 be unrighteous. Why? Because that would not be His nature. Now, when you and I know about one 82 00:08:39.920 --> 00:08:45.200 another on a personal level, obviously it's limited and it's flawed. You and I can only know each 83 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:51.280 other so far. And what we can know of one another, it's not exactly perfect. Why? Because we are 84 00:08:52.160 --> 00:09:00.800 not perfect. God is perfect. And when He reveals Himself to us, He reveals the fact that He is 85 00:09:00.800 --> 00:09:06.400 righteous. And we talk about righteous. It's more than what the human or what the believer is 86 00:09:06.400 --> 00:09:12.080 asked of or what we should see in our lives. Righteous to us means to do the right thing. Did you know 87 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:20.240 that Jesus said that we should be or we should be doing righteousness as a believer? That's what we 88 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:26.880 should do. But God's righteousness that is at work in us comes from the person of the Holy Spirit 89 00:09:26.880 --> 00:09:34.720 who dwells in you. So we are to be doing the right thing. However, with God, it's not that God 90 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:42.000 goes and does the right thing and thus He's righteous. It's His nature. See, you and I go 91 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:47.120 in obedience and do the right thing because we're following Him, right? We're following the source. 92 00:09:48.400 --> 00:09:54.160 We're going straight to Him. But here's what's fun about this. You should never wonder about 93 00:09:54.160 --> 00:09:59.760 sweating it out, about doing righteousness, doing the right thing. Here's the trick. Here's the 94 00:09:59.760 --> 00:10:09.440 key to the Christian life. Surrender. Give it up. Holy Spirit, do what you want to do in my life. 95 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:16.720 I will read your word and I will step out and do your word. But I know I can't do your word in 96 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:24.320 enough my own strength. It's impossible. So Lord, I'm going to step out. You do it through me. I will 97 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:32.960 obey God is righteous and this righteousness that comes from us as a believer. That should actually 98 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:40.000 establish a baseline in our life. Here we are on this. Paul brings something of a question before 99 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:46.080 his readers and it's all about the attributes and the characteristics of who God is and who we should 100 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:56.160 be. So for example, when you and I do the right thing that is we know what the Bible has to say 101 00:10:56.160 --> 00:11:04.640 about this and we do that thing. When we act like God, that is the only way the world that you and I 102 00:11:04.640 --> 00:11:09.600 live in is going to know if we really know God or not. He said, no, wait a minute. I handed people 103 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:14.880 a track, a Bible track. That's that nice, but that didn't do it. Are you hearing me? Everybody, 104 00:11:14.880 --> 00:11:18.960 this message is going to sting for the believer. If you're not a believer today, you're going to 105 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:26.480 enjoy it. The believer is going to say, out several times, how will the world know that we are really 106 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:34.240 honestly Christ followers? So listen, I'll tell you what, studying for this message the other night, 107 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:39.120 I was talking to Lisa, we're eating the eating and I said, listen, in light of Romans 9, 108 00:11:39.760 --> 00:11:46.480 it's tragic because you can look into this and find out that so many people are assuming that 109 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:54.400 they're Christians. And so listen, it's not easy because when I ask, well, are you a Christian? 110 00:11:54.400 --> 00:11:59.600 If you ask me if I'm a Christian, I may come back to you and say, yeah, I'm a Christian, I feel in 111 00:11:59.680 --> 00:12:08.960 the blank. What did you do? What are you? What are you doing? What are you saying? Friends, listen, 112 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:11.440 that doesn't necessarily mean you're a Christian. Are you hearing me? 113 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:18.160 Lisa and I sat down and came to the conclusion, we must always be very careful that we don't 114 00:12:18.160 --> 00:12:23.680 assume or take for granted that we are actually Christ followers when we're not. Well then you say, 115 00:12:23.680 --> 00:12:28.320 Jack, what how can we know? Do you know in the book of Revelation, the Bible tells us that when we 116 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:32.880 are judged before the beam of seed of Christ, which is only for believers, every believer is going 117 00:12:32.880 --> 00:12:38.880 to be judged for the things that says that we did in this world, while we were in our bodies, 118 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:44.080 we are going to be judged on opportunities that God gave us did we take advantage of those 119 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:51.360 opportunities. And then so the Bible says we are given rewards. Now you always want to watch out 120 00:12:51.600 --> 00:13:00.000 for the person who has a false presentation of humility. And that is this. Oh, it's okay. 121 00:13:01.040 --> 00:13:08.080 I don't want to get any rewards because I just want to be there to search Jesus. 122 00:13:09.520 --> 00:13:16.720 Yeah, don't we all? Got it. But are you sure you understand this? In this life, we're to do what we 123 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:25.680 do to his glory, not ours, so that in the day that we are rewarded for our obedience, we get 124 00:13:25.680 --> 00:13:33.200 crowns. If you read that, we get crowns rewards. You see, again, I don't need such things. 125 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:42.000 Hear me out. What happens to all the believers on the day of judgment before Jesus at the beam of 126 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:48.560 seed of rewards? What do we do with all of our rewards? We throw them back at him in an act of 127 00:13:48.560 --> 00:13:54.640 worship. Is that awesome? So it's like, I just, it's okay. I really don't need anything. Forget 128 00:13:54.640 --> 00:13:59.200 about you. Will you knock it off? It's all about him. Listen, some people are going to show up with 129 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:04.000 a fumble on the top of their head, and they're going to spill it out before the Lord, and that's 130 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:10.400 going to be about it. And I don't want you to be like that. I want you to understand that as you 131 00:14:10.400 --> 00:14:15.520 yield to the Holy Spirit, God will live out his righteousness through you, because that's what he 132 00:14:15.520 --> 00:14:23.120 does in a relationship, and you show up on judgment day with a gigantic will barrel on your head, 133 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:32.000 a bucket on your head. Can you imagine? That's Fred. Hang on, Lord, I'm trying to get there. 134 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:40.000 And then boom, all of these rewards go spilling out on the floor, and angels and saints 135 00:14:40.160 --> 00:14:45.520 are like, yes, awesome. Listen, it has nothing to do with us. We're going to give it back to him. 136 00:14:46.560 --> 00:14:51.280 So that's why we want to be busy about our father's business. It's not, listen, you're not going 137 00:14:51.280 --> 00:14:54.800 to have a plan. It's not going to be your name. Your name's not going to be a heaven or a wall 138 00:14:54.800 --> 00:15:01.360 with like some pose that's got your name, 7200 points. It's not going to have that on there. 139 00:15:02.880 --> 00:15:07.520 You want to do as much as you can to expand the righteousness of God to an unbelieving world 140 00:15:07.520 --> 00:15:12.880 and to comfort and love on a believing family of God so that in the day of judgment, 141 00:15:12.880 --> 00:15:18.000 we bless God back by returning what he gave us. You want to do that. You want to make sure you 142 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:24.720 live your life like that. Let him live his righteousness through you. And so there 143 00:15:26.160 --> 00:15:31.280 is for us to perish that thought with where we're going. Is there unrighteousness with God? 144 00:15:31.280 --> 00:15:38.720 That's impossible, hall would say. Second thing is this, he is himself merciful. Look at verse 15, 145 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:44.720 for he who says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. God is merciful. 146 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:49.600 You either believe in the God of the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, are you 147 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:55.680 believe in a God that has been reinterpreted to you by the traditions of men? Church is God 148 00:15:55.680 --> 00:16:03.840 merciful. Is God sovereign? Is God righteous? All of these are character attributes of God's 149 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:13.040 greatness. It's in complete correlation with his love, with his incredible nature of who he is. 150 00:16:13.040 --> 00:16:22.320 It's who Jesus revealed on this earth to be consistency. So when God says, as a point of interest, 151 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:29.760 I exercise mercy on whom I exercise mercy. You see, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop though. 152 00:16:30.880 --> 00:16:41.360 Listen, the word mercy here is the word to pity or to have pity or to have mercy upon another. 153 00:16:42.560 --> 00:16:49.600 The word also means to extend mercy to those that are in need. Obviously mercy. So listen, 154 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:56.960 grace and mercy. Grace. Okay, let's say your little kid, your five-year-old does something wrong. 155 00:16:58.400 --> 00:17:02.960 I can't use the analogies I always used to use because people now get offended by those analogies, 156 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:08.160 like I used to say when your five-year-old paints the garage door pink while you're gone, 157 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:14.640 then people wrote me, don't put thoughts in my kid's head. Yeah, really, I'm not joking. 158 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:19.120 And then I used to make a joke while you're outside, your kid put the cat in the microwave and 159 00:17:19.120 --> 00:17:24.240 stuff. And then people said, don't don't I love cats? How dare you say that? That was demonic and so 160 00:17:25.280 --> 00:17:31.040 I don't know what to say anymore. Your five-year-old does something he ought not to do. 161 00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:36.960 Okay, you come home and this is grace. What did you do? 162 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:45.920 I used this. I did, I was going to say super glue on this, but I can't say that. 163 00:17:50.800 --> 00:17:54.160 But I told you not to do that. And then they start crying and everything and then 164 00:17:54.160 --> 00:18:00.400 they know they're busted. And then dad says get in the car. And little junior gets in the car. 165 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:09.840 And dad takes the kid down to Beskin Robbins. Get some an ice cream cone. You see, isn't that story 166 00:18:09.840 --> 00:18:17.280 a little ending kind of weird? Not at all. That's cold grace. The kid did wrong. He admitted that he 167 00:18:17.280 --> 00:18:21.600 had done wrong when he got busted. And so dad took him down to get an ice cream cone. 168 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:27.280 Dad is not rewarding them for the evil that he did. Are you with me? Dad was going to take him to 169 00:18:27.280 --> 00:18:32.480 go get an ice cream cone. If he did that or not, that was God's plan. When I get home I'm going 170 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:37.360 to take that boy to get an ice cream cone. He happens to get home and the thing is messed up. 171 00:18:38.800 --> 00:18:43.840 God still follows through on the ice cream cone. Are you tracking me? This is the goodness of God. 172 00:18:43.840 --> 00:18:50.080 Now listen, it could go the other way. Mercy. Mercy is this. What did you do? I blew up that thing. 173 00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:55.600 I told you not to do that. It's my favorite thing I've ever had. Didn't you blew it up? 174 00:18:57.600 --> 00:19:01.680 Now, what did I tell you in the day that you would blow it up? What did I tell you? What happened? 175 00:19:02.320 --> 00:19:12.800 That you would, well, I can't say that. You would send me to my room. 176 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:22.800 And so mercy is, listen, you know what you did wrong. You can go out and play with your friends right 177 00:19:22.800 --> 00:19:32.240 now. But you know what you did wrong. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting 178 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:41.520 what you do not deserve. This Jack Kibb's podcast as well as all the broadcasts outreach 179 00:19:41.520 --> 00:19:46.960 opportunities are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? 180 00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:53.440 Go to jackhibb's.com to learn more and stay connected.