WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.820 Real Life presents the Jack Kibs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim 2 00:00:05.820 --> 00:00:09.320 truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 3 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:12.680 You love God, you wreck your Bible, you're saying him some praises, you got 4 00:00:12.680 --> 00:00:16.600 worship music on, you're getting on the freeway and some knucklehead, cuts you 5 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:20.920 off and immediately, whoa, that guy, and then the Lord will say, what about our 6 00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:26.000 devotion coming together? We are having such a sweet day, Jack. Lord, you are so 7 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:33.000 right, forgive me, forgive me, that's, am I mean, that's the old me. 8 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:41.920 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to Jack Kibs.com slash podcast. 9 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:47.320 Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled 10 00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:52.160 life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, 11 00:00:52.160 --> 00:00:57.760 that's like saying, amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. 12 00:00:57.760 --> 00:01:04.000 Now, open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Kibs. 13 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:08.440 You know, I grew up at a time when you saw somebody talking to themselves, you 14 00:01:08.440 --> 00:01:14.360 got away from them real quick. They're either drunk, drugged or nuts are all 15 00:01:14.360 --> 00:01:19.680 of the above. But nowadays you see people, they're walking, jogging, talking, 16 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:22.600 sitting, they're talking. There's nobody there, but they're talking away. And you're 17 00:01:22.600 --> 00:01:26.720 hoping that you get the angle of perspective that you can see, oh, they haven't 18 00:01:26.720 --> 00:01:33.760 here. They've got a Bluetooth. I thought we had a live one here. But how about this? 19 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:38.520 You pull up at a stoplight and you see somebody talking to their hands are going. And, 20 00:01:38.520 --> 00:01:43.160 and you, wow, they're really involved in a conversation there. You know, what's 21 00:01:43.160 --> 00:01:47.000 interesting about us as believers, we don't have a near peace in and we may not even 22 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:53.640 be on the Bluetooth. And we're talking away. Our hands are flailing around in the car. 23 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:57.800 We're talking to God. We're crying out to Him. Now, I know just now, just saying that. 24 00:01:57.800 --> 00:02:01.120 Someone's going to record that and use it in court against me someday. You see how 25 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:07.600 nuts he is? He's nuts. He's admitting that he talks to God by himself. Yes, it is true. 26 00:02:07.600 --> 00:02:14.040 It's called prayer. It's well documented. It's in the Bible. But you may be finding in 27 00:02:14.040 --> 00:02:18.360 your life as you've been growing along with Christ that you know more of his word than 28 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:23.520 you ever have before. But listen, you have a healthier opinion about yourself and God 29 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:27.760 now than you did maybe three years ago or five years ago or ten years ago. And that 30 00:02:27.760 --> 00:02:33.080 is you used to think you're okay. And if somebody stuck a microphone in your face and asked 31 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:38.000 if you were a Christian, you would say yes. And you're quite proud about that. But now 32 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:42.160 as you've walked along and grown along in Jesus Christ, you still confess that you're 33 00:02:42.160 --> 00:02:47.320 a Christian. But there's a great sense of humility to that now. You've never known more. 34 00:02:47.320 --> 00:02:54.160 You've never been closer. But there's this war. There's this life. There's this existence 35 00:02:54.160 --> 00:03:00.480 on the inside of if I know God, if I'm a child of God, then why this? And many people struggle 36 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:06.680 with what we'll call doubts. I hate to use that word. But they're remedied by drawing 37 00:03:06.680 --> 00:03:11.960 closer to Jesus and understanding the Bible says. It's great when a believer has doubts 38 00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:15.960 because a believer goes to the Bible and gets them answered. Now, look, if you're not 39 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:21.880 a Christian today, maybe you're a very religious person. Maybe you're a very moral person. 40 00:03:21.880 --> 00:03:27.120 Maybe you're somebody. I don't know. You have some pedigree of some sorts. Listen, unless 41 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:33.480 you're born again, you'll not see the kingdom of heaven, Jesus said. Well, pastor, my, you 42 00:03:33.480 --> 00:03:39.520 don't know. My grandfather was the founding member of the first Bapticostal Church of Los 43 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:47.560 Angeles. The God doesn't care. God doesn't care. Well, on the best citizen in the county 44 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:55.320 says who? God doesn't care. Jesus said, you must be born again. And the moment that that 45 00:03:55.320 --> 00:04:04.080 happens, your life will be one of a great and sanctified contradiction as you live your 46 00:04:04.200 --> 00:04:09.440 life. It's quite remarkable. So number one, let's dive into this. The question is, am I 47 00:04:09.440 --> 00:04:15.760 me? Is Paul's take away from this? We see in verse 13, the first argument, and it's this. 48 00:04:15.760 --> 00:04:22.520 It is when it comes to the law of God. Who am I when it comes to the law of God? He writes 49 00:04:22.520 --> 00:04:27.760 in verse 13, has then what is good become death to me? He's speaking about the law. That 50 00:04:27.760 --> 00:04:32.040 which is good, by the way, circling in your Bible, Bible students, the word are the 51 00:04:32.040 --> 00:04:37.600 mentioned reference to good. He's talking about the word of God. God's will expressed in 52 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:41.480 the word. If you want to know the will of God for your life, it's easy to find out. Oh, 53 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:46.200 pastor, I've been fasting. I've been praying just to find out God's will for my life. Great. 54 00:04:46.200 --> 00:04:50.560 But have you been reading your Bible while you're fasting and praying? He will speak to 55 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:57.560 you. When he mentions and references the good, it is the word of God. So then is what 56 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:04.280 is good? The word of God become death to me? He says perish the thoughts. Certainly not. 57 00:05:04.280 --> 00:05:13.400 But sin, watch, this is what good the word of God does. Sin that it might appear sin 58 00:05:13.400 --> 00:05:20.520 was producing death in me. Notice it's death that is revealed by sin. God's word doesn't 59 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:27.480 kill you. Sin kills you. But God's word will address it. Follow with me. Watch this. 60 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:33.080 Producing death in me through what is good so that sin through the commandment might become 61 00:05:33.080 --> 00:05:38.120 it's seedingly sinful when I pick up the Bible and I start reading. Watch this. When I pick up 62 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:47.080 the Bible, I start learning things about myself. I do not exactly read this book when I open it 63 00:05:47.080 --> 00:05:53.960 up and find out what's in it, it reads me. And I find out about myself. You know what? I find 64 00:05:53.960 --> 00:06:05.480 out that my mind is prone to disaster. Bad thoughts, selfishness, anger, lust, temperament. Don't 65 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:13.080 look at me like that. The Bible says every single one of you are just like me. You think thoughts 66 00:06:13.080 --> 00:06:20.760 of lust, you think thoughts of selfishness. What's in it for me? And that's a problem. 67 00:06:22.200 --> 00:06:28.200 Yet that's why Jesus went to the cross. What about the law of God? Did it kill me? Oh no, 68 00:06:28.200 --> 00:06:33.640 no, it didn't kill you. It just revealed that you were dead. So for example, 69 00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:45.400 Martha's down. Let God's law be your judge. You know, we live in an age right now where everybody 70 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:50.440 feels like they got a license to judge everybody and yet everybody's saying, you know, don't judge, 71 00:06:50.440 --> 00:06:56.200 don't judge. But everybody's judging. It's kind of funny. It's actually one big, 72 00:06:56.200 --> 00:07:00.760 ginormous emotional joke because the fact of the matter is God is the only one who can judge. 73 00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:05.400 You've got to be perfect to be able to judge. That's why I wouldn't want to be a judge. 74 00:07:06.680 --> 00:07:10.440 Think about the ramifications of the day of judgment when a judge 75 00:07:11.880 --> 00:07:18.520 stands before God in that position of power. The Bible speaks the same thing about pastors and 76 00:07:18.520 --> 00:07:25.400 teachers teaching the word of God. What I teach you, do I live? God's word knows this because God 77 00:07:25.400 --> 00:07:32.120 knows this. And the law of God, watch this, mark it down if you would, is the judge. It's the 78 00:07:32.120 --> 00:07:37.240 Bible that judges us. And church family, listen up. That's a very good thing. Be very happy that 79 00:07:37.240 --> 00:07:44.520 the final judgment does not lie in the hands of men. Thank God, there is no mercy with man. 80 00:07:46.120 --> 00:07:53.480 But God's got an answer for all of this. Holy God gives us the holy law. And as David 81 00:07:53.560 --> 00:07:59.720 cried out many times that he would throw himself into the mercy of God. Verse 13 says, 82 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:06.040 has then what is good become death to me? Parish the thought, certainly not. 83 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:12.200 So Paul has drawn our attention to the fact that God's law is so divine, so perfect, so pure, 84 00:08:12.200 --> 00:08:17.880 but friends listen up. God's law never promised, nor did it ever declare that it could save you 85 00:08:17.880 --> 00:08:25.320 from your sins. God's law never said it would take you to heaven. But listen, if you begin to say, 86 00:08:25.320 --> 00:08:33.160 I am so good, I have so achieved in this spiritual journey that most of the stuff in the Bible doesn't 87 00:08:33.160 --> 00:08:38.760 apply to me. My friend, I'd like to introduce you to Jesus Christ. You need to be born again. 88 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:44.840 Because you cannot think that the law is going to get you into heaven and you think you have faith 89 00:08:44.840 --> 00:08:51.480 in Christ. The longer you walk with Jesus, I think 46 years now, I've been a Christian. And they 90 00:08:51.480 --> 00:08:55.240 got to tell you, I've got to be honest with you. I've got to give glory to God. 46 years, it's never 91 00:08:55.240 --> 00:09:00.520 gotten boring for me. It's never gotten dim. I'm closer to Christ now than ever have been. Here's 92 00:09:00.520 --> 00:09:06.840 the deal. I've never thought less of myself. I've never felt more small. I've never felt more 93 00:09:06.840 --> 00:09:13.560 of a failure. Why? Because when you get near to him, you become very small, very small. I should 94 00:09:13.560 --> 00:09:21.400 be teaching you like this right now, moving over here. Because as you draw closer to him, 95 00:09:21.400 --> 00:09:28.200 he is his glory and his holiness that is revealed through the law is the very thing that says to me, 96 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:37.560 Jack, you're a sinner. And I'm convicted. And when the initial conviction comes as a non-believer, 97 00:09:37.560 --> 00:09:42.120 you start thinking thoughts, I got to stop living like this. This is right. What if I die like this 98 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:50.040 and God begins to speak to you? Let God's law judge you. And you just remember that. By the way, 99 00:09:50.040 --> 00:09:57.720 back in Romans 7, verse 7, the Bible says, what shall we say then, is the law sin? Certainly not. 100 00:09:57.720 --> 00:10:06.200 On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. Wow. The law of God is the great 101 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:14.600 revealer. It's not the great saver. It's the great revealer. And I liken it to a mirror. You look at 102 00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:20.760 a mirror. I know exactly when was the last time you looked at a mirror. You looked at a mirror just 103 00:10:20.760 --> 00:10:24.520 before you came here today. And some of you even looked in the mirror when you parked your car just 104 00:10:24.520 --> 00:10:29.960 before you got out. You just, and you looked, and then you got out. And you might have even looked 105 00:10:30.040 --> 00:10:35.000 in the mirror in the bathrooms. Why were you looking at the mirror? Why? Honestly, why? 106 00:10:36.920 --> 00:10:41.320 You lie. You all you lie, lie. It's all the same thing. How do I look? 107 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:48.680 You everything okay? Right before I come out here, I always go like this. 108 00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:57.960 Make sure there's no bats in the cave. Oh, come on. You do the same thing. You look at the mirror 109 00:10:57.960 --> 00:11:02.440 to see if the thing's wrong. Now, I don't know what I have something wrong with me. I guess I 110 00:11:02.440 --> 00:11:09.080 don't get it. But I at least all my life, I've walked around with food on my face. And the reason 111 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:15.480 why is I can't feel my face. My face is absolutely numb. I just, I don't feel anything. It's always 112 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:19.800 been that way. I can cut myself, JV, and it's like, oh, my gosh, I look in the mirror and I'm like, 113 00:11:19.800 --> 00:11:25.960 you know, donating blood. Something strange. And when I get food on my face, I don't know. I don't 114 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:32.680 know about it. And so Lisa is so sweet. Lisa, listen, we've been married 43 years. 115 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:39.160 Listen guys, get a pick a woman who will go like this. You're out to dinner with friends and she'll 116 00:11:39.160 --> 00:11:49.720 go, she'll look at you and she'll go. And I know, it's like, I've got spaghetti noodle hang in 117 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:57.000 there. Something's going on. Whatever. And I can't feel it. I can't feel it. And, but without 118 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:02.680 her, it would be there. And before I knew where I could later eat it for lunch, who knows? 119 00:12:05.640 --> 00:12:10.920 I didn't know it was there. It was not revealed. And I didn't feel it because I wasn't 120 00:12:11.560 --> 00:12:18.600 insensitive to it until I looked in the mirror. And this is the mirror of God. You look at this 121 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:23.480 book and this book speaks to you. And you see that you've got a noodle here and you've got a 122 00:12:23.480 --> 00:12:31.560 booger there and you've got a dirt here and God speaks. And he does that because he loves us. God's 123 00:12:31.560 --> 00:12:38.520 word lovingly judges us and shows us what's wrong. And if you run away from him, if you are 124 00:12:38.520 --> 00:12:42.600 intellectually dishonest with yourself and with God, you don't want to hear anything about this 125 00:12:42.600 --> 00:12:46.440 because you've got such a grand view of yourself that you don't want to be disappointed. 126 00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:50.440 And God is saying, you need to look at reality and you need to come to know me. 127 00:12:51.880 --> 00:12:57.320 And Paul, his first 12 verses of this chapter is all about the life that was. 128 00:12:58.760 --> 00:13:05.240 And from verse 13 on, it's all about the life that is as a believer. It's profound. 129 00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:09.320 The second thing is this church is let God's love be your assurance. 130 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:17.720 When it comes to the law of God and the question of who am I and in this conduct is that even me. 131 00:13:19.560 --> 00:13:24.840 Let the love of God be your assurance. Verse 13 continues and says, but sin that it might appear 132 00:13:24.840 --> 00:13:34.520 sin was producing death in me through what is good. God's law magnified sin. And right now, 133 00:13:34.520 --> 00:13:37.880 today you're saying, honey, why do we come here to this church? Did we get the wrong address? 134 00:13:37.960 --> 00:13:41.960 I don't like it here. I want to go some. Somebody might be sitting here today saying, 135 00:13:42.680 --> 00:13:47.320 what's going on? Something's happening to me on the inside. I don't like it, but I also know I 136 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:52.840 need it. What's happening? The Holy Spirit's at work. He's using the Bible and watch what happens. 137 00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:59.720 If you think you're something and all of your religion is nice, fine, tidy and just predictable. 138 00:13:59.960 --> 00:14:05.800 And you consider God pretty privileged to have you in the crowd. 139 00:14:08.040 --> 00:14:13.720 Jesus met such people. Luke chapter 5, listen to this. Verse 30, Luke 5, verse 30, and there 140 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:21.320 were scribes and Pharisees. It complained against his disciples. Saying, why do you, 141 00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:26.280 they're questioning Jesus? Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? 142 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:36.360 Wow. Leave it up to a bunch of religious thugs to question Jesus. Hey, where do you get off 143 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:48.280 hanging out with IRS agents and bad people? And Jesus, come on, if this is the first time 144 00:14:48.280 --> 00:14:51.800 you've ever heard the Bible, you've got to fall in love with them right about now. Watch what 145 00:14:51.800 --> 00:14:56.840 happens. Jesus answered and said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, 146 00:14:57.720 --> 00:15:03.640 but those who are sick. I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Think 147 00:15:03.640 --> 00:15:08.360 about you. What if you're in that crowd right there? Hey, what's going on with you hanging out 148 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:13.960 with these tax collectors and bad people? I mean, you're pretty good from what we gather. What 149 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:19.800 do you do with them? Hey, no problem, guys. I've come to save those who need saving. 150 00:15:20.200 --> 00:15:26.280 Oh, don't worry about it, guys. I've come to be a physician to those who are sick. Don't worry 151 00:15:26.280 --> 00:15:36.040 about it. I've come to rescue those who need repentance. He's giving them the right answer, 152 00:15:36.040 --> 00:15:43.560 but it's bouncing off their thick head. They saw themselves as self-righteous. And I find it 153 00:15:43.560 --> 00:15:49.320 wonderful. When you stop and realize that a follower of Christ is somebody who understands that 154 00:15:49.960 --> 00:15:56.200 nobody is perfect, but God, and yet none of us will live a perfect life until we die. We got to 155 00:15:56.200 --> 00:16:03.320 die before that happens. Read your Bible carefully. That in the meantime, here's the dividing point. 156 00:16:04.520 --> 00:16:13.160 A, the true child of God will still pursue perfection with Christ. He or she is driven by the 157 00:16:13.160 --> 00:16:20.360 Holy Spirit to please God. And even when we fail God, it grieves our heart, but like the old song 158 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:27.560 says, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back in the game again, so to speak. The 159 00:16:27.560 --> 00:16:32.840 believer realizes every day that you and I wake up as a true believer, it's Lord I want to live for 160 00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:37.400 you. And we don't, we know that it's not our strength. It's God's grace that gets us through. 161 00:16:37.400 --> 00:16:40.920 And when we sin, I'm going to explain this in a moment. You're posting, you confessing? 162 00:16:40.920 --> 00:16:44.520 Is this a confession hour? This is a conf-, I'm going to confess for you too, 163 00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:51.080 that when we get up as believers so close to Jesus and we're heading on the right path, 164 00:16:51.880 --> 00:16:58.280 doing everything right, the world is watching, and they think we're stellar, but inside, 165 00:16:59.080 --> 00:17:05.400 we allow a temptation to take up habitation from a moment. It could be seconds that turns in the 166 00:17:05.400 --> 00:17:11.400 minutes that you might spend ten minutes, twenty minutes, and your mind has gone down the path. 167 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:17.480 Listen, you have gone from temptation, which every one of you who are breathing are subject to, 168 00:17:18.040 --> 00:17:23.560 temptation is hitting you, but what you do with it determines if you're walking close to Jesus or not. 169 00:17:24.760 --> 00:17:28.680 And as you walk close to Jesus, the temptation hits and you fight it off. 170 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:35.720 Of God, you read your Bible, you sang him some praises, you got worship music on, you're getting 171 00:17:35.720 --> 00:17:41.160 on the freeway and some knucklehead cuts you off, and immediately, whoa, that guy, and then the Lord 172 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:45.640 will say, what about our devotion coming together? We are having such a sweet day, Jack. 173 00:17:46.760 --> 00:17:55.320 Lord, you are so right. Forgive me. Forgive me. That's, am I me? That's the old me. 174 00:17:56.280 --> 00:18:04.360 Lord, I don't want to be me of the past. I don't want anything to do with the me of the past. 175 00:18:04.360 --> 00:18:13.560 I recognize him too much. And Lord, I now confess that to you, and I ask you to forgive me. 176 00:18:14.600 --> 00:18:19.560 And in an instant, according to the Word of God, our fellowship is restored. 177 00:18:20.360 --> 00:18:27.080 And that leads to him being our guide. Let God's light be your guide. Verse 13 ends with this, 178 00:18:27.080 --> 00:18:32.520 so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. So do you remember the mirror? 179 00:18:32.520 --> 00:18:38.440 Look, the mirror reflects what is on you and what you look like. No one ever washes, are you listening 180 00:18:38.440 --> 00:18:46.600 church? No one ever washes their face with a mirror. If you try that, you're going to get hurt. 181 00:18:46.680 --> 00:18:55.720 God's law, God's Word, shows us. We see it. And we see what needs to be dealt with. 182 00:18:56.840 --> 00:19:01.560 The mirror cannot save you. The mirror tells you. The law cannot save you. The law tells you. 183 00:19:06.280 --> 00:19:10.520 This Jack Kibb's podcast, as well as all the broadcasts, outreach opportunities, 184 00:19:10.520 --> 00:19:15.160 are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? 185 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:20.600 Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected. 186 00:19:23.800 --> 00:19:28.120 Saving for your next milestone, turn your everyday errands into cashback opportunities. 187 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:33.720 Thanks to the blue cash every day card, we can earn 3% cashback in the US on essentials 188 00:19:33.720 --> 00:19:39.000 like groceries at supermarkets, online retail purchases, and gas stations. 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