Be Liberated In Christ

[Music] Real life presents the Jack Hiibs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. I'm not going to get into the science of how masks do not work. I'm not going to talk about there right now. I'm going to talk about please don't allow yourself to be gripped by such a fear, You're but I could die. That's the point. That's the point to the gospel. Hello, you're going to die. Hey everybody cheer up, saying with me. You're going to die. Listen, that's why Jesus came. We're all gonna die. What we're in the business of heaven is for this. Where you're going after you die. Because you could be fully vaxed, fully massed, step outside of the airport and get hit by a taxi. Where you going when you die? Do you trust Christ? You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibs.com/podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. (upbeat music) - When you have the freedom of God, you're liberated when you have the freedom of God. You're liberated from doubts, you're liberated from fears, you're liberated from tyranny, from intimidation, be it physical or spiritual, are you hearing me? And so we see it this way, we have freedom from our sentence or what has been our sin in life. It's hard for us to face this. This, the Bible is all about truth and so we must be all about truth. It says in verse 20, for when you were slaves of sin, that means that you were bound and you had to do what sins said to do. And you said, well, Jack, what does that mean? You know that when the temptation came into your heart or in your mind and you thought about it, you went for it. He had no power to resist it. In fact, you even approved of it. You even said to others, hey, you wanna come with me as I go do this, sin? You and I know you didn't say it that way and I didn't say it that way, but, hey, you guys wanna come, we're gonna go, oh yes, here let's go. And the more the merrier because of this reason. If you did it by yourself, you feel a little bit the sting of conviction. But if you can get 3, 4, 5, 10 people to do it with you, it takes the edge off, right? The more people you can get to pile on that thing that you're doing, then it takes the edge off. You say, "Well, how do you know?" Because you know, and I know this. Everybody's doing it. Did you ever heard that before? That's where it comes from. Piling on. Somebody get some hair-brained idea. Hey, let's do this. Let's go vandalize things. No, that's not a good idea. Oh, come on, everybody's doing it. And what they think is liberty leads to bondage. Sin will do that to you. We've talked about that at length. He says though, listen, this is interesting, amazing logic by the Apostle Paul, for when you were slaves of sin, so you're tied to sin, you're shackled to sin, you have no freedom to get away from it. He says you were free in regard to righteousness. It means this. You couldn't do anything right. So first he insults you in the front end of the verse and then he stabs you at the letter end of the verse. You were bound to sin, you're tied to it, chain to it. That's without Jesus. And then on top of it, you had absolutely no power or no regard or you had no freedom to exercise righteousness because everything that you and I did without Jesus was wrong. This is tough stuff people, but it's absolutely true and necessary for us to understand salvation and to live a life that's worth having. Verse 21 says, "What fruit did you have then in these things or in the things of which you are now ashamed?" Can you guys all circle the word ashamed? This is important. Do not raise your hand when I ask this question. Don't raise your hand. We don't need to see it. But you would ask yourself today, "Am I a follower of Jesus Christ?" So heaven is open. The doors open to those who are followers of Christ. Question to you. Are you a follower of Christ? Only you answer that to yourself inside internally. And then ask yourself this. Regarding your past life and the things of your past life Are you ashamed of them? Don't answer. Are you ashamed of them? Assamed meaning you turn-- it's to turn away. Have you ever seen those cute videos or Instagrams where the dog tore up the kitchen or the pillows, right? In the dead, the mom of the dead comes home, the mom of the dead. The owner comes home and says, "Rosco, did you do this?" the dog goes. Have you seen that? By the way, have you noticed when a cat does something? Lucifer, did you do this? Right? There's lessons in this. So the dog can't even look at you. That's the meaning of this word. To be ashamed, you just turn your face away. Can you imagine when Jesus shows up and if you're not covered by the blood of Christ in salvation, God's going to look at you and your face. You're going to try to put your face somewhere. The Bible says, "Watch out, walk with them for your, it's God's will that you not be ashamed at his coming." Isn't that amazing? When you're walking with Jesus, you're not ashamed. We're not perfect. We mess up all the time, but we hate it. But we're looking forward to his coming. First thing is this, sin in us is the incurable root caused to or of our nature. You need to know that. Jeremiah 13 says, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil. The heart, look at Jeremiah 179, says, "The heart is deceitfully above all things and desperately wicked who can know it." This is what the Bible says about our hearts. And he says, right now, right from the get-go, "Your nature cannot change under your own power. Can an Ethiopian change his skin color and can a leopard change its spots?" The answer to the Bible says, "No." Well, the Bible also says, "Our hearts are desperately wicked." And that's a, I mean, that's a strong cup of coffee, right? But you know it's true. Just look at little kids. Watch them. They're cute. That's why God made them cute. Because they're wicked little stinkers. Stealing from one another, pillaging. Each other's toy box and stuff. [LAUGHTER] I remember Dr. James Dobson said, which by the way we were very honored, bumped into Dr. James Dobson and he said, "Jack, I watch every Sunday morning from Palm Springs." Isn't that precious? What a sweet, precious man. And back in the day when we were raising kids, we had 10 commandments back then. We actually had them in stone. It was so far back then. And there was something called homeschooling that people thought was illegal back then. And Lisa was homeschooling. that come home and do some science with the kids. And we had no parent up books or manuals to help us, but Dr. James Dopson. And it was like, wow. And Dr. Dopson pointed out, he said, you should be very grateful that your two-year-old has very poor motor skills. (audience laughs) Because they're so bound by their emotional development that the body skill, thank God, doesn't match their emotional passion because in one moment they love you and the next moment they would kill you if they had the opportunity if they could. And then the next moment they would love you. And so he points out it's a great thing they don't have control of their motor skills because they would be like little Tasmanian devils running around all over the place. Why? It's in the heart. That's our nature. Our nature needs to be changed. Secondly, sin in us is the root cause of rebellion. Did you know that? Where does rebellion come from? Where, with all the stuff you're seeing in our world today of evil, in danger, in ugliness, in illogic, and wrong, and lovelessness, where does it come from? The Bible says rebellion. For Samuel 15, verse 23 says, "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." Wow. Nobody would ever say, "I'm practicing witchcraft." That's no way. That's wrong. The Bible says rebellion to God is the same as witchcraft. Isn't that amazing? And stubbornness is as iniquity as idolatry because you have rejected the word of the Lord. He has also rejected you from being king. That was the word given to Saul. Next sin in us is the root cause of wickedness. This is where it comes from. By the way, those of you who are in college, in school, you ought to be writing this stuff down because if you ever have a debate class or if somebody ever asks you, So you're a Christian, well why do bad things happen? Well, I'm giving you some of the answers right here, right now. Our nature is fallen. We are natural rebels against God within our hearts. And when we exercise that, it's called wickedness. Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 says, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth." That's Genesis 6, that's not today. Wow. and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Wow, and the Lord was sorry. The word "sorry" doesn't mean, "Oh boy, did I make a mistake." The word means "greave to the core." It technically means that God's head hung down. Now, did He know that they were going to sin? Yes, He did. But he went through it all, the Bible says, because when it's all over in eternity, God will receive the glory of having redeemed those who were lost, condemned. Sin in us is the root cause of man's damnation. Revelation chapter 20 verse 15. Anyone whose name is not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. Is your name written in the Lamb's book of life? Have you accepted Christ as Lord and Savior? is your name there. The Bible says, "If you're trusting Christ to have died in the cross for your sins, and that He rose again from the dead exactly as it happened, and as it was prophesied, you lean on Him, you trust Him. That truth transforms your life from the outside. That word hits your ears, goes inside of you. The Holy Spirit goes to work, and He transforms you from the inside out. When that happens, you can be rest assured of this. Your name is written down in heaven. But what if your name is not in heaven? The Bible says you'll be cast into the lake of fire. The Bible announces in Revelation 21 verse 8, who's there? Who's in that spot? The cowards are there. Think of that for a moment. Cowardly. Number one on the list. Don't you think number one on the list in hell what would be what like rapist or child molesters. I don't know. Isn't it bizarre that the Bible has, at the top of the list, first, for those who inherit hell are cowards. Wow. The unbelieving, the vile, the murders, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, that's sorcery, dark, demonic. I know this sounds silly to some people, but don't think for a moment weegee boards or toys. Idolaters and liars, they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is called the second death. And verse 21 says, "What fruit did you have then in these things of which you are now ashamed for the end of those things is death? Because the truth is this, my friend, listen, we're almost done. No, we're not. (audience laughing) Sort of maybe. The human, we're designed to be mastered. You say, I don't like the way that sounds. Well, it depends on who you're master. But you all know we don't do well on our own. We're designed to have someone over us. That's God's structure. And he's built a model. I'm not asking you to get a warm fuzzy feeling about it or judge it up against this culture as a standard. I'm gonna tell you what the Bible says. God is the head and the church is his body. Think about it. The body can't go anywhere without a head. But the head can't accomplish anything without a body. God has chosen to link himself with us. And then Paul turns around and says, "Yeah, you know what? Just like a husband is head of the wife. She's the body and he's the head. That's supposed to be a good thing. When there's biblical masculinity leading, that woman says, "Honey, you can do whatever you want to do, babe. I know you love me with all your heart." You want to go there, you want to do, want to fly, you want to sit, ride the bike, you want to eat liver and onions, you want what...that was Lisa and I's big thing. I love it. I love it. I know. But she loves me. So, um, but you hear what I'm saying? When Christian men decide to obey God in this model that God created, that he lives out with the church and himself, then the world is going to have to take notice of us men and the homes that we create. By no means what I'm saying is chauvinistic whatsoever. I think shovonism as it is understood is sickening. Machoism is insane. Biblical masculinity is missing. And when a man leads the way Jesus would have us to lead, then we lay down our lives first for our wives and our family. We'd die first. Can you imagine? Somebody's at the door. We're going to break down this door. We're gonna kill all of you inside there. Can you imagine the man saying, can you just hang on a minute? And he runs out the back sliding door, leaves the house to his wife and kids. Are you kidding? When the world comes knocking on the door, it's the man that's supposed to answer the door. - Yeah. - We've been designed that way. God has given us supernatural powers. I've got to share this verse, Romans 12, verse 1, you know it well. And so dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you that you give your bodies to God because of all that he has done for you. Let them be a living and a holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him, verse 2. do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Running out of time but I want you to see this DARPA. Some of you know DARPA if you don't know DARPA, you don't, if you do it's it's insane but your microwave your internet so much of what you have in life came out of DARPA. And so this is currently you can go to YouTube not now after service. You can go to YouTube and watch this. This is DARPA's development for the US Army of the exoskeleton soldier. The 21st century soldier, he puts himself, he straps that up part area over his shoulders, straps it onto his legs. The technology of this is top, top secret. You strap that onto your body, you talk about being transformed. They have a 800 pound block, 800 pounds. And you try to pick it up. Can you pick up a 800 pound block? The guy puts that suit on, puts that skeleton on, walks over to it, picks it up, starts to walk with it. They put a hundred pound backpack on him with his rifle and gear with this and he runs up a mountain, runs. What do they do? They have developed a skeleton for us that's on the outside of our body, but it is built with materials and it's geared at every movable joint in such a way that when it goes down it loads up, it generates strength and when it moves the other way it releases that power. It's almost like a super battery inside these joints. Okay? You see what that's cool. My point is if man can do that, can't God do that to you on the inside? The answer to that is absolutely yes. Yes he can. 22 says but now having been listen to this but now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God you have your fruit to hold in us and in the end everlasting life. This Jack Kibs podcast as well as all the broadcast out reach opportunities are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibs.com to learn more and stay connected. ♪ Real life, hey ♪ [MUSIC]