Born From Above

Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. I am not talking about doing religion. You're in the wrong church if that's what you're here for. Jesus Christ and faith in him alone, he did it. Christ died on the cross for your sins and mine, and he rose again from the dead and left an empty tomb in Jerusalem. He ascended back to heaven and he's coming back. And I hope it's now. Or now. Maybe even now. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash 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. What was to happen to Nicodemus for him to go to heaven? I'm sorry, say it again. One more time louder. Born again. The word means born from above, born of the Spirit. Jesus said that to Nicodemus. One Jew, who happened to be God, speaking to another Jew, who happened to be the teacher of all Israel, said, unless you're born again, you will never see the kingdom of heaven. Amen. Nicodemus' head popped. I mean, you know what I mean. His yarmulke went . Because that's like, what? He even said, I'm old. How could I get back in my mother's womb? What do you mean? Jesus says, what do you mean what I mean? You should know these things. You're the teacher of Israel. You were born once of the flesh and you've gotta be born a second time of the spirit. He said, you should know this. Why should Nicodemus have known that right here? Are you guys liking this? I hope you are. This is cool stuff. Because the Gentile and the Jew is saved the same way. They're saved the same exact way, not some other way. A Jew and a Gentile must be saved the same way. And here it is. God says here, Ezekiel 36, 26. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of the flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you. Think of that for a moment. The very glory that resided over the Ark of the Covenant, God is saying, I'm going to put my spirit in you. and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. How does that happen? God does it. You and I cannot do it. We can't do it. He'll do it through you. Next verse. Notice from Ezekiel to John or Yohannim. Chapter 14, verse 16. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter. That he may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive. Because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But you know him for he dwells with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. That's what Jesus said. Jesus. Next verse, back to the Old Testament. Psalm 51, verse 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Did you get that? Next verse, back to the New Testament. Then the same day at evening... being the first day of the week, Sunday, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, that is the Jewish religious leadership, they were out hunting Christians. Jesus came and stood in the midst. The word means suddenly appeared. And said to them, peace be with you. Verse 20. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side, obviously the scars. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Notice this. Remarkable. Next verse. Jeremiah, back to the Old Testament. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Back to the New Testament. Next verse, John 20. So Jesus said to them again, peace to you, as the Father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. Do you know what that, right there, if someone ever asks you, where was the first account of anyone being born again in the Bible? If being born again is such a big deal, where's the first event of it happening in the Bible? John chapter 20, verse 22, right there. He breathed on them and they received the Holy Spirit. The day of Pentecost will not come here in this scripture to the book of Acts much later. Very interesting. He came to indwell. And he empowers you that way. Remarkable and awesome. We also know this, that God's desire to be so intimate with you that he even says in Revelation chapter 3, verse 20, Jesus says that, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Listen how this goes, everybody. What door? You might say, what door is he knocking on? Well, he's going to answer that. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him. The door of your heart. To come in and dwell there. And then if you look at this, the relationship and the reality of a family You can't help but think of Galatians chapter 5 verse 22, which is the famous passage of the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5.22 is literally impossible to have happened in your life and my life without the Holy Spirit doing it. You can't do it. Friends, listen. I can ask you as a New Year's resolution, go out and do that. You can't. It's impossible. So why does God tell us to do this? Because God is saying, will you just relax? After having received me as your Lord and Savior, will you just let me live my life through you? Follow me? There's going to come a shock to a lot of men today. Jesus never said, I'll follow you. Now, I heard women laugh. I didn't hear a man laugh. Because we're fixers. What's wrong? This is wrong. I'll take care of that. Look, I've been married a long time, and I still haven't gotten this down. And it's hard for us guys. We have... It's not easy. But as a husband, when our wives tell us, you know what went wrong today? What went wrong today? The car, the car what? What happened? Wait, give me the keys. We're looking for a check engine light. We're looking, we're crawling under it. Is it leaking? Is there, she didn't, she doesn't care about that, getting it fixed. She wants to talk about what happened. And we're like, for what reason? Let's fix the car. She wants to communicate. We want to fix it. And we need to change that. You say, Pastor, I've tried all my life. It doesn't work. The Holy Spirit's got to do this in us. To make it worse, Peter says to the husbands, Husbands, dwell with your wife with understanding. Peter, shoot me now. You know what Peter was saying? Dwell with your wife with understanding and that ain't possible apart from the Holy Spirit. God will help you. God will do that work in you. But there's a beautiful thing here. Regarding what God wants to do. By the power of his spirit. He does this. But looking at those things. You look at those beautiful. What is known as the fruit. Singular. It's not plural. It's not the fruits of the spirit. It's the fruit of the spirit. Is love. By the way. The fruit of the spirit is love. Watch this. What comes out of love? Joy. Peace. Long suffering. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Now as a family. We should have this all over our house. We should have it maybe tattooed on each other's forehead. So when we read it, when we meet them, it's on there on display. But I would add something to that. I would add this to that. I would also add care. The Roman believers were well known for the fruit of the Spirit. How did they express those things? Through care, tenderness. We think of God's parental authority they were willing to yield to. Unity. And I would add vision. You know, a family has to have a vision. I'm not talking about vision like seeing Jesus in a tortilla shell. I'm not saying that kind of stuff. I'm talking about a vision meaning the purpose. This family's purpose is this. A vision. Determination, right? Expectation. Accomplishments. A family has accomplishments. And then a little bit on this word, acknowledgements. If a family begins to speak to other members of the family in a way that we acknowledge one another. When we acknowledge one another, we're verifying each other's existence. And we're saying to them that I love you and I'm in the family with you. And I don't know if you know this or not, but this group, I know this is a big group, but this is a small group compared to the world that's outside these walls. The people around you, if they're truly... lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ, they're going to be lovers of you. You know that? See, I don't know, I'm kind of a weird person. That's where God's grace comes in. God will give a supernatural love for you. You say, nobody loves me. That may be true, but here we are to love you. Have you noticed that in your life, if you're a true believer, have you noticed that God has brought someone into your Christian life that's hard to love? And we lie to God all the time about it. Dear Lord, you know that I don't love them as much as I should. Help me. And the Lord says, excuse me, you don't even like them. Don't lie to me like this. Ask me for help, Jack. Ask me for help. But God brings people into our lives who are brothers and sisters that are hard to get along with. Why does he do that? He's getting us ready for heaven. And we sharpen one another as the Bible would have it. And we admonish one another in verse 14 by speaking truth to each other. Quite remarkable. The Bible goes on to tell us in verse 15 that what a real family will do is that nevertheless, brethren, verse 15, I have written more boldly to you On some points, watch this, as reminding you because of the grace given to me by God. Very, just a quick second on this. Paul is saying to them, you know what, you guys in Rome, I've heard about your faith. Everywhere I go, people tell me, have you heard about the believers in Rome? Oh my goodness, they're like, wow, wow. And so Paul said, I have written these 15 chapters to you. I've been pretty hard on you guys, pretty direct. The reason why I was is because you can handle it. When you grow, what does Jesus say? When you grow, I'm going to come into your life and I'm going to do what? I'm going to prune you. Right? You guys know when something's, you see your neighbor's got better looking roses than you do. You want to know why? Because they're not afraid to prune their roses. They cut them back in the winter because, and they look horrible. They look terrible, but in the springtime, their house looks way better than yours. Why? Because everybody's looking at the roses that look spectacular. What happened? The roses had to be cut back before they could grow even better. Did you know that God will trim your life and my life and cut things off of our lives so that we might bloom more brilliantly in the spring, as it were, of our faith? God will do that. And he'll do it in this family. And he's talking to the Roman believers who were strong and had grown. In fact, in Romans chapter 1, verse 7 and 8, in Romans 1, verses 7 and 8, the scripture says to all who are in Rome, remember this is him writing from Greece, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 8. First, I want to thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Isn't that amazing? The whole known world, talked about the Roman believers. This wasn't one church, by the way. These were the believers in Italy. Wow, right in the heart of such a difficult place. The next thing is this, is that what a real family is for. What's the purpose of this real family? And Paul says in verse 16, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ, watch this, to the Gentiles, the non-Jew. This is amazing to me. Ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. This is beautiful. Paul, remember this, Paul was the Jew man. Top shelf. In Judaism, they believe that Gentiles were created for hell. The Bible doesn't teach that. God didn't say that about the Gentiles in the Old Testament. God says clearly in the Old Testament, Gentiles will be saved by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, everybody. But man's tradition said... They're all going to hell. In fact, they fuel the flames of hell. Wow. And then what happens? God saves Saul of Tarsus. This is actually kind of funny. And sends him to the Gentiles. Say what? He gets the mission from God. Okay, here's the deal. I've saved you. And I want you to report for duty. Yes, Lord. What would you have me to do? I want you to go. You're going to go speak the gospel before Gentile nations and before kings and rulers. Say what? Gentiles. You're going to be the apostle to the Gentiles. You mean the pig eaters? You mean pork chop? How much did God save Saul of Tarsus and make him Paul the Apostle? So much that he fell in love with the Gentile world. Can you imagine? He shows up. He gets to Galatia or Colossae. He's up in various regions of Gentile land. That's where God has sent him. Can you imagine? He's preaching the gospel in the Bible. Wherever you went, people got saved. Gentiles got saved. They're thinking they got Diana. Listen, they're holding a statue of Diana and nothing's happened in their life. And they're like, Diana, what has she done for me lately? And they hear about this invisible God who's alive. And you can experience, though he's invisible, you can experience him internally. And they started burning their idols. They started throwing their statues of Zeus away. And Atlas and Athena. They're no good, they're just dumb idols. We've turned to serve the living God, the real God. And Paul fell in love with them because it was a move of the Spirit. You've got to wonder sometimes. I mean, Paul knew about the grace of God. And it's remarkable. I think we'll talk to Paul in heaven. You know, you're dying to ask Paul this question. During your ministry years, being the most amazing Jew that has ever been, ministering to the Gentiles the gospel of God, did you ever eat pulled pork or bacon for breakfast? I wouldn't be surprised if said, everything God made to consume is good. And I tell you, in the area of Asia Minor, they got the best BLT you've ever tasted in your life. I wouldn't be surprised. Remember what Jesus said? It's not what goes into a man that defiles him. It's what comes out of his mouth. Wow. And then finally this, because I do have to make this work. This has got to help it. The second argument is in verses 17 to 19, and we'll do this in minutes. And that is the church, authentic or generic? I don't know about you. Listen, point two, the church. Authentic or generic? Authentic, authentic, real, alive, original, generic. You know what generic means. It's a knockoff. It's a knockoff. Generic is something like the original. I tell you what, do you want to be an authentic Christian or a generic Christian? If you want to be an authentic Christian, then you want to take God's word seriously. And you want to be, listen, all in the family. And all in in the family. Which means... We must get to know one another. How many times have we been saying this? And I'm not saying you don't. You guys are amazing, and I mean that. I'm not just saying you guys are. But every week, there's new people. You see somebody new? Hey, I think those people are new. I didn't see them before. You know what that means? Translation, attack, attack, attack. With what? Love. Get over there. Greet them. Find out their names. Ask them. You know what? Last Sunday, there was a family here, a whole slew. I think there were nine members in this family that came to church from Tennessee. And their dad, the husband, the son... is at UCI. They came to church here. They watch online back there in the east. And they came to church, and then he went in for months long of treatment at UCI for issues in the brain. And the family went back home and gave him a teary-eyed farewell. But before he was to check into the hospital, they were here last Sunday, and I don't remember what service it was. Maybe it was this one, but you guys started, you guys turned and greet one another, and you guys heard their accent. We're visiting Calvary Chapel, and you picked up on that, and you were saying hi, and you started loving, and you exchanged numbers, and you said, I'm putting you on my prayer request chain, and this and that, and reaching out, and was loved on, and I got a note from them. And they said, we didn't know what to expect at such a big church, but we've never been loved on so much. You need to know that, Pastor. Yeah, thank you. Glory to God. Well done. Beautiful. And that's a church authentic. Generic, who cares? You go to a generic church, I'd leave. Unless you're the change agent that's going to make it authentic. Then stay. but an authentic church will glorify God. We see that in verse 17. Therefore, I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus. They were the reason. In the things which pertain to God, they were the reason. God had worked in their lives and Paul's giving God glory. God wants to work in your life and so others will give God glory. Is that okay with you? I hope it's okay with you. Also this, a church in reality. We need to be a real church. And this is a real church. When there's a need, this church responds. Remarkable. But an authentic church is a church in reality. For I will not dare, Paul says, I love this, to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed to make the Gentiles obedient. Translation, Gentiles. Follow me. I'm following Jesus. Everything that I'm telling you about, Jesus has worked in my life. You want to watch what God's doing? Just keep an eye on me, Paul is saying. I'm following Jesus. You'll know how to walk if you watch me walk as I walk with him. Listen, every single one of us, God is saying to you and I right now, to your family that's not a believer, your neighbors who are not believers, come and walk with me. God is saying, come and walk with me and let your neighbors and your unbelieving friends see how you're walking with me. And when they ask you, what in the world is this hope you have? What's this purpose and vision you have in life? You're different. Tell them, follow me. Follow me as I follow him. This Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities, are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.