Did God Pick You?

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. So are you gonna go to heaven? Are you sure? Can you be for sure? Are there those who are on their way to heaven? And they may not make it, or are there those who don't even think about God at all? And they're going to go? What's the truth on this? Does Jesus really know who really belongs? Let's hang on. Let's dive in. Let's get into the Bible and see. 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. Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast and really important. This is coming out of something to be very honest with you as we are currently at this time frame moment going through on Sundays at the church, the book of Romans. I couldn't wait. I love Romans chapter one to eight. Love it. Who couldn't love it? But the way that I was brought up spiritually at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa under Chuck Smith. And I'm only telling you that because I went to Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa under Chuck Smith, I couldn't wait to get the Romans 9, 10 and 11. Right now we're halfway through Romans 9 on Sundays. And the way that I was brought up, Romans chapters 9, 10 and 11 are thrilling. They're awesome. And I'm having a great time. I think we're something like, don't quote me on this because I'm kind of off the calendar in my head, but I'm going to guess that this is at least our third or fourth Sunday in Romans 9. And we've only gotten to the 13th verse in a month because we're just unpacking it systematically. And listen, number one, letting the Bible interpret the Bible. So I happened to have gotten saved at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa. Greg Laurie was giving the gospel on a Monday night. I thought he was the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa until I went to church the following Sunday. I got saved in a Monday. I went to church on Sunday and this this bald older man came out and I thought, who's this guy? Oh, Calvary, Costa Mesa was Chuck Smith's ministry. And he cracked open the Bible. And guess what? Book of Romans, brand new believer, book of Romans, my jaw dropped. I don't know how long it took us to go through it, but it was just incredible. And guess what? I don't remember if ever, if ever Chuck in the in the nearly two decades that I was there, I don't remember Chuck Smith ever bringing up much, ever men's names. He was never a name dropper, ever. But when I went through the book of Romans with him, it was just, it made such so much sense. It's so awesome. And I'm so glad I did. And the reason why that's important is because there are people sadly, and I know I'm going to upset some of you guys. Can you just hear me out right now? You guys, we get all kinds of input from people. And some people are just bizarro, fanatical weird. And when I say fanatical weird, it's like this stuff. I think these are fanatically weird people who when I say, man, I love a W tozer. Oh my gosh, tozer's a freak. He believed that you could actually experience God. Tozer talked a lot about experiencing God. And it's like, wow, I'm so surprised that people have a problem with a W tozer because I read everything that I do read through the filter of my Bible. This is the Bible. Whatever tozer's written is not the Bible. Can you handle that? Whatever Charles Spurgeon wrote is not the Bible. Charles Spurgeon wrote, but Charles Spurgeon wrote about. But if I quote Spurgeon, some people because frankly, they're so shallow and frankly immature, they start foaming at the mouth and their eyes rolled in the back of their head because I quoted Spurgeon. What a pathetic response to an incredible man of God who he had his own quarkiness. So Charles Stanley had his quarkiness. Chuck Smith had his Dr. David Jeremiah, J. Vernon McGee, excuse me, if you, me, I have mine, if you don't think you have your quarkiness, not all of us come to the exact same landing on any particular verse of the Bible at all times. That's where there's commentaries written by man. They're not inspired by God necessarily. Now the Bible versus their quoting, they are. And some of the teaching where it is in line with scripture 100%. You can tell the believer can tell when somebody says, look, I'm going to say something. Get ready to foam. Get your napkin ready. You're going to have, you're going to have a seizure in a moment. You will never hear me publicly endorsed William Barkley. William Barkley's got some very bizarre views in his commentaries. William Barkley, the commentator, but I read Barkley because he's profoundly insightful and accurate regarding background content. Background content, William Barkley's great. But William Barkley didn't believe in the miracles of Christ. That's bizarre. That's nuts. Guess what? If I'm going to teach on the miracles of Christ, guess whose book I'm not going to use. Barkley, you know why? I boast in Christ in him alone. I've read enough of this book to know that all books must bow to this book. And so I've got an anchor that when I read anyone's book publication, if I listened to anyone's podcast or sermon, I judge it all against the Bible just like you should do me. And by the way, that's what Acts 17 11 is all about. Everything Paul said he was teaching and preaching should be judged against the Word of God. Isn't that awesome? So I mentioned William Barkley. I glean from him just like Ruth glean from Boaz's field, right? I pick what I want. I pick what I need. If I read a Spurgeon, I pick what I want. I pick what I need. When I read from oh, here's a note, watch. If I read from J.C. Ryle, great insight, especially the Gospels, wow. But do I hold to the views of Soteriology, for example, that J.C. Ryle held too? Not all of them. You say, how can you say that? You're just jack. How can you judge J.C. Ryle? That's easy for me to judge J.C. Ryle. I just go to the Bible. So for example, you're not going to hear me mention often the men of God who are known for what people listen, please listen, what people have made them into B in the realm of controversy. So for example, big fan of D. Martin Lloyd Jones, big fan. Now some of you now, now you're leftized rolling in the back of your head because Martin Lloyd Jones said that he was a Calvinist. The funny thing about Martin Lloyd Jones is that he has profound evangelistic sermons. Let me see what's the point. Well, here's the beautiful point. You've got John Calvin's teachings and not all of those conclusions on tulip. If you know what I mean, you know what I mean? If you don't, you don't need to know. But I don't agree with the definitions of tulip of the today modern Calvinist person. In fact, if John Calvin came back, he'd probably slap some people up around the face because I don't even know if Spurgeon or Calvin or Luther would agree with all that stuff. But listen, there's stuff, for example, Martin Luther, who Martin Luther, the great reformer. Of course, he was the great reformer. But did you know that Adolf Hitler used Martin Luther's view of the Jewish people to justify, he used Martin Luther as a cover to do his demonic antics, Hitler did. Did you know that? Did you know that Adolf Hitler thought there's parts of Luther that were right on that he could use to make himself look good against the Jews. Martin Luther was an anti-Semitic individual, the great reformer. People who want to talk about that, I don't care. I don't care because he's dead and gone, okay? What I care now is about, what does the Bible say? It's the only care I've ever had. People will say to me, good, bad, or ugly, whatever your view is, is irrelevant to me, is, well, you're so bold about what you believe. You know why? Notice I have a little thing that I've practiced in my life. I don't get excited about things unless I know what I'm talking about. So for example, I don't know why I just turned the pages on this. I was in John chapter 10, that's where I wanted to bring this up. I was in John 10 and how do you hear this? How do you respond to this? Are you ready? Listen up. And this, this, this is a dovetail. It does, dovetails or coalesce is perfectly with Romans 9, 10 and 11. John 10, 27, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. I know them. Question, when did God know those who are his sheep? Answer, Romans 8 and Romans 9, just to pick one area of Scripture, that from about Romans 8 to 30, and then into Romans 9, verse 1, all of God's doctrines Ephesians 1, verses 4 and 5, I think, and Ephesians 111, I think, deal with predestination because it's a biblical doctrine. What does that mean? Well, read the Bible. The Bible says that based on God's foreign knowledge, he predestined those, and it says right there in Scripture, he works in them, his sanctification work, it says, all the way out to glorification, whom he for new, these he also predestined, these he predestined, and he goes all the way to glorification. When I was taught the Bible as a brand new believer, see, I didn't have any denominational influence. I had no church background at all. I just think, God, I went to a church where a guy sat down on Thursdays on a stool with the Bible open, or he stood by in a pulpit on Sunday with the Bible open, and all you heard was Bible. In a little bit of expository Bible, a lot of Bible, a little bit of expository, a lot of Bible, and so I didn't have any trash. I didn't have any baggage of influence from other great believers before us. So denominations often are very passionate about their founders to the point where they will ignore other parts of Scripture to stay true to their denomination. That's very sad. I do believe that that's in a can to teaching the traditions of men over the doctrines of God. That's a boo-boo man. That is bad news, and that's where Paul was messed up. A soul of Tarsus was messed up before he became Paul, the apostle. So my question to you is this. Jesus says, my sheep. Oh, Jesus knows who his sheep are. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. When did Jesus know them? What does the Bible say? He knew them in foreknowledge. When was that exactly? The Bible says in Ephesians 1 before the universe, before the foundations of the world, materialism was ever created. I'll ask you this one. When was Jesus created? You see, He's never been created exactly. You know why? Because He's God. So what can He know? He knows everything. Yes, He does. foreknowledge is that He knows everything in advance before anything ever was. Before a billion years ago ever existed, Jesus knew who his sheep would be. Does that freak you out? Go ahead. Not me. I love it. Awesome. God, thank you. Wow. I feel so safe. In secure, my sheep hear my voice. They follow me. They follow me. Do you want to follow Jesus? Or do you want to follow Luther? Do you want to follow Jesus? Or do you want to follow Chuck Smith? Do you want to follow Jesus? Or do you want to follow John Calvin? Do you want to follow Jesus? Or do you want to follow Tozer? Or I don't know. Whoever, Billy Graham, David Jeremiah, Stanley, Spurgeon, fill in the blanket. It doesn't matter any name you want. The answer should be no. You do not want to follow them. You want to glean from their ministries like I hope you can glean from this one. But beware. Judge everything against the Bible. The Bible is the final word. See people get into two name battles, word battles when they are not letting the word of God have its authority. If you come up to me and say, Pastor Jack, I believe that people should be baptized forward. There's people who actually say this. Great. Knock yourself out. Go for it. Really, are you agreeing with people? Then do you believe that you should only be baptized forward? I didn't say that. I only have one stipulation about baptism. Sorry, too. Number one, you better have repented of your sins to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. First, if you get baptized before that, you're not baptized. You just got wet. Nobody gets baptized unless they're born again. Period says the Bible. Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. I just had a word battle yesterday with Catholic doctrine, penance. This person actually said, show your penance and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. I said, you change that word in meaning to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Now we got something to work with. But if you're telling me that go do your good works and the good deeds that you need to do and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the book of Galatians says you have fallen from grace. You're not saved. You're believing in works and Christ's blood. Can't do that. You cannot mix works in with blood. If the blood is covering your life and you're born again by the grace of God Almighty, Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9, not by works, but by faith and Christ in Him, then you're born again. But if you try to mix your morality and add it to his blood, you've just contaminated his blood. Can't do that. It's impossible, unacceptable to God. It's by grace and it's having faith in what Christ has done for you, grace, grace. How Lindsay, I think it was. Oh, how Lindsay, the guy that made the movie, the Lake Great Planet Earth, how could you? Yeah. How Lindsay, a human being said, a great way to remember the doctrine of grace is the acronym God's riches at Christ expense. Look, he may have been a movie maker, but that's pretty awesome stuff. That's good doctrine. Grace is God's riches at Christ expense. It's not God's riches at Christ expense and yours or mine that blows up the whole world. You can't even spell grace if you add me or I to it. It doesn't work. And so Jesus is my sheep here, my voice. They, they, and I know them. They follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Pretty bold, yeah. I love it. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. Do you believe that? I believe that with all my heart. I don't need it. Listen, I believe that so much. I don't believe I can snap myself, snatch myself out of his hands. What does that make you? Are you, are you a Calvinist or are you Armenian? Are you, what are you? I don't even know what I am if you're going to use those human terms. I'm not following any man. I know this before the universe ever was and before I was ever created in my mother's womb, Jesus knew based on his foreknowledge forever ago that there would come a time in my life when I would hear the gospel by his grace. And even though I didn't quite understand it, I was so convicted. I felt, look, I don't care what you say about this. I remember where I was sitting on June 20th, 1977, go look and see, look it up. It's a Monday. It's just before 9 o'clock PM and I remember where I was sitting and how I began to sweat as I was brought under the conviction of the Holy Spirit who I didn't even know existed. And I found out that I was going to hell by default because of my sinful life. I was so convicted. I was mortified. You didn't have to convince me I was going to hell when Greg Laurie enumerated on that night a sermon titled How To Inherit Hell. You didn't have to convince me by 8.50 PM that night. I had no idea what was coming. I'd never been to church before my life. And when he said, if you want to have your sins forgiven, I perked up. This is what you need to believe and confess. And he gave the gospel. I said it. See, what were you feeling? What was I feeling? I was feeling like if I didn't pray immediately that the earth was going to open up and swallow me. I was going to go straight to hell. I am not kidding you. I was freaked out convicted because I was guilty. He went down this list of 10 things and I was guilty about 7 of them. All I needed to do was to be guilty of one of them. And the Holy Spirit just dialed down on me. Man, he pressed in and I was so busted. I had no place to hide. I went forward that day, that night by myself. In fact, I asked somebody to go with me. They said, dude, you're on your own. I was so glad they said that. Sounds pretty cruel, right? I'm glad. I had nobody hold my hand to the altar. It turns out I didn't need anybody to hold my hand to the altar because Jesus, before the foundations of the world knew that when the gospel would go forth, he knew that I would respond to his offer of eternal life. And in this case, in your case, if you believe this or not, I believe that God is the creator. And he didn't make us angels, even though they do have free will. Angels were not created in the image of God. We were. I believe this. And this is one reporter's opinion. I'm not even asking you to believe this. But I believe that God built into us a little bit of sovereignty whereby we can actually make choices. And if I choose to accept the gospel and be born again, I have to give God all the glory for inviting me, for allowing me to heaven, for sending Jesus. When I walk into heaven, I know it's going to be by his grace. I'm not going to pat myself on my back and say, well, boy, did I make the right decision on June 20th, 1977? Are you kidding? I'm going to be on my face saying, thank you, thank you, thank you, God. In the same token, because God gave us a little bit of sovereignty to make a choice when the gospel is presented. And there are those people who say, I don't want this. I'm religious. I've got, I was baptized as an infant. I don't need Jesus or I'm an atheist. I don't believe this. And or I don't like the way God's running the universe like Christopher Hitchens didn't like the way God was running things. And denied God. If you die and wind up in hell, guess who you have to blame? Only one person, you. God provided the way of eternal life and you refused. I imagine if I send you a letter and it's addressed to you and you don't open it up, who's bad is that? It's not mine. It's yours. Who are you going to blame? You know, everybody in hell read Luke chapter 15 and 16. Who are you going to blame? Those that are in hell today, they only have one person to blame. It's themselves. Romans chapter one makes it very clear. Nobody goes to hell or heaven. Even if you're in the remote jungles of South America, God reveals himself to you. Romans chapter one, read it. All of mankind are without excuse. Even if you live in the, you've never heard the gospel and you live in the desolate regions of this Siberian wilderness in Russia, according to Romans one, God is speaking to you in creation and speaking to your heart. So the bottom line is this. I revel in the joy, the freedom, the comfort. I don't worry or fret if I'm the elect or not. I know this. I never would have wanted Jesus into my life unless Jesus knew me from the foundation of the world. I became his sheep on June 20th, 1977, but according to Jesus, based on his foreknowledge, I had always been one of his sheep. I just hadn't been born yet. He knew that. I didn't know that. And so he says those that are mine, not only will they not be able to be plucked out of my hand, you can't take them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. I love that almost at a time. In fact, allow me to draw this. So this, and forgive me in advance for this. I'm not an artist, but so it kind of to me looks this way. Okay, so here's the, okay, so sorry, that doesn't look like much to you right now. But let's say, let's let's put S for son and F for father. Okay, here we'll do this. One's got a hole. Yeah, one's got a hole through the hands. The other one doesn't. And then there's me. Here's my feet sticking out. You see that? That's me in the middle. Right, that's me in the middle of the God sandwich. I'm in Jesus's hands. I'm in the father's hands. Nobody can take me out of there. Nobody. Death in our life, principality does her powers. Nothing. I love this. Listen, if you don't agree, yeah, you don't need to eat, you don't need to email me or text me that you disagree. I'm enjoying this thing called Christianity. I'm enjoying the salvation that he has given. I try to give the gospel to as many people as possible. And I let him use that gospel to every creature that goes out. I let I let I'm supposed to give it. Whatever they do with it is between him and them. And the reality of being saved is that now I don't live for those things that I used to live for. I live for him. And now I want to do what he wants me to do. And now I don't need the 10 commandments posted on the wall of my home or my office. Don't need him. He posted them in my heart. And do you know what you know what's greater than the 10 commandments is the commandment that says love God with all of your heart. And I'm working on that every day when I say work. I yield myself every day to him. I don't work on anything except to stay close to him. And I'm commanded to love my neighbors, including my enemies. There is no 10 commandments if that's your pursuit. That's the first commandment if you think about it. And if your Christianity terrorizes you and those who are around you, how sad is that? Nobody wants to join your team. Maybe nobody wants to go to your church because you're teaching a miserable gospel. There's no joy in it. It's all what are you going to do for God? What are you going to do for God? You got to get up and do this for God. How about this? How about you come to God and fall on your face in front of him and let him wash you of your sins. And then the Holy Spirit takes control of your life and he does with you what he wants to do. Don't get up in the morning and say, God, this is what I'm going to do today. You need to get up in the morning and say, Lord, what are we going to do today? What do you want me to do today? It's not what I want to do. It's what he wants to do. And there's such liberty in that that no matter what happens today, if today there's a 10.10 earthquake that hits Southern California and I perish or I don't have a house anymore, that's God's business. That's not my business. He knew in advance. It's a pretty worry free life. You want to get bogged down in the words of man, knock yourself out. I would rather listen to what he has said and rejoice in him. Listen, as always, it's time for us to live out what we believe in. It's time for real life. That's our jingle. It's time for us to live out what we believe in. It's time to live real life. It's time to do real life. It's time to experience God's real life. So listen, as always, please, if this blesses you, subscribe and give us a like. Give us a thumbs up. Give us a rating that always helps in the weird analytical world of that world I don't know about. But I'm always told, make sure you tell them to hit the thing and to give us a thumbs up. I guess it matters. So listen, God bless you guys. We'll see you back here next time. This Jack Kibb's podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities, our listeners supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.