God's Big Problem

Real Life presents the Jack Kibs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. God is just being so absolutely honest with us. He announces to us that all that's in and in all short of the glory of God, does that look personal? If that offends you, I...if that offends you, that's a good thing because that means it struck your heart. Good for you! This is a good thing! That means God is getting your attention. All have sinned! You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibs.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 Kibs. The big problem is, how does a holy righteous God who cannot have sin in His presence get you and I into His presence for all time and eternity? There has to be a mediator. There's got to be blood. There's got to be a lamb. No animal blood and no animal could ever do such a thing and I think everybody, I think if you would have stopped the Jew going to the temple back in those days and said, you know, like, man on the spot reported, do you, for a moment, do you really believe that the blood of this animal will take away your sins? And that Jew would have probably said, no, it doesn't really take away my sins but God has required it. Again, a can enable. One brought an offering of blood and the other one brought an offering of no blood and one offering was accepted and the other was rejected. Why? Because wherever there is sin and wherever there is wrong, there must be innocence that pays the price. I don't like that. I don't either but it's tough. That's the way that it is. If anyone has ever sinned against you, is it interesting that the person that sins against you is the one that winds up asking you to forgive them? And the one, listen, are you with me? The one that is sinned against always has to pay the price for the sinner. There's nothing fair about it. Did somebody hurt you? Did somebody come against you? Did somebody defame you and slander you? Then they get caught and then they come to you and they say, I'm so sorry will you forgive me? And you know what our human response is, which is a trap, by the way, boy, lie off my notes. We'll never finish, will we? The human trap is this. I will never give you the opportunity and the satisfaction of hearing me say I forgive you. Don't do that, friend. That's the way the world teaches you about forgiveness. That's not like that. And he didn't give you an eye the ability, listen, he didn't give forgiveness to, in your mind, grant to somebody for their benefit. God gave you an eye the ability to forgive people, to set us free from the bitterness that chokes us because of what they did to us. You flipped around 180 degrees from what you've been thinking. God gives you the ability to set yourself free by forgiving that individual. Why? How? Oh, read the fine print because God in Christ forgave you the same way. He was the one sinned against. He was the one that was offended. He's the one that paid the price. Remarkable. Romans chapter 15 verse 4, Paul writes, for whatever things were written beforehand, remember that's the Old Testament he's referring to, we're written for our learning that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. That's Genesis to Malachi. I'd love to get you to write something down as we go through this study today and it is the word an old English word impute or imputed. We don't use that word anymore. If you look up in any modern dictionary, they always give you the negative definition of it. The Bible says in a very powerful way that God not only imputes to us the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus because of that sacrifice that he is to us, but God also stops taking record of our sins once we come to Christ, once we come to Messiah, makes perfect sense. If you think about it, the Old English meaning is assigned, designated or to point. The Greek word is Allegra meaning charge to one's account, to impute, imputed, to take away, watch this, to take away, but not diminish and to place upon another with full effect or value. In other words watch, God imparts to your righteousness without taking a part of his righteousness and being a little less righteous. Are you with me? Did God give ten people by faith like Abraham, his righteousness, did God's righteousness go down ten points? No. God imputes and he is the only one who is able to do that. You need to remember that. Here is a back up to this, 2 Corinthians 5-18. All things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, think of through the sacrifice. How would lost man be reconciled from being alienated from God through the sacrifice? The New Testament teaches that we are reconciled to God through the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, verse 19, that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trust passes to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. That's the believer's life. What an amazing, ongoing ministry life that you and I have, that we don't count any longer people's offenses. We go about pointing them to how their offenses can be remedied and removed. First thing is this, that you should be hearing freedom right now. Today's your day, my friend, if you are hearing God's word to you about freedom. Here it is, I told you last week, two words, but now, but now puts chapter 1 to rest, but now chapter 2, but now much of chapter 3, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law, so outside the law, bypassing the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. That's an awesome statement. Listen, if you know your Old Testament scriptures, the declaration is this, the law, meaning Moses, we can personalize, personify the law in the man, Moses. Moses and the prophets, according to Paul, the Jew, is saying, Moses and the prophets spoke about the very thing I'm having you here right now. Having you listen to right now is what the apostle is saying. This should begin to stir your heart for freedom, but now, remarkable statement. These two little words are more powerful than you can possibly imagine, but now. Whatever's going on, but now, if you read Romans 1, 2, and 3 and you're just so lost and you are so sick, you're stomach about how alienated you are from God, then read at Romans 3, 21, but now. It's like a door swings open, and fresh air, and light, and grace, and mercy comes. But now, answers all of these indictments. But in that verse 21, but now, the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed. This is such an incredible radical declaration, if you think about what God is saying here. The righteousness of God can be imparted to you, apart from the law. And again, please listen, this predates Abraham. God's truth never changes. He's eternal. He can't change his mind. Before it ever wound up on parchment or spoken, even to Abraham himself, it was eternal truth. The law and the prophets announced what would come. That's why I know this church, many of you have come during COVID from other churches, and you've told me, many of you have told me that the church you came from never opened up the Old Testament, which I found interesting, because I asked you immediately, didn't I? I asked you immediately this. If you didn't open up the Old Testament, tell me, what's your view on marriage? If you never opened up the Old Testament, tell me, what's your view on abortion? Micah chapter 6. And if you've never opened up the Old Testament, the church that you were going to, tell me, what's your view on the nation of Israel and God's promises? Because I got news for you, friend, if God doesn't keep his promises to Israel, us Gentiles ain't got nothing, and ain't is a Hebrew word, by the way, you should know that, how it is. Faithful. He said he will keep his promises to Israel, the only time that he will ever break his promises to Israel is when the heavens cease to exist. He'll never break it, and he's never going to break his promise to you. The second thing we see here is that do you hear the heart of God? God wants you to experience freedom, there is a righteousness that's apart from the law, and do you hear the God's heart? He says that through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all, what's the qualifier? Who believe? For there is no difference, no difference. I have found in my own personal life that the more Jesus Christ takes hold of my life, the less difference I see myself with others. Now don't get me wrong, if somebody is a flame-throwing Satanist, there's a big difference between us. If someone is an atheist, there's a bit difference between us. But if someone is poor, middle class, or rich, who loves Jesus, there's no difference. If someone is black or white or some color in between, there's no difference. The gospel of God is the greatest cure for the nation and for our state right now. And for your heart, by the way, think about that. Listen to the heart of God that he's announcing that there's no difference so that all could come to him through faith in Jesus Christ. I read this, I wrote it as a note to myself, but I'll share this with you personally. It means something to you, it's on the notes that are online. Online faith in Jesus Christ, to all and upon all who believe. How can this possibly be true? That with God there is no caste system? What does he mean when he says there is no difference? No caste system, like in India, where you can buy people today still. They're living in the 21st century, ladies and gentlemen. And we can go to India and buy people in cages, young girls, young boys. We don't want to hear about that stuff. We'd rather have pretend that it's not real. I convinced human trafficking, today's slavery, today's probably more alive and better than it ever has been. It's just cloaked and wrapped. No, God says there's no difference. No matter where you're at in the world, you can escape the world that you're in. Even if you're in a cage, God can set your spirit free. That's what Jesus Christ does. In Isaiah 53, verses 6 and 10, Isaiah says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him. Look at it all you want. It's not an it, it's a hymn. It's a person. Some will say it's the nation is real. No, it's impossible. Israel didn't die for the sins of the world. All we like sheep have gone astray, question, do you go astray? Prone to wander, prone to roam, the hymn sings. And the Lord, look at it, capital L-O-R-D. That's that holy name that the Jewish community will not pronounce because of reverence. I appreciate that. But the truth of the matter is L-O-R-D is Yah. That's the name of God. You know this. You all know this, right? You've been coming here for a while, you know this? Yah has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Verse 10, yet it pleased Yah to bruise him. He has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. Do you hear the dialogue, church? He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Read that entire chapter later. It'll bring it to your knees. In gratitude and thanks to God. God's heart is for you. By the way, this reality is better caught than taught as some of the old Puritans used to say. On chapter 6, verse 27, starting there, there's a whole narrative going on. You can read it later. But in John chapter 6, verse 27, Jesus said, do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you. Because God the Father has sent his seal on him, verse 28, then they said to him, what isn't this just human? What shall we do that we may work the works of God? Oh Jesus, this is great news. Eternal life, tell us how to work it. Tell us how to get it. And Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent. That's just dovetails to Isaiah 53. Beautifully. And then thirdly, in verse 23, is do you hear the honesty of God? His honesty all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. He's quoting the prophet Isaiah, by the way, that's right out of the book of Isaiah. Paul is quoting him. So you say, well, wait, what does that mean? Really? What? God is just being so absolutely honest with us. He announces to us that all have sinned and then Paul's short of the glory of God. Does that look, first of all, if that offends you, if that offends you, that's a good thing because that means it struck your heart. Good for you. This is a good thing. That means God is getting your attention. All have sinned. Don't say anything on that. All have sinned. If you ask the question, is that include you? You should say, yes, it does. And Paul's short of the glory of God, all fall short to God's standard. What is God's standard? Perfection. J. Vernon McGee tells a great little story and I'm going to steal it. I guess it's not stealing if I studied it in his book and then I give him the credit for it, right? It's research. Dr. McGee used to say that this verse is a great verse to say, let's all go down to Santa Monica Pier or we would go to Huntington Beach Pier. And he said, run down the pier and jump off the end of the pier straight towards Catalina. And whoever gets to Catalina wins. So there might be some young people here today and you say, man, I got that. I can probably leap, I can go, I can probably go 50 feet off the end of that pier. You're still going to get wet. I can't go five feet off the end of that pier. I'll just probably just slither off the end of the pier. Do you understand that for the person who's a legalist who's sent, I'm keeping all of the rules and I'm doing all this right, I'm doing this and I do this and I do the other and I do this and the other. Do you understand? No, you're coming up on perfection. See one? No, no, it's perfect. But God only accepts perfect. This is God's big problem. I mean, it's yours too, but God's problem is He loves you, He's perfect. You can't be in His presence unless you're perfect. This Jack Hibbs podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supporting. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.