Judge Everything Against The Bible

00:00 - Speaker 1 Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 00:09 - Speaker 2 Meaning that God calls the shots. God's in control. God doesn't take a vote. It's not a democracy or a republic. It's not a team effort. God is God. He's the only one. God is God. He's the only one. 00:26 - Speaker 1 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to https://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. 00:55 - Speaker 2 Psalm 100, verse 5, says For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting and his truth endures to all generations. That's good news, everybody. Psalm 25, verse 8. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore, he teaches sinners in the way. What does God Listen? Does God want to teach sinners in the way? Yes, you just read that If we've got a boogeyman type of God that selects some people to go to heaven and some people to go to hell, and even if they don't want to go, they got to go anyway. Sorry, that's just the way that it is. You don't question God, it's just the way that it is. And if it's too bad, you wanted to go but you don't get to go. That's insane. That is to actually reduce and make small the very nature of the God revealed in the Bible. His argument to us is I want the sinner saved. 01:47 Psalm 34, verse 8, oh, taste and see. The Lord is good. That the Lord is good, blessed is the man who trusts in him. I'll read that more in its context in a moment. But Psalm 34, verse 8, taste and see that the Lord is good. This statement of challenge to us. What is already built into the invite come and taste that the Lord is good. The psalmist is not saying come and taste and see that the Lord is good, and I hope you like it. It's kind of like taking your friends out to dinner to your favorite place. You know, taste this, I hope you like it. Well, listen when God speaks. And when we talk about tasting and seeing that the Lord is good, we're talking about the appetite of the human soul. We're not talking about flavor. That when God's truth goes out, it grabs the soul, it ministers to the soul. It ministers to the soul, it awakens the soul, it speaks to you and it says that God knows you and that he loves you and that he's got a plan for your life. And if you are a rank sinner and you think, nobody cares, nobody loves you, and this is your last moment on earth, if you don't hear some word of hope, you're going to end it all. Well, listen to this. God says to you taste and see, I'm good, and he's inviting your soul to come and to meet him. Personality to personality, god In his character, in his nature, the good, good, sovereignty of God. By the way, I'm going to read this Watch Seven times. In these verses you hear the word or the name actually of God. Yeah, and that is Psalm 34, verse 1 through 8. We just read 8 a moment ago. But look at all of it now, from 1 through 8 on the screen. I'll point this out to you. I will bless the Lord now listen. That is to be capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, all caps. That's Yahweh, yah, bless Yah At all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in Yah. The humble shall hear it and be glad. Oh, magnify Yah with me. That's his name, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Well, that's a great verse, isn't it? Verse four, for the next virus that comes on the scene, or war, or violence, or mayhem, psalm 34, verse four, we should memorize that I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. The moment you and I begin to fear is the moment we get our eyes off of God. Verse 5 says they looked to him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. Say amen to that church that is so beautiful, that is so excellent. John, chapter 1, verse 29. Mark this down John 1, 29. 04:59 John the Baptist has been ministering. He's been serving the Lord in the ministry that God called him to do. John the Baptist has been ministering. He's been serving the Lord in the ministry that God called him to do. And Jesus later on said that John the Baptist came, was sent by God in the spirit of the ministry of Elijah. Remarkable. 05:18 And John says when Jesus was walking by and there was a crowd, john says this the next day, john saw Jesus coming toward him and said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin or sins of the world. Either way, sin or sins, nature of sin Jesus takes that away. It's a huge statement. It's not that God went to the cross and took away sins, but Jesus went to the cross and then rose again from the dead to give to us who trust Christ, the believer that when you and I are ultimately redeemed. This is why, listen, dropping dead and going to heaven is a great thing. When you and I drop dead to go to heaven, we cut this anchor loose of this body, because this body is what's plaguing you and I. You know this already. It's the thing that tempts us to sin this body. When we let this thing go, listen, you and I are gonna inherit in the last step of redemption, which is the resurrection of this body. You and I are gonna have no sin nature. We've never known what that's like. You will not be in heaven a thousand years from now and trip over a fire hydrant and cuss. It's not going to happen. You won't have that nature. Isn't that good news? Oh, am I going to be tempted to eat donuts all day long in heaven? Because it's heaven. You won't be tempted, but I think you'll get to eat donuts all day long and you won't gain weight. It'd be heaven, it'd be amazing. Of course I'm joking. Maybe I'm not exactly sure that's going to work, but it's going to be great. But mark it down, if you would. 06:56 First things first, verses 14 to 15 is this that God's good, good sovereignty is rooted in his character. You can take comfort in that. The sovereignty of God, meaning that God calls the shots. God's in control. God doesn't take a vote. It's not a democracy or a republic, it's not a team effort. God is God. He's the only one. That is who he is. There's no other. And there's no other coming. He alone is God. 07:29 And this character of his, the Bible tells us that he's forever holy, he's forever righteous, he's forever loving. Isn't that amazing? The Bible says that God is love. The Bible says that God is holy. The Bible says that God is light. And all of those statements, his holiness, will never diminish. Him being the light, his bulb, so to speak, his glow, will never go down. He cannot change and listen. What he says in the word of God, he cannot contradict, and this is a great comfort. So what do we know? We know that the good, good sovereignty of God is not our enemy but is our great comfort, because it's rooted in his character. 08:10 Number one he is himself righteous. Verse 14,. Paul says to them what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? And the word in Greek is perish the thought, remove that thought from your mind. Cannot be. That is. God cannot be unrighteous. Well, is there anything God cannot do? Yes, he cannot be unrighteous. Why? Because that would not be his nature. 08:38 Now, when you and I know about one another on a personal level, obviously it's limited and it's flawed. You and I can only know each other so far, and what we can know of one another it's not exactly perfect. Why? Because we are not perfect. God is perfect and when he reveals himself to us, he reveals the fact that he is righteous. When we talk about righteous, it's more than what the human or what the believer is asked of, or what we should see in our lives. 09:09 Righteous to us means to do the right thing. Did you know that Jesus said that we should be, or we should be, doing righteousness? As a believer, that's what we should do. But God's righteousness that is at work in us comes from the person of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. So we are to be doing the right thing. However, with God, it's not that God goes and does the right thing and thus he's righteous. It's his nature. See, you and I go in obedience and do the right thing because we're following him right. We're following the source, we're going straight to him. 09:50 But here's what's fun about this. You should never wander about sweating it out, about doing righteousness, doing the right thing. Here's the trick, here's the key to the Christian life Surrender. Give it up, holy Spirit. Do what you want to do in Christian life. Surrender. Give it up, holy Spirit. Do what you want to do in my life. I will read your word and I will step out and do your word. But I know I can't do your word in and of my own strength, it's impossible. So, lord, I'm going to step out. You do it through me. I will obey. God is righteous and this righteousness that comes from us as a believer, that should actually establish a baseline in our life. Hear me out on this. 10:36 Paul brings something of a question before his readers, and it's all about the attributes and the characteristics of who God is and who we should be. So, for example, when you and I do the right thing, that is, we know what the Bible has to say about this and we do that thing when we act like God. That is the only way the world that you and I live in is going to know if we really know God or not, you say no, wait a minute. I handed people a track, a Bible track. That's nice, but that didn't do it. Are you hearing me? Everybody? This message is going to sting for the believer. If you're not a believer today, you're going to enjoy it. The believer is going to say, ouch several times how will the world know that we are really, honestly, christ followers? So listen, I'll tell you what Studying for this message. 11:33 The other night I was talking to Lisa. We were eating, and I said listen, in light of Romans 9, it's tragic, because you can look into this and find out that so many people are assuming that they're Christians. And so, listen, it's not easy, because when I ask, well, are you a Christian? Or if you ask me if I'm a Christian, I may come back to you and say, yeah, I'm a Christian. I fill in the blank. What did you do? What are you doing? What are you saying? Friends, listen, that doesn't necessarily mean you're a Christian. Are you hearing me? Lisa and I sat down and came to the conclusion. We must always be very careful that we don't assume or take for granted that we are actually Christ followers when we're not. Well then you say, jack, how can we know? Do you know? 12:25 In the book of Revelation, the Bible tells us that when we are judged before the beam of seat of Christ, which is only for believers, you know, every believer is going to be judged for the things it says that we did in this world while we were in our bodies. We are going to be judged on opportunities that God gave us. Did we take advantage of those opportunities? And then? So the Bible says we are given rewards. Now you always want to want to watch out for the, the person who has a false presentation of humility, and that is this. Oh, it's okay, I don't want to get any rewards because I just want to be there to serve Jesus. Yeah, don't we all Got it? But are you sure you understand this? In this life, we're to do what we do to his glory, not ours, so that in the day that we are rewarded for our obedience, we get crowns. Have you read that? We get crowns, rewards. You see, again, I don't need such things. Hear me out. 13:36 What happens to all the believers on the day of judgment before Jesus at the Bema seat of rewards. What do we do with all of our rewards? We throw them back at him in an act of worship. Is that awesome? So it's like I just it's okay, I really don't need anything. Forget about you. Will you knock it off? It's all about him. 13:57 Listen, some people are gonna show up with a thimble on the top of their head and they're gonna spill it out before the Lord and that's going to be about it. And I don't want you to be like that. I want you to understand that as you yield to the Holy Spirit, god will live out his righteousness through you, because that's what he does in a relationship. And you show up on judgment day with a gigantic wheelbarrow on your head, a bucket on your head. Can you imagine Next, fred, hang on, lord, I'm trying to get there. And then boom, all of these rewards go spilling out on the floor and angels and saints are like yes, awesome, listen, it has nothing to do with us, we're going to give it back to him. So that's why we want to be busy about our father's business. 14:50 It's not, listen, you're not going to have a plaque. It's not going to be your name. Your name's not going to be in heaven on a wall with, like some pose, it's got your name, 7,200 points. It's not going to have that on there. You want to do as much as you can to expand the righteousness of God to an unbelieving world and to comfort and love on a believing family of God, so that in the day of judgment we bless God back by returning what he gave us. You want to do that. You want to make sure you live your life like that. Let him live his righteousness through you. And so there is for us to perish that thought with where we're going. Is there unrighteousness with God? That's impossible, paul would say. 15:33 Second thing is this he is himself merciful. Look at verse 15. For he who says to Moses I will have mercy, on whom I will have mercy? God is merciful. You either believe in the God of the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, or you believe in a God that has been reinterpreted to you by the traditions of men Church. Is God merciful? Is God sovereign? Is God righteous? All of these are character attributes of God's greatness. It's in complete correlation with his love, with his incredible nature of who he is. It's who Jesus revealed on this earth to be Consistency. So when God says, as a point of interest, I exercise mercy, on whom I exercise mercy? You see, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, though Listen, the word mercy here is the word to pity, or to have pity, or to have mercy upon another. The word also means to extend mercy to those that are in need, obviously, mercy. So, listen, grace and mercy, grace. 16:52 Okay, let's say your little kid, your five-year-old, does something wrong. I can't use the analogies I always used to use, because people now get offended by those analogies. Like I used to say when your five-year-old paints the garage door pink while you're gone. Then people wrote me don't put thoughts in my kid's head. Yeah, really I'm not joking. And then I used to make a joke. Well, you're outside, your kid put the cat in the microwave and stuff. And then people said don't, don't I love cats. How dare you say that that was demonic. And so I don't know what to say anymore. Your five-year-old does something he ought not to do. Okay, you come home and this is grace. What did you do? I used this, I did. I was going to say super glue on this, but I can't say that. So that's, but I told you not to do that. And then they start crying and everything and they know they're busted. And then dad says get in the car. And little junior gets in the car and dad takes the kid down to Baskin Robbins, gets him an ice cream cone. 18:09 You say isn't that story a little ending kind of weird? Not at all. That's cold grace. The kid did wrong. He admitted that he had done wrong when he got busted, and so dad took him down to get an ice cream cone. Dad is not rewarding him for the evil that he did. Are you with me? Dad was gonna take him to go get an ice cream cone. Dad is not rewarding him for the evil that he did. Are you with me? Dad was going to take him to go get an ice cream cone. If he did that or not, that was God's plan. When I get home, I'm going to take that boy to get an ice cream cone. He happens to get home and the thing is messed up. God still follows through on the ice cream cone. Are you tracking me? This is the goodness of God. 18:43 Now listen, it could go the other way. Mercy, mercy. Is this? What did you do? I blew up that thing. I told you not to do that. It's my favorite thing I've ever had and you blew it up. Now, what did I tell you In the day that you would blow it up? What did I tell you would happen? That you would, that you would? Well, I can't say that. So blow it up. What did I tell you would happen? That you would, that you would well, I can't say that so that you'd send me to my room. And so mercy is listen. You know what you did wrong. You can go out and play with your friends right now, but you know what you did wrong. You can go out and play with your friends right now, but you know what you did wrong. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you do not deserve. 19:38 - Speaker 1 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 https://jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.