Return to Your First Love

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Listen, I've learned this, maybe you're the same, but I don't need anyone to tell me how messed up I am or when I have the wrong thought. I am so able to beat myself to a pulp. Thank God for His grace and mercy. That's where it has to say to you, here is Jack Hibbs. Be a love God in the invisible. 1 John chapter 2 verse 18, these are all introductory verses. 1 John 2 18, little children, John's writing to believers, it is the last hour. And as you have heard, the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrist have come, by which we know that it is the last hour, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest or known, that some of them, that none of them, excuse me, were of us, what's going on? Every situation and time our love is being tested, and with all that's going on in life, and all the shaking that's taken on taking in our world, our love is being tested, is it not? Some of you have fallen in love with Jesus since the COVID crisis, for example, or other things. You've come to know Jesus. Others have left, drifted away. I'm not saying left this building, I'm saying left off from faith, maintaining an invisible love has nothing to do with your external, fleshly conduct, nor, as Paul would say, circumcision. It's a tremendously powerful argument that he's making. And so church looked by way of review. Number one, we saw that when we're asking the question regarding how do we get acceptable before God, when enough is not enough, we ask the question, how much is needed? And we looked at verse 25, and he's talking about circumcision is profitable. It works only if you keep the law, and immediately everyone should have thrown their hands up in frustration, right? So how much is needed? The answer is you ain't got it. You don't have enough to provide what's needed to be acceptable to God by your good works, by even the keeping of the law, which is a fallacy because the law is given, as we saw, to show you that you cannot get to heaven by being good enough. The law is that black and white unit with the red light on top. The law is that sign that says stop, or the law is that sign that says yield, or whatever it might be, it's a posted law, but you'll never find a sign posted in the Bible. Do this and you'll be saved. All of it, and I say all of it, by singular, all of it leading to one thing. Put your faith in Christ and in Him alone, and salvation is accomplished. The just shall live by faith. You want to experience this liberty and freedom? Write this down. Stop with the scorecard. Stop with the self-imposed religion that you and I have the tendency to put upon ourselves Satan will seek to do that even in the believer's life. He will seek to impose upon you the embracing of you doing things, saying things, giving things, whatever it might be, and you have this invisible scorecard, this thing in your head, this tally, this spreadsheet that's keeping records. And we want to watch out for that. Look at verse 28. This is shocking. And this is why, are you guys with me? You guys, this is why verses 28 and 29 drive our Jewish friends crazy. If a Gentile was saying it, it would not make a book on the radar, but because Paul the Apostle says it, who, even to this day, no Jew can live up to his Jewishness, he was amazing. He winds up taking all of his personal achievements in his religion, and he throws it under the bus where it belongs. And these two verses shocked the world. Verse 28, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. Now you see why? When you've got a bunch of people trusting in that very act that it is their mark, their seal of salvation. This guy comes along 2000 years ago and says, this the guy's a lunatic. You'll literally read that there are people today saying he was touched, he was something wrong. And yet everything that Paul points out, he's got scripture to back it up. We're not here following Paul. We don't worship Paul. I'm saying this because I know what I'm talking about right now because the Jews will say they worship Paul. No, he don't. Paul was a center just like me, just like us, just like you, the critic. No, when he's announcing this, he says something church that I just wrote in my own notes to remind myself that for Paul to make this judgment call, the world would say today, many in the church today would say shame on him. Shame on Paul. Watch. He says for he is not a Jew, well who made Paul the, who made him the judge? Watch this. This is a big, this is a big deal. It seems like Paul's keeping score. He's not keeping score. He's tearing down the scoreboard. He's destroying the whole thing about us equating ourselves to a standard. He makes us announce, but you want to talk about a Jew and that's amazing because do you guys remember last week what the word Jew means? The word Jew comes from Judah, from the tribe, from Judah, one of the sons. It means to praise God. It means to be a praiser of the Lord God Almighty. Remember I said if your name's Judy, it means that your name is a praiser. So Paul says a person who's not a worshiper of God cannot claim to be a Jew, but a person who is a worshiper of God in spirit, in reality, because it's internal, is in fact a Jew according to who's standard. Is it according to Paul's standards? No, according to God's standards. Judas was a Jew. Judas even had a name that was rooted in praise. And yet the Bible tells us that Judas missed heaven altogether. Think of it. Are you a praiser? Are you a worshiper? For he is not a Jew. So he makes this incredible judgment call who is one outwardly. So look at this. The equivalent today for us would be for me to be watch so so unloving, so critical, so mean. What gives him the right? If I were to say to you, I've observed your life or you're saying it to me. I've observed your life and I've come to the conclusion. You're not a Christian. In this day and age, I say right now what Paul said 2,000 years ago and the room goes quiet. Because number one, we have somehow fallen into this world of ours that that's unacceptable to look at someone's life and evaluate them and come to the conclusion. You're not a Christian. Now listen, we should be very careful about what I'm saying because we cannot pass that judgment. However, Jesus said you'll know them by their fruit and he goes so far to say that there are those whose lives actually, they're not sheep of the fold, they're actually wolves on the attack. And they're in and out of the church. So today, in man, I know this, my confidence level of this going over is like at one. And it's this. We need to walk away from this message today knowing that God wants all of us who name his name to have a love relationship with him. And when that invisible love affair with God is underway, it manifests that invisible love visibly how we live our lives. You should be able to move into my home today. You should be able to park out in front of my house. You should be able to observe me month in and month out and come to the conclusion. You follow God. But we don't think like this anymore. And it's wrong of us because we've made Christianity a Western thing. I've told you before in the Middle Eastern world, you eat together. You're rarely ever alone. Everybody's together. You know your neighbors. You know everybody's talking. Everybody's eating. Everybody's living life. It's all public. In the Western world, we've got a private church going on. And I want you to know, God's Bible doesn't know anything about that. That if I were to say today, this person is teaching false doctrine. This person's living a false life. This person is living or doing things that are antithesis to the Word of God. And then they claim to be a Christian. I could say they're not a Christian who claims they're Christian unless they're a worshipper of God. And you do know what I'm talking about, right? We're not talking about, well, I worship God. I go to church and I sing. I'm not talking about singing. Forget singing. A worshipper is eating, breathing, moving, talking, attitude, imagination, passion, right? That honors God. And Paul would say, you, you, who Gentile, uncircumcised, God attributes to you the purity, the righteousness that circumcision represents. It's clear to God that your heart has been circumcised, that you have salvation. It's remarkable. And there's no score keeping. And I'm going to move on from this, but I have to say this first. Christians, it's time for you to stop beating yourself up for your sin or shortcoming of the day. So tomorrow's Monday. And you start a new day. That's why the Bible says there's new what every morning. There's new mercies every morning. Why? Because you need them. And here's the deal. You get up and you live tomorrow and your desire, the believer's desire. You judge yourself right now. This is not your desire. The true desire is, I am going to get up today, being Monday, and I'm going to live my life for God. Lord, open up doors of opportunity for me to share. Give me the boldness because I'm just scared to death. Lord, you just do this thing. You do this thing, Christianity, in and through me. Here we go, God. And away we go. And as you fail during the day, you get 20 minutes after praying the prayer. Somebody cuts you off from the freeway and you say, well, you bum. And then God says, I thought we're going to have a good day today. You're right. Lord, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. That is so wrong. Forgiven. Now move on. Did you hear what I just said? With what I just said, the legalist right now was saying, that can't be true. That's too good. That's why it's called the gospel. Listen, because the true circumcision of the heart is a constant living moment, there's no longer keeping a score. When the Holy Spirit says to you, you shouldn't have thought that thought a moment ago. God, you're right. You did see me on the inward side, and you do know me, and that was so wrong, and I hated it. And even while I was thinking the thought I knew I shouldn't been thinking it, Lord, will you please forgive me? And the Bible says in 1 John 1, 9, that he's faithful to forgive you of your sin. If you live like that, you will live a life that's called Christian. If you do that, you will be called a believer. If you do that, you will know perpetual revival, because it's an ongoing moment by moment experience, and you're no longer stacking up points against yourself, because listen, I've learned this, maybe you're the same, but I don't need anyone to tell me how messed up I am, or when I have the wrong thought. I am so able to beat myself to a pulp. Thank God for His grace and mercy, because I, oh, if you only knew, when I first became a Christian, I was the most disgusting legalist you'd ever meet in your life. I was horrible to be around. So legalistic, and boy, did God whittle me down to show me what I really was? And then you throw yourself upon His mercy and His grace, and that mercy and grace is not a ticket to go sin. See, the unbeliever thinks that. The religious person says, well, that's cool. I'll just keep sinning, asking God to forgive me, and just keep sinning. I can have my cake and eat it too. Heaven and all of this, nope, the believer doesn't think like that. No more score keeping. The second thing we see in verse 29 is how can you and I experience this freedom for ourselves where we're really set free from what is enough is that you and I start right now with His grace, the grace of God, the grace of God, an enemy, the sworn enemy of legalism, grace. For example, I mean this with all due respect and with affection, but I mean this directly. One of the most law abiding and publicly righteous person you will experience in life is a Mormon. Good people, love America, love what's right. Now behind all that is a honestly, please, please, you know, behind that is a brutal world of legalism. It's so hard and they will say things like this. Oh, so wait, so you're a Christian, yes. So you're a gracer. That's the word that they'll, among themselves, they'll never tell you this at your door. I know a little bit inside stuff. My family used to live in Utah. I did not. They did. My brother still does. But the Christian who says something like this, God's grace, God's grace is powerful. God's grace is encouraging. God's grace is ever present. A good Mormon will say, I feel sorry for you because you know, you're leaning on this grace. You're a gracer. You think that He forgives you like that. You think that God makes it easy for you by going to Him like that. And they deny that liberty that's available to them through Jesus Christ. Listen, the one true Jesus Christ, the Jesus of the Bible. And Jesus said, even with the Pharisees, you lay burdens upon people's lives who you Pharisees, you priests, you said you sees and Pharisees, you don't even bear the load of those things yourself. But you demand that you're fall over still. Jesus said, how dare you? Wow. Billy Graham said, I can live any kind of life I choose to live as a believer. Listen, I'm going to pause for effect. Billy Graham said, I can live any kind of life I want as a believer. So you think about that more. I can choose to live any life I want to live as a believer. And he said, as a believer, my choice is to live for Christ. Isn't that awesome? This Jack Hibbs 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 jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.