The Battle Field Of Life

Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Jesus Christ is the first and the last eternal God who came into this world to die in the cross, to be resurrected from the dead and to grant you or to gift you eternal life. 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. Now watch this. If you detect some divine sarcasm in here, I think it's because Paul's landed on. First Corinthians 15 verse 13, he says, but if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. By the way, the world would love to leave that right there, wouldn't they? And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty. And your faith is also empty. Wow. Yes. And if we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up. If in fact, the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You're still in your sins. You know, it's awesome about that. You're still in your sins. Now the Christian, listen, the Christian hears this and says, yeah, yeah, okay, good. Keep reading. No problem. Because the real Christian here in this room right now, or maybe you're watching by TV or by whatever modes you're watching right now, the real Christian knows something. They know they're not in their sins anymore. You understand that? The Holy Spirit has already born witness to the real believer. Hey, do you remember when your sins used to control you? Sure do. Is it it awesome now that they don't control you anymore? Sure is Lord. Thank you. Everything that Paul is saying, the Christian is not fretting. It's like, oh, Pastor, that's very threatening when he was saying, oh, no, oh, no, what if the Christian today's saying, keep reading. Just keep on reading. It's all good. That's why I'm telling you that Paul is laying it on, remarkably, powerfully. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins, then also those who have fallen asleep or died in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable, pathetic. But now Christ is risen from the dead. In verse 20, he just shuts the door. Christ is risen from the dead. You say, well, that's your opinion. It's not my opinion. It's a matter of fact for a lot of reasons. But one of them is thousands of people just in one service alone here today at this service can bear witness to the fact that you've been transformed from the inside out, that the work of God is literally something that you can qualify by changed lives. And Paul's is one of the most amazing changed lives. You see, our lives now are wrapped up in him. It's the power of the gospel. So who is this Jesus? Watch this. John is recording the vision of the book of Revelation and notice who he's speaking with or who is speaking to him. And when I saw him, capital H, you'll see who this is in a moment. John says, I fell at his feet as dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying to me, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. Okay, if you know your Old Testament, you just found out that the God of the Old Testament is speaking to John. There's only one first and last ladies in gentlemen. There's not two. In fact, two have two is to commit blasphemy, which in the Old Testament would have you stoned to death. God says there's only one first in the last. There's only one who was who is who is to come the Almighty. Are you tracking? Only one. Only one. Think about all of those religious founders. I mentioned a moment ago that ever even had the Hutzpah, the thought of saying such a thing. None of them have said what Jesus says. Verse 18, I am He who lives and was dead and behold Him alive forevermore, amen. Wow. And I have the keys to Hades and of death. Chapter two, verse eight. And do the angel of the church at Smirna, right? These things says the first and the last who was dead and came to life. If somebody ever tells you that Jesus Christ never claimed to be God, correct them regarding their biblical ignorance. This is a profound declaration of deity none other than the very name of the Old Testament God, Jesus applies to Himself. And not only that says, I lived, I died and I'm now living again. That's exactly what and who you need to take care of the sin question and to guarantee your entrance into eternal life, a loving, holy, working Savior. That is Almighty God. What a great, great truth this is. And for the life of the believer, I'm telling you right now, friends, if this Bible is true and I'm being sarcastic right now, if it's true, don't you think we ought to see evidence of it? No, we do archaeologically. That's fine. We do historically fine. But if this God or the Bible lives and this Bible is true, ought not to be evidence in our lives now, I have no stomach to have a spectator relationship with this Almighty God. If God moved them, then I believe He can move now. Don't you think things are bad enough for Him to move? How much worse can it get? I guess I shouldn't put it that way. Much worse, but isn't it bad enough? This is the worst our nation has ever been. And our culture, marriage, life, friends, children, on and on and go, stick of it. And we can sit around going, it's just so bad. So wait a minute, did not God know that these days would be here right now? Yes, that's why you've been born into these days. That's why you're here right now. How do you know this or not? Where there's people who get together on Friday mornings and pray for these seeds. You might say, well, I don't care. My parents said, if I go, they'll buy me breakfast this morning. I just came for breakfast. Yeah, little do you know that you were prayed for, even though we don't know you, and God used your parents to bribe you with breakfast, and you're going to hear a truth today that's going to make you think, and you're going to make a decision in your head. And you're going to have to sit with it. Trust me, because what we're saying is not human, it's supernatural. You see, is it over now? And you're going to leave? No, and by the way, it's not over now. We have a long way to go. When you leave, you won't be able to get this stuff out of your head. You want to know why? Because the spirit of God's going to go home with you, and he's going to be tapping on your heart. All of this truth. Jesus Christ is the first and the last, the eternal God who came into this world to die in the cross, to be resurrected from the dead and to grant you or to gift you eternal life. But he didn't leave us alone when he went back to heaven. I'm going to read you a section of scripture. I always get so excited about this. These two passages from these two chapters have meant everything in my life. For over 40 years, it's been incredible. First one is John chapter 14 verse 6. You guys know this verse, but John chapter 14 verse 6 says, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Isn't that kind of a boy? That's narrow, isn't it? Are you Christians? You're so narrow-minded. We're not narrow-minded. We're narrow-instructed because Jesus said, I'm the truth, I'm the way, I'm the life. There's no other. That shouldn't offend you. That should come as a great relief deal. The God took upon human skin to go to the cross to pay the debt that you and I owe him for our sins that we could never pay. Can you imagine somebody writing the check right now? Can you imagine somebody come in and you go home today and somebody says, how much you owe in your house? A trillion I live in California, I owe a trillion dollars for my shack and that person writes a trillion dollar check and says, your house says, no, you'd be pretty excited about that. What if you had a debt that you couldn't find the currency to pay the debt? It wouldn't be in dollars or crypto. There's nothing but blood. And then you apply your blood, sweat and tears to it and it's not enough. And then Christ steps in and says, are you done now? Trying to save yourself because that's what I did for you at the cross 2000 years ago. What you're searching for was already done. The problem is you've not connected the dots and I'm knocking on the door of your heart. No one comes to the Father except through me. Verse 16, I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper. Notice capital H, it's paracletos. It's the another name for the Holy Spirit that He may abide with you forever. He's not an it. My Jovo witness friends, the Spirit of God is not an it. He's a he. He is God the Holy Spirit. He that He may abide with you for how long? Forever the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him for He dwells with you. Every true believer knows this and shall be in you or will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. This is Jesus speaking to the disciples. I'm leaving. I'm going back to heaven. Don't worry. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit up until now you guys have walked with me. But when the Spirit of God comes, He's going to come inside of you and He's going to secure you for heaven. In fact, the next next passage, John 16. But these things I have told you, verse four, that when they, but that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them, verse seven. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. You never would have agreed with Jesus. If you were walking with Him 2000 years ago and He says to you, it's after all the things you've seen and heard from Him and He says, it's better for you now that I leave. Excuse me. I love you Jesus. You're amazing. We've been doing okay up until now. I don't think you leaving is a good idea. Up until then, listen, the disciples walked in this shadow. They, can you imagine if anybody was going to beat up on Peter or somebody, they could just run to Jesus. The Pharisees and the Sadducees start coming with their religious garb to mess with your mind. All you had to do if you were Andrew, Jesus. You ever seen a little kid like that? I heard a story recently. It's kind of a place to this where this little guy, he was just a little guy. He was in junior high little guy and everybody made fun of him because it's a little. And so people take advantage of him. You know this bull, I don't know if you know this or not, but bullying, you can talk about bullying all you want. It's never going to stop. You can pass laws, you know that stuff. You can't do a thing about it because you can't change the human heart. Only guy can change the human heart. Kids are going to bully other kids. Terrible. So this one guy, we'll just call him Freddie. Freddie keeps beating up on little Bobby. And Phil was this big Christian kid and his heart was broken. He sees this little guy, Bobby getting beat up all the time and it just made him sick and one day he just couldn't take it anymore. And so he went over to Freddie and just grabbed Freddie by the throat. It was, I mean it's just a beautiful sight. He just, he didn't punch him, he just grabbed him on the throat. And he just shook him a little bit. And said, leave him alone or you have to deal with me. And the guy backed off, that's what bullies do, you know, when you grab him by the throat and they back off. And I heard in that story that from that moment on, little Bobby, wherever, whoever, who's the good guy? Phil. So wherever Phil was at, little Bobby was at. Wherever Phil showed up, there's little Bobby. If Bobby ever felt threatened, he would move closer to Phil. I think that's very good. If you ever feel threatened, you should move closer to Jesus. Just hang, just stay in Jesus's shadow. Bobby stayed in Phil's shadow because Phil said nobody messes with this little kid. God is saying to you right now, everything that's going on in life. Nothing's getting past God. It's all going to come to a grand and full reckoning someday. It's all going to come to a day of judgment. If there's no judgment, then there is no God because to be a holy righteous God, you have to have judgment. The difference will be, will you be judged? Listen, will you, will you be judged with Christ as your advocate or not? According to the Bible, on that day, you'll either have Christ or you want. It's your choice. But what a powerful thing this is that God says, I will put my spirit in you. In the book of Ezekiel, God prophesied and he said, that there's a day coming when I will no longer deal with Israel according to the law and the commandments that I gave them, that they broke. But a day will come when I will do away with the first commandment and bring a second when I will dwell within them. I will set up camp within the heart. And so John chapter 16 goes on and this is so, so comforting. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth for seven years to your advantage that I go away for. If I do not go away, the helper, the Holy Spirit will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin. Did you know that? He's convicting the world of sin right now. And even, listen, and his children too, you and I, when we do something wrong, doesn't he convict us? He says, Jack, what are you doing? We don't do that anymore. And to the world, he convicts the world of sin. I know it doesn't seem like it, but he does. The word of God's faithful and of righteousness and of judgment of sin because they do not believe in me, because I go to my father and you see me no more, because the ruler of this world is judged, a reference to Satan. Listen to this. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. The word bear them now means you cannot take what I'm about to tell you. You're going to have to have an internal witness to emboss this into your soul. That's why the spirit of God needs to come. Look, verse 13, however, when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you. Notice this. It is the Holy Spirit that guides the believer into all truth for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he, the Holy Spirit will tell you things to come. He will glorify me for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. Is that awesome? The Holy Spirit Christian, you must be acquainted with the Holy Spirit in your life. Jesus is in heaven. It's the Holy Spirit that's in you. Speaking to you about God's truth, leading you along the way. And you want to ask yourself always, am I dependent upon the Holy Spirit? The Bible says, watch out. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. He's the one that is with us. Look at verse 35 and verse 36, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress or persecution? Listen, famine, nakedness, peril or sword. That pretty much covers it, doesn't it? I mean, there may be something that you're saying is going on in your life, but it's going to fall under this, anyone of these described in this category here, tribulation, hardship, hard times, trying times, distress. Do you ever feel like you're being crushed by the weight of this world? The pressures of this world, the evil of this world? And so mark this down if you would please. Your security is guaranteed as a believer and we don't any longer need to worry about the outcome of it. You're safe in the hands of God, according to the Word. Look, it says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? It means it's impossible to be separated from the love of Christ. There's no way that you can be detached from the love of Christ. The question is today, are you a true follower of Jesus? Are you really his? And you see this word separate or to separate? Look at this meaning of this word. It's awesome to divide and have or intersections to make into parts or into pieces. The Bible says for the believer, watch, I'm going somewhere with this, watch, hang on, that you cannot ever be cut into pieces regarding you in Christ. It's not possible. You can't be divided up. 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. At least one discount. See if you could save when you switch to progressive. You'll feel good about making a savvy choice. Visit progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little extra cashback. Progressive casual tea insurance company and affiliates. National average 12 month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary.