The Choice, Is It Yours?

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. The Bible says he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Bible teaches that God is a firm foundation. He's immovable. The fact that God cannot change is one of the key factors of his very nature. And we revel in this because what God says, you can take it to the bank, spiritually speaking, and stand upon him. 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. I'm going to give you two passages of scripture. They both happen to be from their third chapters of their respective books, but one is Romans 321. Romans chapter 321, this is all introduction to where we're going. It's important, though, that you get this. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known. Wow. To which the law and the prophets testify, that's a huge statement. How to be right with God has been made known. And the prophets, not only the law, Moses, but the prophets agree. Verse 22, the righteousness is given through this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. All who what believe? There is no difference between Jew and Gentile. Why? Because the premise is and the requirement is based on those who believe. Can a Jew believe? Yes. Do all Jews believe? No. Can a Gentile believe? Yes. Do all Gentiles believe? No. For all have sinned and fell short of the glory of God. That includes me and you, you and I. And all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by what? Faith. Now, Galatians 3, Galatians chapter 3, verse 26, for you are all sons of God through what? Faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, notice, not baptized into water, baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus and if you are in Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Did you get that? Well, wait a minute. So do you want me to say wait a minute. You mean Abraham's DNA? Nope. Well, not listen, not physical DNA. There are some people walking around today saying, I'm going to go to heaven because I have physical DNA in me from Abraham. I don't need to listen to anything that you guys are saying. I'm going because I'm related to him. And God says, no, you're not because I'm not looking for physical DNA. You might say today, you know what? Pastor, I got drug here by people. I just can't wait for this to be over because I'm going to go to heaven because my mom and dad, they believed in God. I grew up in Christian home. What does that do to you? How does that help you? How do you benefit from that? You're not going to go to heaven based on their faith. Listen, I was speaking at a Christian school, a high school, true story. And the whole do a certain belief that they are especially selected, they're especially elected by God. Well, whatever they asked me to speak, there's a student assembly, so I just gave them the Bible and I thought, you know what? There are a lot of kids here. I'm just going to go to John 3. I'm going to teach on John 3, starting in verse 1. And I went through Jesus saying to Nicodemus, you must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. Nicodemus, that was quite a righteous guy, you know? And I said, I don't care about any of you and your heritage, but I do care about your soul. And you need to be born again just like Jesus said, Nicodemus had to be born again. And the principle of that school came up and grabbed the microphone right out of my hands. And he walked me to the parking lot and he said, you'll never speak here again. And I said, yeah, that's great. Let me ask you something. What just happened? And he said, these kids' parents are going to heaven and that means they're going to heaven automatically. And I said, let me tell you something. If I would have known that in advance, I wouldn't have come and spoke here because that's sick. God, listen, I told you before, God has kids. He doesn't have grandkids. And this is a very, very important thing. So as we look at this, number one, write it down. It's our only point for today. And the choice is it yours. And it's based on verses one through five. And that is the scope of God's sovereignty. Will you write that down? The scope where you can even enhance your notes by saying, what is the scope of God's sovereignty? How sovereign is God anyway? Well, he's all sovereign. And some, listen, some people have a problem with this because it must be a different kind of sovereignty because if God would allow people to make choices, then he can't be as sovereign as we might think. So that doesn't work, right? No, he's got to be sovereign enough to where he condemns people to hell as he wishes and he sends people to heaven as he wishes. And that's the way that it is. And if that were true, then we've got a bad God and let's end this service now and go home. Why? Because you've got this situation going on. You've got heaven now and you'll join them later rejoicing for God's salvation provided by Jesus Christ. But you also have those that are in hell responsible for having rejected the opportunity. If there was no such thing as choice, how could someone be held responsible for their outcome? And this goes deeper. Write it down in verse 1 and 2. The scope of God's sovereignty includes sorrow and grief for the lost. Will you write that down? Friends, you and I who are going to go to heaven, we should be sorrowful and we should be grieving over the lost in our own lives. Do you know any lost people in your life? Do you know anybody who doesn't love Jesus and they're lost? They're going to go to hell. Listen, your child, your parent, your mom, your uncle, your dad, your grandpa, they've rejected Christ. They don't want anything to do with Christ. And unless they turn, they're going to burn. And that doesn't make God happy. And it should make none of us happy. We should weep over that reality that is before us. Think about it. The only thing that keeps you from ultimate grief and sorrow regarding that person is that they're still breathing. But if God or the world or Satan were to yank the carpet out from beneath them and they fall into eternity, your guts would be wrenched if you're a believer. Look, we're not only a believer in heaven. Jesus taught us to be believers in hell. It's real. Satan is a real fallen angel and he hates your guts and everything about you. But Christ loves you and he wants you in heaven with them. But I find it fascinating here noticing this when Paul says, I tell the truth in Christ, I'm not lying. Now he goes deep. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. My heart's broken, he's saying. Why Paul is your heart broken? Because God provided the way of salvation through the Jewish people. The gospel came to my brethren first, but many of them have rejected his offer. And I'm grieved over that. Praise, great sorrow to my heart. And this, listen to this. I love this. I mean, I love it and I hate it, but it's truth. He says that my conscience is also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost. What is he saying? The Holy Spirit in me is sick, is moaning, is grieving, is sorrowful. And I'm exactly the same way regarding those who I know that are lost without Jesus. That's the life of the Christian if we really believe. I ask all of us this question, when was the last time you honestly cared about someone else's eternal soul? Your nearness to Christ and his person will reveal the depth of your care for the lost. There's no buttering this up. I, like you, like Paul, need to be grieving, need to be sorrowful over the fact that you and I may know lost people in our lives. And we pray for them, do we not? And this is why we grieve. And we put on our Jewish sandals, so to speak in a moment, because I'm speaking from the Jewish prophets and Paul himself being Jewish. Isaiah 7-14, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel. That word of Emmanuel is God among us, God living among man, God with us. And listen, what's the rumor? How does this happen? What a fantastic announcement. Wait, the Old Testament says that God is going to tabernacle among us? Yep. Wow, that's amazing. Do you know anybody with a, with a, a scandalous, a rumored life that he was none other than the Son of God? Do you know anybody who was born of a virgin, at least a rumour? Do you know any history about how Israel dealt with the one who was, well, according to the Pharisees, they called him a you know what? You know when a kid is born without a dad, that in the King James, not the, not the new King James, the old King James uses the actual word, a you know what? They called him a you know what? The Pharisees in scribes said, we, Abraham's our father, you, you don't, we don't even know who your father is. You're a, you're a, you know what? Can you imagine saying that to God, son? God heard that. Oh, if I were God, I would have punched him right then. But good thing for them. I'm, I'm not. And God is saying, look at this. What does the Bible say? Know your Old Testament. What's happening here? The virgin shall conceive. Secondly, Isaiah chapter nine, verse six and seven, for unto us a child is born and to us a son is given. And the government will be upon his shoulder. His name will be called wonderful counselor mighty God. Wow. Really? A child, a son, called wonderful counselor. Mighty God, my dear friends, I remind you, I'm reading out of the Hebrew Old Testament. Ever lasting father, ever lasting father means father of time, the governor of time, Prince of peace and of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end upon the throne of who? And over his kingdom. Wow, kingdom, seriously, really? More on that in a second, to order it, to establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. See the words, his kingdom, his kingdom. It's speaking about the Messiah coming back to the earth and establishing the promised kingdom. David never established it. David had a lot of it, but it wasn't fully established. Solomon came the closest. Do you know what I'm talking about? The kingdom was given in its parameters to Abraham. Abraham looked that way, looked that way, looked over there. It's all yours. To the descendants of yours, who will believe in me? And you say, that's the Jewish people. Don't be so fast. Before Abraham was a Jew, he was a Gentile. He was not a Jew until he praised the Lord. The Lord called him out of her of the Caldys. He was an uncircumcised Gentile, a pagan worshiper. And because he believed God when God spoke to him, the Bible says God appointed or bestowed upon him righteousness and declared him righteous. Abraham had done no works, Moses had not yet been born, and there was not even a five commandments. There was not even seven. There were not even ten. And Abraham is the father, yes, of an entire race of people, the Jews, the Hebrew people. Yes. That's how the nation was established. But eternity is altogether different. I had some in Jerusalem. I was walking with a mirror. Many of you know a mirror. We were walking in Jerusalem, and I wasn't thinking. And I asked a heathetic Jew, an orthodox Jew. You know the black hats with the curls. And so they have a certain belief system. It's not all Jews are like them. But I excuse me, do what time it is? And the guy looked at me. And it was like, he was just like, I mean, you know, it's just not like he just looked at me and like, like, oh, he just looked at me and and I asked the mirror, what was that all about? And he goes, he's not supposed to talk to you. Because you're a Gentile. He knew instantly you were a Gentile. I said, oh, how does he know that? I go, my clothes on and stuff. And he said, he said, we know. Here's the thing. The thing is this is that they believe God created you to burn in hell. You are actually the fuel for the flames of hell. And I said, how does their evangelism program work? And then there isn't one. Why? Because they believe that they were bored into this. And this is going to become a very key factor. Because did you not read names like Abraham, Sarah? Did you not read names like Isaac and Rebecca? We need to pay close attention for these next several weeks if not months. Is it your choice or is it not your choice? Can you call out to God or not call out to God? Are you automatically doomed and it's sealed and it's over for you? Or does it matter nothing how you live? You're going to go to heaven anyway. Because God's picked you. Maybe he picked you, not you. People who believe that by the way are not easy to be around. Because number one, they're trying to get you to be as miserable as they are. Because they're not sure if God picked them. It's absolutely insane. God doesn't want you insecure. He wants you more secure. This is not a game to him. But he does require us to think. And he unlocks these truths to babes. Children can understand this. He's so awesome. Genesis chapter 15 verse 5 says, then the Lord brought Abram outside and said, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you were able to number them. He wasn't. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. And Abram, what? Believed in the Lord and he accounted that is God accounted it to him for righteousness. Listen, for some reason I've never had this experience with women. It's always men on their deathbed. Men somehow who are not Christians and they're dying and the family says, can you come, can you come? And when you go, there's still too much of that person alive. How do I know? Because they'll say, Reverend, what do I do? Do you want me to write a check? I'll give half of my wealth to the church. What do I do? Just tell me what to do, Reverend. Just tell me what to do. And I tell them there's nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do. There's no hope for you unless you put away that thinking and cast all of your sins and all of your very existence upon the mercy of God and call out to him because he died on the cross for your sins and rose again from the dead. And if choice was not involved in it, then what was he doing doing it for? Then why would I tell a man on his deathbed? You can choose Christ now. He's owned of, I believe, that pastor, then stay miserable. But I'm going to go with the thief on the cross who chose Christ. He started earlier in the day not choosing Christ and then he ended his day choosing Christ and just slipped right into the gate and went in heaven. How's that for a deathbed conversion? Wow. This Jack Kibb's podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibb's.com to learn more and stay connected.