The Great Face-Off

Real life presents the Jack Kibs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Our world today is being tested regarding what is it hoping in. This is a good time for all of us who are Christian and you guys. This is a good time for us. We have the truth of God. Let's be honest. Nobody wants to hear from us. They want to hear what we have. And we have God's truth. And God's truth brings hope. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackkibs.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. Have you ever noticed that when there's the crisis moment, someone passes or the issues so beyond you? Like when that mother and that father, when they say that when they realize we cannot, we've done everything to save our child. There's nothing we can do. And the doctors will not even let us into the hospital. We surrender and you give up. You know there's a way of giving up. That's hopeless. And then there's a way of giving up that's victory. One's a surrender. And one is a surrender. And there's a big difference. But in that moment, by the way, when it's reverent, there's just something about it. Nobody can say anything. If your dad dies or your mom dies or your grandmother dies or your child dies, you want to know how you comfort that person, go to them and shut up. Go to them and sit there and just be with them. Don't say anything. There's a moment that is so transcendent that only the presence of God can be felt in the moment, let God do His ministry, but just sit with them. The time will come when you can speak. But you know that moment when you're there and you go, I don't know what to say. That's what Peter did. Peter said, I don't know what to say. So I'm going to start saying something. On the mount of transfiguration, he said he didn't know what to say. So he started talking. Don't do that. And that's very important. Excuses. Misguided faith will generate them. Listen to what Donald Gray Barnhouse, the great pastor in Philadelphia, said, yes, your year. He says, what right or resource or privilege are you planning on using that God will let you into His heaven? What are you going to, what trump card are you holding that's going to get you in? In Luke chapter 18 verse 9, check this out. This is powerful. Luke 18, 9. And Jesus spoke this parable, parabolic. He dropped alongside them this truth. Read alongside their head to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. By the way, those two things go out hand in hand. When you're self-righteous, you despise others. Why can't you be more like me? Oh gosh, that is spectacularly repulsive, incredible. Verse 10, Jesus said, two men went up to the temple to pray. One, a Pharisee, a professional religionist, and the other, iris agent. Text collector. Who loves a text collector? The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself. Do you like that? Basically, he's praying, ain't nobody listening but himself. He's praying with and do himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this text collector. I fast twice a week. I give ties of all that I possess. Is this sickness? Verse 13, and the text collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's it. I tell you, Jesus is speaking, that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Man, that's it. That's incredible. The great Catholic reformer Martin Luther said, the principal point of the law, listen everybody, is to make men not better but worse. That is to say, to show them their sin. That by the knowledge thereof, they may be humbled, terrified, bruised and broken, and by this means may be driven to seek grace and so come to the blessed Christ. That is one of the most simple, clear direct statements you're ever going to hear regarding why does God give us the law? It's to break your pride. Chuck Swindall, anybody remember Chuck Swindall? Chuck Swindall said, if sin were blue, we'd be blue all over. That's a great way of putting it. I love that. So you think about the law. When we open up the law of God, so Paul in the book of Romans is teaching that you will enter heaven by faith in Jesus Christ because Christ alone has met the requirements of the law. By transfer, when you put your faith in him, he transfers his righteousness to you. God's law looks on the inside and says, I see this about you. I know this about you. And if you're silent and if you're quiet, he's going to tell you, Jack, this is what's wrong with you. There's a loss in the noise of an elusive hope. Hope's a big thing today. Hope is always a big thing. But our world today is being tested regarding what is it hoping in? And this is a good time for all of us who are Christians, you guys. This is a good time for us. We have the truth of God. Let's be honest. Nobody wants to hear from us. They want to hear what we have. And we have God's truth. And God's truth brings hope. You don't have to try to bring hope. God's word is hope. And we need to give it. But is your hope 100% trustworthy? Is your hope sure? See, when we're young and we're feeling good and all that kind of stuff, we don't think about it. But when the test comes or when life begins to wear on or something happens, what's your hope in? If I watch all the commercials, I'm supposed to hope in Bitcoin now. Our crypto, according, Matthew Damon, I'm supposed to trust in him now and buy crypto. Or whatever it is. But we're talking about eternity here forever. The great thing is, God's hope permeates this world and comes into your life. But what you don't want to do is have an elusive hope, a false hope. Number one, it deceives us. If you'd mark that down, verse 20, it deceives us. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, Paul is announcing by the deeds of the law. By you doing a performance and saying, I have been a good person. Going back to Donald Gray Barnhouse, what rights or privileges or what resources do you have that you are going to say to God on the day of your death? This is why you should let me into heaven. If it's anything about you, it's not going to work. We can have a hope that is false because the thing that we're hoping in is broken. A lot of people think that their life will become complete because they love the idea of marriage, for example. They love the idea of marriage. And so because they love the idea of marriage so much, they love the hope that they think the idea of marriage is going to bring them, but then they marry a bozo. And then they wonder why it doesn't work. And you can hope in a lot of things, but is it a founded, tested true hope? Jesus is that hope. And Paul is saying, do not be deceived by thinking that your deeds performed of the law are going to save you. Verse 22 tells us, but the scripture has confined or confirmed, I should say, all understand that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Let me ask you. Don't say anything out loud, but look at that 22nd verse. Do you believe that? Don't say it, but do you believe that? If I were to just say to you and look, I am nobody. I'm just a mere pathetic little man. Could you imagine if God looked in your face and said right now, do you believe? Verse 22 is that your worldview, but the scripture has confined, all under sin, the mankind has lost without Christ, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. This is absolutely fundamental. But look, verse 23, but before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law. In other words, the law showed us our need, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor. The word in Greek is pedagogus. The schoolmaster that drives you to learn, to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Church family, listen, why do we want to read the Old Testament? Why do we want to read God's law? Because it drives us to Christ. I tell you what, you want to appreciate Jesus, read your Old Testament. You'd be so glad that he's the one that met all the demands. And then finally, we end right here. The end of verse 20, we learned this, that there's an elusive hope that fails us. There's an elusive hope that can fail. It says, no flash will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. Psalm 142 says, the Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand who seek God. Verse 3, they have all turned aside. They have all together become corrupt. There is none who does good. No, not one. I don't answer, but I would ask, do you believe that? Think of that. See man, this is really hitting me, Jack. Good. That's a good thing. Philippians 3.9 says, and this is a great scripture to commit to life. Philippians 3.9 announces this to us, being found in him. Not having my own righteousness, our own righteousness, which is from the law. It's unacceptable if it's from the law. But that which is through faith in Christ, because he's the only one who kept the law, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ? Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ? Because verse 20 ends with this glorious challenge to us. The elusive hope condemns us. An elusive hope condemns. But I thank God that he doesn't invite us to an elusive hope. God's hope is sure instead fast. I've never heard a one person ever become a Christian and 20 years later say, I am so disappointed in having become a Christian. I've never heard somebody say, you know what God really let me down over there on that one. I've got to tell you, I'm going to be honest here, listen, people, especially men, and I get it. Now after I say this, this will never happen again. But men will come to me and they'll say, listen, are you listening everybody? Men will come to me and say, Pastor, I really love the Lord. But I really struggle with pornography. I just can't stop. I read my Bible every day. Listen, I pray all the time. I don't know what's going on. Put yourself in my shoes. Do I respond like this? Oh, wow. Oh my gosh, really, you love God. You read all the time and you pray all the time. Let's go out and hang ourselves together. Let's just do it together because there's no hope. If you're doing all that, God has let you down. Do you hear what's being said? Did you get it? Pastor, I love God. I read His Word. I pray all the time. But I'm addicted to porn. You know what I tell them? Never say again, you love God. I tell them. I say to them, never say you love God again, please. Don't ever say that again. You are not reading the Bible and you are not praying all the time. Because what you're doing is everything that you just said in the Holy Spirit would never allow this to happen. Everything you said put the blame on God. He's not listening. His Word's not powerful enough. He's let me down. Pour me. No, you know what? You love it more than you love Him. And whatever else it might be in your life. It could be money. It could be gambling. It could be whatever power. So enough with that. That's a false hope. See, Jack, this is pretty tough stuff. I understand that it is. We're all done. Let me put it to you this way. According to Scripture, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All of humanity. The moment Adam and Eve blew it, it set off in the spiritual realm in the human psyche, in the human soul. It launched a demeanor. It launched a virus in the soul. We had the first two boys they gave birth to, Cain and Abel. One was a murderer. Always used that regarding gun control. We need gun control. No, we don't. Guns are awesome. Come on, they're awesome. They're fun. Have you ever shoot a gun? It's a blast. God put it in the mind of man to create a gun. It's brilliant. It's fun. You don't go shooting with women because women are always better shots than men. Right? We're all over the place. And a woman just, she just, my daughters, my wife, they just lay it right on the dot. It's like, I'm like, guns don't kill anybody. It's the lunatic that kills people. So who should do away with guns? Okay, do away with guns. But the day that you do, do away with knives, rocks, bats, cars, hands, come on. We just, we fiddle on the outside. We don't go down to the core. It's in the heart. You don't have to talk about gun control. We need to talk about heart control. We need Jesus in our lives. We're all prone to these things. But we're all not prone to sinning. We're sinners. So I am on Southwest Airlines Flight 1140, Ontario to Sacramento. It's a short flight, but I had coffee. And all of a sudden I realized someone's eating onions on this plane. 135 people packed into this plane and somebody thought that they would bring a ziplot baggy and a raw onion and start eating it on the plane. And I got to tell you, we're sitting there and one's going. And it's just like, this is not going away. And people are looking, I'm looking, we're looking to say, what in the world is going on? And I took a drink from my coffee and my coffee cup smelled like onions. And then I could smell my hand and my hand smelled like onions. I want you to know that in 64 years I have never forgotten to put on the odorant. Never not once. Except I must have gotten either a bad batch of dove or I forgot to put the odorant on. I'm sitting there, I had black on, you should always travel in black in case you spill anything. I'm looking okay and I realize this plane stinks. My hand stinks, my coffee stinks and I found out I'm the one. So what do you do? You get up, you go to the lavatory, right, and you use hand cleaner. I'm hand cleaning, I'm panicking! And the whole plane, I stepped out of the plane's bathroom and I could smell onions. So you're not going to tell anybody this, right? And I sat down and that one hour and 20 minutes was probably more like 24 hours. It was so painful and it turns out that I'm sitting on that plane and I'm thinking, before all this stuff happens, Lord, I wonder how many believers are on this plane? What are my lost people on this plane? And I'm thinking, I'm going through my process and I'm thinking, and little, the 135 people who are going, and somebody's eating onions, there's somebody sneaking this plane up. It was Pastor Jack sneaking that plane up. What are you seeing this for, Pastor? Because all of us smell like onions until Jesus washes us clean. Okay, I want you to know that the illustration has come to you at my own expense. 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. Feel like pain.