Where Are You On the Issue of Heaven and Hell?

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. The decree of God means that he knows all things that actually happen and all things that would have happened he knows. Isn't that kind of cool? So if you're going down a road and there's a why in the road, if you go right and you're talking you're thinking about God and you said, whoa it did God know I was gonna go right? I'm gonna oh I'm gonna back up and I'm gonna go left. You're not teaching him anything. He already knows. In fact, you can go right and stay right for the rest of your life. He knows what would have happened if he would have gone left. 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. Where are you on this issue of heaven and hell? Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior are not. Because God and His mercy and gifting provides eternal life and forgiveness through His sacrifice. We give Him all the things. But if you say no to God's offer and refuse it, then by default there's a hell that quite frankly you have demanded that you go there. Just know this. The Bible says God is not willing that any shaperish but that all should come to eternal life. The book of Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 says, just as He chose us, this is awesome. Just as He chose us in Him that's Christ before the foundation of the world. That's a long time ago people. That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. This two verses here, it's pregnant with theology. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that's four knowledge. Did you know that? God knew you before the universe was ever created. He can't learn anything. We'll find out more of this in this in the sermon today. But that He should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Listen, you and I came to Christ on such and such a day and time. Remember, you marked your Bible or you marked your calendar. Did you know that you arrived at some moment of conversion that God knew before the world was ever created that you would arrive at that moment? Did you know that? He was just waiting for you to show up. Of course, I'm joking. God doesn't wait. He lives in the eternal now. That's the best way we can describe it. He's eternal. There's no past to Him. There's no present. There's no future. There's the now. And He sees everything at one moment of time. It's impossible for us to fan them. You and I live in a line, a timeline. But notice that He does everything that He does do according to His good pleasure. That's God's nature. In this, by the way, is describing the omniscience of God, omniscience, omniscience, the all-knowingness of God. In that, by the way, in that doctrine of the omniscience of God, it means that God cannot learn anything. Isn't that amazing? That's, it's funny when we pray sometimes. You know you pray with people sometimes and they're informing God of their situation. And it's like, you know what, kept to the chase, get to it. Here already knows. Speak to Him about it. But He knows all things. In theology, what is known as decree, the decree of God, not degree, decree. The decree of God means that He knows all things that actually happen and all things that would have happened, He knows. Isn't that kind of cool? So if you're going down a road and there's a Y in the road, if you go right and you're talking, you're thinking about God and He said, who it? Did God know I was going to go right? I'm going to, oh, I'm going to back up and I'm going to go left. You're not teaching him anything. He already knows. In fact, you can go right and stay right for the rest of your life. He knows what would have happened if you would have gone left. Is that awesome? I love how big our God is. He's so big it's going to take eternity for us to get to know Him and even then to be scratching, I think, the surface. But it's the all-knowing God. That's his attribute, all-knowing. In Jeremiah, chapter 1, verse 5, the Bible says, therefore, this is God speaking to Jeremiah. He's only a teenager. Hey, listen, remind your teenager that Jeremiah was a teenager. God spoke to him and he said, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Did you know? Isn't that great? Listen, before I was, God knew Jack in the womb. You say, you don't know Jack. God, it's actually true. I don't know me. The Bible says our hearts are desperately wicked who can know them. But God knew me and my mother's womb. He didn't learn about me. He didn't get the, there was no reveal of gender. He already knew. He's God. And that's true for all of you, by the way. In all of the eternity past, if we can put it that way, God knew you. The Bible also says in Joshua chapter 24, verse 15, we'll talk more on this later. Joshua 24, verse 15. Joshua says, and if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. Well, wait a minute, Joshua, you're acting like people have a choice. Of course, they have a choice. Whether the gods, which are your father's served, which are on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, and whose land you dwell, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That implies choice. But the question is, when you and I make a decision in the moment that you and I are living in, in our lifetime, but God knows those before you and I ever arrive on the world center. You guys okay with this so far? It's kind of like really what? Yes, think bigger regarding your God. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 11, tells us, in him also we have obtained an inheritance. Here it comes, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. The counsel of his will speaks about his foreign knowledge. Watch, he knows everything in advance and so based on that, he executes his sovereign will, vitally important. And then finally, always this by talking about this issue of God's foreign knowledge, the sovereignty of God in predestination, Romans chapter 8, verse 29, for whom he for new, this would be a good tattoo. He also predestined, excuse me, everybody, verse 29, what comes first? Foreign knowledge. Number two, predestination. To be conformed to the image of his son, that's number three, that he might be the first born among many brethren, moreover whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called these he also justified and we justified, these he also glorified. Notice, you can't have three of these or one or four, it's a package deal. If based on God's foreign knowledge, you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, everything else is true about your life or none of it's true. Are you getting this? This is amazing stuff. This should cause you to get excited and rather be insecure about Romans chapter 9, 10, and 11 to make you be settled and secured. This is not God being limited, this is God being expansive. That's why you've heard God say, come unto me. Jesus said, whoever believes in me, God is inviting. The question is how are you responding? When God says, I do not want to see the wicked perish, what do you think that means? It means he doesn't want to see the wicked perish. When the Bible says that God weeps over the death of the wicked, what do you think that means? It means he weeps over the death of the wicked. Nowhere in the scriptures does God say, any, meany, mindy mo, you get the good of heaven and you blow. Very good, thank you. That's not how it is. And then this is where we left off last time. It's this, the security of God's sovereignty, the sovereignty of God. We see it this way, the security of his sovereign word. God's word is not of this world. The creator God has given us his word, the word of God. Church family, God's word is intact and God's word is true and it will never change. The promises that God gives to us, you can bank on them literally. You can hang onto them. You can trust him. You and I may not be able to figure things out, but God's word is sovereign. God's word will not bend or change or sway. The Bible there tells us in Romans 9, verse 6 and 7, but it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. God's word is not weak for they are not all Israel who are of Israel. What does that mean? Not all those who are Israel or Israeli are actually Israeli according to God's math. Well, I'll make it simple. Not everybody who says their Christians are Christians. That makes sense now, right? That brings it closer to home. When somebody says in his Paul's argument is, my brothers and sisters were saying to me, Paul would say, I'm going to go to heaven, Paul, no matter what you say and no matter what you say about this Jesus. Here's the issue. I'm in Israeli, I'm a Jew and I'm going to heaven, period. And Paul is saying, that's not how it works. He's been making his argument that the first Jew that ever was became a Jew because he worshiped the God of heaven and that first Jew to become a Jew was a Gentile by the name of Abraham. What made Abraham a Jew? What made him a Hebrew? The fact that he was a worshipper of God. Listen, but if you focus on the DNA, the bloodline of it in this world, you're missing it completely. Nobody gets to heaven by bloodline. Nobody gets to heaven by being some sort of a noble. Thank God, somebody say amen to that. Unless you're the king of England, I'm not, you're not, who'd want to be. Thank God, he didn't establish his salvation for blue bloods only, but for all who trust him. Jew and Gentile alike. And the Bible here tells us about the security of his sovereignty. That in this also in verse 8, we learn that it says in verse 8 that this, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. You and I, if you today believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, Savior of the world, that he died on the cross for your sins and rose again from the dead, that he is the one who the Bible speaks of. If you put your trust in him, as Lord and Savior, meaning that you know that you're a sinner, you repent. You say, Lord, I've sinned against you, forgive me of my sins, I come to you and I make you the Lord of my life. I bow, I submit, I give you my life. In that very instant, you become a child of Abraham, like that, a child of God. You're in the spiritual DNA. Think of it. And this is true for all people. Jew or Gentile, that is Jew or non-Jew, the entrance, the way is still the same, but not of works, not of your own effort, with the best intentions. Has God made you a promise? Listen, when you read this book, when you read the Bible, and listen, I encourage you to always read it, I always do that, but when you read it, you should expect God to speak to you out of this. If you're not reading the Bible on a regular basis, then you're not expecting any promises to be fulfilled in your life. I'm telling you that right now, your walk is pretty boring, your Christianity is kind of haphazard, you're kind of hitting this. But let me tell you, if you are opening up this book, because you're going to seek him for this day to see what he has to say to you, he will speak out of the pages of this book, and you're going to know it. His word will lift up, and it will pop out, and you'll say, that's what I need. I need that. And then the next thing is, if you're anything like me is, how would you know that? And then, of course, I know that you knew that. Thank you, God. The book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32, verse 35 says, for their foot shall slip and do time. For the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them. You have to play that to verse 8, the children of the flesh, this relationship of promise, and who's born first, and who's preeminent, and who is promise, and who is of the works. The Bible tells us that the work of the flesh, these children of this world, of the flesh, are not the children of God. But look, you and I used to be children of the flesh. Didn't we used to do our own thing? Were we proud about it? Were we arrogant about it? In fact, I wrote down a few things. If you're a child of the flesh, you're earthly-minded. Everything about this world. You're in hot pursuit of it. You think you've got the world by the tail. You've got to get more of the world. You want to live it up. Oh, I like this. It's thrilling. Oh, the world. You're a child of the flesh. Also what? They are recognizable over time. A child living for this world is recognizable because they become exactly like the world it is that they live in. Just know this. Next, they're proud of themselves. Very proud, self-reliant, proud, self-made woman, self-made man. I don't need God. That's sad. If they're religious, they're proud of it. Have you ever seen this before? A child of this world, a child of the flesh, can have religion, but be so proud of their religion. They're proud, listen, of their lifestyle, whatever it is. Whatever it is. If they're living for, fill in the blank. The Bible says that you and I were just like that when we were children or sons and daughters of disobedience to God. The Bible is building its case. It's like a legal case right here before us. In fact, I'm going to show you something. You know this well, but watch this. John chapter 3, verse 1, you know this very well. John chapter 3, verse 1, it's our friend and Nicodemus. You know him encountering Jesus. So for those of you who don't know, let me elaborate. There was a man of the Pharisees. That means this guy has got his name with alphabets behind it, descriptions. This dude is the guy. If anybody's going to heaven based on human terms, it's this guy. If anybody keeps the law, it's this guy. If there's anybody who's an authority, it's this guy. Anybody talks to God? It's this guy. He's it. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do the signs or the miracles that you do unless God is with him. And Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, Jesus just cuts. I mean, right for the throat. Not like thank you, I'm glad you noticed. Which miracle do you like specifically? No, I mean, wait, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most important statement in all of information. Unless you're born a second time, you will not enter heaven. Who said that? Jesus said that. He says, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water that is of earthly birth and the spirit that is heavenly birth, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That answers to the water, flesh life, your life, my life, this life. And that which is born of the spirit is spirit, the born again life, the new life. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. Listen, I think as Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse said that regarding being born again, if you read the Bible carefully, here's what you want to do in life. You want to be born twice so you only have to die once. Listen, if you're born once, you'll have to die twice. What does he mean? If you have this life, if you can hear me right now, you've been born once. And when you die, the Bible says, you die physical death and then you die spiritual death. It's a weird statement, spiritual death. It's a forever living spiritual death. Creepy. But if you're born twice, you only die once. The deal is this, be born twice, be born into this world. If you have, you can hear me being born again. If you're born a second time, you can hear from heaven. And when that time comes, you go straight to heaven. But listen, don't be the person that lives for all the glamour and the gusto of this world. And you wind up dying twice physically and spiritually. Don't do that. 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.