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ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
JACK: Pastor Jack Hibbs here, and I want to wish you a Merry
Christmas. Now, listen, the whole world is decorated in
colors and in lights. It's the recognition of the birth that
God has sent His Son into the world. So we should tell people,
Hey friends, hey family. This is about Jesus. Remind them that
the baby that was born in Bethlehem is the man who died on
the cross for our sins. So please Merry Christmas to you,
but let's not keep it to ourselves. Let's tell the world.
ANNOUNCER: In today's message His Return Hark the Herald
Angels Sing, Jesus came as a gift of love destined for the
cross to offer us eternal life. Will you accept His precious
gift? Get out your Bibles. Real Life starts now.
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entire Bible? How did that go for you? Jack Hibbs has a tried
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easily digestible bites. This plan makes reading through the
Bible achievable with daily 15 minute readings from the Old
Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs.
JACK: Hey everybody, for over 30 years, my family, our church,
everybody together, we go through the Word of God in the
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MUSIC
JACK: Well, Merry Christmas everybody. Merry Christmas and
listen, here's the great thing. Well, there's many great things
about Christmas, but number one, the fact that His return, if you
think about it, His return, you say, what kind of a title is
that regarding Christmas, His return? Well, first of all,
you've got to remember this, that when we look back 2000
years ago, it was announced through the prophets that in the
town of Bethlehem, the Christmas Christ would appear that he
would come. It was kind of, if you think about it, the return
of the Word of God from off the pages of scripture as a baby
born in Bethlehem, Mary had a little lamb. His name was Jesus.
And so now we talk about the age in which you and I live in and
Christ Himself said, I'm coming back and we as believers, it's
Christmas every day in the hearts of every believer if you
think about it. But of course I'm speaking prophetically,
Bible prophecy that is Christ is going to return and we don't
know exactly when, but we know this, that the Christmas message
is wrapped up in the promises of God and the promises of God is
that He's going to return and the purpose of His return is
truly jaw dropping. Listen to this in Titus chapter 2, verses
13 to 14, the Bible there says that we are to be looking for
the blessed hope and the glorious appearing that would be
a return of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ who gave
Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless
deed. Imagine and purify for Himself His own special people
zealous for good works. Listen, the word zealous means that we
desire now to live for righteousness. That's what He
does in us. Living for righteousness is not some
religious act or some weird thing. It means to simply live
under the power of God, the dynamic of God. He gives us
life. That's His Christmas gift. God is on the move my friend. So
grab your Bibles. Let's get into the Word of God and get ready to
see what God has for us as we look to God's return.
MUSIC
JACK: John 14 verse 3, Jesus said, if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself.
Oh, that's good news. That where I
am there you may be also. Do you
see that? Okay you guys, Hey everybody, I'm leaving you. See
you. I'm all done resurrected from the dead, time to go back
home, but don't worry about it. If I go, I promise to go. I'm
going to prepare a place for you. I will come again and
receive you to myself. The word that implies I'm going to hold
you to my chest. Ok? That where I am, you can look at it this
way, that where I have been preparing a place for you, that
place, that where I am well that's where I'm going to take
you. According to the Bible, that could happen any day. It
could have happened any day since he left. We are so now
near the end of time as we know it, as we've studied over the
years and as scripture tells where there'll be a time when He
focuses on the nation of Israel for the last and final time
before His great second advent, yet something's going to happen
before that and it's going to be the fulfillment of John 14. You
say, what's it going to be like? We don't have to guess. In 1
Thessalonians 4, verse 13 without a warning, he says, Paul
said to the Thessalonians, I do not want you to be ignorant
brethren concerning those who have died or fallen asleep.
Don't be uninformed. Don't be without knowledge. It's amazing
to me that if you were to meet a graduate student from some
seminary today and you were to ask them, can you tell me about
the first coming of Christ? Can you tell me about the second
coming of Christ and can you tell me about what happens in
between that according to scripture? Did you know that
most seminary students cannot answer this question that I just
put before you right now? They've never been taught it.
They don't know it. And the Bible says, I don't want you to
be ignorant about this stuff. That's the first warning, my
goodness right there about there won't be a warning. Be ready
man, concerning those who have fallen asleep lest you sorrow as
others who have no hope for if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, watch this even so God will bring with Him those
who sleep or those who died in Jesus. So I don't want you to be
confused about this. When a believer dies, the Bible says,
when the flesh dies to be absent from the bodies to be present
with the Lord. Okay, so if you drop dead right now, if I drop
dead right now, my body falls down, but my spirit immediately
goes to be in the presence of the Lord instantly. It's
awesome. That's for the believer. For this we say to you
by the Word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until
the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are
asleep or those who die say, wait a minute, what? So imagine
this, somebody dies. They're a believer. We go to Forest Lawn,
we bury them. Right? We're at their service. Uncle John's
dead, but Uncle John believed in Jesus, so he's really with
Jesus, but we are stuck with his body, so we have to bury him. So
we go to Forest Lawn and we put him down in the ground and I'm
saying verses in prayer and the family's gathered together and
they're weeping and I make the announcement his body's going to
be on the ground until the resurrection. Well imagine we're
on the slopes of Forest Lawn Mortuary. Watch what happens.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout
with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God. The dead
in Christ will rise first we just put him in the ground. We
just put him in and there's a trumpet blast. There's a shout,
there's a voice. And up he goes just.... And then nanoseconds
behind him, we're following him. His body's resurrected. Watch
this, his body's resurrected. Then we who are alive. Look what
it says. Then we who are alive, verse 17 and remain shall be
caught up. The Latin word is rapture. The Greek word is
harpazo together with them. Who's the them? The them are the
dead that's been resurrected. Is that awesome? Oh, I want to be
doing a funeral that day. It'd be like a Pop-Tart. You put 'em
in, you put 'em in. Oh my goodness, that'd be amazing.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet them
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. Sounds like John 14.
Huh? And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore,
comfort one another with these words, the awakening of His
return. Christ is coming at a time where the Bible says for
the church, there's no warning. There is no warning. It's
imminent. Always what's going to happen to me? 1 Corinthians
15:50. Now this I say brethren that flesh and blood like this
cannot inherit the kingdom of God. You and I need to be
changed, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I
tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep but we shall be
changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye at the last
trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be
raised incorruptible. And this is a shocking statement that
scholars have enjoyed over the last two millennia. Notice
everybody watch this screen. I'm going to read it wrong so that
you remember this forever. For the trumpet will sound and the
dead will be raised incorruptible and they shall be
changed. What did I miss? What did I mess up? We, let me read
it again now. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be
raised incorruptible and we not the dead. Paul was believing in
his lifetime, and it's not until 2 Timothy chapter 4 where he
stops saying, we, when he is told he's going to lose his head
for Christ, that's when he stops using the word we. We shall be
changed. There's going to be a generation when Christ returns
not in a manger, not born of a virgin, that's already happened.
That when he comes back in power, He's going to speak forth
and resurrect His dead and He's going to call up His living and
meet them in the air. What an amazing thing. What a glorious
thing. We can expect that, His return can be expected. The
Bible teaches us in Luke chapter 12 verse 35, the Bible says, let
your waist be girded and your lamps burning the lamps symbol
of the Holy Spirit. And you yourselves be like man who are
waiting for their master. Verse 37, blessed are those servants
whom the master when He comes will find them watching, being
an attitude of watching. Therefore, you also be ready for
the son of man is coming in an hour you do not expect. Is that
awesome? I love it. And then finally under this point here,
it's this. His return is our deliverance. You see, if you're
a follower of Jesus, this world, this is as close to hell as
you're going to get, is this world right here if you're a
believer, this as bad as it gets, think about it. Think
about it, the cancer, the rot, the pain, the hurt, all that.
This is for the believer, this is as bad as it gets. When we go
home, we're going home to perfection, to absolute,
absolute joy, light. All of the amazing, beautiful holy things
that God has made are going to be perfected before our eyes an
incredible wonder. We sing these songs of Christmas, we sing
about His deliverance of us happily. We don't have a clue
what we're about to experience. See, what do you mean? Do you
know something? I don't know anything. I don't know when He's
coming. Nobody knows the day, but I know this. If you're the
youngest person in the house today, if you live to be an old
man or woman, it ain't far away from now. That's not long. Isn't
time a weird thing? Kind of plays tricks on you, right? It's
like, wait, I thought wait, what month is it? Wait, we just got
here, man. The fact that He's going to deliver us, the Bible
tells us that in Luke 2:11, we read it earlier today in the
town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah,
the Lord. Boy, there it is. He is the savior. Why? Because
we're lost. We need saving. He's Messiah because we need
atonement and He's the Lord. Listen, He's our master. You
will not be going to heaven if you're not following Jesus.
Think of that. That's a very simple thing. A lot of people
think they've accepted Christ just for fire insurance. They
accepted Christ. They think they're not going to hell. They
think they'll go live up their life and they don't have any
passion for God at all. No love for God, no conscience for God.
They got their little Jesus card, the membership card. What
membership card? Think about it. Maybe you're new here today,
you're visiting, it's Christmas, you're visiting and you're
thinking, well, you know what? Where did I sign up to be a
member? We don't have membership. Well then why would
I go to your church? Because we don't have membership. Well,
don't you want to know? I want a card. We'll make you a card.
Membership. No membership. There's no membership in the
Bible. There's only one. The membership, the Bible says that
Jesus Christ, His body is the church and the Holy Spirit is
the one that baptizes you in the body of Christ. Did you know
that? And it says, we're members one of another. Well, where's
your card? We don't have a card. We have a card, then we start
trusting it. We'll frame it, we'll gold plate it. Look, I got
my card. God doesn't issue cards. God issues forgiveness
and salvation to any man or woman, boy or girl who will turn
to Him and love on Him. Deliverance. And then number
nine is our closing argument. The applause of His return. The
applause. What do we mean by that? Well, number one, we can
applaud Him for His goodness. Hasn't God been good? Listen,
think about your own life right now. Whatever you're going
through, you've got to stop. Say, Jack, are you serious? No,
I'm very serious. I heard this great program the other day. I
was driving and somebody called this great thinker was being
interviewed and somebody called in and they said, if God is so
good, then why is there so much bad in the world? And the guy
said, the great thinker, I won't mention his name. The great
thinker said, how do you know there's any bad in the world?
And the guy paused. He was like shocked. What? He said. How do
you know that there's bad in the world? Well, this is wrong.
That's wrong. Yeah, but how do you know it's wrong? You can
only know it's wrong when you put it up against that which is
good. To find out something bad you've got to have a reference
point and the reference point will be good. The goodness of
God. God has been good to you. You may be an atheist today.
He's still been good to you. And He's so incredibly patient in
His goodness, right? He is patient. So we hate patience.
God says, we're praying, God will give us a Word from the
Bible. Wait. Wait? We'd rather hear yes or no, but wait. And
you tell your kids, look, we're such hypocrites. You and I don't
handle it very well at all. And then we tell our kids that are
four years old, you're going to have to wait. And then they
freak out and we're going, what's wrong with you? And then
God says to you, you're going to wait. And then you just melt and
you just fall apart and cry. No wait. Yes. God says, wait. And
we can thank God for His goodness and His patience
because people are walking around the world cursing God.
There's a website you can go to now and you can officially log
on and post forever your cursing of the Holy Spirit. If I were
God the first post..... I would've just went..... Still
marshmallow. I'm not God though, people who don't believe in God
should be glad that I'm not God. He's so patient. Aren't you glad
He's patient? I'm glad He's patient. He's so kind. His
goodness. We applaud His goodness. God is good. The Bible
tells us in Psalm 145:9, the Lord is good to all and his
tender mercies over all His works. God is good. You just
need to look for His goodness. It's there everywhere
remarkable. And then next, we applaud Him for His grace. The
Bible says, listen. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8. This comes as
a ginormous insult to a lot of people. For by grace. That's
God's grace. For by grace you have been saved through faith
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Yeah,
listen, let that soak in for a minute. You say, what does that
mean? That means you ain't going to heaven on your own merit. It
means people who have lived the worst, darkest, most sinister
life, they're closer to heaven than you are because you see
yourself okay. And we're not okay. We just know how to dress
it up. I mean, for those of you who are visiting, don't come
back next week and expect a tie. I'll tell you that right now. I
don't do this. I was pressured into this. Jesus did not wear a
tie, just trying to be as biblical as possible here. But
people, you know it's Christmas and you should wear a tie. I'm
doing this. I'll do this that maybe you'll listen to the
message. How's that? But just know this. None of us are
getting to heaven on our works. It's impossible's. That's an
insult to God. If you think you're good, there's only one
good and that's God. Listen, this is His path for by grace.
By grace. Grace. listen. Grace operates in the world of what we
conclude with and that is the applaud of God for His gift.
Grace gives gifts. God says to us, I love you so much that I
have given you my gifted only Son, the only one that will ever
be glorified. There's not another one come coming. He's
the only one. He's the one and only. And I want to give Him to
you. And with this gift, when you unwrap this gift, you go
into a whole new world and that's just the start of it. And
we reach out and we're thinking, what's the hook? And God would
say to you, don't do that to me. I'm God. You're not hurting my
feelings. You're just not understanding me. I'm telling
you, I said it earlier, for God so loved the world, I choose who
I love, and I've chosen to love you and I want to give you this
gift of eternal life. Do you understand now the magnitude of
the expense of that gift when somebody says, I don't want it,
you keep it? That was the very gift that would remove from you
the curse that's upon your life. Because of Adam and Eve and
their blood that flows through our veins, that's why we're
liars. That's why we are humans and we do what we do. We've got
to get made new. And the Holy Spirit does that the moment you
accept the gift. But if you push the gift away, you are moving
away from you the very, very thing you need to be made new,
forgiven, and you're denying the love of God upon your life.
There's no one you can blame for this. It's your choice. And so
we pray, I pray that you choose Him.
JACK: This is why it's Christmas comes around every year on the
calendar, but it should be every moment of your heart. Jesus
Christ was born to go to the cross. It wasn't an accident and
it wasn't an incident. He went there for you and for me because
He loves us. Accept the gift, the free gift this Christmas,
the ultimate gift is Jesus Christ Himself, the gift of
eternal life. Think about it. It wouldn't be a gift if you can
buy it. It wouldn't be a gift if you could work for it. It's God
giving you His gift. Will you please accept that? Like this
Jesus, thank you for being the gift of eternal life. I give my
life to you. I give my life back to you. I ask you to live your
life through me, cause my life to now take on all that you have
for me. You made me, you made the world and the universe and
you not only made those things and made me, but you also
provided the way of eternal life. And so I give my life to
you in Jesus' name. Amen. Friends, if you've prayed that
prayer, we want to reach out to you. We won't bother you, I
promise. But if you go to jackhibbs.com, we will send you
information and we will be here for you to study the Word of God
so you can grow more. Jackhibbs.com and you can stay
connected there with all of our social media platforms.
They're there for you. So listen, God bless you.
Until next time and Merry Christmas.
ANNOUNCER: You are watching Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
ANNOUNCER: How many times have you pledged to read through the
entire Bible? How did that go for you? Jack Hibbs is a tried
and true solution to help you feed your hunger for God's Word.
The New King James One Year Bible is the bestselling Bible
that allows you to feast on scripture for an entire year in
easily digestible bites. This plan makes reading through the
Bible achievable with daily 15 minute readings from the Old
Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. Anna M. said, the
One Year Bible is laid out in such a way that it makes it easy
and enjoyable. I look forward to my time in God's Word every day.
Jordan W. says, my wife and I read together. We love the way
it is broken up with short readings from both the Old and
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JACK: God's Word, you never will return void. God's Word is
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