ANNOUNCER: The following program is sponsored by generous friends
and partners of Real Life.
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
JACK: Surrender. Give it up. Holy Spirit, do what you want to
do In my life. I will read your Word and I will step out and do
your Word, but I know I can't do your Word in and of my own
strength. It's impossible. So Lord, I'm going to step out. You
do it through me. I will obey.
ANNOUNCER: Let's Go With God is today's message by Jack Hibbs.
As he encourages our journey of faith and surrender to explore
the profound invitation to walk alongside God. Stay tuned.
Real Life starts now.
ANNOUNCER: Every day brings us closer to the fulfillment of
God's prophetic promises. Christ's return is certain, and
His Word is full of hope for those who trust in Him. In "One
Day Nearer: Daily Devotions in Anticipation of Jesus' Glorious
Return" by Steve Miller, you'll discover 365 devotions that
explore the incredible truths of Bible prophecy. These daily
readings will remind you of God's love, His wisdom and
sovereignty as you look forward to Christ's return. This
devotional will you focus on eternity, persevere through
life's challenges, and live with hope and joy in God's unchanging
promises. "One Day Nearer" is our thank you gift for a
donation of any size to Real Life. Visit jackhibbs.com or
call 877-777-2346 to request your copy. Order now.
(Music)
JACK: Friends, let's go with God. That's always a good
statement. That's always a good challenge. That's always good
direction when somebody says, "Let's go with God." I remember
so many years ago someone saying, "Ronald Reagan,
president Reagan, we need to make sure that God is on our
side." And Reagan famously responded, "That's not important
if God is on our side...," Reagan- Ronald Reagan said,
"...it's important that we're on God's side." And that's a great
statement. Let's go with God, because we want to be on His
side in everything that we do. We're going to be looking at
this study. So Here's the deal. When you think about the God of
the Bible, is the God of the Bible merciful? For those of you
who are atheist out there or agnostics or you don't know God,
maybe you're all balled up and bound up in religion, I have to
ask you this question. Is God merciful? Does He say He's
merciful in the Bible? Yep. Is God righteous? Does God say He's
righteous in the Bible? Yep. Listen, all the characteristics
of God in His attributes are great in all that He is. The God
of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the
great God, and this is the very nature of who He is and He never
changes. The Bible says He's God and He cannot change. That
should bring you and I great comfort. So we're talking about
the sovereignty of God in today's Bible study. So I'm
going to ask you to grab your scriptures and to get ready as
we dive into this, and I pray that you glean out of it the
Heart of God, the fact that the God that is so sovereign and
so powerful and so awesome is the God of all compassion and
grace and mercy. So let's dive into the message right now.
Let's go with God.
(Music)
JACK: Matthew chapter 9, verse 35. I love this. I just love
this. This to me is so precious. And to me, this just displays
the nature of our God. "Then Jesus...," that's God and skin
visiting earth, "...went about all the cities and villages
teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the
kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease among the
people." Verse 36, "But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved
with compassion." The word moved with compassion, it means that
He felt so deeply for them that it made Him- The word means, to
become sick. Frankly, the word... look it up. You won't
believe me, but it means to have your bowels on edge. Your bowels
is the deep seeded gut of feeling. Have you ever seen
something where it affected you so much that you couldn't even
eat, you didn't want to eat. Your heart was broken. When we
say, "Oh, my Heart just broke over that situation," we know
what you mean, but what really happened to you was you were
moved with compassion. Jesus saw the people, and when He saw the
multitude, He was sick to His stomach. Wow, what would trouble
God so much? Well, He tells us. Because they were weary and
scattered like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His
disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are
few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest and send out
laborers into the harvest." Number two in our point is
verses 16 to 18, and that is the good, good sovereignty of God is
this, is that- is an anchor, a very anchor to His justice. God
is just, and He operates His justice in His sovereignty. God
alone is judge. Think about that. So the first thing we see
in verse 16 is the fact that God is just in His plans. I want to
make sure you heard that right. He's just in His plans. He's not
adjusting His plans. His plans don't change. He doesn't have a
plan B. So then, it is not of him who wills or him who runs,
but of God who shows mercy. What does that mean? Listen, it's not
up to you and me to will what things will be and will not be.
Boy, I'm going to step on some toes right now, but stick your
feet out there because I'm going to be happy to do it. You know
there's people running around in their theology because of their
denominational persuasion or emotion, and they believe that
they can tell God what to do? This verse right here debunks
that totally. It's not for you to will what will be and what
will not be. "I claim it. I'm just claiming it." - "What are
you claiming?" - "That God wants me rich." I don't think God
wants- You're claiming it. God's not claiming nothing. God's
saying, "Who is that?" You do not say to the sovereign God,
"Because I will this, He must do this." He's not your servant.
He's not your Santa. He's God. And He, being God, can never
violate His will or His Word. And then the Bible tells us,
"Nor of him who runs." That is, "I'm going to do this. I'm going
to do the other. Didn't James tell us..." Don't talk like
that. James says, you pray, if the Lord wills, we will go and
do business and such and such and come back. It's not up to
do. And all of a sudden this is an amazing stringent, or acetone
as it were, that strips away the veneer and reveals it all. Are
you living for your will? Are you a fair weather follower of
God? Are you going to go with God so long as God goes with
you? What if the day is when God says, "I'm going this way and
I'm inviting you to come with me," and you don't want to go
that way because you didn't expect bumps or drought or snow
that deep or whatever it might be? God says, "We're at war.
This is the end of the age. Souls, the men of souls is at
stake. Come with me." And we say, "No, that's a little bit
too much. I'm going to do it my way. God has nothing of it and
we're going to do it this way." How much in ministry today, in
this world, is being done in the name of Jesus and He is a
thousand miles from it? This won't be for long, and it's
probably a good thing, but in America you can throw enough
money at something and make it look anointed. Don't worry. When
the money's gone, the anointing will still be there if this is
exalted, Christ's name is praised, and we look to Him to
obey. You won't have to worry. Our kingdom is in Heaven and God
has His plans, and it's quite awesome. Now, here's a- here's a
stiff cup of coffee coming up here. Romans chapter 3, verse
10. As it is written, "There is none righteous. No, not one."
Right? "There is none who understands. There is none who
seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together
become unprofitable. There is none who does good. No, not
one." Proverbs chapter 14, verse 12 says, "There is a way that
seems right." By the way, the word seems... right, the word
means, there is a way that seems smooth and easy to a man, but
that way ends in death. That's what it means. Doesn't that
rhyme? Do you get that immediately with what Jesus
said? "Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many
people are on that path." You think about a broad path and
there's a lot of people on it. There's a lot- Think about it.
You're on a broad path. Obviously it must be pretty
easy, and there's a lot of people with you. So, we're
social creatures. So we're with a bunch of people and we're all
just tooling along, assuming that we're Christians, never
digging in deep and going into Romans chapter 9 to find out if
we really are or not, to see if the fruit of the Spirit's coming
out of our life and the trail lift behind us is righteousness.
Is there mercy left behind? Wherever I go, is there
compassion left behind? We are like God's priest, believers,
carrying the presence of God. And wherever mercy goes, you
have to go. Or, I should flip that around. Wherever you go,
mercy will go. Is it true? If I go somewhere, would there be
compassion? If I go somewhere, would there be generosity? Are
you Hearing me? This is strong stuff. You do understand that
it's so obvious that we live in a time and an age where we
really need to get serious about the things of God. And God is
asking you, He's asking me today, wherever you go, is there
evidence? Is there, without a word, can I look and see that
there's compassion that's following your life? Are people
blessed by your mercy, blessed by your right deeds,
righteousness, doing the right thing? Are you a shady
Christian? Or when somebody says, "I didn't know that guy
was a Christian." Oh, that's the last thing you ever want to
hear. Can you imagine? "Wait, you said that guy was a
Christian? Okay." Oh my goodness. Could you imagine
somebody saying that about you? Ugh. Now listen. The Bible says
in Lamentations chapter 3, verse 22, "The steadfast love of the
Lord never ceases. His mercy never comes to an end. And if
that wasn't enough, they are new every morning. Great is your
faithfulness." That's God. Precious. Secondly, under this
second point, is God is just in His actions. In all of His
actions, God is just. Okay, you guys ready? Everything that
we've come to has been set up for this moment. You guys awake?
Look at verse 17. "For the scripture...," that is the Old
Testament, "...says to the Pharaoh," quote, "For this very
purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in
you." Don't answer. We're in a seminary class right now.
There's a chalkboard. You're in class. Don't answer. Look at the
verse. The scripture says that God announced to Pharaoh, "For
this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in
you." Knowing the nature of God now, scratching the surface,
don't answer, but what is God saying here? See, you and I live
three thousand- three and a half thousand years later, in this
time zone. We know how this ends. What if you didn't know
how this ends? What if you were, back then, with Pharaoh right
then? God speaks to Pharaoh and says to Pharaoh, "Hey Pharaoh,
for this reason, for this purpose, I have raised you up,
that I may show my power in you." How is this going to go in
Romans chapter 9? In Romans chapter 9, the communication
regarding Pharaoh is this. Pharaoh had a choice on what he
was going to do. Choose, Pharaoh. Technically, I could
look at this verse and say, "Thousands of years ago for this
very purpose, I've raised you up that I may show my power in you.
Pharaoh, I'm going to use you. You are going to be a great
example of what I want. I want my children of Israel out. It's
time for them to come back home, and you are going to be a
tremendous tool in accomplishing that very thing." Is that how it
ended? No. Could it have ended that way? Could have. Who
would've known? Who did know? Who knew how it was going to go
the entire time, before Pharaoh was ever born? God did, based on
His foreknowledge. God knew how this was going to go. He didn't
make it go. He knew how it was going to go. Verse 17 continues
and says, "That my name may be declared in all the earth.
Therefore, He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills, He
hardens." So what do we know about this? The word harden-
Listen to this. The word hardens is to set in place, by one then
the other. To set in place. The word in Greek means to be or to
becoming hardened, encased or encasement, to become more and
more hard or hardened. How many times did Moses say to Pharaoh
that, "God told me to tell you, let my people go"? How many
times? 10 times. How many times did the Bible say that God
hardened Pharaoh's heart? 10 times. How many times does it
say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart? 10 times. Watch this.
Get ready. We can't do 'em all right now, that'd be a lot of
verses. I'll give you enough. Exodus chapter 8, verse 15.
Check this out. Now remember, we're looking at the word
hardened. "But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he
hardened his heart and did not heed them as the Lord had said."
So everybody, I'm wrapping this up. Watch. I want your
attention. Imagine wet cement just came out of the cement
truck right here, right now, up to my knees. It just got poured.
And I'm standing in it and I'm talking to you and I'm able to
move in it because it's wet. Exodus chapter 8, verse 32, "But
Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he
let the people go." Exodus 9, verse 12, "But the Lord hardened
the Heart of Pharaoh and he did not heed them, just as the Lord
had spoken to Moses." You see that? You see what's going on
Here? Exodus 9, verse 34, "And when Pharaoh saw that the rain
and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more and
he hardened his heart, he and his servants. Are you tracking
with this, everybody? We're almost done. I'm standing in
cement right now. And you tell me, "Get out of the cement." And
I say, "Well, don't tell me what to do. I'm in charge of my own
ship." And somebody says, "You better get out," or "Let my
people go." And you just keep standing in the cement. Without-
You're so bent on resisting this command because of pride that
you don't realize how it's getting harder to move. Listen,
when you were young, maybe, or at some certain time of life...
And I remember it like it was yesterday. On Friday, all my
life I thought girls stunk, they had cooties and you stay away
from them. And then Monday morning, what happened? They
smell fantastic, their skin. And how does that happen? It's just
like... And I don't know what age that was. I tried to forget
all that stuff. But, it's like, "Ooh," and then, "There goes
Mary." And it's like, what happened? And then there's a
situation that's forming and you can hear a voice in your head
saying, "Don't do this. Now, listen. Don't do this." And you
keep inching toward the "don't do this." You guys look so pious
right now at me. Every single one of you know exactly what I'm
talking about. And you cross the line. You cross the line and red
lights are going off, alarms are screaming, and you can hear
horns. (Horns sound) And your conscience is so convicted, are
you not? And you say, "I'll never do that again," until next
Tuesday. The alarms went off, the lights were red, and you
heard his voice. Shouldn't have done that. Nine times. On the
10th time, there's no more lights. Have you noticed?
There's no more hesitation. In fact, now you're planning on
meeting up again for the 11th. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
You know what's happened? Hardened your heart. You stood
in the cement and it got hard. Pharaoh said, "Nope, not going
to let him go. Nope." And God says, 'Okay then, here's a
little bit of hardening." - "Nope, not going to let him go."
- "Well, here's some more." He stood, Pharaoh stood until the
cement was set. You and I may be guilty of the exact same thing.
Is your heart soft and gentle? And are you calling out to God,
"O, make me like a child"? "Give me childlike faith"? "In this
world, make me strong against the evil, but make me soft
toward you God"? Or are you saying, "I don't need God. I got
this. Stay out of my face"? God is saying, "You need to come to
me. You need to come to me. My son died on the cross for you."
- "Leave me alone," until you hear this. God says, "I'm trying
to reach you. I'm trying to reach you with my son." Your
Heart is so callous you can't hear anymore. Everybody points
at Pharaoh. From hell, Pharaoh's pointed at us. "Don't do what I
did," I'm sure would be his cry. You see, friends, listen, this
whole thing with God and His nature, it is a crime, in my
opinion, and I believe it's biblically accurate to label God
as some sort of capricious tyrant that condemns people to
hell based on His own dislikes. God, in His foreknowledge, knew
exactly what you would do when the gospel would be presented to
you. And probably for most of us in the West, the gospel's been
presented to us a thousand times. But have you ever said
yes? You should say yes.
JACK: The greatest thing in life that you can embark upon is an
actual walk with God. And you might say, "Jack, aren't you
talking Christianese? Isn't that what you guys are supposed to
say, you Christians?" Uh, no. I mean, yes. I mean, no. I mean,
it's a yes. Jesus said, "Come and follow me." But to follow
Jesus is to not walk in some religious order or to hang out
in a monastery or to sequester yourself in some chamber trying
to keep yourself untainted from this world. To walk with God is
absolutely awesome. It is dynamic. It's real. So, listen.
No, I'm not saying join a religion. I'm not saying that.
Don't do that. I am saying, walk with God. Friends, listen. He is
loving. He is kind. He is awesome. He is holy. He is just.
Which is why Christ went to the cross. The sovereignty of God is
all wrapped up in the incredible redemptive work of the God of
the Bible. His mercy, His righteousness, His compassion,
His justice is all brought together at the cross of Jesus
Christ. So I want to ask you this question. What are you
waiting for? Why are you not a follower of Christ? Notice I
said follower. I avoided the word Christian because
immediately I'll lose people. They won't listen anymore,
because Christianity has got such a bad rap. I get it. How
about becoming a Christ follower with me, with us? Why don't we
follow Him? Why don't we go after Him? Why don't you go
after Him? Why would you not do that regarding Jesus Christ
Himself? What is it that you have against Him? What has He
ever done to you but love you through the cross? I want to
lead you in this prayer. It's time for you to say yes. Lord, I
pray that my brothers, my sisters right now, wherever they
are in the world, that you'd speak to them in such a way that
they would understand, "I've got to do something. I've got to do
something about this now." God, that you would intensify upon
their heart the decision to say yes. "Yes, Lord, forgive me of
my sins and I ask you to fill me with your righteousness. Wash
away my sins and fill me with the righteousness of Christ
because I confessed today that He died on the cross for me and
rose again from the dead. And I pray this in Jesus' name." And
all God's people said "Yes" and "Amen." And friend, if you've
prayed that prayer, we want to hear from you. We want to know
about that commitment. You can get ahold of us at jackhibbs.com
where we can connect there. God bless you in your decision.
ANNOUNCER: You are watching Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
ANNOUNCER: Every day brings us closer to the fulfillment of
God's prophetic promises. Christ's return is certain, and
His Word is full of hope for those who trust in Him. In "One
Day Nearer: Daily Devotions in Anticipation of Jesus' Glorious
Return" by Steve Miller, you'll discover 365 devotions that
explore the incredible truths of Bible prophecy. These daily
readings will remind you of God's love, His wisdom and
sovereignty as you look forward to Christ's return. This
devotional will you focus on eternity, persevere through
life's challenges, and live with hope and joy in God's unchanging
promises. "One Day Nearer" is our thank you gift for a
donation of any size to Real Life. Visit jackhibbs.com or
call 877-777-2346 to request your copy. Order now.
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(Music)
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Real Life Radio with Jack Hibbs.
JACK: God's Word never will return void. God's Word is
Spirit, it's power, and it has its effect. God did not give us
Bible prophecy to scare us, but to prepare us. "You are the
light of the world," Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth."
How does that happen?
ANNOUNCER: Jack Hibbs truly believes we are living in some
of the most exciting days in history, which brings some great
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presentation of the gospel to this generation who are
searching for answers and truth.
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