Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: The only way that you can commit the unforgivable sin is to die rejecting Jesus Christ, which is the work of the Holy Spirit today. The Holy Spirit, Jesus said in John’s gospel, has come to tell the world about Him. I'm paraphrasing that. He will not speak of Himself, but He will teach you all things concerning me.

David J: Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.

Jack Hibbs: I'm very excited to promote this new book by Dr. Tim LaHaye, not only a mentor of mine but a precious friend, a man who encouraged me to write books. Dr. Tim LaHaye has written a book, How to Study Bible Prophecy for Yourself. I really would encourage you to get a copy of this book. He answers so many of our questions.

For many of us who study the Bible, Bible prophecy naturally generates questions, and we might even feel left out in a particular area. I bet with all of your knowledge of Bible prophecy, there's still a hole somewhere. This book is going to help you as it walks you through how to study Bible prophecy for yourself.

Remember, Dr. Tim LaHaye is the one that brought you the remarkable Left Behind series, among many other books. He is simple, he is foundational. You're not going to hear anything strange or odd. Tim LaHaye, How to Study Bible Prophecy for Yourself. Get it for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com.

David J: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called The Book of Ephesians and a message titled We Have Been Chosen in Christ, Part One. Ephesians is a letter the Apostle Paul wrote from prison to the church in Ephesus, showing every believer who they really are in Christ.

Right here, Paul tells us something amazing: that before God ever made the world, He chose us. That's a truth that we can hardly take in, if you think about it. It means our place with God isn't based on how good we are, how good-looking we are, or even how much we've messed up. He chose us out of His own love, and that is the most secure thing we could ever hold on to.

Today, Pastor Jack reminds us that God sees us as holy and blameless, even when we don't feel that way. The closer we get to His light, the harder it is to see past our own flaws and shortcomings. But God doesn't focus on our mistakes. Instead, He sees something much greater. He sees the work that Christ has done in our lives. Now with his message called We Have Been Chosen in Christ, Part One, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: God knows everything and man has the choice to decide, and that is a serious thing. It says before the foundation. This word before, jot this down, it's a fantastic word. In the English, it's the word before. But in the Greek, in its original writing, it's the word pro, P-R-O. It's pronounced like that, too.

It means prior to or in priority of. It means in front of everything else, above everything else, and before everything else. He says just as He chose us in Him, that is in Christ, before priority one. He chose us tops before He ever made the world. When God made the world, He had already put you on top of His list. Isn't that a trip? Before I did all these things, I made you priority one on what I was doing and why I was doing it.

The next time you think you're just nothing, you need to realize this: You are before everything according to God. He put you in front of everything in His creation. Before all the world's foundations were laid, Charles Spurgeon said, "I'm so glad that God chose me before the foundations of the world were ever laid, because He sure wouldn't have chosen me after I was born."

Sometimes we feel like that, and that's not theologically correct, but we know what he's saying. But being His child tonight, God's child, is the most secure, precious thing that you can experience. He never un-selects you, He never un-saves you, He never un-chooses you. You are either chosen in Christ or you're not chosen in Christ.

If you're chosen in Christ, you're probably saying tonight, "Am I glad!" Number two, you might be saying, "I'm not sure if I am." Number three is, "I'd like to accept Christ and be sure about this." Every one of those three hearts, and it may be representative in this room tonight, God has chosen you, or else you wouldn't think those thoughts. The person that's not chosen could care less and never thinks about it. Maybe argues about it, but won't think about it seriously.

Just to bring a little bit more security into our soul, Malachi chapter 3, verse 6, the Lord says, "For I am the Lord and I do not change; therefore you are not consumed." I'm the Lord, I don't change, and for that reason, you're not going to burn. I like that. Thank you, God, you do not change.

Isn't it funny? Then all the wacky theologians running around are trying to change the Bible. Trying to massage it and change it and make it say something else. I'm glad He doesn't change. God doesn't change. Consider this: We have our free moral agency, that's what it's called within us, that we can choose and we enjoy it.

In Joshua chapter 24, verse 15, Joshua, in that incredible moment standing amongst all the people, says, "And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve." What did he say? Choose. It’s a choice. Yes, we do choose; we respond to God's offer. That's a critical thing because our decisions will always produce a response.

Jesus says, "If I be lifted up on the cross, I will draw all men to myself." We covered this a couple weeks ago. The world's got to look at the cross. The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Did you hear that? God doesn't want anybody to die and go to hell.

The Bible says that God weeps over the death of the wicked. Why? He loves them. So why do people go there? They've exercised their choice to go against God, and God weeps over that. That's sad.

The third point in verse 4 is that the creation itself is subject to the creator. It says here that we should be holy. I love this. You don't see it on the surface, but it's that familiar word holy to us in the English. It's the word hagios. We've covered it so many times before. It means that He's claimed us, declared us, and He's set us out to be His saints. He does, not us. Not the Calvary Chapel, not the Catholic church. God does.

He says in His Bible: Because we are declared holy by God, we can walk in His holiness. The creation is subject to the creator. God creates it, He's controlling over it, even though it be fallen and it is on its course of destruction. God is still watching over it all.

But the moment you are born again, born by the Spirit of God, you come into the family of God or what we call becoming a Christian. If you were ever subject to God's control, you are even more now than ever before. You've come home. You've come to your God.

The beautiful thing about this, it says right here in verse 4, that we should be holy without blame before Him. This is fantastic because it's a done deal. This is not, as you might suppose, a progressive holiness. Do we grow stronger in the Lord? Yes. Do we sin less?

The closer you get to God, you practically, situationally, in situation, sin less. You sin less. But do you stop sinning? No. But you sin less. But as you get closer to Him and you begin to sin less, you see yourself worse off. It's so strange.

The closer you get to the light, the more goobers you see on your face. I mean, have you ever been to those places where you turn on the lights and it's like, oh my gosh! It's something like with the lighting right overhead. You go to a restaurant and you go to wash your hands and you turn the light on and you look in the mirror and you go, oh wow, where are these lines coming from? I've never seen these things before.

The lighting is so important. The closer you get to the light, the scarier it is. That's why the women get these lights and they mount them onto the side of the bathroom wall. You press the button and all the other lights in the house go dim. You press the button and they pull this thing, it's got a magnifying glass with lights around it.

You look at yourself and it's like, your nose looks like an orange. But you know what they're doing? They get themselves done up under such intense light, so perfect with the big light, that when they turn the light off, it's like, she looks great! There's three and a half hours of work on that light with that light. It's incredible.

The same thing happens when we get close to Jesus. The light is so bright that we just go, "Oh man!" And yet we're the closest we've ever been to Him. It's a strange thing. You've got to realize when you're in the word of God, you've got to just take it for what it says. God says you're holy.

I just go, "Man, I'm sick looking." I had this thought yesterday and God says, "Hey, remember, you used to have that thought 500 times in a day? Now you had that thought once the other day." The little bit you see looks horrendous. We can walk in His holiness because He has declared us holy and that's a fantastic thing. By the way, that's true positionally.

Do you guys remember Lion Country Safari? Remember that thing? It's dead and gone now. I remember being there one time and there was a really sad thing. I haven't forgotten about it; it came to my mind today. That was, there was this fantastic bald eagle in this cage. But he was injured.

All he could do down at the bottom, they had these little quail that just kept the floor of the cage clean. Little ugly speckled quail. Stupid looking bird. Standing almost three feet above all those guys is this massive bald eagle. And you know what all he could do was walk? He walked like a turkey.

It was so strange because you always see eagles up on top of the branches, and he just walked with the stupid ugly quail. He probably spent so much time down there that he thought he was a quail. A lot of us, God has seated us in the heavenly places and we've been declared holy by God.

I don't care what you're going through, I don't care what you're thinking, what you're feeling. I don't care what sin you stepped in today. It doesn't matter the magnitude of it. If you're His, you're grieving over that sin. You feel disjointed and you feel sickened. That's because the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, never leaves you or forsakes you. He's with you. A lot of Christians, we fail to see ourselves in the Lord. We're like that eagle walking around with the quails and the turkeys, and we should be up on top. Because we're not quails, we're not turkeys, we're not robots, we're not monkeys. He has so saved us and He's done such a beautiful thing.

It says here that we are without blame. An amazing word, amomos in the Greek. It means to be unblemished. God says this about you. Unblemished, without blame, faultless, having no spot, unable to find fault. Wow. God looks at you, God Almighty, says to you tonight if you're a Christian, you're blameless.

You don't feel blameless. Your husband or wife reminds you you're not blameless. Your school teachers tell you you're not blameless. Listen, on this side of things, we're not blameless. But God looks at us and says, "They look pretty good to me." God turns on the light, shines it on you, and He sees Jesus all over you. You're in Christ. You're in Him. We are blameless.

So what is our responsibility to these things? This is what your responsibility should be. Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Paul says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Your reasonable decision tonight, your reasonable response, is to give yourself to Christ.

Secondly, Isaiah 1:18, one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Isaiah 1:18 says, "Come now," God says, "Let us reason together," says the Lord, "Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be white as wool."

Listen, He says, "Come, let us reason together." The word in the Hebrew is, "Come on, let's argue." Don't you like that? "I've got some questions to ask God." God says, "Bring them on. Want to argue? Come on, step up here." I love the book of Job. You read the book of Job, God says, "Stand up here like a man. Quit your whining. Think you're so hot? Let me question you for a while. Where were you when I made Leviathan? Where were you when I made Behemoth when he swings his tails and he knocks down trees?" He’s talking about a dinosaur, I think, who breathes out fire from his mouth. "Where were you, Job?"

There's a neat verse in the book of Job where he says, "I've reserved the frost and the snow and the hail for the day of war." I like that because man's going to have all of his nukes lined up and everyone's going to be sticking out their chest and threatening each other, and God's going to say, "Watch this." He's going to send a cloud over the whole thing and just cause it to storm like you can't believe and mess up everything. I love it. God says, "You want to discuss? Want to make a decision? Let's reason together, you and I. Let's get in an argument here." God wins every time. God has chosen us.

Acts chapter 13, verses 47 and 48. This verse drives people up the wall. Acts 13:47 and 48 says, "For so the Lord has commanded us: 'I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.'" Missionary. "Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and they glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed."

You go, "Man, that's it! God sends certain people to heaven, certain people to hell." It says right there that as many as believed, He's appointed them. No, that's not what it says. God knew in the crowd those who would choose Him, so they heard the word. God also knew in the crowd those who would reject Him. But they heard the word.

Interesting. Man is responsible for his outcome is the bottom line, because God has given us the ability to choose. Ultimately, every human being on the face of the earth will have at least one prayer answered, every one of them. Adolf Hitler included will have one prayer answered at least once in this life. And it will be the prayer that someone says, "God, get out of my face, I don't want anything to do with you." And God will answer their prayer. He'll quietly lead them away. He'll walk away from them and leave them alone.

It is God's sovereign choice to give you life. It is God's sovereign choice to walk away, but He will not do that until you command Him for that final time to be gone. To reject Him is the unforgivable sin, committing the sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus was speaking to the crowd, Jesus challenged the Pharisees to believe in His message based upon the miracles that He was doing. The Pharisees said, "We know how you do those miracles. You don't do them by the power of God." They said, "You do them by the power of Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies, Satan."

They committed, if you keep reading, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said every manner of sin will be forgiven men. If you speak against the Father, you speak against the Son, it'll be forgiven you. But nobody committing blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will ever receive forgiveness in this life and in the life to come, He said. The reason why the Pharisees were able to commit blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in that moment was because Jesus was standing there in front of them doing the work of God.