Real Life Radio

David J.: Today on Real Life Radio.

Jack Hibbs: The fact is there is more to life and it's in Jesus Christ, and the greatest thing that you and I can experience today is knowing that we have salvation in God and that it's secure. It can't be bought, paid for, worked at, or attained by any human means.

David J.: This is Real Life. 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. One nation, born in liberty, rooted in faith, sustained by providence. That's The American Story, a new documentary film from Pastor Jack Hibbs and historian Tim Barton, filmed at the very places where it happened. Pre-order today ahead of its Thanksgiving Day release and receive a free Thanksgiving kids guide with your gift to Real Life. Visit JackHibbs.com or call 877-777-2346 to pre-order yours now. Once again, that website, JackHibbs.com.

On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called The Book of Ephesians and a message titled God's Amazing Work, Part 1. Ephesians is a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, showing every believer who they really are in Christ. And here in chapter 2, Paul reminds us that our salvation is God's amazing work from start to finish. You see, salvation isn't something we earn. It's nothing we buy or achieve. It's a free gift, and it's given by grace through faith. And once we accept our gift of salvation in Christ, it's ours. It's ours forever, secure in the hands of the one who gave it.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that there's something wonderful about knowing we're wanted. When the Bible says we are his, it means God has drawn us to himself with an everlasting love that never leaves us nor lets us down. Now, with his message called God's Amazing Work, Part 1, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Listen, Ephesians chapter 2 tonight, and we are going to be looking at verse 10. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10 tonight in our study. And those chuckles I'm hearing are probably because you're trusting that we will complete verse 10 completely, I'm sure. What a great verse this is, though, one of the greatest verses that we could ever read concerning our security and what is coming and what is in store for us, not only now in this life, but what is to come in Jesus Christ. The title of the message tonight is God's Amazing Work. God's Amazing Work. And we need to be refreshed tonight about all that God has done for us and what he's going to do for us.

We've been studying in this great chapter and in this great book that salvation comes from God. How dare we think for a moment that salvation, such a precious, incredible thing, could come by the devices and by the workings of men. I mean, let's think straight for a minute. Think about it. We struggle in this life, and we get our degrees, and we get our positions, and we get our places in life, and all the while struggling and crawling and scratching to get to the top, and it's fleeting. Those have made it to the top will tell you rather candidly, I think with some embarrassment, though, that it's not what it all seems.

I told you before, just recently I had the opportunity to talk to men who are personally assigned to the President of the United States, and you talk about the top. That's the top, so to speak, in some, I guess, avenues in some areas. But all the things that are lacking there. And in all of the things of the world and that the world has to offer, people who get to the top, they say, you know what, this is not it. There's got to be something more to life. And the fact is, there is more to life, and it's in Jesus Christ. And the greatest thing that you and I can experience today is knowing that we have salvation in God and that it's secure.

It can't be bought, paid for, worked at, or attained by any human means. We've been going through verses 8 and 9 of this book, and it is telling us that it is given freely by God's grace, that God has gifted us with his grace. So salvation comes by grace, the Bible says, through faith, and we mean, and the Bible teaches, by faith alone. If tonight you are assigning anything to your position with God other than trusting in him, you are in fact falling from grace and are trying to establish a works-centered relationship with God, which, though he loves you, he will not accept. It's an insult to one who is so wealthy.

You know, Martin Luther, just before he hammered the 95 Theses to the wall, declaring really the spiritual Declaration of Independence, when he began to teach that salvation was taught in the Bible, given by the grace of God, and really experienced by us through faith, the Roman Catholic Church attempted to kill him because they thought that he was spreading some kind of a heresy because works was not man-centered. And the church began to absolutely freak out over that. How dare you say that God in one stroke in time upon the cross could purchase salvation freely? And that's exactly what the Bible says.

Salvation is God's amazing work. You might want to jot this down, you know it so well. Hebrews 12:2 says, looking unto Jesus, listen, the author and the finisher of our faith. Jesus begins our faith, and he's going to complete it. Isn't that good news? Do you have any faith tonight? I imagine this. Do you have any faith? Where'd you get it? This is exciting. I kind of had a little thing today when I thought about this. Where'd you get it? Where'd you get your... You believe in God even a little bit? Remember the woman who had the issue of blood, and she says, oh man, if I can just touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made fine.

She risked the pollution of the entire people around her. She was unclean. Any woman who had a vaginal issue of blood, that's where it was from. She was unclean. She couldn't get into a crowd. She had been bleeding for 12 years, anemic, weak, sickly. Can you imagine? But she had heard about Jesus, and she's going to make her way to him, the Bible says, and she's in the crowd. People are pushing and shoving, and anybody she touches, she's defiled them. But she's heard about Jesus, and she's going to get right in there, and she gets right there and grabs him by the hem of the garment, and he's being pushed around in the crowd, and he says, who touched me?

And Peter, you know, come on, Lord, are you crazy? I mean, people are knocking you down. What do you mean, who touched you? Nope, somebody touched me. Virtue has gone out of me. Power has left my body. I felt it. Somebody touched me. And it was that woman. Little faith, strange faith. She believed in a superstition, really. She believed that if she touched a physician's garment, she would be made whole. And Jesus took that faith. So the kind of faith that you have this evening, what kind of faith is it? Is it a lot of faith? Is it a little bit of faith? The Bible says that God has given to us a measure of faith, each of us differently.

Some of us have more faith than others. And the wonderful thing is God has dealt to us a measure of faith. So if you are believing in Jesus Christ tonight, Jesus has given you that faith to believe in him, and he has started it, and he's going to complete it. Isn't that good news? Man, I'm excited about that. I need that on a day like this. Our last time in our study, we saw that salvation excludes all human achievement, verses 8 and 9. Why did God select Paul the Apostle? Because he was the most self-righteous, self-centered, and right, really, really, truly righteous man all around. He was doing everything right, but he was alienated from God, telling us that by works of righteousness, we can't attain to God's standard.

We saw through Paul's life that salvation is excluded from human achievement. We saw also in the latter portion of verse 9 last time that salvation is eternally secure in God. We can never lose our salvation once we have it because it's a free gift given. We can't give the gift back. And the great question is tonight, are you truly saved? Do you truly know Jesus Christ? Do I believe in once saved, always saved? I believe in once saved, always saved, but you better understand what you're talking about when you say such a thing. A lot of people saying, well, he believes in once saved, always saved, or they believe in once.

Listen, if you're born again, God performs no abortions. If you are born again, you're going to enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, you may be a believer. You may believe in George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Jesus Christ. Doesn't mean you're going to heaven. You may have a mental assent to who Jesus Christ says he is, but it doesn't guarantee you a place in heaven until you're leaning on him. It's a big difference. Those of you who are born again are saved because you've come to lean on him, and you're doing that, by the way, through faith. We saw last time that grace produces strength for us to continue on, and that's a beautiful thing because grace can be depended upon, and we saw that grace assumes that we're sinners.

Isn't that amazing? We are sinners, and so God gives us grace. And so now we come to verse 10, where it says here, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. We're going to look at two things tonight. The first thing in the top portion of verse 10 is what does it mean to be his workmanship? What does it all mean? Well, before we dive exactly into that, listen to this. It says right here, for we are his, and in my Bible, I've just got a parenthesis around that, for we are his. I don't need to hear any more else, anything else for a moment here.

We are his. We are his what? Well, it says we are his workmanship. Well, that's fine. I don't need to hear that. All I need to hear today is that we are his. That's all I need to hear. You need to, maybe you just need to meditate on that tonight. We're his. I don't know about you, but there's a great feeling in knowing that you're wanted. You know that? There's something, a blessing about it. Man, you're wanted. Hey, call them up, have them come over. Man, that makes you feel good. There's nothing ego about it. Everybody wants to be loved. There's a great feeling about being wanted. Many of us went through a lot of heartache and pain when we were growing up in school, and they, you know, I'll take Johnny, I'll take Billy, I'll take, you know, Joey.

Oh man, you can have Jack. You know, I feel good. I feel good. I feel good about this. I feel good. You know, it hurts. But when the Bible says that we're his, I like that. God is so good. Out from him flows love. God's grace is like that. It just keeps coming. When's it going to stop? It just comes. Just flows. Reminds me in the book of Revelation, chapter 21 or 22, the scripture says there that in heaven there will be a river of life flowing forever. And I tell you, as long as there's a sinner, as long as I'm around, God's grace is going to be flowing. So you just stick with me, and wherever there's a sinner, God's grace will be, and that's where I'll be.

David J.: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackHibbs.com. And now let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: I had a wonderful opportunity this week, I think it was yesterday. See that time thing's going by. And a man who's 59 years old, used to ride with the Hells Angels and the, boy, I can't remember these names, the Hessians and all these chopper gang things, you know, Harley-Davidson guys, and he's given his heart to Jesus Christ. And comes walking in and he's like, I got to talk to you. What's going on? Man, you know what? I'm going through this, I'm going through this, I'm going through, I'm thinking this, I'm thinking this, I'm thinking the other. What's going on? And I, as soon as he started, he was almost ready to cry.

Big guy comes in and he just starts almost, he's holding it back, you can tell. And I'm sorry, but I just, I got the biggest smile on my face. I'm just sitting there kind of like trying to cover up my face. I'm just like shining in front of this guy while he's pouring his heart out. Brand new believer. Well, what's wrong with me? And I said, I said, man, I want to tell you one thing and you just get this loud and clear. Do you understand? Yeah, what? You are so saved.

Guest (Male): Well, how do you know? You're talking about this one side pulling against you and the other side pulling against you and these thoughts, and you're fighting this, and you've got a hunger for the Bible, and you open up the Bible and the door's knocking and the phone's ringing, all this, and... Yeah? Man, your heart, you're... Did you think about this 4 months ago?

Jack Hibbs: No. Used to make fun of Christians. I said, cheer up, pal, because now all your friends at work, they're going to be making fun of you. He go, I don't know if I can handle that. I said, well, you doled it out for a long time, didn't you? Yeah. I go, well, now it's your turn. But I was the bad guy in the group, and I said, all the more they'll listen to you. Just like they did with Paul the Apostle, just like they did with Peter. God's grace, for we are his. And the beautiful thing is in Jeremiah 31:3, you've heard this before, it says in Jeremiah 31:3, the Lord has appeared to me of old saying, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you, and that is that he has drawn you to himself.

And I don't care how big and burly you are, and I don't care who you work for or what you've done in your life, the fact is you want love. And man's love lets us down. God's love never fails us. But we see right here where it says, for we are his workmanship. The word his is a reference here to the Father. And I don't know if you're going to see this right off the bat, but the Trinity is suggested here in this passage. The first hint is right here where it says, for we are his, that is the Father's work. The Father. And the word workmanship in the English is the word that some of your Bibles, maybe you have a very old Bible that might have a rendering of it this way, for we are his poem.

For the word in the English poem is the Greek word poema, and it is poem, or more technically in the Greek, it is a created, a made, a manufactured artwork. We are his artwork. That's a beautiful thought. We are his artwork. Now, art is an interesting thing. Some of us, some of you have been with us to the Hermitage in Russia, one of the greatest collections of art in the world, and you're standing right there in front of Rembrandt, and it's pretty impressive. I really didn't appreciate that kind of stuff until I saw it, and it's like, wow, man. And then you go upstairs to the Picasso section.

Now look, I'm sorry, Rembrandt could paint. Picasso, I don't know. And I got to tell you, I've seen them both, and one is a lot, a lot of talent and a lot of anointing, I think, and a lot of inspiration by God. The other one, I don't know. But I tell you what, we are his workmanship, his artwork, and this is a wonderful thing about an artist. An artist is a funny kind of guy. An artist can look at something, and he looks kind of like he's going insane for a minute. He's like out in nether netherland, and all of a sudden he begins to create something, and it's not clear to you yet what he's doing.

He may set up an easel, and he's starting to do something that's like, what is this? And people, you go down to like Laguna or Newport or Corona Del Mar, and people are painting, you know, and you walk by and you go, oh, look, it's a dog. And then you come back about 3 hours later, and it's a, it's a car. And you come back, you know, a couple days later, and it's the beach with a palm tree and a setting, and it's like, wow. But he had it in his mind the whole time. We are God's artwork. The Bible says that we're his. He is molding us, and he's taking paint, and he's working on the easel. But you and I are stepping back saying, how does this fit into my life?

Maybe there's like an anomaly in your life, you know, anomaly, boop, a glitch. What is this? Things are going great. What is that? Or maybe your life is a total glitch, and you get all ex- you get excited when there's a, when there's not enough. You know, I'd... It's an exciting way to live. And it's like, what is this? Look, all I can tell you, if you're a Christian, that's part of the easel. It's part of the deal. Well, how can I know for sure? You know, I tell you what, I would grab this verse and put it on the dashboard of your car. Because the next time something goes wrong or things aren't going your way, you need to stop and realize for a minute that God is at work.

He's got a big yellow hat on. He's got suspenders on. He's got a hammer swinging. He's got saws going. He's working. And it looks like an insane asylum until he gets done. You look at your place and it's like, man, what is this? We bought our house in 1986. We should have left it just as it was when we got it. We're still trying to paint the eaves on this thing. And it's like, just when we get, you know what, hey, all right, and we come back again, it's like, what is this? And like, we got to get a floor, and the floor's falling off, and it's like nuts. But God looks at something and it's done to him.

He's going to get it done. We are his artwork. Now, the beautiful thing to me about an artist is he's got it in his mind. I can't see it, but I trust that he's got it in his mind. I'll get a clue when you look at an artist, and he might have in front of him, sitting on a rock, a model or maybe a vase of flowers. And it's like, I got this one. He's painting a model. He's painting this vase of flowers. I see what he's painting. Now on the easel, I can put the pieces together. Jesus Christ is our model, the prototype. You are the easel. God the Father looks at the Son, looks at you and says, you need a little bit more, right about there.

And I think I'm going to get some rejection, a little bit of rejection, and I'm going to put that right over here on you, and a little bit of sorrow. There'll be a little bit of sorrow because I'm molding you and making you just like my son when he was on earth, so he and you can relate to one another, and I'm going to put a little bit more of grief. But you know what? The primary color on this whole thing is going to be joy. This deep, strong, abiding color is going to be the joy of the Lord. That's going to be the strength of this painting. And God is doing that in our lives. He's painting a picture.

The things that happened to you and I today fit in to that painting. He's really doing it. He's making us into the image of his son. You know, there was the first paint job that came along in Genesis 1:27, where it says, so God created man in his own image, and in the image of God he created him. Now listen, he created him both male and female. Is he confused? No, it says that he created him male and female in his own image. Well, is God a he she or a she he? God says he's a he. Sorry, ladies, those of you who are upset about things like that, don't know what to tell you. God says he's a he. That's the way it is.

I could care less if he says he's a he or a she, but he says he's a he. But it says that he made man in his own image. He created both male and female in his own image. Well, does that mean that man, that God has five fingers in each hand and he's six feet tall? Absolutely not. It means that man has a capacity to reason, to think, to choose, to sense emotion, feeling. Man has the capability to decide. Man has the capability to hate or to love or to experience sadness, sorrow, joy, or happiness. That's what it means about God making us in his own image. And Jesus Christ came revealing to us the image of the Father.

But listen, he's our bridge, people. Jesus came showing us the Father, but the Bible tells us that we need to become like Jesus Christ. When we look at him, we're looking at it all. And that's what he's working at in our lives. God in his original creation. Now, God's natural artwork, if we look around outside, if we take time to take a peek at what God's created in his natural creation, even in the fallen state, it's beautiful. Have you been to Yosemite? It's incredible. You know, been some of these incredible places, and it's like, oh man, this is so beautiful. Yes, it is beautiful. It's fallen.

It's held under the captivity of sin. It's not as great as it's as heaven's going to be. It's not as great as the millennium is going to be when Christ comes back, but it's beautiful. But the amazing thing is God did all of this work in his original creation, and it has fallen, but he has begun a brand new work in us by the spirit inside of us, and we are like glory in embryo. It's inside of us, waiting to come out.

David J.: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called God's Amazing Work, Part 1. So glad you took the time to be with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Book of Ephesians. It's a series through Paul's letter to the Ephesians, discovering the riches, the walk, and the triumph of every believer. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Jack Hibbs: Hey everybody, you know what time it is. It's a Friday, which means we're going to be doing 360 prayer, and we love it, and we love you. So let's do this together. Father God, we come before you. We take, Lord, this week and we leave it with you. Everything that has happened this week, we place back into your hands. And Lord, as the weekend is before us, we pray that you'd give us that Sabbath, and Father, that we'd go to a house of worship and praise you in spirit and in truth. So, Lord, get us ready for the next week, we pray. In Jesus' name, and all God's people said, amen. Hey, thank you again so much for listening, and if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry.

And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode.

David J.: This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.