Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: You in this physical realm cease to function. And this is where you and I are hung up. It's all about the physical. And Jesus says, listen, if a man dies, physical part, believing in me, he shall never die. It's just a door.

Guest (Male): This is real life.

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.

Guest (Male): This Independence Day, don't just celebrate America's 250th birthday. Stand for what it was built upon: faith, freedom, truth. These are the values that shaped this nation from its very first days, and our Faith and Freedom Collection was designed to help you carry them boldly wherever you go.

This collection is more than patriotic apparel. It's a reminder of the convictions worth passing on. In a culture that's working overtime to silence those convictions, a simple shirt can start a powerful conversation.

And right now, when you order from the Faith and Freedom Collection, we'll also send you a free copy of the "Happy Birthday America" kids' guide, a faith-centered resource that puts America's founding story in the hands of the next generation. Order soon and be ready to celebrate America's 250th birthday with conviction. Shop today at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com, or call 877-777-2346.

David J.: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called Disciplines of Life and a message titled "Discipline of Disease." Sometimes sickness or disease is something that God can use for our learning and not something just random or meaningless.

You see, illness really can have a purpose. These struggles can draw us closer to God, and as we're hurting and asking why, that can push us to depend upon God more deeply and with more sincerity.

Today, Pastor Jack teaches that godliness is formed in us through redemption and salvation through Christ. So when challenges, weakness, or disease come, the Lord's grace is sufficient and others will see the gospel displayed in our lives. Now with his message called "Discipline of Disease," here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: In 1990, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease and it took them nine months to figure it out. It was nine months of bad stuff. And they went through all of the stuff, thinking I had cancer. For four months, I thought I had cancer. They were treating me for cancer of the colon and all this stuff. One test after another, it was ridiculous and terrible. From a sore throat to that.

I want you to think for a second. This is what I learned. I didn't read this in a book. For me, this works. God gave this to me. I learned this in a time of suffering. Whenever my life is challenged physically or now spiritually where I can't explain why I feel depressed—I have no reason to—why do I feel dark? I feel like I'm going to drown. What is that all about? It's a demonic attack.

But watch this. I even wrote it down to make it so crystal-clear. Number one, I'll pray this: Lord, if this illness is from you, then give me the grace to go through it and allow me to hear what you're saying. Why? Because I've learned with sickness that God is always wanting to talk.

Sometimes we never slow down enough, and that's one way I think that God will allow things to happen to get us to slow down. You pray, "Lord, if this sickness is from you..."—and oh yeah, Christians, we'll see in a moment, God allows sickness. Sometimes he sends it. I can't believe I heard that! Just sit down, we're going to read that in the Bible here in a minute. Lord, if it's from you, give me the grace and let me hear what you're saying to me right now.

Number two, I'll pray this: Lord, if this sickness is not from you, if it's from the enemy, which the Bible talks about can happen, then Lord, I ask you to rebuke the enemy. What the enemy has meant for my demise, double it up, super-duper, as a blessing on me.

If it's not from you, Lord, teach the enemy the next time he wants to pull that on me, that you're going to bless my life. With every attack, I always pray, Lord, if it's from the enemy, stop the enemy and bless my life. Did you hear that? I mean this.

Number three, I'll pray this: Lord, if this sickness is from you that you might be glorified in it, then just keep me right in the middle of it. Don't let me jump out and short-circuit your plan. And I promise you right now, if you guys start practicing a similar prayer, your whole attitude will change about suffering. And it doesn't just have to be physical.

It can be any form of suffering. Point number two tonight: understand this, that sin is our greatest enemy. Sin. The discipline of disease is understanding now, not life—we've covered that—but now sin, that sin is our greatest enemy.

Genesis 4:6. So the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry?" Remember Cain and Abel? Cain was a wacko. "Why are you angry?" God said to him. "And why has your countenance fallen? Your mug is dragging in the dirt. What's wrong with you, Cain? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not well, sin lies at the door and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."

Isn't that awesome? Now, he didn't heed God's word and he wound up becoming the second murderer on the earth. You all know who the first murderer was. It was Satan in the garden. Cain followed in his footsteps and killed his brother out of jealousy. The first man who committed manslaughter.

Sin is our greatest enemy. What I like about that verse is that it warns us that sin almost acts like a lion and it's crouching, waiting to pounce on who? On every one of us. So what do we do? Understand this: that sin brings separation between our lives separately and corporately. Separation.

In John chapter 5, verse 58—why is sin so dangerous? John 5:5 says, "Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years." Now listen to this: "When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, Jesus said to him, 'Do you want to be made well?' Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.'"

Verse 14: "Afterward Jesus found him," because he had been healed, "Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, 'See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.'" That man's sickness was in correlation to his sin.

Listen, life has its struggles because life has sin in it and life has death in it and life has issues in it. That's a given to everybody. Now, point two is that sin can bring on illness. Sin can bring on situations. Now watch, understand this: not everyone who's sick is sick because they've sinned.

That is a terrible, mean thing to think. But there are sins that we commit as responsible individuals, mature against God, against man, and the result of it is suffering. Jesus says it in John chapter 5. Look at Romans chapter 1, verse 26: "Because of this, God gave them over to their shameful lusts.

Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones, and in the same way, their men also abandoned natural relations with a woman and were inflamed with lust for one another, men committing indecent acts with other men, and the result was they received in themselves the due penalty of their perversion." The translation: disease, inside, ill, wrong, unsanctioned sexual activity caused physical disease. And that's a fact. You don't want to talk about that? It's a fact.

Sin can be brought on, or I should say sin brings on, can bring on great illness. Look at this also: secondly, sin brings isolation within ourselves. Isolation. In the book of Numbers chapter 12, Aaron and Miriam, Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron, Moses' relatives, brother and sister, they start chewing on Moses.

"Why is he doing that for? His leadership stinks. That guy drives me crazy." And they're just whining on, whining on. And Moses, you know that Moses—it says in the Bible that Moses was the most humble man on the earth. Of course, Moses wrote that, but... He never asked to lead anybody.

And now his brother—"His brother, man, you're a dope. Isn't he a dope?" They're chewing on Moses behind his turban. God says, "Hey, I heard that." Wow. Numbers 12:8 says, "Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" You shouldn't talk about Moses, is what the Lord is saying.

So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them and he departed. Not good. And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. Can you imagine? Then Aaron turned toward Miriam and there she was, a leper. Can you imagine? I bet you Aaron just shut his mouth.

God brought judgment. Sin brings isolation. Think about being a leper. Isolation. I was on the island of Molokai—actually, it's Moloka'i, not Moloka'i. It's Moloka'i in Hawaii. You know, the leper island? You come to the edge of the cliff and you look down on Father Damien's work, there's still over 200 lepers there today. Right now. Leprous white.

Only access is by airplane. The cliffs that you observe the leper colony from are over 2,000 feet high and it goes straight down. It's one of the most beautiful places on earth, but it's cursed. In the minds of the islanders, it's cursed. Nobody wants to go there. Interesting. Isolation.

In the Bible, during the Bible times, you had leprosy, you were completely isolated. You had to shout to people walking down the street as you're wrapped up in a robe, "Unclean, unclean!" and people would part out of the way. Isolation. Why? The Bible tells us, as it was with Miriam, that this is a situation where a person sinned and judgment came upon them.

We don't want to even talk in terms like that today, but God can bring not only his divine intervention in judgment, but also God doesn't even have to get involved. God can just let sin bring forth its natural disaster in our lives when we do the wrong thing.

Isaiah 59, verse 1 says, "Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short that he cannot save, nor is his ear dull to hear, but your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear." That's a strong word, huh? And then also this: sin brings judgment upon ourselves.

Sin brings judgment upon us. Yes, life has challenges, difficulties, disease, and pain because this is a fallen world. And yes, number two, we can aggravate it all by sinning against God. Third and final point tonight is this: understand that godliness is formed in us.

Mark that down. It is very important and for me, this is the most encouraging part of the message tonight. Godliness must be originated for us, for us, not by us. For us. Now watch this. You say, what does godliness have to do with the discipline of disease or suffering? Because guess what?

There is a godliness—are you guys awake?—there is a godliness that's given to us by the Lord. It's called redemption, salvation. He gives that freely. Okay, that's given to you. Okay. Imagine right now. Imagine if I were a non-believer, I hear the gospel, I give my heart to Jesus, and three minutes after I give my heart to Jesus, I step in front of a train and die. Where do I go? Heaven? Yep.

What if I accept Jesus and take a walk and walk the next 30 years loving the Lord, born again, and I die? What happens? Heaven. Think about that for a moment. All those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So this is cool. So that if I go to heaven being a believer for a moment—you know, the old deathbed conversion event—isn't it great that our God will take a rotten, stinky, bad, wicked Adolf Hitler type of sinner and if that person would cry out to God, God washes them away, washes their sins away and saves them in a second?

Now I know some people would say, I don't like that. Do you understand that your Jesus and his blood and the gospel is stronger than what any person can do on earth? How true is that? Absolutely true. See, you and I, we get our emotions involved.

We want bums like that to suffer and burn in hell forever. Not God. We say, he got what was coming to him. And the Bible says the Lord weeps over the death of the wicked. Amazing. The person that's just converted or the person that lives for 30 years converted, what's the difference?

Here's the difference: godliness that was imputed or given by the Lord over the course of time in those years living for Christ is lived out among all of us right here, right now. You guys, listen. The best way for you and I to really know if you and I are Christians is not like this here and now.

It's knowing one another. You should have to go to my neighbors' houses around me and ask my neighbors if they think Jack and Lisa are Christians. I should be able to go to your neighbors and ask your neighbors if Barney and Wilma and Fred and Betty are Christians. They'll tell, they'll know.

They'll know. Our kids know. Ask our kids. I need to ask your kids. They'll know. They know. I had a pastor tell me years ago—in fact, we were still a home fellowship—a pastor told me, now look, if this turns into a church, you've got to move. I said, what? He goes, you've got to move out of town.

I go, why? He goes, you don't want people to know where you live. And he never told me why. I just thought, this guy, he had been a pastor for years and I'm thinking, why? I'm still—I don't know why. But I think the reality is we should be able to know one another.

And then we find out—watch—we find out that maybe we're not walking so straight, or this area is weak in your life. How do you think we sharpen one another? See, who are we when we're goofing off? Secondly, godliness must be established in us.

In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7, it says, "To keep me from becoming conceited," Paul said, "because of this surpassingly great revelations that was given to me, a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan was sent to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me." This is the apostle Paul talking here.

"But he, the Lord, said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made complete or perfect in weakness.'" Therefore, listen to his answer. This guy—Paul's under attack by a demonic spirit that won't go away, and the Lord tells him, that's how I'm going to use you because I'm going to use you so mightily that I've got to keep you humble.

This is what's going to work. So what's Paul's answer? "I quit!" No, that would have been our answer. No, Paul says, "Therefore, alright, hey, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Hey, if I've got to be like this in this life to be effective for God, bring it on!

That's a follower of Jesus. He's no different than us, you guys, Paul and us. It's what we're willing to do. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing tonight to say, "Lord, use me, no matter what"? People will attack you, they'll say things about you, they'll generate all kinds of baloney about you.

You know what, are you willing to take it for Jesus? If somebody says, "Be quiet in Jesus' name or we're going to beat you," and you'll find the Holy Spirit speaking right out of your mouth, something he said 2,000 years ago: "For us to obey God rather than man, you judge, but hey, we're going to follow God."

And they're going to slap you for speaking. Today people are tiptoeing around, but I think the church is waking up. We hear about students being made fun of in school and told to be quiet about Jesus, and there's students saying, "I am not going to be quiet about Jesus," and they're stirring it up.

That's the way it ought to be. So are you really saying so? Absolutely. Absolutely. We—I don't know what dumb pill, stupid pill we've been taking, but it's also been a pill of complacency and apathy and it's dangerous. Godliness must be established in us.

It's originated for us by God himself. And then finally it's this: godliness must be displayed through our lives, through us. John 11:23. We're going to end. Jesus said to her—remember Martha and Mary now, John chapter 11, this is great. Almost the whole chapter is about this, it's amazing.

Jesus says to her, to Martha, "Your brother will rise again." Remember now, he's dead. "Your brother is going to rise again." And Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Of course she knows, she's Jewish. That's what they believe. They believe the Old Testament. Absolutely. Right on.

Jesus said to her—are you ready for this? This is amazing. When Jesus says this to Martha, I, in my mind, I see her hair go whoosh like this. Whoa. You know, like when somebody takes that breath mint and it's wow! In fact, the setting is this: Jesus is standing there and she says, "If you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died!"

Do you ever feel like that? It's the same spirit that says, "How could God let this happen?" In the grand picture, he knows more. He knows more. And Jesus says, "Hey, hey, your brother's going to rise again." "Oh yeah, I know that, in the end. I want him now." And Jesus says, John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me," listen, "though he may die..." Do you know anybody who's died lately in Jesus? And you say, "Yeah, but he didn't come back like Lazarus did." Wait, wait, wait. "Though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" he told her.

Ooh, what does that mean? Now wait, people die all the time. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about living a life believing in Jesus and your body stops in this world. Your blood stops going through these veins. Your brain stops—everything—you, in this physical realm, cease to function.

And this is where you and I are hung up. It's all about the physical. And Jesus says, listen, if a man dies, physical part, believing in me, he shall never die. It's just a door. Hey, I didn't know this party was going on! You've got to go through the door, man.

Jesus says a person believing in him, his blood stops flowing, which is the physical gateway into the new life. And you'll never die. He's also talking about you'll never see the grip of the grave. It'll never be dark and cold and empty and dead. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

We end with this. It's a song. I haven't sung it in years. I'm not going to sing it now. But at Calvary Costa Mesa, we sang this all the time on Sunday mornings. It was written in 1855. It's perfect doctrine: "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."

David J.: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called "Discipline of Disease." You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called Disciplines of Life. It's a series that highlights the disciplines of a Christ-follower and the high cost of sharing our faith with others. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Jack Hibbs: Hey my friends, come with me on our Bold Faith Hawaii cruise, June 12th to the 19th, 2027. Listen, we're going to set sail for seven unforgettable days with myself, Dr. Frank Turek, and special worship with Gia Lucid. It's going to be a breathtaking trip. This is more than a vacation. It's a time of rest, renew, fellowship, and spiritual strength in the word of God, all centered around the Bible. You can reserve your spot by going to jackhibbs.com.

David J.: 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.

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 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.