Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: God is the only one who says, "I will save you. I will forgive you. I will deliver you. I'm your King, and I've got a kingdom that's coming, and you're going to want to be part of it."

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.

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On today's special Easter Passion Week edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now with his message called "Jesus is the King." We're glad you could join us today. This Passion Week of Easter has so many emotions tied to it, doesn't it? The death and resurrection of Jesus take us from grief to joy over the fact that He rose again from that grave as the King of Israel and the Savior of the world.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches that there is a call of God on every believer, and the nation of Israel is the center of God's promises. Now, this means that wherever you're at or whatever you're doing, the God of Israel is watching and waiting for you to finally break through the crowd and to invite Him into your life. Now, in his Passion Week message called "Jesus is the King," here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: We've looked at the coming of the King, and now, secondly, we see the cry of the people. That cry, friends, listen, gets very personal for all of us here. It's the cry of hope. Why were the people rejoicing? Again, put your sandals on, get into the crowd. What's going on here?

Can you imagine if you stopped and said, "What's going on here?" "Don't you know? Don't you know what the Bible says? The Bible says that when our Messiah comes, He'll be right on the back of that donkey you talked about a few minutes ago. The Scripture also says that when He does come, the people will respond whenever that time comes by shouting, 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'

And we're watching that happen, folks. So you should just keep your eye out and watch what's going on. You should watch this because we're pretty excited here." And you're in the crowd. Put yourself in the crowd. Why are they so excited? Because, friends, listen, hope was springing up in them. Hope is an amazing thing.

When we don't have any hope, the world crushes you. Your heart hurts. You can't fill up your lungs. Have you noticed when you're feeling like hope is being sucked from you, you have a hard time filling up your lungs full of air? When was the last time you lived like that, where you filled up your lungs and said, "God, You're so great"? You can feel the weight lifting off because you realize the Lord promised to take care of me.

He loves me. In spite of everything I know about me, He loves me, and He knows more than I do about me, and He still loves me. Wow. The cry of the people was rooted in hope. Why are you so excited? They would have said, "Where you been? We've been living under Roman tyranny. The occupiers of the empire have been here. This is hopeful. This is a hopeful moment."

Palm Sunday will commence a week filled with reality and some painful division in the crowd of these witnesses. Josephus, the Roman historian, tells us there's over a hundred thousand people observing this event. Friends, listen to this. There's a crowd that is saying, "Hosanna, Hosanna." There's a crowd that is saying, "He's the King."

And by the end of the week, there's going to be a mob saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." I believe that's a great picture of the world you and I are in today. There's a part that recognizes Him and says, "He's the King. We've matched Jesus' claims and His ministry and His life against the Bible. He's the one. Hosanna! Save now."

That is what that means. And then there's a group that won't believe, no matter what. In this week in history was the grand dividing moment between heaven and hell, between life and death, between light and darkness. And it's never ceased, and it's true at this moment. Where do you land in the crowd?

Where would you be if Jesus came knocking on the door of your heart today? What would you decide when He says to you, "I want you to deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Me"? What if Jesus were to say to you today, "I want you to give everything to Me. I want you to give your life to Me. I want you to bow the knee to Me as King, and I want you to come into My kingdom and be My subject, be My follower"?

Some of you are saying, "I don't like the way that sounds." You want to know why? Because you are the king. You are the one who's in charge, and you will not have this kind of talk. Some of you are saying, "I know how my life goes when I'm king, and that's with a lower-case 'k.' I stink, and I'm ready to hear this."

Listen, your hope's running low, friends, and that's a good thing. When your hope runs out on yourself, it's time to put hope in God. John chapter 12, verse 12 says, "On the next day, a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him and cried out, 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!'"

People began to cry out. Hope was being brought forth in their life. I'll touch one more verse before we press on, and it's Psalm 118, verses five and six. Psalm 118 is the Messianic psalm. Israel was given that psalm by God to look for the Messiah. And one of those two verses says, "I called on the Lord in distress." Is that you? Is that me?

"The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place." Broad meaning abundant and safe place. He scooped you up, so to speak, and set you in a very wonderful spot. "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" Listen, some of us need to hear this. God is saying to all of us today, when you are in distress, you need to call upon Him.

He's going to answer you, and He's going to set you into a safe place. The Lord's on your side. "But I'm not perfect." Nobody is. Do you want Him? Are you His child? Are some of you yet not His child, but you're saying, "I want to be safe like that"? Then come to Him quick. Come to Him quick before the end comes to you. Come to Him. I love that.

And then you can have this attitude: "What can man do to me? What can people actually do to you?" Nothing. Secondly, under this point, is the cry of joy. The cry of the people was a cry of joy. When it says here in Luke 19 that as He made His descent down the Mount of Olives, the people began to shout, "Blessed is the King," because of all the mighty works they had seen.

Jesus had taught them. Imagine watching Jesus and learning more about God than any possible way. You're watching Jesus, you're hearing Jesus, and listen, you're actually falling in love with this man, Jesus. He's revealing to you the very nature of God in human skin because God became flesh and dwelt among us.

Watch this. What would you do if you saw that? How about this? Have you noticed in life how many times we've been completely disillusioned because we thought we knew somebody and then we found out something else about them? Let's be honest. Some of you are sitting here so saintly, like we could all say, "Yep."

In fact, Lisa told me some years ago, "Oh, there's so-and-so," some world-famous minister. "Go say hi to him." And I said, "No way." I did. I said, "No way. I don't want to go say hi to him." She says, "Why not?" And I said, "Because to me, he's up there. I love how I know him. I know him in the pulpit preaching and teaching the Word of God.

I don't want to risk that by finding out he picks his nose or..." Are you hearing what I'm saying? We become disillusioned when we meet the men of the cloth. Listen, I'm with you. Let's just keep our eyes on Jesus. A friend of mine wisely says that his father taught him, "Son, in life, keep your eyes six feet above or higher."

That's a good word. Jesus, eyes on Him. Why? People will disappoint. Why? Because we're people. He is the Lord, and you can be secure. That's why your joy can remain steadfast. Psalm 32, verse one tells us, "Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight." Wow. Obedience.

Listen, if He's King and we're the subjects, you're supposed to obey the king. But in His kingdom, is that like, "Oh boy, here we go, we have to obey Him"? Oh no, we get to obey Him. "Lord, tell us what You want, and we can live." Right? Think about that. Aren't you glad you know? Listen, I don't know if anybody's ever had this kind of an argument with a guardrail, but when you go down a highway, you don't stop and say, "What are those guardrails for?"

They're there to save your life. "I don't like them there." Well, if you don't like them there, you could fall off the end of the cliff. "Well, I think I should have that right." Even the California Department of Transportation says, "Listen, these people, they're not so sharp. We better put up guardrails here before they drive into Lake Prado or something."

Right? Think about God loving you so much that He puts up guardrails so you don't crash. And God says, "Obey Me and you can live." Hey, disobey. I told one of our grandkids—I'm not going to tell you who—I told one of our grandkids, "Why did you just say that to your mom? Why'd you say that? You shouldn't say that."

"Well, I have my rights." "No, actually you don't. You don't have any rights. You understand that? If they don't feed you, you starve tonight." I did. I told them, "You can't feed yourself. You can't pay for anything. You can't do anything. In fact, listen, they tolerate you. They only tolerate you because they have hopes that someday you're going to grow up and make money so they can have nice stuff because of all the hard work they do.

You can go have a great career, take care of your mom and dad. But I'm not your mom and dad. I'm your grandfather, and I'm telling you something right now. You better obey them because the liberties you have, they'll be taken away from you. Because when you obey, you have liberties, and when you disobey, liberties are taken away from you." And I said, "Look, every grandkid knows this sooner or later. It's best to learn it sooner than later." Why? Because you want to live free. And all that God has done is to set you free. And to keep you free, He set up guardrails, and Jesus has come, and follow Me.

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: Under this final point, under this final point for point number two—there's three of them—is the cry of salvation. The cry of salvation. In Matthew 21, verse nine, the Bible tells us, "Then the multitudes who went before those who followed cried out, saying, 'Hosanna!'" which is Hebrew for saying, "Save now. Save us."

Hey, folks, listen. They were crying out to Jesus on the back of a donkey, and what did they conclude? Eyewitness account. You weren't there. They were. "Save us! He can save us. That's the one. He's the promised Messiah." And to this verse, I apply First Peter chapter one. "Of this salvation, the prophets have inquired and searched diligently or carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you."

Think of all of you right here, right now. "Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow." In other words, suffering, death, and resurrection. Verse 12: "To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us, they were ministering the things which now have been reported—eyewitness accounts, written down for all the world to read and know—to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into." Wow. Wow.

Salvation. I don't need to belabor this, just simply saying this: the God of the Bible wants to save you. You want to read a religious book? Go read a religious book. Go to a library. In fact, really big resurgence right now is a lot of Eastern mysticism, Hinduism, Buddhism. Barnes and Noble's full of that stuff.

Go read them. You'll waste your time and money, but go read them. You know what? At the end of your quest, you'll be back. You'll be back to the Bible. God is the only one who says, "I will save you. I will forgive you. I will deliver you. I'm your King, and I've got a kingdom that's coming, and you're going to want to be part of it."

Very quickly now, running out of time. The call of God, number three, in closing: the call of God is to the nation of Israel. I have to say that today because there's a lot of demonism. I'll call it for what it is. It's demonism. I don't know, don't raise your hand, just don't raise your hand. I was going to ask you how many of you believe in the Bible, and you're going to raise your hand.

I don't want to see your hand. The Bible says in the last days, there's going to be manifestations of demons and doctrines of demons. Horrible things. Deception off the charts. That's what the Bible says in the last days, and it's only going to increase. We're alive right now, and we're seeing deception, and nobody says a word about it.

For example, as I said earlier, you can't even mention the word "Israel." Why is that a problem? Because there's a few people protesting on streets saying you can't mention Israel. Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel. It's in the Bible. It's the Bible. And before you ever came along, it was in the Bible. And before your religion was ever made up, it was in the Bible.

You want to get rid of Israel? Here you go. Burn every Bible, and that's still not going to do it because God said it. Micah chapter seven, verse 19—and this is important because it's about Palm Sunday and it's about you. "He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old." Recognize that? What's another name for Jacob? Anybody? Israel.

Jeremiah 31, verse 34: "It is the Lord who provides the sun to light the day and the moon and the stars to light the night, and who stirs the sea into roaring waves. His name is the Lord of Heaven's Armies, and this is what He says: 'I am as likely to reject My people Israel as I am to abolish the laws of nature.'" This is what the Lord says.

"Just as the heavens cannot be measured and the foundations of the earth cannot be explored, so I will not consider casting them away—Israel—for the evil that they have done. I, the Lord, have spoken." Say "amen" to that. Wow, that's amazing. God does not deny that they've done evil, but He says, "I'm not going to get rid of them. I, the Lord, have spoken."

Next, it is to all people, that is the world. It is to all people, not just Israel. Of course not. He's the Savior of the world. And the Bible says in Psalm 145, verse 18, "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth." To all, that's you. Zechariah chapter two, verse 11: "Many nations..." Oh, right, look at that.

Could that mean America too? Could that mean all people? "Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people." Fascinating. "And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent Me to you." Wow. And then finally right here, the call of God is to you and I.

To the nation of Israel, to the world itself and its peoples, and to you and to me. We end with this. Look at Luke 19, verse 41, this reading of the passage here. Wow. "Now as they drew near, Jesus saw the city and wept over it." Isn't that odd? Don't you think that's kind of weird? Why'd He start weeping? Everybody's celebrating. What's His problem?

Here's His problem. It's fascinating to me because it's not His problem; it's our problem, but He's feeling it for us. God doesn't have problems, but He sure loves. "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day..." Translation: if you would have just read your Bible, you would have known from history, from Daniel—you guys all know Daniel—all of you should have known that today was the day of My coming.

"If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side, and level you and your children within you to the ground." That happened in 70 A.D.

"And they will not leave in you one stone upon another." Why? Why, Jesus? Why? "Because you did not know the time of your visitation." What's the time of the visitation? That the gospel's been presented to you, that Jesus is not only King, He's also Messiah. He's going to head this week down a path all week long in the city of Jerusalem, that He has an appointment with the cross for you, for me.

And I want to ask you this right now. What are you going to go through? Where are you in the crowd? Why would you be in that crowd? What's going on? Are you laying down palm branches not knowing why? Are you singing "Hosanna, Hosanna" you don't know why? Or are you in the crowd knowing exactly why?

He saves, He's the King, I got it. He's the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Joseph Smith never did this. Charles Russell never did this. Muhammad never did this. Confucius never did this. Buddha never did this. Nor was there books written about them in advance. Friends, listen, why are you not a believer?

Why are you not a follower of Jesus? I mean, it's perfect sense. And listen, I'm going to ask the worship team to come on out. And I'm going to ask you right now, for those of you, you've got it. It clicked in your head today. I want you to get up and I want you to come forward and I want you to just stand here and sing a song to all of us. No, I'm kidding. You don't have to do anything. If God is speaking to you, you don't have to turn around, you don't have to sing a song, you...

I want you to come up and line up right here against this stage, and I'm going to pray for you. But by you coming, this is why you would come: you are saying, "I'm in the crowd. I've got needs. He's King, He's Redeemer. I want my sins removed from me. He's the Savior. I want to recognize him this day of my visitation.

I accept Him today as my Lord and Savior." Listen, go public. Don't be a secret Christian; there's no such thing. All of God's people, He'll make sure they go public. Right now today, you come. And if you are rededicating your life today as a believer, now's the time. You come. Be urgent about it. Give your heart to Christ, rededicate your life to Christ. But as we begin to sing this song, you come forward right now, folks. Let's do this now to His glory. Amen.

We're going to pray the same prayer, but we cannot be your heart, nor can you be our heart. It's got to be you. You got to mean it. Even though we're saying the exact same words, you just have to mean it, that's all. And know this: God saves, He's personal about it. And as you pray this prayer because you mean it, some of you may feel something.

Many times people say they feel the change happening. I didn't ever feel that feeling. Some people never feel anything. But thank God it doesn't say when you feel this feeling, then you'll know. It's all based on your decision. Do you want Him? Jesus said, "If you come to Me, I will in no wise turn you away." How good is that? He will never turn you away. So pray this and mean it. Are you ready? Body of Christ, church family, you want to pray it with them?

Dear Lord, I quit. I have come to the end of myself. I surrender and I proclaim it's Jesus Christ who was crucified, who rose again, and He's my Savior. He's my Lord. He's my King. And I celebrate the fact that He has forgiven me of all sin. In Jesus' name, amen.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, with his special Easter Passion Week message called "Jesus is the King." Thanks for being with us today and happy Easter to you. Our prayer is that in celebrating Passion Week, you'll come to realize the urgency to come to Christ, knowing that He is the only way to eternal life. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

So as you heard from our broadcast, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And if you'd like to know what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life personally, we would love to help you out with that. Go to jackhibbs.com/knowgod. That's k-n-o-w God. And there you'll be guided through what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life and the freedom that you'll find in knowing God. Don't miss out. That's the Know God tab at jackhibbs.com.

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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 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.