Real Life Radio

David J: Today on Real Life Radio. 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. Fear does not have to control your life, not when Christ is at the center of it. This month, we're featuring a powerful and deeply personal book, Living Fearless in Christ by Hedia Mirahmadi.

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On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now with his series called First Samuel and a message titled "The Spiritual Realm." Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of her prophets. So here in chapter 28, we'll consider how there is a spiritual world beyond our visible realm.

You see, as Christians, we're to always look for spiritual answers from the Holy Spirit, but King Saul, in desperation, sought spiritual answers through mediums and occult practices. This reminds us that there is indeed an evil side of the spiritual realm.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that when we worship the Lord, something awesome really does happen. We can sense his presence, and all other outside forces are pushed out of our hearts and minds. Worship is our way of honoring God for who he is and not just what he's done. Now, with his message called "The Spiritual Realm," here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Why is it in the spiritual realm when there's demonism, it's "boo"? What's with the "boo"? Because the "boo" gets to you, and that's exactly what they want to do. It's called intimidation. You want to know why? They know they've lost. They have to act like that. So you don't have to leave the light on. You just praise the Lord.

You don't have to put garlic on your door. Seriously, if you detect—and I know some of you, we've been to some of your homes and there's some wild things going on in your house—one of the greatest things you can do is, of course, call upon the name of Jesus. But one of the best things is to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus in worship.

Listen to me. I had someone come up and tell me, "We've got all this stuff going on in our house, all this weirdness, and you described it." And I'm not knocking anybody, don't get me wrong here, but you said you put on Christian music. You remembered you put on Michael W. Smith, one of his albums or whatever, and your CD changer just kept going and nothing happened.

Then it's funny, you said, "And then I put in a worship—it was a worship CD." Christian entertainment does not cause demonic activity to flee. There's no power in that. It has to be worship. That's why a lot of people aren't involved in worship. That's why a lot of people say, "Well, we can show up late; they're just worshiping." There's power in that.

I'm telling you, if we had our heads screwed on straight, we would get here before worship started. Because that is our moment to bless his heart. Worship is our giving to God. And when we worship, he loves it so much. This is the way I see it in my head, and it just works for me. No matter what's going on in my life or in this church, when we start to worship him, he just goes, "Yes! Oh, yes!"

And his face gets brighter, the sun begins to shine, and he begins to just stretch and enjoy what he's hearing. There just isn't no room anymore for anything dark or weird because he will not share his glory with another. So if you want to have power in your life, you worship. You make worship a priority.

Worship is our giving to him, and when we study the Bible after worship, it's him giving to us from the word. A lot of people don't get much out of the word. They say, "Pastor, I don't get it." I tell you right now, they're not worshipers. They have no private worship life with God.

They've got Rick Dees going and Aerosmith and C.C. Rider or who knows what—’N Sync or out of sync—and it's like, "All right!" And then they're like, "Well, this music's kind of boring in the church, and that's a nice guitar, but I don't know what's up." They don't have a clue. Worship.

Listen, and we'll be done. Never do we ever catch Saul worshiping. Who's going to take his place? David. The head songwriter of the greatest worship songs this world will ever know. Greater is he that is in you—the Holy Spirit—than he that is in the world. Okay? Any questions? No? Okay, God bless you guys.

Guest (Male): Is there a difference between fallen angels and demons?

Jack Hibbs: Is there a difference between fallen angels and demons? Are you asking my opinion? I'm going to give you the Jewish opinion. You can read a lot of books on this stuff. The ancient Jewish rabbis, even before the time of Christ, I agree with their writings. Is there a difference between fallen angels and demons?

Good old Jewish rabbis will tell you that fallen angels are exactly that: they're fallen angels. The word in Hebrew and Greek is different for a fallen angel than it is for a demon. It is believed that a demon is the soul of those in Genesis chapter 6 that perished in the flood—the Nephilim, the hybrid freaks.

The Bible says they had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. They were gigantic men; they were weird. They could do supernatural things. The ancient Jewish rabbis believe that when the flood came and destroyed those people and those things, when they died, they were not fully human and they were not fully angelic.

Genesis tells you that the sons of God—that's an Old Testament reference to angels—the fallen angels had sex. Angels can manifest themselves, by the way, physically; demons cannot. A fallen angel had sex with human beings in Genesis chapter 6, and their offspring were gigantic men with unusual powers, with six fingers and six toes.

Og—his bed was 14 and a half feet long. These kind of freakish people. The ancient Jewish rabbis believe that when that weird angelic spirit and human cohabitation took place, their offspring, when those people died, those things—when those things died, their souls didn't go to heaven or to hell because they were neither pure spirit nor pure flesh.

When they perished in the flood, those spirits became demons. Now what's weird about that is Jesus tells us in Luke's gospel that when a demon goes into a man and inhabits him and then sees that he's got a good place—he's got this guy under control—he leaves that man and goes out looking for others to inhabit the man's body with him, but sees to it that he travels through waterless places.

Though the Jewish rabbis do not believe in the New Testament, they said that's exactly right on what the author of Luke was talking about. That Jewish boy or those Jewish readers of the Christian gospels knew something. They'll give us that credit—that those demons have an absolute panic of water because that's how they perished in the flood.

That's heavy stuff. You don't say that on a Sunday morning, I tell you that. But that's what real reputable ancient Jewish rabbis believe. Angels are fallen angels. The Bible says they're going to have a special place in torment, and demons will be obviously disciplined as well.

Fallen angels and angelic angels appear and disappear at will. They can do that. What does the scripture say? "Be careful how you treat a stranger because you could actually be encountering an angel and not even know it." It never says that about a demon. What are demons always looking for to get their will done? An animal, a statue, or a person. Paul the Apostle says when someone bows down to an idol, to a statue, to an image, they are bowing down to demons. Can somebody ask an easier question?

Guest (Female): Can a fallen angel be redeemed?

Jack Hibbs: Great question. If an angel—well, we know that one-third, including Satan, one-third of the angels in eternity disobeyed God and were cast out. Do they have the opportunity to repent? The answer is no. Jesus Christ died for the redemption of mankind and for the repentance of man, not any angel.

None. He died for the redemption of humans, not angels. They're condemned forever once they knew him. And that just makes sense. Can you imagine standing in God's presence and seeing him? To whom much is given, much is required. They knew him, and they chose to go after Lucifer anyway. So their judgment is all the more extreme.

Guest (Female): How can an angel decide not to worship God anymore?

Jack Hibbs: You mean how can an angel say, "I'm not going to worship him anymore"? Because angels, like humans, have free moral will.

Guest (Female): But they are in the holy presence of God, so how could they?

Jack Hibbs: Wouldn't you think it makes sense to us, if you're in the presence of—listen, that's a good question. What's wrong with those angels? How could they have done this? I'm confused. Well, listen, how about this? How can an angel in the presence of God sin and leave his presence?

What was it? It says that Lucifer led them. And Jesus says he's the father of lies. So he's good. So whatever Satan said to them was so convincing to them that they bought into the deal, that they chose to disobey God and go with him. You say, "How can that be?" I don't know, but let that be a warning to us about how deceptive Satan can be.

Guest (Female): Can we sin and fall in heaven like those angels did?

Jack Hibbs: No, hallelujah, it's impossible. Because once you and I—this is the good news about us dying. The moment we die, we weigh anchor, as Paul put it. We drop the anchor of our human nature. Our human nature will be gone. See, right now we're redeemed, the Holy Spirit's in us, and we're growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, right?

But the moment we die, that's the greatest thing for us. Because when that happens, we are loosed from this body of sin and death—Romans chapter 7 and Romans chapter 8. We will never again have our human nature. We will have the nature of Christ. See, when he was here, he had a human nature, but he did not have a sinful nature. We have a sinful nature that you can't separate the humanity from it. That's why the ultimate redemption is the moment you die and we get to get rid of this body.

Guest (Female): When we are resurrected, do we return to our actual bodies?

Jack Hibbs: Your very question, the answer gives absolute glory to God. If these bodies are sinful and we die and let them go and we get to go be with the Lord, but our body is buried next Saturday, then in the resurrection, who would want this body? The cool thing is, it's resurrection.

This body that you and I have—remember the model, the Bible tells us, is Jesus's death and resurrection. This body is going to be raised incorruptible—First Corinthians 15. Why don't you guys read First Corinthians chapter 15 tonight before you go to bed? You'll be so happy. It's so exciting.

When you and I die, this body goes into the dirt. When the resurrection takes place, the word in Greek you're going to recognize immediately. It's thousands of years old. The word in Greek is *metamorphoo*. We use the word metamorphosis. The body will metamorphose.

It will change from a molecular structure that it is right now, and the elements will change. They will be actual elements. They will actually change so that the resurrected body that was laying in the ground will leave a vacant spot there. But that body will be just like Jesus.

It says, "It does not yet know," First John says, "it does not yet know what we will be like, but we know this: that when he appears, we will be like him." So we stop and then we go study: what was he like in his glorified state? He rose again from the dead. He appeared and disappeared.

He ate and then vanished. He could appear in one place and talk, and you could touch him, and then the next moment, he's gone. That's how we're going to be. That is going to be very cool. On Monday, I was at California Soarin' Over California, and I can't go on that ride without thinking about how cool heaven's got to be. Just not limited any longer.

Guest (Male): When we get into heaven, what are we going to do?

Jack Hibbs: This is not a joke. It says we're going to eat, and it says we're going to worship, and it says that we're going to be with him. I think that ought to sum it up: being with him. But you've got to remember something—that's a cool question what he asked because he just expressed for all of us our limitation.

I'm not saying you're limited. I'm saying we're all in on this together. He said, "When we get into eternity, what are we going to do? It's so long. I mean, what are we going to do all that time?" You already know the answer, right? There ain't no time there. You can't judge it.

"Man, we've been worshiping him for 14 hours!" You're not going to have that perspective. It's eternity; there's no time. Why? We will be outside the physical universe. The time shortness and length of it is limited to the physical universe. Time is a physical property, just like light is. We will be in a world that's not physical; it's spiritual. And so the Bible calls it "the day of God." It doesn't say "the days of God," plural. It says "the day of God." That's kind of fun. One more. Yes, Mark.

Guest (Male): In Samuel, it says, "Today you will be with me." Does that mean Saul was redeemed?

Jack Hibbs: Good question. His question is, in Samuel right here, it says that Samuel says, "Today you will be with me." Doesn't that mean—and a lot of scholars say, "See, that's proof positive Saul went to heaven, that he's a believer"? Not true. In Luke's gospel, it tells you about that place—begin reading in chapter 15 and go into chapter 16.

It tells you about that place. Doesn't that mean that Saul went with Jonathan? Jonathan was a believer. It says, "You'll be with us." Not so, because Luke tells you that it was the same place divided by a canyon. They were aware of one another. One group was in comfort and one group was in torment.

When he said, "You're going to be down here with me," it doesn't mean necessarily that you're going to be with me in paradise. You're going to be down in Sheol. Sheol is one place. It was one place with two compartments referred to by the Jews and scripture as Abraham's Bosom and hell.

At the end of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, when he rules and reigns from Jerusalem for a thousand years, at the end of the thousand years, the Bible says that hell shall give up the dead that is in it. They will all stand before the Great White Throne Judgment—Revelation chapter 20, verse 11—and they will be judged for all that they did in their bodies in this world, and then they'll be cast into hell.

That's a different place. So just because Samuel said, "You guys are going to be with me tonight or tomorrow," it doesn't mean Saul was in the same house. It meant that Saul was going to Sheol—same place that Samuel was, but in a different compartment. Again, read Luke 15 and 16. It talks about it. It's pretty cool.

Guest (Male): Is it only Christians that can cast out demons?

Jack Hibbs: What if for the power or for the motive of deception, a charlatan comes to town, he's doing miracles and casting out demons? In the Jewish mind, that's absolute power. They got into debate often with Jesus about that. What if a demon or demons can get in cahoots with each other and pull such things off to think of the distance that they'll go, where Pharaoh's magicians did what they did by demonic powers?

It's just absolutely amazing. Again, the cool thing is nothing's going to happen to you, Christian, in this life without God knowing about it. Everything that comes in your life is Father-filtered. Lord, we thank you for this time just to be together as brothers and sisters around the table, so to speak.

Father, we pray that if anyone is struggling and going through things—Lord, we know that there are some that are going through tremendous difficulty and things that your power needs to be manifested there, Lord. May tonight have served as a tremendous aid when it comes to the fact that worship and the power that is in the name of Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, our savior and our God and our king.

Lord, when we worship, may we please heed the call to worship you in spirit and in truth. And Lord, that we would really find that secret to victory, which should be no secret at all—that is lifting up the name of Jesus Christ and walking, living, breathing, and rejoicing in his name, and by doing so, cutting off any avenue or inroads to our lives that would bring darkness and the opportunity for attack.

And then on the flip side, Lord, those that are serving you and have a heart to just advance the name of Jesus and the kingdom of God that souls might be saved. We thank you so much that there is that wonderful verse promised that says, "No weapon formed against us shall prosper." So Lord, cause us all the more to march forward with power and with victory.

And Lord, I pray in Jesus' name that whatever you do in this church, it would cause the foundations of hell to be frightened and shaken. Lord, we rejoice that our names are written down in heaven. But Father, may these people, may this church, may this ministry be a frightening thing in hell because of your power, Lord, not ours. Yours. Because of your name, because of your will. So Lord, receive our worship even now. May we give you our hearts in Jesus' name.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called "The Spiritual Realm." Thanks for spending some time with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called First Samuel, a series that highlights the prophet Samuel who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship.

We'll continue this series 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-G-O-D.

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.

Daniel Cohen: Daniel Cohen here from Israel. If you love Pastor Jack Hibbs' fearless approach to teaching God's word, you'll love the Real Life Network. It's built for warriors who want the truth, God's truth. On the Daniel Cohen Show, we bring you stories the mainstream media downplays. It's time to start getting your news from people you trust, and it's totally free. Sign up now at reallifenetwork.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 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.