Today on Real Life Radio, Blessed is the man whom the Lord shall not impute sin. God no longer is keeping a record. Can you believe this? God is no longer keeping a record of my sin. You keep a record of my sin, and I keep a record of my sin, but God does not.
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibs. I'm David J. Thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible. There's a story every family should watch together—a story about faith, courage, and conviction that built this nation.
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Visit JackHibs.com or call eight seven seven seven seven seven two three four six to pre-order yours now. Once again, that website JackHibs.com. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues his series called "The Book of Ephesians" and a message titled. Master Moses meet Father Abraham, Part Two. Ephesians is a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, showing every believer who they really are in Christ.
And here Paul reminds us that our salvation is a free gift, and there's nothing we could ever do to earn it. You see, so many of us try to work our way to God. We do good deeds when we can. We keep the rules. We hope our good outweighs the bad.
But the Bible says it's only by the Lord's unfailing grace that brings us not only to new life but a relationship with Him.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that Abraham was made right with God by faith alone, long before the law ever came. This shows us that it's not our works, but our faith and trust in Christ that saves us.
Now, with his message called "Master Moses Meet Father Abraham Part Two," here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibs. Even if we're trying to be good and work good at it, the thing is that we can't do it, and it's not by works. Why not? And I hope you get this. Isn't it funny that all around the world you go, you'll go around the world, and what's everybody trying to do?
Who want to reach God? They're working. They're working toward everybody. That ought to give you a clue right there. Salvation is of the Lord.
It's freely given. Yet you go and you go around where the gospel of Jesus Christ is not presented to people freely. And what are they doing, man? They're working for it, not by works, lest any man should boast. That means if there's works involved, then we boast.
We're so good at it. I'm going to lead all of you into a deeper life with God. It's through the simple path of humility, and I've written my book, "One Hundred Ways to Be Humble." I saw a guy on TV. I won't mention his name because you'll get upset with me. This guy, well, he wrote, he did a message, and we happened to have caught him on TV.
We came home one day. I was very depressed after a Sunday morning message, and so I just came home and I sat down and I just thought, Lord, I just like blew it, man. I blew the message. It was the worst. And I'm not the guy to be around after a Sunday service, and because you know there's the message you preach in front of the people, then there's the message you preach all the way home, and the one on the way home is always better than the one that you give to the people, and and so I'm pretty depressed, so I turned on a television station nearby in Santa that I will not mention, and.
And so I'm watching this thing, and this guy says that he says you need to get this video twenty nine ninety five. He it is the greatest message that I've ever heard, and wow, that's something! I got to hear this thing. And he goes, "You send twenty nine ninety five in the greatest message that I have. This is that I've ever heard." He said.
And he said, "You just send in right here. The phone number's on the screen." And that message was just delivered recently. And he said that message was on humility. And it was the greatest message I have ever given. I kid you not.
I fixed my whole day. I felt great after that. The rejection of Ephesians chapter two verses eight and nine that salvation is a free gift, and it's an assault to any of us who want to work our way into heaven. We think we've got to do penance. That's not in the Bible anywhere.
Oh my goodness! I've been so bad on Monday. I'll be good Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday. That doesn't work. And we hope in the end that our good outweighs our bad.
It doesn't work that way. He says it's not by works, lest any man should boast. Turn to Romans chapter four, verse four. A little bit to the left. Romans four, four.
Book of Romans, fantastic book. Actually, let's just go to verse one. Romans four, one. What then shall we say that Abraham, our father, has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something of which to boast, but not before God.
That's he can brag to everybody. He goes, "On my block, I was the nicest guy. I gave more money than anyone." In fact, that Melchizedek guy came by, and I gave him some money and blessed him. And you know what? I was just the best.
He could have said that toward men, and for any of us who are trying to work our way into the kingdom, you need to sit up and listen to this. Because, listen, I don't care how good you are. Your your goodness does not outdo the goodness of Abraham. Try as you may. But he had nothing to boast about in front of God.
No way. And so it says, verse three: For what does the Scripture say? It says that Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Isn't that amazing? Abraham had a born-again relationship with God before the law was ever given.
Abraham believed in God, and God justified him by belief. Abraham's faith in the Lord caused God to stamp him justified, just if he'd never sinned.
So Abraham might have been pretty good before men, but he wasn't perfect before God. Until God justified him by faith, he saw his faith, and God says, "You know what? Listen carefully. Your faith didn't save you, Abraham. The object that you're trusting in has saved you, and for that, you're justified." So free.
It says, verse four.
Now to him who works, here you go.
Now to him who wants to work his way into the kingdom, the wages are not counted as grace, but as a debt.
Okay, God, I don't need this grace stuff. That's for wimps. I'm gonna work it in.
So you start going, and then you live a pretty good day tomorrow, and or today, and you say, "God, now you owe me." God gives you a little thing on the little deal on the side that'll change things. Little nickels come out. Ice cream man's got on his hip. Here you go, fifty cents. Oh, great, man!
So you get up the next day. Everything's going great. I'm going to work my way. I'm going to keep these requirements. I'm going to keep these standards, and I'm going to.
And your heart's right. But you don't have the power to do anything to pull it all off, and you might come close. But the scripture says, if you offend the law in one point, you're guilty of it all. But you're trying, and you get them. You have a really good day, and just think, go through the.
It's a Tuesday. You go through a whole day. Monday was great. Tuesday was great. You get to the end of the day, and you do what I did last night.
You get in the shower. End of the day, late. It's late. In fact, I think it was this morning. And get into the shower, shut the door.
And I was at this the the conference side. It's not my shower. It's you know some thing shower. It's not you know you know you know where everything your shower. It's just you can be blind, and it's like.
You know where it's at in your shower, not in this thing. I got in there, I turned around, and my elbow hit this the soap rack thing. It was like made out of razor blades, you know. And I didn't think anything of it. I just wow, that's smart.
Anyway, so I'm just kind of sudsing along, and the drain's getting red. And man, what is this? You know.
Now. That's all that went for me. I said, "Man, what is this?" But 18 years ago, I got saved on a Monday. It would have been Tuesday. I would have hit my elbow on that thing, and I wouldn't have said then, "What is this going on?" I would have.
What and you know and avert and said, "Oh man." And all Monday was good. Tuesday was real good. And right at the end of the day, law, right? I blew it. Guilty.
Now, I may have looked real good before men, but not before God. There's no men in my shower. There's nobody there.
So before I got in there, I looked just fine before men. But God was in the shower. God's everywhere. He's in secret where we're at. He's in the places where we think nobody's looking, where nobody's listening.
He's there. He hears it all and he sees it all.
So we can't boast. But if we're going to work our way. We may have demanded from God seventy-five cents for Monday and Tuesday, but you know what? The moment we blew it on Tuesday evening, we lost it all. It's not of debts.
Not going to work. Verse five. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for him for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God does not impute righteous, or whom God imputes—that is, gives righteousness apart from works. Verse seven: Blessed are those.
Whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered, blessed is the man whom the Lord shall not impute sin. God no longer is keeping a record. Can you believe this? God is no longer keeping a record of my sin. You keep a record of my sin, and I keep a record of my sin, but God does not.
You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibs.com. That's jackhibs.com. And now let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.
And how that settles in your ear right now tonight determines where your heart is in your relationship with God. If you know Him, you say yes. Praise the Lord. If you don't know him, you go. That sounds like a pretty cheap thing to me.
Yeah, it seems that way to you because you don't believe him. You don't trust him, and you got a problem because Jesus says you want to get in the kingdom, you come just like a little baby, you come like a little child, and God says this is how. People get into the kingdom; they are justified freely by faith, and I impute—that is, I give to them freely, unearned—my righteousness, free. Can I add a little bit to that? No.
You want to add to it? You do it on your own, but you're not going to goof up my perfect gift with your little thing. It won't work. It's like, did you ever do this in your kids? It's like you know, it's Mother's Day.
You know, it's Mom's Day. You go up and you're playing around with your little guy, and you get your little plastic cup out there in the backyard. You mix up some dirt, add some water, put some grass shavings in there, and the dandelion thing. Looks like one of those little umbrella cocktail deals. You go into mom, "Hi, mom.
You know, I want to give you something." And you know, she's going, "Oh, that's so great, honey. Thank you so much." You know, bye. She just pours the thing down the drain. Just toxic. You know, there's dirt and mud floating around, and bugs hanging around there.
It's not going to work. The little guy gave it with some intentions, you know. But it wasn't acceptable, and when we come to God through works like that, it's not acceptable. And if we try to work our way in there, Book of Hebrews tells us we have fallen from grace, for we go about to seek a righteousness of our own. Real quickly.
Salvation by grace will always in our lives produce humility, people. We mentioned it at the close of last week. When it says not of works, lest anyone should boast, he's saying to us that salvation by grace will always produce in the person humility. A person who is an arrogant Christian—it is possible to be an arrogant Christian. I think you're backslidden.
But you're arrogant.
Well, you know, you go on with this thing about how great thou art. I remember when I used to struggle with this. I got it now. That's why Paul says you guys better be careful over there in Corinth. You know, you think you're such a hotshot.
That's the very thing you think you're tough in. Oh, I'll never fall to that. Oh man, you're halfway there. Wealth can never bother me. That's a joke.
You may have never had a problem with your wealth, but the moment you say it, he—Satan goes. Did I? What did he just say? Did he say that wealth never bothers him? Listen, he goes back to his one of his buddies.
You know, hey. Slime face, go over here and make him even richer. See how he handles that. Paul says, "Be careful. That very thing you think you're strong in is the thing you're going to fall in." I can handle it.
No, you can't handle it. But salvation by grace will always produce humility in our lives. It's not of us. It's of Him. It's not of works; nobody can boast.
Listen, it excludes all human achievement, and pride. And I want you to grab this: Why did God select Paul the apostle? Back then, Saul of Tarsus, Pharisee. Listen, in Philippians chapter three, beginning at verse three. Listen to the qualifications of Paul in the flesh, and see if you can outdo this guy.
If you want to work your way into heaven, because you have to beat Paul. Philippians three three says, "For we are the circumcision; we're Jewish, truly." Think about it. Who worship God in spirit? Romans chapter two, verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine says of us who have been circumcised of the heart that we are truly Jewish. Did you know that?
How many of you are born again? Raise your hand. Wow! Look around. Look!
Look at all the hands. You can put your hand down. That's great. It's neat. You know what?
Did you did you have this experience when you got born again? Did you feel Jewish, for some reason?
So I'm like, man, I like, I like all of a sudden want to go to Israel, and I, you know, I don't know, it's weird, man. I I got saved, and I got a I put a I got a star of David. I went and bought one at the jewelry store. I just felt like I wanted to be a Jew, and then I came along to Romans two verses twenty eight and twenty nine. And it says, "He who is a Jew, he is not a Jew who is circumcised outwardly of the flesh, but he is a Jew who's been circumcised inwardly of the heart, whose circumcision is of the heart and not of the flesh." And that was the neatest thing.
Wow, and you know what the word Jew, Jewish, Judaism means? It means praise to praise, praiser, a praiser, a worshipper. That's what Jewish means—a a worshipper.
So Paul says here in Philippians three three, for we are the circumcision whose worship. Who worship God in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. That means no circumcision. We don't trust in it. We don't trust in any baptism.
That doesn't do anything to you. Taking communion is not going to save you. Doing penance, anything of the flesh, it won't work. No confidence in the flesh. Though I also, he says, might have confidence in the flesh.
If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, he says, I more so. And you go, man, that's a pretty big statement, Paul. He goes, Oh yeah.
Well, watch this. What day were you circumcised on? Seventh day. He says, I was circumcised on the eighth day. Circumcised on the eighth day.
What tribe or what nation are you from?
Well, I'm from. America, big deal. I'm from Israel. Oh, what tribe are you from? Chino Hills Indians.
I'm from the tribe of Benjamin. Wow. I'm a Hebrew, and not only a Hebrew, I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He says. If you want to brag, he says, "I can brag you under the table, pal." Concerning the law, I was a Pharisee.
I could quote you any verse of the Bible, a drop of a hat. I could do Bible bash and whip you any in a drop of a hat. Just I could even quote the verse before you got the last reference right out of your mouth. Concerning concerning the law. I was right on the Pharisee, and listen concerning zeal.
I I was so zealous that I went around having Christians killed. That's how zealous I was. Concerning the righteousness, was can you say this? Concerning the righteousness which comes by the law, I was blameless. If you're going to get there by works, you're going to have to outdo this boy here.
Listen to this. But what things were gained to me? All of this position and this gain, these I have counted loss for Christ. I love the word in the Greek. It's bandini.
Yeah, no, I'm kidding. It means it means bandini. It's. Garbage. He's going to say this in a moment here.
Yet indeed, I also count all things lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but bandini that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, which is really no righteousness at all. But he says. Which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. And isn't it funny tonight that the world thinks they can work their way into heaven? And the moment somebody comes into the presence of the worldling who is even viewed as being better than they, what does the world say?
Did you did you catch that? Did I lose you? If the world out there is saying you need to work your way into heaven, the moment somebody who is better than them comes into their presence, you know what they do to them? Do you think they lift them up and say, you know, put them on a little gurney and lift them up high and say, hey, this guy's better than us? And we believe that you have to work your way into heaven.
So look at him; he's really good. No, they don't. They say you little self-righteous thing. You. The world gets all upset when somebody better than they walks into the room.
Holier than thou. It bugs them, but yet they'll tell you their message, and their message is be good enough. Contradiction. Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hughes here on Real Life Radio. And his message called Master Moses Meet Father Abraham Part Two.
Thanks for spending part of your day 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. Daniel Cohen here from Israel.
If you love Pastor Jacob's 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.
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.
