Today on Real Life Radio, he's plotting right now in my life, and in your life, he's plotting right now your demise. Are you a Christian? He's plotting your destruction. Can he? Can he?
What do you mean, my destruction? Can I like not make it to heaven? No, you'll make it to heaven. Jesus will see to it to that. But he'll ruin your witness.
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. Hey everybody!
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Stand strong in Jesus. Join us for Election Night at RealLifeNetwork.com. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues with his series now called "The Book of Ephesians," and a message titled "From Death to Life, Part One." 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 just how far God reached out to rescue us. You see, before we came to Christ, we were walking through life without purpose or really any real hope.
But this dark truth is exactly what makes the good news shine so brightly. It's the backdrop that lets the light of God's grace shine through.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that here on earth we have three enemies: the fallen world we live in, the devil, and our own flesh. But make no mistake: even with all that coming against us, we have hope in Christ, who sets us free from whatever darkness comes our way.
Now, with his message called "From Death to Life, Part One," here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. A tremendous thing—the world system to tread all around and to walk about at large, to be occupied with it, to love it—and it's the picture. The picture's painted like this: the world. And and we walked like that once, but the world is like that. It's the world.
You know, if you you're driving on Interstate 15 to Salt Lake City and you're 45 minutes away from Vegas. And you can see the hills glowing at three o'clock in the morning. The hills are glowing over the mountains. Like, what is going on? You're wondering, what is going on?
And you come around the hill, and what do you see? You see way out there. You see Vegas. And you know people like they they turn the corner and they see the oh Vegas. You know, they're like, oh man, the world.
Oh, and and it's like nuts. The world loves the world. Jesus says the world is in love with itself. It loves the world. The world loves its own.
It's amazing. And and we're not of the world anymore. Jesus says we're not of the world anymore. He says if we were of the world anymore, the world would love us. The world hates us, and it goes down to that simple thing.
The world can't stand us. Because I think this sounds a little simplistic, but when you were maybe you know going to the party for the first time in your life, and people are standing around, and there's always somebody there, there's always somebody that just oh come on, come on, have a beer, you know I'm nine years old. Oh come on, or whatever you know, come on. And the more, the more that the ringleader can get, the more people he can get in his sin. The more comfortable he feels, and he listen.
This is a trick, and young people in here listen. It's a trick. The more people that this calloused heart can get doing his thing, he feels more justified, and he feels a little bit less responsible to God because he's not the only one doing it. Everybody's doing it. That's why he says, "Come on, do it." Oh, come on!
Everybody's doing it. Come on. What they are saying is that I'm guilty, man. I feel guilty. But I want to do this.
But there's this struggle within me. And if more of you do it, I won't feel so bad. It's a trick. But the world loves its own. And he's talking about walking around this world system, and the world saying, "Come on, baby, enjoy.
This is great. This is the world, man." And you go outside, and you go to other places of the world, and you know what those countries want to be like? They want to be just like America. Statue of Liberty? No way.
They want to do the things Americans can do. Wouldn't it be awesome if we were exporting holiness and righteousness? The Bible says that if a nation has holiness and righteousness in its borders, it will flourish as a country. You want to know why they found gold in America, in California? It changed the course of the world.
We're not talking America here. The gold rush of 1849 changed the course of human history. But do you know what the next gold rush was on the heels of that monetary bonanza? Was the gospel going out to all the world on the heels of our wealth? And it was up until 1954, I believe it was, where the United States Congress supported the evangelistic opportunities of the world through legislation.
It was law that a portion of the national budget went to evangelism. 1954 struck down. Got our eyes off God. This word "course," the word "course" simply means the age or the trends or fads. Isn't that funny?
You got to jot that down, parents. You're going to really want to jot this down in a minute, because it does mean trends and fads, the present as well as the future. The spiritually dead are dominated by the worldview and world social agenda. It is this thing: the Earth is our mama, Mother Earth. It's our home.
It's our thing, and that belief system, that that home base of the world being in the heart. This word here, of course, trends and fads. Isn't that something? Trends and fads. Isn't it funny?
You go. You need some shoes. Let's go get you some shoes.
Okay.
So you get in the car and you point your car towards Target or Ross. What are you doing? Going to get you some shoes. It's like I'm not going to get the shoes there, man.
Well, what do you mean? Isn't it funny how our own kids have gotten sucked into the trend, fad thing? That's the world. That's the world cosmos. It's the chorus of this age.
And you know what's really fun about this? This scripture implies, we'll see in a moment, that Satan's behind the trends and the fads. Isn't that weird? It's not Madison Avenue. It's not Calvin Klein.
Well, you can you can you can figure Calvin Klein. It's funny though. You take you take something that's just not so used or not used. Doesn't matter what the brand is. Go to some other part of the world.
And you say you like to have a pair of shoes, and they go for me. Are you serious? You brought those for me. They don't go. These are not air walks.
Get out of here. Are ya? No, isn't that amazing? Wherever a society is, what I would say, abusing the blessings of God, decadent, there is this picky thingy. Fad and trends, pop culture type stuff.
It's Satan, I think, warming up. It's excellent what he's done, because he's mixed a lot, a lot, a lot of good stuff in with some bad stuff, and it goes down a lot easier. The world and the church is swallowing it right down. Listen, what goes in? Isn't it funny?
Check this out. And if it's not true. I stand corrected. I know it's true. You listen to some songs, and which ones will Satan bring back to your memory three days later?
Which one will you wake up and go, "Hey, man, it's not Perry Como." It'd be that song that's off. And you go, why am I remembering that song? He'll Satan will use that arsenal. It's okay to him. He's been around a long time.
He'll let you suck in fifteen fairly non, what do you call it, gray songs. No problem. They could go either way. They could go either way. And he'll slip in a real good one.
And then three days later, he'll draw up the good one out of your heart and put it into your head and have you start thinking about it. It's a trick. Does it all the time. Second thing I want you to see behind the scenes of all the world and its system. That's the number one thing is the devil himself.
He's the Oz behind the scenes. He's pulling the strings and turning the wheels and moving the curtains. He's the he's the Oz, the devil. Look what it says. It says according to the prince of the power of the air.
Can you believe this? The prince of the power of the air. What does prince mean? Prince means the first one, the first one, the first prince. Lucifer, Satan, number one in rank and in authority and in power and in get it magistrate, the prince.
He was God's first prince, Lucifer. Prince says, in power. This word power is the word that means jurisdiction or right, or strength over a region. That's Satan's power. He's got strength given to him.
He's a prince of the power. He's got domain, rule, and authority over what? Over air, the air. And what is this air? It is the Breeze that can be translated wind or atmosphere.
He's got power over it. It's his domain. It's his rule, and he knows it. And listen, God knows it. It's his domain.
Want to hear something bizarre? You want to jot this down. By the way, remember Satan never sleeps. He's not omnipresent. He doesn't know everything, and he doesn't.
He's not omniscient. He's not omnipresent. He can't be everywhere at once. He can only be at one place at a time. I mean, he's got to make his rounds.
He can't be everywhere at once. Aren't we glad? But he's got his little goobers everywhere. But he never sleeps. And he's at work today in the world.
Listen, John twelve thirty one. John twelve thirty one says, Jesus says, "Now this is the judgment of the world, and now shall the prince of this world be cast out." Jesus Christ called Satan the prince of this world. Jesus said in John sixteen eleven that the prince is judged. He says the ruler of this world is now judged. In one version, I think it's the Old King James that calls calls him the Prince.
In John sixteen, eleven. In Second Corinthians four, three, Satan is called the supreme magistrate. Can you believe that? It is said there that Satan is the God, little g, of this world, and the word there means supreme magistrate. Yeah, it's been given to him, but he is the kingpin over it.
Isn't that amazing? And what's my point? The point is, Satan's got this little globe, and he's hugging it, and he's duping every person. Every one of us are born with a handicap. We're born with sin, and his goal is to keep that globe stupid, blind, deaf, dumb, and naked to spiritual things.
And he'll keep those people wrapped up. And that's his passion, and he'll fight to the point where Peter says he's like a lion seeking whom he may devour. 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. One thing I want you to realize too is that Satan. I'm going to give you three other things. This is number two, the devil.
Number one is the world. These are the things that are accomplices to your death. But I'm going to give you three things under Satan here. That number one, Satan is at work in the life of the believer. We're going to have to go quick.
Jot this down. Satan is at work in your life, and I know most of you have caught on to this. But he is the devil, you know. The word diablos, it is the slanderer, and that just fit means slander. Revelation twelve ten says that he accuses us before God day and night.
Can you believe that? Isn't what he did now? Day and night. Look at God. Did you see what he did now?
Day and night. And God just says, day and night. Look what he did now. All of these accusations, day and night. Revelation twelve ten.
All day, all night. I've known people like this. Anyway, the next thing, the next thing is that he's the tempter. He'll set you up. Satan is the tempter.
He will set you up. He's plotting right now in my life. And in your life, he's plotting right now your demise. Are you a Christian? He's plotting your destruction.
Can he? Can he? What do you mean, my destruction? Can I like not make it to heaven? No, you'll make it to heaven.
Jesus will see to it to that. But he'll ruin your witness. He'll destroy your effectiveness. All of us have that going against us right now. The more you're being used by God, the more he plots and schemes and sets up traps, and the more subtle they are.
He's the tempter. First Thessalonians three five. Paul says, "I send to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain." Satan can destroy your effectiveness.
Next thing that Satan does is that he attacks the life of the church. How's that?
Well, by to by confusing the church. He'll get the church into a confused state. He'll quench the work of the church, and he'll do everything possible to discredit the church. All you got to do is turn your TV on right now to discredit the church. You know how it happens to the media.
Satan loves that stuff. Discredit the church. I told you before. It's a the girl that does my hair. She's done my hair for a long time and.
And she knows where I'm coming from, and that's fine, and all that stuff. But man, before I found this girl to cut my hair, you know, you go around places and you sit down in the chair, and they go, "So, what do you do?" And it's like, oh, you know, and you want to lie, you want to say, "I'm a brain surgeon." You got to see what happens.
So, what do you do? I'm a pastor, huh? You know, it's like. And all of a sudden, you're done. We're done.
It's really weird.
So it depends on the mood I'm in, and I'm talking to the person. You know, what's going on? Oh, you know.
So what do you do? I'm a feminist counselor, or you know, it's tough. I'm a pastor. They think, oh, he must make five hundred million dollars a week, drive a stretch Mercedes, and you know, it's like weird, sad. the the the world loves to discredit the church.
So does Satan. Listen, he does this with all his. Goodies in one basket, and that basket is to absolutely to divide and prevail over the Church of Jesus Christ, which Jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail. Does Satan believe that? No, he's a liar.
Jesus says he's a liar from the very beginning. What happens when a person lies so much they begin to believe their own propaganda? That's why Jesus says the gates of hell are not going to prevail. You know what Satan says about that? Oh, yes, they will.
You just watch. He believes it. When we read our Bibles and he listens, he doesn't believe we're going to win. He thinks we're going to lose because he's believed his own lie. Jesus said he's a murderer from the very beginning.
When did that happen? Garden of Eden. He killed them. He killed Adam and Eve. The day that you sin, you shall surely die.
He killed them in one day. They died spiritually in an instant. They were dead. Satan, listen. Whatever Jesus does, Satan wants to do the opposite.
Whatever Jesus wants, Satan wants the opposite. Whatever Jesus loves, Satan hates. Because Jesus loves you, he hates your guts. And read your Bible. He'll cuddle up to you, give you a smooch.
He'll think he'll make you think you're the greatest thing in the world, and then he'll stab you right in the back. And you've you've seen that personified in people's lives. Jesus loves the lost world out there. Satan hates them. And then the scripture says in verse two that the spirit—it's the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience—the spirit, the numa, the spirit, this attitude, this work of Satan is throughout the scriptures.
And First John chapter two eighteen, the scripture tells us that it's the spirit of the antichrist. Against Christ in that case, but then the Bible says the Antichrist will come, and it's not going to be so much that he's against Christ. Yes, he is, but anti meaning instead of. It's a spirit that denies that Jesus Christ has come, and this word works means to be active and efficient. The Scripture says right here.
That the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience—this word is an active, hard-working to accomplish His. Dastardly deeds in the world. He's hard at it. And then the third thing regarding this is that Satan is at work in the life of the lost to keep them blind and dumb to the things of God. I quoted it earlier.
Second Corinthians four three and four four says, but even if our gospel is veiled, it's not understood. It is veiled to those who are perishing, that is, going to hell, whose minds the God Satan of this age has blinded. Them who do not believe. If you do not believe in the gospel tonight, it's because Satan has totally got you. He's got you nailed down.
We could go on and on about this. We don't have the time. The point is here: Satan deceives people. He steals the souls of people from the Lord, and he's out to kill you. And the third and final thing that's against you it is the world, it is the devil, and it says right here it is the flesh.
Verse three it says, "Among whom also we all once, thank God, once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh." And of the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Though flesh is against us, that's our own flesh is still against us. Listen to this: the Bible says in First Corinthians six, do you not know that the unrighteous will not see the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators—that's it—are you single and having sex with somebody?
Nor idolaters, are you worshiping something else other than God? Nor adulterers, that is, having sex with a married person. Nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous people, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but watch—you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit. Isn't that awesome?
Used to be a an adulterer, aren't you glad? Praise God! You used to be. Oh, Jack! It's so terrible to have been one of the.
Hey, you know, I'm sorry. Calm down. Join the club. Because if you were not an adulterer, you were probably a fornicator. And if you weren't a fornicator, you were probably an extortioner.
And if you weren't an extortioner, you were probably a drunk. And if you weren't a drunk or a drug user, you were probably a reviler. You had a temper. And if you weren't any of those things, you were something else, because all of sin comes short of the glory of God.
So what's the deal? This humongous backdrop falls behind us that's black velvet.
Now that we're saved, He takes that black background and causes us to shine. And our lives have been redeemed. It's a great thing, and next week we'll get into the shiny parts. Let's pray, Father. It is overwhelming to look at all the arsenal of the enemy.
We didn't even hit them. We didn't even touch on them. But Father, to realize that He is certainly against us with a vengeance that cannot even be measured, but it must be pretty intense. For it to warrant the Son of God to come and die on the cross for our sins to set us free, Lord, it's a great way to live. And thank you, Father, for the victory we have in Jesus.
Even when we blow it and trip up, we can get right back on track because it's that old nature that fights against this new nature. And Lord, we choose today to follow Christ. We thank you, Lord, that that choice that you've given us. Lord, is to your glory and to your praise. We couldn't save ourselves, and Father, I don't know.
In this place tonight, there may be those who have never personally met you. They don't have this hope. Still swallowed up in that black background, without any shining, without any blessing, without any peace. Father, I pray tonight that you'd cause them to want to receive your goodness and to have this life. Father, we praise you and we love you, Lord, for what you've done for us.
In Jesus' name, Amen. Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibs here on Real Life Radio with his message called "From Death to Life, Part One." 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.
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/noGod. 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 No God tab at jackhibbs.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 your. 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.
