Master Moses, Meet Father Abraham - 2B

David J: Today, on Real Life Radio.
Jack Hibbs: 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.
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. There's a story every family should watch together. A story about faith, courage, and conviction that built this nation. The American Story is a new documentary film from Pastor Jack Hibbs and historian Tim Barton that brings America's founding to life, filmed at the actual places where it happened. Hear the stories of pilgrims, the first Great Awakening, and the revolution itself, tracing the conviction that liberty and human rights ultimately come from God. And when you pre-order The American Story on DVD, we'll also send you the Gift Thanks Holiday Kids Guide free, filled with Thanksgiving history, family activities, and biblical lessons on gratitude for the next generation. Pre-order today ahead of its Thanksgiving Day release and receive a free Thanksgiving Kids Guide with your gift to Real Life. Visit jackhibbs.com or call 877-777-2346 to pre-order yours now. Once again, that website jackhibbs.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 Hibbs.
Jack Hibbs: 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 and I 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 it. Everybody. That ought to give you a clue right there. Salvation is of the Lord. It's freely given. Yeah, 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'll 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 100 Ways to Be Humble. I saw a guy on TV. I won't mention your his name cuz 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 uh I'm not the guy to be around after a Sunday service. And uh cuz you know that 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 uh and so I'm pretty depressed, so I turned on a a television station nearby in Santa Ana that I will not mention. And uh and so I'm watching this thing and this guy says that he says you need to get this video 29.95. Uh he said 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 29.95 in, greatest message that I have I says this is true 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. After 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 cuz on my block I was the nicest guy. I gave more money than anyone. In fact, that Melchizedek that guy came by and I gave him some money and blessed him and you know what? I 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 debts. Okay, God, I don't need this grace stuff. That's for wimps. I'm going to 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 you know a little thing on the little deal on the side, little change thing. Little nickels come out. Ice cream man's got on his hip. Here you go, 50 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 going to keep these standards and I'm going to In your heart's right, but you don't have the power to do anything to pull it all off and you might come close. The scripture says if you offend the law in one point, you're guilty of it all. But you're trying and you get me 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 uh get in the shower, shut the door and I was at this with the the conference. So I 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 is just you're going to 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 uh this the soap rack thing that was like made out of razor blades, you know. And I didn't think anything of it. I just wow, that's smart. Anyways, so I'm just kind of sudsing along and this the drains getting red and you know, man, what is this? You know. Now that's all it went for me. I was just, 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 here? I would have What in you know and and so 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 75 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. It's 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.
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: 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 cuz 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 you most Mother's Day, you know, it's Mom's Day and you go up and then you're playing around with your little guy and you get your little plastic cup out there in the backyard and mix up some dirt, add some water, put some grass shavings in there and a dandelion thing. Looks like one of those little umbrella cocktail deals. You go to Mom. Hi Mom, you know I want to give you something. And you know she's going to, oh that's so great, honey. Thank you so much. You know, bye. She just pours the thing down the drain. It's toxic. You know there's a dirt and mud floating around and bugs hang around there and 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 your backsliding. But you're arrogant. Oh, 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 hot shot. That's the very thing you think you're tough in. Oh, I'll never fall to that. Oh man, you're halfway there. Uh 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 Imagine Satan goes, did did I What did he just say? Did he say that wealth never bothers him? Listen. He goes back to 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 achievements in 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. Cuz you have to beat Paul. Philippians 3:3 says, for we are the circumcision. We're Jewish. Truly, you think about it, who worship God in spirit. Romans chapter two verses 28 and 29 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 look at all the hands. You can put your hand down. That's great. It's neat. You know what? Did you uh did you have this experience when you got born again, did you feel Jewish for some reason instead of 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 like 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 2:28 and 29 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, who's 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 worshiper. That's what Jewish means, a a worshiper. So Paul says here in Philippians 3:3, 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. And he goes, oh yeah? Well, watch this. What day were you circumcised on? Uh seventh day. He says, I was circumcised on the eighth day. Circumcised on the eighth day. What tribe uh or what nation are you from? Well, I'm from America. Big deal. I'm from Israel. Oh. What tribe are you from? Uh 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 I can brag you under the table, pal. Concerning the law, I was a Pharisee. I could quote you any verse of the Bible drop of a hat. I could do Bible bash and whip you any in a drop of a hat. It is just I can even quote the verse before you got the last reference right out of your mouth. Concerning uh concerning the law, I was right on. The Pharisee I 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 gain 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 loss 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. I'm holier than thou. It bugs him. But yet they'll tell you their message and their message is be good enough. Contradiction.
David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs 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: 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.
Jack Hibbs: 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.
David J: 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.