Join us as we explore the stark differences between religion and the core tenets of Christianity through Jesus’ teachings. Pastor Jack illuminates how true Christianity stands apart from other belief systems by focusing on God’s grace and lordship, providing a pathway for spiritual growth and eternal salvation. Discover how this parable lays bare the intentions and actions of the leadership of Judaism at the time, and challenge what you think you know about faith and redemption.
If someone has a different opinion of Jesus other than what the Bible says, notice, forget about your opinion and my opinion of Jesus. The Bible doesn’t have an opinion about who Jesus is. You hear me? The Bible declares who Jesus is.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. You know, keeping our eyes off of ourselves and on what would please the Lord and bring Him glory takes a special kind of determination and focus. That’s why starting the day with devotions is a great way towards a meaningful and lasting relationship with Christ. But with tight schedules and hectic lifestyles, we don’t always want to waste precious time searching for inspiring devotional material. So, Pastor Jack has written and provided them for us. Simply go to our website, jackhibbs.com, and click on the tab labeled Devotions. There’s a new one every week, along with quick and easy access to previous devotions with titles such as The Eternal Love of the Lord, Our Awesome God, and Blessings in Abundance. You can even subscribe to Pastor Jack’s devotional newsletter when you type in your email address. Again, it’s available on our website, jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. You can also have access to Pastor Jack’s devotions when you download the Real Life app for your smartphone or tablet. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues his series called The Parables of Jesus with his message titled Parable of the Householder and His Heir, Part 2. Whenever Jesus spoke to the crowds, he often used common everyday themes that the Bible calls parables. But in this case, Jesus goes even deeper. You see, we learned in part one that the message behind this parable about the vineyard is God’s true design for Israel, that in spite of its corrupt religious leaders, Israel would be a source of blessing both to him and to the nations of the world. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that the lordship of God can be seen and recorded in the Bible, and yet it is limitless. We can’t earn our place with God, but through his lordship, he is faithful to deliver us. Now with his message called Parable of the Householder and His Heir, Part 2, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 02 :
Father, we ask in Jesus’ name that you would give us a very, very clear, personal message Personal application to your unchanging eternal truth. What we talk about tonight is not true because we want it to be. It’s not true because we might say it is. There’s not parts of your word true. It is all true. But tonight, Lord, may our hearts ascend to your truth. May we as a people be absolutely convinced bold and excited to rise to your call. We ask, Father, for you to be present by the power of your Holy Spirit as the word of God is opened. And we ask it in Jesus’ name and all of God’s dear children said, amen. Grab your Bibles in and turn, if you would, tonight, church, to Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21 in our third part of what is our ninth parable in our series. And tonight we’re looking at, again, the parable of the householder and his heir. If you have a study Bible, it’s gonna be, they’re listed in Matthew chapter 21 as the parable of the householder, or the parable of the householder and the wicked servants. Now remember, the comments in your study Bible are not inspired. Those are by the publisher. If you break it all down, this is a parable that is regarding the householder, you can insert that in your mind, God the Father, and the heir, which in the parable is none other, as you’ll see, I think strongly tonight, is Jesus Christ. Jesus is speaking about himself, his Father, and the leadership that at the time, even today, we would call Judaism. Judaism. Now we understand Judeo or Christian Judeo culture. We use that term. Justifiably so, accurately. But to understand this, somebody might say, well, there are the three great religions of the world. And I completely disagree with that, by the way. There are many, there’s many more than three, but… When you talk about religions, you’ve got to understand that when you put religion up as the category, then you’ve got to remove Christianity off the list. Do you understand that? You cannot include Christianity among or in a camp of Islam, for example. It’s impossible. They are absolutely diametrically opposed. They couldn’t be further apart. Listen, what we don’t often say is Christianity also is diametrically opposed to what is called in our minds and understanding today, Judaism. Even though as a Christian, when we read our Bible, we sense an association with the land of Israel, supernaturally, that comes out of Romans chapter two. If you wonder why, now that you’re a Christian, you wanna go to Israel, that comes from Romans chapter two. Read it later. If now that you’re a Christian, you want to meet a Jewish person. I remember when I became saved, I wanted to meet a Jew. It’s like, where’s a Jew? Where’s a Jew? I want to hug a Jew. I want to see a Jew because I’m reading my Bible and it’s amazing to me what it’s saying about Israel and the Jewish people. And I want to, I need to find a Jew. I want to hug a Jew. And it sounds like a ministry. Welcome to hug a Jew ministry. Why is that going on? The thing is this, Christianity, and I know you’ve heard this before, but doggone it, it’s true. Christianity’s not a religion. In Judaism, in Islam, in Buddhism, in whatever thing else, it is always a step, a procedure, a ritual, a practice to get to nirvana, or to get to acceptance, or to reach a status. And listen, even in, quote, Christianity, close quote, there is this title that is wrongly applied to religions that fly under the banner of what we would call Christianity, okay? If you are in a so-called Christian religion or a Christian denomination, I’ll put it that way. This ought to generate some mail. and that Christian denomination requires you to do certain things and then God will accept you, that’s not Christianity. If you just tithe, if you’re baptized, for example, by our pastors or our priests, there’s one group in LA that says you’ve gotta be baptized not only by their pastors, but it has to be their water. Literally, their approved water. Wow, amazing. That’s what is called a Christian cult. It uses Christian doctrine, it uses the Bible, but it departs from the true gospel. Now in Judaism, we need to remember something. And if you’re Jewish tonight and you’re here, or those of us who know Jewish people, you ask them, for example, do you believe in the Bible? They’ll say yes. Do you believe in Genesis 1-1, God the creator? Yes. Do you believe in the prophets? Yes. Do you believe in the Psalms? Of course they don’t believe in the New Testament. They’re not even allowed to read it. The rabbis say they can’t read it. Of course the rabbis tell them they can’t read it. Because if they read it, they would find out that it is none other than an eyewitness account commentary of Old Testament promises. You see? You see? And this is where Judaism steers the people of Israel astray. The priests, or I should say, the rabbis say this about scriptures. That for example, Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 and 54 and Proverbs 30 verse four and other portions of the scripture. cannot refer to these things that seem so plain, but it can’t mean that. It can’t mean that God would send an actual Messiah to die on the cross as a Passover lamb, even though this guy Jesus, those Christians worship, say it all happened at these times, which in fact it did happen during those times. But we can’t believe that. Listen, it’s the leadership of Judaism today that is steering the people astray. For 2,000 years, nothing’s changed. They do it today as they did it then. And Jesus, listen, Jesus is speaking to a gathering of people in this proverb or parable, this teaching. And in the crowd, he’s addressing specifically people. the leadership of Judaism, are you with me? So you got this vast crowd of people, but Jesus must have been turning and speaking to them because he draws them out, and they begin a dialogue in front of everybody. Can you imagine being in that crowd? And not only is that spooky if you’re in that group, but when Jesus gives them the parable, they actually answer him back publicly, and by doing so, the answer they give, they condemn themselves. By the way, that’s how God works. I have found out in my life, and maybe you have too, that rarely, rarely, if ever, have I ever known God to allow me or let me in on when he has condemned someone. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a thing. That’s reserved for God. But isn’t it interesting that you and I almost daily hear people condemn themselves because of their view on who Jesus Christ is. Do you hear that? So listen, before we dive into this part three of our message and how far we get tonight, again, only God knows. If someone has a different opinion of Jesus other than what the Bible says, notice, forget about your opinion and my opinion of Jesus. The Bible doesn’t have an opinion about who Jesus is. You hear me? The Bible declares who Jesus is. Not an opinion. Okay? And so when the Bible says this is Christ, this is Messiah, it’s incumbent upon every human to acquiesce or to surrender or to come to that understanding of what the Bible has to say. When people say, no, no, no, he can’t be that. I’m going to make him this. out of your own mouth, your opinion of Christ either agrees with your salvation or you are announcing your own condemnation. Serious, huh? Wow, no wonder why the Bible says that it’s at the name of Jesus that every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess. Why? Because there’s no other name on earth given among men whereby we must be saved.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
SPEAKER 02 :
This may be one of, if not the most, searching parables of all the parables that Jesus gave. Matthew 21, 33, beginning there. Jesus said, hear another parable. There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and he leased it to vine dressers and he went into a far country and they all, as we looked at last week, they all understand what he’s talking about at this. Verse 34, now when vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the vine dressers that they might receive its fruits. And the vinedressers took his servants, notice, those who were presiding over the authorities, granted authority anyway, of the land and of the plants, his servants, beat one, killed one, stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all, he sent his son to them. saying, they will respect my son. But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance. So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, he’s asking them now the question. He set up the scenario. Here’s the question to them. What will he do to those vinedressers? And we know from the context, the chief priests and the scribes said to him, he will destroy those wicked men miserably. Absolutely, by the way, totally destroy them. And lease his vineyard to another vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus said to them, that’s the chief… priests and the Pharisees, have you never read the scriptures? The stone, notice Jesus is using the Bible, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone? This was the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you. and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken. By the way, you want to do that, my dear friend. That’s a good thing. You want to fall on the stone. But on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. Now, when the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that that he was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, isn’t that amazing? They feared the multitudes because they took him, that is Jesus, for a prophet. You would hope that if you heard Jesus speaking to you like that, you’d fall on your knees and beg him for forgiveness. Notice how Jesus sets it up and they got it. For those of you who doubt the personage of Jesus, notice the parable. Every Jew in the audience heard this. When he talked about a vineyard, they knew, and we studied it last time together, they knew he was speaking about the nation of Israel. And then when he talked about vine dressers, they knew that he was speaking about the leadership of the spiritual teachings of the nation. He said, how do you know? I know because they say so. As soon as he was done speaking, they knew he was speaking about them. Isn’t that amazing? And so, what they did when they realized that was, we need to kill him. Their thought was, seizing him to destroy him. How could this possibly be? He just told them, let me tell you a story. There’s a very, very wealthy man who owns a vineyard and he went away for a while and he handed the jurisdiction of the vineyard over to leaders. And at each time of the year, he would send forth his representatives to receive what is rightfully his by the harvest. But they beat those emissaries, those ambassadors, They beat them, stoned some of them, killed them. So then he tells them, and they knew the history of what they had done to the Hebrew, of their own prophets. It was famous. So then Jesus tells them, and watch this. You’re wondering, how can God have a son? God is communicating to us. Jesus is the second person of the Holy Trinity. He is 100% God. On the cross, even when he died, he never ceased to be God. I can’t believe in a God that couldn’t do that. Well, okay, that’s your choice, but I can’t believe in a lesser God. My God can do anything. So can my God. Really? Can your God come down, talk to us, show us the way, and then tell us and show us that he’s not only the fulfillment of scripture, but that he promised that he would come and reveal himself in flesh? that he would take upon us our very pain and situation, and if that wasn’t enough, go to the cross and be our sacrifice. Listen, every religion in the universe has a sacrifice of some sorts that you must give to earn your place, not Christianity. God sent the sacrifice. What can we give God? What can we give him who is eternal? Him who is holy? What can we possibly offer up to him? Our hands are already blood stained. Do you understand? You can wash all day long your hands. And whatever you offer God is still tainted with germs as it were. Right? Think about it. Only God can come and provide the pure atonement for us. It makes perfect sense. Think, think, think for a moment. Those of you who might be trying to earn your place with God or earn your status with God, what are you doing? If you’re in Judaism, for example, where are you making atonement then for your sins? You want to go to a temple? You don’t have one. Where’s your Passover lamb? You’re commanded to offer it up once a year. Are you doing it? What about the Ten Commandments? How is it that when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, he also gave, in giving the Ten Commandments, God also gave Moses the instructions to offer up a blood sacrifice because God was announcing, here’s the Ten Commandments, you’re gonna blow it, you need blood of the innocents to atone for your failure. If you’re a Muslim tonight, how are you gonna get to heaven? If you know you’re Islam, you have no guarantee of heaven. You’re not even sure that when you finally make it, that when you’re going across the blade, over the pit, you walk the blade, that a djinn doesn’t come along and knock you off. You have no promise. And in that very moment, your perception and understanding of Allah, he can reject you in a second. And even if you blow yourself up, because that’s a high, what, greater possibility of entering heaven as a martyr, even then, those who see you blow up will say, may, may Allah accept him. There’s no guarantee. Hinduism, Buddhism, you name it, bring it forth. God is announcing to the world, bring forth your argument. Come, let us reason together, saith the Lord, you and I. Though your sins be as scarlet, remember? Isaiah chapter one, verse 18. He says, I will wash away your sins. Only God can do that. He does that. And so last time in our study, we saw the very first argument regarding this entire thing that Jesus is speaking about, and it’s all about lordship. And with lordship, it encompasses everything regarding what God desires to do in your life. Salvation, discipleship, spiritual development, growth, heaven, sanctification now, positional sanctification, the moment you trust Christ, all of it is wrapped up in his lordship. We need to hear this more than ever.
SPEAKER 01 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, with his message called Parable of the Householder and His Heir, Part 2. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s new series called The Parables of Jesus. It’s a series that highlights the teachings of Jesus while he was here on this earth. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack, we’ve got a great book of the month this month. It’s called Living Water and written by Chuck Smith. And from what I understand, and the listeners might not know this, but you and Chuck Smith, you go back quite a bit. Is that right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. Amazing. First of all, just the Jesus revolution, the Jesus movement. A lot of people kind of think of Greg Laurie in that. But the truth of the matter is Greg Laurie was a byproduct as I, as so many thousands of others were. all because one man decided to obey God and really go against, so to speak, church rules in those days. What he decided to do is let’s do the Bible verse by verse. Let’s do the Bible and nothing else.
SPEAKER 01 :
So, you know, the concept of the Holy Spirit can be difficult to understand for a lot of Christians. What I specifically like about this book is the focus on the Holy Spirit. So how do you think Living Water, this book, stands out from other books about the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, obviously there’s libraries that are filled with books on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit. I’m not knocking any of those books, but it’s impossible to read them all. Chuck Smith had what might be one of the most unique ways of teaching the Bible because even from his pulpit and the thousands and thousands of people that attended his sermons, he just spoke to you as though you were sitting at a coffee table with him. That’s simple. He taught in such a way that you remembered. You remembered what you heard. You remembered what was taught. And in this case, you’ll remember what is written because, frankly, it’s just plump with Bible. And it’s just a tremendously powerful book regarding the power, frankly, of the Holy Spirit active in your life. And so it’s a highly recommended book. It changed my life. It made things that are normally complicated by people. Pastor Chuck just brought it down so simply and powerfully. So it’s such a great resource. I hope everybody gets it and will be blessed by it as much as I have been and as I am, to be honest with you. Yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
Living Water by Pastor Chuck Smith. It’s available right now for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. Did you know that along with the radio program, Pastor Jack also has a TV show called with more of the Pastor Jack Hibbs content that you like. It’s called Real Life TV. If you enjoy Pastor Jack on the radio, you’re going to love him on TV. So check out your local listings or visit jackhibbs.com and catch the latest episodes. That’s jackhibbs.com. 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.
