Join Pastor Jack Hibbs as he continues the compelling series on the Book of James, focusing on how mercy triumphs over judgment. With references to biblical texts and real-life implications, Pastor Jack explores the futility of grading ourselves on a curve. He emphasizes the necessity for divine righteousness in our pursuit of eternity and challenges listeners to consider the freedom found in a genuine relationship with God rather than the constraints of religious labor.
The Bible sets us free. Religion says I’ve got to get on the daily religious grind and do the best and work hard and maybe in the end my good will outweigh my bad. No, God has set us free from religion and brought us to Christ through relationship.
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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.
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On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called The Book of James. Today’s message is called Letting Mercy Rule. Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent to the Jews who chose to follow Christ. And as new believers, James urges them to allow God’s mercy to rule over their hearts. You see, none of us are perfect. That’s the truth. And yet that’s what God demands of us before we can enter heaven. But in his mercy, God sent his perfect son, Jesus, to cover our sin. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that we might consider ourselves as being good, but God doesn’t grade on a curve. If we stumble on just one point, we’re guilty of it all. Now, with his message called Letting Mercy Rule, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
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James 2, verses 10-13, and we’ll be looking at what is entitled, Letting Mercy Rule. As a church this morning, we’re going to be very much encouraged by James to exercise mercy. We just read about it in Psalm 136. James 2, verses 10-13, this morning, James says, “…for whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point…” He is guilty of all. For he who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. And mercy triumphs over judgment. Have you seen stickers, and I’m sure you have, but have you heard the arguments that have been going on for several years about bringing back prayer into class? I remember one year, maybe you do, those of us who are of the same age, one year having prayer in school and standing there with your hand over your heart, giving the pledge to the flag of allegiance there, and in God we trust. And then the very next year, after summer break, we came back having no prayer and no longer being able to mention God in our classrooms because of one woman’s rantic ravings of Madeline Murray O’Hare, who hated God, who hated the one who loved her the most. whose son, by the way, came to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, interestingly enough. But there was no longer prayer. And I kind of chuckle at that. I saw a sticker, like maybe you have seen, where it says, bring prayer back into the classrooms. Well, I also saw a sticker that said, as long as there’s tests and exams and finals, there will always be prayer in public school. Isn’t that true? I don’t care what kind of law they pass. As long as there’s going to be an exam given by the teacher, I’m going to pray. I’m going to bow my head and say, God help me. And one of the things that is often prayed in the classroom, either out loud or silently from every student, no doubt about it, is really basically boils down to one of two types of prayers or maybe both. And it goes something like this. Oh God, please lay it upon the teacher’s heart to have this test graded on the curve. And Lord, cause the smartest kid in the class to be suddenly smitten with brain damage. In Jesus’ name, our loving Savior, amen. You see, grading on a curve elevates those who may not pass the test to a position that is now passable. Is it good to do that? I don’t think so. It is more of a self-esteem movement in the class than bringing the child or the student up to the standard of what they ought to know. It’s very important to realize that when God grades, God does not grade on a curve. God does not say, well, Billy Graham, he’s got an 89.3 on the test. That means all 66.2s get about a C-, and somehow we get in based upon the achievements of another. And yet there are people who think, well, you know what, I’m not as bad as my neighbor. I’m not as bad as the guy across the street. And you begin to judge yourself. among those that are around you. Paul the Apostle says, those who judge themselves among themselves are not wise. God is not great on a curve. God, listen carefully, don’t get up and leave with this next comment. God demands perfection for any of us to enter heaven. We will not get into heaven without perfection. The problem is, how do we get perfection? We have tried, we have prayed, we have fasted, we’ve given money, we’ve pumped our 10 speeds up and down Chino Hills, which would be a real drag to do. We’ve done all these things in the name of Christ. And is that gonna get us into heaven? The Bible says absolutely not. We get into heaven by being absolutely perfect. You say, Jack, you’re not making sense to me. This is the answer. We get into heaven by completely being, can I say, coated or dipped or immersed or covered in the righteousness of Christ. Without his righteousness, there is no entrance into heaven. We can dream all we want. We can be the most law-abiding citizen in our community. And we should be as Christians. We should be examples. But know that none of those examples is what gets us into heaven. The examples that you and I might live out is simply a fact that proves that we know Christ. There may be very moral people in the world. Maybe you’re growing up or maybe you grew up in a very moral home. Sometimes those people are the most hardest people to reach for Christ because they are moral. We’re very clean. We don’t do this. We don’t do the other. And we would never consider that. And we only allow this and that. And then when you share Christ with them, they say, oh, no, we’re very moral people. And they’re grading themselves on a curve. That this is the human standard, and this is what I’ve done. I look around, so I must be okay. And God says, no. The fact of the matter is, we have all sinned, Romans 3.23 tells us, and have come short. The word has actually fallen short of the glory of God. Imagine setting up a bullseye target for archery. I don’t know about my junior high that I went to in Orange County. We had archery. Can you imagine giving junior high kids these days bows and arrows? That would be something to see. See this gang member there, bow and arrow? The little Indians or whatever they might call themselves. Well, back then we used to get spanked for goofing up in school. Hint. Anyway, you would pull out your arrow and you would draw back your bow and you would or draw back the string to the bow and you would let that thing go and if you missed the red target there on the bullseye everybody standing around would go oh brother man what a loser you missed totally you didn’t even hit the whole thing you missed you didn’t even get close your arrow fell short of the target or maybe you went past the target maybe you hit the what the outer part the blue part or the yellow part listen If we miss the red part, the old term for missing the red part was called sin. The judge would say, sin. That meant you missed the mark. We’re mark missers. Every one of us have missed the mark. God says, be perfect. And we put our heads down in chagrin with grief because we can’t be perfect. That’s why the Bible is so wonderfully liberating to people who think they can earn their way into heaven. The Bible sets us free. Religion says I’ve got to get on the daily religious grind and do the best and work hard and maybe in the end my good will outweigh my bad. No. God has set us free from religion and brought us to Christ through a relationship. And James is talking to us this morning about our relationship with God being marked by mercy. Mercy that we exhibit in our lives. The Bible tells us that the Lord of all of the earth will judge the earth in the coming day. At the great second coming of Christ, you can read about that in Revelation 19 and Revelation 20 as well. In the great second coming, Jesus will descend out of heaven, the Bible says, with the bride of Christ and the armies of heaven. And he will come to judge the earth. In Matthew chapter 25, the Bible there tells us that he’ll separate in that great time the sheep from the goats as he divides the nations. And in 2 Timothy 4, verse 1, Paul told Timothy, “…I charge you, Timothy, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead.” at his appearing of his kingdom. Preach the word. Be instant, in season and out of season. Reproof, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. That’s what we’re doing this morning. We’re teaching, going through the word of God. Why? Because there’s a coming judgment and we want to make sure we pass. Don’t you want to pass? Listen, this always comes to a shock to people who have forgotten. Those of us who are Christians, raise our hands. You’ve given your heart to Christ, okay? You can put your hands down. The Bible teaches us in the Bible that every one of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Did you know that? You and I will be judged by Jesus Christ himself alone. Did you forget that? We will, I, by myself, will stand before Jesus and all the things that I’ve done in this body will be judged. And it has nothing to do with getting in or out of heaven. It has everything to do with what’s called rewards in Scripture. You can read about this in the first chapter or second chapter of Corinthians. Paul tells us there that we’re going to receive a reward for the things done, whether good or bad. He’s going to tell us that if we have built in this life upon wood, hay, and stubble, our judgment will be by fire and those things will be burned up, will be saved, he says, yet so as by fire. And then it says if in our bodies we’ve done good works that are like precious stones, gold and silver, they will endure the fire of tests. And at the end of that judgment, the Bible says the Christian will receive a reward. That is in eternity. Every one of us who are believers will be judged, but it has nothing to do with condemnation. Those of you who have never given your heart to Jesus Christ, you have never said, Lord Jesus, come into my life. Save me from my sins. I know that I’m a sinner and I’m asking you, Lord God, to write my name in your book of life. You’ve never said that. You’ve never done that. You have never said in your heart or from your lips, Jesus, I believe you rose again from the dead and you died for me in the cross. and I confess that truth, and I receive you as my Savior. If you have never done that, then right now, suspended over your head, the Bible teaches us, is the judgment of God. In fact, the word in the Greek is, it’s in the present tense, the judgment of God is now active on you. You might say, well, I don’t see anything happening. I’m just doing quite fine. Just got a raise on Friday. Got a new car. Feeling pretty spunky. I’m doing fine. That’s because God’s merciful friend. The Bible says, don’t you know that it is the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance? And by the way, read the fine print. If the goodness of God won’t lead a man to repentance, he’ll use other means. Sometimes he’ll use difficulties. James has already talked to us about that. The fact of the matter is, we, if you and I are going to inherit eternity, and we will, we must be changed. We’ve got to experience a change.
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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.
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In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51 and 52, you know this. We quote it every other week. In fact, I can’t even believe I’m still reading it. I ought to know it off the top of my head easily. He says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, that is, we shall not all die, but we shall be changed, metamorphosed. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will arise first. And we who are alive at that moment will be raptured. The word is caught up in your English Bible. Raptus. We’ll be violently taken off the face of the earth to be meeting our Jesus face to face. It’s a good removal, not a bad removal. It’s a wonderful thing. God will extract his people from the earth. That’s the rapture. But this body can’t make it. Did you know that? Your body? Those of you who were… You’re 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 25 and a half. Right now you’re thinking, I don’t need a new body. I’m just fine. You just wait. You just wait. Oh, your heart won’t change. Your body will. It won’t be able to keep up with your heart’s desire. You run after Jesus and do all the things. Your body’s going to struggle. Your body’s going to resist. This body cannot inherit eternity. It won’t work. You and I must either be A, raptured, or B, die. Right over our heads, I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but at about 15,000 feet over our heads right now is the descending final approach pattern to LAX. You’ll see 747s. In fact, during the course of this message, I’m weird about things like this. I’m sorry to tell you, but about every one and a half minutes, a jet at 15,000 feet will fly over this church heading into Los Angeles. They’re at 250 degrees west, 250 west, flying right straight into LAX. 747s, 777s, 737s, DC-10s, L-1011s, big heavy pieces of machinery. And if they, one of them, fell out of the sky right now and landed, or I should say embedded itself in the sanctuary, chances are we would die. And the moment that this carcass dies, we instantly arrive in the presence of God. We will be changed. Listen, you wanna experience something new and radical? As Christians, we have no option with where James has taken us this morning, and that is to exercise mercy among each other as a church, or else there’s a good chance, like Martin Luther will state to us in a little bit, that we don’t know Christ at all if we’re not merciful people. So he says here in verse 10, he says, for whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty. of all the first thing I want you to see here is that the truth of God bears witness to his existence the truth of God bears witness of his existence it says for whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point and here’s the push He’s guilty of all. You ought to circle that word guilty. You can be an evolutionist this morning and you’re feeling guilty about something, aren’t you? Or don’t you? The very fact that you can feel guilty. You can be an atheist and you’re sensing a bit of guilt. Why is that the case? If you’re just an animal, how in the world can you feel or sense guilt? Because there’s a God seated on a throne in heaven? Because God does not grade on a curve. His standard is righteousness. That’s why you experience guilt. That’s why the Christian who comes to Christ, there’s the release of guilt. And for 21 years, I have not felt guilt in my life. I’m not saying I didn’t sin. I’m saying that when I sinned, I went to Christ and I said, my God, forgive me, Lord. I sinned against you. Forgive me. And joy flows into my heart and I’m restored. That’s the life of a Christian. But for a non-Christian, you’re under the yoke of guilt. And you’re trying alcohol or you’re trying drugs or you’re trying maybe various relationships to find some alleviation. And it doesn’t come. Why? Because James says, whoever shall keep the whole law. He is really, really getting us against the ropes right now. He’s almost being sarcastic. Whoever shall keep the whole law. Who do you think would even begin to entertain the fact that they are keeping the whole law? The self-righteous. The self-seeking. James says, whoever is to keep… The whole law. Yes, keep saying James. He says here with this incredible shock, and yet stumble at one point, he’s guilty of all. Do you know what James is saying? He is saying, in fact, look at it this way. You’re holding a plate over your head with a house of cards built on the top. If one of those cards fall, what do you think is going to happen? All of them will fall. They will all fall down just because one fell. Or you can be hanging from a great chain. Did you see that guy in the news? He slipped and fell at that high-rise beam built in New York, and he was suspended by his fingers on a steel I-beam out in the open 22 stories above New York City streets. And his fingers were beginning to slip. One, two, three. He had time. He had a moment. And he was saved, by the way. But what if you were hanging by a chain and you’ve got 10 links to that chain labeled 1 to 10? Which number needs to break before you fall? Oh, as they say in the market, pick a number. Any number. Number 9. You broke number 9. Down you go. Oh, you broke number 1. Down you go. You’re going to go. And the Bible tells us that the human race has already gone. The law stands in front of us and convicts us of sin. And look, you know this is true. You know in your heart this is true. There’s a speed limit out there on the highway right now. That law stands there like this. And the moment you go over that speed limit, what do you start doing? Your neck starts going all around you. Be honest to yourself. You’re looking. Is there any police officers? Is my radar detector working? Why? You’re guilty. Come on, you know it. Well, nobody caught me. But you’re guilty, aren’t you? There’s a law. And God says, this is the Ten Commandments and you are to live by this. And we can’t. We can’t do it. We fail. And that’s the whole point. We were to come to the Ten Commandments and say, my God, I can’t make it. And that’s why Jesus steps onto the scene and says, I’ll fulfill the law. You come into eternity on my glory, in my train, on my robe of righteousness. The law stands there condemning us, not lifting us up. The law of God points the finger to everyone and says, you’re guilty. I should go like this. You’re guilty. So that all mankind, the Bible says, might stand with their mouths stopped before God. We’re all guilty. So how do we get to heaven? By Jesus Christ and trusting in him. Not by thinking somehow our good will outweigh the bad. No, the truth of the matter is guilt is a proof of God’s existence and even his very conviction of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Truth can never be extinguished. It is true that we are marked missers, we’re sinners, but the fact of the matter is Jesus Christ has died and his righteousness holds true and we come to him by faith, we receive his righteousness by faith, and we await his coming for us. The Bible says we are guilty. The whole world is guilty. I jotted this down. Maybe you saw the ad for this. Have you ever heard of a program called Melrose Place? I’m sure nobody in this church has ever watched that terrible program. I saw a commercial. I saw a commercial, and it was terrible. And on the commercial, it said, Melrose Place, guilt-free TV. And it shows Heather Lockyer, whatever her name is, ripping off her top. Three times in the commercial, she’s taking off her top. Melrose Place, guilt-free TV. Oh yeah, who says? The world says. After all, we’re grading on the curve. And God says, no. No. fact is we have an internal consciousness that’s been given to us by God to convict us. Pinocchio called him Jiminy Cricket. We call him the Holy Spirit. He convicts the world of sin. An internal consciousness. There’s an internal awareness of God.
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Now don’t think, if you’re visiting, I’m not getting into some kind of new age little meditation thing here, but Christ consciousness that is really focused on your navel. that there’ll be a one well unity of your spirit. You know, I’m not talking about that kind of stuff.
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I’m not talking about the consciousness that you get as you focus on some crystal sitting on a rock underneath a pine tree. God has written eternity in the hearts of every person.
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pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called Letting Mercy Rule. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on being doers of the Word and not just hearers only. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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You know, the Apostle Peter in his letters to the church urged his fellow Christians to keep on learning and growing in the faith, in spite of their suffering and pain. Unlike today, however, resources were scarce. Still, they persevered, and Christ followers were growing in both strength and numbers. Now there’s no limit of ways to access quality materials on Christian living, including Pastor Jack’s website. When you go to jackhibbs.com and click the media icon, you’ll find not only real-life radio episodes, but real-life podcasts, real-life TV, real-life basics for Christian growth, and even news updates. There’s also specific verse-by-verse studies from books of the Bible and so much more. So head on over to our website at jackhibbs.com and click on the media tab. That’s jackhibbs.com.
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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.
