Join Pastor Jack Hibbs as he reveals the profound truth behind authentic holiness and justification in the eyes of God. With engaging storytelling and insightful biblical analysis, this episode delves into the heart of what it means to be declared holy by divine fiat. Explore the pitfalls of self-appointed sanctity and gain a fresh understanding of real righteousness powered by faith, not works. Embark on a journey that revisits biblical history, real-life implications, and the transformative power of being justified freely by His grace. This conversation is not just a sermon but a rallying call to true liberation through
I want the world to see me, Jesus is saying. And the best way the world can see me is if I fill up the screen, the vista of your life. And the sooner we realize that, the more liberated we become.
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. Did you know there’s an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today? Check out the Happening Now section at jackhibbs.com. Now, these live events feature Pastor Jack Hibbs alongside special guests diving into current events, cultural shifts, and how they align with biblical prophecy. It’s a unique blend of Bible teaching and real-time analysis that helps you make sense of today’s headlines through the lens of Scripture. Happening Now is not just about information. It’s about equipping you with the truth and encouraging you to stand firm in your faith, no matter what’s happening around you. Now, these discussions are eye-opening, they’re thought-provoking, and they’re a great way to stay spiritually grounded in a rapidly changing world. Whether you watch live or catch up on past events, Happening Now will help keep you connected to God’s Word and what’s going on in the world today. Visit jackhibbs.com and click on Happening Now. Don’t just watch the news. Understand it from a biblical perspective. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues his series called The Parables of Jesus and a message titled Parable of the Unmerciful Servant Part 3. Whenever Jesus spoke to the crowds, he often spoke in parables, right? Now, these are relatable stories illustrated to us in full color, but with common themes. You see, we saw in part one what it means to forgive and to be forgiven. In part two, Jesus tells us to be compassionate toward our fellow Christians just as he is compassionate to us. Now, this takes patience and understanding, and we need to try to treat one another with respect. Here now in part three, we are called to be holy just as Jesus is holy. So in this message, Pastor Jack teaches that by having faith in Christ, he is the one who declares us holy. We in no way can purify ourselves, but only the Lord can wash away our sin. Now with his message called, Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, Part 3, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 02 :
The Bible says in Samuel, 1 Samuel, that God does not look upon the outwardness of a person. But he looks on the inwardness of their hearts and of their character. So think about this. Well, you know what, we have to be careful what we wear. Okay, yeah, we shouldn’t stumble people. But the moment you get into a thing where, watch this, what if, what if we were a church where we were sitting here right now, and this could really happen. So think about your Christianity. I’m holy, everything around me’s got to be holy. And it’s so based upon me and my establishment of my holiness that if anything comes near me, it threatens my holiness and I could become unholy. Did you know that’s exactly how the Pharisees thought? Did you know that the Pharisees would pull their robes up close as they walked by sinners so that their shadow, the sinner’s shadow wouldn’t touch their shadow. I’m not kidding. They would watch out so they wouldn’t be defiled. Jesus said, you are like whitewashed sepulchers. You’re beautiful on the outside, but inside your life is full of dead men’s bones with evil intent and evil desires. So what if we were sitting here at church and we’re worshiping the name of the Lord Jesus. We’ve got his Bible open, and we’re hearing about forgiveness and about the power of God, and a prostitute gets dumped off in the front of the fountain or driveway out here, and she stumbles in half-clothed into the sanctuary looking for a sanctuary looking for help. There will be those who will run to her, and there will be those who will run away from her. The ones who will run away from her every time will be the most vocal regarding their holiness and their awesome righteousness. This is a human fact. It’s a religious scourge. But those who know what it’s like to feel outcast, rejected, and wounded, and be touched by Jesus will run straight to her. Do you hear me? Amen. Those who know that they’ve been forgiven, they don’t have to pull in their robes real tight or wear a special ornament or some sort of knot stuff, whatever, because they have to maintain holiness. We do this because we are holy. You’re not holy. You’re not holy. The word holy means you have been called out of the world and placed into Christ. Watch this. And the moment that happens, in fact, I’ll prove it to you, watch this. The moment that happens, Jesus turns you around and shoots you right back out into the world you came from. See, why doesn’t, when we get converted and come to Christ, why don’t we just drop dead right on the spot and go home to be with Jesus? Listen, because you being forgiven is so much more powerful. Your changed life is so resilient, it is so strong, it is so amazing that Jesus pulls you out of a condemned and poisonous world, wraps you up in his righteousness, changes your heart and your mind, and then infuses you right back into that world, the naked, flesh-cutting, demon-possessed man of Gadara, remember, came and went after Jesus and fell down crying and the demons were speaking out of him and they said, have you come to torment us before our time? We know who you are, thou son of God. And Jesus says, what’s your name? And they said, Legion, for we are many. Remember that? And Jesus said, get out. And they came out and they wound up possessing 2,000 pigs and And that man sat there, now clothed in his right mind, and everything about what happens at that moment is right on. That man says, Lord, I will follow you anywhere. Do you have any doubt about that guy following Jesus anywhere? Man, I don’t have any doubt. And Jesus knew that, so Jesus says to him, tell you what, go back home. Sounds like a disappointment, right? Go back home. The guy, listen, the guy wound up. We understand that he goes back. In the book of Acts, we find out that this guy went, and it’s believed in church history that he goes back to the region of the Decapolis, the 10 cities. And one of them is called Scythopolis. And one of the names of Scythopolis is none other than Beth-shen. The amazing archeological site that’s there today, an amazingly radically preserved ancient Roman city. The chief seat of the region. Jesus sends him back from the culture he came from. And what happened? The gospel. Jesus said, go back home and tell everybody what great things God has done for you. Church, listen, be very careful. know your Christianity, understand what God has done for you at the cross and how much you’ve been forgiven, not to go dabble and go goof off and put your foot back in the sins again. You’ve been set free. As a Christian, that should no longer have power of your life anymore. And God will lead you into a world of hurt. Because God has fixed us. How does he do that? Because he has declared us holy. I have feelings we’re not gonna even make it through this third session today. Listen to this, Galatians chapter two, verse 16. Write these down, this is great for us. Galatians 2.16 says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, wow. but by faith in Jesus Christ, even when we had believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not of the works of the law, for by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. See, self-appointed holiness is none other than religious terror. And you are your power, and you have got to defend that because your strength is all you have. Not when Jesus converts someone. When someone, no matter what they’ve ever done in life, gets forgiven by the power of God, the Holy Spirit moves in, doggone it, I have it in my mind again. I should have brought it. I’ve been tempted to buy this at Toys R Us, and I haven’t done it yet. I need to do it. You know the mask? They have the Iron Man mask? In that movie, the guy is… Armor just goes . And he’s covered in armor. And his mask . And he’s invincible. That’s the Christian. That’s the Christian. The Holy Spirit empowers you with the very truth of God’s word. And it is awesome. And the Bible says that power, the power of the Holy Spirit, clothes us in the righteousness of Christ. He’s the one that makes it happen, the Holy Spirit. Christ provides it and the Holy Spirit appropriates it. That’s why the Bible says walk in the Spirit. When you see Iron Man walking, think of the Christian inside of there. And we walk in the Spirit, we are walking in the power of God. Listen, are you messed up with drugs? Stop trying to fight it on your own strength. You can’t do it. Is it temper? Is it your marriage? What is it in your life? You just can’t do it. Of course you can’t. But the power of God can. And he’ll do it. That’s why the Bible says here in Galatians 2.16 that by the keeping of the law, no one is justified before God. He’s talking about the Ten Commandments and the law of God. Isn’t that good? It’s not only good, it’s perfect. but it’s written in stone. You see, you need something in your heart. And from stone to your heart, even if we beat you to death with the Ten Commandments, it’s not gonna make you any better. It can’t save you. Romans chapter one, verse seven says, to all who are at Rome, Paul’s writing, to the Italians, Beloved of God, called to be saints. Look at your Bibles carefully. Do you see to be? It’s in italicized font. Why? Because it’s not in the original language. It’s for English. It’s for us to understand. The original reads like this. To all who are at Rome, beloved of God, called saints. I like that better. Did you know that? Wait, who sainted them? Jesus. On what authority? His authority. his Father, and the Holy Spirit, God. See, the word saints here is a pretty cool word. Let me tell you what it’s not first. The word saint is not this. Hagos means an awful thing, a condemned thing, hagos. But hagos, an I in the middle of H-A-G-O-S, takes hagos, hagos, a condemned, awful thing, an I is placed in the middle, and it is now a righteous, beautiful, redeemed, holy thing. With just one I, I would like to say the I am in the middle of your life takes you as an awful, condemned thing, and makes you holy, that’s what the word means. A saint is one who’s been declared holy. So listen, to the saints who are at Rome, to the saints that are at Chino Hills, to the saints that are at LA, there’s even saints in Hollywood, somewhere there is, there’s gotta be. Think of it. And it’s not based upon, this is where we stumble, it’s not based upon our performance. It’s, do you believe him? Has your life been changed? Does he consume your existence now?
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 :
The Bible says that a saint is a sacred thing Physically, morally, spiritually, one that is declared to be blameless or ceremonially holy. That which is unholy being declared holy. A saint. That’s what God says. Romans 3, 23 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All means all, ladies and gentlemen. All have sinned. Now, Jack, you’ve got a contradiction here in the Bible. How can people who have, if everyone’s sinned, how can you have saints? I’ll give you one word. Jesus. That’s how, and I’m very glad about that. Being justified, verse 24, Romans 3, 24, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Do you hear that, church? It’s all about him. It’s all about Jesus. We can never become holy by human means. It’s impossible. By human effort, not gonna happen. So watch this now. 1 Peter 1, 15 tells us this. But as he who called you was holy, God is holy, you know. you also be holy in all of your conduct. Because it is written, be holy for I am holy. What does that mean? Some of you hear it this way. God says to you, I’m holy, and you try the best you can. That’s how you feel. Some of you are feeling, it’s like, well, man, I just can’t, I can’t make it. Of course you can’t. Nobody could. He’s saying this, because I’m holy and you’re in my son Christ Jesus now, you’re hidden in the robe of Christ, you go out now into the world and you be holy because I’m holy. Can you imagine some race driver going out here to the speedway and he’s got his Indy car out here? And it looks cool. They’re waxing it. They’re polishing it. He’s got his helmet on. He’s sitting there. He’s ready to go. Everybody, he’s got a pit crew. Everything’s ready to go. Only problem is there’s no engine in the car. Looking good. No power. You can look good, but unless you have the power of God, it’s not going to work. And that power is not our holiness, but God’s holiness. We’re his kids. We walk in him. And so we have no holiness to emanate of our own. We all understand that if we’re honest with ourselves. But the Lord would say this to us. Can you kind of, Jack, just scoot over a little bit? You know, like you’re in the picture. Can you just scoot over? Okay, how about more? Can you scoot over some more? Well, how about some more? Okay, that’s great. But Lord, I’m out of the picture. That’s the whole point, Jack. I want the world to see me, Jesus is saying. And the best way the world can see me is if I fill up the screen, the vista of your life. And the sooner we realize that, the more liberated we become. And you can run to someone who is dropped off at the church doorstep, half naked and abused, and you can run up to her and bring band-aids and bring clothing and bring food because you’re looking past all the world of sin. And you’ve been, well, you know, somebody might think a bad thought. So you let someone bleed out because someone might think a bad thought? No. Let the person be convicted by God who thinks the bad thought. Let people run to her aid, or for that matter, his aid. It’s remarkable. Listen to this, Acts 13, 38. This is Paul speaking. By the way, it’s one of the longest sermons Paul ever gave, written in scripture. Acts 13, you can read it later. It’s beautiful. It’s amazing, actually. He just quotes one Old Testament situation after another, but he comes to Acts 13, 38, and he says, therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man, capital M, Jesus Christ, is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. And by him, everyone who believes is what? Justified from all things. All things. What’s your thing? Come and trust Jesus. He died on the cross for your sins. It’s hell without him. But he wants you to be with him in heaven. And he says, listen, the law condemns you. But if you trust in what I did on the cross for you, you’re justified. You’re declared holy. Who says? Jesus said it. Well, I want to argue about that. Go ahead. I’m not going to argue with him. I’m just going to believe him. But I’m still reading the verse. Justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses and all the church said. That’s radical. This frees us up instantly from this thing of our karma. Our good outweighing the bad. When we say and think things like, well, I’m okay. Okay. Listen, the Bible says we are all sinners and some have been justified and some are not. Do you understand that? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Some are justified and some are not. Why? Because some come to Christ and others won’t. It’s amazing. But the man or woman who puts their trust in Christ receives, listen church, instant, immediate justification. Did you know that? Well, I don’t know. The last church I went to, they were saying I could get in about 10 years. You know I’m telling you the truth. There are some churches, they twist the Bible and they say, well, you know what? If you sign up and if you tithe a certain amount and if you do a certain amount of things, in five years you can get a happy face and you’re well on your way to becoming… sanctified and justified. Not in the Bible. Did you know the thief on the cross was justified and sanctified in a second? Man, think of what he was wearing. He was wearing nothing. Started the day out like a creep. A thief, a bum, a murderer. Listen, this is tough for us theologically, but it is so, so true. You and I, are positionally perfect before God. That’s what the book of Romans is all about, did you know that? Positionally before God perfect, we’ve been declared saints. Isn’t that weird? You know what, so here’s the challenge, we’re supposed to live like it right now. We need to remember that. Have you noticed that you and I, we have the power, we have power, every one of us have power to create people. Now I’m not talking about making babies. I’m talking about destroying babies or encouraging babies. What I mean by that is how we speak to people. We can tell a child, you’re stupid. You’re nothing but a, you’re nuts. You know what? You’re a weirdo. Guess what that kid’s gonna grow up to think about him or herself. They’ll be exactly that. If we tell somebody, you can do it. You know what? That’s fantastic. Come on, let’s try again. Persevere. Let me show you how you can do this. I know you. You know what? They will just absolutely say, Get excited about that. And get excited about life. Husbands and wives, you can always tell husbands and wives on how it is, just look at the husband or the wife. They reflect one another like the sun and the moon. Hey, how’s things going? He goes, great! And she’s like this. The only person who thinks that’s great is the guy who thinks that’s great. We have to be very careful. Positionally, isn’t it amazing? If you have a husband or a wife that’s a Christian, did you know that before the throne of God, God sees that husband or that wife holy? Well, if God knew what he, she, I understand that. Please don’t misunderstand me now. I’m not talking about pretend Christian. At the right time of the day, Satan is a Christian. I’m not talking about people who say they’re Christians. I don’t care what people say about. If somebody came up to me and said, I’m a Satan worshiping pagan, I’d say, all right, nice to meet you. How’s it going? It’s true. What do I expect from this person? You said it, nothing. Why? Because they’re a Satan worshiping pagan person. I don’t expect anything from them except Satan worshiping pagan stuff. Right? The moment someone says, hi, I’m a Christian, it’s like, oh man, this guy just declared the name. Does he know the name? What’s he know? Let’s see. Isn’t that funny? If I’m a pagan worshiping heathen, you’re gonna know in five minutes. But then someone says they’re a Christian, and now I gotta watch them for three months. What are you doing? That guy said he’s a Christian over there. Watch him.
SPEAKER 01 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, Part 3. We’re glad you stopped by to listen today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s new series called The Parables of Jesus. It’s a great 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. Looking for real answers in real time? JackHibbs.com is your go-to destination for resources on faith, world events, and everything in between. Explore Happening Now, where Pastor Jack Hibbs takes a timely, no-nonsense look at today’s biggest issues, blending biblical insight with the latest headlines. Now, whether you’re curious about the world around you or you want guidance on a personal level, Pastor Jack has you covered. And, by the way, don’t miss the Real Life Network. It’s packed with relatable, family-friendly content that really speaks to everyday challenges and triumphs, offering something really valuable for every member of your family. Now, if you’re new to the faith, you want to refresh your perspective, start with that tab that says Know God, an accessible, welcoming space to learn and reflect and Find your footing. Now, whatever your path, jackhibbs.com has the tools and the insights and the encouragement that you need. Tune in, log on, find something real. Once again, the website jackhibbs.com. Do you ever find yourself longing for a deeper spiritual walk? For many believers, the Holy Spirit is just a mysterious idea we hear about on Sundays but rarely live out on Mondays. What if his presence could transform your daily life, fueling you with hope and power and unstoppable joy? What if his guidance could help you navigate through decisions, strengthen relationships, and bring genuine peace to your soul? This month, Pastor Jack Hibbs is featuring Living Water by Chuck Smith. It’s a down-to-earth look at the Holy Spirit who can revolutionize the way you connect with God. Inside, you’ll uncover practical biblical insights to help you walk and step with the Spirit right where you are. No hype, no cliches, just real answers for everyday challenges.
SPEAKER 02 :
This book changed my life. Authored by my pastor, Chuck Smith, the book Living Water, incredible.
SPEAKER 01 :
Living Water is available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. 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.
