Join Pastor Jack Hibbs as he navigates through a poignant episode centered on the theme of faith and its vulnerabilities. The discussion revolves around the trials faced by David as he wrestles with deception and fear, revealing the depths of his human struggle. Throughout this biblical exploration, Pastor Hibbs emphasizes that while our faith may falter, God’s grace remains unyielding. Engage with this episode to discover how biblical stories offer profound lessons relevant to our contemporary spiritual journey, anchored in trust and divine assurance.
We are victims of a very perverse age in church history. We are told to have faith in faith. This is evil doctrine. Oh, just have faith. Just say to yourself, I’ve got faith. Listen, the Bible doesn’t say to have faith in faith. The Bible says to have faith in God.
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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 now with his series called first samuel and a message titled when faith fails samuel of the old testament was the last judge of israel and the first of her prophets so here in chapter 21 we’ll consider how david is now living like a man without god as troubles begin to appear you see when our faith fails us our old life makes a comeback and we struggle with the truth David, he’s on the run, fleeing from King Saul. Now, he’s in a spiritually very weak place, fearful, desperate, and unsure of God’s protection. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that when we have a breakdown in faith, it doesn’t mean that God has withdrawn from us. God is still at work, as he is in David’s life, even in our weakest moments. Now, with his message called, When Faith Fails, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
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Tonight, 1 Samuel chapter 21 in our Bibles, and we come now to a message entitled, When Our Faith Fails. When Our Faith Fails. And it may be a very trying thing when our faith fails. It happens to all of us. Peter experienced that when his faith began to fail. And Jesus, in fact, prophesied. He told Peter, he said, Peter, Satan has asked me for you to sift you as wheat, Peter. And Jesus said to Peter, when you return, strengthen your brethren. I’ve always been amazed and marveled at that portion of scripture because Jesus was telling Peter there’s gonna come a time in his life that would be so trying, would be so difficult. Now listen, some of you need to hear this. Peter, your faith will fail. Satan will sift you as wheat. To sift wheat in those days, and the word that Jesus used meant that a log would be embedded with spikes. and that log would be strapped to a donkey or an ox, and it would roll and drag back and forth the wheat for endless hours until the wheat was separated from the chaff, and the wind would blow and leave only the fruit of the wheat. And so Jesus was prophesying to Peter, Peter, you are going to be absolutely sifted by Satan. Nothing’s gonna remain. but good. And when you come back, strengthen your brethren. And we know from the gospels when that happened. Do you remember when Peter, when his faith failed, he denied Christ some three times, denied the fact that he even knew Jesus at all. And he ran in the rooster crowed the third time. Can you imagine the condemnation that must have settled upon Peter? The darkness, the terror that he had forsaken his Lord, that his faith had failed. Did Jesus scold him? Did Jesus reject him? Not at all. In fact, the Bible tells us that in the resurrection, Jesus says, go tell my disciples I have risen and tell who? Peter, specifically. Oh man, that tells us volumes, doesn’t it? Has your faith ever failed? Sometimes, and listen, we are victims of a very perverse age in church history. We are told to have faith in faith. This is evil doctrine. Oh, just have faith. Just say to yourself, I’ve got faith. And you keep telling yourself that you’ve got faith. And if you have enough faith, or if you just keep encouraging yourself about your faith, you can do anything. You can be rich. You can be healthy. I’d like to be healthy right now. If you just have enough faith, have faith in faith. There’s very famous people on TV and radio saying, have faith in faith. Listen, the Bible doesn’t say to have faith in faith. The Bible says to have faith in God. He’s God. Our faith can falter, but the one who holds us in the palm of his hand will not falter. Our faith can be weakened by trials and difficulties of this life, hardships. Know this, Christian, that when your faith, when my faith is brought to the brink and we judge ourselves and conclude, I must not be a Christian. I am worthless as a believer. What good am I? Many of us know in this church that it’s at times like that, the grace of God floods in like a storm and we are strengthened. But that strength only comes in very trying moments of life. David is going to show us something about faith and when it fails. 1 Samuel chapter 21, it says, verse 1, Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest and Ahimelech was afraid when he met David and said to David, why are you alone and no one is with you? So David said to Ahimelech the priest, the king has ordered me on some business and said to me, do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you. or what I have commanded you. And I have directed my young men to such as such as place. Now, therefore, what I have on hand or what you have on hand, give me five loaves of bread in my hand or whatever can be found. And the priest answered David and said, there is no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread. If the young men have at least kept themselves from women, then David answered the priest and said to him, truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day. So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there but the show bread.” which had been taken from before the Lord in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doag, or you can say dog. The Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen, who belonged to Saul. And David said to Ahimelech, is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king’s business required haste. And so the priest said, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you take it, take it. There is none other except that one here. And David said, there is none like it. Give it to me. Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul and went to Achish, the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands? Now, David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. And so he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate and let his saliva fall down on his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, look, you see, the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? Have I need of madmen that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come to my house? What a bizarre chapter. Is this David? This is David. This is us when our faith fails. What is he doing here? What has become of our incredible giant killer, our hero? The guy’s acting like a loony. What’s happened? This is not the character of the man that we’ve come to love. A few things we consider tonight as we look to our study when our faith fails. Number one is this, found in verses one through six. When our faith fails, our old life makes a comeback. Have you noticed that, people? Now I’m gonna be hitting a lot of things tonight that are convicting. And the reason why I know that is because I’ve been convicted putting this message together. So I’m gonna assume, you don’t have to do it, I’m gonna assume tonight that you’re gonna be nodding and saying, yep, I know what you mean. Because I know that you know what I mean. Whenever our faith gets off of God, Whatever comes our way and we begin to become subject to the pressures of this life, whatever they might be, in your life, in my life, they come in and whatever it is, it can be a cloud so dark that we can begin to get our eyes off of God. Again, Peter was walking on the water. We often ask questions like, oh, well, who do you know who ever walked on water? Well, we know the answer to that. It’s Jesus. And we answer rightly. But how often does it enter into our minds that Peter also walked on water? We don’t often think of Peter walking on water. Peter walked on water too, but he sank in that water when he got his eyes off the Lord. His faith and true, I believe, biblical faith is a faith that is above, it flies above, so to speak, the weather patterns of feelings, of emotions. It’s fixed. When Peter and his faith in Christ was so great, he said, Master, bid me to come to you on the water. Jesus said, come. And Peter went out walking. And then the Bible says, as the wind blew and as the waves became more boisterous, Peter began to sink. He got his eyes off of the Lord. That’s a message for us. We can get our eyes off of God. And when that happens, our old life makes a comeback. But pastor, I thought the Bible says that the old man is dead. Yeah, it does say the old man’s dead, but it also says that we need to be crucified daily, huh? You read that in the Bible? Jesus is picking the cross and following me daily. Why? Because that old man, that old woman, I mean, your old woman, I’m the old man, so quickly comes back. What is that? I thought this guy died 25 years ago. I thought he died at the foot of the cross. Why and how does he come back so quick? Reckon, Paul says, the old man to be dead.
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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.
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I love that word in the book of Romans. It’s a mathematical term. Do the math, draw the line, and the bottom line is you tell the old man he’s dead. Well, if he was dead every moment of the day, why would we be talking to him? We’ve got to reckon the old nature, the old person of who we were before we came to Jesus. And I’m not going to elaborate. You know who you were before you came to Christ. I know who I was before I came to Christ, and I’m not going to tell you any more than that. That man’s dead. But you know what? When I get my eyes off of God, I start to hear him talk. Sounds just like me. Voice is a little bit better. But I’ll hear him talk in my head. Hey, remember when? And that old man lies to me. Oh, we had such a great time. Have you noticed that when you talk about the past, how we deify the past? Oh, it was the greatest time. Oh, my. It wasn’t that great. We didn’t have that much fun. We so conveniently, the old man does forget all the horrible things of the BC before Christ years and life and deify those moments that it’s trying to pump up as something. But when we get our eyes off of God, the world with the old man of who we once were comes back and begins to make overtures. And that’s a dangerous thing. We struggle over. in that condition with the truth. We struggle with the truth, verses one, two, and three. It says, when David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest, he’s a good guy, priest of God, and Ahimelech was afraid when he met David. What is David traveling alone for? Why are you alone and no one’s with you? It doesn’t mean that David was alone, he had men with him. It meant that David was traveling outside of the kingly procession. He didn’t have the standards of King Saul. He didn’t have the flags. He didn’t have all the entourage. The motorcade was not there. So David said to Ahimelech, the priest, the king has ordered me and some business people. Is that true? No, that’s not true. You see, we struggle with the truth when the old man begins to rear his head. And in this case, in the life of David, his faith is starting to wane because fear is starting to come in. More on that in a moment. But he begins now to weave a web. By the way, a web that we’ll find out in following chapters will cost Ahimelech and the priests and Nob their lives. David will tell a series of lies that will result in the murder of the innocent. No man, I do not, you do not sin to yourself. If I go out drinking tonight with Barbie, it will affect your life. You say, no, wait a minute, pastor, it’s gonna affect your life. Of course it’s gonna affect my life. But what I do privately will affect you as well. What you do privately will affect me. No man lives unto himself, the Bible says. No man dies unto himself. Well, I’m just doing this little thing. If you’re in the body of Christ, we’re in this thing together. Well, what can this thing do for me? I’m not gonna call any names. You’ll figure it out yourself. But I remember hearing a certain president say that what he did in private was none of our business. I have two issues with that, big ones. The day that that news came out, certain stock that I have on the New York Stock Exchange went way down. That affected me personally when the news of his escapades went public. That affected me. Then I began to think of how high treason was committed in the Oval Office, which is our office, in our house, that I pay for, you pay for. A portion of your check every week goes to painting and carpet and lighting for that house. And you don’t bring someone in off the street that could have killed him. She could have killed him. It could have affected the world. Well, no, what he does in his own private time is his own business. Not when you’re a public servant and not when you’re a Christian. You say, well, pastor, you don’t mean me because nobody even knows I go here. I mean you. Because you know what? If you’re dancing with Christ and you’re growing strong with Jesus, there is a supernatural emanation of blessings that will flow out from your life. When you’re walking and serving God, you’re going to be affecting the people around you. If you’ve got the joy of the Lord, which is your strength, it’s going to affect the people that are sitting over here. It’s gonna happen. If you over here, you’re depressed, you’re bummed out, life is crushing in on you, and you’re sequestered in your spirit, you’re really going through a hard time, people around you, they’re gonna notice. God will, I mean, what am I telling you for? We’re the body. When Jim, when you’re down, I know it when he’s down. When I’m down, Jim says, hey, what’s up? Can I pray for you? This is the work of God among his people. It’s the way the spirit of God moves. You know, so many church growth seminars talk about we need to be a community. We need to make community. Well, you don’t make community. The Holy Spirit makes community. It’s the love of God when you begin to care for one another. I don’t want to get off the path, but maybe it’s not off the path. I don’t know. A couple of neat brothers came into my office yesterday to just ask if this church would pray for them as they go to India in March. They want prayer coverage. They want prayer support. And their vision got me so excited that I want to go to India. And then I’ve been praying for this thing already. What is that? How does that happen? What is that all about? It’s God moving. You can’t… Live, you and I as believers, we can’t live as an island. It’s impossible. I don’t care what Paul Simon says. It doesn’t work that way. We struggle with the truth when we are struggling with faith. Not only that, verses four and five will downgrade the things of God when we begin to slip away and our faith begins to fail. It says in verse four, and the priest answered David and said, there is no common bread at hand or on hand. This is the show bread. This is the priestly bread, the bread that was commanded by God through Moses. But there is holy bread. I mean, we don’t have any Twinkies. We’ve got no pita bread. We got nothing except the holy bread dedicated to God. Now, this is a very cool thing that happens, even though the context is, is somewhat interesting, Jesus sets us straight on it. The priest says, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women. Then David answered the priest and said, truly, women have been kept from us for a space of about three days. That means they haven’t been with girls in a space of three days. And the vessels of the young men are holy. And the bread is in effect common, even though it was sanctified in the vessels this day. Bottom line is this, David’s not a priest, neither are the men with him. If you know the Old Testament, the bread was to be dedicated to God, and then after the bread had shelf life before the throne or the altar, I should say, of God, then who ate the bread? The priest, not David, not his men. But this priest is smart enough to know something that many people do not today know, that Jesus even taught us in the Gospels. The priest looks at David, looks at the men and gives these men bread, the holy bread. First of all, it’s dedicated to God and it is given in the law that it be so. Jesus tells us in the gospels to the Pharisees who were acting like they had the corner market on righteousness. Jesus turns, remember, when they’re walking across the field, a couple of his disciples, they grab a handful of wheat. Have you ever done this? It’s so cool. If you haven’t, maybe do it this summer or this fall when it comes about, if you’re vacationing, whatever. Grab a handful of wheat. Jesus’ disciples grabbed a handful of wheat. They began to rub the wheat together. You blow the chaff away, and there’s these beautiful golden kernels. Throw them in your mouth and begin to chew them. It’s fantastic. You know what? It turns into a gum, a wheat gum, and you can chew it all day long. It’s very neat. Tastes great. It’s good for you. So they’re doing that, and the Pharisees are going, oh, oh, Jesus, look, your disciples, here’s what they accuse them of. Your disciples are breaking the Sabbath because they’re harvesting on a Sabbath. They’re eating, they’re grabbing wheat and eating it, because they were hungry. And Jesus says, oh, leave them alone. Haven’t you read in the Bible? I love what he says to them. Haven’t you read in the Bible that when David’s men were hungry, they took of the showbread and ate of it? Do you know what Jesus was saying? Do you know what this priest here is saying? The same thing Jesus and the priest is saying the same thing to David. The sustenance and the sustaining of human life is far greater than the law. Life supersedes the law.
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called When Faith Fails. You know, this message, by the way, is part of Pastor Jack’s series called First Samuel. It’s a series that highlights the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel’s darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. What if 2026 wasn’t about doing more, but about knowing God more? This January, we’re featuring one of the most powerful and timeless books on Christian faith, Knowing God, written by J.I. Packer. Now, this classic has helped millions of believers move from knowing about God to actually knowing God personally. With deep biblical insight and heart-centered focus, Packer invites you to explore God’s character, his love, and what it really means to walk with him. It’s not a quick read. It’s a life-changing one. Start your year with truth that will reshape your mind, strengthen your heart, and deepen your faith.
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Friend, this is a great book to get, and take time to read it. Maybe read a page or two a day. Contemplate it. Think about it. But friends, get a copy for yourself, Knowing God by J.I. Packer. I promise you, it affected my life. It’ll do the same for you.
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That’s Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Get your copy for a gift of any amount at 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.
