Today, on Real Life Radio.
You see, Jesus is risen from the dead, and resurrection is true, and this life, God gave it to you and I, because character matters, decency matters, morality matters to God.
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.
Hey, everybody. First of all, I want to thank you, all of our Real Life Radio listeners for being so faithful, so kind. Keep praying for us.
But listen, the reason why I’m talking to you right now is to let you know that we have an amazing, wonderful offer, and it is the book titled What You Need to Know About the Rapture by Dr. Charles C. Rirey of Dallas Theological Seminary. Dr. Rirey was a profound theologian, highly respected, even though he is now in heaven.
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On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called First Corinthians with a message titled, Why? First Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul to the Church of God in Corinth, and he shares with us how we’re to always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that lives inside of us. You see, the question why is almost extinct these days.
Our culture really is not taught to think or to question what they’re hearing. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that if there is no ethical value to living, then why care about relationships? The result of living without the fear of God is the danger of becoming that evil we’re exposed to.
Our morals really do matter to God. Now with his message called Why, here’s Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
Paul the Apostle says, if Jesus isn’t risen from the dead and we have no hope of eternal life, then why Paul said, am I subjecting my life willfully to such difficulty? Think about that for a minute. If this is a joke and there’s no hope, what are we doing?
Why are we willingly standing up to get shot at if this is not real? When’s the last time you got punched in the face? You forget what that feels like.
I’m just talking about guys. I got punched in the face yesterday by my neighbor’s dog. She just got home from vacation.
She was all excited. She loves me. She doesn’t love me.
I give her treats. She doesn’t love me. She uses me.
She saw me and she’s a puppy. She’s big though. She’s a puppy, and she saw me, and her tail starts wagging.
And she loses control. Her tail starts wagging, and then she starts running, and she can’t yet figure out. And she’s really out of control.
She’s going like this. She’s running, and I see her running. And she’s running, and she’s strong.
And she’s starting to lose it, and I know she’s going to fall and crash, so I bend down to grab her, and at the last second, her back legs pushed off like a rabbit, man, and she just, like a kangaroo, boom! And I go, oh no! Her name is Zoe.
Zoe! And she sprung, and boom! Hits me in the mouth.
And I could taste the blood, and I’m thinking, man, I haven’t tasted this in a long time. I’m getting soft in my old age. And it made me think about this verse.
Paul, wouldn’t you like to have Paul? Wouldn’t it be cool to say, hey, who’s your pastor? Paul the Apostle.
Who’s your pastor? Are you sure you’d like to be able to say that, really? How’d you like to have a pastor who is a notorious criminal according to the legal system?
That’s Paul. He was arrested many times. You know that?
Do you like to have a pastor that’s been arrested many times? Hey, your pastor’s a criminal. My pastor’s an ex-con.
Paul the Apostle. He was absolutely hated for the gospel, right? You know what?
Got me thinking. You’ve heard me say this recently, because God’s doing a work on my heart. For the life of me, we’re in the 21st century.
The church has never been more marginalized than it is right now. America is embracing evil every day. And why, why, oh, why are there not more pastors in trouble?
Like Paul, right now. Why are, why are, why am I not in trouble? You say, man, dude, I’ve seen you in trouble.
You’re on the Internet. You’re in trouble. I should be in more trouble.
You say, yeah, pastor, you go, brother. You go get in trouble. You stand there.
You stand there and you get in trouble. Wait, wait, wait, wait. At an hour like this, when evil is advancing as it is, and your children now have been completely sold out to the world system, without your permission, why are we not crying out?
Why are we not standing? Why are we not fighting? Why are we not in trouble?
Where are we? Where’s the voice in the wilderness? The pulpits of America throughout American history was the clarion to the culture.
So much so that churches were the center of a town or city’s geographical location. Why? Because the pastors spoke in to the culture.
Where are the pastors? Where are the Pauls today? Everybody wants to be accepted and loved, and every, oh, we’re just trying to get the world into the church, so we’ll be just like the world, and we’ll act and speak just like the world.
We gotta get the world in. And then the world gets in to the church, and there’s no change. What’s going on?
Why are not, in this dark 21st century, an antichrist system in the world in which we live in? Why are not Christians in more trouble? We think that silence and politeness is a godly virtue.
And we are silent and quiet, and we look straight ahead, and we convince ourselves from our pulpits to the pews, we’re just very obedient people as they take our children away.
I don’t understand it. I must have a different Bible. Paul and the disciples had to go from town to town to town because they were persecuted in the ministry.
And we have pastors who are popular today. We have evangelists who are adored. And it’s almost rock and roll status.
And I don’t see that in the Bible anywhere. And we have neighbors who are perishing because we won’t tell them anything because we’re being polite. Jesus said in Luke 6 26, woe to you when men speak well of you.
Wow. Jesus said, what? Jesus says, woe to you when men speak well of you.
He’s talking about men of the world. For so did their fathers to the false prophets. But I say to you here, love your enemy.
You want to get people upset? Love your enemies. Say what?
I know. I don’t get it. But love your enemies.
Do good to those who hate you. They’ll hate you for doing good to them. Figure that one out.
That’s insanity.
Yep.
Bless those who curse you. I have to work on that one more. Pray for those who spitefully use you.
I do pray for them. I need to pray differently. Boy, I got…
Are you guys going through the one-year Bible with us? Man, did you hear that prayer of David’s this week? I loved it.
David said, Dear God, take my enemies and break their teeth off in their mouth. And I went, Amen! Hallelujah!
No, I mean, he did pray that, but we’re not supposed to pray like that. But am I hated? Am I hated?
Do people hate me because I love God and His righteousness? And listen, and if I love the culture and want to speak into the culture, and if God is saying, speak to them, be a trumpet blower, a watchman on the wall, shout, be a clarion to a culture that’s perishing, and they hate me back for saying, come out, come out from the world that’s perishing, come out, get saved, get rescued. Am I not, am I being hated for that?
Christianity is difficult. Point number two this morning, verses 31 to 32, is why? Why, if life has no eternal meaning, who cares?
Look at verse 31. Why endanger ourselves as Christians? He says, I affirm, wow, I raise my right hand, God is my witness.
By the boasting in you, which I have, in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. The word means I am under eminent threat of death. Paul the Apostle.
This is tremendous. Church, watch this. Write this verse down.
You’re gonna think I’m making it up. Watch this verse. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 23.
This is amazing. Paul says, in labors, he’s talking about ministry. This ought to be on the front of every ministry enrollment.
In labors, more abundant. In stripes, doesn’t that sound sweet? Stripes.
I’ll take a stripe. It’s a whipping. In whipping above measures.
In prisons, more frequently. Do you qualify for ministry? How many times have you been arrested?
Can you imagine? In deaths, often. Within an inch of his life.
Look, verse 24. From the Jews, Paul said, five times I received 40 stripes minus one. 39 whippings, I got five times.
Because 39 was legal to beat a guy. 40 was pushing it too far. So he said, I got five times, I got whipped 39 times.
But the cat of nine tails, mind you, that’s horrible because one whack equals nine. They perfected. Well, if you can only hit the guy 39 times and not 40, then how can we make each whack count?
So they invented the cat of nine tails that has nine pieces of leather with about seven each per leather strap, bone or glass or rock. Paul says, I got that five times, 39, five times. Three times I was beaten with rods, caning.
Once I was stoned. This is not California talk, not drugs. This is rocks.
These are rocks. You have to clarify that here. Three times I was shipwrecked.
Three times shipwrecked.
And night and day I was in the deep, in the ocean, bouncing around, floating on journeys, often perils of water, perils of robbers, perils of my own countrymen, perils of Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness, often in hunger and thirst, and fasting’s often in cold and nakedness. Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for the churches. This is ministry.
This is Paul. Can you imagine? You guys coming back from New York.
Kenan was here last weekend, did an amazing job. I was back at Harvest Christian Fellowship in New York City, got on the plane Sunday, flew through those crazy storms. Listen, I got on my phone.
You know, phone doesn’t work up there. 38,000 feet, the pilot goes, I’m gonna try to go higher. It was so bumpy.
There’s cups flying around. Oh, whoa, get that. It was crazy.
Watching the wings, I mean, this plane, the wings were flapping from the turbulence. It was nuts. I got up my phone.
Guess what I thought? I can’t text anybody, so I’ll text Lisa, and I’ll just say, man, this is a really bad turbulence. It’s really horrible up here.
I’m so glad you’re not up here. This is bad. I don’t normally do that.
See, why’d you text her for her? There’s no connection up there, because my thinking was, this thing’s gonna break up, dude. They’ll find this phone in the Rocky Mountains nine months from now, and they’ll give it to Lisa, and she’ll say, it must have been a rough trip.
I did that for real. That’s how bad it was, and I fly a lot. The pilot’s hanging on, and then when he’s talking, ladies and gentlemen, it’s really bumpy.
I thought that was it. We’re going down. Can you imagine?
Can you imagine? Paul goes, hey, let’s get on the ship. We got ministry to do.
We’re going to go share the Lord with the European dudes over there in Spain, and then Greece and all that. Come on, let’s go. Let’s get on the ship, and by the way, before we get there, we’re going to sink three ships.
Let’s go! Come on, sign up. What would you do?
Paul said, whatever, okay, whatever. Do you hear what I’m saying? This is Christianity.
If your Christianity is boring, you’re not doing it right. Amazing!
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.
And then look at verse 32. Why put up with the effort? If there’s no resurrection from the dead, why go through this?
If in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, J. Vernon McGee said, he must have had a terrible board members in Ephesus. Get it?
Fought with beasts at Ephesus. Anyway, what advantage is it to me if the dead do not rise? The word, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, it is a gladiatorial term.
That’s what the gladiators would say. He lifts that term from the gladiatorial games, and he’s saying, I fought for my life for the churches in Ephesus.
Wow.
He says, if all this isn’t real, what in the world are we doing? And you know what? This is very comforting to me as a Christian.
Because you know what? I know some of you. I know many of you.
Some of the many are involved in very amazing places and stuff. Government, authorities, law enforcement, federal, military positions, and you’re stellar at what you do, because you’ve done it under the glory of God. But there’s people, they know you’re a believer, and they’re trying to undermine you, cutthroat you, tear you down, ruin your life.
Oh, because you’re a believer. On paper, you’re perfect. But that’s not good enough for them.
They want you to deny your faith. You guys know, you saw it in the news, made national news. General Boykin, a graduate and senior officer of West Point, and the commander of the Delta Force around the world, was barred from speaking at West Point because he’s a Christian.
In America, I’ve been asked to speak at West Point. I’m wondering what they are going to allow or say that I can or cannot say. If they say, well, you can come and speak, but you can’t mention Jesus or whatever.
What do I do, church? What do I do? Because you’ll hear about it when I either won’t go or I’ll go.
And so what do I do? You go, you go, and you say it anyway. No, what are you going to do?
What do I do? Do I obey? Do I obey ungodliness?
Do I obey? Listen, preaching the gospel is why I’m alive. It’s why he allowed me into this world.
And then they would say, well, you can talk to them about having a happy thought in battle, maybe, or. But don’t mention Jesus. This is a problem, because if I say, okay, then I’m lying to them, because I’m gonna go say it.
So what do you do? So you can pray for me. Interesting.
Remarkable. Crazy world, huh? Why put up with the effort?
Because Christ is the cause. That’s why. Verse 32 says to us, let us eat drink for tomorrow we die.
What is this all about? Why live like there’s another life? If Jesus is not risen from the dead, why live as though there’s another world outside of this world?
And man, I gotta tell you, this to me, if you’re a skeptic today, I mean, I hope you think about this. Listen. The Greeks lived in the Epicurean culture.
Epicurean, whatever feels good, do it. No matter what the cost. You live for now.
Sound familiar? If you want gratification, you do it. You find it, you do it, no matter what pain it causes others, you do that.
Epicurean. That’s why the Roman culture, remember, you know, they would… If you went to a Roman party, there’s two things that you had unending of.
Food and sex. That was a Roman, that was the parties. And you know what they would do?
They would eat, and then they would go, and they would throw up. They would provoke, they’d stick their finger in their mouth, throw up, and then go back to the next course meal. And they would eat that, it was so good and so fantastic.
And then they would go, and they would throw up and go back. Did you know that? So given over to self-pleasure, that they began to violate their own bodies, living like there’s no life after this life.
And Paul lifts up a parable of their day. Hey, if Jesus isn’t risen from the dead, if there’s no resurrection for us, let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. You know what’s weird about this?
That’s how people live today in many ways. Think about it. We’re out of time.
I can’t believe this. It’s ridiculous.
The other day, coming down the freeway, I saw this line of, you know, these, I don’t know what they’re called these days, ninja bikes. I call them ninja bikes because that’s what they were called when I was, you know those incredibly fast rocket bikes? The guy’s kind of in a ball.
Right? Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, and they’re going to buy us. And then in and out of cars like this, and the thought came to our minds, because Lisa and I talked about it, if they only knew, they’re this far from eternity.
All they have to do is catch a mirror on a car, somehow hit something, or a piece of metal fly up and hit the guy in the neck. Just having a ball, goofing off, and can you imagine? Freeze frame.
Do you know Jesus?
Who?
What? No, man, I’m going for it, buddy.
Get out of my way.
Can you imagine what would be said? Person getting drugs, tying off their arms, shooting up in the vein. Wait, it’s a freeze frame.
What are you doing? You know you can die? You can die and go into hell?
You’re going to, oh man, hey, what? Come on. Every moment of every day, if you’re not a Christian, you are so on the edge.
Oh my. That between you and our, between my nose and your nose is eternity. Timelessness.
Between you and I, there’s a world existing where no time exists. And one second away. And if there’s no resurrection from the dead church, let’s go eat, drink, and be merry.
Let’s go to Wahoos, eat fish tacos until we’re vomiting, and then go rent a Ferrari, and go as fast as you can, because tomorrow we may die. And that’s not too far off. It’s not far off from where we live.
You see, Jesus is risen from the dead. And resurrection is true. And this life, God gave it to you and I, because character matters.
Decency matters. Morality matters to God. And you will say, no, you can’t do that.
You can’t legislate decency, morality, or you can’t. And listen, you say that. I hear what you say, but…
And in this picture, think about this. Well, you can’t just make things good. And I notice people who say that to me, they say that to me all the time.
Or people who do nothing about it. That’s the little thing they hide behind. But check this out.
Really? Really? Don’t you think that laws should be passed or supported, enforced, that protect a child from a pedophile?
Well, you know, it’s his First Amendment expression.
That’s humanism, which leads to death. Well, you can’t legislate morality. Did you know the Christian influence in India, under the reign of England in India?
Did you know that when a man died, his wife was buried with him alive? Oh, what are you gasping for? This is world history.
This has been going on for hundreds of years. If not thousands of years, okay. And did you know that when England brought Christianity into India, they made that illegal?
Well, they forced their beliefs on us.
No woman married to a man in India said, that’s not right. They loved it. Isn’t that interesting?
Think of that for a moment.
And God’s law is this. All human beings have been given their lives. And I will require from them in the end what they did with it, how they lived it.
I gave them air. I gave them food. I gave them abilities.
And what did they do with it? Every one of us must give our lives back to God.
Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Why. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called First Corinthians.
It’s a series on the Corinthian Church and the Apostle Paul’s bold call for purity. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Did you know that epidemics are not always physical in nature?
The most widespread epidemic that has taken over the world is not found in a lab. It’s found in the disparity of the soul. Loneliness has swept the earth.
People are overcome with despair more than ever before. Our heart longs for relationships, but many times, we look for it in all the wrong places. There’s really only one thing that can satisfy the soul, and that’s having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and to meet with him on a daily basis.
Now, whether you’re alone in your room or in a crowded coffee shop with your phone, your laptop, and latte, you really can find comfort and peace through God’s Word, and with Pastor Jack’s devotions. New devotions written by Pastor Jack are uploaded on a weekly basis, but previous devotions are right there for you to check out at jackhibbs.com. Easy to find at jackhibbs.com.
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.
