From Death to Life - 2A

David J: Today, on Real Life Radio.
Jack Hibbs: The statement, but God, is a fork in the road. We've been going down one path of depravation and and depravity and and and alienation from God. And then he says, you know, really you can almost hear him pull out the life raft before anybody just passes out or goes overboard. He says, but God.
David J: This is real life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J. Thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible. One nation born in liberty, rooted in faith, sustained by providence. That's the American story, a new documentary film from Pastor Jack Hibbs and historian Tim Barton filmed at the very places where it happened. Pre-order today ahead of its Thanksgiving Day release and receive a free Thanksgiving kids guide with your gift to real life. Visit jackhibbs.com or call 877-777-72346 to pre-order yours now. Once again, that website jackhibbs.com. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues in his series called The Book of Ephesians and his message titled From Death to Life Part 2. Ephesians is a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus showing every believer who they really are in Christ. And in this passage, Paul reminds us of two of the most powerful words in all of scripture. But God. You see, we were once dead in sin, hopeless and far from God. But he who is rich in mercy and great in love reached down to give us new life. That is grace that we could never earn or we ever deserved. So today, Pastor Jack reminds us that when we are in Christ, our past no longer defines who we are. At the same time, his mercy becomes clear when we truly understand what the Lord has brought us through. Now with his message called From Death to Life Part 2, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
Jack Hibbs: And so with that, why don't you open your Bibles this evening to the Book of Ephesians Chapter 2. The Book of Ephesians Chapter 2, probably one of the greatest, this is not an exaggeration, probably one of the greatest chapters in all of the Bible. Ephesians Chapter 2, The Book of Ephesians filled with theology. And of course, who do you expect writing such theology? None other than Paul the Apostle who's the great great instructor on how we ought to walk our lives. The Book of Romans, the Book of Galatians, Book of Colossians, the Book of Ephesians, incredible treatises on how the Christian ought to be, what we ought to experience, what we ought to know. And this is really part two of the message that we started last week and the title is From Death to Life. If you were not here last week, I'm going to tell you right up front, we're jumping right into the stream right now, so you're going to need to get the tape from last week. It's free. Grab it on your way out. They'll throw them to you as you go by. Listen to it, then tap into tonight and hopefully the Lord will have laid a nice foundation for you to really enjoy all that he's done for you. Ephesians Chapter 2 will read from verses 1 down to verse 7 even though we're going to focus on verses 4 through 7 tonight specifically, but we'll get at verse 1. He says, and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience among whom we also all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature the children of wrath just as the others. But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love wherewith he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us to sit together in the heavenly places or the heavenlies in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. You know, everyone loves if you're like me anyway, I think everybody's like this. If you love the stars in the sky, there's nothing greater than to go out into a place where it's very dark. We're blessed in our area. We can just, you know, take a little walk or just go up into the hills and it's black at night and you can see the stars and it's so beautiful. But everybody loves to look at the stars. People like to think about that and write about it and there's songs about stars. And the things the thing that makes stars so beautiful is the darkness of the sky behind it. We mentioned to you last week that a diamond looks its best when the salesman drapes the black velvet behind that diamond and casts those lights on it to make it really shine. And it's that black blackness that causes that diamond to shine. It's the dark sky that causes the stars to shine all the all the more brighter. And this Book of Ephesians Chapter 2 telling us that we were once dead in our sins. And when the Bible says dead, he means it means absolutely dead. More dead than a dead physical body. We're talking about spiritual death here which is called the second death. When we are alienated from Christ, we are more than dead. We have suffered spiritual death. And the Bible teaches us that every person born into the world is born spiritually dead. We need to be born again. In Psalm Chapter 19, you know it well, verse 1, it says there that the heavens declare the glory the glory of God. And the firmament, that is the heavens, shows his handiwork. Day in and day they utter their speech and night in and night they reveal knowledge. And there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Why is that the case? How can that be? Because when we look at the stars, there's something about that glory that causes us to step back and wonder is God real? Is he really there? And in fact, the heavens can lead you to God, can lead you to Christ. I can't imagine being an astronomer let alone a scientist for that matter and not know God personally. I mean, it just screams his creation does to know him. But we who have been redeemed are like those stars. We shine giving God glory. And I want to know if that's how it is in your life. Is that true for us? It's so very important. The heavens declare the glory of God. For some of you, maybe a week ago, a month ago, maybe years ago, for us in our lives, we were brought out of this world and God filled us with his love and in his grace. And now we by his mercy, by his grace, we shine for him. And that's a very wonderful thing and we need to be about the father's business in doing that. But we need to remember, and I hope you're encouraged by this, the darker of a life you've come out of, the greater you shine for him. Jesus put it this way in Luke 7:47. He says, therefore I say to you, her sins, speaking of Mary in that setting, he says, her sins which are many are forgiven for she's loved much. But to him who to him who was forgiven little loves little. And so what he's saying is a person who has been forgiven much, that person will love much. A person who's been forgiven little shows love a little. Jesus is talking about the human nature. If we are gross sinners, then in our lives we will express more love toward God because why? We understand that we've been delivered from so much. If we've kind of been okay, but of course still coming to the Lord and needing his salvation and his forgiveness, but we live a pretty good life, you know, when we and we say, well, thank you God, I love you and I thank you for the sins that you've been forgiven me of. I appreciate that. But somebody who comes out of a gross life, man, they are really nuts for God. And that's why I'm nuts for God. Is I've been forgiven so very very much. And you're grateful for that. And God is so so good to us. We're going to see a couple of things tonight. The first thing is found here in verse 4 as we look at the treasures of our God. And you ought to jot that down in your notes. The treasures of our God. Remember last week we talked about the Death Valley situation and then up to Mount Whitney and the great difference. Now in this portion of the scripture, we will see going from Death Valley really to the Mount Whitney, the high peak, a point of all that God has for us. Listen to this. He says in verse 4, but God. You ought to put parentheses around that, underline it, put your name next to it, highlight it if you got a highlighter, borrow your friend's pen and circle in the ink. It says, but God. But God. It's a great word. This thing means in contrast to all that we've just got done saying. You, Paul is saying, you wretched bum sinners dead in your trespasses and sins, good for nothing, hell bound, absolutely worthless. But God. And it changes the whole course. The statement, but God, is a fork in the road. We've been going down one path of depravation and and depravity and and and alienation from God. And then he says, you know, really you can almost hear him pull out the life raft before anybody just passes out or goes overboard. He says, but God. And look what he says. But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he has loved us. First thing I want you to notice is that but God who is rich in the great our God is rich in the great that we don't serve some some pagan little god that's carved out of a totem pole somewhere up in the north and you got to, you know, beg for him to send a whale by and and you know, help you know, bless our season as we go get seals and and you know, it's sad. We don't talk to some wooden structure. We don't talk to some some glass thing. We don't hold some crystal ball in our hand and say, oh, you know, what are the stars going to tell us for today? You know how many people get on the computer these days and look up their horoscope before they ever get into the shower to see if they should get in the shower? That's paganism. Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy 18 says it's an abomination to God to seek a horoscope. God is against that. Why? Because it's real. I knew it, honey. I knew it was real. Yeah, it's real satanic. It's totally under the powers of demons and of the devil. It's real. But people seek that rather than seek God. And then it says right here that but God who's rich in mercy. But he's rich. We don't have to go after some pagan system. We've got a god who is rich. Rich in what? Rich in everything you need. What do you need tonight? He's rich in that. In the darkest scenario, in the blackest of situations painted in verses 1 through 3, it says here in verse 4, but God. This word riches here is great. Listen to this meaning. It says in the Greek language, all existing wealth, the fullness of all that can be owned. That is our God rich in mercy, rich in grace, rich in goodness. We'll see this tonight. He's rich. All wealth that can be owned he owns. I like that. But look what it says here, rich in mercy. When you might say, well, why does it say that? Well, you need to read verses 1 and 1 through 3 again. That's why. By the time you get through verses 1 through 3, you say, oh, I need mercy. Why? Because when we are dead in our trespasses and sins, the very declaration that God is rich in mercy presupposes that we need it. Why do we need it? We're sinners. And he lavished us upon us his grace and his mercies. We get his mercy.
Guest (Male): 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.
Jack Hibbs: What is mercy? Mercy is not getting what we deserve. And you might say, I don't deserve all that that's called deception when you do not realize how much you need his mercy. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're all in the same boat. So what happens? The Lord pours upon us mercy and it is rich in mercy he does. I didn't make it up. It's right in your Bibles. You can test and see, look at them, feel it out, apply it to your life, enjoy it. God's mercies, God's riches. This word mercy is simply the word compassion. Actually, it's a little bit expounded in the Greek and it's compassion or tender mercies. Doesn't sound great, tender mercies. Mercy sounds good, tender mercy. Tender mercy is God takes you and pulls you right to his side and pats you on the head. That's a tender mercy thing is little pat on the head. Tender mercy is when you're uh you know, maybe you're praying with somebody or maybe you you got your your kids and you're comforting them or whatever and you're patting their back, you're rubbing their back. And I I know uh we read this somewhere, some child book years ago when when your kids fall down, they get hurt. You know, two things you don't do. You don't go, are you okay? That scares them to death. They think they're dying. So you don't overreact. You say, come here. Or you know, you're okay. And then and then what you do is when they're hurt you this book said like starts scratching their back or rubbing their feet or what whatever it is uh to to stimulate the nervous system because they all they can think about is this toe that they just stubbed. Well, you when you're comforting them and you you scratch their back and you pray, oh Lord, it's okay, they'll be okay. Lord, take the boo boo away, make them feel better. And and you touch them a lot. You touch them. It's okay, you're all right. And it takes their mind off their throbbing toe. It works. It really works. Ladies having babies. Uh the focal point and the effleurage. I remember these things. You know, the he blow things and it's all this and it helps. It helps because if you don't focus on something else or if you don't spread out this stimulation, all you can think about is the pain. Tender mercies. That 's what it God extends to us tender mercies. Oh, come here. I know you are a sinner, Jack. You come here right now. My son has forgiven you. And listen, I died on the cross for you and you're going to be okay. You just trust in me. You forsake that sin. You trust in me. And he's patting us on the head and on the back and and saying, you know what? You stick with me and you'll be okay. The mercy presupposes by the way that there's judgment to come. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. That means judgment has been, listen, decreed actually to extend mercy. You can only extend mercy people after the verdict has been decreed. Did you know that? It means that the verdict's been decreed. That's pretty scary. Paul tells us in Colossians, I think it is. As if it's not Colossians, it 's Galatians where it says concerning our sins. Concerning us, God took the handwriting of ordinances that were against us. Can you imagine? All of our lives, oh man, he did this, he did that. But then when we come to Christ, it says there that God takes them and nails it to the cross of Christ putting them out of the way. Judgment, our sin needed to be judged, but Jesus took that judgment. And he doesn't give to us what we deserve. He gives us tender mercy. And he's rich in that, people. He's rich in it. I want to say this and go on with this message. If you have lived a terrible life and you keep just beating yourself up about it. Have you seen the Muslims during Holy Week? God bless them. They're so committed. But they're so they're so missing the goodness and the grace of God. They'll take chains and ropes and they'll do that and they'll beat themselves in the back for their sin, making atonement. And they'll and they'll make their march. You seen that? And your heart breaks. Your heart breaks for them. You want to just crawl through the TV and and give them the gospels. Man, you have to beat yourself. I know one who was beaten on the cross for you by his stripes we've been made whole. No, listen. Some of you still beat yourself up. Oh man, I I'm Christian God. I mean, he's when he comes back, he's going to beat me up. That's what he's going to. When he comes back, in fact, he'll leave me behind when he comes. He won't have anything to do with me. Why do you think like that? You need to trust Jesus Christ what he's done on the cross for you. Get on with it. Stop doubting him. Take it. You know what? You are like a little skyrocket waiting to happen. You need to take that to the Lord and forsake it, give it, dump it, let him have it. And then you're going to take off and shine for him because to who is forgiven much, he loves much. You're just a bundle of love waiting to explode all over God if you'll just trust him to forgive you of your sins. Hey, he's tender in mercy. And he's rich with it. Romans 3:19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law. Trying to be good enough to get to heaven? That every mouth may be stopped and the whole world might be guilty before God. That's true. Galatians 4. You're going to jot these down because I I'll go kind of quick. Galatians 4:4. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born from a woman born under the law to redeem those, that's us, who were under the law. Redeem us from what? From what the law, the verdict demands. Jesus in his perfection met all the requirements of the law. That 's a done deal. But what about us who didn't meet the requirements of the law? Well, he died for you. Put his blood on the cross for you. And that's why Galatians 5:18 can say but those of us who are led by the spirit are no longer under the law. Isn't that great news? No longer under the law. The second thing I want you to see is in verse 4. We're still in verse 4 here still. He's not only rich, it says here, but it says because of his great love that he has for us. This is incredible to me. He loves us. We get this notion that God somehow has to love us. He's God. He's God to love us. God loves you. Of course he does. He's God. He loves everybody. It's like you know, we apologize for God being loving. And isn't this true in our lives? You know, we can tell everybody God loves you. And we're we're going God loves you. Boy, I wish I knew about what I 'm telling these people. God loves you. Boy, what hm. And I can believe that for you. God loves you. And I can say that with authority, God loves you. But does God love me? Yeah, he loves me. And here's the here's the amazing thing. I like this. Sometimes we can't fathom God's love. So check this out. God likes you. He likes you. And you know it's true if you just think for a moment, he likes to hang around with you. He likes to talk to you. If you get up and get going on your day and on your life and you just kind of leave him behind, what's he doing? He's saying, excuse me. I'd really like to spend some time with you. Yeah, I know I know Lord, but you know, I really I got to get to work early. The commute's insane. And I'll talk to you on the I'll talk to you on the freeway. Um at lunch. I'll talk to you at lunch. And what is he does he ever go away? He doesn't go away. Excuse me, but you it's it is lunchtime. I know, but you know what? The boss wants me to And he's he's always there. And if you can't fathom the fact that he loves you, he likes you. He puts up with you. I mean, he hangs with you. He's always with you. People will leave you. He won't leave you. He'll talk to you. He'll talk to you the moment you want to talk. He's always there. He loves you. 1 John 4:8 says that God is love. Doesn't say that much. Doesn't say that God is grace. It doesn't even say that God is mercy. It says God is love. He loves us. Great verse, Jeremiah 31:3. You've heard this before. Great verse. It says, yes, I have loved you, he says, with an everlasting love. That's what God says about you. The Bible says in Romans 5:8 that God demonstrated his love to us that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us. Isn't that amazing? Before we ever came to him, he died for us. He loves you. Before you ever came to him, he's a loving God. Second thing I want you to see, second point is in verses 5 through 6 and that is but God is gracious. He's a gracious God. It says here in verse 5, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved. This is so important that the translators put by grace you have been saved. They put a parentheses around it. It's so very very important. God is gracious. And listen to this. This is amazing to me. Listen, even when we were dead in trespasses, he's made us alive together with Christ. Listen, when we were sinners, he went and paid the price. He forgave us. We weren't even worthy of forgiveness. We were not fit to be forgiven. Can you imagine that? Everybody hear that? We were not fit to be forgiven. And he forgave us anyway. So Jack, what are you saying about all this stuff? I'm saying that everything that Jesus has done for us according to the Bible, it has been done. We are to enter into this. That's why the Book of Hebrews begs for us to enter in to his rest. Where is Jesus tonight? We'll get to this in a moment. Where is he tonight? In heaven. What's he doing? Panicking? No. Is he fretting? No. Is he anxious? No. He is seated. He is sitting down. Every other priest around the world tonight and tomorrow and wherever and whatever is standing up working working. Not Jesus. It's done.
David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called From Death to Life Part 2. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Book of Ephesians, a series through Paul's letter to the Ephesians discovering the riches, the walk, and the triumph of every believer. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. One nation born in liberty, rooted in faith, sustained by providence. That's the American story, a new documentary film from Pastor Jack Hibbs and historian Tim Barton filmed at the very places where it happened. Pre-order today ahead of its Thanksgiving Day release and receive a free Thanksgiving kids guide with your gift to real life. Visit jackhibbs.com or call 877-777-72346 to pre-order yours now. Once again, that website jackhibbs.com.
Jack Hibbs: Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode.
David J: 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.