Christ And His Redemption - B

Announcer: Today on Real Life Radio.
Jack Hibbs: Are you pooped out in your Christianity? Then stop trying, will you? Let the Holy Spirit do it. Are you saying, "I have to be a good boy, I have to be a good boy, I have to be good, I have to be good, I have to be good"? You will never be good enough. Let the Holy Spirit do it.
Announcer: This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I am David J, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible. Everybody, we are very excited about this special offer. It is called Bold Stand. It is a back-to-school faith guide for your young ones. It is going to help them take a stand for Christ even in the public school culture. It is very, very well done. It is a pamphlet. They can put it in their backpack or put it within the pages of any book. It is very colorful. It is in cartoon style, and I think your kids are going to love it. So please get a copy for yourself. Bold Stand, back to school faith guide. Get this and more at jackhibbs.com. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now with his series called The Life and Times of Jesus Christ, in a message titled Christ and His Redemption. Now this is a series about who Jesus really is, not the Jesus of popular opinion, but the Jesus of the Bible, God Himself, who stepped into our world. Now in this message, we will discover why every one of us needs to be redeemed and why Christ alone is the only one who can do that. You see, redemption means someone pays a price for someone to go free, and deep down, we all know we cannot save ourselves. And no matter how hard we try, we cannot earn our way to God. And the good news is that we do not have to. Jesus already paid that price for us. So today Pastor Jack teaches us that redemption is not only initiated but accepted and completed entirely by God. Jesus paid for our sins in full. So we can stop striving and simply rest in what He has already done. Now with his message called Christ and His Redemption, here is Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
Jack Hibbs: The theater of redemption automatically assumes two things. Jot them down. In the area or theater of redemption, it automatically assumes two things. Number one, that there is a benefactor. The one who gives. In our understanding, it would be the one who is wealthy. He is the benefactor. He is the one that is going to orchestrate. What do you hold in your hand? What are in Colossians 2:9, it is a book that is part of the what? Anyone? The New Testament. The word Testament implies someone, are you ready? Someone lived and died and empowered the Testament. It is called the New Testament. It means somebody lived, created it, empowered it by death. And hallelujah, rose again from the dead to ensure its performance. Jesus Christ, the New Testament. There is the benefactor, the one who gives, that is Christ, and the beneficiary. That is us, the one who receives. The one who receives. Two very important things. You cannot have redemption unless you have a redeemer and someone who is to be redeemed. Now listen, those of you who could in your own heart at the very least admit that you are a sinner. I will admit it right now, I am huge. I would link arms with Paul and Paul with Paul, the apostle and say with Paul, I am the chief of sinners. I I It does not hurt my feelings. But Jack, does not it damage your self-esteem? No, not at all. You know why? I do not know why. To be redeemed, you must first qualify. How do you qualify? Be a sinner. And here is the cool thing. I have been accused of being very excited about the things of God. It is true. I am guilty. You want to know why? I have been forgiven a huge amount of sin. I do not know about you, but I was the chief. My point is that I am trying to make that you are getting is that if you look at Christ and what He has done to redeem us, then you too can say, "No, no, no, no, Jack, I disagree with both you and Paul. I am the chief of sinners." And that is a Christian. I see my depravity, but I rejoice in the work of God because He has sent me through through the work of redemption. He knew I needed to be redeemed. You see, you can run around this globe or this city all you want and try to buy things and put labels and tags and bandaids on whatever you think is important in life to make you meaningful, and it will not work. It will not work. Now, if you are redeemed, you might happen to have some blessings. That is pretty cool because you can constantly daily say, "God, thank you for this house." You know what I am saying? "God, thank you for my job. Lord, thank you for this food, or thank you for this" you name it. A couple of weeks ago a family, I I do not know them personally, but it was such a sweet invitation. They called and they said, "You know what? We know that you are a waterski freak and we would like to take you waterskiing." Well, you know what? They must cheap. To do that, they must have a boat. That is kind of cool. That they would be so kind enough to share that blessing like that. I could not go because I goofed up my foot surfing. Trying to do things. That is in my heart, but my body will not do. God blesses, but the thing is, with what God has blessed you with, is it dedicated to Him? You see, if you have been redeemed, you do not say, "Well, I guess I have got to give God 10%." Excuse me, nowhere is 10% mentioned in the New Testament. It is kind of mentioned in the Old Testament. Technically, it is 23 and a third percent. "Well, I have done my 10%." Well, you are still a loser because God says to do 23 and a third percent, according to the Old Testament. You know what it is for the New Testament? About 100%. "Well, Lord, you can have my wife's car, but this one's mine." "You can have my wife's income, but mine is mine. What is mine is mine and what is hers is yours." It does not work that way. See, the moment you realize, "Man, I have been forgiven so much." "Lord, what do you want to do? It is yours." Now some of you are thinking, "You know, you are an idiot for saying such things." "I do not believe you." You know what? You ought to taste and see just how good the Lord is in regards to what I am talking about. Some of you might say, "Well, concerning, I cannot even believe you brought up tithing." Well, do not worry, you will not hear it again for a while. But the thing is this. I cannot afford to give God anything in my life. I am just stretched. You know why you are stretched? Because you have not given God anything to Him. Give your life to Him and you will not be so stretched. "I do not understand it. Do not ask me to explain it. Are you pooped out in your Christianity?" Then stop trying, will you? Let the Holy Spirit do it. Are you saying, "I have to be a good boy, I have to be a good boy, I have to be good, I have to be good, I have to be good"? You will never be good enough. Let the Holy Spirit do it. Get up in the morning and say, "Lord, I am a wretch. Holy Spirit, will you help me, please?" He says, "I love to help people just like you." And we are all just like one another. And I guess that affects your attitude. Very important. Let us look at this second area. Man's need for redemption. Man became a fallen creature, but listen, God is a loving creator. It is true. He is a loving creator. God is a loving creator. We do not need to dwell on this much because we know that it is true. God loves His creation. Well, then why is it so messed up? It is so messed up because we have rejected God. Mankind has rejected Him, but He loves us. What do you think this incredible book has been written and told and is telling still, the story of redemption? You know the first few pages of your Bible? The first few pages is dedicated to creation. You know that? There you go. You see that? Look at this. This is dedicated to creation. See this? This is dedicated to redemption. What does that tell you? That we need to be redeemed. That we are a fallen creature, but not rejected. We are a fallen creature that God has established a path of acceptance. From this end to this end, He is saying, "It is my son, He is eternal. I am going to send Him to you. You will identify Him. He will be born in Bethlehem. He is going to be your redeemer." And some people get upset about that. The other night we were in the mall and we were late, I mean, we actually we were going to go see a movie and the silly thing sold out, and so we are all sitting around and it was it was fun because we are at the Mills Mall and just four of us were sitting there and then somebody comes by from the church. "Hi!" "Oh, hi." "Hey!" And sit down, and then more people we had about eight or nine people by the in about, you know, 20 minutes. It was so fun. And people who I am sure I do not know if they were Christians or not that were gathered around us, but we were talking and we were laughing and we were saying, "Praise the Lord. Hallelujah." And we are just totally cracking up. And for a moment, I I looked around and there were people that were walking by and they are actually looking at us like we were on drugs. And it was amazing to me. But you know what we were doing? And I have to believe according to Malachi 3:16, I think, that the Lord looked down from heaven and He heard that He was being spoken of one to another and He wrote in His book of remembrance those things that were told of Him. He is going, "Listen to that." We were loving on Jesus. He loves to be in the conversation. Why? He loves us. Yeah, we are fallen, but He loves us. That is why He sent Christ. Christ and His redemption. First of all, we must recognize that man has a need of redemption. Can you this morning recognize that need and say that you have a a need to be redeemed? Very quickly. Both had become separated. God and man is separated by sin. God and man is separated by sin. God is holy, He cannot allow it in His presence. Thus, Christ comes. The next thing that we see this morning, the act of redemption. The act of redemption. In Romans chapter 3, verse 23, we have read it earlier, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Yes, that is true, but verse 24 says, "But now, being justified freely." Did you guys hear what I said about the word freely? Freely, free, freely. "Freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God sent forth as a propitiation," that is a payment, "by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness." It had to be initiated by God. Hey, just lighten up everyone. You are not going to save yourself. You cannot save yourself. Salvation has been initiated by God. You cannot save yourself. It is like those poor, pitiful, stupid people who when the Titanic is sinking, the I think they are called stewards or porters, whatever they are called, they work on the they serve on the on the cruise ship. They start going around and pilfering the rich people's cabins. Putting jewelry, gold, money in their pockets, and then jumping off the ship, going straight to the bottom faster than anybody because they were weighted down with possessions. "Oh, I am going to save myself." They load up money to to spend, thinking that they were going to survive. No. God initiates our redemption. He has got to initiate it. And it had to be acceptable to God. Acceptable to God. No man, no man could die for us.
Announcer: You are 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 is jackhibbs.com. And now, let us get back to today's message. Once again, here is Pastor Jack.
Jack Hibbs: No man could die for us. Go ahead and pick the greatest woman or man that you have ever known in your life. In fact, maybe in your observation and and what a wonderful person they must be truly, and they are all they are all but sinless in your life. They are they are amazing witness. They are fantastic. Did you know they could not die for you? Did you know the Bible teaches that not even a good man can die for you? It had to be God. It had to be God that died for us. It had to be the Lord. The third thing is is that it had to be completed by God. My friend, this is an awesome thing. Can you admit this morning and many of us, maybe all of us, have already admitted this to the Lord, "Lord, be my redeemer. Lord, save me"? Well, Lord, He initiates that. Nobody can come to Jesus Christ without asking to say, "Lord, you know, I want you." You know how that happens? God calls you. It has got to be acceptable to God. That means Jesus paid the price completely. Remember, do you remember back in Genesis chapter 22 when Abraham was about ready to sacrifice Isaac, and Abraham prophetically makes the utterance. He says, "My son, God will provide Himself the Lamb." That Lamb is Jesus Christ. It was acceptable to Him. And it was completed by God. It was completed by Him. Did you know that God is not up in heaven wringing His hands right now saying, "Oh man, what what else can we do to get them here?" It has been done. So rest, will you? Those of you who have said Jesus be the Lord and Savior of my life, you have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Initiated by God, acceptable to God, completed by God. And thirdly, the power in redemption is this: It must free us from our past. Have any of us sinned? Yeah. Have any of us had a rotten past? What about a good past? What about a past anyway? The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning at verse 17, that we are new creations in Christ. I promise, what first I say that as a communication type of ploy, but what can I promise you but nothing? I can say to you, God promises you that He will free you from your past. You see this temple? This is a model of the temple in Jerusalem. I am standing, so to speak, if we are in real time and in real center. I am standing on the Mount of Olives. I am before or in front of you and that temple is the Kidron Valley. On the Mount of Olives, where I stand, the sun rises to my back, it goes through the Eastern Gate. You see that golden gate that is there right now? You can see, if I had time, I would have shown you another photograph of the of the Golden Gate that you see in Jerusalem today. When that gate is opened, eyewitnesses have recorded, for example, Josephus being one of them, Origen being another, and Eusebius the other, that you could look through those golden doors, through the archway, through the temple. When the doors were opened, you could see the veil of the temple. There was a process of approach that you had to go to to get into that place. Listen, concerning our salvation, the power of it. Is it powerful because you are a good boy and a good girl? Now those of you who are not Christians, you are not getting anything what I am saying here. You are you are thinking that I am slamming being a good boy or a good girl. But those of you who are Christians, you know exactly what I am talking about. Those walls, those steps, those 15 rungs upward to the platform. People would come to that place, but behind that veil, a priest would go once a year. Only once, on one day, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, where God in His Shekinah glory dwelt. And he could not go in there without blood. If that high priest, though he was ordained by God, went into that temple without blood of an innocent animal that was out-spot, without blemish, perfect. You know what would happen to that high priest? In fact, they tied a rope around his foot in case he screwed up. He would become like bacon, and they would pull him out smoldering. If that priest had sin in his life entering the presence of God. Did you know, and this is the temple that stood during the time of Jesus Christ? This is what He saw. In 70 AD, General Titus tore it down. Listen to this. Did you know that Jesus, and I do not have my pointer with me, but I could point to areas where Jesus walked around? It is in certainly inside the gates, right up to the porches. Do you see those do you see that area in the center that looks like it is kind of gray? Looks like a little like a baseball field? That is where Jesus stood, by the way, and took a pitcher of water and poured it out on the steps, and He says, "I am the living water." Did Jesus ever go behind those doors into the Holy of Holies? Come on, everyone. This is important to your basic Christianity. You want to know how powerful His redemption is in your life? Jesus never went behind those doors. Never. High priest did on earth, but why did not Jesus? Hey, wait a minute. If Jesus did not go behind those doors, then maybe we are not saved at all. Maybe the whole redemptive thing is a joke. No, He would not go behind those doors. Guess what? He would not go behind those doors if somebody opened it up and invited Him in. Did you know that? Because the book of Hebrews, chapter 9, chapters 10, tells us that all of this was a model of what is in heaven. That Jesus with His own blood entered into the temple, into the Holy of Holies in heaven, not made with human hands. Is not that exciting? Why? Because He satisfied and appeased God's demand for righteousness and holiness. That is how you and I are redeemed. In addition, this redemption must convince us of our future. For the Christian, we are convinced. But what about you who are not a Christian this morning? Are you are you certain that you have been redeemed? Are you confident of the fact? Do you know that for sure? That is an amazing, awesome reality. God did it completely. Convinced us. I want to give you this verse and we will be all done. You can close your Bible and rest. In Hosea chapter 13, verse 14, the scripture says there, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave. And I will I will redeem them from death." Listen, what the prophet says, God speaking, "Oh death, I will be your plague. And you, grave, I will be your destruction. Pity will be hidden from my eyes." That is what God says about the grave and death. Death, I am going to be your plague. Grave, I am going to be your destruction. Hey death, yo, grave. I am going to, you know, kick you in the casket. The day that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, as there is an empty tomb in Jerusalem this morning. Your redemption is secure. You are going to heaven. Because I will be good enough? Never. Try hard? No way. Because you said, "You know what? Lord Jesus, save me." Amen? Father, we thank you for the truth and the reality of Your Word. We ask you, Lord, in Jesus' name, that Lord, you might save a soul this morning that is wayward from you. While we are praying, my friend, I just want to say this to you, while we remain in an attitude of prayer. If you want to give your life to Jesus Christ, not to Calvary Chapel or any person, place or thing, but Christ alone. If you want to say, "God, I want you to come into my heart and and save me from my sins and write my name in your book of life and change my life." I do not care how young you are this morning, I do not care how old you are. I do not care how poor you are or how wealthy you are. You need Jesus. You are lost. And your money and your poverty, and your position and your place of nothingness has no sway with God whatsoever. He has pity and mercy and grace and forgiveness upon one only. And that is the one person who comes and says, "Jesus, be the Savior of my life and come into my life and make me whole." If that is your prayer this morning, you pray that where you are at in your heart or you say, "Yes, Lord, that is what I want in my life." And you dedicate yourself to Him now. All the broken, cracked pots and plates and people that we are, He takes and He will begin today to make a brand new person in you. Until the day He comes again. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Announcer: Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio. And his message called Christ and His Redemption. Thanks for joining us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Life and Times of Jesus Christ. It is a series about the real Jesus of the Bible, God in the flesh, and why knowing Him more deeply changes everything. And we will continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Are you searching for answers these days in a world where truth is hard to find? Well, my friend, as you heard in our broadcast, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And if you would like to learn more about what that means to you personally, just go to our website, jackhibbs.com. And then click on that tab there that is labeled Know God. And there you will be guided through what committing to Jesus Christ really means, and the freedom that you will find in knowing God. That is the Know God tab at our website, jackhibbs.com. That is jackhibbs.com. Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you would like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what is going on with this ministry. And please, if you are ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We would 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. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That is 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 will see you next time, here on Real Life Radio.