Christ, The Word Made Flesh - B

David J: Today on Real Life Radio.
Jack Hibbs: The very first person that is mentioned in scripture as being lost in hell forever in the Book of Revelation is the coward. Did you know that?
David J: The coward.
Jack Hibbs: Yeah, it's a sin to be a coward.
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. The men and women who founded this nation weren't just bold, they were anchored, anchored in the conviction that all rights come from God, not from government, and that foundation is worth knowing. In The American Story, The Beginnings, Tim and David Barton take you back to the documents, the decisions, and the faith that shaped this country from its very first days. This isn't revisionist history, this is the real story. When you give a gift of any amount to support Real Life, we'll send you this powerful book and a free copy of The Happy Birthday America Kids Guide so your kids and grandkids can know it too. And don't forget, as we celebrate America's 250th birthday this summer, our Faith and Freedom Clothing Collection lets you wear your convictions openly, a simple way to spark a conversation and point someone to the truth. Make your request today, visit jackhibbs.com or call 877-777-2346. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now in his series called The Life and Times of Jesus Christ, and his message titled Christ, the Word Made Flesh. 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. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus Christ took on human flesh and walked amongst us as a man. So that brings up the question a lot of us have asked and wondered, why did Jesus have to become a man? You see, the greatest miracle of all is that God would leave heaven and clothe Himself in human skin. He got tired, he got hungry, his feet got dirty, just like you and me. He came down to where we live so we'd know he understands exactly how we feel. So today Pastor Jack teaches us that Jesus is God's example for how we're meant to live. He resisted temptation, he trusted the Father, he loved unconditionally, showing us how we can do the same by the power of the Holy Spirit. Before we get into the message, I had a chance to sit down with Pastor Jack and talk about it with him. So let's get into that. Pastor Jack, I'm glad you're in studio with me today and I do appreciate that as we're in our Life and Times of Jesus Christ series. Today's message Christ, the Word Made Flesh, fully human, right? I mean you push back on the idea that Jesus was kind of, you know, floating through his life six inches off the ground, right? You say his feet really did get dirty, you know? Talk about that.
Jack Hibbs: Yeah, that was the crime, by the way, of the Gnostics and the early first few centuries of Jesus coming is that they believed that because he is God, there's no way that he could be tangible. He could not be associated with this physical world, and they missed the entire point of his incarnation. So if you think about it, imagine for a moment blueprints on your table, like blueprints of a car, and the blueprints all of a sudden pop up on your table and become that car off the blueprint, and you could play with it, you could move it around your table, you could experience it. Think about Jesus Christ coming into this world that way. The blueprint was the Old Testament scriptures. Him becoming flesh is him jumping up off the pages in human skin, in our skin. And he lived among us so that we might be able to handle, touch, feel, experience the actual Word of God. And he was able to do this sinlessly, because he was 100% God always, and 100% man always. He's the one and only God-man and there's no other.
David J: Christ, the Word Made Flesh. Let's jump in.
Jack Hibbs: I always find it interesting that if somebody wants to reject Jesus Christ, and they read his red letters there, recorded in the Scripture, I always like to ask them, "What in the world are you rejecting?" "Well, I'm rejecting the part about him loving everybody so much." Are you nuts? "Well, I'm rejecting the part that he raised people from the dead." Are you crazy? "I'm rejecting the part that he went around all the regions of Judea and Samaria healing the sick and raising the, or cleansing the lepers and setting people free from demon possession." That's your issue? You see, what do you have against Jesus Christ now? I'd like to know. What has he ever done to you, except give you the oxygen that you're breathing right now? Giving you the blood that's coursing through your veins, and your ability to even get out of bed this morning, is solely attributed to Christ and to Him only. "Oh, you don't know me, Jack. I'm the captain of my own ship." And it is sinking. He loves you. In the Book of Revelation, do you know how you get into hell? If you want to know, this is how you get into hell. The first person that is mentioned, and by the way, it's covering all of mankind who has rejected Christ, the very first person that's mentioned in Scripture as being lost in hell forever in the Book of Revelation is the coward.
David J: Did you know that? The coward.
Jack Hibbs: Yeah, it's a sin to be a coward. When Jesus Christ makes his offer and you cowardly resist, the Bible says the first one there listed in that rank order of people in hell is first the coward. Why? Because it takes a lot of guts to say, "Jesus, be the Lord of my life." "I see you, I see the nature, I hear the teaching, and it's reasonable and logical and even if I can use this term scientific, to accept Christ. But if you reject Christ, it's ludicrous." Yes, it's a tremendous step to come to Christ, but if you don't, it's because you're a coward. You don't want him in your life because you want to have your own little life and you're afraid of giving really God your life. You think you can handle it better. And so it's interesting, the Book of Revelation, the first person on the list of those inheriting hell are the cowards. God loves us. Why would we reject? Jesus Christ has revealed the very nature, the very doctrine and, as we see here, this third consideration under his humanity, is that he has been revealing to us God's works. God's works. Very important. Jesus did miracles. Jesus still does miracles. But throughout Jesus's earthly ministry, what did he do? He did miracles. But he didn't focus on the miracles. Now I want to say this, are you awake? This is very important. You guys are so quiet. It is so important that you get this in your head and I get this in my head right now too. God says in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 13 and 18, he says, "If a prophet comes and does miracle, signs and wonders in front of you, but teaches a different way to God, let that prophet be killed, technically, stoned to death."
David J: Wait a minute, Jack, did you read that right?
Jack Hibbs: Oh yeah. It says if a prophet comes and does a miracle, a sign or a wonder, but teaches you to follow some other god or gods. God said in the Old Testament that prophet's got to be removed. Why? The miracles were something. But were the miracles important? Well, you might say, "Well, it was important to me because I was blind and now I see." That is nice, but do you know what's great more than your healing? Is doctrine. The works of God. The teaching. Jesus did miracles to confirm the Word that he was preaching. I say this important thing this morning because God has promised us that in these last days, great signs and wonders are going to come to the churches, going to come to the world, and will deceive many. Now listen, if you have a need and it's a painful need, yet somebody down the street is giving out false doctrine and you prostitute your soul and you go down the street because this guy can heal your eyesight, but you divorce yourself from biblical doctrine, you have committed a great travesty. Are you strong enough in the Bible to know that if something is being done in the name of God and in the name of Jesus, yet their doctrine's a little off, are you strong enough in your Bible to walk away from that? I fear if a magical worker appeared today in our community, I wonder how many tens of thousands of people would follow him because he made them feel better. He made them see better, he made them walk straighter, yet the doctrine was off.
David J: Can you imagine?
Jack Hibbs: I mean, seriously, I'm just asking you. Can you imagine this? Because when people say, "Gee, you know, I don't know what the Bible says." Do you know when you say that if you've been a Christian for any period of time, that's an indictment against yourself that you don't know the scriptures and you scarcely know God. How are you going to decipher the true from the false? By miracles?
David J: No way.
Jack Hibbs: Pharaoh's magicians cast down rods and they became snakes. Moses cast down his rod and what did it become? A snake.
David J: Who's snake was who?
Jack Hibbs: The only way that you could tell one snake from the other is Moses's snake ate the other snakes.
David J: That was pretty cool, don't you think?
Jack Hibbs: The works of God. Jesus did the works of God to qualify the message that he was preaching. He had to come to Earth to show to people the Kingdom of God. That's why he said, "It is among you."
David J: What was he saying?
Jack Hibbs: He was saying that his very presence being here and the works that you're seeing is evidence and fact that the Kingdom of God has arrived. Remember what Jesus told John's disciples, John the Baptist? He said, "Go back and tell John what you see. The blind see, the lame are walking, people who can't speak are speaking, the dead are being raised back and given back to their families. Go tell John what you see." And when John heard this, that wasn't the convincing point, though it is important. The convincing point is John was absolutely certain that Jesus was the Messiah. If we pursue signs and wonders, that's a terrible path. Does God do signs and wonders? Oh yes he does. He does them. He does wonderful things. He does miracles and he still does them today. Well, you might say, "I don't believe that he does miracles anymore." Well, that's too bad, he does them in spite of you anyway, he just does them. A lot of miracles are still being done in places where the Bible is not so prevalent and the preaching's going forth and God is qualifying the preaching by miraculous works. "Well, why doesn't God do a miracle right here?" He does do miracles here. We just don't put them up on the board and we don't have people parade up and say, "Hey, guess what?" God still does wonderful works. The second thing that we see this morning is this. Very important, and that is by his humanity, by his humanity, he was God's example to all. Number two.
David J: How could this be?
Jack Hibbs: Well, when Jesus was on the Earth, and this is again hard for us to fathom, he was such a man. And God worked through him. When Jesus contended with Satan, when Jesus contended with men and with demons, he did it biblically. He did it according to the Old Testament. He often used scriptures, as we mentioned last week. Jesus used the Word of God, but he displayed an active faith in God. Why? Because that's what you and I are supposed to do.
David J: And you say, "Jack, what do you mean Jesus displayed an active faith?"
Jack Hibbs: Jesus had to trust in the Father. Did you know that? Luke's Gospel tells us that he learned obedience by being subject to not only his mom and his earthly mom and his stepdad Joseph, but to his father in heaven. He learned obedience.
David J: Well, did he just have obedience?
Jack Hibbs: Listen, kenosis. K-E-N-O-S-I-S in Greek, it's this, that God in Jesus Christ willfully laid aside, not out of reach, but willfully laid aside certain divine performances that he chose to go without at certain times. Example: You know in the Scripture where it says, "And Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them." That's what he didn't lay aside. But he did lay this aside. Remember when Peter was trying to rescue Jesus from the garden? Judas came up and gave Jesus a kiss and Peter's going to rescue the day, right? Peter runs up there and pulls out a knife and misses that guy's face and cuts off his ear. And Jesus picks up that man's ear and puts it back on. And Jesus says, "Peter, put away your sword. Don't you know that I could call down legions of angels to deliver me right now?" Kenosis. That's true. He could have. He could have, in the spiritual realm, reached over to that toolbox and grabbed what was available to him at any second, but he chose not to do it. Remember when Satan says, "Since you're the son of God, command these stones to be turned into bread." Kenosis. Could he have made stones? I mean, bread out of stones? He could have made Krispy Kreme donuts out of those stones.
David J: But he didn't.
Jack Hibbs: He didn't. Kenosis. 100% God, 100% man. He lived an active faith. He trusted in the Father. He looked to the Father. Why? Because that's what you and I have to do. Don't you dare pray and say, "Jesus, you know, I'm having such a struggle with my faith. I know you don't know what I'm talking about." He knows exactly what you're talking about. The Bible says in all points Jesus has been tempted like us, yet without sin, or I like to put it this way: In all points he was tempted just like us, without caving in. He didn't cave in. He's an example to us that a man can resist Satan by the power of the Holy Spirit, that a man can resist temptation by the power of the Holy Spirit, that a man can live in this life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
David J: 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: Also this. By displaying an active faith, yes, but also by resting in absolute hope. Jesus hoped in the Father. Let me define this quickly. Not our kind of hope that you and I think. When we think of hope, we think of the word like this. "Oh, I hope I I hope I win. Oh, I, I hope they come soon." "Oh, I hope." And it's all predicated upon other people to perform, right? I know none of you would ever do this. There's no way because it's a wicked sin. But there are people outside the sanctuary that would go to a liquor store and buy a lotto ticket. And then they would say with God's money of all things and then say, "Oh, I hope I win." Hope. This is not the kind of hope that the Christians are to have. It's a hope that is true, firm, it's there. It's a hope that you can touch.
David J: When we say, "Oh, I hope in Christ." What does that mean?
Jack Hibbs: It means like a brother this last week who turned to a physician and said, "If I die this week, if I die today, I know Jesus is going to take care of me." And the doctor says, "I've never seen anybody act this way in the face of pretty grim news." And that man said, "I hope in Christ. I'm not worried."
David J: Drove the doctor nuts.
Jack Hibbs: Nurse came in. The doctor said, "I should like talk to you."
David J: Isn't that cool?
Jack Hibbs: The hope of God is something sure. It's not, "Oh, I hope, I hope, I hope." No, you stated it because it's a fact. I, I, we hope in God. Therefore, we, what? We rest. Look at this. Jesus not only hoped in God, he had active faith. But there's this unconditional love that Jesus portrayed to people because there was this rest about his very soul. He was showing forth the unconditional love of God. Again, "Show us the Father." Jesus says, "I already have." The love of God is unconditional. That is it is without requirements. This is so fantastic, people. Who are you today? How bad have you been? Not bad enough to challenge unconditional love. Only God has it. People will say, "I love you." "Oh, I love you too, sweetie." "I love you so much." "Oh, I love you so much too, sweetheart." "I love you unconditionally."
David J: Lie.
Jack Hibbs: I mean, the intentions might be there, but it's not true. We can't. We don't have that power. "I love you unconditionally." And then they, they take the biggest cookie off the plate. And then you're going, "What is this? What? Why'd you, why'd you take the biggest one for?" That's not unconditional love, it's so funny. God, only God loves like that. Unconditionally, there's prostitutes, there's whores, there's bank robbers, there's prideful people, there's religious people, there's donkey mechanics. They're all in front of Jesus and he says, "I love you." It doesn't matter what they do. It doesn't matter what trade they had. It doesn't matter where they were living. It doesn't matter what evil they had been or lived in their life. Jesus says, "I love you, and I'll show you my love, I'm going to go to the cross." Can you imagine him hanging on the cross and saying, "I'm dying for the sins of the world," which is what John 3:16's all about. Except for him over there.
David J: Think.
Jack Hibbs: Oh no, he loves all people. Now, let me say this. Do all people go to heaven? No, because some people are so stupid that they refuse this offer of unconditional love. They refuse. They reject. "I'll have nothing to do with Jesus." Why? "What's your problem with him?" "I don't know, I just get nervous when I hear his name." Maybe that's because you had to do something about his name. Unconditional love. He loves us. The Bible says that if he be lifted up, he would draw all men unto himself. The third thing that we see this morning is this. By his humanity, he took our place in judgment. By his humanity, Jesus had to become a man to take our judgment. Did you know you and I, we were held in bondage to judgment that's coming? Did you know that Jesus Christ died on the cross so you and I wouldn't have to be judged? Literally judged by God Himself. How's that? Because the law stands and looms over us as the perfect, immutable standard of God, the law. How did Jesus win this battle for us and take upon us or take upon him our judgment? By meeting the requirements of the law. Jesus met the law as it looms over every human being. Was Jesus a human? Yes. Did he have to or was he under the yoke of the law? Yes. Galatians chapter 4, verse 4 says so. But because Jesus is God, he met the standard that he himself created. Only God could. Isn't this exciting? An angel didn't die for us. Now angels are pretty awesome. They're not little fat things hanging in your bathroom with those stubby wings. They're awesome things. They're awesome. People Daniel and others see angels and they're sick to the stomach. They're sick. Daniel says when he saw the angel Gabriel, he was sick for days, physically sick. People see angels and they freak. But Jesus didn't die for angels. The Bible says Jesus died for mankind, for us. Angels nowhere in scripture are spoken of being redeemed or redeemable. But we are. By the way, no scripture says that angels were created in the image of God. But we have been. The Bible says that God sent his son Jesus Christ born a little lower than the angels, but crowned with glory and honor. The great coming of Christ in the flesh. He was subject to the law. It looms over every one of us until we come to Christ. And Jesus on our account, so to speak, takes care of the law's demands. The Bible says in the Book of Colossians chapter 2, it says, "And you being dead in your trespasses and sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made us alive together with him for we have been forgiven of our trespasses and sins. And he has wiped out the handwriting of requirements that were against us, which were contrary to us, and he has taken them out of the way, having nailed them to the cross." Do you remember if you were here Wednesday night, we saw a moment that projection, remember of Jesus on the cross and that sign over his head? You remember what that sign said? That sign says Jesus Christ, the king of the Jews. And by the way, that's why he was killed. He was killed because he was Jesus Christ, King of the Jews. It's just that they didn't believe him. The statement was true, but they didn't believe him, so they put the accusation over his head, nailed it to his cross and they killed him. And when that man on that cross, if he was a bank robber or a thief or a mugger, it was put over his head. Once that man died, they took down that accusation and they burned it. Why? The man was dead. What does it mean? That thief who died on the cross paid the societal debt that he owed to the world. When Jesus died on the cross, he died for no sin of his own. He died for all of our sins, having taken our sins and nailed it to his cross. Jesus in our place died for us. And that accusation of us, of our sinfulness, so to speak, God took down after Jesus had died and burned it in his judgment. And we were freed.
David J: Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio, and his message called Christ, the Word Made Flesh. Thanks for spending some time with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Life and Times of Jesus Christ. It's a series about the real Jesus of the Bible, God in the flesh, and why knowing him more deeply changes everything. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Truth doesn't need permission, and it doesn't need a filter. The Real Life Network delivers bold biblical content that addresses today's toughest issues with clarity and conviction. Watch teachings and interviews and the special programs that equip you with God's truth for the world that we live in today. Sign up for free at reallifenetwork.com. Stay grounded in scripture, gain perspective, and remain confident in Christ, no matter what's happening around you. Stream for free today at reallifenetwork.com. 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. 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 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.