Join us in this thought-provoking episode as Pastor Jack Hibbs explores the distinct characteristics that define a true Christian. Drawing from the book of James, Pastor Jack delves into what it truly means to be a believer, emphasizing the ‘birthmarks’ that ought to mark every Christian’s life. He challenges listeners to examine their faith critically and align their actions with God’s authority.
God is the creator and he rules and reigns in the affairs of men. If in your mind God does not exist, then what or who is the authority? You have anarchy when God does not exist in the hearts of men.
SPEAKER 01 :
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. What does it take to be a great leader? Whether you’re managing a business or running a household or navigating relationships, leadership is about so much more than titles and tasks. In The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman, you’ll discover some timeless principles of biblical leadership that really apply to every area of your life. Through some compelling storytelling, Dr. Lehman shares seven powerful secrets that’ll help you lead like the Good Shepherd does. Those secrets include understanding the people you lead, assessing their strengths, building trust, ensuring safety, providing direction, implementing correction, leading with compassion, Personally recommended by Pastor Jack Hibbs. The Way of the Shepherd is available today for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. Get your copy of The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. on today’s edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack continues with his series called The Book of James and a message titled Things That Christians Do. Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, the Book of James was a letter sent to the Jews who chose to follow Christ. And as new believers, James shares with them that we are to look within us to see if we are truly Christians. You see, just like we have birthmarks and traits identifying who we are, there are birthmarks that identify us as believers in Christ. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that if God truly does exist, well, there’s evidence that proves He exists. And one of our birthmarks is that we believe in Him and submit to His desires. Now, with his message called, Things That Christians Do, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 02 :
James chapter 4 today, in verses 7 to 12. And while you’re turning there, the title is Things That Christians Do. And there’s a subtitle to this. And I jotted that down, and it’s that eight birthmarks of the believer. We’re going to be looking at eight birthmarks of the believer or things that Christians do. And James, if you haven’t caught on, maybe you’re visiting for the first time, this is probably the most convicting book in all of the Bible. James just comes up and unloads both barrels onto the church. Not speaking to the unbeliever, not speaking to those outside the church. James’ epistle is speaking to those within the church. And so those of us who would claim to be Christians this morning would have to listen to James and know that he is speaking by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is speaking by the inspiration of God. And that he is speaking truth. And so James is going to articulate to us this morning things that Christians do. And you’re going to want to judge yourself. And I’m going to want to judge myself to see whether we are, I am, in the faith or not as Christians. Are we really, really Christians? And why not be a Christian? You know, I got to… just share with you that the more and more you look at the world around us and the more and more you advance in your education the more reasonable it is and the more logical it is to become a Christian for many years there is this concept or thought that if you’re a Christian you have to take your brains and throw it away somewhere and just come to God in this blind leap of faith and I don’t know who started that But it dates back to the time of when Darwin was preaching his religious message, that there is no God, that there is this law that he proposed of evolution. But the fact of the matter is, there is no such thing as evolution, both in the sense of it being a religious commitment, and it is, you certainly need more faith to be an evolutionist than you do to be a Christian. But listen, it is non-scientific. As we look at the world around us, the world around us, as we look at it closely and learn more about science, we come to the conclusion that there’s a great eternal creator, that there’s a great designer. Or for those of you who have a struggle thinking about God being a personal intellect and a personal being, you could look at God as being the ultimate design engineer. And the world screams over that fact that God is the great designer. Evolution demands of you to take a blind leap of faith into some concepts and thoughts that cannot be proven. And we’ve mentioned it before that evolution wants to state its argument that it’s just missing a link. And if it just finds that one link… The chain comes together. The fact of the matter is, evolutionists know this, that there is no chain. They have found a link which doesn’t even apply to their cause, but they’ve renamed it and relabeled it because the fact is, they’re trying to build a belief system that excludes God out of it because they don’t want to be accountable to God. They confuse God’s existence with maybe… a religion, or maybe their view of Christianity, or something along those lines. The fact of the matter is, God is real, evolution is not. And it is, in fact, a very, very demanding belief system that you must have a lot of faith to think that you and I crawled out, our ancestors, that is, out of a primordial goo. And we have gone through this great transformation process to the point of where we are now. We’re mankind. And it’s the survival of the fittest, which, again, doesn’t even prove out scientifically. Well, what do you mean? Well, you know, for one thing, sheep, little sheep, sheep cannot exist without human intervention. Did you know that? Sheep cannot live without human intervention. You can’t have an evolutionary process and have sheep appearing much earlier before men. Sheep must be tended to by shepherds or else they die. They’ll live several months and they’ll die, at best, several months. Well, what about the transitional forms? Where it shows the lizard growing feathers and then crawling up a tree and, good news for him, sprouting wings on both sides at the same time, not on one side, and being scared of something else that was in the tree, jumps out of the tree and he learns to fly before he hits the ground and kills himself. What about the transitional forms that show this happening? There are none. You and I have been lied to. There are no transitional forms. In fact, Darwin said himself, the great problem with the evolutionary theory, Darwin said, is that there are no transitional forms yet discovered. But they’ve got to be out there somewhere. is what he said. Well, we haven’t found any. You might say, well, what are you talking about this for? Because you are either a Christian today or you’re not a Christian. And if you ask me to be a Christian, you need to be thinking. You need to be critical in your analysis of things. Don’t think for a moment that you need to become dumb and stupid concerning facts, then I’ll be a Christian. No, take all the evidence there is in the world of both this Bible, archaeologically and scientifically, and then look at the other Bible, so to speak, that’s outside these walls, creation, and it all speaks of eternal designer. You can’t get around it. Man creates things from things that exist. God has created things from what didn’t exist. And the evidence is overwhelming. The Bible tells us in Psalm 19, verse 1, that the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows forth His handiwork. I love this verse. Day to day, they utter their speech. And night and tonight they reveal knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. The heavens demand to all of God’s creation, especially man, that God exist. If you’re not a Christian this morning, you need to ask yourself why. Chances are you’ll say, well, I’m not a Christian because my Sunday school teacher when I was five years old really upset me. Well, that’s no reason to not become a Christian. Well, I’m not a Christian because you can’t think of an excuse. The Bible tells us in the book of Romans, chapter 1, that man is without excuse. For since the creation of the world, God’s attributes have been clearly seen, even invisible attributes of God through his creation. attributes that are clearly known. He says, so that creation, especially mankind, is without excuse. Because although man knew of God’s existence, they did not glorify him as God and became unthankful in their thinking and rejected God in their thoughts. They became void and empty in their reasoning. So that their unreasonable hearts were darkened, because they rejected God, they naturally professed themselves then to be wise, but in reality, they became fools. And in Psalm 14, verse 1, concerning atheism, the Bible says, “…the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” And if you’re an atheist this morning, or maybe you’re listening and you’re an atheist, can you imagine, have you thought for a moment how big of a conundrum you’re in? How difficult of a situation you’re stuck in? That you have got to wrestle every day with the fact, does God exist or does God not exist? And because of sin in our lives, you’re hoping God can’t exist. But in reality, the fact is, God does exist. And we do not come to God because of our fear of being exposed to our own sin. James is talking to the Christian this morning regarding sin in our lives and regarding these eight birthmarks of the believer. And we need to look at them head on. He’s going to give us instruction and then he’s going to hit us real hard upside the head. So listen carefully to this. James chapter 4 verse 7 is where we begin. He says, Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save… and to destroy? Who are you to judge another? The first thing we want to see, and if you’re note-taking, you’re going to jot down eight of these things, but the first one that we’re going to see in the point of that Christians, in their relationship to God, must be aware that God is intermingled in our lives. We have to be aware of God’s presence, that he is in fact intermingled existing, that He is the Savior, that He is the Creator. So if you look at this concerning the eight birthmarks of the believer, six of them, we’ll cover them first, are characteristics of the Christian in relation to God. Start with me in verse 7. He says, Therefore submit to God. The first thing we see, and the word therefore takes us right back to verse 6, which sets the whole theme of the following teaching. In verse 6 of last time together, he says, But God gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And that’s set right there, verse 6, the argument that he’s going to give in verses 7 down to verse 12. Therefore. Well, therefore what? God gives grace to the humble, but he resists the proud. And boy, that’s two camps that people are divided into today. Either Christians being proud, are being humble and the world being proud are being humble and God says across the board he’s going to resist the proud so the first thing we want to see here is in verse 7 he says therefore submit to God the first birthmark of the believer is that Christians are to submit to God’s authority can you jot that down Christians are to submit to God’s authority now we all heard that didn’t we with our ears are we catching up on a little bit of sleep this morning We heard that with our ears and we might say, Amen. In fact, if someone near us in the following hours of this message upsets you or does something that is not Christian, you’re going to say to them, you ought to submit to God’s authority. Well, the same comes back to you. James is saying that the Christian has a birthmark. And one of those birthmarks is the fact that the Christian submits to God’s authority. Absolutely. No ifs, and buts, and no excuses about it. Are you and I, claiming to be Christians, are we submissive to God’s Rule, God’s desire, God’s authority. The word here, submit, is a military term, and it means to become under the command of another. To put yourself in place of a subordinate, where you’re the subordinate and there’s a superior over you. He is commanding. He is leading. And one of the reasons why we want to do this is because God is sovereign in the affairs of men. You know, God is sovereign. You know the things that are going on in the White House right now? You know God is sovereign. You know, God knows what’s going to happen. God knows what’s coming, but God has not relieved us of the responsibility of living responsible godly lives as Christians. And can I add intelligent lives as Christians? That we need to be thinking that there’s a world out there that’s not under God’s authority.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
SPEAKER 02 :
God is the creator and he rules and reigns in the affairs of men. If in your mind, God does not exist, then what or who is the authority? You have anarchy when God does not exist in the hearts of men. I don’t know who said this, but whoever said it was brilliant. I’ve heard Norman Geisler quote it. Norman Geisler says that when God dies in the minds of men, men die. And that was delivered in the context of euthanasia or abortion. When there is no concept of God in your mind, that God is not the king, he’s not sovereign, he is not ruling, he’s not reigning, God does not give life, life’s an accident, what happens is the society turns and winds up executing the defenseless. In man’s concepts, when God dies or when God is dead in the mind of man, men die also. Just by virtue of how men will treat others when God is not the one we must answer to. God rules and reigns in the affairs of men. Well, Jack, why is there so much sin in the world then? Why is there so much mayhem and disaster and pain and murdering and all? Because God, in his program, when man rejected God, God states here in the book, that man will pursue his own ways. And man’s ways leads to death because they refuse to submit to God’s authority. So James is telling us, therefore, submit to God. This is what Christians do. We can’t say that we love God and do not submit to his rule. He is sovereign. Ephesians 1.11 says, it is he who works all things according to the counsel of his own will. Have you noticed that? When’s the last time God asked you for some input on something? You know, Jack, what do you think I should do about it? He doesn’t ask. I have volunteered, and I still volunteer. It’s free. Lord, I have some advice for you. He never listens. He does his own will. He alone knows what’s best. In Romans 11.36 says, The Bible says, for of him and through him and to him. I like that. For of him and through him and to him are all things. To whom be the glory forever. Everything that there is is under God’s sovereign reign. He alone is sovereign of all, and it would be wise for us to submit to him. Listen, this thing concerning submission or being submitted to God, another thing that we recognize here is that God has appointed human authorities. We are to be submissive to God. Are you ready for this? We are to be submissive to human authorities. Why? Because the Bible says God has established human authority. Well, I don’t approve of the authority that’s over me. That’s tough. vote then, next month, you know, vote. But listen, God requires us to be submissive to human authority. In Romans chapter 13, verse 1 and verse 7, it says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Romans 13, 7 says, “…rendered therefore to all their due, taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs are due, and fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor is due.” Yes, you’re supposed to pay income tax. If you’re not paying income tax, you are fighting and disobedient to God. Well, I don’t believe my government is spending the money the right way. I agree with you all the way, buddy. But God says to go ahead and pay your taxes, and He knows your protest. He knows your heart. And God will not… God will not let those who abuse what you give them go off without being judged. The fact of the matter is, as a Christian, you pay your tax. Jesus paid taxes. Where do you pay taxes? When that red light comes on with that black and white car, what do you do? I don’t believe that my tax dollars are being spent right regarding this police department that we have in our fine city. Okay, so don’t pull over. And you’ll see some other issue of police material probably flying over your head with a big light on you. And you might say, well, I still don’t agree with that. You better pull over now. God says the authorities that are in place have been established by Him. So being submissive to God means that I submit to God’s authority, and I even submit to the human authorities that He has created, even if I don’t agree with them. Now, if it speaks against the Word of God, and if it demands me to disobey the Word of God, that’s where we draw the line as Christians. Are you listening to this? You better make sure, if you’re going to disobey the law, you had better make sure it is in direct… direct and clear opposition to God’s word. You can’t say, well, this is what I feel about that verse. Oh no, you better know, because it will cost you. We’re to be submissive to God and also to human authorities, which come from God. In Hebrews 13, 17 says, In a spiritual context, church, it says, obey those who have the rule over you and be submissive to them because they watch out for your souls. And they will have to give an account in the day of judgment. You know, you may or may not like me. You might be visiting here and saying, I don’t like you at all. Well, you know what, right now, at least while we’re here, I’m teaching the Bible. We’re going through the word verse by verse. And by God’s decree, even if you don’t like this sweater, that’s causing me to sweat. You have to, unto God, say, Lord, I’m going to obey the word that’s being taught in this ministry as I sit here. Lord, I have come today to bring myself under the position that you, God, are in control, that it’s not an accident that I’m here. I’m here for a purpose. Lord, do you want me to glean and to learn and to hear your word? And you may completely disapprove of this vessel giving it. It’s not me or my word. It’s him. And so the writer, I believe it’s Paul in Hebrew, says that we’re to be submissive. And all of us are submissive. I had a conversation this week with Pastor Chuck. And there’s something going on in Europe and we’re talking about it. And it was great because he was very concerned about a certain issue. And… gladly and lovingly and willingly so, I said, I’ll do anything you want me to do concerning that issue if it’s going to help matters. And he said, great, I’ll get back to you. Listen, that particular man is a great example and someone that we’d love to, and we do all submit to. But the fact of the matter is, what if it’s somebody different? Not that they’re unscriptural, but they rub you the wrong way. But the Word of God is presented, and God has told you to be at a particular church. You’re growing, you’re challenged in the teaching or in the ministry. Listen, don’t let your personal things come into conflict with God’s command of authority, which says be submissive to those who are in governmental positions over us and spiritual positions over us. That’s part of the birthmark of the Christian. The first birthmark is to submit unto God. Very important.
SPEAKER 01 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Things That Christians Do. Thanks for spending some time with us today. We appreciate it. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on true Christianity and how it creates a new way of living. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, Pastor Jack here. I want to give you guys a quick update on what’s going on in Southern California in wake of the devastating and forever life-altering fires that have ravaged the Southland. Things have never been like this before. And I mean that where a fire has never been seen like this before, where the sky was aflame and the winds were blowing 80, 90 miles an hour, flames and fire horizontally. has devastated homes by the tens of thousands, and there’s over 150,000 people without a home. And I say all that, my friends, to encourage you to consider this. Please, please consider giving to the Samaritan’s Purse organization. Franklin Graham, We’re working with them. We’re on the grounds here in our own neighborhood, so to speak, of Los Angeles, Malibu, the Palisades, Eaton Canyon, Altadena, areas of Pasadena. And it is overwhelmingly epic. I promise you this. Give what you can to Samaritan’s Purse. SamaritansPurse.org. Go there and send support to them regarding the Southern California fires. Please do not send us any of your money. Do not send it to Real Life. Do not send it to Real Radio. Please send it direct. Your contribution is a 501c3 tax-deductible contribution to the right people. Samaritans Purse, and you can go to SamaritansPurse.org. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER 01 :
Did you know that along with the radio program, Pastor Jack also has a TV show with more of the Pastor Jack Hibbs content that you like. It’s called Real Life TV. If you enjoy Pastor Jack on the radio, you’re going to love him on TV. So check out your local listings or visit jackhibbs.com and catch the latest episodes. 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.
