Truth Divides Us

Well, friends, listen. There is a lot of debate out there as to what is truth. We've been told in our culture today that we can make up truth, or that it's "your truth, I have my truth." And that's none other than deception, to be quite honest with you. Because according to the Bible, and according to reality, according to science, truth is truth. It's non-negotiable. The issue is this: Will you, will you and I, warm up to God's truth?

The fact of the matter is, friends, listen. We're going to be getting into a message that teaches us just how truth divides us. Now, you might be thinking, "Truth divides us? How does that happen?" Well, certainly truth divides people and their opinions. Truth divides people in their position. But I'm talking about truth dividing you and I in our relationship with God, from our old life to the new life. From living a life committed to self-seeking pleasures, the Bible calls that darkness, to a life of seeking the presence, and the face, and the pleasures of God. Completely different. One life you and I were born into into this world. The new life that is brought about by division is a life of the spirit.

And so, it's incredible. Listen. The last thing that you and I need in this world today is for another theologian to sit down and write us another book on how to be a Christian. No. The truth of the matter is, all that you and I need has been given to us by God in the Word. What we need to do is experience a great, great divide by God's truth. Meaning, I need to get as far away from the old Jack as is possible. And God's Word does that. I'm not talking about joining a church. I'm not talking about acting spiritual. I'm talking about an absolute life divided from what we used to be.

I love how McGee mentions how Paul the Apostle had the ability to teach in such a way that he brought the truths down, as it were, to where the kids can eat the cookies. Simple truth. The truth that divides. So listen, grab your Bibles and let's dive in.

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You and I know we can bear witness to the fact. We're a little bit embarrassed because we don't always cling to the truth. We wander from it sometimes. But we know this: we belong to the truth. The Bible is God's truth. The Bible does not contain God's truth. The Bible is God's truth. And right there, he opens up by saying, "I find then a law." That there's a law that is at work. It's a spiritual event. It's, it's transcendent from this world.

Church family, listen up. This is not religion he's talking about. He is saying that there's something inside of me that is speaking to me constantly. "I find in a law." There's, there's a voice in my conscience. There's a voice in my soul. There's a voice speaking to me. In John chapter 1, verse 4, the Bible says, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." The truth of God speaks to every man, woman, boy, and girl. You don't have to make excuses about it. And you don't have to try to cover it up. It's a fact.

Every, I remember years ago, this just popped into my head. There was a man. In fact, maybe, maybe in God's grace, he's watching right now. Though I doubt it. Uh, for those of you who don't know, I did not always do this in my life. I was working. I was a supervisor over an awesome laboratory of research and development lab at Baxter. Now it's called Edwards Life Sciences. Incredible corporation. And I had a, I had a blast there. When, when the church outgrew our ability to maintain it, I had to quit that career job. I loved it. But by God's grace, I wasn't shy about it. And so, this man, his name was Gene. So, Gene, if you're watching right now, I hope this hits you right between the eyes. He was a sassy, stubborn, little, arrogant atheist. But he could afford to be because he had never had any problems in his life. That's why atheism is such a joke. It only comes out of people who've, who've had the luxury to, um, to criticize the God that they don't believe in. It's funny to tell me how angry they are about the God they don't believe in. But anyway, I said, "Hey, I just heard you adopted a little girl." He said, "Yep." "That's awesome. Well, God bless you with that. That's an amazing gift." He said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We don't believe in God in our house. He said, I'm going to make sure I teach her that she is a product of evolution." I said, "You're sick." No, I mean, I told him, I said, "You're really sick." I said, "I'll tell you the reason why." Kids, kids have a natural, natural propensity to not only, uh, believe in God, but they also have a natural propensity to, um, just to deal with truth. They may lie against truth, but they will never deny truth. Uh, they know it. Because when they got the cookie dust all over their face and you ask them, "Did you just eat that cookie?" and they say, "No," they know they're lying against the truth. Where adults, we perfect it. We begin to tell lies so much that we begin to believe that is true. And by the way, that's one of the judgments of God. Is that when you lie against the truth, you can lie against it so much and eventually. And that's what we're hearing on our culture today. "Well, it's my truth." I don't doubt that it's your truth. But it's only your truth because your judgment has been fried by sin, and you're justifying your position. Thus, you must agree with the trend of the culture. "Where I have my truth, you have yours." Listen, our truth stinks. There's only one truth, and it's God's.

John chapter 8, verse 12. Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world." By the way, the light of the world. That means he's the only light of the world. The Great I Am. "He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." Awesome. Sister Act. Truth. We know where we belong. And we belong in the truth. And the Christian can detect that. Imagine the Spirit of God inside of you. And He is. And He's very jealous over you. I mean that in a holy way. And imagine His job is to make sure that you gravitate and know and discern truth from good and from evil. Secondly, is the reality. We belong to the reality. Definite article. I stress the reality. What really is? You see the word "evil." That evil is present with me. So he says, "I find then that there is a law." And that law is this: that present is evil, or evil is present within me. I, I submit to you today that only a strong believer like Paul can admit such a thing. As you can, as I can. Because when you and I are not believers, we, we are not sensitive to the fact that there's evil present within us. We might think about it, but we don't care much about it. No. We know the real identity. See the word "evil." We'll have it on the screen. That means bad, badness, harmful, loathsome, wrong. It implies the departure from what is good, goodness, beneficial, healthier, right. Evil. Pastor, do you mean to say that you believe in evil? 100 percent. And I don't need to talk to you about it. I just need to remember my old life. And I can also look at my current life. Now, I don't go out, do I? I don't go out doing evil. I don't just, I don't do that. I used to do that. We said, "Well, well, then you're not evil." Oh, no. You don't know what I battle in my head. That's evil. I battle the evil that's in my head. That's in my mind. So do you. Listen, when I throw myself out there under the bus, I'd love for you guys to say, "Yeah, amen, man. Me too. Me too. We should sort of movement. Me too."

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Paul is saying, "I have, I battle this." And I say, "Me too." Oh, that's the reality. And then it's the word "present." It means to be right alongside. That is, as a little right alongside of you. To be within. Not only to be present. The word means, but to be presenting evil. It is as though evil is on parade. That's how one Greek scholar put it. That this verse right here, verse 21, is announcing that evil is on parade within me, constantly fighting. We do, as believers, this parade of evil. You know this. I, okay, this is one of those moments. Um, I have learned in my life, and the life that I lived before I came to Christ, if I relax my, the guardrails around my mind. Now, I thank God for some 46 years, those guardrails have been up. And what, what are you talking about, Pastor? It means that I've got guardrails up. Because if I let them relax, if I just rest my mind without having, what did Paul say in another place? "Gird up the loins of your mind." If I let them down, if I relax and let my thinking become lazy, sloppy, evil comes in like water, like into a ship. And that evil is not your evil. That evil is my evil. Past. And why is it that I have a hard time remembering really good things? But I can tell you at the age of 17, that this happened in Technicolor. And how is it that in my mind, I see it instantly in Technicolor? How is it? Because it's evil. And I deal with it. And you deal with it. Why? Because it's part of our flesh that is yet to be redeemed. If you're a Christian today, you've been born again by the power of God. You've got a renewed mind. And you have a brand new heart. But nothing is referred to regarding our bodies. That's why death for the Christian is awesome. Get rid of this rotten, stinking thing because I got it. Listen, death sets me free from the appetites and demands of this. And then one day, in the resurrection, we'll have a brand new, sinless body. That's going to be incredible. By the way, listen to this. Plato. Listen to what he had to say. He said, "The physical aspect of our humanity blocks the mind's ability to penetrate ultimate truth." Here, remember now, this guy goes, what is he? When was he? 400 BC. 200. We're going way back, man. But the mind, or the soul, is eternal and free and in touch with ultimate reality. The obstruction to a vision of truth is found in the body. Isn't that interesting? He knew that. Why? Because God wrote it inside of Plato. And therefore, the body is something from which we need to be redeemed. Plato and Socrates was said to be having a conversation. And it goes this way. It's quoted this way. "It may be that God can forgive sins." But I don't see how. They understood that there was a need for sins to be forgiven. And that there was an internal lust that man has for sin. And you can almost see those guys throw their arms up in frustration about that. No. The fact, the real factual evidence of evil is a powerful witness. Church, I put it this way. It's the antithesis. It's the opposite of which is good. Of what is good. Evil. Can you pick out? Listen, atheist, even right here, right now, maybe you're watching. Do you know what's good and evil? How do you know? "I don't believe in God." Well, is it, is it good or evil to do this or that? "Oh, that's evil." And they'll have their, their, uh, standard of judgment. Are you with me, everybody? Does think about this. You who say there is no God. How is it that you have some form of morality? Where did that come from? The Bible makes it very clear that evil is an outcropping from original good. You can't have evil without first something preempting evil. And what preempted evil was good. You can't say that's good and that's bad unless you understand that evil comes out of good. There had to be a starting point. We know where we belong. Thirdly, is that we belong to what is right. He says, "All this is happening to the very one himself, the one who wills to do good." He says, "I want to do good." I'll submit you today that down deep inside, according to the standard of God, the atheist, the non-believer, whoever you may be, outside of Christ, you do not will, you do not determine, you do not strive to do good. You may will, you may strive to exalt yourself, to get in the picture, to get your name out there. But that's not good. Now, the fact is, this is the true new creation in Christ speaking. And I love that he inserts that. "The one who wills to do good." That statement is one of a person who knows Christ.

Number two, in our study today, verses 22 to 23, is that we know what the fight is all about. There's a great fight that's going on. I, I've been overruled every time I've told you guys this before. But, um, I've been overruled on this. I've floated it past Lisa. She said, "No way." I've mentioned it to a few staff members, trying to go around the wisdom of my wife to see if, in no way. And that is, I'm just a super fan of Peter Jackson's version on the silver screen of Lord of the Rings. It's extremely graphic. There's no sex, okay? So it's not that kind of a thing. When I say graphic, uh, Peter Jackson takes you into the bowels of hell. And it's the closest manifestation to what I read is a biblical hell, where you see what's going on in all of the activity. And that bottomless pit. And the camera descends and descends and descends down. And as it's going down, you look around as it's descending, and it's all of these orcs and others that are being either fashioning tools of weaponry for battle against the humans, or there's these demonic entities that are bringing forth out of this like soup membrane type of suit, the birthing of more demons, a massy and an army to do what? To go to war against man. And that's what Tolkien saw in his imagination regarding the spirit realm. It kind of freaks people out. I think Christians should watch it. But then it's pretty heavy. Don't have your kids in the room. They'll have nightmares. But we, we shriek at that. But yet, there's things after us worse than that. But you just can't see them. The awesome thing is, you and I know what the fight is all about. The beautiful thing is about in verse 22 is that we learn that the fight is from victory. It's from the angle of victory. Christian, if you've read your Bible, you know this, right? Now, we are never given the permission to be defeated. Ever. In the Bible. Do you know that? The Bible says we're more than conquerors, over and over again. I'm reading right now through Chronicles, and it's incredible how many times David consults God, and God says, "Yes, go to war with the enemy, but do it this way." It's always key. By the way, when you're reading the great battles in the Bible, always watch what God says. At one point, the army was going to go and attack, and God said, "No, no, get in. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to get a bunch of torches." And, "Okay, all right. So we're going to do night fighting. All right. Torches." "God, here's the torches." He said, "Okay, you got a sword?" "Yeah." "All right. Now you're talking." I think God says, "You got a pot? You have a big jar?" "Yeah." "Light the torch. Put the torch in the pot. Carry the torch. Get out your sword and go toward the enemy in the middle of the night. And when I instruct you guys to yell, yell." This is God's battle plan. When you yell, I want you to take the end of your sword. I want you to break the pot so the torches appear. Isn't that cool? As soon as the torches could be seen, the pot had to be broken for the torch to be seen. As soon as the enemy saw the instant hillside covered in fire, they freaked. And they jumped up and they said, "The sword of the Lord and the sword of Gideon is upon us!" And they freaked out. Now, you don't go to battle like that. But when God says, "Go to battle this way," you do it. And God says, "When you go to battle, Christian, every day, you know what the fight's all about." And remember this: you're fighting from the angle, from the position of victory. Verse 22, he says, "For I delight in the law of God." That's victory. I could close my Bible and walk away right now, right there. "For I delight in the law of God." All that just removed forever this silly conversation about Paul is speaking about being a non-believer. The non-believer does not delight in the law of God. He says, "I delight in the law of God according to the inward man." We're coming from the angle of victory. "For I delight in the law of God." I read the Bible, and I look at it, and I read it, and I say, "Oh, God, do that in my life." Isn't that what you say? Why? Because we delight. The word is that we rejoice in it. We're joyous about it. To be a light of heart. I'd love that. Confident. Our confidence isn't in us. It's in the fact that He's told us the war has been determined already. You do clean up battles in your life. You're fighting evil. You're fighting this. You're fighting wokeism. You're fighting racism. You're fighting poverty. You're doing all those things that express the love of God in whatever that thing is. Christian, don't ever let some knucklehead tell you that if you get involved in feeding the homeless, or the abortion issue, or the homeless issue, or the border issue, that you're getting involved in politics. You're showing the love of God in every area. That's what you're doing. I don't want anything to do with Christianity that stays within the four walls of the church. Who needs that? That's how our nation got messed up. No. Listen, it's out there. And we speak truth to the issues, and we expose the falsehood. Why? Because we're coming from the angle of victory. Christian. So listen, obviously, we are talking about relationship rather than religion. If you want religion, then this is probably not the program for you. If you want a relationship with God, then let us help you see the truth of God's Word speaks to the soul. As we're talking about God's truth making a division, the fact of the matter is this: that when you and I live in truth, when we know what the Bible says about us internally and how to live externally, that truth should cause you and I to walk in a way that causes us to be the most loving people that can encounter us, but also truth tellers. We speak the truth in love. God's truth will show the love of God out of our lives into every area of our life. And for that, we should be attractive to the world around us. People are scared, my friends. These are difficult days. The experts, they don't know what's coming next. Everybody's got their opinions. Listen, you don't have to guess anymore. God's Word is steadfast and sure. You need to make a deposit of faith into God's Word. The truth of God, His Word, the Bible. We want to help you with your walk with Jesus. That's what we're here for. We want to bring you more and more content that brings you into a closer walk with Jesus. That's why we're encouraging you to go to JackHibbs.com. We've parked everything there. JackHibbs.com. You can connect with us on Facebook or Instagram or, uh, Telegram, other areas. But listen, all this to get you to the truth. So until next time, God bless you. Stay tuned. Tell a friend. But be ready to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truth. You are watching Real Life with Jack Hibbs.

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Welcome to Real Life Radio with Jack Hibbs. God's Word never will return void. God's Word is spirit. It's power, and it has its effects.

I want you to grab your Bibles, open them up, and get ready to learn from God's Word. God did not give us a Bible prophecy to scare us, but to prepare us. But I think you're going to get a lot out of it. And one of the great reasons you are the light of the world. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth." How does that happen? By the power of the Holy Spirit. You're going to get excited about what Jesus Christ wants to do in and through you.

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Jack Hibbs truly believes we are living in some of the most exciting days in history, which brings some great opportunities to share with the world a powerful, no-nonsense presentation of the Gospel to this generation who are searching for answers and truth. Will you stand with us in sharing this message in real and practical ways? We ask that you commit to support Real Life and the teachings of Jack Hibbs with the gift of your choosing. Simply go to JackHibbs.com, and there you can simply follow the instructions of how to give a one-time gift or a recurring gift, if you would prefer. To call, our toll-free number is 877-77-2346. Again, that's 877-77-2346. And of course, you can write us. Our address is Real Life with Jack Hibbs, P.O. Box 1273, Chino Hills, California 91709. Your gift will be faithfully put to work because it's our desire that through Jesus Christ, you will know real life.