Today on Real Life Radio. About it is the evangelists didn't want anybody to get saved. He wanted them all to die. He did. He wanted them all.
In fact, he got in a fight with God about it. He said, I knew it. You are a merciful, kind, and forgiving God. Isn't that great? 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. Here, our featured resource for the month is a great book by Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of yesteryear. Words of warning. And listen to the subtitle, everyone, for those wavering between belief and unbelief.
You need this book. Everyone needs this book. If you're struggling with belief and unbelief, Get it. Maybe you have a friend who's struggling with belief and unbelief and they're wavering. This book, Words of Warning by Charles Spurgeon, is just the right fit for you.
Order yours right now at jackhibbs.com/slash real radio. On today's edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack continues his series called 1 Samuel with a message titled, This Holy God Part 2 Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first prophet.
So, in this second part of the message, Samuel warns Israel not to slip into religion. but to have a true relationship with their God. You see, God desires his people to be in fellowship with him. But as the generations continued on, they grew more and more distant from God.
Now under the time of the judges, Israel goes astray.
So today Pastor Jack teaches us that it's only when we realize how powerful and how holy God truly is, will we understand that God's presence is not to be taken lightly. We've got to learn from what Samuel said to the people of God, and that is to respect what is sacred or serious consequences may come upon us.
Now with his message called This Holy God, Part 2. Here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. There are people you think of Jonah. Who went and preached that message, and it was the shortest sermon you've ever seen in your life? It was graceless.
He had no worship band. He had no follow-up material. He had no second service planned. Um He's gets spit up on the shore. He w makes his trek into town.
There Is At least they tell us 500,000 Of the pagan people there, Nineveh, he says, is condemned forty days and you fry. He turns and he walks away. These pagans freak. I you know I probably would have freaked too as a giant fish spits this guy out on the beach. That would have What is this guy, an alien?
What's the deal? You know, the bile from the fish probably ate up all of his hair and skin and face and all that stuff. He probably looked like a freak. It's probably part of the message, you know, that God had in store. This guy comes out, 40 days and you fry.
You know, and. That freaked them out. The king says, that's it, everything repents. Even the animals repent. Everybody repents.
He does. Nobody eats, not even the animals. We repent. We sit down in sackcloth and ashes and we weep and ask for this God to forgive us. What happens?
The shortest sermon with the greatest. Alter call ever in human history. And the funny thing about it is the evangelists didn't want anybody to get saved. He wanted them all to die. He did.
He wanted them all. In fact, he got in a fight with God about it. He said, I knew it. You are merciful, kind, and forgiving God. Isn't that great?
He built a little hut with a little vine, and he sat there to watch the Ninevites fry. He did. He was, and it says that he took great delight as he waited. for the judgment to come. It's like, oh man, twenty-three days.
22 days. And God Here's the cry of the city repenting. If the Philistines would have repented, or maybe some of them did? What would have happened? What would happen if Vladimir Putin were to go on Russian TV tonight and say, listen, I've been wrong, I'm an atheistic.
Evolutionists. But I've been wrong. God lives. Jesus Christ is real. And the nation of Russia must bow and serve the great God of heaven and earth.
Can you imagine? You say, well, that'll never happen. Hey, it could happen. It could happen. But for some of us, it might be God just breaking through the heart of someone we know.
That would be miracle enough.
Sometimes a heart is stronger than a great walled Fortress, isn't it? In verses thirteen to sixteen. We see here that there's a change of mind. A change of mind in verses 13 through 16.
Now, the people of Beth Shemesh, this is a Jewish town now. We're reaping their wheat harvest. Remember, I asked you before in our study to circle that? The reason why is because Dagon was the god of who? God of what?
Grain, God of wheat, God of harvest. It just so happens. that as the ark comes into town, And all the Philistines are peeking over to watch it go. Their God is broken, their harvest, quote. is broken.
It's harvest time in the valley. And they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and they rejoiced to see it. Then the cart came into the field of Joshua. This is Joshua, not any Joshua we know. It's too bad we don't know more about this, Joshua.
'Cause he's a pretty cool guy and I'll tell you why. Beth Shimesh is a little town. And uh Joshua and his friends They kept faithful to the worship of the Lord. They were on the border of Philistia, pagan, Israel, you know, through Eli and his sons had become pagan. But in this little country town, Joshua and his buddies kept the faith.
Isn't that cool? I like that. You know what? In my travels, people will say, oh man, so you're from Southern California, huh? Yeah.
Man, isn't it tough to live there? And I know what they mean in the context of where I'm at and what's going on. And I'll say, well, you know what? Don't know. You know, you get You get accustomed to what God's doing in your neck of the woods.
Now, example. I'll get that kind of a question, that kind of a Oh. probe from people who are in towns or places very different. Much less populated. I guess what I'm saying is I don't get that question from somebody from New York.
You see, because in Southern California They'll say, man, how do you live in Babylon, man? I mean that's Babylon. You know what, it is Babylon here, isn't it? But you know what? Where there's a lot of darkness There's a lot of light.
You know what? It may be very, very wicked. And Southern California may be the pornographic capital of the world. And Southern California may be the financial capital of so many. Uh Or that of the world, even.
Southern California alone, we just heard this week, is the sixth largest economy in the world. If we were just a nation, Southern California. Not the whole state, but if Southern California was a nation, we have the sixth largest economy on the face of the earth. We sell more Mercedes-Benz in our neck of the woods than any place on the planet. Did you know that?
Not only that, Beamers and Porsches are sold here record. numbers anywhere in the world here. Oh man, that's Babylon. You know what it is, Babylon. But You can drive down avenues and streets and go from great Bible teaching church to great Bible teaching churches.
There's a lot of believers. In this neck of the woods. But there's a sweet thing I tell you. You get out to some little country place, and just don't think because it's country, it's gonna be, oh, praise to Jesus. There's some freaky little towns.
Very weird.
Well, I'm gonna hoot of the country. You better be careful. You better pray first. But um I love it out in this little country town. Joshua and his buddies kept the faith.
They're rejoicing, they're praising the Lord. It says that they stood there and a large stone was there.
So they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. These guys are praising God. And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord. and the chest that was with it. In which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone.
Then the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices the same day to the Lord.
So when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, see they're peeking over the fence. They returned to Ekron the same day, Now Why it said there were Ten lords, but there's only five here. I don't know what happened to the other five. I I di I just have that on my notes. I wonder what happened to the other five.
Doesn't say we don't know. Maybe they couldn't work. Um I don't know. It's possible. 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. Verses 17 to 21.
We learn here about a humble life. Look what happens. When God's at work in our life and we're confessing our sin and we're walking with Him, we're walking in that newness of life that is, Lord. in that moment by moment renewal with him Well live a humble life. When you see a Christian, and there are Christians who are arrogant and puffed up, just know this.
They're gonna fall down soon. Yeah, they will fall down. Um But God will string a little you know fishing wire across the path in love. Because the Bible tells us Um That you know, we really do need to be brought down sometimes. We need to be humbled.
And look what happens here. God is going to humble. Verse 17. The statements made here, these are the golden tumors. which were returned to us.
They give the list of the cities. Um And just scanning down, look at verse 19. Then it says, He struck the men, listen, of this little Jewish town. He struck them because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck, listen, 50,070 men of them, of the people, and the people lamented because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter.
And there, the men, as the scripture goes on, Uh Make the record is made that there's a great slaughter, they're crying out to God. They make the statement, verse 20: This is a holy God, and what in the world is happening? Why is God doing this in light of what just happened?
Now, Israel took the ark into battle, thinking it would win them the war, they lose the ark. The Philistines take the ark, put it before their God, and their God gets beat up by. the God of heaven. They return. The ark back to the Israeli people goes into a little town, they're praising the Lord, but somebody in the group.
Is not careful, and what do they do? This scripture, verses 17 to 21, somebody peeks. That is, looks into the ark.
Now that's not Uh You know, something that they got from Indiana Jones or whatever. In fact, Indiana Jones in the movie probably got it from this portion of the scripture. Remember in the movie where they lift the lid of the Ark of the Covenant, which was very accurate, it's a lid. They lifted the lid and then on that lid there are the two angels. Thought oh, for you guys over here, the two angels?
They lift the lid, right?
Well, these guys, somebody lift the lid and they looked inside.
Now, okay, listen, what's inside? You know what's inside. The mana? The Ten Commandments and Aaron's rod. Right?
Okay, are those are those things in and of themselves fatal? No. Is acacia wood overlaid with gold fatal? No? Why did guts?
Smite these guys. Because you know what? You don't? Treat God as a sideshow. He's not a freak.
Someone You see the steps, there's three key steps. One is the nation looked to him as a trinket, as a good look charm. The non-believers saw him as someone to Lock up in a temple. To gloat over. Then The nation of Israel gets their Arc back.
And someone in the midst of them Maybe have been a lot of them. Maybe sees God as some form of entertainment. Wow, what's the deal? I wonder why those Philistines got all wigged out. Let's take a look and see.
They knew they weren't supposed to get near that thing and touch it like that. The Levites were supposed to. operate that arc and manage it. And from this, by the way, Obviously, chapter 7 will come next week, and it's very exciting because from these events, a 20-year period of time will go. where they don't touch the ark and mess with it.
Until David says, you know what, King David. You know what? We need to bring the ark back to where it belongs. We won't hear anything about the ark. After are much after this portion of scripture.
Until David arrives. The nation had been humbled.
Sometimes God humbles a nation by doing radical and drastic things. You were all crying about three dollars a gallon of gas. Um If you've traveled outside of America, We've had it really good for an amazingly long time, but that's that's not an That's no reason to jack up our gas prices. Um It's just the fact. You know, you go to Germany for crying out loud, and I forget what it is, but it's pathetic.
I mean, you better have a lot of money to fill up one gas tank. I mean, a lot of money. We're blessed here. But do you realize that God can change interest rates, or the Suez Canal can shut down, or something could go haywire? And you know, things can happen in a matter of days.
Where people are broken, man. Stock market grinds to a halt. You know, there's people who drive around and they got nice homes and boats and airplanes and stuff, but their wealth is on paper. And they couldn't even go to the market. Did you know that?
I saw a thing last week where Paul McCartney was worth millions of dollars at one point in time when the Beatles were ramping up, you know. He was worth mega millions, but it was all tied up in legal paperwork and he couldn't even get a dollar to go get food. Any language? The biggest rock and roller of the time. He's living in Scotland or Ireland in a shack with no toilet.
No power. Nothing but candles. And blankets. Paul McCartney. doing concerts around the world, but he had no cash on hand.
God can humble us in a moment. He could do it.
Well, you know, we're America. That's why he's going to do it. It's amazing how God gets our attention. I want to share something with you as we put this chapter to a to a close here. God is in such control.
throughout all of this. He's in absolute control.
Now, if you were to interview the people at the time, I bet you they would have had all kinds of reasons. Can you imagine all the news networks out there? They're down in Ashdod and they're interviewing these guys.
Well, you know what? We've all got this thing, but we don't think it has anything to do with the Hebrew God. We, you know, they're explaining things the way. No, God's moving. The plague came upon you because you didn't reverence the God.
of heaven and earth. But people will try to explain that away, and they'll try to argue this, and they'll try to put a spin, and they can't be that, it can't be the other. That's God. And we try to figure things out. First of all, it's our nature to try to figure things out.
Isn't it? Father, we thank you for your word and for the way you work in life. Lord, there may be a thousand questions here tonight. How come God Why, Lord? When will Hmm.
But Lord tonight I am so humbled and thankful that I can Say thank you, God. for everything. You're in such perfect control. Lord, I pray that we would not miss. The opportunities that you bring our way.
Lord, we have learned that they're often masked and clothed. in very common situations that we call problems. We have learned, Lord, that problems are divine opportunities. And so, Lord, we ask. That we might be a people completely sold out to you.
Given over to your cause. To love like you love, to do what you do. And to point as many as we can to Jesus. Lord, may it come through our lives. May it not just be words.
And Father, I just pray for this flock of people. These precious ones. Lord, that we would go from this place renewed and strengthened, that this is. These types of things are not limited to a pastor or an evangelist. But Lord, you want to do...
wild and awesome things with all of our lives. And I know this is true.
So, Lord, tonight we say, Jesus, open the door. that we might go through. and be your hands and your feet in this world until you come again. For it's in your name, Lord, we pray, and all God's people said. Amen.
Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. Here on Real Life Radio. with his message called This Holy God Part 2. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called 1 Samuel. It's a series that highlights the prophet Samuel who was called by God During one of Israel's darkest ages, to bring the people back to a heart of true worship.
and will continue. on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
So as you heard from our broadcast, Jesus is the way, the truth. Truth and the Life. And if you'd like to know what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life personally, we would love to help you out with that. Go to jackhibbs.com slash know God. That's K-N-O-W-God.
And there you'll be guided through what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life and the freedom that you'll find in knowing God. Don't miss out. That's the Know God tab at jackhibbs.com. Hey, everybody, you know, everybody here on the team thought it'd be kind of fun if you actually kind of saw or heard what goes on behind the scenes. After all, it's called real life and this is what we do.
Take a listen. I have a good friend in Shiwasam. She was in that movie, Twister. Oh yeah. Remember that?
Love that. Both of them. She was a good friend. Her name was Rusty. And Rusty was in the very first opening scene when the tornado was coming through.
And they had to get down into the shelter. Remember this? There was a small family, and they had to get down into the shelter. The wind and the rain was amazing. And I said, I asked her, I said, I said, you looked so scared.
in those shots. And she said, Do you know why? I said, Why? She says, I was scared. She said, They had a jet engine on the back of a tractor trailer.
And they fired the jet engine up and sprayed water through the jet engine. This is really what they did, and uh, apparently. That's kind of the real deal. You know, 100 miles an hour winds, 150 mile-an-hour winds. It scares people.
Yeah, I got to tell you, you know what? My respect goes out to those who live in Tornado Alley and Hurricane Land. I'd rather have an earthquake any day.
Now, maybe that's conditioning. Maybe people in Florida are saying, Are you nuts? Give me a hurricane any day. No, you know what I like about earthquakes? In 60 seconds, you know exactly how it's going to turn out.
It was nothing or it was quite substantial. You don't have to. I mean, you don't have to worry about it. You don't have time to worry about it. It hits you, you fall down, you get up, it's over.
And but yeah, absolutely crazy. But I gotta tell you, storms, when you read the book of Job. Um You just got to get inside of a storm because God says that he is. Moving those things, and he's cut a path. For the lightning bolt, he says.
And I just love that. The grandeur of God in many ways for me is seen in a storm or a stormy sky. Love it. How do you prep when that when you when you look out and you see that stormy sky? We're being a picture painting here.
You look out in your life and you see the stormy sky and you go, oh, here it comes. How do you prepare for that? I think you should prepare for the stormy day every day. Oh, that's a good point. I just wish I practiced that regarding earthquakes.
I mean, my water heater is strapped down. I've got a lot of water to drink. We have, you know, like a year worth of food, that kind of stuff. But you just kind of have to be prepared in such a way that. You actually don't have to think about it because you've done that.
It's part of the routine.
So it kind of goes like this: I was recently back east. And I love humidity and I love hot weather. I love hot, I love hot, humid weather. Everybody around me. Um they were like dropping like flies.
And part of the problem was they kept complaining about how hot it was. Oh, it's so sticky. And I told them, you know what? Can you guys just be quiet? And take on this little bit of counseling.
Embrace the sweat. Determine now. I'm gonna sweat today. I'm just gonna sweat today. My clothes are gonna be wet, but so is everybody else.
We're gonna be wet. We're gonna sweat. It's 99 degrees and it's raining outside. Love it. I mean, just love it.
And so I think the same is true in life. Life is going to throw its curveballs at us, but as believers, we know that nothing can come our way without God's permission and God's oversight. And so, whatever's going on, we can be still and just realize, you know what, this hurts right now. Or this is expensive right now, or this is painful right now. But the Lord knows where I'm at, He's with me here.
And we're going to get through this. The season's going to change. And I know it doesn't feel like we're going to get on the other side of it. But lo and behold, we can all attest to the fact: guess what? We always get over onto the other side of it because God's faithful.
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.
