Today on Real Life Radio. He's washed in the blood of my son. He's been declared holy. He believes in me, so I've imputed to him my righteousness. I don't see any fault in him.
He's blameless. Can you imagine? God looks at you blameless. This is real life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
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Real encouragement. in real life. That's real life devotions at jackhibbs.com. On today's edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack now continues with his series called First Samuel.
and a message titled, Oh Say Can You See, Part 2. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of Israel's prophets.
So as we continue in chapter 11, the scripture focuses on a crisis for the Jewish people in the form of brutal attacks and demands, and a swift call to action is needed. You see, Saul, whom Samuel appointed as king, sends messengers throughout Israel to call the people together. Saul's response is an important lesson for us today, to not compromise, but to mobilize in unity. This is a very good biblical reaction that the enemy truly hates.
So today Pastor Jack teaches that our enemy, Satan, doesn't want to kill us. He wants us to not fight against him. With fear and terror, he weakens us even to the point of not standing together. and not sharing our faith with others.
Now with his message called O Say Can You See Part 2? Here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Huggs. We ask that you would. Just galvanize our lives in this world. It's a nutty world.
But, Father, thank you so much that you're on the throne. What a great time to know the Lord. Father, we thank you for the peace that you've instilled in our hearts. We thank you for your word, your truth. And Lord, we pray that to night we would leave this place Smarter, brighter, more committed.
Excited. Praising you. For the tremendous commitment you've made to us, In Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and it's in His name we pray, and all God's people said. Amen. Grab your Bibles.
1 Samuel chapter 11 tonight. Turn there, if you will. And um What a great chapter. In the book of Samuel. The title of the message is O Say, Can You See?
And the reason why it's entitled that way, you shall see in a moment. 1 Samuel chapter 11, verses 1 to 15. We'll be looking at several points tonight. And um I'm going to ask you to. To pay attention and listen carefully because there's so much here that applies to us in our lives today.
1 Samuel chapter 11, verses 1 through 15. Verse 1 says the scriptures, Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead, and all the men of Jabesh shed Nahash. Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you. And Nahash the Ammonite answered them. On this condition, he said, I will make a covenant with you.
that I may put out all your right eyes. And bring reproach on all Israel. Then the elders of Jabush said to him, Hold off for seven days, that we may send messengers to all the territory of Israel. And then if there's no one to save us, we will come out to you.
So the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the news in the hearing of the people. And all the people lifted up their voices and wept.
Now there was Saul coming behind the herd from the field. And Saul said, What troubles the people that they weep? And they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused.
So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces. And sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of the messenger, saying, Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, So it will be done to his oxen. And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they all came out with one consent. And when the when he numbered them in Bezek, The children of Israel were 300,000 and the men of Judah 30,000. And they said to the messengers who came, Thus you shall say to the men of Jabesh Gilead, Tomorrow, by the time that the sun is hot, you shall have help.
Then the messengers came and reported it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad. Therefore, The men of Jabersh said, Tomorrow we will come out to you. and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.
So it was on the next day that Saul put Put the people in three companies, and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, that's very early in the morning, and killed the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And it happened that those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together. Then the people said to Samuel, Who is he who said Saul shall not reign over us? Bring the men that we may put them to death. But Saul said, Not a man shall be put to death this day, for to day the Lord has accomplished salvation in Israel.
Then Samuel said to the people, Come, let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there.
So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. There they made sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. In your notes, you might remember in this chapter. Nahash, mark it down. His name in Hebrew is amazing.
As we read this story, Nahash is an enemy to the children of Jabesh and Israel. Jabesh is that area that, if you look at a map of Israel, like from satellite, from an airplane. The Jordan River Valley flows, Israel's to the west. The area of Jabesh is in the area just on the east side of the Jordan River, just over where the Golan Heights would be, just past that eastward into Jordan today. In the um The men that are spoken of here as being evil and being the bad guys.
Are those who dwell in the region that today we would look on a map and see the area of Jordan? Amman, the capital. Today. and the ancient uh dwelling of these people. these enemies of Israel and of Saul.
And so Nahash, his name in Hebrew is awesome. His name means the serpent or one who is cunning, one who slithers, one who is even shiny or bronze or a brazen one, a snake.
So you begin to see immediately from the start of this that there's a snake, his name's Nahash, a man who is a commander over the enemy forces of Israel to destroy them. And he's going to start a campaign, and he goes obviously to the first obstacle, and that is those in Jabesh who live near the Jordan River Valley. No doubt, probably, that after conquering them, he would just move on his way and attack Saul and uh God's people.
So I just love the fact that there's such a picture already being formed in Nahash. Whose name means snake or snake-like. And he's the leader of a very, very potent and powerful enemy nation. To God's people.
So we saw in our study last time, verses 1 through 3, our first point, and that is that the enemy delights in compromise. Notice what he says to them. Nahash comes upon God's people and he says to them, That um We want to make a covenant. or we want you to serve us. And so there's this attack.
You be Our servants. And uh Serve us. And so what's interesting about this is the enemy. always delights in getting God's people Two Compromise. Satan's plan and will is to get the believer to back off and to cool down in their commitment to God.
And he will often do that by fear, by attack, often verbal attack, to try to undermine and diminish the life of the believer. And we'll see how he does that. In several ways. In verse 1, we see here, I believe, that he does it by wrapping us up in fear. He does it by wrapping us up in fear.
It says here that then Nahash came up and encamped against the men that we're speaking of here. Uh one's in Jordan. And all the men As they've gathered, they say, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.
Now, watch this. In verse 2, Nahash says, On this condition, I will make a covenant. And here's how he begins to attack them: that I may put out all your right eyes and bring a reproach. on Israel.
So he's invading them. The people are so wrapped in fear that they say, Hey, let's draw up a treaty. Let's not go to war. God's people are are trembling. And so the enemy takes This moment To say, all right.
Here's the deal. I cut out your right eyes.
Now, I don't know about you. That freaks me out just to think about it. I mean, you ever get something near your eye? I'm always petty. Panicking about my, I don't know why.
Years ago, maybe this is the reason. I poked. Uh well actually I was walking down a dark street and I was holding my daughter on my left side and I was talking to her, it was very dark, and we're walking along and I looked up at the same moment I came right upon a pine tree that a branch was hanging down and that pine needle went right into my eyeball. And I did everything I could to keep from dropping her. I didn't drop her, but I fell back.
And the pain, it was horrible. I couldn't believe it. I had to go to the hospital. And just this horrific pain. And ever since then, I've been paranoid of something or someone getting near my eye.
When I read this about these people being pressured to compromise to yield their right eye. It just made me sick to my stomach because, yeah, I'm cutting out. What are they doing? Heat up a knife and just, you know. What'd they do?
How do you think they did it? This is your enemy. You think they're going to cut it out under, you know, some kind of, well, we'll give you a general anesthetic. And, you know, no, they gouge it out. It's terrible.
Just terrible. How fear can wrap you up. and bring you to the place of being worthless. And so Nahash's tone and response is: this is what we're going to do. We are going to absolutely cut your right eye out of your head.
Now, listen, in a real practical way for us tonight, we need to realize this. 1 Peter 5, verse 8. says concerning our Nahash, Satan. Who's against us? The Bible says to be sober.
Be on guard because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion. like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him steadfast in the Lord, knowing That the same sufferings are experienced by your brethren in the world. Be sober, the Bible says. We need to be sober against Satan.
We need to be on guard against him. Thirdly, we need to be resisting him. And we need to be knowing. That attack and Trouble and pain comes to God's people. It happens in the world.
As we spoke about a month ago, how much persecution is arising in the world? Christians are being slaughtered wholesale around the world. And yet the Bible spoke about these times to come. 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. Revelation chapter 12, verse 10. Talks about Satan and his job.
He does this very well, by the way. Revelation 12, 10 says, For the accuser of the brethren, the Bible says there, who accuses them or us before God day and night has been cast down. In the Revelation, It speaks about a time when Satan will be cast down. And he'll have but a short time upon the earth. Right now, he traffics all over the place.
You might think, yeah, you know what? I think he visited my house this week. Probably not, but maybe one of his goobers have. But he walks around roaring like a lion, wants to eat you up. And he's the accuser of the brethren day and night.
Like a siren, like a dripping faucet. He's accusing us before God. He says, Is that real? Truly, He does? Yeah, did you know Satan's got access to the throne room of God?
Isn't that weird?
Well, how can that be? Don't worry. God's going to use all that to his glory. and to your deliverance. I don't know how he's gonna do it, but he's gonna do it.
And in the end, we're gonna stand in heaven, and Satan's probably gonna go, Come on, God, you know. All the stuff I told you about, Jack? I mean, you know, for years I warned you about that bonehead and how unfaithful he was to you and this and that, and the Lord, you know, is going to maybe go, eh? What? I can't hear you.
Your horns are in your mouth, or something, you know. You're not making any sense. He's washed in the blood of my son. He's been declared holy. He believes in me, so I've imputed to him my righteousness.
I don't see any fault in him. He's blameless. Can you imagine? God looks at you blameless. You have to remind your wife or husband that.
God looks at me blameless, you know. Verbal attacks often bring fear and terror. Good biblical example is Goliath. When you read and we'll come to him. For 40 days his mouth had been yapping.
Oh, Israel, you bunch of losers, weaklings. Come on, send somebody out, beat me up. Whoever beats me up, you know, can be the prince, and that nation will win. Send somebody out. His mouth's going, yapping along.
David's bringing some bread and cheese to his brothers to see how things are going. And David, you know, he hears this. Who's that big mouth?
Well, that's Goliath. That's the prince of their army. And David can't take it.
Somebody needs to shut this guy up. And David goes off after him. It's just awesome. Goliath A type of the enemy, a type of satanic attack. Remember, the Bible says he's like a lion.
He's not a lion.
Now think about it. If I announce tonight You know, cell phone rings, and you know, it's the Police department. Don't let the people out of the sanctuary. There's a lion loose from Circus Vargas. And it's in the parking lot.
You know what? We're going to stay right here. But if I tell you, you know what, there's a guy running around out there with red underwear on and a tail. And he's roaring in the street. And he's got all of his teeth removed.
He's got gums. And he's thinking he's a lion, and he's roaring like a lion. Um You know? What would you do? You'd say well I'm going home.
Why? Because he's not a lion. He's like a lion, but he's not a lion. And when you think of Satan, if you're a Christian, look at him this way: if you're not a Christian, you better be petrified. But if you're a Christian, look at Satan as having his Teeth removed.
He roars. But that's all he can do. He can't bite you anymore. For great is the Lord God who keeps you. Yeah.
No weapon formed against you will prosper, says the scriptures. God's going to be watching over you.
So Nahash Issues this satanic threat that I may put out all your right eyes and bring reproach. To Israel. The fact is this: that the right eye was used for warfare. Isn't it interesting? Nahash wants the right eye, he didn't want the left eye.
Give me your right eye. Listen, the Israeli army's right-handed. It was then, it is to this day. You fight with your right hand. Your sword?
You shoot, you operate with your right hand. Your left eye is to hold your shield as it was then. You would hold your shield with your left, I mean, not your left eye. I mean, you wouldn't put the shield in your eye. I mean, you put the shield in your left hand.
And the left eye was covered by the shield, protection. The right hand was your hand of cunning. And you fought with the sword in your right hand. Left eye, shield, right hand, sword. You would go to war.
Nahash, who's a satanic type here, says, Give me your right eye. I find this very, very interesting. He doesn't want to kill them. Listen, Satan doesn't want to kill you. He wants to sterilize you from warfare.
He doesn't want you to fight against him anymore.
So he wants to get you to compromise and he wants to take your right eye in that compromise. A Christian who has compromised in his walk and is not walking with God is sterile. In fact, I believe that a Christian who is backslidden and has yielded their right eye to Satan does more damage to the church and the kingdom of God than if that Christian was dead. Think about it.
So Satan says, I want to get you to compromise. I'm going to take your right eye and go ahead and leave the left eye because. I don't want you blind completely because I want to use you as my slave. That's what Nahash wants to do. I want to enslave these people.
And Satan wants to do that with us. Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. Here on Real Life Radio. with his message called O Say Can You See Part 2. Thanks for joining us today.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called First Samuel. A series highlighting 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.
Well, Pastor Jack, it's kind of exciting. You've got the book out. It's been out for a little bit now. How are you feeling about it so far? You know, first of all, I think we're enjoying success with this book due to the fact that the first book, Living in the Days of Deception, did so well.
And by God's grace, it hit number one on many, many bookselling charts. And so there's a momentum going right now. And so people are happily viewing it like this. The first book was Living in the Days of Deception. Right.
Called to take a bold stand, they very much come together. It's almost as though days. was Part one and stand is part two. Where if we're living in the days of deception, what do we do?
Well, you take a bold stand. That's what you do. And so it's a very practical book on exercising biblically based faith. on a day-to-day basis, doesn't matter who you are. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, Then it's a book that really helps you along, strong biblical references.
All rooted in what God would have for us. And think about this, Davey, it's God's will. that you and I live and take a bold stand. And so it's extremely practical. I think that's why people are getting it.
Because people want to know how do I do that? Where do I do that?
So we thank God for the success. Tell me just like one incident of when you were kind of Well, let's say you took a step back because you were so surprised and so thrilled about a bold step that someone told you about.
Well, you know, uh It's quite easy to answer this, although Our listeners right now might be surprised regarding my answer, and I have been most inspired. By the pastors and by the revolutionaries of our early American experience. When I look at the faith of Samuel Adams, for example, a man of incredible faith in the face of opposition, when I look at the faith. of of men and women from Scripture, of course. We love reading the Bible.
And Yet we rarely walk away thinking, I want that to happen in my life. That's what I want. I'm going to say. If that can happen to me today, that's what I want to see.
So that's the inspiration: is if the Bible says this, and if God did it in the life of Stephen or Paul or Peter, why not me? And then, fast forward, when I look at the lives of those who have influenced me, I love history.
So the lives of John Jay and of Samuel Adams, as I mentioned earlier, or John Adams or George Washington or George Whitfield. Uh I'm inspired by them. And so We, listen, it's no secret that all of us who are taking a stand, we are really standing on the shoulders of those who stood before us. And I hope that this book has that effect on people, that they will be able to stand on the shoulders of the giants that have gone before us to know and to be confident that standing for what's right. and standing for what's biblical, uh is not subject to what's trending.
Or how many thumbs up or likes? Those things are irrelevant when you know what you're standing for. If I may throw my opinion in there real quick, I think you and I have known each other for 35 years-ish, church-wise and friend-wise. I'm just kind of proud of the way, you know, 35 years ago you were taking a certain stance. And that has just grown exponentially over the last bunch of years.
And I just want you to know how much I appreciate it. And I can only imagine how much our listeners appreciate it.
Well, first of all, thank you. Gosh, Davy, that's only true because God's word doesn't change. Yeah, it's true. I mean, honestly, you guys, God's word doesn't change.
So the beautiful thing is. And I look, I have to give all credit to Pastor Chuck Smith, the founder of Calvary Chapel. He taught the Bible, and really, it's kind of beautiful. He taught the Bible to nothing but the Bible.
So, I learned from the beginning to stand on the Bible. And then, when you stand on the Bible, you're always going to be relevant, you're always going to be current. In fact, you're always going to be prophetic as well. And so I was taught well. And This is the fruit of Pastor Chuck Smith's ministry that's happening here in my life.
And because it's based on God's promises and God's word, Uh those frankly who pick up the Bible And those who pick up books like called to take a bold stand. Um they If they revisit their position 20 years from now, They're not going to change. Because the truth never changes. We all have opinions about which which fast food place has the best french fries. Right.
The beautiful thing about the opinion of God's authoritative word, that never changes. And that causes you to have confidence. Called to take a bold stand by Pastor Jack Hibbs. Get your copy for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That's jackhibbs.com slash real radio.
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.
