In this deep-dive episode, Rick Hughes addresses the critical question of what constitutes evil and how it manifests in our world. Through a thorough examination of Scripture, listeners are invited to understand the cosmic system of evil vs the grace of God. Learn how to differentiate between the genuine teachings of Christ and the deceptive facade of human righteousness that Satan promotes. Equip yourself with the wisdom to navigate a world fraught with spiritual deception.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flotline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes. And for the next few minutes, you have an invitation to please listen up. Stay with me. Stick around. Simply 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education. Never, never any manipulation. No solicitations at all. We’re just here to give you some information, information that will hopefully help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if you can do that, you always have the privilege and the opportunity to orient and adjust to the plan. That’s up to you. But thank you for giving me a few moments of your time. Thank you for listening today. Let me remind you, the Flatline is designed to teach you some biblical truths and introduce you to a in-depth way of studying and learning God’s Word. And my job is to do that, to be an open window to show you where you can grow, how you can grow, how you can learn. And it starts with the good news. The best news is that Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God, has redeemed us out of the slave market of sin. Thus, our debt to God has been paid. We, you and me, we are now free of the penalty of death and even of the power of sin in our life. If we receive Christ as our Savior, we, in effect, accept the offerings that He made on our behalf. That’s a free gift, compliments of the grace of God. Why could I say it’s a free gift? Because Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says, for by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it’s the gift. There it is. It’s the gift of God. And not of works, lest any man should brag or boast. And then again, in Titus chapter 3, verses 5 through 7, not by works of righteousness, which we’ve done. But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord. Being justified by means of his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So it’s a free gift of God. We’re justified by his grace. We enter the royal family through faith alone in Christ alone. The study today that I wanna go into and share with you is a study on evil. E-V-I-L, evil, you might call it an evil alert. This is one of the reasons why you need a FLOT line in your soul. Remember FLOT stands for the Forward Line of Troops. Someone wrote me the other day and said, what is a FLOT? Forward Line of Troops. That’s a military analogy we’re using for the believer. And what our concept is, is that by learning 10 unique problem-solving devices, which we teach on this show, that you can establish a main line of resistance, a forward line of troops in your soul so that you can stop the outside sources of adversity before they become the inside source of stress. You can also stop the outside sources of false teaching before they confuse you and get you deluded and distracted. The flat line is your main line of resistance, and you have to have this because the Bible tells you Put on the armor of God so that you can stand against the strategy of the devil. Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking the devil doesn’t have a strategy, and that strategy is how to discourage you and to defeat you from ever becoming a mature believer. if you become a mature believer you can give maximum glorification to god you can replicate the life of christ by thinking like he thought and that’s the worst thing that the enemy could have happen he doesn’t want you being a winner believer he doesn’t want you glorifying god to the max and so he has a strategy and only by having a main line of resistance in your soul can you be aware of what that strategy is you’ve got to have some discernment wisdom knowledge understanding and discernment the magnificent four in proverbs 2 10 and 11 we’ve talked about that on the show and so today i’m going to take you to a study on evil what is evil where did it come from and what motivated me to do this was my very own pastor teaching me john 17 15 as he’s doing a study in the life of christ which is now over two thousand let’s see uh maybe over 1200 hours 1200 hours in the life of christ Quite a magnificent study, many years, starting in the year 2010, going to this current year, 2018. This is a study that’s freely available to any believer anywhere who wants to get it. If you contact me, if you want to get the study on the life of Christ, and you’re willing to listen to all 1,200 hours, I’ll tell you how to get them, and they’re free. You can get them on DVD or MP3. But it is the most extensive study on the life of Christ that I’ve ever done, and it is absolutely amazing. So my pastor was teaching these words this last week. John 17, 15, “‘I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, “‘but that you should keep them from the evil one.'” He’s teaching this, and I’m thinking about this and thinking about you and why I would like to share this information with you. This chapter of John 17 is the Lord’s Prayer, the real Lord’s Prayer, not the other one that people talk about sometimes. But this is where the Lord prays for his disciples. He’s praying for them, and he’s teaching them. It’s a didactic prayer. It’s a teaching prayer. So as they’re listening and recording the information, they’re learning. And in John 17, 6, he said he manifested the Father’s name to the men whom the Father gave him. In John 17, 8, He said, I gave them the words you gave me to say, and they understand now that I came from my Father. And then he asked in verse 11 of John 17 that they may all be of one mind, and that’s critical. One mind, single-minded. And this is something Paul talks about in Ephesians 4, that we may have unity of thought as mature believers, that we not be divided, that we not be conquered that way. so he asked that they may all be of one mind and then in verse 15 of 17 the lord jesus asked the father to keep them from the evil one in matthew 6 9-13 we have traditionally what’s called the lord’s prayer And it ends with the words, deliver us from the evil one. Now you may have heard from the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. That was added by a translator. But the verse actually in the original Greek manuscripts ends with deliver us from the evil one. And the evil one is the Greek word phonaros. And it’s a word used for Satan. And it could be translated the malignant one. so satan knows who you are satan has a plan for you but let’s remember something satan is not omnipresent he cannot be in california and in texas and in alabama and in new york at the same time there are many demons which are in effect nothing but fallen angels that followed him in his rebellion in heaven and they are the ones that keep an extensive G2 report on you, what your weaknesses are, what your lust patterns are, what your trends are, and when Satan wants to try to derail you or try to discourage you, he’s going to appeal to your lust patterns. He knows when you’re frustrated, angry, hostile, and that’s the time that he will attack. So this word, phaneras, being the malignant one, our Lord Jesus Christ had an encounter with Satan in Matthew chapter four. In Matthew chapter four, verses, let’s see, Matthew four, one through 11. Yes, I’m sorry, I got distracted for a minute. when he was personally tempted by Satan while he was in the wilderness. The Holy Spirit had taken the Lord Jesus Christ into the wilderness and he fasted 40 days and then he was in a weakened state. And that’s when Satan approached him and tempted him. But let me show you something interesting. He did not tempt him with sex. He did not tempt him with drugs. He did not tempt him with anything like that because, first of all, the Lord Jesus Christ didn’t have a sin nature. He was born sinless. He didn’t have Adam’s original sin imputed to him because his mother was a virgin. and there was no man involved in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Adam’s original sin did not pass on to him. Now, he could have chose to sin, and he could have chose to sin in this particular passage, but he did not. So the temptations that Satan threw at him were not related to his lust patterns because he did not have lust patterns. He did not have a sin nature trend. So that’s important you remember that. He was tempted by the devil in the wilderness in another way. in a way that all of us are tempted many times, not with sins of the flesh, but an appeal to his arrogance and his self-pity. That’s what Satan appealed to. He appealed to his arrogance and his self-pity. And might I say that arrogance was the original sin of Satan in eternity past when he assumed that he could be like the most high God and assume the throne of God. And self-pity, well, that’s a terrible thing to get into because this is when we begin to look at self and feel sorry for ourself. And I pray you’re not into that today. It’s easy to get into it. And that leads to mental attitude sins of worry and fear and guilt, things like this. So our Lord knew firsthand the test that these men were going to face. He knew that. He knew they had a sin nature. He knew they were sons of Adam, and he knew they needed prayer, and he interceded for them. In John 17, 15, keep them from the evil one. Now, here’s good news for you. He also intercedes for you right now. He is in heaven at the right hand of the Father. And 1 John 2, 1 and 2 says he’s our defender before the throne of God when the accuser throws down his claims against you. Satan is able to point you out and say, what a loser that Rick Hughes guy is. You can’t believe you’re using him. He’s a real loser. And then the Lord Jesus Christ can stand up and say, he might be a loser, but he’s mine. He’s believed in me. He’s received me as his savior. And thus I’m redeemed, not because I’m a good person, not because I don’t sin, not because I don’t drink or smoke or chew, but because I have trusted in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And so I have a defender in heaven. I have a defense attorney and you also does. You have the same thing. You will fail. You will make mistakes. Satan will accuse you. And the Lord Jesus Christ will defend you since you are his own. You put your faith in him. So the Lord knew firsthand what these men were going to face. And he prayed that the father would keep them from the evil one. What exactly is evil? That’s the question. What exactly is this stuff he perpetrates on us? Evil, what does that mean? Most people just think of evil in the terms of something that’s bad. Bad stuff, that’s evil. And they generally equate it to sin. And they say, well, all sin is evil. And that’s correct, sin is evil. But there’s much more to it than that. Evil is essentially the policy of Satan as he rules this world. It’s called the cosmic system. It’s a human system of good. And that system insulates man or insinuates that man can redeem himself by being good. By doing good deeds, that’s evil. The evil that Satan perpetrates in organized religion is exactly that. That if you do good deeds, if you tithe, if you join up, if you get baptized, if you don’t drink, smoke, cuss, or chew, or run around with those that do, that you’ll go to heaven because you’ve been a good person. Well, that doesn’t work. The Bible says there are none that are good. No, not even one. The Bible says that all of our very own righteousness is like a filthy rag in God’s eyes. He doesn’t think like we think. And so we have a tendency to think that God will redeem us if we’re good. And that’s not true. The only redemption that we have is the redemptive solution found through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Either we adjust to the justice of God by faith alone in Christ alone, or the justice of God will adjust to us. And that’s the punishment that we face when we die without having received Jesus Christ as our Savior. That’s not God’s will. The Bible says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. It’s never God’s will to condemn you to the lake of fire. But you will condemn yourself if you refuse to accept Christ as Savior, if you refuse to accept the redemptive solution that God provided for you. And evil is a way of covering that redemptive solution up. The policy that you can save yourself, that you can be good, this human system of good that insinuates you can redeem yourself, you cannot redeem yourself. This type of thinking, this religious thinking, it’s erroneous and it appeals to man’s basic sense of arrogance. You know, unrealistic self-image, unrealistic expectations. all arrogance starts with self-justification. Self-justification and the arrogance. So why would God condemn me? I haven’t been a bad person. Look over there at that guy. That guy’s really a bad person. And you can see all of that. And I think it’s in Luke 18 or Luke 15 where the Pharisee was in the temple praying and he said, thank you, God. I’m not like that publican over there. I don’t do this and I don’t do that. The problem was the publican was saved and the Pharisee was not because the publican asked for grace. He said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He knew what he was. Whereas the self-righteous religious Pharisee thought, he thought he was God’s man for the hour because he didn’t do bad things, because he fasted, because he prayed, because he tithed. No. And so this type of thinking is erroneous. So just as grace and doctrine represent the genius of God, grace is God’s policy, always has been God’s policy. For by grace are you saved through faith. It’s a gift of God, not of works. And doctrine, or the Word of God, or the Bible, the Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder the soul and the spirit, and the joint and the marrow, the critic of thought and the sense of the heart. That’s the Word of God. And so as we have the Word of God in a manuscript called the Bible, and we have men who have the spiritual gift of pastor, teacher, Their job is to explain what’s in that book to us so that we can then apply it into our life and use it to glorify God to the maximum. We have the most unique life in the world. The Christian life is absolutely, totally unique. And the instructions on how to use it are all found in the scripture, in Bible doctrine. And so when a pastor doesn’t teach doctrine, when he doesn’t teach the word of God, then nobody gets instructions. That’s a sad thing because many pastors just get up and give salvation messages every Sunday. And you can’t do that. I mean, yes, you need to give the gospel, but people that are saved don’t need the gospel. They need doctrine. They need to grow. They need to understand the mechanics to the Word of God and the principles taught in the Word of God that will deliver them while they’re here in the devil’s world. Because you don’t belong here. You’re just passing through. So grace and doctrine represent the genius of God and relationship to you and me. But on the other side of the coin, evil. Evil represents the genius of Satan in the same manner. Because by means of evil, he tries to vindicate himself so that he won’t have to go to the lake of fire. And if he can vindicate himself, if he can produce a good world, which he can’t, then he feels like he can be vindicated and that God’s unfair in sending him to the lake of fire. You know, this is the problem that we have in our nation today. People think that If we become this or if we become that, that this political view or that political view will solve all the problems of man, remember this, that man has a sinful nature. And whoever gets in control has a sin nature. And nothing can solve the sin nature but regeneration. once you believe in jesus christ your sin is forgiven cleansed it was all judged on the cross paid for by christ but you’re not forgiven until you accept that payment and then you also have the ability experientially to live your life dead to sin where the Bible says don’t let sin reign in your mortal body any longer. The Bible tells you you have a war with sin in the flesh and a war with the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5, 17. They fight against each other. And so you have the opportunity to learn how to use God’s magnificent problem-solving devices. and you have the opportunity to deploy your very own flat line on your soul so that you can have a main line of resistance against the strategy of the devil so that you can have discernment against the strategy of the devil because he is a genius. He’s smarter than you, and he has this genius system of works and good, and it all smells right, looks right, sounds right, but it is not right. Because the most evil thing in this entire world is organized religion. Organize religion. Remember, you’ve heard people say this, Christianity is not religion. Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ living in you. Religion is you trying to aggravate God by your good works and that’s evil. Christianity is God being satisfied with the work of Christ on the cross. That’s why the Bible says he that knew no sin was made sin for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God through him. So just as grace and doctrine represent the genius of God, then evil represents the genius of Satan. Evil is the human good panacea, and it attempts to solve the problems of life apart from the word of God, apart from establishment concepts. Do you know what the divine establishments are? Well, it starts with freedom, and it starts with marriage, and it starts with family, and it starts with internationalism. Not, excuse me, it starts with nationalism, not internationalism. God destroyed the concept of internationalism at the Tower of Babel when people all tried to come together and speak one language and one whatever. It didn’t work. It’s not God’s plan. Internationalism is never God’s plan. So God designed you to be free. He gave you a volition. He wants you to have the choice. God designed marriage and God designed family. These are all part of the way that we train our children. We raise our children. We give them a conscience that protects them through their life by giving them good norms and standards. This is the plan of God for you. And so these human good panaceas that attempt to solve the problems of man, apart from the word of God and apart from the establishment concepts, they’re all evil. They’re all evil. And most of the time, people are so dumb, they don’t realize they’re being manipulated by an oligarchy. an oligarch who has a lot of money, who pays people to demonstrate and to get violent and to disrupt, and it’s all so they can manipulate people to get someone in power that they can exploit. And oh, by the way, once the oligarch gets through with manipulating you, he’ll dispose of you. He doesn’t need you anymore. And that is not the way God the Father works. God the Father works in a different way completely. We don’t manipulate people. He doesn’t manipulate people. He gives you the freedom to choose. So remember this. When we’re talking about evil, it comes in a lot of different forms. It can come in the form of socialism. It can come in the form of political internationalism. It can come in the form of legalism, religion, even humanitarianism. all designed to make man better, to prove that man is basically good. And man is not basically good because the world’s problems can never be solved apart from the Word of God and the laws of establishment. Remember that. So how does evil conquer? Well, evil conquers by dividing. Thus our Lord prayed that the disciples would not be divided, that there would not be any infighting for recognition like they had done earlier in Matthew 10, 35 through 45. I mean, they competed with each other for who was gonna be the best in the kingdom. This is how evil conquers. So don’t get sucked into human good. trying to change the devil’s world. That’s not your job. Your job is to represent Jesus Christ to the lost man and to stand firm on the word of God, learning and applying all that is recorded in the Bible. Satan has devised a system whereby people can be nice, people can be lovely, they can look good to society, and yet behind the facade of good, there lurks an evil, destructive person who’s often self-deceived himself. So arrogance is this system that Satan works by. He keeps you functioning in the devil’s world without you going crazy. It’s designed to distract you and to get you to get involved in entertainment, improving the devil’s world, the welfare state, yada, yada, yada. It’s all gonna be better. Vote for me and ignore the Bible. You don’t need God. You need this, you need that. I mean, you can just, it makes me sick what I see on the internet today of what’s going on in society. So evil is not necessarily a sin, you have to confess, but it’s more a system of living that is exactly the opposite of God’s grace system. All evil is definitely sin, but all evil is not always sin. Sometimes evil can be good, human good. It’s good, but that’s not necessarily a sin because you believe that if you’re nice to everybody, that this is what God wants you to do, that God wants you to change the world by being nice and giving everybody a chicken so they can have something to eat. Evil is interesting. Between evil and honor, Hebrews 5, 13 through 15, the Bible is clear. Grow up, learn to recognize the difference between evil and good because most people can’t see the difference, don’t recognize the difference. That’s where the flat line is critical for you. If you learn God’s word, if you establish a flat line in your soul, you will in fact be able to have the discernment to recognize the difference between good and evil. This is Rick Hughes. I want to thank you for listening to the flat line. I pray it’s been an inspiration and a challenge to you. See you next week. Same time, same place.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
