Rick Hughes takes listeners on a journey through God’s forgiving nature, emphasizing the transformative power of divine love and the virtues it bestows upon believers. By embracing these principles, one can actively reflect God’s immutable essence in daily life, ensuring a profound connection with the divine. Tune in to learn how God’s love manifests through patience, joy, and peace, shaping a spiritual life full of grace and purpose.
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.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few minutes stick around. 30 minutes of motivation, a little bit of inspiration, a whole lot of education and But absolutely no manipulation. We don’t play games. We’re not trying to con you. We’re not trying to solicit money from you. We’re just here to give you some accurate information, information that may help you verify and identify God’s plan for your life if, in fact, you’re interested. If I can do that, you can orient and adjust to the plan if you want to. My job is to be accurate and get it right and give you the correct information and see how you handle those things because God gave you two ends. One end you’re going to sit with and one end you’re going to think with. And success in your life starts with the one you think with, not the one you sit with. Heads you’ll win, tails you’ll lose. Remember that. And remember, bad decisions limit future options. If we make enough bad decisions, we don’t have any options left. All of these FLOT line radio shows, FLOT, F-L-O-T, Forward Line of Troops, the military analogy we’re using today, how God’s words forms a main line of resistance in your soul to stop the outside source of adversity before it ever becomes the inside source of stress that’s why we have a flat line ten unique problem-solving devices rebound problem-solving device number one confessing our sin to God that solves the problem of failure in our life when we sin first John 1 9 and And then number two, the filling of the Holy Spirit. That solves the problem of the genetically formed old sin nature. We don’t have to let the old sin nature control our life. When we rebound, we’re filled with the Spirit. Problem-solving device number three, the faith rest drill, standing on the promises of God. problem solving device. Number four, grace orientation. Number five, biblical orientation. Number six, having a personal sense of destiny. Number seven, your personal love for God, virtue, love. Number eight, your impersonal love for all mankind. Number nine, sharing the happiness of God. And number 10, your occupation with Christ. Each one of those can take hours to teach hours. And, uh, I didn’t come up with that. My pastor came up with that years ago. He’s gone to be with the Lord now, but he taught me this years ago. And I’m replicating, reteaching the things that he taught me. And if you learn these 10 problem-solving devices, then you can stop the outside source of adversity before it becomes the inside source of stress. Now, we have personal love for God, problem-solving device number seven, because God first loved us. It’s called reciprocal love. We love him because he first loved us. And God’s love was demonstrated to us in grace, mercy, and in forgiveness. And we want to take that up today, beginning with forgiveness and moving on from there and understanding that God’s forgiveness is an indication of his faithfulness to us. God demonstrates his love for us, your love, love for you, love for me, by forgiving us for what we’ve done. But there are two different forgivenesses, and we mentioned this last week. The first one is related to time, and these are post-salvation sins, things we do after we get saved. In 1 John 1, 9, the Bible says if we confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This we do as a Christian in time when we sin. We break fellowship with God. We quench the Holy Spirit. We grieve the Holy Spirit. And by confessing our sin, our rebound, as we call it, then we’re filled again, and then we can advance spiritually in our life, but not without the filling of the Holy Spirit. And the second forgiveness is the one that’s related to eternity when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, receive him as our Savior. In John 3, 36, he that believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And he that believes not, the wrath of God abides on him already. So we do have forgiveness in our position, total forgiveness, and we have forgiveness in our experience, daily forgiveness. Both of those are based on the salvation work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And remember this, there is no forgiveness at the cross. You hear me? No forgiveness at the cross, just judgment. Judgment, our sins were judged and we were redeemed. Christ redeemed us, Galatians 3.13, from the curse of the law. Having become a curse for us, it is written, cursed or judged is everyone who hangs on the cross. The forgiveness comes when we accept Christ as our Savior. That’s when the forgiveness comes. But the judgment of sin was on the cross. Our Lord referenced forgiveness of sin, and I mentioned this last week, when he stood in the synagogue on the seventh day back in Nazareth, his hometown, and read from the book of Isaiah. He amazed those Sadducees and scribes that heard him when he said this. In Luke 4, 18 through 21, he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because… He’s anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted and to preach forgiveness, aphiasis. Forgiveness, the Greek word aphiasis. Forgiveness, letting them go as if they had never been committed. Remission of the penalty of their sins. That’s what he came to do. And that’s what he did for you and I. It’s as if we’ve never sinned when we received Jesus Christ as our Savior. So I don’t care what you’ve done in the past. How horrific or how bad it may have been, there is forgiveness at the cross. When you come to Jesus Christ who was judged in your place and receive him as your savior, your sins are forgiven. And remember that. This is where he claimed to be a member of the royal family of God in this passage. He quoted the book of Isaiah is what he was quoting. And here it’s obviously clear that he is the son of God. In Luke 4, 18 through 21, aphiasis is always used. That Greek word aphiasis is always used for divine forgiveness of sin. There’s another word, aphiemi, different word, aphiemi, and that word is forgiveness of sins in rebound. So in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us, it’s the Greek word aphiemi. And the other place is a aphiasis, to forgive us. That’s the divine forgiveness. And then there’s another word, katerizomai, and that’s a verb, katerizomai, and that’s found in Colossians 2.13. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us our transgressions. He bestowed us an unconditional favor. It’s free. We’re set free from the penalty of sin. Set free from the death of sin. Free in Jesus Christ. Christ said, you shall know me and you shall be made free. And that’s the freedom we have in Christ. And Paul made forgiveness very clear as he wrote through the New Testament. For example, in Colossians 1. In 1.13, he said, he’s rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves. And then in him, in whom we have redemption in verse 14, 13 and 14. in whom, that’s Christ, we have redemption, aphiesis. So Hebrews 9.22, without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness. That’s the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, assuming our place. where the Bible says he who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we can be made the righteousness of God through him. So principle, forgiveness is a royal pardon from the Lord himself. It’s divine impersonal love being expressed to you and to me. That’s what God does when he forgives us. When we receive Christ, He expresses his divine impersonal love on the cross, and now we become members of the royal family of God. So let’s get this straight. Before you accept Christ, he loves you with an impersonal love. And after you accept Christ, he loves you with a personal love. Isaiah 43, 25, I, even I, am the one who blots out your transgressions. for my own sake, and furthermore, I will not remember your sins. So by believing in Christ and receiving him as your Savior, all sin is blotted out in your life. And two, forgiveness is a requirement for members of the royal family of God. In other words, we’re required to forgive also. In Colossians 3.13, bearing one another and forgiving each other. And we go back to the Greek word charizomai again. Whoever has a complaint against anyone else, just as the Lord forgave you, you should forgive others. That means you should forgive them and never bring it up again. So if you’re a material believer, you’re supposed to have a tender heart. not hold a grudge, not seek revenge, and forgive people. Ephesians 4.32, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving, krizomai, forgiving each other, just like God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you. So this means that if someone asks you to forgive them, and in honor you forgive them, then integrity and loyalty to the Word of God demands that you forget what was done against you, and you never again recall it in your mind or penalize the individual because they did it to you. That’s what it means. So even though we have forgiveness for our pre-salvation sins through faith alone in Christ alone, We still need that post-salvation forgiveness through rebound. 1 John 1, 9. The first forgiveness was our position in Christ. He’s made us alive, has forgiven us. Colossians 2, 13 and 14. All of our transgressions, nailing them to the cross of Christ. The second one, the second forgiveness is after we get saved. Post-salvation is called experiential forgiveness and it cancels all. the repercussions of the judgment of sin in our life in a daily life and restores the status of the spiritual life. Listen, those whom God loves, he chastens and scourges with a whip. As a believer in Jesus Christ, when we sin, get out of fellowship, quench the Holy Spirit, we come under the discipline of God. But we can be forgiven if we go to God and admit the sin, name the sin. If we confess, if we cite, if we name, if we agree with God. then he cleanses us from all of our unrighteousness. And that has to happen daily in your life. You can’t let sin build up in your life. Remember, sin comes in mental attitude sins, sins of the tongue, and even overt sins. So forgive that. And remember that. Don’t forget it. That sin can come in one of three ways. All right? Now, the first forgiveness qualifies you to live eternally in a resurrection body, and the second forgiveness qualifies you to continue your spiritual life in time. That’s what you have. Some of this is all review from last week, but I wanted to run it by you again. Remember this. God judged our sins on the cross. Therefore, the sins we commit today already went to court over 1,900 years ago. Thus, any post-salvation sin that you and I may do tomorrow or the next day has to be dealt with through a non-meritorious function, and that’s the rebound technique. And this is where we go to God and admit our sin. But good decisions are always grace decisions. Remember that. So this means that if as a believer and we fail and we sin, then we use the privacy of our own priesthood to acknowledge our sin to God admit our sin to God, name our sin to God, without promising that we’re going to do better, without trying to get emotional about it, without begging him for forgiveness, just go and name the sin to God. And he said he would be faithful and just to forgive you. Because when you acknowledge your sin to God, totally apart from any good works, human good deeds being added, such as penance or public confession or feeling sorry for it or promising you’re going to do better, No system of this like this, penance or lustration, ceremonial purification rights, nothing like this. No self-imposed or ecclesiastical punishments are included in the function of rebound. If you just go to God and name your sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive you. Now, that’s how much he loves you. He loved you so much that he forgave you in eternity past, sent his son to die for you. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, judged his son in your place, and now through Christ freely offers grace, mercy, and forgiveness. So how do you reflect God’s immutable essence of love through and in your life? Well, since love is immutable, it’s an immutable essence of our Heavenly Father, Is it even possible for us to reflect that same quality of love in our lives? Is that possible? Well, according to 1 John 4, 16 through 19, it is possible. John wrote, and we have come to know and have believed, that means we’ve accepted it, we’ve metabolized it, the love which God has for us. God is love. And the one who abides in love, that’s reciprocal love, abides in god and god abides in him so by this love is perfected in us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because as he is now so also we are in this world so we are not immutable but we can possess and we can operate under god’s system of virtue love we can do that Galatians 5.22 says the fruit of the Spirit is love, agape, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there are no laws. All of these characteristics I just mentioned to you Galatians 5 22 and 23 they are all traits of divine love which you can emulate in Christ when you’re filled with the Holy Spirit they’re even seen in 1st Corinthians 13 4 through 8 love is long-suffering there’s patience love is kind there’s kindness love does not envy that self-control Love does not rejoice in iniquity. That’s faithfulness. These are all essence of God quality, qualities of God that I’m telling you. Patience, kindness, self-control, faithfulness. Love does not parade itself. It’s not arrogant. It’s not unrealistic. It’s not rude. It’s gentle. It doesn’t provoke. It thinks no evil, does not rejoice in any immoral behavior. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. When you live like that by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit and by growing to a spiritual maturity in your life, you are reflecting the person of Jesus Christ. because he was kind, long suffering, had self control, was faithful, was not arrogant, was not rude, did not think evil. He bore all things, believed all things, hoped all things, endured all things. That’s why the fruit of the Holy Spirit produces Love, one of the first things mentioned, love. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, the virtue love that you can replicate in your life, which begins with personal love for God and then follows up with impersonal love for all mankind, this is what the Holy Spirit produces in you. Love one for another. Love one for another. John 13, 34, a new mandate I give you that you love one one another, agapao, love one another. Even as I loved you, you also must love one another. This is how all men will know that you’re my disciples, if you have love one for another. And that love is expressed in long suffering. It’s expressed in a relaxed mental attitude with no revenge motivation because you practice forgiveness in your life. Now, the fruit of the Holy Spirit is also giving you another divine asset. Not only does he give you love, but he gives you joy. Joy. This is a characteristic of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chara, C-H-A-R-A, joy. This is you experiencing plus H, problem-solving device number nine, sharing the happiness of God. And it’s seen in Proverbs 15, 11. Excuse me, John 15, 11. These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. The joy of Jesus Christ flowing through our life, through the filling of the Holy Spirit, is an indication of our love for one another. Nehemiah 8.10, the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. So what really brings God joy? Do you have any idea about that? Luke 15, 7, I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don’t need any repentance. In Romans 14, 17, for the kingdom of God is not meat, it is not drink, but it’s righteousness, it’s peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. joy now you heard the word peace that’s another characteristic of divine love the fruit of the spirit is love and joy and peace and long-suffering peace that’s a characteristic manifested in you by the filling of the holy spirit expressing the love of god to those around you philippians 4 7 and the peace of god irene the greek word irene His characteristic, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. It’s a wonderful thing when you have mercy and peace and when you can demonstrate peace and exhibit peace in your life. Our God enjoys peace at all times, and so should you, because peace is tranquility. It’s not being overcome with fear or doubt. Although the Bible says this about fear, in Matthew 10, 34, think not that I come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. That’s an extension of the angelic conflict. The unbeliever who fails to adjust to the justice of God can never have peace, never. His humanistic attitude rejects Christ’s forgiveness, and he deems himself smarter than God. That’s the delusional daydreamer who’s mentioned in Proverbs 3, 7, where it says, do not be wise in your own eyes. He’ll never find completeness in his life. He’ll never have happiness in his life, not now and not in eternity. In fact, the only happiness he might possibly even explore is finding a spouse or marriage partner. That’s a divine institution. And even if someone rejects Christ as Savior and goes to hell, they can have happiness in marriage because God ordained it. But this peace that we’re talking about, God’s peace, God’s peace is expressed in confident expectation. Absolute, confident expectation. Our Lord, when he was here, functioned in hypostatic union. That means he was a God and he was man in one body forever. The God-man, hypostatic union. And he walked into the devil’s world. The God-man walked into the devil’s world. In John 14, 27, Jesus tells the disciples, peace I leave with you. “‘My peace I give unto you. “‘Not as the world gives, give I unto you. “‘Don’t let your hearts be troubled, “‘neither let it be afraid.'” So the Lord Jesus Christ walked into the devil’s world through the manger to the cross, never afraid, total peace, total confidence, total perfect confident expectation in fulfilling the plan of God for his life and God being faithful to him. But any type of fear, fear, any type of anxiety, that’s not peace. And if you are a mature believer, you want to possess the peace of God, perfect happiness in time, we call it plus H, then never fear your time on earth or in eternity because it’s the confidence that you have from God yourself. So listen again. The mature believer who possesses the peace of God never fears his time on earth or his time in eternity because of the confidence he had in God himself. You want to hear it? 1 Thessalonians 5, 23. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, patience. Long-suffering, patience is another characteristic of God’s divine love, which is bestowed upon you through grace and reflected out of your life. In 2 Thessalonians 3, 5, may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and and unto the patience of Christ. Romans 15, 5, now the God of patience and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind, one with another, according to Christ Jesus, the God of patience, the patience of Christ. And James says, let this patience have its perfect work in you. There are going to be several words for patience that we’ll look at, but This word here in James 1, 4, patience is hupomone. It means steadfastness, hupomone, steadfastness. Let her have her perfect work in you. Why? So that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Patience perfects the Christian’s character. It’s an essential element of the Christian’s character. And God was very patient with you in love. And your love for him must reflect that patience to others. In Psalm 86, 15, but you, O Lord, are a God of mercy and graciousness, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Mercy, gracious, slow to anger, unfailing love, faithfulness, characteristics of God himself available to you by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit. There it is. It’s all for you. You can demonstrate God’s love to those that you know. Patience towards people, patience in circumstances, and the patience of God. We’re going to take a look at all of these words. I don’t know if we get to them all today, but the renowned teacher and Archbishop Richard Trench was famed for his early work studying the English language and for his unmatched knowledge of church history and for his love of preaching. And George Abbott Smith’s lexicon states that hupomone, the Greek word I just gave you, expresses patience with regards to adverse things. And macrophymia, another word, expresses patience with regard to antagonistic people. These are the different patients taught in the Bible. Not people go see a doctor. It’s an attitude of patience you have. Patience towards people, patience towards adverse circumstances, and then God’s patience as well. And you may be surprised to learn that God’s patience has its limits. Isaiah 7.13, we’ll get back to it. He said, listen now, house of David, is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Now you’re going to try the patience of God also. Wow. Romans 118, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. I have a lot to say about these things. We’ll get around to them next week, I promise you. If you’d like to tap into our show, you can always get the transcripts of this broadcast. And we offer them one year at a time. So these are new, just coming up online. And we also podcast all these radio shows. If you’d like to get onto Apple iPod or… Spotify or Breaker or Anchor. You can hear this podcast anywhere in the world. I thank you for listening. If we can help you, write to us, and we’ll send you whatever you need. Until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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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.
