In this enlightening episode, Rick Hughes explores the balance between divine wisdom and human understanding. Learn about anthropomorphisms and their role in grasping God’s vast nature, and why spiritual maturity isn’t about attending church but deeply implementing God’s word in daily life. Whether you’re struggling with fear or seeking greater comprehension of God, this episode offers profound insights and encouragement.
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, please stick around. The Flatline is always designed to remind you of biblical principles, biblical truths, and hopefully introduce you to an in-depth way of studying and learning God’s Word. We do it without any type of manipulations, no solicitations, just 30 minutes of education, motivation, inspiration. That’s my job. Verify it, identify the plan of God for your life, so hopefully you can orient and adjust to the plan. It’s always wonderful to study and have the Lord give me different information, things that I can teach you. It’s been 15 years now that we’ve been broadcasting this radio show, and I do love hearing from so many of you that are contacting me all the way from California to New York. It’s great to know that you’re out there. It’s great to know that you’re listening. It’s great to know that the money we’re spending on radio stations is not for naught. that it’s having an impact in your life and that you are learning and you are growing and you’re finding a way to get under a good pastor and study and grow and learn and apply it into your life every day. So let me give you a challenge today. The challenge today, what we want to look at today, is real simple. Remember this, excuse me. God gave you two ends, one of them you can sit with, one of them you can think with. And success in your life is going to depend on which one of those ends that you use. Heads, you will win, and tails, you will lose. That’s why the Bible says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. That’s why the Bible says stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what you should think. So we have to learn how to think. We learn how to think. It’s called the mind of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2.16, the New Testament is the mind of Christ. As we acquire the mind of Christ, as we learn how he thought, how he lived, we see how it’s recorded by those apostles that wrote it and recorded it and delivered it to us by means of God the Holy Spirit. And we’re able to take courage and be instructed, and that’s the job that I have to do with you today. I’m not a pastor. I’m simply an evangelist, but my job is to direct you where you can get under, a great pastor, to give you the good news that God loves you, that by grace you’re saved through faith. You can’t save yourself. You can’t try to save yourself. It won’t work. It’s impossible because you can never match the righteousness of God. That’s why the Bible says there are none that are righteous, no, not even one. All of our very own righteousnesses are like a filthy rag in God’s eyes. The Bible is clear about that. So, for by grace we are saved through faith. It’s the gift of faith. Titus said, not by works of righteousness which we did, but according to his mercy he saved us. by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit that he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord so that we are justified by grace and then we’re made heirs according to the confidence we have of eternal life. so that’s all there it’s true it’s real and you’ve experienced it and you’re trying to grow you’re trying to advance in your spiritual life that’s wonderful news in the book of first kings we want to take a look at something and i’ll remind you of some effects and go from there the concept i want to give you today is you cannot hide from god you cannot hide from god In the book of 1 Kings, found in that Old Testament, we have the account of the prophet Elijah, the prophet of God in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab and King Ahaziah. So here we hear a story about the prophet Elijah recorded for us. It’s here that we learn how Elijah destroyed the prophets of Baal, on a place called Mount Carmel, demonstrating their inability to call down fire on a sacrifice that they laid on the altar. You can read all about this in 1 Kings 18. I don’t want to take time to read all of that to you. It’s a fascinating story how Elijah intimidated the prophets of Baal, and they demonstrated they didn’t have any ability to call down fire, but Elijah could do that. So his challenge to the people of Israel was, was how long, and I’m quoting now what he said to them, how long do you halt between two opinions? If the Lord be God, then follow him. But if Baal, then you follow him. And they answered, not a word, not a word. So that was the question that he asked them after calling down the fire, demonstrating that he was in fact a true representative of God and not the prophets of Baal. Read for yourself again, 1 Kings 18, 22 through 40, and see what happened in that great challenge between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. But I want to bring to your mind that once Ahab’s wife heard about it, and this is the wicked Jezebel, Ahab’s wife Jezebel, she was quite the lady. She heard about what happened, about the deaths of all of her prophets of Baal that Elijah put to death. And thus she issued a death threat to Elijah in 1 Kings 19, 1 through 3. She said, I’m going to kill you. I will find you and I will kill you. And after his great victory, we have Elijah surrendering to fear as he fled to a cave to hide out in Horeb where God approached him. In a cave, hiding in the cave, and God asked him in 1 Kings 19, 9, what are you doing here, Elijah? It’s here that Elijah felt alone. It was here that he felt as if he was the only one who stood up for God. But he soon found out there were at least 7,000 others who had not bowed to Baal. 1 Kings 19, 18. You should take time to read 1 Kings 18 and 19 and see this story. Because after an amazing victory, after an amazing defeat of the prophets of Baal, Elijah fell into fear. So let’s get some principles here. One, Elijah let fear of circumstances get the best of him. He had just won a great tactical victory. He had just defeated the prophets of Baal and put to death over 400 false prophets. And now one woman issued a death threat to him and he is hightailing it for high country. What happened to him? Two, he started emoting and not thinking. He let his emotions get the best of him. Maybe he felt some guilt after destroying all these prophets of Baal. I don’t know what happened. But I know that his emotions caused him to run. His emotions caused him to flee. I know that he hightailed it out of the area. And I know, point three, you cannot let a death threat intimidate you into hiding in your cave. Do you hear me? You cannot let a death threat intimidate you into hiding in your cave. That almost sounds like what we’re doing today, doesn’t it? See, we have a similar choice to make. Point four, we will serve the Lord or we will serve someone else. Who will you serve? Who will you serve? Point five, will we be silenced and flee for safety or will we stand for what is true and what is right? Point six, in this time of American history, will you be preoccupied with your own safety and hide out or will you stand and proclaim the good news, the message of Jesus Christ? And point seven, just as Jezebel threatened Elijah, You probably very well may be threatened as well. But will you hide or will you trust God to provide and protect you? Have you ever felt like someone was watching you? Have you ever had that strange feeling and that sense come upon you that you’re being observed and watched? Well, it is true. You are being carefully watched and you are being watched over. You’re being watched by the world, that’s for sure, and you’re being watched over by God, that’s for sure. Listen to Psalm 33 verse 18 as I read it to you. behold the eyes of the lord are on those who fear him on those who hope for his loving kindness Those who fear him actually is the Hebrew word respect him. And those who hope doesn’t mean like I hope it doesn’t rain or hope the sun shines. It means we have confidence in the Hebrew on those who have confidence in his loving kindness or his unfailing love for us. So the eye of the Lord is on those who respect him and on those who have confidence in his unfailing love. Psalm 34, 13, the eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous and his ears are open to their cry. In other words, he’s waiting on your prayers and he will answer them. Maybe if you do it the right way, right thing must be done in the right way. There are millions of prayers that go unanswered and there’s millions of salutations that I hear every day. Our prayers and our thoughts go with you. They don’t even know how to pray. How can their prayers and thoughts go with someone? Anyhow, if you don’t do the right thing in the right way, it’s not going to get answered. You’ve heard me talk about the protocol plan of God and how a right thing must be done in the right way. And prayer is a right thing. But without the filling of the Holy Spirit, it’s just the energy of the flesh. And that’s why the Bible said, if I regard iniquity in my heart, God won’t hear me. As long as you have unconfessed sin in your life, your prayer is not going to go any higher than the ceiling. I don’t care how holy it sounds or how holy you look, it’s not going to go anywhere, not going to ever get to the throne room of God, being prayed from the energy of your flesh while you have quenched and grieved the Holy Spirit with your sin. So Psalm 15.3, back to this concept of the eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good. Elijah had no idea the eyes of God were on him in that cave at Horeb as he hid from wicked Jezebel who threatened to kill him. Hebrews 4.13. Oh, by the way, let me back up a minute. Proverbs 15.3. The eyes of the Lord are in every place watching the evil and the good. The evil and the good. The good is grace. God’s plan is good. It’s called grace. Satan’s plan is evil, and it’s where he distorts grace. The most evil thing you and I will ever confront is organized religion. It is the devil’s ace trump. More people will go to hell in the name of religion. Because the Bible says, in that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did I not prophesy in your name and in your name, cast out demons and in your name do any wonderful things? And he said, I’ll tell them I never knew you. I never knew you. Until you approach God through faith alone, in Christ alone, you can never have a permanent relationship with God. And once that eternal life is given to you, make no mistake about it, he’s not going to take it back. He’s not going to ask for you to give it back to him because you messed up. Once you receive the righteousness of Christ, once it’s implemented into your life, It’s not gonna be taken away. So the Bible says, he who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God through him. So if God puts you on an equal playing field with having the righteousness of Christ, he’s not gonna take it away from you because you failed. So evil and good are characteristically different. Evil is the plan and genius of Satan. Good is the plan and genius of God, his grace. In Hebrews 4.13, nothing and all of creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of him of whom we must give an account. Did you hear that word, nothing, zip, nada, not little one thing. Nothing and all of creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered. The Hebrew word gumnos, G-U-M, excuse me, the Greek word gumnos, G-U-M-N-O-S, gumnos means no clothes. It’s what they wore in the gym as they trained for the Olympic Games. They wore no clothes. They just oiled their bodies down and trained and worked out. And everything in God’s sight is naked. There’s nothing you can cover it up with. The garment of the soul is obviously your body, but obviously God looks beyond your body and sees what you’re thinking. That’s why the Bible says, as a man thinks in his heart, that’s the real him. So he is, Proverbs 23. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. So in God’s eyes, everything is uncovered and exposed. This Greek word, interesting word, means to lay bare or even to expose the trachea or the throat. It’s from tracheolizo, the Greek word tracheolizo. means to lay back the throat for the killing. So at the great white throne of judgment, all will be exposed before they’re thrown into the lake of fire, which is called the second death in Revelation 20. So let me read the verse again. Nothing in all of creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is naked and exposed before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. 2 Chronicles 16, 9. For the eyes of the Lord roam to and fro over the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is fully devoted to him. This is a question for you. Do you want the Lord to protect you? Do you want the Lord to provide for you? Do you want the Lord to give you equal opportunity and equal privilege before the Lord? Yes, you do. That’s grace. But once you receive Christ, you’re going to have to demonstrate your righteousness by growing in grace. You have to grow. You have to put your mind into growing and learning God’s Word and applying God’s Word into your life. that’s how you can gain God’s favor. For the eyes of the Lord roam to and fro over all the earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is fully devoted to him. What does it mean? Your heart is fully devoted to him. Listen to me carefully. You have a mind, a noose, N-O-U-S, and you have a heart, a cardia, K-A-R-D-I-A. And what the Lord is looking for is not just information in your mind where you understood it and you knew it, but information in your heart where you applied it and lived by it day by day by day, unintimidated, not afraid, naked and exposed before the Lord, knowing every thought you have. You cannot hide from God. Job 28, 24, for he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. There you go. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that interesting? And that’s what’s going on in your life and in my life today. In order to fully grasp what these verses mean, we have to have some sort of theological background because I’m using some terms here that you might not understand. Theological background about the essence of God because often God is described in human terms so we can grasp in our minds what the writer of scripture is seeking to convey to us. So, for example, you may hear someone say there was a song. If you remember it, he’s got the whole world in his hands. Or the eyes of God. These are terms, and don’t let me scare you with this big word. I had to learn it. I never heard of it before I started studying the Bible, before my pastor taught it to me. They’re called anthropomorphisms. Anthropomorphisms. What does that mean? It means the writer under the leading of the Holy Spirit has given God human characteristics, human features, so you can understand his essence. Anthropomorphisms, so you can understand his essence. The hand of God, the eyes of God, those are anthropomorphic terms. David writes in Psalm 34, 15, his ears are open to their cry. His ears, his eyes, his hands. Listen, since God is eminent, he’s the king of kings and the Lord of lords, and since God is transcendent, That means above the range of human experience. He is not localized in a body, not like you and me. Get this picture out of your mind that God’s sitting up there with a long white beard and a crown on his head on the throne. That’s not the way it is. it is true that god became a man it is true that he took on human form when christ was born that’s when he became theanthropic theanthropic t-h-e-a-n-t-h-r-o-p-i-c theanthropic it means this that deity took on a divine form and you have in jesus christ god and man in one body forever undiminished deity, true humanity, theantrophic, in one body forever. Yes, God did become a man. And we know that to be the Son of God. But our Father, the God that we worship, the God that we pray to, is eminent and transcendent. He doesn’t have ears. He doesn’t have eyes. He doesn’t have a hand. The Bible also uses another term called anthropopathisms. Anthropopathisms. That’s different than anthropomorphisms. And this is where we describe God in terms of human emotions. Not human characteristics like an eye or a hand or ears, but human emotions. For example, Psalm 2, 4, the laughter of God. God doesn’t laugh or the hate. God hates Esau, but he loves Jacob. That’s not true. God doesn’t hate anybody. These are anthropopathisms, so remember that. If you wish to understand the God that saved you, if you wish to understand the God whom you serve, then you must learn who he is. And that’s why it’s important that you remember this verse I’m about to give you. Remember Jeremiah 9, 23. Thus says the Lord, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast of his might, and let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this, that he understands me and knows me, understands me and knows me. If you want to brag about something, that’s what you brag about. God goes on to say, I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, that’s unfailing love, justice, always just, and righteousness on the earth, and this is the things that I delight in, declare the Lord. Loving kindness, justice, and righteousness. So the question is, how can you love someone that you don’t even know? If I ask you today if you love God, you would probably say, yes, I love God. And is that really true? How well do you know the God that you claim to love? We could turn that right around and say, how well does he know you? And you know the answer to that one, don’t you? He knows everything you think. Why? Because he’s omniscient. So in 1 John 5, 3, we have a true definition of what the love of God is. Would you like to hear it? 1 John 5, 3, this is the love of God. There it is right there. Listen to what’s coming. This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments and they are not a burden. So what is love? It’s obedience. It’s obedience. What did the Lord Jesus Christ say right before he went to the cross? Father, not my will, but thy will be done. Obedience. You’re not being obedient when you run and hide in your cave. You’re not being obedient when you let fear intimidate you to where you don’t think any longer. The Bible says in 1 John 2, 5, whoever keeps his word, there’s obedience, in him the love of God has been perfected. What does that mean? It means that God is looking for faithfulness in your life, faithfulness in you being obedient to grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You are not loving God if you’re not growing. If you’re just playing church, if you’re getting a few minutes a week and showing up at the church, that’s not loving God. That’s good. I’m glad you’re there. Loving God is about a lot more than that. In 1 John 2, 15, do not love the world and don’t love the things in the world. Because if anyone loves the world, then the love of the Father is not in him. What does that mean? It means that this is Satan’s domain, and this world is not the source of our happiness. Maybe you’re thinking, I might lose everything in the stock market. I might lose everything in the pandemic. This is going to happen, and that’s going to happen, and you’re worried about what’s going to happen in the world. Where’s your confidence in God? Why are you hiding in your cave, shaking and afraid? Virtue love, loving God, that’s the motivational virtue for the believer to do everything that’s right, to be obedient. Virtue love is the key to your happiness in your life. Because you’ve heard it said in the Bible in 1 John 4, 16, God is love. He loves you and he loves me. And you know that takes a lot of loving because we know what kind of jerks we really are, don’t we? We know that God loves us. He’s demonstrated that. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. This is the love of God, that he sacrificed his son for you. Love doesn’t get any better than that. And you gotta remember, he’s also perfect righteousness and perfect justice, that’s what God is. Perfect righteousness and perfect justice. So if he’s love, then he’s perfect righteousness and perfect justice. His essence is this, listen carefully, some big words, he’s immutable. He doesn’t change. He’s veracity. He always tells the truth. He’s omnipresent. He’s in everywhere at one time. God can be in China and America at the same time. Not the devil. Devil is localized. He’s a created creature. God is what? Omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, all-knowing, all-powerful. And we know he’s eternal life and we know that he’s sovereignty. He’s the king of kings and the Lord of lords. So after hearing this, can you honestly say, I understand the God I love? I mean, I meet many people in my travels, but the amount of Christians that i meet who actually have a hunger a hunger to grow and understand god is surprisingly small it’s as if they were just satisfied with baby food satisfied to just play the game do a little daily devotion go to church once a week they don’t have any real hunger to grow spiritually And the Bible comments on this sort of attitude in Hebrews 5, 11 through 16. Concerning him, that’s Christ Jesus, we have much to say, but it’s hard to tell you since you’re dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be a teacher, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk like a little baby and not solid food. Solid food is for those who are mature. Read that passage. Are you still on the bottle? Are you eating the steak and the meat of God’s word? The treasure found in the scripture is yours to be taken. But you must realize and utilize the eternal and temporal blessings that belong to you. That’s why we have those mandates. Study, grow, learn, advance in God’s plan. It’s all there for you. So you can’t hide from God. He knows exactly where you are. He knows exactly what you’re thinking. He knows exactly what you’re like. Once you strip away the body, you know, I mean, God’s not impressed with your image and your style. God’s impressed with your heart, what’s in your heart, your faithfulness, your obedience. Are you the man or the woman that God can count on? Don’t hide in a cave. Stand firm. Stand tall. He’s with you. He’s watching over you. He will protect you. I hope you’re listening. Until next week, this is Rick Hughes, host of The Flotline, saying thank you for being with me today.
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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.
