This episode casts a captivating spotlight on the spiritual symbolism of fire as a divine element used by God throughout scripture. As Rick Hughes articulates the use of fire to signify judgment, salvation, and God’s omnipotence, he presents a narrative that bridges Old Testament stories with New Testament teachings. Follow this insightful journey to grasp why understanding these determinants is critical and learn how the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ provides believers a path to salvation and eternal life.
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. It’ll be just a few, maybe 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education. And we always do this without any type of manipulation. We’re not trying to con anybody. We’re not trying to hustle money. We’re not trying to ask you to join anything. We’re not trying to get you to fess it up, give it up, nothing like that. We’re trying to give you accurate information. information that will verify as well as identify God’s plan for your life. And if you will receive that information, if you believe it, then you can orient and adjust to the plan. That’s really up to you. But this show, the FLOT, F-L-O-T, FLOT line, is designed to remind you of biblical truths and hopefully introduce you to an in-depth way of studying and learning the Word of God. That’s my job, to point you in the direction of a very well-qualified pastor who that you can grow under and study under in a daily routine, a daily basis, until you reach spiritual maturity and give maximum glorification to God by representing Jesus Christ through your life and actions. So hang with me as we go through this morning’s issue of The Flatline. And please let me remind you of one thing before we get started. We have all of our shows transcribed. We even have the complete 2019, every one of those 52 shows transcribed in three different books, three forms. And if you’d like a copy of all three, which would include all 52 shows transcribed, just contact us with rickhughesministries.org and we’ll be glad to send them to you free of charge. As well as any of our other books that we’ve written, they’re all free. We never charge for anything because we’ve always known that if God is in it, he certainly will pay for it. So thank you for listening. Thank you for learning. Thank you for growing. Thank you for those of you who have contacted me and told me you are listening. And again, I ask you if If you tune in and the show is not there, please let us know because we have problems from time to time with radio stations not airing their obligation. So let us know if it doesn’t come up and we’ll find out. We’ll check in and see what happened. So today we want to talk about something. You know, we talk about the flat line being problem-solving devices. Ten unique problem-solving devices that God gave you in the Scripture that Whereas if you learn them and you use them, you can stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever become the inside source of stress. Problem-solving devices like Rebound, which solves the problem of sin, the filling of the Holy Spirit, which solves the problem of the old sin natures controlling your life, The faith rest drill which solves the problem of fear. Grace orientation that solves the problem of works. Doctrinal orientation which solves the problem of human viewpoint. A personal sense of destiny which solves the problems of what is God’s will for my life. Personal love for God is another problem solving device and that’s the greatest virtue you and I could possess because that’s motivational virtue. Impersonal love for all solves the problem of our neighbors with functional virtue. Sharing the happiness of God, that solves the problem of a miserable life because you never learned God’s word, never applied God’s word. And occupation with Christ. What a wonderful, wonderful 10 unique problem-solving devices actually taught by my pastor many years ago as I reteach it to you. So today, the greatest problem that we have The greatest problem that man has is the problem of sin and death. That’s the greatest problem. And we have to solve that. So the good news is that Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God, has redeemed us out of the slave market of sin. And our debt to God was paid by him. So we’re free, free from the penalty of death and free from the power of sin. And if you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you in effect will accept the offering he made on your behalf. It is a free gift from the compliments of God. If you do not receive the free gift, if you continue to just drift around in life without any purpose, without any meaning, without any destiny, then you’re playing with fire. And if you play with God, you might get burnt. Did you know that? If you play with God, you might get burnt. We first learn of God creating fire in the Bible in Genesis 1-3. where it says, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. And that light created is what we call the sun, and it’s actually a big ball of fire. Man needs it to stay warm, and of course, light exposes everything in the darkness. But it’s a wonderful heater. You know, we cannot look directly into it without ruining our eyes. And it’s interesting, the Bible says no one can look on God and live, so you might remember that. So he did this in the snap of his fingers. Figuratively speaking, God doesn’t have fingers. But in Psalm 33, 6, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made. and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. So he spoke it. He simply spoke it into existence. How did that sun get there? He spoke it. How did the universe get there? He spoke it. It’s for this reason that’s written in the Psalms, in Psalms 33, eight and nine, Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe, for he spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. The next place we see God using fire is in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, 23, before the Lord sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from where he was taken, he drove out the man and he placed him, excuse me, and he placed at the entrance to the Garden of Eden a cherubim, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. The tree of life was in the garden. The tree of good and evil was in the garden, and they were told not to eat from that tree. Of course they did. But from Feeding on the Christ website, Feeding on Christ website, the author of that website, Nicholas Batzig, said this, After Adam and Eve sinned, God placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. That sword represented the justice of God that would fall on any of Adam’s descendants who sought to find their way back to God and to life by their own efforts. Jonathan Edwards, an early theologian in America, wrote this during the 1700s. Hence how vain and how dangerous are man’s attempts to get eternal life by himself. There are many that, notwithstanding the flaming sword of God’s justice and vindictive wrath that turn every way, they are endeavoring to find their own way to come to the tree of life. Many are bold to come in their own name, bold to come in their own righteousness, but there is no sword for them that come in the name of Jesus Christ. However, there is a flaming sword still for them that come in their own name. And here’s the principle. Fire can kill or fire can take a life. Fire can also sustain life by means of heat and food preparation. And fire is used by God as judgment in the Bible in many various passages that we’re going to take a look at this morning. So if we seek to approach God any other way than through Jesus Christ, we only find the sword of fire, the fire of judgment. We see God using fire in Exodus chapter three, where God called Moses through a burning bush In this case, it was Moses that had fled from Egypt since he committed murder. Oh, you didn’t know Moses murdered someone? Well, in Exodus 2.12, and he, that’s Moses, looked this way and that way. And when he observed no man looking, he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. I would call that premeditated murder. That’s exactly why he had to flee Egypt and get out of there and go to the backside of the Midian desert. So principle that you can learn here, if God can use a man who committed murder, can he use you? Can you? God’s forgiveness covers your sin and my sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. You know, you may be sitting in an institution incarcerated right this minute for a crime, maybe even what Moses did. Could God forgive you? Could God restore you to fellowship with him? And the answer is absolutely 100%, positively yes. Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death, but the gift that God gives is eternal life. through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so Moses is working as a shepherd. He’s 80 years old. And he’s in the backside of the Midian desert where he had fled and married a Midianite priest’s daughter. And the angel of the Lord appears unto him in a flame of fire. in the middle of a bush. This angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ himself. Not after he’s come to the earth. No, this was before he ever came to the earth. So he appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of the bush. And he looked, Moses looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but it was not consumed. It was very strange. And Moses said, let me turn aside and see this sight. Why this bush? has not been burned up if it’s on fire i mean surely it ought to be burned up but it wasn’t and when the lord saw that moses responded to the miracle and turned to see what happened he called him out of the midst of that bush and said moses Moses. And Moses said, yes, it’s me. Here I am. And the Lord said, draw no closer. Take off your shoes from your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground. It might be worth noting the very presence of God is not to be defiled, not to be defiled, not to be defiled in any way by any type of dirt. And if you’re going to approach God, there must be humility, there must be obedience. He was told to take off his shoes, to obey, and to don’t come any closer till you do. And then in verse 6, he said, I am the God of your father. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses covered his face. He was afraid to look upon God. You know, in the Bible, God uses fire as a symbol of his presence. In Exodus 19, 18, and Mount Sinai was altogether in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. And the smoke therefore ascended as the smoke of a furnace. And the whole mountain quaked greatly. There it is, God coming down on Mount Sinai in fire. To the Israelites at Sinai, the glory of God looked like a consuming fire. It was written in Exodus 24, 17. The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. Sometimes when I’m out fishing at night, night fishing is a bass hobby, bass fishing my hobby. There’ll be dew or moisture or fog coming off the water. The other night I was fishing and On top of the hill there was a bright light and the fog was up there and the light was shining through the fog and I thought about this. It looked like the glory of God shining through the fog. This is what the Jews experienced. It looked like a consuming fire. But listen, this is not metaphorical. This is literal. This is literal fire. All these passages that I’m giving you are very literal. They’re not metaphorical. So God appeared as fire by night. as Moses led the people out of Egypt and through the Sinai desert to the promised land. In Exodus 13, 21, and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give light so as to go by day and to go by night. In Leviticus 9, 23, God demonstrated his acceptance of the offerings of Moses and Aaron, when they made an offering to God, it says in Leviticus 9, 23, and Moses and Aaron, let me turn the page, went into the tabernacle of meeting and came out and blessed the people. And then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and consumed the fat on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. I think I would have too. What a demonstration of God’s massive presence and power. Because of fire’s heat and because of fire’s destructive capability, It frequently appears in the Bible as a symbol of God’s anger and of the judgment and destruction that sometimes are extension of that anger. However, I must warn you that when we talk about the anger of God, this is what we call an anthropomorphism. That’s giving God human traits that he does not actually possess. God does not get angry. Anger is considered a sin in the Bible. Be angry and sin not, the Bible said. You’re not supposed to be angry. That’s one thing unique about the Christian life, using impersonal love. You don’t have to ever be bitter. You don’t have to ever be mad. You don’t ever have to have revenge motivation or revenge tactics. This is not God mad. This is the justice of God executing judgment. So because of the heat of fire and destructive capability of fire, It appears in the Bible as a symbol of God’s judgment. Listen to Numbers 11.1. Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord, for the Lord heard it, and his anger was aroused, his justice. So the fire, this is literal fire, the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some on the outskirts of the camp. What happened here is the complainers The losers were taken out by God’s justice to quell a rebellion before it infected everyone. That’s what you have to do when you have a rebellion. You have to remove the rebellious people, and God did that here. This was divine judgment on insurrection within the camp. The Israelites who left Egypt, they were always complaining about something. complaining about no water, complaining about no food, complaining about not being comfortable, wanting to go back to Egypt where they were slaves to start with. Exodus 15, 22, you can see him complaining there. as well as here for unspecified reasons, complaining, displeased. And so complaining and murmuring are indications of unfaithfulness. Now the Lord, when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. Numbers 11.1. Listen, complaining and murmuring again are indications of unfaithfulness. And I’m talking to you. You know what you’re going through. I know what you’re going through with this pandemic. And some of you are saying, I’m sick of this. I’m tired of this. I want it to go away. And you’re not seeing what the opportunity God’s giving you. You’re being unfaithful and you’re being self-centered. God has allowed something to come upon our nation and upon this whole world that is an opportunity for the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to express the power of God through Jesus Christ, his son. Use the opportunity. Ask the Lord how he can use you in the middle of this instead of complaining about it. Because ultimately the Israelites failed to take the promised land and had to go back and live in the desert for another 40 years. This same imagery of the judgment by fire that God uses is seen in the New Testament as well, not just the Old Testament. It’s interesting where James and John wanted to call down fire in order to destroy the Samaritans. In Luke 9, 51 through 54, it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up, that’s the Lord Jesus Christ, that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. Luke 9, 52. And he sent messengers before his face. And they went in and they entered a village of the Samaritans. This is who the Lord first appeared to in John chapter 4, the woman at the well, to prepare a place for him. But they did not receive him. They did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when his disciples, and they were upset because he wasn’t coming there to stay. He was going to Jerusalem. And they wouldn’t receive him. They wouldn’t welcome him. When his disciples James and John, here they go, the sons of thunder, said, Lord, you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just like Elijah did it? And maybe that’s the way you get yourself. Misuse of the power of God. I just wish that God would send down fire and burn them all up, bunch of rebels. There are times that we all would love for the rebels to disappear. However, they’re not about to go away. We’ve been telling you for many, many years there’s a train wreck coming and I can hear the whistle blowing. It appears the train wreck has arrived at the station. We’re seeing ill content, we’re seeing hatred, we’re seeing maliciousness, we’re seeing bitterness as never before in this country. This country is being divided and ripped apart by the forces of Satan himself. And you can complain about it. You can be mad about it. Or you can accept how the Lord’s going to deal with it because I can assure you the justice of God will deal with it in his way. So you have to understand this. You can’t call down fire to burn up and destroy the people you don’t like. Fire is used to evaluate your spiritual production. Did you know that? That you will face fire as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your spiritual production during your lifetime will be evaluated by fire. And what significant impact you had as a representative of Jesus Christ will be evaluated by fire. Where does it say that in the Bible? In 1 Corinthians 3, 11 through 16. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid. That’s your salvation. That’s Christ Jesus. It’s like a concrete foundation you build a house on. So no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, verse 12. If any man builds on this foundation with gold and silver and precious stones or wood, hay, and stubble, then each one’s work will become clear, for the day will declare it. It will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each person’s work of what sort it is. This is not your sins. This is not a movie projector showing everybody who’s looking at all the horrible things you did. This is all the production for God you claim you did. things you did while you were out of fellowship with known sin in your life, doing the right thing in the wrong way, violating the protocol plan of God is wood, hay, and stubble. All that money you gave every time you went to choir, every time you did this, did that to church, if you had sin in your life, you quenched and grieved the Holy Spirit, and you did it in the energy of the flesh. and it will be revealed at the judgment seat of Christ. It’ll be shown to be wood, hay, and stubble. There will probably be a big bonfire for me, I’m sure, because like you, I’ve worked in the energy of the flesh as well. Just don’t be roasting marshmallows over my fire, whatever you say, all right? So if anyone’s work abides, well, then it’ll endure and he’ll receive a reward. But if anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. Listen to the next sentence. But he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. You’re not going to lose your salvation. You’re going to lose any rewards you might have had. You’re not going to be able to glorify God throughout all eternity with any crowns you might want to lay at his feet, but here it is. You will be saved even though your production was negative. This means that you were a loser believer. You got saved. You accepted Christ. You believed in him, received him as your savior, and did nothing with it at all. You never learned the protocol plan of God. You never learned the 10 problem-solving devices. You never had any interest in growing in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You were totally distracted by the details of life. You’re totally disoriented with your family or with your hobbies or whatever it was. Oh, you had a Bible. Yeah, you got a Bible. They said, you know right where it is. But you didn’t pick it up. You didn’t read it. You didn’t listen to any pastor. You didn’t attend church faithfully. You didn’t grow spiritually. And all that stuff you did, all those good little deeds you did, will be burned up at the judgment seat of Christ. Fire will destroy it. So there will be fire for the believer. And there will be fire for the unbeliever. In Revelation 20, verse 14 and 15, then death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is called the second death. And anyone not found written in the Lamb’s book of life was cast into the lake of fire. You hear people talk about going to hell. When an unbeliever dies, he goes to hell. But that’s not the lake of fire. At the end, the great white throne of judgment, he’s brought out of hell and brought before the great white throne of judgment and evaluated. And is his name in the Lamb’s Book of Life? Certainly not, because he died without Christ. And he is thrown into the lake of fire, which is called the second death. And Satan and the false beast, they’re all in the lake of fire. This is God’s justice and judgment on all unbelievers who rejected the free gift of reconciliation. God gave you something free. God gave you the free gift of eternal life. He sacrificed his own son for you, and you ignored it, turned your nose at it, walked away from it, said you didn’t want it. Well, fire is exactly what God will use to destroy the sin-plagued earth eventually and the entire infected universe. This leads me to believe that sin will infect the universe eventually someday. In 2 Peter 3.12, as you look forward to the day of God and to speed to its coming, that day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire. and the elements will melt in the heat. This is total destruction of the entire universe. The entire universe will evaporate. Now, you will watch it. You’ll be in heaven. You’ll be in your resurrection body. 2 Peter 3.10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and the heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. That’s coming. That’s coming. Here’s the application. The ultimate problem we have is the virus of sin and spiritual death. Through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, that problem can be eliminated for you today. Romans 1 16 says, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It, it, it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. In Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness. There you have it. It’s all provided for you, all free compliments of grace of God. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, no fire in your life, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Will you believe that? Will you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? It is a simple act of faith because the Bible says, whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And you can do that in your private prayer today. Thank you for listening. I look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you.
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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.
