In this inspiring episode, Rick Hughes invites you to explore the principles of the Royal Family Honor Code. Learn about the essential components of this spiritual framework, including the role of self-esteem, impersonal love, and the impact of integrity. Whether you’re curious about how the Honor Code sets you apart as a member of God’s Royal Family or interested in understanding the importance of grace orientation in your daily affairs, this episode offers profound insights. Rick encourages listeners to align their lives with divine truth and embark on a journey filled with spiritual vitality and confidence.
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 01 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, back once again. Thank you for listening. Every Sunday morning, same time, same place. Thank you for tuning in. 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education, and of course, all without any type of manipulation. That means we don’t con people. We’re not trying to raise money. We’re not trying to sell you anything. We’re simply trying to give you information. Hopefully that information will help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life so that you can orient and adjust to the plan if you would like to do so. It’s up to you. Your life is about making decisions and choices, and every decision you make you’re responsible for. You can’t lay your problems off on someone else. You know, sometimes we have a tendency to say it’s not my fault. Someone once said every time you point a finger at somebody, you got three of them still pointing back at you. So keep that in mind. We are not a victim of our environment. We are a victim of our decisions. Bad decisions limit future options. And the absolute worst decision anyone could ever make is to reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior because that leaves no option for God the Father. He provided in love his own personal son to take our place on the cross so that he might give us eternal life. And when we reject that free gift of God, we leave the justice of God no option. And so think about that, okay? That’s the worst decision you could ever make is to say no to God’s wonderful love through Jesus Christ. Now, before we get started on our program this morning, I want to remind you that we have several things available free of charge, a new book out called Christian Problem Solving. And these are actually some transcripts of radio shows that we’ve done in the past years dealing with those 10 unique problem-solving devices. One of the books that’s been really well accepted from us is Bible Promises and Principles. And this is an amazing book. It deals with all sorts of Bible promises for all sorts of situations in your life. But in the back are a lot of principles that are good to live by, probably a couple of hundred principles, like bad decisions limit future options. That’s a principle. Then we have the bookmark, 10 Reasons Why Your Prayers Might Not Be Answered. It’s always available free of charge. One of our books called Life’s Toughest Years written to young people, but it’s a good study for anyone at a time, a difficult time in their life, but great for your grandchildren or your kids if you have them. And we use a book called A Divine Pardon that I’ve written. And this goes out through the prison ministry. A lot of prisoners across America have read A Divine Pardon. So these are all available to you, and you can always contact us through our website, rickhughesministries.org. rickhughesministries.org, and you can send an email. We’ll get it right out to you, okay? Thank you for that. Thank you for listening today. Okay, let’s get started. I want to talk about the Royal Family Honor Code. Royal Family Honor Code. Many organizations have a code they live by, and if you’re thinking about elite military units, they all have a code of honor. For example, the Navy SEALs. The Navy SEALs is one of the most elite units in our military, along with the Army Rangers and Marine Recons and several others. But the Navy SEAL Honor Code deals with loyalty to country, loyalty to team, and loyalty to teammates. So loyalty is a key ingredient in the Navy SEAL honor code. And then it deals with serving with honor and integrity on and off the battlefield. If you’re a Navy SEAL, they expect you to act with integrity on and off the battlefield. They also believe in being ready to lead, ready to follow, and never quit. Ready to lead, ready to follow, and never quit. Someone once made the statement, and I like it, lead me, follow me, or get the heck out of my way. And that’s the Navy SEALs. The Navy SEALs take responsibility for your actions and those actions of your teammates. That’s another code the SEALs live by. Another code is excel as warriors through discipline and innovation. And then train for war, train to win, defeat our nation’s enemies, and earn your trident every day. Warrior creeds like this, such as the Ranger Famous Creed, have been around for centuries to guide the actions of special operators on and off the battlefield. And the creed is a code of conduct. Keep that in mind. We’re talking about a code of conduct and inspiration, daily reminder of the reasons that they train, the reasons that they fight, and for men and women of these units. And then, of course, we have the Marine Force Code. The Marine Corps core values are honor, courage, and commitment. These values make up the bedrock of a Marine’s character. During recruit training, recruits are taught these core values and numerous other values related to them, such as integrity, discipline, teamwork, duty, esprit de corps, which is a common spirit existing in members of a group and inspiring enthusiasm. So these codes, these people live by these codes. And, of course, you have criminal codes as well. The infamous Hell’s Angels have a code and their other groups have had codes and most of them you don’t even get out of those groups without getting killed. But God has a code. God has a code, a royal family honor code. And that Royal Family Honor Code is what we want to talk about today. It’s a much greater code than those I’ve mentioned to you because this is more than just being moral. It’s much, much, much more. It may come as a shock to you that God has a code like this. It shocks many people. But the Royal Family Honor Code, let me give you a definition here. It’s a system of spiritual integrity, right? mandated by God and revealed in the mystery doctrine of the church age. We are in the church age. No one in the Old Testament could ever see this coming. They only saw the second advent. But God inserted a church age in between the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection and the second advent. And that’s the church age, and that’s us. And we have this honor code in this age of the church age. And it relates to personal integrity in our relationships with other people. It’s a supplement to impersonal love for all believers. And impersonal love, of course, is a problem-solving device. And it is a problem-solving device of the protocol plan of God, this royal family honor code. What does it include? Well, to start with, it includes the filling of the Holy Spirit. Problem solving device number two in your life. What does that solve the problem of? Well, it solves the problem of your genetically formed sin nature that you fight and battle with every day. How do I know that goes on? Because the Bible says the flesh wars against the spirit. The spirit wars against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other. So you have a sin nature. We don’t all have the same weaknesses. Everybody’s not tempted by money. Everybody’s not tempted by sex. Everybody’s not tempted by drugs. People have different lust patterns. But it’s all part of the sin nature. And we have to learn how to control the sin nature. So we do that through the filling of the Holy Spirit. And then the honor code includes biblical orientation, or what we call doctrinal orientation. That’s orienting your life to the word of God, letting the mind of Christ circulate in your stream of consciousness. That’s where the Bible says in Philippians 2.5, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. Well, where do we get the mind of Christ? 1 Corinthians 2.16, the New Testament is the mind of Christ. So we have the filling of the Holy Spirit in the honor code, doctrinal orientation in the honor code, grace orientation. This is living grace, saving grace, dying grace, surpassing grace, and then a personal sense of destiny as part of the honor code. God puts you here for a reason. Of course, we know you’re going to heaven if you’ve trusted in Christ, but there’s a lot more to it. As long as God leaves you around, there’s a reason. And I don’t know what your age may be, but he hadn’t taken you home yet, so there’s a reason he left you here. So any believer who through the Holy Spirit and the inculcation of the word of God can develop this honor code in his life that we’re talking about. And this honor code will give you a spiritual self-esteem as well as a personal sense of destiny, which is what God wants you to have. Spiritual self-esteem and a personal sense of destiny. So when you learn God’s word, you must not only apply these things, but then God expects you to communicate it in terms of the way you live your life with other people. Therefore, the Royal Family Honor Code centers around two words for you, truth and integrity. Truth and integrity. God gives you the truth and he expects you to learn it and live a life of integrity. So integrity, what is that? It’s an adherence to a spiritual, moral, and ethical principles related to honor in your life. Hence, the Royal Family Honor Code relates to both the plan of God as well as every function and relationship to people that you deal with, even including the laws of divine establishment, freedom, marriage, family, and nationalism. So you are a member of God’s royal family if you’re saved, if you’ve accepted Christ as your Savior. You are in the status quo of aristocracy, royal family of God, with a royal family honor code that you’re to live by. And in this church age, which is the dispensation of the royal family of God, we have a royal function. And the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the basis for the fact that we have this honor code. He lived it. He left it for us to learn and use. And our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed royalty, divine royalty, Jewish royalty, and battlefield royalty. And this last category of royalty, battlefield royalty, is to provide a royal family for Christ. Seated at the right hand of the Father where he is currently, and therefore this church, you and I, we were inserted into the Jewish age to call out members of the royal family. And then when we get saved, we’re baptized by the Holy Spirit, put into union with Christ, and they’re making us spiritual aristocracy. You, as a believer in Jesus Christ, are spiritual aristocracy. You are a royal ambassador to planet Earth, representing God the Father himself, supposedly having the mind of Christ, learning the Word of God so that you know what to say and when to say it. You cannot afford to embarrass God by being a royal ambassador and being a loser. He expects you to represent him with integrity and honor, and that’s the royal family honor code. So you aristocracy, aristocracy, you have standards, and your standards are called the royal family honor code. It’s the Christian way of life is simply what it is. It’s compatible with a couple of things that happened at salvation. Number one, you were placed in a union with Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And you have positional truth in your life. And that means this, that you are in Christ for eternity. He said, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I give unto them eternal life and they will never perish. You are in positional truth. You’re not going to lose it. It’s a gift of God, free gift of God. You didn’t earn it. You didn’t buy it. Your salvation was given to you by God through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. When you believe in that finished work of Christ, when you receive that finished work of Christ, when you go to the Father and you simply say these words, something like this simply, Father, I believe Jesus Christ died for me and I’m willing to accept him as my Savior. That’s the simplest prayer in the world, but that’s you saying, committing to the plan of god and receiving christ as your savior i know that works because the bible says whosoever should call upon the name of the lord shall be saved and that’s exactly what i did and probably exactly what you did so here we are we we are in the royal family of god We have positional truth. We’re not going to lose it. We have a portion of God’s righteousness given to us through Christ. It’s a phenomenal way to live, understanding your honor code. We have righteousness from Christ. He who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we may be made the righteousness of God through him. There it is, righteousness of God through or by means of him. and we have eternal life, and it’s all in Christ, in Christ, found throughout the New Testament. And that’s the basis for the fact that the honor code is superior to any other code in life, any other system in life, any other morality frame of reference in life. It’s superior to any of that. It is the honor code of God for us. It’s the Christian life, the way we live. Now what’s the enemy to the honor code? Well, there are a lot of enemies, that’s for sure. But one of the greatest enemies is gossip and maligning and slandering other people. In Ephesians 4.25, therefore having laid aside the lie, each one of you should speak the truth with his fellow believer since we are members one of another. So let’s take someone in your church you don’t like, old Joe over there, you can’t stand him. But he’s a member of the royal family of God. He’s put his faith alone in Christ alone. You’re a member of the royal family of God. You’d put your faith alone in Christ alone. So you have no reason or no right ever to malign another believer. You have no right to ever lie about another believer. Misrepresent, that’s called gossip and slander. And you’re terribly out of line if you do that. And it will bring discipline into your life. You let God deal with other people. He didn’t send you to straighten anybody out. You have a hard enough time keeping your own life straightened out. So remember that. There can be no royal family honor code function without self-esteem. That means you have to have confidence in your own worth or your own ability or another way of putting it is self-respect. How can you respect yourself if you keep failing, if you keep maligning, criticizing, backbiting, slandering other believers? That is a terrible enemy to the royal family honor code. Any of these great military units I talked to you about, they have such integrity, such esprit de corps within themselves, they don’t ever run each other down, even though they’re human. even though they may fail on a mission or something. They’re not going to run each other down. It’s teamwork. We are a team, the family of God. We are in the royal family of God. And you have to understand, we’re not allowed to malign and criticize each other. I know you’ve been a victim of criticism. So what are you going to do about it? I used to have a friend of mine that said, I write your name in my book and I’ll get even with you sooner or later. That’s wrong. The Supreme Court of Heaven is open 24 hours a day. God can handle any grievance you have. So if you’ve got a problem, with someone, take it to the Supreme Court of Heaven and use problem-solving device number eight, impersonal love for all mankind. You can love the weirdest, most obnoxious person in your whole congregation, the most obnoxious person in your city, if you love them based on who you are, not based on who they are. Impersonal love is the same love that God loved you with when it says God so loved the world. You weren’t exactly a righteous person at that time. You were a sinner. You were saved by grace, but he loved you while you had a sinner. And you can love other people using the same type of love based on your character, not their character. So we have to remember this. There has to be self-respect. That’s one of the keys to your life. Without self-respect, you just are going to be disoriented to life all the way around because no one can be successful in marriage without self-respect. You cannot entertain yourself or handle simple problems like loneliness or problems like any type of social problem you run into without having self-respect. And the only way you can have that is to live by an honor code. If you look in the mirror and you see a liar, if you look in the mirror and you see a loser, then you have no self-respect. You’re not living by the honor code. But if you’re living by the honor code and you look at yourself, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You know you’ve lived up to what God told you to live up to. But a lack of self-esteem in almost everything in life is disastrous. If you don’t like yourself, if you don’t think that you’re successful in your own life, if the greatest disaster in your life is the failure to learn, the failure to understand, the failure to think in terms of the Royal Family Honor Code, and you’re in trouble because that’s the greatest system of integrity ever known to any man, anywhere, anytime. And that honor code is related to the laws of divine establishment and also using impersonal love. Listen to Romans 13, 8 through 10. Oh, nothing to anyone except to love one another. There it is. Love one another. That’s what the Lord Jesus Christ said. By this, all men will know you’re my disciples, that you love each other. That Royal Family Honor Code including impersonal love for one another is a tremendous advantage. because it keeps you free of jealousy. It keeps you free of bitterness. It keeps you free of implacability. It’s a wonderful way to live, loving one another, not because I’m a wonderful person, not because they are wonderful people, but because you are a wonderful person, because that love comes from you, not from them. It’s impersonal. The Bible says, for he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. Well, what’s that talking about? He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. It’s the law of establishment, the divine law of establishment. The first half of that verse deals with spiritual self-esteem and the last half of that verse deals with human self-esteem. Listen to this one. Verse nine, here we’re gonna continue this passage out of Romans chapter 13, eight through 10. Verse nine, you shall not commit adultery. That’s human self-esteem. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not covet. And if there’s any other mandate, and there are, then it’s summarized in this doctrine, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That’s the backbone of the Royal Family Honor Code. That’s how you know that you’re living by the code, that you can love the people that hate you, that you can love the politician that hates you, the politician that wants to change your life. The politician that you can’t stand, do you love him? Can you love him? Did God forgive him on the cross through Christ? Did Christ die for him or her? The answer is yes. So you and I have no right to hate anyone. That’s not allowed in the Honor Code. Because the Honor Code demands that we live under establishment principles and it far exceeds any morality. Listen, the unbeliever can be moral. I’m not talking about moral. I’m talking about something that’s far greater than that. The Honor Code demands that you and I live under the establishment and through the perception of the Word of God and through the filling of the Holy Spirit. Two keys there. If you’re not taking in the Word of God, you’re not growing. If you’re not taking in the Word of God, then you’re not going to be able to let the Holy Spirit teach you anything. So this is a balance of residency in your life. Think about it as a seesaw. Oh, if you put a fat boy on one end and a skinny boy on the other end, the skinny boy’s up in the air. The balance of residency for you is the filling of the Holy Spirit on one end of the seesaw and the integrity of the Word of God in your soul on the other end of the seesaw. So there has to be a balance. There has to be you operating under the filling of the Holy Spirit and you operating under the perception of the Word of God on a consistent basis in your life. This gives you the honor code to live by. And this honor code demands that you be patriotic. It demands that you respect your government. It demands that you have authority orientation. It demands that if you’re available, that you serve in the military and provide freedom for your country. It demands respect for law and order and Christian relationships with your government. Romans 13, one through seven talks about that. You can read that one for yourself. It’ll shock you because it says there is no government that God did not allow. Whatever we have in this country today, God allowed it and he allowed it for a reason. You need to figure out the reason. What’s he trying to show us? What’s he trying to teach us? So we have an honor code developed around truth and integrity, impersonal love, grace orientation. An honor code developed around truth or integrity. Impersonal love, grace orientation. Treating people by grace, living by grace, that’s how you got saved, you were saved by grace. Remember the Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith, it’s a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should brag about it. Impersonal love, problem-solving device number seven or eight, number eight. So we have right there grace orientation and personal love. What is grace orientation? That’s problem-solving device number four. If you don’t have the bookmark that lists all of these, order it from me and get it. Or if you don’t have the book Christian Problem-Solving, order today and read about these for yourself. So here it is. The honor code centers around you living a life of truth and integrity, having integrity in your life, using impersonal love in your life, and operating under grace in your life. Now, are there violations of the royal family honor code? Absolutely, yes, there are. There are six things the Lord hates. The Bible says, wait a minute, seven. Seven of them are an abomination to the royal family honor code. Here they are. Haughty eyes, that’s arrogance. A lying tongue, that’s a liar. Hands that shed innocent blood, that’s a murderer. A mind that devises wicked and evil plans, that’s conspiracy or rejection of authority, revolution, civil disobedience. And then feet that run rapidly to evil, that’s a troublemaker. and a false witness who utters lies, who utters slander, who utters gossip, whom aligns. This is all seen in Proverbs 6, verses 16 through 19. If you ever want to see the seven sins God hates, go there, open your Bible, read them. Arrogance, lying, murder, conspiracy, rejection of authority, civil disobedience, evil thinking, troublemaking, liars on the witness stand, slanders, gossip, maligners, criticism. These are all violations of the royal family honor code. Perjury is a violation of the royal family honor code. All of these sins in Proverbs are a violation of the Royal Family Honor Code. So without the function of the Royal Family Honor Code, without understanding the protocol plan of God in your life, you will never be distinguished from the unbeliever. People won’t be able to tell the difference. Without the Royal Family Honor Code in your life, you will be useless and worthless by comparison because it demands that you be distinguished between God In your life, things that are essential and things that are non-essential. You must distinguish between those two. The essential things is the word of God for you. The non-essential things become everything else in life. The essential things, you must always be inflexible. You can’t flex on the essential things. The non-essential things, you can be flexible about. You can do with them, do without them. But revenge is always a violation of the royal family honor code. When you’re wrong, let the Supreme Court of Heaven handle the case. The Royal Family Honor Code demands that we leave retaliation and vengeance in the hands of the Lord because it’s blasphemous to supersede God as a judge. It’s the only system that we have, the honor code is the only system we have that makes dying a part of living because dying is the greatest challenge to your application of the word of God in your life. As you grow old and draw your last breath, then you’re going to die someday. And in Philippians 1.20, according to my intense concentration and resulting hope that in nothing will I ever be disgraced, but in integrity, even now as always, Christ shall be exalted forever. in my person whether by me living or by me dying, for my living is Christ and my dying is an advantage. There it is. That’s a quick study on the royal family honor code. Living it in life and living it in death. God has given you this challenge. I pray you’ve listened. I pray you’ve learned, and I pray you will apply it into your life. The Royal Family Honor Code is a significant doctrine you need to learn to live by and understand. Thank you for listening. I hope you’ll come back next week, same time, same place. This is Rick Hughes, host of the Flatline Radio Show. And I’m so glad you spent a few minutes with us today, right? If you would like to hear from us, order some of the books. Remember, they’re all free of charge until next week. Thank you for listening to the flatline.
SPEAKER 02 :
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.
