Join Rick Hughes on today’s episode of The Flatline as he navigates through the complexities of guilt and redemption. Discover how regrets and past mistakes should not hold believers back from accepting God’s forgiveness and moving forward in spiritual growth. Rick discusses how the 10 unique problem-solving devices can guard your soul against adversity and stress, using powerful Bible passages and narratives to emphasize the release from guilt through faith.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, stick around. It’ll be a short time, just 30 minutes, but some motivation, some inspiration, some education, and as we say, without any manipulation. That means we don’t ask for money. We’re not trying to con anybody. We’re not soliciting membership. We’re just trying to give you some accurate information that will help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if you can do that, then you’re free to orient and adjust to the plan. The FLOT line, F-L-O-T, is built around 10 unique problem solving devices. When you learn these 10 unique problem solving devices, then they go inside your soul and they protect you from the outside sources of adversity. That’s why we always say adversity is inevitable and stress is optional. You don’t have to have stress. You cannot get away from adversity, but you don’t have to have stress. That’s why we teach how those 10 problem-solving devices function in your life. Today we want to cover a subject that’s interesting because I hear from many listeners who speak of regrets. Regrets from years past. You know, things that they may have done or think they’ve done that cannot be forgiven by God. Maybe you’re like that. Maybe you’ve got something like that going on and you think, well, God’s going to hold that against you. There’s only one unforgivable sin that I know of in the Bible, and that’s the rejection of Jesus Christ as your Savior. That’s called the unpardonable sin because there’s no way around it. If you do not accept the free gift of salvation that God gives you, then the justice of God is forced to judge you at the great white throne of judgment because you can’t save yourself. There are none that are righteous, no, not even one, the Bible says. All of our righteousnesses are like a filthy rag in God’s eyes. I wish I could sit down and meet you face-to-face, talk with you. It’s not possible. I really enjoy hearing from all of you that have written and responded to the request to keep that radio show going in my area. Thank you. Thank you for the emails and the letters that we’ve been getting. That’s wonderful to hear from you. I’m awfully glad to hear from you. So since I can’t sit down and look at you face to face, we just do it over the radio, and I pray that this radio show and others that we produce will guide you in the right direction. And what direction am I talking about? I’m talking about you growing spiritually and eventually becoming a spiritually mature believer. Today we want to talk about a subject that we need to approach very carefully. It’s called the guilt pit. The guilt pit. Again, many people think they’ve done things that cannot be forgiven, and the guilt pit has caught them caught up in the guilt pit. Philippians 3, 12 through 14, there’s a passage we want to take off with and go from there. This is the Apostle Paul writing, and this is what he said to the church at Philippi. Not as though I had already attained, neither were already perfected. but I follow after so that if I may apprehend that for which also I’m apprehended of Christ Jesus. Now listen carefully to verse 13, Philippians chapter three. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, that’s to reach full spiritual maturity, But the one thing I do, I forget those things which are behind me, and I reach forward into those things which are before me. I press on towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul did not live in the past. He did not look back at the many mistakes that he made before the Lord Jesus Christ called him, before the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him. He had done many crazy, wild things. He was even there at the death of Stephen the martyr. But those things were gone, they’re in the past. So anytime you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible clearly says, if any man is in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things are passed away and all things become new. Everything is new from the day you believe in Jesus Christ, you’re born again. You receive a new spiritual body, a new spiritual life. Remember you’re born spiritually dead, physically alive. You have a body, you have a soul and you have a dead human spirit. When you accept crisis, your savior, that human spirit is made alive by the indwelling of the Holy spirit. And now you have a body, soul and spirit. And so let’s remember whatever you’ve done in the past, whatever you’ve done in the past, I say it again, whatever you’ve done in the past is gone. And when you use rebound, it gets gone again. Let’s talk about that because many have trouble letting go of past sins, past failures. Some of you have done it. And some of you have things that still haunt you to this day. I bet you, you may even replay it in your mind at night before you allow yourself to go to sleep. And you may wonder whether or not God can, or whether or not God will even forgive you for what happened. Maybe you’re fearful that God will bring it back up in heaven and everyone will know what you did. Let me assure you that one thing, God will not be showing a movie projector when you get to heaven with all of your sins. Everybody won’t be seated in the auditorium eating popcorn, watching all your failures. That’s not going to happen. Christ paid for all of your sins, past, present, and future. All of my sin, all of your sin was poured out on him on the cross and judged by God the Father. And that’s why the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for he, that’s God, has made him to be sin for us. That’s the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who knew no sin, that means he never sinned. so that we, that’s you and I, we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The only way that we’ll ever get to heaven is to equal God’s righteousness. The only way we can ever equal God’s righteousness is to be imputed the righteousness of Christ when we put our faith in him and believe in him as Savior. So the weight of sin and the failure of sin is addressed by Christ in Matthew 11, 28. He said, come unto me, all of those of you that labor and are heavy laden, I’ll give you rest. In other words, I’ll carry the burden of your sin. Take my yoke on you and learn of me for I’m meek and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy, my burden is light. So the Lord Jesus Christ promised you that he would carry your sin for you so that you don’t have to be judged for it. He was judged in your place. That’s not the way organized religion works. Organized religion would like to lay a guilt trip on you. like to trap you in the guilt pit by proclaiming certain things to be sins that are not sins and thus trying to manipulate you and bully you into buying into their viewpoint. That’s where you have to be very careful about what organized religion will do. If you read the New Testament, you’ll see that this is what crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, organized religion. They were constantly attacking him for things that were not sin. You know, don’t do this, don’t do that. That’s all garbage, that’s all evil, that’s all terrible. And I could go into some major issues, but I won’t deal with it right now, but you know what I’m talking about. People say, if you do that, brother, you’re not gonna go to heaven. Brother, if you do that, that’s a terrible sin, and the Bible doesn’t even mention it as sin, doesn’t even bring it up as sin. Let’s look at a couple of major sins committed by people that God used in spite of their failures, in spite of what happened to them. Why do I wanna look at these? So you can be encouraged to rebound and advance and don’t look back. The first one I wanna show you is this. This may shock you. Moses, the greatest man of the Old Testament, committed murder. Moses was a known murderer. In Exodus 2, verses 11 and 12, and it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, this is about 40 years old, that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens, and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way, he looked that way, and when he saw no one was looking, he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. That was murder. And for that, a warrant for his arrest was put out, and Moses fled out of Egypt to the backside of the Midian Desert, where he stayed 40 years. While he was backside of Midian desert, he married someone. He married a Midianite priest’s daughter. Moses was married at that time. He was 80 years old when God appeared to him in a burning bush and said, I want you to go back to Egypt and bring my people out of slavery. Of course, Moses said, I can’t. There’s a contract out for me. They will arrest me. And the Lord said, don’t worry about it. Those times are gone. So in Exodus 4, 20 through 25, Moses took his wife and his two sons and set them upon a donkey and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. And the Lord said unto Moses, when thou goest to return to Egypt, see that thou doest all these wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand. And I will harden his heart and he will not let these people go. And you shall say unto him, thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I’m telling you, let my son go so that he can serve me. And if you refuse to let him go, I will slay your son, even your firstborn. Now listen carefully. And it came to pass, by the way, in the end, that the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him. Wait a minute. What’s going on there? Well, Moses had committed a sin, a problem that God couldn’t handle. He didn’t justify it. He had not circumcised his two sons. He should have done that. So verse 25 in this passage that we’re studying here, take a look at this. It’s very interesting what I’m about to show you. Verse 25 of Exodus chapter four, his wife’s name was Zipporah. Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her sons and threw it at his feet and said, you are a bloody husband. And she left him. Now Moses went on into Egypt and Moses brought out the Jews. And when he came out headed for the promised land, the father of Zipporah, whose name was Jethro, the priest of Midian brought her back to him. Now I’ll read it to you in Exodus 18, one through six. When Jethro, the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses heard all that God had done for Moses and for the Israelites, his people, he said, that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, and her two sons, of which the names of the one was Gershom, for he had said, I have been an alien in a strange land, and the name of the other was Eleazar, for the God of my father said he was my help, and he delivered me from the sword of the Pharaoh.” And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and with his wife back to Moses in the wilderness where he encamped at the Mount of God. And he said unto Moses, I, thy father-in-law, Jethro, am come unto thee with your wife and your two sons. Now they didn’t stay. Moses later remarried. And this may shock you that Moses was divorced. We couldn’t let him be a deacon in the church today. He was divorced, right? Wrong. You’re dead wrong. Numbers 12, one through three. And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. For he married an Ethiopian woman. And they complained and said, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Has he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard the complaining. So here we have Moses, the greatest man in the Old Testament, committed murder when he was 40. divorced his wife, remarried an Ethiopian woman, and that set off quite an event. The Bible goes on to say in this passage in Numbers 12 and verse 3, Moses was very meek above all the men which run the face of the earth. Are you divorced and you think God’s holding that against you? Are you in prison and you might’ve committed some atrocity like murder and you think God can’t forgive you. God can. That’s what Christ died for all of your sins. Everything you’ve ever done. He died for, he paid for even David. One of the greatest Kings of Israel committed adultery. and had sex with another man’s wife. In 2 Samuel 1, 11, excuse me, 2 Samuel 11, one through five, and it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David stayed back in Jerusalem. And it came to pass in the evening tide that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. She was very beautiful to look upon, and David sent and inquired after her. And one said, This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. And David sent messengers, and he took her. And she came in unto him, and he lay with her. That means he had sex with her, for she was purified for her uncleanness. And she returned unto her house, and she conceived and sent word back and told David, I’m pregnant with your child. Now David’s got a problem. He’s made another man’s wife pregnant with his child. So what did he do? Second Samuel 11, 14 through 17. And it came to pass in the evening that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah the Hittite, the man whose husband, whose wife he had impregnated. And he was a great fighter for David. He was a mercenary. And in this letter he wrote to Jacob, said, set Uriah in the front of the hottest battle and pull back and leave him alone by himself so he can be smitten and die. And it came to pass when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew The strong, valiant men were fighting, and the men of that city went out and fought with Joab. And there fell some of the people of the servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite was killed. David thought his problem was solved. You can’t solve the problem of sin. It leaves scars. It leaves problems. But here’s David, the man who killed Goliath the giant. having sex with another man’s wife, impregnating another man, and then murdering her husband to cover up his sin. This was all discovered, all brought out, and David paid a big penalty for that. But let me remind you, God can use you in spite of any failure you may have gone through in your life. Peter denied the Lord three times at Luke 22, 54. And when they took the Lord Jesus Christ and led him and brought him to the high priest’s house, Peter followed afar off. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall and were sat down together, Peter sat down among them. And a certain maid saw him sitting there and she said, well, weren’t you with him? And he said, nope, not me. I don’t know him. After a little while, another person saw him and said, you are one of those disciples. He said, nope, not me. I’m not, nope. And about the space of an hour, another one confidently said, yes, you are. You are one of those disciples. You’re a Galilean. And Peter said, I don’t know what you’re even talking about. And immediately while he spoke, the rooster crowed and the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the words of the Lord when he said unto him, before the rooster crows in the morning, you will deny me three times. Peter went out and wept bitterly. Have you denied the Lord and you think God can’t forgive you? Have you committed adultery and you think God can’t forgive you? Have you been involved in some horrible crime and you think God can’t forgive you? Well, let’s go through some principles so you’ll understand this. Number one, nothing catches God by surprise. in Proverbs 15.3 verse three, the eyes of the Lord are in every place watching the evil and the good. So he’s watching and you can’t hide anything from God. He’s omniscient. It means he’s all knowing he’s omnipresent. That means he’s eminent and transcendent. He’s everywhere. And then Job 34 21 for his eyes are upon the ways of man. And he sees all of his steps. This is the interesting thing about God. He can read your mind. He can read your thoughts. You may turn the lights out, get into bed, cover yourself up with a blanket, bury your head under the pillow, but God is still there. He knows what you’re thinking. That’s his omniscience. Because he knows that every believer has a sin nature. Every one of us are born with an Adamic nature. We are born with a sin nature. And when we accept Christ as our Savior, the sin nature doesn’t disappear. It’s still there in this body that we must get rid of to go to heaven. We got to get that resurrection body eventually. But we all have a sin nature. Even sweet little old ladies have sin natures. And the Bible is clear about that. In Romans 7, 15, and 16, Paul talked about his sin nature, the battle that he had. You want to hear it? For that which I do, I allow not. For what I’d like to do, I don’t do. But the things I hate, those are the things that I do. If I do that which I don’t want to do, and I consent to the law that it’s good, now then, it is no longer me that’s doing it, but sin that dwells in me. Yes, Paul had a sin nature, even though he was converted, even though he was a great disciple of God, an apostle, he had a sin nature. You have a sin nature. And the solution to the failure of the sin nature is exactly what we talk about every Sunday morning, rebound. 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and purify us from all of our wrongdoing. That’s a true verse. David found that verse to be true also when he confessed his sin. We may see that here in a minute. So every believer has a sin nature and rebound is the solution. Once we rebound or confess our sin as a Christian, God does what he said he would do. He will cleanse you from your sin. Now, the biggest mistake in the guilt pit is you go back and dig up your past failures. You go back and wallow in the guilt. Rebound removes the guilt. Listen to what David did when he rebounded. Now read the passage where this, remember this is the man who committed adultery with Bathsheba, impregnated Bathsheba, another man’s wife, killed her husband to cover up the sin. Listen to what he said in Psalm 32, three and five. When I kept silent, my bones grew old and roared all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me. That’s discipline. And my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. In other words, he was drying up. I acknowledge my sin unto you. My iniquity I did not hide from you. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. There it is. The same rebound in the Old Testament that you do in the New Testament. Psalm 32, 3 through 5 is exactly what you do in 1 John 1, 9. Now, he wasn’t filled with a spirit like you are. He operated under a different system of spirituality called the faithless drill. But he definitely had been endued by the Holy Spirit, and God used him. We saw that when he was called and anointed to be the future king of Israel. But Moses, what he did, he was not even a believer when he committed the murder. And in Luke 22, 61 and 62, the Lord hears Peter deny him, and Peter was aware that Jesus saw him deny him. and it broke his spirit. He cried. The Lord turned and looked upon Peter and Peter remembered the words of the Lord, what he had said unto him. And before the rooster crow, you’ll deny me three times. Peter went out and Peter wept bitterly. Here’s an interesting point. Peter denied the Lord three times, but the Lord did not deny Peter. Peter threw the Lord under the bus, but the Lord did not throw Peter under the bus. You may turn your back on the Lord, but he will just love you from behind. That’s the amazing thing about God, his ability to love you through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. When you believe in Christ and receive him, you become a member of God’s royal family. He may discipline you. He may correct you. He may give you an attitude adjustment, but he loves you and he does it in love. And that’s why Hebrews 12 says those that he loves, he disciplines, he scourges with a whip, He has to. If he didn’t, we would self-destruct. And you may be on your way to self-destruction now. You may be seeing a psychiatrist or a psychologist because you have past guilt that you can’t deal with. Listen, Christ died for your sin. Admit it to God. Put it away and don’t look back. That’s what Paul said, forgetting those things that are behind. I don’t look back. I press forward, redeeming the time, the Bible says. You only have so long to live. The objective is to grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And if you can put that stuff behind you, get out of the guilt pit. Live your life under the filling of the Holy Spirit, problem-solving device number two. Learn the faith-threats drill, problem-solving device number three. Orient to God’s grace in your life and then begin to get some biblical orientation. God will give you a personal sense of destiny. He’ll show you why he saved you. He’ll show you what he wants you to do. And these are all problem-solving devices that eventually lead to occupation with Christ. So Jesus did not deny Peter. Listen to Mark 16, 5 through 7. And entering under the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were frightened. And he said unto them, Don’t be afraid. You’re looking for Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified, but he’s risen. He’s not here. Behold the place where they laid him. Take a look. But you go your way and you tell his disciples and Peter. Do you hear that? Go tell his disciples and Peter that he go up before you into Galilee and there you shall see him as he said unto you. Peter didn’t think he was a disciple anymore. Peter figured he had blown it. He went back to fishing. He was a commercial fisherman. And he just went back to fishing. And here the angel is telling those that came to the tomb to look for Mary. Here she was to look for John. Go tell Peter he’s still a disciple. I imagine those are the sweetest words that Peter ever heard. Jesus said, meet him in Galilee. I’m sure Peter wasn’t excited about that. I’m sure that when he met the Lord, he had to look him in the eye and he had that guilt. Like, I denied you. I know I denied you. But the Lord Jesus Christ had that amazing love and said, I don’t care. I love you too. I love you so much. I know you denied me. I told you you were going to do it. I knew the pressure would be too great on you, but I love you. I forgive you. That’s true for your life too. God loves you and God forgives you. I don’t care what you’ve done. Through Christ, your sins are forgiven. After your failure, after the dust has settled, if you’re still alive, God still has a plan for your life. In Jeremiah 29, 11, for I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for prosperity, not for disaster, plans to give you a future and plans to give you a hope. But do not let Satan drag you back into the guilt pit. Don’t let that happen. Philippians 3.13, again, Paul said, I count not myself to have apprehended. In other words, I’m not there yet. I’m growing. I want to be a mature believer. But one thing I can do, this is what he said, I forget those things that are behind me and I reach forth to the things that are in front of me. Forget what’s behind you. Forget it. It’s gone. It’s gone. This is what Satan uses to try to defeat you. He casts doubt into your mind because of your guilt. You think maybe God didn’t forgive you. You think maybe God’s waiting to get even with you. So something bad happens and you go, oh, no, I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. I know it’s three years later now, but I knew God would get me. You’re mistaken. That’s not how God works. He forgave you in Christ. And if you rebound, he cleanses you every day from your sins. So learn this lesson from the Bible. Do not live your life in the guilt pit. This is where Satan would love you to be. That way he can manipulate you and try to get you into some sort of works where you think you can make it up to God. You cannot make it up to God. It’s impossible. All of our righteousness is like a filthy rag in God’s eyes, the Bible says. There are none that are righteous, no, not one. Forget trying to make it up to God. Just relax and live the life that God provided for you through the Lord Jesus Christ forgiveness on the cross and through those problem-solving devices in your life every day, such as Rebound. Isn’t that a wonderful thought? You don’t have to live under guilt. You don’t have to be manipulated by your guilt. You don’t have to let Satan intimidate you with someday God’s going to get you for all of that stuff you did. It’s not going to be shown in heaven. It’s all gone. It’s all under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful God we serve. What a wonderful Savior we have to take those of us that are not worthy and forgive us and cleanse us. I hope you’re listening, and I hope you’ll come back next week. Same time, same place. Until then, I’m your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
