SPEAKER 02 : 0:08

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 : 0:24

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 of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education. And we do not use any manipulation. We don’t con people. We’re not playing games. We’re not trying to hustle money out of you. We’re not going to ask you to join up, fess it up, give it up, nothing like that. But we will ask you to listen up. Listen up as I try to explain the plan of God for your life. That’s what The Flatline Show is all about. Help me to verify and identify God’s plan for your life, and if you want to, you can orient and adjust to the plan. That’s up to you. But my job is to explain it to you accurately and get it correct. Before we get started today on our subject, there are a lot of things I need to tell you. Thank you for calling. Thank you for writing. Thank you for letting me know what the show means to you and how many of you in various cities across America are listening. It’s always a joy to hear from people that say, we are listening in Maine, we’re listening in California, we’re listening in Texas. We do broadcast on 100 plus radio stations every Sunday morning. And it’s a test of faith to stand like that, but we believe God provides and we’re always honored to do that. And so please pray for us as we continue to broadcast, as we continue to print and market books and give them out free. We don’t sell anything. Everything on our website is free. You can go to the rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org, and find our material. Don’t go to Richard Hughes. That’s a different man. That’s a man in Georgia. It’s rickhughesministries.org. There you can see the many books we have available for you free of charge. We also make available all our transcripts from the past shows for the past several years, printed out transcripts of every radio show from the 2019, 2021, 2022 coming up. We got all those radio shows for you. And we podcast all of our shows on Apple iPod, Spotify, Breaker, various podcast venues. And you can go on your Apple iPhone and type in The Flotline on Apple iPod and you’ll find our show 24-7, anywhere, anytime in the world. You can listen to The Flotline. So thank you for being a part of our audience and thank you for listening. And let’s jump into what we want to talk about today. I was shocked recently watching television, something I do a lot of recently, it seems like watching television. And I occasionally will see a minister on television or maybe on the internet speak about what it means to be saved. If you just went to the internet and typed in on YouTube, what does it mean to be saved? You’d be shocked at what people will say. So I was confused to say the least. As a matter of fact, there’s so much disinformation about this subject floating around the airwaves and obviously in printed materials that I don’t know what you’ve heard, but if you will allow me to correctly explain some things to you, what it means to be saved. If we begin with John chapter three in the New Testament, we see a noted Pharisee who’s a ruler among the Jews coming to Jesus under the cover of darkness, trying to determine if this Jesus guy was actually sent from God. I mean, obviously he had heard stories about the miracles that Jesus had been performing since John the Baptist identified him at the Jordan River, where John had been baptizing those awaiting the coming of the Messiah. Actually, John the Baptist identified him in John 1.29, where he made these statements. Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. Now, John said that, and also in John the Baptist 1.34, and I saw and bore witness that this is the Son of God. So here he said he’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and he said he’s the Son of God. Others who had been with John had also recognized Jesus as the Son of God and immediately started following him. Andrew followed Christ after being with John and seeing John baptize the Lord Jesus Christ. He started following him, and then he went and found his brother Peter and told him. He said these words, We have found the Messiah. Notice, we have found the Messiah. John said, the Son of God. We have found the person who takes away the sin of the world. So the very next day, our Lord met Philip and told Philip, follow me. And Philip went and found his friend Nathanael and told Nathanael these words. John 145, we have found him of whom Moses speaks about in the law and the prophets did write. He is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So we got all these people identifying Jesus as the son of God. And we got Nicodemus very interested in what’s going on. The scriptures proclaim that the first public miracle Jesus performed was in Cana, where he attended a wedding along with his mother. In John 2, 1 and 2, on the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. And Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. Now, it was here at this event that our Lord performed one of his first public miracles, turning water into wine at the request of his mother. In John 2.11, the Bible says, What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory and his disciples, now notice now, believed in him, believed in him. After this event in Cana, Jesus visited the temple in Jerusalem during the Passover feast. That’s where he found the money changers selling sacrifices in the temple, and he drove them out. In John 2, 15, so he made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. This was crooks, crooks selling sacrifices in the temple during Passover. All these events had generated much talk. And so one certain Pharisee named Nicodemus decided to come and see for himself Was this man really the Messiah, the one they had all been waiting on? John 3, 2 tells us what happened. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, that’s the word teacher, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the signs you’re doing if God were not with him. So he recognized that the miracles that Jesus were doing had to be done by God. The response that he received from Jesus was not exactly what he expected. Jesus didn’t try to debate with him and argue with him. Well, of course I come from good. And he didn’t do that. He just said these words, John 3, 3. Verily, truly, I tell you, No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. Oh, born again. That’s a key word. What exactly does that mean born again? And how exactly does that happen? How do you get born again? John wrote in John one 12, but as many as received him, To them he gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in his name, receive and believe are both mentioned here. So when you believe in who he is and receive him as your savior, you’re born again. You find that challenge in many New Testament verses like John 3, 15, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3, 15, whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. So the secret to having eternal life, being born again, is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. So what am I supposed to believe? Well, in their case, they were believing that he was the Messiah, the Son of God. The word believe is a verb, and it’s pronounced in the Greek language pastuo, And in the morphology of that verb, we know that’s what we call a historical present tense verb used in the active voice. And here’s what it means. It occurs once in time, not repeated in time. This is not something you do over and over and over and over. You make a volitional decision to believe in Jesus Christ, and that’s when you are born again. In our case, we believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He demonstrated who he is. God demonstrated his approval of him when he resurrected him from the dead. And by faith, we believe. Pistuo is the verb. Now the noun is pistis, and that’s the word faith. So verb is pistuo and noun is pistis. Believe is actually having faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. So if you are believing in Christ, that’s an act of faith. The Bible says in Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace are you saved through faith. There it is. And that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. This is identifying the fact that we don’t have the capability to save ourself. We don’t have the capability to satisfy the justice of God because the Bible clearly says there are none that are righteous, no, not one. All of our righteousness is like a filthy rag in God’s eyes. So what this verse simply means in Ephesians 2.8 is this. All the work is already done by the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. He has satisfied the justice of God. He has fulfilled the demands that God placed on sin, and the penalty has been paid. 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he, that’s God, made him who knew no sin that’s christ to be sin for us you and me so that we may become the righteousness of god in him if god is absolutely righteous and we’re absolutely unrighteous the only way we can ever equal god’s righteousness and be accepted by god is to come through jesus christ That’s what we know to be true according to the scriptures. Of course, the death, the burial, the resurrection had not occurred when Nicodemus visited Christ late that evening. So exactly what was he supposed to believe? Well, they were to believe that he is the Messiah. He was the chosen one of God, the one all the Old Testament rituals pointed to, making him the Son of God. That’s exactly what the scribes and Pharisees did not believe. In John 5, 18, therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said God was his father, making himself equal with God. So the unbeliever did not believe he’s the son of God. The believer did believe he’s the son of God. And what do you need to do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. God so loved the world, Jesus told Nicodemus, that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever would believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. They had to believe that he was the son of God. Every human being born on this planet is born into sin, you, me, and anybody else. And none of us are capable of redeeming ourself. Romans 3.23 says, all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God. This means we are born physically alive but spiritually dead due to Adam’s original sin in the Garden of Eden. So you may be walking around a dead man right now. You’re breathing air, you’re occupying space. You’re physically alive but you are spiritually dead. Dead in your trespasses and your sin. Romans 5, 12, therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world and then death by sin, and now death has spread to all men because all have sinned. So here we have it. You are dead spiritually because of your sin. If you want to go to heaven, you have to be born again spiritually or made alive, and this is what it means to be born again. Born a second time, as Jesus told Nicodemus. Nicodemus didn’t quite understand that concept. And Jesus told him in John 3, 6, that which is born of the flesh, that’s flesh. And that which is born of the spirit is spirit. When anyone believes in the finished work of Christ on the cross, and by faith alone puts his trust in that final act, he’s born again or saved. Saved from what? Saved from going to the lake of fire. His penalty for sin has already been paid. If he rejects the forgiveness, if he rejects the offer God made, he will force God’s hand to punish him in the lake of fire and that’s never God’s plan. The Bible says God’s not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. What does that mean? That all should change their mind. To repent means to change your mind. It doesn’t mean to feel sorry for what you did. It means you’ve been an unbeliever. You become a believer. So faith that we express, this is what happened to me. I did it this way. I did it in prayer. I told God the Father on my knees one night way back in November, let’s see, what year was that, 1967, that I was trusting in Jesus Christ to save me. And when you do that, when you go to the Father and tell him you’re trusting in what Christ did to redeem you out of the penalty of slave market of sin, that’s how it happens. Can it be that simple? Romans 10, 13, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So being born again means your dead human spirit the one that was associated with Adam, is now made alive by means of God the Holy Spirit living in you. And you are now capable of having a relationship with God since you’re a living spirit, God’s a spirit, and that’s the only way you can have fellowship with God. John 4, 24, God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. And we know that Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by me. So if you’re going to worship God, you have to be born again, and the only way that’d happen is to come through Jesus Christ who paid for your sin. You can’t born yourself. You cannot unborn yourself either. You’re not going to lose it once it happens. Once you’re born into the royal family of God, that’s signed deal because of what Christ did. And people come up with all kind of goofy suggestions saying, well, you know, if they were really saved, they would have done this. Or if they’re really saved, they would have done that. No one knows who’s really saved. That’s between God and that person. So God didn’t appoint you or I to try to pick out which ones did it and which ones didn’t do it. A lot of people go forward at a revival and say they’re going to accept Christ as their Savior. They’ve done it in mass crusades in the 50s and 60s with Billy Graham. Did they all get saved? That’s between them and God. But if they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and express that by faith and prayer. According to the Bible, they got saved. Now, according to you, they might not be saved, because you said, well, they didn’t have any fruit, so you’re the fruit inspector, huh? That’s between them and God. So I can tell you this, when you are born again, you don’t feel it happen. You don’t get a buzz. It’s not something that happens, comes over you. But God is not a liar. He never lies. In 1 John 5, 11, this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life. Well, how do you get him? You receive Christ as your Savior when you believe in him. And he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I’ve written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, there it is, believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. So the moment you place your faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross, you enter into an eternal life relationship with God’s royal family. John 3.36, he who believes in the Son has everlasting life. And he who does not believe, the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. There are people that’ll try to make it a lot more complicated. There are people that’ll try to tell you you gotta give up bubble gum, you gotta give up drinking Coca-Cola’s, you gotta give up eating pork chops. And that’s the only way you can be saved, you gotta do something, and that’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches Christ did it all on the cross when he satisfied the justice of God. The penalty has been paid. Now you must believe and receive Christ as your Savior. If you have not believed in Christ and have not received him as your savior, you are in fact a walking dead man. You have no eternal life, you have no destiny, and quite frankly, you have no hope. That’s why Jesus said these words in Matthew 11, 28 and 29, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart. and you will find rest for your souls. What an amazing promise. You wanna have peace in your life? You wanna have rest in your soul and free from anxiety? Come to the Lord Jesus Christ, learn the word of God, take the mind of Christ, learn what that flat line is, learn how to have a relaxed mental attitude and you can have the peace of God. Peace with God’s a wonderful thing, it’s amazing. Romans 5, 1, therefore having been justified by faith, by faith, by faith, we have peace with God because of or through our Lord Jesus Christ. The night after I accepted Christ as my Savior was one of the first nights in many years I had laid my head down and I didn’t feel guilty. I didn’t have thoughts running through my head about all the sins I had committed. I didn’t have thoughts running through my head about all the people I’d let down. I had peace with God and I slept like a baby that night, because I knew that God loved me, I knew my sins had been forgiven, and I knew I had accepted Christ as my Savior. Over the last 50 years in the ministry, I’ve had the honor of speaking in many, many, many churches across the southeast, even up through the upper Midwest, all the way up to Michigan, and I’ve observed some stunning things, such as the lack of teaching on the mechanics to the Christian life. What it appears to me is that many churches have a lot of ritual, but a little reality. And this type of worship is called the casual Christian. That’s those who are mere caricatures of Christ, a caricature, you know, a funny looking drawing, a caricature. If all you have is a casual Christian caricature of Christ, you’re not going to be representing Christ through your church and through your family. So this should not be the case. listen to what the writer of hebrews said in regards to not growing up spiritually he wrote in hebrews 5 11 of whom we have much to say but it’s hard to explain since you become dull of hearing because through for this time you ought to be a teacher but you actually need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of god and you have come to need milk and not solid food For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness. He’s a baby. But solid food belongs to those, who does it belong to? Those who are of full age, that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So here we have an identification of some Christian babies and some Christian mature believers. able to identify the difference between human good and evil. All sin is evil. All human good is evil, but not necessarily sin. It’s not necessarily a sin to give money to the poor, but if you’re not saved and you want to give money to the poor, that’s a good thing. You’re helping out a poor guy, a beggar standing on the corner, and you give him five bucks, but it’s not good enough. All of your righteousness is like a filthy rag. If you think that being good is gonna get you saved, you’re wrong. You gotta identify the difference. The first human good was Adam in the garden when he put a fig leaf over his private parts. He tried to cover sin. That was human good, and that was evil. So the writer of Hebrews says there are a lot of Christians that ought to be grown. They ought to be mature, but they’re dull of hearing. That means they’re not interested. They have negative volition. They ought to be teaching the word of God, but they’re not, they’re still in the first grade. They still haven’t learned the principles of the oracles of God. What does that mean, oracles of God? What’s he referring to when he says they don’t know the first principles of the oracles of God? That word oracles of God is logion theos, the Greek word, logion theos. And it comes from the word logos, and theos being God. And it refers to the substance of Christian doctrine needed to be understood in order to fully glorify God as a mature believer. There’s something you must learn. There’s something you must understand. You must learn how to execute the Christian life. And the very, very, very first thing any Christian needs to understand is the battle between the sin nature and the Holy Spirit. That’s why Paul wrote in Galatians 5, 16, I say then, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit lusts against the flesh. These are contrary one to another, so you cannot do the things you want to do. So sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don’t. If you’re a Christian and you have God the Holy Spirit living inside of you, It’s easy to quench and grieve the Holy Spirit by committing personal sin. Once you let the sin nature take over, then you’re walking in the flesh and you’re not fulfilling the Christian life. You have to learn how to get out of the flesh, how to subdue the sin nature because the sin nature is capable of doing many good things, even religious things, but the production there is called dead works because it does not glorify God. It’s merely a right thing done, but in the wrong way. These type of works always lead to self-righteousness, and it’s the essence of religious self-righteous people. This is why you must understand the principle of rebound, problem-solving device number one, and the filling of the Holy Spirit, problem-solving device number two. Listen carefully, Hebrews 9, 14. How much more will the blood of Christ, who through his eternal spirit, that’s God the Holy Spirit, offered himself without blemish to God, Purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Dead works, dead works, dead works. Purify your conscience from dead works. What is that? That’s all those right things done in the wrong way. Yes, it’s right to go to church, but there’s a right way to go to church and a wrong way to go to church. Yes, it’s right to give money, right way or wrong way. Yes, it’s right to do a lot of things, but there’s a right way and a wrong way. So one of the biggest problems of Christians today is they have a conscience of dead works. They’re constantly doing works because of their conscience. You need to do this. You need to do that. The preacher says, do this. Preacher says, do that. And their ignorance of the protocol plan of God leads them to develop a very tender conscience. Guilty. So their conscience is filled with dead works. Let me work it out. Let me make it up to God. Let me promise God I’ll never do that again. I promise God if you’ll forgive me, I’ll never steal again. I promise God if you’ll forgive me, I’ll never fornicate again. God, if you’ll forgive me, I’ll never lie again. And you do. And then you want to go sit in the corner and give up, don’t you? This is how human good is developed, which is just as repugnant to God as sin and evil. It often leads to moral degeneracy. So if you’re involved in dead works, you cannot serve God, you cannot glorify God, because to glorify God to the max and to fulfill his plan for your life, you must learn the difference between human good, dead works, and divine good, which is the fruit of the Spirit being part of that. So there’s a lot to say, a lot to learn, a lot to understand about all of this. And I hope I’m making sense because this is back to the basics today. This is wanting you to understand what it means to be born again and why we’re born again and what causes it and what we can expect. God’s not a liar. He won’t turn his back on you. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you are indeed born again. I hope you’ll turn in next week, same time, same place. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.

SPEAKER 02 : 27:21

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.