In this insightful episode, host Rick Hughes dives deep into the concept of divine institutions as outlined in biblical teachings. Rick discusses the role of volition, marriage, and family as essential components in preserving and promoting the human race. Using biblically grounded guidance, this session highlights the importance of the father’s role in providing spiritual and moral structure to the family. Listeners will gain insights into how to balance authority and discipline with love and understanding, ensuring a stable environment for growth and learning.
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 good morning and welcome to the flatline i’m your host rick hughes and for the next few minutes please stay with me it won’t be long only about 30 minutes of inspiration motivation information and no manipulation
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We’re not trying to kid you. We’re not trying to con you. We’re not trying to solicit money. We’re just trying to give you some accurate information from the Word of God, hoping that it will help you to verify and identify God’s plan for your life. If we can do that and you want to orient and adjust to the plan, then that is fantastic for you. The plan begins with you accepting Christ as your Savior. It is the single most significant decision you could ever make in your life. As Paul was mentioned in the Bible, what think ye of Christ? Is he or is he not the Son of God? And the answer is yes, he is. How did he prove that? By walking out of the grave alive, and he’s alive today. And the wonderful thing about it As he will come and live inside of you and give you a new life, a new heart, a new life in Christ. That’s why the Bible says if any man’s in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things are passed away and all things become new. As we move into this election year and as we go through what we’re going through in the future, there are a lot of things to consider about this country and what’s going to happen. I want to give you an illustration in the next few weeks dealing with the family, the family. And we’re going to talk about what it means to be a family. And we’re going to use the word family as an acrostic and go through the F-A-M-I-L-Y. We’ll go through it and spell it for you and show you what each one of those word letters stand for. Before we begin that, let’s talk about the divine institutions. There are four of them taught in the Bible. My pastor taught me these years ago. I want to give you some principles that you’ll remember. Here’s the first one my pastor taught me. God has ordained four divine institutions by which the human race is preserved and, I might add, perpetuated. They apply to Christians as well as non-Christians, and it’s regardless of race, regardless of gender, regardless of any other factor. Titus 3, 1 through 2 says these words, remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. That’s what should happen within the divine institutions of a nation. In 1 Peter 2, 13 through 17, the Bible clearly says, Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme or to the governors as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those of you who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, yet not using your liberty as a cloak for vice, but as a bondservant of God, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. These four divine institutions that I want to bring to you include volition. It’s the first one we want to talk about. Volition. What is that? Each of us are under the authority of our own individual volition. That’s your chooser inside of your brain. That’s that part of you that says yes or no. God bestowed on you volition. Or in other words, he gave you decision-making capability. That’s part of your human soul. With our volition, we exercise freedom of choice and we bear the responsibility for those choices that we make. Just like you, just like me, we’ve all made dumb decisions and we had to pay the price for that. These choices that I’m talking about manifest God’s character but they’ll also determine your character in the course of your life and even the condition of your nation, the choices that you’d make. So many American citizens are gonna soon exercise their volition at the poll and vote for the candidate that they believe will be the best candidate to govern this country for the next few years. And I remember to ask you to remember you’re gonna be accountable for your vote, so I encourage you to choose wisely. So volition is the first divine institution. Each one of us has volition. God ordained it and gave it to us regardless of race, gender, creed, color, doesn’t make any difference, Christian or non-Christian, you have volition. And again, the greatest volitional decision you could make is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The second divine institution is marriage. In the Garden of Eden, God himself instituted marriage. This is when he joined one man and one woman as a stabilizing structure of all civilization. In Genesis 2, 21 through 25, and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. He didn’t even have to take any melatonin. How about that? He slept, and God took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord had taken from man he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, and she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh and they were both naked and the man and his wife were not ashamed. So marriage is a divine institution instituted by God. The family is the third divine institution and the frame for perpetuating and safeguarding future generations in the home. All parents are charged with evangelizing their children as well as teaching respect for authority and breaking the arrogant trends they might have, as well as establishing norms and standards such as respect for privacy, good manners, and patriotism. National stability rests with that family unit. And broken families always equal broken nations. So please allow me for a minute to give you an acrostic using that word family. I’m not going to go to the Fourth Divine Institution yet. We’ll get to that later, but I want to go for the family, F-A-M-I-L-Y. F, what does F stand for in family? In my book, it stands for fatherhood. You can’t have a family without a father. In Proverbs 22, verse 6, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he’s old, he will not depart from it. In Proverbs 13, 24, he who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly. And in Psalm 127, three through five, behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has a quiver full of them. So it’s a great thing to be a father. It’s a great, wonderful thing to have children. And it’s an awesome, terrible responsibility to make sure, as Proverbs 22, 6 says, we train them up in the way they should go. And how do we have to train them? Proverbs 13 says, if you spare the rod, you’ll hate your son. So it’s clear from Scripture that being a father is an honored position. And with that honor comes a tremendous responsibility. Family starts with the father. Unfortunately, in our nation, client nation America, we’re seeing a lack of fathers stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for their children. It’s also clear that many makers who father children are way too young to meet that responsibility since many are still just children themselves. As a matter of fact, statistics say one in three American children grow up without their biological father in their home. The National Fatherhood Initiative says there is a father absence crisis in America. Recent studies have found that children raised without a father are at higher risk of behavioral problems. They’re also vulnerable to abuse and neglect as well as more likely to abuse drugs or alcohol. You might not know this about me or my wife, but I personally grew up without a father in my home. No dad, never met my father, not sure who he is. I guess I’ll figure it out in heaven, but I never met my father. My mother raised me as a single parent. It was not easy. We lived in a federal housing project where my mother worked a job and I went to school and went to the boys club for entertainment. in my wife’s case her mother and father separated when she was 10 years old and this placed a great load on my wife’s mother to raise six daughters on her own without receiving any child support and she was forced to place them in foster homes for a year while she tried to get her life together where she could take care of the girls but our story is not all that unusual i promise you uh So what does God’s word say about being a father? Does the Bible really talk about it? Yes, it does. Listen to this. In Ephesians 6, 4, the scriptures say, and you fathers, that’s me, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. The word provoke is an interesting word because it means to arouse. It’s a verb showing action on the part of the Father. And this verb is what we call in the morphology of this verb a present active imperative, which simply means this is a direct command from God. Do not provoke. Do not provoke. Don’t provoke what? Your children to wrath. Wrath is also a verb, and it means to cause anger unjustly. Those two words, provoke and wrath, are actually the same Greek word. Interesting, but the same word. Paro, here we go, I’ll try to pronounce it for you. Parorg, idzo. Parorg, idzo. And why did I pronounce it? Well, both are imperative mood verbs. They both mean the same thing. Followed by a conjunction of contrast, the word Allah, which is but, but. Don’t provoke them to wrath, but, but what? We’ll see here. We have alternative instructions, but what? Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So do not, absolutely, you are not allowed to provoke your children to anger, but to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. What does that mean, nurture and admonition? Well, the word nurture is an interesting Greek word. It is the word paideia, P-A-I-D-E-I-A, paideia. What does that word mean? Well, this is where we get the word in our English language, paideia. Does it sound like the word paddle? Paddle, suggesting the Christian discipline, the Christian discipline that regulates character. That’s exactly what has to happen. There must be discipline in the home. There must be admonition. There must be paideia. One way to break the arrogance and disrespect for authority that a child would have is for the father to put something on their rear end, just as God does it to you and I. He does the same thing to us. Hebrews 12, 5, listen, my son, do not despise the paddling of the Lord, the chastening of the Lord, same word, and don’t be discouraged when you’re rebuked by him. That word chasing is the same Greek word paideia used in a passage that we were looking at in Ephesians 6. Same thing. God sometimes has to paddle us when we disobey him. You and I know that as intense discipline. He has to bring discipline into our life to straighten us out. It requires humility to grow and be a normal person. And that’s what discipline is for, to enforce humility. So if you don’t have genuine humility, God has to bring enforced humility into the Christian’s life so that he will obey the mandates of God. And it’s the same thing with a father. If a child will not obey, there must be enforced humility. There has to be teaching of authority to break that arrogant streak. It’s impossible to live without that. So back to our passage. Now for the word admonition. Ephesians 6.4, bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. What does the word admonition mean? What is that? Well, that’s the word nousia, N-O-U-T-H-E-S-I-A, nousia. It comes from the word nous, N-O-U-S. What is that word? It means mind, M-I-N-D. So there’s two ways to train a child. You can put something on their rear end or you can put something between their ears. And this is the word nousia, to teach them. So here’s some principles for fathers that you should understand and you should remember. First of all, never, ever, ever, ever discipline your child when you’re mad at them. Don’t do that, because that’s exactly what the Bible says. Do not cause your children to go into anger. And number two, never apply pain to your child’s bottom unless authority is rejected. Why is that? Because they must learn to respect authority, since in the long run, respect for authority will save their lives. And you know, if a child can’t obey the authority of his daddy, he can’t obey the authority of his mother, and he will not obey the authority of the police officer, And he will not obey the authority of the principal and he won’t obey the authority of the pastor. He will be anti-authority. And if there’s anything wrong with America today, it’s anti-authority people. We have a whole generation of children without authority orientation. And this nation is in serious trouble because of that. So number two, never apply pain unless your authority is rejected. It’s the same thing God does with you. When God tells you don’t do this and you do it anyhow, you’re going to get pain. Why? Because he’s mad at you? No. Because he loves you, he’s trying to keep you from destroying yourself. That’s exactly what authority does. Authority is designed to stop you before you destroy yourself and maybe someone else along with it. Number three, you can teach them by putting something in their mind so if they make a mistake, that was not deliberate. You know, a lot of times kids mess up. You say, you know, they go over there and there’s the heater and they’re young and they touch the heater and they burn their hand. Well, they didn’t do that deliberately. You didn’t tell them, don’t touch the heater. If they touch the heater, they’re going to burn their hand. And if they violate your authority, that’s one thing. But if they’re just curious and they make a mistake and they hurt themselves, That’s one of the ways they learn. You can learn by putting something between their ears. Teach them not to do certain things. What should a dad put in his children’s mind? That’s a good question to ask you. What should a father put in his children’s mind, in his children’s thoughts? The Bible clearly tells us in Deuteronomy 11, 19, you shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 24 times seven. What am I supposed to be teaching them? God’s word. I’m supposed to put the word of God in the mind of my children, teach them the word of God, read the scriptures to them, pray with them, introduce them to who God is at a young age so that they’ll be God conscious. and introduce them to the gospel when it comes time. I can remember leading a couple of my children to the Lord and what a wonderful time it was. And that has to be done by the father, the parents, the father, if you’re a father, you must do that. You must teach your children the word of God and introduce them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Make them aware of God’s presence by learning about creation. And then expose them to the saving work of Christ as soon as possible. Why? Because Satan will certainly waste no time trying to capture their thoughts, especially using social media. He’ll do that for sure. So now, what if you have a child that you’ve evangelized and you’ve taught them the Word of God? I get letters from people like this. What do you do with them later in life? What should a father do if you raised your children right, you gave them the Word of God, you led them to Christ, and then they stray away and go down the my way highway. How do you handle that? In Luke 15, 11 through 32, the Lord Jesus Christ gave a parable. I’m gonna read it to you and we’re gonna draw some illustrations out of it. And as a father, if you’re listening, I hope you can learn from this. In Luke 15, 11 through 32, then Jesus said, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, give me the portion of goods that fall to me. So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after that, the younger son gathered everything he had together and went and took a journey to a far country. And there he wasted his possessions with prodigal living. When he had spent everything he had, there arose a severe famine in that land. He began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the field to feed the pigs. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the slop the pigs were eating because nobody gave him anything to eat. And when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough to spare, and I’m perishing with hunger? will arise and go to my father and i will say to him father i’ve sinned against heaven and before you and i’m no longer worthy to be called your son please take me back like a hired servant and he arose and came to his father and when he was still a great way off the father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said, Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. The father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring out the fatted calf here and kill it now. Let’s have a party and be merry, for this my son was dead. He’s alive again. He was lost and he’s found. And they began to celebrate. Now let’s back up a little bit. Two sons. I’ve always called those two boys frickin’ frack. One older, one younger. There was a real problem going on because the older son didn’t particularly care for the younger son. It says here that the younger son got anxious and said, I want my inheritance now. I don’t want to wait till you die. I don’t want to hang around here any longer. I’m ready to get the heck out of Dodge. So just give me my share of the inheritance now. Well, his share was one-third. The older son got two-thirds. So whatever the father did, I guess he agreed to give in to the demands of the son because he realized there’s only one way this kid’s going to learn, and that is that you have to learn the hard way. He was so arrogant, he couldn’t understand learning the easy way. So he took everything that he had, all of his money, and by the way, the Bible doesn’t tell us here, but I’m gonna put an invisible friend with him, a motivator, somebody that says, I know where we can go have a good time. Come go with me, let’s go. There’s always somebody willing to help you spend your money if you’ve got some. And so they took off and they went somewhere and wasted their possessions with prodigal living, which means they just had a party. Might be like somebody going to New Orleans and going down on Bourbon Street and spending every dime they had going back and forth up and down Bourbon Street into the bars and whatever. And he didn’t have any money left. That actually happened to me when I was in college. We went to Bourbon Street from the University of Alabama to party one weekend. We had no money and nothing to get any food with. So we sold a spare tire to the car so we could get something to eat. That’s how broke we were. And I can understand this passage. So this kid had nothing to eat. He was starving to death. He had no job, no food, so he went and joined himself to a farmer. I could see him going and asking the farmer, do you need help? Do you need help? I need a job. And he said, sure, I need somebody to feed my pigs. Keep in mind, this is a Jewish boy. He didn’t eat pork. He sent him into the field to feed the pigs. He’s sitting there feeding the pigs, and he’s so hungry that he could eat to slop the pigs are eating. And when he came to himself, what does that mean, he came to himself? He finally got some genuine humility. He finally woke up and said, what an idiot I am. How stupid could I have been? I’ve been so stupid. How did he realize that? He thought to himself, how many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough to spare? and I’m dying from hunger. And then he made a great decision. His volition arrived. He said, volitionally, here it is. I’m gonna get up and go home to my father and apologize. I’m gonna say, Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you. I’m not worthy to be called a son. Just make me like a hired servant. He was willing to swallow his pride just so he could live and go back home to his father. And you know what happened? You think the father ran him off? You might wonder why the father didn’t go looking for him. And I thought about that myself. Why didn’t the father try to go find him? I bet the older brother knew where he went and didn’t tell him. But anyhow, as he was coming home, here’s what you got to see this picture. He was still a great wear off. And I’m sure one of the servants said, sir, there’s a beggar coming up the driveway. You want me to get rid of him? And the father looked and began to stare and concentrate. And he said, that’s not a beggar. That’s my son. And he had compassion and he ran, fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, I’m not worthy to be called your son because of what I’ve done. And the father said to his servants, bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let’s have a party and let’s eat. This is my son. He was dead to the world. Now he’s alive again. He was lost and now he’s found. This is exactly what God does for us. When we use Rebound, problem-solving device number one, when we go to God and admit our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Bible tells us this. So if you have a son or a daughter who’s out of fellowship with God, who’s walked away from what you’ve taught them, this is what you pray. You pray that God would humiliate them. You pray that God would let them see themselves as they really are. You pray that God would open their eyes so they could see what an idiot they’ve been. And you pray they have enough humility to come home to their father. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ was teaching as Christians, maybe even you, As a child of God, you walked away from your father. You have not had fellowship with your father in years. You’re a Christian, you’re saved, and you know it. And yet you turned your back on your father and you went down the my way highway. It’s never too late to turn around and come home. It’s never too late to come back and confess your sin to God. As the Bible says, if we will confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That’s what your heavenly father is waiting on you to do. Your heavenly father is waiting on you to return home to him. Just like the earthly father is waiting on the prodigal son to come back. Come back home where you belong. I pray that you’re listening to me. I pray that you’ll understand this. This is your life. If you don’t, get some humility. If you don’t come home, you’re going to wind up killing yourself. You’re going to wind up going deeper and deeper into your sin. And as this young man said in this parable, I’m sitting here dying of starvation because I’m too arrogant to admit I was wrong. It takes some humility to admit you’re wrong. I hope you’ll do that. I hope you’ll come to your heavenly father and admit your sin. I hope you’ll admit you’ve been wrong. God, as your father, loves you. And you, as a father, love your child. And I hope you’ll be praying for your child. If this is your child, that your child would come back to you. that your child would see their own arrogance and their own mistakes and they would come home and admit them sin to you. I hope you’re listening. I hope you’re paying attention because in the family, the F stands for father. Father is the most significant person in that family. If you’re a father, I hope you’re the right kind of father. I hope you instill God’s word in your children and I hope you can lead them to Christ. And I hope you’ll come back next week. We’ll continue this study on the family, F-A-M-A. You’re going to be surprised what A stands for, something they have to learn, authority. They have to learn authority. And I hope you’ll come back and study it with me next Sunday, same time, same place. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you so much for listening to The Floodline.
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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.
