Discover God’s unfailing, unconditional love and how true love works. What is true love according to Scripture? Rick Hughes explains how God’s love is unconditional, unfailing, and unearned — demonstrated perfectly through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. Learn how understanding divine love shapes our love for God, family, and friends, and how believers can reflect His character in everyday life.
welcome to the flatline with your host rick hughes for the next 30 minutes you’ll be inspired motivated educated but never manipulated now your host rick hughes good morning and welcome to the flatline i’m your host rick hughes and for the next few minutes please stay with me it’ll only be about 30 minutes of motivation some inspiration a whole lot of education
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and no manipulation because we don’t con you. We’re not trying to solicit money. We’re not trying to sell you a product. We’re just offering to give you information that will help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life. If we can do that and you would like to orient and adjust to the plan, that’s up to you. I hope you will. This radio show, this is 1,055 Sundays we’ve been on the air with you. I thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time and I pray that God will speak to you through this message today. Let me remind you of our website, rickhughesministries.org. rickhughesministries.org. And there you can find all the various materials that we offer free of charge, including our latest book, Understanding Your Soul. We also podcast our radio show on Spotify, Apple iPod, and Podbean, and several others. If you want to get the podcast, just get on one of those free podcast venues and type in The Flot Line. And it’ll come right up and you can start listening on a podcast on a daily basis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless where you are in the whole world, you can get it. So thank you for this opportunity to be with you today. And if you’d like to get in touch with us, our 800 number is working, 800-831-0718. And we appreciate hearing from you anytime you have a need. I’m not a counselor. I’m not a biblical counselor. I’m an evangelist. My job is not to counsel you. My job is to direct you to where you can get accurate information from a well-qualified pastor. So I hope you’ll understand that. And if you do call, be sure you speak slowly and loudly so we can understand what you’re saying on the telephone. Okay, let’s get into what we want to talk about today. We want to talk about true love. True love. Something everybody’s interested in. True love. Have you ever wondered if you’re really truly loved? I mean, have you? Some people look for love their whole lives and never find it. I can’t tell you how many songs have been written about love, but everybody wants to be loved. Most of the time, it’s an emotional connection people are seeking. Someone or something that makes them feel appreciated and needed. I personally grew up without a father, but I was much better off than some of the others that I knew who had fathers that they were afraid of. I remember my old high school football coach, Johnny Howell, being the closest thing to a father that I had during those days. I did many things athletically just to get him to approve of me. And he did. And it was a great honor to have his love and his appreciation and allowed me to play football and be involved in track and field where I set state records in the shot putting discots and eventually made high school All-American signing a football scholarship to the University of Alabama. Unfortunately, I didn’t stay four years. I went off down to My Way Highway after getting in for one year. But I didn’t understand things in those days and had to learn the hard way. So what a blessing it was when somebody finally told me God loved me. in spite of all of my flaws and all of my failures, that God loved me. I’d like for you to listen to what John wrote in 1 John 4, verses 9 and 10, about the love of God. In this, quote, was manifested the love of God to us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him or because of him. Herein is love. Here it is. Not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That’s an amazing verse. He loved us. The love of God to us. The amazing thing about this type of love is that I did not have to earn it. God loved me in spite of what I was. And it’s the same thing for you as well. Whatever you may have done, I don’t care where you are this morning, whatever you may have done, God loves you. And he proved it by allowing his only begotten son to pay for all of our sins. You know, it’s a hard thing to understand, but it’s true. Every sin I did or every sin you did was placed on him as he hung on that Roman cross. This was what’s called a judicial imputation. Christ was identified with our personal sins and judged for them so that he became our savior. It’s called a judicial imputation, not a literal imputation, not a literal act. And we know that Jesus did not become a sinner In 1 John 3, 5, it says, and you know he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. So it’s not like Jesus became a sinner. There was a judicial imputation for all of our sins placed on him. Our Lord did not become a sinner on that cross, but the punishment for the sins of the world, the ones that you and I did, were placed on him. I mean, it’s as if he were sentenced to death for a crime that he didn’t do. And he, you know, like if you’re in the penitentiary and you’re going to the hot squat, the electric chair, and somebody walks in and says, I’ll die in your place. You don’t have to die. I’ll do it for you. That’s what he did. He voluntarily stepped in and assumed our punishment. Why would he do that? For what reason? What earthly reason would he do that? Because he loves us. John 15, 13 says it this way. Greater love have no man than this. that a man lay down his life for his friends. And that’s exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did. In 1 John 3, 16, hereby perceive we the love of God, this is how we see it, because he laid down his life for us. That’s genuine proof that he loved you and he loved me. And that love is unconditional, which means this, that we might not love him, but he does in fact love us. Romans 5.8 said, but God commended his love to us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The word that we know as love, there are a lot of different translations of love in the New Testament. Agapao, phileo, orao, three different verbs right there. But this word love usually is agapao. And it’s the word that describes part of God’s divine character. God is love. Listen to Jeremiah 9.24. Jeremiah 9.24. Let him that glory in this, that he understands me and knows me, that I am the Lord which, now here it comes, listen, which exercises loving kindness. That’s a Hebrew word called kesed. And it is one of the richest, most theological terms in the Old Testament. And it describes the kindness and the loyalty and the mercy and the steadfastness of God. Matter of fact, in Exodus 34, 6, the Bible says the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. That’s the unfailing love of God. So as that verse said, I’m the Lord which exercises loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. These are the things I delight in, saith the Lord. So grasp this thought. Get a hold of this. Think about this. There has never been a time when God did not love you, and there will never be a time in the future that he will not love you, regardless of what you may or may not do. That does not mean he always approves of what we do, That’s why we have to understand a simple doctrine. And the simple doctrine is this. What the righteousness of God rejects, the justice of God must judge. No one who spends eternity in the lake of fire will be there because God didn’t love them. They will be there if they are there because they rejected the unfailing love of God and settled for their own foolish thoughts. On the other hand, Jude, one of the half-brothers of Jesus, wrote this, Jude 21, verse 21, keep yourself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Keep yourself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. This is a reference to the Christian lifestyle. We are to exhibit the same graciousness and the same mercy that God exhibits by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit through our life. Listen to what John wrote in 1 John 4, 11 and 12 about this same sort of love. Beloved, if God so loved us, then we also should love one another. There it is. No man has seen God at any time. But if we love one another, then God dwells in us and his love is perfected in us. You and I describe this type of love as an impersonal love. It means this, that our love for others is not based on their worthiness, not based on how good they are, but it’s rather based on our very character, our very essence. The filling of the Holy Spirit in our life gives us the ability to love the unlovable people. We love people based on who we are, not who they are. You understand that? Impersonal love is you loving someone based on what you are, not what they are. On the other hand, personal love for God is the greatest motivation any believer could ever have. And I could ask you today, if you love God, you would probably say, yes, I do. In 1 John 5, 3, here’s proof that you love him. For this is the love of God. In other words, here’s the proof. That we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. So the proof that you love God is obedience to his commandments. Now you can take that a little bit further and look at your own life and begin to understand what God tells you to do and not to do. And in your own arrogance sometimes you override the will of God and justify why you don’t have to obey God. but yet you still claim you love God, but you pick and choose what you want to obey. As a Christian, there are several areas we need to express love towards. Did you realize that? A lot of different areas. We’re supposed to love God. The Bible teaches that. There’s only one way we can do this, and that’s by understanding who God is and what he is. The only way we can understand that is through the scriptures that have been given to us through the Bible. Why is that? Because he’s invisible to us. We can’t see him. So we say we love him, but we can’t see him. I mean, what if he doesn’t look like you? Would you still love him? So we love him through what we learn about him in the Bible. In 1 Peter 1.8, Peter wrote this, whom having not seen, you loved. in whom though you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. I hear people talk about the Lord Jesus all the time, and it’s amazing how many of them on a first-name basis were the King of kings and the Lord of lords. They say they love Jesus, but they’ve never seen him. But they love him based on what they learned about him through the scriptures in the Bible. I’ll give you an illustration. Have you ever studied the essence of God, what God’s really like? If you say you love God, you should at least know what he’s like. I mean, if you think he’s sitting on a throne and he’s got a crown on his head and a big stick in his hand and long white beard, and when you get to heaven, you’re going to run up and pop him on the back and say, hey, God, it’s me, Joey, and I made it. Not going to happen that way. Have you ever studied the essence of God? Let me give you a brief summary here. It could take several months. If I did it this way, I could take several months and go in and study each one of these characteristics extensively. I want to take just a moment and go over them with you so you kind of understand the God you say you love. The God you say you love is sovereign. We’re supposed to love him. He’s sovereignty. Sovereignty. What exactly is that? Well, it’s His eternal and infinite and perfect divine will, divine volition. It’s His supreme power, His supreme authority. God is without boundaries, without limitations. He has His own perfection. He belongs to His own person, His own character. So God is without boundaries, without limitation, uniting in himself those perfections which belong to his person and to his character. He’s the King of kings and the Lord of lords. That’s what he is. He’s sovereign. There’s none higher, there’s none more worthy, there’s none more righteous than God. God is sovereign. So if I had to give you a test that a Christian said, explain the sovereignty of God, what would you write down? Because you say you love him. Do you know God is righteousness? What is that? That’s the integrity of God. And it’s composed of his perfect justice and his perfect righteousness. Which simply means God cannot accept anything less than perfection. God cannot accept anything less than perfection. And he cannot bless anything less than perfect righteousness. You and I are very fortunate because the righteousness of God is given to us through Jesus Christ. That’s why the Bible says in 1 Corinthians, he that knew no sin was made sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God by means of him. He is righteous, and we have that same righteousness through Jesus Christ. We cannot manufacture it because the Bible says there are none that are righteous, no, not one. All of our good deeds are like a filthy rag in God’s eyes. So he’s sovereignty. He’s righteousness. He’s justice. Absolute justice. Divine justice administers what divine perfect righteousness calls for. So the point is either you adjust to the justice of God or God’s justice will adjust to you. Because adjustment to the justice of God is instantaneous. The minute you believe in Jesus Christ, the justice of God is satisfied. Why? Because your sins were imputed to Christ on the cross in that judicial imputation. And God is satisfied when you accept the forgiveness that comes through that cross. And his justice is not going to come down on you since his righteousness has been met. God is sovereignty, he’s righteousness, he’s justice. And he’s love, you know that. Not romantic love, but it’s an affection that has compassion, concern, sacrificial, protective. That kind of sums up some of what God’s love is. But it’s unfailing. He loves you today, he loves you tomorrow, he’ll never quit loving you, and he loves you in eternity past. The Unfailing Love of God is a phenomenal book that my pastor wrote years ago. If you don’t know how to get ahold of that book, write to us and we’ll tell you where you can get it. It’s free. It’s called The Unfailing Love of God. And then there’s eternal life. That’s part of his essence. He’s sovereignty, he’s righteousness, he’s justice, he’s love, and he is eternal life. What does that mean? It means he’s always existed, and he always will exist. Eternal life is the life possessed by each member of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That means with them, time had no beginning and it has no ending. And you now, since you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you now possess eternal life. He that believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life, the Bible says. And you have it through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, satisfying the justice of God by imputing his righteousness to you. So God not only is love, not only is he eternal life, but he’s veracity. He is veracity. What does that word mean? He’s absolute truth. He’s accurate. His faithfulness is eternally linked to his veracity. He would never lie to you. He would never lie to me. He’s absolutely the truth. And in Deuteronomy 32.4, you can see that. Veracity is manifested in all of God’s ways. And then he’s immutable. Immutable. There’s another big word, immutable. What does that mean? It means that God won’t change his mind. In other words, he doesn’t say, okay, I’ll let you be saved tomorrow, but next week I’m going to take it back. You can’t have it anymore. In 1 Samuel 15, 29, it says, the glory of Israel, which is Jesus Christ, will not lie or change his mind, for he is not a man that would change his mind. God is immutable and unchangeable. Therefore, he has never had to reverse any decision that he make. And that’s the wonderful part about God, if you realize that. He’s not going to take it back from you. He’s not going to say, let me have that eternal life back I gave you. You’re not living right. I want it back now. That’s not going to happen. He’s immutable. He doesn’t change his mind. And then three words to start with the letter O. God is omnipotent. Omnipotent means he’s all powerful. God is omniscient, which means he’s all knowing. And God is omnipresent, which means he’s everywhere at one time. I get tickled sometimes when I hear preachers say, what a great service we had tonight. It was evident God was here with us. Well, I got news for you. God is evident and transcendent. He’s there when you close the door and turn the lights off. God is there. He was there before you got there. He began when you’re gone. So you can’t say, well, we had a great Bible class or great revival service and God showed up. No, God was already there. He’s omnipresent. He’s everywhere at one time. And he’s omniscient. He knows everything. And he’s omnipotent. He’s all-powerful. Satan does not have these attributes. He can’t be all-knowing. And he can’t be omnipresent. He’s a created being, a fallen being. So that’s some of the essence of God. He’s sovereign, righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, veracity, immutable, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, That’s God. That’s the God you should know. Understanding the God we know is the basis for understanding God’s grace. Plus, understanding God and loving Him is the basis for personal and national blessing in our nation. The very results of a national revival, if we’re going to ever have one, is a newfound hunger to understand, to love, and to worship God. There’s a special curse in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 16, 22. Paul wrote this about the false teachers who had gotten into the church at Corinth and were teaching legalism. And he wrote a curse on them. He said in 1 Corinthians 16, 22, if any man love not the negative, if he loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. The word love there is phileo. He doesn’t have that brotherly love. He’s not a member of the family of God. He’s an unbeliever. If he doesn’t love the Lord Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. These people were destroying the church in Corinth, and Paul had to write those words in 1 Corinthians 16.22. You know, you and I are mandated to love our soulmates, our husband or our wife. This love is a body and soul love. It’s called intimacy. And it’s an expression of that type of love for your husband or your wife. In Ephesians 5.25 through verse 28, the Bible goes on to say these words, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. In Ephesians 5, 28, so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. So as a husband, a father, we are to love our wives. We’re to love God. We’re to love our wives. Interestingly enough, the Apostle Paul instructed the older women in the church to teach the younger women how to be good lovers. Did you know that? In Titus 2, verses 4 and 5, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, so that the word of God be not blasphemed. So this is something that a woman has to learn, how to love her husband and how to love her children. Another area of personal life, believers, that requires love is called friendship love. Friendship. I’m sure you have friends. True friends don’t try to upstage you. The Bible says in Hebrews 13.1, let brotherly love continue. That’s a good thing. I hope you have friends that you love. I do. I tell them that every time I talk to them. But here’s some principles I want you to remember. A true friend will never try to upstage you or to compete with you. This friendship I’m talking about is non-touching. It’s not a touching relationship. It’s not physical. It’s a mental relationship. And it’s based on mutual soul rapport. If you think alike, then you can love each other like that. And the people that I meet that don’t think like me, it’s hard to have a close relationship with them because they don’t think the way I think in regards to God’s word or God’s grace. So it’s a two-way street. If this person that you’re friends with doesn’t love you, then forget it and move on. And you can have a friendship, a relationship. Sometimes it’s even stronger than your immediate family. And that’s a wonderful thing about doctrinal believers and having that sort of friendship love based on the scriptures, based on the word of God when you both think alike spiritually. Here’s a concept that may be foreign to some people, but a true friend would never stab you in the back. In Proverbs 17, 9, he that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter separates very friends. A true friend would never gossip about what their other friend is doing or what their other friend did wrong. Another concept, you’re always relaxed around your true friends. You can be yourself. You don’t have to be a phony. Because true friends won’t use things to say against you. And then anyone to whom you must give a false impression could never be a true friend to start with. If you have to be a hypocrite to be a friend with them, you can’t be their friend. So in life, you’re going to have very few true friends, but you’re to love them. You’re to love them based on impersonal love, and that’s exactly why they’re going to fail you sooner or later. You have to learn how to forgive them and love them in spite of their weaknesses. And you have to have a relaxed mental attitude towards all believers. including the worst kind. This type of love, we call it category three love, love for God, love for spouse, love for friends. This love overflows in what we call a relaxed mental attitude towards all believers. In life, you may have many acquaintances, that’s possible, but only a few good close friends. Don’t ever let true friends interfere with decisions you have to make. If it’s a true friend, they don’t stay in touch when you’re going through tough times, then it’s doubtful they were ever true friends to begin with. So this is where impersonal love has to show up. We’re never to be bitter, never to be resentful towards any member of God’s royal family. Ephesians 4.26, be you angry and sin not, don’t let the sun go down upon your wrath. It’s something we need to study. Hopefully I’m going to try to come back next week and do a premier study on anger In a case like this, Paul says the believers become angry about something and warns them to stop doing that before they violate the royal family honor code. Anger is the motivation for many other sins which are violations of the royal family honor code. So don’t get angry. Stay away from that. That’s not love. That’s bitterness. Well, that’s a lot of information, and I went through it fairly quick. I hope you listened. I hope you paid attention. If not, you can get the transcript by getting in touch with us. We’ll be back next week, same time and same place. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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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.
