A Divine Pardon Review – Part 6
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 585 aired on November 13, 2016
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes, please stay with me. It’s going to be a time of motivation, inspiration, education always
done without any type of manipulation. We’re not trying to con you. We are not here to sell you
anything. We’re not here to ask you to join anything. This show is simply about giving you
accurate information that is designed to help you verify as well as identify the plan of God for
your life. If you are able to do this, you always have the freedom and the privacy to orient and
adjust to the plan, that’s up to you. As host of The FLOT Line, my job is to be accurate, to be
specific, not to titillate your emotions, not to play games but to give you the facts, nothing but
the truth. What we’re seeking to do here is to teach you 10 unique problem-solving devices, what
my pastor taught me many years ago. When we learn these 10 problem-solving devices, they
form a main line of resistance in our soul and then we are able to stop the outside sources of
adversity before they become the inside sources of stress. That’s why we always say adversity is
inevitable but stress is optional. Adversity is what circumstances do to you and stress is what you
do to yourself. If you live this unique life called the Christian life, it is a supernatural life. We do
have supernatural power. We have the power of God the Holy Spirit. We have the power of the
living Word of God. We have the power of prayer and we can call upon the Father instantly. We
have all the advantages that the disadvantaged ones don’t have, we have a supernatural life. If we
tap into these resources of the supernatural life we can live a life without fear. We can live a life
without worry. We can live a life without bitterness, without anger, without guilt. It’s a wonderful
way to live, free of mental attitude sins as well as free of any sort of sin of the tongue such as
maligning, slandering, gossiping, and putting people down in order for you to get ahead. Also
you can live free of overt sins that so often trap us in our own lust cycles. I’m not saying you’ll
never sin again but I am saying you’ll know how to recognize it. You’ll know when you’re being
tempted and you’ll know whether or not you’ve made the right decision to walk away from the
temptation and to say no. That’s up to you but it requires that we both learn, myself included, the
protocol plan of God. The protocol plan of God is critical once you understand your divine
pardon.
You have been pardoned by God through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. His
anointed Son died on the cross for your sin. If you’ve accepted this and believed in Him,
then you have a divine pardon.
This is what we’ve been studying for the last five shows, the
divine pardon. I’d like to wrap it up today so we can move onto another subject. This pardon is
free to any man, any woman, anywhere, anytime who will simply make this decision. Romans
10:13 says,
“Whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” “God is not a
respecter of persons”
(Romans 2:11). 2 Peter 3:9 says that
“God is not willing that any should
perish.”
God wants you to change your mind about who Christ is. Is He His Son? Is He the
Redeemer? Is He the One who paid the penalty for our sin? The answer is yes He is. When you
believe this and you put your faith in Him, 1 John 5:1 says,
“He that believes that Jesus is the
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Christ is born of God.”
John 3:16,
“God so loved the world that He gave His uniquely born Son
so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”
There’s that verb
believe again. What did Paul tell the jailer?
“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved”
(Acts 16:31). This is always the issue. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
and have you expressed faith in this belief? This is why we pray. This is why we tell the Father
that we are willing to accept Christ as our Savior, as our Redeemer, as the One who paid for our
sin. When we are willing to do this, then this commitment is honored in prayer and God is not a
liar. 1 John 5:13 says,
“These things are written so that you may know that you have eternal
life,”
know it, not hope. You know that God will honor His Word. Once we move into the royal
family of God, it’s a unique position. We are unique individuals. We don’t belong in this world,
we are traveling through. 1 Peter 2:11 says we are strangers, sojourners, we are passing through.
We have a unique lifestyle as royalty. This lifestyle is called the protocol plan. There is a plan
God has designed for us to follow. This plan means that a right thing has to be done in a right
way. This is not complicated, this is simple.
God wants us to become mature believers.
We
start off as baby believers when we believe in Jesus Christ. We accept Christ as our Savior and
we are baby believers. As we begin to grow in grace, God wants us to become mature believers.
He wants us to grow up. He wants us to familiarize ourselves with His plan and learn His plan so
that we can do a right thing in a right way. If we do the right thing in a wrong way, then it’s
simply wrong. For example, as you have heard me say before, it’s never wrong to pray but Psalm
66:18 says,
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer.”
If you’re praying
with unconfessed sin in your life, God will not answer your prayer unless it’s a prayer of
rebound. The prayer of rebound is problem-solving device #1 where 1 John 1:9 says,
“If we
confess our sin then He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to purify us from all of our
wrongdoing.”
If there is a prayer that you can pray that will be answered with sin in your life, it’s
the prayer of confessing the sin. When you go to God and you confess your sin, you are filled
with the Holy Spirit. You are put back into fellowship with God because sin quenches the Holy
Spirit and sin grieves the Holy Spirit. We have been told with imperative moods of command in
both circumstances,
“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”
(Ephesians 4:30), and
“Do not
quench the Holy Spirit”
(1 Thessalonians 5:19). Sin does this, so using the proper protocol, we
confess our sin to God. Therefore, anything we do while we are in fellowship with God, with no
unconfessed sin in our life, then it is doing the right thing in the right way. Now let me make this
clear, some people say there is no way I can keep up with all of my sins. I realize this. I can’t
remember every sin I did yesterday but I confess the ones I remember and 1 John 1:9 says,
“If
we confess our sin then He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to purify us from all
[that’s the key word here, all]
unrighteousness,”
even the ones I might not remember. Once I’m
in fellowship, once I have the Holy Spirit controlling my life, then I can do the right things in the
right way. Is it right to give to your local church? Yes. Is it right to pray? Yes. Is it right to sing in
the choir and go on mission trips? Yes, but all these things can be done in the wrong way and if
you do a right thing in a wrong way, then it is simply called human good. Human good is you
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doing things for God in the energy of the flesh. Divine good is you doing the same thing except
this time under the filling of the Holy Spirit. Then it is called divine good. Human good does not
compute with God and God cannot accept it. Divine good is rewardable by God. Human good
and divine good are compared in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15. Listen carefully to what I’m about to tell
you and think about your life. Think about the times you’ve prayed. Think about the money
you’ve given. Think about the mission trips you’ve been on. Think about the times you’ve gone
to church. Was it human good? Did you do it with known sin in your life or was it divine good?
Were you in fellowship, controlled by the Holy Spirit because if it was human good, then it is a
flammable object called wood, hay, and straw.
Human good will not stand the test of fire in
heaven.
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 is clear, listen as I read it,
“For God has already placed Him as
the one and only foundation and no other foundation can be laid
[that’s almost like building a
house on the concrete foundation].
Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on
the foundation and others will use wood or grass or straw and the quality of each person’s work
will be seen when the day of Christ exposes it, for on that day fire will reveal everyone’s work
and the fire will test it and show its real quality. If it was built on the foundation and survives the
fire, the builder will receive a reward, but if his work is burned up, then he will lose it, but he
himself will be saved as though he escaped through fire.”
What does this mean? It means all the
human good you did, all the right things you did in the wrong way while you had unconfessed
sin in your life, they are destroyed. They did not glorify God and you will not be rewarded for it,
but all the things you did while you were filled with the Holy Spirit, these are the right things in
the right way. These are the gold, the silver, and the precious stones. These are the things that
God will reward you for. In heaven there will be a time when the Lord Jesus Christ will sit on the
Judgment Seat and He will examine each of us and not our sins. Our sins are gone, our sins are
paid for. This is not double jeopardy. He’s not going to run a projector and show everybody all of
your sins. What He’s going to examine us with is our works.
Our production while we were
under the filling of the Holy Spirit, these are the only things that will endure the test of the
fire.
The things we did in carnality while we had known sin in our life, they will not last. They
will be burned up. They will not count toward our record, and they will not be rewarded. This is
where you have to remember, there’s no doubt God does provide eternal rewards for those who
perform divine good and for those who advance to spiritual maturity. If you want to get to
heaven and have some rewards to lay at the feet of Christ, if you want to hear,
“Well done, My
good and faithful servant”
(Matthew 25:21), then you must learn the protocol plan of God. You
must learn how to do the right thing in the right way. For those who don’t learn this, the loss will
be great. Will they be in heaven? Sure they will be. That’s fantastic. Will they have the crowns
and rewards to lay at the feet of Christ? No they won’t because all of our good deeds will be
rejected if they are not done the right way. Done the wrong way, wood, hay, and straw. Done the
right way, gold, silver, and precious stones. An unbeliever can produce good deeds. An
unbeliever can do religious actions, he can give money, he can be nice, he can be sweet, he can
live a moral lifestyle. Lost men can go to church. They can do things like this but that’s not
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earning equity with God. Coming to church on Sunday, being a member of what I call the “nod
to God crowd” while failing to live the Christian way of life does not add up to divine good.
Maybe you are a believer. Maybe you have accepted Christ but you’re not growing, you’re not
learning, and you know this. If you look at your own soul, are you growing in grace? Are you
learning God’s Word? Here’s a question I have for you, do you even have a hunger to learn God’s
Word? Has it ever occurred to you to study the Bible in depth? If it hasn’t, then you just don’t
have an appetite. Remember we have to stay filled with the Holy Spirit moment by moment and
remember that sin grieves and quenches the Holy Spirit.
If you are filled with the Holy Spirit
and have that hunger to learn God’s truth, it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to lead you into all
truth so you can understand God’s glorious plan for your life.
In Matthew 8:18-27 you will
find the story of some excuse makers, people that should have done something and they didn’t.
It’s about the Lord Jesus Christ coming down from the mount where He gave the Beatitudes and
talking to a huge crowd. As it got late in the evening the multitudes were all around Him and He
gave a command to the disciples to get into a boat and go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
There are three individuals identified who would not take this risk. They would not get in the
boat with Him and they made excuses. One said,
“I will follow You wherever You go.”
At first
glance it appears he is willing but upon a closer inspection, you will find why Jesus Christ
scolded him with these words. He said, “No you won’t.” He said,
“The foxes have holes and the
birds have nests but the Son of man doesn’t have anywhere to lay His head.”
The New
Testament, including Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were written in the Greek language. If you
understand the
koine
Greek of the New Testament, you will see what this man really said because
he used a subjunctive verb,
akoloutheo, “I will follow You,”
a conditional subjunctive,
“
If You
really do go.” In other words, he was suggesting that Jesus would not leave the crowd and it
appears that the security of this individual was found in that crowd. The people who loved Him
and supported Him, would feed Him and care for Him. “Why would You want to leave a big
crowd? Why would You want to leave the place where You are the most popular?” This is what
he was thinking but the Lord saw through this phony attitude and this is when Jesus corrected
him and said,
“Foxes have holes and the birds have nests. I don’t have anywhere to lay My
head.”
In other words, “I don’t have a tour bus, no hotel reservation, and since you are
accustomed to hanging out with the crowd, you don’t have any intentions of following Me.” He
was making an excuse. Then we see another thing happen in the next verse where another
disciple seemed to have a legitimate excuse. He said, “Let me go home and bury my father and
then I’ll come back and go with you.” Jesus said,
“No, you follow Me now and let the dead bury
the dead.”
There are seven types of death in the Bible but the two I’m concerned with are
spiritual death and physical death. When a person dies who has not believed in Jesus Christ, he
has died but we are born spiritually dead. In other words, you are going to have two birthdays or
you are going to have to have two deaths. Birthday one, that’s the day you are born physically.
Birthday two, that’s the day you accept Christ. Death one, that’s the day you die physically. Death
two, that’s the day unbelievers are cast into the Lake of Fire. Spiritually dead people are people
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that are born in Adam and they need to be saved. What he’s saying is, “Your father wasn’t a
believer. He’s spiritually dead so you let the dead bury the dead. You follow Me.” In other words,
“You don’t have to go over there. You need to stick with Me.”
Sometimes it’s a matter of
priorities. “Let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead,” is what He is saying. “You
follow Me.” This man would not follow Christ.
He could not risk not going to his own father’s
funeral and he walked away. He just wanted Jesus to hold the boat until he got back the next day.
Making excuses, I was sort of like that as a kid. I grew up in a dysfunctional home. I really never
knew my father. I have no idea who he was and even though my mom loved me. I seldom saw
her because she was a single parent trying to work a job and watch over me. She would farm me
out to different guardians who would keep me on a weekly basis. Finally when I was about 12,
some kids ran away, I ran home. I insisted that my mother let me stay with her. I wasn’t going to
live with any more strangers. The opportunity for trouble was around every corner of my life.
The only thing that really salvaged me was a football coach in athletics. A football coach took an
interest in me, encouraged me, and got me to reach my full potential. In spite of all these
advantages, I still always made excuses. My grades were not good, but I wasn’t dumb. I was just
stupid, I didn’t try. My work ethic was not good because I was lazy. In the end, even though I had
a full athletic scholarship to play football at the University of Alabama, after only one year I
walked away in a frantic search for happiness. I had some hope of finding my happiness down
the My Way Highway and that was wasted time. I sometimes laid on my bed at night and saw the
bad decisions I made but I didn’t know how to make them go away. I never really thought about
God. I didn’t know God was there. I was always making excuses for my life. Maybe you’ve done
that. All of this changed the day I believed in Christ. The day I accepted Christ as my Savior was
the time for me to get in that boat. Many believers find the challenge of following Jesus Christ to
be too demanding. Sometimes it just interferes with their personal plans and their personal
ambitions. That is why I want to ask you, are you willing to get in the boat?
Are you willing to
make priority number one following Jesus Christ?
If you are, then this is what He said.
“Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke
upon you and learn of Me. My yoke is easy and My burden is light”
(Matthew 11:28-29).
If you
are going to be a risk taker, you’ve got to make the decision to acquire the mind of Christ
and have the courage to put as priority number one, God’s Word in your life.
Philippians
2:5 tells us,
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.”
1 Corinthians
2:16 says the Bible is
“The mind of Christ.”
When we learn the Word of God, when we take the
principles and the procedures that Christ taught us, then we begin to follow the protocol plan. We
have to learn one other thing. The disciples that did get into the boat, the ones that followed Him
out into the Sea of Galilee, they were indeed risk takers, but they became boat shakers. There
was a terrible storm that came. Jesus Christ the Lord was asleep. The storm was raging. Those
fishermen who had been on the sea many times were convinced they were going to die and they
woke Him up saying,
“Save us before we die”
(Matthew 8:23-25). They were sure they were all
going to drown and our Lord was not panicked. He was fast asleep, you can see how tired He
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was. As a man he had been up since the dawn, doing the Beatitudes and healing people all
afternoon surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of people. He was asleep in the middle of that
storm. Then they woke Him up. Could He heal the sick? Sure. Could He cast out demons?
Absolutely. Could He calm this storm? Yes.
“He said unto them, ‘Why are you afraid? You do
not have any faith do you?’ Then He arose, and rebuked the wind and the sea and there was a
great calm” (
Matthew 8:26). Listen to Psalm 33:18-21,
“Behold the eye of the Lord is on those
who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them
alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. For our heart will
rejoice in Him because we trust in His holy name.”
The issue for those men on that boat was
faith. They thought they were going to die. They didn’t have any faith. The solution was Christ,
the Son of God. They marveled when He calmed the storm and they said,
“What kind of man is
this, that even the sea would obey Him?”
(Matthew 8:27). The sea did obey Him because He was
God. Those disciples were actually in the safest place they could ever be, in the boat with Jesus.
Now listen carefully, Christ is in you. You don’t have to go get in the boat, He’s already in you.
He lives in you and you can rest. Faith-rest is problem-solving device #3 in the protocol plan of
God. If you don’t know what the faith-rest drill is, write to me and I’ll send you a booklet that
deals with it. You must learn the faith-rest drill.
You must learn how to stand on the promises
of God, how to use a Biblical rationale to secure your mind so you don’t worry and how to
come to a Biblical conclusion. Without faith-rest you will panic under pressure. You have to
learn how to be a risk taker and not to be afraid of dying.
This is what they were afraid of.
They were afraid of dying and they had to learn not to fear death. You know how much they had
to learn it? When they went across the Sea of Galilee, they had to turn around and come back to
the other side. They had to do it again. When you fail the test, don’t you have to take it again?
We should take encouragement from Peter. He was one of our finest disciples. He loved the
Lord. He constantly was following the Lord and he had a brother named Andrew. Shortly before
the Lord was crucified things got really heated up. Peter got real scared and denied his
relationship with Christ. This wasn’t a surprise, the Lord told him he was going to do it. Peter
thought he was no longer a disciple because he denied Christ, but he was still a disciple. Even
though he failed Him, even though three times he said, “I don’t know Him,” the Lord did not fail
him.
Jesus Christ will not fail you even though you may have failed Him. He promises that
He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. If you’re going to live for Him, you must
be diligent to grow.
You are going to have to have a hunger for God’s Word. You are going to
have to learn the mind of Christ so you can replicate His thinking and you can re-present Christ
to your generation. Do you see the emptiness in your Christian life, the need to grow in grace,
and replicate Christ? Do you see this? Do you see what I’m talking about, the hunger to get under
a qualified pastor and study and grow every day? Without this, you are never going to become a
spiritually mature believer. This is my prayer for you. I hope you are paying attention. This is
Rick Hughes host of The FLOT Line saying thank you for listening.
