In this engaging episode, Rick Hughes unpacks the story of Cain, examining the themes of jealousy, arrogance, and divine justice. Explore how biblical figures encountered and overcame their own flaws, and discover practical ways to apply these lessons to modern life. With a focus on love, forgiveness, and humility, this conversation is sure to inspire and motivate anyone seeking to live a life aligned with God’s will.
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.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I am your host, Rick Hughes, and I would like to ask you to stick around for a few minutes. It won’t be long, just about 27, 28 minutes of motivation, inspiration, some education, and all without manipulation. No con jobs here. We’re not trying to get money from you. We’re not going to ask you to join up. We’re not going to ask you to give up anything. But we will ask you to listen up. Listen as I try to verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if I’m successful in doing that, then you can orient and adjust to the plan. That’s simply up to you. But my job is to get it right, present it to you in a non-emotional way, no whooping and hollering, jumping up and down, no singing, no commercials, nothing to sell, like I said, just some information for you. And I want you to remember that God gave you two ends. One of those ends you’re sitting on and the other one that you’re supposed to be thinking with it. And success in life will depend on which one of those ends you use. It’s heads you win, tails you lose. Success in life is all about what you think. And there are two different things you can think. You can think human viewpoint, or you can think divine viewpoint. Human viewpoint is what does the world say about anything? And divine viewpoint is what does the mind of Christ say, which is the Bible, the mind of Christ. What does the Bible say about anything? And so as you come across passages in the Bible that you don’t agree with, then you have to justify why you don’t like that passage or why you don’t agree with that passage. And there are a lot of passages in the Bible that comment on social things that are going on today. And people say, well, God didn’t really mean it that way, or that’s not intended to be that way, or it’s okay, just forget it, don’t pay any attention to it. But anytime you reject the Word of God, there are consequences. Not only are there individual consequences, but there are national consequences as well. And so as we go through the Word of God, as we talk about the Bible and what the Bible has to say, individually and collectively as a nation, listen up carefully. We’ve been talking about criminal arrogance in this show, and this is why you need a flotline. If this happens to be the first time you’ve listened, the Flatline is simply 10 problem-solving devices taught in the Bible. And if you will learn these 10 problem-solving devices and use them in your life every day, they will stop you from getting into stress. They cannot prevent adversity because adversity is inevitable, but they can prevent stress. The first problem-solving device you should be aware of is Rebound or how to confess your sin when you fail. The Bible says if we confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us and to purify us from all of our wrongdoing. That’s rebound, 1 John 1.9. Rebound means that we’ve let our sin nature take control of us. We have a war with the flesh. It’s always been there. The flesh wars against the spirit. Paul wrote that in Galatians. The spirit wars against the flesh. It’s an unending battle until we get out of this body and get a different body, a resurrection body that will be minus any identification with Adam or Adam’s sin nature trend. So you will sin, you will fail, and you can recover by using Rebound, a wonderful problem-solving device. And then there is problem-solving device number two, the filling of the Holy Spirit. This lets you operate in God’s plan successfully, not under the energy of the flesh, but under the power of the Holy Spirit. And then there’s the faith rest drill, standing on the promises of God. Faith perception is one of the most incredible things that we have in our life. We haven’t seen Jesus Christ personally, but we believe in him with faith perception, not empirical data, not empirical evidence. He hasn’t appeared to me or you. If he has appeared to you, you may need to see a doctor because he said he wasn’t going to come back until he took us with him. So if he came back and appeared to you but left the rest of us here, we’re in trouble, right? So the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe in him with faith perception. We haven’t seen him, but we believe what the Bible says about him. And then there’s biblical orientation, learning the word of God, orienting to the word of God, staying off of the my way highway, but going God’s way. And then there is you developing a personal sense of destiny, another problem-solving device. And as you do that, you begin to see why God left you here, what the plan of God for your life is, It’s amazing, there’s also grace orientation where you orient to the grace of God, His saving grace, living grace, dying grace, even surpassing grace in heaven. All of these things are there for you if you learn them. Personal love for God is a wonderful problem-solving device because it’s the virtue that we need to obey Him. Because the Bible says, if you love me, you will obey me, and my mandates are not hard, 1 John 5, 3. And then there’s impersonal love for others, people that we don’t even like. We are mandated to love those people. And this is exactly what God did for you. He loved you while you were a sinner. Before you knew Christ as your Savior, he loved you. How do I know that? Well, for God so loved the world. What does that say? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. What motivated him to provide our eternal salvation? His love for his creatures. And then there is sharing the happiness of God. It’s a wonderful problem-solving device. It’s where you can have plus H, God’s happiness, day by day, moment by moment. And eventually problem solving device number 10, occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ. Occupation with Christ is critical because now we’re letting the mind of Christ flow through us and we’re living as a replicate of his life. We’re replicating his life. So these are the 10 unique problem solving devices. I blew through them quickly. I do have a book called Christian Problem Solving that lists all of these again and in detail and it is free. All you have to do is go to our website, rickhughesministries.org, and fill out the form, and we’ll mail it to you the next day, rickhughesministries.org. Christian Problem Solving, that’s what you’re looking for. Okay, now we’re going back to what we’re talking about. We’re talking about criminal arrogance. We got into this dealing with criminal activity and how does a believer deal with the crimes that are committed against him. I told you about some of the crimes I’ve had committed against me. I have no doubt that you’ve had crimes committed against you as well. We use as our illustration Cain who murdered his brother Abel. And we got to the point where Cain began to complain that God’s punishment was too harsh on him, and that he was faced to wander the earth for the rest of his life, and he complained that somebody would kill him if they found him. So the criminal often becomes a coward. That’s the thing I want you to remember. The criminal often becomes a coward under God’s justice and complaints. He complains about God’s harsh treatment or any criminal complains about the harsh treatment of the sheriff or the FBI or the Secret Service. It’s too tough, too mean. I gave you an illustration last week of the tractor driver in the Alabama prison who thought he was tough, and he went down to the prison and he wanted to drive that tractor, but he couldn’t get the guy off the tractor. The guy on the tractor was tougher than him. The guard had said, if you want to drive the tractor, just take that fellow off and it’s yours, and he just couldn’t do it. So there are some mean tractor drivers around. The analogy is that there are people much meaner than you. So here’s the principle we want to pick up with now. God knows all of our desires, all of our intentions, and the things that motivate us. This is his omniscience. He knows all these things. Listen to 1 John 3, 11. For this is the message that you, that’s believers, you and I, that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another. Now there’s a mandate from God. You and I are to love each other. Not as Cain, verse 12, 1 John 3, not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother Cain. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers were righteous. Remember Cain brought to God a gift of the fruit of the land that he grew. That was human good. That was him trying to approbate God. And Abel did exactly what his parents had taught him to do. He made a blood sacrifice representing the sacrifice of the lamb. Jesus Christ, the anointed son of God, is the lamb of God. This caused great jealousy in the life of Cain because God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but rejected Cain’s sacrifice. So principle, it is hatred among believers That’s abnormal. And that’s what John’s trying to warn us about in this passage. We should love one another. 1 John 3, 15. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, the Bible says. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you should know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. So hates is the word miso, M-I-S-E-O. And his brother or his fellow Christian, we’re talking about another believer, this is a mental attitude sin of hatred and vindictiveness and implacability. And the Bible says he’s a murderer and there is no eternal life abiding, minnow, abiding. And this doesn’t mean that a murderer cannot be saved. Let me explain this. The word hate is missio. It’s an inward and unjustified feeling. Missio in the Greek New Testament, M-I-S-S-I-O. It’s an inward and an unjustifiable feeling towards another person, Whether that person is innocent or whether he’s guilty, you have hatred. Now, let’s stop. Is there someone in your life that you absolutely hate right now? If so, you need to listen very carefully. Listen carefully. No murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Murderer is a compound word from anthropos, man, and katino, to slay. Hatred of some other believer is the spiritual equivalent of murder, Jesus said. Just as a lustful eye is the spiritual equivalent of adultery. You understand that? Jesus said if you look upon a woman and lust after her, you’ve committed adultery already in your heart. And if you hate someone, even though you haven’t killed them, you have committed mental murder. And the desire is to commit malice. It’s to hurt that person. You see, the real you is what you think. Your spiritual life is lived in your thoughts, in your desires, in your intentions. And if you have a desire to commit malice, it is strictly forbidden in Ephesians 4.31. We’ll look at it a little later on. So the Bible says in 1 Peter, let none of you suffer as a murderer. Talking to Christians. or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. This is not telling you that a murderer cannot be saved. This is telling you that mental attitude bitterness and vindictiveness and implacability is equivalent to murder. And as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, under the filling of the Holy Spirit, you can overcome those desires. You don’t have to be led by that. You do not have to let your sin nature fire up your emotions to the extent that you want to harm somebody. Road rage, pull them over, whack them in the head. No, you do not have to do that. There is a better way to live. You live like Christ lived. And it starts off with a humility profile. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, Philippians 2.5, verse six, who humbled himself and made himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a servant. The real you needs to be the servant, not the hatred person, not committing malice, Peter makes it clear, don’t suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody in other men’s matters. That’s interesting that it’s all put together right there. Peter says you have no right to stick your nose into other people’s business. It may be someone that you know personally. It may be a neighbor. Stay out of their business. There’s a monkey in Africa that has a nose about two feet long. He’s called the proboscis monkey. And the worst problem you can get into in your life is sticking your nose in someone else’s business. God says, do not do it. Matthew 7, 1 through 7, if you judge, you will be judged. But whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you again. You want to get yourself under divine discipline? You want to get yourself into some misery? Judge your neighbor. Judge your friend. Judge your coworker. Go ahead and judge him. Stick your nose. This is God’s business. He’s in business before you got here. He’s the Supreme Court judge in heaven. He doesn’t need you to pronounce sentence on anybody. So don’t be a busybody. Don’t think like murderers think. You see, Cain was motivated by Satan. And you know why he did it? To try to neutralize him in the angelic conflict. And eventually, Interfere with the line of Jesus Christ who was going to come through Abel I’m sure Satan aka the devil thought I get rid of Abel we get rid of the line of Christ because in Genesis 315 it was predicted and prophesied by God and that a redeemer would come. And that’s Satan’s thinking, I’ll get rid of Abel and there won’t be any redeemer. John 8, 44, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you will do. Now this is an unbeliever or even a believer out of fellowship in carnality, perpetual carnality, It goes on to say in John 8, 44, he was a murderer from the beginning. That’s Satan that motivated Cain to murder Abel. He does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources. He’s a liar and the father of it. That’s pretty indicative of what Satan is. So when you neglect the Bible, when you throw it aside and you satisfy your appetite with some human viewpoint thinking, my friend said it’s okay. The professor said it’s okay. Other people are doing it. Surely God didn’t mean that. Surely God must be wrong. Surely the Bible’s not really true. Well, you’re listening to the liar. Satan is laughing at you right now. What a dummy you are. You have in front of you the living word of God. The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder the soul and the spirit and the joints and the marrow, and is a critic of thoughts and intent of the heart. You have that in front of you, and you are ignoring it. You’re not even tapping into the resources. You’re not even using it. Because it doesn’t fit into your agenda. And so if Satan was able to neutralize Cain, he’ll neutralize you if you allow his influences in your sin nature. By conning Cain into killing Abel, he figured it would be over. And there was no way a redeemer could come with the line of the redeemer out, gone. And Satan will neutralize you if you let him. He’ll influence your sin nature trends. If you let your emotions get out of the way and get into this vindictive revenge motivation thinking like what happened to Cain, then you will neutralize your own self. Let me ask you a question. What is the clear evidence that you are indeed a Christian? Is there any real clear evidence that you are indeed a Christian? Well, I believe there is. Is there clear evidence you’re a believer and becoming eventually a mature believer? Listen to John 13, 34. And this comes straight out of the King James Version. A new mandate I give to you that you love one another as I loved you, that you also love one another. That’s problem-solving device number seven, virtue love, impersonal love. It’s critical that you understand that. Seven and eight, personal love for God, impersonal love for others. And then listen to John 13, 35. By this. By what? By our love for each other. By this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. When you have love for one another, when there’s no bitterness, no malice, no hatred, no criminal activity of any sort, it’s indicative to the world that you are a child of God. I want to tell you, a lot of those disciples were fishermen. And they had to wrap their minds around this, or Satan would divide and conquer them. Because if there’s anything I can tell you, since I am a fisherman, is fishermen don’t naturally love each other. Especially in competitive bass fishing. It’s all about making money. I don’t do competitive bass fishing, but it’s all about making money, being profitable, so… If another boater, man or woman, infringes on your territory, they get angry and they get protective and they get bitter. And I have done that in my past life. I can remember some things I’m not too proud about, getting mad at people. But fishermen don’t naturally love each other when they’re competing against each other. So what motivates us to be negative like that? When we are negative to God’s word, when we don’t reflect that love one for another that is proof positive that we’re disciples, well, rest assured that what motivates your negative volition, you’re not gonna hide anything from God. Even though you may think you’re getting away with this deed, you won’t hide it from God. You know, Cain buried Abel, tried to hide it from God. He thought God wouldn’t know it. That was dumb. Principle, sin is rejection and rebellion against God. Two, the sinner seeks to destroy the godly and vindicate himself and denies responsibility for his own sin. That’s exactly what Cain did. He denied responsibility. God nailed him. Where’s your brother? What am I, my brother’s keeper? He mouthed off to God. Can you believe that? Am I my brother’s keeper? No, God said, I’ll tell you what you did. You murdered him and buried him in the ground and his blood cries out from the ground. The sinner seeks to destroy the godly and vindicate himself, does not denies any responsibility for his sin. And point three, Cain ignored. the concepts of the offering for appreciation of God’s blessing. He ignored that. His parents taught him what to do, but he didn’t do it. And he performed another deed. Oh, he did a right thing. He brought an offering to God, but he did it in the wrong way, and the justice of God rejected it because it did not reflect the Redeemer. Abel tried to please God in faith, but Cain had no faith, only self-centered arrogance, and he could not be persuaded to be obedient. Even the Lord warned him about this. Can you imagine the Lord speaking to you face to face? The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? This is chapter four, verse six and seven. Why are you angry? And why is your expression downcast? Is it not true that if you do what is right, you’ll be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is to dominate you, but you must overrule it. Cain’s negative volition was an indication of who he really belonged to. He had a chance. There’s a direct warning from the Lord himself. Cain, sin is knocking at the door. You must overcome it. You must overrule it. In 1 John 3, 12, is not Cain who was of the evil one and slew his brother? And why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. Anyone who has arrogant envy like Cain had is subject to the desires of the sin, jealousy and bitterness. And Satan will always use the unrighteous to persecute the righteous. So your rebellion to God and his laws, that’ll make you a subject of Satan’s plan and a desire to vindicate himself by using you as a sucker. He may have already done that. You may have dipped your toe into sin and let your sin nature dominate you. And Satan is getting a nice round of applause from the demons. See, he’s already corralled you. You already bought into human viewpoint thinking. You already rejected the word of God and the faith perception of what is actually true. And you might have mouthed off to God as well. Cain did not care what God thought. He justified his murderous deed. But once he got exposed, and once the discipline was administered, he complained. Oh, it’s too harsh. Oh, this is too much. The criminal wants a lighter sentence every time. Regardless of what he’s done, he doesn’t want the sentence to be that harsh. 20 years, why not 10 years? Death? No, why not life? You see, once exposed, and the discipline comes from the government or the police or whatever authority, then the criminal always wants a lighter sentence. He didn’t treat anybody lightly, but he wants lighted treatment, be treated lightly. But God graciously protected Cain. I don’t understand all of this, but he gave him a sign saying, He did sentence him to wander the earth. Whenever you till the ground, it will not yield any strength. Your farming days are over, buddy. A fugitive and a wanderer, you shall be on the earth. And God put a sign on him that no one could kill him. No one really knows what that was, and I’m not going to get into it. But I will tell you, this was a lifelong sentence of wandering and wandering and wandering and never feeling at home. Murder lies in the heart of every man in the form of hatred and in the form of bitterness. Note this, there were no prisons. There was no police force at this time. Thus, this sentence that the Lord placed upon Cain was basically a life sentence with no chance of parole. Basically a life sentence with no chance of parole. There’s a lot more to this narrative that I can teach in this short time, but we’ve laid the groundwork for you so that you can see right here criminal thinking in the mind of the arrogant, jealous, bitter, vindictive brother Cain. And this should be a warning to you. You are not allowed as a Christian to hate anyone. You’re not allowed to have that desire for malice in your heart to want to murder someone. In Ephesians 4, it says, do not let bitterness rule your life or hatred or implacability or even malice. Malice is a desire to hurt someone. and you can’t do it. If you have that sort of hatred in your heart, you must confess that sin to God. There may be someone that really shafted you in some way. You must confess your hatred to God, and you must not let Satan use it to manipulate you to doing something stupid. Get control of your emotions. Turn it over to the Supreme Court of Heaven that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and God the Father will handle the details. No one gets away with anything, but God didn’t send you to be the one who decides what they get away with and what they don’t. He can handle it. Let him handle it. In other words, keep your nose out of God’s business. You stay in fellowship. You learn his word. You advance in the plan of God. You grow till you can replicate the thinking of Christ and live his life through you, through occupation with Christ. And then you can be a winner believer in the plan of God. Then you can glorify God to the maximum. And then you can hear your father say, well done, my good and my faithful servant. That’s what he’s looking for. Our Father is looking for a good and a faithful servant. Is it you? I hope so. Next week, same time, same place. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flock Lines.
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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.
