In this insightful episode of The Flatline, host Rick Hughes delves into the profound difference between sin and evil. Drawing upon biblical scripture and theological insights, Rick provides listeners with a comprehensive understanding of how Satan’s system aims to distort God’s design. Learn how everyday influences from commercials to societal norms work to subtly shift our mindsets away from divine principles.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 01 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes. And for the next few minutes, please stick around just a short show about 30 minutes show about motivation, inspiration, education, without any manipulation to show about the Bible, learning God’s word, how to apply it into your life, how to orient and adjust to the plan of God for your life. If you’re interested, stick around before we get started. I got something very interesting to talk to you about today. I’d like to talk to you about the difference between sin and evil. The Difference Between Sin and Evil. But before we get started, let me remind you, we have a couple of new books be headed into the office this week from the printers. One of them is called Practicing Your Christianity. That’s a rewrite of an older book that we’ve had and been very well redone by our staff. Looking forward to getting that in the shop later this week. And then another book we’ve redone, made it a little bit smaller, Bible Promises and Principles, revised with more promises, organized alphabetically by category. So it’d be much easier for you to carry around and use in your travels or whatever. All of this will be available in July. And you can request them now through our website by contacting us at rick at rickhughesministries.org. rick at rickhughesministries.org. That’s our email, rick at rickhughesministries.org. Or you can simply go to the website and order from there, rickhughesministries.org, not .com, .org. Okay? Now, let’s jump into what we want to talk about today and hopefully it’ll be inspiring and encouraging to you. Just as grace and doctrine represent the genius of God in relationship to the human race, I want you to understand that evil represents the genius of Satan in relationship to the human race. It’s Satan’s plan. Now, listen, I’m not a pastor. I’m not your pastor. I hope you’re enjoying these radio shows, and I hope I’m encouraging you, but part of my job is to identify people that are hungry to grow and point you to where there’s a great pastor you can study under and learn under. Sometimes it’s not even in your city. Sometimes you’ll have to do what I do, and that’s get tapes or DVDs or MP3s from people that are squared away and teaching the Word accurately, and that’s all free, all available. We’ve got a lot of people like that that we know that are wonderful pastors. If you don’t have one in your specific geographical location, we can hook you up with those that can do that, and they don’t charge for their information. So I’m not your pastor. I’m just a scout. I’m just a guy looking for positive volition. But remember this, that evil every day is floating around into our world, into our nation, and it is a substitute for the divine design that God set up, and this is what Satan uses. So the way that he does it is to slowly capture the minds of our youth. Every commercial that I see, I guess 90% of them have weird things on them. They have weird people doing weird stuff and always trying to shift the mindset to say this is acceptable and this is okay and whatever. you can go with it now and that’s not true. So just as grace and doctrine represents the genius of God in relationship to the human race, Satan has a plan, it’s called evil. He’s trying to replace God’s plan. He’s trying to set up his own millennium and trying to manipulate the human race to go by his concepts and his design. So this leads us to answer the question, what exactly is evil? What are we calling evil? In Genesis 2, 9, the Bible says, And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life, also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The Hebrew word for evil is rah, R-A-H, rah. It means bad or disagreeable or displeasing to God. In Romans 12, 21, we see the verse, do not be overcome with evil, kakos, K-A-K-O-S, Greek word, kakos, K-A-K-O-S, but overcome evil with good, agathos, A-G-A-T-H-O-S, agathos. And that’s the honorable, morally honorable concept. So don’t be overcome with the system of Satan, but overcome Satan’s system with God’s system. The Greek word for evil, kakos, is a way of thinking. And everything we do starts as a thought. You know about that. And this is where the attack comes. We’ve talked on our radio show about hijacking the minds of young people in America today. flooding their minds with things that are not true. Kakas is a way of thinking, and this is the way most of the world operates. You know, like someone does me wrong, I’ll get revenge, I’ll get even, I’ll get them if it’s the last thing I ever do. Listen to what James says about that sort of attitude. The tongue can no man tame. It is unruly and evil. Kakas, full of deadly poison. And so evil is all throughout the Bible. Evil is a system, or it can be a sin. In Ephesians 4.31, let all bitterness and all wrath and all anger and all clamor and all evil speaking. This is what James was talking about, James 3.8. Evil speaking, let it be put away from you along with all malice. Evil speaking is a sin. Gossip, maligning, slandering, criticizing, backbiting, impugning someone’s character. The word evil speaking is the Greek word blasphemia. We get blasphemy from that word. It means to slander, to gossip, or to injure another person by the words that you say. And Paul writes there to the church at Ephesus, let all bitterness, picaria, all wrath, orge, all anger, thumos, all clamor, that’s the Greek word, that’s an onomatopoeia, which means to make the sound of a crow, croge, and evil speaking be put away from you along with all malice. So I just gave you some of those Greek words there, but This is the principle, stay away from evil speaking, that’s sinful, slandering, blaspheming someone. Jesus ran into this in Matthew 12, 34, when he said, you brood of vipers, how can you who are evil, and there we have a word, phaneros, a different word for evil, not kakos, but phaneros, P-H-O-N-E-R-O-S. How can you who are evil, phaneros, say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. And the evil here is Satan’s genius, Satan’s plan. It’s a different evil. Phaneras are kakas. That’s the two Greek words for evil. Where kakas and phaneras are put together, and it is in a couple of verses, kakas is always put first and signifies bad in character, a base person. And phaneras, always bad in effect, are malignant concepts. So remember this, evil can be a system or it can be a deed. Sin is evil, yes, but Satan’s distortion of God’s grace is evil also. You might look at it like this, all sin is evil, but all evil is not necessarily a sin. Now, I say that in regards to the deeds that people do. If you think that putting a chicken in everybody’s pot is gonna make a better world, If you think about doing away with all gas burners, it’s going to make a better world. It’s not necessarily a sin to drive an electric vehicle, but it’s an evil concept that you believe that you’re going to change the world. And this is big today. The Greenies want to change the world. They want a new order. They want to change the way Americans think as if we can save the planet. Only one thing can save the planet, and that’s God’s timing. This planet will eventually be destroyed. We talked about that in one of our recent radio shows on Prophecy. It’s all designed to be done away with once the angelic conflict is complete. But when you buy into evil, you buy into the system that Satan puts in place for manipulation and control of the human race. So let’s get a few principles here. Evil is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. Two, all evil has two sources. Sin and erroneous thinking. Sin and erroneous thinking. And human good. Human good is the motivation of evil and erroneous thinking. So we have sin and erroneous thinking called human good. So where the sin of self-righteousness plus human good combines, then you have a saturation of evil within a nation. like our country, America. So you have self-righteousness and sin put them together. It comes up with an evil saturation of a nation. That’s exactly what’s going on today. It may take one, two, three generations, but to saturate America, change the way that Americans think, starting with the youth, you have to expose them to evil. to say that it’s okay to do this, it’s an okay to do that without me getting politically, you understand what I’m talking about? You see the same commercials I see on television and they slowly capturing the minds of our youth. So evil or this system that Satan has set up is the function and the innovation of that person who’s consistently involved in the cosmic system. Now, a believer can get involved in evil just like an unbeliever. The cosmic system, that’s Satan’s world order, is evil. And when you get involved in that, when you get involved in the whole concept of changing the way people think by introducing some liberal concept, then you are promoting evil. So the soul is the battleground of every believer in the church. And especially in the church age, it’s your soul. Remember your soul has mentality, volition, conscience, and self-consciousness mentality, volition, consciousness, and self-consciousness. And it’s your soul where the battleground is, because this is the intensified stage of that angelic conflict. So what you’re thinking right now is much more important than what you realize. There is an attack to capture the way you think, slowly but surely, to get you to condescend, to give in, to agree with, to say that’s okay. And I watched a movie the other day, don’t mean to get into this, but I watched a movie the other day. It was a cute movie, but people said, well, we all worship the same God. Muslims, Buddhas, Christians, we all worship the same God. Well, there is only one God. There’s no doubt about that. But there’s only one way to that God, and that’s through Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And so to put this confusing concept out there that everybody’s going to God is a lie. And it’s a way to affect the people’s thinking. So there are two ways of thinking. You can think divine viewpoint, which I just quoted. Jesus Christ said it. And that’s you thinking Bible doctrine, you thinking the Word of God, and that glorifies Jesus Christ. And then there’s human viewpoint thinking, which is called evil, and that dishonors Christ. So the issue in your life and in my life is thought versus thought. How do we think? Now, recovery from sin is instantaneous when we use the rebound technique, problem-solving device number one. But recovering from evil takes a long time through post-salvation growth. You have to study the word of God, learn the word of God, grow, and get that garbage out of your soul to where you don’t think like that anymore. Because evil is a distortion of God’s word. It’s a distortion of the laws of divine establishment. This is Satan’s whole concept to start with, to introduce his way of governing, to introduce his world, introduce his control. And you can watch the news today and see what that is. So the whole idea that the government is going to abolish any sickness, the government’s going to abolish mental illness, the government’s going to abolish economic problems, frustrations, human problems by some sort of legislation, are human solutions, that whole idea is evil. Because the world’s problems can never be solved apart from the word of God and the laws of divine establishment. So to believe that you can elect a government that will change the way people think is erroneous because people have sin natures. Now the greatest evil of all, have you ever thought about this? What is the most evil thing in the world? The answer is organized religion. Legalism and apostasy are the greatest manifestations of this sort of evil. So the worst and most detrimental thing that can happen to a believer, you and I, is to come under the influence of evil, because if you get out of this stuff, it takes a long time to get it out of your brain and quit thinking that way. The adjective kakos means worthless. The adjective phoneros means evil and worthless, degenerate. As a noun, it means the evil person, Satan. So the origin of all evil, to put it in a nutshell, is Satan’s genius, to devise a system to oppose God’s genius. Now you know salvation is a perfect example. The genius of God in salvation is called grace, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should brag about it. The genius of Satan is to take that and twist it around so that someone would tell you, yes, you’re saved if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are baptized and give up drinking Pepsi-Cola and quit eating peanuts and give up donuts. See, that’s evil. If you have to link anything to grace, it cancels out the grace. You’re saved only one way and not by giving up anything, not by hooking it to salvation, not by hooking it to what you think. You’re saved by grace. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the anointed son of God and you express that belief to God in prayer, as the Bible says, whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That’s you getting saved. It doesn’t include anything else at all. So if you’re depending on your church membership, your baptism, your good deeds to get you to heaven, you’ve been deceived by Satan. You’ve bought into evil. Because Satan has devised a system whereby people can be very nice, very lovely, look very nice in society, and yet behind the facade of good there lurks an attitude of evil, a destructive person who’s very, very often self-deceived. Listen to 1 John 3.8. When anyone commits a sin, he has become the agent of the devil. When anyone commits a sin, he has become the agent of the devil. Satan always seeks to frustrate the will of God with every believer regarding what we think. Ephesians 4.13. regarding where we’re located, 1 Thessalonians 2, 18, and regarding what we do, James 4, 7, and 8. So let me read those verses. Satan seeks to frustrate the will of God with every believer regarding what we think, Ephesians 4, 14. Then we will no longer be infants tossed to and forth by the waves and blown away here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. You got to grow up, quit buying into all the garbage that you hear. And then in regards to where we’re located, Satan works that way too. 1 Thessalonians 2.18, for we wanted to come to you. Certainly I, Paul, did again and again, but Satan blocked our way. And then in regards to what we do, James 4, 7, and 8, submit yourself then to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come nearer to God and what? Come nearer to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Double-minded, two different ways of thinking. You can’t thank grace and you can’t thank evil in the same concept, they don’t work. Evil is a system that Satan has designed to distract believers, Christians like you and I, by entertainment. By improving the world, that’s the crusader arrogance. Many times a lot of the crusades are led through churches and pastors that crusade against this or crusade against that. Occupation with temporal solutions to man’s problems. Evil systems in regards to social actions. The welfare state, communism, fear. Religion is created by Satan to counterfeit God’s plan. And religion is man seeking to approbate from God on the basis of what he does. So Satan counterfeits the following. Listen carefully. He counterfeits the gospel, 2 Corinthians 4, 3, and 4. And if our gospel is veiled, it’s veiled to those who are perishing. The God of this age, Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel that is displayed today. that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. He has counterfeit ministers, 2 Corinthians 11, 13, for such people are false apostles. Deceitful workers masquerading as apostles of Christ, and no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It’s not surprising then if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, and therein will be what their actions deserve. He has a counterfeit doctrine, 1 Timothy 4.1. The Spirit says clearly in the latter days that some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things that are taught by demons. He has a counterfeit communion table, 1 Corinthians 10, 19 through 21. Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too. You cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. So he has his own communion table. And he has his own sense of spirituality. Galatians 3, I would like for you to learn just one thing from you. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish after beginning by means of the spirit that you’re now trying to finish by means of the flesh? And this was the whole thing about being circumcised. Once Paul went into Galatia and taught salvation by grace, the Judaizers came in and said, now you need to be circumcised. And that was very confusing because they were teaching you weren’t saved if you weren’t circumcised. Counterfeit righteousness, Matthew 19, 16 through 18. Teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life? Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus said, there’s only one who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments. Which one? He said, Jesus replied, you shall not murder. You should not commit adultery. You should not steal. You should not give false testimony. Honor your father and your mother and love your neighbor as yourself. He said, I’ve kept all of these. I’ve done that. Now what should I do? And Jesus said, if you want to be perfect, go sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come and follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sad because he was very, very wealthy. Jesus said, I’m telling you, it’s hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who’s rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Satan’s false system of teachers is part of his strategy. That’s the whole concept to start with. It’s part of his strategy. They have a phony, hypocritical facade. Matthew 7, 15 says, watch out for these false prophets, these false teachers. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. We call that the canine clergy. They would like to devour you. Romans 16, 18, for such people are these, as these preachers, Watch out. They are not serving our Lord Jesus Christ. They’re serving their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the minds of naive people, and they use human public relations as assistive flirtation. If you turn on the television on Sunday morning, you’ll be able to see some of these people, performers, rich, wealthy Christians, ministers, evangelists, all giving their own message of salvation by works and giving their own message of if you give money to them, God will make you wealthy and they call that seed money or planting seeds, some kind of goofy stuff like that. You got to be able to distinguish between this sort of stuff. You have to be able to know the difference between sin and evil and between evil and honor. You got to know that. Hebrews 5, 13, solid food is, sound biblical doctrine belongs to the mature believer, the one who, because of academic self-discipline, keeps having their perceptive faculties well-trained, with reference to differentiating between both the honorable and the evil. Therefore, if you’re a mature believer, you’ll be able to rightly divide the word of truth so as to distinguish between sin and evil. And don’t think Satan doesn’t change tactics. If you ignore the word of God, if you ignore learning the word of God, if you ignore implementing God’s plan into your life, you’re gonna be in deep trouble because you’re gonna buy into the evil system of Satan. You’re gonna buy into the fact that if we get rid of this or get rid of that or quit cutting down trees or quit doing this or quit doing that, that the world’s gonna be a better place. You cannot make the world a better place and you cannot destroy this planet. Only God created it and only God can destroy it. And yet if you believe that marching down the street and holding up a sign about this or that or the other, whatever your favorite subject is, that you’re impressing God, you’re sadly mistaken. This is how a nation is divided like the United States of America is divided today. People on one side, people on the other side, they both hate each other. They both crusade for what they want. Neither one of them want what the Bible wants. Love one another. If you say you love God and hate your brother, you’re a liar and the truth is not in you, the Bible says. And so how am I supposed to love a jerk? Well, I have to love him the same way God loved me because I’m a jerk. He loved me with impersonal love. He loved me based on his character, not my character. And you can love people based on your character, not their character. That’s a virtue type love called impersonal love for all mankind. They’re only motivated by personal love for God, which is your greatest motivational virtue in your life. Because the Bible says, if you love me, you’ll obey me, and my mandates are not hard, 1 John 5, 3. That’s motivational virtue. And you must have that motivational virtue in your life. You must buy into that concept by the consistent teaching of the Word of God and listening to this consistent teaching. If you don’t get under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor, you’re not going to learn this stuff. You’re not going to learn it in one 30 minute flatline show every week. You’re not going to learn it by books that I can provide for you. I mean, I can encourage you and I can be a door of opportunity for you, but it’s through the door. You must walk on your own volition. You must decide. You must choose by George. I’m going to start a consistent study in my life to where I’m taking in the word of God on a daily basis. I don’t know where there’s a pastor near me. I don’t know where there’s a church near me teaching, but I’m going to do what big Rick says. I’m going to contact him and I’m going to get one of these pastors he knows about. And I’m going to start ordering those tapes or start ordering those MP3s. And I’m going to get my Bible and get my notebook and sit down at my table with a cup of coffee or a glass of tea. And I’m going to take notes and learn and apply God’s word in my life. That’s called LAG, L-A-G, learn, apply, and glorify. Learn, apply, and glorify. You gotta learn it before you can apply it. And if you apply it, you will glorify God. So you have to know the difference between sin and evil. If you don’t recognize evil when you see it, you haven’t grown to maturity in your spiritual life yet. Because we are warned not to be influenced by evil. chapter, verse 11, chapter, 3rd John, verse 11. Beloved, do not be imitators of the evil, but of the good. Agathos, divine good production. That’s it. That’s what you must do. You must learn to distinguish between good and evil, which are both the same thing. Evil is a plan. Good is Satan’s human good. Not divine good, human good. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was both wrong. It was the plan of Satan and the deeds of Satan. Human good is evil. Satan’s system is evil. And so evil is a system. Evil is a deed. When you buy into the system, then you are buying into evil. I hope you’re listening. I hope you’re learning. I hope I haven’t confused you. And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me anytime. That’s rick at rickhughesministries.org. Thank you for listening to The Flatline.
SPEAKER 02 :
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.
