In this insightful discussion, Rick Hughes explores the roles of discipline and purification in the Christian journey. Learn about the crucial steps of maintaining spiritual maturity through the filling of the Holy Spirit. Rick also introduces an upcoming book offering deeper insights into the final teachings of Jesus Christ to His disciples, promising to equip you against life’s adversities.
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’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, stick around. It’ll be 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education. All of that done without any type of manipulation because we’re not trying to con you into buying something. We’re not trying to suggest you send us any money. We’re not trying to suggest you join anything. We’re just trying to give you accurate information that will help you verify as well as identify God’s plan for your life. If I’m able to do that and you would like to, then you can orient and adjust to that plan. That’s up to you. But this radio show is about giving you accurate information and appealing to you to get your spiritual life in order if you are, in fact, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I’d like to recommend something to you. I think I’ll wait to the end of the show to tell you about it, but we have a new book coming out. And when the show is over, I’m going to read this announcement for you and hopefully you’ll remember it and order this new book. But what I want to do this morning is talk to you about something that’s very interesting to me. I would like to talk to you about how to give glory to God. How to give glory to God. And my question to you is this, would you like to glorify God with your life? Would you like to glorify God with your life? Now that’s a fair question to ask anyone. As a child of God, you know, you are mandated to give him glory. Did you realize that? Yes, in 1 Corinthians 10 31, the Bible says, so whatever you eat, whatever you drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. There it is right there. You are mandated to glorify God in whatever you do. As a matter of fact, God is called the father of glory in the New Testament. Did you realize that? In Ephesians 1.17, Paul wrote that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, there it is, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. This is where all of you begin to understand starts in the knowledge of him and the knowledge of Christ Jesus, what he did on the cross for you, understanding his plan for your life. And this is going to relate to this new book we’re talking about. It’s coming out pretty soon. So God has a plan for your life, and that wisdom and revelation is revealed in the knowledge of Christ. So the Father of Glory, God the Father, the Father of Glory title describes God as the source from whom all divine splendor and all divine perfection proceeds in their manifestation and to whom they belong. I want to say that one more time. This is a quote from the Vines New Testament Dictionary. The Father of Glory describes God as the source from whom all divine splendor and perfection proceed in their manifestation and to whom they belong. So what exactly does glory actually mean? And I say, do you want to glorify God with your life? What exactly does that mean? Ask your pastor after listening to this, see if he figures it out. Ask a friend, how do I glorify God with my life? And you’ll get a bunch of answers, most of them not correct. What does glory actually mean? The word glory is a New Testament noun in the Greek New Testament pronounced doxa, D-O-X-A. And glory refers to what he essentially is and what he does as exhibited in whatever way he reveals himself. Glory refers to what God essentially is and what God does as exhibited in whatever way God reveals himself. So, for example, when Moses was in his presence, this is amazing, it caused Moses to be illuminated. When Moses was in the presence of God, he got illuminated. Listen to Exodus 34, 29. And it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with two tablets of testimony in Moses’ hand. This was after the first tablets had been destroyed when he found them worshiping a golden calf. And he had to go down and straighten out Aaron and what was going on. And he had to go back up and get the second law. So he comes down now with two tablets of testimony in his hand in Exodus 34, 29. And when he came down from the mount that Moses knew not, he was not aware that the skin of his face shone while he was talking with them. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. He had to actually put a veil over his face. He was illuminated, radiated with God’s glory. So to understand this word glory, I think it’s essential that we have to understand the essence of God. We must understand the essence of God. So if I gave you a test and I said, take out a pen and piece of paper, show me what you know as a Christian. What do you know to be the essence of God? Some of you could answer it and some of you cannot. So let me give you the answer. While it is true that his limitless glory can never be fully grasped by any finite human mind, it’s also true that he’s revealed his essential qualities to us so we can understand him. So we know he is this, all right? Here it is, write it down. One, we know he’s sovereign. We know God is sovereign, that’s his glory. He’s the supreme ruler of the universe. We know that God is righteous, that’s another part of his glory. He’s morally pure, there is no sin in him. We know that God is justice, and that means that he’s just treatment of every individual. No individual is treated unfairly, not even the devil. We know that God is love, and that’s his intrinsic character. We understand that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. We also understand, a big word here, he’s immutable, immutability. And that means that he does not change. He’s in a state of unchangeable. He cannot change. We also know that God is veracity, another big word. And that word means that he’s absolute truth and always accurate. He doesn’t lie. He doesn’t change his mind. He’s truthful. We know that God in his glory has eternal life, which means he absolutely self-exists. He existed in eternity past. He will exist in eternity future. He’s always existed. And we know that God is omniscient. This is to his glory. He’s all-knowing. And we know that he’s omnipotent, which means he’s all-powerful. And we know that he is omnipresent, which means he’s everywhere at one time. So if the church over in your town is meeting at 10 o’clock and the church in somebody else’s town is meeting at 10 o’clock and somebody says, God is here with us this morning, we feel it. Well, God, he’s eminent. He’s transcendent. You can’t contain him. So God can be here in my recording studio and in your home at the same time. That’s the way God is. So if you’re going to understand God’s glory, you must understand these things. Let’s go over them again. He’s sovereign. He’s righteous. He’s justice. He’s love. He’s immutable. He’s truthful, veracity. He’s truthful. He’s eternal life, always existed, always will exist. He’s omniscient, he knows everything. He’s omnipotent, he’s omnipresent. That’s his glory, that’s the character of God revealed to us in the scripture. The word glory has a counterpart verb, and the word of the verb is glorify. So glory is a noun, glorify is a verb, and glorify is pronounced doxazo, doxazo. And that means to magnify or to extol or praise him, ascribing honor to him by acknowledging his being and his attributes. So this is one of the ways that you glorify God, that you understand his attributes that I just gave you and you acknowledge them and believe them. Now the Jews first encountered the glory of God in the wilderness as they fled out of the Egyptian bondage. Remember that? Through the construction of the tabernacle, which was actually a portable tent, which was a shadow depicting the reality of heaven. Read about it in Exodus chapter 40. and inside that tent were two rooms with a veil separating them one was called the holy place and the other was called the holy of holies and it was in the holy of holies that what we know as the shekinah glory dwelt exodus 40 verse 34-38 then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Glory, there it is, of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode their own. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. All right, listen on, verse 36. And when the cloud was taken up over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in their journey. But if the cloud was not taken up, Then they journeyed not until the day when it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day and fire was on it by night in the sight of all the houses of Israel throughout all of their journeys. So the Shekinah glory or the presence of God in the tabernacle was witnessed by everyone, by the cloud during the day and the fire during the night. Now, the New Testament then tells us Christians, listen, get ready, buckle your seatbelt, here it comes. The New Testament tells us that we are now the tabernacle. Christians are now the residents of God’s glory. There’s no longer a tabernacle in Israel. You are the tabernacle. Yes, you are. That should shock you. 1 Corinthians 3.16, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you? And if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy. Which temple? You are. You are the temple of God. He lives in you. Now, let me tell you something. If you wish to truly glorify God, you cannot defile that temple. This simply means we must not try to engage God with unconfessed sin in our life. If you try to engage God with unconfessed sin in your life, you defile the temple. That’s why we have the mandate of Ephesians 5.18, be filled with the Spirit. And that’s not a request, that’s a mandate. And then we have the warning of Ephesians 4.30, don’t grieve the Spirit of God. And the warning of 1 Thessalonians 5.19, don’t quench the Spirit of God. You see, in the Old Testament, no priest could enter the Holy of Holies without first being cleansed of all sin. In Leviticus 16, six, and Aaron shall offer his book of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself and for his house. He had to do that before he went into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled the blood over the Ark of the Covenant. Aaron was the older brother of Moses, and Aaron was the high priest of Israel during this time. Now Aaron unfortunately had two dumb sons named Nadab and Abihu, both of who died an instant death when they snuck into the Holy of Holies and offered strange fire. Leviticus 10, one and two. And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them in his censer and put fire in it and put incense in it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. On the spot. Now, if they could not get away with defiling the temple, neither can you. I’m telling you these things to warn you not to play games with God. His plan for your life is wonderful. His plan for your life is amazing. But you are cautioned not to ignore sin in your life. In Hebrews 12, 6, for everyone the Lord loves, he chastens, and he scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with a son, for what son is it that a father does not discipline or correct? But if you’re without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then you’re not really a child of God. Furthermore, we’ve had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? There are three types of discipline mentioned there, warning discipline, intense discipline, and eventually dying discipline. Shall we not reverence God and live? Proverbs 15 says, he that hates the reproof of God will die. God will not tolerate your sin. You cannot glorify God by dabbling in your favorite sin. If you’re a Christian, you can’t do that. Here’s where many Christians miss the mark. by ignoring mental attitude sins that are just as destructive as an overt sin. Trying to glorify God while you’re filled with jealousy, trying to glorify God while you’re bitter or while you have an unforgiving attitude or while you’re worrying or while you’re full of envy, that does not work. All of those are forms of mental attitude sins that must be dealt with the same way any other sin is dealt with, using rebound. First John 1.9, if we confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to purify us from all unrighteousness. So you have to understand that. Our cleansing takes place when we use rebound procedure. But if you try to pray with unconfessed sin, if you try to attend church with unconfessed sin, if you try to give some money with unconfessed sin, then God gets no glory at all from your little ritual that has no reality to it. The only way God gets glory is when you do exactly what he told you to do, be filled with his spirit. Remember that, don’t forget it, you, you and me, we are the temple of God. And if we wish to glorify God to the maximum, the first step we have to do is to maintain the filling of the Holy Spirit. Romans 11, 36, for from him and through him and for him are all things to him be glory forever. That’s how we do it. We execute the Christian life by under the filling of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord told the disciples that God was going to send them the Holy Spirit to help them remember what he taught them. In John 14, 26, and this is covered in the new book we’re publishing, the confederate, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in thy name, he will teach you all things. And he will bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I said to you. Now, that was during a three-hour, four-hour Bible class the night before he was arrested and crucified. From John 13 to John 15 to 11, the most unbelievable Bible class you’ve ever seen in your life. And no one wrote it down. No one had a tape recorder. No one recorded his words. But he said the Holy Spirit will help you remember what I’m teaching you. Well, you have the exact same Holy Spirit living in you. The exact same Holy Spirit is in your temple, your tabernacle, with the same mission to glorify God through your life, to guide you, instruct you in the Father’s plan. That’s his mission. God uses the Holy Spirit and the scriptures to reveal that plan to you. That’s how it works. Those scriptures are designed to be taught to you by someone with the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher. The Bible tells us that. It’s called in the Greek New Testament, the , the shepherd and the teacher. And this is what God uses. God uses a man who has a gift of pastor and teacher to teach the scripture to you and me. We are the sheep, he’s the shepherd, and they’re designed for us to learn, grow, and apply into our life so that we give maximum glorification to God. Now, the very first opportunity that you and I have to glorify God is when we got saved. That’s the first opportunity. In 1 John 5, 10, he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself, because he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he does not believe the record that God gave of his Son. So people that say, well, I don’t believe that’s true. I don’t believe Jesus Christ is really the Son of God. I don’t believe all that stuff. Well, they’re calling God a liar. Trying to earn God’s forgiveness through religious works only glorifies yourself. So if you think that God is gonna forgive you because you don’t drink, because you don’t smoke, because you don’t cuss, because you don’t dance, some people say you don’t dance, you don’t do all those bad things, you don’t go to any R-rated movies and God’s gonna smile on you and let you come to heaven, that doesn’t work. Trying to get forgiveness, earn it through God, religious works, only glorifies yourself, not God. In Galatians 6.14, but God forbid, what? That I should glory in anything saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. God forbid that I would glory in anything except the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. More glory is given to God when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s exactly how it starts. And then as you choose to learn the word of God, as you choose to obey what you learn and apply it into your life, you glorify God by what he pours into you. That’s how we realize the happiness that he has. That’s how we realize the blessing that he has. That’s how we realize what he’s provided for us through our spiritual life. So as you and I grow to spiritual maturity and begin to replicate the life of Christ, he is glorified to the max. This is how it happens. You are to replicate the life of Christ. Colossians 1.27, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery. Among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. There it is. Christ in you, the hope of glory. So listen, not only does God the Holy Spirit indwell you, so does the Lord Jesus Christ, the Shekinah glory himself indwells you. Your body is the temple of God and Christ lives in you. Understand that. This is why you cannot sin and get away with it. This is why you can’t play games with God without coming under severe discipline. If you’re going through some hard times right now in your life, you might ought to consider, why am I going through this? Am I under discipline? Is God trying to lovingly correct me to get me to turn my life around and go in the opposite direction? Because you will go through warning discipline, and it may be a road sign, it may be a Bible verse, it may be somebody you heard on the radio like me, Maybe that’s just a warning from God to get your attention. But if that doesn’t work, if you don’t have genuine humility to turn around and quit going the direction you’re going, then if you are a believer, comes the intense discipline. Because the Bible says what child is it the father doesn’t discipline. So if you’re a child of God and you have unconfessed sin in your life and you’re not willing to walk away from it, and he’s going to take you behind the woodshed, and you’re going to learn the hard way, and you’re going to get enforced humility. So it’s up to you. You cannot glorify God with hidden sin in your life. You cannot glorify God dabbling with sin. You can only glorify God as you stay filled with the Holy Spirit, learn his word, apply it into your life, and replicate the life of Christ in you. That’s how you do it. To whom God would make known what is the riches of his glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So you have to decide, you have to make a decision. What is your spiritual life gonna consist of? Are you gonna take your spiritual life serious? Or are you just gonna play games with God? Will you just keep being part of the nod to God crowd? There’s no bigger insult than to be a member of the nod to God crowd. Hello, God. See you next week, God. You just become a caricature of Christ, not a reposition in representing Christ, a caricature. If you don’t know what that is, look it up. That’s a funny drawing, a caricature. What the world needs to see is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And they see that when you live the Christian life, when you take God’s word, learn it and use it, stay filled with the Holy Spirit, Not that you’re going to be perfect. Not that you will never make any more mistakes again. Not that you will never sin again. But if you use Rebound, you can recover quickly. If you stay filled with the Holy Spirit, if you use the faith rest drill, if you orient to God’s grace, orient to God’s word, realize your personal sense of destiny, you’re on your way to using those 10 unique problem solving devices that make up the FLOT line on your soul. FLOT line, F-L-O-T. It’s made up of 10 unique problem solving devices. Remember them? We got a bookmark, you can order the bookmark, stick it in your Bible if you don’t remember these. Rebound, confessing your sin. Filling of the Holy Spirit, this is where the Holy Spirit takes power over the flesh. The faith rest drill, where you can walk through the difficult times in life without being afraid. Grace orientation, understanding God’s grace comes through Christ alone. Doctrinal orientation, understanding the importance of the word of God, where the Bible says, study to show yourself approved unto God. A work with it needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. This gives you the personal sense of destiny. In other words, you’ll know why you’re here, what God’s plan for your life is. It’s a wonderful thing to realize that. And then you have personal love for God, which is your motivational virtue in your life. It’s the greatest motivational virtue you have because the Bible says if you love him, you will obey him. And his plans are not hard. That’s in 1 John 5, 3. Once you have motivational virtue, then you can love everyone. You can use impersonal love. That’s the same love God used for you. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He didn’t love you on the basis of who you are. He loved you on the basis of who he is. And impersonal love gives you the ability to love the worst people in the world based on who you are, not who they are. Which means you can have a relaxed mental attitude in their presence. You don’t seek to get revenge. You don’t vibrate when you’re in their periphery. You are totally relaxed, even though you don’t particularly care for that individual. That’s okay. You don’t have to go up and put your arms around their neck and hug them and say, I love you, brother. That stuff’s phony anyhow. So if we understand this, personal love for God and personal love for others, then we come to share the happiness of God. Problem-solving device number nine. The Lord Jesus Christ said, happiness belongs to those people who hear my Father’s word and keep it. Luke 11, 27. That’s the key to it. And then we come up with occupation with Christ. And this is where we reflect Christ in our life. So that when people see you, they see Christ. When people see the way you think, they see the way Christ thought. And that’s what the Bible says. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. So how do you glorify God? Well, I think I just told you. You glorify God by staying filled with the Holy Spirit. You glorify God by learning his plan, understanding his essence. You glorify God by representing Jesus Christ and never taking any credit for anything you do, especially your own salvation. So do you want to glorify God this morning? Then now’s a good time for you to pray. Now’s a good time for you to tell God the Father that. Now’s a good time for you to confess any known sin that might be in your life. Because you cannot glorify God with sin in your life. Now I told you here at the end I was going to tell you about this new book. Our next book will be available to you in about two weeks. It’s called These Things. And it’s a reference to the last Bible class Jesus taught his disciples. In this book, we will cover 14 important major doctrines he taught his disciples the night of the Last Supper. And these were essential lessons they needed because they were going to face incredible adversity and opportunities in the years ahead. And these things prepared them for that. And they’ll do the same for you and the same for me. The disciples were stabilized not by only understanding these things, but by remembering them and doing them, and application is always the key. That’s why John 13, 17 says, if you know these things, you will be blessed and happy if you do them. That’s what the book is about. What did he teach them that last night? I think you’re really going to enjoy this book, and you request it now from our website, rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org, or by calling us at 800- or you can always write to us at P.O. Box 100 in the city of Cropwell, Alabama. So These Things is the book. I encourage you to request it. It’s as free as all of our materials, and I look forward to hearing from you and you ordering that book. Okay? I hope you understand now what it means to glorify God. It’s been my privilege to give you the information. I pray, God, the Holy Spirit would use it in your life so that you would glorify God to the maximum in all that you think, say, and do. Until next week, 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.
