Self-Examination
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 999 aired on October 13, 2024
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes, please stick around. You may ask yourself, how do these shows benefit me? That’s a
fair question. I take comfort in God’s grace provisions. He gives the inspiration for my messages.
The objective is always to make you wealthy spiritually. 2 Corinthians 4:7 says,
“We have this
treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not
from ourselves.”
The word for treasure is the Greek word
thesauros,
meaning a word treasure.
Colossians 2:2-3 says,
“That their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love,
and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding
[understanding the Word of God]
, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ
Himself in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Proverbs 3:13-15 says,
“How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her profit
[there’s the wealth again]
is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. She
is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her
[the wisdom of the Word
of God]
.”
After my own salvation many years ago I had many questions as a young Christian. I
didn’t have a church background so I was not influenced by any sort of religion. As I grew and
sought the Lord’s will for my life, I had several influential men who tried to direct me into their
way of thinking and it just didn’t click with me. They were trying to make me something I was
not. Eventually, the Holy Spirit directed me to a great pastor, a no nonsense type guy who
provided me with a great Biblical education. I hope to teach you this sort of information that my
pastor taught me so that you will grow and become rich in God’s plan because with spiritual
wealth, you are going to be a dangerous person to the enemy. You will be equipped to see past
the scams and temptations he’ll throw your way, things that seek to ruin your life. What about it?
Are you hungry? Are you ready to grow spiritually because if so, I have information for you this
morning. We are going to do a self-examination from the Scripture as seen in Psalm 19:14,
“Let
the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my
rock and my Redeemer.”
What we find in Psalm 19, especially in verses 1-3, is David’s
recognition of God’s unfailing love for all, since He reveals Himself for all to acknowledge.
Listen to Psalm 19:1-3 about God revealing Himself to everyone.
“The heavens are telling of the
glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth
speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their
voice is not heard.”
There is no place in the world at any moment of time that God’s glory is not
revealed, teaching who He is. In this passage David discloses how creation itself reveals the
presence of God. Some people call this nature but we know more than that. There has never been
a time or place on this planet that God’s presence is not seen or understood. From the coldest
regions to the warmest regions, God can be seen, and if the one observing His creation wishes to
know Him, I promise you God will provide the necessary path through Jesus Christ to come to
999-Self-Examination-transcript.pdf
know Him. This attitude is called positive volition at God consciousness. Each individual who
accepts Christ as Savior must first come to recognize there is a God who they can then come to
know. Here is God consciousness, Romans 1:19-20,
“Because that which is known about God is
evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being
understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”
Some people may try
to identify God and worship Him by placing faith in a tree, a rock, a fish or a bird but this is only
ritual that has no reality. Anyone who seeks to know God will be given the information about
how to come to Him. Salvation requires one thing, positive volition at God consciousness. Then
once you are positive at God consciousness, you say, “I want to know God. I want to understand
God,” He will give you the gospel. Then there is positive volition at gospel hearing when you
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,. These are the two great decisions in your life, God
consciousness and gospel hearing. I became God conscious at age eleven. I distinctly remember
it at a camp where my mother sent me but I was 22 before I heard the gospel. The Bible gives
credit to God for His work in creating and sustaining the universe. In Psalm 147:4,
“He counts
the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.”
I guess there are approximately 200
billion trillion stars according to smart people, but apart from God, who could actually count
them? I’d like to see the guy they pay to count them. Listen to Job 12:7-10,
“But now ask the
beasts, and let them teach you; and the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you. Or speak to
the earth, and let it teach you; and let the fish of the sea declare to you. Who among all these
does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living
thing, and the breath of all mankind?”
When I read that passage Psalm 19:14,
“Let the words of
my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my
Redeemer,”
here is what we’re saying. When the Psalmist says,
“Let the words of my mouth,”
consider the average individual is going to speak about 16,000 words every day. I do know a few
individuals who could break that record easily because they’re a bit loquacious. It would be an
interesting experiment to carry a recorder around one complete day and go back and listen to
everything you said. Wouldn’t that be interesting? Did you complain? Did you criticize? Did you
express appreciation? Did you pray? Did you tell even one person about the saving work of the
Lord Jesus Christ? Don’t forget what the Psalmist says, “Let them be acceptable in Your sight.”
Maybe you fail to realize that God hears every word you utter throughout the day. Did you know
this? Luke 12:2-3 gives us clear insight to this.
“But there is nothing covered up that will not be
revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark
will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed
upon the housetops.”
Again, did you complain? Did you criticize? Did you express appreciation?
Did you even tell one person about the saving work of Christ because everything you say is
known. If you wish to avoid that embarrassment of being judged for your conversation then
remember this in regards to what you say.
“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth,
but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it
999-Self-Examination-transcript.pdf
will give grace to those who hear”
(Ephesians 4:29). When the Psalmist says,
“Let the words of
my mouth and the meditation of my heart,”
it is important to remember what you say and what
comes out of your mouth. In James 1:19,
“This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone
must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.”
Also in Proverbs 18:2,
“A fool does not
delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own mind
[running his mouth]
.”
This is
exactly what a fool loves to do. He loves to get people around him, run his mouth and try to tell
them that he knows what’s best for everybody else. If you wish to avoid the embarrassment of
being judged for your conversation, remember these words again,
“Let no unwholesome word
proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need
of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”
Grace, not judgment. Let God
handle the judging. You just give out the grace. Let’s go back to that original verse,
“Let the
words of my mouth
[the things that I say throughout the day]
and the meditation of my heart
be
acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”“Meditation of my heart,”
remember this is a self-examination. The first thing we examine is what we have to say, what we
speak and remember God is listening to everything you say. A lot of people don’t realize this.
God can hear you but here’s something. You’ll be shocked when I tell you this. Not only can He
hear you but He can read your mind,
“The meditation of my heart.”
What exactly is this
referring to when David said,
“And the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight?”
The Hebrew word for meditation means to ponder or to think or to reflect. It does appear that
God is able to read our thoughts. Did you know this? You don’t even have to open your mouth
and God can read what you’re thinking. In Psalm 139:1-2,
“O Lord, You have searched me and
known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar.”
Yes He does. Right now, God knows whatever you’re thinking. He understands your thoughts.
This is why the Psalmist says,
“Let the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight.”
He’s
saying, “Don’t let me get into thinking some negative something that I don’t need to think.”
Psalm 139 says, “You’ve searched me up and down. You know my thoughts from afar off.”
Listen to Proverbs 21:2,
“Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the
heart.”
He evaluates what you’re thinking. The heart is the right lobe of your soul The Bible so
that you have a mind. The Greek word for mind is
nous
. This is your mentality. We get the word
knowledge from this. You also have a heart, the Greek word is
kardia
and this isn’t referring to
the part that beats and circulates blood. I hope your heart is doing good, but it’s a different heart.
It’s the responsive part of your soul. When you hear information, you understand it, but until you
cycle it or metabolize it and apply it into your life, it doesn’t do you any good. This is why Jesus
said in Luke 11:28,
“Blessed
[happy]
are those who hear the Word of God and observe it.”
He
said this in response to the woman who challenged Him when she stood up and claimed that His
mother must be really proud of Him. He said, “Happiness comes to people who hear My Father’s
Word and keep it.” Again,
“Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the
heart.”
The Lord examines your thoughts. He examines the meditations of your heart. This is
what we know as the omniscience of God. It’s amazing, God actually has the ability to see our
999-Self-Examination-transcript.pdf
private thoughts. Remember that this attribute is not an attribute that Satan has. Satan is not
omnipresent nor is Satan omniscient. He depends on his fallen angels, otherwise known to us as
demons, to communicate to him our activities. Ephesians 6:12 tells us this,
“For our struggle is
not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces
of this darkness.”
Satan has a G2 getting intelligence on us and what we’re up to but he cannot
read your mind. He cannot read what you’re thinking. I can promise you, if you are not a threat to
him, he’s not going to be worrying about you. I don’t think he’s overly concerned about your
daily activities especially if we can’t gain victory over our own flesh, our sin nature, or the lure
from the world, what the world throws at us. God does have the ability to see our private
thoughts. What a wonderful attribute. A lot of times when I’m praying, I don’t pray out loud. I
pray silently but I know God hears me because He can read my thoughts. I know that Satan can
not and it’s a comforting thing to know that he doesn’t know what I’m thinking. What does the
Bible say about the way God thinks? Remember this, He doesn’t think like we think. It’s very
clear in Isaiah 55:8,
“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’
declares the Lord.”
What He is saying is, “I don’t think like you think.” God doesn’t think in
terms of emotions like we do. He doesn’t have a bad day and a good day. He doesn’t get His
feelings hurt like we do. He never gets lonely. He’s not needy. His thoughts are absolutely
righteous and always motivated by virtue love. God doesn’t think like you think. You get
frustrated. You get upset. You get angry. You get bitter. God never gets this way. He thinks
completely different. What do I mean by this? In Romans 5:8,
“But God demonstrates His own
love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
This is thinking differently.
If you have somebody you hate, you’re not going to die for them. You’re not going to lay your
life down for some enemy. If some person wants to kill you, would you be willing to die for
them? This is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He laid His life down, even for those who
hated Him. Why would He do this? In Psalm 86:15,
“But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and
gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.”
What a great great thing
about our God. This needs to be your personality profile also. Are you full of compassion
[merciful]? Are you gracious? Are you longsuffering [slow to anger]? Are you abundant in mercy
[lovingkindness] and truth? These are characteristics of God and you can have these through the
filling of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the Word of God in your soul. You can think like this
as well. You can have His compassion. When you look at a person, do you think about their
eternal destiny? Do you think whether or not they are going to heaven? Do you have any
compassion about those that are suffering in our nation today, as we see on the news the terrible
disasters we have been experiencing the last month? What kind of compassion do you have?
How gracious are you to help those people in need? If God wants to be pleased with the
meditations of our heart as the Psalmist says,
“Let the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
Your sight,”
how can we please God like this? What do we need to do? In Philippians 4:8 Paul
the apostle wrote about this. He said,
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true
[this is the first key]
,
whatever is honorable
[noble, another key]
, whatever is right
[just],
whatever is pure, whatever
999-Self-Examination-transcript.pdf
is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if
[and there is]
there is any excellence
[virtue]
and if
anything worth of praise
[and there is]
, dwell on these things.”
Here the Apostle Paul gives a
mandate on what you are to think and what you are to meditate upon. If the Lord looks at you
and He looks at the meditation of your heart, this is what we want Him to see. We want Him to
see that you love truth. Truth is the Greek word
aletheia.
It means the things that are not hidden,
the things that are not concealed, that you are a lover of truth. What a wonderful thing this is and
it’s obvious that Satan doesn’t speak the truth. Our Lord said this about Satan himself. He called
him,
“The father of lies.”
In John 8:44,
“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the
desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth
because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he
is a liar and the father of lies.”
God doesn’t tolerate liars. This is one thing you have to realize in
your own life. Don’t lie. Don’t be deceptive. Don’t deceive people. Don’t say one thing and do
something else. Do you think in terms of truth? This is what Paul says, “Let your mind think in
terms that are true, things that are noble.” What does noble mean? This Greek word means things
that are dignified, things that are respected. It means simply to stay away from frivolous
conversations that are just mind distractions. The world is full of mind distractions. Politics is
one of them. It can get you very distracted from your spiritual life. If you want to have a life that
is pleasing to God in the meditations of your heart, don’t get into mind distractions. It says,
“Whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things
are lovely.”
“Just”
means righteous.
“Pure”
means innocent or holy.
“Lovely”
means those
things pleasing and grateful and acceptable. It goes on to say, “Whatever things are of a good
report, whatever things are healthy.” The challenge to the church at Philippi is for them to have a
mental attitude free of spiritual default and sinful default. A good modern modified translation is
given in Yeager’s
The Renaissance New Testament.
I quote from Randolph Yeager where he
modified this translation. I think it’s a good translation. “Therefore my brothers, whatever there is
which is true, whatever is worthy of great respect, whatever is just, whatever is immaculate,
whatever is lovely and of good reputation, if there is anything virtuous and worthy of praise,
these are the things that you must think about.” Success starts with what you think in your soul.
Have you ever heard the term stinkin’ thinkin’? This is what you cannot afford to get into. Let
me show you some stinkin’ thinkin’ from Philippians 4:6,
“Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to
God.”
The surest way to discredit your spiritual life and destroy any opportunity you might have
to glorify God is for you to worry about something, and there can be any number of things to
worry about. What about our health? We worry about our health. We want to worry about our
finances. We want to worry about our family. There are many things to worry about. Those with
approbation lust worry that they’re not being accepted. They are not being given enough
attention. Remember that Paul says to be anxious about nothing. How do you do this? The faith-
rest drill, problem-solving device #3, is the solution to mind pollution. This is a key term you’ve
never heard me say before. What is mind pollution? It’s you worrying about something that’s not
999-Self-Examination-transcript.pdf
necessary. It’s you being anxious for something that is not important. Mind pollution is filling
your thoughts with garbage rather than with the confidence and the appreciation for what God
has done for you and what God will willingly do for you. Listen to Psalm 118:8 dealing with
mind pollution.
“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.”
Do you put
confidence in an elected official? Do you think if we elect a certain person, the world is going to
get right all of a sudden, everything is going to be good and shiny again? It’s not true. Jeremiah
17:5 says,
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind.”
Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ
controls history. God was in business before we got here and He’s going to be in business long
after we are gone so we have to learn to put our trust in Him. It is better to trust in the Lord, wait
on the Lord, be confident in the Lord than to put your confidence in any man. Isaiah 41:10
clearly says,
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your
God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous
right hand.”
This should be your verse to claim today. Don’t be afraid about what you’re facing.
He’s with you. Don’t be dismayed. He is your God. He will protect you. Don’t get weak. He said,
“I will strengthen you and I will raise you up. I will help you. I will uphold you with My
righteous right hand.” My question to you this morning is, in your self-examination, what does
your heart meditate on? When you are thinking, what are you thinking about? Let’s go back to
the beginning verse,
“Let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in
Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”
Can you claim this prayer today with me, “I
want my words to be something that glorifies Him; I want what I think to glorify Him; I want
what I say and what I think to be acceptable in His sight?” He is listening to everything. Not only
does He hear what I say but He understands what I’m thinking. Where do I get my strength?
Where do I get my redemption? From Him. He is my strength and He is my Redeemer. Without
God’s wonderful grace we would all be in bad shape, I promise you. This is your self-
examination this morning. Look at this verse. Quote it. Pray over it. Ask the Lord to speak to you
about these things because He’s always with you. He’s always listening. Remember, the only way
to get to Him is through Jesus Christ, His anointed Son. This is why John 3:16 says,
“Whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
You can have eternal life even today right
where you sit by placing your faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
“For whoever
will call on the name of the Lord will be saved”
(Romans 10:13). The Bible is clear about this.. If
you don’t know for sure you are going to heaven, you should settle this today. Can you know for
sure? Yes. 1 John 5:13 says,
“These things I have written to you who believe in name of the Son
of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life,”
not hope, not wish but know. How do I
know it? 1 John 5:12 says,
“He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of
God does not have the life.”
If you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and received Him as your
Savior, you have eternal life. What a joy it is to bring you these shows. We’re pressing on now
toward 1,000 shows being on the radio. You have been so kind to pray for me and encourage me.
Thank you for listening. We will be back next week, same time, same place. Until then, this is
your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for listening to The FLOT Line