In this episode, host Rick Hughes explores the essence of the believer’s heart through the lens of scriptural wisdom and personal spiritual growth. Delving into the heart’s symbolic role in the Bible, he discusses how true spirituality is molded not by what we do, but by the intentions and beliefs we store within. Drawing from Gnosticism and dualistic thinking, Rick uncovers the misleading paths that can divert a believer from authentic Christianity, yet emphasizes the clarity and simplicity of faith that is grounded in scripture.
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 02 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stick around. It’ll be 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education, but no manipulation. That’s right, we don’t con people. We’re not trying to beg you for money. We’re not trying to sell you anything. We just want to give you information that will help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life. If I’m able to do that, then you can orient and adjust to the plan as you wish. But my job is to get it right. Remember, God gave you two ends, one you sit with and one you think with. Success in your life is going to depend on which end you use. Heads you win and tails you’re losing. So I want to remind you that we do have transcripts of many of our messages from 2018, 19, 20, and 21. Every radio show that we did, we have a written transcript in book form. If you’d like to have that, go to our website, rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org, and you can find how to order those books there and other things, too, that are all free of charge. rickhughesministries.org. Not Richard Hughes, that’s a guy in Georgia. That’s not me, I promise you, so… People get that confused all the time because he has richardhughesministries.org, and that is not me. It’s rickhughesministries.org. You can always call us at 800-831-0718, 800-831-0718, and order that way if you’d like to. So today, what I want to talk to you about I’ve been praying a lot about this one and I think this is going to be something very interesting for you. Let me remind you back in 1952, if you were around in those days, I was, you might not have been, but maybe you were. There was a great country singer named Hank Williams and he cut a record called Your Cheating Heart. Do you remember that one? Your cheating heart will tell on you. The song was about a woman who cheated on the one that loved her. And the last words are your cheating heart will tell on you. supposedly the cheater would regret what she did and cry to have her lover back that was real country music back in those days both hank williams and marty robbins could sing some amazing songs today i want to talk to you about the believers cheating heart because the bible has a lot to say about your heart however the heart that the bible speaks about is not the organ in your chest That’s actually something located between your ears, if you believe that. That’s right, between your ears, not in your chest, between your ears. So if God wants to check out your motives and your intentions, he will look into your heart. In Proverbs 23, 7, maybe you’ve heard me say this verse. For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. The Old Testament Hebrew word for heart is leb, L-E-B-H. And that means the soul or the inner being of a man. And your heart is located in the mentality of your soul. Remember, you have a soul with mentality, volition, consciousness, and self-consciousness. And your heart is in the mentality of your soul. The Greeks had another word for it. They called it the cardia, from which we get the word cardiology or cardiac, like the heart doctor. So the New Testament does make a distinction between the heart and the mind. The word for mind in the Greek New Testament is pronounced nous, N-O-U-S. The Greek Gnostics of the New Testament were those who coveted that sort of knowledge, especially esoteric, mystical knowledge. And a primary belief of that Gnosticism that Paul faced was called dualism. This idea purports that cosmological conflict of antithetical forces exists and will always be polar opposites in the world. In plain English, this meant that throughout time and space, certain contrary forces may have and will struggle against each other, and these forces are matter and spirit, are evil and good, are darkness and light, much like the oriental yin and yang thing. So in such a dualistic system, there’s no overlapping or gray area allowed. that belief coupled with the gnostic idea that christians had been initiated into the knowledge or the gnosis of salvation led the gnostic to think one of two ways that the only way to attain true spirituality was to deny their flesh or deny matter or anything that might tempt them to sin and those who thought this way were called ascetics But the opposite extreme were those things done in the body that are inconsequential, because only the things in the spirit counts, and these Gnostics were called licentious. So this doctrine sought to corrupt the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was called Gnosticism, since it combined the idea of Greek philosophy and Oriental mysticism in Christianity called syncretism, combining the two. This type of thinking is based only on the noose or the mind, only in what we call the mind, and info in the mind is only not, any info in the mind only is not good. It’s got to get out of the mind into the heart. As a matter of fact, knowledge alone can cause a person to be very arrogant and very proud. For example, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 8, 1, that knowledge puffeth up. So Christians must take knowledge to completion or to obedience or to obey what they learn. If you know it but you don’t obey it, then it’s called gnosis in the Bible, knowledge. The material believer will take what he learns and store it in his heart where it’s said to be full knowledge or the Greeks had another word for that called epinosis. Epi is a preposition meaning full and gnosis meaning knowledge or full knowledge. And that’s the difference between hearing it and obeying it. So your spiritual life is motivated by what’s in your heart, not what’s in your mind, what’s in your heart. In Ephesians 6, 6, Paul wrote these words. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. There’s the obedience of the heart. In Proverbs 3, verse 1, my son, do not forget my laws, but let your heart keep my mandates. So the scripture that you and I learn must be guarded. And the Bible tells us in Proverbs 4, 23, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life. The unsaved individual, the person who is not a Christian, can have a deceitful heart. A wicked heart, in other words, no control over the powers of his flesh. Notice Jeremiah 17, nine says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who could know it? So the unregenerate individual, the person who’s not a Christian, has no way of controlling or even understanding his sin nature. But once he gets saved or through regeneration, he has the ability to overcome and recognize the power of the sin nature. Thus salvation gives him a clean heart or a new heart. Listen to Psalm 5110. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. So remember, by receiving Christ as Savior, you can have a heart transplant, a clean heart, forgiven of all sin, renewed fellowship with your Heavenly Father, and this is called the second birth, or being born again. In John 3.3, Jesus told Nicodemus, Now this salvation the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about is not you inviting Christ into your heart, as some people mistakenly say, because your salvation comes by believing in the true identity of Jesus, the anointed Son of God. Why can I say that? Because of John 8 24, where Jesus said, therefore I say to you, you will die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. So the heart is the seat of your spiritual life, since it’s here that all spiritual phenomena is stored in your stream of consciousness, particularly in what’s called the memory center. In Jeremiah 17 10, the Bible says, I, Jehovah, search the heart, In other words, God’s examining your heart for the doctrine in your soul. And I test your emotions to see if they are subordinate to that doctrine. Again, I, Jehovah, search the heart and test the emotions. So he’s looking to see what you know, and he’s looking to see if you obey it. In 1 Samuel 16, 7, there’s an illustration of God rejecting Jesse’s oldest son from being the future king of Israel because he looked into Eliab’s heart. The young man’s name was Eliab. He was a military leader, and Jesse, his father, thought maybe he could be the future king of Israel. But here’s what the scripture says. The Lord said to Samuel, don’t look on his outward appearance, on how tall he is, because I’ve rejected him. Because God does not see as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance. But the Lord looks on the heart inside. He looks to see what the heart, what’s in the heart. That’s the critical thing about your life. So the enemy of thinking of the heart is the unseen emotion of arrogance. I’m gonna say that again, listen. The enemy of the thinking in your heart is the unseen emotion of arrogance. You got to be careful about that. In Proverbs 18, 12, before his downfall, a person’s heart is arrogant. But humility must come before honor. Remember that arrogance is always identified by self-justification, self-absorption, self-deception, and self-destruction eventually. So a person that gets into his arrogance, he can justify why he’s right and why God’s wrong. He’ll justify why he’s right and why the preacher’s wrong. He’ll justify why he’s right and the police officer’s wrong. and he will deceive himself and become totally absorbed in what he wants to do. So God says before his downfall, a person’s heart is arrogant, but humility must come before honor, and that’s why we’re told to have the mind of Christ, the person who humbled himself and made himself of no reputation. So the believer, you and I, we’re motivated by our personal love for God. And if we will operate in true humility and seek God’s word, then we’ll be doing the right thing. Listen to Proverbs 18, 15. The heart of the discerning individual or the wise person acquires knowledge because the ears of the wise will seek it out. So this is you. Does your heart discern knowledge? Do you acquire knowledge? Are you hungry to grow? Are you hungry to learn? Are you hungry to apply it into your life? the heart of a child is a reference to negative volition to the authority of parents and a young person if you have children like my wife and i’ve had four children and we’ve seen this the heart of the child is a reference to negative volition to the authority of the parents you know who did that not me not me not me not me who did it when parents tell you don’t do something that means don’t do it the first thing a kid has to learn is authority orientation in the home So Proverbs 22, 15 says, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. There it is. But the rod of discipline will drive it far from him. In the heart of a child, in his emotions functioning in his mentality. So it’s from the heart that we make decisions and our volitional choices that we make. I mean, our mind comprehends things, but the heart acts on what we believe. So if you hear your pastor teaching the Word of God, it’s called coming into your noose where you comprehend it. You did a good job. You comprehended what he’s teaching you. But then you have to act on what he taught you, and that is act on what you believe. So that’s why Jesus said, happiness belongs to the people who hear my Father’s Word and keep it. The real you is what you keep. The real you is what’s in your heart’s decision-making process. Did you hear that? What’s in your heart’s decision-making process. That’s your volition. Proverbs 27, 19, as water reflects a face, so a person’s heart reflects that person. That’s why if God wants to check you out, he looks at your heart. He looks at what you’re thinking. He looks at what you know. He looks at what you’re obeying. Who and what you really are is not what appears on the surface. It’s what’s in your heart. I’ve spoken in many churches, and I’ve looked at many people that are there, you know, the nod to God crowd. They all dressed up for Easter especially or Christmas. They look nice. They sound nice. Oh, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. But what’s in their heart, I can’t see. Only God can see what’s in your heart. So God is not impressed with what you’re wearing. God’s not impressed with how you’re sounding. God’s impressed with what you’re thinking, what’s in your heart. So the soul is composed of at least four invisible but real parts. You have consciousness and self-consciousness and mentality and volition. Do you hear me? Consciousness, self-consciousness, mentality, and volition. And your mentality is divided into two parts. Your noose and your heart. Your noose and your cardia. Your mind and your heart. The heart is where you do your thinking. The heart is where you analyze. It’s where you apply the information out of the word of God. The heart is supposed to be the home of common sense. And the mind, or the nous, the Greeks called it, is where you assimilate the information. So if you go to church and you listen to the pastor teach the word, if you are in fellowship with God, the nous will comprehend what he’s teaching. But your volition in your heart has to say, yes, I believe it, and yes, I will obey it. And that’s what God’s looking for. In Philippians chapter four, verse seven, we are told this, The peace of God, that’s the filling of the Holy Spirit, that’s one of the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering. The peace of God will guard your heart and your mind. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, quote, will guard your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus. That’s a wonderful thought. When you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, you have protection that you didn’t have otherwise. It will guard your thoughts, guard your mind, because this is one of the places Satan attacks you in your mind. The attacks that we face as believers come in the form of doubt, discouragement, things like that. I mean, adversity is natural, but the peace that you have in the face of adversity is a supernatural gift from God. The Apostle John tells us what our Lord Jesus Christ said about this peace in the heart. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this before, but in John 14, 27, this is quoted in my book, These Things. The book, These Things. If you don’t have it, I hope you’ll get it because it’s the last message that our Lord taught his disciples before he was arrested and crucified. And in that passage in John 14, 27, he said these words, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. And then listen, here it comes. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Wow, there again is the emphasis on your heart, on what you’re thinking, what you’re living by, your decision-making process, not just the mind where you comprehend, but in the heart where you store the information. If you pull out a scripture verse, it comes out of your heart. If you act on a scripture verse, it comes from the heart. So this divine mandate is to not be discouraged by adversity. Lord Jesus Christ was telling them, don’t be discouraged by adversity and don’t be taken captive by fear. Now remember this, the enemy soldier when captured your body, but he cannot capture your heart. You hear me? The enemy soldier may capture your body, but he cannot capture your heart. When Paul speaks about the helmet of salvation in Ephesians chapter six, he’s referencing guarding your heart because Satan will often seek to create doubt in your thoughts by triggering your emotion, often through guilt or failure. He loves to do this. If he can get you to think what a failure I am, oh, I’m not a very good Christian, oh, look, I sinned, I did something really stupid, I think I’ll go sit in a corner and suck on my thumb and feel sorry for myself, then that’s exactly what he wants you to do. And he will seek to discourage you this way and create doubt that you’re really even saved. Many people today may think maybe I’m not saved because of something that I did. Maybe I did something bad and maybe I got saved when I was young, but I’m not saved anymore because I did something bad. That’s not true. God didn’t dump you. God didn’t turn his back on you. God didn’t throw you under the bus. Our Lord Jesus Christ promised you that he would never leave you nor would he ever forsake you. So remember that. satan may seek to create that doubt in your thoughts by triggering your emotions you know self-pity self-centeredness because of your guilt and because of the failure but it’s not true you have to learn to be strong in the heart because the christian life is all about priorities priorities you having the right priorities in your life that’s what i’d like to ask you this morning What is your priority in your life? Because whatever it is, that’s what you’re going to be facing the biggest challenge in. The Bible clearly says in Matthew 6, 21, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. There’s that word again, the cardia. Whatever is your priority, that’s where the challenge is. What’s your priority? What’s your treasure? What’s the number one thing in your life? If it is growing spiritually, if it is growing in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, if it is glorifying God to the maximum and representing Christ to your generation, that’s wonderful. That’s exactly what God wants you to do. So whatever your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be. Here’s a conclusion I want you to think about this morning before we wrap it up. I was studying the medical community and the heart, and I found that the medical community says there’s seven ways to make your physical heart stronger, not your spiritual heart, but your physical heart. I got this from the jeffersonhealth.org, jeffersonhealth.org. This is what they say. If you want to make your heart strong, your physical heart, eat a well-rounded, balanced diet. You know, stay off the French fries and cheeseburgers. And number two, don’t sit down too long. Get up and move around. And number three, brush your teeth every day. And number four, quit smoking. Avoid secondhand smoke. And number five, snack smartly throughout the day. Fruit, not candy. Number six, get plenty of sleep. and number seven recognize and reduce stress in your life now here’s what i want you to think about again eat a well-rounded diet don’t sit around too long get up move around brush your teeth quit smoking avoid secondhand smoke snack smartly get plenty of sleep and reduce stress in your life they say this will make you live longer and this will make your heart strong so having a healthy physical heart is certainly critical For you and I live in a long life, but listen, let me allow to suggest something to you. Let me suggest some ways for you to have a healthy spiritual heart. Not a physical heart, but a spiritual heart. That’s what I’m talking about. How can I have a healthy spiritual heart? Listen to 1 Timothy 4.8. This is talking about exercise. For bodily exercise profiteth a little. But godliness, and here’s the key word I want you to focus on, godliness is profitable for all things, having promises of the life that now is and of that which is to come. That word godliness is a Greek word pronounced eusebio, Eusebia, E-U-S-E-B-E-I-A. The Greeks used that word, Eusebia. And it referred to having an advanced spiritual life. Godliness is an advanced spiritual life. It’s not you acting all holy, you know, praise God, brother, hallelujah, sister. I would never take a drink. I would never smoke a cigarette. I would never say a dirty word. I would never watch TV. They’re doing the G-rated movie. So I’m spiritual. That’s crazy. Yusabai is not that. It’s the advanced spiritual life, and that requires a couple of things. Number one, not you acting all holy and self-righteous because you don’t do certain things, but it requires you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you know how, that’s the first question. Are you filled with the Holy Spirit this morning? I mean, you were indwelled with the Holy Spirit when you got saved, and Ephesians 1.13 tells you that. But at this very moment, are you filled with the Holy Spirit, or would you even know that? Can you know that you are filled with the Holy Spirit? Because the Bible mandates in Ephesians 5.18, be filled with the Spirit. How would you know if you’re filled with the Spirit? Well, is there any unconfessed sin in your life? Because sin quenches the Holy Spirit and sin grieves the Holy Spirit. And you may say, but I can’t keep up with all of my sins. I do a thousand a day. Well, you probably do. But listen to 1 John 1, 9, which is the rebound verse that we teach in the 10 Problem Solving Devices. If we confess our sins, known sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to purify us from all wrongdoing. When should I confess my sin? When I go to bed at night, nine o’clock at night, 10 o’clock at night, get down the side of your bed and say, oh Lord, at 8 a.m. this morning, I did a sin. At 9 a.m. this morning, I did another sin. At 10 a.m., I did another sin. Well, that just means you’ve been out of fellowship with all day long. When you sin, you must confess it immediately, not tonight, not tomorrow, immediately. Why? Because sin quenches the Holy Spirit, grieves the Holy Spirit, and you cannot have you, Sabiah, out of fellowship with God. You must be filled with the Holy Spirit. And why? So that you can take spiritual food in. The consistent intake of spiritual food is what? It’s the teaching of the word of God, scripture, doctrine, accurate teaching of the word of God. So you, Sabiah, is a combination of you being filled with the Holy Spirit and you learning God’s word consistently. Where does it say that? Well, the Bible says study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth. So here’s some principles if you want to have a great spiritual heart. Number one, even if doctrine is your number one priority in your life, it still requires a lot of self-discipline for the function of Operation Z. You know, the pastor teaches it, the Holy Spirit picks it up, the mind comprehends it, and the heart complies. If you don’t have positive volition, I don’t care how much you listen to the teaching of the Word of God, it won’t do you any good. You’ve got to obey it. Self-discipline is obeying it. Number two, so number one again, even if the word of God, Bible doctrine is your number one priority in your life, it still requires you to have a lot of self-discipline. Number two, verse eight of that passage in 1 Timothy 4.8 says this, it presents the analogy that physical exercise profits for a little while. If you have a priority slot for exercise, you’re motivated to exercise. then you exercise whether you feel like it or not. But you must be consistent for exercise to be profitable. Number three, verse eight says godliness is profitable for all things, not just physical exercise, but godliness. That’s exercising your heart. Even though it’s true this passage isn’t saying that godliness is better than exercise, First of all, it says that doctrine you learn today will carry you only for a short time, and that’s why many of the same things of the word of God need to be repeated throughout the Bible so that you can hear it over and over and over and over again. Even if the Bible repeats it, it’s good. So as with exercise, repetition is essential. If you listen every time a doctrine is repeated, then you’ll hear something new and begin to form application. And verse 8 says this, since it holds the promise of the present life and for life to come. Your happiness and your capacity for happiness, your prosperity and the ability to handle disaster, your ability to handle problems all come from that word eusebio or godliness. And the only thing you have in this life that will be profitable for you forever is godliness. So exercise tunes up the muscles, but godliness tunes up the spiritual heart. And a believer like you and I, we need spiritual power rather than physical power. So godliness, that word eusebia, is the Christian way of life and the protocol plan of God. 2 Peter 1.3, as his divine power has given to each one of us, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, how do we get it? through the knowledge of him who called us to his glory and virtue, through knowledge. In verse 747, but reject profane and old wives’ fables and exercise yourself towards eusebia or godliness. The greatest exercise you can do for your heart is godliness. Stay filled with the Holy Spirit. Take in the word of God consistently on a daily basis under a well-qualified pastor. Grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Maintain a humility profile. and be the man or the woman that God called you to be. Thank you for listening today. This is your host, Rick Hughes. Hope to be back next week, same time, same place. Until then, 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.
