In today’s episode, Rick Hughes unravels the intricacies of living a life aligned with divine principles. Through the powerful lenses of Psalms and Proverbs, understand the importance of reverence, respect, and being alert to God’s warnings. This journey will guide you through understanding the eternal value of spiritual laws and how they serve as a protective red alert system to keep you on a path of righteousness, joy, and ultimate fulfillment in God’s world.
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 good morning and welcome to the flatline i’m your host rick hughes and for the next few minutes please stick around a big time of motivation some inspiration some education
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And you know we don’t do any manipulation. We’re not trying to con you. We’re not hustling money. We’re not trying to sell you anything. We’re not trying to play with your emotions by some sensationalized topic. We’re just trying to help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life. If we can do that, then you have the freedom and the privacy to orient and adjust to the plan. But our show is the FLOT line, and that’s a military acronym for the Forward Line of Troops, F-L-O-T. What we’re trying to teach you is there are 10 unique problem-solving devices found in the scripture. Nothing new. This is not some brilliant new discovery that I made. This was taught by my pastor many years ago. But if you will learn these 10 unique problem-solving devices and deploy them in your life, learn them, use them, then they will help you stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever become the inside source of stress. That’s why we say adversity is inevitable and stress is optional. Why? Because adversity is what circumstances do to you and stress is what you do to yourself. So there is a way to live without stress. There is a way to live without fear. There is a way to live without anger. There is a way to live without guilt. There is a way to live without bitterness. It’s the Christian life. The Christian life was demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ in the body of his humanity when he toured this earth before he went to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father above. He left us a template, an example that we can live just like he lived. And therefore, we are told to learn the mind of Christ, to learn to think like he thought. So today, what I would like to do is to go into the book of Psalms, into the Old Testament scripture, and give you a verse and make a few comments on that particular verse, if you would allow me, please. This is from Psalm 19, verses 9 through 11. And by the way, all of these radio shows have a transcript available. If you’d like to get the transcript, the written transcript of this show, you can contact us through our website, rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org, not Richard Hughes Ministries. That’s not me. That’s somebody else. rickhughesministries.org, or you can call us 800-831-0718, 800-831-0718. A lot of people are surprised when I pick up the phone. I hear that all the time. Am I talking to the guy that does this radio show? Yes, you are. I will answer the phone most of the time. So anyhow, if you want to get in touch with us, give us a shout. I’d like to know where you are, that you’re listening. And we appreciate you giving us a few minutes of your time. Psalm 19, 9 through 11. Here it is. Quote, the fear of the Lord. All right. Focus on that one. The fear of the Lord. is clean and enduring forever. Focus on those two words, clean and enduring. So the fear of the Lord is clean and enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord, this is something else I want you to focus on, the judgments of the Lord, his ordinances are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold? yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb, and moreover by them, that’s the ordinances of God, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping them, the ordinances of God, there’s a great reward. So let’s back up now. What does it mean, the fear of the Lord? Does that mean you’re supposed to be scared of him? The Hebrew word for fear is pronounced yerah, Y-E-A-R dash A-W, yerah, that’s the way you pronounce it. And it means respect or reverence. So make a note here, as a mortal human being, the best thing that you could ever do is respect God and heed his mandates. Because if you ignore God’s direction, That’s simply your own arrogance and you valuing your opinion over God’s opinion. So that’s the best thing you could ever do is to respect his ordinances. If you try to navigate your way through the devil’s world without the divine roadmap, that’s just plain dumb. I mean, it’s not thinking. You are going to navigate your way through the devil’s world without a divine roadmap? Come on, what are you thinking about? Notice these three unique assets that come to you when you respect God’s plan for your life. Listen to them. Here they are, Proverbs 3, 1 and 2. My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. For a length of days, there’s one of them, and a long life, there’s a second one, and peace shall they add to thee. So when you obey the ordinances of God, these are the three unique assets that come to you. Forget not my law, but let your heart keep my ordinances, my mandates, my commandments for a length of days, one, long life, two, and in peace, number three, they shall add to you. How about that? You and I can only imagine how many people have destroyed their personal lives and even the lives of others by ignoring what I’m telling you this morning. The self-centered individual will actually use his own volition to destroy his life and more than likely sometimes others with whom he’s involved. So you must understand this. You can just not imagine. how many people have destroyed their lives by disobeying the mandates of God, by ignoring the ordinances of God, shorten their life and ruin their life, and sometimes the lives of those involved with them. Proverbs 3.33, the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesses the habitation of the just. One thing God will not do is he will never manipulate you. He gave you free will, abolition, freedom to choose as part of your makeup of your soul. You can choose for or against God. You can choose to accept Christ or reject Christ. You can choose to obey God or not obey God. You can choose to respect and reverence God’s ordinances or ignore them. It’s your life, your choice, but you’re only gonna get one shot at it, by the way. Don’t think you’re gonna be able to back up and do it again. It’s not. You’re gonna get one shot. but he will never manipulate you. Our Father gave you free will and you can choose to reject Christ or you can choose to accept Christ. That’s your decision. Likewise, as a Christian, you can choose to learn God’s mandates or ignore God’s mandates. It’s your future and you and you and you are responsible for the outcome of your life. So that verse in Psalm 19, 9 that we quoted to you The fear of the Lord is clean and enduring. It says the respect of God is clean and enduring. What does it mean, clean? What’s that mean? Respect of the Lord is clean. The word for a Hebrew word used for clean is pronounced tahor, tahor. What does that mean? It means pure in a moral sense. So to respect God and reverence God in his word is the most morally pure thing you could ever do in your life. The verse before verse nine, verse eight in Psalm 19, says the laws of God are correct and obedience causes rejoicing and enlightenment. Do you hear that? The laws of God, the ordinances of God, the mandates of God are correct and obedience, obeying them, causes what? Rejoicing and enlightenment. So you have a choice to determine the course of your life this morning. One thing you could choose to reject Christ and wind up in the lake of fire, Revelation 20, verse 15. Or you could choose to believe in Christ and be redeemed from sin and spiritual death, Romans 3, 24. It talks about that. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Assuming you have the good sense to follow this directive, here’s what you can expect. The fear of the Lord is pure and enduring forever. The Hebrew word for enduring is the word amad, amad. And it means to stand or remain. Thus, your reverence or respect for God and his word, his ordinances, is noted as being morally correct and has everlasting results. For example, the word of God stored in the memory banks of your soul will sustain you in the conflict with Satan. Ephesians 6.14, stand firm, having the belt of truth around your waist. And that’s a military metaphor for the word of God, everything strapped to it, the word of God around your waist. So what is the process for it? downloading God’s word into your soul. What’s the process? How do you do that? It’s a very simple process. Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, the Lord Jesus Christ said. Study, grow, learn. That’s the process to download the word of God into your mentality of your soul and demonstrate your respect for the ordinances of God. This verse goes on to say that the ordinances of God are true and righteous altogether. What does that mean? The judgments or the ordinances refer to this. It’s the Hebrew word mishpat, mishpat. And it’s a judicial decree or a verdict passed by God. And this verse states that his judgments, his mishpat, are true, true, Hebrew word emet, emet, right or sure or correct, firm. Our Father’s ordinances, judgments, word is always fair, always correct. But remember this, the righteousness of God is guarded by the justice of God. So whatever the righteousness of God rejects, the justice of God will condemn. In verse 10 of Psalm 19, goes on to say this, His righteousness and justice are to be desired more than gold and that they are sweeter than honey. Now, I don’t know about you, but I sure like honey. I like honey in my hot coffee in the morning. So some people put honey on fried chicken. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried that, but that’s delicious. But there’s nothing sweeter than honey. And here’s the principle. There’s nothing sweeter than the gift of eternal life for you and for me. just as the bee does all the work to provide the honey the righteousness of god has done all the work to provide eternal life for me and for you he did it how does that work he who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we may be made the righteousness of god through him the death of the lord jesus christ on the cross provided for you redemption. So when you come to the cross and you put your faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross, his righteousness is accredited to your account and your sin was put on him. That’s why the Bible says he that knew no sin was made sin for us so that we may be made the righteousness of God through him. Your righteous standing before God today is not based on the fact that you don’t drink, smoke, chew, dance, or do any of that weird stuff. It’s based on the fact that you are in Christ Jesus. That’s where your righteousness comes from. So on top of the gift of eternal life, The ordinances of God provide unlimited blessing for you while you are living in the devil’s world. Such blessings are said to be in this scripture even more than gold or honey. And this verse indicates tremendous life that you can expect when you are reverencing God and when you are obeying his mandates. Note the temporal and eternal value of God’s ordinances, what the psalmist says. He says that they serve as a red alert system. The ordinances of God serve as a red alert system, and they offer great reward for being obedient. Listen to Psalm 1911. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping them there’s great reward. You see that? By them I am warned, and keeping them there’s great reward. So there’s the red alert system. When you have the ordinances of God in your soul, when you’ve taken in the word of God, learned it, applied it into your life, it acts as a red alert system. And immediately when the temptations come up from your own sin nature, when the temptations from Satan come across, then the word of God will ring out from inside your soul and tell you, don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that. Maybe even a scripture verse will come up. That’s what the Holy Spirit will use to remind you, stay away from sin. So please remember that. In keeping them, there is great reward. So if all this is true, and obviously it is, then what does God expect out of you? Could you tell me that? The scriptures of the New Testament plainly tell us what God expects from us in regards to obeying his mandates. You want to hear it? Listen carefully. 1 John 5, 3 says, This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not grievous. We keep his ordinances, we keep his mandates. This is how you demonstrate you love God, is by being obedient. If you say you love God and you’re not obedient, you’re a liar. For example, the Bible says, he that says he loves God and hates his brother is a liar, and the truth is not in him. You cannot hate somebody and love God at the same time. Now that’s why we study personal love for God and personal love for others, two of those unique problem-solving devices. The greatest virtue love you have is the motivational virtue to love God by being obedient. And you say, well, I can’t always obey him. Yes, you’re not perfect. You make mistakes. But you can use problem-solving device number one, rebound, go to the Father, admit your sin, and he’ll cleanse you from it. So this is the scripture, the New Testament, that tells us what God expects from us. If you love me, keep my mandates, they are not hard. So what’s God asking you to do? Just to love him. That’s all, just to love him as he loves you. Does the Bible say that? Sure. John 4, 19, we love him because he first loved us. It’s called reciprocal love motivation. You didn’t love him. He loved you first. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believed in him would not perish but have everlasting life. God loved you when you were unlovable. And if you have accepted Christ and believed in him and received him, now God loves you based on what? The righteousness of Christ in you. You’re in the royal family. Did you earn it? No. Did you buy it? No. Was it a free gift? Yes. For by grace are you saved through faith. It’s a gift of God, not of works. Best anyone should brag about it. There it is. This couldn’t be any more simple. We love him because he first loved us. Now, you can misdirect your love, and that’s very easy to do. You can get occupied with the wrong things. Listen carefully. 1 John 2.15, love not the world, and don’t love the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That’s the lure of the world. That’s thinking that people or circumstances can make you happy. If you’re in love with the details of life, you’re not in love with the Father. Because why? You will violate the protocol standards of the Word of God to get what you want. You’ll step on people. You’ll lie about people. You’ll cheat on your taxes. You’ll rob. You’ll steal. You’ll do whatever you want to do. to make yourself happy. And of course, those are obviously terrible sins. You have misdirected love. You love the details of life. Therefore, the Bible says, do not love this world. If you’re a Christian, you’re not of this world. You’re a sojourner. You’re passing through. You’re only here for a little while. Listen. eternity is forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Sure, we may be here 50 years, 60 years, 70 years, 80 years, if you’re lucky. It’s just a dot in eternity. So don’t make the mistake of putting all your cards into this life. Love not this world or the things that are in this world. If any man loves this world, the love of the Father is not in him. With all the appeals that this world offers, the one thing it cannot do is fill an empty soul. It can’t do that. Unhappy people take their unhappiness with them wherever they go. That’s the sad truth. They spend money they don’t have to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t even like. Unhappy people take their unhappiness with them wherever they go. We saw the scriptures told us that the ordinances of God are to be more desired than gold or even sweet honey. Listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ said about being happy. Here’s his own words. Happiness belongs to those people who hear my father’s word and keep it. Luke 11, 28. He said these words after he was being interrupted by a woman while he was teaching. She got on her self-righteous high horse and blurted out, happiness belongs to the womb of your mother and to the breast of your mother. And he said, no, you’re wrong. In Luke 11, 27, that’s what she proclaimed. Happiness belongs to the womb that bore thee and the breast that nursed thee. And our Lord very gently said, I’m sorry that you’re wrong. Happiness belongs to those who hear, hear the word of God and keep it. Hear and keep, that’s called momentum. You don’t grow if you don’t apply. And you don’t grow if you don’t hear. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So when you sit under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor who’s able to dissect the scriptures and teach you the word of God line by line, word by word, verse by verse, and then you can apply that into your life, this is what our Lord’s looking for. He said it in Jeremiah, I’m looking for people that not only know me but understand me. That’s always been my objective through this radio show, to help you understand the God you already know. So that’s what we’re trying to do for you. Does God warn us about our behavior? Does God warn us any way whatsoever? Yes. Verse 11 of Psalm 19 says this. This is the final verse in those three verses. By them, that’s the mandates of God and the ordinances of God, by them thy servant is warned and in keeping them there’s great reward. So does God warn us about our behavior and our desires? Yes, he certainly does. In Hebrews 3.15, while it is said today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the day of provocation. Harden your hearts is a reference to scar tissue. Many people get scar tissue. They put things in their life that don’t belong there and the result is it scars up their life and they’re not able to think. They’re not able to see clearly what they’re doing to themselves. So while it is said today, now, and this goes for this radio show right now, if you can hear the voice of God through what I’m telling you, do not let your heart get hard as in the day of provocation. Hebrews 12, six and seven. Those the Lord loves, he chastens. And he scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, that’s discipline, then God deals with you as with a son. For what son is he whom the father does not chasten? Discipline comes in three stages. Warning discipline, intense discipline, and dying discipline. Your heavenly father will warn you when you’re out of line. The Holy Spirit will convict you of your sin. You will be warned through the scripture, through a message a preacher says. You may be warned by something you hear on television. You may be warned by something you read on the billboard. You may be warned by what I’m telling you today, but if God warns you, If he reaches out and you hear it and you understand and you don’t reply, you don’t act on it, then comes the second stage of discipline, which is intense discipline. And this is where there’s pain involved. Pain. Those that God loves, he chastens. Yes, he does. Sometimes he has to take us out behind a woodshed to get our attention. Here’s a question for you. The pain and suffering you’re currently enduring, could it be discipline from your father due to your own negative volition and your failure to respect and obey the ordinances of God? If so, the solution is pretty simple. In Psalm 3, 1 through 5, blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is a man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. The psalmist went on to say, when I kept silent, my bones waxed old through my roaring all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. That’s discipline. And my moisture turned into the drought of summer. But I acknowledge my sin, verse 5, Psalm 31. I acknowledge my sin unto you, and my iniquity have I not hid from you. And I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. That is rebound. That is problem-solving device number one. If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all wrongdoing. There’s nothing to be gained from hiding sin from God. He knows it. He’s aware of it. There’s nothing to be gained by continuing in your sin. He knows it and he’s aware of it. And if he loves you, he will discipline you. It’s very possible that what you’re going through this very moment It’s very possible that the pain you’re experiencing this very moment is divine discipline from God. Not because he’s mad at you, not because he hates you, but because he loves you. He’s trying to wake you up to the pattern of self-destruction. He’s trying to let you know you are about to destroy yourself by doing this. It is my prayer that you’re listening. It’s my prayer that you’re paying attention. It’s my prayer that you will respond to what I’m telling you today. When I kept silent, my bones waxed old through my roaring all day long. I hurt all day long, the psalmist said. Day and night, your hand was heavy on me, discipline. My morture was turned into the drought of summer, drying up, dying. And I acknowledge my sin unto you. My iniquity I did not hide anymore. I confess my transgression and you forgave it. That’s a wonderful gift from God. God will forgive you. I don’t care what you’ve done. If you will go to the father and admit it, name it, tell him what you did. He’s faithful and just to forgive you. You want to live a long time? You want to have a wonderful life? Then learn to fear and respect the ordinances of God. This is your host, Rick Hughes. I thank you very much for listening to The Flatline. I hope you’ll get in touch with us if we can help. Until next week, 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.
