Rick Hughes takes you on a compelling journey through the key stages of Christian life, from initial belief to spiritual maturity and beyond. This episode unpacks the concept of the exit resurrection, the importance of problem-solving devices, and the anticipation of eternal rewards. A must-listen for anyone looking to deepen their understanding and strengthen their faith-based practices.
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 Flotline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes. For the next few minutes, hang in there, stay with us. It’ll be 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, some education, a lot of education this morning, but absolutely no manipulation. We don’t try to con anybody to do anything except maybe ask you to listen to us. If we can communicate the information you need to hear, if we can verify and identify the plan of God for your life, then you can orient and adjust to the plan if you’d like to do that. That’s up to you. My job is not to convince you, to persuade you. My job is just to give you the facts. You’re smart enough to figure it out on your own. You know whether or not it’s true or not true, and you have a volition to You choose as part of the format of your soul. The volitional responsibility of the soul is critical. Whatsoever man sows, that he’ll also reap, the Bible says, and though we have to make decisions every day of our life, And the most critical decision we’ll ever make is what think ye of Christ, the Bible says. Is he the anointed son of God or is he not? So that’s the question all of us have to answer. And that’s why the Bible says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. 1 John 5, 3, he that believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. It’s critical. It’s the only way you’ll ever get to heaven. Not by works of righteousness, which we’ve done, but by grace. That’s the only way we ever get there. But according to his mercy, he saves us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit that he sheds on us abundantly through, by means of Jesus Christ our Lord. That being justified by grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope or confidence of eternal life. That’s the verse in Titus 3, 5 through 7. So thank you for tuning in to The Flotline. Remember, we always tell you God gave you two ends. One of those ends you sit with, one of those ends you think with, and the most critical thing in life is sitting on the right end, thinking with the right end. If you think, then you got success. If you sit, heads you win, tails you lose. We always say that. So that’s what it’s about. When we talk about the flat line, it’s the forward line of troops, the main line of resistance. in the soul of the believer, the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, who wants to stop the outside sources of adversity before they convert to the inside source of stress. That’s why we say adversity is inevitable, but stress is optional. If you will learn the 10 problem-solving devices we talk about on this radio show, rebound, learning to confess your sin, the filling of the Holy Spirit, learning how to walk in the Spirit, The faith thrust drill, learning how to live by faith. Grace orientation, accepting grace, using grace. Doctrinal orientation or biblical orientation, learning to think like the Lord Jesus Christ thinks. All of these give you a personal sense of destiny. And this is the door you walk through and begin to live for the Lord, not for yourself. That’s motivated by your personal love for God, the greatest virtue you could have, and it’s expressed with impersonal love for others, just like God loved you. You can love others, not based on who they are, but based on who you are. All of this leads to sharing the happiness of God, problem-solving device number nine, and number 10, being occupied with a person of Jesus Christ, replicating his life to those around you, representing Christ to a dying world. Those 10 problem-solving devices you should know. We have them in a bookmark. If you’d like a bookmark, you can stick in your Bible. Just write to us through our website, rickhughesministries.org. rickhughesministries.org. We’ll send you a bookmark. Don’t send money. We’re not asking you for money. The Lord always supplies. We wait on the Lord, but this is not a trick question to get money. But if you’d like to have that bookmark, it’d be great to put it in your Bible and save it, okay? Now, we started talking last week about the different stages of life. We talked about stage one, and this is where you have to be saved. The beginning of the Christian life starts with stage one, and the stage one of every living creature, and that is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you might not feel it when it happens. The justification that takes place when you put your faith alone in Christ alone is not an emotional thing. It’s a fact whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So your journey with Christ begins with stage one, believing in him, accepting him as your savior. Then it moves to stage two. After you believe in Christ, what comes next? And we saw second Peter through 18 about growing in grace. We saw where the Lord Jesus Christ said the Holy spirit would come and be your helper. We saw the mandates about don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. We saw don’t quench the Spirit, don’t grieve the Spirit. And we saw the importance of the canon of Scripture. So we deducted that without spiritual growth, you would stay an infant in your Christian life and never be able to produce spiritual fruit, which is what God left you here, so you could do that. So advancing spiritually from being an infant believer to being a mature believer is not possible unless you are filled with the Holy Spirit, unless you have a clear understanding of what God requires. And that’s where the gift of pastor-teacher comes in. Sometimes people tell me, I don’t need a pastor, all I need is a Bible, and I go sit in the woods under a tree and I can figure it out. I doubt that. The Bible is a textbook, not a novel. There’s no doubt any one of us could read the Bible and learn basic operating principles, but if we want to understand the mechanics of growth in Christian service, then you need a well-qualified pastor, not a spiritual cheerleader. Spiritual growth requires discipline, it requires sacrifice, and God uses people that are prepared. People particularly that know the languages, because it wasn’t written in English, it was written in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. People that can do the isagogics, people that can do the exegesis, people that can explain to you what verses are there and what they mean. And our mission is to learn it and use it in our life. We use a concept called LAG, learn, apply it, and glorify God as a result. Now we want to talk today about stage three of the Christian life. Stage three is when you move from time to eternity. That’s stage three. And it’s very critical that you understand that stage as well. So let’s move into stage three, starting with death or the exit resurrection, whichever one comes first. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you may have heard the term rapture. better known as the exit resurrection. But the rapture is an exit resurrection, the Greek word ex-anastasis, by which we, members of the royal family of God, leave this earth. Now, every believer, anytime we die, that’s a victory in the church age because of what God has done. And that’s the victory we look forward to. Listen to what happens when you die, 1 Corinthians 15, 54. When it happens, without the exit resurrection, if you just die, if you get sick and die, live old and die, we’re all gonna die, we know that. But the Bible says when this perishable, that’s our human bodies, will have put on the imperishable, that’s our resurrection body, and this mortal, human, will have put on immortality, eternal, then will come about the saying that is written, death has been swallowed up as a result of victory. Victory in Jesus Christ over death. Now, if the rapture takes place, that’s a different thing. Same verse applies, we’ll have victory over death, but if the rapture takes place, then the church will exit from earth and not return until the second advent of Christ, and then not again until after the Lord creates the new universe. So the exit resurrection is the final goal of the church, and God provides it in toto, meaning man cannot cause it, man cannot make it come to pass, man cannot cause the exit resurrection or the second advent. and we cannot convert the world because christ has to come back but god’s timing does not have anything to do with man’s volition men across the world have to decide the sovereignty of god the wisdom of god the power of god will bring about the rapture of the church the body of christ you and i when that day occurs no one knows now a lot of weirdos have tried to predict it But the Bible clearly says no one knows when it will occur. We’ll get to the verse here in just a minute. But keep this in mind. Every believer gets a fair shake at the exit resurrection of the church at the rapture. when we get a resurrection body. Both the dead in Christ and even those that are alive at the rapture of the church all get resurrection bodies almost simultaneously. So if your grandmother passed away and the rapture occurs, boom, she’s gonna get a resurrection body and you will too. But the eternal rewards and the eternal decorations that come are different for the spiritual believer and for the carnal believer. So Paul says in regards to the exit resurrection in 1 Thessalonians 4, this is stage three. We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest that have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we evermore be with the Lord. That’s the exit resurrection. That’s the rapture of the church. It occurs at the end of what we know to be the church age. All church age believers, both alive and dead, will join the Lord Jesus Christ in the air. And no man knows the day or the hour of that. Meeting the Lord in a resurrection body will occur in the second heaven, the stellar universe, not on this earth. And so Jesus said in Revelation 22, 12, I’m coming soon, and my reward is with me to decorate each winter according to his accomplishments. Soon, soon. That refers to the imminency of this rapture that I’m speaking about, for there is no prophecy left to be fulfilled before it happens. And this verse says that mature believers, which we call winter believers, will receive blessings for eternity at the judgment seat of Christ. Every tongue is the last time there will be any equality in the royal family of God here. Every tongue. This event can be called the big genuflex in the sky because after this comes the judgment seat of Christ, which results in tremendous differences among believers who have resurrection bodies. But right here, Every tongue will confess, yes. There is equality at this point, but then from the future, mature believers will get rewards, immature believers will be minus rewards. So the judgment seat of Christ follows in heaven, while back on earth, you don’t even wanna know what’s going on, because it’s called the tribulation. Thank the Lord we will not be here through this. We will come back with our Lord at the end of the tribulation, and rule and reign with him in his second advent called the millennial reign of Christ. Many people look at the USA today and say, oh, the time is short and the Lord’s about to come back. Look what’s happening. It is true that there are a lot of crazy, weird, gross things happening in America. And it is true the Lord Jesus Christ could come back today, tomorrow, the next day. But you cannot gauge the trends of history and determine that Christ is coming back. People have tried that before. It doesn’t work that way. The trends of history can tell you that America might be about to fall, that America may go under as a free nation, that we may turn into a socialist nation or even be defeated by the communists. But it doesn’t mean Christ is about to return. So let’s keep that in mind. We have the exit resurrection, we have the tribulation going on on earth, and we have the judgment seat of Christ in heaven where you and I will be. 2 Corinthians 5.10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one of us, that’s members of the royal family of God, may receive what is due him, that’s rewards, for the things accomplished while in this body, whether good or worthless. So that’s the evaluation. This is gonna take place for all of us. Evaluate our performance in the plan of God during our time on earth. Every one of us has the same privilege, the same opportunity to execute the plan of God. So if we live our life in the cosmic system, ignoring the plan of God, well, then we’re gonna lose out. But if we live our life in God’s plan, then we have some rewards. So let me say it again. If you live your life in the cosmic system, it’s worthless. It’s evil. The Greek word phallos, evil. Any believer that lives in the cosmic system fails to fulfill the protocol plan of God. What’s the cosmic system? It’s not being filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s letting your sin nature control you. It’s abandoning the divine institutions, and it’s abandoning the plan of God. But if you fulfill the protocol plan of God, which is stay filled with the Holy Spirit, grow in grace, replicate Christ, then that’s called agathos, or good. And the believer would receive rewards beyond his resurrection body. The loser, the one that did not grow in grace, the one that did not follow God’s plan, will lose the decorations, lose the rewards, but the mature believer, the winner’s the one who fulfills the protocol plan of God, will receive them. So here’s the issue for you to think about. The issue is that your life for all eternity is now in the making right now today as you listen to this show. Your day-to-day attitude towards Bible doctrine, your day-to-day attitude towards your priorities will determine completely what will happen to you at the judgment seat of Christ. It does take only one decision to get saved. Yes, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But it takes many, many decisions to receive these decorations I’m talking about, these honors and rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. And that’s why we have it. The purpose of the judgment seat of Christ is to evaluate each one of us during our time on earth between the time we got saved and the time we left. So the question is, what did you do? What did I do? with the tremendous invisible assets given to you and I by the grace of God. Because each one of us is going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and we will stand there alone. Not with our children, not with our wives, our spouse, our mates, alone. And so we have to learn to live and live our own life We have to learn how to live alone and we have to learn how to die alone if that’s necessary. So we can stand alone in the resurrection body before the Lord Jesus Christ and give an account of ourselves. Here’s the bottom line. You and I, we are responsible for our own decisions. We are responsible. Volitional responsibility. And ignorance is no excuse before the judgment seat of Christ. That won’t fly. Saying, well, I didn’t know that You had equal privilege, you had equal opportunity to know it. So while this is going on in heaven, thank goodness we’re not on the earth because tribulation is going on on earth. There’s no prophecy left unfulfilled right now before the exit resurrection to take place. It could take place today. All prophecy has been fulfilled. The Bible talks quite a bit about it in Colossians 3, 4, in 1 Corinthians 1, 7, in 2 Thessalonians 2, 1, and Titus 2, 13. So this rapture or exit resurrection could take place at any time. But all the events that I’m talking about have to occur in proper sequence. and they must occur in the tribulation before the second advent can take place. So the rapture and the second advent are not the same thing. They’re not coterminous. Neither one can occur at any time during the tribulation, so the rapture takes place before the tribulation. The second advent of Christ takes place at the end of tribulation. The tribulation begins when the church is removed from the earth, and the tribulation is divided into two parts, the tribulation and the great tribulation. And the main character in the tribulation is called the antichrist, you know, the 666 guy. The one who demands to be worshiped as God. You will not be here. You’re not part of that. You’re not gonna take the 666. You won’t be here. The rapture takes place before the tribulation. And the tribulation will end after seven years. with a tremendous battle called the Battle of Armageddon. I have a book I can recommend for that. If you’d like to get that book, just write to me. We’ll send it to you free of charge on the Battle of Armageddon. But it’s not just a series of battles. or a campaign, but a worldwide war. It’s a military campaign involving an invasion into unfriendly territory in order to locate the enemy forces and kill them and bring them under slavery. And this happens in the Middle East. It’s a campaign composed of a series of battles in a specific geographical location, the Valley of Megiddo. And it’s fought in a chronological succession or simultaneous location. And it’s described in Zechariah 12, two through 11. It’s the final battle, the final battle of the tribulation. Matthew 24, 21, for there will be a great tribulation such as not occurred since the beginning of the world until now. nor ever shall there be again and unless these days had been cut short no life would have been delivered but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short now in the old testament it’s called daniel 70th week in daniel 9 20-27 that’s where god told daniel that the jews would have 70 more weeks and each day of the week represented one year so there were 490 years left in their history And Daniel 9, 24 says it will be a time for making atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness and to anoint the most holy, which is the presentation of Jesus Christ as the God of Israel. That ended in the 69th week when they crucified him. And the 70th week is the seven-year period of the tribulation. The book of Revelation fills in the details of the tribulation that were not given to Daniel. But any attempt to correlate biblical passages with contemporary events always leads to confusion when the dispensation aspect of God’s plan gets ignored. The tribulation cannot occur until the resurrection of the church occurs, as I told you. So our Lord Jesus Christ will come back He will defeat his enemies at the battle of Armageddon and establish his millennial kingdom where he will rule and reign for 1,000 years. Revelation 19, 11 through 21. And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat on it is called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he judges and wages war. And his eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many diadems. And he has a name written on him which no one knows except him. He’s clothed with a robe dipped in blood. His name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven, clothed in fine white linen, were following him on white horses. Hello, that’s us. And from his mouth comes a sharp sword, that with it he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepresses of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly around heaven, Come, assemble for a great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on the earth, the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, small and great. And I saw the beast and the king of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Christ who sat on the horse against the army. And then the beast and the false prophet were defeated and seized. This is where they are put into the bottomless pit. He was seized and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast, 666. And they were thrown alive into the lake of fire and brimstone. And the rest were killed with a sword which came from the mouth of him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh. Now that’s the Lord Jesus Christ at the Battle of Armageddon. So we’ve locked up the beast and the false prophet, and then we have to take Satan. Revelation 21 through 3, I saw an angel come down from heaven holding the key to the abyss. And a great chain in his hand, he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of O, who is the devil. Satan and bound him for a thousand years, threw him into the abyss and shut it up and sealed it over him so that he could not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were complete. And after these things, he must be released for a short time, Revelation 21 through three. Once he’s released, there will be one more final battle. Revelation 27 through 10, when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison And he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the bread, on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints. And the city and the devil who deceived them was then thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were already there. And they will be tormented day and night forever. So when he gets out, All of these people who have not known satanic temptation that were born during this thousand year period, many of them will buy into this war and again turn on the Lord Jesus Christ, even though he sits on his throne. This is the power of the devil to convince people that he alone is God. He’s a great liar. He’s a great convincer. And this will happen. After this occurs, we have the great white throne of judgment. This is where the unbelievers are judged. You were judged at the judgment seat of Christ. The great white throne, I saw a great white throne, Revelation 20, 11 through 15, and him that sat on it from whose presence the earth and heavens fled away. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged from the things which are written in the books according to their production. and the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hail gave up the dead that were in them and they were judged every one of them according to their deeds and then death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire this is the second death and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire once that’s over this planet is done i saw a new heaven revelation 21 1 a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away And there’s no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne. Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men. Wow, I’ve given you a lot of information. Jesus Christ’s final words, Revelation 22, 16 through 20. You can read it for yourself. Here it is, Revelation 22, 16 through 20. I don’t have time to read it, but it says, I am coming quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. That’s the third stage, and it’s coming soon. I hope you listen. You may have a lot of questions. I gave you a lot of information. Don’t hesitate to write if you need me to answer them. 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.
