Join host Rick Hughes in this eye-opening episode of The Flatline as we explore the essential elements of faith and understanding God’s Word. Dive into the significance of hearing for faith development and the importance of gospel proclamation. Rick underscores crucial biblical insights, helping listeners grasp the concept of divine righteousness and justice.
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. For the next few minutes, please stay with me. It won’t be long, just 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education, and absolutely no manipulation. No manipulation. because we’re going to try to give you something free, not charge you, not sell you, not ask for money, but give you something free, and that’s called divine viewpoint. The Word of God, divine viewpoint, is always free. You should never sell it, never charge for it. We got it free, we give it away free, and that’s the way the Word of God is supposed to be handled. The Flatline has been on the air now going on, I don’t know how many years. We’ve come close to 1,000 radio shows. It’s 1,000 Sundays. I’m grateful for your prayers, grateful for your encouragement, and pray that the Lord will let us keep driving on well past 1,000 into 2025 as we press on down, teaching God’s Word through the Flatline radio show. You can always go to our website, rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org. And there you can download any radio show you wish to hear from the past many years we’ve been doing it. You can play it from the website. You can also order our various books that we got from the website. And another way to listen to the show is to go to podcasts. On your phone or on your Apple iPad, iPad or device, whatever you’ve got. You can use Apple iPod. You can use Spotify. You can use Podbean. You can use many different social media platforms that are free to download and free to use. And when you get to those downloaded on your phone, you can go to the plot line. If you search for it, you will find all our radio shows on your podcast device.
SPEAKER 01 :
That means you can listen to them 24-7, any place you may be, in the world, anywhere, anytime. Okay? So I hope you take advantage of that, and I hope you’ll take advantage of our books that we offer. They’re all free of charge. We don’t sell anything. There’s something I want to talk to you about today I think is very critical for us. This deals with our spiritual life. I’d like to discuss that with you. In Romans 10, 17, the Bible says faith comes by hearing. hearing by the word of god sometimes people want to know why they don’t have much faith or how to increase their faith and this is the answer here faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of god in other words if you listen to the word of god taught and you apply it into your life you develop your faith that’s what jesus said in luke 11 27 happiness belongs to those people who hear my Father’s word and keep it. That’s living by faith. In this passage in Romans 10, 17, the Apostle Paul made it evident that in order for an individual to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that individual must hear the gospel message from someone whom the Lord sends.
SPEAKER 02 :
So if someone wants to become a Christian, somebody’s got to go and tell them how to do it. In Romans 10, 14, and 15, the Bible says, how then shall they call on him whom they’ve not believed? Okay, that’s the first problem. And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? That’s the second problem. And how shall they hear without a preacher? Third problem. And how shall they preach unless they’re sent? Fourth problem. So let’s look at this for a minute. We got someone that’s not a Christian. We got someone that needs to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, receive him as their Savior. How can they call on him whom they have not believed? Do you know there are millions and millions of prayers offered every day that are not answered? Remember this. When you hear someone asking God for help or asking God for assistance, you know, maybe it’s an athlete. Oh, Lord, help me win this race. Maybe it’s a lottery winner. Oh, Lord, help me win the lottery. Maybe it’s the doctor saying, oh, Lord, cure me of what I got going on in my life. Millions of prayers are offered every day and probably unanswered to tell the truth due to the fact that the individual who’s doing the praying, the individual calling out to God, has never received Jesus Christ as Savior to begin with. You hear that? How can they call on him whom they have not believed? There it is. The fact that this individual is calling out has never received Christ to begin with is wrong. For that individual, God is simply the magic genie in the eight ball for him or her. Unless an individual comes to the Father through the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit, then that prayer is simply a request for personal benefit. You know, parentheses, oh God, help me win the lottery. I did make a bookmark. We mentioned it several weeks ago. It’s a great bookmark to put in your Bible. Ten Reasons Your Prayers Might Not Be Answered. If you want that, go to the website, order it, drop us a note, rickhughesministries.org, or call us at 800-831-0718. We’ll send that to you right away. So, how can they believe if they have not heard? The gospel, the Bible says, is the power of God unto salvation according to Paul. In Romans 1.16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes it, for the Jew first, also for the Greek. How can they believe if they have not heard? You’ve got to hear it to believe it. In 1 Thessalonians 2.13, it’s for this reason, Paul said, we thank God without ceasing because when you heard the word of God, when you received the word of God, which you heard, listen now as he says it, What you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as words from men, but as it is in truth, it is the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe it. So in order for someone to become a Christian, they got to hear the gospel and believe the gospel and the rest is up to God. So how can they hear it unless one proclaims the good news of salvation? This is, what is this? This is precisely why God left us here to start with. After we got saved, why didn’t he just take us on to heaven? Because we are here to be his mouthpiece. In Mark 16, 15, and he said to them, that’s the Lord Jesus Christ, go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That’s our job. We are the mouthpiece of God in our generation. So how shall they proclaim, the Bible says, unless they’re sent? Remember that verse? How can they believe if they haven’t heard? And how can they believe in whom they have not heard? And how can they hear unless they’re sent? Well, that’s very interesting. In Luke 9, 34, he said, take nothing for the journey, neither staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, nor do not even have two tunics, two suits. Whatever house you enter, stay there. And from there, depart. And wherever you go, if they won’t receive you when you go out of that city, then shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. So we have to be going. God sends us, and he says, just depend on me. I’ll provide what you need. In Matthew 19, 26, and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake shall receive 100-fold inheritance and eternal life. Again, I want to read that to you one more time. Listen carefully. Matthew 19, 21 or 29, and everyone who has left houses our brothers, our sisters, our fathers, our mothers, our wife, our children, our lands, for my name’s sake. shall receive 100-fold and inherit eternal life. So you have been sent, and what he’s saying is you need to put these other things, make them secondary in your life. If you will make giving the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ primary, number one issue in your life, then he will reward you unbelievably. Principle, here’s the principle. Listen carefully. God uses prepared people. If you want to be what I call a deployable asset, if you want to be a deployable asset, then you must absolutely understand the mission, and that’s your reasonable duty. How can you represent a God that you don’t understand? So let’s notice a few things right off the bat. He is a God of righteousness, and he is a God of justice, and he is a God of loving kindness. Three traits of God I want to identify for you. Righteousness, justice, and loving kindness. Where would I get something like that? Out of the Bible. Out of Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his might. And don’t let the rich man glory in his riches. 9, 24 coming up. Let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me. that I am the Lord exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness on the earth. These are the things I delight in, saith the Lord. In Psalm 145, verse 17, the Lord is righteous in all of his ways and gracious in all of his works. What does it mean when God declares himself to be righteous? Well, you and I can call the righteousness of God plus R. So if you draw a circle on the blackboard, we mentioned that a couple of weeks ago, and put plus R in it, that’s God’s righteousness. He’s perfectly righteous. And if we compare it with our righteousness, we’d have to draw another circle beside it and put minus R in there. So God is absolutely righteous, and we are absolutely not righteous. Simply put, God is morally right and free of any sin, thus absolutely righteous. And you and I, on the other hand, have the stain of Adam’s original sin, thus we are absolutely unrighteous. We are minus R. Listen to the Scriptures. It tells you that. Romans 5, 12, therefore just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin and death spread to all men because all men have sinned. Unfortunately, we’re not capable of equaling God’s righteousness. We can’t equal his perfection, so you and I have a problem. Hello, Houston, we have a problem. Isaiah 64 6 we are all like an unclean thing and all of our righteousnesses are like filthy rags we all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away so there are none of us clean this verse reveals to us the fact that nothing we can do will ever match God’s righteousness as a matter of fact even our finest noble moral efforts are obnoxious to God they’re called filthy rags in the Bible So when righteousness rejects us, then the only thing left is for the justice of God to judge us. Hebrews 9, 27. And as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that, the judgment. So since we know God is absolute righteous, and we know that man is absolutely not righteous, plus R, minus R, we know that man cannot equal God’s righteousness, we’ve also discovered in the Scriptures that that the unfailing love of God provided a way for us to avoid offending his perfect character. I’ll say it again. God has provided in scripture a way for us to avoid offending his perfect character. Notice the wonderful verse in John 3, 16. God so loved the world, there it says, undying love, that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That is the way that you can avoid the justice of God coming down hard on you. In Romans 5, 8, but God commended, demonstrated his own love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So the Lord Jesus Christ provided the way for us to have a relationship with God. by his sacrificial death on the cross. And this unfailing love of God is impersonal. It’s not personal, it’s impersonal. Why? Because it’s based on God’s righteousness, not ours. However, once we receive Christ as our Savior, then that love can become personal because he will adopt us into his royal family. Listen to Ephesians 1.5. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. So what does that mean? It means this divine adoption is made possible because in Christ we have perfect righteousness just as God does. In Christ, we have plus R. Without Christ, we have minus R, regardless of what we try to do, regardless of how moral we may be. We cannot equal God’s righteousness. But in Christ, you can equal God’s righteousness. How is it possible? 2 Corinthians 5.21, For he made him, Christ, who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God by means of him. This is how you do it. When you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, His perfect righteousness is given to you, just as He takes your sin onto Him. And once you have His righteousness, it equals the righteousness of God, and now you’re able to talk with God and have fellowship with God through the righteousness of Christ. The gift of equal righteousness allows us to avoid God’s justice. Why? Because what the plus are of God rejects, the perfect righteousness of God, what the perfect righteousness of God rejects, then the justice of God must judge it. And this means either you and I will adjust to the justice of God, or God’s justice will adjust to us. These divine characteristics of justice and righteousness and unfailing love must be understood if we hope to effectively represent our Lord Jesus Christ and the provisions he made for all of us by means of his death and his resurrection. That’s why we’re instructed in scriptures to learn these things, to know these things, to understand these things. Listen carefully as I read it to you. Hebrews 9, 24. Let him, excuse me, Jeremiah 9, 24. Let him who boasts, boast about this, that he understands me and he knows me. You must understand righteousness, justice, and unfailing love. You must understand those three things if you hope to effectively represent the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you hope to effectively provide his provisions because of what he did on the cross, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, you have to understand these things. Do you understand it? Do you know what you’re talking about? Because if you don’t, you cannot be a very effective witness. Because how could you possibly love a God you don’t even understand? And how could you effectively represent the one that you cannot even explain? That’s why there’s a mandate in the Scriptures in 2 Peter 3.18. Grow, grow, grow. That’s a mandate. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That means you have to learn something. You have to grow. You have to feed. You have to eat it. You have to metabolize it. And that’s the Scriptures. In 2 Timothy 2.15, again, another mandate, be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, but rightly dividing the word of truth. If you can be ashamed, then it means you got it wrong. You did not rightly divide the word of truth. If you don’t understand God’s righteousness and you tell some individual that they can equal God’s righteousness by being good, by being moral, by not smoking, by not drinking, by not doing something, you’re misleading that individual and thinking they can earn their salvation. And that’s not even possible. Listen carefully. I am amazed at people who misrepresent the gospel by claiming they must earn redemption from sin by not committing sin. Also, I’m amazed by those who boldly claim you can lose the free gift of salvation if you commit some grievous sin. What are they saying? Well, they’re saying that since you can do something to lose it, then you must have to do something to earn it. You’ve got to earn it by not doing something bad. But listen carefully. In Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, the Bible clearly says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It’s the gift of God and not of works, lest anyone should boast about it. Your salvation is a free gift. You don’t earn it. You don’t deserve it. You didn’t deserve to have Christ die for you. He did it because he loved you. He went to that cross and paid for your sin because he loved you. God loves you. Never forget that. In Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift, there it is again, the gift of God is eternal life by means of Jesus Christ our Lord. There’s two verses where it talks about the gift. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, it is the gift of God And then again in Romans 6.23, the gift of God again. What gift is it? The gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is why you need a well-qualified pastor. It’s critical because many people are in pulpit today that should not be there. They simply are the blind leading the blind. Listen to Ephesians 5, 15. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as a fool, but as a wise person, redeeming the time because the days are evil. So you have to be very careful. Pay attention. Don’t get under the wrong person. This verse is telling us that we are responsible for our own spiritual life. The word walk circumspectly means you to be very careful. Please don’t be fooled by a mouthful of shiny white teeth and a pleasing appearance. What they teach us is much more important than how they look. So you and I must use wisdom in choosing a church to attend. We must understand that a pleasing personality is not necessarily a gauge for a well-qualified pastor. Ephesians 4, 11 through 13 tells you the job of the pastor. And he himself gave, that’s the Lord Jesus Christ, he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastor teachers. Why? For the equipping of the saints, that’s getting you ready. For the work of the ministry, that’s your full-time job as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the edifying of the body of Christ, that’s building up the local church. Till we all come to the unity, that’s the same, think the same way, to the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, to be mature individuals to the measure of the stature the same way that Jesus Christ was mature. God wants you to grow up. When you become a Christian, you have to grow up, and the only way to grow up is to study and learn and apply and glorify God. If you don’t take in the Scriptures under a well-qualified pastor, you’re not ever going to grow up. You may get into some great looking church with a great looking teacher who has a great smile and great biceps and triceps and sounds pretty and acts pretty, but he doesn’t teach you anything. I cannot tell you how many letters and calls I get from people that say, I’ve learned more from you in the last year than I’ve learned my whole life in my church. That’s a testimony that you should be ashamed of. Aren’t you learning anything? Is your pastor teaching you anything? Or does he just get up there and preach on some topic that maybe you’ve heard a hundred times before? A good pastor will exegete the scriptures, line upon line, word upon word, precept upon precept. He will take the book of John and go back to verse 1, verse 2, verse 3, verse 4, and follow whatever the apostle wrote, teach it, and that’s what the Holy Spirit will lead him to do. You’ve got to have a well-qualified pastor if you’re ever going to understand these things. If you’re ever going to understand what God expects out of you, what does He expect out of you? Well, again, to understand His righteousness and His justice and His unfailing love. Again, I’m going to read that verse again. How can they call on Him in whom they’ve never heard? or have not believed? And how can they believe if they haven’t heard? And how can they hear if you don’t go preach it? And how can they preach unless they’re sent? So that’s the four steps that have to happen in order for the world to be evangelized and for someone to be saved. They gotta call on someone they’ve heard about the truth. If they haven’t heard, how can they call? And then if they do hear from you, they can make their mind up. And how can they hear without a preacher, a communicator? Caruso is the Greek word. And how can they preach unless they are sent? So God sends us to different people. There are people in your life right now that God is sending you to. Are you effectively able to communicate God’s justice, righteousness, and unfailing love? Can you communicate to them how much God loved them in eternity past by using John 3.16? Can you communicate to them how God gives them the righteousness of Christ through 2 Corinthians 5.17? Can you tell them that? That they cannot be saved by being morally good. They cannot be saved by tithing. They cannot be saved by getting baptized. They cannot be saved by straightening up and flying right. They’re saved by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, period. And that’s just the first step. Then we got to grow. Then we got to understand what God’s plan is for our life. God uses prepared people and you must be prepared. I called you a deployable asset earlier in this message. If you want to be an asset that God can deploy into the mission field, that’s your own agenda, your own home, then you must understand the mission. That’s your reasonable duty. You must understand the mission. Because I told you earlier in this message, you cannot represent God if you don’t understand God. So that’s why we went into these things. He’s absolutely righteous. We’re absolutely not righteous. He’s absolutely just, and he doesn’t judge us unfairly. So if we reject the righteousness of Christ, then the justice of God will judge us. Again, listen carefully. What the righteousness of God rejects, the justice of God judges. You do not want to fall in the hands of a just God that’s judging you because you rejected Jesus Christ as your Savior. Don’t let that happen. God loves you with unfailing love. He will not turn his back on you. He has provided everything necessary for you to have eternal life with him. It’s your gift. It’s up to you. You have to make that decision, or you have to tell someone else how they can make that decision. Because as Hebrews 9, 27 said, it is appointed in the man once to die, and after that, the judgment. It’s going to happen to each of us. We’re all going to stand before the judgment seat of God. Some will be at the great white throne of judgment as unbelievers, and others will be at the judgment seat of Christ as Christians. But we’ll all be evaluated. We’ll all be judged. So don’t let people get out of that. They have to understand this. If they reject the righteousness of God, the justice of God will judge them. I hope you understand it. That unfailing love of God is impersonal. He loves you regardless of who you are. He loves you based on who he is, not who you are. And you love other people the same way. That’s one of our great problem-solving devices. Problem-solving device, what, number eight, impersonal love for all of mankind. Do you know those problem-solving devices? Have you learned them in your life? Are you able to tell me what all ten of those problem-solving devices are? Because if you can’t, if you’ll contact me, I’ll send you a bookmark. It’s got them all listed there. or I’ll send you a book that details what each one of them are for you to use and apply into your life. Gee, I wish I had more time with you. It’s awful hot in this studio, though, so I’m going to try to get off for now. But thank you for listening to me today. Thank you for joining me every Sunday morning. I had a precious lady call this morning to call our office and say, how do I find your radio show? I live near Detroit. Where is it in the radio dial? People ask me that all the time. Go to our website, rickhughesministries.org. And you can click on the flight line and you can see where the radio shows are played. Well, over 100 cities across America every Sunday morning. All compliments of God’s wonderful grace. What a blessing it is for me to be able to bring you this information. So until next Sunday, same time, same place. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you now for listening to the flight line.
SPEAKER 03 :
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.
