Understanding Your Soul – Part 5
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 525 aired on September 27, 2015
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes. Please stay with
me. It will be 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, education, and we always do this with
no manipulation, no requests for money. We’re not trying to sell you anything, no hidden
agendas. This show is only about one thing, accurate information that hopefully can identify the
plan of God for your life. We learn by means of repetition. When you join the military, you’ve
got to learn how to march and you learn through repetition until you can do it in your sleep. It’s
the same way with God’s Word. We learn God’s Word through repetition. If somebody tells you,
“I’ve heard that before already,” that’s just a good indication of negative volition, not interested.
“Give me something new, something I haven’t heard before.” You know the problem with this is
often the rate of forgetting exceeds the rate of learning and someone that doesn’t want to hear it
again, sometimes they’re just in bad shape. Sometimes you may hear me repeat something I’ve
said before, but it’s always for your benefit. It’s always led by God the Holy Spirit as I’m in
fellowship when I teach it to you. Remember, I’m not a pastor. My job is to point you to a pastor.
My job is to tell you that you need that well-qualified man that can teach you God’s Word so that
you can study under him on a consistent basis just like I do in my own home every day, sitting in
my home with a DVD and watching my pastor teach an hour-long Bible class, every day. This is
the way my church functions. We function with a Bible class, not necessarily a big worship
service, we learn God’s Word and we apply it into our life and this is what I’m trying to
encourage you to do, to get into a consistent routine of where you’re learning God’s Word and
applying it into your life.
Hearing and keeping God’s Word is momentum.
Remember Jesus
our Lord said in Luke 11:28,
“Happiness belongs to those people who hear My Father’s Word
and keep it.”
That’s momentum, hear it and keep it. You cannot keep what you don’t hear.
Romans 10:17 says,
“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by means of the Word of God.”
If you
don’t hear the Word of God you can’t keep it. You cannot build divine viewpoint unless
you’re being taught and learning God’s Word.
Even though I can teach you and I can give you
a lot of information, my spiritual gift really is as an evangelist. I function outside the local church
predominantly. I can go into a church and often do. Quite often I will fill in for my very own
pastor. We have these lessons available on DVD and if you’d like to see them, we have them.
They’re an hour long message and sometimes it will be four in a series of classes, but again, this
is not my job. I mean I can do this, I can encourage you, I can take you on a challenging study
through the Word of God but in the end we all need a qualified pastor to sit under consistently,
listening, learning, and growing every day as we begin to project the image of Christ in our life.
Now we have been talking about the enemies of the soul. I told you earlier that all of us have a
soul, it’s the invisible, immortal part of us. The body will die, the soul will not die. Inside your
soul you have volition, you have the ability to choose. You have a conscience and that’s where all
of your norms and your standards are housed. The norms are what your parents teach you
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growing up and the standards are what the Word of God teaches you, what guides your life, what
puts a fence around you, a hedge around you, and protects you. Your conscience is this protecting
factor. In the world that we live in today, when your conscience clashes with the culture, then
you have to make some tough decisions.
As the culture in this country changes, as a believer
in Jesus Christ you have to orient to the culture.
Do you assimilate into the culture or do
you stand apart from the culture?
These are questions you have to answer. Think about these
things as we go through what I’m about to tell you today. See, today we’re going to talk about the
enemy of the soul called arrogance and make no doubt about it, arrogance is a sin. Yes it is and it
has to be looked at for a couple of reasons.
God devotes more Scripture to arrogance than any
other sin in the Bible.
It’s a sin of special danger and our Father wants us to be aware of it.
The
sin of arrogance is the basis for all sin and evil.
This began in the Garden of Eden. Proverbs
29:23 says,
“A person’s arrogance will bring him low, but a lifestyle of humility will obtain
honor.”
You see, arrogance was the original sin of Lucifer,
“The son of the dawn,”
as he is called
in Isaiah 14:12, known to us as Satan. Because of his arrogance and pronouncing himself better
than the Most High God, he was sentenced to incarceration in the Lake of Fire forever. You can
read about it in Isaiah 14:12-15. Because of arrogance Eve, the wife of Adam, decided that she
should be greater than her husband, greater maybe even than God Himself. Therefore when
Satan told her, “God’s trying to hide something from you. He doesn’t want you to know what He
knows. You need to go ahead and eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil,” she
did it. Genesis 3:1-17, you can read how she fell for the lie of Satan, she was deceived. I want
you to know that God punishes the sin of arrogance just like he did with Satan, just like he did
with Eve, and the reason is because arrogance always leads to more sin. Our Father wants to
awaken us early to the arrogance problem before we get enslaved to it, before it corrupts our
souls even to the point of a premature death.
“Whatever a person succumbs to, that he is a slave
to”
(2 Peter 2:19).
What is arrogance? What is this king of all sins? It’s unreasonable conceit,
it’s preoccupation with self, it’s insolence, it’s rejection of authority, vanity or the exaggeration of
your own importance. Arrogance is when you start thinking that you had something to do with
who you are or what you have and you forgot that everything you are or have comes from God
and that He can take it all from you just as easily as He gave it to you. This is what you have to
remember.
Arrogance is identified by three things: self-justification, self-deception, and self-
absorption.
An arrogant person will eventually self-destruct. Under self-justification he will
justify why it’s okay to violate the law. He will justify why it’s okay to malign his neighbor. He
will justify why it’s okay to steal. He will justify why it’s okay to do anything because he lies to
himself, self-deception. He doesn’t see himself as he really is. He sees himself as he thinks he is.
If he has an unrealistic self-image, then obviously he’s going to have unrealistic expectations.
Suppose you think you’re pretty awesome and you might be, but what will happen to this
physical magnificence if you suffer some sort of indelible scarring? For that matter, what
happens as you get older and you start to wrinkle up? Your skin discolors, you get bags under
your eyes, read about it in Psalms 102:11. Sure, you can go to the dermatologist and have some
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cosmetic surgery but your best attempts will not halt the aging process. It just may make you
look a little more weird. Take this thought all the way to the conclusion. How beautiful will you
be after you rot in the grave for a while? (Job 19:26). This may be a gruesome image to you, but
it should make the point that you have nothing to do with gaining your physical beauty, your
ability, your brains in the beginning and you can do nothing to retain it in the end. Beauty, ability,
brains, they’re all a gift from the grace of God. Listen to Ecclesiastes 9:11 and what Solomon
said.
“I further observed while on the earth the race is not always won by the swiftest and the
battle is not always won by the strongest, and prosperity is not always gained by the intellectual
and wealth is not always accumulated by the most discerning men, nor does success always
come to men of greater ability nor time and chance overtake them all.”
Now, on the other side of
the coin you might be thinking, “Well, I’m not very attractive. I’m not very handsome. I’m not
very popular. I’m not very great athletically.” Well, so what? You think, “I’ll never commit
arrogance because that’s not the way I am.” Well, you just did commit arrogance. The moment
you thought that you wouldn’t sin is the moment your arrogance ambushed you because you
deny the very truth of God’s Word which says,
“All have sinned and all have fallen short of the
glory of God”
(Romans 3:23). Romans 3:10 says,
“There are none good, no, not even one.” “All
of our righteousnesses are like a filthy rag in God’s eyes”
(Isaiah 64:6). See how easy it is to get
arrogant? You see how easy it is to dirty up the thinking in your soul? The moment you become
preoccupied with yourself, you fall into the trap. If you’ve ever felt fear or panic or terror or even
little bitty stabs of anxiety, arrogance is invading your soul. See, you decided when you had that
fear, panic, terror, anxiety, you decided that God’s promise of safety and security and happiness
doesn’t apply to you right now. You’re in a terrible situation and God doesn’t even know what’s
going on. “He can’t help me in this situation,” and this is dangerous, this is embarrassing. Your
problem is too great for God’s omnipotence to handle, is this what you’re saying? This is
arrogance. Now consider the arrogance of something you might not like me telling you. It’s
called Christian activism. Because of arrogance you decide the United States of America should
be a Christian nation. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful,” you say, “if every American was a Christian
and everybody was going to heaven?” Of course it would be. Then why could this be arrogant to
demand that the United States be a Christian nation? Because you cannot force your views on
others. You are not God but you decided God made a mistake in giving volition to people and so
they should all be Christians. Listen, if God wanted mankind to be volitional robots, little
automatons, He would not have created the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and He
wouldn’t have given Adam and Eve a choice. He gave them an opportunity. He tested their
volition, “You can do anything in here you want but don’t eat of that tree.” Arrogance will always
make you presume that you have the responsibility to change people, to make everybody
Christians. Every person in the world has the right to choose. They can choose not to believe in
Jesus Christ as their Savior, that’s right, or they can choose to believe in Jesus Christ. Either way,
it’s their choice. The person that decides to reject Christ is unbelievably stupid but God gives
everybody the right to be stupid if they want to be. Now listen, God wants the United States to be
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a client nation. We have been a client nation for a long time. We’ve had the freedom to present
the gospel accurately and often all across the world and when freedom prevails, people have the
choice, their own volition to make their own decision. They learn God’s will for their lives, their
country remains free. The gospel continues to be spread and more and more people accept Christ
as Savior. One of the things we’ve done today is we have taken away opportunities to our young
people. We’ve told young people, “You can’t hear about God in our schools anymore. That’s a
violation of the right of two or three individuals that may be atheists in the whole school.” Now
we say, “Well, just go down to church. You can learn your choices down at the church.”
Everybody doesn’t go to church and so for years we had the privilege to minister to young people
and give them the information and let them make the choice in school. We don’t let people make
this choice anymore. We’ve taken away this opportunity. America’s in trouble I assure you. We
can give the good news of Jesus Christ to others and we ought to do it. I mean, if God puts us in
front of somebody and they ask a question or two, tell them the truth. Jesus Christ did the saving
work on the cross, not me, not you. If we think otherwise, this is arrogance. We can’t do it
ourselves. We can’t save ourselves. This is why Ephesians 2:8-9 says,
“For by grace are you
saved through faith and that not of ourselves, it’s a gift of God not of works lest any man should
brag about it.”
He does everything, we do nothing.
We learn to love Him by learning His
Word and learning what He thinks.
Therefore, we come to realize God is faithful. We come to
realize His love is never failing, even if we are unfaithful to the point of arrogantly denouncing
Him to be God to begin with. Listen to what Revelation 3:7-9 says,
“This is a solemn
pronouncement of the holy and the truthful One,
[Jesus Christ],
the One who opens doors that no
one can shut, who has the authority to close doors so that no one can open, says this, ‘I know all
about your pious and evil activities. Look, I have unlocked the door which is standing open in
front of you, which no one can close again. I Myself have done this because you did not have
much strength and because I have kept My Word, and because you did not deny My name. Watch
Me, I will expose those from the synagogue of Satan and I will make them come and bow down at
your feet, because I love you personally. They allege to be Jews
[in other words, who say they
are spiritual believers]
, but who are not, who are liars.’”
This is Christianity.
Jesus Christ loves
you. He is the one who shuts the doors and He is the one who opens the doors and keeps
them open.
Now consider this, authority arrogance with the police officer, the principal, the
parent, when you decide that you are justified to ignore the law or to ignore responsibility or if
you decide to retaliate against a legitimate authority, this is part of what’s going on in America
today, rejection of authority by claiming that authority has overstepped their boundaries and
authority is not treating people fair, and so now arrogance has decided to retaliate against
legitimate authority. Maybe you think that you are not being treated fairly. Maybe you think your
taxes are too high so you falsify your return. Maybe you think the speed limits are too low, so
you speed and use a radar detector to get around it. Maybe your teacher doesn’t teach you very
well so you think you’ve got the right to cheat on your test. Or maybe your coach doesn’t treat
you fair so you go around behind his back and talk about him and try to get him to change things
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or even get him fired. I’ve seen this happen on many occasions when parents didn’t like that their
children didn’t get to play, so they got the coach fired. Notice that in all these examples
something perceived unfair precipitated the action.
God says unfairness, even cruel injustice,
is never justification for defying proper authority.
When you arrogantly disobey authority,
you put yourself above God’s Word which demands that in all things you obey those who
have the authority over you (Romans 2:21-23).
This is what is happening in America today.
Does this sound like something you’ve heard before? Treated unfairly so we retaliate? Christians
shouldn’t do this.
Romans 13:1-2 says
“Let every soul be in subjection to the governing
authorities
[and this is even tyrannical or unjust authorities].
For there is no authority except
by God’s appointment and those who exist have been established by God. Therefore, whoever
resists authority
[and listen carefully]
has opposed the authority of God.”
If I resist the authority
of the president, if I resist the authority of the Congress, the judicial, the legislative, the executive
branch, I commit sin. If I resist the authority of the police officer, I commit sin. What if the
police officer is wrong? He’s still the authority, he was put there by God and you are now
assuming that God made a mistake and you’re going to retaliate.
“Anyone who opposes authority
will receive condemnation to themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior,
but for evil.
Do you desire to have no fear of authority? Then do what is right and you will have
praise from the same for it
[that’s the authority or the ruler of the government]
is God’s servant to
you and for your benefit. But if you do what is evil
[that is if you violate the law]
be afraid, for it
[that’s the government]
does not bear the sword
[that’s capital punishment]
for nothing because it
is God’s servant, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.”
This is the
habitual attitude of criminals who justify their actions. He justifies why it’s all right to loot or
murder and God’s justice will respond.
“Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection to
authority, not only because of the wrath
[this is the punishment from God
] of authority, but also
for your conscience sake. For this reason you must pay your taxes because those in authority are
God’s servants, devoting themselves to the governing. You must render to all what is due to them,
taxes to whom tax is due, revenue to whom revenue is due, and respect to whom respect is due,
and honor to whom honor is due.”
I just read Romans 13:1-7.
God put us under authority and He
is not asleep when we get treated unfairly.
God will judge abusive authority.
Arrogance makes
you want to be the judge, to squash the injustice yourself.
God demands you leave judgment to
Him – Deuteronomy 32:35, Matthew 7:1-2, John 5:26-27, Romans 12:19.
God demands you
let Him be the judge, not you. Arrogance always culminates in self-absorption. What did I tell
you? Self-justification, self-deception, self-absorption, me, me, me. This becomes the center of
your thoughts, what you want, the way you want it, at the time you want it, period, over and out.
Arrogance isn’t that consuming to begin with. Once it gets into your soul one little thought at the
time, it begins with anxiety about getting an A on a test and then being selected as a cheerleader
or the captain, and then you began to reject the authority of your parents. You begin to reject the
authority of the principal, you begin to reject the authority of the police officer, and you justify
why it’s okay for you to be a criminal. Listen, if you’re a young person God commands you to be
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under the authority of your parents. In Matthew 15:4,
“God commanded, ‘Honor your father and
your mother and whoever insults his father or mother must go on to his end by death.’”
This is
the sin unto death. Proverbs 30:17 has the metaphor about this,
“The ravens of the valley will
pick out the eye that mocks a father and despises obeying his mother and the young vultures will
eat it.”
Does this sink in with you? If you continually disobey your parents, God will punish you
severely even to the point of what is perceived as a premature death because birds don’t pluck out
the eyes of living people, but of dead people. Carefully, very carefully consider your attitude
toward your parents and then consider your attitude toward the police and your principal. If your
thoughts and actions are anything other than obedience and respect, no matter your age, then
you’re going to wind up being bird food. You must understand obeying is right. God chose the
authority, He put you under the authority, you’re under the authority of the laws of your
community, you’re under the authority of the laws of the country as well as under the authority
of the police officer, the firefighters, and those who enforce the law. We have a nation today full
of arrogant individuals that want to make the law. We have a nation today full of arrogant
individuals that reject the authority of the law. We have a nation today as a whole that has been
preoccupied with the gifts and forgotten who the Giver is and now we are in trouble. We kicked
God out of our schools, we kicked God out of the military, we kicked God out of everywhere.
Satan is having a field day with the arrogance of the individuals of this nation. We are an
arrogant nation and we will deserve all that we get if we continue down this road.
I hope
you’re listening. I hope you’ll come back next week. Until then, I’m your host Rick Hughes
saying thank you very much for listening to The FLOT Line