Your Enemies
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 1011 aired on January 5, 2025
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes, stick around. It will be about 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, education and all of
it done without any solicitation. That’s right, we’re not going to ask you for money. We’re not
going to beg you to buy a book. We’re not going to do anything like that. We just want to give
you accurate information that will help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life if in
fact you are even interested. If you are, you can orient and adjust to the plan, it’s really up to you.
My job is to be accurate, to get it right, not to do some con job on you but to give you the
information so you can decide for yourself. We’re into the New Year now, 2025, and we’re
pressing on. I am so very grateful that God has giving me the opportunity to speak to you this
morning. We broadcast The FLOT Line radio show all across 50 states and in the Philippines as
well. Many years ago, maybe you weren’t even born at that time but I bet a lot of you were, in
1970 to 1974 there was a comedian on television by the name of Flip Wilson. Flip was a black
man who would often dress up as a woman called Geraldine. He was very famous for saying,
“The devil made me do it.” Maybe you remember this. I’m afraid that many people claim the
same thing today, the devil made you do it and this actually might not be true. The first thing we
need to remember is that Christians actually have three sources of temptation: the world; the
flesh; and yes of course, the devil. Let’s take a look at these three this morning so we can actually
determine who it is that gives us so much trouble in our daily lives. Let’s start with the lure of the
world. Listen to Romans 12:2 where it says,
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that
which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Do not be conformed means don’t try to fit in, doing
what everybody else does. You don’t have to be conformed to this world but be transformed.
How does Paul say this happens to a Christian? By the renewing of his mind, changing the way
that he thinks. Remember, you’ve heard me say, “God gave you two ends, one to sit with and one
to think with. Success in life depends on which one you use. Heads you win, tails you lose.” The
Christian life is lived in your head, where you think. This is where your soul is. The mentality of
your soul is in your brain and this is where you live the Christian life. It overflows into your
body and the things you do as a result of the decisions you make and the things that you learn.
You are supposed to have some wisdom, insight, discernment and understanding so you don’t get
suckered every time you turn around. Again,
“Do not be conformed to this world
[don’t try to fit
in]
, but be transformed so that
[in order that, this is a purpose clause in the Greek New
Testament]
you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and
perfect.”
On our next radio show we’re going to deal with this, how God has designed you for
service. Listen to 1 John 2:17,
“The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who
does the will of God lives forever.”
The world that is one of our sources of temptation is just
temporary. It’s passing away, and the lusts that go along with it. This means the world offers up
1011-Your-Enemies-transcript.pdf
temptations and tries to get you to follow a certain lifestyle. The only one who is going to abide
[live] forever is the one who does the will of God. Can you tell me what the will of God is? I can
tell you. John 6:40,
“For this is the will of My
Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and
believes in Him will have eternal life.”
This is what the Lord Jesus Christ said. The will of God
is for you to believe that Jesus Christ is His anointed Son and that He went to the cross and paid
for your sins. They buried Him and thought it was over with. They thought He was dead but He
was not. He walked out alive three days later. He’s alive today and the great news is He will
come and live in you,
“Christ in you the hope of glory”
(Colossians 1:27). In Titus 2:11-12,
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny
ungodliness and worldly desires
[lusts]
and to live sensibly
[soberly]
, righteously and godly in
the present age.”
I could do a long study on the words soberly, righteously and godly. I probably
should, but I don’t have time today. These three verses I just read to you, Romans 12:2, 1 John
2:17 and Titus 2:11-12 all identify the world as a system that has great influence over individuals
like us. Its influence is actually an illusion that promises something it cannot deliver. What is it?
The world offers you happiness and security but it can’t deliver these. If an individual seeks
happiness and security in the world, he’s going to be sadly mistaken because this person will be
forced to conform to a certain image. Remember, don’t be conformed to this world. If you’re
looking for what the world offers you, you’ll have to conform to the image of the world in order
to fit in and be accepted. The sad reality is the world offers only a mirage. It’s not really what you
think it is. It’s like a watering hole in the desert. Somebody’s dying of thirst and he looks over the
sand dune and sees an oasis full of water. He goes running over there and it’s not there. It’s just
an illusion. This is the way the world is. It can’t give you what it’s offering you. The illusion I’m
referring to is called the cosmos diabolicus. This is a title that we use for the devil’s world. Any
Christian caught up in this system lives in a state of confusion and actually begins to mimic the
human viewpoint thinking of the unbeliever. If a Christian gets into the world and starts
following the trends of the world, he is going to act like a person who is not even a Christian. It
may even be impossible for you to tell him from a non-Christian since they will both have the
same objectives, happiness and security. They can’t get it. They try. They try marriage. They try
winning the lottery. They try making money. They try getting the right job, getting the right
home, getting the right automobile but nothing gives them the security, the fulfillment and the
peace that knowing God does. It’s called the peace that passes understanding. I know the first
night after I had accepted Christ when I went to bed, there was the greatest peace in my life that
night because I knew God loved me. I knew God had forgiven me and I knew I was going to
heaven. What a wonderful thought that was. What you think determines how you live. As they
say, a thought can make us or break us because what we really are is what we are thinking.
“For
as he thinks within himself, so he is”
(Proverbs 23:7). Today in your car, in your home, on the
way to church, sitting around at the table or wherever you are, you actually are what you think,
what’s in your brain, what’s in your memory center, what’s in your stream of consciousness.
John warns us about cosmos diabolicus in 1 John 2:15-16,
“Do not love the world
[the cosmos]
1011-Your-Enemies-transcript.pdf
nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is
not from the Father, but is from the world.”
In other words, it’s all an illusion. It’s not what you
think it is. One of our big enemies is overcoming the lure, the temptation and the projections the
world offers you. It comes everyday on television. It comes everyday in the newspaper and
magazines. “Buy this and you’ll be happy. Do this and you’ll be happy.” Here’s what I learned a
long time ago about happiness. Unhappy people take their unhappiness with them wherever they
go. Did you know this? If you’re unhappy in New York, you’ll be unhappy in Los Angeles. If
you’re unhappy in Tennessee, you’ll be unhappy in Mississippi. I saw this a lot in schools. Kids
swapping school. “If I’m unhappy in this school, I’ll go to the other school. I’ll be happy over
there.” No you won’t because the issue isn’t what people do. It’s what you do and what you
think. Stop loving the cosmos. Stop loving what the world throws up. It’s not true. If you’re
going to be a spiritually mature believer, you have to have enough Bible doctrine in your soul to
handle the success that may come your way in the cosmos. It’s okay to be successful but not to
get trapped in a frantic search for happiness because this is what happens. An immature believer
that doesn’t have very much doctrine in his soul may very well get caught up in the search for
success and recognition and wind up following the trends of the times so he can be accepted. The
result is that fellowship with God is broken and the Holy Spirit is quenched and grieved. The end
result is he suffers the loss of reward and recognition in the eternal state. The world is a very
dangerous place. We live in the cosmos diabolicus, the devil’s world and it is full of temptations,
full of illusions and full of promises it can’t give you. If you don’t learn to recognize this, Satan’s
not going to worry about you. Why would Satan worry about you? Why would the devil even be
concerned about you if you can’t overcome the lure of the world? What about the flesh? This is
us. What does the Bible say about this? Let’s take a look at it. The flesh is the term used for the
sin nature. The sin nature has an area of strength and it has an area of weakness. People that are
not Christians can be good people. This can lead you to being good sometimes and other times
you being not so good, you being bad or disobedient. Sometimes it might even seem like there
are two of you living inside of there, the good guy and the bad guy. Sometimes you feel like a
nut and sometimes you don’t. You know what I’m talking about. You want to do the right thing
but you inevitably do the wrong thing. Why do you do the wrong thing? Because you have a sin
nature living inside of you. You will always have this sin nature until you get to heaven and get a
resurrection body minus the sin nature because it won’t be a body related to Adam anymore. It
will be a body related to Christ. The Biblical documentation for the sin nature I’m talking about
is found in Romans 5:12,
“Therefore, just as through one man
[Adam]
sin
[the sin nature]
entered into the world, and death
[spiritual death]
through sin, and so death
[spiritual death]
spread to all men, because all sinned.”
What Adam gave you is spiritual death because you are
related to Adam. The minute you were born, Adam’s original sin was imputed to you. You were
born physically alive but spiritually dead. This is why John 3:7 says,
“You must be born again.”
It’s a spiritual birth. You can’t have fellowship with God without having a spiritual birth. The
1011-Your-Enemies-transcript.pdf
bottom line is you’re going to be born twice or you’re going to die twice. The first birthday is
your physical birthday. The second birthday is your spiritual birthday. The first death is your
physical death. The second death is death in the Lake of Fire, Revelation 20:15-16. It’s called the
second death. It’s up to you. You’re either going to be born twice or you’re going to die twice
depending on whatever your decision is. You have a sin nature. You know you do. Your’s may be
refined. You may hide it a lot. You might not let people see what’s going on inside of you but it’s
there. Your area of weakness may not be the same as mine or visa versa, but it’s there. When
your sin nature throws up a temptation, here’s what happens. The sin nature says, “Beep, beep,
beep, beep, temptation, temptation, temptation,” and then your volition as part of your soul must
respond by saying yes or no. The sin nature throws up the temptation and your volition goes,
“Oh-oh, what do I do? What do I do? Yes, do it.” Your volition is the source of the sin but the sin
nature is the source of the temptation. You are a product of your decisions. You decide. You don’t
have to do it but you decide to do it and you do it. A lot of times we mistakenly give credit to the
devil for the bad things we do. It’s just like ole Geraldine on The Flip Wilson Show, “The devil
made me do it.” Again, I caution you, why in the world would Satan worry about you when you
can’t get victory over the world and you can’t get victory over the sin nature. Sometimes the sin
nature is called the flesh in the Bible. The Greek word used for this is
sarx.
It means flesh and it
emphasizes the location of your sin nature. Where is it? It’s in the cell structure of your body
because the sin nature is related to biological life. This is why it’s called the flesh in Galatians
5:16,
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
The sin
nature is in your body. When you get a new body, you heard me say, no more sin nature so
remember this. Sometimes the Scripture refers to the sin nature as the old man. Ephesians 4:22,
“That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self
[the old man]
, which
is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.”
The old man is capable of
manufacturing sin in three areas. Mental attitude sins, you don’t have to get out of your chair to
sin. If you’re a football fan and your team isn’t winning and you’re angry and cussing and
yelling and screaming, you’re sinning. You’re still in your easy chair drinking your Coca Cola,
eating your chips and sinning because your team isn’t winning. You are capable of
manufacturing sin in your mind. You can sin with what you say. These are the sins of the tongue,
gossiping, maligning, criticizing, and lying. Then there are the overt sins like murder, stealing,
fornication, adultery or whatever. Thank goodness when we get a resurrection body, we won’t
have this sin nature anymore. It’s a wonderful thing. In 1 John 3:2,
“Beloved, now we are
children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears,
we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
No more sin nature for you and no
more sin nature for me once we get to heaven, once we get to know the Lord Jesus Christ face-
to-face. You hear me talking about your spiritual life and growing spiritually, getting under the
ministry of a well-qualified pastor, because it helps you identify the things that trigger your sin
nature lust patterns because we don’t all lust for the same thing. Everybody doesn’t have the
same trend. What is lust? The best I can define it for you is it’s the overwhelming desire for
1011-Your-Enemies-transcript.pdf
something. It’s a passionate desire, an elicit uncontrolled overwhelming desire which originates
from the sin nature and gains the cooperation of your volition. That’s right, your volition has to
agree. The sin nature can’t make you sin but it can tempt you. Only your volition can make you
sin, you choose to do it. Lust is the overwhelming desire for something and the lust pattern can
include power lust. Do you want to know where this is? Look at politicians. Some of them have
been in office for 50 years, 40 years, 30 years. What in the world are they doing besides getting
rich and making money? They go in broke and they wind up leaving millionaires. Power lust
means they want to be in power. They want to be in charge. They want to run the show. Then
there’s pleasure lust found in the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:4 talks about,
“Lovers of pleasure rather
than lovers of God.”
Pleasure lust is a destroyer of honor. It is the destroyer of virtue and
integrity through sin and perpetual carnality in your life. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing
wrong with having pleasure as long as the pleasure does not involve sinful activity. I used to get
a lot of pleasure out of going bass fishing. I can’t do it anymore. I’ve gotten a little too old to get
in and out of the boat like I used to but I loved to bass fish. I didn’t sin. It wasn’t a sin to catch a
bass. It wasn’t a sin to go fishing. It brought me a lot of pleasure, a lot of solitude, a lot of
happiness. There is nothing wrong with pleasure as long as the pleasure doesn’t involve sinful
activity. The pleasure of the moment is not worth the displeasure of God. There’s power lust,
pleasure lust, sexual lust, approbation lust. Let me explain this one to you. I remember the
illustration about the little girl who was 15 years old who came to church pregnant. An 80 year
old woman saw her and began to criticize her to all of her little friends, “Look at that. That’s just
a shame. They ought not to let her come in here like that,” yada, yada, yada, yada. This is the
same person who gets great pleasure because she puts the flowers up at the pulpit every Sunday
morning. She can’t wait to hear the preacher say, “Mrs. Smith, thank you for these wonderful
flowers my dear. You’re so faithful to put these wonderful flowers up.” She says, “Yes, I know I
am.” She lives for the approbation of the pastor. Approbation means you live to be congratulated.
You live to get attention. The little girl we’re using in the illustration had sexual lust. Yes, she
committed adultery. Yes, she got pregnant but she didn’t have approbation lust. They are two
different things. Don’t look at someone else and say, “I don’t sin because I don’t do that.” You
just may have a bigger sin. Then there’s monetary lust. I used to have a friend who you could
trust with your wife but you couldn’t trust him with your money. He’d steal it from you. I have
some friends today who are serving time in the penitentiary because unfortunately they followed
the lust pattern of the flesh in the money issue. They got into trouble for it and they are
incarcerated today. Then there’s chemical lust like drug addiction. One of the most subtle lusts of
all time is called crusader lust and this is what I call Christian activism. It includes things like
vigilante activities, civil disobedience, criminality, paramilitary, social engineering, refusing to
pay taxes, terrorism and that sort of stuff. Just remember this, God didn’t send you to straighten
out the devil’s world. He sent you to replicate and re-present the Lord Jesus Christ, to lift Him
up because He said,
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself”
(John
12:32). If you get into this crusader lust, Christian activism, and you’re going to straighten
1011-Your-Enemies-transcript.pdf
everybody out, tell everybody how they’re suppose to live and what the Bible says, if they’re not
interested, then quit preaching at them. I see this all the time on TV and social media and
Christians preaching on the street corner. I guess it’s okay if people are interested but if they’re
not interested, quit trying to beat them over the head with it. Leave them alone. I always like to
say, “If you want to go to hell and you want to reject Jesus Christ, have a nice day,” and move on
down the road. Shake the dust off your feet. There are better times to speak to better people who
are interested than wasting time with someone who wants to argue with you. There is crusader
lust, chemical lust, monetary lust, approbation lust, sexual lust, pleasure lust and this isn’t all of
them. There are a lot of them and lust divorces us from reality and causes us to have unrealistic
expectations. This eliminates us understanding and using the problem-solving devices in our life.
Lust can only be overcome through spiritual momentum in your life. By this, I mean spiritual
growth, advancing to spiritual adulthood, growing spiritually, learning God’s Word and applying
God’s Word. You heard me use the word LAG, learn it, apply it and glorify God as a result. Let’s
move to the third issue now, the world, the flesh and the devil. It’s the one you’ve been waiting
on, the devil made you do it, right? This origin of the devil is found in Scripture. I’m going to
give you some principles so you understand it. 1. He was the highest ranking of all angels in
eternity past and he is the ruler of all fallen angels. We call them demons today. 2. He is the most
perfect and most beautiful creature ever created from the hand of God. Ezekiel 28:12,
“You had
the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.”
This is Satan, aka Lucifer as he was
known then. 3. He is superior in genius, superior in beauty, superior in personality, superior in
persuasiveness and he is invisible. People think he has a pitchfork and a red epidermis, forked
tail and forked ears. This isn’t what Satan looks like, I promise you. He’s a fallen angel. He’s
beautiful. He’s intelligent, smarter than us. He was the chief of angels. His name was Lucifer,
otherwise known as the Bright and Morning Star. He was the most spiritual being that ever
existed. This is why even as a fallen angel he can still transform himself into an angel of light. In
2 Corinthians 11:14,
“No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”
A lot of
people get tricked. A lot of people get confused in churches thinking they’re following God’s will
when actually they’ve got an angel of light preaching Scripture to them. He tells them, “If you
want to be saved, you’ve got to give up drinking, give up smoking, go out on the street corner
and do this and do that. The only thing you have to do to be saved is,
“Believe in the Lord Jesus,
and you will be saved”
(Acts 16:31). In the book of Isaiah his fall from heaven is described.
Isaiah 14:12,
“How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You
have been cut down to the earth.”
He was kicked out of heaven because of his sin. Thus, he is a
created being. He is not omnipresent like God. He is limited to time and space. He is not
omniscient like God, he can’t read your thoughts. He has many fallen angels that he controls and
they are known as demons. The Apostle Paul taught us that they have ranks like military
organizations. Ephesians 6:10-12 says,
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His
might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of
the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers
[principalities,
1011-Your-Enemies-transcript.pdf
demons]
, against the powers
[demons]
, against the world forces of this darkness
[demons]
,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places
[demons]
.”
This whole demon
military organization is designed to defeat you. Satan’s objective is to avoid going to the Lake of
Fire. He’s been sentenced and condemned to the Lake of Fire for his rebellion in heaven in
eternity past. The only way for him to get out of this is to win his appeal using us as witnesses
against the prosecution. If he can prove that God is unjust in sentencing him to the Lake of Fire,
his hope is that he can escape the appointment with the Lake of Fire. He is appointed to go there,
Revelation 20:10,
“And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and
brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and
night forever and ever.”
He tried to vindicate himself through Job. He will try to use our failures
to vindicate himself as well. He will try to delay his judgment by creating utopia on earth and
trying to prove that he is equal to God by running the show down here. To do this he needs
organized religion and global control through internationalism. We are told in 2 Corinthians 2:11
not to be stupid,
“So that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of
his schemes.”
Wake up dear friend, don’t let Satan use your weaknesses to vindicate himself.
Here’s the big news. It’s not about you. His tactics are beyond our comprehension so we must
learn and we must apply God’s Word daily or we will fall victim to his plan. The world, the flesh,
and the devil. There you have it. These are your enemies. Remember this. I hope you’ll come
back next week, same time, same place. We will continue on with a study on service to God.
Until then this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for listening to The FLOT Line