In this thought-provoking episode of The Flatline, Rick Hughes tackles the complex topic of temptation and spiritual warfare. Join Rick as he dives into the three sources of temptation that Christians must navigate: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Drawing from key biblical passages, Rick sheds light on how worldly allure, our inherent sin nature, and the deceptive tactics of Satan seek to derail our spiritual journey. He offers practical insights into how renewing the mind and understanding one’s volition can lead to victory over these spiritual adversaries.
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 and for the next few minutes stick around 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 information that will help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life if you in fact are even interested And if you are, you can orient and adjust to the plan. That’s really up to you. But 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 and so very grateful that God has given me the opportunity to speak to you this morning all across the United States and in the Philippines as well, all 50 states. We broadcast the Flatline Radio Show. Do you remember many, many, many years ago? Maybe you weren’t even born at this time. I don’t know, but I bet a lot of you were. 1970 to 74. There was a comedian on television by the name of Flip Wilson. And Flip was a black man who would often dress up as a woman called Geraldine. And he was very famous for saying, the devil made me do it. The devil made me do it. Maybe you remember that. I’m afraid that many people claim the same thing today. The devil made you do it. And that actually might not be true. So the first thing we need to remember is that Christians actually have three sources of temptation. The world and the flesh. And yes, of course, the devil. So 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. And let’s start with the lure of the world. Listen to Romans 12, two, when the Bible says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Do not be conformed. That 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. And how does Paul say that 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. And success in life depends on which one you use. Heads you win, tails you lose. So the Christian life is lived in your head where you think. That’s where your soul is. The mentality of your soul is in your brain, and that’s where you live the Christian life. It overflows into your body and the things that you do as a result of the decisions that you make and the things that you learn. But you’re supposed to be having some wisdom, insight, discernment, and understanding so you don’t get suckered every time you turn around. Don’t be conformed to this world. Don’t try to fit in. But be transformed so that, or in order that, this is a purpose clause in the Greek New Testament, in order that what? So that you can prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In our next radio show, we’re going to deal with that. We’re going to deal with how God has designed you for service. In 1 John 2, 17, listen to this verse. And the world is passing away and the lust of it But he who does the will of God abides forever. So the world that is one of our sources of temptation is just temporary. It’s passing away. And the lust that goes along with it, that means the world offers up temptations, tries to lure you to follow a certain lifestyle. The only one that’s gonna abide forever is the one that does the will of God. The Bible verse says, 1 John 2, 17, he who does the will of God abides forever. Well, can you tell me what the will of God is? I can tell you, John 6, 40, this is the will of the one that sent me, that you believe in me whom he has sent. That’s what the Lord Jesus Christ said. The will of God is for you to believe that Jesus Christ is his anointed son, that he went to the cross and paid for your sins on the cross. They buried him. They 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. In Titus 2.11, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, there it is again, that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Now, I could do a long study on those words, soberly, righteously, and godly. I just don’t have time. I probably should, but I don’t have time today. But these three verses I just read to you, Romans 12, 2, 1 John 2, 17, and Titus 2, 11, and 12, they all identify the world as a system that has great influence over individuals like you and I. And its influence is actually an illusion. That’s right, an illusion. It promises something that it cannot deliver. And what is it? That’s happiness and security. The world offers you happiness and security, but it can’t deliver that. So if an individual seeks happiness and security in the world, he’s going to be sadly mistaken because that person would 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 in the world in order to fit in and be accepted. But 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 and he goes running over there and it’s not there, just an illusion. And that’s the way the world is. They can’t give you what it’s offering you. That illusion that I’m referring to is called the Cosmos Diabolicus. Cosmos Diabolicus. C-O-S-M-O-S-D-I-A-B-O-L-I-C-U-S. Cosmos Diabolicus. And that’s a title that we use for it’s the devil’s world. Any Christian caught up in the system lives in a state of confusion and actually begins to mimic the human viewpoint thinking of the unbeliever. So if a Christian gets into the world, starts following the trends of the world, he’s gonna act like a person that’s not even Christian. It may even be impossible for you to tell them from a non-Christian since they will both have the same objectives, happiness, security, but they can’t get it. They try. They try in marriage. They try in winning the lottery. They try in making money. They try in getting the right job, getting the right home, getting the right automobile, but nothing gives them the security and the fulfillment and the peace that knowing God does. It’s called the peace that passes understanding. And I know when I accepted Christ, the first night after I had accepted Christ and I went to bed, that 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. And what a wonderful thought that was. So what you think can determine how you live. A thought, as they say, can make us or break us, because what we really are is what we’re thinking. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is, the Bible says. So, you know, where you are today in your car, in your home, on your way to church, or maybe just sitting around at the table, you are actually what you think, what’s in your brain, what’s in your stem cell up there, what’s in your memory center, what’s in your stream of consciousness. So John warns us about that cosmos diabolicus thing. Listen to this in John 2, 15 and 16. Stop loving the cosmos, that’s the world, or anything related to it. If anyone keeps on loving the cosmos, the world, The love of the Father is not in him because all that’s in the world, the cosmos, and here it identifies it now, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the arrogant pattern of life is not from the Father but from the cosmos, the world. In other words, it’s all an illusion. It’s not what you think it is. So this is one of your big enemies and one of my big enemies is overcoming the lure and the temptation and the projections that the world offers you. I mean, it comes every day on television. It comes every day in the newspaper, in the magazine. Buy this and you’ll be happy. Do this and you’ll be happy. Happiness, here’s what I learned a long time ago about happiness. Unhappy people take their unhappiness with them wherever they go. Did you know that? 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. Unhappy people take their unhappiness with them wherever they go. And I see that a lot in schools. Kids swapping schools. I’m not happy at this school. I’ll go to the other school. I’ll be happy over there. No, you won’t. Because the issue is not what people do, it’s what you do, what you think. So stop loving the cosmos. Stop loving what the world throws up and is 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, and it’s okay, it’s okay to be successful, but not to get trapped in the frantic search for happiness, because that’s what happens. An immature believer, a 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 it can be accepted. And the end result is that fellowship with God is broken, The Holy Spirit is quenched and grieved. And the end result is he suffers a loss of reward and recognition in the eternal state. So the world is a very dangerous place. We live in the cosmos diabolicus, the devil’s world. And it’s full of temptations. It’s full of illusions. It’s full of promises it can’t give you. If you don’t learn to recognize that, Satan’s not going to worry with you. Why would Satan worry about you? Why would the devil be even concerned about you? if you can’t overcome the lure of the world. Now what about the flesh? F-L-E-S-H, flesh. That’s right, the flesh, that’s you and me. What does the Bible say about that? All right, let’s take a look at it. The flesh is a term used for the sin nature. And the sin nature has an area of strength. It can be good sometimes, and it’s an area of weakness. I mean, people that are not even Christians can be good people. So this can lead you to being good sometimes, and other times you’re not so good. You being bad or disobedient. Sometimes it might even seem like there are two of you living inside there, the good guy and the bad guy. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t. I mean, you know what I’m talking about. You want to do the right thing and you inevitably do the wrong thing. And why do you do the wrong thing? Because you have a sin nature living inside of you. And you will always have that sin nature until you get to heaven and get a resurrection body minus a sin nature because it won’t be a body related to Adam anymore. It’ll be a body related to Christ. So the biblical documentation for that sin nature that I’m talking about is found in Romans 5, 12. Therefore, just as through one man, Adam, sin, that’s the sin nature, entered into the world, and death, that’s spiritual death, through the sin nature, so that spiritual death now spread to the entire human race because all now have sinned when Adam sinned. So what Adam gave you is spiritual death because you’re related to Adam. So the minute you were born, Adam’s original sin was imputed to you, and you were born physically alive but spiritually dead, and that’s why the Bible says you must be born again. It’s a spiritual birth. You can’t have fellowship with God without having a spiritual birth. The bottom line is, are you gonna be born twice or are you gonna die twice? The first birthday is your physical birthday, the second birthday is your spiritual birthday, and the first death is your physical death, and the second death is the death in the lake of fire, Revelation 20. It’s called the second death. So it’s up to you. You’re either gonna be born twice or die twice, whatever your decision is. But you have a sin nature, you know you do. Now yours 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. And your area of weakness may not be the same as mine or vice versa, but it’s there. So 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 says, That’s part of your soul. Your volition must respond by saying yes or no. So the sin nature throws up the temptation. The volition goes, uh-oh, uh-oh, what do I do? What do I do? Yes, yes, do it, do it. And your volition is the source of the sin. But your sin nature is the source of the temptation. You’re a product of your decisions. You decide. You don’t have to do that. 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. Just like old 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 that is sarx, S-A-R-X. It means flesh. And it emphasizes the location of your sin nature. And where is it? It’s in the cell structure of your body because the sin nature is related to biological life. That’s why it’s called the flesh, Galatians 5, 16. But I say, walk by means of the spirit and you will not execute the lust of the flesh. The sin nature’s in your body. And when you get a new body, no more sin nature. You heard me say that. So remember that. Sometimes the scriptures refer to the sin nature as the old man. Ephesians 4.22 that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust. The old man is capable of manufacturing sin in three areas. Mental attitude sins. I mean, you only had to get out of your chair to sin if you If you’re a football fan and your football team’s not winning and you’re mad and cussing and yelling and screaming, you’re sinning and still in your easy chair, drinking your Coca-Cola, eating your chips and sinning because your team’s not winning. You are capable of manufacturing sin in your mind. You can sin with what you say. That’s the sins of the tongue. Gossip, maligning, criticizing, lying. And then there’s the overt sins, like murder, stealing, fornication, adultery, whatever. So thank goodness, when we get a resurrection body, we won’t have that sin nature anymore. That’s a wonderful thing. In 1 John 3, 2, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him. There it is. We shall see him as he is. No more sin nature for you. No more sin nature for me. Once we get to heaven, once we get to know the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. So spiritual growth, when you’re growing spiritually, you hear me talk about your spiritual life and growing spiritually. getting under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor. Spiritual growth helps you identify those 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? Well, the best I can define for you is an overwhelming desire for something. It’s a passionate desire, an illicit, 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 that. So the lust is the overwhelming desire for something. And the lust pattern can include power lust. You want to know where that is? Look at politicians. Some of them have been in office 50 years, 40 years, 30 years. What in the world are they doing besides getting rich, making money? They go in broke and they wind up leaving millionaires. Power lust. They want to be in power. They want to be in charge. They want to run the show. And 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’s a destroyer of virtue and integrity through sin and perpetual carnality in your life. And don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with having pleasure as long as that 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. Can’t get in and out of the boat like I used to. But I loved to bass fish, but 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. Nothing wrong with pleasure as long as that pleasure doesn’t involve sinful activity. The pleasure of the moment is not worth the displeasure of God. Did you listen to that? I’ll say it one more time for you. The pleasure of the moment is not worth the displeasure of God. Lovers of pleasure, 2 Timothy 3, 4. So there’s power lust, There’s what else is it? Power lust, pleasure lust, sexual lust, approbation lust. Let me explain that one to you. I remember the illustration about the little girl, 15 years old, who came to church pregnant. And the 80-year-old woman saw her and began to criticize her to all her little friends. Said, look at that. That’s just a shame. Y’all not to let her come in here like that. You know, yada, yada, yada, yada. But that’s the same person that gets great pleasure because she puts the flowers up at the pulpit every Sunday morning. And 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 flowers. Yes, I know I am. Yes, yes, yes. She lives for the month for the approbation of that pastor. Approbation means that you live to be congratulated. You live to get attention. And the little girl, the 15-year-old girl, we’re using the illustration, she had sexual lust. Yes, she committed adultery. Yes, she got pregnant. But she didn’t have approbation lust. They’re two different things. So don’t look at someone else and say, well, I don’t sin because I don’t do that. No, you just may have a bigger sin. And then there’s monetary lust. I used to have a friend that I knew, you could trust him with your wife, but you couldn’t trust him with your money. He’d steal it from you. Monetary lust. I have some friends today that are serving time in a penitentiary because unfortunately they follow the lust pattern of the flesh and the money issue, and they got in trouble for that, and they’re incarcerated today. Then there’s chemical lust, like drug addiction. One of the most subtle lusts of all times is called crusader lust. And this is what I call Christian activism. Christian activism includes organizations like the vigilante activities, civil disobedience, criminality, paramilitary, social engineering, refusing to pay taxes, terrorism, that sort of stuff. Just remember this, God didn’t send you to straighten out the devil’s world. God did not send you to straighten out the devil’s world. He sent you to replicate Christ. Represent the Lord Jesus Christ and lift him up because he said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. So you get in this crusader lust, this Christian activism. As a Christian, you’re going to straighten the world out. You’re going to tell everybody how they’re supposed to live, what the Bible says. If they’re not interested, quit preaching at them. I see this all the time on TV, social media, Christians preaching on the street corner. Well, I guess that’s okay if people are interested. 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 that are interested than wasting time when someone wants to argue with you. So this crusader lust, chemical lust, monetary lust, approbation lust, sexual lust, pleasure lust, and that’s not all of them. There’s a lot of them. And lust divorces us from reality, causes us to have unrealistic expectations. And that eliminates us understanding and using the problem-solving devices in our life. Lust can only be overcome through spiritual momentum in your life. By that, I mean spiritual growth. I mean advancing to spiritual adulthood, growing spiritually, learning God’s Word, applying God’s Word. You’ve heard me use the word LAG, L-A-G. Learn it, apply it, and glorify God as a result. So let’s move to the third issue now. The world, the flesh, and here it is, the devil. That’s the one you’ve been waiting on. The devil made you do it, right? This origin of the devil is found in the scripture. I’ll give you some principles so you’ll understand it. Number one, 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. Number two, he is the most perfect and most beautiful creature ever created from the hand of God. Ezekiel 28, 12, you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. That’s Satan, aka Lucifer, he was known as then. He is point three, superior in genius, superior in beauty, superior in personality, persuasiveness, and he is invisible. You know, people think he’s got a pitchfork and got a red epidermis and forked tail and forked ears. That’s not what Satan looks like, I promise you. He’s a fallen angel. He was beautiful. He’s intelligent, smarter than you or I. He was the chief of angels, and his name was Lucifer. otherwise known as the bright and morning star. And he was the most spiritual being that ever existed. That’s why even as a fallen angel, he can still transfer himself into an angel of light. In 2 Corinthians 11, 14, and no wonder for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. And a lot of people get tricked and a lot of people get confused in churches about thinking they’re following God’s will when actually they’ve got an angel of light preaching the scripture to them and they’re telling them if you want to be saved, you’ve got to give up drinking, smoking, go out on the street corner and do this, do that. The only thing you have to do to be saved is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, Acts 16, 31. In the book of Isaiah, his fall from heaven is described. Isaiah 14, 12, how are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, and how are you cut down to the ground? So he was kicked out of heaven because of his sin. Thus he is a created being. He’s not omnipresent like God. He’s limited to time and space, and he’s not omniscient like God. He can’t read your thoughts, and he has many fallen angels that he controls, and they’re known as demons. The Apostle Paul taught us that they have ranks like military organization. In Ephesians 6, 10 through 12, here’s what it says. Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God so you can stand against the strategy of Satan. For we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, that’s demons. Powers, demons, against the rulers of darkness of this age, demons. Spiritual hosts of the wickedness in heavenly places, demons. a whole military organization designed to defeat you. So 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 and eternity past. And the only way for him to get out of that is to win his appeal using you and me as a witness against the prosecution. If he can prove that God is unjust in sentencing him to the lake of fire, his hope is he can escape the appointment with the lake of fire. He’s appointed to go there in Revelation 20, verse 10. The devil who’s deceived them was cast in lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and they will be tormented day and night forever. So he tried this with Job, tried to vindicate his own self through Job and he will use our failures to vindicate himself as well if he can. He will try to delay his judgment by creating utopia on earth and trying to prove that he’s equal to God by running the show down here. To do this, he needs organized religion and global control through internationalism. We’re told in 2 Corinthians 2.11 not to be stupid. Don’t let Satan get an advantage over us. So wake up, dear friend. Don’t let Satan use your weaknesses to vindicate himself. Here’s the big news, it’s not about you, it’s about him. It’s his tactics are beyond our comprehension. So we must learn and we must apply God’s word daily or we fall victim to his plan. The world, the flesh, and the devil. There you have it. That’s your enemies. Don’t forget that and remember that. I hope you’ll come back next week, same time, same place, and we’ll continue on with our study of service to God. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
