In this episode of The Flatline, host Rick Hughes explores the profound concept of the Royal Family of God. Discover how every believer is adopted into this spiritual family upon accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. Rick delves into the biblical puzzle of problem-solving, as well as the significance of the honor code Christians are called to live by, as revealed through scripture.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, stick around. It won’t be long, only about 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, education, and all of this will be done without any type of manipulation. That’s right, we don’t manipulate people on this radio station, this radio show. We’re not trying to con you. There’s not going to be any appeal for money. There will be no appeal to sell you anything. If you get any of our material, it’s all absolutely free because it’s provided by the grace of God. I’ve always believed if God’s in it, God will pay for it, and he always has and always will as long as this is will. You may be listening for the first time this morning as we’ve expanded our radio outreach and added several new stations. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to always add more stations. And so if this is the first time to listen to the FLOT line, F-L-O-T, let me tell you what it stands for. It stands for the Forward Line of Troops, F-L-O-T. That’s a military term. It refers to the main line of resistance in the military. And the FLOT line is 10 unique problem-solving devices taught in the Bible. Nothing that I came up with. This is something my pastor taught me years ago. But if you learn these 10 unique problem-solving devices and apply them into your soul on a daily basis, then you’ll be able to stop the outside source of adversity before it ever becomes the inside source of stress. That’s why we always say adversity is inevitable and stress is optional. So if you’re a new listener to the Flotline, hope you’ll come back next week, same time, same channel, as we push ahead with our new shows in the new states that we’re beginning to broadcast in. Now, another announcement before we get into our subject today, we’re going to talk about the Royal Family of Gods, what we’re going to talk about. But my team and I have worked very hard to produce a brand new book. And if you’re new to the station, we have a lot of books that are available on our website at Simply go to rickhughesministries.org and you’ll see all the various books that we provide for your enjoyment. But we’ve worked very hard to produce a new book entitled A Family, Your Enduring Legacy. This book will be full of spiritual insight and practical principles for parents and for children. And I hope you’ll consider pre-ordering your copy now. Pre-order. It’s not ready yet. It’ll be ready in about a month. If you want to go ahead and pre-order, you can do that, and we’ll put your name on the list and send it to you as soon as it’s available. So this morning, I want you to consider the importance of the royal family, which you were adopted into the very moment you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. The royal family. It’s different than the earthly family. So listen to Romans 8, 14. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. There you go, children of God. So when you get saved, you have a new father, God the Father. In Matthew 12, 50, For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. That’s the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. And in 1 John 1, 1, see what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are. So if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a child of God. And you’re a member of a very unique family called the royal family. In 1 Corinthians 12, 12, just as a body through one has many parts, but all the many parts are forming one body, so it is with Christ. For we are all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be slave or free, we are all given the one spirit to drink. Even so, the body is not made up of one part, but full of many parts. So if you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re a member of that body, regardless of your race, ethnicity, or whatever. So isn’t that a wonderful thing? It’s clear from these verses that every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a member of his family, which we will call this morning the royal family of God. The royal family is different from physical relatives like your mother or your dad or your sister or your brother. The human family has a lot of great parts in God’s plan during the time continuum, yes, while you’re here alive. But the other family… The royal family, that will continue for all eternity. And guess what? You will meet brothers and sisters in heaven you didn’t even know you had. It’s a unique family with an everlasting relationship, the royal family. The physical family just works in the time continuum, but the royal family works throughout all eternity. While alive on this planet, we don’t all look the same. We don’t all speak the same language. But if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we all have the same relationship. We are royalty. We’re related to what the Bible says is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, 1 Timothy 6.15. That’s Jesus Christ, our Savior. He’s the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Now, I don’t know how you were raised, but in my case, things were a little bit tough. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I grew up in a single-parent home with no father present. In my early years, we lived in a federal housing project in Birmingham, Alabama. I did not have any brothers, and I have no sisters, so I really had no responsibility at home. In order to keep me out of trouble, my mother sent me two guardians who kept me during the week, but I was allowed to come home on Friday night and then I had to go back to the guardian’s house on Sunday night. I really hated those times. I hated them so much that I ran away. I didn’t run away far. I went home. I ran away from the Guardian to my own home. Not away from home, but back to home. So in the summer of 1957, which is an eternity ago, My mother sent me to French Camp Academy located just off the Natchez Trace outside the city of Kosciusko, Mississippi. I believe Ofri Winfrey is from Kosciusko, Mississippi. But this place in French Camp Academy is where I first learned about God. French Camp is a Presbyterian-based Christian home for problem children who actually live there year-round. But in my case, it was a summer program only. That blessed institution still exists today, and as an adult, I did have the privilege to go back and speak to the students. My salvation occurred ten years after French Camp. Ten years later, at a home Bible study while on a date with a former high school friend. Dear Jane, her name was Jane, and she took me to church. And I didn’t get saved at church. It was after church that I came to know the Lord. But hopefully you can understand that I came to God consciousness at the age of 12 while I was at French camp. I began to be aware there was a God, and I wanted to know God, but I didn’t know how to know him. And it was later, 10 years later, after the age of 22, when someone told me how to become acquainted with God, through Jesus Christ, if I would receive him as my savior. So what about you? Do you actually remember the first time you heard about God? Or the first time you realized there was even a God? And you do know everybody comes to that awareness, everybody, no exceptions, everybody in the world, everywhere. realizes somebody created this place. In Romans 1.20, for since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made. So no one has an excuse. So I don’t care who you are, where you live, you will look around the stars, the moon, the sun, the trees, the whatever, and you realize somebody made this. Every individual that has ever been born goes through God consciousness, being aware of God. At some point, if you have normal mentality, if you’re normal, you begin to make your first positive decision of wanting to know God. We call that positive volition, positive volition at God consciousness. There is a God. I want to know God. How can I find him? How do I get to know him? If you’re positive at God consciousness, as I was at 12 years old, then he, that’s God, will get the gospel to you regardless of your location. doesn’t make any difference where you are. He will make sure that you hear it. That’s why we have missionaries that go to various countries to reach those who are God conscious of positive volition. So you hear the gospel like I did, and you accept Jesus Christ as your savior, as I did, and now both of us are on a fantastic journey that will eventually wind up in heaven, unified with our Heavenly Father. When I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, I had no idea what God had prepared for me. The most amazing thing was that now I had a father, a real father. Growing up without a father is tough. Maybe you know what I’m talking about. Maybe it’s been like that for you. But I cannot remember a father. I don’t know who my father was. but a real father, a heavenly father, one that I could talk to any time and any place. I have spoken with my heavenly father while in a tree hunting deer. I have spoken to my heavenly father while in a boat fishing for bass. I have spoken to my heavenly father while driving down the interstate, while flying in an airplane. And while at my desk, he’s always there. He always answers me. I might not be able to see him, but he for sure can see me. In Proverbs 521, for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his going. You hear that? The eyes of the Lord looking at you all the time. and psalm 139 verse 2 thou knowest my down sitting and my uprising you understand my thoughts from afar off and that’s god being able to have what we call omniscience omnipotence omnipresence so god knows when you’re standing he knows when you’re sitting and he knows what you’re thinking so not only do i have a father as you do if you’re a christian I now have a lot of new siblings, spiritually speaking. Physically, I have no siblings. I’m an only child. But in Romans 12, 5, so we being many, many are in one body in Christ and everyone members of one another. So I got brothers and sisters that I don’t even know, spiritually speaking, members of the royal family just like me, just like you. I may be talking to one of my brothers or sisters this morning on this new radio station if you’re listening. Maybe we’re related through Jesus Christ and we’ll spend eternity together getting to know each other. This is one of the reasons you hear Christians calling each other brother or sister. Now, listen, that can be overused sometimes, but it’s true. Those of you who are listening to me this morning have a question. Are you my brother or my sister in Christ Jesus? Are you? Not physically, but spiritually. You know, since Christians still possess a sinful nature, God has set up an honor code. An honor code that we have to live by. An honor code that we are to observe. We are to live by this honor code. And these verses I’m about to read to you kind of explain what that honor code is. Listen very carefully. In Colossians 3.13, forbearing one another, that means putting up with each other. If you have physical brothers or sisters, you know sometimes that can be a hard issue to put up with your brother or your sister that pesters you and bothers you. I know my children, when they were growing up, they would always be fussing and fighting with each other over clothes or over whatever they were fussing about. But forbearing one another in Christ Jesus, if you have a heavenly father and you’re a member of this royal family of God, forgiving one another, that means you’re not supposed to be angry and hold a grudge against your brother or your sister in Christ. If any man has a quarrel against any other man, even as Christ forgave you, so also do you forgive them. Now this is something we call the impersonal love is where it comes in here. I’ll teach this to you. Because forgiveness is very crucial to maintain unity in the body of Christ. You can’t afford to be mad, bitter, angry, jealous of another Christian. You have to learn how to forgive them. Just as God forgave you, by the way, John 3, 16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Did God forgive you when you were a jerk? Yes, he did. Can you forgive your brothers or your sisters if they are being jerks? Yes, you can because your forgiveness is based on your integrity, not theirs. That’s what impersonal love is. You’re loving them based on who you are, not on who they are. So in Galatians 6-2, the Bible tells us to bear one another’s burdens. And by doing so, we will fulfill the law of Christ. The law of Christ. Did you hear that? Law of Christ. What in the world is that? What is the law of Christ? Well, the Bible does not specifically define what is the law of Christ, but most theologians agree that what I’m about to read to you is what is called the law of Christ. Have you ever heard that before? Fulfill the law of Christ, Galatians 6.2, Paul said. Well, listen to Mark 12, 28 through 31. This is the subject he’s referring to when Paul wrote that. This is what Jesus said. Which commandment is the most important of all? Jesus answered, the most important is this. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There’s no other commandment greater than these, end quote. Now that’s the Lord Jesus Christ telling us what the law of Christ is, giving us this law. And in place of the Old Testament law, Christians now have to obey this new law of Christ. So rather than trying for us to remember the over 600 individual mandates in the Old Testament, we’re called to focus on one thing, loving God and loving one another. But you got to remember, how can you love somebody you don’t even understand? To love God is very critical that you understand God because you cannot love someone you don’t understand. That’s why we have an instruction book called the Bible. And when the scriptures tell us we’re to love God, the question is how exactly do we do this? I call it virtue love. And that virtue love is demonstrated by extreme reverence and extreme respect for God. You know, if I ask you, do you love God, you’d probably say, yes, I do love God. But the next question I’m going to ask you is, do you understand the God you love? Because Jeremiah said that you must understand him and know him. So personal love for God is different from impersonal love for other people. Personal love for God is motivational virtue. It’s what motivates you to be obedient to God. Motivational virtue. Impersonal love for other people, other brothers and sisters in Christ is functional virtue. And that gives you the power not to get out of fellowship when they do you wrong, not to get angry, not to get mad, not to devaluate and judge them, but to forgive them just as God forgave you. So on one hand, we have the mandate, as Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And on the other hand, we have you should love your neighbor as yourself. So here we are. We have a dilemma. We’re to love our neighbor, and this requires us to have impersonal love. Impersonal love, not personal love, impersonal love. Because I got some neighbors too. I live in a community and there’s some of my neighbors that are a little weird. I’m sure they think I’m a little weird. You may live next door to a W-O-J I call them. What’s a W-O-J? That’s a weird, obnoxious jerk. You may know a few of those in your church even. But you have to love these people. You have to love them based on who you are, not based on who they are, because they may just irritate the heck out of you. That doesn’t mean you have the right to get mad at them. It means you have the right to forgive them. You have the right to treat them kindly and not vibrate every time you get around them. So these two different attitudes that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke about are produced under the filling of the Holy Spirit. And this is the key to the Christian life. It is the most important key for you to learn. You are a Christian. You have been indwelled by God the Holy Spirit, according to Ephesians chapter 1, 13, until the day of redemption. And then Paul said in Ephesians 5, 18, you’re to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And these are two different things. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is your relationship with God, and the filling of the Holy Spirit is your fellowship with God. It’s possible that you may be in the relationship, but not in fellowship. By that I mean you have unconfessed sin in your life. So the filling of the Holy Spirit is the most important doctrine every Christian must learn, must comprehend, must obey. Because if you don’t understand the filling of the Holy Spirit, there’s absolutely no way any believer can live the Christian life. No way. So how do you get the Holy Spirit? You get him the moment you get saved. How are you filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, let me put it to you this way. You’re either in fellowship with God, controlled by the Holy Spirit, or out of fellowship with God, controlled by your sin nature. You’re going to be one of those two places as a Christian. If you’re out of fellowship with God, this means you committed a sin you haven’t confessed. If you have committed a middle attitude sin, or a verbal sin, or even an overt sin, you break fellowship with God. When you break fellowship with God, you let your sin nature take over. And when your sin nature takes over, then it will run the show and you cannot function as a believer. Yes, you’re saved, yes, you’re going to heaven, but you’re out of fellowship. For example, if you try to pray while you’re out of fellowship, the Bible says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So your prayers won’t work if you’re out of fellowship. It’s possible that you could sit in the choir and sing. It’s possible that you could put money in their offering plate. It’s possible that you could show up on Sunday morning as part of the nod to God crowd. But if you’re out of fellowship, it’s all human good energy. It’s all energy of the flesh. And how does God determine what was flesh and what was spirit? Well, it’s the judgment seat of Christ in 1 Corinthians 3. The Bible tells us, We’ll be evaluated. Every Christian will be evaluated. And some of our works will be gold, silver, and precious stones. And some of our works will be wood, hay, and stubble. So only God knows that. So you must understand, there’s no way you can live the Christian life without the filling of the Holy Spirit, and I’m not talking about foaming at the mouth and beating a tambourine and jumping all over the stage like a crazy person. I’m talking about letting the Holy Spirit control your life and fill you. So I have a question to ask you. It’s a legitimate question. Answer it to yourself, but at this very moment, are you filled with the Holy Spirit? By that I mean, is there sin in your life you haven’t dealt with? Have you been lying? Have you been stealing? Have you been cheating? Have you been jealous? Have you been bitter? There’s only one way to deal with sin, and that’s called rebound, problem-solving device number one. It means if we confess our sin, that he’s faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So the moment you go to the Father and admit your sin, you are back in fellowship with God. The Holy Spirit is no longer quenched. The Holy Spirit is no longer grieved. You’re placed back into fellowship with God and you can move forward in your Christian life until you sin again and fail to confess it. You cannot let sin sit around and simmer in your soul. When you sin immediately, not at night when you go to bed, and if you sin at 8 o’clock in the morning and confess it at 10 o’clock at night, you lived out of fellowship all day and you’re going to sleep in fellowship. That’s dumb. As soon as you know you’ve committed a sin, go to God and confess that sin. He said he would be faithful and just and forgive us. Jesus Christ our Lord freed us from the bondage of the hundreds of different commands in the Old Testament law, and instead causes us to love, love God, love one another. 1 John 4, 7, and 8 says this, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. And 1 John 5, 3 continues this. This is the love for God to obey his mandates and his mandates are not hard. They’re not a burden. So do you love God? That’s the question again. Yeah, you say, yes, I love God. Do you know the God you love? That’s the second question. Do you understand the God you love? So the royal family, the family that you and I are members of, we operate under the law of Christ. We call that now the royal law. The royal law for the royal family. This was not known as the royal law until the church age began where our Lord Jesus Christ said these words in John 13, 34. A new commandment I give you. that you love one another as I have loved you, and that you also love one another. Verse 35, by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another. The book of James defines the royal law. It says this, James 2.8, if you really fulfill the royal law, there it is, if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures, you will love your neighbor as yourself, and you will do well. You know, you may have siblings that you don’t get along with. In the book of Luke, our Lord gave the parable of the prodigal son. In Luke 15, 11, he said a certain man had two sons, and those two did not get along. The shepherd boy David, who defeated Goliath, was disposed by his other brother, despised by his older brother. Eliab was his name. In 1 Samuel 16, you can read about that. In the book of Genesis, we have a historical account of Joseph, the son of Jacob, who was sold into slavery by his older brothers. Perhaps you have blood relatives that dislike you or Christian friends that you don’t care to associate with. Well, the royal law tells you what? That you’ve got to be able to love them. You’ve got to be able to deal with them. So how do you handle this situation? The toughest test I face in my life. He came from believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, not unbelievers. What a wonderful life we have when we follow the protocol plan of God. Olympians four, six through seven says, don’t be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. will guard your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus. I could spend a few days dissecting that verse for you, but I don’t right now. So through Jesus Christ, I have a new family, a father who watches over me, brothers and sisters in Christ who pray for me, a new home that awaits me in heaven. How about you? Are you lonely tonight? Does anybody love you or care about you? The Lord Jesus Christ has a personal invitation for you. He said in Matthew 11, 28, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. This morning, I invite you to join me and become a member of God’s royal family. There’s no application to fill out, no waiting period. The only requirement is faith, faith in a person and what that person did on your behalf. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, the Bible clearly says, For he has made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. In Ephesians 2.8.9, For by grace you’ve been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It’s a gift from God, not of works, as anyone should boast about it. I invite you to put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning and to receive him as your savior. You can do so in a simple prayer. The Bible says, whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And you can pray and simply say, Father, I believe that Jesus Christ died for me. I’m willing to accept him as my savior. And that will be the moment of your salvation. Think about it. the new family, the royal family, a family for all eternity in heaven, in our home. Thank you for listening this morning. I hope you’ll come back next week, same time, same place, same station. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
