May 16, 2026 • 27 mins
Biblical principles for family, parenting, marriage, responsibility, authority, and spiritual growth. This episode outlines how the Bible defines the structure of the home and the spiritual development of children. It examines the first family in Genesis, the impact of their choices, and the importance of teaching children about God from an early age. Key themes include personal responsibility, the stability of marriage and family, and the role of national identity. Listeners will gain practical insight for building a home shaped by biblical truth and preparing children to respond to Jesus Christ.
Download Transcript: https://rhem.pub/1057-transcript
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome to the Flat Line with your host Rick Hughes.
For the next 30 minutes you'll be inspired, motivated, educated
but never manipulated. Now your host, Rick Hughes.
Good morning and welcome to the Flat Line.
I'm your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please
(00:29):
stick around. It won't be long. 30 minutes of
motivation, inspiration, education, and no manipulation.
That means we don't con people. We're not trying to raise money,
we're not trying to sell you anything.
We're just trying to give you accurate information that'll
help you verify and identify theplan of God for your life.
If you can do that, you can Orient and adjust to the plan.
(00:50):
It's all your choice. But thank you for giving me some
30 minutes of your time this morning.
If you stick around, it's alwaysgreat to hear from you.
I encourage you to go to our website,
rickhughesministries.org. That's Rick
hughesministries.org. There you can see all of our
books that we make available free of charge and you can
(01:13):
listen to some of those books read by our announcer, Jack
Steele, and you can order various materials and take a
look at what we are all about. So don't hesitate to go there
and let me one other thing before we get started today, I'd
love to hear from you. We are in the process of
renewing radio contracts for theupcoming year.
We do not know who's listening and who's not listening.
(01:34):
We have no way to gauge that. But if you are listening, would
you just drop us a note through the website or write us a
personal note to PO Box 100 in crop Cropwell, Alabama, PO Box
100, Cropwell, Alabama 35054. All we have to do is say I'm
(01:55):
listening in this city or I'm listening in that city and that
gives us an idea of where to extend our radio shows.
You can always reach us at our 800 number, 800-831-0718.
That number was down for a whileas we changed servers that we
got things working again now so we're able to get your calls.
800-831-0718 My team and I've been working hard to get out our
(02:20):
latest book to you. It will be entitled Family, Your
Greatest Legacy. I hope that we would be able to
get it out by Christmas, but it doesn't look like it'll be
available. So maybe sometime after the
first of the year, not too far into next year, we'll have this
book available, and I think thiswill be probably one of the most
important books we've ever published.
(02:42):
The Family, Your Greatest legacy.
I pray that you'll ask God to give us guidance and insight as
we put this together, and I prayit will help you.
But the Bible has a lot to say about families.
As a matter of fact, the first family mentioned in the Bible is
that of Adam and Eve, his wife, along with their three sons,
(03:04):
Cain, Abel, and Seth. In the beginning, God placed
Adam and Eve in a perfect environment and tasked them with
taking care of things. In Genesis 215, you can read
where the Lord God took the man,put him in the Garden of Eden to
work it and take care of it. He had a job.
He was a caretaker of the garden.
In Genesis 128 through 30, God bless them, told him to be
(03:27):
fruitful, increase in number. In other words, have babies and
grow your family. And God told them what resources
they could use. In Genesis 128 through 30, the
Bible says God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and
increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it and rule
over the fish of the sea. I like that.
I like to catch fish, rule over the fish in the sea and the
(03:49):
birds in the sky and over every leaving creature that moves on
the ground. And then God said, I'll give you
every seed bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and
every tree that has fruit with seeds in it, and they would be
yours for food. And to all the beasts of the
earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that
move along the ground, everything that has to do with
(04:10):
the breath of life in it. I give every green plant for
food. And it was so, but he did warn
them about one specific fruit they were not to eat.
And you know what that was? That's the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. Because he said you must not eat
in Genesis 217. You must not eat from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil.
(04:31):
For when you eat from it, you will certainly die.
Now they didn't die physically, but they died spiritually
because of the identification ofa sin nature.
It was this tree that Satan usedto attack this family and steer
them into spiritual and physicaldeath.
It's amazing how quickly humans can be convinced that God did
(04:52):
not really mean what He said. Unfortunately, He does, and He
did. And they found out the hard way
that they had been lied to by a deceitful serpent.
The wonderful thing about our Heavenly Father is that
forgiveness is always available.In Genesis 321, the Lord God
made garments of skin for Adam and his wife Eve and clothed
(05:13):
them. This verse describes what we
call the first protovangella anddescribes God sacrificing an
innocent animal to atone for their sin and to cover their
nakedness. And this is a picture of exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ does for us in Hebrews 922.
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed
(05:35):
with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no
forgiveness. You may wonder about what that
means with the blood the hold ofthe Old Testament.
Every book points towards great sacrifices that were to come.
The great sacrifice, of course, was the Lord Jesus Christ
sacrificing His own life on our behalf.
(05:57):
Leviticus 1711 is the Old Testament statement concerning
the significance of blood in thesacrificial system.
Where God spoke to Moses and said For the life of a creature
is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make
atonement for yourselves on the altar.
It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.
All of the many blood sacrificesseen throughout the Old
(06:19):
Testament were always foreshadowing the truth once and
for all time sacrifice to come so the Israelis would never
forget that without the blood, that's death.
There is no forgiveness. The shedding of blood is a
substitutionary act. People get all mixed up about
this. The shedding of blood is a
substitutionary act. It's the innocent one dying for
(06:42):
the guilty. Perfect picture of the
substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ on that cross
where He took our place. Scriptures state clearly the Old
Testament blood sacrifices were temporary and only A10 atone for
sin partially and for a short time, hence the need to repeat
the sacrifice every year. But when our Lord Jesus Christ
(07:05):
entered the Most Holy place, He did so to offer His own blood
once for all time, making futuresacrifices unnecessary.
And this is what the Lord Jesus Christ meant by His dying words
on the cross. It's finished, it's over with,
it's done for. John 1930.
Never again would the blood of abull or a goat cleanse men from
their sins. The spiritual death of Jesus
(07:27):
Christ on that cross is when He assumed our sin debt.
And by this we are forgiven. Our sins have been paid for
completely. His spiritual death on that
cross was the blood sacrifice God required for the atonement
of the sins of mankind. Colossians 120 And through Him
to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth
(07:51):
or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on
the cross. Ephesians 17.
In Him Christ we have redemptionthrough His blood,
substitutionary spiritual death,the forgiveness of sins in
accordance with the riches of God's grace.
People get all mixed up about this, but that blood represented
his substitutionary spiritual death on that cross, dying in
(08:14):
our place. Just as an innocent animal died
to provide a covering for Adam and Eve who were ashamed of
their nakedness, our Lord Jesus Christ died to give us a
covering for our sin. Ultimately, this act of
disobedience, you know, eating that forbidden fruit, caused
them to be cast out of the Garden of Eden.
In reality, Adam lost his job, lost his benefits and had to
(08:36):
relocate. And Cain, their oldest son,
wound up killing his younger brother Abel.
And this act caused Cain to be under a curse for the rest of
his entire life. Genesis 411 through 16, which
meant he would never be able to grow his own food.
He would never be able to have ahome.
He would be a homeless beggar searching for food and shelter,
wandering the earth for the restof his life.
(08:58):
God even placed a mark on him that warned people not to kill
him. The first family who lived in
perfect environment found themselves in a horrible mess
all because they bought the liesof Satan rather than obeying
their Lord. Question I have to ask you this
morning is, has Satan deceived you into believing that he's got
a better deal for you than what God has made available through
(09:21):
His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ by reading this book we are
publishing and when he gets out later next early next year,
you're going to discover what a wonderful life can be yours by
ignoring the lives of Satan and obeying the word of God.
So are you a parent? If so, let me present 4 things
that you must instill in the thoughts of your young children
(09:44):
beginning at a very young age. You absolutely must make them
aware that God exists. That's called God consciousness.
You might do this by taking themoutside on a cool dark night,
and point up to the heavens and read this verse.
Psalm 8/3 when I consider your heavens, the work of your
fingers, and the moon and the stars which you have set in
(10:04):
place. Point out to heaven and read
that verse to them when I consider your heaven, the work
of your fingers, the moon, and the stars which you've set in
place. Or you might read to them this
verse if you go to the beach where it says, this is what the
Lord says. He who appoints the sun to shine
by day, who decreases the moon and the stars to shine by night,
(10:27):
who decrees the moon and the stars to shine by night, who
stirs up the sea so that it so that it's waves roar.
The Lord Almighty is his name. This is how you make your
children God conscious. You take them and you let them
look up. You take them to the beach and
let them look at the waves. They have to learn that there is
a God and then he does exist. And you and I pray that the
(10:50):
curiosity they have will lead them to seek to know God.
That's called positive volition and God consciousness.
And it's the first step to accepting Jesus Christ as your
Savior. So evangelizing your own
children is critical. Don't depend on the church to do
it for you. Give them the gospel utterly and
give them the gospel often. But if you can make them aware
(11:13):
that God exists, then you have to give an opportunity to make
that decision for themselves. You also have to teach them
about the divine institutions. You know, even if your children
reject Christ as Savior, the divine institutions will be
their ticket to temporal happiness while they're still on
this earth. So you have to teach them about
their volitional responsibility.Volitional responsibility.
(11:37):
Write it down. Teach them how God gives each of
us free will. Sell them.
Does a young person think about how a decision made today will
affect them? I didn't, you know my
grandparents would say I give you $100 if you'll make a day
and I make AD or C You didn't. You didn't really think about
the future. Seldom do they do that.
(11:58):
But in Galatians 6-7, you must show your children where the
Bible says don't be deceived. God cannot be mocked.
A man will reap what he sows. We are a victim of our
decisions. You are not a victim of your
environment. You are a victim of your
decisions. You're not a victim of your
parents decisions. You're a victim of your
decisions. God holds you accountable for
(12:19):
your very own decisions. So as a parent, our job is to
create a code of conduct and we teach our children to follow
this code of conduct all their lives.
A great place to start is to teach your children this verse.
Micah 6-8. He has showed this to you.
O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of you but
(12:42):
to do just to love mercy, and towalk humbly with your God?
Individual accountability is critical for a child to learn.
It's the fair. It's fairly easy to fool
parents, you know, and even trick your friends, but you can
never fool the Supreme Court of Heaven.
Romans 1412 tells us so that every one of us should give an
(13:02):
account of himself to God. The first act of individual
accountability is seen in Matthew 2241.
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked
them, saying what? Thank you of Christ.
That's individual accountability.
Whose son is he? And they said, well, he's the
son of David. No, he's not he.
(13:23):
He's the Son of God. So our our eternal future rests
on the correct answer to that verse.
Is he or is he not the Son of God?
A parent must also teach the sanctity of marriage.
Teach your children how God created the perfect helpmate for
Adam and brought her to him. In Genesis 221 through 24, the
(13:46):
Lord God causes deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept,
and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh and stead
thereof. Us divine surgery right there
cut a rib out of Adam and closedit up, sealed it up.
And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he into
a woman Genesis 222 and brought her to the man.
(14:09):
And Adam said, this is now a bone of my bones and flesh of my
flesh. She should be called a woman, as
she was taken out of the man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shallcleave unto his wife, and they
shall be 1 flesh. You know, most American culture
does not recognize this verse asa valid institution.
(14:32):
Many men and women live togetherwithout the vows of marriage.
There are many same sex marriages and they're recognized
by legitimate government authority.
However, God has not changed hismind concerning this sacred
commitment. Hebrews 13 For let marriage be
held in honor among all, and letthe marriage bed be undefiled.
(14:56):
For God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulteress.
So God ordains a marriage. God ordains a man and a woman to
be married together and God saidthe marriage bed is undefiled.
It's not a sin when you and yourwife have intimate relationships
outside of marriage. It is.
It's adultery of fornication. But inside the boundaries of
(15:20):
marriage, it's a normal thing. So it's critical to teach the
importance of that. It's critical to teach the
importance of their what the sanctity of marriage teach the
importance of their volitional decisions.
In other words, backup. They have to understand why
every decision they make is important because they'll be
held accountable for that. They have to understand why
(15:42):
marriage is important because it's what God created, how we,
how we stabilize the human race and marriage.
They have to understand the importance of a family.
Teach your children that Paul recognizes them.
You know, a lot of people say we, we sit down and we have
dinner together and make kids come in here, turn off the TV,
(16:02):
leave the cell phones in the other room, come sit down and
have dinner with your family. That's a great thing because the
family is very important in the Scriptures.
Paul recognizes the family when considering a man to be a pastor
in a local church in First Timothy 3-4 and five, he he
wrote these words. He must manage his own family.
(16:24):
Well. There's the Word family for you.
His children should respectfullyobey him.
There's where he has authority over his children.
If a man doesn't know how to manage his own family, how can
he take care of God's church? The verse goes on to say.
So a father must establish authority, orientation, and he
must bring his family protectionand they must learn to respect
(16:47):
him because if they can, if theycan, if if his own family
doesn't respect him, how could achurch expect him, respect him?
So the backbone of American culture is the family, the
father, the mother, the children, And the scriptures go
on to say in First Timothy 58, if anyone doesn't take care of
(17:09):
his own relatives, especially his immediate family, that's
your sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, then he's denied the
Christian faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Yes, you should take care of your aging parents.
Don't lock them away at a nursing home where you don't
want to see them because you're too busy to take care of them.
(17:29):
I understand sometimes that's necessary, but if it's not
necessary, if you can keep him at home and take care of him,
keep him there with you where they can enjoy their life with
their family. Luke at ACT wrote about
Cornelius, a Roman centurion whowas a devout God fearing family
man and Acts 10 To he and all his family, there it is.
(17:51):
All his family were devout and God fearing, and he gave
generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.
See, it's within the family structure that authority
orientation is taught, as well as appreciation for blessing and
the examples of sacrifice and commitment.
(18:12):
You know, if you don't get authority orientation as a
child, then you'll grow up arrogant.
Arrogance develops in the young child's life.
When they demand something, theyhave to understand that the
arrogant person is the inadequate person, arrogance of
self justification, self deception, self absorption and
(18:32):
eventually of course self destruction.
And a child has to learn that they don't get their way by
being arrogant. The arrogant child disobeys the
authority of the parents. Arrogant child won't mind, they
won't mind their parents. And an arrogant child grows up
to be an arrogant person. And an arrogant person grows up
to usually to be a criminal of some sort.
(18:54):
So arrogance must be stifled in the house where you start with
authority orientation to make that child realize there's
somebody greater than you over your over you, so that you can't
do some of these things you wantto do.
Authority orientation must be taught also.
You have to teach them appreciation for the blessings
that God poured out into your family and let them learn how
(19:19):
mom and dad sacrifice to raise them and the commitment mom and
dad made to take care of them. Kids sometimes don't realize the
sacrifice that parents make. Sometimes both Parents work to
provide income for the householdand parents make a commitment to
protect and watch over their children.
Make sure they have everything they need.
Sometimes too much so, but thinkabout that now.
(19:43):
Finally, I want you to learn to teach them about nationalism.
You may wonder what I'm talking about here as opposed to enter
nationalism, but in nationalism there's a reason why God
separated the nations. In Genesis 11 in verses one
through 9, God separated the nations that mankind had had
(20:04):
decided to build a temple. They wanted to build this this
temple up into the skies representing their own power,
and this was leading to one world government or what we know
as internationalism. In Genesis 11, seven through 9,
God put a stop to that satanic concept.
(20:24):
He said this, Let us go down, and there confound their
language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face
of the earth, and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of that place called Babel, because the
Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and
(20:48):
from thence did the Lord scatterthem abroad upon the face of the
earth. And So what you find today in
our world is a push towards one world government.
This is exactly a satanic concept that He fosters himself
so that he can take control of the world, which in fact He will
do, and what we will note as thetribulation.
(21:10):
So again, what must you teach your children?
You must teach your children volitional responsibility.
Volitional responsibility. You must teach your children
what not only volitional responsibility, but the
importance of marriage. He must teach them about the
importance of the family. He must teach them about the
(21:31):
importance of nationalism and see if they don't believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it's highly possible that
your children might not accept Christ.
So if they don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only
happiness they're ever going to have in their life is to live by
those divine institutions because God has promised that
He'll provide through those fourthings.
(21:53):
As long as the United States of America honors those four
things, freedom, marriage, one man, one woman, family, and
nationalism, and we have a chance as a client nation to God
to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what it's all about. We want to glorify the Lord
Jesus Christ through our personal lives, through our
(22:16):
family lives, through our national life.
So may I ask you a question? Have you ever trusted Jesus
Christ to be your savior? Have you made the single most
important decision that any person could ever make?
Have you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ?
As I told you earlier, that's your volitional decision.
(22:39):
That's why the Bible says what think he of Christ and that's
the first thing you're going to be judged on in eternity.
Did you in fact believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?
That judgment is in the Book of Revelation, chapter 20 is called
the great white throne of judgment and every unbeliever
that's ever been born will live stand before the great white
(23:00):
throne of judgment. Christians that are not there to
be judged. We were judged in First
Corinthians 3. That's what's called the
judgment seat of Christ and we are rewarded accordingly.
Whether it's wood, hay and stubble or gold, severed
precious stones, but the unbeliever is at the great white
throne in judgment, and there are two things that God's going
(23:20):
to look for there. The first one is, is your name
in the Lamb's book of life? Everybody who's born his name is
written in the Lamb's book of life, but those who die outside
of Christ have died the first death, and their name is erased
from the Lamb's book of Life. So it's not there.
The second book is actually books, plural are the books of
(23:44):
works. And so God, like if God called
up Joe Bob there, it said, OK, Joe Bob, your name is not in the
Lamb's book of life. Can you prove to me why I should
let you come to heaven? And you say, well, look at this.
I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I didn't cuss, I didn't run
around, I wasn't unfaithful. I paid my taxes, I went to
church. The Bible says there are none
(24:06):
that are righteous, not even one.
All of our good works are like afilthy rag in God's eyes.
You must understand and your children must understand.
The nicest, most good thing you can do is like a filthy rag to
God because God is absolutely righteous 100% and they we are
(24:27):
absolutely unrighteous. So if you put plus R for God's
righteousness and you put minus R for our righteousness, we have
no righteousness. We have no ability to have a
relationship with God unless we come through the substitutionary
spiritual death of Christ on that cross.
That's why the Bible says he. Then you know sin was made sin
(24:48):
for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God through
him, by him, in him. That's how you get it.
You have equal righteousness with God through Jesus Christ.
His sins were your sins were puton him.
My sins were put on him and his righteousness was imputed to us
(25:10):
when we accepted him as our Savior.
And we won't be at the great right throne of judgment.
We've already been saved. We've already been judged.
We we may be watching this, but we won't be there.
So keep that in mind. Is your name in the Lamb's book
of life? That's the first question.
It was until you died the first death.
(25:30):
And secondly, what about your works?
Have you earned the right to come to heaven?
Do you equal God's righteousness?
And the answer is no. So remember, you're going to be
born twice or you going to die twice.
One of the two, the first birth of your mother and father in the
family produced a child and you're here.
The second birth is your spiritual birthday.
(25:51):
You're born again, and the firstdeath is without Christ.
Your name's erased from the Lamb's book of life.
And then in the second death, that's when you're cast into the
lake of fire. In Revelation 20, this is called
the second death. Whoever's name was not found
written in the Lamb's Book of Life was cast into the lake of
fire. All right, I want you to pray
(26:13):
for us. Pray as we get ready to produce
this book. We've got other books coming out
too. Remember, we just reproduced a
book called Understanding Your Soul.
We've got that book printed and it's in our hands.
We'll have it to use very soon. Plus, we've had to come back and
make some other books that we'rerunning out of, running low on
books. So don't forget about that.
(26:34):
And don't forget to let us know if you're listening.
Let us know if you're listening to this radio show.
We need to know that so we can sign our contracts and make our
payments for the upcoming year. I appreciate you listening.
Appreciate you giving me some ofyour time this morning.
I hope this information about the family has been encouraging
to you. We'll be back next week as if
(26:56):
God allows that same time, same place.
So we would like to ask you to keep us in your prayers as we
move forward into the coming year.
Until next week, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank
you for listening to The Floodline.
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick
Hughes. If you'd like to contact Rick,
(27:17):
please write to him at PO Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama 35O54 or
online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
Welcome to the Flat Line with your host Rick Hughes.
For the next 30 minutes you'll be inspired, motivated, educated
but never manipulated. Now your host, Rick Hughes.
Good morning and welcome to the Flat Line.
I'm your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please
(00:29):
stick around. It won't be long. 30 minutes of
motivation, inspiration, education, and no manipulation.
That means we don't con people. We're not trying to raise money,
we're not trying to sell you anything.
We're just trying to give you accurate information that'll
help you verify and identify theplan of God for your life.
If you can do that, you can Orient and adjust to the plan.
(00:50):
It's all your choice. But thank you for giving me some
30 minutes of your time this morning.
If you stick around, it's alwaysgreat to hear from you.
I encourage you to go to our website,
rickhughesministries.org. That's Rick
hughesministries.org. There you can see all of our
books that we make available free of charge and you can
(01:13):
listen to some of those books read by our announcer, Jack
Steele, and you can order various materials and take a
look at what we are all about. So don't hesitate to go there
and let me one other thing before we get started today, I'd
love to hear from you. We are in the process of
renewing radio contracts for theupcoming year.
We do not know who's listening and who's not listening.
(01:34):
We have no way to gauge that. But if you are listening, would
you just drop us a note through the website or write us a
personal note to PO Box 100 in crop Cropwell, Alabama, PO Box
100, Cropwell, Alabama 35054. All we have to do is say I'm
(01:55):
listening in this city or I'm listening in that city and that
gives us an idea of where to extend our radio shows.
You can always reach us at our 800 number, 800-831-0718.
That number was down for a whileas we changed servers that we
got things working again now so we're able to get your calls.
800-831-0718 My team and I've been working hard to get out our
(02:20):
latest book to you. It will be entitled Family, Your
Greatest Legacy. I hope that we would be able to
get it out by Christmas, but it doesn't look like it'll be
available. So maybe sometime after the
first of the year, not too far into next year, we'll have this
book available, and I think thiswill be probably one of the most
important books we've ever published.
(02:42):
The Family, Your Greatest legacy.
I pray that you'll ask God to give us guidance and insight as
we put this together, and I prayit will help you.
But the Bible has a lot to say about families.
As a matter of fact, the first family mentioned in the Bible is
that of Adam and Eve, his wife, along with their three sons,
(03:04):
Cain, Abel, and Seth. In the beginning, God placed
Adam and Eve in a perfect environment and tasked them with
taking care of things. In Genesis 215, you can read
where the Lord God took the man,put him in the Garden of Eden to
work it and take care of it. He had a job.
He was a caretaker of the garden.
In Genesis 128 through 30, God bless them, told him to be
(03:27):
fruitful, increase in number. In other words, have babies and
grow your family. And God told them what resources
they could use. In Genesis 128 through 30, the
Bible says God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and
increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it and rule
over the fish of the sea. I like that.
I like to catch fish, rule over the fish in the sea and the
(03:49):
birds in the sky and over every leaving creature that moves on
the ground. And then God said, I'll give you
every seed bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and
every tree that has fruit with seeds in it, and they would be
yours for food. And to all the beasts of the
earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that
move along the ground, everything that has to do with
(04:10):
the breath of life in it. I give every green plant for
food. And it was so, but he did warn
them about one specific fruit they were not to eat.
And you know what that was? That's the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. Because he said you must not eat
in Genesis 217. You must not eat from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil.
(04:31):
For when you eat from it, you will certainly die.
Now they didn't die physically, but they died spiritually
because of the identification ofa sin nature.
It was this tree that Satan usedto attack this family and steer
them into spiritual and physicaldeath.
It's amazing how quickly humans can be convinced that God did
(04:52):
not really mean what He said. Unfortunately, He does, and He
did. And they found out the hard way
that they had been lied to by a deceitful serpent.
The wonderful thing about our Heavenly Father is that
forgiveness is always available.In Genesis 321, the Lord God
made garments of skin for Adam and his wife Eve and clothed
(05:13):
them. This verse describes what we
call the first protovangella anddescribes God sacrificing an
innocent animal to atone for their sin and to cover their
nakedness. And this is a picture of exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ does for us in Hebrews 922.
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed
(05:35):
with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no
forgiveness. You may wonder about what that
means with the blood the hold ofthe Old Testament.
Every book points towards great sacrifices that were to come.
The great sacrifice, of course, was the Lord Jesus Christ
sacrificing His own life on our behalf.
(05:57):
Leviticus 1711 is the Old Testament statement concerning
the significance of blood in thesacrificial system.
Where God spoke to Moses and said For the life of a creature
is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make
atonement for yourselves on the altar.
It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.
All of the many blood sacrificesseen throughout the Old
(06:19):
Testament were always foreshadowing the truth once and
for all time sacrifice to come so the Israelis would never
forget that without the blood, that's death.
There is no forgiveness. The shedding of blood is a
substitutionary act. People get all mixed up about
this. The shedding of blood is a
substitutionary act. It's the innocent one dying for
(06:42):
the guilty. Perfect picture of the
substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ on that cross
where He took our place. Scriptures state clearly the Old
Testament blood sacrifices were temporary and only A10 atone for
sin partially and for a short time, hence the need to repeat
the sacrifice every year. But when our Lord Jesus Christ
(07:05):
entered the Most Holy place, He did so to offer His own blood
once for all time, making futuresacrifices unnecessary.
And this is what the Lord Jesus Christ meant by His dying words
on the cross. It's finished, it's over with,
it's done for. John 1930.
Never again would the blood of abull or a goat cleanse men from
their sins. The spiritual death of Jesus
(07:27):
Christ on that cross is when He assumed our sin debt.
And by this we are forgiven. Our sins have been paid for
completely. His spiritual death on that
cross was the blood sacrifice God required for the atonement
of the sins of mankind. Colossians 120 And through Him
to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth
(07:51):
or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on
the cross. Ephesians 17.
In Him Christ we have redemptionthrough His blood,
substitutionary spiritual death,the forgiveness of sins in
accordance with the riches of God's grace.
People get all mixed up about this, but that blood represented
his substitutionary spiritual death on that cross, dying in
(08:14):
our place. Just as an innocent animal died
to provide a covering for Adam and Eve who were ashamed of
their nakedness, our Lord Jesus Christ died to give us a
covering for our sin. Ultimately, this act of
disobedience, you know, eating that forbidden fruit, caused
them to be cast out of the Garden of Eden.
In reality, Adam lost his job, lost his benefits and had to
(08:36):
relocate. And Cain, their oldest son,
wound up killing his younger brother Abel.
And this act caused Cain to be under a curse for the rest of
his entire life. Genesis 411 through 16, which
meant he would never be able to grow his own food.
He would never be able to have ahome.
He would be a homeless beggar searching for food and shelter,
wandering the earth for the restof his life.
(08:58):
God even placed a mark on him that warned people not to kill
him. The first family who lived in
perfect environment found themselves in a horrible mess
all because they bought the liesof Satan rather than obeying
their Lord. Question I have to ask you this
morning is, has Satan deceived you into believing that he's got
a better deal for you than what God has made available through
(09:21):
His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ by reading this book we are
publishing and when he gets out later next early next year,
you're going to discover what a wonderful life can be yours by
ignoring the lives of Satan and obeying the word of God.
So are you a parent? If so, let me present 4 things
that you must instill in the thoughts of your young children
(09:44):
beginning at a very young age. You absolutely must make them
aware that God exists. That's called God consciousness.
You might do this by taking themoutside on a cool dark night,
and point up to the heavens and read this verse.
Psalm 8/3 when I consider your heavens, the work of your
fingers, and the moon and the stars which you have set in
(10:04):
place. Point out to heaven and read
that verse to them when I consider your heaven, the work
of your fingers, the moon, and the stars which you've set in
place. Or you might read to them this
verse if you go to the beach where it says, this is what the
Lord says. He who appoints the sun to shine
by day, who decreases the moon and the stars to shine by night,
(10:27):
who decrees the moon and the stars to shine by night, who
stirs up the sea so that it so that it's waves roar.
The Lord Almighty is his name. This is how you make your
children God conscious. You take them and you let them
look up. You take them to the beach and
let them look at the waves. They have to learn that there is
a God and then he does exist. And you and I pray that the
(10:50):
curiosity they have will lead them to seek to know God.
That's called positive volition and God consciousness.
And it's the first step to accepting Jesus Christ as your
Savior. So evangelizing your own
children is critical. Don't depend on the church to do
it for you. Give them the gospel utterly and
give them the gospel often. But if you can make them aware
(11:13):
that God exists, then you have to give an opportunity to make
that decision for themselves. You also have to teach them
about the divine institutions. You know, even if your children
reject Christ as Savior, the divine institutions will be
their ticket to temporal happiness while they're still on
this earth. So you have to teach them about
their volitional responsibility.Volitional responsibility.
(11:37):
Write it down. Teach them how God gives each of
us free will. Sell them.
Does a young person think about how a decision made today will
affect them? I didn't, you know my
grandparents would say I give you $100 if you'll make a day
and I make AD or C You didn't. You didn't really think about
the future. Seldom do they do that.
(11:58):
But in Galatians 6-7, you must show your children where the
Bible says don't be deceived. God cannot be mocked.
A man will reap what he sows. We are a victim of our
decisions. You are not a victim of your
environment. You are a victim of your
decisions. You're not a victim of your
parents decisions. You're a victim of your
decisions. God holds you accountable for
(12:19):
your very own decisions. So as a parent, our job is to
create a code of conduct and we teach our children to follow
this code of conduct all their lives.
A great place to start is to teach your children this verse.
Micah 6-8. He has showed this to you.
O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of you but
(12:42):
to do just to love mercy, and towalk humbly with your God?
Individual accountability is critical for a child to learn.
It's the fair. It's fairly easy to fool
parents, you know, and even trick your friends, but you can
never fool the Supreme Court of Heaven.
Romans 1412 tells us so that every one of us should give an
(13:02):
account of himself to God. The first act of individual
accountability is seen in Matthew 2241.
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked
them, saying what? Thank you of Christ.
That's individual accountability.
Whose son is he? And they said, well, he's the
son of David. No, he's not he.
(13:23):
He's the Son of God. So our our eternal future rests
on the correct answer to that verse.
Is he or is he not the Son of God?
A parent must also teach the sanctity of marriage.
Teach your children how God created the perfect helpmate for
Adam and brought her to him. In Genesis 221 through 24, the
(13:46):
Lord God causes deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept,
and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh and stead
thereof. Us divine surgery right there
cut a rib out of Adam and closedit up, sealed it up.
And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he into
a woman Genesis 222 and brought her to the man.
(14:09):
And Adam said, this is now a bone of my bones and flesh of my
flesh. She should be called a woman, as
she was taken out of the man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shallcleave unto his wife, and they
shall be 1 flesh. You know, most American culture
does not recognize this verse asa valid institution.
(14:32):
Many men and women live togetherwithout the vows of marriage.
There are many same sex marriages and they're recognized
by legitimate government authority.
However, God has not changed hismind concerning this sacred
commitment. Hebrews 13 For let marriage be
held in honor among all, and letthe marriage bed be undefiled.
(14:56):
For God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulteress.
So God ordains a marriage. God ordains a man and a woman to
be married together and God saidthe marriage bed is undefiled.
It's not a sin when you and yourwife have intimate relationships
outside of marriage. It is.
It's adultery of fornication. But inside the boundaries of
(15:20):
marriage, it's a normal thing. So it's critical to teach the
importance of that. It's critical to teach the
importance of their what the sanctity of marriage teach the
importance of their volitional decisions.
In other words, backup. They have to understand why
every decision they make is important because they'll be
held accountable for that. They have to understand why
(15:42):
marriage is important because it's what God created, how we,
how we stabilize the human race and marriage.
They have to understand the importance of a family.
Teach your children that Paul recognizes them.
You know, a lot of people say we, we sit down and we have
dinner together and make kids come in here, turn off the TV,
(16:02):
leave the cell phones in the other room, come sit down and
have dinner with your family. That's a great thing because the
family is very important in the Scriptures.
Paul recognizes the family when considering a man to be a pastor
in a local church in First Timothy 3-4 and five, he he
wrote these words. He must manage his own family.
(16:24):
Well. There's the Word family for you.
His children should respectfullyobey him.
There's where he has authority over his children.
If a man doesn't know how to manage his own family, how can
he take care of God's church? The verse goes on to say.
So a father must establish authority, orientation, and he
must bring his family protectionand they must learn to respect
(16:47):
him because if they can, if theycan, if if his own family
doesn't respect him, how could achurch expect him, respect him?
So the backbone of American culture is the family, the
father, the mother, the children, And the scriptures go
on to say in First Timothy 58, if anyone doesn't take care of
(17:09):
his own relatives, especially his immediate family, that's
your sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, then he's denied the
Christian faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Yes, you should take care of your aging parents.
Don't lock them away at a nursing home where you don't
want to see them because you're too busy to take care of them.
(17:29):
I understand sometimes that's necessary, but if it's not
necessary, if you can keep him at home and take care of him,
keep him there with you where they can enjoy their life with
their family. Luke at ACT wrote about
Cornelius, a Roman centurion whowas a devout God fearing family
man and Acts 10 To he and all his family, there it is.
(17:51):
All his family were devout and God fearing, and he gave
generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.
See, it's within the family structure that authority
orientation is taught, as well as appreciation for blessing and
the examples of sacrifice and commitment.
(18:12):
You know, if you don't get authority orientation as a
child, then you'll grow up arrogant.
Arrogance develops in the young child's life.
When they demand something, theyhave to understand that the
arrogant person is the inadequate person, arrogance of
self justification, self deception, self absorption and
(18:32):
eventually of course self destruction.
And a child has to learn that they don't get their way by
being arrogant. The arrogant child disobeys the
authority of the parents. Arrogant child won't mind, they
won't mind their parents. And an arrogant child grows up
to be an arrogant person. And an arrogant person grows up
to usually to be a criminal of some sort.
(18:54):
So arrogance must be stifled in the house where you start with
authority orientation to make that child realize there's
somebody greater than you over your over you, so that you can't
do some of these things you wantto do.
Authority orientation must be taught also.
You have to teach them appreciation for the blessings
that God poured out into your family and let them learn how
(19:19):
mom and dad sacrifice to raise them and the commitment mom and
dad made to take care of them. Kids sometimes don't realize the
sacrifice that parents make. Sometimes both Parents work to
provide income for the householdand parents make a commitment to
protect and watch over their children.
Make sure they have everything they need.
Sometimes too much so, but thinkabout that now.
(19:43):
Finally, I want you to learn to teach them about nationalism.
You may wonder what I'm talking about here as opposed to enter
nationalism, but in nationalism there's a reason why God
separated the nations. In Genesis 11 in verses one
through 9, God separated the nations that mankind had had
(20:04):
decided to build a temple. They wanted to build this this
temple up into the skies representing their own power,
and this was leading to one world government or what we know
as internationalism. In Genesis 11, seven through 9,
God put a stop to that satanic concept.
(20:24):
He said this, Let us go down, and there confound their
language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face
of the earth, and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of that place called Babel, because the
Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and
(20:48):
from thence did the Lord scatterthem abroad upon the face of the
earth. And So what you find today in
our world is a push towards one world government.
This is exactly a satanic concept that He fosters himself
so that he can take control of the world, which in fact He will
do, and what we will note as thetribulation.
(21:10):
So again, what must you teach your children?
You must teach your children volitional responsibility.
Volitional responsibility. You must teach your children
what not only volitional responsibility, but the
importance of marriage. He must teach them about the
importance of the family. He must teach them about the
(21:31):
importance of nationalism and see if they don't believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it's highly possible that
your children might not accept Christ.
So if they don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only
happiness they're ever going to have in their life is to live by
those divine institutions because God has promised that
He'll provide through those fourthings.
(21:53):
As long as the United States of America honors those four
things, freedom, marriage, one man, one woman, family, and
nationalism, and we have a chance as a client nation to God
to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what it's all about. We want to glorify the Lord
Jesus Christ through our personal lives, through our
(22:16):
family lives, through our national life.
So may I ask you a question? Have you ever trusted Jesus
Christ to be your savior? Have you made the single most
important decision that any person could ever make?
Have you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ?
As I told you earlier, that's your volitional decision.
(22:39):
That's why the Bible says what think he of Christ and that's
the first thing you're going to be judged on in eternity.
Did you in fact believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?
That judgment is in the Book of Revelation, chapter 20 is called
the great white throne of judgment and every unbeliever
that's ever been born will live stand before the great white
(23:00):
throne of judgment. Christians that are not there to
be judged. We were judged in First
Corinthians 3. That's what's called the
judgment seat of Christ and we are rewarded accordingly.
Whether it's wood, hay and stubble or gold, severed
precious stones, but the unbeliever is at the great white
throne in judgment, and there are two things that God's going
(23:20):
to look for there. The first one is, is your name
in the Lamb's book of life? Everybody who's born his name is
written in the Lamb's book of life, but those who die outside
of Christ have died the first death, and their name is erased
from the Lamb's book of Life. So it's not there.
The second book is actually books, plural are the books of
(23:44):
works. And so God, like if God called
up Joe Bob there, it said, OK, Joe Bob, your name is not in the
Lamb's book of life. Can you prove to me why I should
let you come to heaven? And you say, well, look at this.
I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I didn't cuss, I didn't run
around, I wasn't unfaithful. I paid my taxes, I went to
church. The Bible says there are none
(24:06):
that are righteous, not even one.
All of our good works are like afilthy rag in God's eyes.
You must understand and your children must understand.
The nicest, most good thing you can do is like a filthy rag to
God because God is absolutely righteous 100% and they we are
(24:27):
absolutely unrighteous. So if you put plus R for God's
righteousness and you put minus R for our righteousness, we have
no righteousness. We have no ability to have a
relationship with God unless we come through the substitutionary
spiritual death of Christ on that cross.
That's why the Bible says he. Then you know sin was made sin
(24:48):
for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God through
him, by him, in him. That's how you get it.
You have equal righteousness with God through Jesus Christ.
His sins were your sins were puton him.
My sins were put on him and his righteousness was imputed to us
(25:10):
when we accepted him as our Savior.
And we won't be at the great right throne of judgment.
We've already been saved. We've already been judged.
We we may be watching this, but we won't be there.
So keep that in mind. Is your name in the Lamb's book
of life? That's the first question.
It was until you died the first death.
(25:30):
And secondly, what about your works?
Have you earned the right to come to heaven?
Do you equal God's righteousness?
And the answer is no. So remember, you're going to be
born twice or you going to die twice.
One of the two, the first birth of your mother and father in the
family produced a child and you're here.
The second birth is your spiritual birthday.
(25:51):
You're born again, and the firstdeath is without Christ.
Your name's erased from the Lamb's book of life.
And then in the second death, that's when you're cast into the
lake of fire. In Revelation 20, this is called
the second death. Whoever's name was not found
written in the Lamb's Book of Life was cast into the lake of
fire. All right, I want you to pray
(26:13):
for us. Pray as we get ready to produce
this book. We've got other books coming out
too. Remember, we just reproduced a
book called Understanding Your Soul.
We've got that book printed and it's in our hands.
We'll have it to use very soon. Plus, we've had to come back and
make some other books that we'rerunning out of, running low on
books. So don't forget about that.
(26:34):
And don't forget to let us know if you're listening.
Let us know if you're listening to this radio show.
We need to know that so we can sign our contracts and make our
payments for the upcoming year. I appreciate you listening.
Appreciate you giving me some ofyour time this morning.
I hope this information about the family has been encouraging
to you. We'll be back next week as if
(26:56):
God allows that same time, same place.
So we would like to ask you to keep us in your prayers as we
move forward into the coming year.
Until next week, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank
you for listening to The Floodline.
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick
Hughes. If you'd like to contact Rick,
(27:17):
please write to him at PO Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama 35O54 or
online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
Popular Podcasts
Hey Jonas!
Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com