Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message, "4 Ways God Humbles Man," walks us through Lucifer's lightning fall from his lofty position in heaven and why it was necessary for God to put safeguards in place when He created man in His own image and likeness. Discover four ways God humbles man.

R. G. Hardy: We have to put this body to death. And when we put it in the right perspective, amen, we're talking about sin now. We're not talking about abusing your body. If you abuse your body and all you eat is a bunch of fast food and junk food and bad food, you'll probably die sooner. You won't go to hell, you'll still go to heaven, but you'll just get there quicker if you develop diseases that come from that, amen.

When you have the perspective that God humbled this body, when it says in Philippians what I just quoted, that He will change our vile body, the word "vile" there is a little bit misleading. Because when we think of "vile," we think of the really deepest dregs of sin. But what the better word is, is this "body of humiliation." That's the true meaning, this "body of humiliation." Why? This body is humiliated. Even though it's made in the image of God, it's made from dirt.

We need to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof and mortify the deeds of the body on this earth. And one way we can do that is make no provision for the flesh to fulfill it in the lust thereof. Make no provision for the flesh. You know what lust the devil has more success in tempting you with, amen? You know that.

If you had a hard, hard time of getting the victory in the beginning when you first got saved, and you might have had a problem with cigarettes or drugs or alcohol, you knew you had to stay a million miles away from those things. You couldn't go out with your friends and go to the bar and say, "Well, I'm just going to sit here and drink a Coke," amen? Because you knew you would end up being tempted and you would do it.

Whatever it is, if it's a sexual sin, if you had a lot of sexual sin before you came to God, then you have to make no provision for that, amen. You know that you shouldn't be with the opposite sex or, God forbid, the other way. Today you have to say so many things to include everybody, but you know what I'm trying to say. You don't put yourself in a compromising position.

Now you have to also worry about the eye gate, the lust of the eye. The lust of the eye, because now people don't have to sneak down to Baltimore Street. Just go on their computer, on your phone, and there is all this lust there, stirring up the lust. You have to make no provision for it. You need to put filters on your computer if that's your problem. You need to have accountability if that's your problem. You can't make provision for it because if you do, you're going to fall into it.

How many know what I'm saying? And why would you let this bag of dirt drag your eternal never-dying soul to hell for momentary pleasure? There is power in the blood of Jesus! There is power in the blood of Jesus, amen! We finished up with the first one. Number one: How God humbles man. He had to do it because He took a risk in creating him in His own image and His own likeness. Having seen what happened to Lucifer, God had to build in certain safeguards for man not to fall because of that. And the first one was the way He created us out of the dirt.

We've got three more to go and we'll do those next week. And they will go by quickly because I took a lot of time to lay the foundation about Satan. But next week we'll just go with the next three, amen. And you don't want to miss them because I know especially number four is going to speak to every person here personally, amen. We're going to close the service this morning. If you're here today and you say, "Sister Sharon, I really enjoyed the message, but I do need prayer. I came this morning believing that I was going to have prayer." We don't want to close the service without giving you an opportunity to come. If you want me to agree in prayer with you, come on up here and we'll pray with you now, amen.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Today we're going to be doing week two of a message I started last week. The message is called "The 4 Ways God Humbles Man." First of all, we learned that Lucifer, AKA Satan, was God's most beautiful creation, and you can read all about that in Ezekiel 28. He excelled above all the other angels, myriads of angels, and the scripture says he was perfect in all of his ways. We learned that he was covered with gemstones and we learned that he also had built within him musical instruments. We learned he was the wisest of all the angels and God just said, "You know, you are the absolute sum of beauty and wisdom." But his wisdom became corrupted and iniquity was found in him.

His heart was lifted up and this is the first mention of sin amongst God's creation. His heart was lifted up, he became proud, and the reason is because of his beauty and because of his brightness. Because he must have been something to behold. His name Lucifer means "light-bearer." I brought out last week the point that his self-focus, he became focused on his own beauty. He was not delusional; he excelled above all angels in beauty and in wisdom. It was fact, but he focused on his own self and his self-focus began to distort his perspective of who he was.

He actually believed that he was greater than his Creator. Remember, he was a created thing. He believed that he was greater than his Creator and he set out to dethrone God. He went amongst the angels and he persuaded one-third of the angels to rebel with him. And Jesus said, "I beheld him fall as lightning from heaven." Now we labored on all of that last week, but then we brought all of that out to come to the point that many ages passed, and we don't know when, we're not given a timeline, God decided to restore the earth that had become chaotic from Lucifer's fall.

Two verses later we find out that He had to restore the earth. In Genesis 1:1, He had made a beautiful earth. After He had restored the earth, He decided He was going to make a brand new creation. Because let me tell you this: Man was not created for the earth; earth was created for man. He decided that this time He was going to make this creation in His very own image and His very own likeness. I posed the question: Wasn't this risky? Wasn't this a great risk for God to do this, knowing what happened to Lucifer?

He made us in His image and His likeness and that would set us up for pride. Yes, it was a huge risk. But God had to set up safeguards to keep man from pride and having the outcome that Lucifer had. I told you there were four ways that God humbles man, and we covered number one last week. He made man in His own image and in His own likeness. We are unlike any other of the creatures; we're made just like God. Just like there is a three-part God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are spirit, soul, and body. We are able to communicate with God, that's something no other creation on earth can do.

No matter how wise you become, no matter how educated, no matter how advanced you become, no matter how beautiful or handsome, wonderful, gorgeous, you can be the whole package, you're still made from dirt. From dirt you are and to dirt you will return, amen! We talked about that last week. Now we're going to move on to number two, amen. We talked about that this body is humiliated. We're told in Philippians 3:20 that He's going to change our vile body and fashion it like unto His glorious body.

We mentioned that "vile" doesn't mean there like lewd or sinful in the sense of sexual sin. We were talking about the fact that it's weak. It's finite. It's mortal, amen. And it's made of dirt. We learned that when God created Adam and Eve, they had a covering. They didn't even know they were naked. They were covered in glory. They were covered in the light of God, the light that no man can approach to. They were covered with light and glory and when they sinned, the glory departed. That's what always happens when you sin, the glory departs, amen.

Then they realized they were naked and God had to make them coverings out of animal skins. We're talking about now, man, though he's made in the image and likeness of God, is dwelling in a body of humiliation. The second way that God humbles man is through redemption. Let's turn in 1 Peter 1:18 and 19 and you will recognize these verses immediately. We have a lot of verses to cover. 1 Peter 1:18 and 19: "Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

You will recognize these verses immediately. God knew that man was going to sin. God knew he wasn't taken by surprise, amen, when Adam and Eve sinned. God giving us free will and free choice allowed them to make that decision. He warned them of the consequences. They were in a beautiful Garden of Eden and a literal paradise, they had no understanding of what death was or any kind of trouble or problems. All they knew was beauty and everything was perfect. God knew that man would sin. He knew that man would disobey His command, the only one that He gave them. One is, "You may eat of all the trees freely, but the one here in the center of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of that tree you do not eat or you shall, shall what? Surely die."

They were in a beautiful Garden of Eden and a literal paradise. The "surely" is very important because when Eve and the snake, which we know was Satan, got into the little dialogue that they had, she said, "Lest we die," amen? Lest we die. And so he said, "You will surely die." And that meant a physical death, but it really meant a spiritual death and that's the greater death, amen. Because Adam still lived 800 and some years. Their intimacy, their relationship with God, there was an alienation now. Sin brings alienation, amen.

That intimate presence with God was cut off. This is what happened and God knew that He had to have a plan of redemption. Turn to Romans the fifth chapter. Romans the fifth chapter is really a glorious chapter to understand why God had to send Jesus to be our Redeemer. For the sake of time, we'll only read a few verses. Let's look at verse 12: "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression who is the figure of him that was to come."

For the sake of time, we'll only read a few verses. Adam was the figure of him that was to come, which would be the second Adam, Jesus. Verse 15: "But not as the offense, so also is the free gift." Now here's the thought. "For if through the offense of one," that would be Adam, "many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ has abounded unto many." Drop down to verse 19: "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."

Now someone had to pay the ransom and that was the second Adam. Adam sold us out. He sold us out to sin and when he did, he put us under the authority of Satan. And Satan became our taskmaster, amen. Here's the thing I've said it before, sin never travels alone. It has a companion and that is death, amen. So when Adam sinned, just one man, the consequence was he passed sin and therefore death down upon every one of us, amen! We are born in sin. We are shapen in iniquity is what David said. Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

As God the Creator, as the word of God made flesh, he was worth more than every human that was ever born since the time of Adam, amen! Adam and Eve lost the glory in the garden, they lost it. None of us since then has ever had the glory back. I'm talking about the light of the human body. The body has been humiliated now, amen. And now death reigns in the body. Now here's the tragedy: Man could not pay for his sins. He couldn't redeem himself. There had to be someone to pay a ransom because redeeming means you have to buy back. You have to have a ransom, amen. Someone had to pay a ransom because folks, all sin must be paid for. And that means all sinners must be ransomed. That means all of mankind has to be ransomed, amen! But sinners cannot atone for sin.

He was able to pay the ransom for all men. A sinner cannot atone for his own sins. It takes righteousness. It takes a righteous person to atone for sin. But the scripture says both by David in the Psalms and then by Paul in Romans, he says, "There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that doeth good, no, not one." So that meant no man could pay the ransom. We can no more redeem ourselves than we could create ourselves, amen! And so that meant that there had to be a righteous person to pay that ransom.

When the devil comes and tries to make you feel worthless and undeserving and nothing, amen, you need to remind him your value is what God was willing to pay for you! They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them by any means, none of them by any means can redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him. It's impossible for any human to ransom himself or anyone else, amen! But while we're here in Romans 5, drop down to verse 6, the good stuff. "For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly."

Now let's move to number three. The third way that God humbles man is through His plan of salvation. When we were without strength, it means when we were too weak and unable to save ourselves. In due time, you know what that means? At the right time. At the time when we needed him most. At the time when we were most helpless, amen, in our sin. We could not pay the ransom, we could not redeem ourselves. Verse 7 says: "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, and peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commended His love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Once you are saved by grace, you will produce works, works of righteousness, amen, but it's not the other way around. He paid the ransom! He paid the ransom! The first Adam sold us out. Now someone had to pay the ransom and that was the second Adam. That's what Paul calls Jesus, we won't turn there, in 1 Corinthians 15 he calls him the second Adam, amen! Because he was the sinless one. Here's the thing, he had to be both human and divine. It was necessary to be both, amen! Because in order for him to ransom us, if he was only human, then he would have only been able to ransom one person. If he came down righteous, he could only ransom one person, amen!

There are Christians that are that way; they have fallen into the same sin of pride. As God the Creator, as the word of God made flesh, he was worth more than every human that was ever born since the time of Adam, amen! And he was able to pay the ransom for all men. God commended His love. We were damaged goods and God paid the price. We already read it: The precious blood of His own son. He paid the highest possible price for us when we were damaged goods, when we were ungodly, amen, because there was no way we could redeem ourselves.

You see it is a danger there that people get puffed up, amen. They get puffed up about who they are and what they've done. Paul said in Romans 12:3: "For I say through the grace given to every man so that he should not think more highly of himself than he ought, but that he should think soberly because God has dealt unto every man the measure of faith." God has given to every single person the measure of faith that they need to be born again. He's given everyone the measure of faith that they need to be saved.

Then he said in Titus 3:5: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us." For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Verse 6: "Who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time." He gave himself to be a ransom for all of us, amen, because there's no way that any of us could possibly pay the ransom. We could not redeem ourselves, amen! When we face the reality of our sinful condition and know that the consequences is death and an eternal separation from our Creator, and know that there's nothing we can give and no price that we can pay to deliver ourselves, we are humbled. It humbles us to know that we have got to look to God and only Him to redeem us, amen!

God humbles man by letting him see there's only one plan of salvation and that's through Jesus Christ His son. There is nothing that we can do to make ourselves more worthy to God. We come to Him like we read a moment ago, we come to Him weak and filthy and naked, amen, and so He gives us His righteousness. The second way that God humbles man is that He showed us that there was only one way to redeem us. We can't redeem ourselves and that was through the blood of His son.

What a remarkable word. "4 Ways God Humbles Man." Lucifer, the light-bearer, was the most exotic and wisest creature of all God's angelic beings. After his lightning fall from heaven along with one-third of the angels whom he convinced to join him in his rebellion to dethrone God, God created mankind in His own image and likeness. This far exceeded the glory of cherubim and angels. Wasn't this risky? If Lucifer fell because of his superlative beauty, could not man, made in the image of God, also be tempted by pride? Yes, so God put in place safeguards to keep pride from destroying man like it did Lucifer.

This teaching, "4 Ways God Humbles Man," is available on a two-CD set for a love gift to the radio ministry of $15 or more. Request SK221. Mail to Sound of Faith, PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Or go to our e-store on soundoffaith.org where MP3s are available. But to order by mail, send a minimum love gift of $15, request SK221, mail to PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying, Maranatha.