Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Hardy Knotts thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message, Four 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: Okay, let's move on to the third way that God humbles man. First, He made us of dirt, and we're going back to the dirt. And then He made us realize that we're sinners and we need to be redeemed because Adam sold us out. Somebody's got to pay the ransom. Satan demanded a ransom to be paid, and he had the authority to do that because Adam gave it to him.

But we were spiritually bankrupt. We had no wherewithal to redeem ourselves. Silver and gold couldn't do it. The richest person couldn't do it. Bill Gates couldn't even pay his own ransom for just himself and all these other billionaire people. None of that. God called that silver and gold as corruptible. It took the precious, and that word in Greek means priceless. You cannot put a value on the blood of Jesus.

So we can say it's invaluable. And that's how much God loves you. And when the devil comes and tries to make you feel worthless and undeserving and nothing, you need to remind him your value is what God was willing to pay for you. The price that He was willing to pay is the precious blood of His son, Jesus.

So now let's move to number three. The third way that God humbles man is through His plan of salvation. Turn to Ephesians 2 and looking at verse 8. "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast." You see right there, He's telling us the reason why He had to make the plan of salvation through grace.

Because if He had a plan of works, being the human beings that we are, we would all be boasting. You know humans like to take credit for things, don't they? They want to get the credit for what they've done and they'll take credit for what they haven't done. How many know that's the human nature? I'm not talking about born-again saints now.

But how many know it's true? One great evangelist said it this way: how much could we do for the kingdom of God if no one cared who got the credit? And God knows the human nature. And He knows that a lot of folks are all about works. And there are denominations that are works-based. They're works-based and their righteousness is in their works.

Now here's the thing about it. You're not saved by works. You're saved by grace. But once you are saved by grace, you will produce works, works of righteousness. But it's not the other way around. You're not saved by your works. Your works are a proof that you are saved. So He said it's by grace that we're saved and not of works, lest any man should boast.

And the word "boast" there means to vaunt oneself. You say, "Well, I don't even know what vaunt means." Well, it means to puff oneself up, to put on a showy display of self. How many have ever seen that done? And you know if you're a spiritual person, that kind of stuff just really turns you off, doesn't it? It turns you off.

And but there are Christians that are that way. They have fallen into the same sin of pride. Remember we started off last week. Our first scripture we read was about don't put someone in the office of a pastor or a shepherd or someone who's got authority over people if they are newly planted or they're just still young in the Lord, lest they fall into the same condemnation as Satan fell and hence we covered all of that.

So you see it is a danger there that people get puffed up. 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 unto 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. They have faith. Sinners out there have faith. It's where do you place that faith? What are you believing in? What are you trusting in? What are you trusting in for your salvation?

So He's given every one of us the measure of faith. So it's not any works that we have done. And I'll read you some very powerful scriptures that you know already. Titus 2:11 says, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared unto all men." All men have the ability to be saved. All men have the ability to believe on Jesus to be their savior. Because God through His grace has allowed saving grace to appear unto all men and saving faith to be placed in every man's heart.

And then He said in Titus 3:5, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us." So 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.

And so He gives us His righteousness. One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 61:10, and I often like to pray this to the Lord generally in my devotions because it says, "He has clothed me in His garment of salvation. He has covered me in His robes of righteousness. Like a bridegroom decketh himself with his ornaments and like a bride adorneth herself with her jewels."

God likens the bride and the bridegroom. And how many know there's no more special day to a young woman or even an older woman—we'll just say woman—than her wedding day. She wants everything to be perfect. And today we have people that plan for a wedding two years in advance, at least a year in advance. And they want everything to be perfect.

They want the perfect dress and the perfect necklace and earrings and they want their hair to be done perfectly. They want it to be perfect. And they will go to great pain and great wealth, money, spend money. People will go broke. How many know that's true? People will go broke for a wedding. Afterward they can barely pay the rent, but for that day that lasts a few hours and those few moments that are up here.

That's why usually when I officiate at weddings, I usually like to elaborate and it's not just because I like to talk. But I think to myself these people paid thousands and thousands of dollars for all these fancy dresses the girls are wearing and the bride's got and the tuxes and they'll be up here for three minutes if you just hurry up and go to the vows: "I do, I do," you're done.

And I think to myself they need to get their money's worth. They need to stand up here a little longer so we can admire the beautiful dresses and everything. So I like to stretch them out. I know some of them have turned into church services and you can be here a long time, but my point is this. A bride will go to whatever she can possibly afford to have a beautiful, beautiful day and she adorns herself with her jewels.

Even says the bridegroom decketh himself with his ornaments. But that's what God has done for us. He has clothed us with His righteousness. He clothes us with His righteousness. He says in Psalm 147 that He beautifies the meek, the humble with salvation. That's how you become a beautiful person. And I like what Peter said in 1 Peter, the third chapter. He was talking about husbands and wives.

And he talks about the women being adorned with the ornaments of a meek and a quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price or is priceless. And I know when you hear that word meek and quiet, the women bristle because they think meek is a doormat and they think quiet means be silent, you can't speak.

Well, I would disobey that all the time. It's not what it means. I like to give you my translation in two words. Meek is not easily offended. That's really what the Greek word means. You don't get offended easily. It's really getting quiet now. Not easily offended. And quiet means not easily perturbed. Not easily disturbed, not easily upset.

That's what it really means. And you know that's something we all, men and women, should aspire to. And as you mature and develop in Christ, you will develop those attributes. You know that every little thing doesn't make you fly off at the handle. Every little remark that someone says or every little incident that happens in the body of Christ. Because Jesus said in Luke 17, offenses shall come.

In fact, He said it is impossible that offenses shall not come, but that they will come. And James said in the third chapter of his letter, we all offend. In some things we all offend. So here's the thing: at some point you're either the offender or an offended. It's just the nature. And Peter said sometimes we buffet one another in the body of Christ. We buffet one another.

He said don't rejoice in your suffering that comes because you buffet one another. Don't rejoice about that. Those aren't the kind of sufferings that get rewards. But it tells us that we kind of buffet one another so that means we're shining one another up. So we're not easily offended and then we're not easily perturbed.

You know Jesus said in John 16:33 and I'm getting ready to go there for number four. "In this world you shall have tribulation." It's inescapable. Trouble comes. Everyone will go through trouble. Jesus said it rains on the just and on the unjust. Troubles will come. But we have to learn not to allow things just to cause us to fall apart. That every little thing we fall apart and "Oh my god, what are we going to do about this and I'm so scared and I'm so worried."

You need to get those two words out of your vocabulary. You can be concerned, but when you start saying "I'm scared and I'm worried," the devil says, "Oh, open door. Here I come. I'll bring fear. I'll bring more things to upset you." And how many know the saying out there in the world is don't sweat the little things.

You know if you've ever been through a crisis where your life is on the line, people that almost died in car accidents or any kind of injury or accident or they have a terminal illness that they face and they come out on the other side. Without fail, you will hear them all say, "I'm a different person and I don't let the little things bug me anymore. I don't let things upset me anymore."

I realize those things don't matter when you're facing eternity, when you're facing your own demise and you're not ready to go and God brings you through. You decide I'm not going to let those little things bother me. You know I'm going to throw this out there because I just thought it was kind of funny.

You know Elijah Cummings, our Congressman from Maryland, he has been out of Washington since May and he just went back to work this week. And I saw him. They were interviewing him. And in May he had to go have surgery to replace an aortic valve. But they told him that he would be back to the job in three days, which really surprises me because I thought that would be more serious.

But anyway, they said he would be back to work in three days. Well, he didn't get back to work for a hundred and three days because he developed other things and I think he had serious gout and they didn't go into all the details. But and they said the majority of that time he was in Johns Hopkins Hospital. So he was a sick man.

So I had to laugh because he said, "I'm going back to Washington this week and I'm a changed man." And he says, "I'm eating right. I'm exercising every day." And he says, "I'm not going to give as many fiery speeches." And that cracked me up because you know him when he gets stirred up. He can really say some stuff.

He said, "I'm not going to be giving as many fiery speeches." So in other words, he was realizing you cannot get yourself worked up over everything every day all the time. And you wonder why your blood pressure's sky high. You can't do that. You've got to have a spirit, that quiet spirit does not mean silent as in mute. It means a spirit that's just, you know, okay, it happens, stuff happens. Lord, I'm trusting You.

Whatever it is You're going to bring me through. You're going to bring me out. And when you get offended over little things because somebody said something that you didn't like or you didn't think was fair and you get yourself really aggravated and vexed over it, you've got to let it go. If forgiveness needs to be in the thing and you need to ask for it or give it or whatever.

That is what God is looking for us. And that is part of the ways that He humbles man. You know you have to humble yourself to go say "I'm sorry." Husbands and wives, you've got to humble yourself to say, "Honey, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry." Boy, where's the amens now?

You have to humble yourself if maybe on your job you made a big to-do about something and then later on you realize that was not right the way I acted and what I said. You've got to humble yourself to go back in there and say, "You know, I shouldn't have said what I said. I shouldn't have acted that way and I ask you all to forgive me."

Not only does that humble you, but that shows them the true nature of a Christian. Because unsaved people don't do that. Rarely will unsaved people do that. So God shows us He humbles us. He humbles us through His plan of salvation that it's not works of righteousness that we have done. Because as soon as we start to get a big head and think we are really, I'm really accomplished. I preach now. I teach now. I do this now. I do that now.

Look out. God will bring you down. He'll let somebody or something come to humble you. Remember what I preached about entitlement? People think they're entitled. We are all one in the body of Christ. And if you hold a position like a preacher or teacher or whatever, you know what James said? Don't be many masters. Don't be many teachers, for you will have the greater condemnation.

God expects more. So now we're moving to our final one, number four, in the ways that God humbles man. A moment ago I quoted John 16:33, that in this world you shall—not you might, but you shall—have tribulation. And that Greek word, you've heard it before because our pastor Brother Hardy's preached it many times in many sermons, it's *thlipsis*. And it means, in a word, it means pressure.

Pressure. But we're talking about severe pressure that brings distress, that brings affliction. Because affliction can be a physical sickness in your body, but affliction can also be a mental and emotional thing. And sometimes I don't truly know which one's worse. I have been in so much pain in my body that I wanted to check out.

But then I've had on top of it such emotional and mental distress that I think that was worse than the physical pain. That's what he's talking about, what Jesus was talking about. Now turn with me, let's go to the Old Testament for a moment and go to the book of Deuteronomy and chapter 8. And we'll read two verses in chapter 8, verse 2.

And God gave these commandments to Moses to give to His people: "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart." Do you think that God didn't know what was in their heart? God knows what's in every heart.

He wanted them to see what was in their heart. And the only way that God could show them what was in their heart was to put them in situations where it came out. How many know if you go and tell somebody, "Uh, the Lord showed me that you have a problem with such and such." Yeah.

But if God puts them in a position where something occurs and something happens that brings it out, they see it for themselves. And they think, "Oh wow," and Holy Ghost conviction's coming on them because He wants them to see it. I've been there many times. And it's a very miserable spot to get in when you open your eyes and you recognize this thing is there.

Oh, this pride, this self-righteousness, this holier-than-thouism, this judgmentalism and criticism and Pharisaism and oh my goodness, I could just go on and on, envy and jealousy. And when you see it in yourself, it makes you sick to your stomach. I mean literally I get that way anyway. And I feel sick to my stomach and I think, "Oh Lord, I didn't realize I thought I had the victory in this area."

And maybe I did at one time. But we're out here where the Satan, the evil sower is just sowing seeds and sowing seeds and sowing seeds. Isn't that what Jesus said? While men slept, while they weren't paying attention, while they were in a spiritual sleep, the evil sower went out and sowed his seeds. And sometimes some of those things drop into our heart and they're there.

We don't even realize it. But a seed, before it produces fruit, it produces root. How many know a seed grows downward first? Downward first, producing root. And the root will eventually then it'll go upward and produce the fruit. So sometimes by the time we see the fruit up here, the root down there has already had a chance to grow.

So it's not as easy to get it out because you can't just whack off the top. You just whack off the top, the root is still there. It's going to grow again. So we got to dig out the root. And so God allows us to go through things to humble us, to prove us so we can see what's in our hearts.

Verse 3: "And He humbled thee and suffered thee or allowed thee to hunger and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live."

So He allowed Israel to wander those 40 years. He could have taken them in in a couple of weeks. It wouldn't have taken long for Him to take them in. But when they begin to murmur and complain, He said, "All right, you're not ready to go in. I brought you out of Egypt. I got you out of Egypt, but now I gotta get Egypt out of you."

And we see that and we allow for it in baby Christians. We allow in baby Christians, you know, blow their top or get upset or going to quit or you know, we realize they're babies and we think well, you know, they're just fresh out of the world and we got to give them time. We can't just beat them down. We gotta work with them.

We gotta help them. But for those who have been walking with the Lord for a long time, God will He'll stick us in the wilderness to humble us and to show us things that need to come out. And here's the thing, when we realize that we can't fix ourselves—how many know that? You cannot fix yourself without the help of the Holy Spirit.

I'm sorry, you just can't. And man can't fix you either. It takes the Word of God. It takes the Holy Spirit to fix us. And He alone can fix us. If you're battling with some kind of problem, if you are battling with a habit or the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eye or even wrong thinking up here.

If you're doing what Lucifer did and you got this self-focus, you're always focusing on yourself, "I'm going to focus on myself and I'm going to fix myself." You're not going to fix yourself doing that. You're going to get a distorted view of who you are. You got to say, "I live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God."

That's what's going to fix me. That's what's going to heal me. So when we realize we can't help ourselves, then what are we going to do? We're going to run to God. When I realize how weak I am, I used to think, "Oh, I'm so weak," and then I would feel so hopeless.

And hopelessness would then bear out. I did nothing, I had nothing. So that only reinforced my feeling of weakness and hopelessness. But when I really, truly came to the place that I realized in my weakness, His strength is made perfect. That when I am weak, I am so utterly dependent on God. And I can go to Him and say, "Lord, I can't do this. Vain is the help of man. I need You."

That's the best position I can get in. When I know that I need the help of God. Maybe your marriage is in disarray and you've been trying to work it out and fix it and it's not getting better, it may be getting worse. Both of you have got to surrender it to the Lord. You got to surrender it to God. You got to surrender it to the godly counsel of His Word.

And if there's deliverance needed, you got to get delivered. Because God allows us to go through these things to humble ourselves. We all love Psalm 34 and I love verse 2 that says, "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles."

Amen. So when we humble ourselves before the Lord, then we're in a position for God to mend us.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen. What a remarkable word. Four 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, Four Ways God Humbles Man, is available on a two-CD set for a love gift to the radio ministry of $15 or more. Request SK-221. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. 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 SK-221, mail to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Hardy Knotts saying Maranatha.

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