Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to the R. G. Hardy Ministries program. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for tuning in today, because we know faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Today's message by my father, Brother Hardy, is, "God Became Man." Truly, this is a message that will warm your heart and endear you to our Heavenly Father in Jesus Christ, His Son, as we discover just what a sacrifice He made when God became man.

R. G. Hardy: Thank God, salvation is real, not just in a bunch of ritual. Going through a little form, going through a little ceremony. I thank God salvation is real to your soul. How many say amen? When you're in the battle of life, salvation will come on the inside to substantiate you and uplift you and strengthen you. How many say amen? Hallelujah!

I'm glad Jesus is real. I'm glad that He can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. That's what it said in Hebrews, in the second chapter, He can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He's our High Priest.

You know, the greatest ministry of Jesus is going on now. He came to be the prophet and proclaim and announce God's Word. And then He died to be the perfect sacrifice to bring mankind to God and to salvation. But when He rose from the dead, He laid aside them grave clothes and He put on His High Priest robe. Hallelujah! And He took His own blood and He entered into the Holy of Holies, the presence of Almighty God, El Shaddai, the Creator, the Almighty.

And there with His own blood, He sprinkled the mercy seat in heaven, and there He purchased us. He found for us eternal salvation. And after that one sacrifice, the Bible said that He sat down. And when you read the contrast in Hebrews, it said the priests that follow Aaron's priesthood stand daily making the same sacrifice that cannot save from sin. They're standing because their work is never done.

But Jesus, with His one perfect sacrifice, when He offered up His own blood, His work is finished as far as offering the sacrifice, because His one sacrifice is all it took. His was the perfect sacrifice, and His sacrifice is able to save you to the uttermost and remove every sin and cleanse from every stain and restore you back to the full favor of Almighty God. And His job of offering sacrifices was finished when He offered His own self, then He sat down on the right hand of Almighty God to be our intercessor. And He ever lives to make intercession for us!

Hallelujah! Thank God! Salvation through the blood of Jesus is real. It's not a bunch of religious hocus pocus. It's not a bunch of dead dogma. It's not a lot of form, but it's real. How many say amen? It lifts the soul. It satisfies the longing heart. It ministers unto the hungry and thirsty soul.

Like David said, it's crying after God, like a heart crying after the water brook, salvation through the blood of Jesus, satisfies you. Not a bunch of hocus pocus! Thank God for real salvation this morning. Hallelujah!

You know, in order to be a high priest, you had to be an able representative of your people. You had to be one of their own. That's why Jesus became man so that He could represent us and understand us. No way could He be the mediator between God and man, except He was God and understand God's part.

Honey, in the God man, the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man have met forever. Hallelujah! As partakers of our humanity and was made in all points like as we, yet without sin, He understands us, because He can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.

You know why? He sat where we have to sit. He walked where we have to walk. He lied where we have to lie. He partook of all of the situations. He was tempted in all points. Anything that a human being has to go through, my Lord and Savior went through, and He understands it. How many say amen? And when you get in that place, when you get in your trial, when you get in your temptation, dead dogma don't do nothing for your soul, but a living High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ can.

That's why He said in the time of trouble, "Call on Me," because I finished the sacrifice part of my High Priesthood. By one sacrifice, I have perfected those that come to God forever. I'm finished with the sacrifices. I offered Myself once and for all. Now I'm sitting down on the right hand of the Father to be a mediator. And to sit down means to be in true fellowship and an equal, because you never sit down in the presence of royalty. If you're not down and down, you're standing.

But God has highly honored and favored Him, and He said, "Sit thou at My right hand." For the right hand was the highest place of honor and favor. "Sit thou at My right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Do you think the enemy's going to whip us when Almighty God is the one out there going to defeat him and put him under our feet? No way possible!

I'm not afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, because I got an Almighty God as my Father, and He's going to go out there and whip the Big Bad Wolf and put him under our feet. Man, I can't fail the naked. I got a Savior and a High Priest that's ever living to intercede, and I got an Almighty, all-powerful Heavenly Father out there whipping all my enemies and going to make them my footstool. I cannot fail. How many say amen? I can't be defeated.

You know, for a Christian to fail, you got to want to fail. As a Christian, you got to want to be defeated to be defeated. Like I said Friday, thanks be unto God that gives us the victory. Hey, man, all of these things, 17 of them Paul enumerated. Covered every situation you can get in life. We're more than a conqueror.

The Lord makes us part of the delivering process and makes us what? More than a conqueror. Who is a conqueror? He's the one that conquers. He's the one, He's a victor. And the Lord's let us come into this thing. Not only rescued us, placed us at His own right hand, and made us conquerors with Him.

That's what Jesus meant when He said, "My Father works." Jesus got up next to His Father and said, "I work." And you know what you're supposed to say? My Father works. My Lord and Savior works, and I'm going to work. Sure, Jesus said, "I must work the works of My Father while it is yet day, for the night comes when no man shall be able to work."

So, as long as He was on the earth, He was working the works of the Father. You see, if they would have chosen eternity. We don't know why they chose the Son to come, or Jesus, the Word. Somewhere back in the infinite eternity past, the Godhead, the family of God, called a meeting. At those days, there was only three in the family, whom we now know as the Father, and whom we know as the Lord Jesus Christ was known then as the Word, and whom we know as the Holy Spirit, He's still the Holy Spirit. How many say amen?

And they called a meeting, because they're always in agreement, of purpose, in one mind and one accord. That's the meaning of one. And whatever they do, they agree, and all of their energies are placed to bring that thing to pass. And when one thinks of something, they all think of it at the same time. You believe that? That's how can you be omniscient and not know everything at once? Omniscient means knowing all things.

And they decided that they were going to make a creation. And with their foreknowledge, so that they can look from the beginning and see the end. For known unto God are all His works from the beginning. Everything God's going to do, He knew it in the beginning.

See, God's not like you and I. You know, we get in a situation, run around trying to find a solution. He, He already knows it all ahead of time and has the solution. He knows all about it. He knows your life from the beginning to the end. He knows when you're going to make the mistakes and all that. That's how He can give you a dream to warn you and show you.

He knows where you're going. Everywhere I go, before I ever get there, the Lord has already given me a dream. I know it. I know I'm in the will. When I got to Kenya, I found myself in a lot of places. I was already there in the spirit. When we went to Brother Kareem's house, I'd been already there. In fact, I heard their conversation. I knew what they were going to say.

God knows all about you. He knows whether you're going to make it or not. He knows if you got a heart to go all the way. He knows all about it. He knows all about the things that's going to come across your path, and He's already put grace there to help you. Hallelujah! And He knew that man was going to fall.

He didn't wait for man to fall and then provide a solution. So Jesus was the lamb slain before what? Before He ever laid the foundation of the earth to make the man. Jesus was already the lamb to save him. He knew man was going to fall. He didn't make man fall. He knew he was going to fall and He already had a provision to redeem him.

I don't know why they chose the Word. I ain't going to say they cast lots. But for some reason, they agreed that the Word would become man and be the High Priest. He would be the lamb. My, what a what a what a what a miraculous person, this Lord Jesus. He's the most fabulous being in existence. This Lord Jesus Christ. He's the most fabulous. I'm thrilled.

The more I study on Him, the more I'm amazed at this wonderful, this precious person, the Lord Jesus Christ. One Bible writer called Him the greatest life ever lived. No, He's the greatest being that ever existed, this Lord Jesus Christ. This wonderful Savior. My Lord, we won't really begin to understand Him till we see Him as He is.

You'll fall in love with Him all again. To think that that wonderful Lord would humble Himself down to such a lowly estate. You know, the devil can never come tell me Jesus don't love me. I'll tell him, "Pedal that stuff to somebody that don't know what it's all about." Every time I see a tree, it says, "Jesus loved you," because on me, He died for you. Hallelujah! How many say amen?

And then when you see a servant, a slave. You know, in the Roman world, a slave wasn't nothing. He had no rights. He was just nothing. He was at the disposal of his owner to do anything he wanted, live, die, or kill. A dog and an animal had more rights than a slave, did you know that? You read under the law, you couldn't hurt certain animals. You had to pay back.

A slave was nothing. He was just like a piece of furniture, you could do whatever you want with him. He was the lowest of all human beings. If you read the catalog in Colossians, he, Paul, gives you the social strata of his day. Greeks and the Jew. The Jews believed they were the best because they were God's people. And the Greeks thought they were the best because they were smartest.

Neither Greek, nor Jew, nor Barbarian. Now, the English word Barbarian doesn't cut it from the King James word Barbarian. We think of a Barbarian as somebody ferocious and wild and untameable. Somebody get Colossians verses in this new order of the Lord. There's no more Jew, no more Greek, no more Barbarian, no more Scythian.

The word Barbarian meant just simply a non-Greek speaker. Somebody that didn't know Greek and their language was like bar-bar to them. They were the third in the social order of that day, non-Greek speakers. Because to the Greeks, if you didn't speak Greek, well, you just, you was out of it. You didn't know nothing.

R. G. Hardy: You got it, my reader? Okay, it's Chapter 3, verse 8.

Guest (Female): But now you also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge after the image of Him that created him.

R. G. Hardy: See, we're a new creature. You got to brainwash yourself. The church is still thinking in the old creature. You have divisions. They separate man and woman. They separate race. That's the old man. See, whenever you get around people and they start talking about man and women in the church, that's the old man talking. That ain't the new man. And when they start talking about nationalities and races, that's the old man talking about. Because in the, in Christ, we are a new creature. Colossians 3:28 says, "There's neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female. You are all one, or equal, in Christ and a new man." When you get born again, the new creature is a man, and that woman is a man. She's a son of God. Whether she likes it or not, you're a son of God.

Guest (Female): Where there is neither Greek, nor Jew,

R. G. Hardy: All right, the highest social order, because Paul was talking to the Greeks. The Greeks thought they were the highest. To be a Greek in Paul's day was to be the highest. They were the ruling culture. That's the days they had just come out of the Golden Age of Homer, Plato, and all the great philosophers. The Romans were not philosophers. They were brute warriors. The Greek brought the culture. They were the philosophers. They were the men of wisdom. So through the Greek, the Greek was the highest order. They were the smartest.

Then the next order was the Jew, because the Jew knew that they were the people of God and they really should have been in front of the Greek. But because Paul was talking to the Greek, he didn't want to offend him. He put the Greek first instead of the Jew, but I know in his heart he was saying the Jews got him because the Jew, he said in Romans, is better than all of us, much more, he's better than the Gentiles because of them having the heritage of God and the teachings and the Word of God.

So the new man is neither a Greek, which meant the whole Roman world, the higher echelon of the Roman world. There's neither a Jew. So, therefore, that takes away the fighting between Greeks and Jews. That takes away that.

R. G. Hardy: Then the next one.

Guest (Female): Circumcision nor uncircumcision.

R. G. Hardy: That meant belonging to the law or not belonging to the law. See, the Jew and the Gentile in the front part, now the law keeper. Because that was another big battle, whether you were circumcised or not. And circumcision divided the church world. Even after Christ came, they come down to Paul's teaching and said, "Except you be circumcised and keep the law, you can't be saved." Paul said, "Get out of here, brother." They got the Holy Ghost. They don't know nothing about that stuff.

You believe God will give the Holy Ghost to somebody not saved? Of course not. Anybody comes to you after you get the Holy Ghost and says you're not saved because you didn't get baptized in Jesus name, why did that pop out? Tell him that's funny. I've spoken in tongues. You believe God will give the sinner a tongue? Of course, He won't. They'll tell you that God gave it to you on credit. God don't do nothing on credit. That's what they say. He gave it to you on credit. If you don't get baptized in Jesus name, then he don't take the credit back. Well, that means all the sinners are saved on credit.

Guest (Female): Barbarian or Scythian.

R. G. Hardy: All right, now the Barbarians were the people in the Roman Empire that did not speak Greek. So they were considered by the Greek an inferior race. In fact, the Greeks figured every one of these in the Roman Empire was inferior, even the Jew. But the Jew knew that he was the superior, so he thought. And in the unregenerated world, the Jew was the highest, because they were God's Old Testament people and they were better off like Paul said in Romans, in every part.

What advantage the Jew did he say in Romans? Much more in everything, because they were of the fathers, and they had the oracles, the Word of God. How many say amen? So the Jew and the Barbarian were looked down upon by the Greek. Then the Barbarian looked down upon the Scythian. They, they were the slaves of the Barbarian. All right, let's go a little further.

Guest (Female): Bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

R. G. Hardy: So the lowest order on the totem pole was the slave, the bondsman. The highest social, this is the social status in the Roman Empire in Paul's day. In the Roman world, which he was talking to, the Colossians, the Greek was the highest because of his advanced wisdom, so to speak.

And then they recognized the Jew had a lot of wisdom and had a lot going for him. So they said, "You'll let you be second." And the third group was the non-speaking nations, and they called them Barbarians. Not because they were wild, but because they couldn't speak Greek. So most of you would be Barbarians in the Roman Empire. And the Scythians were the wilder, would be what we would almost call the Barbarians. You know, the wilder race people. And they were usually always battling with the Barbarians. And the lowest on the totem pole was neither bond nor free, bondsman, a slave. He was the lowest. He had no rights at all. It's as if he didn't exist as far as his rights was concerned. A slave never talked back to his master. If he did, he sure would not do it after a while because they cut his tongue out. They didn't kill him.

And like I said, you could kill a slave and nothing happened to you, but if you kill an ox, you had to pay a price. How many knows why that I laid this foundation about this here? But I'm talking about this wonderful person, Jesus. Who was in the highest form of all. You want to talk about social orders? The highest is the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and then the Cherubims and the Seraphims and the Archangels.

And as far as the nations was concerned, Israel. And then we don't know who God chose for the other ones on the Israel. Probably was a big hodgepodge. And though Jesus was of the highest order of beings, the God order. You can't get any higher than the God order. Even Satan recognized that when he said, "I will ascend above the stars. I will exalt my throne above the heavens. I will walk up and down the stones of fire. I will be like the Most High," not greater. He realized there was nothing greater. There was no one greater than the Most High, and there's no one higher than the Most High. He's the highest.

For He shall be great and be called the Son of the Highest. Hallelujah! That's what Paul meant in Philippians, the second chapter. I guess around the 4th, 5th verse, it starts and said, "Let this mind be in you." When I got saved, I got the lets. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Let the peace of God reign and rule in your heart.

And here's when another let, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus the Lord." And the mind he's talking about here is a mind of humility, when you read up the couple verses. And he's telling them the reason why that you should be humble, I am going to use the prime example of humility, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because now he's talking about the humbling of himself of the Lord in the next verses.

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus the Lord." And he's remonstrating with us that if the Lord was in such a high and lofty position to humble himself to the lowest, we that are nothing, we shouldn't have no battle humbling our self under the mighty hand of God. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus the Lord, who being in the form of God."

Now, it's bad that our English language don't really reveal, explain the Greek word for form what they, we translated form. In the Greek it's morphe. And we bring it over in our language such as metamorphosis. Now, I preached about the butterfly a couple weeks ago. Meto means the after form, a change. Meto after, morphe form. The little wiggly worm when it goes in a cocoon comes out with an after form. He don't look like him, he's got another form.

And when we think of form in the English, we usually think of a shape. That limits it. You know, we think of a shape. In what form is he in? What shape is he in? Remember when Saul went to the witch of Endor, and the witch saw the spirit coming out of the ground? And the witch got scared because it wasn't her familiar demon, but it was Samuel coming up. Because before Jesus, the souls went down.

And the witch hollered, "She God!" Because the word Elohim in the in the Hebrew, can not only mean God the Creator, but it means anybody in a higher position, such as judges and even angels are called that. And here he saw the prophet, who he thought was a prophet Samuel, only called him a God. Said, "What form is he in? What did he look like?" And that's what we usually limit the word form to, the outward shape and appearance. But the Greek word morphe means the outward expression of the inner essence, the outward manifestation of what the person really is, his whole essence, his whole being. He was in the essence of deity.

And his outward expression manifested what he was inside, God. When you saw his outward part of his form, it was blazing and shining and majestic, and we called it his glory. That was manifesting what he really was on the inside, deity, because deity goes around shining and blazing. That's part of his form. That's not all of it. That's just the outward manifestation of the inward reality what he is, he's deity.

And though he was in the form of deity, he had all the attributes and all the essentials, even the majestic outshining, brighter than the sun. When John saw him on the rocky Isle of Patmos. Said, "That ain't the man I laid in his bosom." How many say amen? Said, "That ain't the man of Galilee, and the lowly Nazarene. This is the Lord of Glory with the outward manifestation of his inward reality being shown again." And he felt like a dead man. How many say amen? Because his hair was white as wool, and eyes as lamps, as fire, and his face shone like the sun and all of his strength. And his legs like polished brass burning in an oven. How many say amen? And his voice was like many waters.

You see, that was his outward form, showing what he was inwardly, deity. Though he existed in the essential attributes of deity, in the form of God, or in other words, the next part of the verse said he emptied himself. How many remembers the lesson on the word glory? What does it mean when we say, "Give God the glory?"

You know, most people when you say glory, they think, "Hallelujah!" What did he mean in Exodus? Oh, and I can relate to this. And I was reading there in Exodus that Moses wanted to see his glory. And man, that thing gripped my spirit. My spirit wanted to see the glory. And I read down there where God told Moses, "No man, no natural man, no man in this present corruptible physical body can look at God and live." You disintegrate, you can't get up to the sun, you atomize. And neither can you go to God, that's brighter than the sun, you atomize. That's why we got to get a change in our body.

That's why he said that he would destroy them with the brightness of his coming. He's going to turn it on, and his immediate enemies, their skin's going to melt right under their body, and their eyes, and their tongue. Just like it did when that atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. They're going to atomize. He's going to blow the blood right out of their body until it flows unto the horse's bridle. Said that the blood is going to flow up there to the horse's bridle. And we're going to be riding horses.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen. I trust you have been inspired by this beautiful message by God's servant, Brother Hardy, "God Became Man." Truly, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. This message can only cause us to love our Lord Jesus even greater, as we come to understand a little bit better what He did when He laid aside His deity, His equality with God, and made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and made in the fashion of a man. This enabled Him to become to us an able and merciful and faithful High Priest.

The one and only mediator between God and man is the man, Christ Jesus. This wonderful message would make an excellent addition to your spiritual library. It is available on CD, and when you order "God Became Man," we will send you the bonus message, "The Relinquishment and Restoration of God's Glory." Ask for offer number 135, and send a love gift of $15 or more for the Radio Ministry.

Our mailing address is R. G. Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Or if you prefer to order online, at RGHardy.org. That's RGHardy.org. Once again, our offer is 135. It is a two CD set. You will receive both messages, "God Became Man" and "The Relinquishment and Restoration of Christ's Glory." Send your love gift of $15 or more to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. This is Sister Sharon Knotts, saying until next time, Maranatha!