Join Sharon Knotts in this thought-provoking episode where she explores the concept of how God humbles humanity. Drawing on biblical scriptures and the powerful story of Lucifer’s fall from grace, Sharon elucidates the various ways God has instilled safeguards in creation, starting with the humbling origins of man made from dust despite being in the likeness of God. This episode dives deep into theological reflection, highlighting the rich parallels between divine creation and the potential for human pride.
I’m Sharon Knotts. 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. So 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? But when you have the perspective that God humbled this body, when it says in Philippians where I just quoted, he will change our vile body, the word vile there in a little bit is 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. So 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. So 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. Amen. And 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’s 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. So 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, in 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. So 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. Today we’re going to be doing week two of a message I started last week. The message is called The Four Ways God Umbles Man. First of all, we learned that Lucifer, a.k.a. 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. So 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. And 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. And 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 past, 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. And in Genesis 1-1, he had made a beautiful earth, but then two verses later, we find out that he had to restore the earth. And 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. And he decided that this time he was going to make this creation in his very own image and his very own likeness. And so I posed the question, wasn’t this risky? Wasn’t this a great risk for God to do this, knowing what happened to Lucifer? 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. And 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 are 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. So he made us in his image and his likeness, and that would set us up for pride. But he made us from dirt. So no matter how wise you become, no matter how educated, no matter how advanced you become, no matter how beautiful, 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? And we talked about that last week. So 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. And we’ve mentioned that vile doesn’t mean they’re you know, 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. And 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. And so then they realized they were naked and God had to make them coverings out of animal skins. So 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. And we have a lot of verses to cover. 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19. For as much 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 see, God knew that man was going to sin. God knew he wasn’t taken by surprise, amen, when Adam and Eve sinned. And God giving us free will and free choice allowed them to make that decision. He warned them of the consequences. But because they were in a beautiful garden of Eden, 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. And 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 die. Shall what? Surely die. 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, but their intimacy was, Their relationship with God. There was an alienation now. Sin brings alienation. Amen? And so that intimate presence with God was cut off. So this is what happened. And God knew that he had to have a plan of redemption. Turn to Romans, the fifth chapter. And Romans, the fifth chapter, is really a glorious chapter to understand why… God had to send Jesus to be our redeemer. But 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.” 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. Four, 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. 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? And 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 shaped in iniquity is what David said. Romans 3.23 says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 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. 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. You don’t have to turn there, but let me read to you an interesting verses in Psalm 49. 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, let’s, in Romans 5, drop down to verse 6. Ha ha. The good stuff. For when we were yet without strength, in due time… Christ died for the ungodly. I love that because when it says 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 it 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. He paid the ransom. He paid the ransom. The first Adam sold us out. And now someone had to pay the ransom, and that was the second Adam. And 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. And 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. But 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. Turn to 1 Timothy 2. 1 Timothy 2, and let’s read a verse there. You’ll recognize part of this immediately, but I want you to see the terms here. 1 Timothy 2 and verse 5. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Jesus Christ. 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? So when we face the reality of our sinful condition and know that the consequences is death and 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? So 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. Before we move on to number three, just turn to Revelation 5. And verse 9, this is the saints in heaven, amen? This is our future. Verse 9, And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. So God redeemed us by his blood and took us from our lowest sinful condition and is going to elevate us to reign with Christ on the earth. Amen? 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, right? 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. Amen. And he had the authority to do that because Adam gave it to him. But we were spiritually bankrupt. We had nowhere with all 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. Amen. All these other billionaire people. None of that. God called that silver and gold is corruptible. It took the precious. And that word in Greek means priceless. You cannot put a value on the blood of Jesus. Amen. So we can say it’s invaluable. Amen. And that’s how much God loves you. And 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. 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. Amen? And their righteousness is in their works. Amen? 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. Amen? But it’s not the other way around. You’re not saved by your works. Your works are a proof that you are saved. Amen? So he says 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. Amen? 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. 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 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? Amen. 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. Yes. 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. Amen. And so he gives us his righteousness. 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 the throne 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 SK221. Mail to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott singing Maranatha.
