Join us as we uncover the essence of ‘The Fragrance of Messiah’, a message that challenges believers to consider their unique role in spreading the Gospel’s potent aroma. Sharon Knotts delivers an eye-opening reminder that through Christ, we become both a sweet perfume to those on the path of salvation and an odor of death to others, emphasizing the everlasting consequences of accepting or rejecting Jesus. This episode encourages strength and perseverance amidst modern-day opposition, urging listeners to respond with love and maintain their Christian witness.
00:00:05 Introduction and Overview of The Fragrance of Messiah
00:03:00 The Dual Nature of the Gospel’s Fragrance
00:06:00 Biblical Foundations: Corinthians and Peter
00:12:00 The Stench of Rejection and the Aroma of Acceptance
Greetings friends and new listeners. Welcome to this program of the R.G. Hardy Ministries. I’m Sharon Knotts and I’m so happy you’ve joined us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today’s message is The Fragrance of Messiah. I know this title has a pleasing sound, but I assure you there is a soul-stirring, eye-opening alarm of the Holy Spirit contained in this anointed package. As real Christians, we are both fragrant and foul-smelling because our gospel is a gospel of life and death, as you will understand in The Fragrance of Messiah. Our message today is the fragrance of Messiah. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians, the second chapter. 2 Corinthians 2, and we will read verses 14 and 16. Through 16, I should say. Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. I do want to interject here, the word savor is kind of arcane, because when we think of savor, at least I do, I think of tasty. But in the old King James English, savor meant fragrance. Therefore, I will substitute fragrance for savor. Verse 15, we are unto God a sweet fragrance of Christ, in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the fragrance of death unto death, and to the other the fragrance of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things, or who is able to have such a ministry? As I said, the word savor means fragrance. So to God, we are a sweet fragrance in Christ. But we have two different groups of people, if you will, that are smelling us. And to the one group of people, we find out that we are like a sweet perfume of life. Very pleasant, very attractive. But to the other group of people that are perishing, we are like a fragrance, or should I say an odor of death. Think about this. This means that we are either fragrant or foul. To one group of people, they are drawn to us because we smell so sweet and pleasant. To the other group of people, they want to avoid us because to them we smell foul. Now how can this be? Now the rabbis used this very language, and how many know that Apostle Paul used to be a rabbi? This was common language that was used by the rabbis to refer to the law of Moses. And they said, for some it was medicine for healing, but to others it was a prescription unto death. So here we see this contradiction. On one hand, it is a medicine or a fragrance that goes from life to life. To the other, it’s a foul odor that leads from death to more death. In fact, other translations and some other commentators state that to the one, we are the stench of a rotting corpse. That’s pretty foul, isn’t it? But to the other, we are as the lily of the valley and the rose of Sharon. Amen. Now this corresponds, and you may think to yourself, how does that work? How can we be both of these? Well, it kind of corresponds, and if you don’t want to turn there, I’ll just read it to you. With 1 Peter, speaking of Jesus Messiah, 1 Peter 2, 7 and 8 says, Unto you, therefore, which believe? That’s me. he is precious oh lord you’re precious but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient where unto also they were appointed And so they’re appointed to fulfill that very word. So we see that Jesus to us is the precious cornerstone, the very foundation upon which we build our lives. But to those who stumble at the word, He is a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. They are offended by Jesus and they are offended by his word. Amen? So there you can see again the dichotomy of a cornerstone you build on and a rock of offense that you trip over and stumble over. You can see on one hand we are the stench of death and on the other hand we’re the fragrance of life. And here’s how it boils down, folks. To those who harden their hearts to the word. Those who harden their hearts to the truth of the gospel are going to reject us. They are going to reject us for the gospel’s sake. They may have outside of the gospel, you may have been, could have been the best of buddies. You could have been close friends. You may have a lot in common. You may have personalities that would get along great. But bring the gospel into the equation and it’s not going to work. Amen. They’re going to reject you. They’re going to despise you. They’re going to malign you. Amen? Because when they hate us and revile us and persecute us, it’s because they smell on us the stench of death. Let me tell you this. Don’t forget this. Jesus Christ is going to have an eternal impact on every person that comes in contact with the gospel. He is going to impact them eternally one way or the other, whether from life to life or death to death. Once a person is introduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ, it’s going to have an eternal impact on them. To the one who accepts him, it’s life. To the one who rejects him, it’s death. Because for those who reject him, they would rather cling to their filthy rags, their filthy garments of sin. They’d rather cling to them and carry with them the stench of death. So that which was ordained to bring life, the gospel, the word of God was ordained to bring life, becomes death to them because they reject it. And when we are in their presence, we remind them of their sin. Amen. And so they cannot abide us. They don’t want to be around us because to them we smell like a rotting corpse. Amen? Now, I read these verses last week. I’m going to very quickly read them again because they, as I said, this is another message and I want it to be in the message. But last week we read from 1 Corinthians. Hold your place where you are because we’ll be back there. 1 Corinthians, the fourth chapter, verses 12 and 13. And some of you that were here last week will remember this. And let’s see. It says, “…being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we suffer it. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.” okay we just talked about what these words mean and I’ll quickly refresh you reviled means to abuse someone with words it means to insult them with contempt this is what they do to us amen when I say us I’m talking about Christians and believers who are walking in the light and in the truth they persecute us the word in the Greek means to hunt down as an animal They won’t get off our case. They won’t get off your case. They’re always looking for something else to harass you about. Amen? They defame us. That means they outright lie and slander us. To them that we are counted as filth. And this in the day of the Bible, this word in the Greek was used to refer to the worst criminals of all, the ones that were to be put to death. The worst criminals. And I’m going to show you in a minute, I’m going to read to you something in a minute that’s going to show you that this word is being fulfilled right now. And we’re counted as the off-scouring. Off-scouring in a word means scum. It’s the residue that when you go to clean some nasty mess like your filthy stove or your filthy grill, you’ve let it get by too long and it’s a nasty mess and you’re cleaning it and you’re using Brillo pads and the scum is all over you. How about your trash cans in the middle of August that you had crab shells and fish heads and stuff in? And then it all gets that liquidy thing in the bottom of your trash can. That’s what we’re talking about. That’s how the world sees us. Amen? They’re not singing for he or she is a jolly good fellow. They see us as scum, and I don’t think there’s any worse stench than crabs and fish that have been in the trash can, and it’s about 95 degrees, and it’s been out there because you just did it, and it’s going to be a week before the trash man comes and picks it up. And I feel sorry for those guys when they take the lid off. How many know where I’m getting graphic here? Because I want you to understand how they feel about us. Amen? That’s how we are to them. Now let me read you something. This was written by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn. Let me qualify this by saying he’s a messianic rabbi. In other words, he has received Jesus as his Messiah. He is the one who wrote the book, The Harbinger. sold millions of copies, was on the New York Times bestseller list for a long time. How many have read that book? Wow. I’m the only person? Two people? Three people in this church. Now, let me tell you something. It’s an easy read. I know some people are not crazy about reading. It’s a very easy read. And I know that Brother Hardy ministered it a few times on Sunday morning. But come on, I’m the type of person, I’ve got to read stuff for myself. If you read it to me, I’m like, huh, what did you say, huh? So him reading it to you, don’t let that scare you off because you need to read it for yourself. He put it in a story fictional form. In other words, he used fiction to frame the picture. The picture are the facts and the truth. The revelation that God gave him of showing from the time of September 11 to this date, the nine harbingers, or the harbinger means omens, signs. Okay? The signs that are pointing to the prophetic signs of the day that we live in. And instead of just writing facts, facts, facts, facts, that like after a while you’re like, oh, what? He made it fictional. He had a man and a prophet, and the prophet gave the man the signs. And therefore, it being a story, it’s much easier to follow. And they have dialogue. So when you read dialogue, it’s much easier to absorb than da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Okay, and so I really recommend that you get the book. Okay, that was a track all unto itself. Now let’s get back here. Anyway, this is the one who wrote that. Keeping in mind that he is a messianic rabbi and a prophet, a modern day prophet, and this is what he wrote. This was just this summer that he wrote this. Michael Weinstein is a man who heads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. This is of the United States military. But the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has nothing to do with religious freedom, quite the opposite. In one of his recent articles, this is what Weinstein said. Weinstein being the one who’s head of this military religious freedom thing. This is not Jonathan Cahn speaking, this is Weinstein. And this is what he said. He called evangelical Christians monsters. He calls sharing the gospel spiritual rape. And this is just the beginning. Even in this age of vulgar discourse, the hatred that he spews forth towards evangelical Christians is startling. Now quoting Weinstein again, he says, we must vigorously support the continuing efforts to expose the pathologically anti-gay, Islamophobic, and rabidly intolerant agitators for what they are. die hard enemies of the United States Constitution. He’s talking about us folks, okay? Monsters, one and all, these fundamentalist Christian monsters of human degradation, marginalization, humiliation, and tyranny, crave for your universal silence in the face of their rapacious reign of theocratic terror. Apparently, with the encouragement of the Obama administration, the Pentagon has been meeting with Weinstein for guidance this guy that just said all this, they’re meeting him for guidance on its policy towards Christian faith. Now, what is the result? The new policy of so-called religious tolerance in the United States military is set forth in the following words, and I quote. This is the policy. Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense. Court marshals and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis. If this policy is put into effect, it could effectively purge the United States military of any visible or outward form of Christianity. Okay? Religious proselytization, this is what it includes. Sharing one’s testimony, sharing the love of Jesus, sharing a word from the Bible, talking about why you believe what you believe, and any other noticeable expression of one’s faith. Thus, Christians in the military can now be treated, as Weinstein has called for it, as enemies of the state, subject to court-martial, if not imprisonment. So this is what Kahn goes on to comment. No matter what happens to this law, the very fact that it could happen in America is profound. It was just a little while ago that the administration overturned don’t ask, don’t tell. The very, remember? As soon as they were inaugurated, the very first week, it was the first bill that they overturned, right off the bat. And from that point, we now have from don’t tell, don’t ask, don’t tell, to this, what I just quoted to you. So this was established, the open practice of homosexuality in the military, okay, giving them their rights of open practice. That’s one thing. But now we’re seeing the other side, of this tolerance. It’s an intolerance for the word of God and the gospel. What happened to the American military in just two years is a microcosm in a controlled environment, a graphic witness to what lies ahead. Now think about this. Now I’m reading Khan. When the Sanhedrin told the disciples to stop sharing their faith, the apostles replied that they had no choice but to follow God and not man. And as pressure increases for believers like us to be silent, we have no choice but to share the word of God and the good news of salvation. When the dark gets darker, it’s time for the light to get brighter. Think about this. Had the apostles obeyed the Sanhedrin in the book of Acts when they were beaten and forbidden to speak in the name of Jesus or spread his name or his gospel, had they obeyed the Sanhedrin, you would not be saved today. I would not be saved today because the great commission of Jesus Christ to go and preach the gospel would have come to a standstill. But they did not let the fear of man dissuade them. Amen? They went out anyway, and the Bible says the saints prayed for them that they would speak more boldly in the name of your holy son, Jesus. And they spoke more boldly until it was nothing that the Sanhedrin could not put the fire out. The fire of the gospel, the fire of evangelism. amen so you have got to get bold like I said last week you better get a spiritual backbone amen because some of these things are going to become illegal you say well that’s the military that doesn’t apply to me well let me read this to you Let me read you this other little story, and then we’ll move into our message. This is what now is illegal. The Supreme Court has ruled that kindergarten children can no longer verbalize the prayer of thanksgiving as they partake of their morning snack. The specific words that the Supreme Court ruled contraband is this. We thank you for the flowers so sweet. We thank you for the food we eat. We thank you for the birds that sing. We thank you, God, for everything. It is now illegal. It’s illegal for children to say this prayer. Amen? So I’m telling you that why would the forces of hell pick on kindergartners? I’ll tell you why. It’s powerful. It has an effect. It’s saying to their little minds and their little moldable hearts, it’s giving them the understanding you didn’t come from scum. You didn’t come from a monkey. God gave you everything. It’s not some great theological lesson, but it’s saying thank God for everything. He made the birds. Amen. He made the food you’re eating. He made everything. It’s planting in their little moldable hearts the seed that can start growing. That’s why the devil picks on kindergartners and doesn’t want them to pray. And he’s made an illegal activity. Amen. Let me tell you something. You and I are going to have to get bold and we’re going to have to have a backbone. Amen? And we’re going to have to stand up for the truth. So how do we respond when we’re treated like this? When we’re reviled and we’re persecuted and we’re defamed and we’re treated like filth and scum? Well, the scripture we read says we bless, we suffer it, we put up with it. We entreat. Let me tell you a good way to translate we entreat. We stay sweet. I said we stay sweet. Amen? Look at somebody and say entreat. Stay sweet. In other words, we do what Ephesians 4.15 says. We speak the truth in love. Amen. I trust you are being supernaturally stirred by our message, the fragrance of Messiah. I know for myself it was a true eye-opener when I realized that not only does the gospel of Christ that we live and preach have the power of life to those who accept it and death to those who reject it, but we as Christians are both fragrant and foul-smelling. This is not a contradiction in terms. Apostle Paul said that we are both. To those who are seeking truth, we are as a beautiful fragrance that draws them to Christ. But to those who harden their hearts to the message of the gospel, we are as the stench of death. We smell like a rotting corpse. They don’t want to be in our presence because we remind them of their sin and their damnation. Make no mistake, Jesus Christ will have an eternal impact on everyone who comes into contact with the gospel. Those who reject him will seek to silence his message. And this means silencing us, his messengers. They are looking for any fault to discredit us. And this is why we must respond by speaking the truth in love. Now this does not mean to excuse sin. God said, I am God and I change not. What he said is sin and his word is still sin today. God hates the sin, but he loves sinners and so should we. There are those who are real seekers of truth, and to them we are the sweet perfume of life because we have the treasure of the anointing in our earthen vessels. So knowing this gospel is unto death or life, what manner of Christians should we be? You may order The Fragrance of Messiah on CD for a love gift of $10 or more. Request offer SK-167. Mail to R.G. Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or order online at rghardy.org. That’s RGHardy.org. Again, send a minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request offer SK167 for the fragrance of Messiah. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
