In this enlightening episode of R.G. Hardy Ministries, Sharon Notts introduces a poignant message by Brother Hardy focusing on the institution of marriage. The teachings draw extensively from biblical scriptures, particularly delving into the symbiotic roles of husbands and wives as ordained by God’s word. Brother Hardy unpacks the often misinterpreted verses from Ephesians, providing clarity on the concepts of headship and submission within marriage. This message is a must-listen for couples looking to deepen their understanding of marital roles and for those preparing to enter the sacred union of marriage.
Praise the Lord. Welcome to this program of R.G. Hardy Ministries because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I’m Sharon Notts thanking you for tuning in today because we have a very special message for you if you are married or are planning to be married. If so, this message by my father, Brother Hardy, is one you don’t want to miss. Two shall be one. Even if you have a good marriage, you can benefit from this down-to-earth biblical teaching, two shall be one.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m talking about that when God brings a man and woman together and makes them one flesh, they complement one another. Each one God has equipped to do a job. He’s given man the aggressive nature so that he would have that aggressive nature to be able to challenge and take the challenges of the world and bring back the sufficient amount of money so that he could provide for his wife and his family to be the leader. Have that aggressive nature to protect his family and most of all, to love his wife and his family. Amen. The wife on the other side has the passive nature. She was to be home and take what the husband brought, supply him a place of refuge, supply him a decent home, rear his children, and together them to rule the earth for the Lord. Like we said, but a lot of husbands have taken that scripture seriously The man or the husband is the head of the woman and use that to just beat her down, reduce her to nothing but a bootlicking slave. And that’s not God’s order. How many say amen? Now I wanna go to Ephesians, the fifth chapter and the 22nd verse. And I’m gonna give you these dictators’ main scripture that gives them the right of authority to squash their wife. And it says, wives, submit yourself unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Husband said, I got it. I got it now. How many say amen? He decides to do something. You see, God, if you let him. will give you the mate that supplies your lack, compliments you. How many say amen? And a lot of times some husbands ain’t got enough sense to blow their nose. But they’re going to tell their wife how they’re going to do it. And their wife says, well, honey, I don’t think it’ll work. He’ll say, shut up. Submit yourself to me. I’m your head. Shut up. You haven’t got nothing to do with it. Submit yourself. And after he makes a whole mess of it, then he wants to come back. How many say amen? How many is out there? You know what? Funny though, that husband, when he found Ephesians 5.22, never ever read the verse up top 21. They never did read it. Look at Ephesians 5.21, it says, Submit yourself one to another in the fear of God. Amen. And if you go to the Greek text, did you know that the word submit is not in the 22nd verse when it says wives? How many didn’t know that? I know most of you did because you’re not a Greek scholar. How many say amen? Let me read it to 21st and 22nd together the way it’s in the Greek text. It says, “‘Submitting yourself one to another in the fear of God.'” Wives, yourselves unto your own husband is unto the Lord. Taking the word submit from the 21st verse. Husbands, taking the verse submit from the 21st verse. In the 25th verse. Husbands, love your wives. You see, so submitting is loving. How many say amen? You didn’t know that? Now, the word submit is an interesting word in the Greek text. I got a letter a while back, and from time to time I get a letter, and they always take me down because I say the Greek says this or the Greek says that. And this one fellow wrote me back and says, you need to quit saying what the Greek says and get you a good King James Bible. Well, I thank him for his kind help. But I want to let you know that Paul and the Lord and none of the disciples or Bible writers spoke English. I want to let you know that the Lord didn’t inspire the English Bible. Boy, that’s going to roll around some people’s heads. What the Lord inspired was the words that Jesus spoke and he spoke in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Paul spoke in Greek. And all the… translations, King James or any other version, French, German or what, are man’s translations and interpretations. And if you’re going to get to the truth of any scripture, you’re going to have to go back to the language it was spoken in. And Paul spoke in Greek to the Ephesians. How many say amen? And when he said… As applied to the wife, wives submit yourself to your own husbands. When he said that, he said that verb in the middle voice. Now, I’m going to give you a little Greek grammar lesson. In the English, we mainly only think in two voices. That’s the active voice and the passive voice. The active voice is I do something for somebody. I initiate the action, like I shine your shoes. That’s the active voice. I’m doing something to you. The passive voice is my shoes are being shined. Somebody’s doing something to me. But the Greek have a middle voice, which means I shine my own shoes. I do something and myself initiates the action and participates in the fulfillment of the action. And when it says wives submit yourself to your husbands it means nobody can make her. It’s not in the act of divorce where it didn’t say husbands make your wife submit. It’s something that she has to do voluntarily. How many’s out there? Nobody can make her and she’s not being made. And if she don’t choose to do it, it can’t be done. Because she’s an equal. Don’t you see? How many sees what I’m talking about? And being an equal, she has to do it because she wants to do it. And the reason why she’s doing it is because of the love of the Lord and to honor his government where she is to recognize her husband as the leader. He can’t make her. He’s not to be a dictator for Rob and say, boom, she meant. No, she’s got to do it lovingly and willingly. because she recognizes it’s God’s order to only have one head. Now, the husband cannot expect his wife to, in fact, the word is, in the Greek, I’ll say it, probably don’t mean nothing to you, hupotasso. It means, hupo means under and tasso means order. She orders herself under her husband. She takes her place. and looks up to him, my man, my champion, my provider, my protector, and most of all, my lover. But if her husband fails to fulfill all of those things, she is not obligated to order herself under him. If he does not lead her right, she doesn’t have to follow the lead. Can I give you a scripture case example? Ananias and Sapphira. Ananias lied to the Holy Ghost about selling the land and keeping the money back, didn’t he? And when he lied, what happened? Boom! God struck him dead. Now, Sapphira had no obligation to follow his lead. She didn’t have to follow his lead. He made a bad decision. He did a wrong thing. But she followed his lead anyway, and what happened? She got it too. A wife is not obligated to follow her husband’s lead. That’s a wrong lead. Come on, a good one. Come on, women, get with me. How many say amen? Seem like the word of God’s getting on the man the worst because they were the ones that were… most usual broke these scriptures by being a dominating overlord, overbearing Hitler type of a husband. How many say amen? Where his leadership and head of that house entailed the duties of to be the protector, the provider, the leader, and the lover. Amen. That’s what his duties was. To go out in the world and whip the world with his aggressive nature to bring back the provision that his wife needed to make him a house and a home and to raise and supply the need of the children. How many say amen? And if he failed that in any part, then the wife is not obligated to order herself under him. Paul said in, I think it was 1 Timothy, that if a man wouldn’t provide for his household, see, the man provided for the household. God required the man to provide for the household because he equipped him for it. How many say amen? That he was worse than an infidel and denied to faith. How many say amen? And no wife had to bring herself under him. You know what? A lot of these supposedly and so-called husbands, of course I don’t believe it’s any here, How many say amen? Have really got a wife as a good thing to send them out every day to get money while he stays home and so lazy he won’t even turn over twice in bed. so she can bring the money in so he can support whatever his lust is. And she hasn’t got one right at all and can’t open her mouth to do nothing. How many say amen? And a whole lot of them are so lazy they wouldn’t work in a pie factory. Their hours would only be 12 to 1 with an hour off for lunch. And all the pies they could eat. How many say amen? And give their wives babies so they can get on the welfare. And when the welfare check comes, they take that check that’s supposed to go to those children and they waste it. You know what I would do, wife? I would show him the door. Not very gently either. How many say amen? I’d bring him up to the door, turn him north towards the door and take my foot in the south of his body and I’d push him out that door. Amen. And I would tell him, don’t you come back till you bring a paycheck. No wife is under obligation to come under the lead of a husband. It’s that way. He’s broke the marriage contract by not being the provider. And I’m sure he’s not a lover. I mean, he is a lover. He’s not a lover of his wife and his children. He’s a lover of himself. How many say amen? And God will not hold a wife accountable. He’s going to hold that husband accountable. In fact, he’s going to hold that wife accountable if she lets him stay in there and rob them children of their care and their protection and their providing. How many say amen? You out there? I know it’s kind of, you know, you didn’t know all that stuff was in the Bible, did you? But it’s there. How many say amen? Submit yourself one to another in the fear of God. Wives, order yourself unto your husband as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wife be to her own husband in everything. Amen. How many say amen? How is the church subject to the Lord? Are we walking around like a slave licking his boots? Scared to death of him? Can’t say anything? Can’t talk to him? Can’t reason with him? How many say amen? Scared to death of becoming nothing? How many is out there? Huh? Husbands, love your wives. How? Even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Now, husband, if you expect your wife to get stuck to you and become the clinging vine and look up to you and bat her baby blue eyes and say, my champion wife, and my hero, and my leader, and my provider, and my feeder, and my protector, then you’ve got to love her. How many say amen? And how are you to love your wife? You’re to love her with Calvary love. I said you are to love her with what? Husbands, mark it in your Bible, Ephesians 5, 25. Husbands, love your wives, how? Even as, just like Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. He gave himself for the church. How many say amen? He didn’t demand the church to be his slave and foot and boot licker. He didn’t overrule her with a rod of iron. He sacrificed himself. How many say amen? In other words, the husband… is to make his wife only second to Jesus. And likewise, the wife to the husband. And the husband is to live a life of sacrifice for her. The wife is to sacrifice her equality and order herself under her husband. The husband is to sacrifice his will for her. You know that there’s almost no difference between the word submit and love? Let me say that again. There’s almost no difference between the two verbs, submit and love. What does the word submit mean? It means to give yourself up to someone. Is that right? You submit by giving yourself up to someone. What does the word love mean? The Bible word, agape. It means to give yourself up for someone. Submit to someone, love for someone. They both mean the same thing. You see, husbands love, wife love your husbands that you submit to him. You give yourself up to him. Wife, husband love your wife that you give yourself up for her. that you become her protector, provider, leader, and lover. How many say amen? That’s the two positions of the wife and the husband. She gives herself up to him. You’re going to be my provider. You’re my protector. You’re my lover. How many say amen? Then the husband says, is expected she submitted to me i’m going to be her protector i’m going to provide and supply her need and i am going to love her and she is going to be second only to the lord how many say amen and i tell you when we do that we’re going to have a marriage come on give him a good clap offer I’m talking about finding your place in your marriage. Husband, give yourself up for your wife like Christ gave himself up for the church. If a husband will live for his wife’s benefit and good and love her, then he can expect her to order her life under him and look to his lead And rely on him to supply her need. How many say amen? And there will be no divisions. No separations. Nobody’s going to tear them apart. They’re going to have a strong marriage that will weather every storm, every trial of life that will come down the path to separate them. How many say amen? I want to go into another part this morning that gets a lot of marriages in trouble, and that’s on finance. How many say amen? A lot of good, strong marriages are wrecked because they don’t know how to handle the Now, I don’t know why that the man, it just seems like we’re picking on the man, and I’m a man. How many say amen? I’m picking on the husbands. Because that’s mainly where these problems come from in a lot of places. That in the man’s macho mentality, now I don’t know what macho means, but… You know, it’s a great word that they use about somebody that’s supposed to be something that’s special. But in the man’s macho mentality, he won’t let the wife run the house. And he might not have enough sense to be able to add one and one. That it’s supposed to be two and not 11. I get a lot of letters from people. The wife said to me, Brother Harney, my husband won’t give me no money to run the house. Well, how in the world is she going to run the house with nothing? Man, I’d like to have one of them women. Said he keeps all the money and expects me to provide him a house. Well, he’s failing to do his job as a provider and supplier. How many say amen? Amen. and said he keeps the money and yet the rent’s not paid, the mortgage is not paid, there’s no food in the house. Now, husband, it ain’t against your macho-ness to let the wife run the bills if you haven’t got enough sense to run the bills. Because God gave you her to take up that lack. And I got news for you. If my wife wanna run the house and pay the bills, go ahead, I don’t care. That don’t bother my macho-ness one little bit. Because I believe one of the most, the job I hate one of the worst about running a house is, is writing out checks for bills. You know why? It costs you money. for your time. Instead of making money for your time, it costs your money. How many say amen? I mean, if my wife wants to balance the checkbook, go ahead, because I ain’t never been able to balance it in all my life. Of course, I’m always good. I’m always coming up with money on my side when it ain’t there. I tell that bank person, what do you mean it ain’t there? Look at my figure. She said, I did.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. I hope you’re blessed by this informative and inspirational message by my father, Brother Hardy, Two Shall Be One. We feel strongly that every Christian marriage should examine itself in the light of God’s word to be sure that they are applying godly principles for a healthy and holy marriage. This teaching defines and expounds the very important meanings of the terms headship and submission, and these are areas that are often misused and abused in marriage. Also addressed are the questions, what is the biblical role of the husband in marriage? What is the biblical role of the wife? And what about the role of sex in marriage? These issues are soundly addressed in this vital, practical, and enlightening teaching, Two Shall Be One. Now you may want to add this to your spiritual library or share it with someone who is getting married or someone having marital problems. It is available on a double CD set for a love gift of $15 or more to the radio ministry. Request offer 215. That’s offer 215. Our mailing address is Brother Hardy, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or if you prefer, order online at RGHardy.org. That’s RGHardy.org. Again, this is a two-CD set for a love gift of $15 or more. Request offer 215. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 1744 Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sister Sharon saying, Maranatha.
