Gethsemane, Part 1

Greetings, friends and new listeners and welcome to this program of the Archie Hardy Ministries.

I'm Sharon Notts thanking you for tuning in today because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The message today by my father, Brother Hardy, is one that is near and dear to my heart. It's entitled, Gethsemane, the Olive Press. It was there our Savior agonized in prayer, His body wracked with intense sufferings as He wrestled with His own self-will to drink the cup of sufferings and crucifixion on the cursed cross. He would have died in that garden had the Father not sent angels to strengthen Him.

And winning the battle over self is the hardest one you and I will ever face. And if you are a true child of God, then you are no stranger to Gethsemane, the Olive Press. But I was running this week, the Holy Ghost had me run the Word, which translates in our King James, usually agony, striving, or contending. In fact, when it's concerning Jesus in the garden in Luke 22, about 42, talking about Him praying to the Father, and it said being in agony. But you see, that's not the Greek word.

In fact, it is the Greek word transliterated, but it isn't the Greek meaning. We took the Greek word agony from the Greek and brought it over to English and said agony, but we changed its meaning. Agony means suffering.

Amen. You're suffering. But the Greek meaning of the word means you are fighting. So we anglicized the word and we brought suffering as the result of the fighting. And what it said that Jesus was in agony in the garden, it meant He was in combat. He was in a struggle.

He was in a battle. Did you ever hear this scripture? Fight, the good fight of faith.

Do you want to know the two Greek words? Agonize the good agony. The Greek meaning of the word agony means to be in combat, and naturally you're going to have some agony in the English reading. If you're a boxer and get in the ring and you fight, unless that guy has got two broken hands and is blind as a bat, you're going to have some agony.

I don't care if you come out a winner, you're going to know you're in a fight. First time Allie and Frazier fought, Frazier come out the winter, but he went to the hospital for a week. He was in agony.

Yeah, he was too. I've seen some of them that won the championship with their eyes closed and their mouth, well it was a good fight. It was tough when I won. How many say amen? The agony was the result of the fighting. And honey, Jesus was in a combat in the garden of Gethsemane.

How many say amen? He was in a war. In fact, if you check that word up in the Greek lexicon, it meant that he was in a violent struggle. And he was in such a violent struggle that the Bible said, the King James said, his blood or his sweat came as it were, drops of blood.

Did you ever run the word for drops? You know what we get the English word from it? Trombosis.

When you have a coronary, trombosis. You know what it meant? It meant that his sweat was coming as blood clots. He was in such a battle that God had to send an angel to strengthen him. I mean, he wasn't confessing enough in a way. That would have been great for him to confess it all away. How many say amen?

I confess to all of this. Oh honey, he was in a combat. He was in a battle until God had to send the angels to strengthen him.

He was in a combat until his sweat came as drops of blood clots. How many say amen? Oh, one of these days it's going to change. We sing that song, I'll go with him, with him all the way. I'll go with him in. Will you go with him in the garden? If you don't go with him in the garden, you ain't going with him in the heaven.

Why do you think the devil's come out this last day with this popular do nothing confess all religion? Because the Bible said if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. Now, I have to suffer with him. Now where did he suffer at?

He didn't suffer in hellfire, thank God. I ain't going there. No, I ain't going to go there and suffer.

No way in the world. I'm going in another direction. How can I suffer with him if he suffered in hell? Because Jesus promised a New Testament church in Matthew 16 18, the gates of hell shall not prevail against you. Now that don't mean we got power over the devil. We got other scriptures for that. In other words, it meant that when we died, we didn't go to Hades house.

How many say amen? And if I don't go to Hades house in any form, how can I suffer with Jesus there? But I'll tell you where he suffered at. He suffered in the garden. And I'll tell you where he continued his suffering.

He suffered in Pilates Judgment Hall. And I'll tell you where he finished his suffering on the cross on the top of Mount Calvary. How many say amen? And honey, the Bible said when God saw the travail of his soul, he was satisfied. And the last thing that Jesus said, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

It is finished into your hands. I commend my spirit. And he couldn't commend the sinful spirit into the hands of an almighty God without a cup of water and he'd been full blown to pieces. How many say amen?

Well, where did he suffer? That's why Jesus said, if any man come after me, it don't cost you nothing to come unto him. Salvation is free.

Thank God, yes siree. And he gave it to me with his act on Calvary. How many say amen? And all he says to me up there on Calvary, come unto me.

All ye that labor and heavy lay it in. And I will, I will, I will, I will, I will. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to ask and pray about it. All you got to do is come.

He's already said it. I will give you rest for my yoke is easy. It is, it is, it is. Don't you tell me it's hard to be a Christian. It's hard to be a Christian when you don't want to be.

It's hard to be a Christian when you've got the world in one hand and you've got Jesus in the other. And you know what you're like Paul said, sown asunder. Do you know what the word sown asunder means?

Tore in half, tore apart. Do you know how in Hebrews would have said rather than compromise that they might have a better resurrection. They did not accept deliverance from the devil and man. They were sown asunder. You know how they sown them asunder? They would tie the arm and the hand to a horse going north and the other hand and the leg to a horse going south and whip them at the same time. And when those two horses bolted and went in opposite direction, it tore the man in half. He was sown asunder, tore in half.

But rather than receive the deliverance of compromise from the devil, they suffered being torn in half that they might receive a better resurrection. They ain't going to like me Jesus. And I see you brought a lot of sightseers here tonight and they ain't going to like me. But I'm going to tell them anyhow.

I love them and I want to see them go to heaven and get a mansion and a harp and a crown. And in that day up yonder they'll find their name written down. Because when a song says in that book up yonder write my name down.

But when you get there it better be written down. Because he's going to open the books and if your name ain't in it forget it. If he opens the book of life and you ain't in there, you're in trouble. Because he's going to open the other books. He's going to open the books up. He's going to open up the books of the account of your judgment. And I'll tell you what honey, if you can fly to heaven on a magic carpet the Lord's tricked me for 30 years.

Because I ain't never found none of them carpets. And I read that Bible I stand on my head, laying on my face. I read it in the Greek. How many say amen? I read it in the King James.

I read it in the American Standard International. And I don't find no magic carpets. I find a cross wherever you read it, it's still there. Honey, I don't want to ever be caught or be found without my cross. Now I got a cross but you see I got so conditioned with it I don't even know I got it anymore.

That's what grace will do. In fact, it becomes your glory. Paul said God forbid that I should glory anything save the cross. That by it I'm crucified to the world and the world crucified to me.

It's my glory. It's the thing that crucified me and made me dead to the world. And you know if I'm dead to the world you know what? I ain't going to be judged with the world. Because the world passed away.

How many say amen? And the lust thereof. And the ellipsis means and the doer of the lust thereof because the rest of the verse says but he that doeth the will of the father shall abide forever. So he left that ellipsis. The world passed away, the lust of the world passed away and the doer of the lust of the world passed away.

But the doer, the will of the father shall abide forever. He let that play on words not saying it that it would be louder. You know some things are louder if you don't say it. Some things are more pressing and more foreboding if you don't say it. Let me show you.

You'll see somebody doing something you'll raise up and say hey if you don't stop ow! And their mind got your killed, murdered, sliced up. You know what the saddest realization of a Christian is after he gets saved for a while, after you know the thrill of the Holy Ghost for a while, is that there's a devil out there. And I tell you what, if you don't believe in the devil get full of the Holy Ghost and you're going to be a believer very soon, won't be long. Now just what was the suffering of Jesus?

And that's where I'm fellowshipping. Paul found the secret. He didn't say hey, let me know the magic formula, what chant to say that will deliver me and bring me joy and peace. He said I want to know him and the fellowship of his suffering. He found the secret. See, I knew it was going to be a quiet message. Only those who found the secret are shouting. You know me, that's why Paul can holler out, I glory in tribulation! I mean, I don't mind glorying on a mountaintop, I don't need it then.

You know what I need a good shout? It's when the enemy's all around me. When the enemy comes in like a flood and he's all around me. Like David said, I saw the wicked spread himself like a green bay tree.

Then you've got to go back and find out what a green bay tree, what the characteristics is. That means it just runs all over the place. That's like when I'm running vines, it just spreads out all over the place. He saw the enemy all around me and you know what he said? Time out for a shout! I believe he did because he said I looked and then he looked away from the circumstance and another psalmist said look under the hills from whence cometh thy help for thy help cometh from the Lord. He must have looked up and seen help cometh and I know he got the shout. Come on, Jesus!

Hi-ho! Nah, these folk don't like it. They don't want to hear anything about the cross. And that's the only way you're going to make it, the way the cross leads home. When the enemy comes, I tell him, time out!

I said, time out what, Barney? So I can say, thanks, God, and he gives me the victory. Then he gives me the victory and I go ahead on and kill him. Didn't you know that victory and salvation is a gift? And didn't you know salvation is supposed to be a part of your armor and that you don't have to fight to get it? You receive it.

Oh, you didn't know that? Now let me know some of you ain't got no helmet on. In the whole armor of God, in the sixth chapter of Ephesians, I don't see anywhere where you confess it away as part of your armor. How shall I stand against the wiles of the devil? How can I prevail against my enemy?

Hey, don't you know that we are in a combat? In fact, take the term of the word of Jesus in the garden. We're in a violent struggle. Take the term where Jesus said, since John, the kingdom of God is seized by violence. King James says the kingdom of God is taken by violence. The Greek word is seized. And the violent ones seize it. Another scripture on the same thought said the law and the prophets were under John and everyone presses into it.

Did you check the word for presses? Seizes it by violence. Jesus was saying to his people, he said, strive to enter in. Be violent.

Same word, agony. Fight to enter in. You don't go, Mary had a little lamb. You don't play no game. You got to fight. Fight to enter in. Get in a violent struggle. Be violent about this. The kingdom of God is taken by violence. I'm not talking about the enemy taken. I'm talking about you seizing it. And only the violent ones seize it. For since John, the kingdom of God has preached and it is taken by violence. Every man presses or seizes it or you don't get it, strive to enter in. Be violent to enter in.

Why? For S-T-R-A-I-T. Straight. Now that don't mean straight line.

That's not S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T. It means narrow pressing and confining and pressure. It means it's a tight spot. It means there is resisting and you got to be violent by this thing. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. One of the last things that Jesus said in Revelation, hold thou fast what thou hast. Let no one take thy crown.

Honey, we got them taking kung fu and the martial arts and a lot of people are getting a gun to hold fast what they have and letting every demon steal everything they got spiritually. Honey, I'm going to enter in this violent struggle and if I have to kneel down next to Jesus and enter this violent struggle with him until I have a trombosis, it's all right, honey. I am going to do it because I'm going to make heaven my home.

And if you want to go with me, come on, I wish you would, but if you don't go, I'm going anyhow. I ain't looking for excuse to lose. I'm looking for excuse to win. And I, somebody said, are you fighting according to the Marcus of Queen Mary rules?

I don't know her and it didn't help her, but I'm fighting to win. When I was in the world, I didn't have no sense if I knocked you down. I waited until you got up.

Very few got up, but honey, in this fight, when we knock them down, then I'm going to get on with both heels. Said he bruised my heel. I mean, I want to whip that. I want to give him such a whipping. Get in a violent struggle with that devil and turn him every way but loose and be on him because I'm short like a short overcoat and work him over so bad. If I can't kill him, then I'm going to make him wish he was dead. That when he reports back to Satan and tell Satan he didn't win and Satan says, get back there. He going to tell the devil, man, I'll fight you before I fight him. You want to fight him, you go. Honey, you got to fight.

Somebody said, I don't believe it. What do you think the word resist mean? No such a thing as passive resistance or opposite words. The Bible said do what to the devil? Resist.

Resistance is what? I mean, if you come to steal my pocketbook and I resist you, so what do you mean? I don't got you on the ground beating your head at me. In other words, if anybody gets your head beat in, you are. And when the devil comes, you better do more and you're resisting and say, Mary had a little lamb.

No, he's going to say the devil's got a little lamb. Right. Agorize the good agony. Lay hold. Take eternal life into custody. Paul told Timothy that good thing that you are have deposit and you keep by the Holy Ghost which is in you.

Did you ever run the word keep? Protect God. Watch over it. God said to Adam and Eve, God keep the garden. Guard it. A warning enemy.

They didn't keep the garden and they lost their soul. How many say amen? If we agonize with him, we shall also what? Reign with him. If we agonize with him, we shall also what? Be glorified with him.

How many say amen? That means raised from the dead. Glorified, raised from the dead. That means when honey, you come out of the ground with your glorified body, one of the conditions to be raised from the dead is you got to join him in this agony. What was the agony? He had a twofold battle in the garden. Do you know what the word Gethsemane means? That's where he agonized this agony.

How many is there? You see, do you just read the King James or the whatever version and don't bother to dig in? Jesus said, search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. Search. You know what the word Gethsemane means?

The all-press. It's one of the most venerated places on the face of the earth. It's at the bottom of the Mount of Olives.

They got it protected, did you see, when you were in Holy Land? And some of the oldest olive trees known to men are there. They are reputed to be the very trees that Jesus agonized amongst. Nobody can say for sure they are, but they are some of the oldest trees known to man. And they are protected that you can't kick the bark off the road. They don't flourish like the young, but they're venerated and holy, a very most holy place.

How many say Amen? It's just as holy as Calvary because that's where Jesus agonized and had the sweat as bloody clots pussed out of him. He was in the press, the all-press, that's where they pussed the olives out.

You know how they did the olives? They crushed them. He was in the crush. He was in such a crush and a battle that God had to send an angel to strengthen him or he would die. You read it in Luke 22, 44 in there.

He was in the press, honey. He was in the violent struggle. He was in the violent struggle for you and me and all of mankind laid in the balance. If he don't win this fight, you can't take God at his word no more because he said he would do it. Even though it was possible to look up the past, God's veracity and the validity of his word would have been worth a plug-nickel because he said that the Redeemer would have to die on that cross and become a curse.

How many say Amen? He was in a double agony. The first was to humble himself and become obedient to the will of God that he had fulfilled all the way up to that hour. It's the only time in the Bible it's recorded that he had to pray three times for anything. Nowhere did he have to pray more than once for anything because whenever he prayed, the Father always heard and gave him. The condition to receive is to hear. If God hears, you're guaranteed.

Did you know that? I said it in the first letter of John. If we know that he hears us, what so ever we ask. If we know no matter what we ask, if we know that he hears us, we know we have the petition that we desire of him. The only other time recorded in the Bible that he prayed twice was not because he didn't get a miracle.

He got too great of a miracle. When the man was blind and he prayed for the man and took his hands off and said, do you see aught or anything? The man says, yes, I see men as trees.

Or in other words, I see men like God does. It didn't say tall as trees, green as trees. According to God, every tree Jesus said my father hadn't planted shall be plucked up. Jude carried the allegory, trees without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots. As a tree falls, who shall it lie? Every good tree brings forth good fruit. By their fruits you shall know them. Spiritually speaking, God looks down and looks at you as a tree. Honey, if the Pharisees, if Cepheus and Anna and all the priests could have got that man, they would have knew every one of Jesus' believers and killed them.

They would have knew every one. What kind of a tree is he, good or bad? It didn't say he saw them tall as trees, green as trees. He said he saw them as trees.

Whether it was good or bad, by their fruits you'll know them. And Jesus prayed the second time and he got natural sight. But he only prayed once, three times. And the thing that he prayed about was his own will. Amen, what a touching and inspiring message by God's servant brother Hardy, Gethsemane the Olive Press. I trust that you are seeing Jesus in a new way as you've come to understand the great and intense sufferings he endured there, crushed like the olives were crushed under tremendous pressure until his sweat profusely fell to the ground, tinged with his own blood because of the extreme agony his body and soul were undergoing.

He had said, my soul was exceedingly sorrowful even unto death. And this was before the cross. If you were a true believer, then you too have been to Gethsemane and you know what Paul described as being pressed in spirit and even pressed above measure. But you know people today are looking for an easy gospel, no sweat, no pressure. But Jesus said the kingdom of God is preached and everyone presses his way into it.

And he said if we suffer with him, we will also reign with him. If you are blessed by this message, Gethsemane the Olive Press, it can be ordered on CD for a love gift to the Radio Ministry of $10 or more. Request offer 209. Mail to Archie Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to ArchieHardy.org. Now if the Lord directs you, please consider sending an additional love gift to keep this program on the air. But if you send a minimum love gift of $10, you can receive offer 209, Gethsemane the Olive Press and mail to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or visit us online at ArchieHardy.org. There you will find many other wonderful resources by Brother Hardy and myself to boost you spiritually. Until next time, this is Sharon Nottsen, Maranatha.