The Fragrance of Messiah, Part 1

Greetings, friends and new listeners.

Welcome to this program of the R.G. Hardy Ministries. I'm Sharon Notts, 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 2nd 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 was 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 use 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. 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 its life, to the one who rejects him its 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. 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've 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 First Corinthians. Hold your place where you are because we'll be back there. First 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 they off scouring 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 offscouring. Offscouring 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 get by too long and it's a nasty mess and you're cleaning it and you're using …