The Mirror of a Man, Part 2

Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to this program of the R.G.

Hardy Ministries. I'm Sharon Notts thanking you for joining us today, because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I'll be bringing you today's message entitled, The Mirror of the Man. The vision and the values of life. And the only true mirror that we can look into and the truth of who we are is the perfect mirror of Scripture. It reads our hearts without distortion, and our hearts reflect the mirror of the man. scripture. It reads our hearts without distortion and our hearts reflect the mirror of the man. Now I don't know the Lord I probably I'm just gonna follow the Lord here tonight and I may go another way than what I have but I'm just going to follow the Lord but I just thought about this my little grandson Noah he was in there and you know I don't get to see him very much I only get to see him a little bit and he's quite rambunctious as you probably have seen so he's in there and I'm thinking oh I'm trying to get my thoughts together and all and he's in there and he's wanting me to fly airplanes and all this stuff but he's a very bright little boy he's very bright I mean I know I'm his grandmother and I know you know I'm probably you know a little biased but he is he's when he was like five years old six years old he's very bright very verbal and he could you could carry on a conversation with him like you could with with an older person and I'll never forget you know in that room that's been the catch-all room for all the junk that you don't know what to do with it's ended up in that room and that room over the years believe me parts of plays parts of this parts of that we don't even know there's a big old brick in there I mean this big heavy I mean I don't know there's there's been all kinds of junk thank God it looks a whole lot better now that because Benny and Helena got in there and they really cleaned it out when that roof fell in they didn't have a choice they had to do it but there has been this briefcase that's been in there for I don't know how many years I'm going to assume it was one of the props for one of the plays but it's a nice-looking briefcase the kind that's got the um the combination locks and it's been sitting in there for absolutely for years and you know I don't know what's in it if you're whatever and for quite a while now I would say that this went on for about a year every time Noah would come and he would go over there it would bug him to death to know what is in that briefcase and he would say grandma what's in this briefcase and we would go through the same thing I don't know Noah well whose is it I don't know Noah well what's it in here for I don't know no and this went on you know every time it was like we'd never had this discussion before and he would be trying his best to pick that lock and he'd get you know he'd get pens and he'd get everything and he'd say grandma how can I get in here don't you want to know what's in here and you know most time I would just ignore him and so the next time we would go through this this has been carried on over a period of months and months and so one night he came in there and true to form he started up the same old thing grandma what's in here don't you want to know what's in here I said I don't know Noah it I don't know well might be something money in there I don't know it might be but I don't know whose it is so he's got and he ends up breaking all my pens and breaking all my pencils because he's determined to stick them in there and turn them and they snap and they break so here he goes again with one of my pens I said Noah you're just gonna break another pen there's no way you can open that with a pen you know that by now it's going to take somebody strong like Papa Benny he's going to have to get a screwdriver and he'd have to come in here maybe he could get open but you can't get it open well that is he want to stop him from trying so he's trying and he's trying and finally he decides he takes the pen and you know where the lip comes over he starts taking the pen instead of trying to go in and get the lock open he decides to go up on her and push the lip so he's pushing and he's pushing it and pushing it and it's starting to give a little bit and he's pushing when he's pushing it finally he busted it the scene busted he didn't get it open but he toured the seam and when he did that I you know just joking around I said oh my goodness you've done it now oh boy you broke it now you are in trouble he turned around and looked at me with those big eyes of his and I said oh boy you're in trouble now and I could just see the little wheels in his mind already turning he says but grandma but grandma it's not my fault I said no you're the one who did it but grandma it's not my fault I said aren't you the one didn't you just sit there and break it open he says but grandma I'm not the only one to blame I said what do you mean he says grandma didn't you tell me you would like to know what's in there I thought what is it now he was about like I think he was like six years old at the time five or six so I thought to myself if this isn't that young he already thought I'm not I'm not taking the blame for this he says grandma and he said it just like that I'm not the only one to blame that's what he said in those exact words I mean he just say it's not my fault I'm not the only one to blame well then I knew that there was somebody else to blame and I knew it probably was me cuz I was only one else in there and I said what do you mean he says grandma didn't you say you wanted to know what was in there I said oh I said I would like to know what's in there but I didn't tell you to do that he said but you said you wanted to know what was in there so the conclusion is he was going to do what I wanted him to do so therefore it wasn't his fault it was my fault and that's funny but the fact is as people take that same type of thinking and they go through their whole life that way and all through their life they use that same kind of thinking it's well so-and-so said and this one didn't for whatever reason it's not my fault I'm not to blame I'm not the one with the problem it's always somebody else but you know that if we go through life that way we're not fooling anybody but ourselves now it's cute when you're five years old I mean I you know I marveled how bright that child was it took a very intelligent kid to maneuver all that in his mind so I told myself well he's still little and he's really smart and we'll have to you know that after a while that'll be a good way he'll be bright but you know if you're thinking that way later on you know what you're thinking how many say amen and so James says when you look into this natural glass and you see you're looking at this looking glass and you see your natural face and the word there is Genesis your Genesis face or your birth face the face you were born with he said but you get up and you can't remember we already proved that you can't remember what you saw he said it's the same way in the spirit but he said that man who leans over leans over the looking glass because he says that one who begins to that one who begins to not just hear but the Greek word says he begins to hear into that one who continues therein and in the Greek what it is saying is you have bent over you have leaned over the mirror or like the wise man said you have leaned over that clear pool of water you have leaned over the mirror of God's Word and you are looking into it and you are you are trying to see every detail that you can and you're hearing into the Word of God so that when you get up that you not only go your way knowing what you've heard but you remember and you put it into action you put it into operation in your life and let me tell you there are some things in ourselves that we're never going to see until we stay in the Word of God that's why it doesn't matter how long you've been saved it doesn't matter if even if you're a minister of the gospel and you've been saved 20 years or 30 years and and like myself I've been saved you know many many years I got the Holy Ghost when I was seven and I mean that's a long time that's a long time ago but I still have got to stay in the Word of God I've got to continue to look in the Word of God I cannot afford to just think oh I know it all seen it all been there done it all read it all no way the moment I do that there are things in me that will begin to crop up that I will begin to see that the enemy is trying to get a foothold in my life so you've got to continue to look in the Word of God because there are things that we're never going to see outside of God's Word let's flip over to two Hebrews the fourth chapter you know this verse so I'll quickly go ahead and read it Hebrews 4 12 for the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is the discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened under the eyes of him with whom we have to do now we could just munch on this verse for a long time he says the Word of God is alive and powerful the best way to say it is the Word of God is alive and active it says quick and powerful let's say alive and active the word quick just means alive Jesus is going to come for the quick and the dead the quick be in the living and the Word of God is powerful here the Greek word is the word from which we get our word energy or energize so here it's it's talking about the Word of God gives life the Word of God gives energy and the Word of God produces results and he says the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword I like to think of it in modern terms of a surgeon's scapel a surgeon's scapel is so precise it is so sharp and when that you have a skilled surgeon using a sharp scapel he can just make the tiniest most minute till they have to use those um what they call it microsurgery they actually have to have Mike have you ever seen when they're operating looking through microscopes up here and operating because what they're doing is so small it's so teeny-weeny that they can't see it with the regular glasses they have to look especially when they're doing brain surgery and things like that and that's how the Word of God is it can get in there real close I mean when you're operating on somebody's brain you just don't go in there with just you know some big old sloppy thing you've got to be so careful every little movement has got to be calculated because there is so much risk and the repercussions of doing something wrong can be fatal and if not fatal they can be devastating so the Word of God is precise like that it says it's piercing even to the word means it's penetrating God's Word can penetrate all the way down to the core of your being all the way to the core of your soul and spirit not only can it penetrate down to the core of your being it can actually divide asunder it can differentiate between the soul and spirit and this is very powerful because there are not many places that we read in the scriptures where we see a determination or a differentiation between soul and spirit most of the time we just put them together and call it our inner man and most the time that's all that we need to know the inner man is the soul and the spirit we just club them together and we go from there and there's not many places that we see them where they're actually begin to be divided but he says the Word of God is that accurate the Word of God is that precise that the Word of God is able to penetrate so far down that just like a surgeon's scaffold can divide the bone from the marrow God's Word can divide the soul in the spirit this is how God's Word can look into our heart and see what manner of person we really are now you know that we need our skeleton our bones is what we need to ambulate in the world we can't get around we can't manipulate we if we don't have a skeleton we're not we can do nothing we need our bones in our skeleton to be able to move but it's the marrow inside the bone that gives us life it's the marrow that produces the blood cells it's the marrow that produces the cells for our immune system and if somebody gets a sick bone marrow there they're not long for this world there's not much treatment that be done it's a lot of times when they try to take the bone marrow out of a healthy person a healthy sibling that matches well because when your bone marrow is sick you're going to die amen and so God's Word is able to divide us under the the soul and the spirit just like a surgeon can do with the joints and the marrow so God's Word is able to get deep down inside and as we read there is nothing hidden isn't that what it said we a lot of times we don't bother to go on and read verse 13 there is nothing hidden with him with whom we have to do and the Greek means with whom under whom we have to give an account but all things are laid open all things are naked all things are open God sees everything and God's Word sees everything and that's not a bad thing Saints don't think that's a bad thing that's a good thing that's why you want to run to the Word of God run to the Word of God because God's Word can see everything and I want God's Word to see everything I don't want to gloss over I don't want to overlook I don't want to make up excuses for bad behavior I want God's Word to see everything amen and I know as sure as I'm born I'm up here with this big mouth blabbing off saying that I know what's up the road it's not too far away because if you get up and say it then you're going to have to walk it how many say amen so I know that because sometimes the devil will say don't preach that and you won't get hit with that he will yes he does but I found out that if if you speak the Word of God you're going to have to turn around and live it amen and so I want to run to God's Word I don't like it at the time no I don't like it when God's words coming and chasing me and getting on my case I don't like it any more than you do but nevertheless I know that if I will let the Word of God do that and I won't get up my and go my way and brush it off like people do just brush it off and go their way but I let it just come on Lord work on me and I submit myself to that and I begin to walk in it that it's not going to be too much longer that when you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God then he will exalt you in due time and oh it feels good it feels real good when God exalts you you see God is not against exaltation and I want to be careful about this because we live in a time when I am you know you're just you're just up to here with all this man's pride and honor me and glorify me and give me all my honor you know we're just had it with all that haven't you had it with all that stuff you know but that's not against act of being exalted he just wants he's the one that wants to exalt you not you exalt yourself and not men exalt you because that's a what does that mean that doesn't mean anything to God that means nothing you don't get any brownie points in heaven for that but when God exalts you then it's different because when God exalts you he knows you're ready he knows you can take it he knows you're going to give the glory and the honor and reflect it all on him so God's not against you being exalted only if you allow him to do it the only thing is is when he does it there's no shortcuts the way to be exalted is to be a based amen but when God lifts you up oh then the joy he says then the end of that man what did James say he said the end of that man he will be blessed indeed or he will be truly blessed the real blessing of God bank of a blessings on you but God's blessings are the real thing and those are the blessings that I want so there's nothing hit from God he is able to take the Word of God and differentiate between our soul and our spirit and this is important because there are a lot of times there are things in us that we don't know and then there are a lot of times that we live our I believe many people I believe that many Christians live their whole lives mostly out of their soul out of their soul and not their spirit now they have a born-again spirit but I'm talking about that most people live out of their soul instead of their spirits and that's why they make so many mistakes that's why they have so many poor choices because they're impetuous because the soul is impetuous impulsive capricious the soul is is carried about by emotions and the barometer of how things are is how you feel the soul is always reacting you know the knee-jerk thing that's how the soul lives his whole life knee-jerk reactions there are some people that you could come to them and you could tell them something about somebody and you could make it them so stirred up and so mad at that person by you just tell them a few things they're ready to go out and go find that person and and and and sock it to them they don't they haven't checked out the story they don't know the other side of the argument they don't know how much of it's true they don't know how much you're exaggerating are you putting your own twist on it are you making your voice and flex something they said you know they could say they said something in one tone of voice you could say the same exact words in another tone of voice and get a whole nother picture but some people are so quick out of their emotions they react and that's why they're always in trouble you know what they say he pushed my buttons he pushed my buttons that's because you're always living in yours and you're out of your soul and there's you're always pushing the buttons of the soul how many say amen instead of living out of the spirit now let's digress for a moment before you got saved when you were a sinner your spirit was dead how many I'm not going to go read all the verses because you know them how many know that Paul said in Ephesians the second chapter we were dead in trespasses and sin he said in Colossians you were dead in your trespasses and sin that meant that as far as God was concerned you had no fellowship with him you were separated from God your spirit was dead and therefore you lived out of your soul your emotions everything you did as a sinner was out of your soul and out of your emotions because your spirit man was dead you didn't have communication with God you didn't have communication with the Holy Spirit you didn't read the Word of God and let's say one day you got the bright idea that you were going to read the Word of God how many times have you heard people testify I read the Bible before they got saved and they thought and close it up and that was the end of that it made absolutely no sense to them they thought it was the most boring thing they thought who read the Bible you know what is wrong because they were dead it would be just like me handing you a book in Chinese and telling you to read and tell me what it says you wouldn't get very far would you because you don't know Chinese and when you're not saved you don't have the Holy Spirit and the Bible says that it is the spirit that receives the things of God the natural man the carnal man receives nothing of God he understands nothing he can't know anything he doesn't receive it but the Bible says that we had the Spirit of God that when we get saved we get born again in that spirit that was dead now is quickened or made alive now we're in contact with God now we're in contact with the Holy Spirit now the Bible is not a closed book anymore now we can read the Word of God and all of a sudden it's life it's life it's life it fills us with life and joy because that spirit that once was dead now is born again and it's alive and it's quickened and now we have communication with God and the Bible says we can compare spiritual things with spiritual things that's why when you try to talk to someone who's not saved and you try to give them some deep spiritual analogy you go over their heads and you scare them and they don't they don't want to talk to you no more because you stun scared them because they can't compare spiritual things they're not a spiritual person how many say men that we found that out when Jesus talked to Nicodemus and what did Nicodemus say how am I going to go back into my mother's stomach I mean that in this man was a teacher of the law but spiritually there was nobody home and Jesus said if you can't understand this much and you're supposed to be a teacher if you can't understand this much how am I supposed to tell you the things of the kingdom of God and the things of heaven so we've got to realize that when we were sinners before we got saved that we were we were in a position where our spiritual mind was totally dead so we lived out of our emotions and that is where most people continue to live after you get saved and born again and your spirit man comes alive and your spirit man then begins to hunger and thirst and when you first got saved you just couldn't get enough you couldn't get enough you were in church every time the doors were open every opportunity that there was to go to a Bible lesson a Bible class whatever it was you were just starving because your spirit man was just wanting to catch up for all those years you'd been dead in sin that's why Paul said redeem the times he means buy back the time all the time you lost in sin all the years that you were dead you weren't you didn't know anything about God now that you're saved you've got to redeem those times and buy them back so your spirit is quickened and alive but the problem is is because we lived so many years out of our soul we learned how to go with our emotions we just flew by the seat of our pants and wherever anytime anything let us that's where we went and we were up we were down we were in out all around and we just learned we had our barometer was by how we felt emotionally and unfortunately a lot of people continue to live out of their their soul now if you were raised around a lot of negativity if that was what you were around growing up or out in the world then your tendency is always going to be to fall into that negative attitude you're always going to be critical you're always going to find fault with something you're always going to fall into that because that's the way you live for so many years that was the way you lived out of your soul that way so when you get born again you've got to make a conscious effort that you are going to discipline yourself that you're not going to let your soul be the boss and let me tell you something the soul is bossy the soul is bossy and he knows how to to manipulate and how to get his way we can see it in a child we see a child when he's learned how to manipulate his parents because he knows all he's got to do is get that cry in that certain decibel and when he gets up there okay he's gonna get what he wants how many same yet or fall out in the floor or kick up and go kick the wall a little bit until the parent says wait a minute you're not getting by with that behavior anymore this isn't a genuine need this is just nothing but a little bratty spat and we're not going to have this you can kick all you want I'll put you in your room and lock the door you can kick till you get tired and fall asleep and then finally after a while he gets the message well you're not going to get everything this way this isn't how it really works but if you don't do that you're going to have a kid who's you're going to be out in the in the store at Walmart with some seven eight year old kid that's going to embarrass you in front of everybody and going to make you look like a fool and don't blame nobody but yourself because you let them act like that all that time and that's how they know how to do it but you're not going to get away with that with God he'll let you get by with it when you're one and two and three but not when you've been saved for a long time he's not going to let you get away with that behavior and if you insist on acting like that he'll just let you act like that and you're going to look like a fool in front of everybody and you're not going to have the blessings and the anointing upon your life and that's what it's all about right amen we want to be blessed indeed so the problem is so many people have been living out of their soul for so long that they have they had the barometer they have calibrated everything by the experiences that they've had amen I hope you're being spiritually enlightened by our message the mirror of the man Proverbs 27 19 says that just as a mirror reflects a person's face a person's heart reflects who he really is and the book of James is the New Testament equivalent to the book of Proverbs and carries this metaphor over stating that God's Word is the perfect law of Liberty and like a mirror it reveals the hidden man of our hearts the problem is James said we're prone to get up and go our way and forget what the word has revealed it is only when we continue to look into the mirror of Scripture and act on it that we are justified and blessed in all our deeds but most people including many Christians play the blame game it's not my fault and they conveniently suppress any pangs of conviction for believers this is very serious because the Holy Spirit convicts us not to condemn us but to bring us to contrition and confession and conversion fallacious reasoning arguing beside the point opened the door to self-deception and presumption and many Christians are not able to differentiate between their soul and their spirit which can lead to natural carnal remedies that will only ultimately fail when it is the spirit that is under attack and in turmoil when people live out of their souls instead of their spirits they learn to calibrate everything when an emotional experience level as believers we must make conscious discipline not to let our souls be the boss and as born-again spirit-led Christians we can if you are a believer dealing with emotional mental and or spiritual issues or if you know someone who is you need this message in its entirety the mirror of the man is available on one CD for a love gift of ten dollars or more for the radio ministry request offer SK 134 that's S as in Sharon K as in knots one three four mail to RG Hardy p.o. box one seven four four Baltimore Maryland two one two oh three or go online at RG Hardy dot org that's RG Hardy dot o RG again our mailing address is p.o. box one seven four four Baltimore Maryland two one two oh three until next time this is Sharon not saying Maranatha