The Tight Spots of a Christian, Part 3

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners. Welcome to this program of the R. G. Hardy Ministries. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for being with us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Today's message by my father Brother Hardy is certain to uplift you, especially if you're in a tight place. In fact, that's the title of today's message: The Tight Spots of a Christian. So if you are in need of encouragement, you are in tune with the right station to hear a timely word: The Tight Spots of a Christian.
R. G. Hardy: I'll tell you why America's not saved, and I'll tell you why Baltimore doesn't have a revival, and I'll tell you why your loved ones are not saved. It is because we've lost our burden and we've lost our vision. All we can see when we look in the mirror, because we have got so big and so enlarged as me, myself, and I, we are destroying people because the Bible said without a vision people perish. People are perishing, America's perishing because the church has lost its vision. How many say amen? There's no souls getting saved because the church has lost her travail and she has got so satiated and so filled with the joy and the blessings of God that they have become stale to them. You know how we felt when we were in the tight spots, and when we had the burden, when we had the load of the Lord. Oh, when we called on God He moved and we rejoiced, we thanked Him because He moved. But now we just got tired. Oh, we're going to come to church and we're going to shout again, we're going to dance ourselves silly again. Well, I'm tired of it too, children. I believe a good cry that produces an altar call, I believe a good travail would be a welcome change. Thank you, I'm shouting tonight. Somebody said that's a hard message. It ain't a hard message to me. Hallelujah! I got hope God's going to give some children yet in Faith Tabernacle. I got hope to God is going to do miracles yet in Faith Tabernacle. Somebody said, "Why Brother Hardy? I thought you shouted when they shout." No, God confirms the word. And all we were shouting about was God was giving us grace to try to keep us till the next service. To give us grace to keep us till the next service until he could get us grown up enough until he could talk to our hearts and open our eyes and let us see that there is a world dying and there is not much to shout about. Oh thank God, thank God He's on the main line tonight. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, You're talking. I don't care if you lay it right on me, just talk to me tonight. Talk to me tonight, Jesus. Yea, the Lord thy God would say unto me, yea, say cry out for thy loved ones. Yea, for they put on the face of contentment and happiness, but underneath they soul grieve. They fear. They are discontent. Oh, I would say cry out to me. I would say cry out, for the night is far spent and the day is at hand. I would say cry out for thy loved ones before it is too late. Seek my face. Seek me while I may yet be found and call on me while I am yet near. Yes, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. I said we ought to praise God, not to look at it as a rebuke, but because God wants to yet save our loved ones, because God wants to use us to bring a revival. Oh, have we gone so far that God can't touch us, that He can't put a burden, that He can't talk to our hearts, that we don't care about our loved ones? Listen, how can we care about our loved ones when God brings prophecy? We don't believe him no more. We don't believe God's talking. We don't believe God's talking when He says that I'm going to visit your city when I have commanded judgment against it. I'm going to visit. We don't believe God. If we did, knowing that our loved ones are in that city not saved, just like the Holy Ghost said, they're laughing on the outside but they're scared to death. They're full of fear. Everybody's scared. Where I live at, people are scared to go out at night and won't go out in the day unless they're in numbers. People are afraid to stop their cars because they're getting killed. They're afraid even go up to their friends, their friends are killing them. And it seemingly we don't even care. We're not even as good as Lot. Oh, I know Lot had a bad testimony. How many say amen? But when the two angels came and Lot recognized that they were the two angels of the Lord, and the reason why they came to Sodom and Gomorrah, because God said I've heard enough of its wickedness. I've heard the cry of its unclean, filthy laughter as they commit their abominable, filthy things and laugh and frolic. I'm tired of the cry, and God came down. Honey, and I believe God's tired of the cry of America, and He's tired of the cry of Baltimore, and He's tired of the cry of Christians in the church that's thrown off its first love and threw down its burden. God has dug them out of the pit, it's almost without exception every one of us that's here. God took us out of the jaws of death, most of you, honey. He healed you, you'd have died if He didn't heal you. You were in calamity, you were being tormented, calamity, a tight spot brought you to God and God reached down and delivered you, just like He delivered me. I wouldn't have come to Him. I was having too good of a time. I was dressing my clothes and riding in the cars and smoking the pot and having a good time until an old tight spot got me. I didn't want to hear about my mother's God. I didn't want to hear about the church. I didn't want to hear. I was having too good of a time until I got in the tight spot, until I got crippled, until my money went, until my clothes went and I couldn't get the pot, I couldn't get the dope, I couldn't have a good time. I was crippled and I was full of pain and the devil was telling me all to kill myself. How many say amen? And that's where I was, and you were in a like circumstance and God delivered you. And if you weren't, then just recently someone threw a gun on you and God delivered you. And if you didn't have that circumstance like me, someone put you in a car and in your truck and started to take you out to bump you off. Yea, the Lord thy God would say unto me, yea, spare my people, saith God. Yea, spare this night, saith the Lord. Yea, and fear thou not, saith the Lord. Yea, for whom the Lord doth love, saith thy God, yea, I do scourge and rebuke, and I chastise, saith thy God. Yea, I have sent my word this night for many, saith the Lord. Yea, thou art rich and increased with many goods, saith thy God, and yea, many have need of nothing, saith thy God. But yea, knowest thou not thou art wretched even in my sight, saith the Lord. Yea, thou art miserable, poor, and blind, yea, even destitute of my spirit, saith God. But yea, I warn thee ahead of time, saith the Lord, for yea, Satan has sifted many, saith God, and yea, he still desires to sift even as wheat is sifted, saith the Lord. But yea, even all the day long, yea, my arms, yea, is stretched out still. Yea, I say come unto me even this night, saith the Lord, yea, and cry out unto thy God, saith thy God. And yea, if my people who are called by my name, yea, if they will pray and humble, yea, even humble themselves, saith the Lord, yea, thou shalt hear from heaven. Thou shalt see the move of thy God, yea, even in this city, even in this tabernacle, saith the Lord. For behold, Satan has come down, saith the Lord, yea, and he's sown discord, saith thy God. Yea, and knowest thou not that the Lord thy God, yea, that doth sit on the circle of the earth? For behold, my eyes, yea, are in every place, saith the Lord. And yea, I do behold even the evil and I do see the good. I see thy steadfastness, yea, I see those that have been faithful even unto my word, saith God. Yea, and I will bless them, saith the Lord, and I will prosper their righteousness, saith thy God. Yea, I say cry, cry even for the Lord and remember that even in the times, yea, to come, yea, the wicked shall discern between the righteous and they shall see those that fear the Lord and those that serve their God. And they shall see that thou art blessed even of thy God. Yea, but those who will go their own ways and follow their own hearts, saith the Lord, and will not seek in the knowledge thy God, knowest thou not, yea, destruction lies ahead even for thy soul, saith the Lord. For behold, saith the Lord thy God, I stretch my hand out towards this nation and this city and to my church. And I say unto this nation return, return unto me. And I say unto the city return. And I say unto my church return unto me and rend thy heart and not thy garment. And come and let me anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, and let me let thee behold that the hourglass of eternity, the sands, yea, the sands everywhere are but a few that yet must trickle through. The ends are come, yea, and many of your loved ones are not saved and will not be ready. And even many of ye have slipped back and are not ready. Therefore, I say examine thyself. Yea, prove thine own self. See whether thou art in the faith. Remember the former days. Remember in the beginning when thy first love was for me and for souls, and see whence thou hast fallen and repent and be thou zealous and do thy first works over. Return. Return unto me and I will give thee a fresh burden and a fresh anointing. Yea, I will anoint thee anew and afresh and I shall place thee in the hedge and thou shall make up the gap. But I send my spirit out into the highways and the byways of this nation and this city to see if I can find a man, to see if I can find someone to stand in the hedge and make up the gap and plead for the people. And remember in the word that when I sent and I sent the prophet and there was no one to stand in the hedge and make up the gap, therefore I destroyed them in my fury, saith the Lord God. And again I do send my prophet, I do send my messengers to cry to see if those yet will have an ear to hear what the spirit has to say to the church. Yea, and if thou will come, I will place thee in the hedge, I will place thee in the gap. I will anoint thy tongue and thy heart and thy spirit and thy travail, yea, for this generation and for thy nation and for thy city and for those that are in the valley of decision and the clutches of darkness. And I will yet be gracious and merciful, for I extend yet a little space and a time of grace. And then, saith God, I will unbare my arm, I will unstretch my hand, and I will shake again this nation with a mighty shaking. Behold, I said that I would startle the headlines and I shall, saith God, I shall. There shall be no peace, yea, for if one war stops, another starts in a larger scope and scale. Yea, saith God, I take away the idols of silver, I take away the idols of gold. I shall utterly cast down the idol of pleasure and the idol of whoredom and the idol of nakedness and the idol of lust and the idol of sex. Yea, and I shall wipe and rid the earth of the whoring spirit and of the spirit of fornication and homosexuality in which many say that it is of me and has a divine origin. And I hate this sin. I say I am against this sin. Yea, it is a vile sin. That's why they would not retain me in their knowledge of their darkened hearts and their darkened minds, that they might dishonor their bodies one with another, men with men working that which is unseemly, women with women and men leaving the natural use of the woman, burning in their own lust. Yea, but I say that I gave them the just recompense and I shall give this generation of whores and fornicators and of homosexuals, I shall give this generation of God-haters and righteous-resisters and worshippers of silver and of gold their just recompense. And know that my anger is kindled, yea, to the lowest hell. I shall cast them out of my sight and rid the earth of their wicked looks and wicked ways. But behold, I give thee a chance again, church. I give thee a word of warning, for yet many of your loved ones are not in the sheepfold and not under the protecting cover of the blood. And I give you another chance to awake, thou that sleepest, arise from thy deadness, and I shall give thee light and life and run ye to the highways and the byways and the hedges and lift up thy trumpet and cry aloud and spare not and sound the alarm. And let thy light shine before this darkened, sin- and lust-crazed city and nation and generation and warn them whether they will hear or whether they will not hear. But be it known that I shall send a prophet, yea, that shall call and cry out. And I look for ye again, my little ones, to be my instruments and implements and my vessels. I say come and seek my face. Come and rend thy heart. Come and again present thy bodies, present thy being as a living sacrifice unto me. Yea, hold not and shrink not back, but make it a whole and a complete sacrifice unto me. And I will give thee a fresh and a new anointing. Yea, and I shall make thy tongue as the wise and the scholarly and the learned, for I will give thee a spirit and a wisdom by which thine enemies shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And I shall use thee to give a mighty witness, where in witnessing I shall give a mighty witness, and in confirming I shall give a mighty confirmation. No, know that I, I hold back and give a space of grace, but I say I will not hold back and forbear forever, for I must judge the wicked and I must judge this nation and this generation. For I have a work and I have a word that must be fulfilled, for every "i" shall be dotted and every "t" shall be crossed. And I shall finish it, for behold I shall do a quick work in a short time, for I, I shall cut it short in righteousness. Therefore, I come down and warn ye again, my people, I warn ye of what lies ahead. Yea, so that thou mightest get in my prayer closet and turn thy face toward me and lift up thy voice and cry aloud. And I will be gracious and I will hear and I will move. I will hear thy prayer, for know that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man still availeth much. Therefore, I say come, come and seek my face and in the day that thou seekest me with all of thy heart, in that moment thou shall find me the same. Thou shall find my Son the same yesterday, today, and forever. A gracious God, slow to anger, plenteous to mercy, but a God whose eye is upon the righteous, whose ear is open to their cry. But also a God who is angry with the wicked every day, and I am angry with this generation and especially this nation and this city. Yea, I am very angry. Therefore, I say be not slothful but be ye diligent and come so that I might place thee in the hedge and that I might put thee in the gap lest my anger boil over, lest I spew out and break out upon this nation, yea, in a mighty breaking. Come, saith the Lord God, and I, I will reveal myself. I will manifest myself. And if thou will not come, then I will stretch my hand out against thee and I will remove thy silver and I will take thy gold and I will take away thy pleasures. And I will put thee in a very tight spot and I will put my hand upon thee and press down until thou will cry for thine own soul, if not for thy city and thy loved ones and thy nations. But come and let me bless thee and let me make thee a blessing. And come and take my yoke, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light and thou shall find rest for thy soul. Come, come, for my word is still yea. All of my promises are still yea and amen in my Son Christ Jesus. Yea, for if, if ye my people will humble thyself and pray and turn from thy wicked ways and seek my face, yes, I will hear. I will hear from heaven. I will forgive thee of thy sins, thy backslidings, thy bickerings, thine iniquities, and I will send healing unto thy land, unto thy nation, unto thy city, unto thy loved ones, unto thy household. For I the Lord thy God have spoke, saith the Lord. Yes, Lord. Come on saints, come on and seek God with me. Come on organist, come on while God is still calling. Oh God is still extending mercy. Oh let's obey God. Don't turn Him away tonight. Don't turn Him away. Don't shut God out. Open up your heart. Pass me not, oh gentle Savior. God don't pass Baltimore. Don't pass America. Don't pass my house. Don't pass my brothers. Don't pass my sisters. Don't pass the loved ones.
Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen. What an inspiring word of encouragement by God's servant Brother Hardy, The Tight Spots of a Christian. The scripture says many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all. Now the term afflictions does not refer to a sickness but rather to a narrow confining place as though you are being squeezed, or as Apostle Paul described being pressed in the spirit and even pressed out of measure. In other words, a tight spot. Many are the tight spots of a Christian, but God has promised to deliver us out of every one. First Corinthians 10:13 states there is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way to escape that you may be able to endure. Child of God, your tight spot will not destroy you because God is faithful to bring you out. And James reminded us that we have the examples of the Old Testament saints who also suffered great afflictions and they did so with patience. And Peter stated that the same afflictions, the very same tight spots are accomplished in our brethren around the world. We believe this message is one you might need to hear again, or you may know someone who is in a tight spot that you want to share it with. It can be ordered on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request offer 127 and mail to R. G. Hardy Ministries, PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203 or go online to rghardy.org. Friends, even if you do not wish to order, we want to hear from you and we need your financial support to continue on this station. But to receive The Tight Spots of a Christian, request offer 127, mail to PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying Maranatha.