Marked for a Miracle, Part 1

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners. Welcome to the R. G. Hardy Ministries program. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And you especially want to hear today's powerful message by my father, Brother Hardy, "Marked for a Miracle." You will see that there is much more to being marked for a miracle than financial blessing. But in a time of dangers, troubles, and perils, security and safety belongs to those who have been marked for a miracle.
R. G. Hardy: Praise His wonderful name. This morning I want to preach on the subject, "How to be Marked for a Miracle." How to be marked for a miracle. As we look around and see the conditions of the world and especially in America, we see that God's judgment is in the land. In fact, as you study the word of God, we find a cycle was happening in the word of God towards God's people. We all know the story how God delivered Israel out of the land of Egypt. A Pharaoh rose that did not know God and brought God's people under servitude and bondage. And it was so grievous that they began to cry out for a deliverer. And God heard their cries and saw their tears and sent a deliverer, Moses. And with a mighty hand, He brought them out of the house of bondage and the land of servitude, defeated many enemies in front of them and brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey. But it wasn't very long there in that land of milk and honey, they began to forget God. They backslid and they did the things that God told them not to do. They began to go and worship other gods, and they began to set up idols. And it provoked God to anger. So then He would have to raise up adversaries that He might use these adversaries, and a lot of times it was the Philistines, to drive them back to God, that they would repent and return unto Him. And they would sigh and cry again and repent, and God would hear and have mercy and raise up another deliverer and deliver them from their adversary. But as soon as they had peace again, it wasn't long that they would forget God, and then they would go after other gods and set up their gods and their idols. And then He would have to raise up an adversary and send judgment, and so the cycle repeated. And we find the same cycle here in America in our 20th century, in our day and our generation. It wasn't long ago that we were in the Vietnam War. God's judgment was in the land for God's people backsliding, forgetting Him, thrusting Him back, setting up the idols of silver and gold and pleasure. For that's our modern-day idols. We don't hew out of wood or stone or craft with gold and silver some shape or some image of an animal or a man or what have you. But we set up the idols of silver, and we set up the idols of gold, and we set up the idols of pleasure. And one of the main idols they've set up in this last day is the idol of sex. And they have pushed God back and forgotten God and said, "We don't need You, God. Our gods of silver, our gods of gold, they shall deliver us," until God again is provoked with anger. He brought us peace after the Vietnam War. He brought prosperity. He began to pour out of His blessings upon America. The churches began to come off the side streets and out of the storefronts until we have arrived at the mega-churches—thousands upon thousands seating and wealthy and affluent. I read one little cartoon where in the cartoon there was a big transit bus pulled up in the middle of the church and on the top of it, instead of saying Seventh Street or Charles Street, it says, "This way to the choir loft." The church was so big, you had to have a bus to go to the choir loft. We got our mega-churches. We got our elaborate edifices. We got all of the trimmings. But oh, just like Israel, we've set up our gods of silver. We've set up our gods of gold. We've set up our gods of pleasure. We've thrust God back and said, "We don't need You anymore. Our gold and our silver shall deliver us." And they've gone on their way serving their gods in silver and gold, going after their own hearts, after their own desires and setting up the gods of pleasure and forgot God until God again is angry with the sins, not only of this generation, but with the sins of the church. For the Bible said in First Peter, the fourth chapter and the 17th and the 18th verse, "For the time has come for judgment to start at the house of God. And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" And we have found this out, that it is time for God's judgment in His cycle of deliverance, of blessings, of forgetting God, of setting up our gods of silver and gold and pleasure, until judgment. And the cycle has come full turn again. And we're in the time of God's judgment. His judgment is in the land. We have just seen in just a few recent years that judgment has started at the house of God. And God has been taking His fan, and He has been purging His floor. For when John the Baptist came on the scene, he spoke of Jesus the Messiah, and he said, "His fan is in His hand, and He shall thoroughly purge His floor. He shall gather the wheat into the garner, but the chaff He shall burn with unquenchable fire." And God's fan is in His hand. And the time of the judgment of not only the church, but the time of the judgment of the nations is at hand. And He is fanning, and only those that are righteous and only those that are obedient shall escape. I'm preaching this morning the title, "How to be Marked for a Miracle." We're living in the time that we have to have God's blessing upon us, that we have to be under God's protection. Back in the beginning of the summer, when I was holding my campaign in Trinidad, God spoke to me and said, "Son, I am going to send judgment. I am going to cut off their gods of silver and their gods of gold. I am going to make their money scarce. I am going to shut down corporations. I am going to destroy their false idols that they have set up and that they look to for their deliverance." For God said, "Just as I said in My word, My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and they have hewn them out cisterns that will not hold water." And if you know anything about the Middle East, the most precious thing there is water. It is the source of life. And God said they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters and life, and they have hewed them out cisterns. A cistern was usually cut out of stone to catch all the water in the rainy season so that it would be stored there that when the drought would come, they would have enough water, which was life, to carry them through the next rainy season. But oh, Israel forsook God, the source and the fountain of life, and began to go to other things to be their source of life. They set up the sources and the cisterns of gold and of silver and of prosperity and said that we don't need You, God, but our silver and our gold shall deliver us. Isn't that a picture of America? Isn't that a picture of the last-day church? Said, "We don't need You, God. We got our mega-churches. We got our mega-congregations. Oh, we're not back on the back side streets anymore. We're not in the storefronts, but we've got our multi-million dollar edifices and churches. We control radio stations and television. We don't need You. We don't have to hold up the standard of righteousness. We don't have to hold up the blood-stained banner. We can just count on our own gods of silver and of gold." And they have provoked God to anger again. And God said, "I am going to bring down your idols of silver and your idols of gold. And I'm going to let you know that there is a God that sits upon the circle of the earth, whose eyes run to and fro into all the world, beholding the good and the evil, and that He is angry with the wicked every day." And He is very, very angry with our generation and the wickedness of our day and our time. And His judgments have began at the house of God. And we have seen ministry after ministry succumb and fall. And God pulled the cover off of every unclean thing in the ministry, one after another. Brother and sister, the time of judgment, the cycle of God's judgment is in the land. Oh, yes, God's judgment is in the land. We can see it. Corporation after corporation is going bankrupt. When I was there in Trinidad, God said that corporations are going to bankrupt. More companies are going to go under. People are going to lose their jobs. The idol of silver and gold of their pensions is going to be removed. People are losing their jobs. People are losing their pensions. The things that they were looking to for security are crumbling before their eyes. And here they find themselves in the latter years of their life, and their god of silver and their god of gold that they looked to to maintain and sustain them is finally crumbling. Like Daniel saw the image when the stone cut out of a mountain crushed the image of Nebuchadnezzar and beat it to pieces, and it was driven away like chaff in the windstorm. God told me there in Trinidad, "You tell My people, they are going to have to have My blessings upon them. They are going to have to be marked for a miracle. Because My judgment is in the land, and it starts at the house of God." We see this picture graphically portrayed in Ezekiel, the eighth and the ninth chapter. God reached down after putting Ezekiel in a trance and in a vision. And he saw that I saw the hand reach down and grab me by the lock of the hair and pick me up and take me into a vision of the Spirit of God. And He began to show him all of the abominations that were committed in the land, that He would leave His house and His people in the land. And He started at the house of God as God in the last several months has started at His house to bring judgment. They had the idol set up at the altar, and they were worshipping the sun. And the women were worshipping the god of reproduction. They saw the holes in the wall where God said, "Dig it away," and there were doors. Behind the doors, there were every unclean thing and every idol. And they were worshipping these idols and saying, "God does not see. God does not see. He will not bring judgment." But oh, God saw, and He said, "Son of man, do you see these abominations? That I should leave My house and My people, and I should leave the earth and I should bring judgment because we have failed to sigh and cry out against the wickedness that's committed and perpetrated in our land." The murder rate has jumped so high that the leaders around the world and our own mayor is disturbed. They want to find a way to stop the killings. The dope problem has gotten out of hand. God's judgment of AIDS—AIDS is ravaging not only the third-world nations, but America in an increasing more and more and more. God's judgment is in the land. And the bulk of the cause and the bulk is falling upon God's people because we have forgotten God. We thrust Him back like Israel. We've set up our gods of silver and gold. The only churches that are carrying crowds are those that are preaching prosperity for nothing. "Name it and claim it. Don't worry about pie in the sky, get your million now." They have lost their burden for the lost. They have let down the walls of righteousness. The ministers are not crying out against sin. It's not popular. You'll not get a crowd. You'll not be one of the one in the top ten ministers. Your mega-church will get empty because the people don't want to hear the truth. They want to be tickled. They want to play church. They want all the trimmings. They want all of God's blessings, and they don't want to do anything. But I want to tell you, my brother and sister, as we're going into this message, how to be marked for a miracle, that those were marked had to do something to be marked for a miracle. Because Jesus said all that cry, "Lord, Lord," shall not enter in, but only he that doeth the will of the Father which is in heaven. You've got to do something to be marked for a miracle. I said you have to do something to be marked for a miracle. I want you to notice in this ninth chapter of Ezekiel, when God told the rulers of the city with their destroying weapon, "Go you out into the city, start at My house, and you slay. Let not your eye have pity. You slay who? Utterly old and young, both maids and little children and women." Being old didn't exempt them from God's judgment. Being a woman did not exempt them from God's judgment. You study the Bible, a lot of times when God sent judgment, He spared the women and children. But the sin had got so grievous that He was not going to spare the old because they were old, and He was not going to spare the women because they were women, and they were not going to spare the children because they are children. You know a lot of people have got a misconception. They talk about an age of accountability. They talk about a mythical scripture that I've been reading the Bible almost 40 years, and I've never found it. I've never found where it says that a child is under the protection of Jesus to the age of accountability. I've never found that in the Bible. I've never found that at all. I found out that if the husband or wife is saved, then are the children clean, and then are the children under the protection and the covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if their loved ones are not saved, they are not under the protection. They are unclean. I find out that when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, that He didn't open up the back door and get all the women and children out. I found out when God sent judgment in Noah's day, that he didn't have a second ark with all the women and children on it. There were only eight people on that ark. There were only four that started out in Sodom-Gomorrah, and only three ended up getting out. When God calls judgment, your age is not going to deliver you. Your sex is not going to deliver you. The only thing that's going to deliver you is if you're marked for a miracle. Hallelujah. I don't know about you, but I believe I'm marked for a miracle. Somebody said why and how do you believe, Brother Hardy? Because I have found out that everyone that was marked for a miracle had to do something to get marked. And in order for them to be marked in Ezekiel, they had to be crying and sighing out against the wickedness that was being perpetrated and committed in Israel. And my brother and my sister, as long as I have breath in my body, I'm going to lift up the blood-stained banner. I'm going to cry out against sin and the flesh and the world and the devil. You're going to have to repent of your sins and quit sinning. You're going to have to come out of the world. "Come from amongst them and sayeth the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. Then I will receive you, and you shall be My sons and My daughters, and I'll mark you for a miracle." Hallelujah. You're going to have to kill your flesh. Oh, that fleshly Christian doesn't want to hear that because the flesh don't want to die. But almost 40 years ago, God revealed to me that if I didn't kill my flesh, my flesh would kill me. And I made up my mind somebody's going to die, and it's not going to be my soul, but it's going to be my flesh. Because I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me. And the life that I now live in this flesh, I'm going to live by the faith or according to the teachings of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I die daily. I'm going to die daily. You've got to do something to be marked for a miracle. God said, "Son, you tell the people, I'm going to tear down their idols of silver and their gold. I'm going to remove their false gods. I'm going to show that they had a broken cistern. I'm going to remove their money. I'm going to make corporations fall and crumble. I'm going to send judgment by the whirlwinds and the storms in the middle section of our nation, in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. City after city is standing under water because God's judgment is in the land." God said I would send famines. It's not only in Africa, where they are starving in some places by the million, but we have our own dust bowl in America. There is a famine in the land, not only for the eating of the bread and the drinking of the water naturally, but for the hearing of the word of God. And God's judgment is in the land. And you better not put your faith in your jobs, and you better not put it in Social Security, and you better not put it in your pension fund. You're liable to wake up and find out that your company went under. You're liable to wake up like they have in Rhode Island this past week and find out that the banks where your gods of silver and gold are kept have been locked, and you can't go to your gods of silver and gold. And people don't know how they're going to go to work and pay their bill and pay their mortgage. Oh, I'm going to do something to cause God to mark me for a miracle. Haggai, the prophet Haggai, prophesied that situation. He said you sew, you work, you labor, and you look for plenty. And when you got it home, it was gone. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it in a bag that's got a hole in it. The money's run through. You bring your wage home, and you can't pay your bills. He that eat is not full. He that drinks is not full. He that puts his clothes on is not warm. He that lies in a bed and covers with the covering, but the cover is not big enough. And God said why? He said because I blowed upon it. And they said why have You blowed upon it? Said because you forgot My work. You forgot My house. You forgot the reason why My house is to be a house of prayer for all nations. It's to be a place where there's deliverance, where My anointing, My Spirit, and My power, where I can bring in and save and heal and deliver. Most of God's houses are just places where you can come to edify yourself and told how to get the second million dollars, how to get the Rolls-Royce, how to get the Cadillac. They have no burden, they have no vision. And the Bible said, "Without a vision, people perish."
Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen, what a powerful message by God's servant, Brother Hardy, "Marked for a Miracle." Have you been marked for a miracle? This blessing goes far beyond the popular prosperity message that so many eagerly seek after today. To be marked for a miracle is to be designated for deliverance, protection, and even divine intervention from danger, peril, and demonic attack. If ever we needed to be marked for a miracle, it is now when satanic forces are being unleashed in the world and strategically against the real children of God. Yes, Satan is marking people for destruction, and he has the authority to do so in his kingdom of darkness. But God is marking His people for deliverance. And the very thing that causes the adversary to attack certain ones is the very thing that causes God to mark them for deliverance. In Ezekiel 9, when the destroyers went forth to destroy men, they were forbidden to touch anyone who had a mark upon their foreheads. They were marked by God because they were crying out against the wickedness and abominations that were being done in the house of God. From Elijah's blessing of the widow in the time of famine to Ezekiel's vision in the time of judgment, find out how you can be marked for a miracle. To order the CD "Marked for a Miracle," send a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry and request offer 167. That's offer 1-6-7. Mail to R. G. Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Or you may order online at rghardy.org where you will find many other rich resources on many topics by Brother Hardy and myself. But to order by mail, "Marked for a Miracle," offer 167, send a minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying, Maranatha.