Join Sharon Knotts as she delivers a powerful message that sheds light on the deceptive strategies of Satan which prevent individuals from embracing salvation. Unravel the illusions that many hold, believing they have plenty of time or are restrained by societal expectations. This episode serves as a spiritual wake-up call, urging listeners to reflect on the urgency of salvation and the genuine joy that comes from a life with Christ.
Greetings, friends and new listeners. Thank you for tuning into the R.G. Hardy Ministries program because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I’m Sharon Knotts, and I’m excited to tell you that today’s message is exactly the tools you need to be an effectual witness of the gospel to unbelievers, sinners, and backsliders. The Holy Spirit downloaded this message into my spirit fast and furiously over a two-day period. And I believe it holds great truths to how we can reach the unsaved, even the most skeptical. It’s entitled, Eight Reasons Some Are Not Saved. The Bible also says in Revelations 12, 12, the devil knows his time is short. Amen. He is smarter than a lot of Christians. And he’s definitely wiser than a lot of sinners. That they have a short time. The Bible says Satan will come down in great wrath because he knows his time is short. Amen? But you see, that brings us to number five. There are a lot of sinners that are blinded by the fact that they believe they’ve got plenty of time. You know, they do believe in Jesus Christ. They do believe that he is the Savior. They do believe that they have to come through him in the blood of his cross to get into heaven. They do believe that hell is real and that if they do not know Jesus Christ, that’s where they’re going to go. And they have no intention of going there. They have every intention of getting right with God. They believe that they’re going to get saved, but they think they’ve got plenty of time. They’re blinded to believe that I’ve got time, especially if they’re young. But the Bible says today is the day of salvation. And now is the acceptable time. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. Because not a person here today can write down a guarantee that you will be here tomorrow. People think I’m going to get saved. I’m going to. But right now I’m not willing to give up my living boyfriend, my living girlfriend. I want to go to the clubs. I like to dance. I like to have a good time. I like how I feel when I drink. I like how I feel when I take drugs. I’m not willing to give it up right now. But I’m going to get right. I’m going to come back to my faith Backsliders, young people that were raised in church, raised in the house of God. And they’re going to get back. I pray to God with all my heart, soul, and spirit. I pray to God you do. I pray to God you don’t run out of time. I pray to God that you are like the prodigal son who wakes up one morning and says, My God, look at me. I’m sitting here in the pigsty. Look at me. I’m eating the husks that the pigs are eating. Look at me. I’m covered with the slime and the mud and the filth. I smell like the devil. I smell like a sinner. I reek with alcohol. I reek with nicotine. My body is full of disease. I’ve picked up a couple STDs I’ve been treated for. I don’t have to have an abortion. I pray to God you do wake up before it’s too late. But that is one of the things that Satan blinds the mind of people with. You’ve got plenty of time to get right with God. Some of them say, oh, I’ve been raised in church my whole life. And all I ever heard was, Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. He’s coming. And I used to be so afraid. I would go to bed every night. Oh, Jesus, forgive me of my sins if you come before I wake up. Let me go to heaven. Oh, Jesus. But he never came. And all these years now, he ain’t never come yet. That’s all they tell you. They tell you that to scare you. That’s what your parents tell you and the preachers tell you, trying to scare you, Jesus is coming. Well, maybe Jesus won’t come for another 10 years or 20 years. But maybe you’ll go. Maybe it’ll be your time to go. Maybe you will be in a car accident and not survive. Maybe you will overdose and they can’t bring you back. Maybe you’ll get shot while you’re out there in that club. Because nowadays when people have arguments over somebody bumped their girlfriend, they’ll take a gun out and shoot you. Maybe Jesus won’t come, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be in the land of the living. Amen. I’m not surprised that Satan’s master plan, his master plan for some is there is no hell. Amen? And for the other ones, you’ve got those who believe in hell and got some fear of God on them, you’ve got plenty of time. Amen? That say, let us eat and drink and be merry and have a party. But let me tell you something, the party can shut down. The Bible says there’s pleasure of sin for… A season. The Bible doesn’t deny the fact that some people find pleasure out in the world. The Bible doesn’t deny the fact that people have fun out in the world. But the Bible says it’s only for a season. But the evil day comes. The Bible says remember your creator in the days of your youth because the evil day comes when you no longer have pleasure. Amen. The thing that brought you pleasure now is a curse to you. Now you’re hacking because you’ve got emphysema in your words. You’re going to get lung cancer. Now you can’t have a… You done messed yourself up with so many sexual diseases that now you’re infertile. Now you might want to straighten your life up and have a family, but now you can’t get pregnant because you done had so many diseases or abortions, and now your body’s all a wreck. Amen. And I know a lot of you, the devil tells you all kinds of things. And I’m just going to let the Holy Ghost let it fly if you don’t mind. Rule number five, we’ve got three to go, but we’re going to park here a little bit. Amen? The devil always paints a beautiful picture, but he never lets you see what’s behind it. You know what you need to do? You need to go one day around 12 o’clock in noontime to those bars and discos and clubs you like to go to. You need to go in there during the daytime when they turn all the lights on so they can clean up the stuff and you will be horrified at what a filthy place most of them are. But at nighttime, they got it all painted black with all those pretty lights and things, and the devil paints a beautiful picture. Amen? And everybody always thinks it’s going to happen to someone else and not to them. Or they’re only going to go so far, and they’re going to put on the brakes. I’ll not go that far. But you don’t have a choice once you yield to Satan. He becomes your master, and you’re his slave. Jesus said, you’re of your father, the devil, and his lust you will do. Amen? Amen? And he said, I’ve come, he said, Satan’s come to steal, to kill and destroy your life. But I’ve come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. God wants you to be blessed. He wants you to be sitting here in church. Godly families of salt and light for this generation, for the seed and for this generation, that if Jesus doesn’t come, that there’ll be some righteous people left for the next generation to be salt and light. And it’s a shame. You mess around and the devil, he will do his number on you. You cannot play with sin and it not cost you something. It pays to serve the devil. Amen? Amen. And there’s some things that God will forgive you. Don’t misunderstand me. He’ll forgive you. I don’t care what it is. He’ll forgive you and wash you and cleanse you and he’ll throw it in the sea of forgetfulness. But some things you can’t undo. Amen. Some choices you can’t undo. As I say, you can’t unscramble eggs. And some young people, they think I’m only going to go so far. And the devil has given them all. There’s more STDs in the last 25 years they have discovered where they used to be like a couple, a few, and, you know, maybe 10 or 15. Now they’re into the hundreds of different kind of diseases. Amen? And some people think, well, you know, I’ll avoid it. I’ll do this, I’ll do that. And people are doing all kinds of crazy things. And I heard the other day, and I don’t want to get too blunt here, but there are young people that they want to avoid getting pregnant, and they want to avoid getting an STD, so they either go to oral or anal. And they don’t realize you can still get STDs orally. You can still get STDs anally. In fact, you can get them quicker, quicker, because the tissue is thinner and allows the viruses to penetrate. Amen? So you can still get these things and can ruin and wreck your life. Amen? You’ve got to realize you don’t have all the time that you think you have. He says, today if you hear the Holy Ghost, he said, Jesus said, I stand at the door and I’m knocking. If you hear my voice, if you hear my voice, and I’m sorry, but you can’t get away today. It’s too late. Everybody look up. He took your picture. It’s too late. You’ve already heard his voice. He said, open and I will come in. Amen? So some people think they’ve got all the time in the world. Let’s move on to number six. We’ve talked about they don’t have the fear of God or they don’t have the fear of hell. But they have now. Flip over to the other side. Some people are blinded because they have come under the fear of man. They are bound by a man’s fearing spirit. Let me explain. If I get saved and go to church and I don’t go to the clubs anymore and I don’t do this, what will my family think of me? What will my friends say about me? Well, you’re not going to like what they’re going to say about you. And if your family’s not saved, you’re not going to like what they’re going to say about you. What are they going to say about me on the job? And so they’re afraid. Well, what if I do get saved and go to church? And then what’s going to happen? What are they going to think? And they’re afraid that they’re going to lose their, maybe even their job, their position, their popularity, their friends, their family. They’re afraid they might get persecuted. And the Bible does say, all they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted. Amen? Peter explained it this way. He said in 1 Peter 4, 4, they will think it’s strange that you don’t run with them to the same excess of riotous living. They will think it’s strange. They’ll say, what is wrong with you? Have you lost your mind? Are you some religious fanatic? What is wrong with you? You’ve got around all these holy roller nuts. And some people are just ashamed. They’re ashamed. And they think that they couldn’t handle the sense of shame that they would feel. Now, you’ve got to keep in mind, they’re feeling this, thinking this, while they’re still blind by the devil. See, they don’t understand. They don’t know that God’s got so much joy and that when they persecute you, you actually rejoice with exceeding great joy and God pours out blessing. They don’t know about that stuff. I mean, that’s easy for us to preach to Christians, but you’re talking to people that are blind. Amen? And you see, I feel that that, I believe, is what happened to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor that condemned Jesus to be crucified. He condemned them to death. I really don’t believe that deep down he wanted to do it. I don’t believe he did. Now, I’m not going to read it all, because in order to get the whole story, you must read all four Gospels, because Mark tells you something John didn’t tell you, and he tells you something Luke and Matthew, and you have to read all four of them, put them all together, and you get the whole picture. And we would be here quite a while, so I’m just going to basically paraphrase for you, if you don’t mind. So when they brought Jesus before Pontius Pilate, remember it was the Passover, which is the biggest feast of And of the springtime, it was the time when they offered the lambs for their sacrifice, to be sacrificed, to be covered for their sins. Now, remember, the Jews were slaves to the Romans. Romans conquered such huge parts of the known world, and then they sent their Roman officials in to run it, to be the governors, the mayors, and all. And the Jewish people were under them. The Jews paid taxes to the Romans. Amen. Okay? So now, they had developed this sort of, because it was a holiday, and how many know holidays, people get charitable? People give around Christmas time. And it was like that. At Passover, they had developed a custom where that Pontius Pilate would allow one Jewish prisoner to be set free out of prison, to show them it’s a holiday we’re going to celebrate, and we’re going to let somebody go loose. Now, come on now. If you’re in a law-abiding thing and you want to keep it law-abiding, you’re going to say, well, let the guy go who stole a loaf of bread because he had no food to eat. You’re not going to say, let the guy go who just killed three people and raped two more. Amen? So this was the custom. Now, first of all, they brought Jesus before him, and he was trying to get an answer out of Jesus. You know, they’re bringing you here, and they want to condemn you to death because, you see, the Jews had already condemned Jesus according to their opinion, but they didn’t have authority to put people to death. Only Romans did. So that forced them to bring Jesus before Pontius Pilate. and saying, this man is worthy of death. We can’t kill him. We need you to kill him. Well, he wasn’t going to just go killing this man until he found out, well, was he worthy of death? So he’s trying to find out, and he’s scratching his head. He’s saying, I don’t get it. What has this man done that’s so wrong? Well, they said he’s a king. And so he says, are you a king? He’s looking at him thinking, you don’t look like a king to me. Are you a king? And at first, for a while, he didn’t get many answers out of Jesus. But, you know, finally Jesus said, well, my kingdom is not of this world. Oh, so you are a king then. And Jesus said, well, if my kingdom was of this world, I would just call all of my people to come and take you all down. But don’t worry. Don’t sweat it. Keep your job. My kingdom is not of this world. Amen? And so he began to develop this conversation back and forth, and Pontius Pilate is trying very desperately to find a reason what is wrong with this. Now, to top it off, his wife the night before had had a very powerful, dramatic dream that scared her. She said, it caused me much suffering in this dream, and I’m telling you, do not have anything to do with that just man. Right. Do not condemn that just man. She sent word to him. He got this note from his wife. Whatever you do, do not condemn that just man. The dream that I had, I’ll tell you when you get home. I suffered greatly because of it. So he had that on his mind. He looks at Jesus, this soft-spoken man, who is not speaking evil again about anybody or anything. And he said to the Jews, I tell you what, it’s your problem. You’re the ones that find a problem with him. I don’t find any problem with him. How about if we let him be the prisoner we let go for Passover? How about that? He’s trying to reason a bargain with them. We’ll let him go. Yes, we’ll say, okay, you’re condemned, but we’ll turn right around and let him go. No way. Let Barabbas go. Barabbas was a seditionist and a murderer. If anybody was threatening Roman rule, it was him. Trying to get the Jews to mutiny against them. And in so doing, people got killed. Give us Barabbas. Let him go. How many see the picture? So then he tried to appeal to their humanity. He sent Jesus to be beaten. And if you saw the passion of the Christ, you know what we’re talking about. When they brought Jesus back, It would make most people to shudder to look at this beaten man who was matted blood from his face to his beard all down his body, his back laid open till you could look in and see muscle and bone. This man that was beaten so badly, he thought they’ll take one look at him and think, oh my God, he suffered enough, let him go. But he was mistaken. They didn’t faze them one bit. They said, crucify him. He said, I don’t see any reason. What is it for me to crucify him? He said, I’ll tell you what. He went and got a water. He washed his hands so everybody could see it. He says, I’ll wash my hands of this. I washed my hands. I am innocent of this just man’s blood. He said out of his own mouth, he’s a just man. So what happened? What happened to make him turn around and condemn him to die? He had the power, not the Jews. The Jews started saying, well, he said he was the king. And if he said he’s the king, then that means he’s an enemy of Caesar. And if you let him go, you’re no friend of Caesar. And all of a sudden, Pilate imagined it getting back. I let someone go. They’re going to lie. He knew it wasn’t true. He knew it was a lie, but he knew that they would lie and say, oh, he let a seditionist go who was challenging Caesar’s rule. And he thought, I’ll lose my job. I’ll lose my palace. I’ll lose my money. I’ll lose my position. I’ll lose everything. And when they said that, that brought fear in his heart. And all of a sudden, he changed his mind. And he brought Jesus out and he condemned him to die. Amen? Because he had fear of man. He was afraid that he was going to lose his job and everything. And let me tell you what Jesus said in Mark 8, 38. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, ashamed of Jesus in front of all the filth and the garbage that we live around, He said, I will be ashamed of you before my Father and the holy angels when I come into my glory. A lot of people, they don’t want to get saved because they’re ashamed of what people are going to say and think about them. Jesus never deceived anybody. He never made the way look easy so that later on you’d say, you tricked me. He said, sit down and count the cost. Are you willing? Are you able to pay the price? Because you may have to leave mother and father and houses and lands. And some of your enemies, the worst, will be those of your very household. He said, I’m not telling them, I’m coming to make everybody love one another. The gospel alienates. The gospel separates those who want to cling to light and those who want to cling to darkness. And never the twain shall meet. See, some people… are ashamed. But what is it going to be like when you stand before the judgment seat of God, before all the world, and the books are open, and they read every dirty, filthy sin you’ve ever done because they’re not covered by the blood? You remember that sin you did when you were 13? Yes. You remember that thing that you did that was so wrong? Remember some of those things you did behind closed doors that you never, ever want anyone to know? You know those skeletons in your closet that you hope never get out? They’re all coming out. They’re all coming out at the judgment seat of Christ because they will not be under the blood. And everybody will know it then. Jesus said what was done in secret will be shouted from the housetops. They’re going to know about it. that incest and that molestation. They’re going to know all that. You’re ashamed of Jesus in front of this wicked and ungodly, filthy, lying, cheating generation? He said, I’ll be ashamed of you, and I will say, depart from me, ye worker of iniquity. I never knew you. Paul said, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. All right, that brings us to number seven. A lot of people are blinded and said, I can’t get saved and go to church because of all the hypocrites. Ever heard that one? There are so many hypocrites in church and they know them all. You’re right. You’re absolutely right. There are hypocrites in church. I bet you there’s some here today. I bet you there are some here today. I can’t go because of hypocrites. They’ve been turned off. They’ve been turned off by preachers that have gone bad. Oh, were you here there for a while? A few months ago, we were hearing every week a new one. Made you feel like hiding in a rock somewhere. Amen. This one’s fooling around, and this one’s got a boyfriend, and this one’s got a guy friend, and this one’s got a girlfriend. Amen. Yes, there are hypocrites and there always will be. They were hypocrites in Jesus’ day. There were hypocrites going to synagogue and there were hypocrites going to church. And Peter did say in 2 Peter 2, 2, By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. They put a stumbling block in front of others. They don’t go in and they stop others from going in, Jesus said. You want to hear how Jesus felt about hypocrites? I don’t have time to tell you. You can read it. You read Matthew 23 and your hair will stand up. He never ever said anything mean or hateful to a sinner. But boy, he let it rip when he was talking to the hypocrites. He called them everything but nice people. Paul said there would be wolves in sheep’s clothing. He said, watch out. They’re going to come in church. Not out in the world. You expect the devil to be in the world. He said, wolves in sheep’s clothing will come in, in the church. I’m telling you now. Get ready. There will always be hypocrites. But remember this. It’s impossible to have a counterfeit unless you have a genuine one. Amen, amen. Surely the Holy Spirit has birthed this word into our hearts so we can be able and effectual witnesses of the New Testament. I believe you can discern the spirit of conviction that was upon the delivery as these truths penetrated the hearts of the hearers, shedding light in dark places and peeling away calluses of resistance to the truth. It also serves to enlighten us as how to deal with hard cases when sharing the gospel. Paul said that Satan is a mind blinder, and he uses these eight strategies to keep people from getting saved. I’m a good person. number two not ready to give up their sins number three no fear of god number four no fear of hell number five i’ve got plenty of time number six the fear of man number seven there are too many hypocrites 8. I just can’t live the Christian life. Each of these points is scripturally supported and there’s enough ammunition in this teaching to prepare you to be a powerful soul winner. So be sure to add this message to your spiritual library. For a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry, request offer SK151. That’s SK as in Sharon Knotts, 151. Our mailing address is R.G. Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or if you prefer, order online at rghardy.org. That’s rghardy.org. Again, to receive eight reasons some are not saved, On CD, offer SK-151. Send your love gift of $10 or more to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, Maranatha.
