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Join Sharon Knotts in an insightful exploration of the profound impact of whispers that the enemy plants in our minds. She discusses the role of fear as a crippling emotion first felt by mankind and how subtle differences in truth can lead to significant spiritual consequences. Gain wisdom on discerning between right and almost right, see how Satan's MO of stealing, killing, and destroying can be tackled with the faith in God's unwavering truth.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message is a true eye-opener and ear-arrester, the whisperer. In Genesis and Revelation, Satan is called a serpent. The Hebrew word is nakash, and its verb form means to whisper like the hiss of a snake. From the moment he beguiled Eve in the garden, Satan has been whispering his cunning lies and accusations against God and his true people because he is the whisperer. He whispers fear. I think everyone is more powerful than the other. Now that I'm going along here, fear is so powerful. It can cripple people. It can cripple people till they can't even hardly function. It can cripple them till they cannot enjoy the blessings God has in their lives. They are so afraid of everything. And I'm not surprised because it was the first negative emotion that mankind ever felt when Adam and Eve sinned. You know, the story goes on to tell us. And then they went and hid and God came walking in the day and he said, where are you, Adam? And he said, well, I hid because I was afraid. I tell you, saints, I don't know how many times through the years that people have come to me and their prayer request is, A spirit of fear. And I can identify with it. I understand it because I was under it. I came under it very strongly. And I've told those testimonies before how I got delivered, so I won't do it today. But I understand how strong a spirit of fear is. I had it from a child. As a little child, I had it. And then as I grew up, I seemed to overcome it. And I didn't have it for many, many, many years. And then it hit me again hard when I had the back issue. So I understand the fear, the things that the devil says to you. Sometimes he'll tell you, you're going to die. You're going to die. And it can become so real to you that you start having symptoms in your body you never even had before. I know that that is true. I know it. So slander, whispers of slander. And this is blasphemy. And, you know, people always think that blasphemy can only be done against God. They always connect blasphemy against God. But you read the New Testament. You read Paul. He says you can blaspheme against other people. And a lot of times they are outright lies. And the thing about it is he is so clever and crafty, he has the ability to make it sound true. To make it seem so plausible, to make it seem true. We looked at Greek, so now we see the Hebrew word for subtle. It means to be shrewd, crafty, cunning, and sly. Again, the word here in the Hebrew, the idea is that it's hard to distinguish between two things. The difference is so subtle that it's hard to differentiate between the two of them. The distinction between them is not obvious immediately. A subtle difference. And, you know, it happens a lot of times in a good way. You know, you're going to paint your bedroom a new color. Okay, we're going to make it a blue bedroom now. And so now you have bought your bedding, and so now you've got to go to the store and get paint, and you want to make sure that it blends. So you're pretty sure you know what color you want, or vice versa. You've already painted the room. Now you're going to go look for bedding, whichever way. And you go into the paint store and you think, okay, we're going to get a light blue. There are 4,235,000 swatches of light blue. And you're like, this is just blue. Put it next to your bedding and they clash. One after another. One after another. You know, you think that it is the same color. But when you get them next to each other, there's a subtle difference. Amen. It's that subtle difference. See, sometimes, saints, it's not a matter of discerning between right and wrong. That's not subtle. It's discerning between right and almost right. Amen. That's where the devil gets in and whispers in your ear. Amen. He uses words of reasoning to camouflage his true intent. So what is the nature of HaSatan? Jesus said in John 10, 10, the thief personifying Satan is come, but, and that means the only thing he's come for to kill and to steal and to destroy. That is his MO. That is his agenda. And everything he does is to the fulfillment of those things. Amen. That's what he's come to do, to steal, to kill and to destroy. And I want you to know that you might say, well, kill and destroy. If you're dead, you can't be destroyed. Here's what you've got to understand. The word destroy there means to ruin. ruin see kill means what it means he would like to actually kill you but if he can't kill you if he can't take you out then he wants to ruin your life he wants to ruin your life with bondage and lies and fear and torment amen That's his nature. And as I've told you before, the word Satan, Satan in Hebrew, if we look at its root, remembering the original Hebrew language was written in word pictures that later became letters. And when we look at the three consonants in the word Satan, because they did not write vowels in ancient Hebrew. So we would spell it S-T-N. So when we look at the Hebrew letter S, it's shin. It's a picture of teeth or fire. Either way, it means to devour. When we look at the word T, it's tet in Hebrew, and it's a picture of a snake. And it means a snake. And when we look at the word en, it's nun in Hebrew. It's a picture of a fish swimming in water. Not just a fish, but swimming in water. And it means life. Put the three together. Satan is a snake that comes to devour life. That is the hidden layer in the name of Satan in the Hebrew. Amen? And so he comes often in whispers. And I correlate Satan's whispers to what I call white noise. Now, our ears are bombarded all day long, everywhere we go, with sound. Everywhere. Sound, sound, sound. If it's not the TV, it's the radio. If it's not that, it's machines that are running. If it's not that, it's traffic that you can hear in your home as well as if you're in your car. It's kids making noise. Everywhere we go, it's... Noise. And I dare say that a majority of people have the habit of having their TV on even when they're not watching it. It's in the background. They can be doing something completely different, but they put the TV on and they're not even paying attention to it, but it's on. And they're accustomed to noise at all times. Amen? And so we're bombarded with all of this noise. But I tell you, if at night... When everyone is asleep and you turn off the TV, you don't go to bed with the TV on and you turn off the radio or whatever else and completely silent. And you happen to live on a street where there's not traffic out there and everything is completely silent and you're laying there. I tell you, you will hear a low level of A very low level of some kind of buzz in your ear. How many have ever done that? And you know what I'm talking about? Because we're so used to sound. We're so used to be bombarded with it that when we're totally, completely quiet. And hopefully if you're married, your mate doesn't snore. If your mate snores, you won't hear the white buzz. The little white noise. Amen. But you will hear that. It is like this low level of noise. And saints, that noise, that sound is not coming from external stimuli. From external noises. That sound is coming from inside your own head. How many know what I'm talking about? It's not outside. There's not something on in your home or in your bedroom that's making this noise. It's coming from inside your own head. And you see, this is how the serpent whispers to your mind. Now, that is a physical illustration that I gave you. But can we connect it and go in the spirit and see that that's how Satan whispers to your mind? And he knows when to whisper. For you to hear him. And that's why we've got to learn to drown out the whispers with the word of God. We've got to cast them down with God's word. And for me, it means sometimes I've got to completely go to speaking out loud. I have to answer out loud. I might in my mind think of a verse or of a song or something. But you know what? I find out when I start singing. I don't hear those whispers anymore. When I start quoting the word of God, I don't hear them anymore because I'm resisting the devil and he has to flee from me. Amen? And I have learned not to wait. See, a while back before I learned all this, I would wait a while. And the thoughts kept coming. And I would just wait a while. And before I would finally, you know, because I was under a spirit of fear to a point. But I have learned now, I don't wait until he tells me two, three, four, five things. As soon as I hear the hiss. As soon as I hear it and my spiritual ears are sensitized to know that is not the voice of my shepherd. That is not the voice of my beloved. That's not the voice of my Holy Spirit. Immediately I begin to speak against it. Immediately I rebuke it. I block it before it can become a fiery dart to go from my mind to my heart, my spirit. Amen. That's what you have to do. You've got to take scripture and counteract it at the very first whisper. So many times when I pray for people, they'll say, Sister Sharon, the devil told me. And I mean, they got this long drawn out story about what the devil told them. And after a while, I have to stop them because they're going to affect my ability to pray for them. You know, tell me, give me the gist. Give me the gist. Don't tell me everything he said. Amen. Why are you repeating it? I know you're trying to explain to me, but I don't need to hear you give me that whole big long thing. I need you to just tell me the main points because I'm getting ready to rebuke the devil. I'm getting ready to command him to back off of you and leave you alone. And I don't need to hear whatever he said because whatever it is, it's a lie. It's a lie. It's a lie. And you know when you're telling me that it's a lie, you know it. So why are you letting the devil beat you up with it? Now I'm not fussing at you. I'm telling you what I know because I know what he did to me. And I know God gave me the victory and he's not a respecter of persons. He'll give it to you. So when it's just a notion, a suggestion that you know is wrong or you know that it's untrue, you cannot let that thing develop. I'm going to go one further. Let's suppose it's not a whisper. Let's suppose the devil's got bold enough to send somebody to you and tell you something about someone or something that immediately your spirit says, that's not right. That's not true. I don't believe that you need to tell that person right then you need to say, you know what? I don't think that's right. i don't believe that it doesn't witness with my spirit and i don't believe it and you better be careful what you're saying about that person because if it's a lie you may be touching god's anointed now if the person they're speaking of is a godly person a godly person then they need to be careful i mean if it's a hypocrite and everybody knows they're a hypocrite you know you just say well you know the bible says you'll know by their fruits So let's pray about them. But when they speak against someone that is a godly person that you have never had any reason to think anything about them, then you need to be careful because it's probably the slanderer. And if it's not and it's true, it will come out. It'll come out. They'll either get right with God. And if they get right with God, then that's the good thing. If they don't get right with God and persist in whatever this thing is, it's going to come out anyway. Be sure your sin will find you out. You know, it reminds me of when they'd already beaten Peter and John and threw him in prison. Amen. And they wanted to keep doing things to him. That's how they were. And then finally, Gamaliel stood up and said, you know, if this thing is not of God, it's going to all fall apart just like he named other things. But he said, if it be of God, you may find yourself fighting against God. See, he wasn't sure. He didn't know. And he was afraid that just in case they were wrong, they would be fighting against God. So we need to proclaim God's word over our mind. And here's the thing. You may have to repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. You may have to repeat it, but you keep doing it until you've drowned out that whisper. And you will. Eventually you will. But don't let the whispers accumulate. Because then they can become a stronghold. Let's go back to 2 Corinthians. And this time let's look at chapter 10. Looking at verse 4 and 5. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or they're not of the flesh, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now, here is what the Lord moved on my heart for myself, and it's helped me, and I will share it with you because I think it will help you. I like to reverse the order. In other words, I start with bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Because if you will capture something when it's a thought... When it's a whisper. If you will catch it when it's a thought and cast it down and bring it into the obedience of Christ, make it line up with the word of God. If it doesn't line up with the word of God, then immediately. You cast it down. If you do it when it's just a thought, it will not become an imagination. And that's a stronger because now it has become this thing of reasoning in your mind that now is actually hostile and fights against God and the knowledge of God. It's going up a step. And if you continue to have those imaginations, then they will begin to be one on upon another upon another. And then it becomes a stronghold. And a stronghold is like a fort that is surrounded with walls. So the enemy cannot get in. But in this sense, it's your mind and your mind now has these walls and the truth. cannot get in the enemy has built up walls around your mind he's so filled you with these thoughts and these imaginations and then imagination means fallacious reasoning fallacious reasoning oh you reason this to be true it's not it's false but you do so that allows you then to reason this and reason that and reason the other till it's built up this big thing amen And Satan has successfully put this wall around your mind until it's hard for truth to get in. Then what do you got to do? You got to pull it down. It's a lot easier to take one thought captive than to pull down the walls of a stronghold. I'm not saying it's not possible. Obviously it is, but it's harder and you will suffer much in the process. Amen. So that's how the Lord dealt with me and it really helped me and hopefully it will you. So we have been talking about don't listen to the whisperer. Learn how to resist him and rebuke him. Now I might step on more toes about this time because I'm going to say not only don't listen to the whisperer, don't become a whisperer. Because you know there are whisperers in the church. I'm going to prove to you. Let's look to Romans 1 29. Now in Romans 1, we have a whole catalog of deadly sins. But we're zoning in on our subject. So let's look at verse 29. Being filled with all unrighteousness. Now that's a very key description. Being filled with all unrighteousness. And here is the symptoms, the outgrowth, the fruit, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, whisperers. Now, several of the traits that we just read here are synonymous with words we've already looked at in connection with the serpent Satan. For instance, malicious and then envious and the murderers. These are all Satan's nature. Deceitful. Malignity here is the same word as craftiness that we've read in the other verses. It's the same word. But the last one is one of Satan's titles. The whisperer. So let's look at the Greek word for whisperer, whisperings and whisperer. What is the Greek word? I'm not even going to say it because it's a little tough. Not that you really care, but here's the meaning. This you do care about. A secret slanderer. Because the devil is a coward and he's like a snake in the grass. He does all his things. He tries to do secretly incognito. So you don't realize it's the devil. Amen. Slander to speak false charges, which defame and damage another's reputation to assassinate their character. That's what Satan does. revelations 12 10 names him one of his titles the accuser of the brethren amen accused means to charge someone with an offense to claim they have committed something wrong or bad and this is what satan's mo is he's always slandering someone slander is a direct connection to satan And I hate to say this to you, but he's got some saints in the church he can use to do his dirty work. I'm not saying just faith tabernacle. I'm saying the church. Amen. The body of Christ. You know, the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 2 that there are vessels of honor and there are vessels of dishonor. And the enemy knows who he can use, that he can whisper to them, accuse godly people to them, and get them to do his work of starting to slander them. Amen? Back in 2 Corinthians 12 and looking at verse 20. For I fear, lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as you would not. But here's the point. Lest when I come, there be debates, envians, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings. swellings, and tumults. So here we have that word again. I fear less when I come. This is what I'm going to find. I'm afraid when I come to see you again, Corinth. And I want you to know that this would be his third trip there. He's already been there twice. He's saying, I'm afraid, even though I've been there two times already, I'm afraid when I come back, this is what I'm going to find. Debates and envies, raps and stripes and backbiting, whispering, swellings and tumults. Saints, there was a lot of bad stuff going on in this church at Corinth. It's even all the more remarkable when you consider they are the ones to whom he wrote all about the gifts of the Spirit. But he also wrote to them the chapter on love.
SPEAKER 1 :
Amen. Amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. What a bondage breaking word of the Lord, the whisperer. One of Satan's most dangerous and effective tactics is not just to lie against God, but to subtly whisper his accusations like the hiss of a deadly serpent. He is called the serpent and the accuser of the brethren. He could also be called the whisperer. Paul wrote to the church of Corinth, I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. There are five significant Greek words in this verse that tell the story of Satan, the whisperer, and reveal how he whispers thoughts to the mind that accuse God and godly members of the body of Christ. If they are not taken captive when just a thought, a notion, or suggestion, they can become mental strongholds of deception. Whisperers can tear up a church with jealousy, slander, suspicion, and lies, maligning leadership and wounding members. Learn how to discern the whispers of the enemy and take captive every thought. Make sure not to allow the hedge of protection around your life to be broken down because Proverbs says, where the hedge is broken, the serpent bites. Order The Whisperer on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK208. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Order online at soundoffaith.org, where MP3s are available. To order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK-208. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
If you enjoy the powerful preaching of a revival style anointing, or love to feast at the table of sound, compelling teaching of true life-long students of the Bible, in R.G. Hardy daughter Sharon Knotts you get both! Milk for babes meat for the mature in Christ, Bible topics from faith-boosting to devil-chasing! To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.elsitiocristiano.com/donate/1102
Join Sharon Knotts in an insightful exploration of the profound impact of whispers that the enemy plants in our minds. She discusses the role of fear as a crippling emotion first felt by mankind and how subtle differences in truth can lead to significant spiritual consequences. Gain wisdom on discerning between right and almost right, see how Satan's MO of stealing, killing, and destroying can be tackled with the faith in God's unwavering truth.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message is a true eye-opener and ear-arrester, the whisperer. In Genesis and Revelation, Satan is called a serpent. The Hebrew word is nakash, and its verb form means to whisper like the hiss of a snake. From the moment he beguiled Eve in the garden, Satan has been whispering his cunning lies and accusations against God and his true people because he is the whisperer. He whispers fear. I think everyone is more powerful than the other. Now that I'm going along here, fear is so powerful. It can cripple people. It can cripple people till they can't even hardly function. It can cripple them till they cannot enjoy the blessings God has in their lives. They are so afraid of everything. And I'm not surprised because it was the first negative emotion that mankind ever felt when Adam and Eve sinned. You know, the story goes on to tell us. And then they went and hid and God came walking in the day and he said, where are you, Adam? And he said, well, I hid because I was afraid. I tell you, saints, I don't know how many times through the years that people have come to me and their prayer request is, A spirit of fear. And I can identify with it. I understand it because I was under it. I came under it very strongly. And I've told those testimonies before how I got delivered, so I won't do it today. But I understand how strong a spirit of fear is. I had it from a child. As a little child, I had it. And then as I grew up, I seemed to overcome it. And I didn't have it for many, many, many years. And then it hit me again hard when I had the back issue. So I understand the fear, the things that the devil says to you. Sometimes he'll tell you, you're going to die. You're going to die. And it can become so real to you that you start having symptoms in your body you never even had before. I know that that is true. I know it. So slander, whispers of slander. And this is blasphemy. And, you know, people always think that blasphemy can only be done against God. They always connect blasphemy against God. But you read the New Testament. You read Paul. He says you can blaspheme against other people. And a lot of times they are outright lies. And the thing about it is he is so clever and crafty, he has the ability to make it sound true. To make it seem so plausible, to make it seem true. We looked at Greek, so now we see the Hebrew word for subtle. It means to be shrewd, crafty, cunning, and sly. Again, the word here in the Hebrew, the idea is that it's hard to distinguish between two things. The difference is so subtle that it's hard to differentiate between the two of them. The distinction between them is not obvious immediately. A subtle difference. And, you know, it happens a lot of times in a good way. You know, you're going to paint your bedroom a new color. Okay, we're going to make it a blue bedroom now. And so now you have bought your bedding, and so now you've got to go to the store and get paint, and you want to make sure that it blends. So you're pretty sure you know what color you want, or vice versa. You've already painted the room. Now you're going to go look for bedding, whichever way. And you go into the paint store and you think, okay, we're going to get a light blue. There are 4,235,000 swatches of light blue. And you're like, this is just blue. Put it next to your bedding and they clash. One after another. One after another. You know, you think that it is the same color. But when you get them next to each other, there's a subtle difference. Amen. It's that subtle difference. See, sometimes, saints, it's not a matter of discerning between right and wrong. That's not subtle. It's discerning between right and almost right. Amen. That's where the devil gets in and whispers in your ear. Amen. He uses words of reasoning to camouflage his true intent. So what is the nature of HaSatan? Jesus said in John 10, 10, the thief personifying Satan is come, but, and that means the only thing he's come for to kill and to steal and to destroy. That is his MO. That is his agenda. And everything he does is to the fulfillment of those things. Amen. That's what he's come to do, to steal, to kill and to destroy. And I want you to know that you might say, well, kill and destroy. If you're dead, you can't be destroyed. Here's what you've got to understand. The word destroy there means to ruin. ruin see kill means what it means he would like to actually kill you but if he can't kill you if he can't take you out then he wants to ruin your life he wants to ruin your life with bondage and lies and fear and torment amen That's his nature. And as I've told you before, the word Satan, Satan in Hebrew, if we look at its root, remembering the original Hebrew language was written in word pictures that later became letters. And when we look at the three consonants in the word Satan, because they did not write vowels in ancient Hebrew. So we would spell it S-T-N. So when we look at the Hebrew letter S, it's shin. It's a picture of teeth or fire. Either way, it means to devour. When we look at the word T, it's tet in Hebrew, and it's a picture of a snake. And it means a snake. And when we look at the word en, it's nun in Hebrew. It's a picture of a fish swimming in water. Not just a fish, but swimming in water. And it means life. Put the three together. Satan is a snake that comes to devour life. That is the hidden layer in the name of Satan in the Hebrew. Amen? And so he comes often in whispers. And I correlate Satan's whispers to what I call white noise. Now, our ears are bombarded all day long, everywhere we go, with sound. Everywhere. Sound, sound, sound. If it's not the TV, it's the radio. If it's not that, it's machines that are running. If it's not that, it's traffic that you can hear in your home as well as if you're in your car. It's kids making noise. Everywhere we go, it's... Noise. And I dare say that a majority of people have the habit of having their TV on even when they're not watching it. It's in the background. They can be doing something completely different, but they put the TV on and they're not even paying attention to it, but it's on. And they're accustomed to noise at all times. Amen? And so we're bombarded with all of this noise. But I tell you, if at night... When everyone is asleep and you turn off the TV, you don't go to bed with the TV on and you turn off the radio or whatever else and completely silent. And you happen to live on a street where there's not traffic out there and everything is completely silent and you're laying there. I tell you, you will hear a low level of A very low level of some kind of buzz in your ear. How many have ever done that? And you know what I'm talking about? Because we're so used to sound. We're so used to be bombarded with it that when we're totally, completely quiet. And hopefully if you're married, your mate doesn't snore. If your mate snores, you won't hear the white buzz. The little white noise. Amen. But you will hear that. It is like this low level of noise. And saints, that noise, that sound is not coming from external stimuli. From external noises. That sound is coming from inside your own head. How many know what I'm talking about? It's not outside. There's not something on in your home or in your bedroom that's making this noise. It's coming from inside your own head. And you see, this is how the serpent whispers to your mind. Now, that is a physical illustration that I gave you. But can we connect it and go in the spirit and see that that's how Satan whispers to your mind? And he knows when to whisper. For you to hear him. And that's why we've got to learn to drown out the whispers with the word of God. We've got to cast them down with God's word. And for me, it means sometimes I've got to completely go to speaking out loud. I have to answer out loud. I might in my mind think of a verse or of a song or something. But you know what? I find out when I start singing. I don't hear those whispers anymore. When I start quoting the word of God, I don't hear them anymore because I'm resisting the devil and he has to flee from me. Amen? And I have learned not to wait. See, a while back before I learned all this, I would wait a while. And the thoughts kept coming. And I would just wait a while. And before I would finally, you know, because I was under a spirit of fear to a point. But I have learned now, I don't wait until he tells me two, three, four, five things. As soon as I hear the hiss. As soon as I hear it and my spiritual ears are sensitized to know that is not the voice of my shepherd. That is not the voice of my beloved. That's not the voice of my Holy Spirit. Immediately I begin to speak against it. Immediately I rebuke it. I block it before it can become a fiery dart to go from my mind to my heart, my spirit. Amen. That's what you have to do. You've got to take scripture and counteract it at the very first whisper. So many times when I pray for people, they'll say, Sister Sharon, the devil told me. And I mean, they got this long drawn out story about what the devil told them. And after a while, I have to stop them because they're going to affect my ability to pray for them. You know, tell me, give me the gist. Give me the gist. Don't tell me everything he said. Amen. Why are you repeating it? I know you're trying to explain to me, but I don't need to hear you give me that whole big long thing. I need you to just tell me the main points because I'm getting ready to rebuke the devil. I'm getting ready to command him to back off of you and leave you alone. And I don't need to hear whatever he said because whatever it is, it's a lie. It's a lie. It's a lie. And you know when you're telling me that it's a lie, you know it. So why are you letting the devil beat you up with it? Now I'm not fussing at you. I'm telling you what I know because I know what he did to me. And I know God gave me the victory and he's not a respecter of persons. He'll give it to you. So when it's just a notion, a suggestion that you know is wrong or you know that it's untrue, you cannot let that thing develop. I'm going to go one further. Let's suppose it's not a whisper. Let's suppose the devil's got bold enough to send somebody to you and tell you something about someone or something that immediately your spirit says, that's not right. That's not true. I don't believe that you need to tell that person right then you need to say, you know what? I don't think that's right. i don't believe that it doesn't witness with my spirit and i don't believe it and you better be careful what you're saying about that person because if it's a lie you may be touching god's anointed now if the person they're speaking of is a godly person a godly person then they need to be careful i mean if it's a hypocrite and everybody knows they're a hypocrite you know you just say well you know the bible says you'll know by their fruits So let's pray about them. But when they speak against someone that is a godly person that you have never had any reason to think anything about them, then you need to be careful because it's probably the slanderer. And if it's not and it's true, it will come out. It'll come out. They'll either get right with God. And if they get right with God, then that's the good thing. If they don't get right with God and persist in whatever this thing is, it's going to come out anyway. Be sure your sin will find you out. You know, it reminds me of when they'd already beaten Peter and John and threw him in prison. Amen. And they wanted to keep doing things to him. That's how they were. And then finally, Gamaliel stood up and said, you know, if this thing is not of God, it's going to all fall apart just like he named other things. But he said, if it be of God, you may find yourself fighting against God. See, he wasn't sure. He didn't know. And he was afraid that just in case they were wrong, they would be fighting against God. So we need to proclaim God's word over our mind. And here's the thing. You may have to repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. You may have to repeat it, but you keep doing it until you've drowned out that whisper. And you will. Eventually you will. But don't let the whispers accumulate. Because then they can become a stronghold. Let's go back to 2 Corinthians. And this time let's look at chapter 10. Looking at verse 4 and 5. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or they're not of the flesh, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now, here is what the Lord moved on my heart for myself, and it's helped me, and I will share it with you because I think it will help you. I like to reverse the order. In other words, I start with bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Because if you will capture something when it's a thought... When it's a whisper. If you will catch it when it's a thought and cast it down and bring it into the obedience of Christ, make it line up with the word of God. If it doesn't line up with the word of God, then immediately. You cast it down. If you do it when it's just a thought, it will not become an imagination. And that's a stronger because now it has become this thing of reasoning in your mind that now is actually hostile and fights against God and the knowledge of God. It's going up a step. And if you continue to have those imaginations, then they will begin to be one on upon another upon another. And then it becomes a stronghold. And a stronghold is like a fort that is surrounded with walls. So the enemy cannot get in. But in this sense, it's your mind and your mind now has these walls and the truth. cannot get in the enemy has built up walls around your mind he's so filled you with these thoughts and these imaginations and then imagination means fallacious reasoning fallacious reasoning oh you reason this to be true it's not it's false but you do so that allows you then to reason this and reason that and reason the other till it's built up this big thing amen And Satan has successfully put this wall around your mind until it's hard for truth to get in. Then what do you got to do? You got to pull it down. It's a lot easier to take one thought captive than to pull down the walls of a stronghold. I'm not saying it's not possible. Obviously it is, but it's harder and you will suffer much in the process. Amen. So that's how the Lord dealt with me and it really helped me and hopefully it will you. So we have been talking about don't listen to the whisperer. Learn how to resist him and rebuke him. Now I might step on more toes about this time because I'm going to say not only don't listen to the whisperer, don't become a whisperer. Because you know there are whisperers in the church. I'm going to prove to you. Let's look to Romans 1 29. Now in Romans 1, we have a whole catalog of deadly sins. But we're zoning in on our subject. So let's look at verse 29. Being filled with all unrighteousness. Now that's a very key description. Being filled with all unrighteousness. And here is the symptoms, the outgrowth, the fruit, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, whisperers. Now, several of the traits that we just read here are synonymous with words we've already looked at in connection with the serpent Satan. For instance, malicious and then envious and the murderers. These are all Satan's nature. Deceitful. Malignity here is the same word as craftiness that we've read in the other verses. It's the same word. But the last one is one of Satan's titles. The whisperer. So let's look at the Greek word for whisperer, whisperings and whisperer. What is the Greek word? I'm not even going to say it because it's a little tough. Not that you really care, but here's the meaning. This you do care about. A secret slanderer. Because the devil is a coward and he's like a snake in the grass. He does all his things. He tries to do secretly incognito. So you don't realize it's the devil. Amen. Slander to speak false charges, which defame and damage another's reputation to assassinate their character. That's what Satan does. revelations 12 10 names him one of his titles the accuser of the brethren amen accused means to charge someone with an offense to claim they have committed something wrong or bad and this is what satan's mo is he's always slandering someone slander is a direct connection to satan And I hate to say this to you, but he's got some saints in the church he can use to do his dirty work. I'm not saying just faith tabernacle. I'm saying the church. Amen. The body of Christ. You know, the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 2 that there are vessels of honor and there are vessels of dishonor. And the enemy knows who he can use, that he can whisper to them, accuse godly people to them, and get them to do his work of starting to slander them. Amen? Back in 2 Corinthians 12 and looking at verse 20. For I fear, lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as you would not. But here's the point. Lest when I come, there be debates, envians, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings. swellings, and tumults. So here we have that word again. I fear less when I come. This is what I'm going to find. I'm afraid when I come to see you again, Corinth. And I want you to know that this would be his third trip there. He's already been there twice. He's saying, I'm afraid, even though I've been there two times already, I'm afraid when I come back, this is what I'm going to find. Debates and envies, raps and stripes and backbiting, whispering, swellings and tumults. Saints, there was a lot of bad stuff going on in this church at Corinth. It's even all the more remarkable when you consider they are the ones to whom he wrote all about the gifts of the Spirit. But he also wrote to them the chapter on love.
SPEAKER 1 :
Amen. Amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. What a bondage breaking word of the Lord, the whisperer. One of Satan's most dangerous and effective tactics is not just to lie against God, but to subtly whisper his accusations like the hiss of a deadly serpent. He is called the serpent and the accuser of the brethren. He could also be called the whisperer. Paul wrote to the church of Corinth, I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. There are five significant Greek words in this verse that tell the story of Satan, the whisperer, and reveal how he whispers thoughts to the mind that accuse God and godly members of the body of Christ. If they are not taken captive when just a thought, a notion, or suggestion, they can become mental strongholds of deception. Whisperers can tear up a church with jealousy, slander, suspicion, and lies, maligning leadership and wounding members. Learn how to discern the whispers of the enemy and take captive every thought. Make sure not to allow the hedge of protection around your life to be broken down because Proverbs says, where the hedge is broken, the serpent bites. Order The Whisperer on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK208. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Order online at soundoffaith.org, where MP3s are available. To order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK-208. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
In this engaging sermon, uncover the significance of mental honesty and simplicity in Christ as defenses against Satan's treacherous subtilties. Sharon breaks down the implications of being beguiled by crafty whispers and offers insights on maintaining a hedge of spiritual protection. This episode is a clarion call to recognize and dismantle the whispers that threaten to corrupt your faith and integrity.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message is a true eye-opener and ear-arrester, the whisperer. In Genesis and Revelation, Satan is called a serpent. The Hebrew word is nakash, and its verb form means to whisper like the hiss of a snake. From the moment he beguiled Eve in the garden, Satan has been whispering his cunning lies and accusations against God and his true people because he is the whisperer. You know, we're in a season, especially this month of October. It's like a season of a dichotomy in that on one hand, it's the high holy days of the Jewish people. They're in their holiest season of all during the time they had Rosh Hashanah was just last week. And then now they're in the 10 days of all. and these 10 days are between rosh hashanah and yom kippur coming up during these 10 days they search their hearts and they really um you know go before god to see if there's something that's occurred in the last year that they need to get taken care of they need to ask god for forgiveness or go to people And then they have Yom Kippur, when we know is when the Day of Atonement, when the high priest offers up, where they don't do that anymore because they don't have a temple, they don't have a priest. And so it's because they missed the fact that Jesus is their lamb now. But nevertheless... They still have that service. And they'll be coming up on the Feast of Tabernacles, which is a time of joy and celebration. And that's the one feast that will continue to be celebrated even in the millennial reign. They will celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. So this is a really holy time for God's chosen people. But at the same time, it's a time of increased demonic activity. This month, as we go through and progress through this month, demonic activity will increase. Be a lot more demonic chatter. And Satan, he always tries to conflict with and counteract what God is doing. So it doesn't make us nervous or anything. It doesn't make us fearful, but it means we have to be on guard. Amen. On guard. And so if the Lord allows me throughout this month, I will try to be preaching messages to this effect to answer this increased demonic activity. You know, because I thought about it, an issue that had come up in my life, not me personally, but against me, I should say. And when I realized that at least the inception of it was during the same time of year and when the enemy begins his chatter. And we're going to kind of look at that today. So this morning, we're going to begin in 2 Corinthians 11th chapter and reading one verse, 2 Corinthians 11, 3. And Paul writing says, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. So we're going to look at five words in this verse that are very important. First, we look at the word serpent. Remember, we're in the New Testament, so we're going to look at the Greek idea. It meant a snake. literally a snake but metaphorically it meant someone that is sly cunning malicious a malicious enemy and being more specific it referred to satan so in the greek thought the serpent metaphorically referred to satan and so now this serpent is the same one that started in the garden In Eden, and he beguiled Eve. And the word beguiled means to seduce someone, to deceive them. And he did it with subtlety. And this word is often translated in your King James Bible as craftiness. It means to be very clever, but in a treacherous way. It is possible for at times for it to be used in a good sense. And someone who was subtle means it's someone who's very prudent and someone that has good ideas and wisdom. But most of the time you're going to see it used in the negative sense in your Bible. And it's talking about being clever, but in a treacherous way with false wisdom. And then the next word we want to look at is corrupted. He has corrupted. And this word means defiled or it can even mean to be destroyed. Destroyed. Something can be defiled but still operational. But if it's destroyed, then you can't even use it. So there is a subtle difference. Amen? And then last of all, simplicity. The simplicity that is in Christ. And this refers to mental honesty. To be free from hypocrisy. You know... people you like to say this word they pepper their language and dialogue all the time well to be honest blah blah blah blah blah a lot of times they're not being honest but they use it to make you think they're being honest how many know what i'm trying to say here but you see the simplicity in christ means i'm going to be honest with myself okay i'm going to be honest about being honest with myself Because sometimes people say they're being honest with themselves, but they're not. Because as soon as they hit that little thing that in their spirit, they back off or gloss over it, move on to something else. That's not being honest about being honest. It's when the Holy Spirit convicts you on something and you don't gloss over it, you face it. you own up to it, and then you say, Lord, forgive me of this and help me going forward. That's the simplicity that's in Christ. So we're talking here about the fact that Paul is concerned that just like Satan was able to beguile and deceive Eve through his subtlety, his clever craftiness, he is concerned that their minds... Their minds could be corrupted, that they could be defiled or even destroyed from the simple honesty that is in Christ. So we know that he's talking about Satan, the serpent. Let's turn to Genesis 3 and verse 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, which is Eve. Yay. Has God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden. So now we have the word serpent in the old Testament, which means we want to look at the Hebrew idea. The Hebrew word is Nakash Nakash. And it means simply a snake. That's the noun form. But when it's used in its verb form, it means to whisper. Literally, it means to hiss, to hiss like a snake, to hiss like a snake. And so we get the idea of whisper like a snake hisses. This word nakash evolved to refer to those who practice divination, to enchanters and spellcasters and fortune tellers. In fact, five times it's translated in your King James Version Bible, enchantment. And there is a connection to this word nakash, meaning snake or serpent, to the word whisperer. As this is how those who practiced definition and casting of spells spoke. They spoke in whispers, in secret, in darkness. And so the connection. You see, the snake hisses before it strikes. And if you hear that hiss, it's a warning. Amen. You're getting a warning that you need to watch it now because if you get too close, he's going to strike. He's going to bite you. Amen. So the snake will hiss. And in Hebrew thought, the snake is a symbol of a deceitful enemy. And again, the Hebrew thought matches that of the Greek thought, specifically Satan, or they would say Ha-Satan. Because we could actually give Satan the title, amongst many others that he has, we could call him the whisperer. The whisperer. Amen? You know, this is just popping in my mind, but we've heard about the dog whisperer and the horse whisperer, but that's all in a good sense. They can take animals that are hard to tame and hard to control. And there can be a certain person that just seems to have this gift and they can just talk to that dog and that dog will just immediately become obedient. And the same way with a horse who's wild and nobody can ride on him and they can't tame him. But the horse whisperer has a way. Can come up to that horse and just stroke its face and whisper something to it. And that horse will just become docile. So that's in a good sense. But when we speak of Satan and we call him the whisperer. He may come up and try to stroke your face and whisper in your ear. But he's coming to deceive you. He's coming to beguile. He's coming to corrupt. Amen? And we have to be on guard and not fall for it. He works in a subtle, crafty way, just like a snake hiding in the grass. And how many know that some very poisonous snakes that can be deadly often have these very detailed words. colorations on them they may have diamond shapes on them or certain stripes on them because it's camouflage for them to blend in with everything but if you see some of these snakes out in the open like the copperhead that can be deadly they have a certain stripe pattern with a color going through it and you know that this is a deadly snake I mean, it's not only going to bite you, but you're going to get very sick and maybe even die. Amen. And that's how Satan is. And he always begins with a whisper to the mind. Isn't that what Paul said? Your mind. The mind is the place where we've got to win the battle over thoughts that come from Satan. Amen. It's the mind where he attacks. It's the battlefield of the mind that we must get the victory over because if we don't, then he can defile our mind with thoughts of fear and other negative thoughts. Amen. And then they can just invade our whole person. So Satan begins with a whisper in one's mind. It may be an accusatory thought or statement like we just read here in Genesis 3.1. He said in an accusatory way, "'Yay, has God said?' As God said, you may not eat of every tree in the garden. And so the inference is, make God look harsh. Make God look stingy. Make God look like he doesn't really care about you. Like he's withholding something good from you when he tells you not to do this or not to do that. Make him look like a meanie. Amen. And that's out there today. That's what's spreading. If you don't only say that God is love, exclusively God is love, and that's all you say, you can't say that God is a God of justice. God is a God of truth. God is a God of judgment. Because then all of the sudden, has God said that? What kind of God is that? Amen? So he comes with that thought. And he usually doesn't come real bold and out loud right away because you're going to cast him down. But he comes with that whisper to your mind, a suggestion, a notion. And if you don't cast it down, he will speak a little louder and a little bolder and continue to lie to you. It could be that whisper of lust, that temptation. And he may whisper to you, you're not doing anything wrong. There's nothing wrong with what you're doing. Amen. But he's going to escalate it. It's going to go forward. If you don't cast it down, he's going to then come with the next step. Amen. It could be that whisper of anger. Look what they did to you. Look what they said about you. Amen. It's very hard to get rid of that anger in those initial stages when someone has done something terrible to you unjustly, lied about you unjustly. The anger is so powerful. It's palpable. And then Satan tries to come. You know, he is an opportunist. He tries to come and build on that. Amen. You've got to get rid of those whispers when they first come. And they can come in many ways depending on your situation or what you're going through. And there's so many things out there in the world that's bombarding us all the time. We cannot let our minds dwell on them or Satan, the opportunist, will come in and begin to whisper. Whisper things. You know, something can happen, one person against another person. And it can be for some reason that is very specific. But Satan will come and say, oh, they don't like you because you're white. Oh, they don't like you because you're black. Uh-huh. I ain't talking about just in the world. Right. Now, see, I'm talking about people in the church because Paul was writing to Corinth. He was writing to a church. Those whispers of racism. And don't tell me the devil doesn't bring them to you. I don't believe it. Because when he brings them to me, I know it's the devil. You know, they don't like you because you're a woman. They don't like you because you're a white woman. They don't like you because you're an old white woman. Yeah, I've heard them whispers. Amen. And, you know, at first I get really put off by it. I'm like, I know they don't like me. You know, they probably wish this and wish that. But after a while, I have to think to myself, well, wait a minute. I didn't volunteer to do this. God put me here. He enabled me. He endowed me. He anointed me. And I'm going to do it. And I'm going to speak the truth. And people that think those things, they got something in their heart and the devil's whispering and they're listening to him. You need to shut the devil down. Whenever he brings those racist thoughts to you. The world is so permeated with those thoughts. Every news thing that happens has got a slant to it. And they always bring racism into everything. It's the devil's work. We're not surprised. It's what he does. And he found out it works good. We can't let the devil whisper that to our minds. Amen. It was whispers of jealousy and envy. Amen. Oh, that is a powerful spirit, a powerful spirit. When someone comes under attack by those spirits, it's really strong and it can cause them to imagine all kinds of things that aren't even true. sometimes they can imagine things against their own mate and the devil's convinced them your mate is unfaithful and it is not a bread of truth in it but he can take little innocent actions and say see see there uh-huh and you think yeah that that that's right they are doing that uh-huh i tell you the devil what he does he's good at but we gotta be wiser This scripture just popped in my head. I don't even have it in my notes. Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. In other words, we need to have some Christian subtlety. We need to know how to counteract the devil at his own game. But we are wise as serpents. We're clever in a godly, righteous way. But we're harmless as doves. Because we've got the right attitude. We've got the Holy Spirit. Amen. He whispers fear. I think everyone is more powerful than the other. Now that I'm going along here, fear is so powerful. It can cripple people. It can cripple people till they can't even hardly function. It can cripple them till they cannot enjoy the blessings God has in their lives. They are so afraid of everything. And I'm not surprised because it was the first negative emotion that mankind ever felt. When Adam and Eve sinned, you know, the story goes on to tell us. And then they went and hid. And God came walking in the day and he said, where are you, Adam? And he said, well, I hid because I was afraid. I tell you, saints, I don't know how many times through the years that people have come to me and their prayer request is a spirit of fear. And I can identify with it. I understand it because I was under it. I came under it very strongly. And I've told those testimonies before how I got delivered, so I won't do it today. But I understand how strong a spirit of fear is. I had it from a child. As a little child, I had it. And then as I grew up, I seemed to overcome it. And I didn't have it for many, many, many years. and then it hit me again hard when i had the back issue so i understand the fear the things that the devil says to you sometimes he'll tell you you're going to die you're going to die and it can become so real to you that you start having symptoms in your body you never even had before i know that that is true i know it So slander, whispers of slander. And this is blasphemy. And, you know, people always think that blasphemy can only be done against God. They always connect blasphemy against God. But you read the New Testament. You read Paul. He says you can blaspheme against other people. And a lot of times they are outright lies. And the thing about it is he is so clever and crafty, he has the ability to make it sound true. To make it seem so plausible, to make it seem true. We looked at Greek, so now we see the Hebrew word for subtle. It means to be shrewd, crafty, cunning, and sly. Again, the word here in the Hebrew, the idea is that it's hard to distinguish between two things. The difference is so subtle that it's hard to differentiate between the two of them. The distinction between them is not obvious immediately. A subtle difference. And, you know, it happens a lot of times in a good way. You know, you're going to paint your bedroom a new color. Okay, we're going to make it a blue bedroom now. And so now you have bought your bedding, and so now you've got to go to the store and get paint, and you want to make sure that it blends. So you're pretty sure you know what color you want, or vice versa. You've already painted the room. Now you're going to go look for bedding, whichever way. And you go into the paint store and you think, okay, we're going to get a light blue. There are 4,235,000 swatches of light blue. And you're like, this is just blue. Put it next to your bedding and they clash. One after another. One after another. You know, you think that it is the same color. But when you get them next to each other, there's a subtle difference. Amen. It's that subtle difference. See, sometimes, saints, it's not a matter of discerning between right and wrong. That's not subtle. It's discerning between right and almost right. Amen. That's where the devil gets in and whispers in your ear. Amen. He uses words of reasoning to camouflage his true intent. Amen. What a bondage-breaking word of the Lord, the whisperer. One of Satan's most dangerous and effective tactics is not just to lie against God, but to subtly whisper his accusations like the hiss of a deadly serpent. He is called the serpent and the accuser of the brethren. He could also be called the whisperer. Paul wrote to the church of Corinth, I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, So your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. There are five significant Greek words in this verse that tell the story of Satan, the whisperer, and reveal how he whispers thoughts to the mind that accuse God and godly members of the body of Christ. If they are not taken captive when just a thought, a notion or suggestion, they can become mental strongholds of deception. Whisperers can tear up a church. with jealousy, slander, suspicion, and lies, maligning leadership and wounding members. Learn how to discern the whispers of the enemy and take captive every thought. Make sure not to allow the hedge of protection around your life to be broken down because Proverbs says, where the hedge is broken, the serpent bites. Order The Whisperer on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK-208. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Order online at soundoffaith.org where MP3s are available. To order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK208. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
Discover the transformative power of Shalom as Brother Hardy delves into the essence of peace from a biblical perspective. By exploring pivotal stories from scripture, he reveals how God's active presence guides and nurtures believers through life's challenges. Drawing from personal experiences and foundational teachings, this episode emphasizes the importance of letting God's peace rule in our hearts, empowering listeners to face trials with faith and courage.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to this program of the Archie Hardy Ministries. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for tuning in today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message by my father, Brother Hardy, is truly a beautiful word of comfort and encouragement. It is entitled simply, Peace, Shalom. What actually does the Bible terminology for peace, shalom in Hebrew, mean? It is more than just the absence of conflict or trouble. It is the wholeness of spirit, soul, and body, as we will hear in Peace Shalom.
SPEAKER 02 :
I'm not going to let my heart be troubled. The only way that I can be troubled is if I let it. You know, when we got saved, this is one of my sayings I coined over the years of almost 40 years preaching, that when I got saved, I got the let's. You see, when we got saved, we were no longer slaves anymore. When we were in the old economy, when we were in the reign of the devil, we were slaves. And some people stay so close to the line of demarcation, they still keep the mind and the demeanor of a slave. They still think it's a slave instead of a free man. A lot of times preachers would like to give the illustration of What it means to be free is that a man's in prison and the governor pardons him, and the door's open, but he don't want to go, he stays there. And the warden tells him, you're free! But he still stays in prison. And that's the way a lot of saints are. Jesus freed them, but they still stay in prison. The door's open, no authority left. no rule and no power can legally keep them but they stay there they don't know they have the lets so instead of letting himself be free they let themselves stay in bondage i refuse to be bound i've got that part of shalom which is yeshua i got salvation you see how many's got yeshua that's the hebrew word for jesus If the Old Testament, if the New Testament would have been written in the same Aramaic, instead of him being called as in English, Jesus the Christ, he would have been Yeshua the Mashiach. How many say amen? Instead of Yeshua Christus, he is Yeshua. He's my salvation. He's my savior. He's my deliverer. He's actively present, working for my well-being and my good. and I don't care what comes along my path if I love him he's actively present to work all things together for good Romans 8 28 one of my four foundational scriptures from the beginning of my salvation that I based my salvation on Jesus is the chief and only foundation of But I've built on him, Paul said, if any man build on, can no other foundation be laid? Only that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus the Lord. And if any man build thereupon, now I've built upon the foundation of Jesus. He's my righteousness. I'm saved because of Jesus and Jesus alone. Jesus plus nothing. Jesus alone. Plus nothing saved me. And I have based my eternal hopes and expectations of eternal life on the foundation of the sacrificial death of Christ, his shed blood on Calvary. And Paul said in that Romans, I have been made righteous by his blood. Three things that made us righteous. We have been made righteous by God's grace. The free gift of Christ. And then we have been made righteous by the shedding of the free gift of grace, Christ's blood. And then we have been made righteous by faith in that shed blood. Hallelujah. And that is my foundation for my eternal life and eternal expectations with a life with God in his house and in his kingdom forever and ever. And on that foundation, I have built my building with four pillars. And the one pillar is Romans 8, 28. And I know when I found out with Paul, Paul said, we knew. We know. He knew, and a whole lot have found out with him, and they know. And I know that all things work together for good to them that love God. How many is out there, and you love God? Well... All things, everything is working together for shalom as you love God. The condition is only that you love God. And the definition of loving God is, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And if you will keep God's word, then all things are working together for good. Now a better translation is, God is at work in everything for good to them that love the Lord. Everything in your life. No matter what comes, God is going to work it in. And when he gets done, it's going to be good. I don't care if the devil sells you like Joseph down to Egypt. When God gets done, it's going to be good. If Joseph wouldn't have went to Egypt, you and I wouldn't be saved today because the family and the line that our Savior was to come through would have died in the famine. But Joseph realized that when he was in Egypt and his brothers come. And instead of being hateful, he had shalom. He had shalom in his life and he had shalom working for the well-being of his brothers. How many say amen? And when he revealed himself to his brethren, they were scared. Because they realized Joseph was in this powerful position and their lives were in his hands. Amen. And they were scared. They didn't know whether they had shalom or not or destruction. They didn't know whether it was going to be well with their being or were they going to be being destroyed. joseph revealed himself and said don't worry it was all in god's plan don't you know god sent me down ahead don't you know god sent me down ahead that i might preserve the family the nation and if you're a child of god the bible said the steps of a righteous man are ordered of the lord And if you're a righteous person and you love and obey God, no matter what comes your way, God's going to be at work. The presence, the dynamic presence of God, El Shaddai, is going to be present with you at work to work it for the good. Take it again. Israel was down in the lands of the Persians. And old Haman raised up. Got the king to sign a law to kill all the Jews. But God worked it all out to good. He caused the king to dislike his present wife. And he made him love Esther. And you know the story. Esther went into the king and said, I love you, king, and everything's wonderful, but you're going to kill me. And he said, kill you, why? Because I'm a Jew too. How many say amen? Never going to kill her uncle? Mordecai, she put herself in jeopardy. once she walked in the king's presence if he didn't extend his scepter that meant death nobody could come into king's presence when he sat on his throne unless he invited them or if they came in uninvited if he didn't extend the scepter of his kingdom it was death and she was in that place because haman was going to kill all the jews and her uncle mordecai said don't you stay back in safety go into that king and save the people or die with the people. How many say amen? In that great moment of trial and test, she stood in front of the king and God made the king love her and extend that scepter and spared the Jewish people. Then the devil raised up against her uncle because he stood for righteousness and was a child of God. everything is not going to go smoothly as a child of god just like when you get married don't you think your marriage is all going to be a honeymoon after you've been married for a while you're not going to see the stars but you might see stars how many say amen but you've got to commit yourself that you're both going to work together for the good of that marriage And God is committed that he's going to work together for good, for our shalom. And old Haman built the scaffold to hang Mordecai. But God troubled the king. And the king got up and told him, bring me the chronicles, the records of my kingdom. And in there he found out that Mordecai saved him from being killed. So he called Haman in. Oh, I like the irony. I like the humor of the Holy Ghost. Some people think God doesn't laugh, but I like his humor. How many say amen? Hallelujah. I'm talking about shalom. Do you have it today? Do you have shalom? Are you letting your heart be troubled? Are you letting it be afraid? are you believing God and knowing that God is actively at work for your well-being for your good and your salvation hallelujah I'm talking about Mordecai God will work all things Together for good. Or a better translation, God is at work in everything for good to them that love the Lord. I don't care what it is that comes across your path if you're a child of God. God might have not designed it. The devil might have been the instigator of it. But if you love God and the world being God, then God's going to be at work to turn it around and make it good. Like he took the son of Joseph down to Egypt for good to save the nation Israel. Like he took the lion's den to elevate Daniel. like he took the fiery furnace to elevate Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and destroy all of their enemies. Jesus said, I think this must needs come, but woe unto them that bring it. People, the devil's going to stir people up to get at you, but woe unto them. Whoa! Because they have touched the apple of God's eye and they don't know that God is actively present working for the good of his children. When you're getting a test, God is working it for your good. And when the enemy brings something against you, God's going to step in. The active presence of God's going to step in. And when he gets done, it's going to be a blessing. So after the king called for the records, the chronicles of his kingdom, and found out that Mordecai saved him, he called Haman. And oh, Haman's so full of self. And you know, when you get self, you're so blind, you don't see nobody but self. And the king said to Haman, what should I do for that person I really love and admire and want to do something good for him? And right away old Saul thought, he's talking about me. He said, I want you to put him on your mule. You know, the mule back in those days was the symbol of the king's power. Remember when David made Solomon king, when his other brother was trying to steal the kingdom? David said, get my mule and put Solomon on him, and lead him through the city and proclaim him king. How many say amen? And the king says, well, get my mule, and that person that I loved, and old Haman was ready to do it, says his Mordecai, and you put him on my mule and you lead him through the city and proclaim him, he's blessed to me. How many say amen? Honey, what God's for you, he'll make the enemy put you on God's mule of authority and lead you through his kingdom saying, this is the one that is in power. And in favor with the almighty God. Fear him. God's at work in everything. For our good if you love God. How many say amen? We are supposed to be ruled by peace. Not fear. Colossians 3.15 says, And let the peace of God rule in your heart, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. You were called to peace. Remember I'm talking about perfect well-being in every aspect of your life. Now here he's going to single out the aspect of peace. Let it rule. You're going to have to go to the Greek word again to see what that word rule means. And the Greek word here for rule, I guess the best word we would call it in the English would be referee. It was an arbitrator. It was the referee at the great Greek and Roman games. And he ruled. Who was a winner or who was a loser? Or who could compete and who couldn't compete? He was to be the referee. And whatever he said, his decision was final. And God said, let peace, perfect tranquility, settle on the throne of your life. And when the devil tries to bring or the world or man or sense knowledge or anything like I preached just recently that you perceive with your physical eyes and hear with your ears or smell with your smell or taste or touch. Don't let that reign your life and govern your life. But let peace sit on the throne and be the referee. And when your sight or sound or any of the sense knowledge tells you be fearful, be afraid, be on uncertainty and doubt, then ask peace for a ruling. You want a replay. How many say amen? Don't sit there and tell me you don't watch football. You ain't kidding me. Whenever the world and self and the devil tries to force their decision, then call for a replay and their peace will overrule it. Peace will not let it come in. Peace will not let it govern. You won't be shook up. Let the peace of God reign. You see, it's a command and you got the let's. I can either let the peace of God reign. See, just because somebody commands something doesn't mean I'll have to do it. I could command you to give me all your money right now. Does that mean you're going to do it? I would to God that was that way. I'd command all the devils to give the money to the gospel. Honey, when you get saved, you get the let's. One of them is let not your heart be troubled, let it be afraid. The negative and the positive, let the peace of God be the one that gives the final ruling. I am not going to let anything come into my soul to disturb its well-being. I'm going to let peace of God overrule it. And when bad feelings try to come, good feelings of peace takes over. How many say amen? Then peace is supposed to be our guard to keep us. How many say amen? Philippians 4 and 7th verse to the 9th verse it says, And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Key in here is through Christ Jesus, the active presence of the Lord working for our shalom, the well-being of our whole being is going to guard us. And this word in the Greek guard is like the word garrison of soldiers. Like Paul, remember he was in Damascus? And the governor of the city surrounded the city with a whole garrison of soldiers to take Paul captive. How many ever read that, Max? You ought to read it sometime. Bring a blessing to you. But Paul had shalom. He had the active presence of God in his life. And even though all those Roman soldiers were around him, garrisoned around him, to take him captive, God snuck him out, the secret passage, because he said with every temptation, every trial, every test, God will make a way of escape that you may bear it. So here's a picture. Jesus said a city set on a hill can't be hid, and we're one of his cities. How many say amen? And God has a garrison of soldiers all around us. Peter tells us who the soldiers are. He said, we are they that are kept garrisoned, guarded, the same word in the Greek. We are they that are garrisoned about by the power of God. God's got his power all around us. A few years back, one songwriter came out with a song, Jesus, the offense all around me. All around the child of God is the active presence of God in activity, working for their well-being. And in those days, the cities were made like forts. They were walled. They had gigantic gates, and at sunset, they would lock the gates. I think Nineveh, when they dug it out, the walls were so thick that they could raise six chariots on the top of them in a chariot race. Six chariots, in other words, a six-lane highway, that's how thick those walls were. You see, they didn't have bombers and bazookas, so what they would do was go into a walled city and make a thick wall, and they wouldn't be able to break the walls down and make these gigantic gates, and they wouldn't be able to break them down. And at night, they would close those gates. I guess maybe a better way to understand, instead of the Middle East, is the castles in England. How many say amen? The cities were castles, all walled up, had the big gates. And then there was a garrison of soldiers in there. And if anybody wanted to come in after sunset, They'd have to go through the eye of the needle. Now we can understand that saying where Jesus said that it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a man that trusts in riches to enter the kingdom of heaven. You've got to trust in God. Now to the English person, we would think this modern day, a little needle. that you can't even get a piece of thread in, especially after you get 50. And your arms get short. You know, when you get around 40, 42, your arms get short. Sure, when you read a paper, you got to do it like this. Or if you want to thread a needle, you do it like this. You get farsighted. Sure, when you get after 40 in the spirit, you've got a far sight. You're looking for heaven. You ain't no more looking on the earth. You're looking for that city. You're looking for the return of the Redeemer and the Savior. You're not looking at the earth. Because 40 means test. And after you went through your test in the Lord and passed your test, you're not governed by the senses. You're not looking at the things which are seen. You're governing your life on heavenly things and eternal things, not natural and right now things. That's the trouble with the natural man. He lives for right now. don't realize about the future where he'll spend eternity so at night they'd shut the gates and the soldiers would be all garrisoned there up on the walls and then they would have the soldier at the eye of the needle and the eye of the needle was a little opening If you ever go on a Holy Land trip, they'll show it to you. You'll see doors, and then in the door, down the bottom will be a little door. And in order for that camel to go through the eye of that needle, that little doorway, they had to take all the load off of him. And then he would have to get down on all fours, and they would have to push him through that opening. But on the other side was a soldier there with a sword. And if anything but a camel come through, he lost his head. I could preach and tell you if you're going to make it into that city of heaven. you're going to have to strip every weight. You're going to have to lay aside every weight and the sin that's so easy to set you. And you're going to have to get down on your knees and press your way in. And on the other side, it's going to be the emitting angel with the book of life. And if your name isn't on the roll, you're not going to get through. And we are to let peace... be at the gate of our inner man. And when anything tries to creep in that's contrary to our well-being, when anything tries to creep in, any thought, any insinuation, I don't know how many of God's people are oppressed and obsessed by the devil. You know what obsession is? Obsession is demon possession of the mind. When you're obsessed, the devil has possessed your mind and all you think about is that thing you're obsessed on. And a lot of God's children, they have failed to let peace be at the guard of the gate of their life. And they've let the devil come in with all of these fearful thoughts. And they're tormented. They're obsessed. Night and day he speaks it. Some of them he'll say, you got cancer. You got tuberculosis. Now the most fearful thing, you got AIDS. Or your husband don't love you anymore. Or nobody cares. An old obsessing melancholy spirit. Nobody cares for you. That's the biggest lie that was ever hatched out of hell. God so loved you he gave Jesus. Jesus so loved you. He left his home, his throne, his glory. Being rich, he became poor. He left everything, he became poor. Took on the same robe of flesh. Walk where we have to walk. And the whole time he lived on the earth, though he was a creator, he told that man that wanted to follow him, the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, and the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. He had nothing legally that was his. He had to depend on people like Lazarus and Mary and Martha to take him in. When he died, he had to borrow a rich man's tomb. The only thing that he had was love for mankind, mercy for mankind, grace for mankind. salvation for mankind, healing for mankind, deliverance for mankind. All he had to give was shalom. And when he rose on that resurrection day, I won't say morning because he didn't rise in the morning. He rose in the evening about one second after 6 p.m. because that's when the Jewish day starts. Don't start like our 12 midnight. Their day starts at 6 p.m. is their new day. And Saturday at 6 p.m., the third day, Jesus rose up out of that tomb. all his disciples hiding behind closed doors their whole life disintegrated everything went up for them smoke everything they hoped in was gone because they thought that the act of presence of their lord and savior was gone he was dead and they were waiting for dark to slip out and run back to galilee like a dog in defeat with his tail between his legs but in that dark moment jesus the son of righteousness stood in the midst of his disciples and said shalom i am here i am actively present and my active presence is going to be with you for the well-being and the good of your whole man nothing between you and your god nothing no fear no apprehensions in your mind and in your soul healing for your body Victory for your life. I'll supply all of your needs. And they arose, and I'll tell you what. They went to the highways and the byways of Hedges with the shalom, the active presence of God working actively through them. And they peace, peace to wherever they went. Peace to wherever they went. Peace to the left. Peace to them that are near. Peace to them that are far off. Shalom, my brother. God says shalom, my sister. Let not your heart be troubled. I'm actively at work for your well-being. Oh, give him a good clap, all friends.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. What a truly uplifting word by God's servant, Brother Hardy. Peace. Shalom. The Hebrew meaning of shalom is much richer and deeper than our English piece conveys. It is a total well-being and wholeness of the whole person, spirit, soul, and body. God intends for his children to live by the promise and the principle of shalom. And Satan seeks to steal our peace, but we have been commanded to let the peace of God rule in our hearts and minds by Christ Jesus. And this term rule refers to an umpire or referee who makes the calls in a game. And we are called to let God's peace rule in our lives. God's kingdom is a kingdom of peace, and we serve the Lord of peace, who is the Prince of Peace. The principle of God's shalom is directly tied to our thought life. What we think upon will either create peace or fear, soundness of mind or trouble and turmoil. But God will keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him. And Paul said we are to think on those things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, that are virtuous and praiseworthy. And the peace of God will keep and guard our hearts and minds. This message, Peace, Shalom, is one that every child of God needs to hear at some point or another in his life. Maybe that's you right now or someone you know. If so, you can order Peace, Shalom on Sidi for a love gift of $10 for the radio ministry. Request offer 183. Mail to Archie Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to ArchieHardy.org. Once again, to order the CD, Peace Shalom, request offer 183. Send a minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
In a world where peace seems elusive, the words of Brother Hardy bring comforting assurance of God’s promise of peace — shalom. Discover how to access this ultimate peace through the teachings of Jesus and the transformative power of the Holy Ghost. We are reminded that God’s kingdom is a domain of righteousness, peace, and joy, transcending worldly challenges and fears.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to this program of the Archie Hardy Ministries. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for tuning in today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message by my father, Brother Hardy, is truly a beautiful word of comfort and encouragement. It is entitled simply, Peace, Shalom. What actually does the Bible terminology for peace, shalom in Hebrew, mean? It is more than just the absence of conflict or trouble. It is the wholeness of spirit, soul, and body, as we will hear in peace, shalom.
SPEAKER 02 :
I feel like David this morning when he said, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. How many can say amen? All right, I want to preach on the subject this morning, peace. Something that's fleeting in this world. The doctrine of peace. If you have your Bible, you want to read, I'm just going to read one verse in Romans 4, 17. Romans 4, 17. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. What the kingdom of God is not, is not meat and drink. but it's righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. What Paul's talking about here, if you read the verses up ahead in the 14th and even in the 13th chapter of Romans, he's showing that the kingdom we're not in is not like the Old Testament kingdom, mainly in feast and holy days and convocations and in the letter, but our kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. Instead of having just cardinal ordinances and feast days that the old Jewish covenant had, we have righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. This is the condition of God's kingdom. When he saved us, he reached down into the devil's kingdom where we were, we're slaves, picked us up, translated us out of that kingdom, and then put us in the kingdom of his dear son. And the atmosphere and the condition of that kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. And that's the attitudes and the condition that you and I as a child of God should be living in. we shouldn't be afraid of anybody we shouldn't be full of fear and apprehensions because the only people in the kingdom of God that we're in is righteous people and I don't have to worry about them sneaking up on me and robbing me or murdering me because they're only righteous ones like David said in the 23rd Psalm only goodness and mercy follows me we're supposed to be living in this kingdom where there's only righteous ones nothing to fear therefore we ought to have the attitude of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost and nothing on the outside can take this righteousness that we have this peace that God has given us or the joy of the Holy Ghost no outside circumstances I believe before I go any further I need to give to you the definition of peace now the English word peace doesn't quite translate and give us the meaning of the Greek word Irene and we get our English word for the name Irene out of that or the Hebrew word Shalom and we look at peace as a negative meaning The English word peace gives us a negative understanding, and it means no hostilities, the absence of war. But that's not the biblical meaning of the word peace, irini or shalom. See, you could have absence of war and still not have peace. You take it in China, they're not having a war, but those people do not have Bible peace. They're oppressed people. said they're beat down they're oppressed that's not the meaning of the Bible word peace the Bible word peace means perfect well-being in body in soul in spirit perfect well-being in body free of sickness and disease to have healing and health in my soul freedom from inner conflict. You know, some people are at war with their self and tearing their self to pieces. You know, they're trying to serve God on one hand and the self and the world on the other hand, and they're torn to pieces. They're always in an inner conflict. But when you have God's shalom, you have God's peace, You don't have any inner conflict. You've got tranquility. All's at rest. In fact, like that songwriter sang, it is well with my soul. See, well-being. You're going to be well in your body, you're going to be well in your soul, and then you're going to be well in your spirit. Your spirit mind. You're not going to be tormented. See, Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid. When you've got God's shalom, you're not troubled. You're not afraid. You're not fearful. You're in harmony. How many say amen? And then peace also means perfect relationships. Perfect relationship with other men. In harmony with mankind. And also that you're working for their total well-being. also means perfect relationship with yourself like I said you're not in war with yourself and the third thing perfect relationship with God nothing between Paul said therefore being justified by faith we have what we have peace with God no condemnation no discord perfect fellowship with Almighty God and knowing that God is working for our perfect well-being he's working to bring about healing and health in our body healing and health in our soul healing and health in our mind healing and health in our pocketbook You know, synonyms of peace or good would be tov in the Hebrew. And another synonym for good is Yeshua in the Hebrew, which means salvation. See, when you got God's peace, everything's good. And remember the definition of good. There's none good but who? hallelujah when you got god's shalom when you got god's peace you're in a condition like god god's not afraid of anything god's not shook up about anything and god's not afraid of anyone he's in perfect harmony with himself and everything is in perfect well-being and that's what god is given to us you see when jesus went away Paul said in the second Corinthians and the eighth chapter, after he gave all of his goods, Paul said, don't you see the grace of God, brethren? That though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich. See, that's perfect peace. That's perfect well-being. And when Jesus gave everything away and then came and put on the robe of flesh... and walk where we have to walk and experience the things that we have to experience to qualify to be our high priest then when he was getting ready to go back to the father by the way of the cross to finish his earthly ministry of being the perfect lamb and sacrifice to take away our sins and the thing that kept us from not having peace with God and peace with ourselves and peace with mankind. He said, I don't have nothing else to leave you. I've already became poor that you might become rich. He said, but I have one thing to leave you. And he said unto them, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, and neither let it be afraid. Another definition of peace is the active presence for your good of God. God's active presence to work for your good. And Jesus said, I am going to be actively present with you, working for your good. i'm not going to leave you comfortless i'm not going to leave you bereaved of a parent like an orphan that's what the greek word we translated here comfort i'll not leave you comfortless i know the other times in john's gospel when he talks about the word comforter it's paracletus and it means The name for the Holy Ghost to come be our helper. But in this verse where he says, I will not leave you comfortless. He's saying, I'm not going to leave you by yourself alone. And the Greek word is orphanos. And we get our English word orphan. I'm not going to leave you as an orphan. What is an orphan? An orphan is someone that has lost the supplier of his need. I said an orphan is someone that has lost the supplier of his need. Who supplies the needs of the little children? Their moms and their dads. Amen? And an orphan is someone that's been deprived of their father and their mother and they have no one to supply their needs and they might wind up in an orphanage or in a foster home of someone that don't love them and in fact will mistreat them. But Jesus said church, and when he was speaking, he wasn't only speaking to that first century church, he's speaking to you and I. I'm going to go away. I have to leave. My earthly ministry is finished. But I am not going to leave you as an orphan. I am not going to leave you and cast you in an orphanage. I am not going to cast you in a foster home where not only they don't love you, but they'll mistreat you and abuse you. But all the other meaning of the word comfort. My active presence is going to be with you and it's going to be actively in operation to look about for all of your well-being. well-being in your soul nothing between you and your God justified by grace justified by peace justified by faith and that word justification means I'm going to bring you in a right standing with me I'm going to remove everything that causes you to be in a bad standing You're going to be in a right standing with me. And therefore, you're going to enjoy my fellowship, my love, my mercy, my grace. You're going to have the joy of the Holy Ghost. You're going to have shalom, if you please. What was the first thing? word that Jesus spoke after his resurrection if you go to the story about Martha she thought he was the gardener when he met his disciples that didn't know who he was and more specifically when they were all hiding behind the doors for fear of the Jew they didn't have Shalom They thought they lost the active presence of Jesus to do them good. And all of a sudden in their deepest and darkest moment, it couldn't have been any darker for the child of God that at that moment when they had locked the doors and they were hiding themselves, from the rulers of the Jews that had just crucified Jesus and were looking for them. It couldn't have been any darker. They were looking for a way to sneak out of Jerusalem back to Galilee to save their life. Everything that they built their hopes on for the last three and a half years crumbled, disintegrated, went up in smoke as it were. Their whole life was in the ruins at their feet. And they were full of dread, uncertainty, and fear. And Jesus appeared right in the midst of them and he said what? He said, Shalom. Because Jesus was a Jew. How many say amen? And he spoke Aramaic and Hebrew. And when he said Shalom, they knew what he meant. My active presence is here. working for your well-being, working for the well-being of your soul, working for the well-being of your body, working for the well-being of your mental state, working for the well-being of your financial state. How many say amen? And he showed him his hands, and he showed him his sides, and what did he do again? He again said, shalom. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. I am actively present with you, working for your total well-being. And if I'm for you, who and what can be against us? He said, my peace I give, not as the world give, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled. And he said, my sheep, no one will pluck out of my hand. And he not only said, and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. But he also said, and I give them shalom. I give them perfect well-being. And no one, not anything, not anybody can take my shalom from them. you know how to give him a good clap over we're going to do it hallelujah we sing a song the world didn't give it to me and the world can't take it away that's what jesus meant my shalom i give unto you Not as the world. The world will give you shalom on one side, and then pick your pocket and take it away on the other side. Just when you think you got perfect well-being in the world, you got a good job, you got a good pension, you got a good hospitalization plan, and what happens? Just like we're seeing now. The company takes away your insurance plan, A lot of you, your pensions cut off, or corporate raiders have raided the corporation that you work under, and your pension's gone, and you have no shalom. Oh, but when Jesus and when God gives you shalom, there's no corporate raiders. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Nobody can take it away. Nobody but me can take my shalom with God. The only thing that's going to take my peace with God is sin, and I am not going to sin. I am not going to let sin reign in my mortal body. Therefore, the world can't take away my peace. Demons can't take away my peace. The devil can't take away my peace. Nothing can take away my peace. I don't care what happens on the outside. I've got the active presence of Jesus on the inside. And he's saying in me, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Oh, give him a clap offering. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I'm talking about shalom. I'm talking about peace, not just absence of war. A lot of people in America, we're not in a war, but a lot of people don't have peace. They do not have God's shalom. And sad to say, a lot of God's people do not have peace. They ought to have it because we have been translated out of the kingdom of darkness, translated into the kingdom of God's dear son Jesus, and his kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. But they are not obeying the command of the Lord. When the Lord said, let not your heart be troubled, and neither let it be afraid, he was not... asking or wishing you would do something. He was commanding. In the Greek grammar, that word means a command. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. When we let our hearts get troubled and when we let our hearts be fearful, then we are doing a disservice to Jesus. And we're doing a disservice to God, the Father, and the Holy Ghost. Because you know what we are saying in effect? You're not able to solve my problems. You're not powerful enough to meet my needs. You don't have the ability to bring about my perfect well-being. Is there anything too hard for God? Is there anything God cannot do? Is there any enemy that can defeat God? Is there any burden he cannot lift? Are there any cares he cannot carry? Peter said, cast all care upon him for he careth for you. Whenever we are fearful and troubled about the things of life, we are not believing God. We're not leaning upon the everlasting arm of the presence of God to work for our well-being. We're saying our circumstance is greater than God. Our problem's greater than God. Our bills are greater than God. Our needs are greater than God. My sickness is greater than God. Is there anything greater than God? Is there anything that he cannot do? He has promised my peace I give unto you. He has promised my dynamic presence is with you and is in operation for your total well-being. And as long as you keep your faith in me, I will work to bring about your perfect well-being. Perfect well-being in your soul. That there is nothing between you and your Father. Perfect well-being amongst mankind. That there is going to be nothing between. You're going to have harmony and love, not hate anymore. If it's any hate, it's going to have to be on their part. But you're going to have perfect well-being towards all mankind and you're going to be working towards their well-being. He's going to be working for well-being for your physical mind's health and your body's health. That's what shalom is. Good. Everything that's good. James said every good gift And every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, in whom is no bearableness, nor shadow of changing. God is working for our good. I said the good God is working for our good. And if we keep our faith in the good God, everything is going to be good. Everything is going to be well. You're going to say, it is well. It is well in my mind. It is well. It is well in my body. It is well. It is well in my pocketbook. It is well. It is well in my soul. Because I'm going to have Yeshua. I'm going to have God's salvation. And he's going to deliver me out of all of my fears. And he's going to deliver me out of all of my bondages. and he's going to deliver me out of all of my sicknesses and he's going to deliver me out of all of my diseases and he's going to deliver me out of all of my dilemmas because he is actively present with me working for my well-being thank you jesus hallelujah i mean that's something to shout about You want to know what a perfect definition of peace is? Read the 23rd Psalm. That's the definition of peace. You want to know another perfect biblical definition of shalom? Read the 103rd Psalm. I preached on that a few weeks ago. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all. Instead of benefits, I'm going to put in there his shalom. who forgives all of my iniquities. He's actively present and forgives all of my sins as I repent and derive strength from Him to not sin. He heals me of all my diseases. He's actively present and because He lives, I shall live also. You want another definition of shalom? It's Isaiah, the 53rd chapter. Surely he has borne our griefs. Surely he has borne our sorrows. And I did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, wounded for my transgression, perfect well-being for my soul. wounded for my transgression, bruised for my iniquity, the chastisement of my shalom, my peace is upon him, peace for my mind, peace for my body, peace for my soul, peace in my life, good for me, hey, salvation in every respect and aspect, of my life and I have nothing to fear the Lord is my helper whom shall I be afraid the Lord is my life and my salvation who shall I be afraid who shall I fear oh thank you Jesus I feel the active presence of God actively moving in his presence for me this morning I'm not gonna let my heart be troubled the only way that I can be troubled is if I let it you know when we got saved this is one of my sayings I coined over the years of almost 40 years preaching that when I got saved I got the lets you see when we got saved we were no longer slaves anymore When we were in the old economy, when we were in the reign of the devil, we were slaves. And some people stay so close to the line of demarcation, they still keep the mind and the demeanor of a slave. They still think it's a slave instead of a free man. A lot of times preachers would like to give the illustration of what it means to be free. that a man's in prison and the governor pardons him and the doors open but he don't want to go he stays there and the warden tells him you're free but he still stays in prison and that's the way a lot of saints are jesus freedom but they still stay in prison the doors open no authority no rule and no power can legally keep them but they stay there they don't know they had the less so instead of letting himself be free they let them stuff stay in bondage I refuse to be bound I've got that part of Shalom which is Yeshua I got salvation you see how many's got Yeshua that's the Hebrew word for Jesus the old testament if the new testament would have been written in the same aramaic instead of him being called as an english jesus the christ he would have been yeshua the mashiach how many say amen instead of yeshu christus he is yeshua he's my salvation he's my savior he's my deliverer he's actively present working for my well-being and my good And I don't care what comes along my path, if I love him, he's actively present to work all things together for good.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. What a truly uplifting word by God's servant, Brother Hardy. Peace. Shalom. The Hebrew meaning of shalom is much richer and deeper than our English piece conveys. It is a total well-being and wholeness of the whole person, spirit, soul, and body. God intends for his children to live by the promise and the principle of shalom. And Satan seeks to steal our peace. But we have been commanded to let the peace of God rule in our hearts and minds by Christ Jesus. And this term rule refers to an umpire or referee who makes the calls in a game. And we are called to let God's peace rule in our lives. God's kingdom is a kingdom of peace. And we serve the Lord of peace who is the Prince of peace. The principle of God's shalom is directly tied to our thought life. What we think upon will either create peace or fear, soundness of mind or trouble and turmoil. But God will keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him. And Paul said we are to think on those things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, that are virtuous and praiseworthy. And the peace of God will keep and guard our hearts and minds. This message, Peace, Shalom, is one that every child of God needs to hear at some point or another in his life. Maybe that's you right now or someone you know. If so, you can order Peace, Shalom on Sidi for a love gift of $10 for the radio ministry. Request offer 183. Mail to Archie Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to ArchieHardy.org. Once again, to order the CD, Peace Shalom, request offer 183. Send a minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
Join Sharon Knotts as she examines the biblical teachings on the human body's sanctity and the vital need for self-control. This episode confronts the real-world impact of sin on our spiritual lives and encourages listeners to avoid sin by understanding the repercussions. Delve into the roots of bitterness and forgiveness, learning how these aspects can defile the soul, and discover how embracing holiness can bring healing and divine favor.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to our program. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I'm excited to share this message with you. Render, give it back. You know, I absolutely love the way Jesus spoke with such authority and power and grace, but also how cleverly He was able to make His antagonist The Pharisees and the Sadducees and others put their feet in their own mouths every time they conspired to trap him in his words. And one particular day was unusually amusing, especially when money and paying taxes was the subject in Render, Give It Back. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians, the third chapter.
SPEAKER 02 :
Verse 16. "'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?' If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are. We saw that when Jesus went and saw how they had defiled the temple, his father's house. He began to cleanse it. And now we are the temple of God. And his inscription and image is in us. And those who defile the temple, if you defile your body, if you allow your soul and spirit to be defiled, that God shall destroy you. Amen? Flip over to the sixth chapter. Start at verse 12. And all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power, under the authority of all things. Amen? Meats for the belly and the belly for the meats. But God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I take then the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? Or a prostitute? God forbid. What know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body? For two saith he shall be one flesh. Now we're talking about the sexual union. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication, unlawful sex. Every sin that a man doth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against God. His own body. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? So he's making a lot of remarks here that we need to look at. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you. And really, if you read it in the Greek, it's another sense. He's assuming that he's in you. If it really be true, in other words, he put it this way, if it's so that you have the Holy Ghost, then realize your body is his temple. Amen? Because obviously he's not in you if you have joined yourself to sin. But he's saying if you claim to have the Holy Ghost, then know your body is his temple. Amen? So you better not defile it. Because what? I love verse 20. For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit. which are God's. So in other words, give back to God what is God's. Give back to God your spirit, your soul, and your body to be holy unto him. And don't defile yourself in any way in any of these areas because when you defile yourself, you are defiling the temple of God. And if you defile the temple of God, we see what Jesus did. He went in there and cleaned house. And he didn't tiptoe around anything. And if you defile your body, that's what the Holy Ghost is going to do because he wants to save you and not let you be destroyed. Amen? And so we must keep our bodies cleansed. I love the seventh chapter. 2 Corinthians, it says, Therefore, wherefore, beloved, having these promises, let us also cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, that we may perfect holiness in the fear of God. Why would I be afraid of God? I have no reason to be afraid of God for any other thing than if I defile my body. with sin. I never need to be afraid of God. I run up there, I jump on his lap and I say, I'm a father with no condemnation, no guilt, no shame. I don't think twice about it. I just run up there and say, dear daddy, I'm here today. But when I have sin in my life, when I know there's sin in my life, I don't do that. I have the fear of God upon me. And I know that before I can run back up and say, I'm a father, I've got to get this sin out. I've got to get cleansed. And I'm not going to go into a whole category and get out the catalog because we'd be here too long. But in the context of where we are, in what we just read, there are two major sins that defile the body. How many saw them? Gluttony, overeating, and fornication. Overeating and unsanctified sex, because that's what fornication means. Only sanctified sex there is is between a husband and wife. All the rest is unsanctified. Here's the thing about these sins. These are why these are so problematic. Both of them were dealing with normal God-given appetites. Amen? God designed us with these appetites. I mean, we cannot deny them altogether. There's no way we can get up and say, thou shalt not eat. We can't get up here and say, thou shalt never have sex. Because the human race would be eradicated very soon. If you don't eat, you're going to die. And if we don't procreate within at least 100 years, there'll be no more human race. So we cannot say abstain totally from these things. You know, if a person has trouble with alcohol or drugs or other things that they can get delivered from it, they can abstain from it totally. Don't go near it. Don't go around it. Don't go where it is. And therefore, you really greatly reduce any temptation. But you've got to eat. And we've got to be fruitful and multiply according to God's plan. Amen? And so that's why we must have self-control. Why we must have the spirit. Because when either one of these areas is abused... and goes beyond what God ordained, we run into major problems that affect us spiritually, that affect us emotionally, soulishly, and affect us physically. We all know the consequences of gluttony. We see the epidemics in America. We are the richest, richest country in the world, and we have the richest food in the world, and plenty of it. And we have the fattest people in the world. And not only fat, but we now have what is a new phenomenon, the morbidly obese. There's a new show on TLC, My 600-lb Life. The only people that get to be in this show is they weigh 600 pounds. And they got plenty of people. When a person gets to that point, they can't even walk. They can't walk anymore, which really kills me because that means they can't go to the store and get their food. Somebody's enabling them. They can't function. They can do no bodily functions, they can't wash themselves, they can't do nothing. The only thing that still works is the elbow. They get plenty of elbow exercise, those muscles work, the rest are gone. Because even if they get the weight off, they have to learn how to walk again. And so gluttony is a sin. And we see even just being a little bit overweight causes sugar diabetes and high blood pressure that puts you at risk for strokes and heart conditions and all sorts of things. And we know if we just lose 10 pounds, 10 pounds can bring all those factors into the normal zone for most people, for the most people. Not if you weigh 600 pounds, but for most people. So we know that, truth be told, many people die prematurely. Because of a problem with food. Amen? And he said, flee fornication. Run as fast as you can the other way. Because every sin that you sin, of all the sins you do, this sin is against your own body. You will pay the repercussions in your body. And don't forget why. Why? Because when you join yourself to a harlot, you join your body unlawfully in sexual union, you're taking the temple of God with his image on it and his subscription on it. You are the body of Christ. You are the body of Jesus. You are my temple, and you are joining it with sin. And the only reaction God can have is destroy that. And how does it happen? Does he let a thunderbolt come out of heaven and knock you down? No, maybe it would help if he did that to a few people. Maybe the rest would all wake up and say, I ain't doing that no more. I'm not doing that. You heard what happened to him? But see, God doesn't do that. It's very subtle. It's very subtle, but the work is starting in the body. The work of destruction. Some people will come down with sexually transmitted diseases. And some of them will be the bad kind for which there's no cure. Amen? And some will possibly become infertile. And when they do get their life together and do want to have a family, they can't. Some will have unwanted pregnancies that may force them to make another sin, a worse sin, abortion. Or if they got the fear of God and don't go there, but it hamstrings their life and the plan of their life and the road and the map that God would have done for their life. They may go so far as to go ahead and get married and two wrongs don't necessarily make a right. Or they may have already been married and have had an affair outside of the marriage. And now an unwanted pregnancy comes in and brings horrible ramifications. That's why he said, run the other way. You can't even begin to know the destruction that's going to come against you. It's not worth it. The pleasure of sin is a moment. It is literally sometimes a moment. And the ramifications are a lifetime. These sins defile the body. Amen? Gluttony and unlawful sex. So we need to walk in the spirit, and then we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. How many know that you went on that 21-day fast? In the beginning, it was hard. It was hard. You tell me I got to go three weeks without meat? I will die. But we didn't die. We lost weight. We felt better. Our blood pressure came down. We felt healthier. And we found out that you don't have to eat meat every single day. Like we believe here in America, Americans don't eat meat every day. They can't afford it. But the thing of it is, is it's not necessary to have it if you know how to eat properly. We found out how wonderful beans are. I never knew there were so many things you could do with beans. I didn't know there was that many kinds of beans. But I learned some, some I'll never have that again. But I learned how to make tofu lettuce wraps, healthy ones, like that you get at P.F. Chang's that are like 2,000 calories. So you see, we can have self-control. I'm making light because I realize that the matter we're speaking of is very serious. So we know that these are two sins that defile the body. But there's something else that defiles the body. And I want you to turn to Hebrews 12, 15 and read a verse there. Hebrews 12, 15. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God. lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Now see, most of us, we can get our Bible out. We can thump on this Bible. Flee fornication. Stop being a hog. We can all preach that message. You're defiling the body, the temple of God. Stop it. Look what happened to David. Look what happened to Esau. He sold his birthright. If we would keep reading the scriptures, we find out he's called a profane person. And God hated him because he took lightly the things of God and sold it out for a pot of beans. He couldn't bring his flesh under. He thought more of his flesh than he did the things of God and sold his birthright. What have it all started with Adam and Eve? Food. So we can preach them sermons, but oh, when we get on the root of bitterness, we don't want to go there. We don't like those sermons. Amen? But a root of bitterness will destroy you, and it will destroy you spirit, soul, and body. Amen? Yes, it will. And he says it springs up. It's a quick grower. Sometimes it comes out of the blue. You're blindsided. You didn't expect it. How does it get started? Every root has to first start with the seed. He's calling it a root. But a root comes from a seed. So back up. What's the seed? The seed is an offense. Someone wounded you. Someone betrayed you. Someone hurt you. Someone did you wrong. And if you don't deal with that in a godly fashion when it's a seed, it quickly becomes a root. And you always know what a root is by the fruit. Because the root will bring forth the fruit, and the fruit will come out. And the fruit will come out as unforgiveness. Amen? And that unforgiveness, all of these things, and it's like a vicious cycle because bitterness brings unforgiveness, and unforgiveness brings bitterness, and it goes on and on and on. You're stuck. You can't get out. And it gets worse and worse. Amen? And we have to get bitterness out of our hearts. And it's not easy. Nobody is saying that it's easy. but it's not impossible. That's the thing. It's not impossible. Because Jesus taught us to pray, and he said that when we're praying, as we are praying, forgive those who have trespassed against us, who have offended us, who have wounded us, who have betrayed us. Forgive me, Father, even as I forgive so-and-so. Forgive me, Father, as I forgive this. It's an even as principle. Even as. Even as I want to be forgiven, I know that I cannot be forgiven unless I forgive. And that is one way I think that helps more people than anything to get started on the road of healing is just to think that. I can't be forgiven if I don't forgive. If you get stuck on what this person did and you just keep going down that road and you think in some way by forgiving them that you are justifying them, there's nothing in there about they're going to stand before God. They're going to reap what they sow. They will have their time. They open up the door to stuff to come in their life. But God is their judge. But when we realize I can't be forgiven, and the last time I checked, I didn't have a halo up here. Does that look like a halo? I didn't think so. So the last time I checked, I needed to be forgiven. Amen. Amen? And in order for me to be forgiven, I have to forgive. And some things are hard. They are so hard. You say, but I can't. I feel this inside of me. I can't. And you know, all you can do is go to God and say, God, I know your word requires me to forgive, but I don't know how and I don't see how I can. Help me. Help me to forgive them through you. And when you're sincere, God will help you. He will help you. He can orchestrate things that put you in a place where all of a sudden you can feel. the holy forgiveness of God himself. Forgiving that person, and you're forgiving them through Jesus. Amen? But if you don't, that root of bitterness will destroy you. Have you ever met a person that has been taken over by a root of bitterness? You don't even want to be around that person, do you? It's like they can't say anything positive or nice or good. After a while, they can't see good in good. They not only see bad in everything, they can't see good. They can only see the negative and the bad. It takes them over. It's very pitiful. Especially if you meet someone when they're nearing the end of their life. And they have nursed this bitterness for years and years and years. And it's become a part of their personality. And you're thinking, my God, you're ready to step over on the other side. And the condition you're in is scary to me. You don't want to go there. You just don't want to go there. It's not worth it. Amen? And if you feel like you have a problem with that, that you need the Holy Ghost to help you, I recommend highly my message, cast the sycamine tree into the sea. That is a revelation that the Lord really gave me to show me. And we think of all it's about faith, but it's not. It's not about faith. It's about getting rid of offenses. So we can actually defile our body through bitterness. Amen? Let's go back to 2 Corinthians, and we will complete the trilogy of the temple of God scriptures. I call it the trilogy. 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians 6, and then 2 Corinthians 6. They all dovetail, and I'm almost finished. Let's look at verse 14. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Another form of a word for Satan. Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel, an unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. And the chapter should have never been broken here. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, that God will receive us and wash us and cleanse us and make us his sons and daughters. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So we see that our temple bears the image of God. We cannot take this temple of God and unite it with the temple of idols. That means do not marry an unbeliever. Don't marry an unsaved person thinking some fallacy that after you get married, you're going to get them saved. You have already started on disobeying God's word. You've already started on a broken law. And it's not going to happen. If they won't get saved before you get married when they're trying to win you, when they've got you, why should they bother then? And if somewhere down the road they do get saved because you just hang in there and pray and believe and fast and pray, you are going to suffer a lot of heartache and abuse. that you wouldn't have had to suffer if you would not have broken the law of God. Amen? So don't be unequally yoked. We got a letter this week that I had to answer from a lady. God bless her. She's going to some church, and she's telling me all the things that the pastor says and does in the pulpit. He comes out there and tells the people, you all are a bunch of devils. You all are of Satan, you know, and calls them all kinds of names and says these things and preaches false doctrine. And I'm thinking, hello. Why are you writing us? Just don't go back there. And she said, but this man says he speaks, he speaks for four hours at a time in tongues. But we know that there are imitating spirits. Not everything that talks in tongues is God. Amen. Amen? And so you're going to take that and take all that abuse? And then she asked me to explain something in the book of Revelations about the prophecies there and the symbolism and who does this mean. And I wrote her back. I didn't even answer who it means or not means. I said, you know, that's beside the point. It really doesn't matter if you believe that this is this, A, B, or C, because that is not integral to your salvation if you get that wrong. You're not going to mess up if you misunderstand one of the symbols in the book of Revelation. Nobody has the full, total understanding. I'm sorry. We all have different, this school says this, and this school says that, and the other school says this. But if you sit under a false prophet spewing out demonic words, doctrines of devils, you may get yourself under that influence and become deceived. I wrote her back. I said, you don't need to go back to that church. Why would you go and subject yourself to such abuse? Don't be unequally out. What concord, what agreement does the temple of God have with Belial, the sons of Satan? Amen? So we are to come out and touch not the unclean thing because we are a threefold person, spirit, soul, and body. And here's how I tell God all the time. Lord God, my body is your temple. My soul and spirit are your altar. And I want to be clean because I want my praises and my worship to come up as a sweet-smelling savor. I want it to be like the frankincense upon the meal cakes at the evening sacrifice, so let the lifting of my hands be, David said. And in closing, not only must I keep myself clean because I'm in the image of God, not only because I am made in his likeness and image, but you know I told you about that subscription, that written thing that was on the coins? He said that he was the divine son of God. Well, I tell you what, I have a subscription on my temple. It says Sharon Ann Hardy Knotts, daughter of Jehovah God. Amen. supreme creator and ruler of the world. And in him do I trust. He is my father, the only true and living God. And I bear his image in my body. And because I bear his image in my body and I won't defile it with sin, I expect him to keep this body healthy. Amen. I expect him to heal this body when it gets sick. I expect him to make this body strong when it's weak. And you know, because I expect that, God does it. Hallelujah. I just turn the tables back on God. I tell him, yeah, I'm your responsibility. You made me. You created me. And I obeyed your word. I give it back. I gladly give it back. I give you every part of my body. Now make it whole. Make it healthy. Make it strong. That I may glorify you. Amen. I don't have any problems with giving it back to God. And I remind the devil when he comes, no trespassing. This is the property of Almighty God. And you have nothing in me. Amen. So if you're here this morning and you've been battling with sickness and the devil tries to put sickness on you and God touches you and heals you, sometimes that dirty devil tries to bring it back. But you know what? You give it back to the devil. Amen. Sickness doesn't come from God. Anybody tells you that God made you sick because he's teaching you a lesson is messing up with the word of God. Do you think God gives out sickness? He gives out every good and perfect gift. So when the devil tries to bring sickness, give it back. Give it back. Give it back.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. I hope you're enjoying this message. Render, give it back. You know, the day Jesus spoke these words had to be one of the most intense and yet amusing days of his ministry. I'll call it the boomerang day because on this one day he was confronted by the Pharisees and their spies, the Sadducees, the Herodians, the lawyers, asking questions they thought would trap him in his words. The chief priests were furious because Jesus had cleansed the temple, throwing out the money changers, declaring, my father's house is a house of prayer, and you have made it a den of thieves. This had to stop. He was exerting too much authority. The funny thing is, the Pharisees and Sadducees were usually arguing with one another, much like our Democrats and Republicans today. But in a joint effort, they conspired to challenge Jesus on whether or not to pay taxes to Caesar and if he said yes the people would rise up because they hated paying taxes to rome and god never intended israel to be enslaved to another nation if he said no they could seize him and take him to pilate for rebellion against caesar but jesus took the crafty in his craftiness "'Show me the money,' he said. The Roman denarius bore the image of Caesar and the inscription that he was divine, and there is no way one of those coins would have been given in the temple, and so the need for money changers. When Jesus said, "'Render to Caesar and render to God,' the term means to give back someone's property. Roman coins belong to Rome, and that which bears the image of God on earth belongs to God.'" If you're a Christian, that is you. Give back to God your body, which is his temple on earth. This message, Render, Give It Back, is full of nuggets you don't want to miss. So why not order the CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry? Request offer SK164. Mail to Archie Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. or go online to ArchieHardy.org. Again, send a minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, and request offer SK164 for Render, Give It Back. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
Join us in this episode as we recount the day when Jesus was put to the test by the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. From debates about taxes to declarations on divine inscriptions, Jesus masterfully counters their traps, teaching us about the balance between giving unto Caesar and unto God. These timeless lessons underscore our identity in God, urging us to reflect His image in every aspect of our lives.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to our program. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I'm excited to share this message with you. Render, give it back. You know, I absolutely love the way Jesus spoke with such authority and power and grace, but also how cleverly He was able to make His antagonist The Pharisees and the Sadducees and others put their feet in their own mouths every time they conspired to trap him in his words. And one particular day was unusually amusing, especially when money and paying taxes was the subject in Render, Give It Back. So now let's see where this takes us.
SPEAKER 02 :
We're in Matthew 22. We are going to skip down to verse 15. And I say that because I said this is the day when they all came to attack Jesus. Okay? It was the Pharisees and the Herodians that came to attack him with the story that we're going to read today. The Sadducees, as I told you a moment ago, did not believe in the resurrection. They came and asked Jesus. They painted this hypothesis. This woman got married. Her husband died. She remarried. He died. She remarried. He died. She remarried. He died. She remarried. He died. She remarried. He died. And the seventh died. She remarried. And he died. I mean, what are the chances that a woman's going to outlive seven husbands? Now, I know somebody who outlived three husbands. And that was Sister McKinney, Johnny Carver's mother. She outlived three husbands. But seven? Seven husbands? And so that's to show you they came and brought Jesus the story. Well, this woman had seven husbands. They all died. And smirkingly they said, So, tell us, who will be her husband? In the resurrection. Whose wife is she going to be in the resurrection? Because they didn't believe in the resurrection. And they figured that would stump Jesus and he wouldn't know how to answer it. And he said, you do err. Because you don't know the scriptures and you don't know the power of God. The power of God is he can raise the dead. And so there you have all these different ones coming and asking him questions. And guess what the lawyers asked him? What is the greatest commandment? They all had their little pet peeves that they brought to Jesus. But we're going to see what the Pharisees and the Herodians said, and we will begin in verse 15. Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. Took counsel. They got other people, other sects to join in. And Luke says that they sent out spies. And they sent out unto him their disciples, Luke said spies instead of disciples, with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true and teachest the way of God in truth. That's really flatter now. Neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person of men. So tell us, therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he said unto them, Whose is this image and subscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's. Then he said unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's. And when they had heard these things, they marveled and left him and went their way. I just can imagine that the air was just sucked out of the whole atmosphere. Because everybody was thinking, oh, wow, that's a good question. Yeah, man, did you hear? Shh, I want to hear what Jesus says. That's a very good question. So they came and they thought that they had crafted a question where they could stump Jesus. And that was the whole purpose, to try to catch him in his words. So they started off with flattery. How many know when anybody approaches you and takes the first... 50 to 60 seconds with flattery, you know you're in trouble. You just know. You just start stiffening up because you know what is coming now. They prepped him with false flattery. They said, master. And see, the word master in Hebrew is rabba. And we think of rabbi, and we say teacher, and those are correct. But I want you to know what the word rabbi means. The true meaning of rabbi is great one. When you want to say great is thy faithfulness, you say rabbi amunetekah. Rabbi, you hear Rabbi? The word is great. So when they were saying master, they were saying great one. Why did they call a teacher a great one? Because in the mindset of the Jewish people, that is the greatest calling of all, is to be a teacher of God's word. And so someone who was a good teacher of God's word, they would call Rabbah, great one. And so they didn't believe that Jesus was the teacher of God's word. But you see, they were trying to flatter him and they started off with Rabbah, great one. And then they go on to say, we know thou art true. And does speak the word of God truly and rightly. And you do not accept any man's person. You preach without favoritism or fear. You don't worry about anybody. You don't even accept the person of Caesar. Don't you see what they were saying to him? So you tell it straight up, Jesus. And you never have any respect of persons. Not even Caesar. Because you speak the truth. So we want to ask you, what do you think about paying taxes? You know that's all we hear right now. I don't care what party they belong to or any of that stuff. Everybody's talking about taxes. They have fought more this year in the House of Congress and the Senate over the payroll taxes. You know, your payroll taxes have been reduced for about a year. And they were even threatening to close the government and shut down because they wouldn't pass that. And the fact is, if they didn't pass that, they didn't pass the larger bill that had to do with the budget. and they were ready to shut everything down because some wanted to keep the payroll taxes where they are cut, and some wanted to say, okay, and I'm not mentioning parties, and the one party said, fine, we're okay with you keeping the payroll taxes cut, but you've got to find the money to pay for it. We can't keep increasing the deficit So you gotta cut something else, somewhere else cut something to make up for keeping the payroll taxes low. And the other party said, we ain't cutting nothing. We're going to spend more and more and more, but we ain't going to cut anything, which means the deficit goes up and up and up. And finally, the other side caved in, said, OK, we'll pass it. So what happened? You keep your payroll taxes cut. You'll keep seeing the same amount in your pay. Otherwise, you would have seen less in your pay. But they just added $100 billion to the deficit. So when you start talking about taxes, people get really emotional. Amen? People that are usually got a very gentle, calm way about them, all of a sudden they get very angry. And so they said, we want to know, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes or not? And you've got to understand when they said, is it lawful? They were not talking about Roman law. They were talking about God's law. Is it lawful according to God's law for us Jews to be paying Rome taxes? We want to know what you think about that. You see, up until that point, as hard as they tried, they had never, ever been able to accuse him on any religious matter. They had tried over and over, but when it came to religious issues or any issues at all that had to do with the law of Moses, they had never once been able to trip him up. And so now they thought, we got the perfect scenario to snare him. We are going to snare him. He is in a lose-lose situation here. Because if he says no, God's people shouldn't be paying taxes to the pagan Romans, what's going to happen? The Romans are going to come and lock him up for inciting the people not to pay taxes. And if he says, well, yes, you've got to pay taxes to the Romans because we were living here under Roman authority, then he would have been going against the word of God. Why? Because God never intended Israel to pay taxes to any government other than his own. Israel was created as a theocracy and they were only to pay tithes to God, not taxes to men. So they thought they had Jesus in a corner that he could not possibly ever get out. He was in a position where either way he was going to be in trouble. Because if he said, no, don't pay taxes, those spies would have beat it to Pilate's house so fast. We got an insurrectionist. He's telling people not to pay their taxes to Rome. And believe you me, Rome had to have lots of taxes because their armies were so huge and they were conquering and going to conquer and conquer. They needed money to feed all those men in their armies to keep the peace from where their empire had grown so greatly. But, you know, if he would say no, they were just hoping. I believe they were just saying, let him say no. Let him say no. Because we know so far he's never crossed the law of Moses. So far we've never been able to catch him. But today we got him. Because if he says no, you shouldn't be paying taxes to Rome. Rome will do our dirty work. And we'll be done with him once and for all. And we'll see if you go around teaching, calling us wicked servants. sitting up in prison. And that's what they thought. But we saw here that Jesus perceived. And if you go to Luke, don't go there. But Luke says, but Jesus perceived their craftiness. Their craftiness. And he said, why are you tempting me, you hypocrites? You don't mean one word. You've said that I am true. And I only preach the truth. And I'm not fooled by your flattery. I love what he said. Show me the money. Just show me the money. Amen? Show me the money. Somebody said, oh, here you are, Jesus. You know how people want to volunteer? Run up and hand him the penny. And he said, you know, I don't want your money. I just want you to look at it. I want you to look at it now. It really was a denarius, which was a Roman coin. And here's why I asked you about all the questions about our money. On one side of the denarius was the image of Caesar. like we see George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, they had the image of Caesar. And the Caesar that was Caesar at that time, because Caesar is just another word for king. But the one who was in power at that time was Tiberius. And so they had on one side was a picture of Caesar Tiberius, the Roman emperor. And the inscription said, listen to this, Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus. You see, Augustus, who was his father, at one point in his reign, declared himself to be a god. He said he was god. He said he was divine. So on their money was inscribed, Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus. On the other side of the coin, listen to this, was inscribed, chief priest Augustus. So Caesar saw himself as both the ruler, the emperor, divine, and the chief priest. Tiberius' father, as I said, he had demanded that people worship him as deity. That is something that no Jew, no Jew would have ever done. Amen? And that's one reason why the Romans hated them so much. They would not in any way cooperate with their type of worship. You were not going to get a Jew to say, I worship Tiberius Caesar. Not going to happen. And so when Jesus said, whose image and whose subscription is on this coin, and they all yelled out, Caesar, Caesar, Caesar, like y'all were yelling out. Amen? Some of you were saying Washington. Some were saying Jefferson. But they all knew because they only had one guy with all their money. And they all hollered out, Caesar, Caesar, Caesar. And what they didn't realize, every last one of them had just put their foot right in their mouth. Amen? And see, that was the reason why there had to be money changers. You see the word money changers. Well, what does that mean? Because there's no way but no way that any Jew would have gone into the temple with a coin in his hand with Caesar's picture on it. It would have violated the first and second commandments. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. And it's really literally thou shalt have no other gods in my face. And thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image. So it was impossible for them to take that money, that Roman coin, into the temple of God. And so they had to have money changers. I give you my Roman coin, you give me your Hebrew shekel. I give you my denarius, whether they had a shekel, they had a hefe shekel. So they had to change the money from the Roman money to the Hebrew money because they would not bring anything into the house of God that bore some other person's image who said they were God and divine and you must worship me. Amen? And so the problem with the money changers was, though, they began to cheat the people. They began to cheat them. And we won't even get into that because that's another whole issue. So we have here that he said, well, whose face is engraved on that coin? Whose picture is it? Whose inscription? What does it say? It says it's Caesar, the son of the divine Augustus. On the other side it says the chief priest. Amen? And what did Jesus say? He said, render therefore the things unto Caesar which are Caesar's. Render unto God therefore the things that are God's. Now I want to ask you a question. Feel free to answer. What does the word render mean? I hear a lot of people say give. If you think it means give, raise your hand. How many thinks it means something else? Something funny is going on here. Because I saw a few people say it means give, and I saw less people say it means something else. So what is the rest of you doing? Waiting for it? That was very, very wise. Well, those of you who said you believe it means give, I mean, really, you're right, but we got to get technical here. We have to get with the technical answer. It's okay to say give, but it's not accurate. Huh? Honor? Nope. You were okay with the word give, but you have to say it this way. Give back to. How many see there's a difference between give and give back? How many don't see it? You were very smart not to raise your hand if you did. So he didn't just say, give to Caesar what is Caesar's. He said, give back to Caesar what is Caesar's. You see, Caesar is the one that gave the orders for that coin to be minted that way. And he had his face on there. And he declared himself to be the divine. And he declared himself to be worthy of worship and to be the chief priest. Rome made those coins. And so he's saying, give back to Caesar's what is his. In other words, he said, pay your taxes. Go ahead and pay him because that's Caesar's money. It's his money. Give him back his money. But you need to also give back to God the things that are God's. How many see that? Give back. You must understand that the word means give back. Give back to Caesar what belongs to him, but give back to God what belongs to him. That denarius never, ever belonged to God. Never. God would not have anything to do with that coin because it bore the image of a pagan man who claimed himself to be God and deity. That coin never belonged to God. God didn't want it. He said, so give it back. Give it back to Caesar. But give back to God the things that are his. Now when they heard his words, they marveled, they held their peace. For the first time, they were utterly speechless. And I'll tell you, that right there was a feed in itself. I love the scripture, and I think about it right now. The crafty was taken in their craftiness. Amen? Because the scripture says he disappoints the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. I love that verse. That's in Job. He takes the wise in their own craftiness. So they had miserably failed, and now they were quite embarrassed. They were so humiliated, and people walked around, and they were like, oh, my God. Can you believe this man? It's amazing. It's amazing how wise he is and how foolish he made them look. Amen? Okay, now here's what we really want to go into. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Render to God the things that are God's. Give back to God the things that are God's. I have another question for you. Where on this earth... is the image of God engraved. What on this earth bears the image of God? Is it our penny? No, we said Abraham. Is it our nickel? No, we said Thomas Jefferson. Is it our quarter? No, we said George Washington. Our half dollar, we said JFK. Our dollar, we found out Sacagawea, and we found Susan B. Anthony. And our bills, is it our $5 bill? Is it our $10 bill? Our $20? We went through all the way up to $100,000. And God's image isn't on any of that. Amen? So where on this earth is the image of God engraved and inscribed? In us, in our bodies. When he made us, he said, let us make man in our image. Let us make man after our likeness. Amen. The scripture says in Romans 8, 29, that everyone that God calls and answers the call, those here conforming to be made in the image of his dear son. We're even told to put off the old man that is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and put on the image of the new man created after him in true holiness and true righteousness. So on this earth, the thing that bears the image and the inscription of God is our bodies. is our spirit, is our soul and our body. And I say to you and one and all and myself included, give back to God the things that are God's. Give it back to God. Amen? Let's turn to 1 Corinthians, the third chapter. Verse 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are. We saw that when Jesus went and saw how they had defiled the temple, his father's house. He began to cleanse it. And now we are the temple of God. And his inscription and image is in us. And those who defile the temple, if you defile your body, if you allow your soul and spirit to be defiled, that God shall destroy you. Amen? Flip over to the sixth chapter. Start at verse 12. And all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power, under the authority of all things. Amen? Meats for the belly and the belly for the meats. But God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I take then the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? Or a prostitute. God forbid. What know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body. For two saith he shall be one flesh. Now we're talking about the sexual union. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee. Flee. fornication, unlawful sex. Every sin that a man doth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? So he's making a lot of remarks here that we need to look at. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you. And really, if you read it in the Greek, it's another sense. He's assuming that he's in you. If it really be true, in other words, he put it this way, if it's so that you have the Holy Ghost, then realize your body is his temple. Amen? Because obviously he's not in you if you have joined yourself to sin. But he's saying if you claim to have the Holy Ghost, then know your body is his temple. Amen? So you better not defile it. Because what? I love verse 20. For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit forever. which are God's. So in other words, give back to God what is God's. Give back to God your spirit, your soul, and your body to be holy unto him. And don't defile yourself in any way in any of these areas because when you defile yourself, you are defiling the temple of God. And if you defile the temple of God, we see what Jesus did. He went in there and cleaned house. And he didn't tiptoe around anything. And if you defile your body, that's what the Holy Ghost is going to do because he wants to save you and not let you be destroyed. Amen? And so we must keep our bodies cleansed. I love the seventh chapter. 2 Corinthians, it says, Therefore, wherefore, beloved, having these promises, let us also cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, that we may perfect holiness in the fear of God. Why would I be afraid of God? I have no reason to be afraid of God for any other thing than if I defile my body. With sin. I never need to be afraid of God. I run up there, I jump on his lap, and I say, Abba, Father. With no condemnation, no guilt, no shame. I don't think twice about it. I just run up there and say, Dear Daddy, I'm here today. But when I have sin in my life, when I know there's sin in my life, I don't do that. I have the fear of God upon me. And I know that before I can run back up and say, Abba, Father, I've got to get this sin out. I've got to get cleansed. And I'm not going to go into a whole category and get out the catalog because we'd be here too long. But in the context of where we are, in what we just read, there are two major sins that defile the body. How many saw them? Gluttony, overeating, and fornication. Overeating and unsanctified sex, because that's what fornication means. Only sanctified sex there is is between a husband and wife. All the rest is unsanctified. Here's the thing about these sins. These are why these are so problematic. Both of them were dealing with normal, God-given appetites. Amen? God designed us with these appetites. I mean, we cannot deny them altogether. There's no way we can get up and say, thou shalt not eat.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. I hope you're enjoying this message. Render, give it back. You know, the day Jesus spoke these words had to be one of the most intense and yet amusing days of his ministry. I'll call it the boomerang day because on this one day he was confronted by the Pharisees and their spies, the Sadducees, the Herodians, the lawyers, asking questions they thought would trap him in his words. The chief priests were furious because Jesus had cleansed the temple, throwing out the money changers, declaring, my father's house is a house of prayer, and you have made it a den of thieves. This had to stop. He was exerting too much authority. The funny thing is, the Pharisees and Sadducees were usually arguing with one another, much like our Democrats and Republicans today. But in a joint effort, they conspired to challenge Jesus on whether or not to pay taxes to Caesar. If he said yes, the people would rise up because they hated paying taxes to Rome, and God never intended Israel to be enslaved to another nation. If he said no, they could seize him and take him to Pilate for rebellion against Caesar. But Jesus took the crafty in his craftiness. "'Show me the money,' he said. The Roman denarius bore the image of Caesar and the inscription that he was divine, and there is no way one of those coins would have been given in the temple, and so the need for money changers. When Jesus said, "'Render to Caesar and render to God,' the term means to give back someone's property. Roman coins belong to Rome, and that which bears the image of God on earth belongs to God.'" If you're a Christian, that is you. Give back to God your body, which is his temple on earth. This message, Render, Give It Back, is full of nuggets you don't want to miss. So why not order the CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry? Request offer SK164. Mail to Archie Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to ArchieHardy.org. Again, send a minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. And request offer SK164 for Render, Give It Back. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
Join us as we explore the pivotal moments when Jesus confronted traps set by various sects, including Pharisees and Sadducees, all eager to undermine him. Sharon Knotts provides adept commentary on the remarkable ways Jesus responded, insightful reflections on the symbolic acts like cleansing the temple, and the multi-layered meaning of giving back what belongs. Dive into the day's events to uncover the truth about spiritual authority, rightful ownership, and the unwavering trust in God's power.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to our program. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I'm excited to share this message with you. Render, give it back. You know, I absolutely love the way Jesus spoke with such authority and power and grace, but also how cleverly He was able to make His antagonist The Pharisees and the Sadducees and others put their feet in their own mouths every time they conspired to trap him in his words. And one particular day was unusually amusing, especially when money and paying taxes was the subject in Render, Give It Back. Oh, there's nothing like the presence of the Lord. Amen. Because in God's presence, there is wholeness. There is healing for every part of your life, regardless of what need you may bring here this morning. And some of you may have heavy needs and burdens that you bring. In God's presence, there is healing and deliverance. Amen? We just want to exalt Jesus in all that we say and do, and not just the songs we sing, but everything to exalt Jesus. Because no one, not one person, not your favorite minister that you love of everybody else, no matter how charismatic, no matter how personable they are, no matter how eloquent they are, there's no one that can set the bound free. No one can bring deliverance but Jesus. Only Jesus. Everybody else, all we are are his representatives. But we have got to point to Jesus. Amen. He must be exalted. And that goes for everyone. Not just those behind the pulpit, but those in the pews. It's all about glorifying Christ. Amen? Before we go into scripture this morning, I just want to have a quick little quiz here. And I think it's going to be easy. I don't think you'll fail or anything like that. I think you'll pass with flying colors. But we'll just... I just want to throw this out there in the beginning because as we get into the meat of the message, you will see why I wanted you to think about this. How many of you know the faces, and don't go now pulling out your pocketbook, your wallet, your purse, or your smartphones. How many know the faces that are on our American money? We'll start off real easy. Who knows whose face is on the coins, beginning with the coins, of the penny? Abraham Lincoln. How many agree? Abraham Lincoln. Okay. Whose face is on the nickel? The nickel. I hear Washington and Jefferson. How many think it's Washington? How many think it's Thomas Jefferson? Okay, give yourselves a clap offering. It's Thomas Jefferson. All right, now, you should know this one now, okay? Even just by process of elimination, we should not get this one wrong. Whose face is inscribed on our quarter? George Washington. Good. Okay. Now, I'm going to back up. Whose face, nobody looking, is inscribed on our dime? Franklin Roosevelt. Thank you, Sister Charlotte. Who knows whose face is inscribed on the half dollar? Very good. John F. Kennedy. John F. Kennedy. And who knows whose face is inscribed on the silver dollar? No. Susan B. Anthony. Who said that? Okay, very good. All right. There is also a golden dollar. Whose face is on the golden dollar? Sacagawea. How many knew that? Somebody said, Sacajahua? Sacagawea. How many remember her? You've got to go way back in your probably elementary school. You remember she was the Indian squall, wasn't it, that married John Smith? Oh, well, we're not having a history lesson, no? Oh, that's Hiawatha. Who was Sacagawea? Okay, she was an Indian guide to guide the people that were mapping out the West. Okay. Very, very good. Does anybody here have any Sacagaweas in your pocket? Anybody got any Susan B. Anthony's in your pocket? Does anybody have any John F. Kennedy's in your pocket? I'm not asking any. Oh, you do? You have a John F. Kennedy 50 cent piece? All right. So, would you like to sell that for a dollar? No? She don't want to sell for a dollar. Let's see how much money I got. You want to sell it for $2? All right. Time's up. She hesitated. Okay. I'm not buying quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. Okay. All right. Now we're going to get to our paper money. Who's on the $1 bill? Everybody. Everybody. Okay, who's on the $5 bill? Okay, who's on the $10 bill? Alexander Hamilton, very good. Who's on the $20 bill? No, not Thomas Jefferson. Jackson, Andrew Jackson. Who's on the $100 bill? Benjamin Franklin. Now, the following bills are retired, so you may not have seen one. Anybody know who's on the $500 bill? How about the $1,000 bill? How about the $5,000 bill? How about the $10,000 bill? And do you know that at one time there was actually a $100,000 bill? No. You know who was on it? Woodrow Wilson. He was a president. All right, who was on the $2 bill? Who? Anybody know who was on the $2 bill? Ah, I should have asked that one. Thomas Jefferson. Okay, so I want you to think about that. We put the faces of people that we honor on our money. We honor them, okay? That's why we put them on there. But we put the name of the person we trust on the subscription in God we trust. We honor Abraham Lincoln. He's worthy to be honored. We honor George Washington. He's worthy of our honor. These are the founders of our nation, the framers of our Constitution, etc. But we trust in God. Amen? So today, I want to... We're going to go into a story about money, but before we get into the story, I'd like to set it up. So turn in your Bibles to Matthew, the 21st chapter. Really, we'll be talking about from, I should say, both Matthew 21 and 22. But in the interest of time, and so I don't run out of time, I'll paraphrase some of it. But we want to start off because to me, what we're going to be reading in Matthew 21 and 22 is got to be one of the most significant days, in my opinion, in the life of the ministry of Jesus Christ. This day, I like to call the boomerang day. Wow. Because in this particular day, he was bombarded by about five or six different groups all on the same day with all kinds of suggestive, weighty questions that were not sincere at all in their motivation. They were questions put forth to try to trap Jesus in his words. And any time you try to trap the word of God, you better get ready to be embarrassed. Amen. Amen? So Matthew 21, we're going to set it up because it's important that we see why all these people came attacking him. And let's read in verse 12. And Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all of them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves. And also they sold other animals and said unto them, it is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but you've made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and And he healed them. And when the chief priest and scribe saw the wonderful things that he did... And that word wonderful things could also be interpreted miracles that he did. And the children were crying in the temple saying, Hosanna to the son of David... They were displeased. And that word displeased is way too mild. Okay? They were more than displeased, as you're going to see. They were furious. And they said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus said unto them, Yea, have ye never read out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? and he left them and went out of the city into Bethany, and he lodged there. So Jesus had come to the temple, and I want to tell you this. There are technically, there are two cleansings of the temple. You will read in the four gospels, and you have to look at all the facts, and you will see the timing and the facts show you that twice Jesus cleansed the temple. One was in the very beginning of his ministry right away. And the second one is the one we just read, which is at the end of his ministry. And I find that very interesting because before Jesus could begin really teaching and preaching the gospel of the kingdom in the temple, he went in there and got God's house clean and straightened it up. And now here it's three and a half years later and he's got to do it again. Amen. And that shows you that from time to time the Holy Ghost will house clean. He will come through here and we will know it. The tables will be turned over. And there will be a moving and a shaking of the Holy Spirit because it's necessary from time to time to have a major house cleaning. How many know that you clean your house and you straighten up all the time, but there are some times you overturn the tables. You move out and you vacuum stuff that's been there for a long time that you don't get every week. And you do a thorough cleaning. And so it was necessary three and a half years later because they had fallen right back into the same traits and things that they were doing. They were just right back into the same old thing. And he came through there and he cleaned it. And what I love is as soon as he got the house of God cleaned, what happened? Miracles started. You got to get the house of God clean to create an atmosphere. Of unity and of faith. And then the miracles can take place. Miracles can happen where there's sin and defilement and disunity and such. So it was very important that he cleaned the temple. But it was not popular with the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees. And so they were really angry. Jesus left for the day. He went to Bethany, which is a short place away. It would be like going from here to, you know, to maybe Brooklyn, going over the line and going to Glen Burnie. And then... He slept there, and most of the time we know that he slept at the house of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Now, the next morning, he got up early to do what he did the day before and what he would continue to do as he went to the temple. Now, for the sake of time, I'll paraphrase. On the way to the temple, he saw a barren fig tree. He was hungry. He had no breakfast. It's called the barren fig tree, but when he saw it, it was loaded down with a lot of leaves. It looked beautiful and healthy, and they grew tall to like 25 to 30 feet, and their leaves are exceptionally big, very big leaves. That's why Adam and Eve used them to cover themselves because they're so huge. And so to see a tree with all those leaves, he would have expected that there would have been fruit on there. And I say that because with the fig tree, the fruit comes out before the leaves. Wow. The fruit comes out before the leaves. Therefore, if you see leaves, you expect to see fruit. But when he got there, there was no fruit, not even one fig. So he cursed it. Now, we are just following the mind of Jesus. Anything that doesn't produce, that's supposed to produce, is under a curse. Amen? So now he gets to the temple. And when he gets there in the morning at the temple... I want to tell you that those priests and chief scribes and high priests and Pharisees, I don't think they had slept all night long. They were so furious that Jesus had cleansed the temple. Let's take it up in verse 23. And when he was coming to the temple, the chief priest and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching. They interrupted him and listened to what they say. By what authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this authority? And Jesus answered and said unto them, well, I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell me, I will likewise will tell you what authority I do these things. By what authority? So the baptism of John, now Jesus is asking them a question. This is referring to John the Baptist. Whence was it? Was it from heaven or was it of men? And they reasoned within themselves saying, oh boy, now we're really in a pickle here. If we say it's from heaven, he's going to say to us, why then didn't you believe him? And if we say that it's of men, we fear the people because we know the people hold John as a true prophet. And so what did they do? They said to Jesus, we cannot tell you. We can't answer this question. And Jesus said, well, neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things. So now this is how the day is going to go. Did they give up? No, they didn't give up. Amen? They thought that they would trap him. They thought they were being so skillful. And they came in and said, by what authority? And who gave you this authority? So we see that you have someone giving. and someone receiving. So we have God the Father giving and Jesus the Son receiving authority. Now, at the end of Matthew, Matthew 28, 18, Jesus does say, he says, all authority is given unto me. All authority in heaven and earth is given unto me. But he wasn't going to tell them, amen? And so they were so angry at the fact that he had come in there and turned everything over saying, I mean, really, they should have known the answer. Because when Jesus came in there knocking everything down and chasing out all the money changers, he says, this is written, my father's house is a house of prayer. So that was who gave him the authority, his father. Amen? But they missed it. Okay, so now we find that, I will paraphrase for a little while here, that after this occurred, that Jesus gave some parables. And in these parables, he referred to wicked servants. These were wicked servants. Now, these were people that worked for a rich landowner. And they decided that they wanted that inheritance of that land that they were working. So what did they do? They took and seized the son who would have inherited the land. They seized the son and they killed the son thinking, well, now we will get the land. Now, I just gave you a real quick paraphrase of what Jesus told them. But here's what I want you to see. Let's jump down to verse 45. Jesus having just went... took great lengths to bring out this parable. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because they took him for a prophet. So Jesus gave this parable and they were smart enough to figure out he's talking about us. He's talking about these wicked servants and they were trying to steal the property and finally they took the landowner's son and killed him. They said, he is talking about us. But instead of them realizing what that meant, that they were wicked and they needed to get right with God, instead they wanted to kill Jesus for telling them the truth. Amen? And so they wanted to kill him, but the multitude, the ordinary folks... loved Jesus. And they were there to hear his words. And the Pharisees knew that they could not lay a hand on Jesus as long as he was surrounded by all these people that loved him so much. Okay? So here we have the mindset of what's going on with them. Okay? Now, after that, Jesus began to give another parable. We're now in Matthew 22. And now he talks about a rich man who who has a great big banquet, and he sends out formal written invitations for people to come to the banquet. And it's the kind that you get when you're going to go to a wedding reception or something, and you have to RSVP. that you're coming or not coming, so they know how to plan. Now, in the parable, he sent out all the invitations, and they would have RSVP'd, but when it came time for the actual banquet to take place, they began to have excuses why they couldn't come, and all of their excuses were weak. and lame, and they were not credible excuses. So then he said, I am going to have people at my banquet. I'm not going to have this banquet with a bunch of empty tables. Go out into the highways and the streets, find the lame and the poor and the blind, and bring them in. And let them sit at the table that these others stuck their nose up and they don't want. Bring them in that they can be there. Amen? And so when he gave this parable, and he said, but those who, the other ones that would have come to his wedding, that they're not worthy. They're not worthy now. And he said, you know, they're going to be destroyed. Open it up to those who want to come. Well, again, those Pharisees and scribes and all those guys, they knew exactly what he was talking about and who he was speaking of. And they realized that once again he's talking about them. And they were infuriated. And here's what happened. They were so infuriated and they were so bent on going after Jesus and they just had already failed in their first question that they decided we need more help. And I find this to me, I just think this is funny. I just find it so humorous that the Pharisees went and got the Sadducees. Now you say, okay, why? Well, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were always arguing with one another. It's like the Democrats and the Republicans teaming up together. We know that doesn't happen. And that's how it was with the Pharisees and the Sadducees because the Pharisees believed in the miraculous. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees did not believe in any miracles and they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. And so these two were always fighting with one another. And then you had the Herodians. The Herodians were those who were faithful to King Herod. And most of the Jewish people did not like Herod because they felt like all he did was suck up to Rome. Herod was just a puppet king. That's all he was, was a puppet king to try to keep the Jewish people calm and not so, because how many know when you get them stirred up, they're like bees. And the Romans, the Gentiles, didn't know how to handle the Jews because they didn't understand them. You can't understand the Jewish people if you don't understand them theologically. You can't just go by their culture. You've got to understand their background. And the Romans and the Gentiles, who were pagan worshipers and idolaters, they thought that these Jews were just absolutely crazy. They didn't know how to handle them. So they had this puppet king, Herod. And Herod played the game because he was getting kickbacks. He could sit up on the throne and be all fat and comfy and have all kinds of stuff as long as he would just stay right in the middle there trying to keep the Jews quiet and trying to appease the Romans. So the Herodians were not popular with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Oh, but they went and got them. They got all these different people. They went and got lawyers. Now, who's lawyers? Lawyers were, don't think about the lawyers today that we go to court and sue things and such. These were people that were doctors of the law. They understood the law. And by the law, I'm talking about the Old Testament. I'm talking about the books of Moses. They understood the law. They knew everything about the law, about what was an infraction. And what was allowed and not allowed, all the shall nots and all the ramifications, they understood the law. And so a lot of times when you get people, and you know this yourself, even today, when we get people that's thoroughly schooled in something, the law or something, it's like no matter what you're talking about, no matter what the subject, they're going to bring you back to the law. They're going to constantly be throwing the law in your face. So after a while, you know, you think, oh, you're just so legalistic. And so that's how they were. Think of all, I'm trying to paint a picture here for you to see all these different sects and how disharmonious they were. But not today. Because today they all joined up together. to try to go after Jesus. Amen? And so this is exactly what is happening here. In fact, if you read the whole chapter, which we won't, you have the Pharisees and their followers. You have the Herodians and those who were loyal to Herod. You have the Sadducees and you have the lawyers. And I want you to know that the Pharisees even had their own spies. Now, we won't go there, but the companion account to Matthew 22 is Luke 20. And Luke gives you a couple little things that Matthew doesn't give you. And Luke tells you that the Pharisees sent forth their spies. to watch Jesus, to try to catch him and entrap him in his words so that they would have reason to take him before the authority of Rome, the governor, which was Pilate at the time. So now let's see where this takes us. We're in Matthew 22. We are going to skip down to verse 15. And I say that because I said this is the day when they all came to attack Jesus. Okay? It was the Pharisees and the Herodians that came to attack him with the story that we're going to read today. The Sadducees, as I told you a moment ago, did not believe in the resurrection. They came and asked Jesus. They painted this hypothesis. This woman got married. Her husband died. She remarried. He died. She remarried. He died. She remarried. He died. She remarried. He died. She remarried. He died. And the seventh died. She remarried. And he died. I mean, what are the chances that a woman's going to outlive seven husbands? Now, I know somebody who outlived three. And that was Sister McKinney, Johnny Carver's mother. She outlived three husbands. But seven? Seven husbands? And so that's to show you they came and brought Jesus the story. Well, this woman had seven husbands. They all died. And smirkingly they said, So, tell us, who will be her husband? In the resurrection. Whose wife is she going to be in the resurrection? Because they didn't believe in the resurrection. And they figured that would stump Jesus and he wouldn't know how to answer it. And he said, you do err. Because you don't know the scriptures and you don't know the power of God. The power of God is he can raise the dead. And so there you have all these different ones coming and asking him questions. And guess what the lawyers asked him? What is the greatest commandment? They all had their little pet peeves that they brought to Jesus. But we're going to see what the Pharisees and the Herodians said. And we will begin in verse 15. Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. Took counsel. They got other people, other sects to join in. And Luke says that they sent out spies. And they sent out unto him their disciples, Luke said spies instead of disciples, with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true and teachest the way of God in truth. That's really flatter now. Neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person of men. So tell us, therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Amen. I hope you're enjoying this message. Render, give it back. You know, the day Jesus spoke these words had to be one of the most intense and yet amusing days of his ministry. I'll call it the boomerang day because on this one day he was confronted by the Pharisees and their spies, the Sadducees, the Herodians, the lawyers, asking questions they thought would trap him in his words. The chief priests were furious because Jesus had cleansed the temple, throwing out the money changers, declaring, my father's house is a house of prayer, and you have made it a den of thieves. This had to stop. He was exerting too much authority. The funny thing is, the Pharisees and Sadducees were usually arguing with one another, much like our Democrats and Republicans today. But in a joint effort, they conspired to challenge Jesus on whether or not to pay taxes to Caesar. If he said yes, the people would rise up because they hated paying taxes to Rome, and God never intended Israel to be enslaved to another nation. If he said no, they could seize him and take him to Pilate for rebellion against Caesar. But Jesus took the crafty in his craftiness. "'Show me the money,' he said. The Roman denarius bore the image of Caesar and the inscription that he was divine, and there is no way one of those coins would have been given in the temple, and so the need for money changers. When Jesus said, "'Render to Caesar and render to God,' the term means to give back someone's property. Roman coins belong to Rome, and that which bears the image of God on earth belongs to God.'" If you're a Christian, that is you. Give back to God your body, which is his temple on earth. This message, Render, Give It Back, is full of nuggets you don't want to miss. So why not order the CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry? Request offer SK164. Mail to Archie Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to ArchieHardy.org. Again, send a minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. And request offer SK164 for Render, Give It Back. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
Join us for an urgent call to every believer to contend for their faith against the prevailing culture of confusion. Sharon unpacks the words of Jude, challenging Christians to stand up for the truth without compromise. Through passionate and stirring rhetoric, she leads a path of introspection and action—imploring listeners to remain vigilant in their faith journeys while using modern tools like social media to spread the gospel without altering its core message.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings friends and listeners and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I'm excited to bring you today's message, Forget, Reach, Press. Written from a Roman prison, the aged Apostle Paul penned his most joyful and hopeful epistle to the Philippians. After decades of ministry, he had learned the secret to a fruitful and enduring faith. Forget the past, reach for the present, and press toward the future. But when we get to the fourth beast, do you see anything in there about what kind of beast it was? He doesn't liken it to any beast on the planet, does he? Because there is no animal like it on the planet. He didn't know what to call it because it didn't look like any beast he had ever seen. All he tells us is it's dreadful. It's terrible. It's got iron teeth. which shows you how it just goes and devours. And then he said it stopped with its feet. How many remember that now? And that is how the Roman Empire came to power. It utterly consumed the earth. Amen? And with its armies, it stamped its way throughout all of the regions of that world in that day. And it rose up to be the greatest empire that had been up until that time. Amen? But now we see that it had ten horns. And this speaks to a future time that the original area of the Roman Empire is going to be split up into ten major powers. And I don't know exactly how that is, and I don't know anybody that knows exactly how it is. Because just about when they think they've got it figured out, and you know, at one time they said, oh, it was the United Nations. Well, they are way past ten by now. And another treaty that was going on, they said it was that. Well, they went past 10 by now. So if it is them, it's got to go back down to 10. I don't know what the breakup and the makeup is, and that's really not my point right now, so we won't go there. I want you to see, though, that it speaks of a future time. It speaks of the last days, and we see all the rumbling going on in Europe. It's frightening what's happening over there. Amen? But then out of these 10 horns arises one major horn that comes up. Amen. And we know by reading all of Daniel, you'd have to continue to read, we know that that is the Antichrist. How many follow me so far? Okay, I told you all that, but I don't want you to get hung up there because here's the point I'm trying to make. He was not able to describe what this beast looked like because it was so different from the other three. And there was no other beast on the earth that he could liken it to, so he was not able to describe it. And we read in verse 7 that it said it was diverse from all the other beasts. If we drop down to verse 19, it says, Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast. I wanted to know about the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others. If we drop down to 24, it says, and the 10 horns out of this kingdom are 10 kings that shall arise. He tells us what's going to happen. 10 powers are going to rise and another shall rise after them. A single, that's the horn, and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue the others. So here's the point that I hope you see. Let's look at the word diverse. What does the word diverse mean? Different? How many agree it means different? But we need to go to the original language, don't we? We can't just go by the English. We need to know what it is in the original language. And it was written in Aramaic. Daniel wrote this in Aramaic. And when you go to the Aramaic, you find the word is Shana. Shana. And it does not only mean to be different. It means to be altered. Do you understand? Are you listening? How many are following me? You see, something can be different. A man is different from a woman. Amen? But then we can get this transgender person who's altered. They're not just different, they're altered. How many follow me? It means to be altered. And so what he's pointing to is this particular last day civilization and culture are going to be at war with the creator. With the creation and the natural order of things. The way God ordered it and created it. Amen. They're going to be at war with it. They're going to alter it. the natural order of things, and do that which goes against nature. And so it will produce a civilization and a culture of confusion. Amen? How many see that? When I came upon this, it just struck me in my spirit because this last day, this Antichrist, whom we don't know who he is, and, you know, there's a lot of speculation, but there's a lot that's told about him. You can read a lot more about him than the rest of Daniel. And we find out that this man will magnify himself above all, even above the God of heaven. Amen. And it said that he will acknowledge and glorify a strange God. And he will not regard the God of his fathers nor the desire of women. Wow. What kind of man is he going to be? We know he's going to be anti-Christ. But on a human level, what kind of person is he going to be? This culture that we're in right now, this culture of confusion, the spirit of error is going to produce. That person. That antichrist person. Amen? And we see it ramping up. And so, child of God, if you are a Christian, you're not of the world. You're not hearing their voice. You're not hearing their message. You're hearing the truth. Amen? So I want to ask you, according to what Jude said, he said, brethren, I found it needful, necessary when I decided to write unto you about the common faith. I was just going to write a nice little letter about the common faith. But then I found an urgency in my spirit that I had to exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. for the faith that was once delivered unto the truth. Amen? Contend means you've got to strive against. You've got to fight for. Amen? I'm asking you, are you in contention against the culture of confusion? Or are you in collusion with the culture of confusion? We're in a conflict against evil, against a godless culture, a spirit of error, a spirit of confusion. And we can't just sit nicely in the pews on Sunday morning and have our little church service. We've got to contend. We've got to stand up. We've got to stand against. And that's not just on me. It's on you too. Amen? Are you contending for the faith? He said, I had to write you. It was urgent that I adapt my letter to exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith. that was once delivered unto the saints. And I want you to know that once delivered, you need to underline that in your Bible, once delivered. What it means in the original languages is it's irrevocably delivered. You can't alter it. You can't change it to fit with the culture. People are trying to alter the Bible's teachings to fit the culture. The culture's got to come and line up with the Bible's teachings and not the other way around. I hear preachers all the time and teachers all the time talking about how, you know, we got to reach this generation and we got to alter things to reach them. Now, there are a lot of things we can do in this generation we couldn't do in mine growing up. I mean, we've got the internet, we've got Facebook, we've got Snapchat, we've got... It goes on and on and on. And of course, up-and-coming churches need to use all of these things to reach this generation. Absolutely! But you can't alter the message. You can't alter the truth. You can't change it and say it's okay now. God made you a homosexual so it's all right. It was once delivered to the saints. It will never be Shana. I said it will never be Shana. It will never be altered. If there be damnable heresies that have creeping in and seeping into the church... It's because those who should oppose it are silent. Or it couldn't get a stronghold. It couldn't get in deep. If somebody stood up against it, it couldn't get in deep. But people are silent. Don't bother me. Just let me come to church on Sunday morning. Just let me sing on the choir. Let me be the leader of my special song. Don't bother me about that stuff. Or worse. Or worse. Or worse. They're on the choir, and they sing their songs, and then they go out and collude with the culture. They talk their Christianese around the saints. Amen? And then when they're out of church, they're right in the thick of the lifestyles of what the culture is doing. Listening to their music. You all know that Satan was the choir director in heaven. You all do know that, right? How many knew that? And that he was created with instruments in his being. He has the percussion. He has the strings. He has the reeds. We're all in him. He was the choir director. Of course he's going to use music. Of course he's going to be successful in using music. But when you begin to listen to the lyrics of the world, and I'm not talking about isn't she beautiful, isn't she wonderful. I'm not talking about, you know, you light up my life. When Benny and I got married, we had somebody sing that, you light up my life, you give me hope. I'm not talking about those sweet love songs. There's nothing wrong with love songs when you're in love. When you're in love, you want to hear love songs. I'm talking about the lyrics out there that promote racism. Black and white. They promote it. I'm talking about the lyrics that promote promiscuity. That promote homosexuality. The lyrics that promote profanity that makes my skin crawl. Oh! Why would I want to listen to music that's laden and laced with profanity and filthy words that conjure up filthy images and lyrics that even promote murder? Some tell you to have sex with your mother and some tell you to murder your mother. Why would you want to listen to that kind of stuff? Why would you join in with that kind of stuff? Because you like the beat? Because you like the rhythm? Because you like the melody? That's Satan's way of infecting you. He infects you because you like the beat and you like the melody and you like the singer. I like her voice. I like his voice. Well, when they start singing songs that are ungodly, when they start singing words that are filthy, amen, I don't care how well they sing and how much you like them, you need to turn them off. You can't dance in church and dance with the devil too. The sad truth is most people don't even dance in church anymore. I told you I didn't know which way it was going to go. Christians should be at our best when the world is at its worst. Christians, we have to interact with the world when we go to work and school. and our families, etc. Nobody's telling you to be a hermit. That would be anti-Bible. You're to go into all the world. But when you go, preach the gospel! Preach the word! Preach the truth! Go into all the world, but preach the gospel! Don't join in with them! Amen! Don't join in and say, well, I don't see nothing wrong with drinking alcohol. You don't know your Bible very well. Amen? My question is, are you a stepping stone to Christ or a stumbling block to hell? Because you can't be both. You can't be both. And when people are justifying these behaviors, it's because they are infected with the spirit of the world. I don't care how much you love them. I don't care how dear they are to your heart. You need to recognize if you've got the spirit of truth, you have to recognize the spirit of error. And you've got to do all that you can and pray that God will open up their eyes. Amen. Here's the thing. No longer can you just sit in the pew and think, as long as I'm doing okay and I go to church and I pay my tithes and I'm okay, I'm not worried about the rest. We've got to earnestly contend. We've got to contend for the faith. And the word contend, it sounds tough. You know why? Because it is. The word is agon. Agon in the Greek. Agon, and we bring it over in the English agonize. And sometimes it's agony. It's not easy, amen. It's not easy to stand up for the truth. It's not easy to stand on righteousness when it seems like more are against you. Amen? But you've got to fight for the truth. You've got to stand up for righteousness. So they don't like you, so they get mad at you, so they don't want to talk to you. You might be the very thing that causes truth to come into their heart and convict them. The word that you give them that the Holy Spirit can convict them. And sometimes the mouthier they are and the more they protest, it's because they're under more conviction. You've got to deliver your soul. You've got to deliver the truth. Amen? You've got to make a decision. When we stand before the Lord, Jesus said we're going to give an account for every idle word, every fruitless word. And I believe we're going to give an account for the silence and the words we didn't speak when we needed to speak up on behalf of the truth. Amen? Amen? This world is rushing, rushing to the kingdom of the Antichrist. And America is turning all the time. We see what's going on in Europe, but for the grace of God, it's coming here. But the church, those who are real, we've got to stand up for righteousness. And I am like Paul said, I am not ashamed. Of the gospel of Christ. Because it is the power of God. Under salvation. There's a lot of things going on out there. And a lot of teachings. And a lot of nice sweet shows that are on the air. And they talk a nice thing. But I want to know where is the power. Show me the power. I want to see the power of God. That will stand up in the face of the enemy. And not... Be afraid. If I didn't have the power of God, I would not preach this message. I wouldn't preach it. But Jeremiah said, and I'll close with this thought. You know, everybody uses this scripture of Jeremiah. And we use it to talk about when we got so much joy and so much glory and so much good stuff going on that we just can't contain it. We say... Feels like fire shot up in my bones. But that's not the context. The context is God said, Jeremiah, make your face like a flint, go out there and tell him what I said. And he said, I can't, I can't do that. He said, you're going to do it. He said, no, I'm not either. I'm not going out there. I know what those people will do to me. I'm not going out there, Lord. But he said, it was like fire shut up in my bones and I couldn't hold it back. I couldn't stay silent. I could not stay silent. Amen? Every head bowed. There's some of you that you need to make a decision. You need to decide, are you going to serve God? Are you going to serve God? Are you going to have one foot in the church and one foot in the world? Because I'm telling you it's not going to work. Sooner or later, Jesus said, no man can serve two masters. He's going to love one and hate the other. You've got to make up your mind. Are you in collusion with the world? If you are, you're opening yourself up to a spirit of confusion. Are you going to be in contention for the faith? Because if you will, the Holy Ghost will give you the boldness, the anointing, and the wisdom what to say for him. You love your family, but if they are not right, you're going to have to tell them like it is. Amen? You love people that you know, but you're going to have to tell them like it is. I don't want to stand before the throne of God and have somebody point their finger at me and say, you never told me. Amen? Father God, I ask you today that the same spirit of urgency that you have put upon me and put in my spirit, Lord, that you will put it on these people. God, that you would stir us up, that we would realize we've got to stand for righteousness. We cannot be wishy-washy in and out. We've got to be real. We've got to be real. Father, I pray that you would put a new sense of urgency upon us. And I pray for a Holy Ghost conviction to come upon any and all. That are in and out and up and down. And they're trying to serve you and hold on to the world too. Let a Holy Ghost conviction come on them this day, Lord. Lord, because you love their soul. Because their soul is in the balance. Because their soul is in the balance. And you said many, many tackle you, Farrison. The handwriting is on the wall. And their soul is in the balance. What will you do? Will you take the holy vessels of God like Belteshazzar did? Will you take those holy vessels and use them to put in the wine of the world? Are you going to take that which was to be in God's tabernacle and be holy and clean and anointed and you're going to let it be a vessel for sin and unrighteousness? He said, you're weighing the balance and you are found wanting. You are lacking. It's time to be sober. It's time to be vigilant. It's time to intercede. It's time to rend our hearts and not our garments, our hearts to rend them. till we have a burden and that we will weep between the pillar and the porch and we will weep till when we come to our feet we are clean we're clean from the inside out we're clean and we're ready then to be a vessel of honor in your great house for you said in the house of God there are vessels of honor and there are some to dishonor but if a man will purge himself Every individual has the individual responsibility. If a man will purge himself. He shall be a vessel of honor. Sanctified. Separated. Meet for the master's use. Qualified. And prepared unto every good work. So let it be I pray. In Jesus name. Amen. I hope you're being encouraged by our message, Forget, Reach, Press. In his letter to the Philippians, written from a Roman prison, Paul wrote of his great joy in Christ and his secret to his successful ministry. I forget those things that lie behind. I have known scores of Christians who get stuck in depression and failure because they keep looking back and lamenting about the past. Only when you let go of the past can you embrace the present and reach out for daily victory in Christ. As citizens of heaven, Paul said we are pressing towards the mark of the calling up on high, the rapture resurrection. We should be pressing for the goal line with our eyes on the prize. Heaven is in our view and the saints who have already crossed over are calling out, don't faint and don't look back. Forget Reach Press is available on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK196. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or shop online at soundoffaith.org, where MP3s are also available. To order by mail, send a minimum love gift of $10. Request SK-196 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Saints, airtime is costly, so if the Lord moves on your heart, please consider sending a special love gift to help us whether or not you wish to place an order. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
Join Sharon Knotts as she explores the shifting sands of societal values through a biblical lens. This episode emphasizes the importance of discernment and the dangers of a spirit of error. Drawing parallels between historical biblical events and contemporary issues, Sharon challenges listeners to fight for truth and hold steadfast to their faith amidst a culture of confusion.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings friends and listeners and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I'm excited to bring you today's message, Forget, Reach, Press. Written from a Roman prison, the aged Apostle Paul penned his most joyful and hopeful epistle to the Philippians after decades of ministry he had learned the secret to a fruitful and enduring faith. Forget the past, reach for the present, and press toward the future. You talk about a spirit of error. You talk about a spirit of confusion. So when I was preaching along those lines in 2007 going into 2008, it was only three short years later. that the president signed the bill to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military and rescinded the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Act. Amen? And when that happened, of course, it rumbled and rumbled throughout Christianity. But did we believe, even though as overt as that was, did we think that it would end up with the legalization of same-sex marriage? It's a big leap. A big leap from serving openly and saying I'm gay and you can't deny me my right to be in the military to same-sex marriage. Y'all are getting quiet out there. I hope it's because you're listening. Oh, but I do believe that some saw it like myself and vainly, vainly tried to warn the church. We've got to make sure that we have judges in the Supreme Court that are going to stand for marriage. That was my call. That was my clarion call. Whatever else you do or don't think, we've got to get the right judges on the Supreme Court. but people did not take heed. They heard the voice of the world. The world said, this is what we got to do. And they didn't take heed to the voice of truth because like it or not, the Supreme Court judges are the ones in the end that have the power and the authority. Amen. And the court got loaded up with those liberal, pro-gay, pro-homosexual judges. And what we thought could never happen. You know, we know homosexuality is rampant. We know we cannot deny people their rights just because of their sexual preference. You can. You can't say, well, you can't do this and you can't do that. Of course not. But marriage is a whole other thing. Amen? Folks, it was not that God was mute. You hear me? It wasn't because God was mute. It's because the church was deaf. God was speaking clearly. We can't go by the world. They're not going to hear us. We already started off. They have the spirit of the world. They have the spirit of error. That's all they can hear. You can't talk them into convince them anything they can't hear. But when the church becomes deaf to the spirit of truth. Amen. Amen. Now, we just about got over that in 2015. We're still like, oh, really? From the fact that it became legal in 50 of our states for same-sex marriage. But who, who of us could have foresaw the transgender debacle that came on the heels immediately afterwards? And it all started with that passing of the bathroom policy. And that opened up the floodgates again. Amen? You said you called it a debacle. Yes, I do. You say, well, I don't understand that. Well, a debacle is a violent flood carrying debris along its way. And that's the word the Holy Spirit spoke to my spirit as I was preparing this message. He spoke to me, debacle. I ignored it because I thought, you know, I don't use that word. And, you know, I'm going to use that word. It came back to me again. And finally, finally, I said, you know, I'm going to go look it up in the dictionary. I think I know what it means, but I'm going to go see for sure. And actually I had another idea. Because you can use it in sentences and it can point to what you're saying and people will take it that way. But the actual meaning is a violent flood carrying debris. We see it when there's flash floods. We see it when, oh my God, there's a tsunami. And it just comes through and knocks everything down. Houses are down. Amen. Everything's flooding. I saw last night on the news, Peru, that half of the country is being flooded out. And they've got live video of houses just when the edges bloom and it's gone. Amen. and the debris is followed. That is what the Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart that is happening here. The floodgates have opened, and folks, there's no stopping it now. Let me see somebody stop a flood. And you know, folks, I thought I had heard and seen everything. I didn't think nothing could surprise me. But this week, I saw two things on Facebook that I was like, I can't believe it. First of all, one was mind-blowing, and you may have seen it. A picture of a mother of four children, a married mother of four children, has now transgendered to a man. Yeah. And her teenage son is now transgendered to a girl. And the picture is showing them in their now transgendered new identities. The mother is standing there now as a man, dressed as man's clothes, man haircut. And the son is standing there as a girl with long curly blonde hair. And they're holding photographs in their hands of what they were born to be. The mother is now a man and he, she is holding a picture of when she was the mother. And she was a beautiful woman, very lovely woman. And now the boy is now a girl with long curly hair is holding a picture when he was a boy. And I thought, Lord God, help us. You talk about confusion. You talk about confusion coming into a family like that. What does that do to the whole dynamic of the whole family? Just one would skew the dynamics. Imagine the repercussions for the other children in the family. She's got three other kids. Amen. Mommy now looks like daddy. And my brother now looks like my sister. How do you grow up with something like that? What does that do as it ripples out to the rest of the family? A spirit of confusion. A spirit of confusion. And then the other story that I saw of a married couple, young, they're young, and they just had a baby. But The father had the baby. not the mother. You say, well, how is that possible? Because the guy transgendered as a woman, the woman transgendered as a guy, they got the hairdos and everything to look like the opposite sex of what they are, but you're saying, well, I still don't know how they had a baby because they have not had a sexual change to their genitals. so they haven't completed it yet by going that far. And so therefore, they had a baby. And it shows a picture of the baby in the bassinet and the parents lying on the bed, and the man with the man haircut and everything is the one that just had the baby. And the father, who actually would have sired the baby, is lying there next to him, and it's a woman. Not really, but you know what I'm saying. So I'm thinking to myself, what a spirit. And that's all that the spirit of God has been speaking to me for weeks and weeks now. A spirit of confusion. A spirit of confusion has been unleashed on our culture. And now we have a culture that's in confusion. Amen. Amen. And then we have some today that are genderless. They're not male or female. They're neither one. And there's some that haven't decided, so they're back and forth. They call it sexual fluidity. What it really is is sexual stupidity. Right. And I don't say that to be harsh, mean, or ugly. I'm saying it truthfully because they have a spirit of confusion and a spirit of error. Amen? And so depending on the mood that they're in, will determine whether they're going to be a male or a female at any given time. Then the genderless ones go even further than that. They are neither. They are neither. They want to be, I forgot what the word is. It's something like androgynous, meaning no sex. And so they actually go and get the one that I saw. I don't know what he was born as. I'm not sure if it was a man or a woman. I think it was a guy, but I'm really not sure about that, so don't hold me to it. But he's had plastic surgery so that when you look at him, you're not sure if it's a man or a woman on his face. I don't know what he's doing with the rest of his body. I'm not sure how that works. Now look folks, there are such things as medical mistakes. There are such things, and I want to be humane about this and kind because there are people that are hermaphrodites, and that's not an ugly word. It just explains they are born with both sexual organs. Sometimes on the inside they have ovaries and on the outside they have the male. And sometimes, sometimes they have both. It's a mistake of nature. It's a mistake. It's an abnormality of birth, just like there are other congenital birth defects that people are born with all the time. You know, I've never said this in the pulpit before, and don't be staring at me after I tell you this, okay? If you're going to stare at me, wait till I ain't looking. But I was born with six toes and one foot. The sixth toe was removed when I was a baby, but the foot is still deformed. It's still not right. That's why I can't wear pretty shoes because I can't get in them right. And when I was young, that used to cause me so much stress because I wanted to wear pretty shoes like everybody else. And sometimes I forced my foot in shoes and my foot would be in pain all the time, but I didn't care. I was going to wear pretty shoes. I can remember when my 30s standing at the preach up there. And as soon as I got behind the pulpit, I take my, lift that, put that shoe off because my foot was going. But, you know, I was bound and determined I was going to wear halfway decent feminine shoes. And now after I hurt my back and I thought, you know what? I can't worry about that. I have to be solid on my feet. I can't trip. I can't fall. I need to be solid with my feet. So, you know what? I can't have my feet and my back hurting. So I decided to wear shoes that don't hurt my feet. But my point being that there are birth defects that happen all the time. And when someone is born with these birth defects that they have these several different, both male and female abnormalities, that is another whole thing. I'm not speaking of those people. And I would never say anything to disparage them. Amen? There are a lot of bad genes circulating out there. We've got bad genes in our family. Every time one of my grandbabies, well, actually, let me back up to myself. When I got pregnant with my first child, and he was born, and they said, oh, he's everything. I said, how's his feet? And they're looking at me like, what? I just said, well, what about his feet? I want to see his feet. I did the same thing when Todd came along. You know, they think I'm under, you know, I ain't right. I said, no, I want to see his feet. I did the same thing with Sarah. I prayed the whole nine months when I found out I was pregnant that they would not get that. Because I found out later, my parents said there was a cousin on my dad's side that had the same thing. So I knew it was a bad gene floating around somewhere. And then when my grandchildren were born, still in utero, I would pray that they would not get that gene. Amen? There are bad genes circulating out there. And so I said all that to say the point that I am not disparaging against people that are born with abnormal sexual organs. But I'm talking about a spirit of confusion and a spirit of error that's taken over this culture. Amen? Because God the creator created them male and female. That's how he created them. That's how God created them male and female. And mistakes that happen today is because of sin that's been multiplied from one generation to the next to the next. But if we're listening to the spirit of the world, we will buy the lie. Well, God, if there is one, made me this way. So you've got to accept me for who I am. In 2015, Glamour magazine chose for the cover the woman of the year, Caitlyn Jenner. You know, Bruce Jenner that won all the Olympic golds? Well, she was voted, he was voted Woman of the Year and put on the front page of the magazine and everybody rejoiced and celebrated. We are witnessing a culture that's in confusion because they're possessed by a spirit of error. Now let's turn with me to the book of Daniel, the seventh chapter. And what we're going to read here, at first you may be trying to figure out what in the world I'm reading this for. What has it got to do with the price of eggs? Well, just hang in there with me and you will see. Daniel, the seventh chapter. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed. Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters. Now this is going to be the summary of his dream. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. And they said, Amen. And after this I beheld, and lo, another like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl. The beast had also four heads, and dominion was given to it. And after this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth." It devoured and break in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it. And it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it. And it had ten horns. And it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it. Now, I am not going to get on the subject of Daniel and the end times to discuss it as the theme, but staying with what we have been talking about today, about a spirit of confusion and a spirit of error. Briefly, we see that the first beast was a lion. It's unusual it had eagle's wings. But notice that Daniel didn't have any problem describing it. He wasn't like saying, oh, how can I explain what this beast looked like? He was able to say... It was a lion, but it had eagle's wings. So we know the lion is the king of the beast, and we know that the eagle is the king of the birds and the fowl. Amen? And so we know that this pointed to a kingdom. The kingdom was the one that was actually at present in Daniel's day, which was Babylon, because he was in exile in Babylon. And we know that Nebuchadnezzar was the king. And we know this because... We would have already read chapter 2, which we're not going to do, but we would have read about Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the statue and how that he needed an interpretation and no wise man could interpret it. And then Daniel came along and said, here's what your dream means. And so this is now Daniel's dream of the same thing, the four kingdoms. Okay? So whereas in the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw the gold head was him and Babylon, now it's the lion. Okay? So now we can keep in step with it. So the first was the lion and it was Nebuchadnezzar. It was Babylon. And it was a great and huge kingdom. And the reason for the eagle's wings was to show how swiftly... Nebuchadnezzar rose up. It represents the swiftness of his conquest. Beast, too, is a bear. And he didn't have any problem at all in describing this beast. It is a bear. It's a bear, folks. The only thing he pointed out was it had three ribs in its teeth. And that was to represent that the Medes Persians, that's the kingdom now that overtook Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, were a bloodthirsty people. They not only conquered, but they liked spilling blood and taking spoils. And so that's what the three ribs are, showing what a bloodthirsty people they were. And I also read that at that time, of course, remember this part of the world has not been discovered yet in Daniel's day. And at that time, the largest bears that were known were in the mountains of Persia. So that represents Persia. Then we get to the beast number three. Daniel said it's a leopard. Now it has four heads and it has four wings, but he doesn't have any problem with describing it. It's a leopard. Leopards are very fast. Amen? And it had four wings, again, to show you how swiftly that kingdom would rise up and take over. And it had four heads. So we know that that was the kingdom of Greece. It hadn't happened yet when we're reading in Daniel, but now we can look back historically and see that Alexander the Great rose up swiftly, and in no time he conquered the known world, pretty much. Amen? And so this was a powerful kingdom that arose and utterly overthrew the kingdom before it. How many are following along? And so swiftly he came to power. Now, Alexander the Great died at 33 years old. He died from syphilis. Now, this man was a genius. He had conquered the whole world, but he died so soon. And when he died, the kingdom was split up between his four major generals. And that's why we have the four heads. So, so far, what I want you to see is this. Even though they were unusual, they were still easy for Daniel to describe. They were beasts that he was familiar with. Amen? But when we get to the fourth beast, do you see anything in there about what kind of beast it was? He doesn't liken it to any beast on the planet, does he? Because there is no animal like it on the planet. He didn't know what to call it because it didn't look like any beast he had ever seen. All he tells us is it's dreadful. It's terrible. It's got iron teeth. which shows you how it just goes and devours. And then he said it stopped with its feet. How many remember that now? And that is how the Roman Empire came to power. Amen. It utterly consumed the earth. Amen? And with its armies, it stamped its way throughout all of the regions of that world in that day. And it rose up to be the greatest empire that had been up until that time. Amen? But now we see that it had ten horns. And this speaks to a future time that the original area of the Roman Empire is going to be split up into ten major powers. And I don't know exactly how that is, and I don't know anybody that knows exactly how it is. Because just about when they think they've got it figured out, and you know, at one time they said, oh, it was the United Nations. Well, they are way past ten by now. and another treaty that was going on. They said it was that. Well, they went past 10 by now. So if it is them, it's got to go back down to 10. I don't know what the breakup and the makeup is, and that's really not my point right now, so we won't go there. I want you to see, though, that it speaks of a future time. It speaks of the last days, and we see all the rumbling going on in Europe. It's frightening what's happening over there. Amen? But then out of these 10 horns arises one major horn that comes up. And we know by reading all of Daniel, you'd have to continue to read, we know that that is the Antichrist. How many follow me so far? Okay, I told you all that, but I don't want you to get hung up there because here's the point I'm trying to make. He was not able to describe what this beast looked like because it was so different from the other three. And there was no other beast on the earth that he could liken it to, so he was not able to describe it. And we read in verse 7 that it said it was diverse from all the other beasts. If we drop down to verse 19, it says, Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast. I wanted to know about the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others. If we drop down to 24, it says, and the 10 horns out of this kingdom are 10 kings that shall arise. He tells us what's going to happen. 10 powers are going to rise and another shall rise after them. A single, that's the horn, and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue the others. So here's the point that I hope you see. Let's look at the word diverse. What does the word diverse mean? Different? How many agree it means different? But we need to go to the original language, don't we? We can't just go by the English. We need to know what it is in the original language. And it was written in Aramaic. Daniel wrote this in Aramaic. And when you go to the Aramaic, you find the word is shana, shana. And it does not only mean to be different. It means to be altered. Do you understand? Are you listening? How many are following me? You see, something can be different. A man is different from a woman. Amen. But then we can get this transgender person who's altered. They're not just different. They're altered. How many follow me? It means to be altered. And so what he's pointing to is this particular last day civilization and culture are going to be at war with the creator. With the creation and the natural order of things. The way God ordered it and created it. Amen. They're going to be at war with it. They're going to alter things. the natural order of things, and do that which goes against nature. And so it will produce a civilization and a culture of confusion. Amen? How many see that? When I came upon this, it just struck me in my spirit. Because this last day, this Antichrist, whom we don't know who he is, and, you know, there's a lot of speculation, but there's a lot that's told about him. You can read a lot more about him than the rest of Daniel. And we find out that this man will magnify himself above all, even above the God of heaven. Amen. And it said that he will acknowledge and glorify a strange God. And he will not regard the God of his fathers nor the desire of women. Wow. What kind of man is he going to be? We know he's going to be anti-Christ, but on a human level, what kind of person is he gonna be? This culture that we're in right now, this culture of confusion, the spirit of error is gonna produce. That person. That antichrist person. Amen? And we see it ramping up. And so, child of God, if you are a Christian, you're not of the world. You're not hearing their voice. You're not hearing their message. You're hearing the truth. Amen? So I want to ask you, according to what Jude said, he said, brethren, I found it needful, necessary when I decided to write unto you about the common faith. I was just going to write a nice little letter about the common faith. But then I found an urgency in my spirit that I had to exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. For the faith that was once delivered unto the truth. Amen. Contend means you've got to strive against. You've got to fight for. Amen. I'm asking you. Are you in contention against the culture of confusion? Or are you in collusion with the culture of confusion? Amen. I hope you're being encouraged by our message, Forget, Reach, Press. In his letter to the Philippians, written from a Roman prison, Paul wrote of his great joy in Christ and his secret to his successful ministry. I forget those things that lie behind. I have known scores of Christians who get stuck in depression and failure because they keep looking back and lamenting about the past. Only when you let go of the past can you embrace the present and reach out for daily victory in Christ. As citizens of heaven, Paul said we are pressing towards the mark of the calling up on high, the rapture resurrection. We should be pressing for the goal line with our eyes on the prize. Heaven is in our view and the saints who have already crossed over are calling out, don't faint and don't look back. Forget Reach Press is available on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK196. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or shop online at soundoffaith.org, where MP3s are also available. To order by mail, send a minimum love gift of $10 online. Request SK-196 to PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Saints, airtime is costly, so if the Lord moves on your heart, please consider sending a special love gift to help us, whether or not you wish to place an order. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
In this episode, Sharon Knotts explores the powerful message embedded in the Apostle Paul's joyful and hopeful epistle written from confinement. Dive into the intricate dynamics of the spirit of truth versus the spirit of error, how they manifest in our lives, and the challenge of communicating divine truth amidst worldly misconceptions. As societal perspectives shift, Sharon urges listeners to hold steadfastly to the spirit of truth and renew their minds daily through faith.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings friends and listeners and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I'm excited to bring you today's message, Forget, Reach, Press. Written from a Roman prison, the aged Apostle Paul penned his most joyful and hopeful epistle to the Philippians. After decades of ministry, he had learned the secret to a fruitful and enduring faith. Forget the past, reach for the present, and press toward the future. Hallelujah. Turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians, the second chapter. The Lord downloaded this in my spirit very fast and furiously. And so I started off with another idea earlier in the week, and the Lord gave me this idea yesterday. And so I'll see how it comes together. Amen? If it's the word of the Lord, then it will be profitable. So we're in 1 Corinthians, the second chapter, and we're going to read one verse. Verse 12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world... but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. What spirit have we not received? The spirit of the world. We don't have the spirit of the world. However, we have received the spirit which is of God. And only because we have the spirit of God can we know the things that are freely given to us of God. The people in the world don't know anything about the things of God. Amen? And I'm going to flip it on its side and say, and because we don't have the spirit of the world, we don't know anything about the things of the world. So now turn with me to 1 John, the fourth chapter, the epistle of John, chapter 4, and looking at verse 5. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. But we are of God. He that knows God hears us, and he that is not of God hears. Hears us not. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. There's a lot going on here. And when we put this together in correlation with 1 Corinthians 2.12, it's so simple. It really doesn't need a lot of explanation, but let's look at it. We haven't received the spirit of the world. And therefore... The world doesn't hear us when we talk to them. That's what it says here in John. The world doesn't hear us. We can talk to them, but they don't hear us. We know it means they don't get it. They don't understand it. Amen. They do not understand the things of God. They don't hear us. They don't receive us. And they don't understand us. Amen. We, on the other hand, have the Spirit of God. So we freely understand the things of God. This Bible is not a mystery to me. And if you have the Spirit of God, it's not a mystery to you. Now we grow in grace and knowledge, and the Holy Spirit gives us clarification of things, amen? And he builds on things we already know, but it's not a closed book. We understand the things of God. And so John says here in verse 6, he's saying this is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. And I want you to notice that the determiner there, the, is a definite article. It's not indefinite. It doesn't say a spirit of truth or a spirit of error. The. The spirit of truth. The spirit of error. So it means that it is a singular spirit. Now, out of the spirit of error comes all kinds of lies. Many different kinds of lies. Many heresies. Many false things. But they're all gendered by the spirit of error. How many see that? And out of the spirit of truth comes many revelations and many things that are here that we will spend a lifetime digging out. Amen. But they all emanate from the spirit of truth. Amen. And the children of God had the same spirit and nature of their father. We have the spirit of truth. And because we have the spirit of truth, I have the spirit of truth. How many out there have the spirit of truth? You know what? I can communicate with you. You can communicate with me. Amen? We are able to communicate with one another because we have the same spirit of truth. You can meet a complete stranger of whom you know nothing. But if they are born again of your father and they have the same spirit of truth, you can just strike up a wonderful deep conversation. You can feel a kinship to that person and you don't even know anything about him. And you feel yourself feeling like, you know, I love you. I love you. Amen. Because it is the same spirit of truth. Amen. The same spirit of God, of righteousness, holiness, purity, and love. that we receive from our Father. But then we can try to communicate with the people of the world who don't have the spirit of truth and they don't understand. They just don't understand. And we find ourselves trying to explain the things of the spirit and the truth of God and they don't understand and they don't want to hear it. They don't even want to hear it. Not only that, they may refuse to hear it. They may even go further and withstand us and oppose us because the spirit of truth and the spirit of error are diametrically opposed one to the other. And there's no correlation and there's no communication and there's no communion and there's no fellowship. Amen? Because one has the spirit of truth and the other has the spirit of error. So I ask you, how can we communicate with those who have the spirit of error? How can we have fellowship with the spirit of error? How can we walk together in agreement with those who are diametrically opposed to the very things that we believe? and stand for. Amen? How can we hear this message, this word of God, and attempt to reconcile it with the message that's coming out of the world? How do we reconcile the two? Amen? You can't do it. Because the spirit of truth that comes from God only agrees with the word that comes from God. His word and his spirit agree. Amen? There's a very powerful verse, Isaiah 820. It says, to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And what does light stand for metaphorically? It stands for the truth. If they don't speak according to this word, it's because there is no truth in them. John said in his epistle in the first chapter, he said, God is light. God is light. God is truth. And in him there is no darkness at all. Amen? There's no communion. There is no blending the two together. Amen? And like I preached last week on 2 Timothy 2.15, exhorting you to study, to search and dig out the word of God. Amen? Dig it out that you may be a workman approved unto God rightly. dividing the word of truth. So if there's anything that begins to go afoul of this word, it's time to stop and check it out. Because if you have the spirit of truth, something inside of you will go, don't ignore it. Don't suppress it. Amen? Check it out. If you get a check in your spirit, check it out. Because you may be coming up against a lie. Jesus said, and this is one of my favorite things that he ever said, and all the things that he said, this is one of my favorites. You know, we all know John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father but by me. Amen? And that's a very powerful one. But I think this is equally as powerful what he said in John 18, 37, when he was standing before Pilate. Amen. And he said to this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world. Okay. You got my attention, Jesus. You're going to boil it down. You're going to, you're going to bring it all condense it into one nutshell. And what is that? That I should bear witness of the truth. And the next part is just as powerful. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice. When you're trying to convince someone about the Bible and the scriptures and the teachings of the Bible and the way to God through Christ Jesus, and they don't want to receive it and they don't want to hear it and they want to push back, they are not hearing the voice of the word of God because they are not of the truth. They're under a spirit of error. Amen? So it's not just that they don't believe something that you told them. It's because they are influenced and under the voice of the definite article, the spirit of error. Amen? That's all that's in the world. Everything in the world is coming under a spirit of error. And you all know that where this message is heading, don't you? Amen. When the voice of the world becomes louder in your spirit than the voice of the word of God, you are in danger. You are now in danger of being infected with a lie. You're in danger of being infected with a spirit of error. Amen. Amen. You know, we've had a terrible season of people getting sick with the flu and a virus. It's just going through families and places of employment and even in the church. Amen. And people really have had a tough time this season. And I got to tell you, if I know somebody's got something, I don't want them coming and hugging me and shaking my hand. Because I don't need to get that. Amen. I don't want it and I don't need it. Amen. I mean, none of you want it and none of you need it, but I definitely do not want to compromise myself with any of that going on. And you know, Benny, he's been battling the past few days and he's really been feeling bad. And it was funny because yesterday we went out to eat and we had a lot of leftovers. And so, you know, we were getting a box to put it in. Usually if we ate the same thing, we ordered the same dish. So it would have made sense to put them in the same box. I said, told the waitress, I said, no. No. I want my own box. I don't want that bad code he's got. Amen. So I am going to do everything I can to avoid it. And you can't always avoid everything, but I'm doing all that I can to avoid anyone that's got the virus or the flu or whatever. Amen. And that's how much more in the spirit am I going to avoid those that are infected with the lie? Amen. If I can't give them the medicine that they need because they won't receive it, because they won't hear it, I'm not going to let them infect me with their germs. Amen? And when Christians get infected with the spirit of the world, then they begin to justify their unholy activities. Amen? They justify it. Amen? And they start sounding more and more like the world and less and less like the peculiar people that the children of God are. Why do you think that Paul said in Romans 12 to be not conformed to this world? Don't let yourself be put in the mold of the world. Do not be conformed, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind. The renewing of your mind with the word of truth. Amen. And this is how we've reached a time when Christians today are saying sin is not what it used to be. Now, you may not hear anybody put it in that particular way, but that's what they're saying. Amen? Sin is not what it used to be. That used to be sin, but it's not sin today. Am I telling the truth? What was sin when I was growing up? What was sin when we were on William Street? What was sin in the early days of this church? Amen? It's not sin anymore. Am I telling the truth? Okay, I'm going to step on toes. So today, sex outside of marriage is not sin. As long as you love each other, you don't need a piece of paper. You know, and having sex with somebody of your own sex is not sin. Because they say, God made me this way. And if God made me this way, then he loves me and it's okay. You can only believe the lie that God made you that way if you're listening to the world. The world is telling you, I don't mean you personally, but the world is saying to our culture today that homosexuals are made that way. And there is no biological proof to back it up. None. There's no proof that I know of, and if you find any out, you search it out, let me know, and then I'll adjust. But to this point, I know of no biological proof that someone is born homosexual. Amen. They can very, very early in life go that way because of their environment, because of things that occur. I mean, you know, we have families that have no father. There's no manhood on display. There's many children that grow up, boys that grow up without a dad. And I mean, yeah, the financial devastation is huge, and there are a lot of things, but think about some boy that's raised in a family with a mom and four sisters and no dad. What about young children that are molested by, sometimes it's an uncle molested, or mom's boyfriend, a little boy. If you ever heard the testimony of Donnie McClurkin, he tells it like it is. He was a church boy. He was molested. It was an older man. It was to be somebody that was a Christian. Amen? And so therefore, just a little boy like six years old or something, so young that already that seed, that spirit was allowed to infect him. Amen? And I don't want to get too far on that, but what I'm saying is there's no proof that I know of that's ever been put forth that they can prove that someone is born homosexual. Amen? So when people now in the world, if you're listening to the voice of the world, they will say that people like myself and other ministers of the truth that say that being an act of homosexuality is a sin, they will say, you don't have love. Isn't that what they say? You don't have love. And now people in the church are saying it too. Ministers are now saying it. Ministers now, even in mainline denominations, are marrying same-sex couples. And when someone calls them out, they say, you don't have love. And then they go the next step and say, you are a hater. Paul said, have I now become your enemy because I tell you the truth? Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? And today we would have to say yes. Yes, that's true. Amen. Christians are coming out all over the place. Let me tell you what I mean by that. I mean coming out, as in professing they're gay. I don't mean coming out bold, like I'm doing today. Amen? Yeah, I know the devil's already sat on my shoulder and told me, you don't want to preach that message. You don't want to do that. You don't want to put yourself out there and a target for my attack. And I told the Lord, this is your message. You better have my back. You better have my back. I mean that metaphorically. I mean it literally. And I said, and you know what? You better have my front too. Amen. Amen. You know, I like to watch The Voice. I don't know if y'all know that TV program, because I love music. And I love to hear good singers. I don't care who they are, where they are, whatever. I love it when some little unknown person who doesn't look like very much, you know, the world has its attractiveness standard you've got to meet. And you get some person standing up there and they can't, you know, the voice is predicated on that the judges can't see them. Their backs are to them. They can only hear them. So they have to only focus on the voice. And I just find that fascinating. So I watch it. So the other day, a young woman was on there, and she told how that she had her lover with her. I think they're actually married now. A woman, she's a lesbian, and she has a lesbian wife. And she said how that she was raised by a Baptist minister. Right? And that when she came out, now these were her words. We don't know the background. We don't know. I'm going to tell you what she said. She said that her parents disowned her. And all the sympathy that she got from the audience. the judges and they said well now maybe maybe now that you're on television and maybe now that your wonderful gift and voice now are on display and they can see how good you are and how you're climbing now that ladder of success maybe now they'll accept you What is the message? The message is if you are successful in your career, if you become a box office hit as an actor or actress, if you make the charts and you become a big name musically, if you become successful, then it's okay. It's okay to be homosexual because look at you. Look at you. You are a star. You've made it now. So that means it's okay to be homosexual because you are a star. That's the message that the world is saying. But 1 John 2.21 says, no lie is of the truth. Amen. No lie is of the truth. So are you listening to the voice of the world? Amen? Or are you listening to the voice of the word? You know, it's been about 10 years ago that I stood in this very pulpit, and we were on the threshold at that time of the homosexual agenda really beginning to explode. And I think back to when I ministered in the pulpit about that. I could not imagine. I wonder how many people really imagined. Could we foresee how that the floodgates would open the way they have? To the point that it's absurdity today. Today what we see out in the world with the gender identity is nothing but confusion. Amen. You talk about a spirit of error. You talk about a spirit of confusion. So when I was preaching along those lines in 2007 going into 2008, it was only three short years later. that the president signed the bill to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military and rescinded the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Act. Amen? And when that happened, of course, it rumbled and rumbled throughout Christianity. But did we believe, even though as overt as that was, did we think that it would end up with the legalization of same-sex marriage? It's a big leap. A big leap from serving openly and saying I'm gay and you can't deny me my right to be in the military to same-sex marriage. Y'all are getting quiet out there. I hope it's because you're listening. Oh, but I do believe that some saw it like myself and vainly, vainly tried to warn the church. We've got to make sure that we have judges in the Supreme Court that are going to stand for marriage. That was my call. That was my clarion call. Whatever else you do or don't think, we've got to get the right judges on the Supreme Court. But people did not take heed. They heard the voice of the world. The world said, this is what we got to do. And they didn't take heed to the voice of truth. Because like it or not, the Supreme Court judges are the ones in the end that have the power and the authority. Amen. And the court got loaded up. with those liberal, pro-gay, pro-homosexual judges. And what we thought could never happen. You know, we know homosexuality is rampant. We know we cannot deny people their rights just because of their sexual preference. You can. You can't say, well, you can't do this and you can't do that. Of course not. But marriage is a whole other thing. Amen? Folks, it was not that God was mute. You hear me? It wasn't because God was mute. It's because the church was deaf. God was speaking clearly. We can't go by the world. They're not going to hear us. We already started off. They have the spirit of the world. They have the spirit of error. That's all they can hear. You can't talk them into convince them anything they can't hear. But when the church becomes deaf to the spirit of truth. Amen. Amen. Now, we just about got over that in 2015. We're still like, oh, really? From the fact that it became legal in 50 of our states for same-sex marriage. Amen. I hope you're being encouraged by our message, Forget, Reach, Press. In his letter to the Philippians, written from a Roman prison, Paul wrote of his great joy in Christ and his secret to his successful ministry. I forget those things that lie behind. I have known scores of Christians who get stuck in depression and failure because they keep looking back and lamenting about the past. Only when you let go of the past can you embrace the present and reach out for daily victory in Christ. As citizens of heaven, Paul said we are pressing towards the mark of the calling up on high, the rapture resurrection. We should be pressing for the goal line with our eyes on the prize. Heaven is in our view and the saints who have already crossed over are calling out, don't faint and don't look back. Forget Reach Press is available on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK196, mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, or shop online at soundoffaith.org, where MP3s are also available. To order by mail, send a minimum love gift of $10 or Request SK-196 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Saints, airtime is costly, so if the Lord moves on your heart, please consider sending a special love gift to help us, whether or not you wish to place an order. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
