Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to the Sound of Faith Ministry's program. I'm Sharon Hardy Knotts, greeting you with thanksgiving for tuning in today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

I'm very excited for you to hear today's message by myself and my dad, Brother Hardy. It is tremendously eye-opening to the cause and effect of demonic harassment, oppression, and bondage that many Christians experience and what to do about it. Find out now in today's message, Cleansing Your Home of Spiritual Leprosy.

R. G. Hardy: We are to have a godly standard. Let me tell you something, if you are going to have a standard by what comes over your television, you have a very good chance of not making heaven. Did you hear what I said? If you let the television be your standard, you have a good chance of backsliding.

But David said, "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes." I will not put it before mine eyes, and he didn't even have TV back then. Job said this, he said, "I made a covenant with my eyes. I will not look upon a maiden." In other words, he said, "I will not look with lust." I told my eyes you're not going to look with lust.

I told my eyes you're not going to sit down in front of the television and watch a bunch of garbage. I told my eyes you're not going to look at all of these videos that have adultery and homosexuality and all of this poison coming out. I told my eyes you're not going to sit in front of that thing.

Jesus said this: He said if your eye offends you, pluck it out. You think that's harsh, you think I'm harsh, what did Jesus say? He said if your eye offends you to pluck it out. He said it's better for you to go to heaven missing one of the members of your body than to go into hellfire with two eyes.

If you let it, the television will suck the very spiritual life out of you. And if you let it, the television will poison your children until they'll become so tolerant to homosexuality, they'll become tolerant to all the filth of the world because now there's nothing that is barred. There's nothing that is sacred anymore. The family's not sacred, God's not sacred, the Word of God is not sacred, anything goes.

Especially with all the sitcoms when they laugh at all the jokes of the homosexuals and all the jokes of the sexual immorality. Because if you laugh at it and it's funny and it makes you laugh, some people say, "But it's so funny." And that makes it all right, see? Because it's funny and entertaining, it's all right.

That's what the devil wants you to think. He wants you to become insensitive. He wants you to become desensitized. He wants you to become so accustomed to the abnormal and the aberration and the abomination that it becomes the normal thing. And if you sit in front of that TV, that's what it'll do to you.

Guest (Male): I read the testimony of a brother whom God uses in these last days in dreams and visions, which is one of the last days' signs. He said your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. God uses this man in this ministry. Some of his dreams and visions are really powerful, and he's written a book about it.

One of those really struck me. In this dream, he dreamt that there was a nest of rattlesnakes in his home, and they were just coming in. He had young children, and he was so alarmed because he was afraid that the children, not knowing, would stumble onto these rattlesnakes and be bitten.

Frantically, he was trying to run through his house and find out how these snakes were getting in. He's looking in holes and under cabinets and just frantically trying to figure out how did they get in here? And something spoke to him, and he looked. When he looked at the television, they were coming in through the TV set.

When he woke up, the Spirit of God spoke to him and said, "You need to watch what your children are watching. You need to be monitoring what your children are seeing on that television."

I heard Brother David Wilkerson preach. He's the one that started Teen Challenge way back then. He was the one that brought that gang member to Christ. The famous movie, The Cross and the Switchblade, was based on. He's still powerfully preaching today in New York. I heard him preaching about television, and he brought this point out, and I thought it was a very valid point.

He said if you go back to the time of Sodom and Gomorrah, as wicked and ungodly as it was, the homosexuality and I don't even have to elaborate, you know how wicked it was. How ungodly it was, so God had to come down to see if it was as bad as the cry and the stench that came up before him.

He told Abraham, he said you might as well quit praying because there's not enough righteous in there to save the cities. I've got to destroy it. And he came down to destroy it, but for Abraham's sake, he was going to bring his nephew Lot and his family out because Lot was a righteous man. I don't know what he was doing there, but he hadn't become engaged in the iniquity of homosexuality.

You know the story how those men were clawing at the door, wanting to get in to know the two men of God, the angels. And Brother Wilkerson said, now listen to this, those homosexuals never did get into Lot's house. They didn't get in. They were all around, they were clawing at the door, banging at the door, but they never got in because the angels were there, and the angels blinded them and prevented them from ever actually coming into Lot's house.

But he said it's not so today because today we bring the homosexuals right into our house through the television and through the VCR. And it's not just on the outside, it's coming right into our living rooms. Television is going to cause many people to stumble and backslide. Not overnight, but little by little.

How many of you when you come home from work, you work in places, maybe offices or factories, or places where it's a whole lot of filthy conversation all day. Who slept with who, who did what? You have to listen to cussing and garbage, and when you come home, you just feel defiled by it all. Sure you do. Of course you do, if you work in the world.

But like this one brother I was preaching about television said, he made the remark, he said so many Christians come home from work where all day long they've been vexed by the filthiness and the communications of the world. They come home defiled, they're exhausted. They're exhausted in their spirit, they're exhausted in their flesh.

They're tired and exhausted and vexed, and they plop down in front of the TV, and they go from the pigsty to the dunghill. They come out of the filth of the world, and instead of coming into a holy sacred home, putting on godly music, putting on something spiritual, putting on something to lift them up and cleanse them, they say, "But I'm so tired of work all day. I have a right to relax."

And they plop down in front of the television and watch more garbage. A lot of people are going to lose their salvation, and the TV is only going to get worse. What was not acceptable last year is acceptable this year. Last year you could have homosexuality referred to, but this year the star of the show can be an outright homosexual, and the whole show can be about that relationship. In one year's time, they jumped the whole thing.

And let me tell you something, when you sit in front of that TV and that VCR, things have gotten so technological, things have gotten so scintillating. I mean, they barrage your, the colors barrage your eyes and the flashes and the lights and the special effects and the sounds and the stereo. I mean, you're just like you're there. It's like you're sitting there and you're on the ride with them.

Things have become so scintillating, so exciting, so much noise, so much action, so much color. You're almost tired when you get done watching some of it. And then you bring that carnal person to church. Oh, church is such a drag. It's so boring, it's so dull. It can't compete with all that. You know why it can't compete?

Because you're coming to a spiritual thing with a carnal mind. You're not going to see the lights and you're not going to see the images of glory and you're not going to hear the voice of God and you're not going to hear the heavenly music because you're coming with carnal ears and carnal eyes. So you say church is so boring, I'd rather just stay home and watch television. And the devil's fixed it that way.

Oh, I know I'm spending a lot of time on this, but I think it's one of the main culprits. And while I was getting this message together, I wrote this little poem that the Lord gave me. I call it Sorrow 23. Not Psalm 23, but Sorrow 23.

The TV is my shepherd. My eyes shall not want. It maketh me to lie down in spiritual dry places. It leadeth me into troubled waters. It restores the carnal passions of my soul. It leadeth me into the paths of the unrighteous for my flesh's sake. Yea, when I walk through the valley of temptation, I am surrounded by evil.

For thy images and thy sounds, they confront me. Thou preparest a table before me, and in the presence of my enemy, I am amused. Thou fillest my head with worldly persuasions. My heart overflows with them. Surely emptiness and misery shall dwell with me and rob me of my peace and my blessings in the house of my Lord.

R. G. Hardy: Moving right along. Bringing in printed matter, books and materials, magazines, and even comic books. Now let me tell you something, if you go digging in your teenager's room and you find satanic bibles and material, you know you've got a problem. That's pretty obvious.

But what about other subtle things? So I won't talk so much about the obvious. Things that are so obvious, I don't think I need to talk about them. I mean, if you go in your teenager's room and you see drug paraphernalia, you know you've got a problem. If you see alcohol and such matter, you know there's a problem.

But we're looking at the subtle things that are hidden in the walls and in the foundation. And we have to be so alert, especially parents. You've got to do your homework. You just can't think that, "Well, I bring my kids to church, even if you have them in a Christian school, I can't think that, well, I did my part and I don't have to worry."

Yes, you do. You do. Because everywhere, the devil is infiltrating everything down to the toys. Comic books. I'm telling you things that are actual research that I've gathered.

Guest (Male): I heard one very famous, one of the most famous TV evangelists tell this one day not too long ago. He usually stays on the sweet love side of salvation. He usually doesn't say a negative thing. I mean, I think it's the first negative thing I've heard him say. He must have really been stirred up. He had to get super stirred up, come to think about it because he loves everybody. Everything's wonderful.

But he was stirred up this particular day I watched him. He had found, he had come across a child's comic book. And I don't know what comic book it was, if he said I don't remember. But he said it was a normal, fairly innocent comic book.

But when he got to the back of the comic book, how many know that in the back of comic books you can join this club and you can join that club? You did all that stuff as a kid. Be in the spy club or the mystery club, all that silly stuff that's part of growing up. Well, he said in the back of this comic book it was advertised how you can join Satan's club.

It depicted a horned character with a spear in his hand and it had the little bubble with what he was saying. He said, "I am Satan, and I am real." Said, "And I want you, boys and girls, in my service." He said, "Yes, heaven is real too, and so is hell. But you don't really want to go to heaven because you can't do any of the fun things you like to do in heaven."

Now this preacher did wisely note that the devil didn't say they could do them in hell either. And it went on and at the end, there was a coupon to fill out and to send in. It was not a joke. It was not a spoof. It was not sarcasm. It was real. These are the kinds of things the devil is using to get our children. I just received this in the mail the other day, just yesterday or the day before, so I'm going to tell you what it is.

A California skateboard manufacturer, and I don't know how many kids are into it today, but my boys were really into skateboarding big time when they were in their junior high and high school years. A California skateboard manufacturer is using a packaging enclosure similar in appearance to a gospel tract, and it encourages the purchasers to sell their souls to the devil.

One father purchased a skateboard for his seven-year-old grandson at a local surf shop. And when he opened it up, there was this little brochure that said, "Let's make a deal." It was concealed inside the packaging of the brochure and there it had a smiley face devil, and he explains to Flameboy what happened in heaven after he was banished.

He said, "Well, first of all, they set up a bunch of dumb rules and then they imposed a really strict dress code. And I wager that the people up there in heaven must be quite bored." He says, "But that's what they get for being good." He says, "The best place for you, Flameboy, any dimwit knows the best place to retire is in hell. Just look at all the fun to be had."

And then the children are asked to sign and return a contract by which they give possession of their souls to the devil for eternity. They called the distributor and they called the manufacturer, and it says that the manufacturer and the distributor did not express any moral objection to the literature, and the shop owners were unaware that this was being placed in the packaging of the skateboards that they're selling to seven-year-old children. You better be careful about what is coming into your home.

R. G. Hardy: While we're on printed matter, let's talk about pornography. Somebody might say, "Now, is that necessary to talk to Christians?" Yes, I'm afraid it is. We've already talked about videos and television, and there's a lot of people that have memberships at video stores that start off innocently with family entertainment.

But before you know it, they're in the X aisle, and before you know it, they're bringing that stuff into their homes. Let me tell you something, there's no such thing as benign pornography. Some people say, "Oh, well, that's just men's stuff." No, it's devil's stuff. It's demon's stuff. It is not harmless, and it is not normal.

It's even today reached a point of phone pornography. I personally know someone who ran up their phone bill hundreds and hundreds of dollars every month making calls on the 900 numbers. Every month, swore I'll never do that again for one thing I can't afford it, but they did it anyhow because there's a demon behind it.

Guest (Male): Eighty-six percent of rapists admit to a pornography addiction. Eighty-six percent. Listen to this interesting fact. In Oklahoma City, and how many know Oklahoma City is one of the more godly cities in America, one of the more spiritual, it's right in the Bible Belt.

How many remember when they had that bombing of the federal building? All the prayers, I mean people were not ashamed of Jesus. It is pretty much a godly city as big cities go in America. In Oklahoma City, they got together, and they shut down 150 of those pornography houses.

Rape fell by 26 percent while at the same time in the rest of Oklahoma, it rose by 20 percent because there is a direct connection between pornography and rape. There's a direct connection between pornography and a lot of the abuse that goes on.

Some of the worst sex offenders in our nation in modern times, how many remember the infamous Ted Bundy? They executed him, but not until he had terribly molested and killed many precious innocent children. And Dr. James Dobson was allowed to go in the prison and interview him before they executed him.

He knew it was over, he had no reprieve, it was goodbye, it was lights out. He had nothing to hide or it was no time to be playing games. It was time to tell the truth. And he gave him a long interview, but he said, "I have had a lifelong addiction to pornography."

It started when I was a young boy, and I've had a lifelong addiction. He said, "Yes, I'm telling you there is a direct relation between the addiction of pornography and my acting out the things that I did." For a long time, it was just contained to the visual watching and reading and things. But as time went on, I was driven and stirred to act it out. The most vicious and the most unimaginable and heinous things that could be committed against innocent precious children he did, and it all began with pornography.

R. G. Hardy: Now I'm going to tell you something that may be shocking to you. I have a magazine for Pentecostal spirit-filled Holy Ghost-filled people. Not saying everything in there is that way, but that's what it's proposed to be to the audience they try to reach.

They not long ago had a whole spread in there of preachers, pastors, men of God, Christian men who have a secret addiction to pornography. And how it has bound them and the agony that they go through to get in the pulpit and preach and then go back to that addiction.

Guest (Male): One preacher in particular I remember his testimony, and I think I even saw him one time on television. He was laying it all out because he realized as horrible and humiliating as it was for him to confess it, he could possibly help other people.

Because most Christians will not admit such addiction because who wants to go tell somebody you've got this addiction? So you live with it and it gets worse and worse and worse. And I dare say that there's men sitting here under the sound of my voice that you know it's the truth.

He said it started off innocently. He and his wife got one of those memberships, like a Blockbuster-type thing. And I'm not condemning that. But it started off with them getting wholesome good family movies. They could all sit down because they didn't want to watch the garbage on TV and they thought, "Man, we've got to stop watching this junk, let's go get some good movies."

They sit down with their popcorn and their kids and their family, and they watched good movies, and that's how it all began. But one time his wife was out of town, and he had to return one of the videos. And he took it by himself, and he wasn't going to get another one because she was away.

He went to take it back, and I guess that old devil was there and began to tell him to go over there and look in that section over there. You know the one that's for adults only. And at first, he resisted the devil. But he thought, "Well, you know, I just want to go see what this stuff is that these people look at."

Before you know it, he was over there looking through the titles and the covers and whatever. Before you know it, he rented one and he went home. Nobody was home, he was all alone in his house, doors shut, nobody there, and he watched that movie.

It made him sick. It repulsed him. It turned him complete up, he was sick in his spirit. But he watched it. It was terrible. It was horrible. But he watched it. And you know what? He took it back and got another one and another one and another one.

Before you know it, he had a secret addiction that nobody knew about. And every time he was sick, but he still did it because he opened the door. You open the door, and you let the devil trespass. Let me tell you what the devil is. He's a whole lot of things, but don't forget this one thing: he's a trespasser.

You've got to have it posted: No Trespassing. And he is a trespasser, and if you let down and you look the other way and you open the door, he'll come in. And there's a lot of Christians that think that, "Oh well, that's just part of teenagers have got to grow up, and that's boy stuff and that's men stuff." Oh no, it isn't.

And a lot of men will even tell their wives, "Well you know, if I watch this stuff or I look at this stuff, what it does is it really then really makes me want you." Liar!

R. G. Hardy: You're committing spiritual adultery. That's what you're doing. In fact, Jesus said you're committing adultery. He said if you look on a woman and desire her in your heart. Now I don't mean, "Oh, she looks pretty," and "God bless you, sister, you look nice in that outfit." I'm not talking about being nice. I'm not talking about handing out Christian compliments.

I'm talking about looking to desire her and want her carnally. He said even though you don't have the opportunity to act it out, you've committed adultery. And if you have to look at pictures and movies to get yourself into a mood to be with your wife, there's something wrong with you. Even the psychiatrist will tell you that, and they're not even saved, they don't even know the Bible and they'll tell you that.

Oh yes, you are under demonic bondage. There's something wrong. And not only that, let me tell you something, after you've been married a while and your dear little wife has given you so many children and so much in time's gone on, she's never going to look like them people.

And you can have that picture in your mind of what you think you should have and you took the best years of that woman's life and she gave you her life and she gave you children and her body's not as beautiful as it used to be. She sat up at night with sick children, she's got gray hairs from raising teenagers.

She's got crow's feet from crying a lot in her pillow, and you caused a lot of them tears. And you go looking in them magazines at them 18, 20-year-olds. They never had a baby. They live on celery and that's what you think your wife ought to be. And all of a sudden, your wife doesn't do nothing for you anymore. You've got a spirit of lust. And after a while, the thing that disgusted you, you'll do it.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen. I trust you are being spiritually awakened by this hard-hitting but vital message, Cleansing Your Home of Spiritual Leprosy. Have you ever given thought to the ways that you may be opening the doors of your home and exposing yourself and your family to the demonic realm?

It could be through music, television, videos, books, jewelry, home decor, and even your children's toys. With the rise of New Age and occultic influences in America, you would be amazed how the enemy has found open doors into Christian homes through seemingly harmless products and practices that are rooted in darkness and satanic inspiration.

It's time to shut the door and evict your home of the evil because before you can consecrate and bless your home unto God and His protection, you must first clean house and evict the evil influences. Since the Lord gave us this message, it has been one of our most popular teachings because it brings deliverance and God's Shalom to your home.

This 2-CD set is a double-header. It includes my teaching followed by preaching and a powerful prophecy given by my father, Brother Hardy. When you order this 2-CD set, Cleansing Your Home of Spiritual Leprosy, for a love gift of $15 or more for the radio ministry, we will include instructions how to identify and cleanse your home of evil as well as a vial of anointing oil to consecrate your spiritually cleansed home to God.

Send your love gift of $15 or more for the radio ministry and request offer 300. That's offer 3-0-0. Our mailing address is Brother Hardy, PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Or if you prefer, go online at rghardy.org. That's rghardy.org.

Again, order Cleansing Your Home of Spiritual Leprosy and send your love gift of $15 or more to PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying, Maranatha.