Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: 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.

R. G. Hardy: 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three short years later that the President signed the bill to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military and rescinded the "don't ask, don't tell" act.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. Amen? You all are getting quiet out there. I hope it's because you're listening. Amen.

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've 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't, you can't say, "Well, you can't do this and you can't do that," of course not—but marriage is a whole another 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 or convince them of anything; they can't hear. But when the church becomes deaf to the spirit of truth, amen. Now, we just about got over that in 2015, and we're still reeling from the fact that it became legal in all 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? Amen? 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, "I don't use that word," and so I wasn't going to use that word. It came back to me again, and finally, finally, I said, "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 on the edges—boom—and it's gone. And the debris is following. 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, 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 in 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 she is holding a picture of when she was the mother, and she was a beautiful woman, a very lovely woman. And now the boy who is now a girl with long, curly hair is holding a picture of when he was the 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've 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 it's all that the Spirit of God has been speaking to my heart 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?

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.

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 female at any given time.

Then the genderless ones go even further than that; 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 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 is 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 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. And 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 on 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 in my 30s standing to preach up there, and as soon as I got behind the pulpit, I'd take my—lift that—put take that shoe off because my foot was going "ah!"

But you know, I was bound and determined I was going to wear halfway decent feminine shoes. 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 on 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's one—that is another whole thing.

I am 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, they think 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 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 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 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 the first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it."

"And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. 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."

"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 brake 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."

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 beasts, 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 an exile in Babylon, and we know that Nebuchadnezzar was the king.

And we know this because we would have already read chapter two, 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 is 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 a 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 two 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 Medo-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 stamped 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 10 horns.

And this speaks to a future time, that the original area of the Roman Empire is going to be split up into 10 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 done go way past 10 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 am 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 seven 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 ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise." He tells us what's going to happen. Ten powers are going to arise. "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 "shanah." "Shanah." And it does not only mean to be different; it means to be altered. Do you understand? Are you listening? Amen.

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. Amen? 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 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 there's a lot of speculation, but there's a lot that's told about him. You can read a lot more about him if you read the rest of Daniel.

And we find out that this man will magnify himself above all, that's right, 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. Amen. Wow.

What kind of man is he going to be? We know he's going to be Antichrist. 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?

Sharon Hardy Knotts: 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 SK196 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 Knotts saying, maranatha.