Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: 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 from a series I did on the Genesis account of creation. The heavens and earth are introduced in a chaotic state without form and void. What occurred that turned God's once-beautiful creation into this calamitous state? Learn this and more in part one, the recreation of heaven and earth.

R. G. Hardy: Paul told us in Ephesians 6:12 that we need to put on the whole armor of God. He said we're not wrestling against human flesh, Amen, but we're wrestling against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age. Amen. We're wrestling against rulers, those who have power to disseminate darkness and wickedness in this age. But just like God commanded in creation, light be, He has commanded His light to shine in our hearts.

Our hearts that were dark. Some of us, they were dark because you were ignorant of God. You really didn't know. You heard about God, you heard about Jesus, but you didn't know anything about the gospel. But one day, God commanded the light of the gospel to shine in your heart. Amen.

Some of you may have heard about it, you might have even been taken to church as a child, but somehow or another, you got out there in the world and you got steeped in darkness, in bondage. In bondage from which you could not extricate yourself. Maybe it was chemical substance abuse, alcohol, and all the drugs that are out there. Maybe it was sexual perversion. Whatever it may have been, you were in bondage, you were in darkness, you were in darkness and you could not set yourself free.

But one day, God commanded His light. Hallelujah. He commanded His light to shine in your heart. Oh, and when that light shone in your heart and you surrendered to that light, the darkness had to flee. God came in and He separated it. He said the darkness has got to go, for the light has come. Hallelujah. And God made a distinction. He separated you from the darkness and your life and your past of ignorance and wickedness. Amen.

This light is manifest one way and only one way, and that's in the face of Jesus Christ. There is no other way. And the world today will tell you you can't say that. That's intolerant. There is more than one way to God or to heaven. They'll tell you that. But there is only one way the light shines, and that's in the face of Jesus Christ, by whom we receive the knowledge of God to come out of darkness. Peter said in First Peter 2:9, "He's called us out of darkness." Amen.

God has sent His Son. And where I had mentioned a moment ago about Hebrews 11:3 about how that He framed the worlds by His power and then 1:3 about how that He upholds them, it says that Jesus is the express image of God. His express image. And the Greek words refer to like when they make coins, pennies and nickels and dimes, they have a die, they call it a die, and they come down on that metal and that die has got the imprint of what they're going to make, and it comes down on that metal and cuts it and it looks exactly like the die that cuts it. Well, that's what the word means. That is what it means. Jesus, the face of Jesus, is the express image of God. Amen.

And so there's only one way and that's through Him. But when the light of the gospel comes to people, not everyone comes out of darkness. Not everyone comes out. Amen. I'll say a majority are still in darkness. Now I want you to think about something for a moment. When God said in Genesis 1:3, "Light be," God spoke and His word, His sound waves went out there and began to gather up all the atoms and they began to come together and He created all these things. Amen.

Were there any people out there dissenting God? Were there any opposing voices? Were there any contrary objectors saying, "No, we don't believe in that. You're not going to do that. You can't do that"? Were there any people teaching and philosophizing against God's word? You know, like any TV speakers or university professors? You know, or bloggers or Facebook posters or all the forums and chat rooms denying God's word and His commandment? No, there were no opposing voices. When God commanded, it happened. There were no voices to stand up against the word of God and say we won't have that, you're not going to do that, we won't put up with it, we won't believe it.

But you see today, when God commands His light to shine in the hearts of men and women whom He created in His own image and likeness, there are all these myriad of voices. Voices of doubt and unbelief, of atheism and agnosticism, the pride of man and of flesh. Amen. The fallen world and all of its corruption pushes back against the voice of God. God sends His word and His spirit to people's hearts and He's trying to shine the light of the glorious gospel into their life of darkness, but His voice is not the only one they hear. They hear all these dissenters.

You know what really breaks my heart so much is to see young men and women who were raised in church, really raised in church, and go to college, go to university and come out unbelievers. I tell you it breaks my heart and it also boils my blood. They go there and they get under those professors who are atheists and agnostics, and they hear all of those voices and they go through a state of upheaval. And then they come out, many of them, and say I don't believe in God anymore, I don't believe that stuff anymore, I don't believe that Bible anymore. Amen.

And it's even more prone if their parents before them did not go to college and do not have college degrees. They kind of look down, well you didn't go to college, what do you know? And now it's filtering down from college down into high school and down even to the lower grades. I'm telling you, you need to put the money aside if you've got to sacrifice something, you need to put your children in Christian school. Amen. I'm telling you that we lose our children, we lose them to the world, Amen, because they hear all those competing voices.

The whisperer, the slanderer, the accuser. "Has God said?" Just like he told Eve in the garden. But now they'll say, "Is there really a God? Do you really believe that foolishness?" It's the father of lies. Jesus said he was a liar from the beginning, he's the father of lies, and when he speaks, he speaks a lie because there is no truth in him. He's the prince of darkness.

So we read here that God has commanded His light to shine in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of God. God's light is knowledge, God's light is truth. Amen. But not everyone has come out of darkness and I'll give you the reason why. Backup to verse three: "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

Satan's been successful. Amen. He said if our gospel be hid, you know what that word "hid" there means in the Greek? The literal meaning is to hinder, to hinder the knowledge of something, to hide the truth and the knowledge from someone in them that are lost. And that word "lost" there means destroyed.

And we know Jesus said in John 10:10 that Satan's come to steal and to kill and to destroy. That's his MO, that's how he operates, he always operates to that end. He has different ways he does it, but it comes down to this: he is going to try to hinder people from coming out of darkness into the light, so he blinds their minds. Amen. The word there "world," he's the god of this world, the Greek word is "aion" and it actually means a period of time, like a long period of time, an age. So we could say that Satan is the god of this age. He's the god of this period of time that we're in. Amen.

And he knows his time is short and he has come out with all of his wickedness and now he has caused so many people to remain in darkness. Amen. He's blinded their minds and that's what the word "mind" there means, "noema" means your mental perceptions, your thoughts and your purposes. Those who believe not, who will not put their trust in God. That the light, the illumination of the mind of the glorious gospel, the revelation of God and His plan of redemption, should be known to them. Amen. He's succeeded in blinding the conscience and understanding of people and they're lost in his lies.

There's a very powerful verse in Second Thessalonians 3:2 that says "that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith." Now I want to make sure that this is clear to you. I know that Romans 12:3 says God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. Every person has the capability and the ability to believe, to believe God, but people whose minds have been blinded by Satan, they still have faith but they don't have the faith. Remember when I explained not too long ago about the faith as opposed to just faith? It takes faith to be an atheist. Amen. It takes tremendous faith to believe in evolution. Amen.

I mean how much faith is it going to take if I tell you that I had a bunch of springs and little metal pieces and little wheels and some numbers and a bunch of just metal stuff and it was in a brown paper bag and I shook it up and out came this watch? Would you believe it? No, you don't have that much faith, do you? But that's what they will have you to believe. Amen.

Now Paul who wrote these things fully understood them because he experienced them himself. And I'll just tell you the story. You all know that before Paul became Paul, he was Saul. And he was a Pharisee, which was a sect of the Jewish religious people. And he was convinced that Christians were destroying the Jewish faith. And so he went on a campaign to round them up and he went to the high priest and got permission to round them up and bring them bound, beaten and bound to Jerusalem to be condemned.

So he got so into this, so zealous under demonic inspiration, that he even got permission from the high priest in Jerusalem to travel to Damascus, which was in Syria, not even Israel, to go there and round up Christians there and bring them back to Jerusalem bound to be condemned. So he was on his way to Damascus with his paper in hand, but on the way, suddenly, a bright light, God commanded a bright light to shine on Paul at the time Saul. Amen. And this light was so brilliant it knocked him down and it blinded his eyes. You know you're never supposed to look at the sun directly, especially noon time when it's brightest, Amen, and it maybe burned out his lens or something, but he was blind. And he fell down and a voice spoke out of heaven and said, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"

He said, "Who are You, Lord?" And when he said Lord, he doesn't mean like we say Lord, like You're my master and I belong to You, it was a term of respect like "sir." Amen. "Who are You?" "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." I can't even imagine what went through his soul. I can't even imagine what went through his spirit when he heard, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." And we need to know this because we are being persecuted and we will be persecuted and I think it will be intensified. But when they persecute us, they're persecuting Jesus. Amen.

These poor Christians over there in Iraq, in Iran and China and in Nigeria, where they're burning them alive and the mainstream news is not even showing it. They don't even mention, do you know how many Christians in Nigeria have been burned alive in their churches? They're persecuting Jesus and He's not going to sit up there and take it lightly either. But when He said "I am Jesus whom you persecute," Jesus said "it is hard for you to kick against the pricks." It is hard for you to fight against God. It is hard to fight against the truth. You've got to be demonically inspired to fight against it.

Now some people are ignorant, Satan's blinded their minds, they're ignorant, but other people are out there fighting against God, fighting against His word, fighting against Jesus Christ, fighting against Christians. I mean they're on a campaign to tear down every cross they can, Amen, and to rip from the public square every reference they can to Jesus. Amen. Oh, it's hard, it's hard to kick against the pricks. And when Jesus said that, trembling and astonished, Saul answered, "What will You have me to do, Lord? What will You have me to do, Lord?"

Oh that a blinding light would come down and pierce the heavens and knock some people off of their high horse, Amen, and pierce their darkness until they fall trembling to their knees and call on the Lord. And that's what we've got to pray for, for some people. I mean you've tried, you've tried to give them the gospel, you've tried to give them the truth. But they are just like Saul, they're fighting against it. Like when they stoned Stephen, the first martyr of the church, they gnashed on him with their teeth.

Now see stoning was part of the religion that you could stone a blasphemer. I mean I don't like the idea of it but let's put it this way, it was sanctioned for a blasphemer. But gnashing them with your teeth? That's demonic. If you're going to go up and start chopping on somebody with your teeth, Amen, you know that's a demon making you do that. It's one thing to say well the law says we can stone blasphemers, here's my stone, boom. It's another thing when you go up and start chomping on a young man whose face is shining with the glory of God. I mean the devil hated Stephen.

And he wasn't even an apostle or a preacher or an evangelist, he was a deacon, a waiter on tables. He was one of the ones that was supposed to stop the fighting between the women because these women said you gave them more than me, no you gave her more than I got. And they chose seven men to say you take care of this, we've got to study the word and pray. And he was one of them but he was full of the Holy Ghost. Amen. And the Holy Ghost was all over him, he was doing miracles under the anointing of God and the devil hated him and they chomped down on him with their teeth. And who was standing there holding their coat? Saul. Saul stood there, held the coats of the stoners. Amen. And he was so blind. I can imagine that came back to visit him many times mentally. Amen.

Oh that God would send a blinding light on some of our loved ones. Some of our loved ones that we just can't seem to get through to. That God would pierce their darkness with a blinding light that would shake them, shake them to the core of their being. Like Jude said, save some with fear, snatching them out of the fire, hating the garment stained by the flesh. Whatever it takes, Lord, open their eyes. So Paul was physically blind for three days. But during those three days, boy did he get a spiritual transformation. Revelation took place in his spirit.

So when God sent His servant Ananias to come and lay hands on him, the Bible says there fell as it were scales from his eyes and he could see again. I looked that word up "scales" and it says like a covering that you would have to peel off. A covering that you would have to peel off. I'm not saying this is what it was but some people get very dense cataracts and it really obstructs their vision and they have to go in there and peel them off. Amen. And then their sight is restored. And so he received his natural sight after three days when the servant of God laid hands on him.

But oh it was during those three days that he was blind and he didn't eat and he didn't drink. I'm telling you you talk about being in the crucible. I mean that's being in a crucible. But oh God was opening up his spiritual eyes and God was taking him back through the scriptures, I believe, and taking him back through the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms and he was seeing the Messiah in all of those verses and he was seeing that Jesus is Messiah and He fulfilled them. Now later on, much, much later towards the end of his life, we know he was imprisoned a couple times.

In Acts 22 and Acts 26 he's called to give a testimony of why he's in prison and why he's being tried. And I love to read them in connection with Acts 9, the original story, because he tells you some things especially in chapter 26 that are not told in chapter nine. For instance Acts 26:16: "But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared unto you for this purpose to make you a minister and a witness both of these things which you have seen and of the things in the which I will appear unto you." Now this is Jesus talking to him, He's telling you more than we saw in Acts nine. "Delivering you from the people and the Gentiles unto whom I now send you."

Now that is a huge thing because none of the apostles were sent to the Gentiles in this way. But look at verse 18 I love: "To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me." So Paul stood before Agrippa, said I'll tell you exactly why I am now a Christian. And everybody knows full well my history, knows what I was like as Saul the Pharisee and how I hated the Christians and had them condemned to death.

But oh that day on the road of Damascus when a bright light hit me and blinded me and for three days I could not see, but during that time Jesus, He appeared unto me, He spoke to me and He said I am now going to send you forth. He said you're going to stand before kings and princes of this world. I'm going to send you to the Gentiles because the Gentiles were steeped in darkness. Amen. They were steeped in darkness. They were serving the sun, the moon, the stars, Zeus and Jupiter and all those other gods of mythology. I'm going to send you to them.

And when I send you, the message that you're going to give them is going to open their eyes and they're going to come out of darkness into light from the power of Satan to the power of God. That's what the light does, it brings people out of darkness but it also brings them out from under the power and the authority of Satan. Amen.

And Paul said to King Agrippa, "Oh whereupon oh King Agrippa I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." Basically he's saying that's why I'm here in trouble today, that's why I'm in prison right now, that's why I'm in these fetters and these chains, because I was not disobedient. I counted the cost, I counted everything loss for Christ that I can declare the glorious gospel. One time I sent men to their death thinking I was doing God a service but now I'm trying to bring people out of eternal death into eternal life through the light of God. And Paul was saying I'm going to be just as zealous for the gospel of Christ to win people to God as I was trying to kill God's people. I'm not disobedient to the heavenly vision, he said.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen. I hope you're enjoying this comprehensive study from my Genesis series, part one, the recreation of heaven and earth. The Genesis account begins with the heavens and earth in a state of chaos that does not match the beauty of the unfolding creation of which God said seven times, "It is good."

Something calamitous occurred between verse one and verse two of Genesis chapter one that turned the earth into a dark expanse covered with water. The prophet Jeremiah used the identical language to describe the earth without form and void and had no light. He said there were no animals, no birds, no humans and the cities were destroyed.

This describes what occurred on earth as stated in Genesis of the first two verses. There was a traumatic event that plunged the earth into this state: Lucifer's rebellion. If you want more of this teaching, the entire three-part series is available on three CDs for your love gift of only $20 or more for the radio ministry. You will receive part one: the recreation of heaven and earth, part two: recreation days two through four, and part three: recreation days five through seven. Send your minimum love gift of $20 to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, request SK777.

You may order online at soundoffaith.org where MP3s are available, but to order the Genesis series, the complete set of three CDs by mail, send your love gift of $20 or more to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, request SK777. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying Maranatha.