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 a strong word of the Lord given to me during our nation's political division and unrest.

Many claim that since God is sovereign, His will is always done. But that lays at His feet all the ills and injustices of the world. It means when good kings reign, it's His will and when evil ones are in power, that's His will too. But is it? Or does He give people the desire of their hearts? Gain a perspective in how a nation backslides moving away from the voice of God.

R. G. Hardy: Let's look at chapter 15 verse 11. The word of the Lord came to Samuel and He said, "It repents me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments." And it grieved Samuel and he cried all night unto the Lord.

So then in the morning, Samuel came to meet Saul. Look at verse 13. And Samuel came to Saul and Saul said unto him, "Blessed be you of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord." What a liar. How deceived. Amen? But then something happened. Samuel heard the bleating of sheep.

And he said, "What is this bleating of sheep in my ears?" And Saul repeated the same thing. "Oh, it was the people. They wanted to keep the best of the animals so they could sacrifice them to God." And then Samuel rebuked him and he still persisted to blame the people.

And then the famous words that we all know Samuel delivered, chapter 15 verses 24 and 25, "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as obeying the voice of the Lord? But behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to harken than the fat of rams."

And now Saul says to Samuel, "I have sinned. I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord." He says, "But I did it because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore I pray you, pardon my sin and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord." Do you know what's going on here?

Saul says, "Well, really I listened to the people. I was afraid and I listened to them. But you know, it doesn't really matter. Walk with me. Come alongside me. Let's go out there in front of the people and worship the Lord and they'll see we're still good, so I'm still good with God."

How deceived. Amen? Let's just pretend. Let's go out there and put a show on. Let's pretend like everything's alright with me. If you come out there with me, they'll think everything's okay. Amen? Verse 26, and Samuel answered, "I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel."

And you want to know the tragic epitaph of Saul's life? Look at verse 35. "And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul and the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel." What does this mean? It means Saul never got another word of the Lord from God.

He never saw Samuel again. And it means that now he had moved so far away from the voice of the Lord he could no longer hear Him at all. Moving further away from the voice of the Lord is how a nation backslides. When you don't want to hear the word of the Lord, you're on your way to backsliding. Amen?

So he never saw him again and from that point on Saul went into a tailspin of paranoia and violent behavior. He was tormented night and day and day and night by demon spirits. Then he became so insanely jealous over David because he heard that he's going to be the next king. He tried to kill him 21 times even though David never ever did him any wrong.

Didn't even show him the slightest disrespect, always called him "my father, my king." Saul was so tormented by demon spirits, the only one that could give him a little respite was when David came and played on his harp. So Saul no longer could hear any word from the Lord.

He got so desperate, adding to all his sins, he sought for a fortune-telling witch to give him a word of the Lord. You see, when he first became king of Israel, you know what he did? He put out all the witches. He either killed them or put them out of the land. They could either leave or they were going to be killed.

Witches, soothsayers, those who were called up the supposedly dead, necromancers, it's really familiar spirits. Amen? He put all of those people, all of those ones out of Israel. And now he's going to get one. Amen? We've got to flip all the way to Samuel 28.

And so he goes to this witch, the witch of Endor, and he disguises himself so she won't know he's the king. And he says that he needs to speak to the prophet Samuel. And I'm not going to go into all of the ins and outs of this story, I want to stick to my point. But we read here in 28 verse 15, "And Samuel said to Saul, 'Why have you disquieted me to bring me up?'"

And Saul answered, "I am sore distressed, for the Philistines make war against me and God is departed from me and answers me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you that you may make known unto me what I shall do." He was so tormented.

God didn't speak to him. He didn't have any dreams from God. He didn't have any word from the Lord. He had no one to go to. He could not go to God's prophet because he had rejected the word of God's prophet and God had rejected him. Let's see what Samuel answered in verse 16.

"Then said Samuel, 'Wherefore then do you ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from you and is become your enemy?'" My God. He said, "Why are you coming to me to get a voice of the Lord? As you said, the Lord is departed from you and you have become the enemy of God."

And then he went on to tell him, "Tomorrow you will die and your three sons on the battlefield of the Philistines." And the next day when they were in battle, word was brought to Saul that his three sons were dead. And when he heard that his three sons were dead, not wanting the Philistines to take him alive and make a mockery of him and torment him, he killed himself.

What a terrible way for someone who was anointed to be the first king of Israel to leave this world. And all those other lives, his sons and all the men of Israel that died that day, all died because Saul moved away from the voice of the Lord. God said through the prophet Hosea speaking of Saul, "I gave you a king in my anger and I took him away in my wrath."

You see, folks, God's will is not always done in earth. God was angry when He gave them Saul. He did it in anger because they had rejected Him. "I give you your king, but it's not my will. I am very angry about this." And then when it turned out that he was deceitful and rebelled against me, I took him in my wrath.

God's will is not always done in earth. And just because somebody gets into an office doesn't mean it's God's choice. It means that God gave the people the desire of their heart just like He gave Israel the desire of their heart and gave them Saul as their king. It was not God's choice, but it was their desire.

Remember that exclamation point after the word "desired." Here is the king you desired, not God, you. And so God gave you your desire and sent leanness to your soul. So I know you all know who's the next king, David. A man after God's own heart. He had so many wonderful attributes, even his enemies bragged on him.

Listen to what one of his enemies said. Said that he's a skillful musician, a brave man of war, he's wise, he's sensible, he's handsome, and most importantly, the Lord is with him. David, a man after God's own heart. And you know what? You can read David's life story and he was not perfect, we all know that.

But here's the thing that will strike you: over and over again you will read that it says, "And David inquired of the Lord." Here's another scenario, oh, and David inquired of the Lord. Here's another situation we're facing, and David inquired of the Lord. You know God could speak to David and say, "Don't do it this way, do it that way."

Because one time God said, "I want you to go out and do an ambush." And they did and they won the victory. Here comes another battle. David's like, "You want us to ambush again, God?" "No, no, no, not this time. I want you to do another way." You see, he could have presumed in his experience and because that was a great victory let's do it again. But he didn't. He inquired of the Lord.

Now we know about the two great sins that David committed, the sin with adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah to cover it up. And then later he demanded that Joab the general take a census of all the people, count all the people, and that was forbidden. God never wanted them to count them because He didn't want them to think that they were doing it.

He wanted them to know He was doing it. It was nothing but pride that makes you do that. How big's your congregation? Well, I got so many in my congregation. That's pride. But the notable thing about David's 40-year reign is that he had two prophets, Gad and Nathan, who always could come to him or he could go to them.

Sometimes they came with a rebuke like when Nathan came and rebuked him over what he had done to Bathsheba and Uriah. And said, "You have sinned. You are the man. You took an innocent woman and then you killed her innocent husband who was one of your main allies in the army."

And David said, "My God, I have sinned. I have to die. I will have to die according to the word of the Lord." And Nathan said, "You shall not die, David. You will not die. But the sword will never leave your family. Your family will suffer great tragedies." You see, that was David's personal sins as a man.

David's personal sins as a man: his weakness of sex. He had sex with that woman, got her pregnant, now we got to lie and cover it up, let's kill her husband. His personal sin. And then his personal sin of wanting that census so he could see how big his army was. But you see, he paid for it in his family, but God let him remain king because in his office as king he always inquired of the Lord. Amen?

And he wanted to build God a beautiful temple. He listened to the voice of the prophet. You know David could have banished Nathan. He could have said, "You know what, man, you're out of here. Somebody come and get him. I'm not going to throw him in prison, but take him out the outskirts of Jerusalem and tell him don't you ever set foot in this city again, because I don't like what you're telling me."

But he didn't. He humbled his heart and he repented. Amen? Even on David's deathbed, Nathan came to him and said, "David, we have a matter that's very serious. Everyone knows you're dying and your eldest son Adonijah has already gone out and told everybody he's the king and they're celebrating. They're saying, 'Oh, Adonijah is the king. Long live King Adonijah.'"

And Nathan said, "David, don't you remember way back when I came and rebuked you about what you did with Bathsheba and Uriah? And then the baby that was born, you pled for God to save the baby, but the baby died. But then God said, 'I'm going to give you and Bathsheba another son. And you will name him Solomon.'"

"He will be a man of peace and in his reign there'll be no war. And I will allow him to build the temple that you want to build but I can't let you build because you've been a man of war." He said, "Don't you remember that God said this boy that you will have, named before he was born, even conceived, will be the king after you?"

And Nathan said, "David, your oldest son Adonijah has already proclaimed himself king and you know God said Solomon was to be king." And on his deathbed, David rallied himself and he said, "You bring Solomon here and you put my crown on his head and you put my robe on him and you take him out there and put him on my donkey and you take him to the priest."

"Take him to the priest publicly before all and let the priest anoint him, for I say that Solomon is the king of Israel." He harkened to the voice of the prophet even on his deathbed. So now Solomon is king. No war during his 40 years. That man didn't have to even get distracted by war.

All he had to do was build that gorgeous temple to God and his own house. And we know that he was so rich, he was so wise, he had the whole package. The Queen of Sheba came and said, "I heard about you, but when I came and saw with mine own eyes and heard with mine own ears, I declare the half has not been told to me of your glory and the happiness of your servants."

But do you know what I discovered after much searching? I cannot find anywhere in the record where Solomon had a prophet. I can't find it where Solomon had a prophet of the Lord to speak to him to keep him honest and humble. See, kings needed prophets to keep them honest and humble.

He had no one to come to him and say, "Thus saith the Lord." And the scripture says when Solomon was old, his heart was turned away from God. He had married all these women, many of whom were heathen pagan women. And he built them temples to their gods. To make them happy, he built temples in the city of Jerusalem to their pagan gods.

What a slap in God's face. And the scripture says he married many heathen women who turned his heart away from God. Actually, he did the three specific things that God specifically told Moses that kings should never do. Number one, they should not lay up a lot of gold, and the scripture says he laid up gold as dust.

He married many wives; they were to have one wife. And they were not to go to Egypt to get horses, and he sent for horses; he had fine horses that he brought out of Egypt. He did all three of the taboos because he had no prophet to warn him like his father had and like Saul had.

No prophet to say, "Solomon, Deuteronomy says this. You're doing what God forbids, but you're doing it." No prophet to come and speak a word of conviction to him. How far the nation of Israel had moved away from the voice of God. He became so wicked and God said, "I'm going to split the kingdom. I'm going to divide the kingdom."

He said, "For your father's sake, I'm not going to do it in your time, but when your son becomes king, I will split the kingdom." So his son Rehoboam became king. He was so wicked, it didn't take any time at all. He was wicked from day one on the job. And God split the kingdom: 10 tribes in the north became a separate nation still called Israel.

And the two tribes in the south of Judah, which they had the city of Jerusalem, and Benjamin became Judah. And do you know Israel in the north continued to have one wicked king after another? You research, they did not have one single good king. Not one. And they went into captivity.

It took a little longer for Judah because they had about eight good kings. And 150 years later, they went into captivity. And from then on, it was just one wicked thing after another. And if you read the end of the last king that was taken away, it is so sad it'll make you cry what happened to him because they had gotten so far away from the voice of God.

They wanted a king and now they had no king. They had no Israel. They had no Jerusalem. They had no temple. And the finest of their young bright men were taken away. You know what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 4:13? "Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be admonished," who will no more hear the voice of the Lord.

May we never come to the place that we do not hear the voice of the Lord no matter what is going on around us. Amen? This peculiar treasure of God that He brought out of Egypt to make a kingdom of priests on the earth had lost everything: their homeland, their beloved temple, because they had kept moving little by little, little by little by little, moving away, farther away from the voice of the Lord.

And saints, it's happening today in America. People don't believe the Bible anymore. They mock it and they hate its message. And they are vigorously working to silence the messengers and in some cases threatening them, threatening preachers about what they're preaching. I don't know where you stand as sheep in this congregation, but I'm going to tell you as long as I stand up here in this pulpit, I'm going to preach the word.

I'm going to preach it boldly. I'm going to preach it hot and heavy. I'm going to preach what thus saith the Lord. We're going to stand for righteousness and sometimes it may trump all over your toes. But when it happens, don't throw it off. Don't move away. Let it do the work it needs to do. Amen?

If it says you're living in sin, get it together because you don't want God to move the blessing off your life individually. And I don't want God to move the blessing off this church and I'm not going to let anything stop me that God removes the blessing on my life. I want you to understand I know how to preach happy messages.

You know I got a whole bunch of them. Just go online and look at my CDs. I got over 100 CDs and they're not all these kind of messages. I got lots of messages to build your faith, encourage you, give you hope, give you joy, give you healing, give you deliverance. But right now, this is where the Lord has me.

Amen? And I take it week by week and Sunday by Sunday. And when He confirms when I get a message together and I'm starting to get that "but Lord, they're not going to like to hear this one," He'll always confirm it from an outside source and then I know I have the word of the Lord.

Jesus said seven times in Revelation, "Let him who has ears hear what the spirit says unto the church." Why would he keep saying that? You got ears, obviously we all have ears. He means ears to hear with obedience, with an intention of doing it. Here's a very important scripture, Hebrews 2:1.

"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip." In my Bible the word "them" is italicized. So let me look at that again. Take the more earnest heed to the things which you have heard lest at any time we should let them, the words which we have heard, slip.

But that's not what it says in the Greek. The reason why "them" is italicized is because it was added by the translators so that they felt that it would clarify the meaning. But I don't agree with them putting that word "them" in there because it infers that the word of God can slip.

But I say to you that God said, "My word is forever settled in heaven. Heaven and earth may pass away, but not one jot or tittle of my word shall pass away." He said, "My word will not return unto me void. It will accomplish that what I send it to do and it will prosper in the thing whereunto I send it."

So I don't agree that God's word might slip. What the Greek actually says is, "lest we should slip." Not the word. The word can't slip, but we can slip. If we don't take the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, we can slip. God's word will remain steadfast and unmovable and unimpeachable and unalterable and unchanging.

But we can slip. That's why James said in the first chapter of James, "Be not forgetful hearers of the word, but be you doers of the word for the hearer is not justified but the doer." And Jesus said in Luke 8:18, "Take heed how"—somebody say how—"Take heed how you hear."

See, He didn't just say take heed what you hear. Of course we need to take heed what we hear. I don't want to hear the lies of the devil. I don't want to hear false doctrine. But He's saying even when you're hearing the truth, take heed how you hear. Because if something in you doesn't want to hear it, it's the thing you really need to hear.

I'm talking about somebody preaching the truth out of the word. If it's the word of God rightly divided, line upon line and precept upon precept and you don't want to hear it, it's the very thing you need to hear. So take heed how you hear. I know I've said a lot of stiff things today. A lot of heavy things.

I might have lost some friends. I might get unfriended. But I'm going to speak this word. I'll never forget the time not too long ago I was getting ready to go to bed and I was doing my little nightly routine that I do with washing my face and all that sort of thing and everything I do to get ready for bed.

I had the TV on and it was a Christian talk show and it was ministers sitting around. And they were discussing different times in their lives when they heard a specific direct word of the Lord that was very crucial for the time and helped them to go forward with whatever it was that concerned them at the time.

And they were giving these fabulous testimonies and it was really making me jealous. I was saying, "Lord, I want to hear a word of the Lord." And in my heart I said that, "Lord, I want to hear a word of the Lord." And as soon as I said that in my spirit, I heard in my spirit Psalm 94:16.

I had no idea what Psalm 94:16 said. But I heard him, got my Bible, and I found out: "Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Who will rise up for me against the workers of iniquity?" And when I read that I said, "I will! I will!" And today I say, "Lord, I will!"

And if you will, come on and stand together. Amen? We have to continue to hold up the banner of truth. Whatever occurs in our nation going forward, there's going to be a lot of ungodly things that are going to happen. Amen? There'll be a lot of decisions that will be made that will be displeasing to God.

But you know what? God always has a remnant. He always has a remnant. God never chose the big numbers to do what He did. He always had a remnant and today in the United States of America, I believe with all my heart that God has a remnant. There are a lot of church players.

There are a lot of hypocrites. But God has a remnant of true people. We are not alone. When Elijah thought he was the only one left, "Lord, they tore down all your altars and look at all these false prophets and I'm the only real prophet left." And God said, "Elijah, I've reserved unto myself 7,000 who will not bow their knee to Baal."

And we can be a part of that 7,000. It doesn't necessarily mean a literal number; it means God's number. Amen? God's number. You know back on William Street, I don't know if any of you William Street people remember this, but Brother Hardy made up little pins that we wore on our lapels that said "God's 7,000."

They were royal blue with gold lettering that said "God's 7,000." So when people saw you had a pin on that says "God's 7,000," "What is that?" You can say, "I'm part of those who stand true to the word of God in a world around us that's dark and full of compromise and deception and it's getting worse and darker. I'm part of God's remnant."

And God can do a mighty thing. He said through His word, "I can take a worm and thresh a mountain." If God can thresh a mountain with a worm, He can use you. He can use me. Amen?

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen, what a clarifying word of the Lord. How a nation backslides moving away from the voice of God. Is God's will always done on the earth? If so, why did Jesus say to pray "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"? Many claim that since God is sovereign and in control, His will is always done.

Thus, when good men rule it's His will and when evil men rule that's His will too. But the Bible says otherwise. God never intended His chosen people Israel to have a king. They were to be a kingdom of priests and God was their king. But as they moved away from the voice of God at Sinai, they eventually insisted on a king.

Their king turned out to be a rebel. A backsliding Israel kept moving away from the voice of God until she went into captivity and her beloved city and temple were destroyed. America too is moving away from the voice of the Lord, choosing leaders that spurn the Bible and celebrate abortion and same-sex marriage, which God calls abominations.

I urge you to get this message on CD and share with others. It is available for your love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK216. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203, or order online at soundoffaith.org.

But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Request SK216. You can also view our Sunday messages that we live stream on our YouTube page, Sound of Faith Ministries. That's YouTube, Sound of Faith Ministries. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying, Maranatha.