Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to this Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, and I'm delighted you've joined us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The message you will hear today is one I preached at Faith Tabernacle Church under a stirring and compelling anointing. It's entitled, "Will the Real Christian Please Stand Up!"

We serve a great God because he has given us a great salvation. The reason why he had to give us such a great salvation is because we were such great sinners. Great sinners require a great Savior. Great sinners require a great salvation. Amen! And the only one that could fill the bill was the only begotten son of God, full of grace and truth and mercies, sinless and pure in every way to be our Savior.

That is why there is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus. Why the devil hates the name of Jesus Christ and all those who proclaim his name and live his word. You are a target. The devil is after you. Amen! But you can be victorious and live a godly Christian life that will glorify our Savior. And that's my desire. What about you? Amen!

If you have your Bibles, we're going to begin in Luke, the 13th chapter. You might want to wet your forefinger and your thumb so you'll be real good and quick as we go through the scriptures because you know I like to give you a lot of verses. And sometimes I paraphrase for the sake of time. But sometimes I just want you to see it in the word.

And even though I know you know it and you've heard it, I don't know about you, but when I read something, I get more than when I just hear someone reading it to me. Everyone learns differently, but for me, I'll see something, a word will jump off the page, and I'll get hung up on that word. And then the Lord will tell me something and show me something I never saw before.

And that's why you never can get bored with the word of God. Because it's line upon line and precept upon precept, and it's truth upon truth. And the more you search the scriptures, the more they will testify of Jesus Christ. John 5:39 says search the scriptures diligently, diligently. No one has a right to say, "I don't believe the Bible," until they've searched the scriptures diligently.

After you have searched the scriptures diligently—and I'm talking about Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21—then you come and tell me your objections, and we'll have a dialogue. But until you search the scriptures diligently, you don't have any business saying, "Oh, I don't believe that." Amen! He said, but if you will search the scriptures diligently, they testify of me and you will find in them eternal life. Amen!

And so we're going to begin in Luke, the 13th chapter. And I know you're going to get nervous right away. You're going to get nervous and say, "Oh my, I don't know why I came." But just give me a little time to get started. And I promise you, you'll feel better as time goes on. But Luke, the 13th chapter, verse 22: "And he went through the cities," being Jesus, "and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem."

Then said one unto him—we don't know who this is, we don't know what person this was, someone out there in the great audience said to Jesus, "Lord, are there few that be saved?" And he said unto them—that is Jesus answered him—"Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open unto us,' he shall answer and say unto you, 'I know you not whence ye are.'"

"Then shall ye begin to say, 'But we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.' But he shall say, 'I tell you, I know you not whence ye are. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.'" Now let's see what's happening here. Jesus, being an itinerant evangelist and traveling from town to town and city to city, was preaching and teaching. And someone asked him this question and said, "Lord, are there few that be saved?"

Now, I don't know about you, but I've wondered this a lot of times. I mean, I've looked around sometimes and say, "Lord, are there few that's going to be saved?" Have you ever thought that? You can't live in this perverse, ungodly, Christ-hating world and not wonder, "Lord, how many are going to be saved?" Amen! How many Christians are there in your world? Think about your world. Think about your family. Think about where you work. Think about where you go to school. Think about your neighborhood.

And you may think to yourself and wonder, "Lord, are there few that will be saved?" But notice Jesus' answer. He didn't even bother to answer the guy's question. He didn't say a comment on whether there be few saved or not. He said to the guy, "You strive to enter in." He basically said, "What are you worrying about the numbers for? Why are you worrying about how many will be saved or not? What about you? Will you be saved? Will you go all the way? Will you enter into heaven, or will you be outside knocking on the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord'?"

Jesus said, "For I tell you many"—now here he uses the word many, which is the exact opposite of a few. He said, "Many, I say unto you, will try to enter in and they shall not be able." They will not be able. Now, is that because God's up there going to shut the door and say, "No, I choose you and I don't choose you"? No, they won't be able. The word "able" means to be strong, to have strength. And there are people that do not have spiritual fortitude. They don't have the spiritual strength and they're not going to go all the way.

Amen! So what Jesus was saying is don't worry about the rest, but I say unto you, if you will enter in, you're going to have to strive. You know what the word "strive" means? In the Greek, it means—the Greek word is agonizomai. I know it sounds real fancy, but it comes transliterated straight into the English language. We don't even bother to change it with another word. We took it right out of Greek, put it in English, and said "agony," "agonize."

That's what it is. And you know what agony and agonize means. It means suffering. It means you're going to go through a time of suffering. And he was saying you're going to have to agonize to enter in. I like another scripture where it's used in 1 Timothy 6:12. The same Greek word is used in there, but this time it is translated "fight." Fight the good fight of faith. How many like that verse? Fight the good fight of faith. If you make it into heaven, you're going to have to fight.

Now, don't misunderstand me. You're not going to work your way in because salvation is free. It's not of works lest any man should boast. It's the grace of God through faith, and even that's a gift of God. You're not going to work your way into heaven, but you're going to fight your way into heaven because you have an adversary. You have an adversary, the devil. You have opposition that when you make up your mind that you're going to serve God, the devil is going to come after you.

And some people, he'll come after them through the flesh, through lust of the flesh, through women and men and drugs and alcohol. But he comes after other people through intellectualism. And they get caught up in academia and they begin to think that they're so wise. You're going to have to fight against all of these attacks of the enemy. Amen! Because let me tell you the reason why you're going to suffer agony is because the gate is strait.

Somebody say the gate is strait. And you know what that word S-T-R-A-I-T means? You notice it's missing the G-H because that's another "straight." That's this straight. This kind of "strait" is like this: narrow, confining, constricting. And sometimes you're going to feel like that you're being constricted. You're going to feel pressure on the left and on the right. You're going to feel pressure in the front and on the back. You're going to feel you're surrounded sometimes by pressure. That's how it's going to feel sometimes.

But Jesus made it clear: if you will fight, if you will go all the way, you will enter in and you will be able to enter into the strait gate. But you can't get into a narrow gate trying to drag the world and all the stuff with you. The scripture says in Hebrews 12:2, "You got to lay aside every weight and the sin, the sin that does so easily beset you." The sin—every one of us has something we have to struggle with. Every one of us has a weakness we've got to overcome.

And from time to time, the enemy will come back to see if we let our guard down. Amen! And that word that says "so easily beset you," the word literally means to surround you. And you're going to have to lay it aside. You're going to have to put it down. Amen! God and the Holy Spirit and Jesus are not going to come down and yank it off of you. You're going to have to put it down. But the moment you put it down, I want you to know the Holy Ghost is right there to say if you will believe, I will give you the power that you will be able to overcome. Because you are not of the world, because you are of God. And greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

You're going to have to strive. But some are going to come to the Lord and say, "Lord, Lord, let us in." And the most tragic words could ever be spoken, he's going to say, "I don't know you. I don't know you." They're going to say, "But Lord, I was raised in church. I went to church Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, all day Sunday. I took communion every first Sunday in my church. I did all of these things." And you know what he's going to say? "I don't know you. Depart from me, ye worker of iniquity."

The saddest word you could ever hear is for Jesus to say, "I don't know you. You can't enter into my heaven." And we're not talking about people that never, ever heard the gospel. We're talking about people who claim to be Christians and to know the Lord. I tell you what, I feel such a burning anointing on me and I'm not even into the message really yet. So all I can say is let's just put on your seatbelts because I feel something here this morning.

There's a spirit of burning and holiness. You may not like me, you may not like my style of preaching, you may think that's not the way I like—don't worry, just forget about me and my style. I am who I am and God uses donkeys. He can use me. If I say something that steps on your toes, don't get mad at me. Just take it up with the Lord. But God is going to talk to us this morning. And before I get too wound up because I already feel wound up, I want to take a moment just to tell you about something. And some of y'all are going to remember this.

When I was a kid growing up and there was a lot of game shows on TV, and one of them was called Truth or Consequences. And one of them was called To Tell the Truth. How many remember them? Now, the one To Tell the Truth, if I can remember it, it was a game show where they had a host—almost all game shows have hosts, obviously. And this one had a panel of four judges. They were on every show, that same panel of judges was on.

But every show, they had three new contestants. And these were unknown people. These were just people like you and me. They weren't celebrities. And the three contestants would come out and stand next to each other while the host would read the bio, the biography of one of them. But you didn't know which one it was. Now let's just pretend, let's pretend that I was one of those up there and he was reading my bio. So it would read like this:

"I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. I graduated from Southern High School in 1969. My father is the pastor of an independent Pentecostal church. I served in ministry with him. I sang on the choir, I've taught Sunday school, I've preached in the pulpit. I'm the managing editor of Faith Is Action magazine, a gospel magazine we publish each month. I'm married, I'm the mother of three children and grandmother of two children. What is my name?"

The host would have read that. Then here we got these three ladies standing up there, and the first one would say, "My name is Sharon Knotts." And the second one would say, "My name is Sharon Knotts." And the third one would say, "My name is Sharon Knotts." Now, they can't all three be Sharon Knotts. Only one of them is Sharon Knotts. Now, they don't recognize these people because they're just normal average people. Amen!

So then the three Sharon Knottses would go sit down while the four judges on the panel each get a turn to ask them questions. And the idea being that they want to try to ask questions so that they will divulge information, and they can try to ascertain which of these seems to really answer the questions more satisfactorily because they're probably the real Sharon Knotts. And that would be the idea and each one of those judges would get a chance to do that.

Now, the idea was that the contestants should be able to answer so cleverly that they could throw the judges off. That someone who wasn't Sharon Knotts could make the judge think that they are. And the person who was Sharon Knotts maybe be kind of vague so as not to lie, because it's To Tell the Truth. Amen! But be vague to throw them off. And so now after each one—and of course, the judges would make notes and you know, they would be able to think, "Oh, that judge asked a good question. Hmm, now I'm thinking about this."

At the end of it all, when the time was up, they each had to—each judge had to say, "Well, I think it's number one," or three or two or whoever. "I think they're the real Sharon Knotts." And when all that was done and the host had asked them who you think the real Sharon Knotts is—and of course, it was fun to see because you see you're playing along with them and possibly you've already made a decision who you think the Sharon Knotts is. Amen!

And finally, the host would say, "Now, will the real Sharon Knotts please stand up?" And you know, sometimes, let's say the real one was number two. But sometimes number one will act like they're getting ready to stand up and then they sit back down. And then all of a sudden, number two stands up and says, "My name is Sharon Knotts." And so it was fun to see which one was the real Sharon Knotts. Amen!

And I'm using this analogy because sometimes we hear a lot of people say, "I'm a real Christian." We hear a lot of people name the name of Christ, name the name of the Lord. And you're going to run into lots of people that say, "I'm a Christian." Amen! But when you listen to the way they talk and you watch the way they walk and you listen to the music they listen to and the things that they do, then you begin to find out, is that a real Christian? But I tell you what, it's time for the church to take the stand and say, will the real Christians—will the real Christians please stand up!

I said, will the real Christians please stand up! Amen! I want to know, are you a real Christian? You name the name of the Lord. Are you a real Christian? I'm not asking you what your denomination is. I don't care about your denomination. I don't care if you're Pentecostal or Baptist or Bapticostal. I don't care if you're a Methodist or a charismatic. I want to know, are you real?

I don't care if you go to the Church of God, the Church of God in Christ, the Assemblies of God. I don't care if you go to Faith Tabernacle. I don't care if you go to the First Church of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Apostle, Saint, and Angelic Host. I want to know, are you real? I want to know, are you real? I don't care if you call yourself Reverend, Apostle, Bishop, Prophet, Prophetess, First Lady, missionary. I don't care what you call yourself. I want to know, are you real?

Okay, now indulge me a moment. I have problems a lot of times with many of the titles that church people just love to lavish on us. And you know why? Because titles equal entitlement. And titles have a tendency to make people think they're entitled. I'm entitled to have the best seat. I'm entitled to have this honor. I'm entitled to do this. I'm entitled to do that.

If somebody says to me, "Sister Sharon, get up in front of the line," I'll get up in front of the line. But I'm not going to go say, "Hey, I want to get in front of the line. I'm Sister Sharon." I get in the back of the line and if somebody says, "Let Sister Sharon go," you know what? I don't turn them down. I go. Jesus said, "Don't go there in the place you're invited for dinner and then go and sit in the best seat because, guess what? The host may come and say, 'Excuse me, but that seat was for someone else.' And then you got to get up in front of everybody and go sit in a lower seat and be embarrassed."

You see, titles cause people to feel entitled. And that's the problem. It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about the body of Christ. Amen! It's about people that are sick and wounded and they need love and care and they need attention. The whole don't need attention. It's the sick and the bruised—they need a Savior. Amen! And the best example is when James and John and their mother came to Jesus and said, "Master, I want you to do something for me."

Okay. It's hard to say no to a mother. "Can my sons sit on the left and the right in your kingdom?" And Jesus said, "Well, first of all, that's not for me to say. I don't have the authority to make that decision. That's up to my Father. But let me just give you a little warning here. Do you know what you're asking for?" And now he's talking to James and John. "Do you know what you're asking for? Because are you able? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with?"

He wasn't talking about the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues. He was talking about the baptism of suffering. He said, "Can you drink of the cup that I drink of?" And you know them being young and green and zealous, said, "Yes, Lord, we're able." They found out, didn't they? James was the first one that was killed. Herod beheaded him. And John, though he lived probably to be a hundred, he was boiled in oil. He was thrown on a rocky isle, Patmos, full of snakes and reptiles. They learned. They definitely drank of the cup.

But in that same scenario, here's the thing—let me get back to my point here. When the other ten disciples heard that, the Bible says they were moved with indignation. And this is in Matthew 20. You don't have to go there, but you can write it down if you want to read it later. Now, this word "indignation" in the Greek means it was out loud, loud and verbal. In other words, that quick, the other ten disciples began to, "Well, who do they think they are? And you should be—" Well, Peter, if anybody ought to sit there, it ought to—you can imagine.

It got loud, very loud and angry. And so what did Jesus have to do? He said, "Come here, guys, come here." And he called the ten over with James and John and the mother. And this is what he said to them—I am going to read what he said: "And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called unto them and said, 'Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.'" The great ones exercise authority over the little guys.

Now listen to this: "But it shall not be so among you. Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." I am very happy just to be called minister. I don't need to be called Reverend or prophetess or anything else. Minister Sharon Knotts is fine with me. And you know, when I was doing this message, I saw something I never saw before. Consider the way "minister" is spelled: M-I-N-I. Mini. Mini. Minimize me and magnify him. Amen!

And it always amazes me that Jesus, moments—moments, literally moments away from his hour of agony in Gethsemane, followed by the crucifixion, the last thing he had to do with his disciples is teach them a lesson about humility and get down and wash their feet and say, "Now, this is—this I want you to remember. Remember this night. Remember." Saint, it's time to lay down your titles and pick up your towels and start washing the feet of the saints. Amen!

Because people need to see a real Christian. And nothing will turn people off—sinners and unbelievers—more than some stuck-up, self-righteous, pious person with the Bible shaking it in their face and beating them over the head. You're not going to win anybody to Jesus doing that. And you can preach the truth so hot that they feel the coals of fire on their feet and still speak the truth in love. Because Jesus did it all the time. He put them under so much conviction they couldn't even speak anymore. And yet the broken, the bruised, the ones in need of healing, they got such love and assurance from Jesus and they hung on his every word. So I ask you today, are you the real Christian?

Amen! What a sin-busting, devil-chasing message: "Will the Real Christian Please Stand Up!" It's time for everyone who names the name of the Lord to depart from iniquity. If you're not living right, don't call yourself a Christian, and get out of the church till you're ready to walk the talk. It's time for Christian celebrities to lay down their titles and take up their towels of humility and wash the feet of the saints, that is, serve the body of Christ.

It's time for the righteous of this generation who stand in God's holy hill behind the pulpits and lecterns of Christianity to purify their hearts and cleanse their hands. And it's time for all of us to prepare ourselves for the onslaught of religious, especially anti-Christian, persecution that is being unleashed in our nation with increase as perilous times are here. If you were stirred by this clarion call of the Holy Spirit and you want to hear this message again or share it with others, please order the CD, offer SK162, for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry.

And help us keep the messages like "Will the Real Christian Please Stand Up!" on the air. Send $10 or more to Sound of Faith. The address is P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Request offer SK162. Or if you prefer, order online at soundoffaith.org. Once again, the mailing address: P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying, "Maranatha."