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!"

Guest (Male): Because you get your eyes on someone, and I've done it before in the past. There were certain evangelists I loved. I couldn't wait for their show to come on. I hung on every word they preached, and they preached the truth. There's some, this one I had in mind, nobody preached better than him. I mean, he preached it hot, heavy down the line. I loved it. I got his magazine. I would devour it. I would take notes. And this person had a huge, huge moral fall.

It was devastated when it first came out. I said no, I refused to believe it. I said it was the media. They had made it up and it was some campaign. I refused to believe it until I saw him himself say "I have sinned" with tears coming down his face and I thought, oh my Lord and my God. You know, it really upset me. Now, did it make me want to quit the Lord? No, because my salvation wasn't in this guy. But I can see where babies in Christ and people that are on the... not... don't know yet, I can see where it threw them for a loop.

This person did not commit the unpardonable sin. It was forgivable. God forgave them. They preached the gospel again. But here's the thing about it is the damage and the fallout that it does. Amen, it can happen to any of us. So we've got to not put our eyes on a preacher. Everybody has their favorite preachers. Come on, tell the truth. If you like the way somebody preaches better than somebody else, that's your personal prerogative. You still support and love the other preachers. You love them too and you support them, but there's some that just kind of get it and you love to hear them preach.

But don't ever put people up on a pedestal. Amen. Don't ever put a preacher on a pedestal because I guarantee you preachers have a bigger target on their back. If the devil can get a preacher to mess up, just like I just talked about, he can cause many people to get shook up. The worst thing is it brings the reproach to the name of Jesus to those who don't know.

Amen. We've got to be pure even as he is pure. The way that we do that is by the washing of the water of the word. You know every now and then you need a message like this to give you a good spiritual bath. I'm going to tell you, I didn't decide on this message until yesterday. I've been trying to get a sweet family message. Family, friends, I wanted to be friendly, I want to be family, I want to be nice, I want a message everybody's going to love. I don't know how many I started and... okay, let's start over again. About four or five of them.

I got piles of notes halfway done, and the Lord kept bringing me back to this. Yesterday, now I don't always advise you to do this, but yesterday I said, "Now Lord, if I know I have the message you want, I'm good because then I know when I get out there you'll anoint it. If I try to do one I chose, it... you know, we might get by, but it ain't going to be..." I tell you there's an anointing here today. I literally took about six messages, put them in a pile, closed my eyes, mixed them all up, I... God is my witness, I reached in and pulled out and I looked at it and it said "Will the Real Christian Please Stand Up!"

After that, all the stress, all the worry, all the nerves, all the anxiety was gone because I knew that once the Holy Ghost had what he wanted, he would do the job. Amen. I'm here to tell you that God is saying it's time to have your heart purified, that you have clean hands, that Paul said, "I would that men everywhere would lift up holy hands without doubt, without wrath, and without disputing." We could preach a whole day just on that, but we won't.

We got to get rid of all our disputations. We got to get rid of all of our arguing and all that strife and all our envy and all our jealousy, because we can't lift up clean hands if we got that stuff going on. Amen. What did we read here? He shall receive the blessing from the Lord. He shall receive righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of real Christians. Amen, who walk in these things.

All right, the companion scripture for Psalm 24 is Psalm 15. I always read these two together. When I was in school we still had Bible reading every morning and we always read from the Psalms and they had like five or six Psalms that we read from every day and repeated them. 15 and 24 were two of them. These have been in my spirit since I was a little child and I think to myself they don't have that in school anymore. Who's thinking about having clean hands and pure hearts? Nobody.

But let's read Psalm 15. "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?" And then he answers this question. "He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart." Now altogether he's going to give 11 qualifications and we're not going to park on all of them because we'd be here too long. That's the good things he does. These are the things he doesn't do. He backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor.

These are things he doesn't do. In whose eyes a vile person is condemned, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He swears to his own hurt and changes not. He that putteth not out his money to usury nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. He walks uprightly, he works righteousness, he speaks the truth in his heart. I think we've pretty well covered that. He does not backbite with his tongue, he's not a backstabber. You don't backbite. Before you backbite against your neighbor, you bite your own tongue.

When you get ready to say something, bite your own tongue and you only have to do that a few times and then the thought of it will be all you have to do. You won't have to bite. Amen. He doesn't do evil to his neighbor. He doesn't take up a reproach, he doesn't join in others. Here's an important one, I want to see the number seven and eight. In whose eyes a vile person is condemned, but he honors them that fear the Lord.

We live in a day and we never thought it could happen but the prophet said men will call good evil and evil good. You can be a scoundrel and if you're charismatic people will just say, "Oh, he's a jolly good fellow." They don't care what kind of life you live. They don't care if you've been caught lying. You've been caught telling this side one thing and the other side another thing. They don't care. If you're charismatic and you got a way with words and you can just speak great oratory things, people will just latch onto you.

Someone else that can be speaking truth and righteousness and godly things and they'll just... and talk about... that's... that's the day that we live in. People don't realize that one of the reasons why Jesus was anointed, and I'm quoting now from Psalm 45 and I think verse 9 in Hebrews the first chapter, I think somewhere in Hebrews the first chapter, one of the reasons why God anointed Jesus is because he loved righteousness and hated iniquity. People don't understand that there is such a thing as hating ungodliness. Real Christians hate sin.

Now see where some people get messed up is they hate sinners. We're not talking about hating sinners. God doesn't hate sinners. He loves sinners but he hates their sin because their sin will drag them to hell. Their sin is going to cause them to be alienated from him forever. God doesn't hate sinners but he hates the sin. No, God does not hate homosexuals but he hates homosexuality. He hated it so much he wiped two cities off the face of the earth because of that sin. Amen.

God hates adultery because he sees it destroys families and he says that it cheats him out of a godly seed. That's what he said in Malachi the second chapter. I hate divorce. He says why have you done this? You're cheating me out of a godly seed. You have dealt treacherously with your wives. Amen. God hates these things. He hates the shedding of innocent blood. God hates abortion. Amen. But God forgives those who have fallen into this. God loves them. He forgives them. It's not the unpardonable sin, folks.

And homosexuality is not the unpardonable sin. In fact, Paul said in Second Corinthians the sixth chapter, "And such were some of you but now you're washed, but now you're sanctified, but now you're justified by the blood of Jesus." Oh, what can wash away my sin? No matter what the sin is, the blood of Jesus. He's able to save to the uttermost. He's able to cleanse everyone that comes to him by Christ Jesus. Amen.

You condemn the guilty. Today it's just the opposite. They condemn the innocent and they let the guilty off. We've seen it. We have watched on TV. We have been glued to TV watching court cases of famous people that the evidence was so overwhelming. We watch these people get off and people cheer. Later on, once they're past being able to be, you know, double jeopardy, you can't try them the second time once they get off, they admit to their guilt.

Because that's the day we live in. If you're a celebrity, people will forgive you things because people are, like I said, people are celebrity crazy and celebrity conscious in this world. Okay, so we don't do those things. We do not exploit people just because they're poor or they're fatherless or they live with single mothers or they're orphans. People that cannot defend themselves. Amen. We defend the weak, the fatherless, and the poor. In fact, the Bible teaches us that that's what real Christians do.

James said in James 1:27, "True religion, true Christianity and undefiled is to help the poor, the motherless, the widows, the orphans." That's true Christianity. Amen. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. Now saints, all of you are... most of you are excited and you jumped up most of you more than once to say "I'm a real Christian" and you got all enthusiastic and you're all happy, but I got... I got to warn you. Real Christians are hated. Real Christians are persecuted. Amen.

Turn in Proverbs the 29th chapter. There's a lot of verses we could go to, but we'll just go to a few. 29:25. "The fear of man brings a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." Oh, many will seek the ruler's favor, but every man's judgment cometh from the Lord. Verse 27, "An unjust man, an unrighteous man is an abomination to the just, and he that is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked." How many think that's pretty clear? Amen.

First of all, the fear of man brings a snare. You've got to make up your mind that if you're going to stand up for Jesus and truth and righteousness, you're going to have a lot of people come against you. But you cannot be snared by the fear of man. Why will you fear the face of clay that can do nothing to you? The worst they can do is put you in jail. The worst they can do maybe is kill you. But what about standing before the judge of all heaven and earth who can put you in hell or let you in his heaven?

There's no man that has the keys to hell, death, and the grave but Jesus Christ, the son of God. Don't fear the face of man. Don't let yourself be intimidated. Get ready because your judgment comes from the Lord. There's no man, there's no congressman, senator, president, vice president, governor, mayor, counselor, no one, judge, no one that is going to give you your final judgment. God himself alone will. Amen.

We know that there's thousands of innocent people sitting in jail. We know that. That's a fact. They've gotten thousands out through DNA that've been sitting there for 20 years. And now because DNA has gotten to the place where they can prove or disprove. And that's just a drop in the bucket, the ones they've gotten out. There's thousands sitting there, and some of them will never get out of jail and they're innocent. While the real perpetrator is walking around, probably doing it again and again and again.

But one day we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of God and we're all going to give an account for what we've done on this earth. Amen. We're all going to stand before him. He said, "He who knew the master's will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes." Do you know what that means? That means that hell is... as horrible and terrible as it is, and you can't even begin to understand how horrendous hell is, and let me tell you something, it's not temporary, it's forever and ever.

As awful as it is, there are degrees of judgment and punishment in hell because those who knew the way, those who knew the truth and they erred from it, they're going to have a greater judgment. God's talking to some people here today. You know, I wrote a little letter to the editor a couple of weeks ago about this whole same-sex marriage thing. And the Sun put it in the paper and they put it on their website. Now the website, they put the whole article. The paper they cut out three or four things that I said.

I don't know if they did it for room or they didn't like what I said. But on the website, because I emailed, I did it both, I mailed hard copy and an email, they did put it on there. Well, you know the website's open for instantaneous comments. And some of the comments, I mean, I expect people who are for same-sex marriage, I expect them to argue their cases. But the viciousness! I mean, they don't know me. They don't know who I am. The viciousness, the hatred in their voice, in their words and the way they said it, where I was like, my God, if they could actually face me, they'd probably spit in my face.

Get ready. If you stand up for righteousness, you're going to be an abomination. You are an abomination to the unrighteous and your righteousness rubs them the wrong way. So get ready for it. Amen. Jesus said in First John 3:13, "Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you." Don't be surprised, but rather expect it. Get ready for it. He said if you were of this world, the world would love you because the world loves its own.

In fact, he said that in John chapter 15 verse 18, "If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you." You're in good company. He said, "If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because you are not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." Did the world hate Jesus? Yes. They tried to stone him three times and they did finally crucify him.

And you know the time that he raised Lazarus from the dead? A true bona fide absolute over-the-top miracle. Someone who had been dead for four days and was stinking already rotting because they didn't embalm him. When word got everywhere that this man Lazarus, because he was well known because he had money, was raised from the dead, do you know that the enemies of Jesus wanted to kill Lazarus? They wanted to kill Lazarus because he was walking proof and evidence that Jesus was a miracle worker.

And we know that one of them actually got a revelation and said, "We know no man can do these miracles except God be with him." Amen. They hated Jesus, they're going to hate you. Why did they hate Jesus? Why? John 3 verse 19, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because..." here's the whole reason, this is it, "...because their deeds were evil." For everyone that doeth evil hates the light.

There you got it, hates the light. Neither will come to the light lest his deeds should be reproved, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he that does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. It boils down to this: people that do not want to do the truth are not going to come to the light. If you're a light shining, you reprove them, you convict them, you remind them all the time that they're not right with God and because they're not ready to get right and get rid of their sin, they don't want anything to do with you.

And they are going to persecute you and turn on you. When you let your light shine, get ready. Jesus said you will be rejected, ridiculed, and reviled of all men. All men. Isn't that right? And especially when you start preaching Jesus Christ. You can even talk about God as long as it's a generic God. You might even get away with saying Buddha. You might get away with saying Allah. But if you say Jesus Christ, if you stand up as a real Christian and say Jesus Christ, you better get ready because you're going to be persecuted.

Jesus said in Matthew fifth chapter, he didn't sugarcoat it. He said, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake." He said when you are righteous, listen to what he say. "When men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." Now if you're a real Christian and they talk about you and say all these evil things about you, they're going to be false and you're going to take it for Jesus' sake. Amen.

You know it's no point in you trying to defend yourself. You're going to take it for Jesus' sake. Amen. You know they're going to revile you. And you know that word "revile"? I have a certain idea what it means, but for some reason I want to look it up in my Greek lexicon this morning, just to get a little more handle on it. So I did. I thought, "Okay, that helped a lot." I went to the Greek lexicon and here's what "revile" means. It means to defame and to assail with opprobrious words.

I said, "Well, that helped me a lot. What in the world is opprobrious?" I mean, I know a lot of words and I got a fairly good vocabulary, but I got to tell you, I never heard of that one before. And I thought, "Well, now I got to go to the English dictionary and see what opprobrious means." Anybody here know what it means? Come on, somebody in here... no? I'm not surprised. So I go get the dictionary and I looked it up.

It means to treat someone with contemptuous abuse. It means to scorn... now listen to this... to scorn with ignominy. I said, "Okay, ignominy." I've seen that word, but if you really put me on the spot and ask me to define it, I might not be sure. I had to get the dictionary out again and see what did that word mean. And that means to publicly disgrace or dishonor. That's what Jesus said is going to happen to you if you stand up to be a real Christian.

You're going to find that they're going to try to publicly disgrace you and dishonor you because that's the only way they can get out from under the conviction that your godly righteous life is putting on them. And so whatever you do, don't give them anything. Walk right, keep your heart pure, keep your heart clean, walk righteously. Don't lose your temper on the job. Don't do anything to give them anything because they're going to lie on you anyway. Are you ready for this?

Are you ready to be a real Christian? Are you ready for opprobrious words to be said against you? You're not as excited as you were before. Amen. Timothy said in Second Timothy 3:12, "Yea, and all..." somebody said "all"! All they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall... shall suffer persecution. Jesus said not only shall you suffer this persecution, but he said rejoice. Rejoice and be glad because you are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.

Many people are going to hate you. Many people are going to lie on you. Many people are going to disgrace you, but there's going to be somebody whose heart is open to the Lord. There's going to be somebody that wants to know the truth. There's going to be somebody that wants to see a real genuine Christian. Amen, and you can be that somebody. I want to tell you this morning, sister Sharon... sister Sharon and Hardy Knotts, I am not perfect but I am authentic.

I am real. Amen. Sometimes I make mistakes. Sometimes I don't always do it right. I'm not a perfect... I don't want you to ever think that for one moment. But I want to tell you I'm real. I'm going all the way with Jesus. I'm going to stand up for righteousness. Are you going to stand up? Are you a real Christian? I dare you today. Will the real Christians please stand up? Hallelujah. And say I'm going to live right, I'm going to walk right, I'm going to let my light shine for Jesus.

It all boils down to this, saints. Jesus said, "For this purpose came I into the world that I might bear witness of the truth, and everyone that is of the truth hears my voice." I want you to bow your head here this morning. You have heard the truth. You've heard the truth. I have not given you sister Sharon's opinion. I have given you scores of scriptures and there are many more I had that I didn't even get to because of time. I'm giving you the word of God. It is the word. This is what Jesus said.

Amen. He said in the last days mockers and scorners would come. And he said many will be offended in me. He said blessed are they who are not offended in me. Some people are offended because, like Jesus said, the light is reproving them and they don't want to give up their sin. Now I don't know what that sin is. It may be something as ordinary as promiscuous sex or drugs or alcohol. You say ordinary? Yes, that's the first thing we think of when we think of sin, we think of all those things.

But your sin could be a proud heart. Your sin could be that you have rejected the truth of the word of God. Your sin could be that you think more highly of yourself than you ought, and you think you stand pretty good. And he says take heed lest you fall because he said a proud heart and a proud look I will not suffer. He said proud feet will stumble. God resist the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. I said he gives grace to the humble.

And if you're here today and you're not a real Christian, maybe you've never even, ever, ever been a Christian. Maybe you think Christian means somebody who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's not what a Christian is. The Bible says even the devils believe and tremble. I said even the devil, the demons believe that Jesus is the Son of God. In fact, they yelled out loud when he would walk into the... into the synagogue, "Oh, are you the Holy One of God? You come to... you come to torment us before our time?"

The devil knows that Jesus is the Son of God. That doesn't make you a Christian. I don't care if your mother baptized you. I don't care if they wrote your name in the church records. I don't care if your mother brought you, she was pregnant with you going to church and then when you were born she raised you in church. You've got to know Jesus Christ for yourself. God has no grandchildren. You're going to stand before the Lord. Woe unto those who knew the way of truth and erred from it.

If you have never been a Christian, and maybe you didn't ever get it, you didn't understand it before, but I'm telling you today the Lord is calling you. He says, "Behold I stand at the door of your heart and I'm knocking and if you open I will come in. My Father will come in and we will have fellowship with you." I don't care what you've done. I don't care what your past is. I don't care what sins you've gotten yourselves involved in. I want you to know the blood of Jesus is able to cleanse you from all sin and all unrighteousness. If you want to be saved today and no one's looking around, but God is looking. If you want to be saved today, let me see your hand. Are you willing to say I want to be saved? I see those hands, and more importantly God sees those hands.

Now there's others of you, you've been in church, but you don't live right. You keep falling into a double life. It's time to make up your mind, to make up your mind to get in and go all the way. As long as you've got half of your heart in the world, you will never, ever be able to live the godly life. Jesus said no man can serve two masters. He will love one and hate the other. He will cling to one and despise the other. You're going to have to make up your mind. If you want Jesus, you're going to let go of the world.

You're going to let go of those things. You're going to let go of your illicit love affair. You're going to let go of that secret sin of pornography. You're going to let go of that secret sin of drugs and alcohol. You're going to let go. You're going to get rid of that bad temper that keeps making you curse and then that shoots your testimony to bits. You're going to get rid of all that. You're going to say I want to be delivered because whom the Son sets free is free indeed. I'm not going to ask you to lift your hand and say I've been a hypocrite.

I'm not going to do that. I'm not here to shame or humiliate anybody. But you know if you haven't been living and walking right and today is a turning point. Today is the day when God wants to turn it around. God is saying in this wicked and perverse and crooked generation, listen to the words of Jesus. He said if you are ashamed of me in front of this wicked and perverse and crooked generation, I will be ashamed of you in front of my Father and the holy angels. He said if you deny me in front of this wicked and perverse, crooked generation, I will deny you. I will say I never knew you. Depart from me, ye worker of iniquity.

And you don't want that to be your eternal consequence. Then you need to get right with God. Some of you the Lord's talking to you. You know that you've had one foot in the church and one foot in the world and you're just trying to walk the tightrope and you're just trying to make it all work, but sometimes guilt gets on you so bad you can hardly stand it. But you always conveniently stifle it and push it away. But the Lord is saying today is the day, it's time to get right. Make a decision.

You have to make a decision. If God is God, let him be God. If the god of this world is God, if Baal is God, if Satan the god of this world... and make no mistake, if you're in the world, then Satan's your god, because he's the god of this world. If that's the god you want, then you're going to be enslaved to him. But the Lord is saying today is the day for you to get right and get free. And if you want to come up here today, whether it's to be saved for the first time or whether it's to get back to the Lord or whether it's to get delivered from something that seems to keep pulling you down, I want you not to hesitate.

I want you to say I want to be a real Christian, I'm ready to stand up. I'm ready to come forward. I'm ready to come forward and make a public confession. I want to be a real Christian. Will you come right now? Come on if you raised your hand, you need to come up here. If you didn't raise your hand but God is talking to you, you need to come up here. If you need to be set free from some habit of the flesh, if you've been bound by something and you want to get set free, come on! It's time to get up here.

If you're ready to serve the Lord, it's time to get up here. If you're ready to be a real Christian, hallelujah, come on up here. You know what? I love the way these ladies did. I didn't tell them to stand like this. Normally people put their back to the audience and look up there, but they're ready. They're saying I'm not ashamed. I'm ready to stand up. I'm ready to stand up! Hallelujah. Oh, now you can turn around this way and look this way. You can turn around and look this way.

Anybody else? Come on, there's more of you out there. God is talking to you today. Oh, don't harden your heart. Don't say not today. This is the day of salvation. This is the acceptable time. Oh, the Holy Ghost is hovering. The Holy Ghost is moving. Oh, have your way, Holy Ghost. Come on, let the Holy Ghost have his way! He wants to speak to your heart today. He's speaking, he's knocking. Hallelujah. Oh, come on! It's time to get right with God. It's time to get right with God! Hallelujah.

Now I'm going to pray with these. We're going to pray the prayer of salvation. And if you're sitting out there in the pew and you didn't come up here, but you know God is talking to you, you need to pray this prayer. And then I'm going to ask the young people because I heard last night they had a powerful, powerful youth service. Amen. Everybody was highly anointed and God moved greatly and I tell you that just thrills my heart. Amen.

And I want the young people to come up next and stand across the front. Because let me tell you young people, the devil is so mad, he is ready to have a fit and he's going to try to come after you. But you say, sister Sharon, when I go back to school, when I go back to college, when I go back to work, when I go back home, wherever I go, I'm going to stand up and be a real Christian! Come on up here, young people. Come on up here! Come on up here. We're going to pray a hedge, we're going to pray a hedge of protection around you. Amen.

We're going to pray a prayer of protection around these young people because the devil don't like it. He doesn't like what God's doing in you and he's going to try to come after you, but I believe he's too late. Amen. How many say, sister Sharon, my mind is made up? Hallelujah. My mind is made up, I'm going all the way. Yes! Isn't this beautiful? All right, let's pray. Everyone pray this sinner's prayer together with these that are up here.

Lord Jesus, I come to you today to say I am a sinner, a great sinner, but you are a great savior and I ask you to save me today, to cleanse me today from all my sin, from all my filthiness, and deliver me from all my habits and all the power of the devil. Set me free and fill me with your spirit and fill me with your power. Give me a hunger for your word and I will serve you and I will live for you and I will stand up and I will be a real Christian and I will not be ashamed. I confess you as my savior, I confess you as my Lord, and I'm your child today. Thank you for saving me.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: 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 PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Request offer SK162.

Or if you prefer, order online at soundoffaith.org. Once again, the mailing address: PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Till next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying, Maranatha.