In this eye-opening episode, uncover the insights delivered by the Holy Spirit to Sharon Knotts. We discuss the challenges faced by non-believers, including the misconceptions about faith and the Christian lifestyle. Learn how the Gospel comes with its own transformative power and how understanding these truths can enhance your ability to witness to others. Don’t miss this opportunity to equip yourself with knowledge to overcome spiritual blockades.
Greetings, friends and new listeners. Thank you for tuning into the R.G. Hardy Ministries program because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I’m Sharon Knotts, and I’m excited to tell you that today’s message is exactly the tools you need to be an effectual witness of the gospel to unbelievers, sinners, and backsliders. The Holy Spirit downloaded this message into my spirit fast and furiously over a two-day period, and I believe it holds great truths to how we can reach the unsaved, even the most skeptical. It’s entitled, Eight Reasons Some Are Not Saved.
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All right, that brings us to number seven. A lot of people are blinded and said, I can’t get saved and go to church because of all the hypocrites. Ever heard that one? There are so many hypocrites in church and they know them all. You’re right. You’re absolutely right. There are hypocrites in church. I bet you there’s some here today. I bet you there’s some here today. I can’t go because of hypocrites. They’ve been turned off. They’ve been turned off by preachers that have gone bad. Oh, were you here there for a while? A few months ago, we were hearing every week a new one. Made you feel like hiding in a rock somewhere. Amen. This one’s fooling around and this one’s got a boyfriend and this one’s got a guy friend and this one’s got a girlfriend. Yes, there are hypocrites and there always will be. They were hypocrites in Jesus’ day. There were hypocrites going to synagogue and there were hypocrites going to church. And Peter did say in 2 Peter 2, 2, By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. They put a stumbling block in front of others. They don’t go in and they stop others from going in, Jesus said. You want to hear how Jesus felt about hypocrites? I don’t have time to tell you. You can read it. You read Matthew 23 and your hair will stand up. He never ever said anything mean or hateful to a sinner. But boy, he let it rip when he was talking to the hypocrites. He called them everything but nice people. Paul said there would be wolves in sheep’s clothing. He said, watch out. They’re going to come in church. Not out in the world. You expect the devil to be in the world. He said, wolves in sheep’s clothing will come in, in the church. I’m telling you now, get ready. There will always be hypocrites. But remember this, it’s impossible to have a counterfeit unless you have a genuine one. You can’t have a knockoff designer handbag. that you can get for $25, $50, but the real deal costs $1,000? There’s got to be a real design. There’s got to be something that somebody created that was so beautiful, so lovely, and that woman wants that pocketbook, oh, but she can’t afford it, but she’ll go buy the knockoff and hope that nobody knows it’s a knockoff. She’ll put it on her shoulder and strut her stuff, and she knows she only paid $25 for it. She’s hoping you think it’s real leather, but it’s not. It’s just polyurethane. But they only make knockoffs of stuff that’s really good and attractive. They only make knockoffs of things that people want, the good stuff. And in order for you to have hypocrites, you’ve got to have the real thing. Or they wouldn’t know how to play the part. They had to learn the part by looking at somebody godly and righteous and upright and holy. They’ve got to study them and say, oh, that’s how I’ve got to talk. I’ve got to talk Christianese. I’ve got to act a certain way. I’ve got to quote them certain scriptures and wear a cross around my neck. Put a bumper sticker on my car. They’ve got to study the real thing to know how to be a hypocrite. Jesus said, how will you escape the damnation of hell? That’s what he said to the hypocrite. That was some of his harshest words. It’s always for them. Now I want to ask you, if you’ve got a problem that you don’t want to, you say, I ain’t getting saved because of all them hypocrites in church. Now how many here are United States citizens? How many of you paid taxes? Amen. to Uncle Sam, Governor O’Malley, whomever. Amen? And now, let’s be honest. We all know good and well that not all of our hard-earned tax dollars that we pay and send over there to Washington, D.C. are being spent honestly. One of the biggest gripes that we have is the way they squander and waste our tax. We hear they pay, you know, $10,000 so everybody could fly to a meeting, which really they were having a good time in Hawaii and called it a meeting. And we think, $10,000? It takes me a half a year or a quarter of a year or whatever to make that. And they’re going to blow it on one day. We know good and well that there’s a lot of fraud. There’s a lot of manipulation. Every time that they put in a new program that’s supposed to help people, they know up front that a lot of that money is going to get siphoned off. Look at all the money that was supposed to go for Katrina and how many fraudulent people made up all kinds of stories and got millions and millions of dollars. Don’t that infuriate you? Look at all the people that send in phony addresses and stuff and get money from Social Security. Look at all the people that are always manipulating and wasting our tax dollars, and it makes us so mad when we think about it. But I ask you, does it make us quit paying our taxes just because we know some politicians are manipulating, dishonestly using the money in the wrong way? No. You know why? We don’t want to go to jail for tax evasion. Be honest. I don’t even want to get audited, much less go to jail. You see, we don’t want to go to jail for tax evasion, so we pay our taxes even though we know good and well that a lot of our money is being fraudulently used. So all I’m going to say to you is if you’re not willing to go to jail for not paying taxes just because of the abuse of some officials… Why would you want to go to hell? Because of some hypocrites. Because when you get there, they’ll be waiting for you. Jesus did give a parable in Matthew 13. Don’t turn there 24-30, I’ll tell you, because I’m running out of time. He said, hypocrites are like tares. They’re like poisonous weeds. They grow up, and they grow amongst the good grain. And somebody said, well, Lord, do you want us to go out and pull them all up? Pull up all the tares and the poisonous weed? He said, no, no, no, no, don’t do that. Let them grow together. Let them grow together. Amen. Because when you go to pull up the tares and the hypocrites, you might accidentally pull up a gentle, young, tender wheat plant. You might pull up something good. And rather than take the chance of hurting a young, tender, gentle Christian, that you pull up this hypocrite. Everybody see this hypocrite that’s been in our church. And that young, tender, newborn Christian is like, oh, my God, I thought all Christians were good. Oh, my God. They don’t know enough word. They don’t have enough experience. They don’t know how to process it. So just leave the hypocrites alone. He said, at the end of the age, I’ll send my angels, and they will gather up the hypocrites and the tares, and they will burn them with unquenchable fire. Amen. So don’t worry about the hypocrites. People that say they don’t want to get saved because of the hypocrites, the devil has really pulled a one on them. And now we’re down to number eight. Everybody say yay. They don’t believe that Satan has blinded their minds to make them think that even if I wanted to get saved, I do not see how I could possibly live the Christian life. I just couldn’t do it. I could not live that way. And you know what? They are half right. They can’t. Nor can anyone live the Christian life on his own. But what they don’t understand is that Satan wants to keep them from knowing the power of the gospel. It comes with its own power built in. You don’t need anything outside. It comes with the power to live right. John 1, let’s turn there. John 1, verse 12. St. John 1, verse 12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, meaning born again, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. I want you to see that the gospel comes with its own power built in that allows you to live right, that allows you to live as a child of God. And you cannot receive that power by your natural birth. And let me show you, there’s two ways to look at this. Your parents could have been the greatest Christians walking around. That doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to live a Christian life just because they are good Christians. Or they could be some of the worst sinners, alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes, the worst of the worst. Amen? It doesn’t matter. It cannot prevent you from rising above that and living a godly Christian life. But it’s not by your natural lineage. It’s not by human limits. No human agency can affect this transformation. It is not by the will of man. It is by the power of the gospel. Peter said in 2 Peter 1, 3 and 4, according to his divine power, he has given unto us all things to pertain unto our life and godliness whereby are given unto us succeeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust see before this they’re trying to imagine living a godly life while they’re still in the middle of corruption You’ve got to escape the corruption. You’ve got to get out of the world. You’ve got to get born again. You’ve got to receive the divine power. And then you can live the Christian life. Amen? That’s how it works. That’s why Jesus said, Marvel not, I say unto you, you must be born again. That’s why Paul said, the life that I now live in the flesh, I don’t live by myself, but I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It is Christ that lives in me, not I. That’s Galatians 2.20. Jesus said in John 8.34, whosoever, we already talked whosoever is carte blanche, but now we’re going to look at it in another way. Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. Now that’s the bad news. And believe me, there’s plenty of evidence to support it. When you look around in the world, sinners sin. Amen? Jesus said, as I said a moment ago in John 8, 44, you are of your father the devil and his lust you will do. And he was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. But the good news is, Jesus said in John 8, 36, If the Son therefore shall make you free from sin, you shall be free indeed. He sets you free from the power of sin. That’s the power of the gospel. It’s not just turning over a new leaf. It’s only February the 6th. What, six weeks and your new leaf looks as bad as your old leaf? Because it’s not reformation. It’s transformation. Amen. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creature. All things are passed away. All things are become new. And all things are from God. And God is good all the time and all the time. You see, it’s the God part that makes the difference. And this transformation comes upon the new birth. We already discussed that. You’ve got to be born again. And then after you’re born again, then we can liken it even to the natural birth. You grow. You grow in grace and knowledge. You learn how to walk and talk. Amen? You go from faith to faith. And as you continue in this spirit and continue, you will begin just like a child grows up looking and acting more and more like their parents. So we’re looking more and acting more and more like our Lord. Amen? Nothing makes a parent feel prouder than someone says, boy, she looks just like you. Or he looks just like his father. You certainly don’t want anybody to say, wow, he looks just like your mailman. See, that’s those people walking around that say, I’m a child of God, but they look like the devil because he’s their father. Amen? And so you see, we begin to look more and more like Jesus. We grow. You know, you’ve got to get born again first, and then you’ll get all the other, the rest will come. Amen? But you see, they’re blind. They’re looking at you, a mature Christian, and you seem like you’ve got it all together, and you look so holy and righteous to them. And we all know that that’s not how it really is. We all know we make mistakes, too. But they look at you and think, I could never, ever, ever in a million years live like that. And so they say, there’s no sense in me getting saved because I don’t want to be a hypocrite, so forget it. And the devil blinds their mind because they don’t understand the power of the gospel. And Paul put it very succinctly in 2 Corinthians 3, 17. He says, where the Spirit of the Lord, there is liberty. Okay? The Spirit of God brings its own liberty. And then he says, we all, it’s like we’re all looking into a mirror. And we’re beholding in that mirror… The image of Jesus Christ. And I like because in the Greek it means it’s a present tense, which simply means it’s a habitual action. It’s not a one-time go up and look in the mirror and go away. You continue to look in the mirror. And as you continue to look in the mirror, it’s like something you would see in the movies when they do that morph stuff, when they morph things. And you’re looking in there, and it’s the image of Jesus Christ. Oh, he’s so beautiful. Beautiful. He’s so holy. He’s so righteous. He’s so good and loving and kind and merciful and gracious and forgiving. Something’s happening. There’s a morphing going on there. My God in heaven, it’s me. It’s me. I’m being changed. I’m starting to look just like him. Look, look, look in the mirror. It’s me. I really look like Jesus. Because the Greek word there that says they’re being changed from glory to glory into the same image by the Spirit of God. Guess what the Greek word is? Metamorphosis. We’re being morphed. Amen. You know how they do? They tell you, well, this is what you look like when you’re 25 and you’re beautiful and young. And if you age, this is what you’re going to look like at 65. And you say, oh my God, don’t show me that picture. Oh, but I like the way the Lord does it. He turns it around. He says, this is what you look like right now in your body of humiliation. But this is what you’re going to look like when you get your glorified body. You’re going to see Jesus as he is and you’re going to be just like him. You see, it’s not a reformation, it’s a transformation, and there’s a huge difference. See, human beings are good at reformation. They put you in reform school. They put you in prison and try to reform you. They tell you to go to Alcoholics Anonymous to reform you. And if you go through the program, you’ll stand up and you’ll testify, I am an alcoholic and I’ve been sober for 10 months or 2 years or 10 years or whatever it is. But when Jesus gets a hold of you, you stand up and say, I’m a child of God and I’ve been delivered. I’ve been set free. I’ve been set free. I don’t wear the label alcoholic, no matter whether it’s in the past or not. I’ve been set free. Amen. They don’t understand it as witnesses, saints as witnesses when you’re dealing with sinners and they don’t think they can stop smoking and drinking and taking drugs and not have sex with their boyfriend, etc. And they’re trying so hard to figure out how they’re going to do that. You cannot let them focus on that. You’ve got to preach to them the power of the gospel. And you’ve got to be patient with them. If they don’t move out of their girlfriend’s house the next day, you can’t say, oh my God, you’re a wretched sinner. Yes, you know it ain’t right, but you’ve got to work with them. You’ve got to let the Holy Ghost show you. You’ve got to let Him move. They may not be able to up and run out the very moment. You can explain to them that now your body’s the temple of the Holy Ghost. You can’t join it with that person. So even if you’re staying there right there, you’ve got to make it very, very, very, very short because you will be tempted. And once you’ve opened the door and gone through that, you’re going to fall back into it. You’ve got to get somewhere. But right now, stay prayed up. Amen. Come and understand what I’m saying. None of that, we’re going to sleep in the same bed, but we’re not going to do nothing. That doesn’t work. Amen? I’ll end with this scripture, 2 Peter 2.9. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation. You just got to keep telling them, don’t worry about that. The Lord knows how. He said in 2 Corinthians 10, 13, he is faithful. He’ll not let you be tempted above that which you’re able. But with every temptation, because you will be tempted again. Don’t fool them and tell them they’ll never be tempted again. But with every temptation, he will make the way of escape that you shall be able to bear it. Back to where we are in Peter. The Lord knows how to deliver them. the godly out of temptation. But I’ve got to remind you soberly, and he knows how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. So we’ve got to be led of the Holy Spirit, that we’ve got to be able to show people that are blinded in any of these eight things. How many can say that the word of God has given you some information and helped you today to understand? If we understand they’re blind, and then if we allow the Holy Ghost to show us what they’re blind to, there may be more than these eight. I’m not saying it’s exhaustive, but I’m sure we covered a lot of ground, and you’ve probably come up against a lot of this. But you will know then their mind is blind. The first thing you’ve got to do is pray, Lord, God, take away the blinders. Let the scales fall from their eyes. Let the word of God come like a hammer to break the rock of the hard heart. Let it come like a fire to consume the chaff. They’ll try to get you off on all this foolish stuff. Where did Cain get his wife and all that foolishness? No. You come. You bring them back to the gospel. Back to the gospel. Amen. I want the music to come. I want every head bowed as the music comes. There are some of you here today, the Holy Ghost has spoken to your heart. He’s spoken in a loud voice. You yourself have said some of these very things. I’m not going to go to church because there’s hypocrites. I’m not going to go to church because of the persecution. I’m not going to go to church because I don’t really see why I need to get saved. I’m a good person. I don’t see where I do stuff that’s all that bad. Some of you are sitting here today. And some of you, you think you’ve got all the time in the world. And you keep pushing the envelope and pushing the envelope. And you think, wow, I keep getting by. I keep getting by. But you know what? You’re not going to get by today. Because if you don’t get right with God, God will reserve you. Some people, Paul said through Timothy, some men’s sins go before them in this life. They catch up to them in this life. And other men’s sins don’t catch up to them until eternity. Guess what? It’s worse for them because then it’s too late. then it’s too late. But it’s not too late today. It is not too late today. Jesus said, I stand at the door of your heart and I’m knocking. Will you open up and let me in? If the Holy Ghost has let you know that you need to get right with God, you know you’re not right with God, and you want to get right today, I want you to raise your hand while everyone’s head is bowed. I want everyone that needs to be saved and wants to be saved to raise your hand. that you’ll say, I am not going to be ashamed of Jesus in this wicked and filthy and ungodly generation because I don’t want him to be ashamed of me before the entire universe and before God and all the angels when he opens the books and all my sins are broadcast to everyone. Everyone. Do you think of men have enough technology that they can literally now follow every person wherever they are? If they have a cell phone, they can find you. They can figure out where you go, what you do. Don’t you think God’s got details like you wouldn’t believe? He’s got it all written down in his book and he’s able to make everybody see and know and understand it all simultaneously. How shameful that will be if you find yourself before the judgment seat of Christ and he opens the books of your sins. Get them under the blood today. Get them under the blood today. If you want to get them under the blood, come up front right now. Everyone that wants your sins under the blood, I want you to come up right now. While they play something, I want you to get up here. If you’re not right with God, I want you to get up here in Jesus’ name.
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Amen, amen. Surely the Holy Spirit has birthed this word into our hearts so we can be able and effectual witnesses of the New Testament. I believe you can discern the spirit of conviction that was upon the delivery as these truths penetrated the hearts of the hearers, shedding light in dark places and peeling away calluses of resistance to the truth. It also serves to enlighten us as how to deal with hard cases when sharing the gospel. Paul said that Satan is a mind blinder, and he uses these eight strategies to keep people from getting saved. I’m a good person. Number two, not ready to give up their sins. Number three, no fear of God. Number four, no fear of hell. Number five, I’ve got plenty of time. Number six, the fear of man. Number seven, there are too many hypocrites. Number eight, I just can’t live the Christian life. Each of these points is scripturally supported, and there’s enough ammunition in this teaching to prepare you to be a powerful soul winner. So be sure to add this message to your spiritual library. For a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry, request offer SK151. That’s S-K as in Sharon Knotts, 151. Our mailing address is R.G. Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or if you prefer, order online at RGHardy.org. That’s RGHardy.org. Again, to receive eight reasons some are not saved, On CD, offer SK-151. Send your love gift of $10 or more to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, Maranatha.
