Words of Jesus Podcast - A Greater Than Moses Is Here

Episode Date: July 23, 2021

If what you believe is not true, do you want to know it? Grandpa (or your widow) is not in heaven watching your every move. We [Christendom] made it up. Jesus said, "...no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven even the son of man..." The law cannot justify us. Belief in Christ saves us... not a feeling, or a strong feeling; it's an acceptance of the authority of Jesus - so much so that we do what he said. Jesus said if we keep the commandments, we will hear the Word of God from the inside and be changed through obedience (regeneration). Everyone will give an account of their life actions one day. If you do the truth, when your day before the judge, you'll say, "Bring it on." Judgment does not equal condemnation. Judge yourself daily. Make corrections. Do the truth. "Think red ink!" ***Chapter 7: (Part 4) JESUS' WORDS TO NICODEMUSOne night a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus and said: "Master, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." Jesus answered: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Perplexed by the answer, Nicodemus asked: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus replied: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God'. That which is born of flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, 'Ye must be born again.' The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.'" Nicodemus asked: "How can these things be?" Jesus answered: "Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 'We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.' If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to Heaven, but he that came down from Heaven, even the Son of man which is in Heaven. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. "He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello friend, welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris, your host, taking you through the red ink. I'm going to give it some red ink on your feet again today. Matter of fact, there's quite a hunk of it here. This ought to do you some good. I love it when Jesus gets on a roll.

And he is on a roll here as he's talking to Nicodemus. This is in chapter 7 of our little book. And the incentive on Jesus' part changes from time to time. I think many times he realizes just how pitiful we are. And I think that it occurs to him, oh my goodness, these poor people they can't get along here. How is it that you don't understand? You know, one time he says, why is it you don't understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word.

You know, we've learned recently, I mean, we've been talking about this. This comes up a lot. And that is that there's such a thing as the words of Jesus, and there's such a thing as the word of God, which is Jesus. Is that a subtle difference? No, it's not even subtle. We find that, you know, Jesus says certain things and he says, you know why you don't understand that? Because you don't know what the word of God is. You've never heard the word of God within your own soul. You know why you have

trouble? Whoever you happen to be, and I know you have trouble because we all do. Why you have trouble understanding the Scriptures? Because you don't hear the Word of God. I know you thought that that's what you were reading, but what you're reading in Scriptures, what you need to hear is the Word of God. The Word of God is to be heard within ourselves. It's that when He speaks to us from the bottom up, when He speaks to us from the bottom up, when He speaks to us from the inside up, it's when that voice comes from within ourselves where He and Christ abide. How did they get in there? He said,

keep my commandments and me and my dad will move in there and we'll lead you from the inside. Well, that's a good deal. But until that actually happens to you, you're going to find yourself being totally bewildered totally baffled by the words. The words won't make any sense. Or worse yet, what you'll do is you'll change the definitions of words, even change their order in the scriptures. Pull out this word because this is the confusing part. And quote this

like this with this word missing for so many years. You and your dad and your granddad and your grandma and your preacher and your deacon, they all quote it that way. It doesn't say that. But that's where everybody quotes it. And so instead of understanding the word of God, hearing the Word of God, and then understanding the words of God, you're just going to change the words of God to fit whatever you believe. Do you know how difficult that is to erase out of somebody's head? Do you know how

difficult it is? You know, a good example that occurs to me is the, you've heard me say, you know, the fallacy of the Bible says, you know, the people say, the Bible says that when we die we are immediately with Jesus. It doesn't say that. It doesn't. It never has said that. It's not even true. The Bible says that when we die we go to sleep and we await the resurrection. That's what the scriptures say. I mean if you care. Some people

don't really care. They like to believe that Grandpa is up there fishing with Jesus, playing checkers with Jesus or whatever. And from time to time Grandpa helps little Johnny out at his softball games. Man, that's just paganism! That's unbelievable that Christians talk like that. But they do. And I've often wondered, so you say, well Grandpa's watching us down here? Really? Is he watching us?

Is your wife who died is she watching you living with your new wife? Where was she on your wedding day? What did she see? Do people think about this stuff? Does Grandpa always see me? I mean, even when I'm in the bathroom? Or only when I hit a home run at a softball game? Does anybody talk about this stuff? Nobody talks about it because it just goes absolutely haywire nuts when you try to believe something that the Scriptures don't say.

And as I was starting to tell you, you know the scripture they quote to you all the time? They talk about to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. They've said it that way. Their dad said it that way. Their grandpa, their pastor, their grandma, their uncles, the deacons, the Sunday school teachers.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Well, did anybody tell you that they took the word and out of that scripture so it sounds better? Paul says, I would rather be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. It wasn't giving us a timeline. It has nothing to do with some instantaneous transformation from death to being with Jesus. It's just a fallacy. Where did we get that idea?

I mean, why can't we go with the scriptures? Why can't we go with that? I don't know. Am I bothering you? You want me to move on to something else? I'm sorry, but the scriptures don't bear this out. You know, even Peter, when he was preaching on the day of Pentecost, was that Peter? I think it was. He was saying, he says, look over here. Here's where the prophet David was buried. And his sepulcher is with us until this day. Now this idea of David dying and going to be with the Lord,

isn't it funny that Jesus' disciples didn't have that idea? He says, we know that David has not ascended into heaven. We know that. How do we know that David has not ascended into heaven. We know that. How do you know that? How do you know that? And all of us know something totally different. How is it that the disciples talk about knowing stuff that none of the rest of us know?

Didn't David know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord? Oh, that scripture never existed. And even if it existed in David's day, it didn't say that. I'm just, all right. So what I'm trying to tell you is that we have a wonderful opportunity to understand things without equivocation, without confusion, without a problem. It's just not, it's not a difficulty for us because the Spirit of God in us teaches us. I have gone to the Scriptures and read things

and been just totally shocked. This is exactly what the Lord was telling me the other day. This is not the other way around, mind you. But he made this very clear to me. And then I find in the scriptures, oh my goodness, Paul believed this. Oh my goodness. Peter believed this. Oh my goodness. John writes about this. Oh my goodness, Peter believed this. Oh my goodness, John writes about this. Oh my goodness, Jesus talked about this. Do you know what kind of an experience

that is? Probably not. If you don't understand his speech because you don't hear his word, you're going to have to learn to hear his word. His word is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. We talked about that too. And I don't want to get off on this. We're going to talk about this a million times before this is over. Am I exaggerating? I hope not. Alright, let's see

what Jesus had to say to Nicodemus. Nicodemus was just totally wiped out at this point. And he said, how can these things be? Jesus said, are you a master of Israel and knowest not these things? Verily I say unto thee, we speak that which we do know and we testify that which we have seen and you receive not our witness i have told you of earthly things and you believe not how shall i believe you if i tell you of

heavenly things i tried to tell you in english and you don't believe that i tried to tell you in your own words and you won't believe that. What, do you want me to tell you in my words? You want me to tell you, you want me to tell you this on a spiritual plane? Forget it. You're not going to get it. You don't get it when I put it into your language.

And no man has ascended up to heaven. Oops. Wow, I didn't think we were going to get back on that subject today, but here we are. And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. Now as we're closing out the show last time,

I was explaining that the Jews had a huge fascination for Moses, a huge reverence for Moses. And Jesus, he never condemned Moses. He never went against what Moses taught or commanded. He never went against the law. He never went against anything that Moses ever taught. But he was trying to tell them, you need to understand that a greater than Moses is here, and you're not listening to him. It's me. Moses never ascended

into heaven. Moses has never seen the face of God. Well, he saw my face, Jesus said, when I was on the mountain. But he's not beheld the face of the Father. I'm the only one that's ever done that. So, why aren't you listening to me? Is there a reason why? Remember when we were talking several shows back, we were talking about a prophet's not without honor except in his own country and his own house? This is exactly what's going on here. We put God into some

spiritual category, spiritual bracketing. We put him into some spiritual understanding and frankly, he just doesn't fit in everyday life. that's why we want him on sundays we'll give him sunday but that's all he can have and so that's why he stays there because he doesn't fit in in regular life jesus came and fit in regular life you better thank god he did too buddy because the truth is is if he hadn't come to this earth, there would be no justification for your sin, no justification whatsoever. Now we have a Savior who likely looked at his Father in prayer and said, you can't believe what it's like to live down here. It's unbelievable what

these people have to think with and how strong their fleshly desires are. It's driving me crazy. This is unbelievable. But you see, he came and lived with us as us and therefore we're justified. This is why the Bible says the law with the law, there is no justification. I know you think justification and salvation are the same, but you'll learn better. He says there's no justification with the law. Our justification comes through Jesus Christ. There's something the Jews never experienced, justification.

But they have it now. All they have to do is have faith in Christ, and they've got it. It's theirs for the asking. It's theirs for the taking. So he says, Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up but whosoever believe that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life um there are people who talk about when it says the Son of Man be lifted up, that they feel like he's talking about the Son of Man needs to be exalted in the earth. And there are people that take that so

no, not literally I guess, but they take it to heart to the point that they feel like that their services, their Sunday services of what they call praise and worship, if we're lifting up Jesus then he'll draw men unto him. But this is not what it's saying at all. That serpent was not symbolic of a symbol

that was just put up for people to see. It was a prophetic symbol of Christ being hung on a pole just like that. Well, perhaps not the same diameter, but well, who knows? But this pole was the thing upon which Christ was crucified. And he's saying that just like that serpent in the wilderness has to be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him would not perish but have eternal life. Here's where we find that belief in Christ brings about eternal life.

And the unfortunate thing is, is that people have pretty much sanitized faith to the point that faith is just something that you feel. Faith is something that you just kind of, yeah, I believe that. It's just some internal moving or, I don't know, to evaluate the facts or to deduce or to think about something until it feels like it really, really feels true to me.

No, yes, because you believe it. But the fact is that you can't believe in something like Jesus Christ and not believe what He said and what He told us to do. And He told us that the law was important in our life. He told us that faith in Him was important in our life. And that we need to understand that just because we

obey certain laws through our will does not mean that we've been born again by any means. This is why he says that here's the way you can recognize this. You need to know that lust for a woman. Do you know where that's going? That's going to adultery. That's not going anywhere but to adultery. You know where that's going? That's going to murder. That's going to adultery. That's not going anywhere but to adultery. They hate your brother. You know where that's going? That's going to murder.

That's the only place you can go because you've never been born from above. And so these were his warnings. His warnings to us were to keep his commandments. And if you'll do that I'll help you do something you never even thought of before. I can change your want to. I can make it to where it's not a matter of will on your part, as Paul called it will worship. The guy with the strongest will gets to go to heaven when he

dies. But I can make it where that's just not even appealing to you anymore. It's called regeneration. It's called being born from above. It's being born again. It's being led of the Spirit of God. Do you realize that when you ever get to the point where you're led by the Spirit of God? Not led by your own spirit. Not led by what you feel like this makes me feel good, this makes me feel bad. What makes me feel good is of God and what makes me feel bad is of the devil. No, no, no. I'm talking about

that thing in us that drives us to do wrong, that can go away. That can be totally erased in us. We're regenerated, we're made new. This is where the Scripture that Paul wrote that says that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All the old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. I know people apply that to folks that just get up from the altar.

You know, some rank sinner walking off the street. He goes up front, he prays, he cries, stands up, shakes the preacher's hand, and there's somebody in that audience somewhere before he can get in his car and go from there saying, you need to know that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Behold, all things have passed away and all things are become new. Now you want me to interpret that into regular old English? Here it is. He says, if any man be in Christ, to him being in Christ just means

getting saved. So if any man got saved, then all of his old sins have passed away, and behold, all of his new sins are all new sins. I guess. Because they'll tell him before he can leave there that day that everybody sins every day. And you're going to sin for you good home tonight. Don't you let that devil... you know, you've been there, you've heard all this. There's no truth in it.

No truth in it whatsoever. That guy does not have to sin on his way home. He doesn't have to sin the next day or the day after that. He's, all things have become new. He that is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he's born of God. Isn't it nice when you don't have to twist the words in scripture to understand what they mean? You quit saying all that stuff that people say that the Bible

doesn't say by the way. You keep quit saying all that stuff that people say that the Bible doesn't say by the way, you quit saying all that stuff and all of a sudden the scriptures start making sense Jesus said when the Son of Man is lifted up the value that he's going to have to human beings everywhere is that if they'll believe on him, do what he says to do, they can have eternal life. And for, or because,

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For because God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. You see, we have to understand that Jesus didn't come to condemn us. We're condemned already. He came to save us. It's one of the atheist arguments that I take great umbrage with. And that is that they say that God makes sinners of us all and that He condemns us and how can a loving God throw a baby in hell and

all this stuff. And I'm thinking wow man do you do that to a lifeguard on the beach when a lifeguard comes swimming in with a dead body do you accuse him of killing that dead person coming in and laying a little baby out on the ground with salt water in its lungs and and mama's crying and people crying and do you look at that lifeguard and kick at him and say why did you kill that baby really is that what you do no he was trying to save that baby

that's what he was doing and that's all God has ever tried to do from the beginning. Don't you understand? We're all out there drowning. It's all coming down all around us. And the only one that cares about us is our Lord Jesus Christ. Why would anybody accuse him of throwing people into hell? It's just, how did we get this so backwards and so weird? He's the lifeguard. He's the one trying to save us. All right. He that believeth on him is not condemned,

but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light,

that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. We talked about, a while back, we talked about judgment and how misunderstood in a lot of cases judgment actually is. It's unfortunate because the average human out there when they consider judgment they consider it a very, very negative thing.

Again one of the atheist arguments is the fact that God is going to sit as judge over the world. And I think that through our sinful nature, and we've been told that we have to sin every day, and we can't help it, we have to sin. You're going to sin, you have sin. You always will sin. And you just have to pray that God forgives you. Hope that He does. Don't even hope. We have a

contract with Him. He has to forgive you, right? And we try to make people live inside those confines and it becomes a real problem when you're talking about the things that we're talking about now that as we approach judgment we just assume that He's going to judge all of our wickedness in this judgment. But do you realize Jesus says that if you'll do the truth,

if you'll live in truth, do it. If you do truth, you know what your attitude's going to be toward judgment? Bring it on. Bring it on. I need to be vindicated. I need for people to see that I did the best I could. I lived like I should have lived. I did things to my, I swore to my own hurt. I, you know, I did things that were against my very nature

because it was the right thing to do. Do you know those things come out in judgment? Not everybody who's judged is condemned. There'll be some people that are, I know this is against regular doctrine. There's people who believe that if you're a Christian, you will never see judgment. I don't know where they got that from. The scriptures make it clear that every one of us

will give an account of the deeds done in the flesh. That's why I don't understand people that go to heaven when they die and then a thousand years later stand judgment. I don't get that. Why would you be judged if you've been living in the millennial kingdom with Jesus for a thousand years? I don't get all that stuff. It just doesn't make sense. But thank God since I started developing what I believe from the scriptures and not from what comes over a pulpit or out of a man's mind

or out of a book or Sunday school literature, when I quit doing that, it all started to make sense. We have a little saying around here that when you get the red letters right, it all makes sense. And that is a fact, my friend. That is an absolute fact. When you have the red letters right in here and in here, it all makes sense.

So judgment is not something for a person who lives in truth to avoid. Jesus says that if a man does the truth, he seeks the light. He's going toward the light. Let the light shine on what I do. Let it shine on what I do. Judge me.

It's okay. I've already judged myself. This is why Paul says, I'll judge myself. Therefore, I'm not judged of any man. I'm harder on myself than anybody. So, sure, judge me. Judge me.

It's fine. It's okay. I'll help you. How do you live like that? How do you get that kind of confidence? Well, friend, it's really kind of simple. You think red ink. think what jesus thought you talk like jesus talked you do what jesus did you do what jesus said do

yeah it's simple complex simple easy to do hard to do all right time's gone uh love for you to join us here next time for more on the words of Jesus. I want to hear from you. Write me an email. Just say, hi, I'm out here. I'm watching. Just send it to Don at thinkredink.com or you can write to thinkredinkministries at P.O. Box 718 Pytown, New Mexico. All right. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.

You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you