Words of Jesus Podcast - Degrees of Christianity

Episode Date: July 28, 2023

Have we been regenerated? Born again? There are degrees of Christianity. We begin to learn God's ways by keeping the ten Commandments; the hope is to graduate to maturity by denying ourselves (remove selfishness), taking up our cross (suffer wrongfully), and following Jesus. The Law will show you into the Kingdom of God, but it will always bring you to Jesus for regeneration. Here's the proof of regeneration according to the gospels: 1 John 2:3, "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments."1 John 3:14, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abides in death."Romans 8:16, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:"***Ch 45: Jesus Heals A Blind Man Of BethsaidaMark 8:22-26AT BETHSAIDA a blind man was brought to Jesus, and he was asked to touch the man so that he should be healed.            Jesus took the hand of the blind man and led him out of the town. Applying spittle to his eyes, Jesus asked if he could see.            The man looked up and said:            “I see men as trees, walking.”            Then Jesus touched the man again and made him look up. His eyesight was then normal and he saw clearly.            Jesus told the man to go home, saying:            “Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.”

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello my friends. Welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris. This show is being produced by Think Red Ink Ministries in Pytown, New Mexico. If you'd like to write to us,

our address is at the end of the program. If you'd like to write it down now, it's P.O. Box 718 Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. P.O. Box 718, Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. P.O. Box 718, Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. Love to get your letters and your comments and your questions about the show. And here we delve into mysteries. It's been hidden, not from us, but for us, in the words of Jesus. Today we're going to be talking from chapter 45, where Jesus heals a blind man of Bethsaida.

At Bethsaida, a blind man was brought to Jesus, and he was asked to touch the man that he would be healed. Jesus took the hand of the blind man and led him out of the town. Applying spittle to his eyes, Jesus asked if he could see. The man looked up and said, I see men as trees walking. Jesus touched the man again and made him look. His eyesight was then normal. He saw clearly. Jesus told the man to go home, saying, Neither go ye into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.

A couple of ideas come from this particular story. One of which is the obvious one. Why wasn't Jesus' first touch enough? Why did he have to touch him again? What was that all about? Did Jesus not have enough faith? What was that all about? What happened there?

I think that this particular story came about because, well, frankly, I believe that Jesus knew that his time here on this earth was, it was short in that there was just not a facility to record this. Had he done this at a different time when technology would record him, wouldn't that be something? And I believe that it was in his plan. Well, I believe that his first plan was that he was going to establish Israel on the earth as it should be, and him as high priest and as king of Israel. And therefore, recording these things was going to have to be an afterthought. It was going to have to be an action that was going to take place because, as I say, I believe his original intention was, as he said to his disciples,

ye will not have gone over all the cities of Israel, when he sent out the 12 and he sent out the 70, you remember? He says, you will not have gone over all the cities of israel till the son of man become now it's kind of odd in the in the old english to understand what he was saying but i really believe that when jesus came to this earth his intention was to establish the kingdom and that should be a short essentially a short operation certainly a short operation compared to the 2 000 years that followed his ministry here on the earth i believe that had his ministry included or had been part of the plan for him to come to the earth and then make some kind of recording or writing or something in order to pacify to to save to inform to instruct and you know to guide two thousand

years after he came which i don't think were in the original plan um if if that were the case uh you know our our bible let's let's just face the facts our bible is sketchy at best uh it's it's has uh you know stories that are piecemeal some of them are left out completely um i mean the we have the three synoptic gospels the ones that are very familiar matthew mark luke and john familiar with each other and parallel to one another matthew mark and luke i'm sorry and then we have john which is a seemingly a totally different story but it was written by a disciple who was there. John had a different outlook than most of them did. Matthew was a died-in-a-will Jew. Mark, I believe, was writing out of what he felt was an incentive or a commandment of the lord jesus you remember he said that the holy spirit is going

to bring to your remembrance all things whatsoever i did and um and i believe that he recorded these things out of necessity mark was ending the nearing the end of his life and um and of course luke came along luke was was a greek man, not a disciple at all, but he made a wonderful gospel story combining all the writings. I happen to believe in the book that was there at one time called The Sayings of Jesus, the hypothetical Q document, and many other things that i'm sure were recorded however um if it were his intention to uh set up a a church on the earth if you will uh that would be guided by a book it certainly was a seemingly a hastily thrown together plan at the end of his life and not one that was planned out from the beginning so we have a a these these stories of christ that um i happen to believe are i mean i have no doubt at all that these men were inspired to write these things and what they wrote were inspirational they're still inspirational today.

However, I think that there were certain things that Jesus did for the express purpose of telling a story, of actually giving us particular spiritual insights into certain situations, things that we could learn from. For example, the woman who was found washing his feet, Jesus said, you know, why trouble you, the woman? Why are you aggravating this poor gal? She's just doing, you what she she has more insight about

my life than any of you do she understands and it's obvious that she does understand that soon i will have to die for the redemption of israel to pay the ransom that is against all mankind held there by the arch enemy, the nemesis of God himself, which is Satan. And she knows that that death is coming. She has insight. It's been revealed to her that my death is, I don't know at that point if she understood it was imminent, but I did think that she knew that it was that point if she understood it was imminent, but I did think

that she knew that it was, I happen to believe it was imminent, but I don't, I can't tell you what she knew, but I do know that her act so impressed the Lord Jesus that he said the gospel, the good news, the gospel, the story of repentance and acceptance of God into the kingdom of God, our invitation to live eternally, the gospel will not be preached except that this story will be a part of the gospel from now on. Now you might ask, well well why isn't it well because people are doing their own thing and the gospel doesn't necessarily build churches and it doesn't necessarily increase uh you know the the the church in general the institutional church it

doesn't it doesn't really pay off like entertainment does and so we've kind of left a lot of these things behind but the story and we're going to talk about that story but he says that the gospel is not going to be preached except that this story is going to be told when the gospel is preached. I think that it's worthy of anybody who preaches the gospel, anybody who teaches, anybody who talks about the redemption of mankind. I think they should take a look at that story and understand exactly what was going on there because within that story is the is is the beauty of the gospel itself now that being said jesus found certain examples that would be preached that would be taught

that would always be a part of the story of him in the earth and um and i believe that he took opportunity especially in this situation i think that he took an opportunity here to teach something that we need to know i do not have any doubt in the world that he had the power to take this blind man and cause him to see clearly on the first touch, but he didn't. I think what he's showing us is a depiction of many of the transformations that take place even in our day today are many times a dual encounter

sometimes triple encounter sometimes quadruple quintuple encounter with jesus christ is that it can very well come in different stages people are in such mess, especially in the day that we live in today. They don't have, you know, I know that the world feels like that everybody in the world needs to be better educated because they acknowledge the fact that, you know, technology is huge and it's expansive and it's a part of our of our culture now and the more you know about technology the better off you are and there they see the vast gap the chasm between you know the simple guy that doesn't know much about technology and what it requires to be in those technical fields and they say man needs an education well the truth is is that if

you look at the spiritual condition of man where he's supposed to be and where he actually is i think we would understand my goodness we need a lot of spiritual education we need a lot of training. We need a touch, if not two, if not three, if not four touches from the Lord in order to bring us to the point that we need to be. I think that this particular guy, I think about him a lot in this story. This man was blind. I mean, blind. He couldn't see anything. And I really feel like that had Jesus not inquired and tested his vision, he very well could have thought that,

you know, I was totally blind. And now I can at least make out men. And I see them moving. They look like trees, but I can at least see men. You know what? This is a lot better than it was. I suffered an eye injury once, a horrific eye injury, that absolutely destroyed the vision in my left eye.

And I remember thinking, I mean, when it was, it was just nothing but white. It was just, there was no vision. There was no making out of anything. And it was a very frightening thing. And it was a course of operations and procedures that brought about the vision in my left eye. It's nowhere near what it used to be. But again, here I am comparing it with blindness. And I'm thinking, you know, this ain't bad. Well, can you read with it? Well, no, not very well. Can you see with it it well no not very well can you see with it no

not very well but it was better than it was it was like staring into the sun and so i had a tendency and i'm sure he had a tendency to look at that situation and say you know what you know it's it's not perfect but it's a lot better than it was friend i really think that that we as as uh you know that that living in that uh enmity between us and the lord god having that that relationship with him that's a that's that fearful thing, that intimidating, over-clouding, over-shrouding guilt and the problems that we have when we compare ourselves to a holy God. I think sometimes that when we do decide,

you know, I'm going to try to go God's way, and we do move in that direction, and we receive our first touch from the Lord, I think that things are so much so incredibly better we may have a tendency to say you know what it's not perfect but i'll take it and it's almost an act of desperation on our part it's like i don't want to mess with it you know don't make it worse it's it's better than it was and i think that jesus is trying to uh is trying to let us know here that you know sometimes there are certain things that have to be fixed in our lives in order to fix other things um

i was i was saying before we were talking about how uh it's our wickedness and it's our, as he says, a wicked and adulterous generation. Our feelings of guilt, our problems of society, our problems within our family, just the problems of life, they can pretty much overwhelm us. And in the day in which we live, people have not a problem, not six problems. They have piles of problems against which they feel they have absolutely no power

and over which they feel like they have no control. And I think that when hope nestles its way into their heart, that at least there is not that enmity between us and God anymore. At least, you know, I can at least meet him on some friendly term. I think a lot of times we settle. And we just settle in and say yeah i i see men you know jesus could ask you do you see those people out there yes sir i see them yes sir everything's fine but a lot better than it was but you see what he was saying is is what we need to say

yeah i see the men but they are as trees walking they you know there's nothing this there's nothing distinguishing about them um and and therefore it looks to me like if this is vision it's not very good and so jesus touched him again and and as he did, he says, you know, now how's your vision? And he says, I see all men clearly. I think this story was brought about and it was executed just the way it was done for the express purpose of letting you know that perhaps your first touch sure it it puts you into a position where you don't you don't have to worry about going to hell and and being destroyed you don't have to you don't have to you know fret over these kind of things and sure the lord has indeed touched

you yes you're you know you know you've got this atonement now in your life the lord has an open communication with you everything's it's all good however don't be afraid of looking at the lord and saying you know i appreciate what i have but there's got to be something more than this it's got to be better than this. You know, it was one of the motivations. It was part of the impetus on my part. When I wrote the book, Think Red Ink, you can hear in there, if I authored it correctly, hopefully you can, see my frustration as a Christian because I don't want to appear ungrateful,

and I'm sure this man didn't want to appear ungrateful, but you did ask. You did ask me how I see, and I'm trying to be honest with you here. And I think that in my searching, it was that I know the Lord touched me. I know that the Lord has offered me salvation. And I know that I understand my sins being atoned.

And I understand these are all wonderful things. However, it's got to be something more than this. It has to be more than what i've experienced well the good news is it is it is it is there is more to it than what you understand there is more to it than what you've experienced this is why there are there are men in the kingdom of God, on the earth today, and have been for 2,000 years, men of different spiritual levels. Now, this is not a hierarchical level, because Jesus says, all of you are brethren.

One is your master, all of you are brethren. He shows us that there is equality. But friend, there are some people out there that have an incredible amount of grace and power in their life, and I want that. The rich ruler came to Jesus and said, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said, keep the commandments.

And he said, well, I'm doing that. Jesus said, good, do this and you'll live. Well, what do I lack? Well, who told you you're lacking anything? I told you to keep the commandments. You'll enter the kingdom of God. But what lack I yet? Now, Jesus did not chide him over that.

He didn't say, what do you mean, what do you lack? He knew that that man was being honest about this cannot be all there is to this. I've done this from my youth. You see, Lord, I don't murder, but sometimes I want to. I don't commit adultery, but sometimes I want to. I don't commit adultery, but sometimes I want to. I don't steal, but sometimes I want to.

I don't want to want to anymore. Good for you, he says. So you want to be perfect. Now when Jesus uses the word perfect, of course, we're reading from an old English text that tells us, it shows uses the word perfect of course we're reading from an old english text that tells us it shows us the word perfect we have an idea of perfect which is not what the scriptures are saying at all he's saying so you want to be complete you know what he was saying to that poor little guy you want the second touch that's what you want. I can help you. You see, that's my purpose.

I come to regenerate. The law, it'll show you the kingdom. But it always brings you to me, doesn't it? There's the schoolmaster, isn't it? That's the law, the schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ. It's really a neat program. And so when he finds himself in front of Christ, he realizes, never a man spake like this man.

I want whatever it is he has. I don't think this guy struggles with the commandments. I don't think this guy, you know, fights with his own conscience over whether or not he should kill a man or commit adultery or any of the rest of these things there's something different about him so what what is it that i'm lacking and the lord says oh you want to be perfect here's the secret to being perfect do you remember what he told him well

you've heard it a hundred times thousands of times perhaps you don't know because people hide the story they don't ever tell this story they tell something like it but they never tell the story and that is he says if you want to be made perfect what you have to do is deny yourself take up your cross and follow me now jesus was good to that man because he said, there's an obstacle in the way. You're selfish. You're concerned about yourself way too much. Well, how so? All right, for example, why don't you take everything you have

and sell it and give it to the poor? I don't think I can do that. The Bible says that he went away very sorrowful. Why? He was satisfied with the first touch. There are many people out there that are very sorrowful, even in their Christianity, because they never moved past that first touch.

You know what? I was lost, was on my way to hell, and I feel like I'm going to meet God on friendly terms. That's fine with me. But you know what you're going to have to understand is, that is the recipe for a sorrowful Christian. That's the recipe for the Christian who lays on their deathbed and stares at the ceiling and says,

oh God, what's going to happen to me? You see, the idea is to move into that spiritual area where we understand all things we're whole and entire and wanting nothing and and if i can is there any way i can develop in you an appetite for this it's not too late to receive this it's just not too late all you got to do is find that second touch perhaps it's going to be a third one every time he touches you find something else wrong with you i don't know man it's just it just becomes very uncomfortable every time i spend time before the lord he just it's like he gets a kick

out of telling me what's wrong with me he sounds like my dad that's why you don't get along with your dad, because he wants things for you that you don't necessarily want. Many times, that is indeed the case. But I'm encouraging you. I want you to want this. First of all, you're going to have to realize that it's available. There is a second touch available. And when he does touch us something happens to us you know the bible i told you before there's only three ways you can know there's only three ways

you can know you know forget the roman road forget the contract with god forget the believing in jesus thing and let's just go by the scriptures there's three ways we can know one way we can know that we're that we're headed for a better destination than the world that we live in now one of them is we keep his commandments we keep his commandments we keep his you know if you wrote this down i wouldn't have to say it three times we keep his commandments all of them all 10 of them we keep them all. If you do that, you're going to know. You're going to know that you're a child of God.

I'll take the third one next because I want to dwell on the second. The third one is that the Spirit of God witnesses to our spirit that we are indeed the children of God. The third one is, we love the brethren. It's one of the signs of transformation in our lives. We know that we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.

Let's look at the symbolism of this story for just a second. I see men, but there's no distinction between them. They look like trees. Oh, they're alive. Trees are alive. Men, men are alive. But I see no distinction between them. I just don't know how real my brother is to me. I don't know that I love my brother as I love myself.

You see, when this happens, when this is recognized and understood within ourselves, this is one of the signs that there is something wrong with our relationship. If that's you, you just need a second touch. All of a sudden,

you're going to see all men clearly. You know, when you see men clearly, you see that they look just like you. They have the same problems you do. They have the same weaknesses you do. And there's a brotherhood of mankind that occurs within ourselves. Not all of us out there all changing, but me changing. That's the way to start a brotherhood, by the way, not by getting a whole bunch of people together, but by bringing people into our life to see men as men and not just simply one looks just like the other. They're all just trees. Time for us to go now. Till we you again Think Red Ink my friend bye bye ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you