Words of Jesus Podcast - Everything Is Not For Everyone

Episode Date: October 21, 2022

Jesus came in humility and meekness to be received of His people. Jesus always obeyed His Father and earned God's approval. Jesus yielded to become a suffering servant to provide a way of reconciliation for mankind. This sacrifice, this service, did not make our Savior Jesus or our King Jesus into our beck-and-call God. God is sovereign. We must strive individually for our perfection. "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him..." 2 Chronicles 16:9 ***Ch. 29: JESUS ALSO SAID:            “Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? And not to be set on a candlestick? For there is nothing his, which shall not be manifested; neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad.  If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.”            And Jesus added:            “Take heed what ye hear. With what measure ye mete, it shall me be measured to you; and unto you that hear shall more be given.  For he that hath, to him shall be given; and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.”***Scriptures:Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-25; Luke 8:4-18

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello friends, I'm Don Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. My goal is to reinforce Christianity with the wisdom and words of Jesus, which incidentally are recorded in your Bible in red ink. Do you know what Jesus said, what Jesus did, and what Jesus said to do. This series is based on Jesus, his life, his friends, his ministry, and his relationship with his Father as recorded in the four Gospels.

We'll delve into mysteries that have been hidden, not from us, but for us in the words of Jesus. We closed our last show in chapter 29 of our little book called The Words of Jesus that has been our guide through this series. There were some scriptures that I assume that the publishers of this book felt unrelated to chapter 29 and just added them at the end here under titles Jesus also said. But they are red ink, so they're good for us. Let's take a look at them now before we move on to chapter 30.

Jesus also said, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed and not to be set on a candlestick? For there is nothing hid which shall not be manifested, neither was there anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad. If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear. We have mentioned on several occasions the comment that Jesus made seemingly, continually, that he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

And I think we've pretty well established the fact that he was not talking about our physical pieces of cartilage on the side of our head or the ability to actually hear sounds and such. But he's talking about to be able to understand. Is there anyone who can understand these things then let them understand. This actually was a mainstay, a foundational understanding, at least with Christ, when it came to him teaching what he had to teach,

he made it very, very clear that everything that he said was not for everyone. Now that might come as a surprise to the conventional Christian of today because we are inundated with messages constantly how what Jesus did, what he said, what the Bible says it's for everyone. But I assure you that that is just, that's theologically, biblically,

scripturally, not true. It's just not so. I know it's difficult. It's much easier to believe that God loves everybody, He loves everybody equally. He loves everybody unconditionally. And then He wants to save the entire world. Well, I can't imagine God not wanting to save a particular person. But I can easily imagine Him wanting to save a particular person. It's just a slight reversal in our thinking for just a moment, and that is that it really doesn't matter what even mankind's endeavors are, if a

person perhaps wants to take a picture. They might take 20 pictures, but there's only two of them that are worthwhile. It's one of the reasons why we hire photographers. They have the ability to see pictures the way they should be. And I've always quipped with my friends that I really appreciate good photography. I don't appreciate snapshots. And I'm afraid that a lot of the human race out there, we are snapshots. And not necessarily portraits. Properly framed with proper color correction

and centering and focus and depth of field and all the kind of things that go into a really nice picture. But there are some who are. They're just, they're excellent people. And in a lot of cases we're talking really about somebody who's just an excellent thinker. It in a lot of cases, we're talking really about somebody who's just an excellent thinker. It's a person who has the ability to take in the same trash of life and deal with it in such a way that it turns out to be good for him and good for people around him because he's got a proper attitude. Friend, this kind of character

is available to you. If you're called of God, that kind of character is available to you. If you keep wallowing in the pigsty, if you keep messing around with the world and playing with the world and doing what the world does and letting them make up your mind and letting them develop your philosophies theosophies and and just your politics if you if you have that attitude that here i am use me um here's my brain i'm not using it you're welcome to it you know if you have that kind of sheeple mentality, just tell me what to do and I'll do it. Although there may be certain portions of that kind of thought that are good in certain

times, God expects us to be individuals. And he expects to reveal himself, and the word he uses is manifest himself to a particular kind of person. I don't know how you feel, but I would be extremely disappointed if, you know, we all have this list of questions that we're all going to heaven and we're going to stand before God and we're going to ask Him why and He's going to tell us, right? We have these kinds of ideas that, you know, that's something I'm going to ask

Jesus about when I see Him. Well, you know, yeah, okay, fine. You'll probably spend who knows how long with your face in the dirt when you do see him but um you'll you i'm sure you can work all that out later but we have these ideas of of going to him and questioning why did this happen why did that happen why do you let things like this happen why do you do this why do you do that and um i think that it's it's going to be sad when we realize that... Let me give you a human example.

Paul was speaking to the church and saying, there are many things that I would like to tell you, but I can't because you are carnal. Now this is a glimpse inside of what our God has to deal with when he deals with us. There are many things. You might be sweating over some problem or some way something happened in your life or the fact that you couldn't handle it or didn't handle it or whatever else. But there's going to come a time if you pursue

this line of going to question God and hold His feet to the fire and make Him give you a reason why, you may find out and I think in a lot of cases it will be the case that we were not in a position to receive that kind of knowledge or wisdom even directions on the way out of a problem what to do, how to handle it, these kind of things

that he longs to tell us. As I said at the opening of this show, we get the idea that many things in the scriptures are hidden. There's people that make millions of dollars teaching on the false doctrine of there being codes in the Bible and that all we have to do is figure out the code and we've got it made. It's hogwash.

I'm sorry, it is. I've looked into it as deeply as I can and there's no reason to believe it. First of all, I can't believe that God has intention on leaving the entire world in spiritual darkness until the computer was invented so that we can understand equidistant letter sequences and those kind of silly things. We've talked about this before. But it is

obvious to anybody with a modicum of intelligence and an ability to read on a 10th grade level that there are things in the scriptures that are hidden. We read them and don't understand them. We see them and don't understand them. And Jesus makes no pretense that everything the Father has, everything he knows, everything that he has to give human beings is just there for the asking. And all you have to do is ask and it's yours. Just ask Him and you can have it. And there are scriptures that don't help in this situation when it says, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God that they give it to all men liberally and upbraideth not. And we get the idea that if we just ask God

for wisdom, that we get it. You know, it's pretty much like, I mean, in our lives and in our communication with God, our relationship to God, it's pretty much like passing a pedestrian on the highway and you're doing 60 miles an hour and you ask him a question when you go by. There might have been an answer, but you didn't hear it. You didn't have time to hear it. It may be pretty much like asking somebody a question and closing a door in their face or shutting the window after you've asked the question. There are barriers between us and receiving these kinds of things.

It's his pleasure, Jesus said. It's his pleasure to divvy out to all of his children the wonderful things of the kingdom of God. It's his pleasure to do that. So why isn't it done? I mean, why doesn't this happen? Why isn't this more common? Well I'm afraid that the common understanding of Christianity is that you

ask and if you don't receive you just ask again. As a matter of fact there are people who take great license with the Greek when Jesus says ask and you'll be given. Seek and you'll find. Knock, it'll be opened. And there are people who have taken the Greek rendition of these words and stretched them to mean anybody who keeps on asking, keeps on knocking, keeps on seeking. These are the people that find. Not according to the scriptures it's not

jesus starts out teaching us to pray saying that my father knows you have need of all these things he knows uh it's it's almost superfluous to ask um it's never superfluous to sit quietly before the lord and say, explain this to me. I don't know what to ask for. I don't know how to fix these kind of things. I don't even, I don't know what you have in mind. I know nothing. But I do want to serve you and I do want to please you.

So I'm going to just take some time to hear what you have to say to me. This is different than just spouting a list of demands. Now, the idea that everything that the Father has is for us, it's for everybody, is an erroneous idea. The Bible says that many are called and few are chosen. If all were called Jesus would have said so. He's not in the business of deceiving anybody or lying to them or withholding information. He says many are called. If all were called, he'd have said so.

And of that portion of people that he terms as many, not all, but many, of that portion, few are chosen. And this is not a mathematical equation because it deals in very vague terms, many, few, and such as that. But I think that if there is anything that is concrete

about what we're talking about here, it is that what God has for His people is not for everyone on earth. Jesus says, this is the reason why I preach and teach with parables. I am able to expound to you the mysteries of God and you, if you're in the right place that you need to be

can hear what I have to say. A person standing right next to you might think it's foolishness. He might not understand anything that's being said. Well, why don't you help him? Because it is given for you to know the mysteries of God. But to them it is not given. That is just as clear as it can be. Now, most of the time when you talk about predestination,

foreordination, pre-election and all these kinds and election of the saints and these kind of things it gets into some pretty hairy arguments. But you have to understand that any time that it becomes, it moves into that area of difficulty it's usually not because we have, we're trying to decide that God has hidden some things from people and revealed them to others, but who he has revealed them to and who he has not.

Jesus' advice to Peter was what? When Peter says, well, what will this man do? He says, you know, whatever my will is for this man, what is that to you? Follow thou me. And I think that this is good advice in a lot of these areas. If you are called of God,

if you have felt within yourself this desire to make peace with God, I think that you should pursue that with every fiber of your being. Because not everybody has it. Not everybody's got it. Not everyone is called. And a million thoughts are going through my mind at this point. I don't want to discourage anybody. I really want to encourage the ones who are called.

And for you to sit and wring your hands over the ones who are not called and wondering who they are because they're some of your grandchildren because they may be your parents they might be your children they might be your friends and co-workers you can sit and wring your hands over that if you want to but my advice to you is the same jesus gave peter what is that to you you should follow me and I believe that a lot of people I think easily a lot of people could change in their own minds

their desire and direction and the way they think and change all these things to the point that they're off track in their own life. I remember as the Lord was revealing different things to me about the scriptures and about some of the silly things that I believed, where they came from, and the fact that I needed to dispense with them, I started seeing that, my goodness, the church is in real trouble here. This is not just a matter of not believing right or

not following all the rules to a club or this is very dangerous, some of the things that are being taught. And they have people walking around out there that consider themselves to be Christian and that criteria runs the gamut from people who feel like are you a Christian? They think in their mind, well, I don't murder anybody. I'm good to folks. I treat people nicely. I invite people to eat with me

from time to time. I'm friendly. Yeah, I'm a Christian. There are some people that feel like the question, are you a Christian, is asking are you a Christian, Muslim, or a Jew? And so then they immediately change their mind and think, well, I'm not a Jew. I'm not a Muslim. I must be a Christian. Because you've got to be one of the three.

There are a lot of bad not necessarily reasons, but there's a lot of bad thought behind answering the question, are you Christian? I don't like to say a Christian. I never't like to say a Christian. I never, unless it's just a verbal slip up, ask anybody if they are a Christian. I don't like that. I don't like that at all.

That's like asking if somebody is a moose because they belong to a moose club or whatever club they happen to belong to. Are you a Boy Scout? Or whatever else. It's like it's a name, a moniker that's attached to people who attend a particular church or have particular thoughts or desires in their life or whatever.

My preferred question is not, are you a Christian, but are you Christian? There's a big difference there. Are you a Christian? Yeah. Are you a Christian? Well, what do you mean? Are you Christ-like? Well, I like to think so. People might answer, well, you know what? I'd like to think so too. But this isn't about what we'd like. I'm asking you a question. Well, how do I determine if I'm Christ-like? Well, okay, let's take a particular example. Jesus is being persecuted unlawfully or for no good reason

or he's being treated as the Bible teaches us that he's suffering wrongfully. We see how he acts in that situation. We see what he did. We see what he thought. We see what he thought. We see what he said to people around him. Is that you? Or do you defend yourself? Do you stand up and say, you know, you're not going to talk about me that way, or I can prove that I'm whatever. And you go into that defense mode. Is that Christian?

Absolutely not. So are you Christian? Well, maybe I'm not. The sun, it's Friday evening. Sun's going down. Sun goes behind the horizon. What does that mean to you? Anything? Because I assure you that never happened that Jesus didn't take notice of it. Do you take notice of it? Because to him that he knew that his father's

instituted holy day of Sabbath was beginning. Everything changes on this day. We do not do on this day what we do all week long. That's Jesus kept the Sabbath day. So you tell me. It's Friday night. Your friend calls you and says, hey, there's a great new movie on. You want to go watch it?

You want to go with it? You want to go with us? You want to go do something? Whatever. Doesn't matter. Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon. It doesn't matter when it is on the Sabbath day. I have to ask you, would that be something Jesus would do? You know, what would Jesus do was a very common and I guess well advertised and I assume ludicrous operation. Did I say ludicrous? Was that a Freudian slip? What I was saying was it was very profitable. And

if we take our lives and lay them beside Christ and ask ourselves, are we Christian? It is a different question altogether as to, are you a Christian? Now, I say that to show you that it is becoming very, very obvious or should at this point becoming obvious to you that you have not been, you have not been

taught of the Lord. Because I assure you, he's not teaching you that the Sabbath day is on Sunday and teaching someone else that it's on Saturday. When Jesus says, I am Lord of the Sabbath, he had a day in mind. And if we were taught of the Lord, we would, you know when Paul says, I would that you all believe the same thing? Believe what? Your interpretation of the Scriptures? Well no, he was never that

heady or high-minded or egotistical to think that he had a corner on Bible interpretation. Matter of fact, when he wrote what he wrote, he didn't consider what he was writing as to be Scripture. Now, if he had that kind of attitude, I'd say that we should have that as well. We need to be taught of the Lord. And I think that the problem is that when we do open ourselves to be taught of the Lord we essentially feel like that we're receiving nothing from Him. We have to start at the beginning.

And that is that there are many things that are hidden, not from us, but for us. But friend, there are some things that are hidden from us if we are not called of God. This is why the church is full of lost people. Well, because the preacher goes around in the neighborhoods. Knocking on doors. Inviting people to go to church.

The Bible teaches that the Lord adds unto the church daily. Such as should be saved. You know. You want to go out and knock on doors. And ask people to come to church. Then I don't want to hear you complain. That the church is full of lost people. Full of people that God didn't call. then I don't want to hear you complain that the church is full of lost people.

Full of people that God didn't call. But there's a very good chance of that. Very good chance of that. Now, if he says you have to understand that he says that what I am bringing to the world, Jesus is making it clear, is illumination. It is enlightenment. And my intention is not to hide it under a basket or under a bed, but my intention is to let it illuminate the whole house.

And then he says, the reason for that is that there is nothing that's hidden that will not be revealed and that will not be manifested. Neither anything kept secret but that it should come abroad if any man hath ears to hear let him hear. Now this is going into other areas and I'm afraid our time is gone for today. We're going to take it up here again tomorrow, and we're going to stay with us until we get everything from this that we should have.

I'd love to hear from you. Can you tell me who you are and where you are, how you're listening to the broadcast? I'd love to have your questions and your comments. You can email me at don at thinkredink.com or you can write to the ministry, Think Red Ink Ministries at P.O. Box 718, Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. All right, till next time, bye-bye. ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com.

Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you