Words of Jesus Podcast - Hear As If For The First Time

Episode Date: June 3, 2022

Don't settle. It's easy to read the Bible. It's even easier to presume what is written while relying on professionals or books and movies about the Bible. Jesus said, "Keep my commandments and Dad and I will move in and lead and guide you." Follow the instructions of Jesus to HEAR the Word of God. "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight:..." Heb. 4 ***Chapter 19: The Sermon on the Mount... Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle will in no wise pass from the law, till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore will break one of these least commandments, and will teach men so, he will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whoever will do and teach them, the same will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, Except your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to them of old time, You will not kill; and whoever will kill will be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you That whoever is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment: whoever will say to his brother, Raca, will be in danger of the council: but whoever will say, You fool, will be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, Leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, You will by no means come out of there, till you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said to them of old time, You will not commit adultery: But I say unto you, that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if your right eye offend you, pluck it out, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell. And if your right hand offend you, cut it off, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell. It has been said, Whoever will put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce: But I say unto you that whoever will put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whoever will marry her that is divorced commits adultery. Again, you have heard that it was said to them of old time, You will not perjure yourself, but will perform unto the Lord your oaths: But I say unto you, swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither will you swear by your head, because you can not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these comes from evil. You have heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That you repay not evil: but whoever will smite you on your right cheek, turn to him and offer the other also. And if any man will sue you at the law, and take away your...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello friends, welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. My goal is to reinforce Christianity with the wisdom and the words of Jesus, which, incidentally, are recorded and read in many of your Bibles. You know what Jesus said, what Jesus did, what he said to do? This series is based on Jesus and his life, his friends, his ministry, and his relationship with his Father,

as recorded in the four Gospels. And I delve into mysteries that have been hidden, not from us, but for us, in the words of Jesus. Thanks for joining us. We've been talking about the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is probably one of the most famous sermons of all time. Certainly some of the most famous words that Jesus ever said. However, I'm afraid that over time, because we've pretty much learned what the scriptures have to say,

and in many cases we've taught ourselves and our children and our grandchildren to memorize these scriptures, I'm afraid that a lot of times when we're reading through the Sermon on the Mount, we have that feeling like, ah, there. Yeah, I heard that. And I really, if I can accomplish anything in you, it would be for you to purposefully dispense with that notion. You may know the words of Jesus. You may have them memorized. I don't know.

But there comes a time when the words of Jesus become the Word of God. Now, if you're under the impression that whatever you read in the Bible is indeed the Word of God, you pretty much you're probably on the right track if your idea is to memorize them and put them into your mind. But if you understand that the word of God is alive and it's powerful, it's sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit. It's the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Now, when I say that, I use the pronoun it. And many people don't have a problem with that. But if you will read and re-read that scripture, you'll find that it speaks of the word of God as he and uses masculine pronouns such as his. So you'll find that when the scriptures are talking about the word of God we're talking about the very voice of God himself which is Jesus Christ to the earth.

His promise was that he would lead us and guide us. He will do that with his word, not with his words. He will not direct you to a book and give you instructions in a book that were printed and reprinted, translated and retranslated in many different languages by 40 different authors written to thousands of people that we don't even know in a time that we're not aware of, in a time that we're not familiar with. But he will speak to us in 21st century within our own spirits in a wordless word

in a vocabulary that perhaps we haven't even learned yet. What he does is he teaches us by causing us to know. Now this is not a memorization or an education exercise. He's teaching us by causing us to know. And so as we read these scriptures, if you find yourself kind of jumping into the more of a sound of a limerick or a poem or a recitation or something that you're familiar with,

and you do feel in the back of your head, or perhaps even in your heart, hopefully this will become a conviction more so than just an offense to your own conscience, but if you do feel that within yourself that it is becoming rote. It is R-O-T-E. It is becoming within yourself something of a cadence or a limerick, a poem or a recitation. I want you to purposefully stop that kind of thinking. I want you to stop that and listen

to what the Lord Jesus has to say. Sometimes we get the idea that a communication between two people is for a person to string together several words in a coherent way and so that what they say is what they mean and what they mean can directly be iterated, translated, put into words we call it, put it into words. And this depends on so many factors that they're unconscious in many cases but in a lot of cases, it's just misunderstanding. People use words, especially in the day we live in, that simply don't mean what we always thought they meant, or they mean

today something they didn't mean yesterday. People say things in sarcasm and trying to be witty or sardonic and they have a tendency to say things that can be misconstrued and misunderstood. And I'm afraid that in the age in which we live, there has been an education confusion that is embraced by many because they see that as a freedom of expression or poetic license and these kind of things. But I want you to know that I have not found, other than colorful language, other than the standard Jewish way of speaking where something is emphasized by

repeating it with different words or in a different way. I've not found the Lord Jesus dealing in areas of sarcasm or saying things that he really didn't mean. I don't know if you've ever been in a situation, I find myself in the situation all the time, of everything I'm saying being recorded. And it's just going to be around forever and ever. And so you have a tendency to be very careful about what you say. Yeah, sometimes I say some really stupid things and I'm sorry they're on tape, but they are. But that understood to the exponent of 10 or 100

was the Lord Jesus that knew that what he said to his disciples not only would be remembered by them in a natural way, but his intention was, and he told them as a matter of fact, that when I go away, that I am going to have the Holy Spirit call to your remembrance everything that I said. Now, friend, when the Holy Spirit calls something to your remembrance, it is not translated. It's not transliterated.

It's not changed into anything. It is indeed the words that he wants us to say as a matter of fact the lord really warned us against and taught us to be very very careful about using our brains or our intellect in certain situations that were making huge demands upon us he said that there will come a time when you're going to have to stand before kings and before princes and before people who will have your life in their hands. They will decide whether

or not you live. And by the way, those days are coming. If your intention is to escape them by the rapture, I may have some bad news for you as we continue. But we will be in a situation where we will essentially by our lives plead for our lives. And Jesus said, I can't say that he used the words,

but I'm saying that it's very easy to understand that what he is saying when he says, when you're brought before these people, do not premeditate what you will say. You remember this? He said, I don't want you to think about, well, if they say this, then I'm going to say this. And if they accuse me of this, I'm going to show them this.

And like you would prepare for perhaps a court battle or something where you're going to act as your own lawyer. He said that when we practice this and we depend upon our intellect or our education or our knowledge of the law our ability to find loopholes and these kinds of things he's trying to tell us that although that will be a temptation for you, don't succumb to that because that is going to end up getting you in trouble,

essentially, is what he said. And he says, rather, we need the Spirit of God to speak through you. And as you stand before in these situations where you perhaps may be standing for your life or standing in defense of your own wife and children or God forbid but these things are in many people's futures they are in the Christian's future as this world gets continually worse and worse and he's saying that we want the spirit of God to speak through you because in that hour the spirit of God is going to tell you what to say

and when it tells you what to say and you say it, they will neither be able to gainsay nor resist. They're not going to argue with you. They won't be able to argue with you and they will not be able to resist the truth that you have to say. Now, friend, this is talking about the times that we're going to stand before the powers that be and give an account of our lives. I want you to know that you can live in that to some smaller degree, perhaps to the same degree. I've not experienced it, but I'm certainly not saying it's impossible.

But many of us can live in that form of not a blank mind, but a mind that is put on hold. Do you know that the Bible uses the word reigns when it talks about the mind? I don't know if you've noticed that in the King James Bible. It uses the word reigns, a man's reigns. And what this is talking about is essentially, this is the guiding force of a person's life. Have you ever been riding a horse and dropped the reins?

Well, if you do, your next inclination is to get your hands back on them. And the reason that you want to do that is because a life without guidance is like a horse without reins attached to his bridle. I certainly don't want you to think that what I'm preaching to you is word of faith doctrine. I do not believe, well, any part of it. But I do happen to respect, happen to respect where the scriptures say that our tongue is a fire, it's a world of iniquity and it is set on fire of hell and when he says behold how great a matter

a little fire kindleth what it's saying is I don't care if you're looking at the Sears Tower on fire, or a shack, or a 55 gallon drum full of garbage, it doesn't matter how big the fire is, it all starts with a match. Now, I think that it's very important that we do speak, as the scriptures say, as the oracles of God. I think that we should give thought to what we say. But mostly what I want you to know is, is this

moves out of the area of conscious and deliberate work on our part to make sure that what we hear and what we say is of God. And it does, after a while, if you will do, what I'm trying to get across to you is that, number one, we keep his commandments. Number two, that we never offend our conscience. And three, that we take time every day to hear the voice of God within ourselves. This becomes a lifestyle. And you will find that you have the wisdom and you have the knowledge to bring about the good things in your life, the things that need to be brought about in our lives. And so I think it's very

important that as we hear the scriptures being read in our ears, we understand the difference between printed books, language, vocabulary, words, and differentiate those from the word of God. The word of God is God's communication to our heart. It is outside of vocabulary and words and dictionaries and eras of understanding and colloquialisms and things that affect all kinds of language. The Lord has the ability to give us this, but you're going to have to be aware.

And the best way to remain unaware is for, as we read these scriptures, for you to snap into that, you know, that sing-song cadence and limerick kind of thinking, and you find yourself repeating along with me or finishing the verse or worse yet is the attitude I was telling you about before. Is that attitude? I heard it. I've heard that. I don't know that you've heard that. As I say, Jesus Christ was, I think that he was ever so conscious of the fact that he was being recorded as he spoke. No, there wasn't any recorders, video cameras, cassette tapes, or anything there to record him. But I do know within myself that everything that he said he knew would be and certainly could be used in many different ways and many different understandings. And so I think he was very careful with his words.

That being said, you need to understand that we're not trying to learn what Jesus said, what was written down that claims that Jesus said. What was written down. That claims that Jesus said it. What we're trying to hear is. The message behind what he's saying. Friend there is no way to get that. Without meditation before the Lord.

Without an understanding. Without the foundational understanding. That you do not know. One of the most dangerous things about memorizing Scripture is that attitude about, I know, I know, I know. I've said to people so many times, because I think it's just foundationally important, that the Bible is not the Word of God.

Jesus Christ is the word of God Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know. I know. What do you mean? You know, I Mean, I don't see anything in your life or your action your doctrine or or your theology or anything about it that That shows me that you understand this. Yeah, I know, you know the Bible says it you know is in Jesus Christ is the Word of God Yeah, I know yeah i know you know the bible says it you know his in jesus christ is the word of god yeah i know he's the living word and the bible is the written word and and they and they start talking about this as if they know but friend they don't know they don't know um if um if a person settles for a symbol over the substance

that it represents, they can say that they know, they can say that they possess, they can say that they have that they have attained, but the truth is they haven't. They don't understand that. They don't understand it at all. They're frail human beings that really, really want to belong. And it's unfortunate but we do make this mistake a lot. One of the things that seems to be very important to us, it seems like the Christian

more than anything else is this thing about I know. I know. I know. How do you know? Well the Bible says and how do you know this? Because the Bible says and how do you know that? Because the Bible says and you find out that you've got a relationship with the Bible and you're telling me that you know that it's not the Word of God, that Jesus Christ is the Word of God? Well, the Word of God says this and the Word of God says that.

Wait a minute. You're talking about the Scriptures again. You really know the difference? And it turns into this frustrating thing where their attitude is, well, you know what I mean. I know what you mean because I was where you are. But once you ever taste of the bread of life, Jesus says, I am that bread. I am your daily bread. I know you thought the little magazine was, but it's not. I know you thought your daily Bible reading was the bread of life, but it's not. The bread of life is

Jesus Christ. It is that third element that I tell you, take time every day to hear the voice of God. This is your daily bread. This is your manna. And if you do that, if it, and I should say when, of course if you're keeping the commandments, you're eligible. If you're not keeping the commandments, just go on back to whatever it was you were doing. Or start keeping the commandments and enter into this promise.

What promise? He said, if you'll keep my commandments, me and my Father will move into you by way of the Spirit of God. And we'll teach you from the inside. There's the promise. But it's predicated upon you keeping His commandments. Now, once you've done this, and once you have ever tasted of this bread the bible says you will never hunger again you ever you've heard that right jesus said you ever taste this bread you'll never hunger again you ever taste the water of life you know what's going to happen there's going

to be a well springing up within your soul you're're never going to thirst again. And until you've experienced that, you have no idea what I'm talking about. Can you imagine getting into a very difficult situation in your life and it's going to require faith, it's going to require perseverance, it's going to require wisdom, it's going to require perseverance. It's going to require wisdom. It's going to require the knowledge of God. And as it is right now, when you get into that situation,

perhaps your first inclination is to pray, which unfortunately in many people's understanding of prayer is us telling God what our problem is, Us speaking to Him. And then the next thing that happens, if it's not the first thing, I've noticed from talking with people, sometimes it's the first operation in a bad situation is to go straight to the Bible and find some verse in the Bible to give you some kind of comfort. Or in some

people's case, they say that to have something to put their faith in. Well, if our faith is in the scriptures, our knowledge comes from the scriptures, our wisdom comes from the scriptures, where does the promise of Jesus Christ fit in when he says that if you'll keep my commandments, I'll move into you, and I'll lead you and guide you from the inside? Where does that fit? You know what?

It doesn't. It just doesn't fit. Our attitude is that if you'll be a Christian, if you'll accept that Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, that I'm going to give to you. I'm not going to leave you comfortless. No, I'm not going to leave you comfortless. I will come to you. And how are you going to do that? I'm going to send you a book. Listen, friends, God's not a book. He never has been. He never will be. Not discounting this book, but we're not going to make it into some kind of a talisman. We're

not going to make it into a book of incantations like we're all a bunch of witches and warlocks. That's not what we're supposed to do. This is testimonies of men who believe God. And they believe God when God spoke to them. You won't find Abraham flipping through a book somewhere and saying, oh, it says here that I should leave my father and mother, leave Haran and go and find a city whose builder and maker is God. That's what I'm going to do. No, he heard the voice of God. Read the 11th chapter of Hebrews. I dare you to find anybody that has ever been brought to that place where God is honoring them as men and women of faith.

I dare you to find one that didn't hear God's voice. They didn't receive their instruction from a book. Friend, this is why we're lacking so badly. Have you ever heard somebody get into a situation and they go for help and they get around some churchified panty waist preacher somewhere and he gives them a verse or a verse of the scriptures and you think, what the heck does that have to do with their situation?

How is that going to, what? And you're just, well, this is what he's trained to do. He just gives people verses. And you know, they've got these cover all verses that you can use in any situation. Let not your heart be troubled, brother. You believe in God, believe also in me. I'm asking you how to quit smoking. What has this scripture got to do with it? But of course nobody's going to speak that way to a preacher

because of that false sense of of superiority and and he certainly he knows better than i do he's got a robe on with bars on the sleeves where'd he get those bars at the christian bookstore all right um the idea is not to speak disparagingly all the time about conventional Christianity. The idea is to reinforce Christianity with the words of Christ. And his words are these. Keep my commandments. You keep my commandments, I'll move into you.

And I'll lead you and guide you into all truth. Friend, that doesn't apply to you. If you're going to insist on repeating the verses as you hear them read, insisting that you know them because you've heard them before, this is going to have to be a time of starting over brand new. Time's gone for now. I need you to do something for me. I want to hear from you. I want to know who you are and where you're listening to this broadcast. Send your questions and your comments and I'll be glad to answer them either on TRI radio, Think Reading TV. Just let me know. Or you can write to our post office box, Think Ready Ministries, PO Box 718,

Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. Sorry for the long introduction today, but we're going to get back into the Sermon on the Mount next time. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com That's thinkredink.com Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series.