Words of Jesus Podcast - Judgment and Responsibility

Episode Date: November 4, 2022

If what you believe is not true, do you want to know it? We have been sold a bill-of-goods when it comes to the requirements of residency in the Kingdom of Heaven. Every man and woman will be judged based on what they did - according to the will and way of God. We must strive, indeed, we must earn, our place in the Kingdom. Not everyone is called.***Ch. 29: JESUS TELLS A PARABLE OF A SOWERTHE SAME DAY that his mother and brothers had come to see him, Jesus want down by the seaside.  Great multitudes came to hear and see him.  Jesus sat in a boat and spoke to the crowd on the shore, saying:             “Behold, a sower went forth to sow.  And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth; and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth.  And when the sun was up, they were schorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.  And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them.  But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”            When they were alone, his disciples asked Jesus:            “Why speakest thou to them in parables?”            Jesus replied:            “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given.  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.  And them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, “By hearing ye shall not hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest as any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.  But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.            “Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower: When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it.  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.  He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”             Jesus also said:            “Is a candle brought to be put...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello friends and welcome once again to The Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris. We've been everywhere with this scripture, but it seems that the concept of the Lord God being such an incredible, incredibly intelligent being, incredibly powerful. He loves us so much. So how is He going to distribute these things in the earth to those who need it? Well, this is where it really is a wonderful attribute of God. One of them is

that many are many persons that we perhaps know and it may vary from time to time as to how many there are because of the population or because of the lack of people that are actually called of God or whatever reason. There are many people that will likely never hear a call from God. I'm afraid that a lot of these people are the ones who are in church

today trying to receive something. They're afraid of a hell that they were taught. It's not that they're under any kind of conviction or that they feel like this is something that their punishment is imminent and that it has been revealed to them by God, they actually just, yeah, if there's a hell I don't want to go there. If there's a heaven I do. If there's a God then I want to be saved. If Jesus Christ is real then I want him to be my Savior.

And I'm thinking, friend, that's not faith. I don't know what that is, but you know, the great thing about this is that if I don't go and find that guy and drag him into my church, I don't have to deal with that. If I go and get him and convince him that God needs basketball players and guitar and drum players like yourself and he likes guys with tattoos or he likes whatever, I don't know what they're coming up with to get people

into church, but if you'd like to join our golf tournament we have every week or our basketball team or whatever else, but if I go and get these kind of people and bring them in, now I have to deal with it. What do I have to deal with? Well, the fact that the person doesn't have any power in his life. Well, how could that be if he's been born again? He doesn't have any power over sin. How could that be if he's not been born again? He doesn't feel changed. How could that be if he's not been born again? He doesn't feel changed. How could that be if he's not, if he's been born again? He doesn't love his brother like he loves himself. How could

that be if he's been born again? Why do you keep insisting that he's been born again? Well, because he asked Jesus Christ to save him. He went down the Roman road, which essentially means asking somebody, do you want to go to hell when you die? No. Well, then you need to be saved. And here's how you do it. And you recite after me, you pray after me, and you got to really mean it. I love that. And I guarantee you, you take somebody who really means it and they get saved, at the end of their life they find that things aren't like they thought they were.

Something else becomes a little more attractive and they end up dying in their sins. I guarantee you that same silly preacher that told that guy that salvation's easy, salvation's free, it's instantaneous. It's a wonderful thing. Just ask and you'll receive. I guarantee you at that guy's funeral, that same preacher will stand up and say,

he must not have been really saved. Really saved. I didn't know that we had to put an adjective in front of Christianity to make it effectual. Really saved. Hmm. Did you drink that glass of water? Or did you really drink it? I just don't, I don't know how he's going to save us. I really don't. We say and do some of the stupidest things that's ever been done.

And the church is just rife with it. It's like we hire people that don't make sense to teach us not to make sense. And we have them, and they want us to, and we want them to teach us the book that was written by the wisest, most knowledgeable being in the universe. None of this stuff makes any sense until you understand that this comes down to a personal revelation, a personal relationship between you and God our Father through His Son Jesus Christ.

All of a sudden it becomes beautiful and it becomes simple. It becomes livable. It becomes something that, you know what? I exchanged being a Christian for being Christian. You know what I do now that I didn't do before? I love my brother. I love people that I just normally wouldn't have done. And all of a sudden, things

that bother God the Father that I read in the Scriptures, they bother me. They didn't used to. Things that delight Him, they delight me. I can see personality changes. I can feel character changes and stuff. Sometimes I surprise myself wondering how did the right words come out of my mouth? I don't even remember deciding to believe that. But things like this

the changes that are made, these things are very and they can be very, very real to you. You need not live in this plastic Christianity. You just don't, you don't need to live there. Now, if you're not called, if the Lord hasn't called you, if he hasn't made provision for you by way of you having faith in him and this kind of stuff means anything. Just go on, enjoy yourself, go to church and do whatever it is that you need to do, I

guess. But you can just relax because there's really nothing expected of you. It's to whom much is given that much is required. Now, you say, well, you're discouraging me. I'm sorry that I'm discouraging you, but you probably need to be discouraged. You probably shouldn't ought to be encouraged. You know, this is not your decision to become a Christian.

You can't decide that. Who told you you can decide that? Jesus says, you didn't choose me. I chose you. Does that mean anything to anybody? Well, you sound like you're some kind of elitist. I guess I am. If I know that God is working in my life

and that He makes changes in my life and my mind and my philosophy about life and everything every day, if I see that He's making changes in my life every day, I can't ignore the fact that His power is present in my life. So He's obviously called me. I'm going to work toward being chosen. Work toward it. That's exactly what I intend on doing. So is that elitist? I don't know how to describe it. But I do know this.

God rejects who He wants to reject. And He accepts who He wants to accept. He says so. So what do I do? There is nothing you can do, friend. Cry out to God. Ask him to save you. That's all I can tell you. What can I say?

If he's not called you, he's not called you. But if he has, come on. And you're still messing around in the world? You know what I think? I think you may have considered whatever salvation that you have or had or wish you had or whatever else is free and everybody can get it and anybody can get it just by asking? I think perhaps that might have cheapened it so much in your life that you don't take it seriously.

You know, hey, look, I got a check for $1,000. You're standing in the post office. Hey, look here, I got a check for $1,000. And everybody says, we all got one. Really? I thought this was something special. No, we all got that. Every one of us got one.

Oh, okay. Well, I'm not even going to send a thank you card. Why? Well, because that's not going to send a thank you card. Why? Well, because that's not personal. That's not me. They didn't send it to me. They sent it to everybody. Do you see that there can be an underlying subconscious attitude about this free and universal salvation

that may be causing you trouble? It may be causing you trouble. It may be causing you damage. If you find out that there is something in you that says, I want to be right with God, you'd better act on that, friend. You better act on it, and I mean now. Because his spirit's not always going to strive with you. That's something else he said. Now, we keep running these little rabbit trails we're not getting our scriptures

done um so i just want you to understand that there are mysteries of the kingdom of heaven that are going to be brought about in our last day and in our world perhaps not in our world perhaps in our children's world or our grandchildren's. But I think the magnitude of, if we want to talk about what Paul's revelation was, that mystery that's been kept since the foundation of the world. What is it, by the way? Do you remember? It's Christ in you.

It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. that's the mystery that's been kept since the foundation of the world nobody knew anything about this nobody knew this we didn't know how he was going to make all this work we thought he was just going to forgive our sins and haul all of our butts to heaven i mean that's pretty much it isn't that salvation no it's not you know forgiveness certainly is a part of salvation but the main part of salvation is you being regenerated you becoming the person that he wants you to be i mean really why doesn't he just forgive everybody and let's let's go get on with the party because that's not the intention it's not the intention to make you comfortable or to give you a mansion over the

hilltop that's a piece of cake for him he doesn't that's no big deal but to make you into a different person that's going to require his power and it's going to require your determination to do it. You two are going to have to work together on this. Yeah, I said work. And then the third portion of that is you're going to have to endure. Endure? I don't know if I like the sound of that. I wish I could change it, but I can't. You're going to have to endure to the end.

That's who, by the way, is saved. Those that endure to the end. All right, the next little portion, I was telling you that we were dealing with chapter 29, and they evidently found scriptures that didn't necessarily pertain to the parable of the sower. So they added them here under the title, and Jesus added. And Jesus added, take heed what you hear.

With what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again. And to you that hear, more shall be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given. And to him that hath not, it shall be taken away, even that which he seemeth to have. This is one of the most difficult scriptures that Jesus teaches here. Not only can someone be called and hell will be full of men and women who are called of God.

Calling does not mean that you're saved. It doesn't mean that at all. There are such things as people who are called and do not endure. And they don't differ not one whit from somebody who has never cared about the things of the Lord at all. Isn't that amazing to think about? Now, the Bible says he's faithful not to forget your works. And if you have your works and they're done in faith and in good intention and a good heart, this is not to scare people.

We serve a wonderful, wise, and powerful God that has full capability of saving you and full capability of looking at you, not just pretending that you're righteous or pretending that you're Jesus. You ever heard anybody say that when God looks at me, all he sees is Jesus? What, is he blind? Is he nuts?

What do you mean? What do you mean by that? That God's going to judge me by jesus's life look i understand that convoluted theology that's behind that i understand what you're trying to say but you need to say it another way if anybody thinks that they're not going to stand before god and give an account of their deeds done in the flesh, you've got some scriptures to redact. You have some pages to pull out of your Bible. But it's because that's just not so. Now, the truth is, is that if we are given a certain amount of understanding, of wisdom, or whatever,

and we act on that and we apply that to our life, then more will be given to us. This is an accumulative thing. This is why I'm so against the idea of instantaneous salvation, instantaneous redemption, instantaneous sanctification. It's crazy. There's no evidence for this whatsoever in anybody's life it just doesn't happen it's a theory or something i don't even know why they teach it um the uh they talk about imputing righteousness to somebody that's giving them righteousness that they that they really don't practice or live.

They're just giving it, I assume, God is giving this righteousness to somebody. It's imputed righteousness. We're going to talk about these things, but friend, there's no truth in that. There's no truth in it. I'm sorry. You're going to have to wait if you've got some complaint about it because we're going to talk about it, but not today. Now, what he does do is he gives us piece by piece, revelation

by revelation, he gives us what we need to live on a daily basis from day to day and what we do with that is hugely responsible for whether or not we receive more. That's the good news. I mean that he's going to give it to us. He's going to give us this and his intention is for us to have more. That's a wonderful thought.

But what about the guy who these things were given to? He did nothing. Well, Jesus says it's going to be taken away from him. Even that which he seems to have. Man, I don't know about you. I've seen this happen to people. I've seen it happen toward the end of their lives. Things are taken away from them. You know, there's things they used to

understand. There used to be a smile on the face. There used to be joy and there used to be spring in the step. There used to be hope about the future. There used to be a love for the Lord. Used to be a love for the scriptures. There used to be, it was a different language. It was a different life. Now, it's pretty much as miserable as anybody else's. Because as those things were given, they were never taken in by that person. Frank, I don't know.

Who knows what the reasons are. They're multitudinous. There's a matter of trust. There's a matter of dignity. There's a matter of honoring God's sovereignty. There's all these different things. That enter in. And choke this word. That's exactly what they do.

They enter in and they choke it. And the last state of that man man is worse than the first. How could it be worse? Oh, it can be worse. You know, if you read in the Scriptures if your Bible has an apocrypha, you'll find that when a person dies, there are certain things that he's very, very much aware of. And one of the things that he's aware of is

his opportunity to do the right thing that he didn't do it. And the fact that there is no making of a right repentance now. Probably one of the saddest states that a human being could find themselves in. But sad, oh my goodness, sad nonetheless. Now, if it is true, and I believe that it is, that the only way to receive from God daily, piece by piece, what we need, what He wants to teach us every day is to enact every day what He taught us yesterday. And for our lives to be

better. Is your life better today than it was yesterday? Is that too soon? Alright, how about is it better today than it was this time last week? Still too soon? All right. How about is it better today than it was this time last week? Still too soon. How about if it was, are you better today than you were a month ago? Still nothing? Okay. How about are you better today than you were a year ago?

Nothing? Five years? Five years? Ten years? Oh, you're making more money on the job than you were ten years ago? That's it? Really? Okay. Is that satisfactory?

Continue doing what you're doing. Go to church. Just keep going to church. Memorize your scriptures. Sing your little songs. Cry, bawl, and squall. Do whatever you got to do, you know, to continue what you're doing

because here's the sad part of this whole thing, my friend. Ten years from now, you're going to be the same way you are right now. You know what that is? That's unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. A Christian should never accept that. Unless, of course, today, you're perfect. So why wouldn't anybody seek to be better? Because they've been told

salvation's instantaneous. You got everything you're going to get when you get saved. Are you an idiot? Why would you tell somebody that? Why would you say that to somebody? Everything that God has for you he gave you the day you got saved. Usually they're doing that to fight off you know the Protestant denominations love to fight over tongues and healing, power with God, revelation and all these kind of things that do come subsequent to a

person's decision to turn around and go God's way. And they're trying to discount all those kind of things and they do that and they try that by saying that, no, you need not think that there's anything else awaiting you. There's no second blessing. Everything God gave you, he gave you today. Well, that just kind of migrated into this idea that we have today of instantaneous salvation. And you are essentially right now, you are perfect.

You have righteousness imputed to you you're not going to go to a another heaven or another stage of heaven you're still going to have access to the throne of god you and jesus are going to be best buddies or whatever silliness that they're teaching you about the afterlife and there's really no incentive to continue to make uncomfortable changes in our life. Look friend I'm going to give you this and then we're moving on. I can't stay here. I can't camp here. We'll probably deal with it at another time. But read the book of Revelation. Look at the new Jerusalem that comes down from God out of heaven.

Listen to him describe the walls around that city. Oh, you don't remember mentioning walls? Yeah, when they say gates? When they talk about the gates? Why would you put a gate up if there's not a wall? Of course there's walls. You think that's to keep everybody from running out of the city or is that to keep people from going into the city do you realize that it very well could be that you could spend the entire millennium and never

other than the day of judgment see christ you ever occur to you do you ever does it ever occur to you that remember when he says if you're ashamed of me in this life i'm going to be ashamed of you there can you imagine spending a thousand years living in the millennium when the king of that country is ashamed of you anybody who who breaks one of these least commandments and teaches men so he'll be called least in the kingdom of heaven well at least i'll be there friend are you crazy really at least i'm not going to hell that That's your impetus for the way you live and what you do and your willingness to change

and your willingness to receive revelation from God? Really? You want to be known? Look, you wouldn't want to be known for 30 days as the least of anything, much less for a thousand years in the millennial reign of christ satan's bound the city of the great king is is on the earth jesus is ruling and reigning from his throne i mean it's

the millennial reign and what was your name again well Well, they call me Least. Least? Why is that? I didn't think the commandments were important. I didn't live them, and I taught other people that they weren't important. Wow. And so now you're known as Least. What is your name? I'm not allowed to tell you.

You just have to call me least. Okay. Okay. Least. Um, isn't that awful? You know what? I don't think people have a real understanding of, you know, everybody thinks they're going to heaven, right? And that's going to be wonderful. You know, the grass grows to a certain height and it never needs to be cut. You know, the little birdies are chirping. You know, they got these ideas of utopia, which is more like heaven than anything else. And I think that if we had utopia,

we had Santa Claus sitting on the throne, and a little sheep-toting, sissy-faced Jesus And I think that if we had utopia, we had Santa Claus sitting on the throne, and a little sheep-toting, sissy-faced Jesus sitting beside him that forgives everybody of everything, I think that would be what most people consider to be their reward. You won't find it in here, but that's what they believe. So really, what is the point in trying? What is the point in receiving revelation from God? What is the point in working toward His revelation in our life

so that we can receive more? What's the incentive? There is none, if those things are true. But they're not true, friend. Do you realize that you could live your next life? That you think you're going to heaven, you think you're going to sit around and play checkers with Jesus, but the truth is you're going to be ashamed of who you are. The Bible says that the clothes that you wear are going to be made from the righteous deeds that you did on the earth.

Many of you are going to be naked, and you're going to be ashamed, and worst of all, He is going to be ashamed of you. Happy eternity, I guess. But, like I say, you want the fairy tale? Go back to church. They'll teach it to you again.

They teach it all the time. Because when something's not true, you have to keep packing it into people's minds to get them to live that way. Hey, will you do something for me? I'd love to hear from you. You can write to me at Don at ThinkRedInc.com. Send your questions, comments.

I'll be glad to try to answer them for you and write you back. Alright, it's time for us to go now. Thank you. Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you