Words of Jesus Podcast - Kingdom Communication

Episode Date: October 14, 2022

Mysteries have been hidden since the foundation of the world for the edification and understanding of those who have ears-to-hear. Surface principles have been taken from the Bible and applied to modern Christianity in a way not intended by God. The desire for knowledge, the desire to teach, the desire for hierarchy have supplanted the principal outlined in the gospel. Specifically, "One is your teacher, even Christ." Jesus taught in parables to facilitate revelation by God to the hearts of men. "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God..."***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...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents the Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris. Hello my friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus broadcast, the Words of Jesus series, brought to you by Think Red, Inc. I'm Don Harris, your host, and we've been talking about the most important parable in the Bible. How did it get to be the most important? Well, Jesus says if you don't understand this, you don't understand any parable. I was fascinated when I first read that. And I went through there and I looked and I thought, well, doggone it.

Sure enough, it's the first parable that he ever taught. And it is. And he is preceding everything that he's about to teach us because you know he taught in parables and you remember why beautiful little thing he had to say about that what was it you remember he said because it's given for you to know for them it's not given so i speak to them in parables you'll understand they won't that's the deal that's the way i've decided to do this and we just so we do as we always do right we say to our lord yes sir whatever you say sir and so we learn by parables i know it might be easier if he'd have given us a you know a one two three formula but you see his intention is to teach us by revelation. It is revelation.

It's always revelation. Who do they say that I am? Well, they say this and they say that. Well, who do you say that I am? Well, you're the son of God, the anointed one. We know who you are. And he says, Peter, you know that, why? Did a man tell you that? No.

Did you learn that in seminary? No. Did you learn that in seminary? No. Did you learn that in the yeshiva? No. Did you read that in the Torah? No. How do I know that? And the Lord said, the Father revealed that to you. That revelation that you experienced, with him telling you that I am who I see I am, that's the rock I'm going to build my church on the rock of revelation i'm going to reveal these things to you i'm going

to move inside you i'm going to live in there the holy spirit has been with you but when i go he shall be in you well there's not many people have that testimony. You know, most of our education and most of what we learn, we learn from books and Sunday school teachers and Bible teachers and seminars and churches and sermons and preachers. And very few of us are taught from the inside. We have to have this. It has to be from the inside out. We have to be informed,

not outformed. We have to be informed. It has to come from inside. It is his way. His intention is to reveal to us. Now, he has come up with a system of revelation, and it is simply this, that the sower sows the word. Now, this is the first words of this parable. And this parable is all about revelation. That's what it's all about. He says, And then he starts talking about the ground that it falls upon.

And those things are very important. As I said, there were three things that were outlined as hindrances to this seed growing. You remember what they were? One of them was that they didn't understand what was being said. If they don't understand it, they can't act on it. If they don't understand it, the birds of the air come and pluck those seeds up and carry them away. It's gone. The seed's gone. And you know what you're going to have to wait for? You're going to have to wait for the sower to come by again and throw another handful. You can't cause this to happen. I guess you could pray for it. I guess you could cry out to God and

ask him to do it. But you know, it's pretty much a sovereign God that decides when these seeds are sown. That's why you don't mess with this stuff. You mean, what are you, 18, 17, 18 years old? And you feel like you want to do the right thing and you want to be at peace with God? Listen, you want to wait until you're 54 years old? You want to wait until you're 64 years old? 74 years old? You've got absolutely no guarantee whatsoever

that your decision to follow Jesus when you're 60, 70, 80 years old is going to take. It's not up to you. Our Lord God calls who he'll call. He said one of the verses that just aggravate the living snot out of most people is when the Lord says, I'm God. I love who I want to love. I hate who I want to love. I hate who I want to hate. I accept who I want to accept. I reject who I want to reject. This is God telling us, I'm sovereign.

I don't need you. I don't necessarily even want you at my door, knocking on it and asking to come in. I'll let you know when I want you to come in here. We just got him made into this big teddy bear, big Santa Claus just hiding around, hoping we're going to accept Jesus. It's ridiculous.

It's a fairy tale. Listen, you feel the Spirit of God calling you at 17 years old? You better jump on that. You better pay attention. You better hear and understand the Word of God. And as I was trying to make a list of the things that hinder this, the next thing is you need to make sure that you're not just such a know-it-all, that you have such a stony heart,

that there's no place for these seeds to take to take root yeah they're going to spring up yeah you're going to be happy yeah you know with an anon or immediately you're going to with joy receive it but you got no root in yourself you got no depthness of earth, deepness of earth. You have none of this. So here's the future of the seeds that were sown in your heart. As soon as the sun comes up and they're scorched, they're going to wither away and be gone.

What sun is that that is scorching these seeds? Well, it's your atheist that you're going to college with. It's the agnostic that you went to high college with. It's the agnostic that you went to high school with. It's your best friend around the corner that thinks you're an idiot for even considering being a Christian. Those are the people that bring about that scorching sun that withered those seeds that make all this absolutely impossible for you. What's the third thing? That concern about yourself and the world and what am I going to eat? What am I going to wear? And, you know, how am I going to buy insurance? And where am I going

to get a car from? And how am I going to raise a family? And when am I going to get married? And when am I going to whatever? It's that it's that consummation of life and all those things in life they get and they just choke that seed and they choke that little plant and they just don't let it grow. And then once you've got everything in your life all worked out so that, oh, you know, next month I'm going to retire. Well, when you retire, after you got your life all worked out and everything's just fine, now you're going to reflect on the seeds that were planted

when you were a teenager and hope they're still there, hope they're not dead, hope they haven't been choked to death by you taking your life into your hands and spending all your time on yourself and being concerned about yourself. Man, oh man you know i wish you the best but man i don't have not a bit of hope in the world that that those seeds aren't choked to death and in the years that you avoid being christian doing the right thing

so don't mess with this don't mess with this and Don't mess with this. And you know, these people that tell you that, you know, God wants to save everybody and he's always there. He's waiting somewhere in the shadows. And then all you have to do, just cry out to him and he'll call you. Listen, forget that. That's not true. That's not true. He makes it clear from way back in Noah's day the Spirit of God's not always going to strive with man. He will not always strive with you. If he's striving with you now, you better jump on it. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you're always going to have a chance. The callings of God are without repentance. I mean, people say that and apply that

scripture in the area of salvation why are you a theological idiot goodness sakes are you going to tell people that you can accept jesus anytime you want you need to quit telling to accept again accepting jesus anyway you don't care if you accept him he's a king You better pray to God he accepts you. All right. So he's explaining this parable. And he's saying that these are, this is what I'm describing with my parable.

These people that have these particular problems and therefore the seed of God, it's good seed, by the way. The seed that the sower is s it's good seed, by the way, the seed that the sower is sowing is good seed. It will sprout. All it needs is a little depth of earth and a little moisture. It'll be fine. It's good seed. But unfortunately, once it springs up, man, all bets are off. And you can sure mess this up if you're not careful um so he's saying all these things that i'm that i've told you here are all explainable this way and he explains the

deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this world entering in choking the world and choking the word and it becometh unfruitful. But he that received the seed in the good ground, now see this is what we want to do. He said, that's he that hears the word and understandeth it which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some 100, some 60, and some 30 fold. Now here he reiterates those bringeth forth some 100, some 60, and some 30-fold. Now, here he reiterates those three problems, doesn't he?

The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things, the stony heart, the hearing the word and not understanding it. He's saying that there are people who do hear it and understand it. They act on it. It takes root and it brings forth 30, 60, 100 fold return. That's what we want. Now we hear him say these things about this parable and we apply it in one way or another usually the the

you know the prosperity preachers will take this kind of thing and say you know to plant your seed of faith which oh my goodness it turns out that that's money who'd have thought it uh so uh these preachers want you to plant your seed faith and if you do that that you're going to receive 30, 60 and 100 fold return and I got nothing to say about that perhaps I'll say what a bunch of hokum

I'm sorry you're not going to get me to believe it. Don't get mad at me for saying that. It's just my opinion. You can take it or leave it. It's not like I'm forcing you to believe that. But here's what I found. The more I get busy doing the will of God, keeping His commandments and keeping my conscience clear and listening to His voice every day. The more I do that, the luckier I get. I mean, the more things that come my way. And you know, when a little bit is given to somebody and they do something with it, more is given. It's just the fact. So, you know, if you want to play those games where you're going to

obligate God to bless you and give you more and more, do it somewhere else. I don't care to hear it. I live that way, friend. I tried that. I got caught in the middle of that. That used to be a part of my spiritual understanding, a part of my preaching repertoire, is to tell people that God's going to make you rich. I'm ashamed of that now, but those things appear from time to time. Somebody might send me a tape of me preaching that.

Oh boy, that's embarrassing. But it does light a nice fire over in the fireplace. So send those tapes. Anyway, when I came to realize that this parable carried this particular characteristic that if you don't understand it, you don't understand anything, I thought, what does this parable have to do with all of the other parables? Okay, fine. There is a certain amount of understanding

that parable when you hear it. There is a certain amount of protecting that parable and making sure that it falls into a heart that's not of stone, that it can take root, that it can work. There's not of stone, that it can take root, that it can work. There's a certain amount of that involved in it. But you know, the Lord focused my attention on the first words of this parable. The sower sows the word. Yeah, okay, sow, yeah, got it.

No, you don't have it. The sower sows the word. Yeah, okay, yeah, got it. No, you don't have it. The sower sows the word. Yeah, okay, yeah, got it. No, you don't have it. And after we go through about 30 minutes of this, I start to realize, what is the word? I've always thought I knew what the word was. I mean, I got friends that talk to me and say,

you know, the word of God says, word of God says, word of God, word of God, word of God, word of God says, you know, the word of God says, word of God says. Every time they say that, they're referring to the Bible. Because to them, the Bible is the word of God. Well, you say anything other than that, you know, people are going to, you know, they're going to stone you to death. So I try to say, well, you know, perhaps,

you know, you don't say the Bible is not the word of God, but perhaps, you know, the word of God is not necessarily the Bible. Well, that'll still cause trouble, but maybe not as much. But what we should know is that I'm telling you the absolute truth. The Word of God is an entity unto its own. It is the name of, the title of, Jesus Christ. You won't find a verse of Scripture anywhere that refers to the Scripture as the Word of God. Did you know that? So when the sower sows the word, is he sowing the Bible? Is that what he's doing? I guess there's people that believe that.

Some Christian organizations that I respect and give to and support teach that because it's somewhat harmless. I mean it's good for people to know the Bible so keep on publishing it. Keep on translating it. I'm all for it. Yeah, go ahead. But friend, the Word of God is alive. The Word of God is powerful. It's sharper than any two-edged sword.

Piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Neither is there anything that is not manifest in... You want the next word of the scripture? Because it might not fit what you're thinking. Because if it's talking about this book, if it's talking about the Bible being the word of God, there's a misplaced personal, masculine pronoun in the Bible here.

Neither is there anything that is not manifest in His sight. Whose sight? The not manifest in His sight. Whose sight? The Word of God's sight. And who's the Word of God? Jesus Christ is the Word of God. So when the Bible says that the Word of God is alive, it literally means the Word of God is alive.

Well, King James uses the word quick. Same thing. The Word of God is alive, and this is not alive. Well, you know, spiritually speaking, forget spiritually speaking. You don't have to speak spiritually here. It means exactly what it says. The Word of God, Jesus Christ, He is alive. It's true. He's alive's alive he's quick he's powerful

and you know the bible talks about out of his mouth came a two-edged sword so when he speaks there's this sword that divides between soul and spirit something that's not easy to do theologically by the way we'll talk about that one day. But he can do that. He is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. He is the discerner. You see, if you don't know what the Word of God is, or more perfectly, who the Word of God is, how can you understand a parable that's based on the sower soweth the word?

If you don't know what he's sowing, how are you going to recognize it to receive it? If you don't know what he's sowing, how are you going to know when you hear it? If you don't know what he's sowing, how are you going to see this to perceive it? So, naturally, if you believe that the Bible, your book that's sitting in front of you, if you believe that's the word of God, how are you going to hear it?

You're going to read it. How are you going to see it? You're going to read it. How are you going to accept this into your life? You're going to read it. So is this why Jesus says, he that has eyes to read it. So is this why Jesus says, He that has eyes to read, let him read.

Is that why he said that? Oh, he didn't say that? What did he say? He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. So what are you going to do? Get somebody to read this to you? Or are you going to understand that the word of God is something that you hear in your quietness when you take that time before the lord every day to hear his voice this is hearing the word of god see faith cometh by reading and reading by the word of god right

right now you know better that's not what the bible says at all faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god you can hold this up to your head if you want to you're not going to hear it and if you if you want to you know play the game of you know somebody needs to read it to you you know that's not being honest either here the word of god is jesus christ it's him opening his mouth and saying something to us and teaching us it is what peter experienced the revelation it's revealed to us this is the word of god j Jesus Christ said, you say that Moses gave you bread in the wilderness. Hey, guys, that was me. What?

Moses gave you not that bread. I am the bread that came down from heaven. You're what? The bread? Yeah, you're the bread. Yeah, I am the bread of life that came down from heaven. And this is why I can say, men should not live by bread alone,

but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Does this have you excited or are you mad at me? It only does to people one of two things. It seems like people get mad about it. They say that I'm taking the divinity of Christ or denigrating the Bible. That's not true.

I live by this thing. You know who says that to me? People who don't. People who carry them around. They put them on their dashboard, they're proud of them, they have leather covers on their nice Bible, they got them in little zipper cases with crosses embroidered on it. You know, they're proud of their Bibles, they own one, they carry it, they read it at church, but they don't live by it. Well,

you know, frankly, I don't care what you think. Sorry. But, you know, if you're not living by this book, please don't tell me that it's the Word of God. Please don't tell me that you believe that it's a wholly infallible, inspired Word of God. There's no mistakes in it. There's no contradictions. There's no errors. Please don't do that. There's no way you believe that and you don't read it. There's no way you believe that and you don't do what it says. There's no way you believe that and allow men in seminaries to change the meanings of the words in this book. There is no way.

The longest day you live, you'll never convince me that you believe that this Bible is the Word of God and you don't live by it. There is no way. Sorry. I'm not buying it. This scripture makes it very clear that for example the law is not going to pass away. It's never going to pass away. How is it that you feel no compunction whatsoever to go out in the world and tell everybody that Jesus abolished the law?

How could you do that? You know why? You don't believe this is the word of God. Don't tell me that you do, because you don't. You believe that the words that you find and that you hear that come out of the seminary or out of your preacher's mouth, that's the word of God. that you find and that you hear that come out of the seminary or out of your preacher's mouth. That's the Word of God.

It says in here, and after, it talks about Jesus coming back, you know, after the tribulation. And you, you're a pre-trib person. So when you read the word of God, it says, so before all these things, Jesus is going to come back before the tribulation. It says after, but we know better. You believe this is the word of God. And you're going to take something like that

and just arbitrarily change it? Jesus says, don't pray in public. Is that the word of God? And what do you do? Pray in public. Hmm. Please don't tell me you say this is the word of God and you live like that. You just look like a fool. Please don't do that. There's no virtue in running around saying, I believe the Word of God. I believe the Bible's the Word of God. And don't listen to that Harris guy. He don't believe the Bible's the Word of God. Please don't do that. You really kind of look like a fool. Because your life tells me that

you don't really care what it says. You care more about what your church and your denomination and your pastor and his college and all of his buddies and your deacon board and all the guys you play golf with on Saturday, all the guys you play golf with on Sabbath. You care more about what they say than what this says. So don't do that. Please don't do it to me. You can do it to

other people. I don't think anybody cares but me sometimes. It seems like I'm right by myself, but it's just so disingenuous. So disingenuous to the point that it looks like you're being absolutely foolhardy. If you really want to hear the word of God for yourself, then I want you to pay close attention to these instructions. And that is, number one, you keep the commandments. The promise of Jesus Christ was that if you keep my commandments, I'll move into you and I'll teach you and guide you from the inside. Number one, keep the commandments. If you're keeping the commandments, I mean, if you're not keeping them and you ask me, you really think that I should listen to the spirit of God within me and do whatever it says? My question, my answer to that question starts out, are you keeping his commandments?

Well, I try. Then my answer to you is no. Don't obey any kind of leading that you happen to have. You can't trust it. If you're keeping the commandments, you can't. But if you're not, no, absolutely not. Don't do what you feel or what you're told. That's not the Word of God. There's no guarantee that it is in a way. But if you're keeping His commandments,

you're not disobeying your conscience. You're not constantly living in that state of turmoil and confusion of believing things that aren't true and there's no logic and there's no order and there's nothing in your life that sets you apart with character and these kind of things. You're still in a precarious position. But if you're keeping the commandments, you're not disobeying your conscience every day,

and you're taking time to hear the voice of God, friend, you're going to be led of the Spirit. Things are going to change for you. They're going to be different. You're going to have wisdom you didn't know you had, knowledge you didn't know you had, relationship with God that you didn't know you had. Knowledge you didn't know you had. Relationship with God that you didn't know you had. And all of a sudden, when this

becomes scripture instead of the word of God to you, you're going to start reading it and believing what it says. And starting to do what it says to do. Time's gone. Again, we appreciate the fact that you are here. Look forward to seeing you again. If you'd like to, I would love to hear from you.

Write to me at Don, thinkredinc.com. Just that simple. Love to get an email from you. If you'd like to write to the ministry, that's simply done by writing to Think Red Inc. Ministries, P.O. Box 718, Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. All right, time for us to go. 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