Words of Jesus Podcast - Learning Things Grandpa Didn't Know

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

Church doctrine has given us the wrong idea about salvation and our Savior. King Jesus is not hiding in the corner. Jesus said, "strive to enter" into the Kingdom of God. We are expected to work out our salvation; to elevate our light; to be a witness to the world, Don't compromise to avoid persecution. Jesus said to "worry when all men speak well of you." We should expect persecution - "a servant is not greater than his master". ***Chapter 19: The Sermon on the Mount. . . You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Men do not light a candle, and put it under a basket, or under a bed, but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. 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...

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 series. Been having a good time. Hope you have as well. Invite a friend to listen. Invite a friend to sit down with you and see what this goofy preacher has to say. Yeah, I'm afraid I might pick up a little criticism from time to time but that's okay I understand why they're upset I get it I went through all that I

realized you know when I read something in the scriptures and I realized my grandfather didn't know this or he didn't believe this or he didn't practice this you know I hate that I even admit that i love my grandpa and i want to see my grandpa again i get all that but um you know the the fact of the matter is is it doesn't really matter who it is in our life that doesn't necessarily believe what we believe we all have to find these things for ourselves we have to work out our own salvation you want me to work out yours for you oh i'd much rather do that than work out mine and as you find out that's the way a lot of people feel i'm afraid let me work out your salvation for you and just work out your own how about that

how about that for an idea um in talking about the um the sermon on the mount we find that uh jesus has um um many things to say to us that are going to require that we understand where this is coming from um there are some there's some things that can be said and they can just pretty much be said by anybody. Penny saved is a penny earned. You know, that's interesting. That's good. That's good advice. And it doesn't really matter who says it. The truth is, it's just true. And there are some things that Jesus said that, you know, they're just true. But there's

some places that he speaks from authority that's undeniable. Nobody could know that except the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody could say that if you do this, that this is your reward. If you do this, then this is your punishment. Nobody could talk like that

because nobody knows. Nobody's been there. I know the preacher talks that way. But if you push him on it, you'll find out that he knows that he knows that he knows. How do you know? Because the Bible says so. And as I said, there's a lot of people who think they believe in God when all they really believe in is the Bible.

And, well, what's wrong with that brother well the problem is the bible doesn't speak no not yet the only thing it does is it just you know even if it did speak it's still going through a translation process inside my head inside my head i am interpreting the scriptures i just don't believe we ought to listen to men well you are a man aren't you i mean you don't believe you ought to listen to men you mean nobody but you that's what you're trying to say i just i just go by the bible i don't go by what men say well you go by what you believe the Bible says. There's the man.

And frankly, friend, there's the problem. Now, I'm going to tell you, there's only one way to live outside of the influence of educated, uneducated, sinful, righteous, good men, bad men, women, dogs and pussycats and rattlesnakes. There's only one way to live outside of all that influence, and that is to have communication with God himself.

Well, is that possible? That was the promise of Jesus. You keep my commandments, I'll move into you. Me and my Father will move into you and we'll lead and guide you from the inside. There's my promise. He didn't say if you go to church, then I'll give you a book.

He didn't say if you keep the commandments, then I'll give you a preacher. He never mentioned any of these things. But the thing that he does mention which is being led of the spirit it's going to require that you as he said strive to enter into the straight gate nobody falls and rolls down the center of the highway and rolls through the straight gate it just doesn't happen you don't get't happen. You don't get there by accident. You don't get there by doing a string of good things all your life

or being a Christian all your life or being born into a family of Christians. You get there because you strive to enter in. Do you know what that means? It's not Jesus saying, let me bring you into the straight gate. Let me. Allow me. That's the idea that we have of Jesus.

Standing somewhere in the shadows, you'll find Jesus. What's he doing over there? He's just waiting for you to come to him. Look, I understand the poetic power in something like that. I'm a poet. I love good poetry. But you know what? When you're talking about theology, you have to understand that no God, no king, nowhere

hides in the corner and waits for you to accept him it does not happen so our perception of jesus christ can really change how we interpret what we believe is what the scripture is saying it's it's just incredible how much it can actually change it and it has influence on it your influence not the preacher down the road that you're leery of not the guy on tv that you don't want anything to do with you know not the preacher that doesn't uh agree with the trinity you know we want to shun him altogether it's not all these dangerous people these anti-christ people. That's not your problem. Your problem is you.

How are you going to do this without interpreting the scripture? How are you going to do this? You know, if God wrote it in the sky for you, in big gold letters, and you read the will of God for you in the sky, do you realize that it still has to be interpreted? That still has to be translated to you. You still have to put effort into that to understand what that means to you.

You know, you can bypass all of this stuff. Bypass it all. And as the Bible says, and not be carried about by every wind of doctrine. Every wind of doctrine. What we need to do is to have that time before the Lord. Let Him speak to you. Let Him teach you these things. So I say all that because we're reading the Sermon on the Mount. That's my interpretation.

It's my voice going in your ear. There's two people involved that ought not be involved already. But listen for the Word of God as you read the Bible. It's always a good idea to do just that. All right. After he talks about being the salt of the earth, he talks about you are the light of the world. I used to like to ask people, does the Bible say that Jesus is the light of the world? Or does it say that you're the light of the world? And they say, hmm. What do you say? Well, you're kind of cheating because I just read it to you. But the truth is, is that Jesus said,

I'm the light of the world. And then here he's saying, you're the light of the world. Well, is there more than one light? Friend, no, there's not. And as Christians when we have Jesus Christ having been planted within our spirit and that seed growing up into maturity when we become more and more like him. This is when we develop this characteristic of being the light of the world. You don't take a rank sinner off the street,

drag him into church, drag him down to the aisle, or like we like to do as preachers is tell everybody, all right, nobody, all heads bowed, every eye closed, nobody looking around. All right? So there are people here that are going to make a decision for Jesus, and they're really embarrassed about doing that, and we don't want to embarrass them.

Look, friend, if me seeing them come out of that pew and heading toward the altar, if that deflects them then let it deflect them because it's going to get worse from here all right um he's saying that that that we're the light of the world and just because you drag some sinner down to the to the altar and ask him to accept Jesus as his personal Savior, if he stands up and you look him in the face and say, now you're the light of the world, you are making a huge theological error. Because he's not the light of the world. He is essentially a sinner saved by grace,

but he's not the light of the world. We're the light of the world as christ is formed in us and there's a lot of people that need to just go home i know you think you're doing the kingdom of god good by knocking on doors and asking people if you died tonight do you know that you'll be with jesus are you sure for heaven as if you were already there you want to ask me that question i'll tell you right now no why heck no i'm not not when i've got my lord barking over my shoulder that he that endures to the end shall be saved what am i supposed to do ignore what he's telling me and believe what you're telling me no thanks i'm you're not going to get me to be that presumptive to say that I'm as sure for heaven as if I was already there. I'm not going to do it. So you take these people that

they're well on their way. I mean, shoot, man, they're way ahead of most people if they came and fell before the Lord. You know, he says, you know, I'm a rock. And when you fall against me, you might be broken. You need to be broken. But you don't want me to fall on you. I'll grind you to powder. I love Jesus. I just love this guy.

I like him the way he really is. I don't like the little sheep toting little sissy. I don't care for that guy. But this guy, I like him the way he really is. I don't like the little sheep toting little sissy. I don't care for that guy. But this guy, I like him. He makes it very clear. Somebody's going to get broken here, and it's not going to be me. All right, so he says that if you're the light of the world, you need to know that there are certain actions that people take about light.

Nobody lights a candle and puts it under a basket. I used to think about that as a child. I think, man, that's not safe. That could catch on fire. And then it says, light a candle and put it under a bed. These are not good ideas. I understand what he's saying. He says, no, you don't put a candle low.

You don't put it down. You don't cover it. You don't hide it. You light it and you put it up nice and high so it gives light to everybody that's in the room. So he's saying that we need to have this particular elevation, if you will. We need to elevate ourselves in front of the world.

Now listen, don't run off thinking that I'm telling you something I'm not. This is not a matter of promoting ourselves or considering ourselves to be better than other people or anything, any sort of that. No, no, no. This isn't all about ego and these kind of things. I'm saying that we need to elevate ourselves as the light of the world in that

we do not fear people's criticism of us. Many of us as Christians stay nice and low. Keep our Christianity under a basket or under a bed you know don't cause any trouble you don't want to mention to him that you're a christian you know he's an atheist or uh you know you should fear uh being a proper witness to the world. Look, some of you, I appreciate the fact that you're hiding. I really don't want you out there saying that you're a Christian. You do more harm than you do good. You look like, you smell like, you act like, you talk like the people of the world, and you got no hope in you. You know, you got all kinds of resentment.

You hate people. And there's people you talk about killing them when you get a chance. It's amazing listening to people. Are you a Christian? Oh, yeah, I'm a Christian. And you're a Christian, why? Because I believe in Jesus. Well, you know, it doesn't sound like it.

Why don't you just stay home and let somebody else witness to the world? You're a pitiful witness. Yes, I've said that to people at my door. Sure I have. You want to come and talk to me about being a Christian? Well, don't punctuate your conversation with killing Muslims if you don't mind.

Anyway, I've sent people home. i don't know that they took my advice but that's exactly what i think they should do you think because you're the light of the world that you're ready to evangelize no you're not ready to evangelize you don't know anything yet you are that the bible calls a a child that although he be heir of all things, he differeth nothing from a servant. Do you want that in English? That was English. It was just old English. But a child, as long as he is a child, even though that he is due to inherit everything that his father has, even though that is his right, and that is in his future, that does not have anything to do with the present.

Because when a child is a child, he differeth, listen to me now, he differeth nothing from a servant. This child doesn't make up his own mind. He doesn't do what he thinks is right. He doesn't even know what is right. And those of us who come into the kingdom of God, if you make it through that gestation period and you do indeed, the seed of Christ is born within you and you are born again, you become at that point a child of god but a child and many of the problems that we have today are because these these children in christ some of

them not even in christ are out representing to the world what they think God wants the world to know, and creating huge problems with the thinking man out there. You ever wonder why the church is just populated with stupid people? Now, I'm sorry, but it's a fact. Have you ever wondered why the church just appeals to the simple and the lowest of life forms, do you think? I'm sorry, but you know what I mean. How many rocket scientists are in your congregation? How many people that, okay, you want to argue the point that, well, that's worldly wisdom or that's worldly education

and it doesn't mean anything. Fine, fine, fine. I'll concede. You can have the argument. I'll say that I'm wrong and you're right. But I'll tell you the truth. When we have a church full of people that sit around and look at flat earth theories,

and they sit around and they know more about the JFK assassination than they do the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Something's wrong with these people. JFK assassination than they do the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Something's wrong with these people. There's something wrong with them. They know more about, what do they call them, chemtrails than they do the ascension of Christ into heaven. Yeah, they look up at the stars. They know more about astrology than they do the one who created them. Where do these people come from that have taken Christianity

and just add to their repertoire of non-thinking, ridiculous thought? Nobody wants to hear what you have to say. You want to tell them about Jesus Christ right after you talk to them about Kim Trails? Really? That's what you want to do? You want to talk to them about Jesus Christ as soon as you explain to them, you know, the conspiracy theories and what's going on in the world? And you want to talk about politics and then talk about Jesus Christ? Look, can we just, can we just admit that we have a church full of people that need tutoring, and there's nobody in the church to do that? Because the leadership is just as thick as they are. People haven't received revelation from God.

They don't even know what it is. They don't have the wisdom of God because you don't get that unless you spend time before him. They don't know what knowledge that the Lord has for us because they don't spend the time in front of him. They spend it in books. And they spend it reading novels and left behind and all the rest of these door stops that the Christian bookstore is full of. The Christian bookstore is full of it. I'll let that statement just stand.

No, we need to be the light of the world. That's what we need to be, the light of the world. And the light of the world and the light of the world the self-proclaimed light of the world jesus says i'm the light of the world it's in you so what's your duty to share that light or to find that light yourself and to bring it to fruition the reason why you don't want to sit up high the reason you don't want to put your head above others? As I'm telling you, we need to elevate ourselves. The reason you don't want to put yourself up high? Same reason that the turkey, at the turkey shoot, does not want to look over the log.

I don't know that they kill turkeys anymore. Why do they just shoot targets and give out frozen turkeys this world man it's that's not a turkey shoot anyway you don't you don't want to elevate yourself for the same reason a turkey doesn't want to look over the log because if he does somebody's going to pop him somebody's going to kill him and you don't want to elevate yourself because you don't want people examining your life so what's the answer to that? Stay hidden? What is the answer to that? Stay under the bed?

Stay under the basket? Is that what you're going to do? Is that how you're going to fix this? Or are you going to fix your life so that you can live above reproach and nobody can gainsay nor resist what you have to say? Don't you think that's a better idea? Boy, I sure do. I used to live in fear that somebody would ask me to explain the Trinity.

I used to live in fear that they would ask me to explain where Jesus was for the three days and three nights that really only come out to 36 hours instead of 72 like he promised. I used to live in fear that people would ask me questions of theology and stuff that I knew didn't make any sense. And I couldn't remember the rhetorical answers and the snappy little answers that the preacher used to give to these. And he used to teach, you know, if they say this, then you say this, and then they'll say this, and then you say this. I used to live in fear of that. I don't anymore.

I couldn't care less. Ask me anything you want. And I'll tell you something else that's really a wonderful little tool you need to put in your toolbox. And that's the sentence that says, I don't know. You ever thought that that could be a possibility? Many of us don't know a whole lot of stuff. We just need to admit that and say, I don't know. Don't make up some little thing.

That'll get carried across town, and it'll become a doctrine in a new church out there somewhere. There'll be people out there worshiping according to a word they don't even know where it came from, because that's what we do. Most of all, if we can put our our theology our doctrines on a level of of intellectual honesty then you might find people in your church that have an education have the ability to understand logic and clear thinking and we wouldn't be afraid to subject our Bibles to mathematics or science or anything else.

It can stand investigation. You're the one that can't stand investigation. The Bible, it'll stand on its own. It's been around for 2,000 years. Well, at least our New Testament. 3,500 years for the old. It's been around a long, long time. And it can stand on its own. Jesus can certainly stand on his own. So who is it among this group that can't stand scrutiny?

It's us. Because we don't live a life of righteousness. And we're going to talk about what righteousness is. It's not sinlessness. We don't live lives of righteousness. We don't think in logical terms. We don't care if things make sense. I don't care what the Bible says. That's not what I believe. Well, what do you think about the Bible?

I think it's a holy, foul-inspired word of God. And there's no contradictions in it anywhere. And it's totally complete. It's all we need to know. You don't see a contradiction here. You don't see that you've said two things at once. No, they don't. They don't.

They've been trained to ignore logic when it comes to the things of the Spirit. You can't understand this. It has to be spiritually discerned. Oh, so spiritually discerned means lower on the level of thinking than logic. Really? No, spiritually discerned means

discerned by another means. It doesn't mean, oh, no, you really got to get stupid to understand this. You can't use your brain here. Please, check your brain at the door. Now, see, there's a lot for us to learn here. And one thing that we can learn from Jesus said, you're the light of the world. He wasn't saying anything other than the fact that you have said, you're the light of the world. He wasn't saying anything other than the fact that you have the potential of being the light of the world.

You better protect that. You don't have to go around telling people about your conspiracy theories. You don't have to go around and scaring people to death about different things that you don't know anything about. Just junk that you've gathered on the internet. You know, you don't know anything about just junk that you've gathered on the internet you know you don't have to do that what are you just trying to be something special is that what you're doing let me tell you something mr special the mr informed guy you know when you when you preach the gospel that's a pretty big thing for people to bite off and chew you're saying a man came back from the

dead i don't know i don't know i'll accept the chemtrails i'll accept the you know the conspiracy theories yeah i can do that maybe even flat earth but coming back from the dead listen you need all the credibility you have now plus so we need to stop the foolishness we need to stop being willing to believe just any any wind of doctrine anything that passes over our monitors as we're pecking around on the internet we need to stop this we need to be the light of the world and you need to live in such a way that you can elevate that light so that everybody in the house can see by that light i uh love a quote from c.s lewis that talks about faith and and he says that uh you know

i don't uh believe that the sun has risen because I see it. But I believe the sun has risen, not because I see it, but by it, I see everything else. Do you understand this? When it comes to faith, people have to have something credible to believe in.

And you are to be that credibility. You're to be the light of the world. Not the lightning bug. Not the little solar powered flashlight or the crank-up flashlight, but the light of the world. The light that Christ is is to come from us. And I'm afraid that one of the hindrances to this

is our foolishness that we live in day to day and some of the silly things that we say and we expect people to believe. Back off of that let's be christians let's elevate ourselves let's let let's let the light that is in us illuminate somebody else's life that's all for this time i'd love to hear from you if you'd like to write to me you can do so don at thinkredink.com if you'd like to write to our post office box, you're welcome to do so.

Hey, look around on thinkredink.com. See if there's anything there that you'd like to have. Every book that I've ever written is all available at amazon.com. But we have tapes and CDs and all kinds of teaching things here that are available to you. Write to me at PO Box 718,

Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. Let me know what I can do for you. Gotta go. 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