Words of Jesus Podcast - Parables: Hidden Messages For Those With Ears To Hear

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

Salvation requires a commitment. Jesus provides the door and the opportunity for the reversal of our "condemned" sentence. However, we are required to participate in our salvation; to pursue the truth and salvation offered. We are required to leave the crowd and follow Jesus. Consider the conditions in this message. Lost Sheep - stupid, wandered off; focused on personal space; life, neglect; never pursued religion. We are born lost.Lost Coin - one of ten coins; discovery of loss resulted in diligent searching. There are 10 commandments - we lost one; innocent, careless. We must pursue the commandments to please God.Lost Son - from in the Father's house decided to wander. Rebellious (i.e., witchcraft), covetous. Nothing erases our responsibility to be part of the family.  There's a downturn in the investment of God in restoring His relationship with man. First, there is a one percent loss; then a ten percent loss; finally, He lost everything.***74: Jesus Teaches About God’s Love In ParablesLuke 15:1-32Jesus Teaches About God’s Love In ParablesThe Lost SheepAmong the many people who came to hear and see Jesus were publicans and sinners.            The Pharisees and scribes murmured among themselves, saying:            “This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them.”            Jesus told a parable, saying:            “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, ‘Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.’ I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” The Lost Coin Jesus continued saying:            “Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently til she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.’ Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” The Prodigal Son    Jesus continued:            “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.’ And he divided unto them his living.And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, “Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello, my friends, and welcome once again. You're in tune to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris, your host, and I'm glad to be here. I hope you are, too. We were talking from chapter 74 last time in our book, and Jesus has begun a series of parables where he talks about the lost

sheep. Then he's going to tell us about this lost coin and then he's going to tell us about a lost son. And there's some things that I want you to see in this and that there's, well frankly there's just a lot of ways to be lost, isn't there? And last time we talked about this man who had a hundred sheep, and he went off to find those sheep, and when he found it, he came home rejoicing and he was happy. And now we're going to talk about the lost coin neighbors together, saying,

Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth. Then he speaks about the lost son. We all know this as the prodigal son. By the way, do you know what prodigal means? It's an old English word, and many people feel like prodigal means wayward and lost because of this parable and us labeling it the prodigal son.

And actually, i was surprised to find what prodigal does mean it means wasteful and so here we have this wasteful son the story goes a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods And when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine and he would feign he would have he would entertain the thought of he would feign have filled his belly with the husks

that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him and when he had come to himself he said how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare and i perish with hunger i'll arise and go to my father and i'll say unto him father i have sinned against heaven and before thee and no more worthy to be called thy son.

You make me as one of your hired servants? And he arose and came to his father. But when he was a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, sinned against heaven and in thy sight i'm no more worthy to be called thy son but the father said to his to his servants bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.

And they began to make merry. Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came he drew nigh to the house. He heard the music and the dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant and he said to him thy brother has come and thy father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him safe and sound and he was angry and would not go in therefore his father came out and entreated him and said, Lo, these many years I served thee, the boy saying to his father,

Lo, these many years I served thee, neither transgressed I thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me a kid that I may make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which has devoured thy living with harlots and is killed yeah thou has killed for him the fatted calf and he said unto him son thou art ever with me and all that i have is thine it was meet that we should make merry and be glad for thy brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. In these three parables, we find the parable of the sheep, the parable of the coin, the parable of the son. And this is hardly a lesson in redemption

because they all end the same, don't they? They're found, they're rejoiced over, they're brought back into possession. That's pretty much the same in all parables. But the beginning of each parable has a different connotation to each one the lost sheep you need to see this as it really is i don't want to be derogatory towards sheep i'm sure they're wonderful animals i've never had them but i understand that they're stupid.

They do some of the dumbest things. And that there is a huge need for a shepherd when it comes to sheep. They need to be taken care of. They need to be brought in at night. They need to be fed. They need to have a lot of care and um this this sheep evidently wandered off he saw grass over there somewhere and thought well that looks good there was no ill will toward the shepherd there was no ill will toward his brethren and his, I call them brethren, of his fellow sheep.

There wasn't a problem there. He just wandered off. And you know if you eat the grass in front of you and it's gone you take a step. And you take a step. And all of a sudden you look up and you realize oh my goodness has that ever happened to you like in a crowd or in a store or something like that? You really haven't been paying attention to where you're going. Or you're sitting in the back seat of a car and they're taking you someplace and something happens and you're going to have to drive home.

And you think, oh my goodness, I don't even know where I am. You see, how this happens is by people being very, very focused about their life around them. And it's not a matter of ill will. It's not a matter of wickedness. It's not a matter of anything except plain old neglect and just not paying attention. There's a lot of people in life that are in the condition they're in, not because they're wicked people, not because they sought out, you know,

what was exciting or, you know, even what they wanted in life. It was just the everyday humdrum workaday world and they're doing what they need to do and they're and they and they find themselves at the end of their life and uh if if there's still the faint call of god within them, they realize, oh my goodness, I've never pursued this in my life. I'm lost, and lost by neglect. But friend, I want you to know that, you know, the whole idea that God knows our heart, and that, you know, if we're sincere and and even in some cases we're not wicked people you know we're good people that everything is going to be okay friend it's just not true and it's not that it's not true because god is looking for some reason to condemn you jesus says i didn't come to condemn the world

the world's condemned already. We're all out here in the ocean, bobbing up and down in the salt water, drowning. We're going to drown. It's going to happen. We don't need someone to condemn us and then save us. I've heard people say that's the reason

God created the law to condemn us and then save us I've heard people say that's the reason God created the law to condemn us boy that's really not a good plan if we weren't condemned why would he condemn us if we weren't sinners why would he develop a law to make us sinners these are some of the illogical ideas that float around churches that really cause people to create bad doctrine to say silly things to do silly things and why don't we just teach what the bible teaches we were born out here bobbing up and down in the ocean we weren't born on shore and swam out here we're in trouble and our god is trying to save us we don't blame the lifeguard for our death why would we blame god for going to hell this is where we're going we need to make this change i'm telling you that some people have a life that that is not the main focus of their life.

Religion is just not the main focus. There's a lot of people like that. But you have to understand that that doesn't give them a pass. Only thing it's doing is explaining to you how they got into the... Only thing I'm doing here is explaining to you how they got into the condition they i'm doing here is explaining to you how they got into condition they're in just neglect it's the poor silly sheep that wandered off you silly sheep don't you know there's a wolf out there no i don't i'm just looking for grass you know i'm just minding my own business you know and now all of a sudden he doesn't know where he is.

That's a type of being lost. Jesus recognized that. Then when he talks about the coin, there are people who say that this coin belonged to a virgin woman who carried her dowry on a... You've seen the headdress of Middle Eastern women that have the coins, and this is their dowry. I don't claim to know a whole lot about those things.

The only thing I can do is repeat with authority what somebody else said, and the chances are they're repeating what somebody else said. So I don't like to come across like I'm an authority of Middle Eastern women and how they dress and the way things were 2,000 years ago. I don't want to, and frankly, I don't need to. These 10 coins belong to this woman. And somehow through carelessness, this was

lost. Not by neglect. If she'd have neglected that little headdress, it would be intact. And it would be there when she needed it. Because it doesn't have a mind of its own. But when it doesn't have a mind of its own, we have to ask ourselves how did it get lost well it got lost through her own carelessness and and somehow it dropped off and somehow she didn't know it and somehow you know she had no idea where it was. But buddy, when she figured out it was gone, she started looking for it until she finally found it. And through her own carelessness,

she had a loss that was eventually restored to her. Many of us, although we realize we're not, it's not an innocence, it's not a loss of innocence like the Lamb, many of us, we realize our situation between us and God. We know that we need redemption. We know that we need help. But it's carelessness in the fact that we don't pursue what we know we should do. There's certain checks and balances

there's certain um procedures and disciplines in life that are to keep us where we're supposed to be this isn't a free ride you don't you're not just handed this necklace i keep calling it a necklace i guess it's a headdress but But you're not just handed these 10 coins, the 10 coins of your dowry, and expected not to take care of them until the day that you need them. Many people's Christianity is that way. They look toward the end of their existence on the earth,

thus toward their death, and they rely on something that has been said or done many, many years ago. These coins were handed to me. Well, look, you don't want to have these 10 coins and look and realize one of them's missing when it comes time to need them now friend if i had to turn this into a a metaphor for you i don't think i'm so far wrong as to understand that the 10 coins that we've been given are indeed our 10 commandments and our lord god told that man that day if you want to enter into life if you want to have a good end to your life you need to have these 10 coins in your hand. They need to be yours. They need to be taken care of.

As the Old Testament says about the law, you need to use diligent. You need to be diligently pursuing the commandments. Diligence. This is not carelessness. This is diligence. And friend, if there is a metaphor in the world to attach to modern Christianity, let me see your ten coins.

Do you know the fourth one is missing? Look, when you find out that one of the commandments is missing in your life, you better sweep the house. It's not enough. You were given 10. He goes on to teach about the prodigal son. The prodigal son, as I say, all these parables end the same. The loss is restored and rejoicing ensues. But the beginnings of these losses are really something that we need to deal with.

Okay, you're lost, he's lost, he's lost. How did that happen? You might be dealing with one guy that was lost through innocence, like the lambs. You might be one that's been, that he's lost, but he's lost through carelessness because he's dropped something and doesn't know

where it is it's not a part of his life it's not in his possession and through through uh you know a thorough house cleaning it was restored to him what about this last guy what about this lost son? What happened there? He was in his father's hand. He was in his father's house. Jesus teaches that if we are in the father's hand, he said, you know, if you're in my hand, no man's going to pluck you out.

Why? Because if you're in my hand, you're in the Father's hand. If you're in the Father's hand, no man can pluck you out. People have taken this wonderful scripture, this wonderful idea, and they've tried to apply it to their pet doctrine of eternal security. No man can pluck you out do you know this this scripture was not given for you to to even think that you can't walk out it's not even given to you for if that's not the reason it was given to you he was talking to people whose salvation that they felt was in the hands of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. You know, there's people out there

that fear being excommunicated. Because if they're excommunicated, there's no salvation. There's no hope for them. And their salvation is essentially in the hands of a man. Jesus is saying, that's not so. You need to get out of those denominations that talk like that. Come over here with me.

You can be in my hand. If you're in my hand, you're in my Father's hand. Nobody's going to get you out of there. But you see, the idea that this son was in his hand, in his Father's hand hand in his father's house and decided that he was going to wander man this is rebellion this is absolutely rebellion this man was lost through wanting his own way. Lost through the covetousness of his own heart. This isn't innocence.

This isn't neglect or carelessness. This is rebellion. Now you need to know that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and to not listen and to know the right thing

and not do it, to rebel like this, very very dangerous place to live now if you're careless, that's one thing. But if you know to do good and you don't do it, man, that's sin on your blotter. That's sin on there is no hope for you other than yourself. Now this goes against the grain of a lot of people. There's a lot of people that say, you know,

well, my salvation's not up to me, it's up to Jesus. No, not really. Not really. You know, well. You know, if you follow that to its logical conclusion, isn't that like 5, 7, 8, 150 point Calvinism? Isn't that what that is? Isn't that just predestination? That if God wants to save you, he's going to save you.

He's going to throw you in hell, he's going to throw you in hell going to throw in hell he's going to throw in hell so eat drink and be merry tomorrow you'll die doesn't that really just erase any responsibility on our part anything that hey i don't care if you're talking about your job or your home or your school or your faith in god if if you're erasing responsibility, you are making a huge mistake because you are hugely responsible. You have to be responsible. And if you think you can do this without responsibility, you're mistaken. And unfortunately, you're fatally mistaken. You are eternally fatally mistaken, which is the worst kind of mistake you can make. So this boy's salvation was not up to his father.

This boy's salvation was up to him. The father's love was constant. The father looked for him every day. The father saw him a great way off. Where was his father's focus? His father's focus was there, but his feet were over here. And he saw him coming. Now, you have to understand that in a rebellious situation, look, you're talking about being lost out of innocence like the lamb, you know, out of just carelessness, neglect, or whatever you want to call it.

If you don't want to talk about innocence, you can bet Shepherd's out looking for you. He's out looking for you now. And if you talk about carelessness, in the case of the coin, you notice it's gone, and you do something aboutlessness, in the case of the coin, you notice it's gone. And you do something about it and you find that. When you're talking about, and these kind of things are all done with the help of the Holy Spirit, with God bolstering us and holding our hands all along, all through these situations.

But when you're talking about rebellion, the father may be weeping, but he's weeping in his own house the father may be watching but his feet are standing on his property he is not out searching for rebellious people if you found yourself rebellious to his commandments you found yourself rebellious to what he wants you to do you have no assurance not that i can find anyway you have no assurance at all that the father is even looking for you because he's going to let you do what you want to do there are no you know in in think reddit ministries you might hear me say or read in our in our in our emails no reluctant subscribers we don't charge anything for the email and frankly you know the

the cost of adding a name is not that much and it's it's really not a it's not really an expense problem but with me it's a value problem I don't cast pearls before swine. If you're not interested in my email, you're not going to hurt my feelings by touching the unsubscribe button. Go ahead, unsubscribe. Frankly, if I don't hear from you, you don't write, you don't call, you don't see on the radio broadcast or the TV broadcast, you have nothing to do with what we're doing. One day, magically, my email will just disappear from your mailbox

because I'm not interested in just having thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of email subscribers. Not interested. Why? No reluctant subscribers. Friend, you know where I got that no reluctant salvations nobody's going to be kicking and screaming and being dragged into the kingdom of god because god loves you look i love you too i'd love for you to have the email i'd love you to be a part of everything i do but i'm'm not chasing you. I'm not begging you. You know what the right thing to do is.

Do it. If you don't have what it takes to pursue the right thing, you don't have what it takes to do the right thing. So don't waste your time. No reluctant salvation. No reluctant disciples. Nobody, you don't have to do this. We keep getting the idea that salvation is universal.

God came to save the whole world. Well, he didn't. He came to save the whole world. Well, he's not. Well, he came to save the whole world, but they're not going to be. I mean, are we just silly? Are we not paying attention?

Friend, your worst enemy, it's not necessarily innocence and that carelessness or that, you know, not paying attention, that throws you into a position of being lost. That's your main concern because you have a wonderful shepherd that'll hunt you down. And he'll find you.

And he'll throw you up on his shoulders. And he'll bring you back. And he'll be smiling all the way. And he's probably not even going to blame you. You dumb little sheep. And, you know, if we're lost out of our own neglect, hey, you know, that's just a matter of making different little changes, different little choices in your life.

You can fix that. That's not a problem. Friend, your worst mistake that you could ever make in your entire life is to rebel against what you know that God wants you to do. He gave us 10 commandments. We ought to be keeping those commandments. He showed us how to have character in our life. We ought to have that character in our life. Otherwise, we have nothing. All right, it's time for us to go again. Write to me, Don, thinkrightinc.com. Till next time, bye-bye. © transcript Emily Beynon 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. you