Words of Jesus Podcast - Reality Based Jesus

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

The Sermon on the Mount is loaded with "heavenly things" - concepts beyond the imaginations of selfish, earthy men. Pearls of wisdom. Secrets to a good life. Don't move on too quickly. The Scriptures never mention a judgment day based on beliefs; Jesus cares what we do. Actions matter. Our relationship to our fellowman is VERY important to God; He says, "how you treat them, is how you treat me." ***Chapter 19: The Sermon on the Mount...Judge not and you will not be judged: condemn not, and you will not be condemned: forgive, and you will be forgiven. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged: and with what measure you mete, it will be measured to you again. And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? And why do you behold the speck that is in your brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in your own eye? Or how wilt you say to your brother, Brother, let me pull the speck out of your eye; and perceive not the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then will you see clearly to pull the speck out of your brother's eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened unto you: For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it will be opened. Give, and it will be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you mete withal it will be measured to you again. What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do even so to them Likewise: for this is the law and the prophets. Enter in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there. Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord: but every one that is perfect will be as his master. For every tree is known by his own fruit. You will know them by their fruits. Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you will know them. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say? Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? And in your name have cast out devils? And in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity. Therefore whoever comes to me, and hears my sayings, and does them, I will shew you who he is like, I will...

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. This has been fun. We've been doing the Sermon on the Mount for the last few weeks and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. I don't know how many times this has been that I've gone through it. It might be your first, it might be your second, it might be your 101st, I don't know, but I always find something in there that just really pleases me, and one of them is,

I just see that the Lord Jesus loves us so much, and he wants us to know the way things really are, he has, there's a reality base that he is operating upon that he wants for us. He wants us to understand these things and to have a good understanding of the kingdom of God. Today, we're going to talk about how in this, as we conclude the Sermon on the Mount, we're going to spend a few minutes here talking about this judgment issue. But most of all, he's going to tell us how you should feel about what you've heard. Are you ready for this? Those of you who believe that our salvation is all by faith and it has nothing to do with works you're going to be severely disappointed because jesus was not under that

assumption at all last time we read about judge not that you be not judged and i was explaining that a better way to translate this is condemn not and you'll not be condemned and these these are the words that luke uses matthew he uses both. Matthew uses the word judge, and there's always kind of a contention, or kind of a back and forth about the word judge. Sure, we're supposed to be judges.

We're supposed to be judges, but not judges of evil thought. The Bible talks about judging people by the way they look. And if you do that, you are a judge of other men by evil thought. And that's not what we're supposed to do, being respecter of persons, but we are supposed to judge someone in order to protect ourselves, our family, our loved ones, the people that are in our life to protect them from such as that so that we don't have unnecessary problems in our life. We want our

children to be discretionary when it comes to what friends that they collect around them. And let me say parenthetically, after raising hundreds of teenagers in children's homes, I have learned some things that I think could help you. If you think that you have a good child and he or she is running that I think could help you. If you think that you have a good child and he or she is running with a bad crowd, I assure you that that is just not so.

Good kids don't run with bad kids. You can figure this out on your own or you can allow me to tell you something that I know to be true. And if you believe it, perhaps you can act on it. But no, no, good kids just don't hang around with bad kids. It doesn't happen. There may be one bad kid in a group of good ones,

but you're not going to find a good one in a group of bad ones. It's just the way it is. And we teach our, or are supposed to teach our children to make sure that what friends they do make are good people we teach our children to judge and there's not a thing in the world wrong with it where the problem comes in is is the criteria by which we judge or that we judge ahead of time it's called prejudging we have a word called prejudice about it, and that is judging a person before you know them, both of which are wrong and frankly very stupid behavior. But

we are not to judge one another and I think that it should be based in our humility toward God, exactly who we are, and knowing exactly who we are. Jesus says it this way. He says, Why would you behold a moat, a splinter, that is in your brother's eye,

but consider not the beam that is in your own eye he said you hypocrite pull the moat out of your own eye and then thou can see clearly to pull the moat out of thy brother's eye now there's a couple of i know we read that and it moves pretty fast and so then we're wondering what's he telling us to to do? Just not mention the moat in your brother's eye? No, he says get the beam out of your own eye, then you can see clearly to do the other portion of the will of God in your ministry in the earth, which is to help your brother with the splinter that is in his

eye, I'm sorry. You're to help your brother with the splinter that is in his eye. I'm sorry. You're to help your brother with the splinter that is in his eye. But you are trying to perform surgery blinded, and it's really, really bad behavior. So be careful of the judgment thing. Make sure that whatever you do judge is coming through an eye that is unhindered. In other words, as we learned last time

that your eye be single so that your whole body can be full of light full of illumination full of understanding and wisdom of god and then you can help otherwise you're just causing trouble uh he goes on to say give that uh give not that which is holy unto the dogs neither cast your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you again here is a judgment on our part who are the swine who are these people we don't want to cast our pearl before swine but I really don't know of anybody who's ever taken a handful of pearls and threw them in a pig pen. I don't know that that's ever happened. It may have, but I don't know that it's ever happened. So what's Jesus talking about?

He's talking about people who have no, they have an incapability of even having an appreciation for a pearl. Pig don't care about no pearl. It don't care. So what they care about is food. As soon as they find out that that's not food, they're not interested. Well, what we have to do is judge that person. We have to judge them as whether or not they're a swine

or somebody that can really appreciate a pearl, which is none other than the human race. You know, a parrot, a German shepherd, a cat, a dog, a snake. I mean, there is no animal on the earth that cares about a pearl, even though the oysters that created it, to them, it's a waste product.

It's the way they stop from something irritating them by covering it with this pearl covering. So even the ones that create the pearl don't appreciate it like a human does. But we have to judge who are these swine? Because I assure you they don't look like pigs in some cases. They don't look like pigs, so you're going to have to discern it. So here's more of this judgment that is necessary in order to continue doing what it is you do. He says to ask, and it will be given to you.

Seek, and you'll find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Seek and you'll find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Now, do you know this to be a fact? Is Jesus speaking in hyperbole here? Is he just exaggerating to make an example?

Or is he telling us the truth if he is telling us the truth then the reciprocal of what he is saying could easily be true if you don't find it's because you're not looking if the door's not open it's because you never knocked if you don't have what you asked for, it's because you've asked amiss. Because everyone, he uses the word everyone that asks receives. Everyone that knocks, it'll be open to him. Everyone that seeks will find. So I think we can learn more from the reciprocal of what he said. It's a little more negative, but you know, if you're asking and not receiving,

what do we need to do? Petition God? Fast? Go on a hunger strike? Wave the Bible in his face and say, you said, you said? Or should we consider our own selves and the way and why and the motives behind what we do? Well, you know what I think. Therefore, whatsoever things you would that men should do to you Oh, I'm sorry. I would want to leave this portion out here. If you then, being evil, know how to give

good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father, which is in heaven, give good things to your children? How much more shall your heavenly Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? So what he's eliminating here is that will business. Well, I guess it wasn't the will of God, you know, for this to happen or whatever. Whatever good I've been asking for, it's not his will. Well, it may not be, I mean, it might be an easy way out. It might be an easy way for you to explain what's happened, saying it's not God's will. But you have to understand

a lot of times what we ask for as being good is not good at all. And of course it's not his will for you to have that. Of course it's not. So he you to have that of course it's not so he says don't you think your heavenly father will give you good things of course he will but unfortunately he has children down here that are pointing at rocks and saying bread bread i want bread no honey that's that's not bread it's just a rock it looks like a loaf of bread but it's not bread. It's just a rock. It looks like a loaf of bread, but it's not. Bread, I want bread. Or they're pointing at a scorpion and saying they want an egg.

And he's saying, no, honey, you can't have that. No, no, no, that's not an egg. It's a scorpion. And so, of course, it's not his will to give you a scorpion it's his will to give you good things so what's going on here is it that you know he's just not not being cooperative or is it the fact that we don't know what's good for us so what is there to work on make him better is that what we're supposed to do we're supposed to inform him as to where he into the areas that he's misinformed these are silly ideas what we

need to do is is realize that perhaps what i was asking for is not something that I want. I think that would be the wisest thing to do. So let's not throw around the fact that, you know, God just doesn't want me to have a million dollars. No, God doesn't want you to go to hell, my friend. And so what do you need to work on? You need to work on being the kind of person that can have a million dollars and not curse God and die. All right, so he goes into next, the golden rule. He's saying that whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets. This idea that we are to do unto others as we would have them do unto us,

we can find this rule in a lot of religions around the world and supposedly quoted by a lot of people. But the truth is that this is an axiomatic truth in Christianity. And it has, again, to do with our relationship with our fellow man, which you're going to find over and over again is very important to your God. The way you treat your neighbor is a lot more important than the way you treat God. As a matter of fact, they're inseparable. So he says,

Enter in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. I think that a lot of times when we talk about this, we have in our minds a picture of the unsaved, if you will, going one direction

toward a broad gate on a big wide road. And then we have the Christian population going on this road, which is very, very narrow and leads to a very straight and narrow gate. And when we visualize this, we think of the world going one way and us going another. But I assure you,

the world is not on any road going toward any gate. These are the people of God who are all looking for the gate. They're all walking the same direction. One happens to be walking down the center line of the highway. All the rest of them are just slamming into guardrails and and just being herded like like goats down uh down the highway

and uh but there are some people whose eyes is single who has their mind on on what's supposed to be done they do the right thing for the right reasons almost every time they live a righteous life they live a good life they do the right thing they walk that narrow way and when they get to the end they're going to find a very narrow gate and but they're going to find it the broad way when they get there they're going to find a big wide gate but it leads to destruction now is this telling us that you know there's a whole bunch of christians that are going to find a big wide gate, but it leads to destruction. Now, is this telling us that, you know, there's a whole bunch of Christians that are going to hell? No, I don't think so.

I think what this is telling us is there's a whole lot of Christians that are living a life on this earth that just look like everybody else's life, and everything they touch turns out to be destruction because they will not go the narrow way. They will not do it. They can't even obey Ten Commandments without removing one. There's just nothing they seem to be able to accomplish

that God has called us to do. And he says, so I want you to follow that narrow path, that straight gate that leads to life, and few there be that find it here's the many and few thing we're going to talk about that and uh exactly what that means he goes on to say beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they're ravening wolves ye shall know them by their fruits now many people say that we should judge one another when we're talking about judging. So how do we end up judging our neighbor?

Well, you ask Christians that and they'll say, well, we judge them by their fruit. That's not what Jesus taught. Not what Jesus taught at all. It's not what the Apostle Paul taught. The Apostle Paul taught us that there's only three ways of knowing one of those ways is personal between that man and god the other way is is that they keep the commandments of god number two that they treat their fellow man well when you see that you're

seeing somebody who's passed from death unto life that's the way we judge that's the way we judge what about the fruit he said the fruit applied to how you tell a false prophet from a true prophet of God. Many of the false prophets you'll notice are involved in proselytization. Do you know what that means? That means that nobody's receiving any kind of grace from God, any kind of power from God. Nobody is becoming a new creature. Nobody is actually moving from a horrible place in life to a good place in life

because they're being converted. What they're being is they're being moved from one building to another. They've already got what they consider to be their testimony of believing Jesus but in order to proselyte them Jesus was saying particularly the Jews, he says you compass sea and land to find one proselyte and make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves. Friend, that's not fruit. Many times

the false prophets and the people that we admire and the guy with the latest book and the latest prophecy and the latest blah, blah, blah, whatever it happens to be, you look at his congregation. You look at who he is. He's not a guy who's getting people off drugs. He's not bringing about any kind of relationship with them and god you don't see red and regeneration going on what you do see is a whole lot of proselytization a friend just because you find a grape stuck on a thorn does not mean that it grew there you're going to find

grapes stuck on thorns they're proselytes but. But it didn't grow there. So when he talks about judging them by their fruit, he's talking about judging the false prophets. And he goes on to say, do men gather grapes of thorns? Well, I guess they could if enough of them were stuck there. Or figs of thistles. Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, wherefore, wherefore, in other words, I'm repeating what I told you before,

you will know them by their fruit. By their fruit you shall know them. He says it twice. This is not us judging other Christians. This is us judging the people among us that consider themselves to be God's mouthpieces. Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,

but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name done cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? I'll profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Now, this is a tough thing for anybody to hear. This is a very difficult thing.

How can we keep this from happening to us? It's going to happen to somebody. There will be people who will stand before Jesus Christ as Christians, having done works in his name that he doesn't even know. Do you know there's going to be people that are going to be admitted to the kingdom of God that don't even know Christ?

By their own admission, we didn't know who you were. We didn't do anything in your name. He said, you did it unto these, the least of my brethren. You did it unto me. There it is again. God caring about our fellow man. You're going to find it throughout the scriptures. This is what we need to be doing on the earth.

This is our witness to the world. So what we have to do is, is we have to hear the word of God, Jesus Christ. We have to obey the word of God. Do what he says to do who is my mother my brother and he says those that hear the word of god and do it now here's the conclusion i say it's going to be uncomfortable for many of us and that is he says therefore therefore i just got finished explaining all these things to you. And because those things are true, and based upon what I have told you, that's all encompassed in the word therefore.

Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I liken him unto a man that built his house upon a rock. And when the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, it fell not, because it was founded on a rock. Now, everyone that heareth these sayings of mine

and doeth them not, he shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. Now, friend, do you see the difference in these two people? Does he mention that one of these guys frequented the bar and the other one frequented the church?

Do you see here church membership? Do you see in here that this guy had a good job and wore nice clothes, drove a nice car, had a good career, took care of his wife and his kids or whatever else he did, I don't know. Whatever you think is good. Does it even mention these kind of things? No, it doesn't.

It mentions the red ink, the words, my words, he who does my words. You remember the words that we went through and you thought, I don't know if that's so, or did Jesus really say that, or is that what he meant, or that may be what the Bible says, but that's not the way we do it. What is the difference in these two men?

Did one of them hear the word of God and the other one not hear it? I know you're bent on sending money and missionaries and everything around the world to make sure that people hear the gospel. But it says here that both of them heard it. It says here that one heard it. And it says here that the other one heard it. So they both heard it. It says here that one heard it and it says here that the other one heard it. So they both heard it. So what's the difference in these two men?

You want to get your Bible out and take a look? The difference is works. One heard everything Jesus said and didn't do it. One heard everything Jesus said and did do it one built his house both built a house both of them evidently built a house somewhat in the same location i happen to believe it was the same flood that hit both of them. But that's just my opinion. Difference in these two men. One had a foundation and the other one didn't.

Friend, works are your foundation of salvation. The Bible says that God is not unfaithful, unrighteous to forget what? Your faith or your works? Where does he mention in any parable, any story he ever told, any teaching he ever did on judgment? Where does the judge look at the judged and say, what did you believe? Never happens. God will likely never ask you what you believe.

He's going to ask you what you did. We know that one day we'll stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of the deeds. These are the things that you do. The deeds done in the flesh. what you believed it's not your doctrine it's not your dogma it's not your theology it's not whether or not you believed in a trinity or not or believed in the god's omniscient omnipotent omnipresent it's not whether or not you believe in the findings of the Nicene Council and whether or not Jesus Christ was the essence of God

or was he oh my goodness you know what he's going to want to know how come it is that you're sitting there with money in the bank and that woman down the street that widow woman down the street with those children doesn't have LP gas in her tank that's what he's going to want to know, my friend. Where were you? That woman cried to me every night.

And had you just taken five minutes of your time to sit quietly before me, I would have worked this out. I would have gotten propane into that tank if I had you. But I didn't have you. This is Jesus knocking at the door. Jesus isn't in bed with his kids saying, go away.

I'll give you bread tomorrow. While the neighbor knocked on the door, lend me three loaves. No, no, no. That's Jesus out there asking you. I need help out here. I need somebody to feed the hungry. I need somebody to clothe the naked, take care of the widows and the orphans. Is that you? Can I depend on you to do that? Wow, that's works, brother. Yeah. Why don't you get off your butt and go do some works? Do you know if you'll get involved in some works in Christianity, you won't sit around and wring your hands over whether or not you're born again. Sit around and wonder whether or not you're saved.

Order every tape on the internet, every seminar on the internet about eternal security trying to find out whether or not you are saved or you will be saved or can you fall from grace or am I gonna miss hell am I gonna dodge the flames how do you want to you want to get rid of that not only hear the Word of God start doing it when you do this you know what's gonna happen happen? You're going to become complete. You'll never wonder about your salvation again, ever again. Time's gone. Hope you've enjoyed the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to continue with the rest of the red ink from the scriptures, the words of Jesus Christ to his church on the earth.

And that's you. Well, I hope so. That's right. We all want to be there, don't we? And how are we going to do that? I'll tell you exactly how it's going to happen. And I don't know that it's going to happen any other way. It's going to happen when you decide to think red ink. We'll see you next time. Thanks for being a part of the show. 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