Words of Jesus Podcast - Salvation is a Process

Episode Date: February 19, 2021

Modern evangelism preaches "instantaneous salvation" and "Jesus loves you just as you are." This was not the message of John. As he baptized in the river of Jordan, religious men came to see this prophet and to be baptized. John rejected them, calling them out as vipers. He admonished them to obtain fruit, to show their repentance by works. One must begin their walk with Messiah "just as we are"... but, immediately the changes begin. Jesus came to make dead men live! John did not expect Jesus to be on the riverbank that day.*** The Baptism of Jesus by John (Part 3)WHEN JESUS was thirty years of age, John the Baptist was preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. The people of Judea and Jerusalem went to him and were baptized in the waters of the Jordan River.           From Nazareth Jesus went to John to be baptized. John hesitated, saying:           “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?”           Jesus replied:           “Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”  So John baptized Him and straightway as Jesus went out of the water the Heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. He heard a voice from Heaven, saying,: “THOU ART MY BELOVED SON; IN THEE I AM WELL PLEASED.”***CHAPTER 2 SCRIPTURES (KJV)MATTHEW 3:13-17Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.MARK 1:9-11And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.LUKE 3:21, 22Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.  JOHN 1:29-34 (NOT REFERENCED IN THE PUBLISHED BOOK)The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello, I'm Don Harris. I'm happy to share the series, The Words of Jesus, with you. This book includes the story of Jesus, his life, his friends, his ministry, as recorded in the four Gospels. We're going to see how Jesus examines and instructs and corrects and confounds the people of his day, all the while loving them.

We were in chapter 2 last time talking about the baptism of Jesus by John. If you'll allow, I'll start at the beginning. Not much reading to do here, but I want to set the scene if we can. Glad to have you back, by the way. When Jesus was 30 years of age, John the Baptist was teaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. The people of Judea and Jerusalem went to him and were baptized in the waters of the Jordan River. From Nazareth, Jesus went to him and were baptized in the waters of the Jordan River.

From Nazareth Jesus went to John to be baptized. John hesitated, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? Jesus replied, and lighting upon him, he heard a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son. I am well pleased. This was a beautiful scene, more so than I'm able to describe or the Bible is able to describe, but I would think that before we

get into the beauty of the pleasure of God when it came to his consideration of his son I think we should perhaps take a minute or two and find out why. I don't know about you but there's probably nothing in the world that I want to hear, no reward that I want to receive, no mansion on the hillside, a mansion on the hilltop, or a cabin in the corner of glory land. There is nothing to compare as far as I'm concerned. I can speak only for myself, but there's just hardly anything in the world that I would want

more than for my God to, after examining my life, say to me, I'm well pleased. I don't know about you, but there's probably nothing that I want to accomplish in life other than that. One of the things about Think Red Ink Ministries that just drives me on, that just keeps me going, that makes me want to continue, is

when we find things in the Scriptures that are perhaps commandments, unpracticed, practices that are well-pleasing to God that are not a part of most people's lives. And I don't know, I'm under this strange delusion it certainly turned out to be that way And I don't know, I'm under this strange delusion. It certainly turned out to be that way. I'm under this delusion that all I really need is to let people know what the Lord expects of them

and they'll do it. It hasn't really worked out that way. There are people who know fully well what the Lord expects them to do and has no intention on doing it. How could that be? Well, they've been indoctrinated. Simply indoctrinated. And that is, it doesn't matter what you do.

It doesn't matter what you say, how you treat your neighbor. These things don't matter. It all has to do with, does the Lord forgive you for what you've done? Well, how do I attain that forgiveness? Just ask for it. That's all you have to do. It's all free.

Well, those of you who have read my book called The Questions of Jesus, and by the way, that is available at any Amazon, any Books of Million, you know, all those internet bookstores. You can find The Questions of Jesus by Don C. Harris. But anybody who's read that book have, I've had it quoted back to me, the people tell the story about the difference in what an adult sees and what a child sees when they're driving down the highway and they look over and there in the grass is a little homemade sign made with mom's lipstick and a piece of cardboard that says free

puppies there's a cardboard box there in front of the kids that are sitting there and we all know what's in the box and we don't want to stop but the kids in the car see free puppies they want to stop and take a look well if you have very little intestinal fortitude as i do when it comes to kids, we stop. And they look in there and they see these little yipping little yellow puppies and they're biting and crawling and flipping all around and enjoying themselves. And everybody's saying how cute they are. And then directly you'll hear somebody give one of them a name and oh boy here we go. We're carrying these puppies home. How can this happen? How could it happen?

Well why is it the adult sees free puppies differently than a child does? Because an adult knows that you can't evaluate the cost of a gift. I call a free puppy a very costly gift. But you can't evaluate the cost of this gift by its acquisition cost alone. The Bible makes it very clear that the lives that He expects us to live, the salvation that He offers us, yes, indeed, it is free. You can't purchase it.

However, you can't base the cost of salvation by its acquisition costs alone. Salvation requires maintenance. And it requires of us that we keep God's commandments and that we live in such a way as to please God. We must live in the pleasure of God. How do we do that if it is not a diligent study, a diligent reading of the Scriptures, a diligent searching for God's will and way in the earth,

how He's dealt with men in the past, and what He's expected of them to do? We know that these kinds of things are, in many cases, expected of us as well. God is not displeased with our failures. God is displeased with our failures to try. And when we just don't care. I believe that there will be millions of people that will be saved in ignorance.

You don't have to know everything there is to know. You don't have to know Hebrew to be saved, or Greek, or Latin. You don't have to go to seminary. You don't have to know more than the preacher knows or be able to write a book or to be able to write Sunday school literature or any of the rest of this stuff because there is no way, first of all, that you can know it all. And we need not fear that God is going to hold us accountable for things that we do not know.

As a matter of fact, there are many things that are withheld from some of God's most precious people because He knows, even if they don't, that should it be introduced to these people what it would take to please God, perhaps they would give up. Perhaps they would give in. Jesus talked about with His disciples, so where you been guys? Well, we were out gallivanting around. Hey, we saw people out there that were

casting out devils in your name. They were healing the sick in your name. Oh, really? What did you do? We told them to stop it. You told them to what? We told them to stop it. You told them to what? We told them to quit that. Why did you tell them to quit that? Well, they don't know what we know. They're not a part of us. They don't have our doctrine. They don't have our theology. They don't have you. Yeah, but you see, if a person is for me,

they're not against me. And, you know, so what's the deal here? Why would you tell them to stop? Well, that's human nature, isn't it? They walk not with us, the disciples said. Haven't you told them to not do wonderful things in my name? Well, they walk not with us. I think, and as we get to that,

of course, we'll read these scriptures. But if I'm not mistaken, they said that three times, they walk not with us. Well, there's many people who don't walk with us, who don't walk with you. They don't walk with your denomination. They don't believe the things that you believe. They don't know the things you know. Friend, you don't know what they know. You don't know their denomination. You don't know anything about them. This ignorance, I believe in many cases,

is a gift from God that we don't know. Because if you did know, you would prove yourself to be rebellious in many, many cases. The idea of being pliable, the idea of being obedient, has to do with what's been revealed to us to do. There are people that have no trouble at all in doing exactly what the preacher wants them to do. They have no trouble at all doing exactly what their denomination expects them to do. Dress the way their denomination dresses. Talk the way their denomination talks.

But when it comes to the scriptures, it's almost a take it or leave it attitude. Friend, let me tell you, I think there's going to be millions of people that are saved in that kind of ignorance. But you'll never convince me, not the longest day you'd live, that anyone will ever be salvaged from this life and escape the fires of damnation through rebellion. I don't think it can happen. I just don't believe it can happen. We don't need to be so concerned with what we don't know. What we need to be concerned with is what we do know that we're not following.

Jesus lived in this society, within this religion, within the bounds of this religion among people who love the Lord with all their heart. And he wanted to please his God. He knew that what the Lord God expected of him was that he keep those commandments, that he bar mitzvah himself to his father.

Did you miss our first episode? By the way we're doing everything possible to make all these episodes available to you so that you can have them if you happen to miss them. We have very many outlets and different ideas to make sure that you have these kind of things. So if you're just joining this series, you've got a little catching up to do. But we're going to try to make that as easy and painless as possible. If you are concerned

about that and you want to hear other programs, then just simply write to me, Don, at at thinkredink.com. Jesus was under no delusion that there were certain things that were expected of him as a child of God, as a son of God, and as the Messiah and the anointed one, that he was not going to be able to bypass these rules in his life. I want you to notice that John the Baptist was confused because Jesus, you need to understand

what I'm doing here. I'm baptizing people unto the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And I can just hear him saying it to him and enunciating every word as if he does not understand. You see, I'm looking for sinners. I'm looking for people who want to repent of their sins. You want me to baptize you?

You haven't committed a sin in your whole life. I don't understand what you want me to do. We find that Jesus answered him and says, suffer it to be so now, or let's do this thing. Let's do it now. Because it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. There's a military term, a military

judgment that I love the language of it and I bring it up when we talk about this particular subject here. And that is you've heard it, where a particular officer is in trouble in the military for one reason or another, but it always comes down to conduct not becoming an officer. You heard this? Conduct not becoming an officer. Look heard this? Conduct not becoming an officer. Look,

there are certain things that privates can get away with. There are certain things enlisted men and troops and, you know, and boots can get away with in the military. But once you've become an officer, no, no, no, no. You can't get away with that. That is conduct not becoming an officer. And here we have Jesus using this very word and I can't help but think about it when he says let's do this. Let's go through with this baptism for thus it becometh us

to fulfill all righteousness. You see, he knew what the standard fare for every person on earth was. And he did not exclude himself from that. Well, I'm the son of God. Well, I get baptized? What are you talking about? I don't get baptized. I baptize. Well, you know, the truth is that when Jesus came to this earth he actually accomplished something that is just not talked about much.

And that is that he left in glory with his father every bit of the glory that he had with his father before he came to this earth. People have trouble sometimes when I say that, you know, they say, you don't believe that Jesus is God? Well, sure I do.

I do now. I believe he's God now. But when he was on the earth, he was just like me and you. Just like me and you. Yeah, but he could read people's minds. Who told you that? Where did you get that from? Who told you he could read people's mind? The Bible said he knew what was in man. He knew their thoughts. He knew what they were thinking. You know people's thoughts when you say something and their face screws up and you think, what? What? What? And why are you doing that? Because you know what they're thinking. You know what they're thinking. Well, you take a being like Jesus Christ firing on all eight cylinders. And there's just no telling what he knows.

But if it was supernatural, his father gave him that information. He was in touch with his father. His father spoke to him all the time. Why? Because he always did what pleased the father. And he didn't even let something like this, a technicality, a technicality that anybody who enters the kingdom of God enters this way. They decide to keep the commandments. And they experience the mikvah that this is the point of their decision. Well, but this doesn't apply to you. Sure it does.

Because the Bible says he emptied himself of all, of everything that he was in order to become like you and me. You know, he proved something to us that he could not have proven to us if he were God. Well, he withstood temptation on the mount of temptation, the three temptations that Satan put forth to him, and he passed them all. Okay, so what?

He's God. I can't pass those temptations. You know, that's a legitimate argument. If he was indeed, if he were indeed God when he was on the earth. But here's the good and bad news, if you will. He wasn't. He passed those temptations with no more power than you have within

yourself to make the decision to do the right thing. You see, with him, it was important that, look, I might can get away with this, but that's not conduct becoming an officer. I might can get away with this. Yeah, this is a technicality. And yeah, really, I don't have to repent of any sin. However, it becomes us. It becomes us.

People ask, do you need to be baptized to be saved? Yes, absolutely. If you're talking about baptism by the Spirit of God, Paul said there's only one baptism. If you've got to choose between water baptism and spirit baptism, what's your choice? But when it comes to baptism, do you need to, do you have to be baptized to be saved? You know what? I'm not, I'm not a hell dodger. I don't know about you, but my whole purpose in life is not to just dodge hell. My purpose is to please my Father. And baptism,

I like it. I like that. You know what? It becomes us to do that very thing. It becomes us. And as I said in the last broadcast, you'll find that we're actually to be visiting the mikvah over and over and over again. It's not a one and done deal. You'll also find that our baptism in the Spirit of God, sometimes it's got to be done again. Why is that?

Because we stray, because we're stupid, because we're weak, because we've got problems, we're not fully regenerated yet. But there can come a time in your life, my friend, when doing the wrong thing, not even in your thinking anymore. You're not even thinking about it. I forget what preacher said it, but I love it. When he says, I might not be able to keep the birds from flying over my head, but I can keep them from

nesting in my hair. Look, you're going to have a fleeting thought. You're going to have a thought of going astray. Yeah, sure you will. It's all around us. If you've got a TV, yeah, you're going to have one about every 15 minutes. Turn that thing off, by the way. Not now. But we're going to have things that are going to set us back. The sins, Paul says, would so easily beset us. And then we have to run the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus. Why are we looking unto Jesus? Because He accomplished what God expects you to accomplish

with no more power than you have within yourself. Sure Jesus had a memory of His life with the Father before He came. Sure, He had information that we simply don't have. I'm not saying that Jesus wasn't divine. That would be silly. But the idea that He was somehow different, that He had some power that wasn't available to us. It's just wrong. When it came to

baptism he said, it becomes us. It's the thing to do. Now look, Jesus didn't have to get wet. He didn't have to. Friend, you don't have to. But it becomes him. It becomes us. It's a good thing to do. An answer of a good conscience toward God. If you have a good conscience, it's a great time to visit the mikvah. It's a good thing to do.

You have Jesus walking up to His cousin John the Baptist and saying, I want you to baptize me. I want you to start me off in my ministry just the way any other man starts off in his life. This is the way I want it done. It becomes me to do this. Okay. Here's our baptism place. Just step out there and do what you need to do.

He did that and essentially God said, good going boy. Good. You're pleasing me here. This is the right way to do this. Friend, I can't think of anything in the world that could be better for us than for us to see the vision of our Father with his thumb up saying, you're doing just fine.

You're doing just fine. Do you know you can have the enjoyment, the pleasure, the approval of God even with sin in your life? Did you know that that can happen? Of course it can. I know there's a place in the Scriptures that says God heareth not sinners, but do you realize who said that? It was a Pharisee. It was tradition. It was ritual. That's the way we've always believed it. That's the way it'll always going to be. Not so. Not so. If God doesn't hear sinners, there's no hope for any of us. There are sins in your life

right now that you have no idea are even there. But friend, you want to see what they are? Do you want to please your father? You're going to have to open yourself to his revelation. You're going to have to decide now that as you show me these things, I'm going to make changes in my life. You know why? It becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Righteousness, probably one of the most highly misunderstood words in Christendom.

Righteousness is not sinlessness. Righteousness is not perfection. Righteousness is just simply right living. This is the way you need to live. This is the right thing to do. Wow, how do we do that? Perhaps the second step I gave you? What were the three steps?

Do you remember them? Number one, keep God's commandments. With that, you have a promise that he'll come inside you and live and guide you from the inside. Lead you and guide you in all truth. Number one, keep the commandments. Number two, never disobey your conscience. Never disobey your conscience.

Do you realize that as long as you're paying attention to your conscience, you can be right with yourself. And if you're taking time, third step, third step, if you're taking time every day to hear the voice of God and there's not a whole tally of sins being revealed to you, do you realize it's His mercy that doesn't do that? It doesn't allow that. It allows you to live in such a way that you can,

that you feel that you're right with God. But friend, that's not all there is to this. We're going to have to make these things work within ourselves and decide that we need to please God, it becomes us. All right, that's all for today. Join us again for the next episode in this series, The Words of Jesus. Do you have questions? We'd like to hear from you. You can just simply send an email to don at thinkRedInc.com You've been listening to Don C. Harris of ThinkRedInc Ministries. Email don at thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com.

Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you