Words of Jesus Podcast - The Uninspired Page in the Bible

Episode Date: February 3, 2023

Jesus came to reveal His Father, not to replace Him; and to restore communication to an internal, individual matter. No longer would a physical temple or a Levitical priesthood be required for people to meet with God. The plan of Jesus was to put his commandments into our heart.  Our obedience (keeping the commandments) opens communication with the Spirit of God. Man is where the Spirit of God desires to reside.  Jesus Christ, our High Priest, always obeyed His Father – we should do the same. ***Ch. 30 - Jesus Teaches the Kingdom in ParablesA NET (Matt 13:47-53)            Jesus likened the kingdom of Heaven to a net, saying:             “Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind—which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire.  There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”            Then Jesus said:            “Have ye understood all these things?”            The people answered:            “Yes, Lord.”            Jesus said to them:            “Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello my friends, I'm Don Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Welcome to the Words of Jesus series. Our goal here and what we're trying to do is to reinforce Christianity with the wisdom and the words of the Lord Jesus upon which it was built. Do you know what Jesus said and what Jesus did and what Jesus said to do? This series is based on Jesus, his life, his friends, his ministry, and his relationship

to his Father. Thank you so much for being a part of the broadcast. We actually have been in chapter 30 of our little book, The Words of Jesus, for a goodly amount of time. And as I look at the little book, I see there's another little verse hanging here that I certainly don't want to miss. And so I'd like to, if I can, finish up 30 and we can begin 31 as the show continues. But I want you to listen to this. Jesus has been describing the kingdom of heaven

essentially over and over again in different words for us to perhaps start to understand what the kingdom of God is actually all about. And lastly he says he says the Lord Jesus said to him or said to his disciples actually he had just asked them the question as he was explaining about judgment and how that we're going to give an account and that at the end of time that the good will indeed be put

into vessels and the bad will be cast away. And he asked them, do you understand these things? Well certainly we hear, or at least read, that the people said to him, yeah we understand. But I think that the subsequent life to follow and how they lived afterwards, what happened to Christianity afterwards, I think that history does not allow that to be an honest answer.

Many of us who profess to have faith in Christ will talk about believing in Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus? Yes, I believe in Jesus. And therefore many people feel like that is the crux of their salvation in Him. When in reality what we believe will show up in what we live day to day. It's really a moot question.

Jesus really wasn't asking, do you believe in these? Do you believe in me? He was asking, do you believe in these things? Do you believe that there's a judgment? Let me ask you, friend. Do you actually believe that one day you will give an account to the Lord for what you have done and how you've lived your life in the flesh here on this earth? I think that the subsequent life past the time that we profess to believe will pretty much verify or vilify our answer.

It will show that our answer is hollow and without faith, or it will show that, yes, indeed, we do have faith in Christ. The division that has taken place, I don't know if you know much about my ministry or some of the sermons that I've preached around the country, but one of them is the uninspired page in the Bible. And if you're wondering what that is, it is the page that says

New Testament. The Scriptures are a continual, they happen to split it at the covenant. Actually, they didn't even do that. But we have a section of our Bible called the New Testament, and a lot of people call themselves New Testament Christians. And I think that it's a mistake to begin our faith at the Gospels. If they were going to

actually divide the Scriptures into Old and New Covenant, the words New Testament on that particular uninspired page would actually not show up at Matthew 1-1, but it would show up at Acts 1 because you have to understand that everything Jesus did, everything He said, everything He preached, everything that He accomplished on the earth, you might think that they were acts inside the new covenant. But the truth

of the matter is that all of Jesus' ministry was exercised and brought about in the old covenant. Every person that believed on Christ and was empowered by Christ it was all done under the old covenant. The old covenant is not something that we need to shun, to walk away from, to ignore. It is, I know there's a lot of cute little sayings that we use saying that

Jesus is in the old covenant concealed and in the new covenant revealed or testament, old Testament, New Testament. And there's a lot of thoughts in this area. There's a lot of speculation. It's mere speculation. And many times it goes against what the Scriptures actually teach. But I think that we may be making a mistake by trying to ignore in whole

or in part the Old Testament, the Old Covenant that the Lord made with us. The Old Covenant is an Old Covenant because the New Covenant was installed. Paul says that if there is a change in a covenant, there's a change by necessity, a change also of the law. We have to understand that when Paul was talking about the law that was changed

you probably wondered about people who honor the Old Covenant a little more than you happen to be comfortable with. Some people are severely concerned that TRI Ministries involves themselves in what they consider to be Old Covenant feasts. We have the Feast of Tabernacles, we celebrate Passover, we celebrate Feast of Unleavened Bread. But we were never instructed to stop doing that as a matter of fact because it was not

entered into and the nation of Israel actually rejected a lot of the thoughts of the New Covenant. We were arbitrarily invited to attend these feasts. And so it is our honor to do so. Well, we're not doing an Old Testament thing. It's not an Old Testament feast. It's a feast of the Lord. It's the very same Lord who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the supreme ruler of the universe. We all agree on that,

don't we? And so there are people who wonder, how do you justify you know, I remember when I was under conviction about not keeping the Sabbath day. I was keeping, or at least I thought I was keeping, the first day of the week when the scriptures were clear about the seventh day of the week being the Sabbath day. And I had a lot of friends that were concerned about my

theology. Some were even concerned about my soul because I had decided to do that. And there were comments made to me and I'm sure to others that I'm not aware of that so what are you going to do now? You're going to start cutting lambs heads off and offering blood sacrifices and all these kinds of things because you're moving back into the old covenant. Not really. Not really at all. We are still in the old covenant. The old covenant is still intact.

Nothing in the world has changed about it except that these sacrifices have been fulfilled. And frankly my high priest if he decides that we need to do sacrifices he'll let us know. I don't think he will. But I'm saying that these are not separate ideas. However, as we learned and as we were studying this 30th chapter of this Words of Jesus book, where Jesus kept describing the kingdom, one particular characteristic kept appearing, and that was that characteristic of discrimination.

Where we have to discriminate. We have to think about these things. We have to look at them with a clear and honest and logical mind and decide what exactly is it that we should be doing? What is it that we should be doing? What is it that we should, what should be our attitude about the old covenant? Well, Jesus, when he was teaching on these, on the kingdom of God,

one thing that is included here is that he says, when he asked him, do you understand this about judgment? They said yeah we understand. And Jesus said to them therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder which bringeth forth out of his treasure things both new and old.

Now Jesus was, he wasn't crawfishing as they say in Mississippi. He wasn't walking sideways. He wasn't trying to back up on anything that he had said that this is a new wine and it is to be put into new bottles. But there are things in the old covenant that are absolutely eternal. He preached that the law would never pass away. Never pass away. That's a pretty emphatic statement. He didn't say that

it's going to eventually dwindle into insignificance. He didn't say that if you ignore it long enough it'll go away. He didn't say it was going to be changed. He said it'll never change. Not one jot or tittle, not one dotted I or cross T will change about the law till all be fulfilled. All what? All the world be fulfilled. The law will disappear at a particular time in our existence. And that is when we are made new creatures in the

kingdom of God. The law will become extremely unnecessary. As a matter of fact, I think that in the millennial reign of Christ, the law will be an embarrassment to many of us that God even had to write these things down. Anybody knows you don't steal. Well, not anybody, but those who are led of the Spirit of God knows that you don't do that. Anybody knows you don't commit adultery. Anybody knows you don't murder people. Anybody knows that the Lord is to be honored above all.

Well, no, not anybody. But in the kingdom of God when we've actually been made complete and we've been made whole these things will make so much sense to us we're going to wonder why we even ever had to have it written down. Why would you write such a thing? So, that being said in the time that we live in today it is not time to dispense with the law. Now the law is to remain intact

forever. However, the Apostle Paul says that if we learn to live by the Spirit of God and this is what I've been trying to teach on this series and for the last 15 years of my ministry when I realized that we are to receive our instruction and guidance from God Himself I understood what the Apostle Paul was trying to say when he said that if you are in the Spirit you're no longer under the law. Under it.

It doesn't disappear. It's just we're not under that law because we're living by the Spirit of God. You see, the truth is, Jesus Christ never obeyed the law. Never obeyed it. But he never violated it either. How can you never obey it yet never violate it? Well, it's simple as far as he's concerned. He just said, I do what my father tells me to do. You see, if we would live by the Spirit,

we wouldn't be under the law. This would not be a problem. So this is the way that we're supposed to live. Not ignoring or abolishing or erasing or tearing the Old Testament out of our Bibles, but by understanding of that law we are to be brought into the new covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ as our ruler and as our head. Now what scripture is there to back this up? It's very simple.

Paul said that the law was our schoolmaster to do something. He said this was our, it was instituted as a schoolmaster to do something. Now among a lot of conventional Christianity it's even said that that is how God has made us into these righteous beings because they believe in imputed righteousness.

They believe that our righteousness is given to us by God, that we can't earn it, we can't, there's nothing we can do to have righteousness which goes against a lot of what Jesus taught and a lot of what the Bible teaches, but that hasn't stopped them before. So they teach that this is how God eliminated sin in our life, which is tantamount to, you open the newspaper, you get up in the morning, you're having your coffee, you look at the newspaper and it says that

there's been absolutely no speeding tickets given out in the entire state of New Mexico, where I happen to be residing, in the last 30 days. Alright, what are you going to think when you read that? You're going to think that the cops are on strike? You're going to think that they have abolished the highway patrol? What's happened? Because we know darn well people are speeding, so why aren't the tickets being written? Well, they came up with a new idea. They just took a bulldozer

and drove down the edge of every highway in New Mexico and pushed over all the regulatory signs. They're all gone. There's no regulatory signs. The speed limit isn't 80. There is no speed limit. So have the people stopped dangerous behavior? No. Has the punishment stopped? Yes, it has.

The signs are now gone. The law has been abolished. Therefore, nobody is a sinner. Nobody has done wrong. Nobody has been speeding. Friend, nobody's going to buy that. Nobody, nobody, but nobody is going to buy that. However, in some Christian circles, this is how they believe

that God actually makes us righteous. By eliminating the law that condemns us. Could that be so? Absolutely not. The law stops condemning us when we stop violating it. That's when it stops. If I've got a car and the governor allows me to go 45 miles an hour, I don't really care that the sign says 80. This is as much as I can do. And so the law in that particular situation, I'm not under the law.

I'm living by another law. And that law has me below the threshold of sin. It keeps me below the threshold of sin. The Jews tried to accomplish this by doing what's called putting fences around the commandments. They were so concerned because they were brought into captivity and the Lord made it very clear to them that essentially you went 490 years disobeying the Sabbath. Therefore

you owe me 70. And he put them into captivity for 70 years. Well they knew that, he knew that, he told them exactly why they went into captivity. Because they didn't honor his Sabbath commandment. So, when they all trickled back to the nation of Israel, they decided that we're going to make laws that are going to be fences around this law so that people can't even get close to breaking this law. So they made, and Jesus put it this way,

they have laid on men burdens grievous to be born. See, the law is not to be grievous. It's not to be difficult for us to live under. But men, perhaps with good intention, don't really know. Perhaps it was a power play. I don't know why they did what they did, but what they did was build fences around the law so that if you don't cross this fence, then we don't have to worry about you trespassing into this area, which is sin. And this

can get us thrown back into captivity. So they were very concerned about the Sabbath laws. Now you understand why you find Jesus constantly getting busted by these Sabbath cops who ran around looking for people who were doing things on the Sabbath day that were unlawful. You might have heard in the scriptures about the Sabbath day's journey. They used the term Sabbath day journey because it was a part of the society in which he lived,

but it was not a part of the law. The Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, the church leadership, they determined that 3,000 feet is as far as a man can get away from his home on the Sabbath day. And so a Sabbath day's journey was that far and no further. That's where these ideas come from. People, like I say, it could have been good intention, don't know. But frankly, I think they were scared to death that they were going to get thrown back into captivity

if they didn't keep the Sabbath day. Now, as I say, now you can see why they were so nuts about it. You know, you can't do this on the Sabbath day. What's he doing? Well, he picked up his mat. He's going to walk home with his mat. Well, where does the Sabbath commandment mention not picking up his little pallet and walking home? All right. Come on another day to be healed, but no one's to be healed on the Sabbath day. Jesus says, you know, I didn't create this Sabbath day so you can worship it.

I created the Sabbath day so you can worship me on it. This Sabbath day is your gift. I didn't make you for the Sabbath. I made the Sabbath for you. You've got this whole thing wrong. Well, we can't have people being healed on the Sabbath day. He says, what do you want to do on the Sabbath day? If there's good to be done, then it needs to be done. Let's do good on the Sabbath day? He says, what do you want to do on the Sabbath day? If there's good to be done, then it needs to be done. Let's do good on the Sabbath day. What do you want to do evil on the Sabbath day? Of course you don't.

Come on. You know, you can just hear him making the argument, but they would have none of it because, frankly, they were scared. I guess I don't blame them, but you know what? Just obey the law. How about doing that? Thou shalt not see the kid in its mother's milk. Okay. I'm not going to see the kid boil a baby goat in its mother's milk.

What did the Jews do? No more cheeseburgers. No more cheeseburgers for you. No, you can't have dairy and meat in the same kitchen. Can't put them in the same refrigerator. Can't eat in the same restaurant. A restaurant that serves meat can't serve dairy. A one that serves dairy can't serve meat. What are these? Where did all this idea come from? Fences being built around the law. But you see, a man who's instructed under the kingdom of God, he has the discretion, he has the discrimination, he has the ability within his own mind to hear the word of God, not worship a book and call it the word of

God. He can hear the word of God in the commandment. And he knows this isn't talking about cheeseburgers. Come on guys. Now it doesn't mean that he is discounting everything that's in the law. As a matter of fact a scribe, a person who actually has a propensity for, or he is called to, his job is, to write down the doctrines and the commandments

and the things that God expects us to do, which was the job of the scribe. He says, a scribe who is instructed unto the kingdom of God, not instructed in the yeshiva, not instructed by the best of the best teachers, by Gamaliel or by Maimonides or by all these wonderful rabbis of the past.

But a man who is instructed unto the kingdom of God, he has the discernment and the discretion to bring out of his treasurer things both new and old. There are many things in the Old Covenant that, frankly, are just not covered in the New Testament. You might find the word tithe in the New Covenant. You might understand that Jesus said this you ought to have done. You might find that there men that die

receive tithes and there he receiveth them of whom it is said that he still lives. You might find tithing. You might find the concept of tithing, but how exactly do you do that? How is it done? Well, you're going to have to go to the Old Testament, to the Old Covenant to find out how tithes are done. And what is a first tithe, a second tithe, a third tithe? How are you going to get this information from the new covenant? Well, you're just not. You're just not going to do it. And if your intention is to give to the Lord, and it should be,

if your intention is to give to him, are you going to go by the preachers of today that say, oh, we owe God everything. Really? We owe God everything? Where did you get that from? How is it that all of a sudden I owe God every penny in my bank account? Really? Is that so? And where did you get that from? Well, they just made it up out of whole cloth. Well, don't you think your salvation is worth everything?

Well, sure I do. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about I want to give to the Lord. What does He expect from me? Well, if you're going to be a New Testament Christian, if you're going to reject the Old Testament, you're going to have to look at Him and say, I don't know. Well, a tithe means ten. A tenth of what? I don't know. Do you see what I mean? There is no reason to reject the Old Testament. The Old Testament is full of information.

I love hearing that when he talks about tithe, he talks about giving 10% of your increase, that you have this inherent law in the obvious law that says that 90% of your income is supposed to take care of your family. You know, you might think it's bragging to say, I give 60% of my income. Well, you're giving 50% more than you need to. You're giving 50% more than you need to give because you're stepping over what

the Lord has made very, very clear, 10%. That's what I'm asking you for. Not 9%. It's not 11%. It's 10%. But you see, you'll find people that they pretty much do whatever they want to do for their own reasons. And how can you look at somebody who's really having trouble paying the rent and dealing with things on a daily basis financially and tell him that you give 60%? You know, the truth is that if you were obeying the old covenant,

this man that's having trouble, he is due three percent of your income according to the old testament the poor that's what they are the poor and the the fatherless and the homeless and these kind of people three percent of your income set aside for them it's the way it's supposed to be uh but you see, you just can't shut off the Old Testament. You can't do that. Not if you want to be a scribe, not if you want to be a person who gets his doctrine from the scriptures, you're going to have to be not only willing, but you're going to have to reach back, reach forward and take out of your household things both new and old. It's the way it's to be done.

All right, our time is gone. Time to go now. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you