Words of Jesus Podcast - Things Have to Change

Episode Date: May 20, 2022

THEME: The Sermon on the Mount. "Things are not like you think they are." "…[B]ut, I [Messiah] say... ["you're not even close"] - that's why I came. Jesus came to make correction in our doctrine and to make a way for mankind to be reconciled to God. The last prophet was John the Baptist. John's message was "Repent [Change] for the Kingdom of God is at hand." Messiah came as forecast since the days of Moses; a prophet (like unto you) human; and (like unto me) God. The people of Israel expected Messiah to be the Son of Man, they did not expect Messiah to be the Son of God. Since the sacrifice of Jesus, YHVH now calls all men to repentance. Faith only (what you believe) is bad doctrine. Men are transformed from unrighteous to righteous... by faith and works.***Chapter 19: The Sermon on the Mount...Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle will in no wise pass from the law, till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore will break one of these least commandments, and will teach men so, he will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whoever will do and teach them, the same will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, Except your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to them of old time, You will not kill; and whoever will kill will be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you That whoever is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment: whoever will say to his brother, Raca, will be in danger of the council: but whoever will say, You fool, will be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, Leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, You will by no means come out of there, till you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said to them of old time, You will not commit adultery: But I say unto you, that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if your right eye offend you, pluck it out, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell. And if your right hand offend you, cut it off, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell. It has been said, Whoever will put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce: But I say unto you that whoever will put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whoever will marry her that is divorced commits adultery. Again, you have heard that it was said to them of old time, You will not perjure yourself, but will perform unto the Lord your oaths: But I say unto you, swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither will you swear by your head, because you can not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these comes from evil. You have heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That you repay not evil: but whoever will smite you on your right...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris and we're looking forward to doing this again. We've been talking about the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount, probably one of the most famous sermons ever preached and probably the words with which most people are, well, academically or semantically familiar, but unfortunately, if you looked at the, if you stood back

and looked at the church of our 20th century, I think that it would be pretty obvious that many of the things Jesus taught were just absolutely ignored, and we just did it the way we wanted to. Well that's unfortunate because He being our Savior our Lord and our guide has a certain idea for us and certain characteristics that He wants to develop within us and and unfortunately we have pretty much made our own little clubs we call them Christian we call them Church we call them all kinds of And unfortunately, we have pretty much made our own little clubs.

We call them Christian. We call them church. We call them all kinds of things. But the truth is, is that our Lord Jesus didn't come to the earth to establish the church. As many people say that that's what he came to do. The church was already established on the earth. One of the first members were Adam and Eve. And I think Abel was part of that church. And there were people that were thrown out of that church. And the reason I say that is

because there are a lot of doctrinal, perhaps theological ideas or so-called that try to establish on the earth exactly what is the church. And there are people that are in the Protestant denominations are real pleased with the idea that the body of Christ, so to speak, the church, so to speak, the ecclesia has replaced Israel. When in reality, Israel is, I realize that there is such a country named Israel. I understand that. However, Israel was the name given to Jacob because

he prevailed with God. And Israel has always been the name of God's church. The church is actually a descriptive term, the ekklesia, the called out ones. There have been people that have been called out from time in memoriam. I guess Adam and Eve weren't called out. They were sent out, weren't they? Yes. But when we live in this world of people who care not a thing about God,

we need to understand that we have been called out from them and called into what? We've been called into Israel. We've been called into the church. When I talk about the church, I'm not talking about a building or a denomination or even as Sunday school is so prominently teaching that the church is not the building, it's the people. Okay, I understand that. What people?

That's what I want to know. And come to find out that there are many people that are in the church that don't fit your denominational guidelines. They don't fit what you think a Christian ought to be. There wouldn't be welcome in your church but there is. We will, as time goes by, deal with a concept where Jesus looked at a bunch of people who did everything that they do. All the good things that they do, they do them in His name.

He said, I never knew you. And He looked at another group of people that didn't even know who He was and told them to enter into the joy of the Lord. So you might as well get prepared for the realization that things aren't the way we thought they should be. I said in an earlier broadcast that if you had to find an overarching theme for the Sermon on the Mount, it is just that. Things are not the way you think they are. One of the biggest examples of this that I think Jesus ever gave us was the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. He said

here's a fellow that laid at the gate full of sores and I mean dogs came and licked his sores. A guy you would not invite home with you. You would not bring him to your table. He would not be your friend. He would not be your acquaintance or your companion or you would want nothing to do with him. And I'm telling you that he is on his way to the kingdom of God. Now this fellow over here, this fellow that has all the money and the resources and such, now you need to realize that there will come a time when he, this fellow, this prominent fellow, there will come a time when he will ask

this man for something cool to drink. It is not the way you think it is. Things are different there than they are here. And it's the overarching theme of almost everything Jesus said. There was two particular themes, I believe, in the Sermon on the Mount that you should be aware of. One of them is, as I said, that Jesus was saying, things are not like you think they are.

You have a certain idea of reality, a certain idea of church, a certain idea of salvation, and your particular religion, your faith, your denomination, your blah, blah, blah, idea of church, a certain idea of salvation, and your particular religion, your faith, your denomination, your blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the truth is that you're not even getting close. That's why I'm here. That's what Jesus is saying. That's why I came. You're not even getting close. Matter of fact, you're getting worse. And we need to bring a stop to this. This is why the prophet, the last prophet that stood on two feet on this earth, this terra firma,

was John the Baptist. Jesus said there wasn't a greater prophet that ever was born of a woman. And his message was, time to change, guys. Everything's changing jesus is the the the two main messages that you receive from uh the sermon on the mount one is as things aren't like you think they are and number two is is what things that are and things that you've lived by all of your life they all have to change now that's a you know your boss shows up at work for the employee meeting and says something like that you're just wondering well where are we going from here i just got to where i can do my job well i just uh quit smoking quit drinking quit cussing quit running with women that chew. You know, I'm just getting this church thing down pat.

I threw away all my Levi's. I don't have anything but slacks left. I don't even wear t-shirts anymore. And I got a short haircut. I thought I was, I thought, you can tell the kind of churches I went to, can't you? But, you know, you come to this point where you think, you know, I'm just getting this all figured out

and you're telling me everything's going to change essentially yeah everything has to change we have to repent we have to change and uh and things are not only like you thought they are but uh they are not going to continue as they always have things are are going to change. We're going to talk about that now. As a matter of fact, we're in, I guess this is the 19th chapter of our little book, and this is under the title, The Righteousness of the Kingdom and the Law. I love my little book, but sometimes the chapter titles are a bit, I don't know, flighty, airy, ethereal. I don't know. I guess what I'm telling you is that sometimes I just don't understand what they're trying to say.

In this particular one, you hear Jesus say, I think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. Now you remember in an earlier program we talked about the fact that the transfiguration was a picture. It was a symbol of the things that were about to change. And it was that you went to the prophets and the law for guidance and those are disappearing and from now on is my son that you're going to listen to the prophecy was given to moses that i am going to raise up a prophet number one a prophet like unto you human and a prophet like unto me this is uh this is God himself speaking and we have these these promises of prophets that Jesus is going to fulfill when he comes being prophesied in Moses's day and one of the criterias one of the caveats that he added to the end of this prophecy was and you will do what this prophet says. And if you don't do what this prophet says,

it will be required of you. I'm not messing around anymore. This is essentially what he says. That's in the Harris translation. You have to look for that one. But I'm not messing around with you folks anymore. There was a time, the Bible says, God winked at the ignorance of men,

but now commands all men everywhere to repentance and the only thing that has really changed the only significant thing that has changed is the messenger that he sent here was none other than his son and he was murdered for that message so things are changing and um and if you think uh God was exacting and cruel and overreacted to sin in the Old Testament you wait and see what happens at the end of time when he shows you just how much he is tired of this as well. Alright so here we say think not that I am

come to destroy the law now if you're wondering did jesus do away with the law here i have a verse for you think not that i am come to destroy the law if you think that jesus lived in such a way as to make the law unnecessary i have a verse for you think not that i am come to destroy the law uh there's a hundred other reasons, a hundred other ideas about how Jesus handles the law and where the law fits into the life of a 20th century Christian. Well, here's something that we do know. Think not that I am come to destroy the law. Now, Jesus could have said, I didn't come to destroy the law. And we would have read it and ignored it, just like we do with all the rest of everything he says. But I want you to notice that

he says, don't even think that. You know what he's saying is? This is not worthy of consideration. This idea that you have that perhaps the law is changing. Perhaps the law is changing. It's a bit askew from what it used to be. Perhaps it, no, no, no. Don't even think that. Don't even think it. Now, you know, you want to sit and discuss whether or not certain commandments have passed away, whether the

Sabbath has passed away, or that we're no longer under the law and these kind of things. And I believe that and we'll cover that and I'll explain to you that I don't think that people who live in the Spirit are under the law. Anybody who doesn't live in the Spirit, and that's a lot of us, is under the law because Anybody who doesn't live in the Spirit, and that's a lot of us, is under the law because the law hasn't passed away. But I think it's interesting that he says, don't even think that. Not just don't discuss it, don't study it, don't read it, don't even think it. There is an air or a note of impossibility in his words here. That's just, it's unmistakable. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I've not come

to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law until all be fulfilled now it is pretty obvious and he is pretty adamant that this is exactly what he has in mind to do and that is to fulfill the law not destroy it to the point that he he adds to this whosoever shall break one of these the least commandments you want to take a minute or two and just figure out which is the least commandment which is the least commandment let me think now which commandment if we break it does the least amount of damage which commandment if we break it does the least amount of damage? Which commandment if we break it disappoints our God more so than perhaps another or less so than perhaps another one? You can sit and rank murder and adultery and theft and all these things and try to figure out which is the

worst commandment, but it's pretty easy to find out what's the least commandment. As a matter of fact, when I put this question to people, I usually get one of two answers. One of which is the Sabbath day, because really what difference does it make if you keep the Sabbath? It doesn't hurt anybody if you work on Saturday. That's their attitude. And the other one is thou shalt not covet. I'll be glad to talk about these things. We talk about them all the time when we do different types of Bible studies.

And you should be more familiar with the law than that. But it really doesn't matter which commandment you think is least. Let's just say that the least commandment is the Sabbath day. Because, you know, it could be argued that the Sabbath day really does the least amount of damage to the world than any of the other ones. It certainly doesn't cause your neighbor any harm or cost or grief. So he's saying that if you break that commandment that commandment the least commandment you we've called this the least one perhaps arbitrarily but we've called it that anyway and i think it's good for this argument if you break

that commandment then you you will be called least in the kingdom of heaven for those who break it and for those who teach men so. It's very dangerous. I saw a prominent preacher on television recently, I don't know, could have been a year ago that spent an hour plus talking to people and telling them how, essentially, you don't have to keep the Sabbath anymore. Now, here's a man that is actively pursuing an idea of breaking one of God's commandments.

He didn't keep it, and he was teaching men not to keep it. Well, I expect that man to be out in front of my place in the kingdom of God and listening to the backup alarm where he is stopping to get garbage cans. This guy is going to be the least in the kingdom of God, the least in the kingdom of God. Jesus takes the law very seriously. You'll never see him being flippant about it. You'll never see him discounting one law over another. As a matter of fact, when he was asked one time, which is the greatest commandment, he would not choose among the ten. He would not do it. He went back and found the scripture that said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy

heart, soul, mind, and strength. Oh, and the second is likened to it. You love your neighbor as yourself. Neither one of those commandments are in the ten. And then he goes on to say that on these two commandments hang all the ten commandments. That's where all the commandments, the law of the prophets, everything hangs on this, on these two. So he takes the commandments very, very seriously. And he says, but anybody who shall do, here's your action again, here's your works again.

Anybody who shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven for i say unto you that except your righteousness and this is what we're going to start talking about now except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven this is very very clear and and very, very plain that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. If you grew up in a kind of church like I did, you understood that righteousness and holiness were pretty much the same thing. That if a person was righteous, he was indeed sinless. Well, this is an incorrect idea about righteousness because it's very easy to be unrighteous. It's very easy to keep the law of God. It is easy to live without sin. It is not easy to live righteously. Let me explain what I mean. A lot of people, when we talk about sin,

and I say, well, I haven't sinned today. And they say, what? How can you say that? You haven't sinned. The Bible says you're a liar if you say that. No, it doesn't. It doesn't say that at all. I haven't sinned today. I didn't sin last week. I don't know if I sinned last month. Matter of fact, I'm having a hard time now thinking about when it was last that I did sin. I don't understand people say you have to sin every day. I don't get that. The Bible says that sin is a transgression against the law. Well, maybe you did sin every day. Maybe you do kill somebody every day. I don't know. I don't. Maybe you do commit adultery every day. I don't. So, I mean, I can't speak for you, but I can certainly speak for me. I don't sin. I don't sin. Now people are going to say, well, the Bible says you're a liar.

No, the Bible says if a man says, I have no sin, I've never sinned, then you're a liar. The truth's not in you. And I think that it would really take a fool to say something like that, that he doesn't, he's never sinned. But listen, as a child of God, you're not allowed to sin. Matter of fact, the Bible says, you know how we can tell the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian? Between a believer and a non-believer? Between God's people and the world? You know how we tell the difference? God's people

don't sin. The world's people do sin. Do you know the Bible says that? Do you know the Bible says he that is born of God doth not commit sin? For his seed christ seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he's born of god How do we know that we pass from death unto life because we love the brethren? How do we know that we've been born again because we keep his commandments friend if you're keeping his commandments, you're not sinning. Now, there are people who play around with the idea, and we're going to talk about it because it's part of the Sermon on the Mount, and it'll be coming up soon. There are people who teach that Jesus said that, you know, every thought that is not a pure thought is a sin. And nothing could

be further from the truth as a matter of fact if we get into the subject of sin and i make the comment that i didn't sin today they say you didn't have an impure thought where does it say thou shalt not have an impure thought where does it say that where is that the law of god carved in stone somewhere. Thou shalt not think impure thoughts. No, it's not there. Thinking an impure thought is not a sin. You know where this comes from? It's a derivative of this faith-only salvation. How can that be? Because it's that, if you think about it, it's as bad as doing it thing. It's that thing about, you know, what you do doesn't matter. It's what you believe. Well, you know, so if you think about sin, then you've committed it. But I didn't do

anything. You don't have to do anything. It's not works, brother. It's faith, or in this case, it's lack of faith, or, you know, it's just a convoluted mess that nobody's ever going to be able to step over this. And you will never know if your life pleases the lord or not because you you're always in sin well you don't have to live there you don't have to do that now am i telling you that that i don't engage in stupid behavior why no of course not i do that all the time. But that's not sin. Are you trying to tell me that you don't sin? And I say, yeah, right, exactly, I don't. So what am I trying to do, deceive you to believe in that I don't do anything that's not risky, that's not, you know, not, or yeah, not well thought out? Do you think that I might snap back with an answer that I probably shouldn't have done? Do you think that I don't make mistakes

in social orders and in social situations? Oh, sure I do. And, you know, think you don't get mad because somebody cuts you off on the highway? You know you know yes but how are these known as sins comes from uh this doctrine this idea this this pseudo theology that anything short of perfection is sin and i'm talking about the way the world defines perfection not the way the king james bible does it anything short of being perfect is sin. The Bible says be perfect as God is perfect. Yeah, but you can't take a 20th century definition of the word perfect and superimpose it onto a 17th century English. You can't do that. We're supposed to be complete as God is complete. We're supposed to be whole and entire and wanting nothing,

as Paul says. See, that's being complete. That's being perfect. But people think that anything short of absolute perfection in every way, anything short of what God himself would do, if he was wearing your clothes right now, if you don't do what he would do, then what you're doing is sinning. No, no, sorry, you can't just arbitrarily come up with a rule like that. Sure, I do things that are wrong. Sure, I make silly mistakes,

and like I say, engage in perhaps stupid behavior, but it doesn't mean I'm sinning against my God. We don't need that. Well, what do you need that for? I mean, to not only now that you're engaged in stupid behavior, but now you think you've displeased God. The other thing that happens is, is people go to God and ask forgiveness for stupid behavior. We go to God and ask us, ask him to forgive us for treating our neighbor bad. Why? Because you've sinned against God. No, you haven't. You sinned against your neighbor. Go over there and ask him, ask her to forgive you. That's the one you sinned against. You think you're just getting off easy. You know,

I treat my neighbor like crap, and then I go and I ask God to forgive me. You know, none of this stuff makes any sense until you realize that there's such a thing as sinning against your fellow man. There's such a thing as sinning against yourself, the Bible says. It says men that mess around with sexual impurity. You're sinning against yourself. You're sinning against your own flesh. You can sin against Christ. You can sin against the Spirit of God. You can sin against good common sense. You can sin against the government. You can sin against your wife or your husband. But you see, these aren't things you go to God to get forgiveness for.

You go to the person you sinned against. That's just a cop-out. I'm afraid we're just trying to make these horrible lives we live down here a little easier to live, I guess. But we need to understand what sin is. This is why we should feel no compunction, no concern, no worry over the fact

that the law has not passed away. The law hasn't passed away, but it doesn't affect me. I live by the Spirit. Paul says a person who lives in the Spirit of God is no longer under the law. Is he under any compulsion to do the right thing and to treat his brother well and to not lie to his friend and to not steal from his, well, if you stole from him, you'd be breaking one of God's commandments,

but to not sin against your neighbor. Of course, you're compelled to do that. You're compelled to do the right thing. And people who live in the Spirit have to deal with those things constantly. But you're not breaking the Ten Commandments. So stop telling people that you're a sinner. Unless you are. But if you are, stop it.

Stop sinning against God. I mean, if you're a thief, you better stop being a thief because you're going to answer to God for this. Time's getting by. Will you do something? I want you to write to me. I would love to hear from you. Don at thinkredink.com. If you heard some things here that you want explanation on, we have all kinds

of materials at thinkredink.com. If you see something you want, write. You can write to me, Don, or you can write to info at thinkredink.com. We'll be sure that you get what you're asking for. If you want any of the books I've written, they're all available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Books A Million, all those kind of things on the internet. All right, we're going to see you next time. Until then, Think Red, Inc. Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com.

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