Words of Jesus Podcast - This Way to Life

Episode Date: February 4, 2022

Has Jesus accepted you? Christians must believe-in-Jesus. This is not referring to mental assent or acknowledgement that Jesus is the Son of God. Belief means action. If we believe Jesus is who he claims to be, we will do everything he says to do; we will search the Scripture to learn of his ways; we will implement his ways in our life. It is our duty to do whatever we can do to prove to God that we are on his side. This does not allow a life of 'living-like-the-devil" then being elevated to heaven because of a childhood or deathbed confession. We must go HIS way to have our sins forgiven. They were judged by their actions. Our actions illustrate what we believe in four dimensions. We won't escape that reality on judgment day. ***Chapter 16. JESUS DECLARES HIS SONSHIP WITH GOD (Part 4)THE AUTHORITIES persecuted Jesus and sought to slay him because he had healed the lame man on the Sabbath and had told him to carry his bed on that day.  Jesus said to them: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”These words angered the authorities further; because Jesus had not only broken the Sabbath but had also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.     To his persecutors Jesus replied: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.  If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.”            “There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.  Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.  But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved.  He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.”  “But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.  And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.”   “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.And ye will not come to me, that ye might have...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello my friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. And you know what we're doing here? We're trying to get you to think red ink. Is it happening to you yet? Are you starting to consider what Jesus had to say about things

and living like he did and doing what he said to do? When you consider things in your life that require your attention and your sober thought, do you find yourself wondering how Jesus would handle these kinds of things and applying what you're learning as you go along? What's happening is you're starting to think red ink. And this is the idea. The Apostle Paul made it clear that we are to have the mind of Christ. And the best way to have the mind of Christ is certainly to know what he said. And if we are indeed in touch with the same Father of lights

and he speaks to us like he did to Jesus, and he can, you are fully qualified to receive from the Lord and to make these decisions in your life. They're not really decisions. You just know that they're the right things to do and the right things to say. It's a wonderful way to live, and that's what we're wishing for you.

I'd like to back up a little bit. We have been in the 16th chapter of this little book, The Words of Jesus, and I want to back up a little bit and we're going to read and find ourselves where we left off. There is another that beareth witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. Ye sin unto John, and he bear witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man, but these things I say, that ye might be saved. in this Jesus is explaining that although it's nice to have people who

bear witness or at least give testimony on your behalf but it's not something that I am necessarily seeking. We will find that Jesus the Bible says that he really didn't seek the approval or the endorsement of man because He knew all men and He knew what was in man. It's a very serious indictment against us that frankly He doesn't really trust our ability to witness to Him. It doesn't

make a bit of difference in the world. I think that we go to thinking kind of highly of ourselves. We find it in the language that we use when someone asks us if we're a Christian, we use the term, I accepted Jesus. You ever say to someone that you accepted Jesus? Many of us have and many of us do yet today and the reason why we don't really feel any compunction about saying such a thing is I think secretly we're figuring that we're honoring God by accepting

Him. And I try to make it clear that He really doesn't care whether you accept Him or not. I know that makes some people mad when I say that, but the truth is that is what the Scriptures are telling us. It doesn't really matter so much to Him that we accept Him. What should to Him that we accept Him. What should matter is that we live in such a way that He accepts us. Now, when you say that, the faith-only preachers kind of go nuts

and say it has nothing to do with what you do. Well, you're going to find yourself at odds with the red words all the time because we're not judged by what we believe, we're judged by what we do. Well you're going to find yourself at odds with the red words all the time. Because we're not judged by what we believe, we're judged by what we do. The Bible says that we await a judgment that we will be judged for the deeds done in the flesh. The deeds are something that you do. And he will determine what we believe by what we did and by what we do. Now he says that I have done all these things, the things that I say, the things that I do. I want you to know that I'm not here just trying to prove a point

to start a new religion, to develop something new on the earth and a new theology for you to play with or to dink around with, whatever you guys do in your Sanhedrin courts. He says, I'm here to save this world. And I think that had the religion of the Jews had the adherence to what they called the law, but it was actually the law that was filtered through the minds of men. That law did not have the ability to save us.

This is why he came. It was not working. And the Bible says that the law came because of transgressions. That's the reason it was here. Now, why was that so important? God could not live among transgressing people. He could not live among people who did not honor Him, and there were certain things that He could not tolerate. He made the two laws that Jesus cited as the most important laws, and that

was that you love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor is yourself. There are people who claim to live by these two laws. They are liars. They've deceived themselves into believing that they do indeed love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor is their self. I assure you, they do not. God has given us a gift by taking those two laws upon which hang the Ten Commandments. If you can keep these

Ten Commandments, I will attribute it to you, I will impute to you that you are keeping these two. And love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength are contained in the first three, and some people say the fourth commandment. The fourth commandment is kind of a split between our duty to the world and our duty to God, and a sign between God and His people forever. However, the rest of the commandments, with the exclusion of the tenth commandment,

are how we love our neighbor as ourselves. And because He's given us these ten, what He's given us is a wonderful gift. He's given us ten commandments that we can indeed keep. And so we can live a life that is an answer to Him, an answer to what? An answer to the calling of God on our lives. We are answering His call by keeping His

commandments. I love to cite Ezekiel here because this is one of the most beautiful promises in the Bible, and it's found in the Old Testament. And that is that if you'll quit going your way and start going my way, I'll never remember anything you've ever done wrong. Now, friend, that is moving from the place of precarious living, living on the edge, very dangerous living, to living in a life of safety that he is going to overshadow us and protect us and not hold against us anything that we've ever done wrong. That is exactly the deal that we want. When you think about what do I want from God, I don't want him to hate me.

I want him to love me. I want him to be proud of me. I want to be one of his children. Well, Ezekiel says, if you want to do that, you're going to have to keep his commandments. The other iteration in the scriptures that perfectly describes what any thinking person, any person who cares about the things of God wants to know is,

what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus' answer to that question, asked four different times in three different gospels, were all answered the same way. And that was, keep the law. Keep the law. The law has never passed away. it will never pass away till all things be fulfilled. Now what that means, all things and fulfilled, I don't know that we understand the depths of that. However, we do know that all things have not been fulfilled and that these laws that God set into motion at Sinai

have never and will never pass away. So it is incumbent upon anyone who calls themselves, fancies themselves, wants to be a child of God, that they keep the commandments of God. Jesus came on this earth and kept the commandments of God. Jesus came on this earth and kept the commandments of God. He did not keep the commandments of the Pharisees, couldn't care less what their little rules were, and he showed that all the time. He didn't care what dates they said the feast were held, he kept his own calendar. He didn't care what laws and rules and provisos and caveats that they have added to the law,

he kept the law of God. The Sabbath day was constantly in question because the Pharisees constantly brought it up because they would find Jesus healing on the Sabbath day, and they decided that healing was a work that should not be done on the Sabbath day. Why should we believe you? You're breaking and violating the Sabbath commandment.

Why should we believe you? We can't believe this man. He's a sinner. He keepeth not the Sabbath day. It's very, very clear what they felt and how they felt about him. Well, he's saying in the scriptures we're reading here that, I know you may feel that way, but you have to understand there are witnesses to my life on this earth that are undeniable. I gave you a witness among men. John the Baptist was my witness. He introduced my ministry. You

liked John the Baptist for a while until he told you everything was going to have to change. And then you dumped him. And then, you know, you sat idly by while the powers that be cut his head off. And so John the Baptist is out of vogue now. But he says, there is one witness you can't tamper with, and that's my Father. My Father witnesses to me on this earth what I do, what I preach, what I say, which is the things that I say, He says, I say because I came to save you. I came to save you. And because we see the Father

actually performing the miracles that Jesus would, he'd walk up on a situation and say, be thou clean. Well this guy was going to be made clean. But not by Jesus' power, but by the power of his Father. Jesus was simply obeying him. And as he obeyed him, the Father witnessed to the ministry of Jesus and he's saying there's a witness that you can't tamper with. And he says, Now, that is an interesting thing in itself,

that he's saying that the witness that you require, you're in no place to receive. You don't accept the witness of my Father. You don't even know who He is. If you knew who He was, you'd know who I am. If you knew who I was, you'd know who He was. But you don't. And so he's saying that I left you an earthly witness, you destroyed Him,

and now I'm telling you there's a heavenly witness and you won't believe him. That's really, really sad. I think that most of this whole diatribe that we read, this whole conversation that he and the Pharisees were having, they were speaking to him in anger and he was speaking them in in sadness and sorrow you know i want this thing to work for you folks i'm here to save you that's what i'm here for not here for you to necessarily exalt me i'm here for you to get to know the father that you say you've been worshiping all this time jesus makes a statement next that is kind of difficult to put into or to understand in our modern idea of theology. And that is that when it comes to this

relationship or recognition of the Father, he's saying that you have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape. There are many people even yet today that talk about being spoken to by the Lord, hearing his voice. Now, do you think that something changed? Or do you think that he's talking about something that's indelible, immutable, and unchangeable? That you've never seen his shape?

I think that it's because he doesn't have one. Actually, Jesus, in describing his father father one time said he's a spirit. He's a spirit. And a holy one. If that gives you any kind of clue. He said that he is a spirit and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. In spirit and in truth. In spirit and in truth. There's two.

If you want to try to find a trinity in the scripture, forget it. We're going to go with the scriptures here. Spirit and truth. God is a spirit and he says, I am the truth. Here's the father and the son. The father and the son. That's what you find throughout the scriptures. You want to know who the Godhead is? The Spirit and the

truth. That's the Father and the Son. And people who say that they hear the word of God, God the Father, that they hear his voice, Jesus is saying here, nobody's heard his voice. Nobody's seen the Father at any time. He says in another gospel. voice nobody's seen the father at any time he says in another gospel nobody's ever seen the father at any time and um so he's saying the reason that you the the reason that you uh do not have this familiarity with him is simply this that the word is not abiding in you. And he, you don't believe in him because the word is not abiding in you. Now, if we understand the difference between the scriptures and the word of

God, all this can make beautiful sense to us. And we can read it without hesitation. We can read it without pause. We can read it without some deep consideration of what did He mean by this and what did He mean by that. If you understand the difference between the Scriptures and the Word of God. Jesus Christ is the Word of God. He is not Scripture. Scripture is simply a recording of what men who knew Him had to say about Him. Jesus sends Him back, sends these people back

and says, I want you to do something. You believe that the Scriptures are where your salvation is attained. Well, Jesus, I got news for you, buddy boy. Everybody believes that now, that the Bible contains salvation for us. That's what it's all about. If that's true, there's only been people saved in the last 150 years

because these scriptures have not been around all this time. And even when they were around, they were locked up and they were hidden and the average man couldn't see them. And if he did see them, he couldn't read them. So to take salvation and to essentially lock and key it like that just doesn't sound like the characteristic of our Father. Does it to you? It doesn't to me. He tells them, you believe that your salvation comes from the Scriptures?

I encourage you to do this, my friend. Go back and search the Scriptures. For in them you think you have eternal life. In them you think you have eternal life. Man, I want to say this to every modern Christian in the century in which we live. You think that your salvation comes from the Scriptures? Have you ever read them? They make no such claim. The only thing that they do for you is they might put a name and a place and ideas and things into our head and testify to men who

had a relationship with God. But for the most part only thing they do is what Jesus said they do. They testify of me. And you will not come to me. The scriptures don't do anything but testify of me and you won't come to me that you might have life. The modern Christian is just simply not interested in following a leader, in following

a boss to do what they're told, to have anybody over them that they essentially cannot control. We're not interested in that. We're not interested in that as Americans in politics. We're certainly not interested in that in church. We don't want a God that can speak for himself. You just write it down and we'll take it from here. This was the offer that they made Moses. Moses, if we hear the word of God, it's going to kill us. The father said, clearly, Moses, if we hear the word of God, it's going to kill us.

The father said, clearly, Moses, they're right about that. If they continue to hear my word, they're going to die. So here's what we're going to do. I'm just going to write these things in rock and you can read it to them. Well, we like that idea. So what did we have him do? We had the Lord just shut up, say whatever it is you're going to say, but as far as we're concerned, you put it in this book, we consider it important. And if you don't put it in this book, we're just going to make up the gaps and we're going to do essentially whatever

we want to do. Well, that's exactly where the church is today. They're not following this book. They're following a denomination. And how many examples do you need to see? How many examples have I already given and we've just gotten started on this journey? There are many things that we do, that we believe, that have no basis in the Scriptures whatsoever. I assure you. I implore you, search the Scriptures. In them you think you have eternal life? Search the Scriptures. In them you think you have your denominational doctrine? Search the Scriptures.

In them you think that you have developed your theology? Search the Scriptures. And what you're going to find? Oops, that's not in there. Or oops, that says exactly the opposite of what we do. Are we going to make a change? Probably not. We're probably just going to continue like we've been going. Why is that? Well, it works. If what you're trying to do is build big churches with big offerings

or whatever other pluses they get out of it, that's the only way to build a church. You've got to open the doors. And you can't make demands upon people like the Essenes did that we're going to have to watch you for two years to see if you actually have repented, that you're actually serious about becoming a follower or a disciple of Christ.

No, can't do that. Because if you do that, there's only going to be eight, not 80, or perhaps 80, not 800, or perhaps 800, not 8,000 people in your congregation. So we opt to go the other way. He says, and you will not come to me that you might have life they're very reminiscent of a of a story that he told about the uh goodman of the own the vineyard that went away and put uh certain people in charge and finally he decided i'll send them my son they'll reverence my son and they ended up killing him too and uh what was their statement what was their mantra what were they out walking around carrying signs around the vineyard saying we will

not have this man to reign over us we will not have this man to reign over us we'll take the bible we'll we're happy with this because we don't have to live in such a way as to hear the voice of God. We can live in sin and still read our Bible. We can do whatever we want to do and still take the Bible and twist its little words around and believe whatever we want to believe and have whatever we want to have. But if we have a living Savior that speaks to us every day,

why, He's liable to tell us things are wrong that we enjoy doing. And we don't want that to happen. He says, I receive not honor from men, but I know you, that you have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. If another shall come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. Do you mean that, Jesus?

Really? Would we do that? We do this all the time. Anybody but Jesus. Just anybody but him. We don't care. Let him come in his own name. We don't care. We'll follow Him around the ends of the earth. If He comes in His own name, Him you will receive.

How can you believe those of you that receive honor one from another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? These are wonderful questions for us to consider. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom you trust for had you believed Moses you would have believed me for he wrote of me but if you believe not his writings how shall you believe my words?

How is it that we believe Moses' writings and we don't believe the words of Christ? How can that be? Yet it is. There was a time when, I believe it was Bartimaeus, he came and he was presenting himself to the Sanhedrin and saying that he had received his sight and they were asking him questions about what happened. Who did this? How did it happen? And so he would answer their questions

and then later on in the conversation after they exploded about this or exploded about that and wanted to curse him and throw him out and throw him out of the synagogue. His parents were smart enough to see what was going on and said, he's of age, ask him. Because they had already laid out the decree. Anybody that confesses that Jesus is the Christ

is out of the synagogue. What you have to understand in the mind of a Jew is they're out of Israel, which was devastating. This is something that the Catholic Church accomplishes through excommunication, and it's something that we do simply by shunning and lifting our noses at or toward or across the street from people that are of questionable theology or whatever. But we do excommunicate, but there are denominations and doctrines.

But you have to understand that in these older worlds, in the case of the Jews being thrown out of the synagogue, and in the case of the Catholic Church, that when they're excommunicated, well, you know, their souls are consigned to hell. This is why Jesus took the time to explain to his disciples, no man's got this power. You're in my hand, and you're there. The Father has put you there. You're mine. And nobody's going to pluck you out. He had to give them that kind of assurance because it was commonly understood

that they did not have that assurance. Well, these Pharisees kept asking Jesus, How did this happen? How did this happen? Who did this? And he says, I've told you before. Will you also be his disciples? Well, they got mad and

you know how they answered him just like jesus said right here he says moses you seem to like but me you don't like you know how they answered that blind man that day we We are Moses' disciples. As to this man, we know not whence he is. We don't know where he came from. Now, indictment? Oh yeah, yeah. One that they're going to regret for eternity, because he's saying that there's no life in what Moses did. What I'm doing, there's life in. We've got to go. Time's gone. I'm sorry about that. Join us next time as we continue in the Words of Jesus series. Glad to have you, and we look forward to seeing you next time. Till then, bye-bye. ¶¶ you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you