Words of Jesus Podcast - What Must I Do To Obtain Eternal Life

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

"What must I do [for eternal life]?" How readest thou?" Jesus answers the question like no modern preachers or evangelists. "Keep the commandments." "…this do and thou shalt live…" Jesus said. If we could keep the two commandments 1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength; and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself; there would have been no reason for JESUS to come. The ten commandments are a gift to us for the purpose of regeneration. We can keep the ten commandments. This prerequisite allows the indwelling of the Spirit of God for internal guidance. Going God's way opens the door to acquire the power to become Sons of God. This grace is not a free gift. We must lay down our life and follow Jesus - to the end. ***58: The Parable Of The Good SamaritanLuke 10:25-37The Parable Of The Good SamaritanA Lawyer asked Jesus:            “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”            Jesus answered with a question, saying:            “What is written in the law? How readest thou?”            The lawyer replied:            “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.”            Jesus said to the lawyer:            “Thou hast answered right. This do, and thou shalt live.”            Then the lawyer asked:            “Who is my neighbor?”            Jesus answered with a parable, saying:            “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, ‘Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.’ Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?”            The lawyer replied to Jesus:            “He that showed mercy on him.”            Jesus replied: "Go, and do thou likewise."

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello my friends, welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris. Think Reading Ministries, Pytown, New Mexico. Hey, you want to write to us? You can do so. P.O. Box 718, Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. And tell us what you think of our particular program here.

What are we doing? Our goal is to reinforce Christianity with the wisdom and words of Jesus, which we forgot. And we essentially don't read anymore. But, you know, you have to ask yourself the question, do I know Jesus? Do I know what he did?

Do I know what he said for me to do? This series is based on Jesus, his life, and his friends, and his ministry, and his relationship with his Father, which, by the way, is what we are supposed to use as some kind of an example for us. And we're going to learn how to think red ink, and we're going to do so by finding ourselves immersed totally in the words of Jesus. Now, we are in chapter 58 now of our little book called The Words of Jesus. And this is the parable of the Good Samaritan. A lawyer asked Jesus, Master, what thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus answered him

with a question. Do you have my book, The Questions of Jesus? You should have that book. You know, you can get it at Amazon, any of the bookstores you want. It comes in paperback or hardback or whatever you you know want on your shelf uh you can actually write to me i'll send you an audio copy for free everything that we produce here at think reading ministries we provide to people at no charge under commission of the lord that we're not to charge for ministry. And so the questions of Jesus, 151 questions that he asked while he was on the earth, and his questions are so probing,

and they're so deep, and does the size of that book scare you? It shouldn't. It's like 500 pages, but truth is is that every one of the questions, it's about eight maybe 12 minutes reading and you can use this as a daily devotion you can use the audiobook and listen to it on the way to work but I would encourage you to ask me

for that I'll be glad to send it to you I can't send it to you unless you ask me but if you do I'll be glad to send it to you because his questions are amazing. When you think about the fact that these questions are formulated in the mind of the Son of God, it's just, it's an amazing thing to even think about. I mean, when he, when he formulates a sentence. He's formulating it not from just the wisdom of a man 60, 70, 80 years old. We're talking about somebody that's been around a long time, the creator of the earth. So there's a lot of weight behind what he has to say. Here he decided to answer this question with a question.

He asked the young boy i you know they they say a young man and he could be 30 35 years old but he asked him a question when he said what should i do to inherit eternal life jesus did what he always does when this question is asked. It's odd that this question was asked four different times in three different gospels and answered the same way every time. What's even odder than that, is that a word? I'm not sure. What's even more odd than that is that if you ask this question to a thousand preachers today, if it were physically possible, you would not get the answer that Jesus gave this young man. That is amazing to me. You wonder why we're trying to reinforce Christianity with the words of Christ? We don't

use them. We don't know them. They don't fit in our doctrines. They don't fit in our Sunday school literature. They just don't fit in our denomination. So we just discard them, I assume. He says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Can you answer that question? If somebody asks you that question, could you answer that question?

Chances are, you couldn't i ask christians a lot that very question what is it what do i need to do to inherit eternal life i'm amazed at some of the answers unbelievable just wild crazy stuff and so a lot of the conventional stuff that is uh you know it's pretty bad i mean it's just it's bad because it's bad theology it's bad because it's not scripture most of the time when people do try to try to answer this question they will apply jesus's answer to the this young ruler they will apply the answer to his second question to the first you ever heard you might be thinking right now as we're talking about this and you're thinking about this fellow saying what must i do to inherit eternal life and i'm asking you

do you know what he said are you aware of what he said? Do you, is it in your mental library to know the answer? And you're sitting there thinking, let's see, what did he say? Oh, I remember. He told him to go and sell everything he had. Well, what you've done is you've fallen into the very trap, if you want to call it a trap, of the common answer for this question. He said he told him to sell everything he had. Yeah, he did. But that was the answer to the second question. The first question was,

what must I do to inherit eternal life? You know the answer? His answer was simple. Keep the the commandments does that go against your grain does that go against your denomination well sure it does nobody thinks that nobody thinks that keeping the commandments are going to lead you to eternal life nobody okay there might be a handful of people out there, but what's a number divided by infinity? Isn't it zero? So how many people believe this? Zero. I mean, because it's just an infinite number of preachers out there that will not answer that question the way Jesus

did. What must I do to inherit eternal life four different times the question was asked through in three different gospels it's recorded jesus never varied from this what's written in the law how do you read the law what does the law say in one case, he flatly answered him, keep the commandments. The little guy says, well, you know what? I've done that from my youth. Jesus said, good, this do, and thou shalt live. Did you know this conversation even took place? A lot of people don't.

They read this so fast, and they read over these words and we all just kind of sit there and yeah, yeah, yeah, and we just believe what we're being told and just we're hardly being told anything. How about doing what Jesus said to do? Keep the commandments. You're going to avoid that? i don't know that that's smart the young man says i've done this since my from my youth what lack i yet second question

what do i lack now jesus answered the, what do I lack with? Go and sell everything you have. Give it to the poor. Why do we apply one question to the other? Because we can deal with that second question. Well, Jesus really didn't mean that. That's really not what you got to do to be saved. You know, but this is a spiritual he was he was speaking spiritually or whatever else

other excuses they come up with but they can deal with that a little better than keep the commandments nobody wants to keep the commandments the commandments are are likely the most hated part of the scriptures oh no not now shall not kill everybody likes that one now shall not commit adultery okay there's some people that don't like that but so but most people think yeah that's a good commandment all of them are great they're all wonderful i love them everyone except that sabbath thing that we can do without that passed away so he says what's written in the law how readest thou the lawyer replied i want to i want to explain to you that a lawyer in the scripture is not an attorney

a lawyer in the scripture is a is known as a doctor of the law this fellow was well acquainted with the scriptures he was likely a scribe or learning to be a scribe it was uh people who it was their business to copy out the scriptures so they were very familiar with words and letters paper and ink and these kind of things they had examined the law to the degree that essentially nobody else did. And so this fellow was likely learning to do this or whatever, but he was called a lawyer, which means a doctor of the law. And then he replied, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,

with all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor is thyself. Well, Jesus said, you've answered right. Jesus one time said, because he was asked, what's the greatest commandment in the law? And he said, well, the first and most important commandment is that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like unto it. That's what love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two hang

all the law and the prophets. Now there are people in New Testament times, in modern Christianity that because they can't accept the law as a whole um and and and complete 10 commandments of god he chose to give us 10 not 9 and because they can't accept that they like to say well i don't keep the 10 but i keep the two friend if you've ever said that, if you'd like to renege now, we can just let you renege on that and we can move on. If you want to hold to that, I have some bad news for you. You're not keeping either one of those commandments. As a matter of fact, if that was,

if that were possible, that a human being could love God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength, there'd be no need for Jesus Christ. If you could love your neighbor as yourself, there'd be no need of redemption. Because if those things are possible, then what in the world did Jesus do? What in the world has he come for? Why don't we just keep the law, keep those two commandments,

and everything will be just fine? Because it's impossible. You cannot do that. It is a great and wonderful law. Both of the laws are very, very important. Jesus makes the statement, on these two hang all the law and the prophets. However, our Lord God, knowing that we can't keep these two commandments has given us a wonderful wonderful gift it is the gift of the ten how is the law a gift because you can do all the ten you can't love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength but you can respect him you can respect his name you can't love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength but you can respect him you can respect his name you can not worship other gods before him you can keep the sabbath

you cannot take his name in vain and and you can't love your neighbor as yourself i know you think you do but you don't you're not concerned about your neighbor's welfare above your own come on who does that absolutely nobody i've ever met some of the kindest and most wonderful men i know you know that spend a lot of time and money and effort to take care of their neighbor and they do a wonderful job at it they still don't they still don't do it in deference to their own selves i don't know that we can. These kind of things are just almost impossible. Well, they are impossible.

That's why the Lord gave us, okay, here's where we're going from here. I want you to honor your parents. I want you to not kill, not steal, not commit adultery. And wait a minute, I think I can do those things. Now you're understanding that the Ten Commandments are our gift to us. Because if he held us to those other two, we would never attain eternal life.

Never. It would never happen. It would be as if God said, thou shalt walk on water. That's how impossible it is. Now, if he says, okay, I realize you can't walk on water, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you a boat, and you need to learn to stand up in it while you're rowing. You know what? I've seen that done.

I think I might be able to do that. Okay, that'll do. That's a gift. I'm going to honor you as if you keep all 10 commandments, as if you're keeping these two commandments because you're keeping these 10. It's a gift to us. As the apostle says,

the commandments of the Lord are not grievous. They're easy to do. This is not a problem. Anybody can keep the law wow that is that 180 degrees diametrically opposed to what's being preached today yes it is you can't keep the law you can't live a day without sin why did they do that why did they even come up with that idea? That's not so. Of course you can live a day without sin. If you can live a minute without sin,

you can live a day without sin. If you can live a day without sin, you can do it seven times. If you do it seven times, you've lived a week without sin. Wouldn't that be nice? Somebody asks you, have you sinned this week? Nope, I haven't.

People ask me all the time, do you sin? No, I don't. Well, how can you say that? You're a liar. The Bible says you're a liar. I said, no, the Bible says I'm a liar. If I look you in the eye and tell you that I am without sin, of course I've sinned. I'm not an idiot, but did I sin today? Is that what you're asking me? Absolutely not. Did I sin this week? No, I didn't.

How about this month? No, I don't think so. You want to go back two or three months? Perhaps there is some problems in there, you know, here and there, but hey, that's what, you know, our advocate with the father is all about is it not to back up repent start over and you know receive forgiveness and pardon and atonement for the mistakes we make i'm not saying that this is just you can do this friends you can do this

i hear people talk about you know asking god asking God to forgive me of my sins, the ones that I know and the ones that I don't know, the ones I know about and the ones I don't know about. I want you to think about that a moment. The Bible says if you sin willfully, these are the sins you know about. If you sin willfully, after you've received the knowledge of the truth,

there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. Who's the adversaries? Those who sin? The Bible says by this we know that we are born of God. How do we know that? Well, you see, the Bible continues. You see, the children of God, they don't sin. And the children of the wicked one, why, they sin. That's how you know the difference between God's people

and people who aren't God's people. One group over here doesn't sin. This group over here does sin. Wow, this is just so simple. How can it be that, oh no, there's no difference in us. The only difference, what is that silly bumper sticker? Christians aren't perfect. They're just forgiven.

I got news for you, friend. You haven't been forgiven yet. You might have had your sins atoned. If you don't know the difference in those two words, I'm sorry. I'm sure. I'm going to tell you. Or you can find out on your own. But, you know, forgiveness comes when we stand before god

and our eternity begins when we have endured to the end not now you're not saved now you're not forgiven now how can you be forgiven of sins you haven't committed yet oh that's right that's right i'm sorry that's what the preachers tell you you're forgiven of sins past present and future well is that not just a a baptist rendition of catholic indulgence isn't that isn't that how you get forgiveness of sins in the future pay a little money to the priest isn't that the way you do that okay so we don't collect money for it but we tell people that your sins are forgiven in the future how smart is that how how intelligent could that be and if during and if enduring to the end has no value no purpose

no intention what difference does it make? Look, you know what the Bible says? You're forgiven of sins that are past. That's what the Bible says. Are you sure it doesn't say present and future? Mm-hmm, I'm sure. You're forgiven of sins that are past. That's how you, that's what happens. Your sins of the past are atoned

until you stand before Jesus Christ, the judge of all the earth, and he judges you according to the deeds done in the flesh. How are you going to deal with that? Oh yeah, I forgot. It's been a long time since I've been in conventional Christianity, but I can remember some of these things. If you're a Christian,

you'll never stand before the white throne of judgment okay i'm looking i don't say it it's not in here what where did you get that where did you get that from did you just make that up out of your head all right okay am i off the subject i don't know it's all the subject isn't it this poor kid he says i want to inherit eternal life jesus christ says you are on the right track you keeping the commandments that's exactly the way you do this but he says you know what i don't kill sometimes i want to i want to fix that i don't want to kill anybody i don't want to want to i don't commit adultery sometimes i want to jesus says oh you know what's the matter with you you want to be made and he used the word perfect,

but our King James uses the word perfect when he says what you're looking for is completeness. You want to be changed. You want to be regenerated. The law can't do that for you, son. Yeah, you can have eternal life, but you see, you need to be regenerated that's what i do see i'm the son of god and that's my job to make you worthy of being and if you'll believe on me if you'll receive me i'll give you the power to become a son of God yourself. Really?

I think I've found what I'm looking for. Because that's really what I want. Jesus says, are you sure you really want this? Why wouldn't I? It's going to cost you everything you have. Oh, you're speaking figuratively, right? You're speaking spiritually right now, right? No, I'm not.

You know all these possessions you have? They're keeping you from being complete. They're keeping you from being the man that I created you to be. Here's an idea, though. There's a lot of people that don't have anything. You could sell all that stuff and help them. You see, this is a beautiful story when you think about it. If you got rid of these things that are holding you back,

you could become regenerate. So what's he do? He thinks to himself, I don't know. It took me a long time to gain all this stuff. I don't know. The price is kind of high. I'll think about it.

He went away sorrowful because he had many possessions. Jesus looked at his disciples and said, you know what? He's not going to see the kingdom of God on the earth. He's not going to live in the kingdom of God. Well, why not? You see how difficult that was for him? Why? Because he's a rich man to enter the kingdom of god well well then who then can be saved well here's the good news guys what's impossible with men it's possible with god you see i didn't want to tell him right away but the truth is if he wants, he may not even have to. But you can't tell people that.

If you tell people that, they're going to insist that they really do want to, so that they don't have to. Knowing that they don't have to allows them to say that they really want to. Wow, he's describing modern Christianity. There he goes again, showing us, you know, that's exactly the way we feel. You don't have to give up anything for Jesus. Just keep whatever you've got. He loves drummers.

He needs drummers in the kingdom of God. So if your talent is to be a drummer, you can be saved. And tomorrow night we'll have a drum concert no you see the key to being a christian is to let everything go let that let that talent die let it pass away if god wants it he can raise it from the dead and that's what he does we have to have we have to have what we own resurrected. We have to have it reinstituted. It has to be by the will and the purpose of God. Who wants to do this?

Jesus was always concerned about this. I'm always concerned about this. So what have you given? In exchange for yourself oh my goodness wait a minute wait a minute I don't know if I like that kind of talk I know you don't like it what have you given you know people they'll tell you in a heartbeat that they've been saved I've been saved but it cost you it was nothing it was free i don't think you understand free i don't think you get it there's no way there is no way that

you've received salvation from god and it cost you nothing There is no way that that can happen. But there are millions of people convinced of it because they learned that, well, you know, you give and you get a hundredfold return. Oh, cool. That's good. So I don't have to give up anything. As a matter of fact i'm gonna make money

on this deal is that the idea if i become a christian my life's gonna get better my wife's gonna get sweeter and better looking and uh and all my kids are gonna come home i'm gonna get a better job oh yeah sign me up wow i don't know where you got that from. But you never hear Jesus talking like that. You want satisfaction within yourself? You want to be perfect within yourself? I can help you. I can help you. First, you're going to have to keep the commandments. Second, you're going to have to become regenerated.

I can help you with these things. And by the way, as far as the life life you have now gotta go well friend i just don't believe that okay all right do the best you can i wish you the best hope it all works out i bet it doesn't but my god and his son is a liar. And he's unduly worrying people about something they have no business to worry about. This doesn't make any sense. It shouldn't make sense to you. And if it doesn't make sense to you, it's probably because you haven't experienced what I'm talking about.

Sorry, but you probably haven't. Hey, I want to hear from you. Our time is gone for today. And would you write to me? I really would like to hear what you have to say. Your comments or your questions or whatever you think about the show. I'd love to hear from you. You can write to me at my personal email, don at thinkredink.com. Don at thinkredInc.com Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you