Words of Jesus Podcast - Words Without Authority Equals Presumption

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

Are you looking for answers? A full mind, sometimes called a closed mind, is in no position to receive new information. This is true, even when the information is desired and sought after. To hear something new, we must loosen our tight-fisted grip on current opinions which are comfortable.  We realize the risk as new information may be contrary to traditional views.  This is the difficulty experienced by the Scribes and Pharisees in the Scripture.  We must strive to avoid the same pitfalls.  Do you believe what you believe in spite of evidence or even in the light of contrary evidence?  In this episode, Don discusses death and judgment. These subjects are so uncomfortable, that most people will not tolerate a sober conversation.  Friend, the consideration of death and judgment is for our benefit.  Don’t put it off.  ***Chapter 12 (Part 2) Jesus Heals A ParalyticSOON THEREAFTER Jesus was back at Capernaum.  Word spread that he was there and great multitudes came to be taught and to receive favors at his hands. One day, as he was teaching, there was brought to him a paralytic, carried by four men.  So great was the press of people, the bearers of the bed were unable to enter the doors of the house where Jesus was speaking.  Accordingly they climbed with their burden onto the roof, made a hole, and lowered the pallet and paralytic into the midst of the group around Jesus.  When he saw this display of faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man:  “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” When they heard this, the scribes and Pharisees who were present reasoned among themselves, saying: “Why does this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus knowing their thoughts, said: “What reason ye in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee’; or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’?  But, that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins,” – Turning to the paralytic, Jesus said: “Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine own house.” Immediately the man arose before the eyes of all who were there.  He picked up his pallet and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And the multitude who saw this miracle were amazed. They, too, glorified God and were filled with awe, saying: “We have seen strange things today.”

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series. Glad to have you. And I hope you're going to find today answers for which you've sought your entire life. What's the chances of that? Well, you know, they're really very good. If we eliminate from our life, if we erase some of the fairy tales, the stories, the bad doctrine, the false doctrine,

you know, the theology that doesn't make any sense, I know sometimes that's painful. And I know sometimes when you erase it, you erase friends and family out of your life, which is unfortunate, but it's necessary for you. It's necessary for you because you cannot build on a sandy foundation. You just can't do it. One of the sandiest foundations that a person can build upon is the idea of faith-only

salvation. Jesus told a story, and we'll get to it as we get to the Sermon on the Mount because it's the way he ends the Sermon on the Mount. Much, much good advice given on the Sermon on the Mount. It's just packed. I hope we can get through it in weeks. But one thing that he says realizing, I think that he realizes that he's talking to people to whom he has

appeared as their judge and executioner and absolutely intolerant of our foibles and our shortcomings and the problems in our life. Nothing could be further than truth, though, I want to tell you. But realizing this, he realizes that he's actually presented a very difficult path, a long path and a difficult path. But he explains, even in

the Sermon on the Mount, that this way is straight. And this gate at the end is very, very narrow. You know, you only get one shot going down this road. You're not going to find a Hindu down at the other end, or a Buddhist down at the other end that is going to send you back to the other end of the queue. You're not going to get another shot at this. You're not going to be reincarnated and

given another chance. You have to understand that according to Christian theology, it's appointed unto man, it's appointed unto man once to die. And after that, the judgment. So what preparations are we making here? Are we making any preparations for this? Well, here's a great preparation. It's appointed unto man once to die.

There's nothing we can do about that. And after that, the judgment. Well, guess who's going to be judge? Just take a guess. I know you think you're going to stand before God, the almighty Jehovah God. I know that's what you think. I know that's what you think because that's what you've been told. But the scriptures say that you're not going to be judged by Him. You're going to be judged

by Jesus Christ. Did you know that? The scriptures say that He has turned all judgment over to the Son of God. Why has he done that? Do you know God is smart enough to realize that he doesn't know everything? Are you having trouble with some of these things? I'm sorry, but it is a fact. And that he has recused himself in your judgment. He has recused himself to a judge who is better equipped.

To a judge who is better informed. He's recused himself to Jesus Christ who has done something that our God has never done except through Jesus Christ himself. And I mean in that broad sense God has indeed done this. But I want you to understand these personages of the Godhead is the Father and the Son. The Father

and the Son. This is the Godhead. The Father and the Son. The Father who would be should be the judge of all the world he's decided that he's not qualified to do that because mankind was created with such power and in such a way, actually created in the image of God himself that he's had the ability and used that ability to his own deficit, to his own harm.

He has used that ability to become something that is different than what God created him to be. God could judge Adam because Adam was what he was created to be. But Judge Cain? No. He couldn't do that. It had to be Jesus Christ who made the judgment upon Cain. I'm sure it was a joint effort at that particular point. All the sinners, all the folks through the Old Testament

who were judged were judged by, actually held in judgment. They were essentially held in suspension. They were held under atonement. If you want to talk about the theological aspect of this, no, atonement's not salvation. But they were held in atonement, in a state of covering until Jesus Christ could judge them properly. The only way he could judge them properly is to become one of us. I thank God he did

this because he makes himself in this effort that he made, he made himself absolutely qualified to judges. Now, in all this idea of Jesus Christ being our judge instead of our God Jehovah being our judge, we have to of our God Jehovah being our judge. We have

to look forward to a judgment and as I said that Jesus laid out this narrow straight path and along with Paul's admonition that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. Nothing we can do about death. That's coming. It's on its way. Have you got a date planned for that by the way? But that day is coming. There's nothing we can do about that but it says that it's appointed unto man once to die

and after that the judgment. Well who's the judge going to be? It's going to be this guy we're reading about here. Do you want to know your judge? Do you want to know how you're going to be judged? Do you want to know the personality? The character? The power? The authority of the judge who you will stand in front of one day? I know some of you Christians have been told that you're not going to stand before Jesus Christ as a judge

because you're saved. Well, the scriptures don't agree. The scriptures say that you are being saved. The scriptures say that he that endureth to the end shall be saved. I can't say anything otherwise. I can't tell you you're saved today. There's no way. I have no idea where you're going from here. I have no idea. There will be people who will give up.

There'll be people who will, they'll give up on me. They'll go, they'll find a church that makes them feel better. They'll give up on the idea of, you know, having rules to live by. They'll give up on the idea of having rules to live by. They'll give up on the idea of trying to keep God's commandments. And they think that somehow they're going to be justified in doing that. I assume that. Or they just don't believe in God altogether. But the fact is, is that one day we're going to stand before this very being that we're reading about when we're talking about red words.

I can't think of anything better for us to know than the judge by whom we will be judged. So I say, hey, tuck in. Snuggle in. Let's learn as much as we can. Let's see what he has to say. And learn how to get along with our God who lost us in the garden so many millennia ago.

We talked about, last time we talked about Jesus healing this paralytic and the fact that they let him down out of the ceiling in front of Jesus. And somehow Jesus understood that the man with whom he was dealing was under the impression that, and I am assuming this by his answer, by the way he answered, he's telling him, son, be of good cheer. Well, what does that tell me? That he wasn't of good cheer. If he was of good cheer why would jesus have said that the man was depressed absolutely depressed i think about his condition be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee now why would jesus say thy sins be forgiven thee

uh you might say because he had sin in his life you could and I'm sure he did but it's obvious that the absence of cheer in this person's life was one was a problem because of the other Jesus decided to handle them both be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee. I don't remember this fellow asking Jesus to forgive him, do you? I don't see here that he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ

as his personal Savior. I don't see where he asked Jesus to forgive him. I don't see where he went down any Roman road. I don't see anything here other than a compassionate Lord looking at a man who's essentially whose life was taken from him. Sure, the epilepsy, or in this case the paralytic condition had removed his motion from his body, but it was the stories of the people around him

and the way people treated him and the advice that they gave him about his sin causing these problems, this is what sucked the man's life out of him. This is why Jesus says, except you repent, except you change the way you think, you shall all likewise perish.

Friend, we're looking at a fellow laying in a cot, paralyzed, unable to move. This man is perishing. He is absolutely perishing. And Jesus had to come to him and say, hey, this has nothing to do with your sin. Your sins, they're forgiven. Just relax. I got this under control.

This is all taken care of. Well, the troubles perhaps ended for this man at this point, but they started for Jesus. Now the Bible says when they heard this, the scribes and Pharisees who were present, what were they doing at Jesus' meeting anyway? The scribes and Pharisees who were present reasoned among themselves. This is something that they just love to do.

They reasoned among themselves saying, why does this man thus speak blasphemies? Now, what has Jesus said that's blasphemous up to this point? They're going to have to explain this to me. Oh, here it is. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Do you understand that Jesus didn't say, I forgive you?

He said, thy sins be forgiven thee. Here we have another example of our Father God speaking to Jesus Christ saying, tell that man I forgive him. Jesus didn't claim to have forgiven him. Jesus was telling him that he'd been forgiven. This is like kissing the postman for bringing you a check. The postman didn't give you anything. He just delivered it. That's all. Probably appreciates the kiss, but that's not who gave it to you. You're going to have to open the envelope and find out. Well, the Pharisees weren't interested in doing anything except what I find a lot of people interested in doing is looking for reasons not to believe. So they said, this man's speaking blasphemy. How is he speaking blasphemy? Well, who can forgive sins but God alone?

Now Jesus, knowing their thoughts, here's one of these scriptures that's often quoted saying that Jesus knew everything or he had the ability to read minds. Well, I don't read that in there at all. As I've explained to you before, we can through experience, just everyday life, we can say something to somebody and you can look at them and say, I know what you're thinking. And you do. You know exactly what they're thinking. How do you know what they're thinking? Well, it's just your own experience.

You're talking about a 6,000 year old being here. You're talking about a man that's got experience. He's been around. He's the creator of the people with whom he's speaking right now. There's no reason to assign to this some magic act. This isn't Kreskin. This is Jesus Christ in touch with his Father, who, by the way, does know the hearts and minds of people on the earth.

Jesus, knowing their thoughts, who, by the way, does know the hearts and minds of people on the earth. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether it is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk. Now, this is interesting, because here you have a man of incredible character. Jesus just had incredible character. He couldn't even imagine saying something

that wasn't necessarily true, or wasn't going to come to pass, or that he didn't have authority to say or you know, you're just going to have real difficulty finding Jesus saying something off the cuff as we say. Jesus called them, by the way, idle words. He wasn't guilty of using idle words. I think he used words very discriminately and on purpose. I don't think that he said anything that was just sarcastic

or off the cuff or in order to make an impression on people. I think what he was saying was when he says, which is easier to say? He was actually saying to the Pharisees, okay, you think I'm being blasphemous? You think I'm not the Son of God? You think I'm being blasphemous? Because you just don't believe that I'm the anointed one, the Messiah.

So let me ask you this. Which is easier to say? Now he's talking to people who, well, frankly, really don't care what they say. They say stuff all the time they don't mean. This is why in the Sermon on the Mount, can't wait to get there by the way. This is why Jesus says on the Sermon on the Mount, let your conversation be yes and no. All else, all else proceeds from evil. Why do you say, hell no?

Why do you say that? Because no doesn't mean no to you, and it doesn't mean no to anybody around you, and you know that they know that you know that they know that when you say no, it may be yes. He's just reacting. That's just the way he is. I know he said no, but he really means yes.

Or I know he said no, but you can ask him again 15 minutes later and he'll change his mind. And you feel the compulsion to add to the word no, the word hell, and then they'll believe me. Maybe if you stomp your foot when you say it, would that help? You know what the problem is? You got no character. Nobody believes you because you're unbelievable. That's why they don't believe what you say. When you say yes, they don't think you mean yes, unless you add a little word on there somewhere to try to get people's attention.

Oh, he really means that. So this is adding to whatever it is we say. Jesus says, hey, you think this is going to be difficult? Guess what? You're going to be judged for every idle word that comes out of your mouth. Oh, no. You mean, you know, I've often wondered, why is the church so against cussing, but idle words don't seem to bother them at all?

The same Jesus, the same Lord, the same Son of God, written in the same red ink, and in some cases, on the same page, said, you know, adding swear words to your words to make people believe you, that's just as bad as idle words. But we use idle words all the time. What is an idle word? A word that you don't have authority to speak. You know how I talk about how people make the mistake of going in the Scriptures

and finding some version, standing on it and believing it, and I'm claiming that as my, whatever they do to try to bring about some miracle in their life. The Bible calls that the sin of presumption. Now the sin of presumption is to presume that God has said something when he hasn't said it. You know what that is? That's speaking idle words. You know what that is? It's speaking presumptuously.

And do you know what the penalty in the Old Testament for speaking presumptuously was? They're to be stoned to death. Why? Because God says, well, they say I said it, but I didn't. So you're going to be judged for every idle word that comes out of your mouth, and idle words are words without authority. Man, we do that all the time. We speak without authority all the time. might notice it on on this broadcast i try to i i try perhaps i don't do it every time but pay attention to me and listen for me to say it because i say it all the time you know this is the way I see this. This is what I, you know, when I read this

this is the way I see this happening. You know, this is my opinion. I try to make it very clear. This isn't necessarily the word of God to you. By the way, if it is the word of God, I'll tell you this is the word of God to you. Because you know what that means? That means I've heard that in my spirit. That God has spoken to my spirit and told me to say something to you. Usually it's on a personal basis, not over the air. But I don't mind telling you this is the word of God to you.

But I also don't mind saying this is my opinion. Do you know who else takes it this seriously? The Apostle Paul. He's given advice to people about marriage. And he's saying that according to the scriptures this is the way it ought to be. According to the scriptures this is what we should do. This is the way we should live. This is what should be important. This is what's not important. And he's going through all these things. And then he says, to the rest speak i not the lord so much for it being inspired from cover to cover but he says what i have to say now this is me

speaking not the lord why does he feel that important? Why does he even add that in there? Why doesn't he just let it go? It was good advice. Why didn't he just let it go? Because he has respect to the word spoken with authority. And this is the way we should speak. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul says you know how I want you to speak to one another? Do you know how I want you to speak to the world? Do you know how I want you to come across to the world? That when you speak, you speak as the

oracles of God. You know what that means? That means when you talk, people ought to hear what you say and say, this is coming from another place. What he's saying right now is coming from another place. Do you know how often that happens on this broadcast? Almost all the time. And if people don't recognize it, there's nothing I can do about that.

But there's some people that hear it. I get letters from people, you know, emails from people say, you know, I don't like the way you say what you said, but I can't forget what you said. I don't like the way you present it, but wow. It's true, isn't it? You know, I'm glad people can see through my personality and actually gain for themselves a word from God because

it's absolutely necessary to do that. Sometimes I make it difficult for you not to react to the way I speak. It's not to react to the way I speak. It's not my purpose or my intention to purposely offend, but boy, sometimes there's no way to say it other than to offend people who violate what God has to say, what Jesus has to say. You're not obeying Him. What am I supposed to do? Pretend like you

are? Just to make you happy? No, I'm going to give you the word of God as best I can. And what I want you to do is respect what I say. I want that so badly that when it is my opinion, I want to tell you that it's my opinion. I'm not afraid of telling you it's my opinion. And you can take it or leave it. It's okay. Because when I speak to you by the oracles of God or by inspiration or by revelation, I want you to listen to what I have to say. And if somebody's sitting there with you and say, ah, it's just him. He's just making that up. You can look at them and say, no, you know,

when he makes stuff up, he admits it. All right. So now we've kind of gotten off the, um, the subject here, but, uh, well, not really. Uh, Jesus is saying, whether it's easier to say, which one of these is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or rise and walk? Jesus knew that when he spoke, that he had every intention, the power and authority to cause to come to pass exactly what he said. And he says, now listen to this, But that you may know that the Son of Man

hath power on earth to forgive sins. He saith unto the sick of the palsy, rise up and walk. Now, here it makes it very clear. You have to understand that I am here as an ambassador for my Father on this earth. If my Father says somebody's forgiven you can bet I have the authority to say so if my father has the power and and has decided to heal a paralytic man then I'm gonna say to him rise up and walk which of those is easier for you to say you can't say

either one I can I am who you dread admitting that I am, the Son of God, the Anointed One, the Messiah, your Savior, if you work it right. All right, thanks for being a part of the show today. It's time for us to go. So join us here again for the Words of Jesus series. If you'd like to write to me, love to hear from you. Can you do that? Just write to Don at thinkrightinc.com and I'll get your email. And if there's any materials you see at thinkrightinc.com that you want, please let me know what they are. I'd love for you to have them. See you next time. 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