Harmony with God (circa 2011) | Ep. 162

Have you ever noticed how quickly a beautiful musical piece is ruined when just one instrument plays off-key? The same principle applies to our relationship with God. When we attempt to insert our own melody into God's divine symphony, we create disharmony that affects everything around us.

We journey through Scripture to witness both the beauty of God's perfect creation and the devastating ripple effects that occurred when sin introduced discord into His flawless orchestration.

From Solomon's gradual compromise that began with a single foreign wife and ended with a heart turned from God, to the Israelites' failure to completely drive out the inhabitants of Canaan, we see a consistent pattern: small compromises justified over time lead to major departures from God's melody. These Biblical examples serve as sobering reminders that harmony requires complete obedience, not partial compliance.

The body of Christ faces these same challenges today. When believers attempt to function outside their God-given purpose—like a foot trying to be a hand or an ear wanting to be an eye—they create spiritual "tumors" that make the entire body appear dysfunctional. These members operate with herky-jerky movements that don't align with the rhythm God has established.

The good news? Reconciliation is possible. Even though one man's disobedience brought discord to all creation, one Man's perfect obedience makes harmony possible again. Through Christ, we can return to the melody God intended for us. This requires honest self-examination and the courage to cut off those things in our lives that create dissonance with the God we claim to serve.

Chapters

• 0:00 Vision of Blood Cells and Purpose
• 22:01 Introduction to Harmony with God
• 39:09 ] The Judges and Incomplete Obedience
• 44:55 ] Personal Application and Consequences
• 55:19 ] Reconciliation and Warnings to Believers
• 1:02:43 ] Results of Harmony vs. Disharmony

Transcript

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 0:03

The vision received was that of blood cells traveling throughout the body, supplying the much needed oxygen and other nutrients to the differing members of the body to fulfill their purpose. Once the blood cells are spent, they must return back to the heart to be refilled before being sent out again and fulfill their purpose. It's good to be back here again, it's good to see your faces, it's good to have this time of worship with you. But I'm thinking of a word. Let's see if you can figure out what word I'm thinking of. It's defined as a tuneful sound, a melody, a combination of simultaneous musical notes in a chord. It's pleasing. It's congruent arrangement of parts. It brings about, maybe, internal calm or tranquility. It's in a chord, maybe internal calm or tranquility. It's an accord, an interweaving of different accounts in a single narrative, a systematic arrangement of parallel literary passages for the purpose of showing agreement. What word am I thinking of? Ah, I think I heard it. What'd you say? Harmony, yes, harmony, harmony with God. The definition of harmonious is something that's musically concordant, having parts that are agreeable or related. They're congruous, they're marked by accord or sentiment or action. And I guess the word that I received in the morning as I was sitting on a stool watching over E Hall because I couldn't figure out what the Lord wanted me to share. What direction he wanted me to go was harmony. And when the word harmony dropped into my head, so did peace, and then discord and disharmony. And then I just got a flood of different accounts in the scriptures that just related to that, stuff that I hadn't been reading in a while, and then stuff that I had read, but I wasn't sure if that's what the message should be about, and so I found out it was an element of the message. But I want to talk about harmony with God today. And obviously it begins in Genesis. It begins in the garden, and obviously it begins in Genesis. It begins in the garden In Genesis 1, at the end of the chapter going into Genesis 2, it says and God saw everything that he had made and, behold, it was very good, and the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 2:41

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them, and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all of his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. And that, to me, describes what, when God created everything he created in harmony with him, because when he created these things he said it was very good. Not just good, but very good. And he was so enamored and impressed with himself that he said I'm done, my work of creation is done, I'm going to rest. Now. There's nothing more for me to do to add to what I've done, because what I've done is very good. There was no sickness, there was no disease, there was no infirmities, there was no sadness, there was no death, there was no decay, there was no blood-sucking mosquitoes, like Bishop says. It was all very good.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 3:56

Not only that, in the very next chapter, as we recount the account of when man was created and it specifies what happened, it says they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. And so, along with that list of no, there was no sickness, disease, decay, destruction and death. There was also no shame. And so we come to another word, which is a lack of agreement. It's a lack of harmony. There's quarreling, there's conflict between persons, between factions, there's strife. It's when you hear a combination of musical sounds that strikes the ear harshly. It's dissonant, it's a harsh or unpleasant sound. What is that word? Because it's not harmony. Discord, discord. it says in the scriptures that by one man's sin I'm paraphrasing, but it's there all of creation was affected. All of creation was infected and it made a resounding sound of discord and disharmony throughout all of the creation. But it wasn't readily seen. The only thing that happened to Adam and Eve was they got kicked out of the garden. There was a couple of other things that happened, but you didn't really see, you didn't really experience the effects of sin immediately. As the Lord said, if you eat of this tree, you shall surely die. Death didn't really happen for quite a while and the more and more time had passed, the more and more this disharmony became evident in the world. It became evident in creation.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 5:54

If we look at Genesis 3, 6, and 7, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave. And we skip to verse 10. Naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And we skip to verse 10. And he said I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid and I was naked and I hid myself. As soon as sin came into the world, eyes were opened, a hiding of oneself from the God who had covered thee in the very beginning. A nakedness sense was felt and fear entered in. And none of this was there when God created everything in harmony with him. Shame became the norm in this world when in the beginning it was not so.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 7:11

And in this symphony that we call life, the works of the flesh are the disharmonious chord that leads to depression. It leads to the feeling of wanting, wanting and being dissatisfied, and guilt, and there is no clear conscience anymore. And our sin leads us, without fail, to death. Because, though Adam did not physically die, he was one of the oldest men to live. In the Bible I believe it was 900 plus years. Is that correct, murray? Did I get that wrong? 930? He lived a pretty long time and he died 930 years later. The evidence of that disharmony, the fruit of that disharmony really didn't hit Adam until 930 years later, where he died and ceased to exist in the life that was created for him, and I don't know how long after Cain and Abel came about, but he had a taste of what was to come when Cain killed Abel. Taste of what was to come when Cain killed Abel, because death now affected it, rippled like like a stone hitting a pond, and the ripple effects rippled all the way to the edges. But it didn't happen immediately. It took a while.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 8:40

And so, when we find ourselves in tune with the spirit of the living God, we are walking in agreement with Him, as His Spirit leads. We are marching to the melody that he has orchestrated. We walk to the rhythm of the symphony and the orchestration that he has ordained, that he has written, because he's the master conductor. And this is when we find our harmony. We're not trying to hear, or have anyone hear, our instrument above others, because he's made us all instruments, some similar, some slightly different, but he's made us all as instruments to sing and to play a particular melody. But we're not singing our own melody to our own tune within God's masterful orchestration. Otherwise there would be dissonance.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 9:42

You hear a melody. You hear a tune and you sort of groove to it and you sort of move to it, and it's slow and it's melodic, and then you have this person here jumping around, dancing crazy and freaky to it, and it's in disharmony, it's not in rhythm with the melody that's being played. And in the body of Christ, when God is playing a melody and a symphony, and you have this freakish kind of movement from one of the members of the body, those are the rebellious vessels. Those are the ones that are in the house that cause friction, dissonance, conflict, and strife, because they're moving to their own rhythm. They're calling themselves Christian, they're calling themselves a vessel in the house, an instrument of the Lord. Yet when you see their walk and you see or you hear their talk, it isn't in rhythm, it isn't in harmony with the melody that God has ordained.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 11:02

And where there is strife you can smell flesh, and where there's strife you can find a proud heart. It says in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 3,. Paul said you are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying, strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? These are the rebellious ones in the house that do things contrary to the melody of the symphony of what God has written. And we have two choices in this life we can either walk in the flesh or we can walk in the spirit. James said in chapter 3, verse 16, where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work We've gone over on Tuesdays for the last four to five weeks.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 12:14

On women what is their position in the body? What do the Scriptures paint for us? Is there God-given high calling in the body of Christ? What is their purpose? What are they here for? And we went from Genesis, if you were here Tuesday night. We went from Genesis and we looked at what is the Lord painting as a picture for us. Because when we go according to the scriptures scriptures, we're going according to the melody, we're going according to the symphony that he has written. And when we find that there's anything and strife and conflict and there's wrestling in the house of God, these are members of the body that function in a manner that is not in accordance with the scriptures, not in accordance with their purpose.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 13:13

We talked on Tuesday night and I described how, when you are functioning outside of what your purpose is, it's like a tumor. There are cells in the body that are supposed to replicate. But when they replicate out of control in a place that they're not supposed to be replicating, you begin to get tumors, some of them amygdala, some of them benign. But every time a tumor is seen it's a danger and it's a risk. And the doctors say we got to do something about that Because that's not supposed to be there. Yes, they're supposed to grow, but not in that area, not uncontrolled, so that you have these balls in different places of your body and they want to take them out. And the things that we do in the natural sometimes reflect what God does in the spiritual. Because a doctor does not allow a tumor to grow in a place and not do anything about it. He gets rid of it, he cuts it out Because it is a danger if left unchecked. He can't control what the cells are doing, but if he can do something, he'll cut it out. Take a biopsy, find out whether it's malignant, find out whether it's benign, but either way he'll take it out.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 14:25

And we have tumors in the body of Christ, we have these ticks that are going on and it makes the body of Christ seem strange. It makes the body of Christ seem not attractive. It doesn't give glory to God when you have these ticks and these herky-jerky movements. And if you've ever taught in school where you have I forgot the name of this condition, but sometimes this person Tourette's, he'll start speaking and he'll start sometimes cursing, and it's totally unnatural, it's totally out of place and he has no control over it. But in the body of Christ we do have control over it.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 15:02

Yet many members don't care what the melody is playing, they don't care what God has written, what God has ordained, and they begin to do things and it makes the body of Christ seem like freaky. It isn't normal, and so those members of the body that are not in line, not in accordance with the melody of God, cause many who look outside to say what is that? Why would I want to be a part of that? Spastic mannerisms? Just freaky, herky-jerky motions. It's like listening to the beat and the rhythm of a slow melodic song and dancing to it like you're in a mosh pit, like it's a hip-hop song and you're jumping and jiving and doing all these weird things, and yet it's not in rhythm, it looked completely out of the ordinary, it doesn't fit, it's not in harmony with the song, and so I want to show you a description of that in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 14.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 16:20

I gave it in the email regarding Tuesday's night study, but it bears repeating right now regarding this message, because Jesus said through Paul that the body is not one member, but many. He says that the foot shall say because I am not the hand, I am not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body and I am not of the body? Is it therefore not of the body? It sounds illogical for the foot to say well, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body. And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body. Do you hear that the members of the body are not happy with where they're at? Well, I'm the foot, but I'm not the hand. I want to be the hand. Well, if I'm not of the hand, then I'm not a part of this, and that's right, because you're creating dissonance within the melody and the symphony that the Lord is orchestrating. You're right. If he wants you to be a C note and you're playing a D or an F note and you're not in harmony, you're not a part of the melody, you're out of place. It says more.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 17:35

If the whole body were an I, well, how can you hear? Everybody can't be an apostle. Everybody can't be a teacher. Everybody can't be a teacher, everybody can't be a prophet. But now have God set the members. God set the members. God set the notes on the page where he wanted them. God set the musical instruments of the trumpets here and the violins here. He didn't have them all scattered, he wanted them to be together.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 18:11

The fingers work together with the hand. They're not working together with the knee. It doesn't make sense. There's no purpose for that. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? If they were all a finger? Well, how could you see, how could you smell, how could you taste, how could you think? How could you do all the other things that this body does?

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 18:38

If everybody wants to be the hand, you've got to find your place in the body and fulfill your role. Then everything works perfectly, everything just flows. You want a natural development in a child, and when that child doesn't naturally develop and something happens and his hand starts not working the way it does, you get concerned. Well, God is concerned that there are places in his body that are not in line with his melody. They're not in line with the head. And He is the head. Christ is the head of the body and when his head says for the hand to do something, and it does something herky-jerky and doesn't do what it does, he does something about it, just like a doctor would. Whether it's medication, whether it's surgery, he's going to do something about that portion of the body in order to fix it. It says now there are many members, many different pieces, many different parts, but they all work together to make one body.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 19:45

On the one, the eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of you, because all the eye can do is see. But if the eye sees something that it needs to grab, it can't grab it. Nor again, the head to the feet. I have no need of you. How will the head travel without its feet? How will it move? And we see this in the body of Christ because we hear I want that title before my name, I want that bishop, I want that reverend, I want that pastor, I want that whatever title they have come up with, some of them scriptural, some of them not even scriptural, but these are the portions, these are the members of the body that are not flowing in line with the melody that has been written.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 20:36

We have children. We have young men and women running to go do something great for God. They have not been sent, they have not been equipped. They have not been equipped. Young, young men being pastors 19, 21 years of age. What experience do you have? Does not the scriptures tell us that the elder should not be a novice, a pastor's, an elder, you have to develop your experience. You have to develop that part of your body. You want to go out and play football. You're going to do weights. You can't go out there not having done any weights. You're not going to have enough strength, you're not going to have enough endurance to take that physical toll upon yourself. We have women holding positions that were not made for them to hold. We have so, and not just women. We have men in position that they're not supposed to be in. But they wanted that position, they wanted that title, they wanted that preeminent place to have the money, to have the prestige, to have the respect, to have the reverence of the people, and they were not supposed to be there.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 21:53

And all this does, if you look at the fruit over time it causes division. I mean, have you ever experienced a church divided, split apart? There was something out of order there. Normally, when you have all of these happening within the body that I've just described, you have division, you have disorder, you have disharmony in the body. Yet what does the melody say?

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 22:25

It says in 1 Corinthians 12: 25, there should be no schism in the body. It says in verse 27, Ye are of the body of Christ and members in particular, meaning. You are a particular part of the body, a particular part. Find out what that part of the body is and be it. Stop being something you're not called to be, not made to be, because it causes dysfunction in the body of Christ. If you love Christ and you love His body, then you will seek to find your place in it and just flow in the melody that he has already written. He didn't ask you to write your own melody for Him. He asked you to be a part of His melody because we've seen throughout the Scriptures, whenever man has written their own melody, it has been chaos, decay, destruction, and death.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 23:37

We don't search the scriptures out. We don't let the scriptures dictate to us what to do, what we are to be. What do we do as men? We choose for ourselves what we want to do and what we want to be first. That's what we do as men, as women. Then, later on, we might look at the scriptures out of context, take them out of their context to justify our decisions that we had made first, rather than seek the scriptures first to find out what God wants me to be, where does He want me to go, what does He want me to say.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 24:22

We can talk about a lot of examples in the scriptures Joseph's life. Who was out of order in Joseph's life that caused him to go through what he went through? Anybody, take a guess His brothers. You think his brothers? Okay, so you think it started with his brothers? Yes, they were in disorder. Why? His father. His father caused that mess because he showed preferential treatment to his son, his youngest son at the time, because Benjamin came afterward. But he caused that disorder and because of what he did, showing preferential treatment to his youngest son, his other brothers. Strife, contention, jealousy, envy all of these are works of the flesh, caused disharmony in that body, cause discord and cause what we know happened in Joseph's life.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 25:22

We look a little later on in the different accounts, we're just looking at the melody. But in the melody of the scriptures we see bits of disharmony in the melody that God had orchestrated, which is kind of weird. There shouldn't be disharmony in a harmonious melody. But somehow, masterful conductor that He is, God is able to use that disharmony within his melody and do something with it.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 25:53

But when the Israelites asked for a king, it says in 1 Samuel 8: 5, the Israelites said unto him Behold, you're old and your sons they don't walk in your ways. Now, make us a king to judge us like the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said Give us a king to judge us like the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. This is the moment where Israel, instead of choosing God, wanted a king to imitate what the other nations around them had. They chose man over God.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 26:28

Samuel was displeased and they wanted this discord. They wanted this disharmony for themselves. And listen to how God responds. And the Lord said unto Samuel Hearken, unto the voice of the people. He didn't say, don't do what they said, don't do what they asked. No, no, no, no, no. Somehow, He used it. Somehow he accepted their decision, knowing what it would come about, knowing how it would create dissonance within the melody that he had already orchestrated cause He had a plan. He had a melody written out. So he says hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, they have rejected me. That I should not, that I should not reign over them.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 27:16

Discord and disharmony, when it's done within the body of Christ, is because you do not want the Lord to reign over you. Adam and Eve sinned. They did not want the Lord to reign over them. Israelites here sinned. They did not want God to reign over them. Sin is about you wanting reign over yourself. You making your own melody. You creating your own song that has nothing to do with the melody that God has prescribed is because you want your independence.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 28:03

Let's look at Solomon's reign. Solomon's interesting because he's a type of Jesus in a sense, but you know what happened to him at the end. So let's go with Solomon's life. He says in the beginning of his reign, in 1 Kings 3, verse 9,. He says to God Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this thy so great a people? Is Solomon concerned with himself? Who's he really concerned with? Shall we read it again. What do you think he's concerned about? The people? That's his concern. He doesn't want to mess up the people. He wants an understanding heart. That is God's heart, that you not think of yourself selfish reasons, but think about my people. And so he asked for an understanding heart to judge this great people. And the speech pleased the an understanding heart To judge this great people.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 29:11

And the speech pleased the Lord, because it wasn't about Solomon, it was about he wants to take care of my people. And God said unto him Because you have asked this thing, you've not asked for thyself long life. You've neither asked for riches for yourself. You've neither asked for the life of thine enemies, but has asked for yourself. You neither ask for the life of thine enemies, but as ask for yourself understanding to discern judgment. Behold, I have done according to thy words. I give exactly what you ask for, lo. I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there is none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any rise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which you have not asked. You see, when you begin to flow in the melody that God has ordained, he begins to take your note and your instrument and gives you something that you didn't ask for. He allows you to do things that you didn't really do it yourself. He gives you that moment, that solo moment that different instruments want during the symphony, because they want to be heard.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 30:20

But it was in line with what the conductor wrote. It wasn't them doing it out of place, out of harmony with what was already being played and written. Out of place, out of harmony with what was already being played and written. And so God gave him both riches and honor. There was not like this king in all of the days of the earth. There was not like a king unto Solomon. But read verse 14. If thou will walk in my ways and keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 31:02

It describes Solomon's reign. This is where it's the type of Jesus millennial reign. It describes his reign as he had dominion over all the region on this side of the river, from Tifsa even to Aza, over all the kings on this side of the river. He had peace on all sides round about him and Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. This is where it was like, or a type of Jesus millennial reign, when he will establish peace and there will be no more wars. There will be him reigning.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 31:47

And notice also what it says in 1 Kings 11. 1 through 13. Oh well, no, not there. I skipped that part, but don't worry about that. It says also that kings from all over the place came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, all of them. And when they came, they gave to him honor, they gave to him reverence, and there's going to come a day where Jesus is going to reign on earth and all the nations are to come to him and give him the sacrifices of praise and worship, as it is even done now. And those that don't come, it says in Zechariah he will deal with them. But we know the end life of Solomon, because he walked in harmony with God, his whole kingdom was in peace, but then came the end of his life.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 32:55

It says in 1 Kings 11, 1. But King Solomon. This is the dissonance, this is the discord. But King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh. And the daughter of Pharaoh was in the beginning of his reign. God gave him peace, he gave him an understanding heart to judge his people, he gave him riches and honor. But in the very beginning of Solomon's reign he had already stepped out of line.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 33:30

It says together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Zidonians and the Hittites of the nations, concerning which the Lord said unto Israel ye shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon claimed unto these in love. I'm talking about this because this is something that we members individually in the body do. We try to walk in the melody of God, but we try to walk in the melody of carnality in the world, and we try to do them both, and Solomon is a perfect example of what happens if you try to do that. In the end of his days, the women that he married from other nations who worshipped other gods he had 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. Let me rephrase that, not to change the word, because the meaning is the same the loves that he had in his heart turned him away from the Lord, because that's what it means to us today. When we desire to walk in our own melody and our own carnality, while trying to walk in the melody of the Lord, our loves turn us away from him.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 35:11

It says it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wife turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect of the Lord and went not fully after the Lord. Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and likewise did he for all of his strange wives. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord, the God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he didn't listen. It says, god came to him twice to talk about don't go after them. He didn't listen. Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon For as much as this, this is done of thee and thou has not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee and will give it to thy servant, notwithstanding in the days, I will not do it for David, thy father's sake, but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. And there we see a generational curse, because the sins of the father, the son, had the effects of that sin, just as we all have the effects of Adam's sin, the progenitor. Howbeit, I will not rend away all thy kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son for David, my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, which I have chosen. And I read that for you because I told you, in God's symphony and in his melody of harmony there's some aspects of dissonance that come in, and somehow this masterful conductor uses those dissonance because now he's saying but for I will give one tribe to thy son for David, my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, which I have chosen. Even though he was going to rend the kingdom, he was still going to save that remnant, that tribe of Judah, for David's sake.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 37:43

And what happened with Solomon here? This is what happens in the body of Christ when the members of the body are driven away and cut off by the lusts of their own heart. James 1, 14 and 15 says but every man is tempted when he is drawn away from the Lord of his own lust. He lusted after these women, he lusted after having his own melody, doing things his own way, for he forsook the commandments of the Lord. And it says when you're drawn away of his own lust and enticed, then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 38:45

We talked about briefly the period of the Judges, if you'll turn to Judges 1. Just going over examples of how this disharmony plays in with the melody that God has already ordained Judges, chapter 1. Judges, chapter 1. Judges. Chapter 1 sets the stage for all of the judges that came after All, the judges that were risen up. There was a reason why this rollercoaster ride of sin and then captivity, and then he raises up a judge to deliver the people and then they walk fine for the to deliver the people, and then they walk fine for the period of the judges, and when the judge dies, then they go back to sin. There's a reason why this continued to happen.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 39:40

It says in chapter 1, in verse 19,. And the Lord was with Judah and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of iron and they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said, and he expelled thence the three sons of Anak and the children of Benjamin. Did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem, but the Jebusites dwelled with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day. It says in verse 28, and it came to pass when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute and did not utterly drive them out. Instead of taking them out, they taxed them so they could feed off of them. But you know, this came right after Joshua.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 40:52

Joshua was told drive out all the inhabitants of the land, exterminate them all. Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them. Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron nor the inhabitants of Nahalal, but the Canaanites dwelt among them and became tributaries. There again, they taxed them. They lived off of them. Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Echol, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Alab, nor of Aksib, nor of Helba, nor of Aphek, nor of Rahab, but the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites and the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Neither did Natali drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Bethna, but he dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, and the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 41:58

This is why everything in the Judges happened, because the melody was written and prescribed and commanded of the Lord, and they did not follow the melody. They wanted to do it their own way. Maybe they got tired. They battled for a long time getting the promised land, getting the people out. Maybe they just we'll just let that little group stay there. They're small, they'll never defeat us. That's probably what they thought. We can tax them? Hey, why bother fighting them? We're having trouble with these iron chariots. Let's just tax them, let them live there. They're small, they're puny, they'll never bother us, and that's their own thinking. But the Lord said drive them out. Drive them out. It says in chapter 2 of Judges.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 42:52

And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bokin and said I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you unto the land which I swear unto your fathers. And I said I will never break my covenant with you and ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of the land. In other words, you make no covenant with them of peace. You make no league with the inhabitants of the land. In other words, you make no covenant with them of peace. You make no agreement with them. Ye shall throw down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice. See, it wasn't just the people that stayed there that well. They're really no threat to us. What were they doing there? Worshiping another god Having altars in the land? That was threat to us. What were they doing there? Worshiping another God, having altars in the land that was promised to you? You allowed them to continue worshiping another God there and it became a cancer unto them later on. You've not obeyed my voice. Why did you do this? Wherefore I also said I will not drive them out from before you. You didn't drive them out. I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be as thorns in your side and their God shall be a snare unto you. And it came to pass when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto the children of Israel that the people lifted up their voice and wept. And there we begin the cycle, back and forth, back and forth. Why? Because they would not dance, sing, play to the melody that God had already orchestrated.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 44:28

Now we're talking about Israel. We're talking about a representation of the church, the body of Christ. This was their downfall. It was always disobedience, it was always. I'm going to do it my way. I'm going to modify what you said. This is what we do in the body of Christ today. It not only happens corporately, it happens individually, and that's where the heart of this comes in. For every one of us here. We do this individually, if you will open your eyes and see how you allow the enemy to have a little place in your life and you let him there. Individually, we maintain and we hold on to disharmonious elements which lead us to having discord with the symphony that we call our life. When we heard the melody of heaven, we began dancing to it. We began singing to it. We were moving to the rhythm that led us to eternal life and it changed us. It made us walk differently, it made us talk differently, it made us think differently and it made us talk differently. It made us think differently and look differently and feel differently. We reacted differently to the things of the world. We were all together changed and somewhere along the line we were tried. The Lord tried us.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 46:05

Where is your faith really? Let's try you, let's test you and, like I said before, maybe the Israelites got tired, but maybe we get tired. Come home from a long day of work and we sit down and we just watch TV and watch more TV, watch movies. We don't get into the Word because we're tired. We woke up early five-something, got home maybe five-something, tired. Where's my food? I'm hungry, give me something to eat. And then we just sit down and we don't really get into the Word and we sort of entertain things that we were really into before TV programs, movie, music, maybe old friends, maybe old stomping grounds we still hang out with, even though we call ourselves Christian, and maybe we hang around with the same kind of crowd we hang out with, but that's them. They do that, but I don't do that, but you still hang out with them and you're really not a light to them. They know you're different, but you still kind of talk the way they talk and you might slip up, you might say things you know kind of wrong, you might curse.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 47:23

We entertain these things and we try to dance both the melodies and over a long period of time it just doesn't look right. And there are people that have heard the word and they're drawn to the Lord. But they've been watching you or they've been watching your relative that call themselves a Christian and they see them talk about the Lord. But they've been watching you or they've been watching your relative that call themselves a Christian and they see them talk about the Lord and their house is in disarray and it's that little aspect of disharmony that causes them to not make that commitment. We've seen it. I don't know about you. Maybe you have the perfect family and perfect relatives and perfect friends that call themselves Christian, but we see that a lot.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 48:15

And when you begin to dance both melodies, you look funky, you look freaky, you don't look normal, not even godly normal. You just look really off, godly normal, you just look really off. And you can't do both Because you've altered the divine melody, you've perverted the divine melody. You're not a better conductor of the melody than God is. God made the perfect melody and you're going to come in and try to inject yours. It's the epitome of arrogance. It's the epitome of arrogance, it's the epitome of pride to think that you can come in with your own song, your own beat, your own rhythm, and think that it's going to flow with God, when all your life you've made a mess of everything. And it is this snare that has been the downfall of many a saint, because they would not rid of themselves the things that God commanded them to sacrifice on the altar of submission to Him.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 49:23

There are little things over time that we entertain and we allow, and we've deceived ourselves because we've made little compromises, thinking that, oh, god loves me so much. I make mistakes, I stumble. But no, I'm talking about the ones where you purposely get involved in things and entertain things and these little compromises that we make over a long period of time, about the ones where you purposely get involved in things and entertain things. And these little compromises that we make over a long period of time. They cause us in the end, to be way off course. Solomon didn't have the right original intentions when he asked for a wise and understanding heart. He may not have married all of the people outside. In the beginning of his reign he married one, and that one in the end, led him to how many wives, how many concubines? He ran for 40 years. By the way, it started with one and in the end he had a thousand wives and concubines.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 50:26

Doesn't happen overnight. It happens over your lifetime. A thousand wives and concubines. It doesn't happen overnight. It happens over your lifetime. It happens because you deceived yourself. You thought, well, it's not that bad. I mean, come on, I'm sure the Israelites thought the same thing. There's a couple families there, big deal, big deal. Hey, aren't we all tired? We got our land, we're here. Let's just go to our tents, let's go live with our families. Let's leave them alone. They're not going to bother anybody. I don't do it as much as I did before, as if that's better.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 51:11

When God said no enough, cut it off from yourself. Didn't Jesus say it's better to go to heaven with your hand cut off than to go to hell with all your body? We need to cut those things off with all your body. We need to cut those things off. We need to realize that if we don't, god is going to cut us off.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 51:40

Anybody ever played with a lizard and you grabbed its tail. What happens to the tail? It grows back. God is going to do the same thing with his body. If he has rebellious members that will not submit, they will be cut off and then another. Their fingers will grow Because there are people right behind you that will walk in line, that will walk into the melody of his harmony. They won't say like the man child won't say I'm not even going to entertain this. I'm going to entertain this, but a little bit. They're not going to say that I don't take part in it like I used to. I'm being very careful and some of us think that we have no other alternative, that we have no choice and we have to continue. We've deceived ourselves into thinking that we don't have the power to do something different, even though we may have done that all of our lives, at the end of Solomon's life.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 52:49

This is one of the few people in the well, not one of the few people. He's one of the few people in the Bible that is so highly spoken of that I would not want to be in his shoes on the day of his death Because I don't know what happened to him. He turned from the Lord in the end. I don't know what happened. Don't put me in his shoes. Put me in Moses' shoes. He was on the Mount of Transfiguration. I've got no doubt about him, but not in Solomon's Because I don't know what happened to him. He changed His lust, drew him away and in the end I don't have a lot of high hopes for him Because he changed.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 53:29

There's scriptures in Ezekiel that said if the father sins most of his life I'm just paraphrasing he sins, he sins, he sins, and then he changes and then he repents and he turns from his wicked ways, then he will have the blessing of my righteousness and the blessing of my eternal life. And the righteous man, if he walks with me, talks with me and we're getting along like Enoch and I walk, and then he turns from me, then he deserves the death that is appointed unto him. When one man sinned, death passed to all men Because they all sinned. It wasn't an inherited genetic trait, it was that Adam sinned and everyone after him sinned at some point and they were worthy of death. One man sinned unto the world and death by sin. So death passed unto all men, for that all have sinned. So death pass unto all men, for that all have sinned.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 54:28

Because of one man's offense came upon all men death. But how about where it says in Romans 5.17, that much more, they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in the life by one Jesus Christ. The gift of righteousness shall reign in the life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. But the good news is, because of one man's obedience many can be made righteous.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 55:19

But it has to do with reconciliation. He died once and for all men. He died once and for all dying. He died for the sins of the world. It says so is the world all saved? Hello, he died for the sins of the world. What do you mean? Does not man have something to do with this? It says for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son much more being reconciled. We shall be saved by His life.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 55:59

How do you get reconciled with God? You've got to walk in harmony with the Lord and His Word. There's no other way, because when the light shines in the midst of your darkness, you are given a decision to make. Will you continue in your darkness or will you walk in the light that I'm about to give you? Will you walk in your flesh, in your carnality, or will you walk in your flesh, in your carnality, or will you walk in the Spirit? Turn to Romans 17. Some of us might disagree with the idea of eternal security. We might disagree with the idea of once saved, always saved. But if you look in the mirror and you ask yourself honestly before the Lord, the mirror of the word, your actions might speak completely contrary to your disagreement with that doctrine. Because you seem to make decisions in your life that seem to say that you're taking God for granted and you just think everything's just going to be all right. Even if you continue walking this way. That is in dissonance and discord with the harmony that God has already ordained.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 57:38

In Romans 11, paul is speaking of the Jews and the Gentiles. And if some of the branches be broken off and thou being a wild olive tree, gentiles were grafted among them and with them partakest of the root and the fatness of the olive tree. Boast not against the branches, but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the olive tree. Boast not against the branches, but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root. Thee, he's telling the Gentiles, you were grafted in as a wild olive branch. You're not a part of the natural olive branch. You were grafted in and those branches that were broken off were broken off because of their unbelief. Don't you boast in anything that you've done, because it is the root that made the branch holy. If you're broken off, then you have no root. So I have taken you, I have grafted you into the root, which is holy, and in verse 19 says that will say then the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 58:55

Well, because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by faith. You remain grafted in by faith, but be not high-minded Fear. But be not high-minded Fear, for if God spared not the natural branches and he cut them off and they are not a part of His root that was holy, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness and the severity of God on them which fell, severity On them which fell in unbelief. They had the severe consequences from God. But if toward thee goodness, if you continue in his goodness, otherwise thou shalt also be cut off. Sobering words to the body of Christ today that, by words, say they disagree.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 59:52

Apostolic Christians, I disagree. I don't believe that we have eternal security, but your actions may make you think twice Because of the things that you're doing and the people you hang around with and the things that you're getting yourself involved in. That was carnal. That was the stuff you did before you were born again. Why are you still involved in it now? Why are you still playing with fire? I don't know. Some of us may not understand that when we were called, there was in that call a requirement to sacrifice on the altar of submission to him some of the things that we did prior to knowing him. But we play around with it and we think well, that's not too serious. Tell that to Solomon after 40 years.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 1:00:54

The scriptures are a symphony of harmony with elements here and there of disharmony filled throughout. The discord was always man's rebellion to the melody, to the divine symphony of heaven, and the good thing is that what began in harmony in the Garden of Eden shall, in the end, be forever restored to its initial harmonious intentions. It will get back to the way it should have been. We've talked about the restitution of all things. It will come to pass, but it will only come to pass to those that are within the body, that are walking in harmony with the Lord and His Word. For all others, there's a fiery indignation waiting for those who do not obey the gospel. And the gospel is not just merely the death, the burial, the resurrection and how to respond to the gospel. The gospel is all of the good news message and everything that he requires of us. Because the Israelites went through the blood, they went through the water, they went through the spirit and they still fell in the wilderness. Their carcasses rotted there.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 1:02:16

Why do we think any different of us today? Why do we think we're so much better than the saints who came before us that we can get exceptions that they couldn't get, that we can get exceptions that they couldn't get. There's still people that drop dead today at the judgment of the Lord, but no one knows when they are. But it does happen, because God is the same yesterday and today and forevermore in the future. Do not mock God.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 1:02:44

The result of disharmony and discord in music is agitation, like by the time you finish with that, I don't feel at peace, I feel restless, I feel in discomfort. But in life the result is guilt, sadness, death without Him. In music the result of harmony is you enjoy it. There's a satisfaction in hearing, it's like wow, that was really nice, that was really good. And in life it's righteousness, peace and joy in Him. And it's amazing to me how God can take His melody, which has began from the dawn of the ages, to the end, whatever that end may be. It amazes me that he can take the disharmony and use it.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 1:03:44

It says clearly in Romans 8, 28,. We know all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. But only repentance, only steadfastness to the Lord and his word in harmony with him makes that verse possible with him makes that verse possible Because there is no way that you're going to walk like a rebellious child and have that happen to you. You have to at some point repent. You have to at some point drive out those things in your life that cause disharmony with the God that you serve, the God that you say you love at some point. Otherwise, this doesn't apply to you. This applies to the children of God. This applies to the sons of God. Who are the sons of God? They that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God, amen.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 1:04:51

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