All right, we're in Luke chapter number nine, if you look down at your Bibles, look at verse
number 49, it says, And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils
in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us.
And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us.
And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly
set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face.
And they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him.
And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, we thought that we
command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias did.
But he turned and rebuked them and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are
of, for the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
And they went to another village.
And the title of the sermon this evening is what manner of spirit ye are of, what
manner of spirit ye are of.
Now in this story, particular story that we see here, we see that James and John are
kind of overly zealous in the sense of they have a zeal, but it's not according to knowledge.
And they thought it would be a noble thing, because of the fact that these people did
not receive Christ.
They thought it would be a biblical, zealous, normal thing to say, hey, why don't we
just call fire down from heaven, destroy all these people's lives, like Elias did.
And Jesus sharply rebukes them, and rightfully so, and tells them, you don't know what
manner of spirit ye are of, the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives,
but to save them.
Now obviously these guys had a wrong attitude, they had a wrong disposition, and they had
a wrong understanding of who even Elias was.
Why is that?
Well, did Elias call down fire from heaven?
Yes.
Did he wipe out a bunch of people?
Yes.
But were they just normal people?
No.
In fact, there are 750 false prophets of Baal.
You know, he called down fire to consume a bunch of Baal-worshipping reprobates, not
just normal people.
And they thought they were going to behave like Elias, just to call down fire from heaven
and consume these people who did not receive Jesus, they didn't get saved, they didn't
receive the word of God, and they get sharply rebuked, and rightfully so, because
of the fact that this is not the type of spirit that God wanted them to have.
Now I'm going to explain some of the different spirits in the Bible.
One that I'm not going to really go into is an unclean spirit, right?
We see that a lot in the unclean spirit is referring to a demonic spirit, and you know,
the Bible highlights that, more specifically throughout the gospels of people who were
possessed with devils, they were possessed with an unclean spirit, and we're not going
to really get into much of that because it's pretty self-explanatory.
Go with me, if you would, to John chapter 16, if you would, John chapter 14, excuse
me.
Go to John chapter 14.
I'm going to just highlight three specific spirits and how it relates to the story that we
just read in Luke chapter number nine.
Now, first and foremost, there is what we would refer to in what the Bible calls the
Holy Spirit, amen?
And we said, what is the Holy Spirit?
Well, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the triune God head, right?
He's the third person, and guess what?
It's a Holy Spirit, unlike it's, you know, the unclean spirit, this spirit is of God.
Now, the Jehovah's Witnesses teach this false doctrine that the Holy Spirit is like
a force.
How many of you have ever heard something like that?
You know, obviously, they've been watching too much Star Wars and Jedi mind tricks and,
you know, Sith Lords and all this other garbage, and they try to make it seem as
though the Holy Spirit is just this force that, you know, goes around and it doesn't
have a form or anything, it's just, you know, it's not a real person, it doesn't
have emotions.
But you know what the Bible tells us?
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
In order to grieve something, it has to have emotions, right?
Quench not the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit.
We often see that the Holy Spirit has attributes much like a man does, right, as far as being
grieved, being quenched, so on and so forth.
But we see that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity.
I'm going to read to you from 1 John 5, verse 6 through 7, it says, verse 7, excuse
me, it says, For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
Look at John chapter 14, verse 25, look down at your Bibles, it says, These things have
I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I have said unto you.
So we see here that Jesus Christ specifically speaks of the Holy Spirit being referred
to also as the Comforter, okay?
Why is that?
Because of the fact that He makes intercessions for the people of God, with groanings which
cannot be uttered.
So when you're going through a difficult time, you're depressed, you're discouraged,
you're going through trials and tribulations, your most valuable asset, aside from the
Word of God, is the Holy Spirit of God that dwells within you.
He is the Comforter.
Now, how does He comfort you?
Well, it says right there that He will bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I have said unto you.
What has Jesus said unto us?
Well, you think of many scriptures where the Bible talks about, in this world ye shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
So obviously the Holy Spirit works in tandem with our digestion of the Word of God.
So as we read the Bible, as we meditate upon Him, as we memorize it, the Holy Spirit
brings those things into remembrance, it comforts us during difficult times.
But He's a real person, you know?
It's not like He's Jesus, and Jesus is God the Father, and He's just one God that manifests
Himself in three different ways.
This is an actual person.
You understand that?
Now go to John chapter 16.
John chapter 16.
The Comforter.
He's referred to as the Comforter.
Look at John chapter 16 verse 7, it says, Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is
expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and
of judgment, of sin, because they believe not on me, of righteousness, because I go
to my Father, and you see me no more, of judgment, because the prince of this
world is judged.
So one of the responsibilities, or the ministries, we should say, of the Holy Spirit is that
it reproves the world of sin.
This is like likened unto when we go soul winning.
When we talk about the first and second point, that for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, you know, there's not a just man upon earth that doeth good
and sinneth not.
There's none righteous, no, not one.
And we're explaining to him that, hey, you've sinned.
What does the Holy Spirit do?
It reproves them of that sin and helps them to recognize, hey, you've broken
God's commandments.
You've broken God's laws, right?
It judges them.
You know, a lot of these liberal churches want to paint the Holy Spirit like this, only
like a dove that causes no harm, and it's not, you know, very abrasive.
Here it says that he reproves them of sin.
You know, when you, when I'm preaching the Bible and you get offended at something
that I say, because I'm picking on your sin, it's not me.
It's the Holy Spirit reproving you of sin.
It's using the word of God that's quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.
It's piercing you, and it's reproving you of a specific sin.
Let's read on.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak,
and he will show you things to come.
He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you.
And this is clearly manifested even today.
It's shown throughout the gospels.
The apostle Paul specifically stated that the natural man receiveth not the things of
the spirit of God, neither can ye know them, for they are spiritually discerned.
The Bible specifically tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter number 1 that the spirit of God surgeth
all things, yea, the deep things of God.
He's the one that teaches us doctrine.
You know, when you're hearing doctrine coming from the pulpit or when you're reading
the Bible, it's the Holy Spirit that is allowing that to resonate with your spirit.
You know, speaking to your heart through the word of God, increasing your understanding,
increasing your discernment, allowing you to basically decode the truths of the word of God.
That's why it's called the spirit of truth.
That's why we should never study books or listen to preachers who aren't saved.
These wicked false teachers who think they have this edge on doctrine, even if they
use the King James Bible.
In fact, it's even worse if they use the King James Bible.
Because they're perverting the ways of the Lord, they're perverting the word of God,
and they are understanding and interpreting it through an unsaved lens.
They're not saved.
They don't have the spirit of God living within them.
Your average church member who's been in church for five years is far better of
a scholar if they've read the Bible, they understand the Bible, than any of these Calvinistic
scholars of today, these James Whites, these John MacArthur's wife because they have
the spirit of truth dwelling within them.
So that's what he does.
He reveals truth unto us.
He reminds us of truth and he's also known, he's not only known as the spirit of truth
as the comforter, but he's also known as the earnest of our inheritance.
Now you know in the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, the spirit of God would
come upon the prophets, it would come upon different people to do great exploits.
It would come upon people to even write the scriptures, right?
The Bible tells us that no prophecy of the scriptures is given of any private interpretation,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, right?
It tells us about in 1 Peter how the prophets had the spirit of Christ in them as they
were writing the scriptures.
But the difference is it did not dwell within them as the Holy Spirit dwells within
us today.
That's one of the main differences from Old to New Testament, is in the Old Testament
the Holy Spirit would come upon people, he would dwell within people for a short period
of time.
It wasn't a permanent dwelling, but today we have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling
within us.
In fact, the Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 13, it says,
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance.
So this is something that God does for us to give us the confidence that once we're
saved we're always saved.
That's one of the key doctrines that I love, the key verses that I love showing
people when talking to them about eternal security.
Because he says he's sealed until the day of redemption, he's the earnest of our inheritance.
He's the down payment on us, right?
He uses the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, he's the earnest of our inheritance.
And then it says unto the redemption of the purchased possession.
Because the aspect of our being that is saved, that is sinless, is our Spirit, not
our flesh, but he's dwelling in there until our flesh is redeemed one day, of
course, at the rapture.
Go to Romans chapter number 7 if you would.
So you have what's referred to as the Holy Spirit.
And we see the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to comfort us, it's to reprove the world
of sin, it's to bring truth into our remembrance.
It is to, you know, help us to be comforted.
It bears witness with our spirit, the Bible says, that we're the children of God.
But then there's a third spirit and it's referred to as our spirit.
So at this point I'm not talking about the Holy Spirit, though we can say he's
our spirit, right?
He belongs to us, he's in us, but when I refer to our spirit this is also known
as the inward man, okay?
And this is important right here because of the fact that sometimes people get confused,
you know, it's like, man, what is he talking, is he talking about the Holy Spirit or is
he talking about just the spirit, the inward man?
Are these two separate entities, you know, or are they the same thing?
Well, I believe that obviously these are two separate entities.
You have the Holy Spirit of God, but then you have our spirit, which is actually the
inward man who is regenerated by the Holy Spirit at salvation.
So what basically happens is when you're born, you're born with a living spirit, okay?
We're not Catholics here, Catholics believe that once, you know, a baby's born they have
original sin and, you know, their spirit is dead, they're sinners, that's why they
baptize babies.
You know, they believe in baptismal regeneration, that's why they baptize babies because they
say they have original sin.
What a crazy thought to think for them to believe that if a baby does not get baptized
and for some reason it dies it goes to hell.
I mean that's ridiculous right there.
We don't believe that.
The Bible doesn't teach that.
Look at Romans chapter 7 and verse number 9 it says, for I was alive without the law
once but when the commandment came sin revived and I died.
Now let me ask you a question, the Apostle Paul is writing this, did he physically die
here?
No, so obviously this is not referring to his physical body, right?
This is referring to another aspect of his being that died and the aspect of the being
of his being that he's referring to is his inward man, the spirit is what was slain
through the word of God.
Look at verse 10, and the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death
for sin taken occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me.
Now this is likened unto what we see in Galatians, I believe it's Galatians chapter
3, if I'm not mistaken 2 or 3, where it talks about the schoolmaster, can someone
refresh my memory, is it 2 or 3, 2, 3, or 4?
That's all good.
The schoolmaster brings us unto Christ, right?
The law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.
How does he do that?
Because the law slays us.
So the Bible says that the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.
So when we go out and preach the gospel, we tell them, hey, you know, the Bible says
thou shall not bear false witness, I have lied before, have you?
And we awaken that in their conscience to recognize, oh yeah, I have sinned against
God, I've done that before.
And obviously prior to that, more often than not, you meet people who their conscience
is already slain, their spirit is already slain, okay?
But sometimes you'll run into children or, you know, sometime in the future if you have
children and they grow up, you're going to be the one to slay your child by the law,
not physically of course, I'm talking about in a spiritual sense, to help them to recognize
that they're sinners and then they're slain because of that.
That's what he says, that's what he's referring to, in the commandment which was ordained
to life, I found to be unto death, for sin taken occasion by the commandment deceived
me and by it slew me.
So what is he referring to here?
He's referring to the fact that he came to the knowledge that he was a sinner because
he said, I had not known sin except the law had said, thou shall not covet.
So he says, I didn't know I was sinning until I was told that, you know, coveting
or lust is coveting, right?
And we don't know exactly when this took place, this could have taken place in the
life of Paul when he was a very young child because of the fact that his parents
are probably teaching him the Bible and they probably taught him that.
And you know, obviously he didn't get saved until later because he's a Pharisee, but his
spirit was slain by the law, obviously earlier, okay?
Now look what it goes on to say in verse number five.
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work
in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that
we should serve in the newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
So we see here that the Bible is actually talking about this aspect of our being called
the inward man.
Now this is the aspect of our being, if you're saved, that is a life.
So it's slain by the law, but it's brought to life by the spirit.
You know, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.
The flesh profiteth nothing, but the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit
and they are life.
So when the word of God is given to you, the gospel is given to you, and you believe it,
it revives your spirit.
So now you have what's referred to as the inward man, which is perfect in righteousness
and true holiness.
Your spirit is then born of God, it's sinless, okay?
Look at verse 15.
For that which I do, I allow not, for what I would, that do I not, but what I hate,
that I do, that do I.
If then I do, that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good, then it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Now he's not referring to the inward man at this point.
When he says the sin that dwelleth in me, he's actually referring to his flesh.
For I know that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is
present with me, this is the inward man, but how to perform that which is good,
I find not.
For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would, that I do.
Now if I do, that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Now he's not a schizophrenic here.
He's like, that wasn't me, I didn't do it.
He obviously is stating, he's not saying that he's not responsible for the sins that he does.
What he's doing here in this passage of scripture is making a distinction between
the inward man and your flesh.
And he's making a distinction saying, hey, your inward man is not the one who's doing these sins.
It's your flesh that's doing them, but unfortunately, your flesh is part of you.
But when you walk in the spirit, you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So he's kind of showing the inward battle there.
Look at verse 22.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
And that's every Christian, right?
We want to hear the word of God, we desire the word of God, but do we always read the
word of God?
No?
You know, if you're not walking in the spirit, if you're not, you know, being filled with
the spirit, there's going to be times when you don't read it.
Now your inward man wants to read it, but it doesn't mean that you're going to
fulfill that desire that the spirit has.
Verse 23.
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind, I myself serve
the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.
Go with me, if you would, to 2 Corinthians, chapter number 4, verse 16.
So our spirit, referring to the inward man, is the aspect of our being that is saved.
Okay?
And look, this is where the Calvinists are all mixed up on.
Because they think, well, if you're saved, all of you are saved.
That's what they think.
With their speech, they believe, well, if you're saved, then everything is saved.
You shouldn't desire to sin.
You know, these John MacArthur's and James White's of this world, they're like, if you're
saved, you're just going to believe that everything is saved.
That's ridiculous.
And you're a liar and you're a hypocrite, is what you are.
Because when we get saved, the Bible has clearly laid out doctrinally what's the aspect
of your being that actually is saved.
Now, the Bible tells us that our bodies are purchased by God, right?
Therefore, honor God in your body and in your soul, which are Christ's, which are God's.
He's the one who actually purchased his body.
But you know what?
It has not yet been redeemed, you understand?
Look at 2 Corinthians 4, 16, for which cause we faint not.
But though our outward man perish, referring to the flesh, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day.
So the outward man perishes, doesn't it not?
I mean, we get older, your back starts hurting.
You start getting these gray hairs, you know, your bones become brittle and the longer
you live, you're not getting any younger, you're actually perishing.
Your body's deteriorating is what it's doing.
However, the inward man is being renewed day by day.
How is that?
Through God's word, through the preaching, you're feeding your spirit, is what that's
referring to.
And now this is the aspect of our body, of our being, excuse me, that does not sin.
And people get like weirded out about that.
They're like, what?
Yeah, I don't sin.
At least my spirit doesn't.
And the flesh sins, but the inward man does not.
The Bible says whosoever is born of God does not commit sin.
Oh yeah, see, then why does your flesh sin?
Well, hold on a second.
Is my flesh born of God?
No, it is not.
It's my spirit that is born of God.
Now turn with me, if you would, to Colossians chapter number 2, if you would, Colossians
chapter number 2.
So we have the Holy Spirit.
We have our spirit.
And then we also have our spirit.
Now what am I referring to there?
At this point, I'm not talking about the inward man.
Because there's times in the Bible when the spirit is mentioned and is referring to
our spirit, and it's actually referring to like the heart, the attitude, our mind,
our seed of emotions, okay?
For example, we read this morning, the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity,
but a wounded spirit, who can bear?
That is referring to our attitude, okay?
It's saying there that the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity.
Why is it saying that?
Well, if you have a good attitude, even when you're sick, that attitude will sustain
your sickness.
For example, the Bible tells us, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a
broken spirit dryeth the bones.
So it's saying that a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, the heart is also in relation
to the spirit, but this is not talking about our inward man.
At this point, it's referring to our mind, our heart, our attitude.
The Bible says, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth
the spirit, then he that taketh a city.
Now that's not referring to our inward man.
Why?
Because the inward man, we need the inward man to rule us, right?
Now us to rule the inward man.
What we need to rule is our attitude.
What we need to rule is our mind.
What we need to rule is our heart.
That's what we need to control.
The Bible says, he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken
down and without walls.
Look at Colossians chapter 2 and verse number 5.
So what am I talking about here?
I'm referring to our attitude, and this is basically what we're going to be talking
about today, okay?
Is our attitude, our spirit.
Look what it says in verse 5, for though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you
in the spirit, joying and beholding you ordered in the steadfastness of your faith
in Christ.
Is he saying like, I'm just going to do astro projectile, or what is that called?
Where the soul comes out and he's going to be with you.
I'm not there, but I'm going to see you through, you know, is that what it's called?
Astro projection?
Through astral projection?
That's not what he's referring to.
He's saying my heart's there, is what he's saying.
I'm thinking of you, is what he's saying.
You know, I'm not going to be there, I'm absent in the flesh, but I'm going to be
with you in the spirit because I'm going to be thinking about you, is what he's saying,
okay?
Now, go to Ephesians chapter 4 if you would, here's the thing, is though these
are separate aspects of us, of course the Holy Spirit is not us, but though these
are separate aspects of our life when it comes to our spirituality, you have the Holy Spirit,
you have our spirit, you have our attitude, you know, these are separate one from another.
Our attitude as far as our mind, our heart, our emotions is actually influenced by these
aspects of our life, by the Holy Spirit.
It's influenced by the flesh.
It's influenced by our inward man.
And sometimes people struggle, they believe right, they're in the right church, they have
the right Bible, but they still struggle and partly it's due because of the fact
that they're not subjecting their attitude to God's Holy Spirit, right?
Because the Holy Spirit should influence our attitude.
You know, one of the fruits of the Spirit is joy, being joyful.
One of the fruits of the Spirit is humility, it's love, it's peace, right?
These are the fruits of the Spirit.
And we have to on purpose allow the inward man to be influenced by the Holy Spirit
so that our hearts, our attitudes, our minds can be appropriate, you know, for
whatever situation.
Look what the Bible says in verse 22, they put off concerning the former conversation,
the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the
spirit of your mind.
So this is not referring to our inward man, because look what it says in verse 24,
and that you put on the new man, which after God is creating righteousness and true
holiness.
So when we listen to preaching, we're reading the Bible, what are we doing?
We're being renewed in the spirit of our mind, you understand?
We're making a conscientious decision, we're listening to something, we're being ready
to, we're listening to the preaching of God's Word, and what is it doing?
It's causing us to make a decision, right?
We listen to it and then we say, you know what, I'm gonna put on the new man today.
So all sermons and Bible preaching, it goes through your intellect and ultimately
influences your inward man, obviously, but vice versa, because your inward man wants
to do that, which is right, it wants to read the Bible, wants to pray, and ultimately
affects your attitude, okay?
Go with me if you would to, go back to Luke chapter 9, Luke chapter 9.
So our attitude is influenced by our flesh, our inward man, and the Holy Spirit.
You know, that's why God told Cain, why hast thou count'st and has fallen?
Bad attitude, okay?
And look, this is piggybacking off of a little bit of what I said this morning, we should
not have a bad attitude when we come to church.
You know, well that's just how I am.
Then you need to start like walking in the Spirit, not fulfilling that lust of the flesh.
I'm just having a bad day, then leave your bad day at the door.
No one wants to see your grumpy, you know, moody bottom in church.
So do yourself a favor, do us a favor, walk in the Spirit, adhere to the inward man,
and fix your spirit, right?
And look, I'm not saying that, you know, we can't have our rough days, because we could
have rough, sometimes we just have bad days, right?
Bad day at work, bad day with sickness, bad day with whatever, you know, and everyone
has the right to be that way, but we shouldn't live that way, right?
Now look, there is a season when you can be that way though.
When there's a death of a family member, the Bible even says we should mourn.
You know, that's a wounded spirit at that point, and that is biblical to mourn, to have
sorrow of heart, but I'm referring to people that is just like the regular stresses of
life, and you're just mad all the time, you know?
We should never be characterized by that, and we need to make sure that we check our
spirit and make sure that it adheres to the desires of the inward man, and it's led
by the Holy Spirit.
So let me talk, the title of the sermon obviously is What Manner of Spirit Are Ye?
So I'm going to talk about a couple different spirits, okay?
Attitudes obviously.
Number one is a violent spirit.
It's funny because we were just talking about this beforehand, right, a little bit,
but that's different.
That's not violence.
A violent spirit, what is that?
Desiring to violate someone or seek vengeance.
We should not have a violent spirit, okay?
Now do we have spurts of desires to strike vengeance upon people if they wrong us or
whatever?
That's normal.
I want vengeance on reprobates, you know?
And in my flesh, I want to whoop some reprobates.
I'd like to just square up with some reprobates every once in a while.
That's just in my flesh, you know?
But obviously the Bible says, you know, that vengeance belongeth unto me, saith the Lord,
I will repay.
So what does God say?
He says that he's going to be the one who repays the people who do you wrong, right?
Look at Luke 9 54.
My paper's here.
Let's look at it again.
It said, when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, without that
we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did.
That's violent, man.
We're not talking about false prophets here.
They wanted to rain fire down on just regular people.
This is like you going soul winning and someone just kind of like cusses you out and you're
like, oh, that guy's a reprobate.
Fire!
It's like, no, he's probably just a wicked person who's not a reprobate because you
have to go pretty far.
You have to have a seared conscience.
Sometimes people are just scorners.
Did you know that?
They're just scorners.
There's people out there who are not reprobates, they're just scorners.
And if you don't know that, then you haven't been around a whole lot of people throughout
your entire life.
I met scorners even before I got saved.
People push your buttons and just want to get you mad and all this stuff.
You know, we should never have this attitude that we want to inflict pain upon some sinner
out there because they cussed us out or whatever.
You know?
And look, I'm not talking about the twins.
The twins as a separate category who I pray the fire rains down on them every day.
Okay, pray God destroys them every single day.
Now that's different.
You can't say those are the two same things.
Those are completely different things.
Verse 55 says, but he turned and rebuked them and said, he knew not what manner of spirit
you are of, for the son of man is not going to come to destroy men's lives, but
to save them.
And they went to another village.
Now some people will take something like this and use it on us, wouldn't they?
Oh, you guys have a bad spirit.
You know, Jesus came not to destroy men's lives, but to, but to save them.
Yeah.
But we also have to use that in tandem with the fact that Jesus will come and destroy
men's lives in Revelation.
You know that?
Are you going to deny the fact that Jesus is going to come and destroy people on this
earth with the brightness of his coming?
Are you going to, are you going to deny the fact that there are three and a half
years of God's wrath being poured on this earth for the wickedness of this world,
that people will be dying and being destroyed and just wrath upon wrath.
So we got to use, we got to balance this out.
He's not talking about those people.
He's talking about people as a, especially specifically at that point, he wasn't coming
to destroy men's lives.
He was coming to seek and to save that which was lost.
He was preaching the gospel.
But you can't say, and then people look at us as like, Oh, when you guys preach,
you guys are so angry.
Yeah.
You better believe I'm angry.
And guess what?
A spear filled man should get angry every once in a while.
That's a right spirit.
A bad spirit is when you're a little punk coward who doesn't want to preach the truth
because you're too afraid.
That's called a sissy spirit.
And I'll get into that just a little bit.
I don't want to get ahead of myself, but we should not be just angry and desirous
to inflict pain upon people for no reason or because they offended us or whatever.
The Bible tells us he that is soon angry dealeth foolishly and a man of wicked devices
is hated.
The Bible tells us make no friendship, Proverbs 22, 24, with an angry man.
And with the furious man, thou shall not go away, lest thou learn his ways and get
a snare to thy soul.
That's why you shouldn't hang out with your gangster buddies because they always
want to beat someone up.
Right?
And when you hang around your old buddies who are gangsters and their cholos and they're
all this and that, you're going to want to go back and do what they do.
We shouldn't make friendships with an angry person because then we become, that rubs off
on us as well.
Not soon angry.
Proverbs 29, 22 says an angry man stirreth up strife and a furious man aboundeth in transgressions.
So a person who's always angry, he's always going to be sinning.
He abounds in transgressions.
Why?
Because if he's angry, he's going to inflict pain upon people.
He's going to do people wrong.
He's going to violate people, et cetera.
We should not be characterized as being angry people.
The Bible says a man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble
in spirit.
So what's the opposite of someone who is angry, someone who's humble?
Someone who is slow to anger.
Because does the Bible say, does the Bible teach us not to be angry?
No, it says be angry and sin not.
And it tells us to be slow to anger.
What does it mean to be slow to anger?
That means you're patient with people.
You know?
I told the story before, I don't know if I just told it to the guys, but I remember
like I used to kickbox at this one gym and there's this Armenian guy.
And he was like this, he was, I don't know, I want to say he was like 190, 185 or something
like that.
And, but he was like one of the nicest guys that I've ever met in my life.
Just real humble, kind and meek.
You know, he could have been a Christian.
I don't know.
I wasn't saved at that time.
But I remember like this guy can, can throw down pretty good.
He was dangerous, you know, he's dangerous with his kicks, he was dangerous with everything.
And I remember one time he came late to the gym.
And his name is Armin, that was his name.
And I was like, and he was like, he typically when you would come into the gym, he was
very happy, smiling, always very helpful, just a nice guy.
And I remember like he came into the gym, he was just really in a bad mood.
And that was, it was just very unlike him to be that way.
You know?
So I asked him, I said, hey, are you okay?
Is everything all right?
He's like, I don't want to talk about it.
And I'm just like, all right.
I mean, we got a train and stuff.
I'm like, are you sure you want to talk about it?
He's just like, I knock a guy out.
I'm like, oh, man, that's not good.
And he was telling me, he basically told me the story that he was at some college.
And this guy just started talking trash to his face.
And Armin, you know, look, by the way, when someone knows how to fight, they don't
want to fight, because they know what they can do to people, right?
And he was just like, he was just like, leave me alone.
And the guy was like, just kind of talking crap to his face.
And Armin was just like, leave me alone.
And the guy just punched him in the mouth.
And Armin just went, please don't do that.
Please don't do that.
What in the world?
I mean, this is not fighting words, this is fighting fists.
He's just like, please don't do that.
And the guy hit him again in the mouth.
And Armin just gave him one elbow and just Nyquilled him.
Just Nyquilled PMed him on the floor.
And he felt horrible about it, because he had to do it.
Me, I was loving the story.
I was like, man, that's what that guy gets.
But you know, typically, that's what you call slow to anger, though.
I mean, when the guy has to punch you twice in the mouth before you knock him out, that's
pretty slow to anger.
Now that's kind of extreme.
I wouldn't necessarily do that.
You know, if someone punches me in the mouth, I'm not responsible for what the flesh might
do or something.
But it's a good example of just being patient with people.
Look, I would say this.
If there's a guy who wants to fight you, you know, if that ever happens, you do your
best to just not fight.
Say, I don't want to fight.
I'm a Christian.
I don't believe in this.
You know, but if they start assaulting you, obviously, you have to defend yourself, okay?
But hey, let's try to avoid that as much as possible, right?
Let's be slow to anger, because typically, people who are hasty like that are people
who just want to fight.
They just want to be violent.
And that's called a violent spirit, where you just want to ring their nose and bring
forth the blood.
That's not the kind of attitude we should ever have.
We should be slow to anger.
We should be humble in spirit.
We should have control.
Look, it says, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that rule
with the spirit, than he that taketh the city.
That's how much God esteems a humble man who's able to control himself.
He's like, you're better than an army that can take a city.
In God's eyes, I want to be rendered.
I want God to look at me and think the same thing, amen?
Some people would look at us and say, well, you guys got a bad spirit.
I clicked on one of your clips there on YouTube.
And the language that you use is just, man, I just don't like that.
I've talked to so many people, people who agree with me.
And they're just like, yeah, I agree on your doctrine.
It's just the spirit, man.
It's like the spirit you guys have.
It's a spirit that you portray from.
But here's the thing.
It's just foreign to them is what it is, because they ain't never seen no man of God rip like
that.
They never seen a man of God get so mad about sin because they're so used to these
weakling preachers who don't get mad about anything.
I'm not an angry man.
I don't go around angry.
What I'm angry at is when I preach on homos or reprobates or people try to infiltrate
the church.
At that point, get mad.
Don't get glad.
Don't get mad, right?
You know, the Bible tells us that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
But are we expressing wrath at this point?
Wrath is when you just want to inflict pain upon people.
This isn't wrath.
When you're ripping on sin and ripping on reprobates and false teachers, that's not wrath.
That's anger.
The Bible tells us that Jesus looked upon the Pharisees with anger.
Are you saying that he sinned?
So people look at us and say, well, nah, I just don't like that spirit though.
No, what it is is that you're too used to seeing the cowardice spirit.
And look, there's a cowardice spirit.
There's a cowardice attitude amongst pastors of today, amongst the independent fundamental
Baptist preachers of today, a bunch of sissified wussies who don't want to get
up and actually open up the Bible to Leviticus chapter 20.
They don't want to preach on Romans chapter one.
They don't want to preach on anything because they're afraid of the people in the congregation.
But the Bible tells us, it says that the God not given us a spirit of fear, but of
power and love and a sound mind.
The whole, where's that?
What about the meanness though?
Power is boldness.
And I'm sorry if my boldness comes to you as being mean, maybe you're just not used
to hearing some hardcore preaching.
Maybe you're just not used to someone slobbering all over the pulpit when they're
angry and they're just cutting loose.
But that's what gets people's attention.
That's why the people in your congregation don't take you seriously.
Because it's all wine and dine sermons, cupcake, cotton candy, you know, all these,
all this sugar loaded preaching that has no substance because you want to please the
people in your congregation.
And you know, that's a cowardice spirit there.
You're a coward.
No, we're just more refined.
You know, we love people, but no, you're prideful is what you are.
Because you're glory in the fact that you don't excommunicate people from your
church for fornication.
You glory in the fact that, you know, you permit and tolerate divorce and remarriage
in your church.
This is a cowardice spirit.
This is not a type of spirit that is biblically based.
And look, I purposely put the hottest parts of the sermon on online so that if someone
wants to come visit our church, they know what to expect.
So that when they come to church, they're just like, they're not just like on overload.
They can wean themselves on to the preaching.
Right?
It's true.
They're not just freaking out when they come.
You know, we talked about this earlier today is just like people that come when
they come to our church is like they people who don't like us, they watch the
clips first.
And they're like, Oh, I can't be such a bad spirit.
And there's like, then the next day, it's like, Oh, man, that's another clip.
Oh, this is dumb.
I can't believe you said that.
And then they go, let me listen to one sermon, just to see what kind of dumb stuff
he says throughout this.
He's just saying this right here.
And then they listen to the sermon like, oh, so dumb.
And then this Sunday comes around like, man, I wonder what he preached on.
And then they start getting addicted to the preaching.
Hey, new IFB preaching is addicting.
It's like a drug.
You know, people love new IFB preaching.
Because it's God's word.
That's why.
God's word is like honey.
When we eat it sweet to the soul, amen.
But we put the hottest part out there to show you, hey, this is what you're gonna
expect when you come here, then when I'm ripping on some faggot, when I'm throwing
out some reprobate, you know, look what happened last Sunday, if that were to ever
happen at old IFB church, people would just be like throwing up and just like incapable
of handling all of that, they'd just be like, they're just tripping out.
People here were loving it.
You know, I loved it afterwards.
In the moment I was on edge, but everyone else was just like, this is great.
You know, the visitors, you kidding me?
They're loving it.
Not the ones that I threw out, obviously.
But the one that, you know, is saved, you know, he's right with God and stuff, he's
like a normal person, Adon, he came back, he's just like, I want some more.
But we should never as preachers, as a church, have a cowardice spirit.
And never confuse Luke chapter 9 with bold preaching.
Never confuse, and look, I'm so sick and tired, it's just, you guys got a bad spirit.
Don't call my Holy Spirit a bad spirit.
Don't call my inward spirit a bad spirit.
Because if I'm preaching the word of God, if I'm expounding what the word of God says,
if I'm comparing scripture with scripture, it's not a bad spirit, it's a holy spirit.
It's a bold spirit.
Yeah, it's an angry spirit.
But you know what?
God gets angry.
Hello, God gets angry.
He's angry with the wicked every day.
What are you going to tell God?
That's a bad spirit, God.
Don't have that spirit, God.
You know, if John the Baptist, Paul the Apostle, J. Frank Norris were here today
and they're preaching in independent fundamental Baptist churches, they'd be criticized just
like us by everyone else.
Fact.
They wouldn't allow it.
They like to honor and say all these lofty things about like J. Frank Norris, right?
From the 1920s.
But if that guy was still alive and wanted to preach, they would not allow him to preach.
Too rough, bad spirit.
That's a bad spirit.
Not to us.
You can never preach it too hard for us.
The hotter, the better, conference, red hot preaching conference.
People go once a year to Verity Baptist Church to get their faces ripped off.
Think about that.
Better than going to stinking North Valley Baptist Church pastor school conference, where
you learn how to be more of a sister than you were the year before.
Better than going to Lancaster's leadership conference, where you learn how to
you know, shovel all the dirt and the crap under the carpet of all the fornicators and
bags and pedophiles in your church.
Let me show you a better way to cover up sin and let me show you how to move around
people like the Catholic Church.
Let me show you how to sing like a faggot liberal.
That's what those conferences are about.
Go to Sacramento, California, Verity Baptist Church and go listen to some red hot preaching
that's going to melt your face off.
That'll actually benefit you more than these other stupid conferences where the word of
God is not being preached.
These conferences, North Valley Baptist Church, Lancaster, and all the others, look, I'm
not saying all conferences are like that, but these two main ones, yes, they are.
It's the cowardice conference.
The CC conference.
There are the CC meeting or whatever, you know.
Preachings.
Go to Romans chapter number eight.
Ah, it's just that spirit though.
Yeah, ain't it good?
That's what you need.
You know, what you need is someone yelling at your face, calling out the sins, making
you feel uncomfortable.
You know, it's hard to hop on some filet mignon juicy steak when you've been eating
McDonald's the entire time.
How do you even make McDonald's?
Tofu.
Jack in the box, 99 cent tacos.
Yeah, I know someone got offended here.
I know.
That's fake meat, buddy.
Tofu.
Plastic.
You're eating on that the whole time and then you come and you get an actual filet
mignon steak.
It's just like, oh, my stomach hurts.
I can't.
It hurts.
Yeah, it hurts.
Yeah.
Right?
It's like stripes to the inward parts of the belly.
That's why your stomach hurts.
But you know, it's okay.
Stay around a little longer and your body will get used to digesting the actual meat
of the word.
You're going to start looking like, wow, I don't even know.
You're going to go like this.
You're going to be in the New Testament.
You're going to go back to the Old Testament and go, like, wow, there's actually
other things in the Bible other than the New Testament.
Look at Romans 8 15 says, for he have not received the spirit of bondage against a fear,
but you ever see the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father, the spirit itself
bear witness with our spirit that we're the children of God.
So the spirit of bondage is the spirit of fear.
People who just live in fear.
What about Charles Lawson?
That guy is, you know, just as the new IP preachers are filled with the Holy Spirit,
he's filled with the spirit of bondage, spirit of fear.
Talk about coward preaching one thing one day, two years ago, where he's just like ripping
on the homos.
They deserve the death penalty.
And it's like the guy sounded like a stinking new IP preacher, to be honest with you.
And then two years later, he's just like, roll the red carpets out for the pedophiles
and the homosexuals.
You love them all.
While the loud mouth woman in the front row seat is like, that's right, amen.
Flipping on the dime, you know, that's called the spirit of fear is what it is.
You know why?
Because these people count their life dear unto them.
That's why you want to not be afraid.
Don't be afraid to die.
Because after that, if you're not afraid to die, you're unstoppable.
Right?
If you're saved, you're saved, if you're not afraid to die, what can harm you?
But these guys, they're afraid, it's not even the fear of dying, because they know
they're going to die.
It's just the fear of the media.
It's the fear of the backlash, the persecution, bring it on.
That's like part of the new IFB is just like, great.
Boldness is a character quality of a Christian.
It's the character quality of a spirit-filled Christian.
And boldness is not just, because I want to ask these guys like, so what do you think
boldness is?
Like dropping off a track in front of a door and running off real quick?
Is that boldness to you?
Because if that's the case, mailmen are bold.
What's bold?
Look, boldness is preaching the gospel.
Going to people you've never met before to tell them that they're sinners and they're
going to hell, and getting them saved even though you've never met them in your life,
that requires boldness.
Opening your mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel.
But boldness also is preaching on those things which are not in season or out of
season.
It's just preaching whether in season or out of season.
Things that are popular, things that are not.
In spite of the repercussions, the potential repercussions that those things might bring
forth.
That's boldness.
Boldness is not having anybody on your side but still standing for truth.
No matter what.
Boldness is screaming your head off at wicked people.
That's boldness.
Oh man, I don't know brother, you didn't look too pastoral when you're like screaming
at that kid or whatever who got thrown out.
It's probably because you've never seen a pastor before then because that's what they're
supposed to do.
You know what a pastor is?
It's a shepherd.
And a shepherd, you think the shepherd, when it has sheep, it's just like, get away
wolf.
Oh no.
They grab that staff and just start beating the crap out of that wolf.
Get the hell out of here.
Kick it in the mouth.
If it bites you, just grab it by the throat.
You do whatever you can to protect the sheep.
You may look crazy doing it but you know at least the sheep know you love them.
Whereas the other sheep, these hirelings, these hirelings, they see the wolf coming
and they flee.
In fact, they don't flee, they just welcome the wolf.
What sheep do you want?
Hey sheep, we need to make sure that we're kind to these wolves here.
We need to love every animal in the animal kingdom, even the ones that want to eat you.
Even the ones that want to prey on your children.
God loves all animals.
We need to make sure that we welcome all these wolves in here and while we're at
it, hey the lion too.
And every meat eating animal to come feast on the sheep.
No, it's because you're afraid is what you are.
Use the staff, beat that thing over the head, knock it on conscience and drag its carcass
off the field.
That's what you do.
Okay.
Where do I have you turn?
Do I have you turn anywhere?
Look at second Corinthians chapter 11.
Second Corinthians, I might only finish off on this spirit but that thing, I think it's
good enough.
I have like five more spirits that I want to, spirit of meekness and kindness, you
know.
Let me read to you from Isaiah 58 verse 1, cry out loud, spirit not, lift up thy voice
like a trumpet and show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their
sins.
Crying out loud does not mean like you're weeping, like you're just crying with tears.
Cry out loud means scream.
That's what that's referring to and it's referring to transgressions there.
You know, I just heard earlier this morning about a church member that went to the
pastor and he told them this, he said, he said, so is divorce and remarriage biblical?
Because he, you know, there's controversies with that in that church and then the pastor
basically answered him and said, God says it's okay to remarry.
To which the church member who believed him just said, oh man, if he says that's what
God said, great, right?
He basically responded and said, oh great, why don't you preach on it?
So if God says it's okay to divorce from your marriage, why don't you preach
on that then?
Shut down.
You know why that pastor is not going to preach on it?
Because he knows it's not okay.
He knows that's not what God said and he's afraid.
He's afraid.
Being with boldness and being filled with the Holy Spirit requires for you to be rude.
You know, don't live in this stoneless fantasy world of Christianity where it's just
like, well, if you say something, it's just, it's not what you're saying brother Mejia,
it's how you say it.
You know, it just sounds a little mean.
Don't call me mean, I'm not average.
Look what it says in 2 Corinthians 11, 6, but though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge,
but we have been thoroughly manifest, made manifest among you in all things.
The apostle Paul said, look, I'm rude in speech, but not in knowledge.
You can accuse me of being mean and being mad at you and being angry, but you can't
accuse me of not giving you the truth.
Rude.
Apostle Paul was rude.
So how do you know he was rude?
Look at, go to 1 Corinthians chapter number four.
That's a bad spirit.
I just, that crowd, the new I.B., they love souls.
They're zealous people, man, but they just got this spirit about them.
It's like, that's what you need.
And you've been so detached from reality that when the Holy Spirit's power comes up
and smacks you in the face, you don't recognize it.
Right?
Look at 1 Corinthians 4, 18.
Look at Paul said here, let's see if he's being a little rude here.
Now some are puffed up as though I would not come to you, but I will come to you
shortly if the Lord will and will know not the speech of them that are puffed up, but the power.
For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
What will you?
Shall I come to you with a rod or in love or in the spirit of meekness?
Now I don't think anybody can deny that the Apostle Paul is filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
And he's speaking by the Spirit and says, you want me to come to you with a rod?
Now I don't believe he physically means that he's going to bring a rod and whoop him.
He's talking about the rod of his mouth.
He's like, shall I come to you with a rod?
And look, read the epistles of Paul, he uses the rod frequently because he's like a father
unto the spiritual children that he's had.
And as a father, he's using the rod on them, right?
But he's asking, he's like, you're puffed up, you think, should I come and whoop you
spiritually?
Should I just come and rip your faces off or should I come to you in the spirit of meekness?
But you know, both of those love meekness and the rod are all spiritual, are all
manifested by the Spirit, okay?
This is normal.
This is not crazy.
Now, how much time I got?
I think we'll leave it at that.
There's a hasty spirit, there's an overwhelmed spirit, and there's a vexed spirit.
I prefer to just stick on the cowardice one.
I think that I think we can end on that one because at the end of the day, we need
to just recognize that boldness often requires being rude.
Being spirit-filled often requires being rude.
Now look, don't be hasty in spirit either where you just blurt out anything that comes
to your mind just for shock value.
You need to make sure that you have an excellent spirit and that you hold it in
until afterwards.
The Bible says that the righteous studieth to answer.
The righteous addeth learning to his lips, the Bible says, right?
We think about what we say before we say it.
We don't just say things just for shock value.
We say things when they're needed, when they need to be said, right?
And a hasty spirit is one who just utters everything that comes to that person's mind.
We should never be characterized by that.
We should study to answer.
We should know what we're going to say before we say it.
We should, look, the Bible says this, he that answerth the matter before he hearth
it, it is foolishness and folly unto him, right?
We need to make sure we think about these things before we say it, but never confuse
that when so, because people will say, well, well, that's what you do.
Well, no, I thought about what I was going to say.
That's the difference.
I'm not being hasty in spirit.
The Holy Spirit of God through the word of God has inspired me to say those things.
Okay.
So we need to make sure that we have the right spirit, not a violent spirit like
John and James had when they're out soul winning and someone rejected them, you
know, not just label them a reprobate.
Oh, that person's reprobated.
No, you know what?
They rejected the gospel and maybe a year from now they're going to lose one
of their family members or they go through a financial difficulty and
they're going to be open to the gospel and we're going to go hit that
door and that person is going to get saved.
You know, but hey, we do have an angry spirit towards the reprobates and the
wicked people of this world and the haters of God.
Amen.
Inspire heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for your word.
Thank you for the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.
We're thankful that the inward man is righteous, created in righteousness and
true holiness.
Please help our spirit, our mind, our hearts, our attitude to be influenced by
the inward man, by the Holy Spirit.
Help us to always walk in the spirit, not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
And if at any time we're afraid, help us to remember that that's a signal
that we're not walking in the spirit if we're afraid.
The only person that we should fear is you, Lord.
And I pray that you'd continually redirect our hearts to have that perspective.
We love you so much and we thank you.
Pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.