It's so good to be here. Isn't our Lord good to us? Oh, He is so rich and so good to us. And what a blessing it is for we living in different parts of the country and the Lord saving us and calling us, putting us in His church. Again, that's our context and where we stand and where we are. And yet with events like this, the courses of our lives, He causes the paths of our lives to cross and our kinship in Christ is we're able to enjoy that with one another what a blessing it is I love your pastor and his wife and I was thinking back he mentioned about how it was we were at their wedding and remember when the Lord was stirring him and calling him to preach and in one Sunday morning there at Independence and there's brother Jason Schultz what's what's he doing here you know and and you know we're curious we're just curious and he was there looking to talk to our pastor brother Wayne Reynolds and and just our Lord is just so rich and so good to us and we need to rejoice in that and thank him often for that and to know that And be encouraged by that and blessed by that indeed as a brother mentioned again. Thank you for your hospitality for the warm reception for your prayers and Appreciate the message that our brother the Lord laid upon our brother's heart this morning As John the Baptist said it he must increase and I must decrease and that needs to go on right here inside this man and I'm Jim Duke must decrease and the Lord Jesus here living within must increase and Indeed we look to the Word of God for application That's something that the Lord has really convicted me out about here in the last several handful of years and pastoring that if we don't see the application if we're just knowledgeable about the scriptures and nothing is The application won't lead to a transformation and it won't lead to Christ increasing in us and ourselves decreasing. The Lord tells it, the best thing for this body is for it to die. That's the best. But that's in the Lord's hands. So we rest in Him about that. But in the meantime, as we live physically, we must mortify this old flesh and feed the new man. All right, message number one. I'm gonna write down the time here and try to make that mean something. I'm gonna really try. I'm really gonna try, okay? I invite you to turn your Bibles a little Luke chapter 9 Luke chapter 9 last night we looked at the measure of the spirit that we are of and And we want to continue on With a connected thought to this our Lord Jesus there with his apostles and there in verse number 55 when when James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy those Samaritans because of their their lack of warm reception of the Lord Jesus they wanted to they wanted to to get lined up with the Elijah thing and the power that the Lord had given Elijah and the short destroying of the two companies of the 50s that we read about in over there in 2 Kings chapter 1. And the Lord turned to them and looked at them in the eye and the face and rebuked them. So he's hammering on them and said, You know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. last night and maybe you weren't here last night we just want to kind of give this as to give understanding connection to the message here this morning in 2nd Peter chapter 1 our Lord instructs us by our brother and in writing to us about the things that we need to add to our faith this is something that we need to be diligently working in And as the brother pointed out, this whole life, this ministry, this calling that we have to salvation, to the Lord's Church, will indeed only be accomplished by the Spirit of the Lord within us. But again, as he says here, he's given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. We're not devoid of what we need. We need to avail ourselves to what we have. And prayer, prayer, prayer is such the key and an element Indeed, that can be taught on and preached on and focused upon relative to this. But he says, add to your faith in verse number five, virtue to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness charity, agape love, love with legs on it. Love, not that's just from the mouth, but comes from doing to our Lord, to our brethren, and to the sinner without Christ. There's three facets of that. Then we come to Galatians 5. where here's the manifestation. This is the manifestation of the Spirit of God that lives within us. The flesh is mentioned here, and so we have an obvious, apparent comparison here between the old man and the new. Verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit, and doesn't that speak about the hope that we have? You know, we've been saved from our sins. We've been brought from darkness unto life. We've been brought to light from from death unto life. We've been brought a long long way by our Lord an impossible way. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. There's no filling. There's no getting to the end of these. And they are to be manifested in our lives. Not feigned, but real by the power of the Lord in us. So things to add. things to manifest, things for us to diligently work on, consider, and petition our Lord to work in us, to show us what we lack and what we need. And this is the spirit, the manner of the spirit that we are of. Okay, those are the things given to us. And you'll find there in the list, and I encourage you to do this study, the things added versus the things manifested. And you're going to find that things added are manifested. If they're not added, they won't be manifested. Okay? So now, we want to take a look at this. Last night's message, just to touch on some points, We learned about the spirit that we are of and the salvation of our Lord that has bestowed these upon us. What we're to add to our faith, what the fruit that is to come forth from our life for our Lord Jesus, our walk with Him, our conversation, what we think, what we say, and what we do in this world. Our calling, we found out how these are to be manifested in our calling in His kind of church and the work therein. We need these in our Lord working in for the things. Remember those things that I mentioned last night that He's called us into? All those things are impossible to the flesh. And I've just read a few of them. There's many, many more. But love your enemies? Who tells anybody to do that? Only our Lord, because He's loved His enemies. He saved us. He's loved his enemies. You know, our Lord Jesus, when he came as a man, he indeed did what he told us to do. He loved his neighbor as himself. When he became a man, he loved his neighbor as himself. And he wasn't hung up like the lawyer was. Well, who then is my neighbor? He loved. his neighbor indeed. And what we saw last night in these about the spirit, the manner of the spirit that we are of, that in all these we seek the salvation of men or any aspect of our lives. And again, even as the children of God, we've got aspect of our lives that need to be saved, need to be sanctified to the Lord and away from the world and from self. Ours is never to seek the destruction of men but the salvation of individuals and again every aspect of their lives. And in this message, what we want to take a look at, I want us to consider aspects of the Holy Spirit of God that are not given unto us. That might sound like a strange thing, but it is true, and we see this by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so let's consider this. Understand that there are these aspects of the Holy Spirit of God not given to us, and in this we are not slighted by our Lord in any way. It is yet another aspect of our Lord's love and care for us, having truly been made His children. Never forget that. We are His children. We are His sheep. That's the continual reference of the Lord unto us. Children and sheep. There in John chapter 21, as the apostles went They went fishing. Peter says, I go fishing. I'm solid on that. I'm comfortable with that. All this thing with the Lord Jesus is bugging me. And they said, well, we'll go with you. Watch out what you do and what you lead in. You might lead your brethren astray. They go out there and they fish, and they don't do any good, and the Lord manifests Himself unto them. He's preparing food for them there on the shore, and He says, children, have you any meat? Grown men, these guys aren't teenagers. They're grown men with families. Children, have you any meat? That's our relationship to our Lord as children. And we need that humility as a child. Indeed our Lord is not and these things not given unto us He's not slighted us, but it is his care for us as children being adopted into his family We have been given every bit of the spirit we need for salvation Our Lord's call to his work in his churches But have not been given all the spirit that he the spirit the spirit is a he not an it a he a person a We've not been given all the spirit that He is or His person and work is. And that's what we want to see here this morning. Well, Brother Jim, if we've not been given that, then why do we even need to know about it? I tell you what, when we learn anything about our Lord, we are benefited and helped. Because the thing is, in the salvation, and the consummation, the wrapping up, the fulfilling of all things that our Lord has accomplished for us and will do so regarding this earth and things to come, we are the benefactors of all of that. And the more that we learn about that, the better we are. I invite you to turn your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 2 and make this point, just to make this point solid about who the message is about in the aspect of our Lord Jesus. We wrangle with this and it is so because the Lord is just so high above us. In 1 Timothy 2, verses 5 and 6, the scripture says here, For there is one God, we get that, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus, there was a time that he was not a man. About 2,000 years ago, he became a man. And he still is a man. He will forever be a man. He becoming a man is a testimony of what he's done for us. Because if he had not become a man, he would have not been able to do it. God cannot die. But when he became a man, he could die and submitted himself to such for us, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. And so this is relative to the Lord in His flesh and as a man. Again, our Lord is God. He's always been God. But He became a man, too, and is a man for our sakes. And so these things are relative to Him in His flesh. You know this in John chapter 1, verse number 14. The brother testifies of it. The Word was made flesh. Our Lord Jesus, the Word, another one of His names, and dwelt among us. And brother John writes, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And there's nothing more wondrous than to behold the Word and the Lamb of God. John chapter 3, if you have your Bibles, turn to this. I want you to see this, what brother John the Baptist declares about the Lord Jesus. His disciples are jealous over him, John's disciples are, because Jesus is baptizing and has started his ministry. There's a window here where Jesus is baptizing with his disciples, although it tells us in John 4 that Jesus is not baptizing, but his disciples are baptizing, okay? And there's a time here also, this time is that Jesus is baptizing and John the Baptist is baptizing, same time. Interesting. It has other impact and other ramifications. We're not going to look at that this morning. But in John 30, John chapter 3, verse number 30, John speaking, He, Jesus, must increase, he says, but I, John the Baptist, must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all, and he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all, and that which he hath seen, which Jesus has seen and heard, that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal You heard this term, we use it, signed, sealed, and delivered? When you believe in Christ, you have to your seal that God is true. He's done this for me, a personal, okay, a personal thing. Listen to what John says. For he whom God hath sent, Jesus, speaketh the words of God, and he does so as a man and as an obedient son. Listen. For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The man Christ Jesus, and again, it's hard for us to wrap our minds about this, but I want us to just consider about this. The man Christ Jesus, as a man, has been given all the Spirit of God that there is. Of course, He is God, but as a man, He submitted Himself to being conceived, born, a baby whose diapers needed change and they needed to be fed food, a toddler and growing, and a boy, a young man, and a man, and so on. He submitted himself to all of that. He submitted himself to growing. He submitted himself to learning. All part of what he did for each and every individual one of us that are saved. He did it all. There wouldn't have been a short-form gospel if there would have just been one to say. He did what He did for each and every one of us, and He did it personally because He loves us. And so we need to know that. We need to We need to rejoice in that. So he has not the spirit by measure. In Isaiah chapter 11 we see in this prophecy about our Lord Jesus about those things that are promised unto him. And look at this in Isaiah 11. This is very interesting. Isaiah 11 verse number 1, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, of the lineage of David, and a branch, it's a connection to his place of growing up in Nazareth, shall grow out of his roots, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. Listen, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, and the spirit of counsel, the spirit of might, the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord, Brother Jim, I thought there was one spirit. Yes. Brother Jim, are you saying that there's more spirits? I'm not saying. I'm saying that God's spirit is even six-fold in regards to this passage in his work. Understand, we receive and believe what God says about himself. We are not called to understand it. We want to understand it and we should try to understand it. But God is greater far above the heavens than we are. We just receive what he says. Well, Jim, I don't know what, I don't know about this, about the Spirit being divided in six ways like this. Well, let's go on and take a look at something else. In John chapter 14, as the Lord Jesus is preparing his church for his fulfillment of the gospel and his ultimate ascension in about six weeks or so because he spent 40 days after his resurrection with the church there, after his resurrection and before the day of Pentecost. In chapter 14, we see something that our Lord is saying here regarding one, a person. And then quickly, we don't have time, we just need to lay these things in here and it's a wonderful study too. John 14, 16. Jesus says to his church, I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter. That means he's been the comforter. He's gonna send another comforter that he may abide with you forever. Church context, okay? These men are saved, they have the Spirit of God living within. That is the definition of salvation. But then there's this work of the comforter. John 14, 26. but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost. So we have clarity here that the Holy Spirit of God does this work of Comforter, okay? Whom the Father will send in my name, he comes in Jesus' name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. A great promise to the Lord's church. Father, we need help as a church remembering what you have told us about the thing that we are dealing with now. He's made provision for it. We need you to teach us, Lord. We need you to help us. And then we come. to John 15, chapter 15, verse number 26. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father. We see as the Lord's dealing with this regarding the Comforter, he starts off with talking about the Father, and we see even the Lord's transition of this in his ministry. All honor and glory and that is always deferred to the Father until he gets to the end at the triumphant entry. The Lord used your pastor to teach us some things at Olmstead Baptist Church about the Lord's triumphant entry and that transition that in the Lord's ministry that was made there. He always before was deferring honor and glory to the Father, but now honor and glory is due Him. The King has come, but not as triumphant over physical things on the earth, but triumphant as Savior, which we needed first. He's coming for the other. But He came first as Savior. He says, I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father and shall testify of Me. The Spirit will never speak about Himself. He's always going to testify about Christ. Because as the brother pointed out, it's all Christ's ministry. It's Christ's work. We individually, personally are. We are His workmanship. And our churches are His workmanship. And the ministry, the commission that we have is His work. He is no less here than He was with that first church. And we need to know that. We can't lay our hands on Him. We can't see Him with these eyes. But He is no less here. Okay? And then chapter 16, quadruple emphasis about this. We need emphasis, double, triple emphasis, quadruple emphasis. Verse number 7 of chapter 16. 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. So now we see from the Father all the way to Christ being the director of this work of the comforter in the church. I submit this to you. I submit this to you in that six facets of the Spirit listed there in Isaiah prophetically about what the Lord Jesus would have. And then this, in his church, this institution of the church that he has made, The keys of the kingdom having been taken from his nation and given to his church, his churches, that this comforter is that seventh aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit of God. The context is church, and granted, the Lord having saved people, his spirit lives within, and the Lord indeed comforts his people. But the church, institutional-wise, is special unto the Lord. The Church is special and He has a Holy Spirit work of the Comforter there indeed. So then we come to the book of the Revelation. book the book of the Revelation and and if you've not heard brother Tom Horne's messages on these first few chapters I tell you what they're on our the Baptist Archive at our church and no doubt there are other places I recommend that you listen to them several messages regarding these seven churches and what the Lord himself writes and to them it's just rich and full of of teaching that we need in our churches and our lives in walking with the Lord. But listen to what the Lord says here in John's introduction and the scripture here and then what the Lord says to some of these churches and then a little bit beyond. Revelation chapter 1 verse number 4. John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come, the eternal one, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne. Seven spirits. You see there it's capital S. Name. It's like the Spirit of God. But there is the seven spirits. Chapter 3, as he writes to this church here at Sardis, in verse number 1, we see here, "...and unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, Jesus claiming that he has them." He's the one that's writing to the churches and he has the seven spirits of God. And the seven stars, or those seven angels of the churches, I know thy works and that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. We come to chapter 4 of this book in verse number 5. where the scripture says, and out of the throne, as John's observing and looking these things that he has shown, out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, the throne of God, where Jesus sits on the right hand, the throne of the Father, if you will, and Jesus sitting on the right hand, that's the promise of him fulfilling his gospel, and where he is right now, making intercession for us, waiting for the Father to say go, standing to receive his saints like he did brother Stephen, which are the seven spirits of God. And then we come to chapter 5, as John continues to observe, and this great scene of the one that was able to look on the book, was able to touch the book, which was able and qualified to open the book, the seven-sealed book of wrath of God Almighty. There was one, and that one is the Lamb. And he says here in verse six of chapter five, And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. The lamb. He has the eyes. He has the horns. He has and works and moves, he is the, if you will, he is the Lord Jesus, the man Christ Jesus, is the front person of God unto mankind, unto his children, and the worker of God's work. I think you know that from other passages that are at hand in the scriptures. He's the creator, he's the savior, he's the judge. He's preeminent, it tells us in Colossians. You know what preeminent means? First place, second place, third place. Jesus is above first place. He's preeminent. So, we see indeed the Holy Spirit, as John declared, is not given by measure to the Lord, But indeed, as we saw in last night's message, and as the scriptures point out, is indeed given by measure unto man. We have all we need, we've not been slighted, but there is more of the Spirit of God that the Lord Jesus has. We see indeed the Holy Spirit is not given by measure to the man, our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather totally and completely. Again, spirit by measure unto us. 1 Corinthians 12, speaking about gifts and the working of God in the churches and such, and you all have those that are gifted here, and so many different facets of the work of the Lord. And 1 Corinthians 12, verse number 11, but these all worketh that one and selfsame spirit, the spirit working amongst us in his people, in his church, dividing to every man severally as he will. Things that we have to honor and glorify the Lord are given to us by the Spirit. He superintends and works that. And well with prayer, we can petition our Lord for other things that we need. But in regards to our Lord, the man Christ Jesus, and His complete and total filling with the Spirit of God, these seven Spirits of God, I want us to consider some aspects of the Spirit of God not given to us. Not given to us. And we need to know these because, you know what, naturally we are prone to these. But these are not given unto us. Does Jesus, the man Christ Jesus, do anything apart from the Spirit of God? Never. He operates fully and completely within and under and through and connected to and with the Spirit of God. And I know we're parsing out the Trinity here, But these things are manifested into us in the scripture. Let us consider these, anger, wrath, fury, damnation, and vengeance. Is there any aspect of the spirit of these things that are given unto us? Not at all. Not at all. And I find that very interesting. Let's take a look here regarding anger, and there's many, many passages for us to consider, but these I trust that you're familiar with. You know this in Psalm 7, verse number 11. God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. True? True. The Word of God says it, okay? The Lord tells in the book of Ezekiel, speaking Brother Ezekiel called as a prophet to an incredible, an incredible, somewhat miserable calling by the Lord and being a prophet to the Babylonian captivity. He's called to do some things, I praise God, that we're not called to do. Like Brother Isaiah. But in Ezekiel 20 verse number 8, The Lord declares there that the first generation coming out of the land of Egypt rebelled against Him and He will accomplish His fury and His anger against them. And you know what? He killed them in 40 years. Sojourned in the wilderness. And then He declares in the same chapter, in verse number 21, that the second generation, the children of that first generation, did the same thing. Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against me and didn't walk in his statues, didn't keep his judgments. And he said, I will pour out my fury upon them to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. Do any of us dare stand up and say that the Lord is wrong in his anger? No. See, we know when the Lord does something, any attribute of the Lord is whole and complete in and of itself. This is God. Not another man. Not one like us. But this is God come in the flesh. Yet in regards to anger, what is it that the Lord commands us? Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs chapter 22. If you have a Bible, read it for yourself. Regarding anger. What does he say to us? Proverbs chapter 22, verse number 24. Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shall not go, lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul. Accompany yourself." Isn't that an attribute, seemingly so, that can be about young people coming into adulthood, that they live in anger? I see that. I remember that in my own life. We are told by our Lord to steer away from anger, but our Lord righteously is angry. In Proverbs 29, 22, the Lord says there in the beginning of that verse, an angry man stirreth up strife. And that's just the way that it is. In Ephesians chapter 4, I want you to turn to this and read it for yourself. Listen to what the Lord says to us regarding anger. You're familiar with it. You're familiar with it, I trust, but let's become familiar with the entire passage because the Lord brings us on to maturity. Our Lord says here and tells us in Ephesians 4, 26, be ye angry and sin not. Okay, I can be angry, I just got to keep my cool, got to be angry and keep my cool and not sin. Okay, okay, okay. Hang on to that. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good. See, conversation, pleasing to the Lord, following the Lord, representative of the Lord, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication, cursing, taking God's name in vain, dirty jokes, proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, build her upper amongst our brethren, build her upper in the church, a reconciler to God and to the unsaved, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, because we can, and let us not do so, whereby you are sealed into the day of redemption." He says, Let's move on to even better. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, revenge. Just put it away. We may be greedy, and it's hard for us to, it's difficult for us. Sometimes, Brother Jim, things, some things that happen in this world, we're just righteously angry about. Okay, I understand taking God's position. The Lord's word and the Lord's truth is what we should always hold to. But the Lord says, put anger away. It does not work anything in the work of God. It is not ours to be. Put it away. But our Lord is angry, is he not? In regards to wrath, in regards to wrath, the children of Israel build a calf. Aaron becomes a liar in it when faced by Moses. The Lord knows it as Moses is up upon the mount. And the Lord says in verse number 10 of Exodus 32 unto Moses, now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them. I tell you what, the Lord is indeed hot. So great blessing, so great deliverance, and this people have turned their back upon him to a golden calf made out of earrings and gold of their ornaments. He is hot. And he tells Moses, back up and let me at them, that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation. Side note here, Moses, hmm. These people are already gonna be a problem, they've been a problem. You zap them, make of me a nation. You know, maybe that's looking pretty good. We can start fresh. It'll be my kids. And I can get this thing ordered upright the way I want it. Okay, Lord, go ahead. You know what Moses does? He's not of that spirit, is he? Moses is of the spirit. Lord, forgive him. He intercedes for him, just like Christ intercedes for us. He says, Lord, don't forget your promise. Don't forget what this would mean among the land and of the people. And the Lord doesn't have to be reminded of anything. But isn't it wondrous that the Lord engages a man, his son, his child, his friend, and he engages him. If you understand what I'm saying, he engages him not as a peer, but as a friend. Back up, Moses. I'm going to let him have it. Lord, please don't do it. Please forgive them. Remember your promises, even all the way back to Abraham. Remember what you've done bringing them out of Egypt. And you know what? The Lord said, okay, I'll do what you said, but they'll not get by with it. so on. This happens several times. But then back to this, the Lord is wrathful of me that my wrath may wax hot against them. In Isaiah 13 regarding the judgment of Babylon, the Lord says there, therefore I will shake the heavens and the earth shall move out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. Brother John the Baptist preached about the wrath, didn't he? He warned the Pharisees and the Sadducees that came down to his baptism and said unto them, old generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? He'd been preaching that message. And you that are here not saved, we preach the same message. Wrath is coming for you in the shape that you're in. If you leave out of this life that way, wrath, condemnation is set for you. Repent. and believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord is wrathful. But again, we read over there in Ephesians 4, 26, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Okay, I can be wrathful. You know what wrath is? Anger, the way I see it and understand it, anger is like having this within you that's welled up and oh, you're burning. You know what wrath is? It's when you start swinging and you start throwing stuff. That's wrath. Wrath is ugly. Start breaking stuff up, slamming stuff down, punching holes in walls, kicking things. That's wrath. Start doing. Wrath is anger with legs on it. It's not a pretty picture. It's not, but isn't that the truth? That's what wrath is. It's coming down to do something. But the Lord says, don't let the sun go down on, okay, I can be wrathful, and just by the time I get to bed, I need to get over it. No, remember what we read later on in that passage? Let all bitterness and wrath be put away from you with all malice. That's what the Lord gives us. Remember those fruit of the Spirit, those things to add to faith, those things that are to be manifesting? Doesn't say a bit in there about wrath, does it? Doesn't say a bit about there in anger. How about fury? Fury is like wrath to the power of ten. Fury is like when there's no sparing. Fury is like where nobody or nothing is safe. Like the scripture speaks about a bism of destruction. It's like this beam that just goes through here and it just plows down everything in its path. That's fury. What's the Lord say about fury? Isaiah 34 again speaking about judgment of things to come and of his own nation even for the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations and His fury upon all their army armies. He hath utterly destroyed them. He hath delivered them to the slaughter Lord to take a nation and judge his own nation Israel and then he'd take and judge that nation for doing it. That's not fair We're not talking about a man. We're talking about God. Everything is right and holy and just with him. I He is our Creator. To Him we are accountable. Take a look over here at Isaiah 63. I trust you're familiar with this passage. If not, I want you to read it. If you are, I want it to be rehearsed in your minds. Listen to what the Scripture says here in Isaiah 63, verses 1 through 6. prophetic? Who is this that cometh from Edom with his dyed garments from Basra, this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save, is the answer. Question, wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat? Answer, I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there is none with me. He does so alone. No one, no one, No one is confederate or with him in this action, for I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury. I tell you what, that's getting pretty serious, isn't it? And their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. Like the brother preached last night, the Lord cannot let sin go. He cannot let sin go. Oh, sinner, if you're here without Christ as your Savior, this time will come to an end. Flee the wrath to come. Flee unto Jesus. Look and live. You will not escape. And their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me. I will tread down the people in mine anger and make them drunk with my in my fury and I will bring down their strength to the earth I Believe that this is regarding our Lord Jesus Christ because he is the judge And folks don't like to have a picture of Jesus like that but I tell you what we need to know that Jesus will do so and Because you know what? Jesus is the one that, he's the creator that gives life, and he is the savior, the one that sinners reject. And the Lord made very clear to Israel that those that reject him and disobey him, he will requite them to their face. It's true. It's serious. Remember what the Proverbs said that I read over there in Proverbs 22 and 24 and 25? Our Lord is furious and will be. But he says to us, make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shall not go. It will corrupt you if you do. Proverbs 29, 22, an anger man stirreth up strife and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. We just can't go to Furyville, if you will, and not be sinning all over the place. We just don't have it in us to do it. We can't do it right. It's not an aspect or an attribute given unto us. Now listen, the flesh loves it. The flesh loves being furious. Until you wake up and you see, say, man, I've tore up half my stuff in my fury, and now what a fool I've made of myself. But while that's going on, we don't think of it. Another thing is this of our Lord's vengeance. Our Lord's vengeance is His, not ours. In Deuteronomy 32, 35, to me belongeth vengeance, the Lord says, and recompense. He will judge those disobedient unto Him, sinners indeed. Brother Nahum, in the beginning of his book, a short book there in the Minor Prophets, in chapter one, verse number two, I think they're speaking of the burden of Nineveh. Nineveh, he says, God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth. Listen to this, the Lord revengeth. A double emphasis on his revenge. And is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries. Triple reinforcement of the Lord's vengeance. and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. In chapter 10 of Hebrews, as I referred to last night, there in that chapter of admonition unto the children of God and us to draw near, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves, looking to provoke ourselves, one another to love and good works, and then the Lord in that chapter dealing with willful sin of his people, He reminds us in verse number 30 of Hebrews 10, for we know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense. As a brother mentioned about the bema seat, the judgment seat of Christ, that as his children will stand before him in judgment on how brother Peter declares in his epistles how we've lived the rest of our time. The Scripture speaks about forgiveness for sins past. Indeed, our sins, all of our sins, do not stand against the children of God eternally because Jesus has paid it all. But as children living before the Lord, having the Spirit of God live within, it starts a time of responsibility. And we will suffer loss. Or in obedience, we will build with gold, silver, and precious stones. In disobedience, we will build with wood, hay, and stubble. Oh, we'll have a body like Christ that will be able to endure the presence of God in His holy, white, gleaming righteousness that burns away all things foreign and all things unholy. And those things true done in Him and by His power and with His building material and obedience will shine forth to His honor and glory and praise for eternity. We indeed are made to glorify our God here and now. So he says here, vengeance belongeth to me, I will recompense sayeth the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, even for a child of God. We need to have that in our hearts every day when we awake and live for him who died for us. Yet he commands us in the book of the Revelation regarding this of vengeance. We see here under the altar of the Lord in Revelation chapter 6 verse number 10 that the saints are there in glory in that throne room of God in the third heaven and they cried with a loud voice saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And the Lord says, You've got some brethren that must be killed too. But I will avenge you. I'll take care of it. See, in regards to vengeance, we kind of think, well, if you let a little time get past, you just can't do vengeance as good as you can do it sudden. Vengeance needs to be up close to the fault. Not way on down the road when it gets cold and it gets old and it gets past and memory gets dull. We want vengeance naturally soon. But you know what? Our Lord can meet out vengeance and make it just as timely and just as appropriate and just as suitable and meet as it needs to be for what vengeance needs to be poured out. He can do it. He can do it. He can do it. In Romans, chapter 12, verse number 19, dearly beloved, saints of God, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. The children of God, Lord, they did me dirty, you know it, Lord, you take care of it. Trust in him, represent him, manifest the manner of the spirit that is in us. In Luke chapter 18, I want you to turn and look at this yourself. Here the Lord making a declaration that He is worshipped by all men in prayer. There's no one to petition, kind of like Ahaziah sinning to Beelzebub. to inquire about whether he was going to be healed or not. I tell you what, there is no God but our God and he's the one that's to be petitioned for all things by all. And he spake a parable unto them to this end in Luke chapter 18 that men ought always to pray and not to faint. Men, not children. Everybody ought to be petitioning the Lord, because He is our God. Saying, there was in a city a judge that feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. Judge, you can do it. You've got the power and the authority. Please do so. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, I don't give a lick about God and my judgeship. I don't give a lick about her. But because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me and wear me out with inconvenience of hearing her voice over and over again. So he went ahead and sought to avenge her in this parable that the Lord gives. And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him? In line with what our brother preached last night of lamentations, we can bring our care, what our enemies do to us, the offenses, the hurt that we have unto our Lord, asking Him to help us to represent Him and live for Him and to take care of the rest of it in His time. When any of us, even somebody that would hurt us or look to offend us or offend us or hurt us or really do us dirty, you know, they are to really be pitied because the Lord takes it serious picking on His kids. He takes it very, very serious picking on His children. He will not forget it. Shall not God, the Lord Jesus, avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? Yea, I tell you, He will avenge them speedily." But it's not today when it was done. It's not next week after it was done. The Lord says, it'll be right on time. When He does so, it'll be right on time. And then this, nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? Will He find us believing what He says is true? Will He find Will you find that those at hand, when He comes, that believe that what He has said for us to do and pursue is right and true, and that it does have power? You know, the grain of mustard seed that the Lord compares faith into, in the world that seems weak, but in obedience to God, it is powerful. That's the way the Lord makes it, that He might be glorified, not us. He makes his way work even though it seems weak to the flesh. In conclusion and application, as the children of our Lord we have been given a wonderful blessing of peace. We've been given the fruit of the manner of the fruit of the Spirit that the Lord has given to us, and all these things peaceful and blessed and representative of our Lord's goodness to a lost and dying world and to one another. That's what we've been given to do. And understand in this, in our Lord's anger and wrath and fury, damnation that we did not touch upon, damnation of the Lord, understand hell in the lake of fire is God's place, not Satan's place. There's not gambling and racetracks and dog tracks and casinos and such in hell and the lake of fire. It is God's place of holy, righteous indignation and wrath, brimstone and fire and darkness upon the unbelieving, the unrepentant and Satan and the fallen angels. It's God's place. He's in control of it. Our Lord is not a sadist in these, in any wise. And Ezekiel, twice over to that Babylonian captivity that brother Ezekiel was sent to in chapter 8, verse number 32, our Lord says, for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. The dead, even going to the second death, the Lord is not gleeful about that. saith the Lord God, capital G, capital O, capital D, the Trinity, wherefore turn yourselves and live ye. Ezekiel 33, again, in verse number 11, the Lord says unto brother Ezekiel, say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. It brings him no pleasure, but that the wicked turn from his way and live, that's what he has pleasure in. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? Understand our Lord is not a sadist, he's not mean, he's not cruel. Those are the attributes and characteristics of Satan and of men to be mean and cruel. Our Lord is never such, but he is angry, he is wrathful, he will be furious, he will mete out vengeance indeed. He is just, He is righteous and holy, and His holiness and righteousness demand His vengeance upon sinners and their transgressions, either in Christ or on their own pate, on themselves. The good fight of faith, we see, is not vengeful. It's not attack and counterattack. Our good fight of faith is in the measure of the Spirit. The measure of the Spirit given to us and the fruit thereof. That is what we have been assigned. No judgment in the sentencing part. You understand that without a judgment? You gotta find out if somebody's guilty and then you meet out a sentence. Well, you know what? The Lord said, He said in His Word what's wrong and what's right. And we can understand about guilt on ourselves and even one another. We are never the sentencer in judgment. We never sentence. We never mete out judgment. It's our Lord that does that. No judgment, no sentencing part, nor vengeance ever is a part of our lives. And regarding these, anger, wrath, fury, damnation, and vengeance, Think of this, our Lord having given us this of the spirit that he has for us, all peaceful and pleasant indeed, all glorifying unto him, and none of them speaking about anger, wrath, fury, damnation, and vengeance. He's like a father. He's like a father that in regards to the need of these other things that we've mentioned and brought out of the Scriptures and to understand, He's like a father that steps in front of His children. You ever do that with that child and step in front of your children between them and something unpleasant? He's like a father that steps in between us and those things that are necessary, anger and wrath and fury and damnation. And vengeance, he says, I'll take care of this and I will avenge myself and I will avenge you. He loves us greatly, doesn't he? He loves us greatly. What a wonderful, wonderful thing it is to be saved by Him. Seeking vengeance for ourselves and others is never ours to pursue. We are to pursue and live in all the pleasant and peaceful characteristics that He has measured unto us and warn folks of the unpleasant, unpeaceful ones that He will administer righteously and justly. See, to bring peace, the Lord will deal with the unpeaceful. and then it'll be done. To have no more rebellion, the Lord will deal harshly with the rebellious, and then rebellion is put down. He brings things to an end. Our Lord doesn't take the wicked and the sinful and fester it up. We see that in our day, the festering of things in our country, just keeping it boiling, keeping it boiling. The Lord takes, and He has to do an unpleasant thing to bring it to an end. It's good. It's good. That's the way that he rules. We are to pursue and live in the pleasant and peaceful characteristics he has measured unto us, and warn folks of the unpleasant, unpeaceful ones, I speak as a man, that only he will administer righteously and justly. Remember 1 Peter 3.13 that we read last night, and who is he that will harm you, child of God, if you be followers of that which is good? We're on our way to glory to be with the Lord. We obey Him and represent what we've been given in this manner of the Spirit that's been given unto us. Who can harm us? Who can harm us? No one can harm us. Oh, they might hurt this skin, but they can't harm us eternally, can they? And Jesus said there in Luke 9, 56, for the Son of Man has come presently, not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And that is the work where we find ourselves. May the Lord help us. This is the manner of the measure of the Spirit we are of. If you're here and you're not saved, we point you to our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, He's the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Him. The Father is eternal, God is eternal, and God is the only way of life and any future. Without the Lord, without the Father, without the Son, there won't be a future. Oh yes, there is eternity. for the unrepentant and unbelieving sinner in hell and the lake of fire. But that's no future. There is an eternity, but there's no future. It is a dead end, the second death. But you know what? Like the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, he said, Nicodemus didn't understand what he was saying about being born again, so the Lord switched gears and said, you know about this, when Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness? Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. that all who believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. It's just that simple. It's all found in Christ. Repent and believe and trust in Him.