Okay, the influence of drinking the cup. Last time we ended up talking a few verses on the drinking of the cup. The cup was just symbolic of going through what God has each one of us to go through. There's a portion that surrendered to each and every one of us. God has our lives proportioned off. That's why Jesus said that they would drink of the cup he would drink of and that they couldn't die the death that he had died. The reason death was so traumatic for him was that he was bearing the sins of the whole world, whereas unbeknownst to the people of such movies as Passion of Christ and other things that make Jesus death more about the physical suffering that he did, make it more acceptable to the people from a physical standpoint. You wouldn't see that in any other Gospels. They don't point toward the physicality of it because There were more tragic and people suffered more than Jesus did in crucifixion. And by Jesus' time, the Romans had perfected the method of crucifixion. Because before then, they had several limbs and different things. They had learned to put the little bar up under their feet so that they would prop up and they wouldn't slip off of the cross and everything. If you look at it on the picture, it shows the nail in his hands. It would have been, this was the palm also, the nails more or less likely was in this part of his hand that was holding him to the cross or whatever. But it wasn't the physical agony or the pain, it was the idea in the Garden of Gethsemane in placing the sin of the entire world upon him is to travail of his soul and what was grieving him and to be separated from the Father because He had never, throughout eternity, he hadn't ever been separated from the Father. He hadn't been apart from the Father. And as he cried on the Father, my God, my God, why have they forsaken me? And that was one of the most things that was on his mind. And a lot of times you realize it yourself that words and things sometimes hurt. But it's the mental agony that gets you, you know. The thoughts and things where people think, you know. And you would rather somebody hit you or punch you, you can get over a lick of something physical. But when things cause mental anguish on you, whether it's caused you to go into a state of depression, worry, anxiety, fears, panic attacks, or whatever. And we see here that him thinking in the garden is where we see where he was sweating blood through his capillaries and things, the torture. But the cup that he was drinking out of, that God allotted to him, was for the suffering of the world's sins. So we all have to partake of that cup, but not to excess of what Jesus took and drank another cup. And there's a cup of wrath that's coming that God's going to pour out on some of the people of the world. He said in Zechariah 12, 1 through 2, it says, The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundations of the earth. and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege, both against Judah and against Jerusalem. So, God had a portion of suffering in which they had to endure, those that were going to be our instruments, that were instruments for God's judgment. Those that God used as instruments of his judgment. We see where when he told Jeremiah to go to all the nations, to take that cup to all the nations, in other words, just like he commissioned us in the book of Matthew, the 28th chapter of Matthew, the 19th through the 20th verse, what did he tell us to do? What was our commission? He says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever have commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always, even until the end of the world. Amen. So we were to take that same cup about that Jeremiah was taking about. That was the gospel, the teaching and preaching of the gospel. To those that rejected the gospel and didn't take heed to the gospel, it would become a cup of trembling to them. we've seen women of uh... heard the gospel preach during their time it wasn't a true declaration of the whole gospel when god issued them a warning to jonah and it wasn't that he called for repentance he says forty days and yet none of us shall be destroyed and the king and all of the people they feared god Christians make a great mistake yet when they go against and talk about other nations that don't know God We see here with this king of even Assyria feared God See because Nebuchadnezzar. He said Daniel's God was the God and But King Darius, he feared Darius' god. Artaxerxes did. Because what happened to those societies, god was a panoply of gods. In other words, they were polytheistic. They worshipped many different gods. That's why you see in Egypt, when you had the ten plagues, those were representing different gods that they worshipped. They worshipped reptiles, snakes, They worshiped animals. They worshiped the Nile River in itself. They had frogs. They worshiped nature. They worshiped all kinds of things throughout, as it is with some religious now, that worship all things. But God was in that panoply of gods that they knew that there was an almighty one god that was stronger than the other god. But all of these other gods, they held those beliefs. But God, through his people, said that he wouldn't be among other gods, that he was a god of us, that there are no other gods beside him, and that you could only worship him. He's a jealous god. So, if we don't take heed to the message of the Word that was going about, and that's the Word of God, that's the Word that we take about, we'll notice that in the last days, the curse that coming up on the earth is the Word being preached. The Word's gonna be a curse for some, those that take heed to the Word. It's gonna be a blessing if you drink of that cup. and if you should begin uh... god all allows you allows you to give you a lot of that it turns to a couple of blessing in that way those that bless april him shall be blessed in other words we become children of faith and we'll see that we are all of brother and there's no jewish gentile and we'll start seeing the way christ saw things as we go about being lights for him making disciples of all nations so if our children or someone else starts to veer off or whatever, that's hell as a charge against us because we were commanded to be his witnesses. Witnesses of God. So we have to tell them, and we're gonna look at it this week, we're doing chapter 26 of Jeremiah, when he sent Jeremiah to I didn't want to leave that thought that you open up the reading with that chapter 51 I'll just come back to it in just a second, but he said Jeremiah to him in chapter 26 and he says In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came the word from the Lord, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the court of the Lord's house, in the front of the synagogue, in the front of the church, where everybody is coming, where all the nations, and speak unto all the cities, of Judah which come to worship in the Lord's house and all the words that I command thee speak unto them and diminish not a word. Speak the whole counsel of God to them. That's why we have to have a sincerity of life. That's why we have to have respect and reverence for God's house. We have to have respect and reverence for the things of God. We have to be His representatives. Because what we say should be words that contain life. We should be vessels that are giving out eternal life. That when people ask us of this water, when they drink of this cup, the cup that Jesus had, it would be like the Samaritan woman, it would be a well of living water. You wouldn't ever thirst again. This water gives you eternal life. This cup, this drinking. In other words, the influence our lives has on others. It's going to reprove others. and it's going to call others to God. That's why we have to abstain from appearances of evil. That's why it's a 24-7 thing that Satan goes about his rowing line to show some of your behavior is not in step with that of Christianity or what God is and to show others that they can walk contrary to that. But if you've lived among them and witnessed for God and told Him this was for all men, it's not just for me, but it's for you and to all our children and as many as shall hear, that you will have to conform to God's Word and that every knee shall confess, every knee shall bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. But if we hold back, we will have the people's blood up on our hands. So we have to be an influence to the people. See, our cup has salt in it. And if the salt is lost, it's safer. It's no good for anything to be cast out. We should have that snap with us, just like Jesus. They always was asking and questioning Jesus. He was always on the defensive because they were always trying to entrap Him. They could do that the same to you. It could be the same to you. They're looking for a flaw in your life that doesn't meet with Jesus Christ. And he's trying to take us and shape us and form us in his image, in his likeness. so the character that he's building in us the righteousness that he's building in us is the righteousness of christ not our own righteousness but if we're drinking of his cup we could be shaped and formed into his image into his likeness but if the world influences us and had that influence on us to change as when judah were carried away in captivity they went in the midst of babylon and as i said I don't know how many Babylonians they converted, but where those were among them, some of them had faith that they trusted God, and that seed was planted in the world. And that's why God preached to them to keep his commandments. Wherever they go, whatever they did, not diminish a word. I tell them, you have to keep these commandments. We know that as Christians, we have to keep God's law. Not the legalistic aspect of it, but since we have the Spirit, we're not going to be lawbreakers. We're going to be led by the Spirit of God. He's going to make us just like Him, and Jesus Christ wasn't a lawbreaker. he wasn't a lawbreaker because he was full of the spirit. No one else has been born full of the spirit. John was born of the spirit, but he was given the spirit without measure. He was given the spirit without measure, but we should fill up the cup. We should keep being filled with the spirit. We should continually be filled with the spirit of God. We shouldn't allow spiritual batteries to go down. Once you stop being a witness, as I said, he had worn Nineveh through Jonah. And hundreds of years later, Nahum, they came in and they destroyed Nineveh. Nineveh was destroyed. The Assyrians were destroyed. But they had heard the proclamation, and they repented at the preaching of Jonah. But it was just like some other preachers preached it. It wasn't long-lasting repentance. You see a lot of people be sorrowful for their sin. But after being sorry for your sin, there's still something else you have to do. There has to be the remission, the removal of sin. But there also has to be a born-again effect in your life, which is what happens to us, that born-again experience where Christ comes in our life. He births us again through regeneration. And that starts the process of us crucifying the old man, or what we used to be, or what we once were. We can't go back to that, and that's what Nineveh did. They went back to that and God destroyed Nineveh. Babylon, which was a Gentile nation, they were chosen to destroy Judah, I mean to take Judah captive. But we see where in the 55th verse, that's one of the chapter where you were reading at the 30th verse, that Babylon itself was fearful, that God had put a spirit of trembling upon them. You know, sometimes you say, what, a man scared? Look at this spirit that He puts upon them. their redeeming stronghold of course it is mainly set for a repeat their calls he may give rest to the land and is quite inhabitants of babylon these that came in and captured these might have been in the end that will just say if they were hard and probably may go a little whatever they've got to send a spirit so that for the place of spirit of all those people it says a sport is a form that can't be considered a little and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men. A sword is upon the liars, and they shall doubt. A sword is upon their mighty men, and they shall be dismayed. Go to the 51st chapter, 30th verse. The mighty men of Babylon have forborne the fight. They have remained in their homes. Why? Because of the sword of the Spirit upon them. God has put that spirit of fear upon them. God does that through his preaching and his word. Let me see. You can see that spirit come upon the people in the land of Canaan. You remember when Israel crossed the Red Sea and they captured and killed Bashan and Siphon? They were just city after city that they would come upon. The Bible says the fear and the dread of the hornet was upon them. thing last week out of Joshua where all the inhabitants of Jericho was scared and they were fearful because they had heard what the people of God had did to the other people. that the dread of the law of the fear of the heart and in other words we might worry about a a heart strike or whatever it wasn't actual harnesses what people were saying it's like in the last days like he said you'll hear a rumor you know you hear word of mouth people say what's going on when the last days god's preaching it's so terrifying god's preaching it's so convict it's could be such a raw that's why they don't want you to prophesy gosh may this way you don't want you to preach because most people don't accept the god of the old test that's a rough god that that's a brutal or bloody god not realizing it's the same part of the new test he's showing you a different aspect of him if you were drinking up his cup it's like everybody dread this awful captain, this awful president, this awful leader, this general. But the general's children, his family, they're not afraid of him. Why? Because they see the other side of him. As if, like, when God says he'll turn his face from you. or else he'll make his face to shine upon you. You can see a different aspect of a different individual. You're that way sometimes, we're that way sometimes. They say you're in a different mood. He's not the same person. Well, they felt this in the Old Testament and they were afraid. Every town and city, the one, the Jebusites came to Joshua and they feigned like they was from another city or something because they knew the Israelites was going to take them out. And they made a covenant with him, and Joshua did wrong. He wasn't supposed to make a covenant with him. See, but that's from getting out the word of God. We see where all these people were afraid of him. We see where he terrorized him but what happens is god causes spirits to come and go and if you're under the wrong spirit that's why he says try the spirits to see whether but they're seducing spirits out there spirits and doctrines of devils so he sends satan's angels to be as transposing them into ministers of light and it's a strong delusion he said that in the book of Thessalonians that he was gonna send such a strong delusion that they were gonna believe a lie These people go beat and went to churches They're gonna hear these preachers and they will be believing that they're going the right way, but it's could be a lie It's not gonna be the truth. It's gonna be a gospel of a lie Paul told him it says it's another deep they preach another Jesus and But what happened, these people's heart wasn't with God. They hadn't had true spiritual conversion. They was drinking of the wrong cup. They had drunken of the wrong spirit. And that's what idolatry and fornication gets you, and adultery, is that it happens gradually. It happens gradually to get off course. That's why, you know, I've been warned several different times or whatever, and I try to get back on course. And if the church allows itself to drag off course, will be under that church. That's why he warned them in the book of Revelation several times, because there was a lot going on in the church that was against God. And he says, repent, else I'll come under you quickly. Because everyone has influence on the other. I have influence on you. You have influence on me. We inspire one another for the good or the bad. So we have to discern those, but we have to get that straight, and we have to be discerning. And as Jesus did, sometimes you have to speak directly to that offending influence. Peter was inspired by God, but then five minutes later, he allowed himself to be inspired by Satan. And Jesus just, he congratulated him when he was inspired by God. He says, my father had revealed that idea. But then when he says, get thee behind me, Satan, to that same individual. Some people like to be put up, but nobody like to be put out. We will find out this week where Jeremiah put the people down, the religious people were ready to kill him. See, that's the power of drinking of the cup, because we have to suffer here at the inner end. Hebrews 2. 10 through 11, it said, for it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. So he came here, the cup he drunk was a cup of suffering, rejected of men, being called born of fornication, being called gluttonous and a wine-bibber, being crucified and hung up on a tree wrongly. He suffered being lied on. He suffered all these things, he says, for both he that sanctified and they who are sanctified are all one. Well, the same way that I went through, you will go through. But what that's going to do is set you apart from the world. But if you give in to the influence of the world and decide to go in toward the broad way, you will miss Christ. Because the broad way leads to destruction. That's the way most churches are because Satan ministers are leading most churches. That's the broad way that's not going to suffer. That's the broad way that has a deluded gospel. It says, For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren? Therefore, verse 1 of chapter 6, Leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead words, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. All these teachings you'll get if you remain in the church. You see, but a lot of churches, instead of coming back and preaching those doctrines and teaching on those doctrines, they continue to teach prosperity. They continue to preach the blessing side. So the people are not ready for the suffering side. They continue to preach, rebuke the devil. None of them says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Resist the devil and he shall flee. But it's a different spirit being taught. And they're dogmatic in those doctrines. So what they do, they fail to declare the whole counsel of God to you. The gospel is that we must need suffering to enter in. you have to repent in other words a lot that's going on in your life is that you had turned from your ways a lot of people that preach repentance don't teach regeneration and remission of sin and repentance reconciliation to God being reconciled to God so if I tell you how good y'all are all the time you not gonna realize how terrible you are also You have to preach that with it also you have to preach that there's none good no not warning There's things in you that needs to be preached on so what happens a lot of preachers won't preach the full gospel He's not gonna preach doctrines that hurt the congregation. He's not gonna preach. That's why he says we are wounded because he's gonna heal us after he wound us sometimes you have to tear things and Our children don't know the end. They're just saying, as I was saying last week, they're saying that we're being meaner to them. But if they drink of that cup of meanness that we, that they say we're giving them, they'll see it was a cup of blessing in the end. That they didn't see the other side of the picture. Why was we angry? Why was we doing them this way? It was only to temper them, to be patient. to set and put, instill into them the right character that would later come out someday. But if we'd have spoiled them and spared the rod, we wouldn't have disciplined them and they wouldn't have been able to accept discipline and now we're living in an age and time where children are growing up and most people, as the Bible says, they're cursed children because they're unthankful, unholy, they're disrespective, insensitive and destructive. This week, I don't know if you've seen on the news or in the paper or whatever, two little boys had went swimming down there on the airline. They had told the relatives that they were staying with that they could swim. They went down there and drowning, you know, they were under water. Well, my son was in the same pool and he had, his children was on this end, he was with them out there swimming or whatever. And the lady said, have you seen them? And he said, well, they were down there swimming. Well, they looked down and the boys was under water. He dived in and pulled both of them up, 12, 13, or 14 or something like that. He pulled both of them up. Well, he had got a course in CPR. He did chest compression and mouth resuscitation, and brought back to one that was in worse shape. And he had been out about three or four minutes, and he got him to puke the water back up, and he started breathing. And then he started working on the others. And I had the article in my phone, but it's on paper. You might have seen it on the news or whatever. But he saved both of their lives. They were dead. He resurrected them. In other words, if he hadn't learned CPR through their lying and said they could swim, they'd have been gone. But luckily, he was there, and he knew it, and they're alive to this day, but by lying. And see, we're going to lie. We're going to be mischievous. We're going to do things. And we've all did these things. And kids are going to be kids. And we're going to be who we are and what we are. But God has a course for us, and we will suffer things. We will always err from different courses, you know, and say, well, why'd he say something about that? Remember, brother, some of the same things that I say are some of the same things people say to me. I teach it because I don't want us to get off course. I don't want us to veer off course. Some of the things the church is struggling with now, the very pastors and leaders that were here veered off course, and look how the church has suffered for that. A once affluent church, a once thriving church, and that's what Jeremiah was telling the people, how they were once a thriving people, and now God was about to destroy them. But they didn't want to hear that. They were about to kill him. The religious people were about to kill him. That's the same thing that did Jesus. So you don't hear the evangelists and the televangelists that stay on the church telling people how bad they are, or the way they do things in the economy, the way they do things in governmental politics, because they say, now you're getting into our personal lives. but that's what the gospel is. It's so personal that it goes in and it kills you because you're drinking of the cup of death. You were born in the condemnation. You have to be snatched out of this culture. You have to be snatched out of this world's influence. This world has influence on you and if you keep drinking of its cup, it's sure death. It's sure death to you. So, And so that's, I think we went over last time about psalms, blessings to one that sit not in the seat of scornness or whatever. I think I missed my point. But it's the associations we make. It's the associations we make that has influence on us. The people we associate with, they have influence on. And that's why we went over Psalms last week. And I gave you some in your notes. I don't know if you looked at those or not. Exodus 23 and 1 was where one of them was. It says, thou shalt not raise a false report. Put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. Neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline, and after many to rest judgment. And that goes back to when we were young. We did some things as kids we shouldn't have done that we've gotten off. And so we could preach and teach our children about that. We have to be witnesses of bad things in our lives and things now God's showing to us. That's why it says, teach these to your children. And he knew Abraham would teach these things to his children. Undoubtedly, Abraham had told Isaac about him disregarding God and that he went into Egypt and Schutner went into Egypt. But you know, Isaac turned around and used that same story and told that same lie about his wife being his sister. You see, our children will try to use some of the things we have. But see, we use those things to try to tell our children we're right. God's showing you your life. If you are drinking of the Lord's cup, you're going through judgment right now. He's going to bring you through judgment and suffering, because He's showing you in a mirror who you are. because if you continue his word, he says, you're my disciples if you continue my word. When his word acts as a mirror to show you what kind of person you are. It's gotta be, and I can't be the only one, that sometime you read God's word and you say, this is me, this is me right now. in that I don't like this. See, but a lot of us read the Bible and go away and persecute this person and judge that person, and it says we forget what kind of man of men we are. We go away and judge others without judging ourselves. And what made me mad about that whole incident, I was telling somebody about the same incident. Before I finished telling the guy this, he said, well, what did they do to the parents? Did they put the woman in jail? What did they do? And I'm like, what is your wickedness here? What kind of frame of mind are you in? Instead of you inquiring more of the children, instead of him inquiring, he's looking to judge the woman. You've been telling me you want to bring her from this traumatic episode, now you want to put her in jail. Now you might have to, is it in other ways to teach her instead of the most traumatic way? It tells us something about ourselves. As the woman caught in adultery, it's bad enough, okay, now the whole city knows that she was committing adultery with this man here since she was caught in the act of adultery. But now, as I said, it was wickedness the way the city was doing the police chief. It's bad enough that that situation come about that we didn't avoid it like the chief said we could have avoided, and it wouldn't have been the way it was. But now they want to stone us to death? That's the most extreme of punishment. What kind of person are you? Are you examining yourself? See, a lot of times we want things done to other people that we wouldn't want to do to us. He says you lay heavy burns on others, but yourself, you wouldn't touch them. We lay things up on other people, David. Is that what David did? When Nathan told him the story about the man and his lamp, he said, that man should be killed. Well, it wasn't for the man to be killed for taking that lamp. He would have had to restore it fourfold, right? Or sevenfold at the most. It wasn't a death sentence. But David says, that man should be killed. But when Nathan turned around and says, you the man, David. You the man. Then he said, look, Lord, be merciful unto me. Let me not fall in man's hand. He would rather the Lord's punishment, the Lord told him, through Nathan, he had a choice between three different punishments. He said, well, look, let me not fall into man's hand. Yeah, because man's like you. You would need something rash. You would need the ultimate judgment. You see, we have to see ourselves in some of these incidents. Before we give rise to judging other people, put yourself in your brother's seat. It's in the Bible. I forgot what scripture I wanted to quote here, unless, you know, I wasn't going this way. But he says, unless that same thing happens to you, you be careful in judgment, or that same thing will come up on you. Don't be so harsh and quick to judge others. And that's from sitting down in conversation And I keep saying the cup of the world because that's how the television programming, that's how the conversation to go, and that's why you can't sit out and listen at the world. I sit back and I try to stay apart from it because if you listen at it, It would get you mighty upset. And I was mighty upset after that thing I told you I went to the other day. I was upset at one of my sons, a comment he had made at lunch. And I was worried. I said, I don't want to be like Josiah. Lord, I'd say, what would make him say something like that? What would make him? I said, I don't want to be like Josiah, because remember what happened to all of Josiah's sons. And this other son, he did that, and he didn't even tell us about it until Monday or something. Then he didn't tell everybody, but he told us. And then he was on television. He said, well, look, I ain't no hero or nothing or whatever. But it made me feel so proud of him. So good. But it was because I was feeling bad the whole weekend because of what one other son said. I'm feeling like I'm a failure. Where did I feel that? I wasn't with him enough. How did I not get this through? That's why when teaching and preaching, I'll be asking y'all, do you understand it? Do you get it through? because your preacher could have influence on you, your teacher could have influence on you, your wife could have influence on you, your children, all of those influences, but what you have to do is that be of the spirit because you really have no need for nobody to teach you for the spirit itself teaches you. You don't really have a need for no man to teach you, for the Spirit, it teaches you all things. These things you know, but there are some things that you know you allow another person's influence or another person's advice to make you say or do different things and influence you in the wrong way. We have to be quick to hear, slow to speak, realizing that everything we say and do is part of what's forming and making us. Think about the book of Psalms when David said, I was conceived in sin and shaped and formed in iniquity. That's what the world has shaped us and formed us in its cocoon. We came here. And it's shaped us. And we're having to be transformed. Our whole mind, our whole way of thinking has to be changed. Don't think it's not. You're an adversary to God. And that's why Paul said he was the chiefest of sinners. God has to keep humbling and breaking to you. And it's different for different members. There's he says first Corinthian. I mean first John 2 and 27 says But the anointing which you have received of him abided in you That spirit abided in you and you need not that any man teach you Now let's not get that to where we says. I don't need to go to church No, he's saying if the Spirit of God's in you I that it's going to instruct you in the ways of righteousness. What are the ways of righteousness that you could hear God's preachers? That's how you know you're saved. That's how you hear and know it's something of God. It was through Jeremiah's preaching. It's through the preacher. It's the way to be saved. And then he had put teachers in the church for the edifying of the church. Right? So they are to teach you where to learn or be submitted to one another. So there's teach, that you have no need for no man to teach you. There's no rebellion, not a rebellious statement where you say, well, I don't need you to tell me. All of us know. It was like Dathan Okora that rebelled against Mulder and said, well, all of us are all in. We could teach one another. Well, no, there's a differences of gifts and there's a differences in people. So when he says you have no need for no man to teach you, probably falls along the same scriptural lines as when he says, call no man on earth father. He's not saying that your dad is not your father. He's saying that God is your instructor and leads you into righteousness in that man's system, man's way. It's not to teach you. The way of man is a way that's seeming right unto a man, and the end is death and destruction there. So you're not learning from man. Because if I'm speaking the word of God, it's not of me. It's the words that I speak. That's the anointing that's teaching. That's why these princes, they went against the leadership here. They went against the preachers and the priests in saying we shouldn't put Jeremiah there, because if this is the word of God he's speaking, This is not of him. They wanted to put Jesus Christ to death. Jesus Christ said, the words I speak, they're not mine, they're my father who had sent me. And his disciples, the one that were of God, recognized that this wasn't of Christ, that was of God. Once you start to do the will of God, you'll see the words that's being spoken, they are words of life, that they give it you life if you're drinking of that cup. It's a blessing. It strengthens you. It's healing in that cup. It's all kinds of things in that cup, but it's suffering in that cup, but the influence that it has on you, it does you like it did Caleb, it makes you stronger. Forty-some years later, he wouldn't conquer the territory God had for him to conquer. You can conquer that at y'all's age, at my age. Caleb was 85. Anybody here 85? He said he was stronger then to take that mountain than he was 40 some years ago. You supposed to be stronger now than you was when you was in your 20s because you have more spiritual strength. That's what give it life. Moses 120 years. He said, my eyesight hadn't dissipated. I'm still strong. He said, I know, but I'm using you for a different purpose. Your purpose is over with now. so he says uh... the same minority teaches you of all things that and his truth and there's no lie and even as he had told you you show up by in him he's talking about in the spirit of christ to abide in continuing christ's word let me not forsaken the fellowship of one another john seventeen because jesus had manifested that word to his disciples that three and a half year minister really influenced them because you know when he sent them out to preach they didn't have the anointing the holy ghost hadn't failed yet they went out on the power and strength and the demonstration of his word and that word was able to cast out devils so do you understand that when you're fighting against the false prophets and the false teachers and everything they don't necessarily have to have God's spirit to perform these deeds to perform these things To heal somebody, you don't have to have the Spirit of God. Didn't the seven sons of Sceva cast demons out of this person? He didn't deny that the people had fed people in his name. He didn't deny that they had preached in his name. He didn't deny that they had healed in his name. What he did deny is that he never knew them, that they didn't have a fellowship, they didn't have his spirit. There's a lot of things that you could do in the physical and it's for yourself. The intent is of yourself, the intent is personal. But you have to be led by the spirit of God. You have to, what he says, if any man thirst, Jesus was hanging on the cross in the book of John and it was the last days. the great day of the feast. Jesus stood up and cried saying, if any man thirsts, if you want something to drink, if you want life coursing through your body, John 7, verses 37-40, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. Did he repeat that again? Didn't he repeat it in the book of Revelation? Whoever is thirsty, let thirst let him come. He's always making that invitation to freely come unto Him. He says, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me as the scripture hath said, as the word of God hath said. That's why the Bereans, they were taken aback by what was being preached. But they were more noble. They went back and studied the scriptures to see was those things so. He who believeth on me as the scriptures has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But do you have to study? to start to show yourself a proof, rightly dividing the word of God. Not just anything that's scriptural, or how the scriptures is, because that's what Satan did. And I tell you, the false prophets, I tell you, that's the weapon that they were using in the last days of the scriptures. He said, turn these stones into bread, if thou be the son of man. Cast thine self down from here, And the angels shall bear you up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Which is a scripture quote from the book of Psalms. But he says it's also written, thou should not tempt the Lord thy God. So if you belong to some religion in Kentucky or Tennessee that tells you, the Bible does say take up any deadly thing that harm you and serpents, but that doesn't say go out and be a snake hound. That's tempting the Lord thy God. In other words, God, you gonna save me from death. Anything I do that I can stand in the street, you will save me. You mean to tell me I just cast myself down off this building that he's gonna defy the law of gravity just to save me? That's tempting the Lord thy God. The Hebrew boys knew that, so they didn't say, well, just go on and throw us in the fire because God's gonna save us. They didn't. They didn't know what God's gonna do. You don't know what's God's will until as you carry it out because James and Peter, John and Peter was in prison and they took his head off and they let Peter go. He has a destiny for all of us. But the Hebrew boy said, well look, God is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace. But to bow down and worship you, we won't bend, we won't bow, we're not gonna do it, just gonna have to throw us in. We're not too careful in answering you in this, and we're gonna stand up for that portion of God's word. We don't know, they didn't know whether God was gonna deliver them out of there or not. It don't say anywhere where he had said he was gonna promise to deliver them through that. But they trusted God in whatever they do, that they was gonna be God's followers. That's faith in God. So we have to know what the scripture says. There's going to be some coming in with cunning and craftiness in telling you about different things with money aspects and how to do this with God and try to manipulate God. And that's why God says, God is not mocked. What a man soweth, he shall reap. In other words, it's not that somebody's melling up the word mocked in that scripture there in that connotation and the way it's in that context is that God is not outfoxed. He's not outwitted. He's not outsmarted. In other words, some preachers tell you if you put this much in and God's gonna bless you and give you this and you'll get that. Now, that's giving to get. You can't find that scripturally. That's giving the gift. That's a Ponzi scheme there. You don't know whether God's going to give that back to you or not. You understand that? That is part of His blessing, but you don't know what God's will is in your life. You know aspects of it, but you don't know the future. That's why a lot of people in James, he says, there's nothing wrong with planning for the future. But says, if the Lord will, we shall do such and such. He said, well, we're going to travel to a certain city, and we're going to do this and do that. He said, well, no, you're getting arrogant. Now, he says, if it be the Lord's will. See, that's what he had against the men that were building bigger barns. It's not that he was a godly man in pursuing wealth in a godly fashion. He was pursuing material wealth for pleasure and relaxation for self. And that's why God says those things, who's going to have those things since your soul is required of you tonight? Now who's going to have those things? See, you have to make sure your soul is in proper condition. That's why he tells us first in preaching, seek ye the kingdom of God and these things will be added to you. But you don't know if it's, for God, sickness may come upon you. But that don't mean you don't have faith. You may not drive new cars and live in a big house. That doesn't mean that that person's more spiritual than you because he has something. That don't mean he's a better man than you because he is over this job, he's boss. God said, remember, you have a boss also. That's just the role God has him playing here. Don't have respect to a person and try to tell a person, well, you're this, since you're lowly, you ain't got no money, you're this. Don't belittle anyone because God has a role for all of us to play in. We have to do what God has called us to do. He says, But this faith he of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified Many of the people therefore when they heard that saying said of a truth. He is a prophet See that's why I say people know what the Word of God is in you and it witnessing and it witnesses with our spirit that those things are of God and So I can only speak to those things that touches the spirit side in you, or that God's spirit in you agree with the human spirit that's in you. That's why he's trying to make you in harmony with him. He said we're all in all as one. He says, I've read that earlier, that all was one in Christ Jesus. That we could desire the thing that God desires. We could have unity. We would be one with God. Uh, it's also, uh, John 17 and 6 is where it started off. I have manifest thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Not thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thine word. Now they have known all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them." A part of ground, you're pouring water on it, it freely went unto them. They freely accepted the gospel. They accepted the gospel. If you accept the gospel, Jesus prayeth with you for God to sanctify you and to set you apart. And it is his job, if you're obedient unto those words, to bless you and to bring you and shape you and form you into his image and likeness. The Holy Spirit which God sins in and he's gonna testify of Jesus Christ He's gonna teach you all things He's gonna bring former things to remember But you have to be obedience and you have to be following God drinking up that cup. You can't drink of both cups You can't drink of the cup of the world and the cup of God he says I've given them unto them the words which thou gavest me and they gave me and They have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou did send me I pray for them. I pray not for the world But for them which thou has given me for they are thine all mine of thine and thine are mine And I am glorified in them and now I'm no more in the world, but these are in the world And I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are one." And you remember he said him and the father's thoughts were the same. They're not divided. They're not divided. That's one of the things that he was suffering, is that he had to be separated from God in death. that on the cross that cup that he was to drink of was to separate him from God. But on his resurrection he says, glorify me with the glory that I had with you in the beginning. So he was going back to the Father and he was to have that union with God. union with God, fellowship with God. You remember I told you those that do works and don't have the Spirit of God, they're not drinking of His cup so they don't come into that union with God, that fellowship with God. They could accomplish many works and they could build great buildings. It's like building the Tower of Babel The people were warned and he says that that will they do Nothing will be withheld from them, but they wouldn't have the spirit of God. It's like being rich and not having love and That's when you know a lot of people in them killing. They said they can't find satisfaction in life So you couldn't what's the worst thing is for God to give you those things you desire and they make not bring you satisfaction like the people that lusted for the quail. And they lusted for it, and God caused them to eat it, and die of indigestion, and die of eating surfeiting. The quail that they ate caused their deaths, because they lusted after these foods. They wasn't satisfied with what God was doing. First Corinthians, second chapter, fourth through the tenth verse. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man wisdom, but in the demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. If the gospel be of God, that's what resurrects you. That's what gives you life. The preaching of God's word. And it's not an intellectual pursuit. It's anointing that the word brings. it's a circumcision in your heart where he opens you up to that you could understand the scriptures, that you start to understand God's word. Through the fear and knowledge of God and understanding of his word, with wisdom and knowledge, you start to understand people and can discern how to better live this life, to become a better character. In other words, you're building the righteousness of Christ. That gives you a love for all mankind. That gives you a love for all men. That's when God starts to work in your behalf. And he calls even your enemies to be at peace to whereby you can build the temple of God. David couldn't build the temple of God because he was a man of war. He was consistently had blood on his hands. Solomon was a man of peace that built the temple. We want to follow peace with all men. We don't want to strive as servants of God. We don't want to be in strife with the world. We don't want to be in strife with other religions. We want to be at peace, follow peace as much as it lies possible in us. But to build this temple, to build God's temple, we have to do as Jesus Christ did. That's when he revived, he revived not again. He wasn't a weak and spineless man, but he was tamed to the yoke, and the yoke that he was under was the yoke of God. What yoke are we under? That's the cup we're drinking. That's why he says, come unto me, all you heavy laden. Take my yoke upon you. His yoke is easy, but a yoke is something that guides you and trains you. You're attached to that. You're attached to a yoke. And that's why we need to be attached to him. When we're finished, he says, how be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect? In other words, in the midst of all the churches, you can speak these things, but only the ones that have the Spirit of God can discern these things. The Corinthian church was a much corrupted church. They had all of the spiritual gifts, but Paul said that they were carnal. and that God was going to punish a lot of them. He says, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. Now, a mystery is not like Perry Mason, madlock or criminal minds or something. It's not a puzzle you solve. The mystery of God is something that God reveals to you. You can never figure God out. God has to reveal himself to you. That's why it says, these things you'll receive at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He shows them to his friend. He shows these to us. Jesus Christ reveals himself unto those that he will. But if he don't reveal this unto you, you'll never get it. You could study and read the Bible all your life. And most scholars know the Bible and understand it better than a whole lot of preachers. But you see, this is not from the wisdom of men, you see, because this is a, it's not your words, but it's spirit, the spirit gives it life. The spirit give it life. He says, But as it is written, I had not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love Him. But God had revealed it unto them by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. So we can only know the things of God by God's Spirit. So we can only tell of our intoxication level by our commitment level to Jesus Christ. We're to be sober and vigilant, not drunken as the world. The world has drunken of the cup and is staggered and is drunken. The preachers and the priests have drunken of the cup and they are drunken and staggering. But if we of His Spirit The spirit giving us life, and we're sober and vigilant. We walk in circumspectively, not as those that walk in the dark.