In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of the spirit in a person's life. He refers to various biblical passages that mention the spirit as the inner man or the heart. The speaker shares his personal experiences and emphasizes the need to prioritize the spiritual aspect of life. He also mentions a survey conducted by a church to understand the preferences of the community, resulting in a church that avoids controversial topics and focuses on non-theological issues. The sermon concludes with a prayer for God to draw people closer to Him and address every area of their lives.

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Linville, Texas 75771 or calling 214-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. Hebrews, the 5th chapter, and then Proverbs, the 16th chapter. And we'll turn to Hebrews 5 first, and then we'll go to the 16th chapter. And if you will be ready to turn there so we can go through it quickly. I want to speak to you this morning about something the Lord has been dealing with me about intensely in my own personal life and my own personal times with the Lord. I've entitled the message, How Much Does Your Spirit Weigh? How Much Does Your Spirit Weigh? Now, throughout the Bible, throughout the Word of God, there are frequent allusions to a special spiritual sense. Holy Spirit speaks of it as the inner man. Sometimes it's the heart. So often it's referred to as just the Spirit. Not the Holy Spirit, but Spirit, our Spirit. Now, that Spirit man is as much a reality as is the outward physical man. Just as much of reality. And yet, sometimes it's the most neglected. We don't understand that realm. We're so used to living in a sense realm. We don't understand this spirit realm. And yet, it's all around us. The Word of God indicates that the unique feature of human beings, of human life, is not the physical part. It's the spiritual. It's very clear about that. We have scriptures like 1 Thessalonians 5.23 that says, Now may the God of peace sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your spirit, your soul, and your body. Now, I've said this many times, but there are people who try to intimately and effectively separate all three of those. Ultimately, you cannot be separated. You have a body. You are that body. But you are essentially, and I am essentially, an embodied spirit. Now, are you hearing what I'm saying? Essentially, you are a spirit. Now, the Bible places so much emphasis upon this that it would take a small volume just to collect all the scriptures that deal with it. We couldn't possibly cover all of the scriptures that deal, or even a portion of them, a major portion that deal with this very concept. Not only does the Bible say that you and I are essentially a spirit being, but it indicates that not only are we a spirit, we have a body, and we have a mind, but we are a spirit. It also indicates that our conflicts are of the spirit sort. Our conflicts are of a spiritual nature. Now, it's very clear about this. The one scripture that I know you'll be familiar with is Ephesians 6.12, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this wickedness, or this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. Now, I'm not speaking strictly about fighting demons, but I'm saying that the conflicts that we have are of a spiritual nature. You have a spirit. Have you ever gotten out of bed and just felt like you shouldn't have gotten out of bed? Now, it wasn't because anything happened. You're not hurting physically. You went to bed peaceful, joyful. You got up the next morning, and for some reason, there's a conflict. What happens in those cases is your spirit needs an adjustment. There's a part of you. You can sit all day long trying to figure out why did I wake up this way, and you won't be able to find a single logical reason or answer to that because you are a spirit being. There are times when you are disturbed in spirit. There are times when an approaching danger is near or something is there. You're just uncomfortable about some situation. You don't have anything you can possibly pinpoint. There's nothing there that you can actually say that, well, I feel this way because of this, but something is there. You're disturbed on the inside. You have something that's deeper than your mind. It's deeper than your emotions. Something's operating down on the inside. You are a spirit being, and your spirit is disturbed. Now, there's a heaviness of spirit. Now, when I'm talking about weighing the spirit, I'm not talking about that. You know, the Bible even uses that phrase, a heaviness of spirit, and sometimes there's a heaviness of spirit, and as I'm talking, there's no explanation for it, no real explanation for it. Now, the Bible also indicates not only are you a spirit being, and not only are the conflicts that we have as spiritual nature, but it indicates that the earth is swung in a spiritual atmosphere, the whole thing in a spiritual atmosphere. There are unnumbered thousands of spirit beings, and good and evil, angel, angelic and demonic, trampling the earth's surface and filling the whole atmosphere. Now, if we could just have our eyes open to see that, that's what we would be able to detect. There is a spiritual atmosphere far beyond anything we see or detect physically. Now, I want you to start with me in Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5, verse 14, just one verse, and here's what it says. But strong me, I'm reading from the King James this morning, because there are several scriptures that I want you to see from that perspective. But strong me belongeth to them that are of full age. Now, that word full age is just a... I don't know why it's translated that. The word itself does not mean full age, has nothing to do with length of age. It may have something to do with the idea of the translators, because they had the impression that really you never moved into real spiritual maturity unless there was a lot of spiritual experience behind it. I don't know about that, but at any rate, the word full age is not really accurate. New American Standard uses the word mature, but it speaks of a sense in which you're able... Strong me belong to them that are... mature would be a good word to receive it. Even those... Now, here's who those persons are. Even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. In other words, it's talking about something here. It's not just talking about being able to know what's right and what's wrong. That is included in it. But it's talking about walking with God in a realm of sphere of maturity that you're able to detect things not only in the physical world, not only what you see there, but of a spiritual nature. Something far beyond what you're able to see. There's one translation I want to read to you. It says it like this. It says that the spiritual senses may be so cleansed and filled with the Holy Spirit as to be able to discern spiritual things. And by the exercise of the sanctified soul, readily and intuitively perceive facts in the spiritual realm. Now, that's a good translation. It's wordy and that's not what it literally translates into, but that's a good explanation of it. That we should be able to discern facts in the spiritual realm. As a matter of fact, the Word of God says that when He examines us, it is the very spirit nature that He weighs out and judges and examines. Now, turn with me to Proverbs 16 and I'll show you. Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16. Many of you are familiar and heard of the Scripture that says, for the Lord looks not at the outward appearance, but He looks at the heart. Now, that's another way of saying what I'm going to read to you from Proverbs 16. When God begins to examine you, and He begins to weigh you out on His balances and His scales, He does it in the realm of the spirit. Not in the physical. Now, here's what I mean by that. He doesn't look so much at what you have accomplished. He doesn't look so much at how you talk. That does not mean that He's not concerned of the tongue, because He sees something. The tongues control something inside. That's what the Bible says. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. You know, it's going to be a shock to some people that when they finally come to this final judging of all things, when the Lord finally adjusts the scales and begins to lay our spirits on that scale, so to speak, some people are going to be absolutely shocked when they see the balances tip in the wrong direction. They're going to expect that when they lay their spirits down, they're going to be surprised. The Lord's just going to... And I'm speaking symbolically and figuratively, not in actuality. He's going to lift their spirit, set it on a scale, and they're going to protest and say, but Lord, you're measuring the wrong thing. Look at all I've done for you. Did we not perform many miracles in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? Have we not won thousands to the Lord in your name? Lord, look at my faithful attendance. Look at how often I read the Bible. Look at how often I prayed. Look at how I helped my neighbor. Look at how many cups of water I gave to the poor. Look at all of these things, Lord. Why don't you put that on the scale? And the Lord says, no. No, I measure the spirit. I weigh the spirit. I weigh not what I saw you do outwardly, but I weigh something beyond that. I weigh things in the spirit realm. Now, look at Proverbs 16, verse 2. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Do you see it? Now, the New American Standard translates it motives, but the translation is spirits. The Lord weigheth the spirits. Now, motives is correct in one sense, in that He's not so interested in what you did outwardly as the motive behind it. Can you imagine when people stand before the Lord and they've got all this glitter and glitz and everything that they're showing to present to God, and He looks at it and He says, blows it away. Just blows it away. There's gonna rise a protest up out of their hearts. You say, you mean they would literally protest that? Yes. Read Ezekiel 18 sometime. In Ezekiel 18, God, through the prophet Ezekiel, was telling the people that their ways were wrong. And do you know what they said? They said, God, you're not just. In other words, you're weighing the wrong things. See, God required exact measurements. You're weighing the wrong thing. Now, this word weigh means to ponder. It means to weigh out by a scale. It means to ascribe a value to a thing by comparing it with a standard. Now, God has got a standard. He has a standard. He's gonna compare it with that standard. He's not gonna compare it with what we think is religiously right. And there are gonna be a lot of people that are gonna come up wanting. You say, well, where do I find that standard? Well, the Bible speaks of it as being in the sanctuary of God. Now, the sanctuary of God has a special significance. It doesn't mean a building. It doesn't mean a locale. It doesn't mean a specific place. It means anywhere you find the face of His presence, you're in the sanctuary of God. See, that's why God can call us in the New Testament the temple of God. Why? Because as Christians, there's where you can find the indwelling presence of the face of God. He indwells His people. Look with me to show you this. Look with me at verse 11 of Proverbs 16. A just weight and balance are the Lord's. All the weights of the bag are His work. Now, that's there for a reason. It means something. Now, here's what it means. First of all, the Jews, the Jewish merchants used to keep their weights in a bag. In fact, Micah 6.11 says, Can I justify wicked scales and a bag of deceptive weights? Now, God's saying that to the people. They're wanting God to bless them and He's saying, How can I justify, Micah 6.11, How can I justify wicked scales and a bag of deceptive weights? Now, here's what would happen. Commercial fraud in primitive times was of a comparatively simple form. What would happen would be this. They simply would, the merchant would take out of his bag what appeared to be right measures, but those measures would be incorrect. Or they'd have the right amount written on them, but they would be in some form an alloy. Now, an alloy is when you take a precious metal and you mix it with something that's less precious to reduce the value of it. Not only does it reduce the value of it, it reduces the weight of it. Now, it wouldn't be a great deal of difference in measure. It would just be a slight but a significant difference in the measure so that you wouldn't feel like you were being robbed. You couldn't, you couldn't, you could look at the weight and the scale and He would give you the value of it and He would pay you for whatever you gave Him in barter or in return. And yet, what you would be getting if you weighed a hundred pounds, it might weigh 85 pounds. Now, you wouldn't be able to pick it up and discern the 15-pound difference, but the 15-pound difference done several times over the course of a business day would end up being quite a significant amount that was left in the hands of the merchant. Now, the idea here is that they would nibble a little from every thing that came his way, every article which he sold to a customer. And there's a spiritual picture here. You see, all of us face a major, I believe, very subtle temptation. We are tempted to think. Now, listen to me when I say this. We are tempted to think that a considerable portion of our life, a considerable portion of our life is insignificant to attract the particular attention of God toward it. In other words, there are all types of things that we end up doing during the course of a day that we just don't think and discern that God considers that portion of our life that significant. And it's happening. It has an effect upon your spirit life. There are things that affect you as a spiritual being. And yet, because we're so aware of the physical aspects of our life, we don't perceive that God is actually weighing us out. Now, listen. Every temptation, every trial is a weight and a scale by which God weighs your spirit. Did you hear what I said? Every temptation, every trial, every trial, every sorrow, every victory, every incident is a weigh-in. You know, before a battle, a fight, a professional boxing match, they have a weigh-in. Well, you have a weigh-in every day. I have a weigh-in every day. Every incident that comes is going to be a measure. And it's going to prove if our spirit being has the weight of a true metal or an alloy. God is not going to measure what we do outwardly as much as He measures why we do it. And you know, it's amazing how blind we can be to our own motives. Are you hearing me? It's absolutely amazing how blind we can be. Now, how are we going to be able to discern then whether we have the right weight or not? Well, it's going to be in the sanctuary of God. Look with me at verse 15. In the light of the King's countenance is life. Now, who is our King? Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. In the light of the King's countenance is life. The New American Standard says in the light of the King's face is life. It means in the sanctuary of God. If I read this scripture to you, perhaps you'll understand more clearly what I'm talking about. See, in the light of God's face, we're able to weigh out things that are important and things that are unimportant. We're able to examine them with true alloy, with a true measure and a true light. Now, something that we might consider important, you bring it into God's light and all of a sudden it looks worthless. How many of you know what I'm talking about? You see, David had that problem. Let me read Psalm 73. Don't turn there. It says, As for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant. As I saw the prosperity of the wicked, for there are no pains in their death, they're not in trouble as other men, and the imaginations of their heart run riot. It's always amazed me as a pastor how funerals are so comforting for the lost. Now, I'm not just... Usually there's a preacher up there that's making them comfortable. But isn't it amazing? Isn't it absolutely amazing how people can at least hear a portion of the scriptures, live an absolutely wicked life with no concern whatsoever for God, just living for self, come to the funeral and all of the relatives are at peace. They are. They're at peace. Oh, well, I know he was such a good man, God took him to heaven. And then that man is ushered right into the presence of God. His spirit set on the scale and it tips. You know, I've often wondered that scale measuring is probably taking place at the very same time that everybody's sitting around saying, he was such a wonderful man. At the very same time in the physical realm that something's happening, that man is an absolute or person is an absolute agony in a different realm than they even perceive. We live in the day of cubic zirconia. That's the day in which we live. That describes the day in which we live. I don't think it's an accident that they've been able to perfect synthetic diamonds and synthetic everything else to the degree, I don't know how true it is, but to the degree that I'm told that it takes quite a gemologist to be able to discern the difference at times. That oftentimes the people who normally would sell the diamonds, there are qualities that are so good that it would be difficult for them to discern the difference unless they were a certified gemologist and be able to really discern knowing what to look for exactly. We live in a day where there's so much that's made to look good physically and it's an absolute alloy, it's an absolute fakery of the real thing. I don't know how many of you saw it, but in Time magazine, a while back, a few weeks back, it was the particular Time magazine where Khomeini had died and he was on the cover of Time magazine. If you've got that, you can go back and find this article. There's an article there about the second largest church in America, out of Chicago. I'm not sure particularly of all the facts, but I think it was about five years ago they started and now they started with 36 people and now they have 12,000 people that attend that church. What a growth. It was interesting to find out how the church was built. Those 36 people went throughout the community and began to canvas the neighborhoods. And they asked basically about five questions or five things. What are the five things that you really would like to have in a church? We're going to put a church in this neighborhood. What are the five things you'd most be interested in in a church? Now, the result of what the people wanted was that the stance of the church is that they, first of all, they have no theological positions, they speak to no doctrinal issues, and they touch nothing controversial. It's a good way to build a church. That's right. It's the way many of them were built. But what happens when it's placed on the scale? You see, God won't take the membership of that church and lay it on the scale and say, 12,000 in five years. My goodness, didn't you do a mighty work for the kingdom. Now, you know what that preacher will face? He'll take 12,000 spirits. I don't believe he'll even measure the preacher's spirit. He'll take 12,000 spirits, and he'll watch the Lord place the gold of his character and purity on one side of that scale. Perfect. No alloy. Perfect gold. And he's going to tip it all the way down. And then he's going to take 12,000 spirits and put it on the other side, and he's not even going to budge it. Won't even move it. He's going to weigh the spirits. Right before the king's face. Now, I'll tell you, if we really grasp this, if we really let the Lord deal with us about this, first of all, it tells me something. Be very careful about being content with estimating your own conduct by the judgment of others that pass that judgment. Be very careful about thinking of yourself in terms of the way other people think of you. Because they may hold you in great high esteem, and yet you wouldn't even begin to tip the scale. The balance wouldn't make, it wouldn't help. And secondly, it tells me something else. It says the ways, all of a man's ways are clean in his own eyes. Now that tells me something. And the second important point about that. Don't expect God to alter his judgment by attempting to ignore it. Simply because we ignore certain things, don't expect him to alter his judgment. He's going to weigh out every motive. He's not going to be looking at what you did, he's going to be looking at why you did it. And I don't care how righteous it appears to be, he's going to be looking at the spirit realm behind it. And the third thing it teaches me, is don't even be content with the standard of your own conscience. See, I've had people tell me this. I've literally had them say, well, my conscience is clear on that. And my question is, well, what kind of a conscience do you have? It's not a matter of whether your conscience is clear. Don't think. Some people, when we read, for example, Hebrews chapter 5, some people mistakenly get the idea that they can discern good and evil, and yet they don't habitually train their senses. They just train them every once in a while. Something comes up, they say, well, my conscience is clear. Oh, there have been more people that have gone down that road than you can possibly number, whose conscience was defiled. It was a fatal conscience that brought them to the place. Their conscience was mixed and misled with false principles. You and I can't even depend upon our own conscience. That's what Jeremiah 17, 9 and 10 says. Let me read it to you. The heart is deceitful. You know the scripture? Above all things, that means you're not going to find anything that can deceive you any more than your own heart. It's desperately sick, it says. The King James says, desperately wicked. Who can know it? But there's a verse right after that. The very next verse says, I, the Lord, search the heart. I try, and that word try means I weigh the reins. Are you hearing me? I weigh the reins. Now, listen to me. What he's saying is, I put on the scale, I weigh the reins. I weigh what control the motive. I weigh not only what the heart did and what you did. I weigh the reins behind it. Even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. Now, that same scripture is here in Proverbs 16 in another form. Look at Proverbs 16, verse 32. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. Now, the second part. He that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. Oh, you want to be some great person in the eyes of God? Don't talk about taking a city, talk about ruling your spirit. You want to be some mighty person before the Lord. You want to present to God a scale that's in correct balance? Rule your spirit. Now, the Bible says so much about the importance of the spirit of man. So much about it. Let me just show you how much that affects you. How much your spirit being affects your life. Let's just take a little tour through Proverbs for just a few scriptures. Proverbs 11. Look with me at Proverbs 11. The New American Standard will read a little differently in some of these, but you'll still be able to follow it. Proverbs 11. How important is this spirit man we're talking about? You do understand from what we've said that the scales are not in the hands of man, don't you? That means we have to be very careful that we're not partial toward certain attitudes and sins. Listen. Simply because you don't commit a sin does not mean you will not be accounted and judged by it. Now, that's going to shock some people. But it's very clear in the New Testament. It's not the person who commits adultery. It's the person who desires to commit adultery that's judged by it. Now, that means that if you have a sin brooding down deep inside and it never really comes to the surface, but it's brooding down deep inside. Now, I want to tell you, first of all, you won't have that sin brooding down deep inside and not know about it. Don't think it's something going to slip up on you and you're going to appear before God at the judgment day and all of a sudden He's going to say, well, there's something you never saw. I'm sorry, I have to judge you for it. No, no, there will be some of that. But listen, if your heart is right and motive before God, He's going to absolutely expose everything that needs to be exposed. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So don't let the enemy come in and try to twist this thing and turn it around and create an unnecessary concern. No, God will find, He will search the heart. He says, I'll try the heart, I'll search it out, I'll test it, I'll try the reins. I'll test everything that's in the way. I'll show you the motive behind everything. I want to weigh the spirit. But now listen, I made that statement. I'm going to say it again. Simply because you and I don't commit a certain act does not mean that it won't be put on the scale to be weighed. See, if there's a sin that's brooding down deep inside. Do you know there are people that have something brooding down deep inside them and the only reason they don't commit it is because they don't have the opportunity to commit it. Or they are so fearful of the punishment of it, they don't do it. But if they could do it, they would do it. Now God judges that as if you had done it. I am also convinced that a habit of lesser evils or neglects amounts to a greater guilt than a single great lapse or fall. You might be able to look at somebody that took a terrific plunge. And usually of course those terrific plunges are preceded by a number of small plunges and sins. But if perhaps a person would be trying to walk on with God and yet in the growth of their maturity they actually got ensnared in something that created a great fall and everybody saw it. Oh I mean it was such an embarrassment, everybody could see it. Now they hadn't been practicing that but up to a point they were ensnared and tripped up. It had been something maybe back in their past life and tripped up and they fell. I don't believe that that's even as serious. Now I'm not trying to weigh the difference of sin. But I don't believe that's as serious as the person who never has it exposed but it's got a series of what they call minor compromises that are down deep inside and their motives as to why they do things as to when they do them are perverted and they're deceived. But because they haven't gotten caught or they're not thinking about a great fall they perceive of themselves in their own conscience as being pretty good on the scales. And it's just not the truth. Because if there's compromise outwardly or inwardly your physical body may go untouched but your spirit man is always affected. Are you hearing me? There can be things that are going on in your life that outwardly it may not touch you. And you know I used to say things and basically it follows the pattern that if a man's life is not right or wife's life is not right the whole home is going to be in turmoil. But I've met people whose lives are not right and the home's in turmoil. But you can't put your finger on anything. I've also met people whose lives are not right and everything's not in turmoil. That's what, I was going to read this, finish reading it but I'll read a portion of it again. That's what was bothering David. As for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped. I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. There are no pains in their death. They're not in trouble as other men and the imaginations of their heart run riot. When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight. Now listen to what he says. Until I came into the sanctuary of God, then I perceived therein surely thou dost set them in slippery places. You know what he's saying? He's not talking about just walking into some temple. He's not talking about I didn't understand this whole thing and I went to church and somebody preached a sermon on it. No, he's saying I didn't understand. I didn't understand how lives could be so wrong and appear to be so right. How a life could be so wicked and so evil and yet seemingly run so smooth. Until I got before Almighty God and then I perceived something happened to me. I was moved into a different realm. I was moved into the realm of spirit things. And when I began to see through the eyes of God and I saw what was making them happy, then I understand they're on a slippery place. They don't know it, but they're headed for trouble. When I got into God's presence, into the sanctuary of God, I was able to perceive things not as they appear to be on a physical level, but I saw in the spirit realm. And what I saw in the spirit realm, I was not only brought face to face with the King, but I leapt in my spirit over the joy that's produced from being in his presence and I saw the worthlessness of everything else in comparison. And then I was able to look at all of those other things that look so good and I looked at them and thought, my, how ugly, how putrefied, how awful. The importance of the spirit man. Oh, it cannot be denied. It's much more important than you and I, I think, perceive. Proverbs chapter 11, verse 13. Look at this, look at this. Proverbs 11, verse 13. A tale bearer revealeth secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. Now, I'm not talking about tale bearers this morning, but what I'm talking about is there is a spirit that God perceives as a faithful spirit. Now, that's going to be significant in a moment because we're going to look at something in the book of Revelation. He looks at the spirit and he says, that's faithful. That spirit's faithful to me. Listen, that spirit, faithfulness, how does the spirit weigh? That is put on the scale and it's not an alloy. It's not a mixture and it measures a true weight. Are you hearing me? Because that is a characteristic of God himself, faithfulness. And so when that spirit is placed on the scale, it measures a true balance. Let's look at another one. Proverbs 14, Proverbs 14. You are following me, aren't you? Verse 29. Now, this is the opposite of a faithful spirit. He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. Hasty of spirit. And what does he exalt? Folly. Folly. Worthless things. Vain things. The word hasty there, and I'm not sure what the New American Standard uses. I looked at it before, but I've forgotten. But whatever it uses, there's a better translation than either one of them. It means this. Lacking in true spirit. He that is lacking in true spirit exalteth folly. In other words, he'll find pleasure in things that mean nothing. That's why somebody can be religiously happy. Religious happiness is pure nonsense. It's folly. Yeah, it's damnable. But it's folly. It's games. Fun and games. I remember David and I went to a church one time, and this is a fast-growing church, and we just went in, we sat down in the back, and we wanted you to see. We're not there to judge it, but the reason we went is because we'd heard so much of a negative thing, and it involved a lot of people that we were dealing with, and so we decided we'd just go sit down and see. What about this church? And we came with absolute... I know, my heart and David's was that we came with absolute intent not to judge anything. And we walked out, and we didn't say much. We walked to the car, to the parking lot. We got in the car, and we drove on out of the parking lot, really not saying anything, and I said, David, what did you think of it? He said it was fun. It's a fun church. And I knew exactly what he meant. It's a fun church. It's a folly church. There are a lot of folly churches. See, if your spirit has an alloy in it, you'll get excited about folly churches. You'll get excited about the glitz and the glitter. You'll get excited about the praise. You'll get excited about the Word. You'll get excited about everything about that church. Don't you think they won't like the church If the spirit doesn't weigh out pure righteousness and a desired hunger for God, then that place will look beautiful. Are you hearing me? Because a hasty spirit, lacking in spirit. Oh, but the shock, the shock of coming and laying that spirit on the scales. Sing it, Tim. Proverbs 15. Now this is the strongest. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. Proverbs 15, verse 4. Proverbs 15, verse 4. In fact, I'm going to read verse 3. The eyes of the Lord are in how many places? Every place. Beholding the evil and the good. Now, then the next verse tells us what he's looking at. He's looking at your spirit, man. You know, I wondered how. It never made a lot of sense to me how this doctrine that you could sin with your body, but not touch your spirit. For a long time, I could understand it. I'm not surprised by any doctrines that are out there. But what surprised me was some of the places I found it. Oh, listen. That was one of the premier doctrines of the charismatic movement. That you're a spirit man. And you're spirit man, it's one of the premier doctrines of the faith prosperity movement. Your spirit man is so in tune with God because when you're born again, you become one spirit with the Lord. That's true. That's exactly what it says. So your spirit man is not touched, and I couldn't understand. As a matter of fact, I talked to some preachers that were in that, and I'd say, Yeah, but what do you do about 2 Corinthians 7? Here it is. Pray that you be preserved blameless, be purified in both spirit and soul. How could you be perfected in holiness, it says, in both spirit and soul? No defilement of spirit and soul. What does that verse mean? And they'd say, Well, it doesn't mean what you think it means. That's all I ever got. Doesn't mean what you think it means. It says your spirit man is created by God. How could it be touched? Oh, what they didn't see was that God weighs that spirit. He not only makes it one with Himself, which means He gives it every quality of moving into the spiritual realm. When Jesus said, Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. What did He mean? He means that unless something happens to you, that you are regenerated, and you move from the physical realm into a spirit realm, and you become a spirit being in spiritual sight, you can't even see the kingdom of God. That's how that doctrine grows. Because if there's a hasty spirit, if it's lacking spirit, it loves folly. It exalts the things that are folly. It exalts the things that are... How could the prosperity... And I'm not here. I didn't even intend to touch it. But how can the prosperity message talk about... I listened to a tape. Somebody sent me. I wasn't going to listen to it, but I listened to it. Somebody sent me a tape. And it was called Purging. And it was by a guy that I know personally. It happens to be in the faith prosperity message. And the reason I listened to the tape was I thought, Praise God. He's preaching a message on purging. I was excited for him. Not because I think that's the message, but I just knew something had to have happened in his life. And you know what he's talking about? He's talking about the fact that he had this tremendous brainstorm of an idea from the Spirit of God on how to get rid of all of his debts and prosper financially. And he shared it with a person who worked with him. And the person who worked with him went out and tried it, and it worked for him, and he got out of all of his debts. And he says, then this person comes and shares with him and says, Thank you for sharing that great spiritual insight you gave me. And he says, Well, what was the spiritual insight? I don't remember. And he told him. And then he said something like this, Purge. Purge. I felt so purged. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. Oh, I thought there's so much more to be purged in me than that. Maybe not in him. But I'll tell you something. That's the least of what I need purged. But you see, it's folly. It's exalting folly. You use the words purge. You can use the words holiness. You can use all the right words. You can talk repentance. You can do all of those things. But until you move over into a realm where your spirit is being brought into the very presence of almighty God and you begin to weigh things out, not as they are earthly, but as they are in a spiritual sense, and you weigh the value of them, and you be... Listen, I said our conflicts are spiritual in nature. That's why it's hard for some people to let go of some things. Because they will not allow themselves to be brought to the scales in their own conscience. They feel it's all right. Proverbs 15 verse 4 says, A wholesome tongue is a tree of life. But perverseness is a breach. Where? In the mind? No. Where does perverseness come from? In the spirit. There's a break in the spirit. There's something that broke in the spirit. There's a perverseness. There's a hole in the wall. That's what the word means. The New American Standard says, Crushes the spirit. And it translates it there because the word does mean to bruise or to fracture. But the King James hits it right on the head. A perverseness is a breach. It means a breaking, a shattering. Now listen, a breach. But here's what the root of the word means. An opening in the wall of defense. An opening. Perverseness. That which is perverse creates an opening in your wall of defense. Now I want to ask you, Why would there have to be an opening in the wall of defense? It's so... Now I want you to listen to me because I know the enemy is going to try to keep you from hearing what I'm saying. So he can march right through unhindered and unstopped. And it may look good to you and your conscience may think it's alright. But you have a breach in the wall. In spirit. And you can't take that thing and weigh it on the scale of God's absolute purity. Listen. Nothing you and I have put on that scale would weigh out of balance except for the blood of Jesus. But when the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has worked a work in our life. And that character matches up to the Lord. That scale sits in perfect balance. Perfect balance. Are you hearing me? When I was preparing this sermon I had just... It's like the Lord just took me up and I saw these scales. Like these lawyer scales. You know the symbol of the lawyer. The justice. The scales of justice. I saw... I saw scales just like that. And I saw these tiny... And I saw the scale tipping so much. And then I saw a faithful spirit laid on that scale. And immediately the balance just... Like it's locked in place. And here were these chains that were coming down holding those little trays. I may be showing my ignorance. I don't know what they're called. But holding those little trays. And the chain... And all it is. All it is just these two thin little chains. You know. Well I know what would happen if you went back and bumped against that. It would shake. But then I saw a dark storm cloud. And as I saw that storm cloud I saw it coming. And then all of a sudden there was like a wind that was blowing so hard against those scales. And there was a thunder. And there was a storm against it. And it was coming against those scales. And those scales were so locked in place they didn't even budge. And the Lord was speaking to me very clearly. That what he was saying is that when you take the blood of Jesus and the faithfulness of a faithful spirit and lay it on the scale. There's not a storm in hell that can shake it. Nothing can change it. Nothing can disturb the balance of it. It's in perfect balance. Absolute balance. Now that gets to the very end of the message that I want to share with you. I said that all of our conflicts are spiritual in nature. That you and I are spirit beings. Now I don't believe for one instant that everything that happens to a person is of a demonic nature. But Satan also is a spirit. Only he is a disembodied spirit. The chief agent of God's dealings with us is in a spirit realm. The chief area of Satan's dealings with us is in a physical realm. One of them operates on pure force. The other operates on pure authority. And sometimes we mix the two. Let me tell you. Not by power. Not by might. But by my spirit, says the Lord. Now what that means. It doesn't mean that there's no power. It's all powers over here. But it's in the nature in the realm of authority. When your spirit is faithful before God, you have an authority in the realm of the spirit and in the physical realm. Now what Satan does with his temptations and with the things that he brings against you. He wants to move you from the realm of authority over into the realm of physical force. That you'll try to use physical force. Now how does he do that? For example, somebody disturbs you and you get mad about it. And you want to change it. You go to pray because you're mad about it. Are you hearing me? Oh, you're upset about it. But you're trying to use physical force to change it. You see? The reason is because Satan knows that in the dimension of the spirit, he's at a disadvantage. As a matter of fact, he is defeated. But in the realm of the physical, he's king. Now he's not exalted over God, but he's... Think of the temptations of Jesus. What did Satan try to do with Jesus? Here's a man totally filled with the spirit. The first thing he does is he brings against him hunger. Use your power, your physical force and turn these stones into bread. Jesus refused. He went to the spirit realm of the Word. And he said, man doesn't live on bread alone. But he lives out of the spirit life of God that flows out of him and into him. And he lives in the spirit realm. And he lives off of every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Okay, Satan says, so then, here's what I want you to do. I'm going to take you up on this high mountain. I'm going to show you all the kingdoms of the world. And I'll give them to you if you just worship me. And Jesus refuses to move over into the physical realm. He refuses to worship anything else of the physical realm. He refuses to allow his heart to be caught up in any greed. Allow it to be caught up in any fantasy of what he might be, of any notions of power. And he simply says to Satan, get away. It's written. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only. And how do you worship Him? In spirit and in truth. He refused to move out of that realm of spirit. And then finally Satan takes him up on the pinnacle of the temple and says, Now, if you just jump off of here, the whole world will be attracted to you. It'll spread. The newspapers will carry it. Everything will carry it. It'll be all over. And everybody will know who you are. And he said, I'm not going to tempt the Lord my God. He'll supply everything I need. Are you hearing what I'm saying? There's a person who shared something with me. This person is sane and normal. They're not a nut. And they don't go looking for crazy things. But they were talking with me about a conflict. And they were sharing with me about a real battle they were having and a real concern over the children in the family. And this person was just relating to me how much it grieved them and the agony and the pain that was involved. And we were talking about the fact it's a spiritual battle. And that person left and began to walk away. And he's in a crowd of people. And as he's walking, he's praying. He's not conscious. He's not praying out loud. He's conscious. He's just praying. He's offering up to God. He's just praying. See, he's really in the midst of a battle. You know you can pray to God in the midst of a battle, don't you? As a matter of fact, listen to me carefully. The weight of your spirit being will never be so measured as gold as it is tested in your prayer life. That's where the real test comes. And this person was walking. You ever notice how Satan will fight you with everything he can to keep you out of praying? Why? Because you enter into a different realm. Do you understand when you enter into the realm of prayer, you begin to wield an authority. If you have a right spirit and a faithful spirit, you begin to wield in your hands a spiritual authority that is absolutely inconceivable as to what it affects. It's inconceivable. You remember what the prophet Isaiah said to the Israelites? He says, you're going down into Egypt and relying upon Egypt and you're trusting in horses. As a matter of fact, in Isaiah, I think it's Isaiah 28, he told them, repent. Or 29, right in there. Maybe it was 30. But anyway, right in there. He says, I think it was 30. He says, repent in repentance and rest. You shall be established. And he's saying in repentance and trust in me, keep your spirit clean, keep your motives clean and trust and depend upon me and you're going to find rest, you're going to be established. And you know what they said to him? No. We're going to trust in horses and chariots. And then in chapter 31 of Isaiah, he says, woe to him who trusts in the horses and chariots because they are flesh and not spirit. Satan will do everything he can to get you to battle things with physical force, physical power, mental ingenuity to handle your problems with power and might. And what God wants is for you to cleanse your spirit, come before him, stand before his face, get before his countenance. Oh, he knows what's going on with you. Move into the realm of the spirit, begin to worship him, begin to exalt him, not folly, and begin to concentrate all your attention on him and he'll take care of those battles. There's a scripture that's very significant. 1 Chronicles 5.20, it says, They cried unto God in the midst of the battle and he was entreated of them. He answered them. And at that point, they were fighting the Philistines. Now, if a Philistine's sword is hanging over a man's head, do you think that he's going to have time to drop down on his knees and say a long prayer? No. But that prayer, those short, you must have perpetual prayers, prolonged prayers with God if you're going to walk in a spirit realm and you must also have those short bursts, just like that. All he had to do was say, Lord, save me. That's all. He didn't have time to bend down. Lord, save me. God hears in the midst of the battle. Why? Because he has had his senses trained. Listen to me. He's had his senses trained to exercise them. He didn't just wait for some emergency. In the midst of the battle. You see, Satan cannot, unless he moves you out of that spirit realm into a physical realm. He's defeated. Well, that's why he'll bring things to worry you. He'll bring things to trouble you. He'll bring temptations against you. He'll exalt the folly, the perverseness. Why? He wants to bring a breach in your spirit. Now, I want to finish telling this story. This man was walking along. He was praying. You know what happened to him? He's walking up. There's a crowd of people. And all of a sudden, somebody with a backpack on the back just comes right in front of him, turns and looks at him and says, I'll burn your children. All right, now, that man's not a kook. He doesn't go looking for strange things. He has a good walk with the Lord. And that person who said that was really no threat to him or his children at all. But every once in a while, when you're battling something, God causes Satan to expose his hand. And all that meant, he didn't have to be afraid of that person. All that meant was, God was saying to him, the battle is in another realm. The victory is to be found in another realm. The battle is in a spirit realm. And all Satan can do is try to create a fear, an anger, a worry, to try to get you over here into the realm of physical force. Because he knows, in that spirit realm, he's already been defeated. He's defeated. Now, very quickly, I don't have time for it. But I want you to read Revelation chapter 2. Not right now. But if you'll read Revelation, the second chapter, you're going to find an interesting thing. To three churches. To one church, he said, There are some that say they're Jews, but they're not. They're of the synagogue of Satan. You know what that means, the synagogue of Satan? That means they're in a place where they think they're doing right to honor God, but they're not. That's why Scripture says things like this. There will come a time, prophesied, there will come a time when people will kill you and think they're doing God a favor. That's right. Paul, read his testimony. Paul said he was moved, because of conscience, to do things against the people who were named of Christ. See, there's a synagogue of Satan that makes everything look right. The synagogue of God makes the perverseness shine forth. And you see the folly in all of it. But you're going to either move in the synagogue of God, which is the temple of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Lord, and you're going to perceive things from a spiritual nature, and you're going to learn to live like that, and you're going to discern it. You're not going to weigh your conscience. You're not going to trust your own conscience. You're not going to weigh what somebody else tells you. It's all right. I mean, after all, there's a lot of other people who do it. You're not going to weigh what other people think about you. You're not going to let people tell you how wonderful you are, how spiritual you are, how great you are. It's not going to mean a thing to you. You're going to get with God before His face, and you're going to let Him weigh the scales. You're not going to trust man or yourself. Just God's picture of yourself. The synagogue of Satan, oh, he'll flatter you. I mean, if he has to keep you controlled to get you to fight, he'll condemn you to get you to try to fight him. Are you hearing me? He'll try to get you over into the physical realm, and then you're defeated. You can't survive in that realm. You can't make it. Now, if you follow that on down to Revelation chapter 2, then you'll come to a church, and it says, you live where Satan's seed is. And in three churches in a row there, he talks about Satan. Satan this, Satan that. And every bit of it is physical. But then you start looking at the promises. He says, be faithful unto death, and the Lord will give you the crown of life. Have a faithful spirit, and He'll crown you with real life. And that's Jesus. He is the life. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And then for the second church, He says, to stand strong. Don't bend. Don't worry about the persecution. Don't worry about fearing anything. And I'll give you the hidden manna. Things that other people are not even able to say to eat, I'll feed it to you. The hidden manna. And then the third church, He says, I will cause you to rule, and I'll give you the authority of a rod of iron. And you will rule by the authority that My Father rules by. And then I'm going to give you the morning star. You trust Him, and He'll move you from the physical realm into a spirit realm. Are you hearing me? And everything the enemy tries to do is to get you out of that realm. Well, praise the Lord. Let's stand together. Father, Lord, there are battles that can be won this morning. Lord, there are many that have been perceiving things from the wrong ends, and they need a spiritual discernment. Lord, there are those that are here that do not habitually, they do not habitually train their hearts. They're trying to win battles in a physical realm. They may be praying, Lord, but they're praying out of a force and a might. Lord, that it's flesh and it's not spirit. Lord, there are those, I want to share this with you. When I was preparing last week's sermon, I ran across something that talked about the Amazon River. I was talking about, or Tuesday night's sermon, I was talking about the rivers of living water. And I ran across a little thing that said there was a microscopic vegetation that grows in the Amazon. And that microscopic, it grows rapidly. It starts from the bottom and it goes undetected. And the Amazon is very wide in places, it has narrow places. But that microscopic vegetation will grow in those narrow places, and it will begin to mat together, mat together. And it's so thick, after a period, it creates a natural dam. And they have to go in and they have to cut out that microscopic vegetation. It goes unnoticed and unattended. And just as I was praying, the Lord just reminded me, there are things the Lord wants to convict of this morning that have gone unnoticed and unattended. And yet you know they're wrong. Maybe nothing that you think would create a big fall, but unnoticed and unattended, and it's beginning to mat together in your life. And you really can't say, Lord, I know what it's like to live in that spirit realm. Because something so matted together, God wants to excise it, He wants to cut it out. And you know what happens when they would cut that out of the Amazon? There would be a flood that would absolutely flow, a burst, a gush, and it would overflow its banks. And that's what makes the river country so fertile, because it so frequently overflows those banks. And if you let God excise it and cut it out, it could be things you're neglecting, it could be something that's there, you know it's wrong, but you've never really pressed into God with it. Or if you have, you've been trying to fight it on a physical plane. God says, I'll cut out that microscopic vegetation of sin that mats together and holds back the water, and it will flood your valleys and bring forth fruit. Lord, I'm asking you to draw by your spirit those that you're speaking to this morning. Draw them to you, Lord, this is your work. Lord, let us not believe that there's a single area of our life that's too insignificant for your concern. I don't know all that you'll be dealing with, Lord. I'm just asking by the power of your presence and your spirit, convict and speak to everyone that you see. Put the spirit on the scales this morning. In Jesus' name. This is the conclusion of the tape.