Quench not the spirit. These
final exhortations that the Apostle Paul gives this church at Thessalonica,
nothing could be more appropriate for the new year than to consider
these final, you know how it is when you're writing to someone
or saying something. These are the summary of all
that he said. knowing that he's about to put
his pen away in just a few sentences. These are the things he wants
to remember. When our Lord left this earth, there were some very
solemn instructions that he gave them and solemn, well, beautiful
words of comfort that he gave them, knowing that they wouldn't
be walking with him in a physical sense anymore. for a while, now, this verse
here, quench not the spirit, the Holy Spirit himself cannot
be diminished in any way, he can't be thwarted, he can't be
limited in what he does, that's not what this is speaking of,
it's speaking of the workings of the spirit, being resisted,
ignored, or to have a lackadaisical attitude toward that which the
spirit teaches. The symbol of the spirit at Pentecost
was tongues of fire. And so it seems here that it's
in terms of that manifestation of the spirit at Pentecost that
Paul speaks of the spirit here when he says quench not, meaning
to extinguish not the spirit. Now we know from scripture and
experience that the flesh In a believer, the flesh lusteth
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And this exhortation
has to do with that, knowing that that's the case in the heart
of a believer because of the two natures. One born of the
spirit, one born of the flesh. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. The Lord teaching so clearly and so plainly that that
which is born of the flesh, our own nature, doesn't become spiritual. It doesn't change. It doesn't improve. That which
is born of the spirit is spirit. They are separate. They are distinct.
We are born of flesh and spirit. And so we quite simply have two
natures, a spiritual and a fleshly. Now this exhortation simply is
to resist the flesh. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit. And we're taught to resist the flesh so much in the scriptures,
but not to resist the spirit. That's what he's saying. Don't
resist the spirit, resist the flesh. You're full of flesh and
you're full of the spirit of God too. And they both fight
against each other. Not that there's some epic battle
between good and evil, We know better than that. The Lord is the mighty conqueror
of all, and He'll do what He wants to, when He wants to, and
His Holy Spirit does as it pleases, but this is an exhortation. Just
like we know that the Lord has worked all things after the counsel
of His own will, but we're not told to just sit back and watch,
although that's mostly what we do. But we're told to fight,
we're told to run, we're told to strive in the scriptures. And that's what this is. The
Holy Spirit is gonna have his way. He's gonna do what he pleases
with us. He told Nicodemus, our Lord told
Nicodemus, he goes where he wants to. And births sinners of his
spirit. And he's God, just like the Father
and the Son. He's God. And so he does as he
pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. But to resist the spirit is the opposite of resist
the flesh. We're to resist the flesh, we're
to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts of the flesh.
But don't do that with the spirit. Don't ignore the clear teaching
of the spirit. Don't neglect the guidance into
all truth that the spirit affords us by Christ's own declaration
and will. Then the fruit of both flesh
and spirit are described in Galatians 5. And I believe this will help
us with this. If we know what we're talking about as the spirit
and the flesh are manifest in us, let's see what we're talking
about. Look at Galatians 5 with me, please. Galatians 5 and verse
19. If we're to quench not the Spirit,
we're to understand the Spirit's, we need to understand the Spirit's
workings within us. And the flesh, if we are to resist,
we are to quench the flesh, because it's a fire too, isn't it? James
said, our tongues are set on fire of hell. Now the works of the flesh, verse
19, now the works of the flesh are manifest. Religion talks about the stupidest
things when it talks about sin. Oh, you've got to resist sin.
You've got to not hang out with the wrong people and not go to
R-rated movies and don't ever cuss. That's not what the scripture
says. That's pretty good advice, I
guess. I don't wanna... But look, it's deeper than that. It's a nature that we're to resist,
that we're to fight, that we're to crucify. There are manifests which are
these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, sexual lust. And the Lord has been very clear
in the scripture Regarding that Paul said in one of his letters
to the churches Your body is not for fornication. It's for
the Lord You see that's the difference That's the point of it. It doesn't
just mean you know it's It's not so much I don't know
how to say it right the bad thing about it is that it's against
the Lord and You see what I'm saying? The bad thing in the
garden wasn't that apples were worse than oranges or whatever.
We don't even know what the fruit was. It doesn't make any difference.
It wasn't that that fruit was tainted and the other ones weren't.
The problem is they defied God. That's still the problem. And that's an area in which we're
real prone to defy God. Lasciviousness, idolatry. Idolatry is not what religion
said. It's not making a totem pole and dancing around it. I
would say that's idolatry, but it doesn't stop there. It's not
limited to that. You can make a false god up in
here and worship him. People that would never build
an idol out of wood have built idols of their imaginations.
They're just as false. The Jesus of religion who wants
to save people if they'll just let him, he is an idol. He is
an idol, and we need to state it plainly. We can't just hint
around and hymn-haw and kind of laugh about it. Yeah, our
church is different than yours. You worship an idol. You're worshiping
an idol. Let me help you. Come with us. Come with us and we'll do you
good. Witchcraft. You're worshiping
yourself, you're worshiping the devil. Antichrist. Hatred. Variance, emulations,
we could go through these one by one, but that's not the whole
picture here, so we won't spend all of our time on this. Wrath,
strife. If you notice, all of these things
is you being God. Who's the only one that has any
business executing wrath on anybody? God. And in your mind, you're God.
That's what the flesh is. He's a little idolatrous, self-righteous
God that lives inside of you. And not as a foreign entity,
it's you. It's you. And so you, you know, you bestow your wrath on anybody
that crosses you. You ain't got no business doing
that. You're a bigger wretch than they are. You got no business hating anybody,
except God's sworn enemies out of jealousy for him. Variance,
emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,
pretty thorough list, isn't it? Drunkenness, revelings, and such
like. Of the witch, I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And that doesn't
mean if we sin, we're going to hell. If that's true, we know
we're all gonna end up. But if somebody is known as a
drunken reveler, you can pretty much, with the wisdom that God
has given us, you can pretty much determine that he probably
needs the Lord, wouldn't you say? Probably doesn't know him
yet. But the fruit of the Spirit, it's also manifest, isn't it?
It's love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. The fruit of the Spirit is faith.
You believe God because the Spirit of God did a work in your heart. Meekness, temperance. Against
such there is no law. And they that are Christ's, you
see the difference between the two? Do you walk after the flesh
or do you walk after the spirit? There's gonna be evidence. He
said, by their fruits you shall know them. But you know what
made the difference? That apostrophe S right there,
who you belong to. He made the difference. You don't belong to him by your
will, you belong to him by his will. He said, I came by you when you
were corrupted in your blood. And I said, live. And you remember
what else he said? You became mine. You became mine, that's how.
He came where you were and saved you in every way, every sense
of the word. and you became his. They that are Christ's have crucified
the flesh with the affections and lusts. In heeding this exhortation now,
let me move on to another thought here. That's pretty clear. We know what we're dealing with.
We know what the flesh does, what its business is, and we
know what the spirit does, what his business is in us, how he
is manifest in a believer. And we're to not quench, we're
not to resist, we're not to extinguish the spirit, we're to extinguish
the flesh. And also in heeding this exhortation,
we need to consider what our Lord said the spirit's business
is outside of us. upon us, if that's
the right way to say it. He said, listen to what he said
in John 16, 13, how be it when he, the spirit of truth has come.
He said, if I don't go, then the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's
coming when I leave. I'm going to prepare a place
for you to the cross and to the throne. And when the Holy Spirit
has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak
of himself. Part and parcel of knowing, understanding,
and loving the truth is contrary to this whole thing
of Holy Spirit this and Holy Spirit that. The Spirit will tell you of Christ. Look at what he said. Whatsoever
he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things
to come. He shall glorify me. Everything he's gonna show you
will glorify me. Not himself. Just as the Savior came, to glorify
his father, didn't he? The Savior came to glorify his
father. Read John 17 again. The Holy Spirit has come to glorify
the Son. And that's what he's gonna do.
And he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me for
he shall receive of mine and shall show it to you. He's gonna
reveal it to you. That's what happens when the
gospel's preached. The Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ mysteries
to this world, mystery to the flesh, but open, manifest to
the people of God because that's what the Spirit does. And then
he does all that he does on the inside. He produces fruit of
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. Our flesh is prone to prioritize
ourselves and this world over the things of Christ. That's why he says, quench not
the spirit. Don't extinguish the spirit. The gospel will take a back seat
if you're not careful now. It'll take a backseat. It'll
just be something you include in your life. I said Wednesday night from the
text we were in then, I said, don't you include Christ in your
life? Don't you dare do that. We're going to prioritize now
our business over the gospel, the ministry. When Paul said
somebody had addicted themselves to the ministry, that means the
things of this world didn't mean that much to them, because it
can't be both. You're not going to be addicted
to this world and addicted to the ministry of Christ at the
same time, maybe in the same lifetime, but not at the same
time. and all these admonishments.
They're just gonna fall on, not deaf ears, you're gonna hear
that and you're gonna say, man, I need to think about that more.
And then you don't. Say, I know you pretty well because
I'm you. God help us. This is why we need
a constant, that's why he said pray without ceasing, you reckon?
Because we need him without ceasing. And that consideration of this
verse is reinforced in the next verse. Look at the next one,
verse 20. Despise not prophesies. You see how they go together?
Don't quench the spirit. In other words, hear and prioritize
the things of the spirit. We walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. Strive, endeavor. Those words are used. in regard
to these things. And this is gonna have to be
part of it, despise, not prophesize. It's gotten back to me, and this
is just an example, this is just an illustration, I'm not offended. You get pretty tough skin after
a few years of this. And so honestly, Not a big deal,
but this is a pretty good illustration. He got back to me one time that
somebody told their children that something I had preached,
they said, well, you'll have to take that with a grain of
salt. I'm like, okay, then why are
you listening to me? Why are you even here? You know,
which they're not now, but despise not prophesying. It wasn't an opinion. It was
not an opinion. To despise prophesying is to
despise the prophecies. Because those that prophesy for
the Lord, that preach the gospel, they preach the gospel, the prophecies. The Old Testament is prophecies
of the Savior. The Savior had not yet come.
It was all prophecy, all of the Old Testament, which is the scriptures
to these folks. Don't despise that. Abraham told the man who was
in hell, crying for a drop of water, they have Moses and the
prophets. That's what they have. That's
their hope of not winding up where you are. That's their hope.
They have the scriptures. They have the gospel. Don't despise
that. That's all of the scriptures
at that time. Don't despise that. Now what the apostles and the
others preached were the prophecies of Christ. What is the Old Testament
about? What did the story of Cain and
Abel teach? What was the Passover lamb about? And when it's plainly stated
in the New Testament, Christ is our Passover. All of the Old Testament. The
brazen serpent. The ram caught in a thicket on
Mount Moriah. The coats of skins in the garden
itself. Who He is, what He did, what
He accomplished when He did it. It was never an effort. From
the start, it was never an attempt. And what all that has to do with
you, that's what we declare. What does that have to do with
you? The word despise there, despise
not the preaching, despise not the gospel. That word despise
includes this, to make nothing of. You don't have to grit your
teeth. You don't have to grit your teeth. You just have to think that sports
is more important, or whatever you're into. That's just one
example. Whatever it is you're into, it's
more important. Okay, well, you're in direct
opposition to God and what he said. Just don't, just make nothing
of it. Just deprioritize it. And you know what, what you need
to know about that, your priorities, you know, you can prioritize
things. They used to teach us in sales, you know, to have a
planner, goals, you know, write things down. I'm gonna do this,
this, this, this, and this today. But I found out pretty quick
that priorities don't go on paper. Priorities are in here. Don't prioritize it that way.
Prioritize it this way. I'm going to do what I want to
do when I want to do it. And you are too, whether you
think so or not. Given the circumstances that
you're in at the time, you're going to do exactly what you
want to do when you want to do it. So I quit writing it down. And I just try to be who I should
be by God's grace. When the truth of Christ is just
something that you make time for if you can, you know, if
it fits. You're despising the gospel.
That's what this is clearly saying. Despise not don't make little
of the gospel The truth of the gospel is the
declaration of Christ's preeminence in all things and so to hear
it and not Make him preeminent in your heart is to hear it and
reject it The gospel of necessity of its
very nature Declares Christ all So if you listen to the gospel
and he's not all you've rejected the gospel Not complicated The scripture telling who Christ
is Demands that the Son of God be reverenced as the sovereign
Savior Who gives life to whom he pleases? Our preaching demands
that Christ be regarded as him whose word is necessary. Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God. And his word is more necessary
than our daily food. To hear the message of him, and
not hang upon His every word, not just when you're here, but
in your life, is to reject the message. You've made nothing
of it. Now you be the judge of this,
and remember our verse here, despise not prophesies. And it
seems like I say this a lot, and that's why I want you to
hear me for a second here. Do not make nothing of the preaching
of the gospel. Now there are two possibilities.
I impress this upon you constantly because I'm super conceited.
I just love to hear myself talk and I want to hear you hear me
talk. I do this to get numbers. I want the glory. That's one
possibility. A lot of people do that. They'll
post the numbers. They have to report them, you
see, to some kind of an organization, and it just looks bad on them
if the numbers go down. It has to do with the funding,
even. They've connected it to funding.
You don't get the funding unless your numbers are up. What a profane
thing in the church of the Lord. What a profane thing. Shame on
that. If that's one possibility, maybe
it's just because I just, it's just important to me that everybody
comes so that I look good. That's a possibility, that's
a strong possibility. Most people that call themselves
preachers, that's what it's about. There's another possibility I'd
like you to consider. That I impress this upon you
constantly because he that honoreth not the son honoreth not the
father. I impress this upon you constantly, that for you to neglect and buy
your priorities, to make little of the ministry and the worship
of the Lord, is to deny everything you say you believe. And I'm
not just talking about attending, everybody's about, oh, you know,
it's not about that, it's about, it's not about showing up physically,
it's about showing up. If that makes any sense. If you had one of my coaches
in football, you'd understand that for sure. We'd be standing
there, we'd be on the field, and he'd say, you guys didn't
show up. You know the difference? I see people on Facebook, and
that's a cuss word when you're preaching, I know that. But it's
real, it exists, there is such a thing. And I enjoy it because
I've got a lot of friends that don't live near me and things
like that, and I stay in touch with them. And it's not that
hard to get rid of the bad, believe me. I'll show you how to do it
if you need help with that. It's just like television. There's
nothing evil about it. There's not even anything annoying
about it unless you make it that way or let it be that way. But
I see people giving spiritual advice on there that I know for
a fact haven't stepped foot in a worship service in years. That's what I'm talking about
here. And I don't care about them.
I'm not talking to them this morning. I mention that only
to give you a glimpse of your nature. Our nature. Our natural blindness. Look at
what you're doing. This all happens one time. Look
what you're doing. Look what your priorities are.
Look what your goals are in life. What's your purpose here? What's
it all about? You name me one thing that ain't
Christ that it wouldn't be embarrassing for you to say right here, right
now. If it's embarrassing here, it's embarrassing out there too. Remember my always advice, and
think about how we study scripture. What I preach on is the next
scripture, and the next scripture, and the next scripture, and you
know that. I've done that for 20 years. And how often do we see this?
How often does it come down to a question of honoring the Lord
above all else? Prioritizing Him. Seek ye first
the kingdom of God. The kingdom is defined by the
king and his people. Listen carefully. Well, turn
with me to Psalm 89.7. This is just one verse, and I
want you to look at every word of it. Please. And I'll be through. Psalm 89 7 See but I got a pair of channel locks Wow Psalm 89 7 look at this now. I never I never saw this this
way God is greatly to be feared in the assembly You know that
word assembly mean? Church. The word church is assembly. That's what it is. God is greatly
to be feared in the church of the saints. That doesn't mean
in this room, the church of the saints is his people, his congregation,
his family. God is greatly to be feared in
the church of the saints and to be had in reverence of all
them that are about him." It's that simple, isn't it? If you
greatly fear the Lord, then you don't have to prioritize on paper,
do you? That priority is in here. It
comes with that fear, that reverence. That awe, that recognition that
He's worthy of everything we have. Paul said, we reckon things
this way, that if He died for us, we ought to live for Him
who died for us, not unto ourselves. He specifically says we should
henceforth not live unto ourselves. I'm preaching to me just like
I'm preaching to you. He said, if you take not up your
cross and follow me, you're not worthy of me. And we're not, are we? We're
just not. We're not worthy of him. And he saves us anyway. He has mercy on us. But do you
want to always act like you're not worthy of him? Do you want
the world to say that about you and be right? Do you want to
dishonor his name in this life? Is that how we want to spend
this thing? You see the power of that simple,
short, despise not prophesying's now. Quench not the spirit. Don't
extinguish. In other words, prioritize the
flesh over the spirit. Don't do that. And don't despise
what God said. Don't make little of it. Don't
make nothing of it in this life. Make everything of it. I look at verse 21 just briefly.
I said I'd be through, and I will be very conscious of needing
to be brief here. Prove all things, hold fast that
which is good. I don't think I'll preach much
more of what's in my notes this morning, because I want to spend
some time on this. I want us to look at this very closely,
like we have the other two verses this morning. And so I think
we'll spend a lot of the time on this verse next time. But
listen to this. Prove all things. You know what
that means? Examine and scrutinize everything. You see how this all goes together? Make the spirit of God and what
he says priority in this life. And don't despise what God said.
Don't despise the ministry. Don't despise prophesying. Don't
despise the gospel. Don't make nothing of it. Don't
make little of it. And scrutinize everything. Be careful. Be circumspect, Paul
said in one place. Be circumspect. Examine and scrutinize
everything. Don't quickly fall in with other
people. I guarantee you if everybody's
doing it, it's probably something horrible. Don't be easily convinced. Don't
be like this, Ephesians 4.14, that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the slight of men. They may have proof texts for
it. They may have taken some verses out of scripture and say,
look at that, look at that, look at that. And it's a bunch of
foolishness. Don't be carried about with every
wind of doctrine by the slight of men, by the craftiness, cunning craftiness whereby they
lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him. What is the result of speaking
the truth, growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ? That we may grow up in Him in
all things, which is the head, even Christ. Christ, His word,
His glory, His person is the basis on which we judge that
which is good and that which is not. He said, hang on to that
which is good. Hold fast to it. How do you know
what's good? Speaking the truth in love may
grow up into him. In all things, even Christ. So it's his person, it's who
he is and what he did in his ministry and what he says. That's
the basis on which we judge good and not good. All of our thinking
is what it is because of Christ crucified. I quoted this verse
a little bit while ago. Listen to the context for 2 Corinthians
5.14 again. We see this verse a lot because
it's so concise regarding what we're doing. What is this? For
the love of Christ constraineth us. Doesn't it? Does it? The love of Christ constraineth
us. He constrains us in love. And
our love for Him constrains us, doesn't it? Because we thus judge. This is the way we reckon things.
This is the way we think. That if one died for all, then
all were dead. He entered into death to bring
us out, to bring us to life. And that He died for all that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
Him which died for them and rose again. Is that the way you think? Is that the way I think? That
which honors him. Hold fast to that, Paul said.
Hold fast to that. The words hold fast have a very
instructive definition, and I'll close with this, I promise. It's the steering of a ship. Hold fast. It's the steering
of a ship, look it up, to hold course. Why is there a need to
hold course? Because that don't just happen.
It don't just happen. The surrounding influences, the
waves, the winds, the currents, The tides and all such are of
a nature to take us off course. That's this world. It's gonna
take us off course if it can. It's the concerns of this world
that choke out the seed of the word of God. And even the nature
of the ship now, its structure and fashioning is such that it
will inevitably be drawn off course. But hear me carefully, here's
how that doesn't happen. To plot, execute, and maintain
a specific course at sea is a very deliberate thing. It requires knowledge. It requires
knowledge of the elements, knowledge of the craft, and a determination,
a sober and a wise and an informed effort So it is with spiritual
things. That's what these exhortations
are about. We, like the Apostle Paul, we
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God, which is in Christ Jesus. And those who do are exhorted
to stay the course. Don't turn aside. Do not be removed from the simplicity
that's in Christ. Listen to Hebrews 2.1. Therefore,
we ought to give them more earnest heed to the things which we've
heard, the gospel, lest at any time we should let them slip,
lest we drift away from them, lest we drift off course. What
are the things that we've heard? What is the book of Hebrews about?
The preeminence of Christ, the excellency of Christ. The word
better is used over and over and over with regard to him. The excellence of his person,
the efficacy of his work, he's called him who hath obtained
eternal redemption for us. He didn't try. Stay that course. And this is
the comfort of the believer who stays that course. By God's grace,
we stay that course, but here's the comfort. The Lord Jesus is
the captain's captain. He instructs us to steer, doesn't
he? To stay. But who's steering the steerer? Christ Jesus, it is he. The truth is he's steering everything. But don't take his exhortations
lightly. The word good here, the word
good, hold fast, stay the course on that which is good. That's a wonderful word, good,
right there. You know what it means? That
which is beautiful. That which is beautiful. This
is an ugly word, an ugly world. Ugly world This is an ugly world,
but there is that which is beautiful Look to him look to him Stay
the course to him beautiful excellent precious and honorable That's
your life in your life's endeavor young people To find him who
is altogether lovely And press Not just gonna happen. You're
not just gonna drift through life and end up at Christ. Not
gonna happen that way. The Lord's gonna draw you. And you're gonna steer with all
your wisdom and power that you have. You're gonna press as hard
as you ever press. Don't let your familiarity with
these words dull the impact of this truth on your heart. Listen,
wherefore seeing we are also encompassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience,
run with steadfastness, run with determination, run with don't
quit, the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. Who's the goal? Who's the finish
line? This Jesus, looking unto the
Jesus who endured the cross and then sat on the throne. Not the
one who endured the cross and then wrings his hands waiting
on somebody to do something for him. The one who endured the
cross and sat down on the throne of this universe. He's the one who set us on course.
He's the reason we'll finish. And he is the finish line. And what's the exhortation to
us? Run. run to him. Let's pray.