As we've seen over the last few
weeks, we've seen Paul start in rapid succession this machine
gun fire type exhortation, command, live like this, relate like this,
think this way, act this way. And as we get to 1 Thessalonians
5, verse 19, which is where we are this morning, we even see
there in the midst of 19, 20, 21, 22, Some more, rapid fire, do this,
do not do this, test this, hold to this, abstain from this. And if we're not careful, I believe
we will apply to these three or four verses what we have not
been able to apply to the verses preceding them. And let me give
you an example of what I'm talking about. If we look at verse 12,
and it says, "...to respect those who labor among you," then that's
the context in which the Apostle is speaking. Verse 13, "...esteem
them." And then verse 14, "...and we urge you, brothers, at the
monastery idol." So here's the same audience, the church of
Thessalonica, being given instruction by the Apostle Paul and the authority
of God, whose voice he carries, And we see the audience who is
the church being told to honor and esteem and high love and
great affection the elders of the church. And then in the very
breath, and we urge you brothers then to relate to each other
by warning those who are idle, admonish them, encourage the
faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. And
then verse 15, now another command, another instruction, see that
no one repays. So we don't combine those. Then
moving on into 16, rejoice always. There's no combination here of
fault. It's just, here is the close of my letter. Here are
some things that are important for you to live, fulfilling the
glorious name of God and the power of Christ and the power
of the Holy Spirit. Because we've already talked
about, Paul would say, the coming of the Lord, the day of judgment. And you, beloved, are prepared
for that day because God has equipped you, God has redeemed
you, God is sanctifying you, God has empowered you to live
as a people by the power of His grace, for the sake of His glory,
for the sake of His name. You are not on your own. Though
you were orphaned in your leadership quickly, you are not orphaned
because God is with you. The Spirit is with you. You receive
the Word of God in much affliction, he says in chapter 1, with the
power and the joy of the Holy Spirit. And so as we get to verse
19, I find it very frustrating when it's coupled, 19, 20, 21,
22, when that's coupled as a thought. I don't understand it. It doesn't
comprehend to my study of the text. But if you look at sermons,
if you look at commentaries, that's exactly what happens.
Don't quench the Spirit by despising prophecies. That's not that it's
not saying that. But those commands are actually
separate. And that's not the reality of
what God's Word is teaching us today. Don't despise prophecies. And let me tell you why I don't
believe that these were intended by the Apostle to be one thought.
Because, number one, the Thessalonians were not abusing spiritual gifts. They were not abusing spiritual
gifts. What are spiritual gifts? Well, the expression of the evidence
of the Spirit. The giftedness of God through
the power of the Holy Spirit. Those supernatural, miraculous
things that only God can do. Keep in mind that Judas was empowered
by the Holy Spirit to preach, to heal, and to raise the dead,
okay? So men do not hold power, God
holds all power. Even in the context of the enemy
of God, Lucifer, who we call the adversary, Satan, the devil,
the deceiver, the liar. He has no power, except the power
granted him by God. As we see in Job, where the devil
goes and God questions him. What does that look like? It
doesn't matter what it looks like. That's months ago, years
ago. When we looked at that, we'll
look at it again. Come Tuesday, you can ask that question. But we
saw God say, have you considered my servant Job? Yeah. Why would I consider Job when
you have your hand of protection all over him? I'll tell you what
I'll do. Just go ahead. Why don't you
go and bother Job and let me show you what I can do? See,
that's the point of Job. No matter what you do to those
who are mine, they will not forsake me, for I have sealed them, I
have bought them, they are mine. What is Job's salvation come?
Through Jesus Christ. Given Him way before, millennia
before Christ was born into this world and died on a cross. And
so in this reality, I don't believe that Paul is concerned at all
about the abuse of spiritual gifts, like the church of whom?
Corinth. The church in the place of Corinth abused spiritual gifts. Chapter 12, 1 Corinthians 13,
14, we see those things. And Paul had to spend a lot of
time telling them what disorderly conduct looked like, what orderly
conduct looked like, and what the authority of the Scripture
over these matters and over the expression of the Spirit and
the gifts of the Spirit looked like, to the very sense that
Paul even says at the latter part of that argument, if they
don't agree with me, they're not recognized as a brother. And so if we take and couple
this together as just one issue of not despising prophecies as the only means through which
Paul is expressing the command of not to quench the Spirit,
then we're in trouble because we give the Corinthian people
a proof text to actually prove their point. That the expression
of the power of the Holy Spirit must be seen, must be evidenced,
must be this, must be that. The Scripture doesn't teach us
that. Now some of us in the room, when it comes to spiritual gifts
like the speaking of tongues, healing, knowledge, prophecy,
there's a lot of different gifts of the Spirit of God. The primary
thing that we need to understand as it relates to our individual
lives and the life of the church is that in Galatians 5 we see
the fruits of the Spirit, which is a gift of the Spirit. We understand
faith is a gift of the Spirit according to Jesus and according
to Paul in Romans 3. We know that all that is good
comes from above. And so here Paul is not talking
about these evidences of the Spirit of God in that sense,
about the abuse. He's not saying, look guys, just
don't ignore prophecies because this is good. He tells us that
in verse 20. In verse 19 he commands, do not
quench the Spirit. And to this text this day, I
intend to speak. Now let me give some caveats.
For those of you who were with us, was it six weeks ago, on
a Tuesday night, we did a three-part series ending our 15-part series
on the Trinity. And the three-part series we
did was on the Holy Spirit. And we looked at the Holy Spirit
in several ways. His person, His work, His ministry,
how he relates to salvation, to the incarnation of Christ.
The Bible says that Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is the instrument
through which Christ was incarnated. But you remember that first night,
for those of you who were there, remember that first night, and
as I got through about the first 30 minutes, there's like blank
stares on everybody's faces. Because I spent that first half
hour dealing with the understanding that the Scripture doesn't teach
us much at all about the person of the Holy Spirit. There's not
an exposition of the letter of the Holy Spirit. There's not
an apostle who spent a whole time teaching us in-depth doctrine
about the Holy Spirit. So that a lot of what we know,
in evangelical circles especially, is conjecture, is assumption,
is historical nonsense. Much like what we saw in Corinth. Oh, this must be how the Holy
Spirit works. This must be who He is. This must be what we should
be doing. Let's do it, Paul says. I'm going to spank you if I come
down there. If you don't stop. I mean, doesn't he? That's not
a verbatim, but I mean, it's a paraphrase. Don't make me come
down there with a rod, he says. So, we need to go into this sermon
today understanding that there is never going to be a time where
we're completely satisfied in all of our questions being answered
as it relates to the person and the work of the Holy Spirit.
We're not going to be satisfied. We want to know more. But understand
this, and at the end of my sermon I will show you how this actually
looks and how it's done. But understand that the primary
work of the Holy Spirit was to magnify the person of Jesus Christ. Do you hear me? The primary work
of the Holy Spirit for the New Testament church, and we could
argue that for the Old Testament too, but don't take my word for
it. Study the Scriptures and then
we can debate it Tuesday nights. is to magnify and glorify the
Son of God. Jesus sent, He said, the Spirit. The Father would send the Spirit.
The Spirit would come when I leave, so that I am to you today. God,
the Holy Spirit, will be with you forever. As I am your friend
today, the Spirit of God will be your friend forever. As I
am your wisdom today, the Spirit of God will be your wisdom forever.
As I glorify the Father and magnify the Father and reveal the Father
perfectly, so shall the Holy Spirit illuminate and give you
the understanding of God the Father through me, God the Son,
who is the living Word. And so there's a lot there. We
could have class after class after class after class. We could
literally spend weeks and months and never get through the introduction
to what the Bible just shows us in the work of the ministry
of the Holy Spirit. But never will we ever figure
it all out. Why? Because God the Holy Spirit
has never intended to reveal Himself fully. That's against
the point. Jesus Christ the Son was never
intended to reveal Himself fully. He was to reveal the Father.
John 1, no one has seen God. He who is at His side makes Him
known. 2 Corinthians 4, the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God is revealed through the Son
fully. Colossians 1, Hebrews 1, the
exact imprint of His nature. The fullness of deity was pleased
to dwell. So in the same way, the third person of the Trinity
who is God, fully God, don't forget that, reveals the Son,
glorifies the Son who glorifies the Father. And intimacy with
the Son is intimacy with the Father. So, what is it that Paul
is instructing here? Well, as I get started today,
I'm going to say a lot of things Hopefully, not necessarily contextual
with this letter, because as you see, that's it. And there's
some things we could look at, and we will as we close, but
for the most part, he's just saying, don't quench the Spirit.
That's the command. That's the negate command. The negative command. The command
is, fan the flame of the Spirit. Don't put it out. There it is.
Don't put out the fire of the Holy Spirit. Don't quench it.
And so as we look at this today, we need to keep in mind that
we're going to be a little dissatisfied, and as I start, it's going to
feel a lot of pressure and burden on you. You're going to feel
a lot of pressure. You're going to start thinking, man, I'm quenching
the Spirit here, and I'm quenching the Spirit there, and now I need
to change this, and I need to do that, and I need to do this.
And if we're not careful, we're going to be real man-centered
in here today. Don't forget that that which God has decreed surely
will take place. Don't forget that God's salvation
for you, toward you, in and through Jesus Christ, is a guarantee. Don't forget that you are sealed
by the Holy Spirit, therefore there is no possible way for
you to fail in your faith, though you may have many fallings. Why? Because Christ is faithful.
God is faithful. And so there's a two-fold test
here this morning. This church was commanded not
to quench the Spirit. And then next week we will talk
about, very similar to what Brother Jesse had read out of 1 John
today, about testing the truth, testing the Spirit, testing that
which is taught. Beloved, test what you hear today
based on what you think you know, and then test both of it according
to the Word of God. And where there is contradiction,
the Word of God wins. And you will feel the stress,
and you will feel the angst, you will feel the guilt, you
will feel the pressure of trying to be a better Christian. But
beloved, the answer is in Christ Jesus who secures these things
in us. For we are God's workmanship
created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared
beforehand for us to walk in. Jesus tells Nicodemus here, that
those who come to the light do so that it may be clearly seen
that their works have been carried out, how? In God. And so believing
in the work of God, in the finished work of Christ, in the power
of God, in the Spirit of God, this faith in itself is even
the work of God. So we are to look at it from
that point of view. Well, let's just talk about this
text, and before we do, let me pray. God, this occasion we have this
morning is one that we could rightly just wallow in the floor
of self-pity. We could come to the end of ourselves
and think, there is no hope. We've tried all we can do, and
Father, that, though it sounds awful, Lord, is exactly where
we should be. Let us start from there and not
head to there. There is no hope for us outside
of Your absolute mercy and grace in Christ Jesus. So that as we
look at the text this morning, and we hear Your voice tell us
to not quench Your Spirit, Lord, we need Your grace and power
to live that out in our lives. As if it's up to us in the first
place. We are so arrogant, so often, to misunderstand. And so, Father, as we prepare
our hearts, as we've come this day, I pray, Lord, that Your
Word would be true, that the soundness of this teaching would
be a supernatural feature of Your work. Lord, that You would protect
us from error, that You would protect our minds from wandering,
that You would keep us alert, that we might listen and hear
and be transformed this day. And I pray these things in the
name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Do not quench the Spirit. In this text from 12 on to where
we are today in verse 19, we've seen Paul dealing with some relational
issues. First, as this is review, how
the church should relate to the leaders, the elders of the pastor
of the church. Secondly, how the church should
relate to each other in the ministry of the church to itself, the
warning, the encouraging, the helping, the strengthening. Thirdly,
how the church attitude should be. Rejoice! Remember last week,
have we forgotten? Pray without ceasing. In all
circumstances, have thanksgiving. And now today, how we should
relate to the Lord. God of the Holy Spirit. Because
if we understand the work of God, we know that everything
that we are, listen church, everything that we are as a people is empowered
us by God, the Holy Spirit. Our understanding, our life,
our love, our affection, our holiness, our sanctification,
the preparation for glory, everything that we are is empowered and
given us through the work of the Holy Spirit. We talk about living a Spirit-filled
life. We see Paul's plea to the Lord
in Ephesians 3. Lord, I pray that they may be
filled with all the fullness of God. We see the instruction
in several of the epistles to be filled with the Holy Spirit,
to walk in light, to do all that which God has commanded us to
do, and we know that all of it is indeed the work of God and
that there is no way that the church can be the church without
God, the Holy Spirit. In birth and in beauty. And most
of us in the room today, those who are members of our congregation,
those who have been with us for a while, I know your story and
I know the troubles and I know the trials and I know the horror
and the pain and the suffering that you've experienced through
the local church and in the local church. And if we were to sit
down and really counsel each other on that, we would actually
be able to discern that what happens in most congregations
is that we lose sight of the power of God and we put the power
of man in its place. Very much like in the midst of
the megachurch ministries that I've been a part of through the
years across this country, looking and seeing the hundreds of baptisms,
the thousands of members, the millions of dollars, and you
look and you see, and one day I looked and saw, and I did not
see anything worthy of praising God for. Nothing. Nothing. And in an elders meeting
around that same season, I said, friends, we've got problems.
What's the problem? What's the problem? The problem
is I can show you on paper in a chart, I'm good at that kind
of stuff, how we accomplished every single element of growth
over the last three years. We did it in our power and man-centeredness,
we caused it, we did it, to which I was rebuked. How do I know
we did it? Because we accomplished it and
it could be replicated. Yet there was no holy fire, there
was no holy affection, there was no holy drive, there was
no intimacy with the Word of God. People would sign up for
everything but Bible study. People would sign up to do anything
but hear the Word of God taught. Where are the Christians, I would
say? Lord, have mercy on me who perpetrated this type of ministry,
who continued to teach it and assimilate people and train people
in leadership, which it had no place in the local church. All
that we need to be successful is found in the Word of God,
Paul would tell Timothy. All that we need is in His divine
power, says Peter. And that power comes, as Paul
would say in Romans, through the gospel of Jesus Christ and
through the living Word which is eternal. So beloved, as we get this into
our hearts today, we need to recognize that this is a serious
issue. And I believe it's an issue of
warning. that if we are not able to fan
into the flames, the fire of the Holy Spirit into our life
as a church, as a people, we may not be God's people. What does it mean to quench anyway?
Well, the imagery that we see all throughout the Scripture,
the New Testament specifically, we see it in the Old Testament
too, but when it relates to the Holy Spirit, God has chosen to
use the imagery of fire to express the work and the ministry of
the Holy Spirit. Fire. He tells Timothy, Paul tells
Timothy, fan into flame the good deposit. Don't quench the Spirit. Don't grieve the Spirit. In Pentecost,
we see in Acts, we see that it says that the Spirit of God descended
upon the people on the day of Pentecost as if like a tongue
of fire. It wasn't a literal tongue of
fire. Their hair would have burned. Well, maybe not, because God
spoke through a burning bush. But you see the simile there.
You see this image that God's Spirit is like a fire. We see
James using the idea of a fire. What does he say is like a fire?
The tongue. It sets a spark that burns the
world down. I mean, this is the hyperbole
that we see the Apostle James referring to. One little word
here burns everything down around us. So if that's true of the
tongue of man, what is true of the fire of God? He's an all-consuming
fire. We see the writer of Hebrews alluding to the Old Testament
writings. We see that God is the consumer. He burns with the
blaze. We see the fury of His wrath
as recompense comes upon the wicked. And He consumes them
with an everlasting flame that never dies. That's not the same
fire we see here. The same word for fire, I mean
for quenching. When we talk about the fire,
quenching a fire is to douse it out. It's to pour water on
it. It's to put it out. It's to make it smaller. So in
a sense, Paul is saying, do not put out the flame of the Spirit. So the command then would be,
fan into flame, don't put out the Spirit. Now friends, I just
want to remind us, we can't put out the Spirit. You can't. The Spirit can't be extinguished. And so in some sense, There's
an exaggerated expression here, but there's also a warning here.
There's no fire, there's no life. If you don't have the Spirit
of God working in you, you're not in Him. He's not in you. What does it look like to work?
Well, friends, that's a forever experience, isn't it? Let's think about it for a minute.
Keep in mind, too, that in this command to not quench the Spirit
of God, we're not talking about the person of God the Spirit. He's not saying, don't pour water
on the Spirit of God and put Him out. He said, don't pour
water on the work of the Spirit of God and put it out. So it's
the ministry of the Spirit, not the person. We can't douse God.
But can we quench the work of the Spirit of God? In some sense,
yes, but in every sense, no. In the person of the Spirit of
God, he can be grieved. He can be blasphemed. But in
the work of the Spirit, he can be put out. The same idea of
quenching the virgins who had their lamps in Matthew 25, and
they let their light go out. Quenched. Matthew 12, 20, when
it talks about the smoking flax, he will not quench. When the
flax or the wick of the lamp, as the oil ran out, there was
still some oil inside the wick, but then when the wick was completely
out of oil, the wick burned. And the Scripture teaches that
it will not be put out. In Ephesians 6, we see that same
idea of extinguishing the fiery darts of the enemy. Just some
words to think about. But what is the significance
of fire? What is the significance of the fire of the Holy Spirit?
Why is it now, all of a sudden, this boom, bomb, dropped right
into the lap of these Thessalonian Christians? Well, what is the
work of the Holy Spirit? What is it that He does? And
we'll look at this in a minute, but think in just three small
points of innumerable illustrations, innumerable situations in the
text where we see the work of God the Holy Spirit. Think of
this, just for today, three things that fire does. So take us one
minute. Fire illuminates. If it's dark
and we light a fire, we can see. In the same way, the Spirit of
God gives us light to see. I've already quoted 2 Corinthians
4, verse 6, that the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. God does that through the Spirit,
through the illumination of the fire of the Spirit of God. We
can see truth. We're enabled to see truth. We're
enabled to walk in light. 1 John. The blind can now see. We're quickened to life. This
is all the work of illumination. God tells Paul in Acts 26, you
are to go and preach. What does he say? So that what?
We may open the eyes of the blind that they may see and turn from
darkness to light. This is the work of the illumination,
of the fire of God, the Holy Spirit. Secondly, consider the
work of the Holy Spirit in purification. Fire purifies. We see that as an example. 1
Corinthians, where Paul talks about the work of the ministry.
It's tested by fire. We see the illustration or the
direct expression of Peter where he says, even though for a little
while, if necessary, you will face many types of trials. And these trials will do what?
Will test your faith. And though tested as if by fire,
what? Results in praise and glory and
honor and all of these things. So the day of the Lord when Jesus
comes, you will pass the test. The fire of purification will
not extinguish your faith. It will strengthen it and make
it pure. Purification, the Spirit of God sanctifies His people. In Isaiah chapter 4, The prophet
talks this way about God purifying His people by the spirit of judgment
and of burning. John the Baptist says in Matthew's
Gospel that the Spirit of God comes to baptize with water and
with fire. So here we have all of these
understandings and illustrations, but they're still incomplete
because the Spirit of God is not going to give us everything
about Him. He is to be understood just in
His ministry. The third thing I want us to
think about as we continue today is that fire, and the fire of
God and the Holy Spirit creates heat, energy. Life, passion,
zeal. God the Holy Spirit gives life,
therefore those who are indwelt by Him are alive. And those things
that are alive, they consume, they give, they work, they move,
they grow and live. The underlying thing that should
cause us to think is that there is no way we can put out that
which is not already burning. Church, is the Spirit of God
burning in you? Is the Spirit of God burning
in us? Let me remind us, we are not
here for ourselves. Look around this room as we are
missing Sixteen people off the top of
my head that are here every week. Do you see your body? Do you see your body? Do you
see your arms and your legs and your face and your feet and your
heart and your veins? Do you see your mind? Do you
see the fact that you are a part of a body whose who Christ is
the head over. Christ is the head of. We are
not here for ourselves, for God has ordained and put the body
of Christ together for its mutual benefit, for its up-building. Despite all the wisdom of the
world, Paul says that the church displays the manifold wisdom
of God. God has taken irreconcilable
individuals and brought them together under the unity of the
gospel of Christ so that there is absolutely no question whatsoever
what brings them together. And the reason that we tarry
in this life is that as a body we may display the work of God,
not in our own ability, not in our own determination, but in
the power of the gospel of Christ through the power of the Holy
Spirit and the fire that brings life to the church. This is why we're here today,
beloved. This preaching is not for you to take home for your
refrigerator time. It's not for you to take home
in your personal study. It's for you to employ and live
out right now in the midst of these people who are part of
your body. Who if one grieves, we grieve.
And one rejoices, we rejoice. When one has need, we all tend
to it. When one is dead, we grieve. We weep. When someone else comes
to faith, we rejoice like the angels in heaven. We warn, we
admonish, we exhort, we love, we give, we do everything that
we can do for the sake of the glory of God who has said and
commanded and decreed before He ever said, let there be light. He decreed that you, beloved,
would be in faith in Christ Jesus sitting together with this body
of believers that you might live your life for the sake of His
name together. We've institutionalized church
so much, even we who understand the problem still fall prey to
it. It's the fire of God's Spirit
burning within you. The command, do nothing to put
out the power of the fire of God. Therefore, do all you can
to fan into flames this blazing inferno. Keep in mind, and you
know my pet project is God's immutability. I could talk about
it all day long. That plant and I could have good
conversations about God and His ever, never changing self. So that the work of God through
the Holy Spirit did not change in creation, And it surely hasn't
changed today. So that everything that God does,
every way in which He moves, every word that He speaks doesn't
change. God doesn't change gears. God
doesn't work differently today than He did yesterday. It may
appear that way to us, but it's not a change. It's not a change,
it's just revelation. What do you mean? God intended
before He created Adam and Eve, To create the world and everything
in it so that he would be a redeemer of humanity, of his church, of
his people, of the beloved. Friends, God never intended for
Adam and Eve to walk in perfection and the world to be populated
by a bunch of holy people walking around. The purpose of creation
is redemption. The purpose of creation is that
God would put forth His Son as propitiation to satisfy the judgment
against the people who, even when given the oracles of God
and the understanding of their cognate, could not follow it. But that God had to make them
holy through the mercy of His own heart, through the crucifixion
of His own Son. God doesn't change. He reveals. And it teaches us, Paul himself
teaches all throughout the New Testament that there was a mystery
that was hidden for ages, now revealed in Jesus Christ. Jewish
people were not saved apart from Christ. Abram was not saved because of
anything he did. Abram was a pagan. Abram hated
God. He did not know God. He was hostile
toward God. He was not seeking after God.
He was worshipping the moon. And God chose him out of Ur. And Abram believed. As a shadow of the things to
come, Jesus Christ sealed the eternal life of Abraham. Jesus
Christ sealed the eternal life of Jacob, and Jesus Christ sealed
the eternal life of Saul, and Jesus Christ sealed the eternal
life of Rahab, and everyone else who is justified this day eternally. God does not change His mode
of salvation. God does not change His mission,
and God has never changed His message. The problem is, we are
too smart for our own good. Our philosophy, and sometimes
our theology, and most often times our academics, get in the
way of truth. So how do we quench the fire
of the Spirit of God? Man, I wish I were smarter than
I was so that I could come up with these great examples and
cross-reference them with all sorts of different texts. Maybe
I could pull the assumption of Moses and all sorts of apocryphal
texts, and you'd think, wow, he reads all sorts of stuff.
Let's just think of it practically. To quench a fire is done in two
ways. To stop fueling it, If there's
nothing to burn, there's nothing to burn. Or something on the
outside going on top of it to put it out. Let's talk about
that one first. An external something putting
the fire out. If my microphone set fire, we'd
throw some water on it, right? Cover it up and smother it. What
does that look like in quenching the fire of God? Well, let's
just think. This isn't exhaustive, it's probably
not even entirely accurate, but it's food for thought. The work
of God in salvation versus the work of salvation by man. Which
is quenching the spirit? Is salvation all of God or is
man the author of salvation? No, man's not the author of salvation,
never has been, never could be, never will be. The immediate
work of God at Pentecost. Nobody even understood what Jesus
was saying in John's Gospel. They were so grief-stricken over
the fact that He was leaving. What were we to do? The only
thing that gave them hope is that they saw Him alive and He
told them He was sending the Comforter. But how secure is our hope? As
secure as the One who promises it. Do you not think that there's
times during the work of Paul where he doubted? Absolutely. Do you understand that Paul says
to live is Christ? And this life that I'm living
is Christ. Not just for the sake of Christ,
not just because of Christ, but the fullest of everything that
I am and all that I'm experiencing is the life of Christ in me. That's what he's saying in Philippians. but to die is far better. So
when Paul talks about his life actually being Christ, he is
actually saying, when I'm arrested, stoned, shipwrecked, hated, hungry,
beaten, it's Christ. And there's hope in that. If
Paul can say his life is Christ, I can surely say my life is Christ. And in comparison, man, we've
got it made. We've got it made, beloved. To
impart any kind of humanism, socialism, relativism, or any
other ism you want to stick on there that might work on the
work of God in salvation is to say man is responsible. It's quenching the fire of God.
It's what Charles Finney and D.L. Moody and all these others
throughout history have done. to impart the work and expression
and the mode of man's mission and attitude and mind, when John
and others clearly teach it is the work of God." Well, what
is the gospel then? Is the gospel, God's going to
work in you or He's not? No. Is that good news? No. Here's
the gospel. You're condemned. Bad news. and
worthy of all the judgment of God. But God, in His mercy, through
Jesus the Son, put Him on the cross and killed Him and satisfied
His judgment against you." You can say that to every living
human being who ever has, does, or will walk on the face of the
earth. And it is true. And that is the love of God toward
them. God loved the world in this way that He gave His only
begotten Son. That whoever is believing has eternal life, but
whoever is not believing is condemned already. So when those who are
condemned will not believe on the gospel of Jesus, the love
of God is not theirs. Because the only love that God
gives is to kill the Son of God for the sins of those who believe. That's the good news. And when
we reject it, we reject it. There's no love for us, there's
no hope for us, there's no truth for us, there's no good news
for us, there's nothing but damnation and wrath and judgment. But beloved,
that's not us, is it? We can share the gospel, but
let's not dare Let's not dare play games with the fire of God
and think like I thought for so many years. Y'all, forgive
me, though God has. I used to guarantee certain numbers
of salvations when I preached. Because as a manipulating salesman,
I'd just keep looking until the altars were full. I'd find it.
Some of you have red shirts on. No, I wasn't that bad. If you think that the compulsion
comes through the argument and winning the conscience, you will
do anything to get people to come to Christ when God's already
done everything to draw all to Christ. Those who are His to
Christ. So I think we quench the fire
of God when we play with that. When we ignore the fact that
when Peter preached, God saved people. He preached. What must we do
to be saved? He just preached the gospel.
He preached the person of Jesus. Do you know making disciples
and evangelism is the exact same thing? In Matthew 28, Jesus wasn't
talking about all those saved people gathering together and
discipling them. Jesus told those people, those 500 people, those
apostles, And everybody standing there, go make disciples of all
nations. Baptize them. And I will be with
you until the end of age. Teach them to obey Me. That's
how we evangelize. We teach the Bible. We teach
Christ. Does that know what Paul says
in Romans 10? Faith comes through hearing. Alright, everybody can
hear me, but if you can't hear God through me, then God hasn't
opened your ears. How is He going to open your
ears? Keep listening. The wind blows where it wishes,
Jesus says. That's not my problem. It's not my business. And I expect
everyone here to hear the Word of God, because that's who God
is. When Peter preached, people were
saved. When Saul was on the way to capture and decapitate the
apostolic authorities in Damascus, God saved him. The woman from Sychar who argued
her heritage, who argued her history, who argued her religion,
who had played in her mind that though she was in angst and empty
and unable to quench the thirst of her wickedness with any type
of righteousness in this world, she had given up. She could not see, she could
not believe. And in the midst of talking with Messiah, she
hears the words of God about the Gospel, and God, without
even knowing who this man was, God saved her. Behold, I met a man that told
me everything I've ever done. Everything I've ever done. And that proclamation, that profession
of faith was so far from her consciousness, she didn't even
realize what had happened. She says, well, I guess Messiah
is our only hope. He would teach us all things.
It's the work of God. We put the work of man into salvation. Though we are culpable, though
we must believe, friends, we must celebrate the work of God
in belief. That's why we pray for those
who are lost. God, please, give them faith. Open their eyes,
open their hearts, take away the callousness. Another way we quench the fire
is in the work of sanctification. We put legalism, I hate to use
the word because it's not necessarily defined correctly, we put License. We put undue burdens on the church
to say, okay, well you can just sin how you want to, but that's
just contradictory. You don't want to. You see that? The Spirit of God
burns within us. We don't want to. We fight against
it. We feel it. We're drawn to sin
and we're like, oh, we're tempted. That's what temptation is. Temptation
is just not a fleeting thought. What did I put on black socks
or blue socks? I mean, temptation is war. We don't want it. We hate it. We don't want sin. So we don't dismiss, we don't
put water on sanctification. We know it is the work of God.
We don't teach people to put rubber bands on their wrist to
pop themselves when they're teenage boys when they look at a girl
with lust. You're like, what? Listen, we
employed all sorts of things. You know what it sounded like
during that summer camp? Popcorn. Now everybody there is aware
of lust, committing adultery in the heart. The work of God is sanctification.
The Spirit of God is sanctification. Another thing to think of is
the work of God in matters of life. Money, marriage, doubt,
counsel. We think that psychology and
psychiatry and philosophy and all of these things is what we
need. Well, you know, listen, God is so powerful to speak the
world into creation and to be. God is so powerful as to redeem
a people who cannot redeem themselves. God is so powerful that He's
supreme and His sovereignty exercises His supremacy and that He's over
all things at all times. I gotta have somebody else to
help me through this problem. Quenching the spirit. I have
a testimony of that in my own life I'll share one day. Another
way to quench the spirit is the work of God and determination.
And man-centered therapy instead
of spirit-filled living. What do I mean by that? Well,
therapy teaches us to be resolved. Therapy teaches us to be determined.
Therapy teaches us to actually make some goals and go after
them. Let's put the Ten Commandments on the kids' lunchboxes. Let's
tell them to honor the Lord. Let's tell them to not covet.
And we put that very command on the very thing that's going
to cause covetousness. Well, John's lunchbox was new
this year. Spirit-filled living is the work
of God working through the church, working through us as believers.
It's not about us resolving. Is there anything wrong with
resolution? No. But it's the work of God if it comes. And
friends, I'll be straight, the more we put our hope in that
which we can determine and resolve to do, the harder it's going
to be and the more that God will allow us to fall off the edge
of the cliff while He catches us to show us that our efforts
are in vain. How about the work of God in
answering prayer? Have you ever considered the fact that so many
Christians in today's world pray incorrectly? We pray for wrong
motives. James chapter 4 talks about the
reason we do not have is because we do not ask, and the reason
we do not get when we do ask is because we pray to spend it
all on our own selfishness. Your will be done. Give us this
day our daily bread. What is our daily bread? First and foremost, it is the
Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. Secondly, in the matter of sustenance,
so you mean to tell me the apostles, when they starved, they didn't
get their daily bread? Jesus starved for 40 days, and
He told the devil, who told Him it would be good if He turned
that stone into bread to eat, because His body was famished.
He said, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word
that comes from the mouth of God. Friends, we pray incorrectly,
because we pray selfishly. We are able to pull off many
things that we say we pray for and call them God's work, similar
to what I spoke of earlier about ministry. Did God really save 300 people
in 2001 in Brunswick, Georgia? I don't think He did. That's
how many we baptized that year. But 14 months later, they were
nowhere. Nowhere. Nowhere. How'd you do it? I can talk you
into getting baptized. I can talk you into getting re-baptized.
I can talk you into getting sprinkled, dumped, slapped, sprayed, or
plunged. We can do Dunkin' Booth baptism.
Everybody in here would be baptized again. Sounds like something
that I would have done years ago. The elders. It's not even funny, but if we
could do it, if we could pull it off, God didn't do it, y'all.
If we can do it, God didn't. Another thing to think about,
about quenching the fire of the Spirit of God, if we put other things
on, put other things in, rather than God-sized and foolish things. What am I talking about? In our
own life, how many people have angels on their... How many people
have prayer cloths that's been blessed? How many people have
superstitions that they follow and they say that it's a spiritual
thing, but they're not trusting in the Lord? We put other things
in the place of God's foolishness. Understand that the supernatural
work of God is foolish. The gospel is foolish. When I
say to people who say, well, I can't come to your church,
you don't have Sunday school. I say, that would be an incredibly hard classes. Number one. We're in a gas station
with a bathroom. Logistically. Secondly, nothing
wrong with having Sunday school if that's what you do, but it's
not where we are. Well, why are your children in
the room? Because they're going to hear
the Word of God. Well, it's just not going to reach them. Yes,
it does. And if you think anything else
is going to be reaching children for salvation, they're going
to hell. Well, they just don't have anything
to relate to. None of us relate to God in our
flesh. But I've seen six-year-olds and
eight-year-olds preach the Word of God. Out of the mouth of babes
comes truth. The problem is, as we get older
or bigger, we start thinking too much. And we start trying
to take what God has already said He will do in foolishness
and transform it into some creative thing that works and looks good
because the people pile in. Listen, where the majority are,
the Lord is not. A little fallacious, but I can't
prove it. You know what I mean. Jesus says,
"...narrows the gate." Jesus says that broad are those, through
Paul, who will find teachers to give them what they want.
When we put other things in and on, rather than God's size foolishness,
we are quenching the fire of God. We fear being laughed at
or cornered or being a target We put other things in place
of God-commanded truths that are supernatural when we say
things like this. Well, these types of things just
don't work. Well, this generation needs something different. Well,
we need to cater to another group. Or we want God to do, I heard
recently, I had a heart attack, we want Jesus to do something
new in our church that He's never done before. And all I could think of is Hebrews
6. that after they leave the foundations
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, there's nothing left for them
but a fearful expectation of judgment. We need more than what we see
here. We need to reach people where they are. Where? Dead? Another thing is we make God
the Spirit a spectacle. Well, God showed up today. God
doesn't show up. God is always here. And you know
where? In each of us. God is everywhere. God's presence
is over the heaviness of those awaiting judgment in the temporal
hell this very moment. Hell is not the absence of God.
Hell is the presence of God fully in wrath. You can't escape God even as
an atheist, an agnostic, Arminian, Calvinist, Bolognist, Bolognist. You can't escape Him. Magician,
master penman, I don't care who you are. We're not going to escape
Him. We're going to be with God forever under the judgment of
His justice and His righteousness or under the mercy of His love
and His kindness through Jesus Christ. Another thing we can do to quench
the Spirit of God, I know we're going long, is just not add anything
to the fire, not add any fuel. We don't learn, we don't grow,
we don't follow, we don't obey. We're stagnant in the Word and
in prayer. We give up, we fail to desire the certainty of God's
promises for us in Christ. We're not praying for the Lord
to fill us. We're not praying for the Lord to guide us. We're
not praying for the Lord to lead us. We don't engage in warning
and admonishing and helping and strengthening. We don't embrace
rejoicing and prayerfulness and thanksgiving and gratitude. We
do not reveal the power of God in us by being forgiving and
loving and worshipful. We're known for nothing spiritual,
nothing holy, nothing glorious. God will keep the wick burning
inside of us. Are we doing something this very
day to extinguish that wick? I'd love to have another 30 minutes. But in John 16, listen to these
words. Jesus says these words, 8 through
15. And when He comes, He will convict
the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and
concerning judgment. because they do not believe in
Me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and
you will see Me no longer. Concerning judgment, because
the ruler of this world is judged." Friends, the Spirit of God, God
the Holy Spirit, tells us that Christ is victorious, teaches
us, illuminates the truth of Christ. The Spirit convicts sin,
which makes known the victory of God through Jesus Christ.
The effects of this conviction of sin, Jesus says, they do not
believe in Me. Preaching Christ brings the conviction
of sin. Jesus says, righteousness because
I go to the Father. Being made sin, now vindicated
as righteousness with the Father. Jesus says, judgment. Because
the Prince of the power of the air, the Prince of this world
is judged and condemned. If sin and righteousness, then
judgment. Satan is judged with all who
are with him. All who are not of God. All who believeth not
on the Son are condemned already. The means of convictions to the
heart of man is the leading of the Holy Spirit of God, which
comes with a fast and furious flame. and He brings us to the
knowledge of truth, and He seals us for eternity, and He holds
us fast so that we might grow to become more and more empowered,
and more loving, and more invigorated, and more desiring to know Him
more and more. Paul would say in Galatians 5,
to walk by the Spirit. You will not gratify the desires
of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh
are against the Spirit. The desires of the Spirit are
against the flesh. We're supposed to walk this way.
We're supposed to be led by the Spirit of God. And so church,
in closing, this morning, I want you to understand the work of
the Spirit of God in you. And I want you to know that to
quench it is a dangerous reality. It's a dangerous existence. Yes. Our flesh can rise, yes. Our temptation can be given into,
yes. But friends, the work of God
the Spirit doesn't burn out. He rises up with a brighter flame
and brings us back to repentance again and again, to holy affection
again and again, to the Word and to prayer and to fellowship. First, I want you to know, church,
in closing, that the Spirit of God is common to all the saints. All the saints. Paul taught the
Galatians, Paul teaches the Thessalonians, Paul teaches to the Corinthians
in all places. The Spirit of God indwells every believer at
the time of salvation, at the time of regeneration. The Spirit
of God is there. We had a good discussion on that
Tuesday night. Well, how does that work? What
is it? Monergism? Synergism? Is it here, here?
What's the order? We don't know. We just like to talk about it.
Bible nerds. But it's common to all of us.
All of us are indwelt equally with the Spirit of God. So we
are all equally able to be led by the Spirit of God. No one
is led more by God than others. And being filled with the Spirit
of God creates no escape from suffering or harm. Being filled
with the Spirit of God conquers sin and sanctifies. And it's
a continual, not a sporadic filling. Not a sporadic indwelling. What does it mean to be led?
Led means to be made to or controlled. Leading, not suggesting. Leading,
moving, not asking. The leading of wisdom and action
and effectual leading. Being led destroys the impulse
and the affection for the fleshly and the lowly desires that are
contrary to the holiness of God. Tongue tied. That means that
as the Spirit of God leads us, the impulse and the affection
of our flesh diminishes. We don't love it. Being led means
that God, the Holy Spirit, has taken hold of the piloting of
our life. He leads our mind, He leads our
hearts, and where they are, our bodies follow. So what does it
mean? What does it mean for us? It
means we can truly fan the flame of the Spirit of God because
God is burning within. We can fan the flame as we know
and remember the Word of God, as we learn the Word. The Spirit
speaks to the Word, through the Word, and from the Word. The
Spirit teaches the Word. We can know and fan the flame
because we know God's salvation. We know and understand God's
sanctification is through the Spirit. The Spirit is the giver
of life. He illuminates the truth in the
hearts of dead men and they come alive. He makes us walk in the
statutes of God who created good works for us to walk in before
the world began. We can fan in the flame, fan the flame of God
the Holy Spirit, because we can know God's heart for us. We know
the love that God has for us in such a way that intimacy is
created that we don't cower before Him and say, oh dear God, we
say, oh Daddy. Abba, Father, Papa. There's an intimacy with God.
The Spirit of God, when we remember these things, is burning brightly. Because of these things, we have
no condemnation. Because of the work of God and
His Spirit within us, our guilt is short-lived. Our wickedness
and our sin, even when it creeps in, is put to death quickly. We know God's plan for you. For
years, it was always a good evangelistic tool. God has a plan for your
life. And Jeremiah 29 11 was usually in there. And I'm thinking
that when that hit me, that that was not biblically accurate to
tell everybody that God has a wonderful plan for your life. And it was
usually people who were mired in sin and unwilling to believe.
Well, God has a plan for your life. Don't you want to join
it? God's plan for the wicked is death. God's plan for the
unbeliever is condemnation. God's plan for those who reject
the gospel is to sear their consciousness where they cannot even see anymore,
to blind their eyes where they cannot believe. God has a plan. And friends,
this plan involves pain, misery, frustration, Found that on the way. God's plan has suffering, but
all this is worth so much. All of the pain of life is so
worthy. It's not for nothing. It does
not exist apart from the plan of God. It is the plan of God.
And through it all, Paul says that we are suffering this light
momentary affliction in order to prepare ourselves, or he prepares
us for an eternal weight of glory. The Spirit of God burning within
us, even in the midst of our trials. You realize the normal
life is a life of suffering. That's a normal life! Especially
for the Christian. Receive and hold fast to the
life that God has gifted to you. Be alive, be sure, be confident
in the Lord who suffered wrath and justice in our place. God's
will for us is our sanctification and the Spirit works it out.
Be actively at work in response to that which God is doing. In closing, let me let you hear
these words. And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the
same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes
from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Beloved, fanning the flame of
God in our lives is primarily and elementary the Word of God
in us. holding fast to the Word of God,
hearing and heeding the Word of God. We ought to live as a
people who are united, who are intimate, who are affectionate,
who are looking for the good in each other and striving to
encourage each other to do good works and to love, who are patient,
who are committed, who are giving, who are earnest, who are teaching,
who are praying, who are loving. That's who we are. That's who
God has made us to be. And that is the work of God in
us through the Spirit that is burning. To burn off the chaff
and to refine the beauty of Christ Jesus, which is who we reflect. Do you
believe God's glorious grace toward you this day? Do you trust
in Jesus Christ this moment? Not yesterday. Not next week. Now. Is your faith living? Active? Eternal? I pray the Lord would help you
see. And that the Lord would continue to grow us more and
more like His Son. Every day. Let's pray. How glorious is Your Word, Father,
and how intricate are these things that we've learned
today. Father, I pray that all that
is said would rest in truth and that which is erroneous would
just slip away. Help us to look and to see Your
hand upon us, to seek Your face through the Word, to be empowered
by Your grace through Your Spirit. Father, I thank You, Lord, that
we can pray these things and know that they are fulfilled
in Christ. We rest in Your mercy. We rest in Your love. We rest
in Your grace. For the sake of Your great name,
Lord, burn within us that the world may see the light of Your
justice, the light of Your mercy, the light of redemption through
Jesus Christ. And we pray these things in the
name of Christ, our King. Amen.