Verse 30 of Ephesians 4, I shall
read the text. I shall spend a few minutes looking
at the setting of that text and then, by God's grace and help
through the Holy Spirit, seek to discover the Word of God to
our hearts in that text. Ephesians 4 and verse 30, And
grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto
the day of redemption. Most of you, I'm sure, are familiar
with the general structure of the letter of Paul to the Ephesians,
and there is a marked break, a marked division in the general
focus of the content of the epistle beginning with chapter 4 and
verse 1. From chapter 4 and verse 1 onward,
you have a very concentrated dose of specific exhortations
and directions in the general realm of biblical holiness. You do not have doctrine exclusively
in chapters one to three, and practical exhortation exclusively
in chapters four to six, for these things always, inevitably,
interpenetrate one another. But you do have a primary focus
upon doctrine in the first three chapters with some exhortation,
and you have in chapters four to six primarily exhortation
buttressed with and supported by sound doctrine. But will you
notice the particular focus of the exhortations to holiness
as set forth in chapter four, verses one to two? I therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling
wherewith ye were called, with all loneliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The primary
exhortation is that the people of God shall walk worthily of
the calling wherewith they have been called. In other words,
Paul's concern is that the lives of the people of God will match
something of the magnitude of the privileges of the people
of God. But the point that I want you
to notice, and this is what opens up verse 30, is that this call
to holiness is not viewed primarily, let alone exclusively, in a vertical
relationship, but rather in a horizontal context. walk worthily of the
calling wherewith ye were called with loneliness, meekness, long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit." In other words, Paul having laid out the glorious
truth of the one church in the first three chapters, that church
which has its origin in God's electing purposes, which comes
into being by the effectual call of God the Father through the
quickening work of the Holy Spirit, he is concerned that the whole
instruction now to come on holiness of life never be divorced from
the vision of that one church into which all believers are
brought. So it is an exhortation to holiness and godliness in
community life. It is not an exhortation to holiness
in monastic life, viewing the saint perched, as it were, upon
some pinnacle of detachment from the real world, having twenty
hours of devotional exercises a day. No, no. It is walking
worthy of the calling wherewith we have been called in the context
of forbearing one another, keeping the unity of the Spirit. And
that note is sounded again and again and again throughout chapters
4 through 6. Now within that general focus,
that general theme, of exhortations to holiness in community. That
is, in the fellowship of the saints, we find a specific and
pointed exhortation beginning with verse 25 down through chapter
5 and verse 2. Wherefore, putting away falsehood,
speak ye truth, each one with his neighbor, for we are members
one of another. See the emphasis? Be angry and
sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole
steal no more, but let him labor. Why? Working with his hands the
thing that is good that he may have whereof to give to him that
hath need. Community. Let no corrupt speech
proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying,
that it may give grace to them that hear. Community. and grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed under the
day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor, sins that come to light in community, be
put away from you with all malice, and be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ
forgave you. Community, You see the notes? Sounded again and again. The
imitators of God, His beloved children, walk in love as Christ
also loved you and gave himself up for us and offering a sacrifice
to God for an odor of a sweet smell. Do you see now the general
climate of the text that we're going to look at today? Grieving
the Holy Spirit has to do with the people of God living in community,
and in particular, the attitudes, words, and actions that pass
between them. That's the setting. That's the
context of the exhortation. Now, having looked at the larger
context, the more immediate context, now look at the text itself,
and we shall do so along three lines. First of all, two facts
assumed in the text. Then secondly, the command given
in the text. And thirdly, the motive enforced
in the text. So the facts assumed, the command
given, the motive enforced. First of all, two fundamental
facts are assumed in Paul's exhortation Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God. And the first fact is this, that
the Spirit can be grieved. Now the word grief is the common
word for grief found everywhere in the New Testament. In fact,
in almost every instance it is translated, grieved, or sorrowful
is the primary translation, or made heavy. It's the word used
of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19.22. When having heard that
the price he had to pay to obtain eternal life was deep, thorough
repentance focused on his own idolatrous attachment to riches,
the scripture says, he went away sorrowful. That's the same word.
For he had great possessions. In Matthew 26.37, when our Lord
has predicted his death, and goes into Gethsemane, the scripture
says the disciples in contemplating this began to be sorrowful and
heavy. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse
8. Paul writing concerning his first
letter in which he rebuked them for their sins, he says, this
letter made you sorry, it made you heavy. 1 Thessalonians 4.13,
Paul says, I write unto you believers that ye sorrow not as those who
have no hope. We're dealing with what is a
very real disposition and emotion in human beings, namely, sorrowness,
heaviness of heart, an emotion that all of us is very, very
familiar with. Now granted, when the scripture
says that the spirit can be grieved, this is what we would technically
call an anthropathetic statement. Now don't be afraid of the word,
I'll explain it. When the Bible takes physical parts and passions
such as we have, eyes, hands, ears, and speaks of the eyes
of the Lord, the ears of the Lord, the hand of the Lord, these
are called anthropomorphic statements. Anthropos, the word for man,
morphe for form, and we're saying that they are statements which
take aspects of the form of man and attribute them to God. Not
that he has literal eyes, as we do, but it means that God
sees, and as the eye is the organ of sight, the avenue into the
soul and mind by which we perceive things, so God has an avenue
into his mind by which he perceives all things, so the Bible speaks
of the eyes of God. It's an anthropomorphic statement. Now then, when the Bible attributes
to God dispositions, emotional states common to us and then
attributes them to God, those are anthropathetic statements. They attribute attitudes, dispositions
to God that are like that which we know. Now again, we must never
think that grief is to God what it is to us in degree or necessarily
in every part of kind. But nonetheless, the Holy Ghost
says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, indicating that the first
assumption of the text is that the Spirit of God can be grieved. Now what does that tell us? Well,
it tells us in the first place that God the Spirit is a person. You cannot grieve the wind. Step
out of this building today and let a ten-mile-an-hour wind caress
your cheek, and in so doing, blow your hat off your head and
reach out and strike the wind for its impudence. The wind feels
no grief. It's an impersonal force. The
ground might shake beneath you in an earthquake and violently
upset your plans for the day, and you might curse it and stomp
it and spit upon it, but it can't be grieved. It's an impersonal
thing. It's an inanimate thing. A tree
might be in the wrong place when you take a curve in your car
when you're driving too fast and suddenly it's almost in your
front seat. No matter how hard you hit it,
it can't say, ouch. It can't turn around and start
cussing you like someone might do if you happen to hit a bumper
of another person's car. Why? It's impersonal, inanimate,
unliving object. But the text says, grieve not
the Spirit of God. He is a person. And it's only
persons who can be grieved. Second thing it tells us is that
God the Spirit stands in a love relationship to the people of
God. You see, grief is a word that is in the field of love. God the Spirit stands in a love
relationship to the people of God. If God is love in his essential
being as well as light, 1 John 1.6, 1 John 4.8, then the Spirit
is love for he is God and he shares in all the essential attributes
of the Godhead. There is not one attribute essential
to the Godhead that is not shared equally by all members of the
triune Godhead. There are certain functions performed
by one and not by another. The Father did not become incarnate
in the womb of the Virgin Mary. It was the Eternal Word, the
Son, who became incarnate. But what is common to all members
of the Triune Godhead is that which is essential to Deity,
and God is love. Therefore, the Spirit is infinite,
pure, holy, love. Paul can use a phrase like Romans
15.30, for the love of the Spirit. And I say that grief is in the
field of love. For one thing that is common
of all true love is that it has the capacity to be angry and
to be grieved. Would you women like to be loved
by a husband whose love had no capacity to be angry with that
which would rival your affection? Would you like to be loved by
a husband who, if he saw the neighbor's husband beginning
to cast glances in your direction, could just smile and say, oh
well, you're so loving and nice, there's plenty of you for me
and for him too? I ask every wife here, would
you like to be loved with that kind of generous, benevolent,
broad, abounding, overflowing love? Would you? Of course not. You want to be
loved with the kind of love that can narrow the eyes into slits
and say to that neighbor, look buddy, keep your eyes on your
own wife, she's mine. And as a wife, you say, thank
you God for that kind of love. Sure, it has the capacity to
hate, but would rival it. Would you like to be loved with
the kind of love that had no capacity for grief? That when
you do that which you know is contrary to the wishes of your
husband or wife, Would you like to have a relationship in which
they felt no grief? That their love to you was of
such a matter of indifference there could be no grief? You
children, would you like to be loved with a mummy and daddy
who'd feel no grief when you disobey them? who feel no grief
if they see you marching down the path to hell and don't pray
for you and plead with you to turn to Christ? Would you like
to be loved with a kind of love that had no capacity for grief?
You say, of course not. Alright, you see what I'm emphasizing?
When Paul says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, the fact
he is assuming is that the Spirit can be grieved because He is
a person and because His relationship to us in grace is a love relationship. The third thing under this general
heading that the Spirit can be grieved, we see not only that
God is person, that He stands in a love relationship to His
people, but God the Spirit in that love relationship can be
and is grieved. He is offended. He is made heavy
by things that are said by the people of God, that's the context,
by attitudes that are entertained, and by actions that are performed. And child of God, I know of few
things that are more humbling and sobering than the contemplation
of those simple facts. God the Spirit is person. as
person he stands in a love relationship to me as he indwells me and that
I have the capacity to grieve him, to offend him, to make him
heavy. Second fact assumed in the text
is that when the Spirit of God is grieved, he is grieved as
holy and as divine spirit. You don't get this in the English
version, but it's very, very emphatic and vivid in the original.
If you were translating it literally, it would come like this. Do not
grieve the Spirit, the Holy, the of God Spirit. That would be a literal translation.
Do not grieve the Spirit, the Holy, the of God Spirit. And what is Paul doing? Many
times the form used is just Holy Spirit, with the Holy coming
before Spirit. But here he says it's the Spirit
who's grieved and He's grieved as the Holy One, as the Divine
One. The emphasis being on these two
aspects of His being. Let's look at them for a moment.
He is the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit who partakes
of all the spotless moral purity essential to the Godhead. And
just as He is the loving Spirit because God is loved, He is the
Holy Spirit because God is holy. And as we heard, those of us
in the adult class this morning, one of the inevitable accompaniments
of God's holiness is His intense reaction against all that is
contrary to what He is as holy. Thou art of purer eyes than to
look upon iniquity. And then He is the Spirit of
God, the One who shares in all the essential properties of the
Godhead, in all the divine attributes. We are not trifling with one
who is less than God, but with the living God Himself. Notice
Paul does not say, grieve not the loving Spirit of grace. That
would be true. He is the loving Spirit. He is
the Spirit of grace. But he wants the Ephesians to
feel the weight of his exhortation. He says to these Ephesians, whatever
grieves the Spirit, first of all, know this, you are grieving
Him who is holy, and you are grieving Him who is God. Those
two basic facts are assumed in the text. The Spirit can be grieved. When he is grieved, he is grieved
as holy and as divine. And if you've listened at all,
and your heart has gone out at all to God in these first few
minutes of exposition, then I trust you're filled with some sense
of awe and dread that you should ever knowingly grieve such a
spirit. That you should ever knowingly
grieve such a spirit. Having then looked at the facts
assumed, now come to the heart of the text, the command given.
And the command given by the Apostle is given as a present
imperative. Do not ever be grieving the Holy
Spirit. Sometimes this form means, you're
doing it, stop it. The context would indicate that
that's not the emphasis of the apostle here. Rather, he uses
a present imperative to bind their consciences with a regulation
that is always to be before them. Do not ever be grieving the Holy
Spirit of God. What does that command mean?
Well, I'll give you a general answer and then we'll break it
down into particulars. Paul is saying that every child
of God must be aware that the Spirit can be grieved and aware
of all that can grieve him, and set himself to avoid those things
at any cost. To state it a bit differently,
when he said, you must not at any time grieve the Spirit of
God, he is saying that you must never be knowingly involved in
anything that grieves him, and upon discovery that you are,
desist and cease immediately. Now, from the general to the
particular, what does grieve the Holy Spirit? You could answer
that in a sweeping way by saying all attitudes, words, and actions
which are contrary to His holy being and to His holy action,
grieve the Spirit. Because He is the Spirit of holiness,
the Holy Spirit, everything tolerated in attitude, word, and action,
contrary to what He is, grieves Him. Why has He come to indwell
us? To perfect us into the image
of a holy God. Hence, His action within us is
as the sanctifying Spirit. Therefore, when we knowingly
countenance sin, when we knowingly neglect those means which God
has given for the purging of sin and for the putting down
and the mortification of sin, we grieve the Spirit. Why? Because
we are indulging in that which is contrary to His holy action. Have you ever thought of the
condescension of the Spirit in coming to indwell the likes of
you and me? You think of the condescension of the Son in coming
to the confines of a virgin's womb. But think what it means
for Him to come to the likes of you and me, and to actually
indwell us so that God says, Your body is a temple of the
Holy Ghost, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own.
and all how patient he is in accomplishing the purpose for
which he came to indwell us. Think of the patience of the
Holy Ghost. when He who shares in the very infinite purity of
the Godhead knows the fullest extent of everything in our attitudes,
actions, and words that is in the likeness of Adam and not
the likeness of Christ, and yet He bears so patiently in bringing
those things to light, in leading us to the blood of Christ for
cleansing, leading us to the throne of Christ for power to
overcome, patiently carrying us along until one day His work
will be complete. and will shine in the very image
of Jesus. Oh, how patient he is! But listen,
my dear Christian brother or sister, when in his patient,
loving ministry, he brings light upon an issue, And we stubbornly
refuse to cast in, as it were, our conscious endeavor with His
revealed will in the Scriptures and His promptings in our consciences. What do we do? We grieve Him.
We grieve Him. We grieve Him. And then we realize
why the apostles said, do not grieve Him. in the specific context
of this paragraph, and having moved now from the general, I
want us to look at the specific. How is the Spirit grieved? He
is grieved by all attitudes, words, and actions contrary to
His holy being, particularly in our relationships to other
of the people of God. Look at those verses in that
light. Wherefore, putting away falsehood, verse 25, speak ye
truth each one with his neighbor, and who is his neighbor in this
context? It's the fellow believer, for we are members one of another. That concept is never used of
all men in general. It's used of believers in particular. How is the Spirit agreed? when
there passes from our lips anything contrary to absolute truth in
our dealings one with another. You know what's contrary to absolute
truth? Somebody has been speaking a lie in this congregation. I don't know who and I don't
care to know, but I'm going to be very specific this morning.
I'm pouring back to you as a congregation what's been poured into me in
pastoral counseling in the past months. This is a very intensely
pastoral message this morning. A young believer came to me very
disturbed that someone voiced vocal, specific criticisms of
this pastor to this young believer. And this young believer said,
Pastor, what shall I do? I'm glad the name wasn't disclosed.
The young believer rebuked the person and said, If you have
ought against the pastor, go to him. Whoever you are, you greeted
me last week and the week before at the door. And as I looked
you into the eye and said, good to see you, and the love of my
heart as your pastor went out, you looked at me and smiled,
but your smile was a lie. You didn't speak truth to me,
because in your heart was an attitude. Now I'm not saying
I'm infallible. I may have been wrong. I may be wrong. I may
stand to be rebuked. And I go on record as pleading
with you this morning and come to me and rebuke me, but don't
speak a lie to me at the door and shake my hand and smile and
look at me as though your heart is toward me in love. That's
a lie that grieves the Holy Ghost. Why not run to another? Why? We're members of one another. What a horrible thing if my eye
begins to lie to my hand. And my eye sees a burning flame
and it says to my hand, no, no, that's just a ball of cotton,
pick it up! And the seared flesh is a monument
of the tragedy when my eye begins to deceive my hand. The Spirit of God has grieved
you this morning in at least one instance. Somebody has ought
against the man standing in the pulpit and has lied in not coming
and voicing the grievance. Look at the next verse. Be angry
and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither
give place to the devil. The exact exegesis of this verse
is difficult, but the overriding emphasis and import is clear.
You're not to allow any day to come to a close, but what any
dispositions of anger have been resolved, and you do not lay
your head upon your pillow at night with a disposition of anger
toward any of the people of God, be it wife, son, daughter, father,
mother. Some of you are grieving the
Holy Spirit by grudges born in your hearts toward others of
the people of God in this assembly. The Spirit of God is grieving.
He's grieved. He's grieved. Read on. Let him
that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working
with his hands to do what? That he just may meet his own
bills? Looking upon work purely selfishly, I'll work enough just
to earn enough money to meet my own bills, and I don't give
a hoot about anyone else? No, no. That he may have whereof
to give to him that hath need. You see what he's saying? Your
employment is to be carried out with a perspective of your service
to others. There are some of you grieving
the Spirit who don't have this biblical view of working with
your hands. You have a very unscriptural
view of labor and of work. Because it cuts across the grain
of your flesh and your undisciplined life. And therefore you've got
a shoddy attitude toward it and a shoddy performance in it. And
the result is there isn't the income, there isn't the advancement
that might mean increase of salary, an increase of position, an increase
of usefulness to the service of Christ. Why? Because you could
care less about others. As long as bread's on your table,
that's all you're cared about, concerned about. You're grieving
the Spirit. You're grieving the Spirit. you're
grieving the Spirit. We read on. Let no corrupt speech
proceed out of your mouth. What is corrupt speech? Read
on. But such as is good for edifying
as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear. Anything that does not mediate
grace is corrupt speech. Some of you are guilty of this.
Some of you are guilty of catty, snide, jealous remarks toward
others of your brothers and sisters in this assembly, because some
of you have come to me broken-hearted, because you've been the objects
of those remarks. I've not asked for the disclosure
of names. I can look right up and down
every pew here without any blushing that someone's ratted. I don't
know who you are, but I know that some of you are grieving picayune remarks because a young
man shows an interest in a young girl other than you and in your
carnal hellish jealousy your wicked remarks have stung
like hornet's stings and the holy ghost is green because imperfect innocence,
because someone is not omniscient and happens to be forgetful.
You've impugned all kinds of motives because you were overlooked.
You've gone away licking your wounds and spreading the venom. of your own carnal interpretation
of something, rather than going to a brother or sister saying,
I don't want to think that you would have deliberately overlooked
me, but I've got this stupid thought in my mind, will you
please help me to get rid of it? No, corrupt speech is proceeded
out of your mouth. You've maligned the character
of a fellow brother or sister, and the Holy Ghost is grieved.
Verse 31, let all bitterness, that's the beginning of the attitude,
And wrath, that's the thing boiling to the surface. And anger, now
it's up in your flush neck. And what's the next thing? Clamor
breaks out of your mouth. He said, let all bitterness,
the first springs of it. And if it's gotten beyond bitterness
and it's come to wrath, deal with it there. If it's gotten
up to anger, deal with it there. If it's broken out into clamor,
deal with it there. And railing be put away from
you with all malice, that's the negative. If there's anyone sitting
here this morning with bitterness, maybe you've been wronged and
you could prove your wrong in a court of law. You can never
prove the rightness of bitterness before the court of God. If someone
should pass by your pew this morning and spit in your face
and slap you with the back of the hand and stomp on your foot
and call you everything in the book, it might justify dealing
with that person with the civil authority if he were demented.
dealing with him in church discipline if he were just plain rebellious,
but it would never justify you having bitterness in your spirit
for one-tenth of a second. Never. You've been wronged, and
you're stewing in your bitterness. That bitterness has begun to
increase to the point where there is what? There is anger, and
in some cases it's broken out into clamor and railing. It's
affected the speech. And the Spirit of God is grieved.
This is the context. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. Then he goes on to say, And be
ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as
God in Christ forgave you. Would you believe it? That there
are people sitting in this congregation this morning? I know at least
one instance where forgiveness has been pleaded and it's not
been granted. Some serious things in the Bible
about that. You read Matthew 18. If ye forget not every one from
the heart, so shall my heavenly Father do unto you. You read
the passage. The Spirit is grieved. If I respond
with any other attitude and disposition to wrongs done to me, but forgiveness
and tenderheartedness, I grieve the Spirit. Why? He's the Spirit
of love, who has opened up to me as a Christian the glory of
God's forgiveness, and in so doing has shed abroad in my heart
the Spirit of forgiveness. That I may reflect in my relationship
to others God's relationship to me. That moves you into chapter
5. Be imitators of God and walk in love. What's it mean to walk
in love? Ah, dear ones, put it in the
context of the paragraph we've gone through very quickly this
morning. What's it mean to walk in love? It means that I speak
truth with every one of my brothers and sisters. And I refuse to
go out that door speaking a lie to anyone this morning. If some
of us don't get out of here till two o'clock, thank God that it
means the Holy Ghost is no longer need. By speaking lies one to
another, by smiling with the face, while having something
contrary in the heart. That's what it means to walk
in love. It means that when I am tempted to screw in my anger,
I say, no, God says the sun must not go down upon my wrath. By
His grace, I shall walk in love. I shall no longer be an irresponsible,
selfish, pouting, petulant little child only concerned about myself. I'm going to do all in my power
to labor that I might be useful to others. That's what it means
to walk in love. I'm just going back through the
passage, you see. What does it mean? It means that when I'm
tempted to say that which will corrupt, that jealous, that envious
word, I swallow it for Christ's sake and for the sake of my brother.
That's what it means to walk in love. It means that when I'm tempted
to allow bitterness to stew in my spirit, I say, O Holy Ghost,
come and tip over the ladle of my heart and pour out all the
bitterness. and fill it with the sweet fragrance
of your own love. That's how the Holy Ghost is
grieved. The command is, do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Discover
whatever in your life is grieving Him and desist, cease from it,
confess it, repent of it, rectify it. Do not grieve the Spirit. Some of you may think yourselves
quite saintly in isolation. but be more devilish in community.
But the real acid test of the measure of your sanctification
is the reality of it in community. You're not a saint simply because
you get lovely feelings when you're at home having your devotions.
The acid test of the genuineness of your saintliness is the measure
of your godliness in the community of the saints of God, because
that's where it's put to test. when you've got to put up with
me, and I have to put up with you. And we forbear one another,
and we forgive one another, and we're tenderhearted one to another. The command given, grieve not
the spirit. How is he grieved? We've looked
at the passage. Now I want to consider in the
second place under this command what happens when he is grieved.
Why is the apostle so concerned about this matter of grieving
the spirit? Well, again, I'll state a general principle and
then elaborate on it. A grieved spirit becomes a withdrawn
spirit, not in his personal indwelling, but in his powerful working. Now, follow me closely. The text
says we are sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption. And
if we've been born of the Spirit, sealed by that Spirit, we are
marked for the final consummation of redemption. So the Spirit
will never leave us as to His personal indwelling, securing
our ultimate redemption. But He may and does often leave
us in His powerful and manifest working. You read about this in the Old
Testament history in Isaiah 63.10 concerning the children of Israel.
When they grieved the Spirit, what happened? They rebelled
and grieved His Holy Spirit. Therefore, He was turned to be
their enemy and Himself fought against them. You remember what
happened? You go back to Ai in that first conquest of Jericho. And God had said that there was
to be no toleration of those things that were consigned to
destruction. And all the gold and silver was
to be brought back and kept in the treasury of the people of
God. And there was the man Achan, who saw this Babylonish garment,
a forbidden thing, and a few shekels of gold and wedges of
silver, shekels of silver and wedges of gold, and he took them
and hid them in his tent. And how did a grieved spirit
manifest himself? He withdrew in his power to conquer. And so they go up to Ai, a little
city, and they turn heel, and about three dozen of them are
slain. And Joshua falls on his face and says, God, why? And
God says, because my spirit is grieved. There is sin that must
be dealt with. That's the general principle.
A grieved spirit becomes a withdrawn spirit. Now let me break it down
into some specifics, personally and corporately. When I am grieving
the Holy Spirit as an individual believer, this is where it will
show up. When the Spirit is grieved as the Spirit of sanctification,
He ceases to be to me the Spirit of illumination. And this book
becomes a closed book. Now, I'm not saying every time
the Word is dry, it's because you're grieving the Spirit. No.
There are other principles that enter into the overall picture
of the Christian life. Some of God's withdrawings are
not because of specific sin. They are part of God's overall
purpose to teach us other lessons. So I am not saying to any overly
sensitive soul that if the Word is dry, that automatically means
you should be ferreting through your heart for areas where the
Spirit may be grieved. No, no. I'm not saying that whenever
the Word is a closed book, it is always because of a grieved
spirit. But I am saying a grieved spirit will always mean a closed
Bible. You wonder why you can read your
Bible day after day and there's no sweetness, there's no fragrance,
there's no illuminating of the face of Jesus? You can't play
games with God. You grieve the Spirit in the
area of personal sanctification, and His ministry is quenched
as the Spirit of illumination. You can't play with God like
you would with a radio. You say, well, I'll tune out
that station, but tune in this one. You can't say, I'll have
the Holy Ghost as the spirit of illumination, but I'll go
ahead and go on tolerating bitterness or speechy untruth and grieve
him as the spirit of sanctification. No, no. Prayer ceases to be any
kind of delight. Now again, I'm not saying that
any time prayer is heaviness and a drudge, it's because you've
grieved the Spirit. I'm not saying that, but I am
saying that many times the reason for the heaviness in our prayers
is we don't have the Spirit of supplication powerfully at work
in us. Why? Because we've grieved Him
as the Spirit of sanctity. Why is it that every time you
face some issue that you've been dallying with and really gone
down in brokenness before God, that the throne of grace becomes
precious again? Why? Why? It's true of every
Christian who's lived longer than six months as a believer.
You know what happens, don't you? When you've been rationalizing
and dallying in some area of sin and finding In what I hope
is a situation this morning, God's brought you up short, you've
faced your sin, you've gone down in repentance, and what happens?
The throne of grace becomes precious again. Why? You're no longer
grieving the Spirit as the Spirit of sanctification. You enjoy
His blessing as the Spirit of grace and of supplication. You wonder why your witness mocks
you when you open your mouth? Why there's no sense of Holy
Ghost authority when you speak? This is why. How can he be the
spirit of power in your witness when he's being grieved as the
spirit of sanctification in your experience? What happens corporately? I'll tell you what happens. The
public means of grace become dull and lifeless. You sit there
saying, ah, the pastor's losing his edge. He used to move me
when he preached. No more. My friend, it ever occur
to you that the problem's in your own heart? I've got to face
myself, and I've sought honestly to face myself before I preach
this text to you. I've asked God to rip through
my heart and show me where I may be grieving His Spirit. But I
stand now not in the place of my own personal heart searching
which has preceded my coming to the pulpit, but I stand here
now to charge you to answer in the presence of God. Are you
listening to the exposition of the Word this morning with an
ungrieved spirit as your teacher? Or are you listening as one who's
grieved the Spirit in words attitudes, actions contrary to the rule
of scripture. We're going to come to the Lord's
table tonight, a blessed means of grace, but I tell you the
Lord's table will have no more grace in it than going out and
getting a McDonald's hamburger if the Holy Ghost is not present
to make Jesus precious at his table. We have no magical view
of the sacraments, There is no magical power in the bread and
the cup. There is power in the Spirit
making Jesus real in the visible emblems, so that as we feed upon
bread and wine, our hearts are enabled by the Spirit to feed
upon Christ. And the eye that sees the deep
red of the cup and the bread before us becomes an eye that
beholds the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ crucified. What barrenness, coming to that
table with a grieved spirit. Our corporate gathering, you
see, in worship. Our corporate gathering to pray.
And then, dear ones, our corporate needs as a church. This is one
of the deep concerns of your elders, as we've been up late
the past two Saturday nights, not shooting pool in the basement
of the parsonage either. As we've been thinking of our
needs with reference to our building, and as we set aside Wednesday
night as a night of prayer for it, our question has been, oh
God, is there that in our hearts or in our assembly that would
within any way withhold the answer? We've asked the question of ourselves.
I feel it's right for me to ask it of you on behalf of the eldership. A grieved spirit becomes a spirit
who's withdrawn, and there are not as mighty workings to make
us conquer in the work of the church, in evangelism, in the
saving of men and women from the clutches of the devil, in
the provision of our temple needs, or the tragedy of having to minister
and carry on church activity with a grieved spirit. Someone
visiting amongst us may say, well, Pastor, you talk like the
church is going apart at the seams. No, it isn't. But my friend,
listen. No church ever went apart at
the seams overnight. It began when blessing brought
by the Holy Ghost was assumed to be automatic, and sin no longer
was looked upon as sin. And then the thing maintained
the semblance and the structure of life and power, but death
was at the root. I'll go back to digging ditches
and slinging cement before I'm part of any ecclesiastical juggernaut
that's lost the Holy Ghost. No, beloved, this is a pastoral
word that I trust under God will check what we feel to be such
a necessary thing to face at this strategic point in our life
and history. Well, I close with just a brief
word. on the motive enforced. How does the Apostle Paul seek
to motivate the people of God to face this command of God,
grieve not the Spirit? Notice how he does it. Grieve
not the Spirit, the holy, the of God Spirit, in whom ye were
sealed unto the day of redemption. That's a word to motivate them
to obey the command. You say, in what sense? Well,
you'll remember those who were with us, that in chapter 1, verses
13 and 14, he spoke of all Christians as being sealed with the Spirit. And it is that sealing of the
Spirit that introduces the believer into all the blessings that are
his in Christ experimentally, experientially. We are blessed
with all blessings in Christ, in the heavenlies, in the councils
of election. But those blessings begin to
be poured into me in my experience when I am regenerated by the
Spirit, by that Spirit brought to conscious faith and repentance,
sealed by the Spirit of adoption. And now I have the earnest and
the down payment of all that will be mine in the consummation. Therefore, a Christian who's
understood verses 13 and 14 of chapter 1 knows that to be sealed
by the Spirit is just another way of saying to be incorporated
into all the blessings of redemption. Now you see how this is a motive?
Dear Christian, don't grieve the Spirit. Why? Because He's
the One who has incorporated you into the whole sphere of
the blessings of redemption. Would you slap the hand that
has brought you the bread of heaven? And that's the genius of the
gospel, that it moves men by pure gospel motives in a way
that legal or natural motives can never do. Let me explain
what I mean by that. Paul did not say, Grieve not
the Holy Spirit, because and then deal with something that
would be natural to all men, it will bring tragedy upon yourself.
That could be a selfish motive that appeals even to the unsaved,
but he says all believers, think of your privileges brought by
the Spirit, and thinking upon that, I know if you're a true
believer, you could never willfully, continually go on grieving Him.
Can you? And the heart of every Christian
says, no Lord, I can't. When do I begin to grieve him
and tolerate that which grieves him? When I forget all the privileges
that are mine because of his ministry. And my friend, if you're
not moved more by gospel motives than by selfish motives, you're
not a Christian. If you're only moved by the threat that someone's
going to steal your yo-yos, you're not a Christian. But if you're
moved by the thought that you grieve the God who's redeemed
you and endows you, that's a good, proud proof that you're a Christian. You see that all the way through
the Scriptures. When Paul goes to deal with a sordid problem
of fornication, there at Corinth, how does he do it? He says, think
of your privileges. You're a temple of the Holy Ghost.
Think upon that, and you'll cease your fornicating. See? He doesn't
say in there, keep on fornicating, you'll go to hell. He says that
later. Because he knows he may be dealing with some unconverted
people, and the only motive that moves them is the fear of their
hide. And that's a legitimate motive,
to stir a man up, to think about eternity, the wrath to come.
But for the believer, the predominant emphasis in the Scriptures is
gospel motives move him to gospel duties. And I would appeal to
you on that motive this morning. that as an individual Christian
and together as a body of saints, that we do not grieve the Spirit.
Why? Because by Him we are sealed
to the day of redemption. Every privilege I know as a believer,
I know not only because the Father purchased it and the Son purchased
it, but because the Holy Ghost is applying it. Shall I grieve
Him who has brought me every moment of pure joy I have ever
known in the Gospel? Shall I grieve Him who's given
me every sight of the Son of God that's ravished my heart
and met the deepest needs of my sin-sick soul? Shall I grieve
Him who day by day supports me in my weakness, checks me in
my waveredness, gives me the consolation of that fountain
open for sin and uncleanness? Shall I grieve Him, dear Christian,
who imparts all that I have that's worth anything for time and eternity.
If you can say yes to that, then, dear friend, you're trampling
underfoot the blood of the covenant and doing despot to the Spirit
of grace. I call upon every member of the
Trinity Baptist Church in this place this morning. Grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God. He can be grieved. He is God. He is person. He is holy. He is the Omnipotent One. How is He grieved? In attitudes,
actions, and words at the horizontal level that are contrary to the
rule of love. Grieve Him not, for a grieved
spirit will be a withdrawn spirit. And a withdrawn spirit from an
individual in assembly means you've got the shell. But the
life is gone and it's only long before the head of the church
says, thou hast the name that thou didst. But thou art dead. May God grant that we'll hear
his voice and obey him this morning. Let us pray.