I wonder if you might turn back
in your Bibles to the 51st Psalm, Psalm 51. David in this Psalm
is very repentive of his sin, his adultery, and murder of Uriah
the Hittite. And he has come to that place
through the visitation of the prophet of God, hearing from
God about the matter. And he cries out in verse 10,
he said, Created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
within me. And verse 11, Cast me not away
from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. We recognize
that The people of God often come to the place where they
maybe pray the same prayer of David. We all are contaminated
as we walk through this world. We have many, many times when
our hearts become very dull toward spiritual matters and very cold
toward the things of God and the Word of God. There are many,
many times when we could say with the songwriter, Brother Aaron and I was talking
the other day and he mentioned this verse of this song and I
thought about this this morning that there are many, many times
that we as God's people could say this very thing. Now there
were times he had the right to up and move away. And there were
days I know it took amazing grace to stay, but he never left the
building once. That is why I sing and shout,
because after all these years the Lord still lives in this
old house. But every one of us will admit
that there are times when we know personally, because we're
in touch with our own situation, that we know that the Lord could
have just as well walked out of our lives forever because
of our actions and because of our willfulness. But David here
asked the Lord not to cast him away from his presence. He knew
what the presence of God meant to his life and he wanted that
the presence of God would be with him and would abide with
him. And all of us here that are children of God, we know
what it means to have the Lord with us. For God's blessing to
be upon us. Our fellowship to be with Christ
and the Word. And then he says, and take not
thy Holy Spirit from me. Many have wondered at that statement.
As if David was being afraid of something that could not possibly
happen. But it is a conviction of mine
that in the Old Testament times that the Holy Spirit did go and
come to believers. That they did not have the indwelling
of the Spirit, they had the presence of the Spirit in the Old Testament. Now it seems to me like that
that is a true statement. I believe that to be true. But
we know that in the New Testament, The New Testament seems to spell
out the fact that once the Holy Spirit comes to indwell the believer,
that the believer will never be without the Holy Spirit. I read out of John chapter 7
here a couple of verses to you. In the last days, that great
day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man
thirst, let him come unto me and drink, and he that believeth
on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. But this he spake, but this spake
he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.
For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was
not yet glorified. But after the Lord Jesus Christ
ascended to glory, He sent the Blessed Holy Spirit, the Comforter,
down that we might be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And the Bible
teaches in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13, a blessed verse
of Scripture that has been a constant blessing to me for many years. In the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians,
verse 13, where it says, For by one Spirit are we all baptized
into one body. You know, there are those who
claim to be Pentecostals and they claim to have a blessing
that the rest of us don't have and the rest of us will never
have until we associate with their kind and become involved
in their religious views. that according to this verse
of Scripture, that by one Spirit are we all, all children of God,
all those who have been born of God, all of those regenerated
by the Holy Spirit, in which that new work that Brother Randy
mentioned, which is also referred to in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 17,
this new work that the Lord has done He is We've been baptized. He baptized us into one body
He's the great baptizer baptized us in the spirit and So we're
baptized whether we be Jews or Gentiles Whether we be bond or
free have been all made to drink into one spirit so all the children
of God are are baptized into one spirit, but now we understand
that that the people of God can so live, and I believe this to
be true, that they feel like that the Spirit of God has left
them. They feel like the Holy Spirit
has deserted them and left them. Let me read a couple of scriptures
to you. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, here in verse 19, now Paul
has been dealing here with those that are unrighteous, and
he talks about the contrast of those that are in the world,
those who are unconverted and have not the Spirit of God, contrast
between them and true believers. In verse 11 he says, and such
were some of you, and what he's referring to is what he said
in verse 9. Know ye that the unrighteous
will not inherit the kingdom of God. Don't be deceived. Neither
fornicators, idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And such were some of ye, but ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, ye have been set apart unto God, but ye are justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
And then he goes on to say here in the latter part of this chapter,
in verse 15, he said, Know ye not that your bodies are the
members of Christ? And he's referring to believers.
And of course we know that in the body of flesh that the motions
of these sins still are prevalent. That there's not a believer.
This idea, this doctrine of Christian perfection in the flesh It's
an absolute lie. There isn't any truth to it.
And so we know that the motions of these sins, or the seed of
these sins, are yet in the life of believers. And in 1 John chapter
1, he said, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. And so he goes on to say here,
that know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ, Shall
then I take the members of Christ, and make them members of an harlot,
God forbid? What, know ye not that he which
is joined to an harlot is one body? For two saith he, shall
be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the
Lord is one spirit. So flee fornication. Every sin
that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth
fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which
ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with
a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit,
which are God's. So he reminds them here that
their bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. And so their
walk in this world is to be a walk set apart unto God, and to his
word, and to his truth, and to the spirit of holiness which
is in them. And so we have this body of ours,
but it is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Think of that. And then
also in Ephesians chapter 4, I wanted to read here a few verses
of Scripture that will help you also to see how that believers
can walk in such a manner that they feel like maybe that the
Spirit of God has departed, that the Spirit of God has left them.
In Ephesians chapter 4, this I say in verse 17, and testify
unto the Lord, that he henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk,
in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Now
Paul is testifying here in the Lord to believers, those that
are the children of God, that they don't walk as Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind. Who being past feeling have given
themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with
greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ. Ye have not so learned Christ."
Meaning that all the preaching you've heard of Christ has been
very clear, especially from me, the Apostle Paul, he would say,
the fact that you're to sanctify your vessel. and that you are
to set apart your life, even your body, unto God the Holy
Spirit in order that the Spirit of God might walk in you and
through you to the glory and praise of Jesus Christ your Redeemer. But he says you've not so learned
Christ, you've not learned Christ in the way that you feel that
now that you can go on and live like the Gentiles live, those
that are without God. You cannot live that way as a
child of God. If so be that you've heard Him,
if you heard anything at all that was preached, If you heard
the Spirit of God declaring the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ,
He is a sanctifier of His children, and we're made holy as we stand
in Him before God. If so, be that you've heard Him.
Many have not heard Him speak. in power to their souls that
they feel that they can go on and live as they did before into
lasciviousness and all manner of uncleanness. But He says if
you've heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth, is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who walk a sanctified
walk, and those who walk in a manner acceptable and well-pleasing
to God, are God's true witnesses and spokesmen in this world. That you put off concerning the
former behavior, the behavior that you had prior to your conversion,
that you put off that old former behavior of the old man. Because the old man had his particular
ways, as Paul has described them here, and also as the verses
we read in Corinthians. He says, the old man which is
corrupt according to the deceitful lust. The old man is corrupt,
and we know that, and we cannot allow the old man to reign. The
old man must be put off. We must mortify the deeds of
the body, in the language of Paul in the book of Romans, that
we may live out our lives in the spirit of God. He said, and
be renewed in the spirit of your mind. That's where we need a
renewal even today as God's people. We need to recognize that every
thought that goes through our brains need to be brought into
captivity to the law of Jesus Christ. To Christ in captivity. You know, we allow our minds
sometimes free range. We just allow them to roam here
and there and somewhere else. We need, my friend, to be renewed
in the spirit of your mind. And the devil likes to get into
the minds of men and women. And the devil, he jumps upon
your thought pattern and rides piggyback right into your life.
And you begin to think like children of the world, children of the
devil, and you begin to walk just as they walk. And you need
to understand that there needs to be a renewal. Well, how do
we renew the spirit of our minds? Well, the way we renew the spirit
of our mind is to take up the Word of God anew and afresh every
day and fill our hearts and minds with the Word. Because the Word
will cleanse our hearts. The Words will cleanse our mind. The Word of God will make you
clean. It says in John chapter 15, make
you clean. The Word of God will clean you
up. So be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put
on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness. Now unless God has converted
you, there is no new man in you. If God has converted you, then
there is a new man in you, and this new man is what we are to
put on, which is created in righteousness and true holiness. And put away
lying, and be angry in sin not, and neither give place to the
devil. Don't go to the door when the
devil's knocking. Don't open the door when the
devil is at the door. Be discerning as the people of
God. Now, and let him that stole steal
no more, but let him labor with his hand. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth. But that which is good to the
use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
And now verse 30, that's the verse I was looking for. And
grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto
the day of redemption. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God. You say, well, you mean that
I can grieve the Holy Spirit? Paul said, grieve not, indicating
that you could if you walk contrary to this epistle, to his testimony,
to his testifying in the Lord. If you walk contrary to this,
then my friend, you can grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And I
feel that we need to be very conscious of this, We do have,
we are in the Spirit, Paul has declared in Romans chapter 8
and says, have not the Spirit of Christ, we're none of His,
and that the Spirit itself, in Romans 8, 16, beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God, and how wonderful
and comfortable it is for the Spirit of God to be bearing witness
with our spirit and telling and saying unto us that Jesus Christ
is indeed our Lord and our Savior. It's very comfortable. It's a
wonderful thing. Now, beloved, I believe that
God's people, they know that they can grieve the Holy Spirit
and they have experienced it. As I said, David seemed to go
from the heights down to the depths. He would be up, way up,
and he would be praising God and glorifying God and honoring
God. and walking in the might and
power of his God. And then he would be crying out
in a short time, O why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art
thou so cast down? Why are you so down and discouraged
and despondent? Many, many times it has to do
with our walk. But our prayer to God is, cast
me not away from thy presence and take not thy spirit from
me. Now, my thoughts this morning
are that this condition that we've tried to describe to you
when the people of God are careless and reckless in their lives,
And when they seem to turn from the old paths that they ought
to be walking in, and walking contrary to the ways of God,
that this seems to manifest itself in various and sundry ways. And
I would like just to mention a few of them. We'll be very
brief. But I'd like to mention a few
of these conditions that seems to be experienced in the lives
of believers when they've got terrorists. and when they have
got to the place where that they feel somewhat deserted by God
in this world. Well, I believe first of all
is when we begin to experience no blessings nor benefit from
the reading and the preaching of the Word of God. When the
Word ceases to convict our souls, when it ceases to rebuke our
hearts, and when it no longer burns in my heart, and no longer
causes me to rejoice and to be glad in Jesus Christ, then I
believe that God is saying to me, John, you have become reckless
and careless, and you've grieved my spirit. Now, you know, sometimes
we come to church and we say, well, I didn't get much out of
the message this morning. Well, it could very well be the
preacher's fault. Or it could very well be your
own fault. It could very well be because
of the way you've conducted yourself, and the way that you're walking,
and the Spirit of God is grieved in your heart, and is no longer
visiting your soul under the preaching of the Word. No longer
disturbing and convicting. No longer bringing to your mind
your need and your situation, and making you look fully to
Christ. that you might have the problem
and situation absolved. Now secondly, I think we're in
trouble when we feel satisfied with our spiritual progress and
become puffed up with our knowledge, what we know. We're satisfied. Somebody said, as long as I make
it in, that's all I'm interested in. I remember one time visiting
with a fellow who told me that. He said, you don't talk to me
about getting too serious about this thing. All I want to know
is that I'm just inside. That's all I want to know. Well,
my friend, when you get to that place, you've grieved the Spirit
of God. One of the prayers that I believe
that a child of God ought to be praying is, O God, O God,
make me all that a living, resurrected Christ can make me, make me all
that you would have me to be, that I might truly for the glory
and praise of God live out my days and my life. But beloved,
when we feel satisfied, and when we say, well, we've got knowledge,
we're Calvinist, you know, and we can explain it backwards and
forwards, we've arrived. Well, my friend, our spirit is
in Creed alone. and certainly not in experience,
certainly not in spiritual experience. So let us be very careful around
here, lest we become cocky and satisfied with our position and
with our feeling that we've made it to the top, and that we know
as about as much as anybody else knows, because when that happens,
it's evident that we've grieved the Spirit of God. Thirdly, When
we can be absent from the fellowship of believers and worship of the
Lord without feeling a great loss and an empty heart. God knows that we all at times
have to miss. And as we get older we have to
miss a whole lot more than we want to miss. And we don't desire
that we would be away from the fellowship of the Lord's people.
But whenever we get to the place Where do we say, well, I can
take it or leave it. When we get to the place, well, I'll
just warm by my own fire. And when a man says, well, I
can just be warm by my own fire, I think that individual is dying
spiritually. He's either dead or dying spiritually.
We all need the fellowship of God's people, and we feel a loss
when we're not able to meet with the Lord's people. And so remember
that. Whenever you feel like, well,
it don't matter one way or another, my friend, that's a serious,
serious mindset. And we need to be moved from
that to the point where we say, I've got to be there. My soul
needs the fellowship of God's people, and I need to hear the
Word. I need to hear it. I think I've
illustrated this before, how that, you know, if you take coals
in a fire, And you keep them all together, they burn much
longer, but if you separate them, they'll go out a whole lot quicker.
And you take God's people and separate them, and they don't
meet. They don't come together. They're not in the fellowship
of the saints like they ought to be. It won't be long before
there'll be other things. other things and other things
that will take away their strength and sap their strength. Now I'm
not saying that the Holy Spirit will be taken from them. I've
tried to show you that that would not happen. God will not take
His Spirit out of His children's hearts whenever they've been
regenerated and renewed. But you can grieve the Holy Spirit
and feel as if God has deserted you. Now then, the fourth thing
is when we begin to be critics and find fault with others, the
Spirit of God leads a man to feel that he is less than the
least. And you know in the fellowship and among the fellowship of believers,
this is so important that we do not become a critic and that
we start judging one another. But that we feel in our own hearts
that others are greater than we. That others have a higher
position than we have in the Lord. That we feel that they
are every bit as spiritual as we are. That they have every
bit as much light as we have. and we have no right to judge
them or no right to find fault with them. We are the chief of
sinners. Paul said he was the chief of
sinners. And when the Spirit of God is not present, then is
when we become judges and critics and when we begin to be fault
finders. And so I think this is the way
that these things manifest themselves in God's living family. Then, fifthly, when our souls
are not vexed by the sin within us and the conversation of men
about us, when we can feel comfortable in the presence of those who
never knew our God, when we can conform to the ways of natural
men, and the trend of materialism. The light of God must be dim
in us if we can sanction that kind of behavior. Brethren, the
Bible teaches that bad manners corrupt good behavior and good
manners. And we know, as we've said before,
that disease is catching and health is not catching. And we
recognize that we've got to be in the world but we dare not
be of the world, and we dare not adopt the philosophy and
the mindset of the people of this world. And you young people,
you must listen to what we're saying here this morning, because
you're going to live a life of misery if you try to get through
this world and you try to, as it were, ride the fence. You
try to ride the fence where you can come down on either side
in a moment's notice according to the surrounding crowd or according
to those that you are trying to please. You cannot please
the people of this world and please Christ. You must be separated
unto the Lord Jesus Christ, entirely separated unto Him. If you have
friends, Praise the Lord. And if you don't have on account
of your walk as a believer, then praise the Lord also. But do
not, whatever you do, do not become a traitor to the Lord
Jesus Christ and commit spiritual adultery by becoming a lover
of this world and the things of this world. May God in heaven
rest our hearts and move us away from this idea that, well, we're
in the world, we just and do as the whirlings do. We cannot,
we must stand fast and be diligent. Keep thy heart, the Bible says
in Proverbs, with all diligence, for out of it are the issues
of life. So maybe like a lot of old, the
Bible says that he was vexed with the filthy conversation
of the wicked. Down in Sodom, he was vexed. vexed and so beloved as the people
of God. That's the way we should feel
out here in this world. We should be vexed with what's
going on, what's being said, what's being conveyed to us,
what people want us to. Like I told you, the devil rides
piggyback right into your mind through your thought pattern,
which you derive sometimes from people around you, people of
this world. And you need to Watch what's
going on and be conscious that these thoughts is a manifestation
of the condition that a man is grieving the Spirit of God by
the way he walks. And lastly, when our thoughts
become self-centered and the general welfare and the general
well-being and joy of others is of no great concern to us
whatsoever. We couldn't care less how other
people are faring. Couldn't care less whether a
man, our brother is happy in the Lord, whether he's not. Couldn't care less how he's doing.
Couldn't care less. So therefore, we don't look in
on him. Therefore, we don't say anything to him. Therefore, we're
not conscious of his need. Therefore, we're not close enough
to him where we feel his pulse as it were spiritually. Therefore,
we have no ministry toward each other. And whenever that happens,
it's an indication that the Spirit of God has been grieved in our
hearts. We're certainly not motivated
by the right spirit when that is the case. Self-centeredness
and selfishness, like self-righteousness, is not of God, my friend. It's
not of God. You all wrapped up in yourself?
Well, I'm sure there's some of us that are, just wrapped up
in ourselves. And we're not too much concerned
one way or another. The one thing about the people
of God is that they love not in word only. They love in deed
and truth. God's people. By this we know
we have passed from death to life, that we love the brethren.
That we have compassion on the brethren and sisters in Christ,
that we are concerned about them. Maybe we can't do anything to
alleviate their problems, but we certainly can be concerned
about them. And God knows As long as we're
in this body of flesh, we desperately are going to need the fellowship,
the compassion, and the prayers of the Lord's people. We're going
to need it. One of the things that impresses
that more and more on us as God's people is our frailties in the
flesh. And as long as you feel like,
well, I can handle my situation while everybody else handles
theirs. That, my friend, will soon end. The day will come when
through affliction and trial, and through difficulty, and through
God stripping you, and God taking the rod to your back, the day
will come when you'll say, that attitude was foreign to the Spirit
of God, and God was grieved with my attitude, and therefore I
repent, and ask God to have mercy upon my poor life and soul. Now my friend, The heart filled
with God's love and grace dwells on others. It does. And when
the great grace of God is upon us, then our hearts will dwell
upon others. And our concern will be for the
happiness of others. To make them happy, I think,
is to be happy. And somebody said to do something
for somebody else is the best way to do something for yourself. And I really believe that that
is true. And I do hope that the Spirit
of God will warm our hearts, that there will be a moving of
our hearts toward the Lord. And I hope the words of this
old song that we read to you earlier, I hope those words will
come home to your heart, and that you'll be able to praise
God that He never left the building once. Even though we have been
the kind of people we've been, He never left the building once,
but He abides with us forever. Thank God for His Holy Spirit.
May we respect greatly the Spirit of God, that the Holy Spirit
would be with us and upon us, blessing the work, and He has
blessed the work. Oh, how grateful we ought to
be for the blessings of God upon this work, because the Lord has
so graciously provided and strengthened and helped. And so we give Him
praise, we give Him glory.