In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse
30, one verse this morning will keep us occupied since we won't
have an evening service. I hope I don't keep you too long,
but I may take just a little bit longer than I usually do. And grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God. And grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption."
A few weeks ago in a Bible study, some of us studied on the person
of the Holy Spirit, that He is more than a mere influence, but
He is indeed God, that He is one with the Father He is one
with the Son. John said there are three that
bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit,
and these three are one. The Holy Spirit of God is the
third person of the sacred Trinity. He is one with the Father. He is one with the Son. They
are of the same essence, our forefathers used to say. Whatever
makes God, God. That's who the Spirit is. Whatever
makes the Son of God, who He is, that's the same essence that
makes the Spirit of God what He is. He is one with them. Some things concerning the Holy
Spirit. We're told that he dwells in
the heart of every believer. In chapter one of this book,
Paul said, when you heard the gospel, you were sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise. Every child of God is indwelled
by the Holy Spirit of God. Every child of God. There's no
such thing as being a child of God and not having the Spirit
of God dwell in your heart. Paul said, because you are sons,
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your heart, into
your heart. That's where he dwells. He dwells
in the heart, he dwells in the bodies of every single believer. How do we become a child of God? Because you are sons. We become
children of God by new birth and by faith. You are children
of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every man that believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And because you are sons,
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying,
Father, Father. And the Bible tells us that our
bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in you. He dwells in us. Brothers and
sisters, do we have to believe that? Do we have to believe that
the Spirit of God dwells in our hearts? He that's everywhere, the one that the heaven of heavens
cannot contain. He dwells in our narrow little
hearts. Second thing about the Holy Spirit
is this. Not only does He dwell in the
heart of every believer, but He comes to dwell there by the
promise of the Father, and at a great cost to the Son of God. Now, I said the Spirit comes
to every believer's heart. Let me add this to that. He comes
to every redeemed sinner's heart. Every redeemed sinner's heart. God hath promised that Christ
will not only dwell in the but he dwells in the heart of those
who have been redeemed. That's the promise of the Father. The Spirit is often called the
Spirit of Promise. You'll find that in chapter 1,
verse 13 of this book. Why is he called the Spirit of
Promise? Because God promised him all the way back in the Old
Testament. God promised Abraham that the
Spirit is coming. Now, brothers and sisters, when
you see a promise in the Word of God, look at that promise
and trace it up to its fountainhead. Find out who the author of that
promise is, and I'll tell you what you'll find out. When you
search out the source of the promises in this book, I'll tell
you where they'll trace you to. They'll trace you to God. When
God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no
greater, he swore by himself, saying, Abraham, I'm going to
bless you. I promise you, I'll bless you.
And Romans 4 said that Abraham staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, being fully
persuaded that what God had promised He was able to perform. Brothers
and sisters, God is a promising God. He makes promises. He makes exceeding great and
precious promises, and He's never made a promise that He hasn't
kept. He's never made a promise that
He's not able to keep. He's a promising God. Not only should we trace these
promises to their source. But when you see a promise in
the scripture, see if there's a condition attached to it. And when we're told of the promise
of God of giving the Holy Spirit to dwell in the heart, here's
the condition that was attached to that promise. He would come
to dwell in the heart of redeemed sinners. I want you to turn over
here quickly to a verse that Brother Glenn read to us this
morning. Back to your left, just one book. Back in Galatians chapter
3 and verse 13. Here's the condition that was
placed upon the Holy Spirit's coming to dwell in the heart. Sinners would first have to be
redeemed. Look what he says. That's why
I said the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell our hearts
was not only by promise of the Father, it was at a great cost
to the Son. Look here what he said in Galatians
chapter 3 and look in verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
what? The curse of the law. We broke the law, the law curses
us. How did He do that? Being made
a curse for us. I take that to mean more than
He just bore our sins in His body. But He bore all the consequences
of those sins. He bore the wrath of God. All
that we were, He was made. All that we deserved fell upon
Him. He bore it. in his own body and
in his soul. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone who hangeth upon a tree. Christ hath redeemed us. Why
did he do that? Verse 14 tells us that the blessing,
that is, that God had promised to Abraham, might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ. And what was that promise? That
we might receive the promise of the Spirit. through faith. The Holy Spirit doesn't come
to every heart without exception. He doesn't go to those who have
left this life and who are in torment. He has nothing to do
with them. He doesn't come to every heart
as a spirit of adoption, living in this world today without
But I tell you whose heart he comes to. He comes to those who
have been redeemed by the blood and sufferings and death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you're here this morning and
Christ has redeemed you, I'm telling you there's coming a
day, if it hasn't happened yet, the Spirit of God's Son will
be sent to your heart and you'll be a crying, Father, Father,
why? Because the Father said, Son,
you redeem them, and I promised them the Holy Spirit. And he
comes to our hearts upon believing. And then when he comes to our
heart, here is what we're told in our text, that we're not to
grieve the Holy Spirit of God. He's come to you as a spirit
of adoption. He's come to you because the
Father has promised Him. He's come to you because the
Son of God has redeemed you. He's in your heart. Now, he says,
do not grieve the Spirit of God. Now, this word grieve means to
cause pain, to cause sorrow or distress or heaviness. Now, here is a great mystery. This is a great mystery, how
easily you and I can grieve one another. We know that. But, brothers
and sisters, God the Holy Spirit is not human as we are. He's not a man as we are, and
there is a most definite sense in which God in heaven is not
subject to grief as you and I are. The old theologians had a term
that I just learned a few days ago. Maybe you've already heard
it. It's called impassable. I-M-P-A-S-S-I-B-L-E. Impassable. And what the word
means is this. Exemption from pain or suffering. Not susceptible of injury. from external things, not subject
to be injured in any way from external things. That's who God
is. He's impassable. He's not subject
to be affected in any way by us. He's so above us, He's so
outside us, nothing we do can affect Him in a positive way
or in a negative way. He is impassable. He's not like us, in other words. I want you to look, and I want
to quote some scripture to you concerning this, because I hope
you see the mystery in this as I do this morning. Look in Isaiah. chapter 40, way back over in
the Old Testament, in Isaiah chapter 40. I want to quote some
scriptures to you, and I want to read this text to you here
in Isaiah chapter 40, and I want you to know what God says of
Himself and what is said of Him by the Holy Spirit here in this
passage. Look in Isaiah chapter 40 and
look in verse 12. Who hath measured the waters,
all the waters of the earth and the skies, in the holla of his
hands?" Well, I sure haven't, haven't you? I don't know of
one who has. Who mended out the heavens with
a span? Who comprehends, who knows the
dust of the earth in a measure? Who can grasp its weight? The
mountains, the weight of the mountains in scales, who's weighed
the mountains and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed
the spirit of the Lord, or who, being His counselor, has ever
taught with whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught
him in the paths of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and
showed to him the way of understanding." It would be ridiculous for us
to say that anybody did. That's the point of what the
Spirit is teaching us. Nobody teaches God. He is wisdom. Look in verse 15. Behold, the
nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small
dust of the balance. He takes up the islands as a
very small thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor
the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. And verse
17 tells it, doesn't it? All nations before Him are as
nothing, and they are counted to Him less than nothing, less
than nothing, and vanity. What can they do to affect God
in any way? By their abstaining or by their
doing. Nothing affects Him that man
does. Man is so insignificant. And God is so above him and over
him that nothing man does affects him. He goes on in verse 18 and
says, to whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you
compare unto him? Here's what Nebuchadnezzar, the
king of Babylon, said of it. All the inhabitants of the earth
are refuted as nothing. as nothing. They are counted
as nothing. And here's what Job said, Why
do you strive against him? For he giveth not account of
any of his matters. He is of one mind who can turn
him whatsoever his soul desires, that he does. Behold, he taketh
away, and who can hinder him? And who can say to him, what
does that? And I think the Apostle Paul
summed it up in Romans 9 when he said, Who art thou, O man,
that replies against God? Shall the thing farmed say to
him that farmed it? The thing? What are we before
God? We're just things. We're just
small, minute creatures. Shall the vain farm say to him
that farmed it, Why hast thou made me thus, hath not the potter
power over the clay?" He says, if I were hungry, I
wouldn't ask you. The earth is mine, and the fullness
thereof. The world and everybody in it,
it's mine. There is a most definite sense
in which you and I must remember that the Eternal God is so different
from us, and is so above us and outside of us, that He cannot
be affected by us. He is indeed impassive. And yet we come here to our text
in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 30, and here's what He says.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Don't cause Him pain, or
distress, or heaviness. How then can you and I reconcile
these two great truths? That God is impassable, and yet
at the same time, He can be touched. He can be grieved with His creatures. The only answer, brothers and
sisters, this morning that I can give is this. It has to do with
God condescending. Condescending in His moral character,
in His moral nature to be susceptible, to expose Himself to pain. to grief by our actions and by
our character. In Genesis 6, when God looked
upon the old world and he saw the wickedness of man, that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Here's what was said. It repented
the Lord that he had made man, and it grieved him at his heart. How often do we read in the Old
as well as the New Testament that the Lord was often grieved
and vexed by the children of Israel's actions and their attitudes. David tells us how often did
they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert.
He says himself, forty years I was grieved with that generation. And I said they do always error
in their hearts. I swear they will not enter unto
my rest. And Isaiah said this, they rebelled
and vexed his Holy Spirit. Therefore he was turned to be
their enemy. And it was said of the Lord Jesus,
remember when he was going to heal the man who had the withered
arm? And the Jews were so hard-hearted
against him and their unbelief that it was said that the Lord
Jesus was grieved because of the hardness of their heart.
And when he came to Jerusalem and looked out over it, and he
saw their wickedness, their hardness, their rebellion, that they wouldn't
listen to him, the Scripture says, he said, how often I would
have taken you under my wing, but you would not. And now your
house is left unto your desolate. And the Scripture says that he
wept, that he wept. He was so heavy and grieved. How can we explain on one hand
how God is impassable, and yet on the other hand He is grieved
with His creatures? I can't explain it, brothers
and sisters. I cannot. That's another one of those mysteries
of God's Word, the mystery of God. And I know nothing more
wonderful and mysterious than these two truths put together. God is impassable. And yet God
is condescending, God who is above us and outside of us, that
he cannot be affected by us, and yet he condescends to be
touched, to be grieved by us. Isn't that a mystery? What a
great mystery this is. The thing like this that's said
in the scriptures concerning the Lord of glory, in his divine
sovereignty, here's what he said. All power is given to me in heaven
and in earth." And then he turns right around and says this, "'Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give
you rest, for I am meek and lowly in my heart.'" How many kings
do you know is like that? How many kings do we read in
history who sits upon a sovereign throne and yet at the same time
they're meek and lowly in their heart? And say to the peasants,
come unto me and I'll give you rest. I tell you, it seems like to
me every time I think I've got God figured out and I put Him
in my little box of theology, He bursts out of it. He bursts
out. Oh, I see Him. I see Him setting
up on the circles of the earth. And all the inhabitants are like
little grasshoppers before Him. Insignificant. And yet you see
Him condescending to be touched and to care and to be grieved
with sin. I tell you, it's amazing to me
It's amazing to Solomon. He said, I built you a temple
to dwell in, a little temple, and yet the heaven of heavens
cannot contain you. And yet he comes to dwell in
our hearts. How can we figure him out, brothers
and sisters? Oh, he's a mysterious God, isn't he? He's a mysterious
God. Aren't you glad he's made himself
known to you? Okay then, this, how can we grieve the Holy Spirit
of God? Look back at our text, and here
I can give you this quickly in a nutshell. If you compare verse
30 with verse 22 and 24, I think this, in a nutshell,
is the very way that we can grieve the Holy Spirit. And notice the
name that's given him in verse 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God. That's his nature, not just his
name. The Holy Spirit. And look back
up in verse 22. That you put off concerning the
former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lust, and that you put on the new man which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. The Spirit
of God is a Holy Spirit, and He dwells within our hearts.
And when we don't put off the things that pertain to this old,
corrupt man, We grieve Him. That's it in a nutshell, isn't
it? We see these two natures. We see the holy nature of God's
Spirit, and then we see the corrupt nature of this old man. And they
dwell in the same being. And when he sees that we're not
putting off these old things, these corrupt things, it grieves
him. But if you go right on there
in our context in verse 25, this must be some things that grieve
him. Look in verse 25. Wherefore put
in a way lying, lying grieves the Holy Spirit. Speak ever man
truth with his neighbor, that's pleasing to the Holy Spirit.
In verse 26, be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down
upon your wrath. When our anger breaks out into
wrath, it grieves the Holy Spirit. And you know what, we've studied
these. You go on in verse 28, let him that stole steal no more. It grieves the Holy Spirit. And
then down in verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger
and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all
malice, and be ye kind one to another," and so on. That's the
way we would grieve the Holy Spirit. All bitterness and wrath
and evil speaking be put away from us. That's sort of obvious
there in the context, isn't it? Let me give you some more ways. Isn't he grieved by our slowness
of heart to believe? Does an unbelief in the heart
of a child of God grieve the Holy Spirit? You know, our problem
is not always lack of understanding. Our problem sometimes is we're
slow to believe. We're lazy to believe. We talk about all these sins
we see here in the context But how often we leave out this awful
sin that grieves Him more than anything, and that's our unbelief. The Lord Jesus told His two disciples
on the way to Emmaus when He had preached to them. He said,
O fools and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have
written. Brothers and sisters, could not
the Holy Spirit say that to us? Oh, how slow you are to believe
His Word, and it grieves Him. Is He not grieved, as Paul tells
us in the fifth chapter, when He sees us not redeeming the
time? Redeem the time? Buy back the
time that you have? Don't you and I think sometimes
that He's grieved when He sees us living as though we were going
to live and everybody around us was going to live in this
world forever? It grieves Him when we waste
our time. It grieves Him when we're given
over to this world and have no time left for the reading of
the words of Christ. Oh, brothers and sisters, I know
that we all have things that we love to read. But is it right
to read these things while our Bibles collect dust? Is not the
Holy Spirit greed when time and time again we walk past our Bibles
through the week and we never open them up? Let the words of
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Is he not grieved
when this world hath taken up all our time, that we have no
time left for meditations upon the dear and precious Savior? When we have no time to be still
and thank upon His name? Is he not grieved when we used
up all our time in pleasure Our personal relaxation while the
sick and afflicted and shut-ins go unvisited and unhelped? Pure religion and undefiled before
God is this, to visit the with us and the sick in their affliction. And when he sees us setting,
when he sees us seeking our own pleasure and relaxation, when
we should be up and going and doing, is he not greed? And when
we go to worship without a thought or concern or preparing our hearts
beforehand, does He not grieve with that? When we don't seek
Him on Saturday evening for His presence on Sunday morning, when
we don't humbly beg Him to be among us according to the promise
of His Word, doesn't that grieve Him? I wouldn't put anybody on
the spot this morning because I don't want to embarrass anybody.
I don't want to embarrass myself. But how many humbled themselves
yesterday and said, O Spirit of God, be in our midst in the
morning. Be in our midst. Bless us with
your presence. I just wonder if this is not
the reason for so much loss. of the fruit of the Spirit in
some of us personally. So much spiritual barrenness
that we grieve the Holy Spirit that we've lost a great degree
of our joy, our peace, and our love, and our patience, and our
faithfulness. Paul tells us in the fifth chapter
of this book, to be not drunk with wine wherein is excess,
but listen, be you filled with the Spirit. And then he makes
this wonderful statement that he connects with that, speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord. There is this heavenly
orchestra in the heart, and the Holy Spirit is the conductor
of that orchestra. But when He is grieved, He refuses
to conduct, and all is silent. And we can't sing and make melody
in our heart to the Lord. He tells us in the sixth chapter
this. He tells us, pray in all ways.
with all prayer and supplications in the Spirit. We don't know
what to pray for as we ought, but He helps our infirmities. He holds us up in prayer. Have you ever noticed this in
your Christian life? That sometimes you'll have these
desires that will come into your heart. And you'll pray, you'll
take those desires to the throne of grace, and you'll pray unto
the Lord in respect to those desires. And He answers you.
Has that ever happened to you? But I tell you what happens when
he's been grieved, so grieved that he ceases his operations
in our heart. The desires cease. And then when
the desire ceases, we go to the throne of grace and we're so
heavy with nothing but empty words. There's a reason that
the Apostle Paul tells us, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. He's the one that operates in
our heart. He's the one that holds us up
in faith and repentance and joy. And the joy of the Lord is our
strength. And I wonder sometimes, brother, with all the spiritual
weakness that has come upon us and afflicted us, if it could
go back to this, that we're guilty of grieving the Holy Spirit of
God, this heavenly guest. If you and I so grieve Him, that
He refuses to manifest His work in us, then the joy that we once
had will turn to grief. I assure you of that. The light
that we once walked in will turn to darkness. And the assurance
that we once rejoiced in and thanked God for will turn to
doubts. And the boldness that we used
to have will turn to fears. if we grieve the Holy Spirit
to the point where He ceases His operation in our heart. David said in Psalms 51, after
he had committed that awful, awful sin, he said some things
concerning his understanding and his knowledge that he had
grieved the Holy Spirit. And he went to the Lord and he
humbled himself, and here's the way he prayed. He says, O Lord,
create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me. And here's what he said. Listen
to this. Here's the fear that he had. Cast me not away from
your presence. Will the Lord ever do that? As
far as I know, the scripture teaches that the Lord will never
cast one of his away. But that doesn't say they'll
never fall into the doubt of it, as David did. Take not your Holy Spirit from
me. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. And notice what the very next
thing he said. When you do this, he said for
me, when you've forgiven me that I have so grieved your Holy Spirit,
And he restores to me the joy of my salvation. Then will I
teach transgressors the way, and sinners shall be converted
unto thee. Brothers and sisters, how do
we feel? And I ask you this question because I often ask myself this
question. And I know some of you feel just
like I feel about this. How do we feel as a church? When we can come here not only
Sunday after Sunday, but month after month, and even year after
year, and we never see anybody converted. Does that bother you? And while we confess that this
is God's business, yet if He's not doing His business, how does
that affect us? Does it break our hearts? God
may not save anybody, but if He doesn't, can I go on and be
happy and joyful while we see lost sinners come and leave unconverted? Doesn't that break my heart?
It broke Jeremiah's heart when he said, the summer has passed,
the fall has come, and we're not saved. And you and I know that the Holy
Spirit must do the same. And when He's not operating, wouldn't it do us well to examine
and say, is it possible that maybe we have grieved the Holy
Spirit? Maybe He needs to restore unto
me what He restored unto David. And then we will have the results
that David had. Then sinners shall be converted
unto thee. Back in our text again, and we'll
hurry on with this in our closing. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God, brothers and sisters, because of the consequences of grieving
Him. He's all to us, isn't He? He's
all to us. And here's another reason for
not grieving the Holy Spirit. He's our sealer. Grieve not the
Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. This word seal means many things.
It's simply a signa. It's a mark. It's put upon something
that signifies many things. Let me give you four of them
right quickly. A seal signified ownership. It signifies ownership. When the Lord told the children
of Israel that they were going to come back out of the land
of bondage, He said, you're going to buy land in Israel and you're
going to seal, you're going to seal the transaction. That means
you're going to own it. It's going to be declared to
be yours. It'll be legal. That's what a seal is. It shows
ownership. You have a deed to your property,
it's got a big seal on it, hasn't it? It's probably got one on
the title to your car. A seal. That shows it's yours. True ownership. Legally yours. Oh, here's what the Scripture
says. The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord
knows them that are His." Knowledge that we're God's, that we're
His and that He's ours. Ownership. Who do you belong
to? Has the Holy Spirit ever made
you to know that? Has He ever sealed that to your heart? That
you belong to Christ? That you're not your own? Oh
my goodness, I can't tell you that. I can't show you that.
But He can. He can. I am my Beloved's. Who told Solomon that? The Spirit
sealed that to his heart. I am my Beloved's. Secondly,
It shows that we're authentic. It shows something is authentic,
real, genuine. The kings used to send messages
to other kings and other peoples, and they would write the letter
and then they would put a seal upon that letter showing that
it was authentic. Sometimes they would put a ball
of wax and they would stick the ring on that wax. And when you got that letter,
you could look at it and you could say, that's real. It's
sealed with a king's ring, his mark. How do you know your faith
is real and not a delusion or not counterfeit? How do you know that your repentance
is not a worldly repentance that needs to be repented of, but
it's a repentance unto salvation? How do you know that you're real?
Don't you wonder that sometimes? Am I His or am I not? Am I real or am I just a hypocrite? And oh, you go to Him and you
open your heart up and you say, Lord, examine me, search me,
and see. And He speaks to you, doesn't
He? The Spirit of God makes you to know. That your faith is indeed
a gift of God. And this Bible, this Word of
God is its foundation, and Christ is its object. You are authentic. I mean, you're the King's work.
And you know it because the Holy Spirit has sealed it to your
heart. The third thing this seal means is protection. Protection. In Ezekiel chapter 9, Ezekiel
saw a vision. These six men had swords on their
side, and God was speaking to them and saying, go into Jerusalem
and destroy every man his brother and every man his neighbor. And
then he stopped them. And he said, wait just a minute.
And he sent this other man who was dressed in linen and had
an inkhorn in his hand. And he said, you go in first
and you put a seal, put a mark upon the foreheads of all of
those that weep and groan over all the abominations that's done
here. And the man went and put a seal upon the foreheads of
all the believers. And then God said to those men
with the swords, He said, now you go slay, but don't come near
any man with a seal upon his forehead. That's protection,
ain't it? Oh, brothers and sisters, there's
nothing in this world, nothing in this world that can harm those
whom the Holy Spirit has sealed. Now, that's the truth. We may
go through great afflictions and trials and tribulations,
but there's nothing that can touch the soul to do him any
eternal harm. Why? Because he has the seal
of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, upon his soul. He protects us. He keeps us. We'll never be devoured. Fourthly and lastly, the seal
means security. You remember when the Pharisees
come to Pilate and said, we buried that deceiver, we put him in
this sepulcher, but we're afraid his apostles are going to steal
him away and say that he rose from the dead. And Pilate gave
them some soldiers and said, you've got to watch. Go make
it as sure as you can, as sure as you can. And the scripture
says they went and put a seal upon the stone. I don't know
what that was. I don't know if it was some kind
of ribbon put around it that it couldn't be broke. I don't
know what it was. But that seal was emblematic
of security. It secured the Lord Jesus from
getting out, and it secured anyone from getting in. It was a seal
of security. And you add that to our text,
that the Holy Spirit has sealed us, that's not only protection,
that's not only security, but it's security until a point in
time. How long are we sealed? How long
will we be kept safe until the day of redemption? You'll never
come unsealed. No, not when trouble comes. Not just sealing until you fall
and can't get up. Not until you're in the heat
of the battle. Not until you're old and feel
so useless. But until the day of redemption. What do we see in this? Grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed until the day
of redemption." Oh, don't we see this, in this, the faithfulness
of the Holy Spirit to abide. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world, and He was here for thirty years, thirty-three and
a half years, they tell us. And how patient He had to be.
because he had to put up with all the mocking, all the temptations. But, brothers and sisters, what's
to be said about the Holy Spirit? That He would come and dwell
in a heart where all this corruption is, where sometimes He's not
loved, He's not appreciated. and where he is grieved, and
yet he abides faithfully. And how long is he going to abide
in the heart until the day of redemption? How he must love
us. We talk about the love of Christ
as well we should. Look at the love of the Spirit
that he will abide with us. And you examine yourself as I
have done often. And you can probably see now
what you could not see then. What about before we were converted? When we were dead in trespasses
and sin? Remember Him coming to you. I
didn't see it then. I thought it was just my conscience.
But now I know that it was this blessed Holy Spirit coming to
my heart, my conscience, and warning me. Oh, what a mess I
would have gotten my life into. Worse than it even was. I could
have killed myself. Couldn't you? It's almost like
you're wandering around in the woods on a black, dark night,
and you're standing at the edge of this cliff, and don't even
know it, and this secret, gentle hand, He turns you away. And who was that? The Blessed
Holy Spirit. And He never quit striving with
you, did He? My spirit shall not always strive with man, but
He never ceased to strive with you, did He? And finally, He just made you
so sick of your sins, you come crawling to Jesus. You come weeping
to Jesus, weeping in your heart, Lord, save me. Lord, would you
wash me? I'm sick of sin. Would you save
me? Who did that? That's the Spirit's
work. And He gave you grace to believe
that when you believe, He seals you. He protects you. He secures you. You're His. Until how long? Until the Lord
Jesus Christ gets up off of His throne and to heaven's part,
and He comes again. And before Him is gathered all
nations, and He sits there to judge them. And He says to the
wicked, to His enemies, depart from Me. And He says to you,
come, you're blessed of My Father. Oh, what a day that will be.
The day of redemption. That's what we're looking to.
Brothers and sisters, we look back too much. We just look back
to what He saved us from. We should be looking ahead of
what He saved us to. What's He saved us to? A glorious
day. A day of redemption. He's purchased
our souls. He's purchased our bodies. And
there's coming a day when He'll raise these bodies out of the
dust, or He'll change these living bodies. They'll be redeemed. They'll be changed. They'll be
made just like the Lord Jesus Christ. And the blessed Holy Spirit has
sealed us until that day. Ain't that marvelous? Ain't that
wonderful? Don't grieve Him. If you've done
so, then go somewhere by yourself and ask the Lord to forgive you.
And ask the Lord to help you never to do it again in any matter. Let's pray.