There was once a small, quiet town in which fires began to pop up on a frequent basis. It wasn’t long until people discovered that the source of these fires was a pyromaniac. It was actually the Fire Chief himself! This fellow “would secretly start the fires and then work to extinguish them . . . One can hardly imagine a more bizarre scene than a man working feverishly to extinguish a fire that he was responsible for igniting, until we take a moment and look at our own [spiritual] lives.”
God’s desire is that the fire of the Holy Spirit would burn within our hearts; however, a fire needs both heat and energy in order to burn. “Every Christian already possesses the ‘heat’ (the presence of God’s Holy Spirit). But that heat also needs fuel to burn.” That fuel is “the energy from the Word of God (the Bible), the energy from communication with God (prayer); and the energy from the people of God (the church). Tragically, however, once the fire of God’s Spirit begins to burn within us, we often grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flame that we (and God) have worked so hard to ignite.”(1)
What we are going to focus on this morning is “How We Quench the Spirit.” So, let us begin by looking at 1 Thessalonians 5:19.
Quenching the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19)
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
To quench means, “to extinguish,” “to still,” “to quiet,” “to repress,” or “to stifle.”(2) The picture here is of a fire that has been doused with water. The Bible frequently likens the Holy Spirit to a flame. In Isaiah 4:4 he is “the spirit of judgment” and “the spirit of burning.” In Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist declared in reference to Jesus, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” In Acts 2:3-4 we read, “Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Warren Wiersbe says, “In using the word ‘quench,’ Paul pictured the Spirit of God as a fire. Fire speaks of purity, power, light, warmth, and (if necessary) destruction. When the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives and churches, we have a warmth of love in our hearts, light for our minds, and energy for our wills. He ‘melts us together’ so that there is harmony and cooperation; and He purifies us so that we put away sin.”(3) “It is the effective working of the Holy Spirit that Paul warned against hindering. His fire can be diminished . . . The Holy Spirit’s working can be opposed by believers.”(4)
If we know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, then we have the Holy Spirit within us permanently. However, there are ways that we can hinder or diminish His power working through us. Daniel L. Akin, President and Professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, says in reference to this verse, “A believer cannot lose the Spirit, but he can grieve Him and quench Him. In this verse it is the work and not the person, of the Spirit that is in view. To quench the Spirit is to extinguish, stifle, restrain, or stop His work in our lives.”(5)
In 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, we are told, “Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” Refusing good works and practicing evil are related to quenching the Spirit. Quenching the Spirit “can happen in any heart when the Holy Spirit is stifled, allowing thoughts or actions which are contrary to the character or practices of God. The fire of the Spirit is suppressed when He is rejected, when His convicting power, righteousness, and judgment are ignored. We douse the Spirit’s influence in our lives through doubt, we drench Him with anger, [and] we drown His power with immorality.”(6)
“The fire of the Holy Spirit must not go out on the altar of our hearts; we must maintain that devotion to Christ that motivates and energizes our lives.” In 2 Timothy 1:6, Paul wrote to Timothy and told him to “stir up the gift of God which is in you,” and the verb means “to stir the fire again into life.”(7) Let’s now take a look at Ephesians 4:30-32.
Grieving the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30-32)
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
The word grieve means, “to wound the feelings,” “to make sorrowful,” “to offend,” or “to displease.”(8) The Holy Spirit immediately indwells us at the time of our spiritual birth in Christ, which is when we are sealed; however, there comes a later time of empowering that some people call being “filled with the Spirit.” But the term “filled” is better rendered as “empowered.” The Holy Spirit wants to work in our lives in great power, but we can grieve Him or quench Him, to where He won’t do much through us.
I want to share with you something that was stated in an address at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Speaker Jess Moody said, “We will never change the world until all of us are filled [or empowered] with the Holy Spirit.” “Using the acronym RIBS, Moody said five things happen to Christians when they accept Christ as Savior. They are Reborn, Indwelt by the Holy Spirit, Baptized into Christ’s death, and Sealed. The fifth thing, he said, is that they are filled [or empowered] with the Spirit.” Moody said, “You can’t lose your RIBS, but you can lose your filling [or empowering] by grieving the Spirit and by quenching the Spirit, making the person a carnal Christian.”(9)
A “carnal Christian” is one who does the things warned against in verse 31. This verse says, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.” If any of us are bitter or angry towards someone else, or if we speak evil of someone else in the church and have malice in our hearts, then the working of the Spirit is hindered in our lives; and if enough people do these things, then the Holy Spirit can be hindered in the body of Christ as well. We are advised in verse 32, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”
Four Spirit Quenchers
Robert Jeffress, pastor of the 13,000-member First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, names four major spirit quenchers, which I am going to briefly touch upon, and they are: Sexual Immorality, Bitterness, Greed, and Worry.(10)
Sexual Immorality – Many times we want to say that all sins are the same; however, sexual immorality is a sin that causes the Holy Spirit great pain. Why? Because every immoral act that a believer performs, the Spirit is forced to be right there, watching what is taking place. We read in 1 Corinthians 6:18-19, “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
You might be thinking, “I don’t know anyone in church who is in an immoral relationship.” “Recent studies indicate that the percentage of Christians who practice immorality is no lower than that of non-Christians.”(11) The potential is there. If anyone in our church fellowship is in such a relationship, that not only hinders the Spirit’s flow in their own lives, but in our church as well.
Bitterness – Bitterness is a hindrance to the proper exercise of our worship of God. In Matthew 5:23-24 we read, “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Many of us desire to see the Holy Spirit move in great power in our church; however, if there are a number of people in the pews with bitterness in their hearts, that can’t happen – at least not until we are reconciled unto our brothers and sisters. The passage I shared from Matthew stresses the importance of reconciliation over worship, because bitterness stops the flow of God’s Spirit.
Greed – 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Money leads us to stray from our faith and devotion to God, and it causes the Spirit grief. Greed causes us to resist the Word of God, for in Matthew 13:22, Jesus told us, “The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful.”
In Acts chapter 5, we read of how Ananias and Sapphira held back from the church some money they had acquired through the sale of land, and Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?” (v. 3). Then Peter said to Sapphira, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord?” (v. 9). When we are greedy that “tests” or “tries” the Spirit’s patience, and He eventually gets tired of it, and His power departs from us.
Worry – “There are 365 verses in the Bible that command us to ‘Fear not.’ Our tendency toward anxiety is so powerful that God has to remind us 365 times – at least once a day – not to worry.”(12) What exactly is worry? It is trying to find a solution to our problems on our own, apart from God.
In Matthew 6:31-32 Jesus stated, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” Jesus said that worrying was what the “Gentiles” did, and when he mentioned “Gentiles” he was referring to unbelievers. Unbelievers, or those who are not indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit, perpetually take matters into their own hands, and fail to lean on God. Think about it, if we work to solve our own problems, we are telling God that we don’t need or want His help. This grieves the Holy Spirit and causes Him to hold back His power in our lives; and if there are too many worriers in the church then the Spirit’s power may be withheld from that congregation.
Time of Reflection
So, what we have learned from our two passages of Scripture is that the Holy Spirit’s power can depart from our lives and from the church if we’re not careful. I am sure that none of us want to lose the power of the Holy Spirit, because we realize that, according to Zechariah 4:6, God does not work solely through our own might. What’s done through our own efforts is usually very limited. The Scripture tells us that God accomplishes His work through the power of His Spirit – “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”
In order to experience more of the Spirit’s power and God’s presence in our lives, we must live in holiness and obedience. So, how do we know what the Spirit desires? Jesus said in John 16:13, the “Spirit of truth . . . will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” Jesus also said in John 16:8, the Spirit “convicts the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” The Holy Spirit speaks to our heart, so be still and listen. Jesus told the churches in Revelation, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
When you hear from the Holy Spirit, please be obedient. If you have never before confessed Jesus as Savior and Lord, I want you to know that the Spirit is speaking to your heart this morning, drawing you unto Christ. What will be your response? And if you are already a believer, keep in mind that walking in obedience will enable you to be empowered by the Spirit. And as a church, I want to remind each of us that if we will walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit, then the Lord will show up in this place. If you desire to experience the fresh wind of the Spirit, then I encourage you to respond in obedience to what He has laid on your heart.
NOTES
(1) Robert Jeffries, I Want More (Colorado Springs: Water Brook Press, 2003), pp. 155-156.
(2) Noah Webster, “Quench,” 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 2002).
(3) Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1989), p. 189.
(4) John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Wheaton, Illinois: Scripture Press Publications, 1983, 1985), taken from Logos 2.1E on CD-ROM.
(5) Daniel L. Akin, “Spiritual Exercises to Make You Strong,” a sermon found on the Internet in April 2005 at http://www.sbts.edu/resources/publications/sbjt/1999/1999 Fall7.pdf, p. 4.
(6) Knute Larson, “1 Thessalonians,” Holman New Testament Commentary, ed. Max Anders (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2000), p. 75.
(7) Wiersbe, pp. 189-190.
(8) Webster, “Grieve,” 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language.
(9) Cindy Kerr, “Emptiness of carnal Christianity noted to seminarians by Jess Moody,” an article taken from the Internet April 2005 at http://home.wnm.net/~kenn/spiritfl.htm.
(10) Jeffries, pp. 157-173.
(11) Ibid., p. 159.
(12) Ibid., p. 168-169.
