Ephesians 4:30 Pentecost 12 B
Rev. Charles Degner August 14, 1994
I knew I would be on vacation most of this week. So the day before I left for vacation, I pulled an old sermon out of the files to use when I got back. I should know better by now. Old sermons are like apples. The ones on the bottom of the barrel are just as well left at the bottom of the barrel.
So I looked at this text again. I prayed about it during the week and meditated on it. As I did, one verse began to jump out at me. It’s this one verse that I would like to share with you this morning. Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
Do Not Grieve The Holy Spirit of God!
I. If he grieves, he’s a person
We believe and teach that the Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of the Triune God. But do we think of the Holy Spirit in a personal way? There are religions which teach that the Holy Spirit isn’t really a person. The Jehovah’s Witnesses say that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a force which comes from God, or another name for a special power that comes from God. In the Watchtower literature, you will always see the Holy Spirit spelled with a small s and small p (holy spirit). They refuse to capitalize Holy Spirit because they refuse to believe that the Spirit is a person of the Triune God.
The story I’ve used to teach the truth on this matter is the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Ananias came to Peter and brought some money he got from selling his posessions. He told Peter this was all his money when in reality he kept half back for himself. Peter said to Ananias, "You have lied to the Holy Spirit." If the Holy Spirit were only an "it" and not a real person, you could not lie to the Holy Spirit. You can’t lie to things. You can’t lie to your baseball glove. You can’t lie to your bicycle. You can’t lie to your car. You can’t lie to things which aren’t alive. In fact, people who talk to their cars and bikes and things are often seen as just a little strange.
You can’t even lie to things which are part of a living thing. It would be foolish to say, "I told my wife’s hands a lie this morning. I told my wife’s hands I would help with the dishes but I didn’t." You can’t lie to somone’s hands. You lie to the person, not to the person’s hands.
So when Peter says that Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, it proves that the Holy Spirit is not an it, or just a force that comes from God. The Holy Spirit is a person who has feelings and whose feelings can be offended by being lied to.
In our text, Paul treats the Holy Spirit as someone who has feelings. "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." Trees aren’t sad when somone cuts off a limb or two. They don’t cry when squirrels rob them of their acorns. Bicycles don’t cry when they get flat tires. Things don’t grieve. If I cut my finger, my finger might hurt. But it doesn’t grieve. It cannot cry. But if my small child cuts a finger, my child cries! Because my child is a person. And it’s the person that feels pain. It’s the person that grieves. This is another text that proves that the Holy Spirit is a person, because you can grieve the Holy Spirit.
II. If he grieves, he can be hurt
To understand what grieves the Holy Spirit, you have to understand the Holy Spirit’s work. The Holy Spirit takes people who are dead in their sins, people who are blind to the grace of God, and people who are born enemies of God and turns them into the children of God. He does this by bring them to believe that God’s Son, Jesus, gave himself to God as a sweet offering and sacrifice which was completely acceptable to God. His death on the cross covered and paid for every sin.
That does not complete his work, though. Once converted, there’s a lot of house cleaning that needs to be done. Attitudes have to change. Sinful habits need to be broken. Smiles have to be painted on people’s faces. Desires that are sinful need to hit the trash bin and desires that are godly need to be brought in.
Look at it this way. Imagine that you decide to get into the rental property business. You buy an old, run down house that has little or no value. But you know you can make something of that old place. You start by throwing out all the trash the previous owner left behind. Old cabinets are torn out and new ones put in. The old wood floors are sanded down and refinished. Plastered walls are torn out. Insulation put in the walls. Wallboard is put in every room. There’s a clean coat of paint everywhere. You work hard to make this the kind of place that you would be proud to live in! You rent out the house to the first renters and drop by as they move in. You notice three cats and two dogs and wonder about the new carpeting you installed. A week later you start to see the trash pile up on the lawn. Next week a window is broken upstairs. How does it make you feel to see all your sweat and work being destroyed? "Grieving" might be the best way to describe the feeling.
Paul says, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." We were bought with a tremendous price. It took the blood of Jesus to redeem us for God! And since the day the Holy Spirit reclaimed us and brought us to faith, he has been working at making us new from the inside out. Can you imagine how the Spirit must feel when we rent a room of this newly converted house to this sin or that?
Remember the story of Cain and Abel? When they brought their sacrifices to the Lord, God was not pleased with Cain’s sacrifice because it came from an impure heart. And Cain became angry with his brother, Abel. It wasn’t just a momentary anger that quickly went away. Cain made room for this anger in his heart. And God came to Cain. Genesis 4:6-7 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Can you hear the feeling in the Lord’s voice? God could see his work in Cain’s heart and life being destroyed. God was grieved when he saw what was happening. And even more so when Cain killed Abel. But not because of Abel only. But because of Cain himself.
Is there a room in your spiritual house that you’ve rented to sin? Are you harboring some anger or grudge that you won’t let go? Do you keep hold of some wicked fantasy that may only be played out in your mind and no where else? Do you let yourself indulge in a sinful habit that is hindering the work of the Spirit in your life? If you rent a room to sin in your life, then you are telling the Holy Spirit that he cannot clean and redecorate that room. And if you are willing to rent a room to that one sin, how long before you will be willing to renting another, and another, and another? Paul says, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
III. If he grieves, he cares
That’s the good news that our text holds out for us today. If he grieves when he sees sin crouching at our door, or renting one of the rooms in our spiritual house, he really must care.
I know that as a parent. If a child walks by me at the park and uses foul language, I get annoyed. But it doesn’t really bother me. Because I have no relationship with that child. But if I should hear one of my own children use a four letter word or say something really nasty, that would really bother me. Why? Because I care! I love them and I want them to grow up to be respectful and godly children. I’ve carefully taught them which words they can use and which words they shouldn’t. I’ve given them my example and have been careful not to curse or swear.
Friends, God the Holy Spirit really cares about us or he wouldn’t be grieved when we’ve given ourselves to sin. We are used to saying that God loves us and cares about us. And we are used to saying that Jesus loves us and cares about us. But perhaps we are not used to thinking about how the Holy Spirit feel us abouts. The Spirit also loves us and cares about us. If he didn’t, our sins wouldn’t grieve him.
VI. If he grieves, he must plan to stick around
Let me assure you that the Holy Spirit does not take his investment in your salvation lightly. Paul writes, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." The seal was usually a ring, or a stamp that was worn about the neck. In ancient times, everyone had his own seal. You didn’t just sign your name because anyone could forge the signature. You signed your name by pressing your seal into the wax or clay and making a permanent mark that could not be erased.
That "seal" implied posession. It was like the brand that ranchers out west use to identify their cattle. Once that brand was put onto a cow, it could not be removed. It could be altered or changed with another branding iron, but the true brand would still show up if the hide was examined from the inside. If a cow is marked with a certain brand, it belongs to a certain ranch. It also means that a cow with that brand better now show up somewhere in the neighbors stock-pens!
But that brand that was burned into the cows hide also meant that the rancher made a commitment towards that piece of livestock. What would the neighbors say if they saw his cows wandering around with no water on the range? Or what would they say down at the auctions if all the cows with his brand came through mangy and uncared for?
And so God put his seal on you when he gave you his Holy Spirit. When you first heard the gospel, the Holy Spirit entered your heart. When you were baptized into Jesus’ name, he took up residence there. His presence in your heart is God’s seal. That seal gives a message loud and clear to the devil, who would love to claim you as his own. It says, "That one belongs to me. Don’t you dare meddle with someone who carries my seal!
And that seal also carries with it a commitment on the part of the Holy Spirit inside of us. On the last day, when we are brought before the Lord for judgment, how can he miss his own seal? How can he not see that we have been bought with the blood of Jesus and sealed with the Holy Spirit? He must then claim us for eternity! We have been sealed for the day of redemption!
I don’t often preach on just one verse. But this one teaches us so much about the Holy Spirit and his work. Commit it to memory and chew on it for a while, o.k.?
