I want to share one verse with you tonight. It is a short verse, but I think it might be among the most important verses found in the New Testament.
EPHESIANS 4:30 –
‘And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit, who sealed you for the day of redemption.’
We are told in the Word of God not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Many Christians ask, “What is the Holy Spirit?” Let’s get something straight before we go on. The question should not be “What is the Holy Spirit?” it should be “Who is the Holy Spirit?”
I want to talk to you about the Holy Spirit.
1. IF HE CAN BE GRIEVED – HE MUST BE A PERSON
The Holy Spirit is a person. He is one of the Trinity; one of the God head. He is God’s sweet Spirit, sent to lead us, guide us, and comfort us as we walk through this sinful world in which we are no longer citizens.
And, we are told not to grieve Him.
How many of us have never thought of the Holy Spirit in a personal or intimate kind of way? I think that would be most Christians. It is true that different religions teach different things about the Holy Spirit, and some religions avoid the subject altogether. For instance some say He is nothing more than a force which comes from God.
And, one example of a religion that rarely teaches on Him at all is our churches; the non-denomination Christian churches in America. How many in-depth studies, or full sermons have you heard about the Holy Spirit in the last ten years? In most probability, very few.
Let’s take the story of Ananias and Sapphiras in the 5th chapter of ACTS. Ananias sold some of his possessions and brought the money to Peter. He kept part of it for himself, but when he gave the other part to Peter, Ananias lied and said that was all of it. Peter told Ananias that he was lying to the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit were just a force, or a concept in somebody’s mind, you could not lie to it, could you? It is impossible to lie to inanimate objects such as a baseball glove, a fishing pole, or anything else that is lifeless.
So when Peter says that Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, it proves that the Holy Spirit is not 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.
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 one of their limbs are cut, and cars don’t get upset when their tires go flat. “Things” don’t grieve. People grieve. Understand this very clearly: The Holy Spirit is as much a person as Jesus Christ is. The Holy Spirit is the part of the Godhead that convicts us of our sins, and comforts us as we walk through this sinful world.
In MATTHEW 28:19 it tells us to make disciples of all nations, and to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Notice that the word ‘name’ is singular. It is not plural. The Holy Spirit is as much a part of God as Jesus Christ is, and He is just as real.
2. IF HE GRIEVES, HE CAN BE HURT
I mentioned that the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins. That is part of His job. He takes people who are dead in their sins; those who are blind to the grace of God, and He turns them into children of God.
He does this by bringing them to believe in Jesus Christ, the One who offered His life out of love for those who would hate Him. The Holy Spirit lets us know that Jesus was a sacrificial offering that covered our sins under His blood. Without the Holy Spirit, we would never realize that, and we would be lost forevermore.
But that is just the beginning of the Holy Spirit’s work. Once we are converted, He must help us get our homes in order; to work on our sinful attitudes; and to awaken our need for salvation. He begins a process that replaces the trash of earth with the treasures of Heaven.
And Paul said,
“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit….”
God bought us at a tremendous price. That price was the life of His only Son. That was what it cost to redeem us. And since the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down as a rushing wind with tongues of fire, He has been working in us night and day to make us a new person from the inside out.
Can you understand how the Holy Spirit must feel when we open parts of our lives to sin or rebellion to God? He grieves, doesn’t He? He grieves just like we would grieve if someone brought something bad into our home. We make the Holy Spirit grieve when we allow something bad into our minds and hearts.
Do you remember the offerings of Cain and Abel? God accepted Abel’s offering, but He rejected Cain’s offering. Why? Cain’s offering was given with an impure heart. And when God rejected Cain’s offering, Cain got very mad at his brother. Now, I want you to see this: The anger that Cain felt was not the momentary anger you and I feel when someone does us wrong. The anger he felt was a deep seething anger. It was from an impure and unworthy heart. It was Satanic in nature!
In GENESIS 4:6-7, we read where God tried to reach out to Cain.
‘Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 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 love and concern in the Lord’s voice? As I read that passage, I see a Father trying His best to reach out and set a son straight.
God could see the work He had done in Cain’s heart being destroyed. God was grieved when he saw what was happening. And even more so when Cain killed Abel, but not just because of Abel. God was grieved because of Cain, too.
He was grieved for Cain because Cain had let the sin of Satan creep into his heart and steel the joy of our Lord away from him. He let himself be redirected away from God. And that grieved God.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. How about you tonight? Can you see where sin has crept into your heart? Do you have thoughts in your heart that do not show the love of God to your fellow man, or that show a lack of obedience to the Lord?
If you have anything in your heart that should not be there, and you do nothing to clear it away, you are grieving the Holy Spirit. You are hurting Him very much.
3. IF HE GRIEVES, HE MUST CARE
I have some good news and some bad news for you. The bad news is that we are all sinful creatures and do not deserve any of the grace or love that God wants to give us. The good news is that the Holy Spirit works with us to help us clean our selves up so we can receive that grace and love anyway!
And, when the Holy Spirit sees sin crouching at our door, He grieves because He cares so much for us. As a Christian, if I see a youngster saying things he should not be saying, I might get annoyed, but since I have no personal relationship with that youngster, but I do not grieve. Now, if I were to see my kids do that, well, that would be an entirely different story! I would be both annoyed and grieved. But I would also probably be pretty mad! Why? Because they are my kids, and I love them with a father’s love.
The Holy Spirit can be grieved because He is a real person. And because He is a person who grieves, He can be hurt very deeply. We must remember that He can be hurt because He loves us. He really does care for us.
We are very used to saying that Jesus loves us and cares for us, aren’t we? But are we used to even thinking about the Holy Spirit loving and caring for us? Perhaps we aren’t used to even thinking very much about the Holy Spirit.
While we are starting to thinking about the Holy Spirit in a new light, maybe we should include the knowledge that if He grieves over us because He cares so much, maybe that means He plans on sticking around!
He will not make the great investment He has made in you, and then just walk off because you have hurt Him. No, He plans on sticking around until His job in you is done. Paul writes that we should not grieve the Holy Spirit ‘who sealed you for the day of redemption.’
If you have ever canned anything like apples or vegetables, you know that when you fill the jar to the top, you leave just enough room to pour in a layer of wax. This wax acts as a sealer so that the outside does not get into the food and spoil it. This wax sealer keeps the food fresh until the day it is used. It seals it away from the outside air. The only way to ruin the food is to purposely break that seal.
In the same way, the Holy Spirit has sealed us in salvation for the day when our Savior comes back. In old times, the seal was usually a ring, or a stamp that was worn about the neck. Everyone had his own seal. You didn’t just sign your name because anyone could forge the signature. When you put the paper inside an envelope, you would seal the envelope by pouring wax over the flap and then pressing your ring into the wax, creating your own individual brand.
That seal was your identity. It was a brand; once placed it could not be changed. In the same way, God has placed His seal upon us when He gave us His Holy Spirit. When you heard the Gospel and got baptized for the remission of your sin, the Holy Spirit came into your heart and took up residence. His presence in your heart is God’s seal upon you. That seal, the Holy Spirit, keeps the world and all its’ sin from coming back to indwell your heart. Oh, it keeps trying, but it won’t accomplish its mission.
For instance, how many times have you caught yourself thinking something that you know you shouldn’t? For some, it might be anger; for others it might be greed. But when you catch yourself thinking those thoughts, what do you do? Don’t you immediately start backing away from them and asking God for help in staying away from them? Who do you think is convicting you? It’s the Holy Spirit, and He is keeping you sealed for that day of redemption.
I rarely preach on just one main verse, but when you have a verse that means so much, and is so powerful as this, it is hard to incorporate it in with several other verses.
So, how do you grieve God’s Holy Spirit? I would say you grieve it most by making a decision to allow ungodly thoughts to creep into your mind. Once in your mind, it is a very close step to your heart.
Too many people base their salvation on something other than a pure love for Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us that the person who claims to have the Father without first having the Son is a liar and the antichrist. Strong words, but true nonetheless.
Too many people base their salvation on how good of a person they are, or how much they do for others. Scripture will tell us that neither faith nor works by themselves are good enough for salvation, but it is a faith that PRODUCES good deeds that is the key.
The only way we shall ever see Heaven is to love Jesus Christ enough to take Him as our Redeemer. We can acknowledge Jesus, but that does us no good, for even the demons acknowledge Him, but they will not enter the kingdom. We must love Jesus.
And through the love of Christ, we can receive the Holy Spirit and then have revival in our hearts that allow us to do more for the Lord with the Holy Spirit as our guide and comforter.
As D.L. Moody once said, D.L Moody said, "I believe firmly that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride, selfishness, and everything else that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts. But if we are full of the pride and selfishness of the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. We must be emptied before we can be filled."
If we refuse to be filled, we will then grieve the Holy Spirit.
INVITATION
