Grieving the Holy Spirit
Part 1 – To Resist, Grieve & Quench
Rev. Bruce A. Shields
First Baptist Church Tawas City Michigan
www.TawasBaptist.org
WELCOME
Welcome to the First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan.
We are glad you are here this beautiful morning, joining us in our worship and praise of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We’ve spent the last couple months discussing the Fruits of the Holy Spirit and how we can develop and display them in our lives as Christians, and how they can only come from the Holy Spirit and cannot be reproduced in any other manner.
This week we will begin our series on Grieving the Holy Spirit, and how we can actually prevent God from working in our lives and growing us because we stop the Holy Spirits work within us.
INTRODUCTION
Today I want to focus on the importance of the Holy Spirit for our Christian experience.
There are three specific aspects of the Holy Spirit’s work, regeneration, indwelling and equipping.
Therefore we will look at three specific “do nots” which concern the Holy Spirit and His relationship with us.
These three “do nots” being;
Do not resist the Holy Spirit.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.
And do not quench the Holy Spirit.
We will begin today with the first of these, “Do not resist the Holy Spirit.”
Our scripture reading today is in Acts 7:48 – 53.
Stephen is addressing the Sanhedrin in the same tone as Moses when he conveyed God’s rebuke to Israel.
SCRIPTURE READING
Acts 7:48 - 53
“48… the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be?
50 Has not my hand made all these things?’[l]
51 "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it."
PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT AND UNDERSTANDING
DO NOT RESIST THE HOLY SPIRIT
To resist the Holy Spirit is a determined rejection of His purposes and plans from a human perspective.
Resisting is the action of a hardened heart towards God, and as a consequence of that hardened heart; the person does not perceive or recognize the opportunity of grace when it comes.
We see here that Stephen while addressing the Sanhedrin reminds them of the resistance of his own people.
How God had sent prophets to the people so they may hear His word and be delivered.
Yet, time and time again the people resisted His mercy.
This is why Stephen exclaims in verse 51, “You stiff necked people…You always resist the Holy Spirit…”
Everything carried out by God on earth is through the Person and Office of the Holy Spirit; to resist Him is to resist God, for He is God.
They resisted the Holy Spirit by resisting the plan of God.
Earlier in Chapter 7 we read of Stephen reminding them of how Joseph was sold into slavery and how they did not understand they had sold their deliverer.
How they dealt with Moses, refusing him, grumbling against him because they did not comprehend he was sent by God to lead them.
How they treated all the Prophets of God with contempt.
Persecuting and rejecting them, not understanding they stood in the presence of the gates of Hell when they resisted the Holy Spirit of God.
Even when God Himself came, they persecuted and killed Him.
Why? Because they did not understand He was their deliverer.
Stephen tells them ‘Now you have betrayed and murdered Him’.
How different this is from what we expect to hear in modern preaching.
We always want to hear the ‘feel good’ message.
The sermon that makes us feel like everything is OK, and we are doing all we are supposed to be doing.
Stephen was preaching the truth.
And the truth was that these people were resisting the Holy Spirit, and contradicting everything they said they believed.
But they did not receive the truth, because the truth was not in them.
Nothing has changed.
Today people still resist the Holy Spirit.
There are people who have had revelation of God’s purpose in their life, church people, who have heard the Gospel, yet have not given themselves the opportunity to respond to the truth because they resist the Spirit of God.
There are some here today who even ‘till this very hour resist the Grace in the Gospel of Christ.
Did these people hear Stephens message of truth?
They heard, but they did not listen.
Instead they did exactly what Stephen said they had been doing for centuries; they killed the very prophet God had sent to them.
We’ve examined scriptures before which focus on not just hearing the Holy Spirit in our lives, but answering His call.
We need to respond to the Holy Spirit and embrace Him, not rejecting His truth.
John 4:23 – 24
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
God is not looking for Holy Worship; He is looking for Holy Worshippers.
Christ and the Cross made this type of worshiper possible.
There is no longer need of ceremonies and rituals.
Because believers have the Holy Spirit, and our worship is done through this Holy Spirit to God, because of Christ.
Do you see how the Trinity works together?
The true worshippers of God will worship in Spirit and in Truth, and will not reject the Holy Spirit when they recognize His call.
Not only will the true worshipper receive that Truth from the Holy Spirit, but they will respond to the truth because the Truth is also in them.
So the first ‘Do not’ is; do not resist the Holy Spirit.
The second ‘Do not’ is;
DO NOT GRIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT
Ephesians 4:29 – 32
“29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.”
When you speak, you should only be speaking what will edify and build others up.
If all you’re talking is about tearing others down, then you are grieving the Holy Spirit.
God doesn’t want to hear it!
As Christians we are supposed to be speaking words of encouragement to each other according to others needs.
To benefit them! Not ourselves.
Most people who talk bad about others do so to build themselves up.
It makes them feel better about themselves.
But we know from scripture that “He who exalts himself will be humbled…”
The scripture makes it clear that it grieves the Holy Spirit when you tear others down.
We are warned ‘point blank’ to “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
When you behave in this manner, you accomplish two things.
First you hurt God, causing Him to grieve, but secondly you ruin your Christian testimony.
If you do these things, you are grieving the Holy Spirit of God.
To grieve means to cause sorrow or sadness, to injure or offend.
When you behave in those manners, you offend God.
You cause God to be sad because of your behavior.
ILLUSTRATION
Picture an old mansion in need of repair. A mere shadow of its former glory, but it is under renovation.
You can see scaffolding and tools about the areas that have already been restored although work is still needed in other areas.
You see the worker, who is fulfilling his obligation to the owner by the agreement in which they made with each other.
Now every time the owner breaks that agreement, he so grieves the worker, that he downs his tools and ceases the renovation.
No work is done.
If left long enough, the mansion will deteriorate to a state even worse than when the work began.
So the house remains in a state of disrepair until the owner apologizes to the worker for the breach of agreement and asks the worker to return to the restoration.
In the same way, sin has the same effect on us as time and neglect had on the mansion.
When we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He gave us His Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit’s job is to sanctify us.
That is, He lives in us and bit by bit he renovates (or transforms) us, and just like the workman, the Holy Spirit can be grieved, and in turn our renovation (and sanctification) has ceased, until such a time we repent from that sin and ask the Holy Spirit to continue His work within us.
This sin, this grieving of the Holy Spirit of God can happen in different ways.
It may be through willful ignorance of His Word.
Or it may be through disobedience.
As the scripture we just read stated, it could be because we are tearing others down instead of building them up.
Or perhaps we have or are harboring bitterness, rage, anger, slander or gossip.
This grieving of the Holy Spirit may be caused by our apathy or lack of concern towards His illumination of the Holy Word.
Or perhaps when God grants us new insight and understanding it’s not accompanied by an appropriate response from us.
He may show us the meaning of “dying to self” only for us to reject His insight as too difficult, costly or inconvenient.
And this would be resisting the Holy Spirit, which in turn grieves the Holy Spirit.
Any time you resist Him, He grieves.
Any of these things and many more are sufficient to grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
When we do this, we hinder the purpose of God to transform us into the image and likeness of His Son.
This is how we lose the fullness of the Spirit, and if we continue in sin, (grieving the Holy Spirit) not only is there no work of transformation going on within us, but in time we will go to a state which is worse than when He began.
When the Holy Spirit stops working in you, you immediately begin your trip backwards.
You, and everyone who knows you, will see spiritual decay set in the Fruit of the Spirit.
Our love, joy, peace, etc…
It will surly be lost until we turn from our ways through repentance and restoration, that we might once again be filled with the Spirit.
Some seem reluctant to face the fact that these behaviors are sinful.
These are behaviors which stem from our emotion of fear.
It’s easy for us to see sin and claim victory over external habits such as drinking, profanity, etc… without ever examining our hearts and behaviors which stem from our emotions within.
Although unseen, these behaviors which stem from the root emotion of fear is every bit as much a sin as the outward habits.
Jesus said to even look at a woman with lust is to commit adultery with her.
Even though it only took place within your mind, the sin still grieves the Holy Spirit.
In Galatians 5:19 – 21 we see hatred, strife and jealousy which are inward, in the same category as adultery, drunkenness and orgies, which are external.
While adultery, drunkenness and orgies are external sins that are easy to recognize, we tend to overlook what defiles us on the inside.
Remember Jesus said, “It is not what you put into your mouth that defiles you, but what comes out.”
And we know from scripture that what comes out of our mouths is from the overflow of our hearts.
All sin begins inside of us.
And we grieve the Holy Spirit, not just with our outward sin, but with what fills our hearts and minds.
Next week we will speak more on unholy fruit and how it affects us and those around us.
But just as the Holy Spirit gives us His fruit, or characteristics of God, we can also have unholy fruit, or the characteristics of the devil.
This unholy fruit which one can bear is listed in Galatians 5:19-21;
So what is listed as unholy fruit?
The unholy fruit listed in Galatians is both external and internal;
Sexual immorality (homosexuality, bestiality), adultery (cheating on spouse), fornication (pre-marital sex), Idolatry (putting anything else before God in your life), witchcraft (spells, potions, tarot cards, fortune telling, palm reading, astrology, controlling people, manipulating, chanting), hatred (not loving others), discord (lack of agreement or conflict within the body of Christ), jealousy, wrath (fits of rage and anger), strife (selfish ambition), dissensions (a difference of opinion arising from dissatisfaction or anger), factions (a group of people operating in opposition to a larger group to gain its own ends), envy (resentment of others), drunkenness (not a glass of wine like Jesus drank, but being drunk), orgies (no explanation needed).
Other vises or fruits of the flesh are listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Ephesians 5:5; Revelation 22:15
All of these things whether external or inward offend God’s Holy Spirit. They cause the Holy Spirit to grieve.
And just as we serve the Kingdom of God with the Fruits of the Spirit, we serve and promote the devil’s Kingdom when we display the fruits of the sinful flesh.
And a person without Christ ONLY has the fruits of the sinful flesh.
But those with Christ CAN fall into the behavior of the sinful flesh, and must confess and repent so that they can be forgiven of their sin and restored to a proper relationship with God.
DO NOT QUENCH
The final ‘Do not’ is ‘do not quench the Holy Spirit’.
1 Thessalonians 5:12 – 22
“12 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
16 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil.”
Do not quench the Holy Spirit.
Where God is working, do not put that fire out!
In fact, the Apostle Paul instructed Timothy;
1 Timothy 1:6
“…fan into a flame the gifts of God…”
Are we fans or fire extinguishers?
When we see the Holy Spirit working, we should be building up, edifying and supporting, not tearing down with our mouths, speaking evil against, gossiping and trying to put a stop to it.
That’s Satan’s job, not ours.
When the Holy Spirit indwells us with a purpose of equipping us for service, evil comes against us to quench that.
But we are warned to build up each other and edify the Body of Christ, not tear it down.
The Holy Spirit unhindered will burn within us so that we are on fire for Jesus.
Without this equipping, which is the Spiritual Gifts from the Holy Spirit, you will do nothing more but flounder and fail.
We are capable of quenching the Holy Spirit in ourselves and in others if we are not careful.
We quench the Holy Spirit when we stifle the desire to witness through Word or deed concerning the Lord.
When we fail to make the most of every opportunity or through our lack of interest in setting aside time for God.
When we misuse our gifts and use them to glorify ourselves and advance our own cause rather than that of Jesus Christ and what God’s Holy Word says.
When we criticize or discourage others with a spiteful or ungracious attitude.
When our words or deeds are constantly acting as a wet blanket to smother the service or joy of others, then you are in effect throwing cold water in the face of the Holy Spirit.
We need to be careful we are not putting out anyone’s fire, including our own.
If you feel the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart today, I encourage you to respond to Him.
Do not resist the Holy Spirit.
There is not reason for us to resist the Holy Spirit.
We are called to desire that which is Holy and Good, and God’s word tells us what is Holy and Good, and we as the Body of Christ should be working together for what is Holy and Good.
Let’s answer God’s calling to be a pleasing people, sanctified by Him, Holy Worshippers in His sight, worshipping in Spirit and in the Truth.
Not offending Him or causing Him to grieve because of our behavior.
Let’s call on the name of the Lord together, and together let’s allow our deliverer to move us from where we are, to where God has willed and destined us as a Body of believers to be.
This can only be done through the Holy Spirit in us, and by us dying to self, crucifying our flesh daily, and daily choosing God’s Holy Word as our guide, and Jesus Christ as our foundation. For on no other foundation will the house that is built stand!
Unless God build the house, those who labor, do so in vain!
Let us not quench the Holy Spirit in this place!
