Honoring the Holy Spirit: Living in Redemption

"Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. We come in a systematic study of this great epistle and at the moment of this fourth chapter to this arresting striking and amazing statement which the Apostle here as it were HS into the midst of a series of practical injunctions and exhortations." [00:22:24]

"Now the Apostle puts it in this interesting and extraordinary manner in terms of seing I'm not going into that this morning because when we were dealing with the 13th verse of the first chapter many of you present will recall that I preached five sermons on that whole matter of the sealing of the spirit so I cannot repeat it all again I take it for granted that you are clear in your minds as to the meaning of the the term in whom or by whom ye are sealed until the day of redemption." [00:750:04]

"Now no man is a Christian unless the holy spirit is in him and if a man have not the spirit of Christ says Paul in Romans 88:9 he is none of his this is a great doctrine that runs right through the New Testament we needn't go into it in particular you notice that there in 1 Corinthians 3 which I read at the beginning the Apostle reminds us that the Holy Spirit dwells within the church as a body the third chapter of First Corinthians deals with it in the corporate sense but you remember that at the end of chapter 6 in that same first epistle to the Corinthians the apostle it like this what know he not that your body he's now talking about the individual not about the church as a body know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which you have of God and you are not your own for you are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods." [00:894:48]

"Now this is a kind of temporary condition but it's a true one in Salvation he has put himself into this relationship to us that it is possible for us to hurt him to grieve him to disappoint him now the analogy that we must bear in our minds is obviously this that our relationship to the holy spirit is a relationship of love and this is the very essence of the Christian doctrine of salvation we finished with law we are no longer under law but we are under grace and we must never think of ourselves in those old legal terms if a Christian sins what he should be most conscious of is not so much that he's done that which is wrong or that he has even broken God's law what should rarely trouble him is this that he is offended against love." [00:1170:40]

"Grieve not the spirit the holy spirit of God now this must be interpreted in its fullest sense obviously the things the Apostle has been detailing grieve the spirit anything I say which belongs to the flesh Grieves the spirit take the list he gives in Galatians 5 now the works of the flesh he says are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife itions heresies envyings murders drunkenness reings and such like those are the works of the Flesh and they grieve the holy spirit of God yes but let's remember that we grieve him not only in actual Deeds or practices we've been reminded already that we can grieve him with our words he's always with us he hears everything we say let no evil communication proceed out of your mouth therefore he's grieved by it and all these other things that he's going on to mention oh but we must go a stage further you can grieve him by your thoughts he is in you he is within you how often has the devil tripped us all at this point you said but I didn't do that thing no no I know you didn't do it and you may not have done it because you're a coward but you thought it and you enjoyed it and you played with it in your imagination and you thought all was well because you hadn't done it no no you've grieved him an unworthy or an impure thought a thought of anger jealousy or Envy it Grieves him it hurts him as much as the action everything is known to him the innermost recesses of your mind and heart and being he knows it all the world doesn't know it your own thoughts you know them he knows them and he's as grieved by unworthy thoughts as he is by unworthy words and by unworthy actions." [00:1429:36]

"Is there anything more insulting than that can another person insult you or hurt you more grievously than by just going on as if you were not there by behaving and conducting himself for herself as if you were not in the room is there anything more humiliating well Christian people the holy spirit of God is in you do you always remember that do you honor him the fail to so I say is to grieve him and then another way in which we do it of course is this is our failure to respond to his promptings and his leadings and his influences and all that he does in us and to us and Upon Us in order to further the work of sanctification within us the Holy Spirit has been given to apply the Redemption that has been purchased and worked out for us by the Blessed Son of God and the Holy Spirit has been sent and given to us in order that all this may be applied in order that it may be worked out within us it is he that worketh in us both to Will and to do says Paul of his good pleasure that's what we are working out what he works in well now the spirit is here constantly in doing that the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh he's Within Us in order to do that and of course we are aware of this he prompts us he leads us he creates desires within us you suddenly find yourself Desiring to read the word that's the spirit he suddenly will stimulate you perhaps to prayer or to meditation he'll tell you to leave something and to do something it's all the spirit it's all a part of his great work of sanctification now I say not to respond or to postpone or to say well I can't do that now I'm doing something else or to fail to give yourself and to be led by him oh these are the ways in which we grieve him as many as are led by the spirit of God says Paul to the Romans they are the sons of God well if you don't follow his leading or if you try to thwart them or if you try to postpone them it's all grieving oh go back fall back upon the human analogy the parent and the child that's it and you see how the spirit can be grieved by any disinclination on our part by any tendency to say all right I'll do it later on to put him off as it were how grieving to the spirit that we shouldn't immediately respond and recognize his workings and be grateful to him for condescending to dwell within us and to be concerned about our sanctification." [00:1615:55]

"Why should we not grieve him well I've already been answering the question in a sense because he is who and what he is and that ought to be enough he is the third person in the Blessed Holy Trinity and he is dwelling as a guest within your life in your very body as the hymn reminded us a gracious willing guest you know the very greatness of the person ought to be enough for us we all know what this is in practice don't we there are certain things we may normally do but if we happen to have some particularly distinguished guest staying in the house we don't do it we feel instinctively we should be on our best behavior when we've got some honorable person with us there are things we don't do there are things we do if there are little children in the house they're told to keep quiet not to make too much noise in the morning or at any other time because so and so is staying here quite right it's a mark of respect and of Honor look at the trouble people take to read books of etiquette in order that they may behave properly in certain High Social Circles think of the punctiliousness with which people study the rules if they should have the privilege of being presented to the queen in Buckingham Palace quite right and yet in every one of us is the holy spirit of God how careful You' be of your speech in buing and Palace you should be infinitely more careful of your speech whatever you are because of the guest that dwells within you your thoughts your imaginations he's there he knows about them it's comparable to swearing in the presence of a saint or using unworthy language in the presence of some holy person this is Christian sanctification the realization that he is within us oh not how can I get rid of this no no think of him my dear friend and then you'll be all right if you only realized he was always with you and was aware of everything that passes within you that's the thing that solves the problems you don't want some magical experience you just want to realize the truth which is given to you in this word of God if we but realize that he's always within us our whole conduct and Department would be entirely different." [00:1813:00]

"Think of the base in gratitude that we are guilty of when we grieve him in any shape or form think of all that has been done for us think of the planning of God in eternity think of the subordination of the son to the father and of the spirit to the Son and the father here he is co-equal coeternal the third person in the Blessed Holy Trinity and yet for you Redemption and mine he subordinated himself and he's even condescended to dwell within you it's Bas in gratitude not to realize his presence and not always to do everything that is well pleasing in his sight to grieve him I say it's to be a c it's to be guilty of a base in gratitude for all he has done for us and then let me go on and point out another it is as the Apostle reminds us here a complete failure to understand the final object of Salvation what is the final object of Salvation that my sins may be forgiven that I may be happy all the day and that I may get rid of all the problems in my life no no they are incidentals that's not the end and the object what's the end and the object well here it is the day of redemption grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby ye are sealed un that's the end these things thank God for them while we're passing through this world of time but these are the Temporaries there's the grand thing well what is it well it's this it is this day of the Lord that is coming it is this day when Christ will come back and judge the world in righteousness and Destroy his every enemy and remove every vesage of evil out of the whole Cosmos and will usher in his Everlasting Kingdom and you and I shall be in it in glorified bodies perfect and spotless without spot or Winkle or any such thing a part of this glorious Church the bride of Christ with everything which is unworthy and evil removed that's the end the day of redemption the coming in of the full and final and perfect salvation the Apostle has really said it all at the fourth verse of the first chapter according as Heath chosen Us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and Without Blame before him in love that's the end of redemption and salvation not so much I say these particular things that may be true of us here and now but that we may be holy and Without Blame before him in love in this world but especially there the day of redemption a man therefore who Grieves the spirit is a man who clearly is not and understanding as the Earth the whole object and purpose of redemption why did Christ die on the cross was it simply that you might not go to hell no no put it positively that you might go to Glory don't look at the negative always don't always say I'm delivered from this that or the other of course you are but you're delivered for prepared for it's that which matters isn't it tragic that people will preach sanctification in these subjective personal terms instead of holding before us the vision of the day of redemption the glory that awaits us the Perfection that we're being prepared for that's the object of it all." [00:2019:39]

"If you grieve the spirit well you won't have a sense of God's love to you you won't have the joy of Salvation you won't have Assurance you won't have certainty you won't have peace you won't be able to say the spirit beareth witness with my spirit that I am a child of God all that is implied in the ceiling and if you grieve the spirit the evidences of your ceiling will become faint they may altogether disappear don't misund understand me I'm not saying you're lost but I'm saying that you'll you'll miss and lose the comfort the Christian is a man who is meant to know the joy of the Lord rejoice in the lord always and again I say rejoice says Paul to the Philippians he's saying it here the Christian is not a man who trudges his weary way through this world moaning and beoning no no when he looks in he sees nothing but sin and he does moan but he mustn't merely look in he must look out he sees himself in Christ and he should be filled with a joy unspeakable and full of glor Glory he should go singing as he marches to Zion Children of the Heavenly King as he Journeys sweetly sing sing your savior's worthy praise glorious in his works and ways but you won't be able to if you grieve the spirit all the tender visitations of his love and the intimations of his rejoicing in you there be withdrawn and you'll be left to yourself and you lose all these wonderful experiences of when he comes and Embraces you and and infolds you in the arms of his love and let you know that you belong to him so for your own sake grieve not the spirit." [00:2345:83]

"Let's be clear about this Doctrine the spirit never abandons a child of God the seal is a seal and a seal is no seal which can be broken at any moment and then put back again and broken again no no you don't go in and out of Salvation you're not saved today and lost tomorrow and saved again that's not the Bible the seal is a seal and it's God's seal and no man can break it so that when I say the spirit withdraws himself I don't mean he goes out of you he still stays there but the gracious manifestations are withheld and then because he is still in you he will convict you he will strike you down he'll prostrate you he'll make you feel helpless and hopeless and then when you feel that you're abandoned by him he'll again reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to you as your savior who died for you and who still loves you and he'll wash away your sin again and he'll smile upon you once more and he'll restore unto you the joy of his salvation but what fools we are ever to live in such a way as to lead to such experiences grieve not the holy spirit of God my dear friend he's in you and he will have you and he'll bring you to that glory and Perfection and if you won't be led by him will he'll chastise you he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ don't grieve him my dear friend I warn you don't grieve him for if you do you will bring upon yourself Grievous experiences and agonies of soul that you need never have had." [00:2613:55]