Quench Not The Spirit

Introduction: The Context of Quench Not The Spirit

0:02 I would invite you to turn with me to 1 Thessalonians as we continue our studies in this letter of the Apostle to this infant church filled with so much of not only practical instruction but rich theological content.

0:23 And I'm going to sort of feel like I've lost one of my children when I can no longer say, let us turn to 1 Thessalonians. I always go through great emotional trauma when I finish a book. I suppose if I didn't court it so long, it wouldn't be so hard to jolt it.

0:41 But I do trust that when we complete our studies, it will not be in any sense a leaving behind us, but having assimilated into our own hearts and minds and experience the great truths of this epistle. We are currently studying the paragraph which begins with verse 12 and ends with verse 22, which contains a series of brief, but very interesting, very powerful charges by the Apostle to the church concerning several areas of general relationships. He is dealt in verses 12 and 13 with the relationship of church members to their overseers. And then the latter part of verse 13 through verse 15, the relationship of one member to another, the responsibility of mutual admonition and exhortation, the responsibility never to render evil to evil for evil. And then in verses 17 and verses 16, 17 and 18, we have those duties that are incumbent upon every child of God, we might say in his relationship to himself and God's dealings with him. It's not only enough that we be rightly related to those over us in the assembly and to one another within the assembly, but also that we ourselves maintain those characteristics of vibrant Christianity constant rejoicing,

2:08 incessant prayer, and giving thanks in everything. Now as we come this morning to verse 19, we confront three exhortations, or possibly four, which seem to deal primarily with the relationship of believers to the life and ministry within the assembly. It's not enough that we be rightly related to our overseers and to one another and maintain these qualities of Christian joy on an individual level, but there is the necessity that we be rightly related to the ministry of the Spirit and of the truth within the assembly. And so we confront then these charges, quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying, prove all things, hold fast that which is good, abstain from every form of evil. We come this morning to consider the first of these, these charges, quench not the Spirit. And though the principles of this text apply in every area of the Christian life, and it would have been much easier to lay out the exposition of it as a general rule for every area of Christian life and experience, quench not the Spirit, I do not feel that the context will warrant that wide application as the primary meaning of the text. Amen.

3:34 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:34 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:35 Amen. Amen. It has to do primarily with the life and ministry within the assembly of God's people. Now, think through the text with me, first of all, as we consider the figure used.

The Figure of Fire: Significance of the Spirit's Ministry

3:49 When the Apostle says, Quench not the Spirit, he's using a figure of speech. And the figure he uses is this. The Holy Spirit's ministry is like a flaming fire, and literally he says, Just don't extinguish the Spirit. This is the same word used in Matthew 25, 8, when it speaks of the virgins whose lamps went out.

4:16 Their lamps were extinguished. The word used in Matthew 12, 20, when it says of the ministry of our Lord, A smoking flax he will not quench. It's the picture, you see, of the flax that's drawn up through that gravy-like picture of a lamp that was used in our Lord's time. And the oil supply has run low, and when it runs low, the wick itself begins to burn, and it smokes.

4:41 Well, generally what they did was extinguish it, clip off the charred part, fill it up with oil, and relight it. But it says, Our Lord will not clip that smoking flax. He will not quench the fire. Though it smokes and burns dimly, he'll nourish it until it burns brightly again.

4:56 Same word used. The smoking flax he will not quench. The word used in Ephesians 6, 16. Taking the...

5:04 The shield of faith wherewith you should be able to quench, extinguish all the fiery darts of the enemy. The picture of the warfare of that time, when men would take their arrows and ignite them and shoot them into the enemy's place of dwelling or his fort, hoping to start a fire that would drive the enemy out when he could not be flushed out by other weapons. Our Lord says, Don't extinguish the fire of the Spirit. So there's the figure that the Apostle...

5:34 Now, what is its significance? Why would he use the figure of the ministry of the Holy Spirit like unto a living fire? Well, the symbolism of fire is connected with the ministry of the Holy Spirit in several places in Scripture, and perhaps the most pivotal one is the one that we'll read next Lord's Day morning. For in that first effusion of the Holy Spirit, subsequent to the completion of our Lord's earthly ministry as a mediator, and ascending to the right hand of the Father and sending forth the Holy Spirit, of all the symbolisms that could have been used, he appears over the head of the hundred and twenty as of cloven tongues of fire. And so there is this great attachment of the symbolism of fire with not so much the person as the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In his person, the Holy Spirit is grieved. And so...

6:36 We're commanded in Ephesians 4.30, Grieve not the Spirit, but in his gifts and operations and ministry he is like unto fire. So the command comes, Don't extinguish the fire. Now, what's bound up in that significance of fire?

6:52 May I suggest to you several things? There may be more, but one could let his fancy run loose, and we don't want to do that. But certainly his ministry of illumination. Fire, or some form thereof, in a torch, a lamp was the only means of illumination in the day in which the scriptures were written.

7:11 There were no incandescent light bulbs at that time. Edison hadn't appeared on the scene. And so the ministry of the Spirit is likened unto fire because he is the spirit of truth and enlightenment. And where he is present, men are enabled to see. Sinners need not only sight, but light. For an unconverted man, scripture says, is like a blind man in a dark room. If he's ever to see, first of all, he's got to have his dead optic nerves come alive. But even with live optic nerves and a well-functioning retina and cornea and all the functions of the eye, he'll not see a thing if the room is in pitch darkness. He needs not only sight, but light. And the moment a lamp is lit, this man who was blind in a dark room...

8:01 ...to whom sight has been imparted, now when light is shed, he can see and perceive the objects. And so the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit is not only one of quickening the dead spiritual optic nerves and giving sight, but then of giving light that the sinner might see. This is all brought out in Acts 26.18, where the Apostle Paul is charged in his ministry to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness...

8:31 ...to light. Open their eyes, they've got to be given sight, and then they've got to get into the realm where there is light. And so they are turned from darkness to light. Secondly, the significance is that of purification. There's a wonderful passage in the fourth chapter of Isaiah which speaks of God purifying his people by the spirit of judgment and of burning. The spirit of burning. Our Lord in Matthew 3.11 and in Luke 17 speaks of the Spirit's ministry as being identified with fire. I'm sorry, John the Baptist. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. There is some connection, and it would seem to be that the basic connection is that of purification. He is the Holy Spirit. And then

9:21 thirdly, the figure of fire speaks of that warmth and zeal and the heat of true enthusiasm, which the Holy Spirit is. And then thirdly, the figure of fire speaks of that warmth and zeal and the heat of true enthusiasm, which the Holy Spirit is. And then thirdly, the figure of fire speaks of that warmth and zeal and the heat of true enthusiasm, which the Holy Spirit is. And then thirdly, the figure of fire speaks of that warmth and zeal and the heat of true enthusiasm, which the Holy Spirit is. And then thirdly, the figure of fire speaks of that warmth and zeal and the heat of true enthusiasm, which the Holy Spirit is. And then thirdly, the figure of fire speaks of that warmth and zeal and the heat of true enthusiasm, which the Holy Spirit is. And then thirdly, the figure of fire speaks of that warmth and zeal and the heat of true enthusiasm, which the Holy Spirit is. And then thirdly, the figure of fire speaks of that warmth and zeal and the heat of true enthusiasm, which the Holy Spirit is. And then thirdly, the figure of fire speaks of that warmth and of the mighty operations of the Holy Spirit is that the people of God are alive. They weren't just grinding out services. The preachers weren't grinding out little homiletical ditties.

9:53 There was life and fire and holy enthusiasm. Wherever the Spirit is present is fire. There is that which leaps and springs forth with the marks of spontaneity in the blessing of God. Now, in the early church, His presence was a known and felt reality.

Anticipated Reaction: The Problem of Smoke and Fire

10:12 And I use those terms purposely. When the Apostle writes to the Thessalonians and says, don't quench the Spirit, he assumes that they know something of the fire of the Spirit in the midst. Illuminating, purifying, empowering, impulsing with zeal and with holy fervor for the work of God's kingdom. I wonder if Paul were writing to most of our churches today, if before he could say, quench not the Spirit, he'd have to first of all instruct us that there is such a thing as the presence of the Holy Spirit in fire with all of its blessed illuminating and purifying and invigorating overtone. Well, so much for the figure that he uses. Secondly, consider with me a reaction that he anticipates. In a context where the Holy Spirit is ministering in this way,

11:12 wherever there's flame, sometimes there's smoke. And it's human flesh and the remains of corruption in the people of God that cause the flame of the pure ministry of the Spirit sometimes to smoke.

11:28 And as one reads the history of the Church, even in the book of the Acts, no fire of the Spirit's ministry ever burned with a smokeless flame. Flesh always got in somehow. And whenever the flesh gets in, what's the test? Tendency.

11:42 The tendency is to throw out the baby with the bath in our attempts to get rid of the smoke to extinguish the fire that produces the smoke. Now, it's a terrible thing to have a smoky fire smarting your eyes. But I'd rather have a smoky fire smarting my eyes and have some warmth and light than in my attempts to have no problem with smoke to be frozen stiff. And there's the tendency.

12:07 And the Apostle anticipates this reaction. Likening the ministry of the Spirit unto fire, he anticipates this possible reaction that men in their attempts to do away with the smoke of some of the fleshly involvements in the expression of that fire would altogether quench and extinguish that fire.

12:28 And that problem is very much with us today. The position between wildfire and no fire is delicate and rare. And there's few places where you can find it.

12:39 The position between wildfire and you remember what happened when some people offered strange fire, God showed his feelings about strange fire. He opened up the earth and swallowed them up.

12:52 Then there's that other position. No fire. Now, lots of us never have any problem quenching the Spirit. There's no fire to put out.

13:00 And so we just rock along,

13:04 go into our services, saying the right words, doing the right thing, and we never have to worry about putting out the fire of the Spirit. No fire to put out. None to put out. But in this case, the Apostle anticipated this reaction.

The Command: Don't Quench the Spirit

13:18 So, in the light of that figure and the reaction anticipated, consider in the third place the command that he gives. Here's the command. Don't quench the Spirit. The essence of that command is simply this.

13:30 Do nothing that would tend to extinguish his influence in any way. That's stating it negatively. And like all of God's command, wherever he forbids something, he is, by inference, commanding the opposite. Do all to promote the continued fire of the Spirit's presence and power.

13:50 As I mentioned earlier, it was assumed that he was present, both with his extraordinary and his ordinary gifts and operations. And whenever the Spirit of God has come with unusual power, there have been extraordinary manifestations. There were on the day of Pentecost. There were in the early church.

14:08 And there have been in successive periods of the history of the church, extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit's fire. There have been where you had tongues, you had prophecies, you had trances, you had visions. That's all after Pentecost. After the descent of the Spirit.

14:27 And whenever the Spirit has come in recurring outpourings, these manifestations break forth. And I say for the sake of you students, no clever little cute dispensational box will influence the Lord to continue to bear his arm in unusual ways. It's amazing how some of us can clobber dispensationalism in some of its grosser forms, but when it comes to this under the guise of consistent reformed teaching, we say all that stopped with the closing of the canon. That's just not true.

14:56 Not true. When one reads the great periods of the history of the church, he reads strange and extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit's presence and power. I can't go into those, but they're there. But, whether it be the extraordinaries that are not promoted by men who say we ought to have this and work themselves up to it.

15:17 No. But when God comes in power and distributes according to his own sovereignty, we're willing to receive all that he gives. Or whether it be the more ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit and his more quiet, gentle, continued work of illumination. His work of imparting the knowledge of Christ, of making real to us the things of Christ, of guiding us into the path of scriptural obedience and these more ordinary ministries, whether it be the extraordinary or the ordinary, here's what the apostle is saying.

15:49 Whatever the present measure and quality of the Spirit's work is, don't stifle it. Don't pour water upon it. In fact, do all you can to increase and cherish that living flame. That's what he's driving.

16:06 So that if we're privileged to live through a season of an unusual outpouring of the Spirit and there are extraordinary manifestations, don't quench them.

16:18 Or if we are as we are at present in the moment, in our ordinary ministries of the Holy Spirit, whatever our present possession and quality and quantity of the Spirit's operations, be careful not to pour water upon it. Do all to increase and cherish that living flame. That's the command. And if we get hold of that, it will keep us, you see, from these extremes of no fire or wildfire and will help us that we shall have in our midst an honored Holy Spirit.

How the Spirit is Quenched: External Obstacles (Water and Dirt)

16:51 Holy Spirit doing His blessed work for our good and for the glory of Christ. Well, if this is a command then, it must be obeyed. The question that comes to me and I hope it's come to you, how is the Spirit quenched in the life of the Church? How is He quenched?

17:08 If He says, quench not, don't do anything to extinguish the fire,

17:16 how is it extinguished? Well, how do you extinguish any fire?

17:20 All you good Camp Susquehannaites who put out a fire, how do you extinguish a fire? Basically, two ways. One way is to do what? Put upon it something that is foreign to the life of the fire.

17:32 Dirt, that will extinguish it. Water, smother it by an unfavorable substance from the outside. There's a second way to extinguish a fire. Just don't put any more fuel on it.

17:45 Just let it extinguish itself, burn itself up. And I would submit to you that it's in those two ways that the Holy Spirit is quenched. In the assembly of God's people. He is quenched when as God's people we bring to our gathered assembly that which acts like water upon the flame, dirt upon the fire, and He is quenched.

18:11 So that there is not that spontaneity, that liberty, and those wonderful breakings forth, I don't know what other term to use, of the Spirit's ministry giving us a ravishing sight of Christ and making us to know that and to feel and I use the words purposely the reality of heavenly things.

18:31 Well, what are some of those dirt, some of that dirt and fire and water that we put upon the fire? May I suggest six or seven as I've tried to think through our own assembly and I'm not talking about churches out there. If I were preaching to ones out there like I was last week, I'd have application and exhortation that fit them. But I'm preaching to you here.

Quenching by Unbelief and Formality

18:50 I'm preaching in this assembly. And may I suggest that I believe these are the six or seven things that are acting in our own assembly like water and dirt upon the fire. And though we may not be guilty of all of these, may God help us being aware of them that when we're tempted to pick up one of these buckets to hear the words of the Lord to our hearts, crunch not the Spirit. First of all, there is that spirit of unbelief and no expectation.

19:20 It says of our Lord that He did no mighty works because of their unbelief. The Spirit is operative in a climate of faith and of expectation. And when we come into the midst of God's gathered people with no faith, no expectation, no looking to the Lord that He would by the Spirit take the things of Christ and make them real, that as we open our mouths to praise, God would as it were come by the wind of the Spirit and fill the sails of our desire to worship Him and to worship Him. And carry us out in holy abandonment.

19:58 When we come, I say, with no faith and no expectation that God will manifest the living presence of Christ, we're throwing water upon the fire of the Spirit's ministry. For it said of our Lord that the Spirit was not given to Him by measure. He had the plentitude of the Spirit's endowment and yet He did not many mighty works because of their unbelief. See?

20:25 And so there may come into the assembly a servant of Christ and people of God whose hearts are full of faith. But if there are others who are a part of that living body caught in the terrible doldrums of non-expectation and unbelief, the Spirit is Christ. I've often wondered what it would be like to stand up here some Sunday morning and preach to a congregation that to the man or to the woman came expecting God to do something precious. They didn't dictate what.

20:55 But they came believing Lord, you're going to meet us. You've said when your people meet you're there. And Lord, I don't just want to claim that because it's in the Bible. I want to know the reality of your presence.

21:06 I don't want to leave until I've had some fresh glimpse at the loveliness of Jesus. Some fresh sense of the sweetness of His power and His grace. And everybody came expecting that. I wonder what would happen.

21:23 I wonder what would happen.

21:26 Quench not the Spirit by just dragging your carcass through the door and plunking it down into pews. With no expectation. No faith. Quench not the Spirit.

21:39 I say the spirit of unbelief and non-expectation quenches Him. Secondly, and this flows out of it, a spirit of formality and empty ritual. The curse of vital piety and true spiritual worship has always been the religious rut. The woman of Samaria.

21:58 Our Father said, here's the right place to worship. You people say there's the right place to worship. Who's right? Jesus said you're both wrong.

22:06 God's not concerned that you be in the right place at the right time. He's concerned that you have the right attitude. They that worship must worship in spirit and in truth. Place is inconsequential.

22:20 Time is immaterial. That which our God is concerned about, He says, is the heart. This people draw nigh unto me with their lips, Mark 7, but their hearts are far from me in vain. Do they worship me?

22:35 How is the spirit quenched? By the spirit of formality and empty ritual. Content that we're in the right place at the right time saying the right words.

22:49 Where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty.

22:54 Ah, but someone says doesn't the Bible say that all things be done decently and in order? Sure does.

23:00 But what was the order? Those people came together and so much was happening that they had confusion and Paul said, wait a minute now, if you're going to get edified, you've got to let the fire at least be chanted down a few lines so it doesn't burn everybody up and leave them scarred and blistered. So he says, let the prophets speak by two or by three and if there be tongues, let it be with interpretation and let there only be so many and don't let the women speak in the assembly. He was giving order.

23:28 What? Some big long liturgical form to bind the spirit of God week after week. Never, never. I go into some churches where I have to preach and I look at that order of service with 23 items and I say, God, I don't mean to be irreverent but could even you break through all of this?

23:45 Could even you get through all this?

23:51 Where do you find that in the concept of the worship? When ye come together, one at the psalm, one at the tongue, one at the revelation, let all things be done unto edifying, let all things be done decently and in order, but not the kind of order that is just a dry, entrusted formality and empty ritual. Listen, whenever the life of the spirit departs from any assembly, it has to truss itself up with more and more liturgy and form.

24:20 Always. Always. Now, I'm not just saying that there's any benefit in informality. I'm not saying that at all.

24:28 A corpse that's left to flop to the ground or propped up is still a corpse. So I'm not having any trunk for informality for informality's sake, but I'm saying when we come with the spirit of formality and empty ritual content that we've been there at 11, we've seen, we've seen, we've seen, we've seen, we've seen, we've seen, we've stood for the first 10, we've sat for the next 10 and content, you see, and leaving feeling good because we were in the right place at the right time saying the right word. I say this grieves and quenches the Holy Spirit. This formality and empty ritual.

Quenching by Slavish Adherence to the Clock

25:03 Third thing, and this flows out of it, a slavish adherence to this thing.

25:16 A slavish adherence to the clock is one of the biggest items to quench the Holy Spirit in our own day. Now, I bless God that I don't have the problem in this assembly anywhere near the way some of my brethren do. Now, some of you may feel we go on too long sometimes, but either you know it'd be wrong to say it or you're afraid to say it or what, I don't know, you don't say it. I do get chided once in a while for stopping too soon.

25:39 And I have the great privilege of having the people who've learned to hear the truth and love it. But even there, dear ones, we can be bound to that clock and God's been dealing with me about this. There are times when I've sensed the Holy Spirit had something more to say to me. I don't want to say to us but because that clock said it's time for you to quit, I believe I've quenched the spirit.

25:58 Remember what happened the one time I was preaching and said I'm going to preach until I'm done. I'll never forget it. It only happened one time. It was out in California a year ago, a year and a half ago.

26:08 And something happened and I said, I don't care if everybody gets up and walks out and I've got to preach to the pews. I want to preach until I feel before God I have delivered my soul.

26:21 An hour and 45 minutes later, the meeting was dismissed.

26:26 But it wasn't dismissed.

26:29 A group of people held in the grip of God who didn't dare move.

26:34 They sat silently. Then some slipped out to the basement to pray. Others slipped home to seek God.

26:45 Now was there virtue in the hour and 45 minutes? No. But the principle was this. The Holy Ghost had something to say and to do that would have been quenched had there been a slave that should hear him to the clock.

26:56 And I see this principle in Holy Scripture. You read in the 20th chapter of Acts, Paul got together with the believers, break bread. It says he continued his discourse until midnight. Why?

27:07 Apparently he felt there were things the Holy Ghost had to say and he said them. And it ended up those people had the joy of seeing a miracle. If he hadn't preached that long, Eutychus wouldn't have fallen asleep. And if he hadn't fallen asleep, he wouldn't have fallen out.

27:18 And if he hadn't fallen out, he would have been laying down there dead. And if he hadn't been dead, they wouldn't have seen him raised to life again. Think of the miracle they missed. Would have missed if they had dismissed on time.

27:30 And you say, that's a pretty clever bit of logic.

27:34 Well, carry it out.

27:37 Seriously, I wonder how many miracles we've missed. Because we were bound to that little clock.

27:46 I wonder. Hmm? Quench not the Spirit. Can He be bound to our little framework?

27:53 Holy Spirit, we want you to do all you want to do, but make sure you do it between here and there. Or else we're not interested. We're more interested in our roast, in our bellies, than the next TV show.

28:07 We can't play those kind of games with God, can we? Come on, let's be honest. Can we play those kind of games with God? Holy Spirit, do all you want to do, but,

28:17 do it within this time by me.

28:22 Quench not the Spirit. Does that mean that there'll be no structure to our time? No, I'm not saying that at all. But it's the attitude.

28:30 It's the attitude. We come saying, Lord, I'm not going to get fidgety come 1220. Lord, you keep me there as long as you want until you've said what you want to say, until you've done what you want to do. And if you want to do it by quarter to 12, hallelujah, we'll go home.

28:48 Slavish adherence to the clock. Are you liberated from the clock?

28:52 If not, you'll grieve. Quench the Holy Spirit. Spirit of unbelief and non-expectation. Spirit of formality and empty ritual.

Quenching by Fear of the Unusual and Prejudice

29:01 A slavish adherence to the clock quenches the Spirit. Fourthly, a sinful fear of the unusual.

29:09 God is the God that surprises, both in the Old and in the New Testament. He's the God of the unpredictable.

29:19 I love to read that passage in the book of Acts. I just get, I just get tickled all over. Here everybody's been coming up to the temple at the right time saying the right thing saying the right thing doing the right thing and nothing to disturb it. But they didn't reckon on Pentecost.

29:32 The Spirit of God had been poured out and some men were endowed with the unction of the Spirit. And they're on their way at the right hour to do the right thing and they see a lame man. They've passed him many times. Hundreds of pastors.

29:45 They say, we don't have any silver and gold but what we do have we'll give you. Get up and walk.

29:51 And what does it say of that man? Look at it in Acts the third chapter. So you know I'm not reading it in there. It's right there.

29:57 Acts chapter three. This man, this man who hadn't walked for years or may have been lame from his birth I think the record says. Yes, lame from his mother's womb and never walked. For years he'd been placed at that temple.

30:13 No doubt the same Peter and John had seen him maybe many times even as kids when they came up with their parents for temple worship. Now they pass on what they have. And what happens to him? Verse eight of Acts three.

30:27 And leaping up he stood and began to walk. And after he got to know how to use his fins a little bit he entered with them into the temple walking and when he got a little more sure of himself leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him. Well you sure would.

30:46 Anybody got leaping happy in that old dried up temple worship you couldn't help but see him. They hadn't seen anything like this happen in all their born days. They'd been in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. Nothing to disturb it and this day here comes some fellow not only walking but leaping.

31:05 You know I oh I'm having to resist the temptation to act it out for you.

31:12 What's it mean when you leap? You get off the ground with both feet.

31:18 You hear these people who come up to the temple at the right time to say the right words and what in the world in the sky hollering at the top of his lungs hallelujah hallelujah praise Jehovah I can walk look what Jesus did.

31:33 All things become useful in the order of the temple.

31:41 I seem like God was pretty pleased with it didn't he? Huh? Oh how afraid we are of the unusual. Now I have no no sympathy for wildfire and I've been where I've seen it and it's turned my stomach and I've walked out.

31:57 I want to make that clear. And stuff that's produced by psychological manipulation of the crowd and I've watched some of these men who claim to have some special in on the ministry of the spirit and they talk much about the spirit some of the forms of pentecostalism and they're just masters of mob psychology and they play with people and they, manipulate them. I'm not talking about that. Here's a man whose actions were simply the reflex response of having a miracle love for the power of God.

32:27 And it would have been spiritually disastrous as well as psychologically unsound to think he could come in and fit in with that old dried up temple worship and conform to that. He had to give then the new wine and come into the new wineskin. And it had to be expressed. But oh how we're afraid of anything that just jars us from the little bit out of the unusual when we raise our eyebrows.

32:51 I know the other day someone boomed out an amen while I was preaching and all of a sudden he turned and looked.

33:00 Why are we so bound? Huh? Did God the Holy Ghost teach us to be so bound? That if someone's heart is interacting with the word and as the spirit ministers through the servant of Christ to the heart of the believer there's that spontaneous response.

33:18 Amen! Hallelujah!

33:21 Why can't we rejoice with a deceit we quench the spirit by our fear and suspicion of the unusual. Oh may God help us not to quench the spirit. There are some of you who are quenching the spirit by not booming out an amen. God so made you that when he healed some of your spiritual ankle bones you just can't sit still.

33:43 You've got to give them to it in a good booming amen. And you're quenching the spirit when you don't yeah but what who cares what other people think. You just mind the Lord.

33:53 And as I pray and others in the assembly pray for the ability to have discernment of spirit if someone is out of order we'll rebuke them. I've done it more than once where I felt there was some expression that was not in the spirit and I've said now you be silent you're out of order.

34:09 Let's not be so fearful of the wildfire that we have no fire. Quench not the spirit. That's Paul's admonition to that assembly and to us. Don't quench it by fear of the unusual.

34:22 Then we'll be able to do it. Then we'll be able to do it. And in the fifth place don't quench him by a spirit of prejudice and a set mind as to how God can work.

34:32 Jonathan Edwards says a great thing.

34:36 He said can we find it in our hearts to be like the Jews who though they said they longed for Messiah crucified him because he didn't come in the way their prejudices had dictated he should come.

34:49 You get it? They had it all mapped out how he should come. And when he didn't come according to the word according to their own preconceived prejudices they took him out and crucified him.

35:02 We say oh God send revival but make sure you send it in the way my prejudices say it ought to come. Lord don't send it in such a way that there will be any rocking of the boat. I may want a nice polite revival. Don't want anybody embarrassed.

35:16 We don't want to get a bad name for our church. Listen that first church was born in a bad name. They said the whole bunch of them are stoned.

35:24 Isn't that what they said? Isn't that what the Bible says? Drunk with the Bible. Drunk with wine.

35:29 Look at that crowd.

35:33 When's the last time anyone ever saw us come out of this place and saw us so boiling over with that which God had done that they said hey those folks must have kept that bar down.

35:46 Them been upstairs worshiping. They've been downstairs tippling.

35:51 Now you see this is not something I'm reading and isn't that what it says that when they beheld these men they said they're drunk with new wine. Something's come upon them. Something's taking hold of them.

36:05 Not much our fear is. Why? The spirit of prejudice and the set mind that says God you've got to work this way and only that way. When they saw our Lord healing on the Sabbath they said you're breaking the rules.

36:18 Whose rules? Yours. Not God's. But they had their rules.

36:23 Can't do this. See?

36:26 The Lord didn't mind their rules. He just went on doing his work the way the Father told him to do it.

36:32 Quench not the spirit by a mind that is prejudiced by concepts of how God can work. It has not been shaped by the word of God. One of the greatest fears I have of the emerging movement and I thank God for it have returned to the great doctrines of the Reformation. Call it what you want.

36:51 Reform, teaching, Calvinism. Give it any name you want. My heart rejoices. My fear is this.

36:58 It will end up in the same icebox that drove a past generation away from these things because we began to encrust the expression of those powerful doctrines with prejudice and human ideas as to how they could express themselves in the life and worship of the church. I'm sure there are some of my dear brethren who'd say, well, I'll buy his doctrine but this business can't have that. This is a whole aspect of scriptural truth that is just as clear as total depravity, election, particular redemption and all the rest. That in the midst of God's gathered people there should be no prejudice in a set mind as to how God can work and cannot work.

37:41 Scripture is our boundary and I tell you there's a lot of room to move. Even if God were pleased to take some man who'd been spiritually impotent for years. Suppose a man had been struggling for years and years in bondage and while the word was preached the Holy Spirit revealed Christ. What would you do if someone got shot right up out of his seat in this place?

38:02 You'd say, hallelujah, God's revealed his son to me. The chains are broken. I'm free. And began to just break out in praise to God.

38:09 What would you do? Would you find it in your heart to say, Lord, I never heard this before but that's alright Lord. If that's your word that's fine with me. And would you say, here, let's go on Pentecostal.

38:21 And what would your attitude be? There's a good test of whether or not you've got a big wall of prejudice in a set mind as to how God can work. Don't quench the Spirit with this.

Quenching by Unjust Criticism and Clerical Individualism

38:33 Next thing that causes a quenching of the Spirit is what I'm going to call unjust criticism of immature servants of Christ.

38:44 As I mentioned earlier, no fire of the Spirit movement burns with a smoke which flames simply because we're involved in it. And our flesh and our corruption adds the smoke. And oh how often I've seen young men inflamed with true spiritual zeal and oh they did some stupid. When I look at some of the things I did, every bus I'd get on started to front and walk to the back passing out a track to everybody.

39:08 I made a nuisance of myself.

39:11 But I did it because God had done something for me and put some fire in my heart to want to communicate the message. I even did something that I wouldn't believe unless I saw with my own eyes. I'll fess up on myself this morning. I went to a home in Connecticut where I saw a guest book where I had signed my name, Al Salvation Martin.

39:29 I couldn't believe it and I shook my head and I said, oh how immature and cornball can you get?

39:37 But I was so determined that when anyone looked through that guest book, they'd identify me as a Christian that I wanted to put it in there as my middle name.

39:45 And my motive was right. I didn't have much sense but my motive was right.

39:51 Do you know what happened? I had some people who saw that fire and said, listen, we've got to put that out. There's too much smoke on it. And one night on my knees I was about ready to say, all right Lord, I'll throw the whole thing in because I had a man who'd been a Christian for over 30 years and a pastor who'd been a pastor for 25 years make a special visit to straighten me out.

40:09 I sat there and said, God, can it be? I can't do right. Here's this man, mature. Here's this man, spirit.

40:16 And I went on my knees and I was just about to throw in the towel and say, what's this? And my dear mother came in and put her arm around me and said, dear son, you just mind the Lord. This is what I've been praying for all my life. That God the Holy Ghost would lay hold of you.

40:31 And now he's done it in such a way they don't like what he's doing. You go on with God. Sure, there was some smoke but there were some discerning people who said, you know how you get smoke out of a fire? The fire itself burns out its own smoke as the fire increases.

40:48 And what happens in your fireplace? You burst out that thing, that smoky old thing? You just let the draft take its time and before long the fire corrects itself and burns purely and brightly.

41:00 I understand God spoke to many of your hearts last week through the ministry of Brother McConaughey with authority and clarity. There was a time when the fire that you felt last week had a lot of smoke in it and there were people that were writing him off left and right. And I said, God, that boy's got some fire you've put in him. There's a lot of smoke but that'll clear itself up.

41:19 I'm going to latch on to it. And latching on to him ruined my reputation with some people for years and it's still ruined in the eyes of some people in this immediate vicinity because I identified myself with that young man and said, Lord, I'm not going to let him go. You put some fire there and I'm not going to play God and put it out but I'm going to pray and work with him until it burns a little more purely. And you got the blessing of the more purified fire last week.

41:41 And there are people there in Cunningham that are getting it every Sunday and every midday. There's the principle. Don't quench the spirit by unjust criticism and by being overly fastidious especially with new conduct. Don't discourage me.

41:58 Put your arm around me. Put your arm around them and get a little of their heat and then let the heat of your own life help clear out some of the smoke in their fire. You see, if God's going to answer our prayer and give us some real solid conversions we're praying that he'll send his spirit this is going to be a real problem. I'm not just giving counsel for verbiage's sake.

42:17 What are we going to do when we see some young converts that do some silly things? And they will. They'll do some foolish things. They did it kind.

42:25 They got so blessed with all these spiritual gifts they just had to use them like toys. Every time they came you have 13 people speaking tongues all at once and I'll try to convince that these people are crazy. And he turns around and goes out. Now Paul says that's not right.

42:39 But notice he didn't tell them. Put the fire out. He said let's just get the smoke out of him and get it redirected in some kind of order.

42:49 Oh, don't quench the spirit. Don't quench the spirit by unjust criticism. And then the last thing don't quench the spirit by this tendency to clerical individualism and sacerdotalism. You say what in the world?

43:04 You're speaking in tongues pastors. No. Clericalism and sacerdotalism are the tendency listen that regards ministers as a special class all by themselves and the only vehicles of grace and truth.

43:22 Ministers have a distinct office. They are to rule. They have special gifts to teach. But the edifying of the body of Christ is not it's not exclusively dependent upon ministers.

43:35 Ephesians 4.16 says the body is edified by that which every joint supplies. Every joint. It makes edifying of itself in love.

43:49 1 Corinthians 14.7 to everyone is given the manifestation of the spirit to profit with all that is to profit the whole.

44:00 And you see this tendency to expect that all our spiritual instruction and all of our spiritual understanding comes through the sacred man in the sacred building tends to quench the spirit. The spirit may have blessing to bring to the prayer of another. Oh how I've longed Sunday after Sunday to do what I did this morning but I've been fearful and God's dealing with me as I've been studying the text. Can it be that I'd be the only one who'd have the spirit of prayer Sunday after Sunday?

44:32 Frankly some Sundays I don't have it. Yet because it's expected that the pastoral prayer be by the pastor I have to grind out something with no heart. If I'm not quenching the spirit and you come saying Lord I don't want to quench the spirit and I were to say well several of you lead us in prayer the blessed thing it would be for one who has the spirit of prayer to lead us and my cold heart is caught up with his and we take hold of God together. See?

45:05 This spirit of clericalism putting undue importance upon the minister.

45:12 Sacerdotalism the view that a priest has some special funnel on grief.

45:20 You who are here week by week know that in no way am I seeking to demean the office of a ruling teaching elder. I've preached verse 12 I trust faithfully to the text. Know them that are over you in the Lord and admonish you. Yes that's true but don't ever begin to view them as the soul conveyors of truth and of grace.

45:42 How blessed have been some of those services where I've come and said look I think maybe the Lord has something to say through all of us. You've been in some of you have been in them how blessed they've been as one after another has shared by way of exhortation by way of teaching.

How the Spirit is Quenched: Internal Neglect (Lack of Fuel)

45:58 Oh dear ones this to me is the concept that's woven into the fabric of the New Testament assembly and we're so structured and everything in me cries out against it because I know better from the Bible. And though you may not believe it there are times when the last place I want to be is up here I want to be down there confessing my sins with you acknowledging my spiritual helplessness and barrenness with you and maybe there's someone else who's got a word that God would give. Not that my main and consistent and overall ministry would not be that of teaching that's what God's equipped me for and you put bread on my table and on the table of my family and clothes on my back that I might give myself to study and to study and to study in preparation yes I know that can it be that week in and week out year in and year out God would have everything funneling through now that's not good for you and it's not realistic I'm just not that consistent in my own relationship to the Lord and this tendency to sacerdotalism is one of the things that quenches the spirit well we said the spirit is not only quenched by what you put on it foreign to it but what you take away and I'll just touch on this briefly the spirit what starves the fire of the spirit in an assembly failure to be active in prayer in praise and in worship when we just come and sit in the pew and let the mind as it were

47:27 run any direction it wants to and we don't actively stir ourselves up you see here's the mystery of God's working in our working quench not the spirit he's working like a flame and yet Paul says to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 1.6 stir into flame the gift that is in me our responsibility well he works but we have this responsibility as the old writers say to strike in with the spirit's working I like that to strike in with the spirit's working does he stir us up to pray let's stir ourselves up to pray isn't that what Isaiah says there's none that stirs up himself to take hold upon thee is he the spirit of worship then let's stir ourselves up to worship David does it again and again bless the Lord oh my soul he's talking to himself all that is within me bless his holy name don't forget his benefits does the spirit stir me up to worship then I'll stir myself up to worship does he stir me up to pray then I'll stir myself up to pray so quenched the spirit by failing to be active in prayer and praise and worship when we come together I wondered sometime if really all of us were actively putting ourselves into some of the great concepts in one of these hymns if God just wouldn't lift us out of ourselves and give us sights of his own glory it would just overcome us don't you long for that I had someone say to me last week they said you know Pastor last Sunday night

48:56 I thought the Lord was going to do something unusual as though the singing just reached beyond the building went upward to God and I just felt maybe God was going to do something unusual if that's fanaticism in your book friend then we're going to be labeled because there's some of us that are desperate for reality and we want to see God work in the midst of dead people in the midst of all the churches fundamentalists orthodox reformed and everything else may God make this an oasis with his light the light of his presence not wildfire but true fire where people come together putting fuel on the fire by actively praying when one leads in prayer by actively engaging their minds when the hymns are sung may God help us not to quench you for if he's quenched God shows his displeasure in withdrawing his influences and that's why we're here today we're here today we're here today we're here today we're here today we're here today we're here today we're here today we're here today and what is a church without the presence of the Holy Spirit and founding of Christ what is it even with the true preaching of the word without the living presence what is it even with the true preaching of the word without the living presence pretty sad business isn't it grind out your hymns grind out your sermons grind out your prayers Lord knows I'd rather go back to digging ditches and be a part of that I'd rather go back to digging ditches so may the Lord help us so may the Lord help us

Conclusion: A Call to Obedience and Unbelievers

50:25 to take to heart this exhortation this exhortation may this mean thinking. It may mean some adjustments in my role as a pastor, but together can't we pray, Lord, teach us what that means and give us so much of the Spirit's presence that it will be a real problem what to quench and what not to. It would be wonderful to have that problem. May the Lord give it to us for His glory and for our eternal glory. Quench not the Spirit. That's God's command. May God help us to obey. And if you're not a child of God,

51:05 certainly by way of application, it's warranted to say, don't you resist those overtures of the Spirit striving with you? As you've been made to think seriously upon your relationship to God and truth, don't push that out of the mind. Don't push it down. Don't throw the water of worldly concern and indifference upon it, but cherish those little flames of concern.

51:32 Go to the Scriptures. Cry to God until He makes His Son known to you.

51:40 Don't treat lightly those overtures of God's grace in the stirrings of the Spirit. Some do so to their eternal shame and ruin. Quench not the Spirit. Let's pray.