How Can a Church Grieve the Holy Spirit? (1)

Introduction: The Mandate to Hold Fast and the Affirmation to Maintain an Ungrieved Holy Spirit

0:05 This sermon was delivered on February 9, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now let us again bow in the presence of God and ask for his blessing upon the mind and heart and the mouth of the one who preaches, and upon the ears and the mind and heart of each who listens. Let us pray. Surely, our Father, the things we have asked in the words of the hymn just sung together, were you to give us even a tithe of that, what a blessed people we would be.

0:48 But we come to you as the God who does not give merely a tithe of what we ask, but is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or could even think, according to the power that works in us. O Holy Spirit, come with blessed, gracious surprises of your ministry, of your presence, of your power. So attend the ministry of the word, that everyone who is savingly united to the Lord Jesus will be truly edified,

1:26 and those who are strangers to his gracious salvation will be humbled, broken over their sins, and led. And those who are dead, broken, in humility, to bow before the Lord Jesus, and by faith to embrace him as their very own. O God, answer our cry, and bless this sacred hour with your presence, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

1:57 The first chapter of the book of the Revelation contains a record of that overpowering and shattering, shattering vision of the exalted Christ given to John the Apostle as he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos. John then hears the thunderous voice of the majestic Christ, commanding him to write what he both sees and hears, and to send that message to the seven churches of Asia Minor. And amidst those messages,

2:41 sent by the one whose eyes were as a flame of fire, is that part of the word of this exalted, majestic Christ to the church at Thyatira, recorded in Revelation 2.25, which reads as follows, That which you have, hold fast until I come. That is, cling. Cling tenaciously to my holy truth and my holy ways, until you stand at my coming in my holy presence.

3:24 And it is in the spirit of compliance with such a word from the risen Christ, hold fast that which thou hast till I come, that we are presently focusing our attention upon those central truths, which have comprised the very life, the very soul of this assembly, for our first twenty-five years of existence in the will of God. And in the course of identifying the things that we are to hold fast until He comes, we are presently studying the eighth distinct affirmation of those things, and I've couched it in these words.

4:09 We are determined. We are determined to maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit in every facet of our life and ministry. In our two previous studies of this affirmation, we examined, first of all, the crucial text which mandates such a determination. That text, of course, being Ephesians 4.30,

4:35 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom we are sealed, unto the Day of Redemption. And then we considered not only that explicit command in Ephesians 4.30, but the implicit concern that lies behind it and undergirds it. And that implicit concern is clearly addressed in Isaiah 63, verse 10, in its context where God says of His ancient covenant people, they vexed His Spirit, and He became their enemy.

The Holy Spirit's Essential Role in the Church

5:13 Then in our second study, we sought to identify the primary ways in which the Holy Spirit is grieved in the life of an individual believer. When God says, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, and behind that is the concern that a grieved spirit will become a withdrawn spirit, a prolonged grieving of the Spirit will result in, the spirit being vexed until he utterly withdraws from a congregation, though he will never utterly leave the heart of any truly regenerate man or woman. We have, as the people of God,

5:58 to understand how he can be grieved in our own individual lives. And we sought to open up the Biblical answer to the question of how the individual believer can grieve the Spirit. And now, this morning, we come in our third study of this affirmation to take up the specific ways in which the church in its corporate life can grieve the Holy Spirit. The specific ways in which the church in its corporate life can grieve the Holy Spirit.

6:36 And as we take up this aspect of our study, let me remind you of two things. Let me remind you of two very critical issues clearly taught in the Scriptures. The first is that the Holy Spirit is the one who makes the church a habitation of the living God. In Ephesians 2 and verse 22, the Apostle states this in language that is plain, straightforward, and though it is mysterious and eludes critical analysis in terms of precisely how and in what way does the church become the temple of God, we read, in whom you are builded together

7:20 for an habitation of God in the Spirit. And here these former pagans, dead in trespasses and sins, quickened to life in union with Christ, are constituted nothing less than a very habitation of God by the agency of the Holy Spirit. And secondly, and parallel to this, we must remember it is the Holy Spirit who makes the congregation a sanctuary of the living God. 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 16,

8:00 What know ye not that ye are a sanctuary of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Now these things being so, the presence of the Holy Spirit is essential to our being a true New Testament church. His presence is not an added luxury. Without it, that which makes the church the church is missing.

8:34 It is only the Spirit who constitutes us a dwelling place of God, constitutes us a sanctuary of the living God. And it is His presence, His power, and His manifold operations within His temple, within His sanctuary, within His habitation, that enables us to be what we are to be as a church, and to do what we are called upon to do as a church. And therefore this issue of knowing what it is in our corporate life that would ever grieve the Holy Spirit

9:19 should be a matter of the deepest concern to every single one of us who loves the place of God's special dwelling, who has a Spirit-wrought concern that the Spirit continues and increasingly deposits and actively manifests among us His gifts and graces to make us what we ought to be and to equip us to do what we are called upon to do. Now with that brief reminder of those critical issues before us, we take up the question, how can the Holy Spirit be grieved in the corporate life of any given church?

Grieving the Spirit by Refusing Christ's Preeminence as Savior, Lord, and Life

10:04 And as I've been wrestling with this question according to my present light, I've come to the conviction that there are at least five distinct ways that a church can grieve the Holy Spirit in its corporate life. I want to address two of them this morning and God willing the remaining three next Lord's Day morning. Number one, the Holy Spirit is grieved in any church where Jesus Christ is refused His rightful place of preeminence as the Savior, the Lord, and the life of that church.

10:47 The Holy Spirit is grieved in any church of any denomination, of any size, in any place, in any age, in any circumstances. The Holy Spirit is grieved in any church where Jesus Christ is refused His rightful place of preeminence as the Savior, Lord, and life of that church. Someone says, that has echoes of the first affirmation of the Manifesto. We are determined that Jesus Christ shall have His rightful place

11:31 in the totality of the life and ministry of this assembly. And some very perceptive people with good memories may remember that my three headings were He must have His rightful place as Savior, as Lord, and as life. And without embarrassment I lock in this subject to that first affirmation. Why?

11:55 For the simple reason that God has decreed that in His church Jesus Christ shall have an exclusive, unrivaled, unchallenged place of preeminence among His people. Colossians 1 and verse 18 states this in categorical language. Colossians 1 and verse 18 He, Christ, is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He, might have the preeminence. If I may use

12:39 the imagery of a mountain range with many lofty, breathtaking, snow-capped mountain peaks, and yet there is one mountain among them that under any circumstances viewed from any angle from beneath, above, from the side, from the other mountains juts up high above all the others, it does not matter. Whatever a church's configuration may be in terms of size, deposit of gift, influence, obscurity, or notoriety, no matter what the complexion of that church may be, Christ must always be the Matterhorn whose head catches the light

13:23 of the sun's brilliance and reflects to all who look in that direction that indeed He has the place of unrighteousness and unrivaled, unchallenged, exclusive preeminence. And the Holy Spirit has been given to ensure that He shall have just such a place. And I want you to look with me at two texts that underscore this fact. John chapter 15.

13:56 As our Lord is speaking to the disciples in what is commonly called the upper room or farewell discourse in the Gospel of John, begins in chapter 13 and goes through chapter 16. Here in chapter 15 our Lord says of the coming of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, verse 26, But when the Comforter is come, John 15, 26, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth who proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me.

14:40 And here our Lord encapsulates the whole focus of the ministry of the Spirit. He says when I go, I will send another in my place. And when that other one comes, he will come on a mission that rather than turn your thoughts away from me towards him, towards himself, his whole mission shall be to bear witness of me. So much so that as we read the various portions on the coming of the Comforter, our Lord says when he does come, then you will understand that your condition with the Holy Spirit present

15:25 internally and powerfully in you individually and corporately bearing witness to who I am and what I've done is a far better state than that which you had when I was with you. It is expedient for me to go away and a better state will be ushered in. And the focus of that new state will be the presence of the Comforter whose great central work is to bear witness to Christ. John 16, verses 12 to 15 in the same discourse.

16:00 John 16, verse 12 I have yet many things to say unto you, howbeit ye cannot bear them now, howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth. What truth? For he shall not speak from himself, but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak, and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and shall declare it unto you.

16:36 All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine, therefore said I that he taketh of mine and shall declare it unto you. Here is the broad statement of the Spirit's ministry uniquely fulfilled in the apostles as the direct organs or as the organs of direct revelation that he would bring to remembrance and what was brought to remembrance is embodied in the gospel records and in the epistles. Yet the focus of that ministry of leading into truth is clearly stated by our Lord in verse 14, he shall glorify me.

17:19 He shall set before your minds the broad spectrum of all of the nuances of the significance of my life, my death, my resurrection, my position at the right hand of the Father, things concerning which you now have but dim and indistinct views when he is come. He exegete all of those realities and enable you to understand and perceive the glory of my person and work with reference to you and your salvation and in his ongoing work he will glorify me. Therefore, when the Spirit is present

18:04 in his ungrieved presence in his own chosen sanctuary, in his own living temple, the church, his presence will be manifested by creating the people who are more and more taken up with the glory and sufficiency of Christ and his work as the only Savior of sinners, the mark of a congregation under the influence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit is that there is a growing loving appreciation of Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners.

18:46 The congregation is growing more and more to the point where it can join the Apostle and say with conviction and with truth, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Where the Spirit is present in his ungrieved presence and ministry, the people he forms will be more and more taken up not only with the glory and sufficiency of Christ and his work as the Savior of sinners, but more and more taken up with the majesty

19:31 and authority of his position as Lord and Master of his people. For he said in John 14, 21, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will manifest myself to him. So that in the way of obedience to his word there are greater manifestations of the glory of his person which in turn gives us greater incentive to obey him. And the more we obey him, the more he manifests himself to us and there is that blessed cycle of spiritual experience.

20:09 So the Holy Spirit who has come to testify to Christ, come to reveal Christ where he is present in his ungrieved presence and ministry, you will have a people more and more taken up with the majesty and authority of Christ's position as Lord and as Master. But then where he is present, where he is powerfully at work in his ungrieved presence, there will be a people more and more taken up with the efficacy and sufficiency of his presence and power as the life of his people. He said in John 15, Without me ye can do nothing. As a branch severed from the vine

20:53 loses its life, so you severed from me can do nothing. Colossians 3, 3 and 4 speaks of Christ who is our life, shall be manifested. Philippians 4, 13 I can do all things through Christ or through him who strengthens me. You see, the Holy Spirit has come that Christ may have that place in the life and ministry and worship in every facet.

21:20 That's what he's come to do, to testify of Christ, to glorify Christ, not in some vague, nebulous way, but to make him more and more in the context of growing intelligent faith and more sensitive devotional attachment to him to make us more and more taken up with the glory and sufficiency of Christ as our Savior, more and more taken up with the majesty and authority of Christ as our Lord and our Master, more and more taken up with the efficacy and sufficiency of Christ's presence and power as our life.

22:04 But if Jesus Christ is refused his rightful place of unrivaled preeminence in any one of these areas or in all of them, the Holy Spirit will be grieved. And if he continues to be refused his rightful place, he will be more grieved and more withdrawn until we may ultimately vex him and he may utterly leave the congregation that once throbbed with the life of Christ, which once leaped with joy to obedience in the light of his revealed will, that constantly fed upon him as the only Savior of sinners.

Beware of Diluting Christ's Glory as Savior

22:48 What a frightening thing! Therefore I say by way of exhortation, three bewares. Beware of any doctrinal emphasis or practical teaching which would dilute, undermine, or replace the glory and sufficiency of Christ as the only Savior of his people. Listen to me.

23:15 You children, children, perk up your ears. Listen to Pastor now. Listen. Beware of any doctrinal emphasis or practical teaching which would dilute and you know what you do when you dilute something?

23:31 You don't completely destroy it. You may have some nice Welch's grape juice diluted with water. It will still be purple, but it will taste yucky. It will taste like grape juice, but it won't be the real thing.

23:45 Beware of any teaching which maintains the semblance of doctrinal orthodoxy about Christ and his cross and his salvation, but it is diluting the vigor of the biblical teaching about Christ as the Savior of his people. Beware of any teaching which maintains the semblance of the biblical teaching about Christ as the Savior of his people. Beware of any teaching which maintains the semblance of the biblical teaching about Christ as the Savior of his people. Beware of any doctrinal emphasis or practical teaching which would dilute, which would undermine or replace his glory and his sufficiency as the only Savior of his people.

24:22 This was Paul's great fear for the Galatians. It was his great fear for the Colossians. And if it could happen when living apostles were preaching and guiding the churches, what makes you think it can't happen here? can't happen here. Listen to his words to the Colossian church, the very one to whom he had

24:40 written, saying, it's the will of God that in all things Christ should have the preeminence. He should have preeminence as the one through whom we and all creation are reconciled to God, he says in verse 6 of chapter 2, as therefore you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, established in your faith, verse 8, take heed, take heed, lest there shall be anyone that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ, for in him

25:24 dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power. He says to these Colossians, beware of any emphasis which would delude, undermine, or replace the glory and sufficiency of Christ as the sum and substance of the fullness of God and of your fullness as believers. And I'm placing the emphasis particularly upon his place as Savior of his people. Look at Galatians chapter 3, you remember the problem in the churches at Galatia, the Judaizers had come,

26:06 and they said Christ was not enough for forgiveness and acceptance with God. And here in chapter 3 in verse 1, Paul indicates the close connection between the ministry of the Spirit and the understanding and conviction that Christ is enough, Christ alone is enough for our salvation. Oh foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you, before whose eyes, Jesus Christ was openly set forth, crucified, it's vivid language, he said we placarded Christ crucified before your eyeballs. You see, God doesn't tell us to paint pictures in the place

26:48 of preaching, but he says paint pictures in your preaching. And he said my preaching was a painting on the canvas of a crucified Christ, and I pointed you to him as the only way of life and salvation. Oh foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you, before whose eyes, Jesus Christ was openly set forth, who has bewitched you, who has spasmarized you, that you're turning away from this. Now look at verse 2, this only what I learned from you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the

27:20 law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit, you are now perfected in the flesh? How did he make the transition from Christ placarded to the Spirit? Very simply, wherever the Holy Ghost is present in power, he will always bear witness to the crucified Christ as the only and sufficient ground of a sinner's acceptance with God. Where the Spirit is present, he witnesses to Christ, and the witness

27:52 of Christ is nothing to the added of Jewish ceremonies and forms and rituals. And he says, oh foolish Galatians, you began well. The eye of the soul in its guilt and helplessness and wretched sense of...

28:11 wrath deservingness was fixed upon the immolated Christ who was placarded before you in the preaching. Who has told you to have just one eye on Christ and the other eye on circumcision and holy days and kosher meats? You foolish Galatians, you began in the Spirit, the Spirit who testifies to the total sufficiency of Christ. It is the flesh that would turn you from his total sufficiency.

28:42 It's not new light, advanced light. It's moving back into the very darkness of outer darkness. It is the darkness of hell leaking out into the church when Christ crucified is no longer the soul of the faith of a company of redeemed sinners who say, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Dear people, and I can say with a good conscience, I do not know of any present doctrinal emphasis or practical teaching going

29:24 forth from this pulpit by any man who stands in it. But if I with any doctrinal emphasis or practical teaching that dilutes, undermines, or replaces the glory and sufficiency of Christ as the only Savior of the people, if you tolerate such preaching, you'll continue to be a sinner. And if you tolerate such preaching, you'll continue to be a sinner. And if you tolerate such preaching, you'll continue to be a sinner. And if you tolerate such preaching, you'll

29:52 continue to be a sinner. And if you tolerate such preaching, you'll continue to be a sinner. The second warning, now let me read a hymn I searched out. I said, surely if this is so crucial, there ought to be a hymn in one of the old hymn books somewhere. In one of

30:10 old Joseph Hart's hymns, he captured this truth. Listen to it. The text printed at the top of the hymn is, He Shall Not Speak of Himself, John 16, 13, John 15, 26. Whatever prompts the soul to pride or...

30:26 gives us room to boast except in Jesus crucified is not the Holy Ghost. Whatever prompts the soul to pride or gives us room to boast except in Jesus crucified is not the Holy Ghost. That blessed spirit omits to speak of what himself has done and bids the enlightened sinner seek salvation in the Son. He never moves a man to say, thank God, I made so good, but turns his eye

31:02 another way to Jesus and his blood. Great are the graces he confers, but all in Jesus' name he gladly dictates, gladly hears salvation to the Lamb. Isn't that beautiful in its simplicity? When the Holy Spirit of Christ 온 inscreissementcedeığı времен, The Holy Ghost is dictating the language of the hearts of God's people.

31:28 It's always salvation to the Lamb. And when He hears a people saying, Blessing and glory and honor and power unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb, and He hears the echo of His own work in the sinner's heart, He rejoices. You see, if I may say it reverently, He's the modest person in the economy of salvation. Jesus says, I've come to reveal the Father and to show you the Father.

32:00 And the Spirit comes and says, I've come to reveal and show you the Son. Who is sent to reveal the Spirit? None. He is the modest person in the Godhead in the economy of redemption.

32:14 And where His presence is cherished and not grieved, there, Jesus Christ as the sole hope of the sinner, will be the growing ethos of the highest doctrinal contemplations and the most practical mundane matters of Christian living. All along the way, you'll find the droplets of His own blood and the imprint of His cross.

Beware of Diluting Christ's Authority as Lord and His Grace as Life

32:50 Second warning, beware of any doctrinal emphasis or practical teaching that would dilute. Undermine or replace His authority and His majesty as Lord in His church! Just as I've warned, beware of any doctrinal emphasis or practical teaching that would dilute, undermine or replace His glory and sufficiency as Savior. So, likewise, beware of any emphasis or practical teaching that would dilute, undermine or replace His authority and majesty as Lord in His church.

33:28 Lord. I go back to the Colossians 2, 6 and 7 passage. As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, walk in Him in the same way you received Him as the Sovereign Lord upon His throne and as the welcomed Sovereign to the throne room of your heart. As you received, so walk. Ever hear Him saying in the language of Luke 6, 46, Why do you

33:58 call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? And dear people, that's why you know that this doctrinal formulation that men can take Christ as Savior and be ready to die and go to heaven while refusing to bow to Him as Lord and not be fit to live on earth, you know it's not of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost doesn't damage the majesty and the authority of our Lord who came to His throne room. His throne by way of the cross and whose present mediatorial exhortation is the Father's reward for His sufferings. And He won't give it up so some sinner can go to heaven while

34:42 He lives like hell. Beware, beware of any practical teaching that would dilute, undermine or replace His authority and majesty as Lord. I thought as another text came to mind, it wasn't in my notes, should also put in there His graciousness as Lord. For He said, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And

35:21 the child of God knows that. Beware of anything that would dilute, undermine or replace it. Third warning, beware of any doctrinal teaching or practical emphasis that would dilute, undermine or replace His grace and presence as our very life. Beware.

35:40 Beware of any doctrinal teaching, any practical emphasis that would dilute, undermine or replace His grace and presence as our very life. Again, Colossians 3, 4, when Christ who is our life shall be manifested, ye shall be manifested with Him in glory. If there's to be success in the work of seeing men brought to Christ, what is our hope? It's the hope of those at Antioch, for we read in Acts 11 and verse 21, the hand of the Lord was with them and a great multitude that believed turned unto the Lord. It was the hand of the Lord that

36:23 was with them. There was a dependence upon His grace and power and life-giving enablement and so it must be with us or the Holy Spirit will be grieved and if continually grieved, vexed and if vexed. He will leave us. In summary then, under this first heading, how is the Holy Spirit grieved in the corporate life of any church? This church, since He has come to make all the lives of our religious

36:56 life converge upon Christ as Savior, Lord and life, then anything which dilutes, undermines or replaces the unrivaled preeminence of Christ as Savior, Lord and life, grieves the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit is most present and powerfully active and ungrieved, it will be evident that Christ crucified, Christ enthroned, Christ indwelling and empowering are the throbbing heart of that church.

37:36 And oh, do our many deluded charismatic friends need to hear this. They think the more you talk about the Holy Ghost, the more you have to go to the church. The more you have to lie before you, the more you have things that are just extraordinary. The more you have fireworks and unusual things supposedly attributed to the Holy Ghost, that is the more evident that the Holy Ghost is present. No, my friends that is not so. When the Holy

37:58 Spirit is most present and powerfully active in His ungrieved person and ministry it will be evident in that Christ crucified is most known and loved and solely trusted, Christ enthroned is loved and obeyed. obeyed out of constraint of love. And Christ indwelling and empowering is the confidence of the people of God to fulfill their mission.

Grieving the Spirit by Neglecting Corporate Holiness through Discipline

38:30 And therefore I say in answer to the question, how is the Holy Spirit grieved in the corporate life of any church? He's grieved in any church where Jesus Christ has refused His rightful place of preeminence as the Savior, Lord, and life of His people. Now I'll take less time on this next head, not because it's less vital, but because the first one is most vital.

38:58 And they sound like a contradiction and probably is.

39:02 Because if we have the first, then this will take its rightful place. That's what I mean to say. The second way the Holy Spirit is grieved is this. The Holy Spirit is grieved in any church where corporate holiness is not maintained by the prayerful, compassionate, but faithful exercise of the Holy Spirit.

39:21 The Holy Spirit is grieved in any church where corporate holiness is not maintained by the prayerful, compassionate, but faithful exercise of corrective discipline.

39:42 The Holy Spirit has come to indwell His church in order to constitute it, not just any old kind of a temple, but turn back to 1 Corinthians 3. A special kind of temple. 1 Corinthians 3. What know ye not, verse 16, that ye are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

40:05 If any man destroys the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy,

40:17 and such are ye. The temple of God is holy. It is set apart unto God. It is set apart unto God from the defilement of sin and of this world.

40:32 It is to be His holy temple.

40:37 And the same Holy Spirit who constitutes the church His holy temple uses the many ordinary means of grace most exercised in that temple in order to advance it in holiness. Why does He give pastors and teachers? For the perfecting of the spirit. For the saints unto the work of service.

40:58 For their being stabilized, etc. Ephesians chapter 4. They are the people of God and to be sanctified in the truth. Thy word is truth.

41:07 It's within the living temple and in its public gatherings that God has deposited some of the major means by which He purifies increasingly that temple. The means of grace. The preaching of the Word. Mutual exhortation.

41:23 Hebrews 3 and verse 13. Our coming to the Lord's table with repeated self-scrutiny. That we are coming worthily discerning the Lord's body. Not knowing of any present controversies unresolved with God or man.

41:39 You see, these means have been deposited not primarily to make us feel good, but to make us good. To make us like Christ. However, however, the same Spirit has recorded in the Scriptures what the church is to do when certain sins break out among the members and are not put away by the ordinary means of grace.

42:04 The same Holy Spirit who's instructed us about the ordinary means of grace deposited in the church to be exercised for the constant internal, progressive purifying of the church. He has told us what to do when certain sins crop out and are not dealt with by the ordinary means of grace. And that is the biblical doctrine. The doctrine of corporate, corrective church discipline.

Biblical Examples of Corporate Discipline and Its Necessity

42:33 God Himself taught the lesson directly in the early history of the book of Acts. Turn to chapter 5. God wanted to teach the lesson on the threshold of the church's experience and as He often does, He only taught it once.

42:49 And we don't expect Him to repeat it, though no doubt He has throughout the history of the church in unrecorded instances and in recorded non-spirit instances. But here in the inspired record you know the story of Ananias and Sapphira. The church is thriving. The Lord is adding daily such as should be saved in the face of the opposition of the Samhedrin.

43:15 The servants of God wax bold and have a fresh infilling of the Spirit. And there's a mighty ongoing work of God, a tremendous spirit of voluntary benevolence. The church is being what she's called to be and do by the mighty and dwelling ungodly spirit of God. The grieved operation of the Holy Ghost.

43:35 And there's a couple that agree together to tempt God. And they lie about a matter of benevolence. And God strikes them dead. First the man, then the woman.

43:47 Verse 9 of chapter 5 of Acts. Peter said unto her, How is it that you have agreed together, notice, to try the Spirit of the Lord? Isn't that interesting where the emphasis falls? It didn't say to try God, to tempt the Lord Jesus, because this has been done in the context of the living temple of the living God indwelt by the living Spirit.

44:15 Sin is peculiarly directed at the Holy Spirit.

44:23 God strikes her dead. Verse 10. And she fell down immediately at His feet and gave up the ghost. And the young men came in and found her dead.

44:31 And they carried her out and buried her by her husband. Now notice. Great fear came upon the whole church. And upon all those that heard these things.

44:43 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. The Holy Spirit increasing His peculiar endowment of miracle-working powers upon apostles. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's portico, the unity which Jesus prays for His people and is the outworking of the apostles and the operation of the Holy Ghost upon their hearts. The Holy Spirit is attesting to His increased measures of presence and power unique to apostles.

45:20 Common to all the people of God. Verse 13. Then with their face to the world, but of the rest dared no man join himself to them. The church that can no longer repel has nothing worth attracting to.

45:37 When anyone in any stable, they've got nothing. Nothing worth coming into.

45:47 No man dare join. Just as the presence of God over the tabernacle intimidated the priests so that they could not enter. So God's presence over this living new covenant tabernacle intimidated sinners. But look at the next verse.

46:06 How be it the people magnified them and believers were the more added to the Lord multitude, both of men and women. You see the intensified, the presence and power and operations of the Holy Ghost. It comes on the heels of an incident that would have so grieved the Spirit that there would have been a diminution of the Spirit's operation rather than an augment. So God killed the two that would have grieved the Spirit.

46:43 Now, God doesn't ordinarily do that, but you know what He's done? He's allowed in His Word, not allowed, directed in His Word, circumstances which He permitted in the early days, in the early churches where there were people guilty of sins comparable to the sin of Ananias and Sapphira. And He's told the church what to do when such sins crop out among the people of God. Turn to 1 Corinthians 5.

47:09 Paul hears that the Corinthians, if so bought in to some recent psychologist's doctrine of unconditional love among the people of God, that they're actually proud that they can keep within their membership a man guilty, a man guilty, of a form of immoral relationships that the Gentiles don't even commit. It is actually reported there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even named among the Gentiles that one of you hath his father's wife, and you are...

47:43 And all I can read from that is somebody had sold them the bill of unconditional love. Look at us Corinthians. Unconditional love. Oh yeah, he's got a little problem, a little kinky in his morals, but we love him a lot.

48:00 Paul says you should have mourned. Your heart should have been broken. To what end? That he that had done this might be taken away from you.

48:13 He didn't say you should mourn and try to win him. He said mourn and take him from you. I didn't write it, the Holy Ghost did. And he says I being absent in the body but present in spirit have already as though I were present judged him that had so wrought this thing in the name of the Lord Jesus.

48:33 You being gathered together. Corporate responsibility. By my spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus deliver such a one unto Satan, that is cast him out of the church into the realm where Satan rules for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. And then he comes back again and says your glorying is not good.

48:57 Not only are you not ashamed of this thing, you've brought the fact you can tolerate such a man among you. You've brought the fact you can tolerate such a man among you. You've brought the fact you can tolerate such a man among you. You've brought the fact you can tolerate such a man among you.

49:03 He says don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? You want the whole church to be infected with the leaven of this man's life and so affected that the Holy Ghost will be grieved and depart? Then you go on with your doctrine of unconditional love and your broad-mindedness and your toleration. Purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump.

49:28 That's imagery. But he drops all imagery in verse 9 and following. I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators, not at all meaning with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, idolaters, for then must your needs go out of the world. But as it is, I wrote unto you not to keep company of any man named a brother, be a fornicator or a covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a one know not to eat.

49:58 For what have I to do with judging them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within, but then that are without God judgeth put away the wicked man from among yourselves. Brethren, could Scripture be more clear? The very God who took the initiative and said, I'll tell you how you go about it and he did it in a drastic way when he removed the two hypocrites by a direct intervention.

50:25 But now he says, you got the message through my apostle, I tell you what you're to do in my name and by my authority as a test of your obedience. See, had God come and killed the man, the Corinthians wouldn't have had their obedience tested. But through the apostle, he says, when you gather together, you do it. Oh, yes, but he's somebody's cousin.

50:47 He's somebody else's uncle. He's somebody else's friend. Paul said, I don't care. It's God's temple.

50:54 It's God's house. It's the dwelling of the...

50:58 And when there is such a nature, the Gentiles blush to commit it. What a horrible what you are. A holy temple with such unholiness colorated in your midst.

51:16 That's the same thrust of 2 Thessalonians 3 and Titus 3, verses 10 and 11.

The Danger of Moral Cowardice vs. Diotrephes Spirit

51:22 That's why the Lord Jesus has given standing directions to his church. Matthew 18, 15 to 20. 1 Corinthians 5, 5 and 6. Revelation 2, 14 to 20.

51:36 Where Jesus calls upon these churches to deal with sin in the midst. You see the point? The Holy Spirit is grieved in any church where corporate holiness is not maintained by the prayerful, compassionate, but faithful exercise of corrective discipline. As surely as the Holy Spirit would be grieved by unloving, harsh and unbiblical tyranny exercised in the name of church discipline.

52:09 How he would be grieved to be so misrepresented. When the Diotrephes spirit infects any church where individually and elder or corporately an eldership casts people out of the church impelled by pride and a spirit of desiring preeminence with no compassion and brokenness. What a travesty on what God is like and the Holy Spirit will surely be grieved from any church that tolerates a Diotrephes spirit. But my friend as in the New Testament.

52:49 So in our day, our practical danger is not falling prey to a Diotrephes spirit, but it's falling prey to an unprincipled slushy sentiment that refuses to maintain corporate holiness by prayerful, compassionate, faithful, corporate discipline. And in many a church, the very height of self-belief. and moral countenance is to be found in the fact that people sense the Holy Spirit is green, present in the prayer meetings, present in the worship.

53:33 He is not present in the preaching. And a few discerning people recognize it. And what do they do? They start a prayer meeting for revival.

53:43 Oh, yes, they know that there's a man who's on the diaconate or the eldership who's not qualified, but they won't have the guts to face him. Oh, yes, they know there's an individual in the church who's got a paramour who not only has his legitimate wife, but he has his girlfriend, but he's very influential and he's relative to this one and that one. And they're scared. So what do they do?

54:06 They start a prayer meeting for revival. I call that the height of moral cowardice. And it's an insult to God.

54:15 You go to Joshua chapter seven, Israel's defeated and Joshua and the elders are on their face in a prayer meeting for revival. And God says, Stop your praying. Get off your feet. There's sin in the camp.

54:26 Go deal with it.

54:29 That's the chapter in a nutshell. Stop your prayer meeting and have an investigative meeting. And they narrowed it down from the family to the household to the individual. And when Achan was dealt with, they went forth to victory.

54:46 Dear people, listen to me carefully. I would never discourage any individual or group of individuals who are willing to pay the price of intense seasons of concentrated protracted. Prayer that this church and all the churches throughout the earth might experience in our day increased and copious measures of the work of the spirit among us in conversion in heightened devotion to Christ, increased piety. I would never discourage that of a baptism of a spirit of soul travel for such things.

55:28 But I tell you, ninety-five percent of the revival praying I know about is an expression of moral power.

55:38 It's people whining to God to come and do their dirty work. Because they know in revivals, hypocrites acknowledge that they lied to the Holy Ghost.

55:50 And deacons and elders who don't belong in office acknowledge they don't belong in office and get right with God. And men who have their paramours repent and get rid of their paramours. So they're saying, Oh God, come and do the, the dirty work because we don't have the guts to do it.

56:08 I call it carnal whining. It's not intense, fervent, importunate prayer.

The Greater Glory of Christ and the Frightening Consequences of Neglect

56:17 And dear people of God, of Trinity Church, you want to grieve away the Holy Spirit? Then just begin to draw back in heart. And then it won't be long before you draw back in your actions from pursuing corporate holiness where necessary. By the prayerful, compassionate but faithful exercise of corrective discipline in God's providence.

56:51 Here we are in this subject the morning before we must meet tonight to exercise prayerful compassionate but faithful corporate corrective discipline. And dear people in all of our legitimate heaviness and grief, don't forget what we're doing. We are not only, though, this is true. We are not only praying that such discipline may result as Paul says in the salvation of the Spirit in the day of the Lord Jesus.

57:29 But whether that end is real or not, there is something bigger than the state of any individual. And that is the glory of Christ in a church where the Holy Ghost is not grieved away. Don't ever forget it. Don't forget it.

57:52 Don't forget it when it may be someone close to you who must be disciplined. Don't forget it when it might be someone who has the power to take your job away. Who has the influence and the position. Moral.

58:27 If you love me, keep my commandments. One of which is this. If he hear not the church, let him be to thee as heathen. Lord Jesus, I do love you.

58:41 I do love you. When to obey you may be like cutting my own heart out. Lord Jesus, I love you more than my own feelings. That's it, folks.

59:00 Do you want the Holy Ghost present in this place for generations to come? As long as sin is in this world, there will be certain kinds of sins that will not yield to the ordinary means of grace. And this extraordinary, unpleasant means must be brought in. And if we refuse, then the Lord Jesus will say, I will come.

59:27 Here's my closing text. Frightening text. I wrestled with whether to quote it, but I said, Lord, if you said it, then you must not be embarrassed. He said to a church in Revelation 2.16,

59:39 I will come and war against you with the sword that is in my mouth. Christ loved the church and gave himself for the church. He says, I will come as a warrior to fight against you. The day Christ comes to fight against this place, I want to be buried deep.

60:00 I want to be buried deep. I want to be in another world where I won't know it. God help us. Grieve not the Holy Spirit.

Call to Unbelievers and Concluding Prayer

60:14 Do not grieve him in your individual life in the ways we outlined last week. Do not grieve him in your corporate life by allowing any detraction from Christ or any erosion of the use of this strong, unpleasant means of grace deposited in the church by Christ. And you who are strangers to the Lord Jesus, you've sat here, boys, girls, visitors, and you've sensed the people have been sobered while they've listened to these things. And you know we're not playing games.

60:48 You know that. You'd like to think, oh, that just preacher's acting. He just likes to get up there. But you know down underneath that's not so.

60:56 You sense the reality of heavenly things in this place. This morning. And you know you're out of touch with those things as far as your whole life's orientation. You are what the Bible says, one who's walking according to the course of this present age under the power of the devil himself.

61:12 My friend, listen. All we've said about Christ as Savior, Lord, and life is true. He's that to us. And he'll be all those things to you if you'll stop running the show.

61:30 Try to be your own Savior. Acknowledge that Christ claims over you are legitimate and his promises are trustworthy. Go to this Christ now. Become his.

61:45 Become part of his living temple with his special presence. And then one day stand before him and all sin in all of its manifestations forever behind us and we shall know the joy. Of being like him when we see him as he is. Let us pray.

62:09 Our Father, we plead with you that you will take your holy word and by the ministry of the very Holy Spirit of whom we have spoken this morning do what we cannot do. Cause it so to enter the chambers of the soul that every bit of furniture of thought and desire and emotion that is displeasing to him will be radically rearranged. Anything that needs to be thrown out and scrapped oh that we might willingly and joyfully as it were open the windows of our hearts

62:53 and bid the breath of the Almighty to come and sweep it all away. Oh Holy Spirit take up your residence in ever increasing measures of life and power within us both individually and corporately and may we not grieve you away. Seal your own word to our hearts for the glory of him whom you delight to glorify in the midst of your people even the Lord Jesus. Amen.