How Can a Church Grieve the Holy Spirit? (2)

Introduction: The Grieving of the Holy Spirit in the Church

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, February 23, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. I urge you to follow in your Bibles as I read in your hearing two portions of the Word of God, the portions with which this part of our study began several weeks ago, Isaiah chapter 63, verses 7 through 10, and then in the New Testament, Ephesians 4 and verse 30. Isaiah 63, beginning with verse 7.

0:44 I will make mention of the lovingkindness of Jehovah, and the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them, according to his word.

1:06 I will make mention of the lovingkindness of Jehovah, and the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed on us,

1:36 and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on us,

2:13 and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on us,

2:48 and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on us,

3:18 and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on us, and we are almost stunned by the exquisiteness of the mingled odors of those rare flowers.

3:59 And as we make our way closer to this garden, we notice that to a height of 50 feet, it is entirely surrounded on all four sides by a fine wire mesh, and it is covered at a height of 50 feet. And as we draw closer, we see why. Because it is not only...

4:20 A beautiful, well-kept garden of unusually exotic flowers, but it is also a vast aviary containing some of the most rare birds to be found throughout all of that section of the world. And no sooner do our noses begin to get accustomed to this mingling of the beautiful odors of the flowers, but that our ears begin to hear an exquisite sound. There is the chirping, the warbling, and even, what we might say, a mellifluous screeching of some of those birds. And as we make our way up to the gate,

5:02 we can hardly believe the sights that our eyes see of the vast spectrum of color splashed over the leaves and petals of the various flowers before us, and our ears can scarce believe the symphony of sound that, when it comes to them, from these birds. And we're all loath to leave. We spend several hours making our way through the various footpaths, and our guides explain what the flowers are and the birds are. And after we've done some other sightseeing over the next couple of days, there's a general consensus.

5:39 We must return to that beautiful garden aviary that we visited our first day. And so on that fourth day, we all get back in our buses. And we make our way out to the same place. And as we exit the buses, there has been indelibly stamped upon our brains the memory of those smells picked up by the olfactory nerves.

6:04 Our brains have had an indelible impression of that symphony of sound made by the various birds. And something kicks in, and we're waiting for that smell once again to make its way by our nostrils. But no smell. And we say, well, maybe the breeze has changed direction, and it's carrying it off the other way.

6:28 And we get a little closer, and we hear no sounds. And we say, well, maybe the breeze is stronger than it feels, and it's carrying the sounds further away. And now our pace quickens until we find ourselves right at the very gate of that garden aviary. And there isn't a twitch in our nostrils of receiving any of the smells that were so overpowering just a few days before.

6:54 And the place is as silent as a graveyard.

6:59 And we can't understand what's happened. The flowers are still there, the bushes, the small trees, and we see even perched in a tree here or there some of those rare birds, but there is no song. And we're baffled, and we don't know what to make of this. So we seek out the proprietor, and we ask what happened.

7:19 And he said, it's best they can discern. Someone who developed an understanding, usually toxic material, came in and sprayed that entire garden and aviary with that which immediately killed every living thing, but so coated it with an invisible film that though it was dead, it maintained all of the color and the appearance of life,

7:51 but no fragrance and no sounds.

7:57 You say, Pastor, you must have had, a rough elders meeting yesterday. Your brain has been let loose to fantasize about strange things. No, my friends, not at all. The point of this little fantasy trip is just this.

8:16 I'm trying to illustrate in a way that I hope will make it stick why it is that the Spirit of God has said, grieve not the Holy Spirit. For it is the Spirit and the Spirit alone who has planted us in the garden of God, who makes any one of us who by nature was a noxious stinking weed, He alone can make us begin to be fragrant with the odor and the savor of Christ. And those of us whose mouths were full of cursing and bitterness and who had

8:55 no song that was sweet to the ear of man, let alone to God, it is that God who has put a new song in our hearts. Praise to our God and has made us chirp and warble with the songs of salvation. This is what God does. He makes a beautiful garden, a beautiful aviary, that if the Spirit of God is grieved, we may maintain all the semblance of what was once fragrant and beautiful to

9:32 eye and to ear and to nose utterly, utterly. When the Spirit is removed, when He is grieved and withdraws, He does not necessarily send a balm upon the garden in the aviary. The church building in which the garden gathers is still there. And all the form and semblance of a beautiful exotic flower is still there and of a chirping bird is still there. But the fragrance and the song is gone because

10:14 He is still there. Therefore, as we continue our study in this eighth affirmation of the Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church, namely that we are determined to maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit in every facet of our life and ministry, we are concerned with something that is crucial to our being, the kind of garden and aviary that God desires. We are concerned with the presence of the Holy Spirit in this wicked world. Now, having sought to answer the question, how is the Holy Spirit grieved in the life

10:58 of the individual believer, we are now addressing a second and equally important question, how is the Holy Spirit grieved in the corporate life of a church?

The Holy Spirit's Unique Function as Divine Author of Scripture

11:12 Thus far, two answers have been given to that question from the Scriptures. Number one, the Holy Spirit is grieved in any church. 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. Secondly, the Holy Spirit is grieved in any church where corporate holiness is not maintained by the prayerful, compassionate, and faithful exercise of corrective discipline. Now, today, we are going to focus upon a third

11:51 way in which the Holy Spirit can be grieved in the corporate life of a congregation. I said Wednesday night that it was my purpose to cover three things, but in my more definitive preparation, it became clear that I could only address one, and the issue is so weighty that this is not beating something thin at the edges. It is this. The Holy Spirit is grieved in any church where the Scriptures are not given.

12:22 We're going to reflect on this sometime, I think, prior to I make this attack . Now, there is a civilization, a culture,��, which means that every religious organ is running after the Holy Spirit. In this culture, we pass down today the message of a spiritual life and the Christian dynamic of being happy, naughty, silent, acting in Wirth, having ways of Everything, loving theいい. But if we do this right now, this code gets Yazooals out of the sempice in the parece center at this point.

12:54 Now, if we are to understand why this is a sober fact, consider with me two things concerning the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Holy Scriptures. When we understand these two things, then I believe we will see why He is grieved in any church where the Scriptures are not given their rightful supremacy. See, consider with me first of all His unique function as the divine author of Scripture, and then secondly His unique designation as the Spirit of Truth.

13:34 First of all then, His unique function as the divine author of the Scriptures. Most, if not all of us, are familiar with what Paul asserts in 2 Timothy 3.16 concerning the nature of Scripture. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

13:57 More literally rendered, all Scripture is God-breathed. Scripture is the very out-breathing of the mind of God in characters that can be read. Scripture is God-breathed in its very nature. However, that text does not tell us, thus, what person of the Godhead, if any, is uniquely active in giving us God-breathed, inscripturated, revelatory data.

14:37 That is, our Bibles. However, in 2 Peter chapter 1, to which I would now turn with you, we are told that one of the persons of the Godhead is particularly and uniquely, uniquely active in giving us this deposit of God-breathed literature.

15:03 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 21. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spake from God, being moved, literally being carried along, borne along by the Holy Spirit.

15:26 Now, just that you might feel the force of Peter's words, I take just a moment to give you the drift of the setting. He says in verse 16 that we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter says when we apostles speak about the power and the presence of the Lord Jesus at His second coming, it's not because we've been duped. That someone has told us fables like my little fantasy fable in the introduction of the sermon today.

16:02 He said, no, when we spoke of these things, we spoke as those, the end of verse 16, who were the very eyewitnesses of His majesty. And he was not speaking of His majesty generically, but His majesty particularly manifested on the Mount of Transfiguration, verse 17. For He received from God the Father. The Father honor and glory when there was born such a voice to Him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

16:38 And this voice we ourselves heard born out of heaven when we were with Him in the Holy Mount. There's a reference to the Mount of Transfiguration. So Peter says when we tell you that Jesus Christ will come in glory, glory and power, we have not been told fables, but we actually beheld, as it were, a preview of that coming in power and in glory. When there on the Mount of Transfiguration for a few moments, there was an outshining of the inherent dignity and majesty and glory of the God-man that dazzled and baffled and smote to the earth.

17:22 These apostles who were with Him, the three, Peter, James, and John. And he says, therefore, when we speak of the majesty and the glory and power revealed at His second coming, it's not because we've been spooked by some fables. Oh, no. He said we saw the very preview of that glory on the Holy Mount.

17:43 What could be a more certain way of knowing something is going to come in the future than when you've seen with your own eyes a pledge of it? But Peter says we do have something more certain. Verse 19. And we have the word of prophecy made more sure than sees a preview of the coming glory.

18:08 He said we've got something more sure. Where unto you do well that you take heed is unto a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart, knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is a private interpretation, for no prophecy ever came, by the way, in the will of man, but men spake from God being born along by the Holy Spirit. The bottom line of what Peter is saying is this. No, we did not follow fables.

18:41 We saw an outbursting of His glory when we were with Him in the Holy Mount. But we have even a more sure revelation of His coming glory, and that is the inscripturated prophecy. That is God's own holy word in writing. He's saying that He will come again in power and in great glory.

19:05 And the reason why that is more sure than even the thing we saw is that something might have struck my fevered brain and I might have had an apparition. But when I hold Scripture, it's no apparition. It is the product of God the Holy Ghost taking holy men and so God, governing and controlling their thought processes that what they write are the very words of the living God, infallible, inerrant, certain, and true, joining that corpus of which Christ spoke when He said,

19:49 Though heaven and earth pass away, my word shall never pass away. They become the permanent embodiment of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's unique activity. Therefore, it doesn't surprise us in Scripture that when a scriptural author speaks, it is said that the Holy Spirit by them. For example, Mark 12, verses 35 and 36.

20:24 Mark chapter 12, verses 35 and 36. Jesus answered and said as He taught in the temple, How say the scribes that the Christ is the Son of David? David himself said in the Holy Spirit. The Lord said unto my Lord, etc.

20:47 Verse 37, David himself calleth him Lord. Well, who gave us that passage of Scripture? David or the Holy Spirit? Well, they both did.

20:58 It is David's word. But it is David speaking and in this setting writing in the Holy Spirit in the realm of the unique control and superintendence of the Holy Spirit so that what David wrote are the very words the Holy Spirit himself desired should be left as a permanent deposit of God-breathed Scripture.

21:31 Likewise, in Acts 1 and verse 16, just one other example, we could multiply these, but I want to give you just enough so that you become familiar with the language and every time you see it, it will trigger by law of association what we've studied this morning. Acts 1 and verse 16. Prior to the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, as they are praying and praising God, the Spirit of God reminds them of some business that needs to be taken care of. Peter speaks and says, Brethren, it was needful, Acts 1, that the Scripture should be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spake before by the mouth of David.

22:15 The Holy Spirit spoke, but He spoke by the mouth of David. Now listen carefully. Miss either of these things and you'll miss the nature of Scripture. The fact that David was involved does in no way neutralize it is the Spirit who spoke.

22:33 The Spirit is God. God cannot lie. God cannot err. God cannot make mistakes.

22:40 So if God's, it is fully authoritative, infallible, inerrant, it is the Word of God. God the Holy Spirit spoke, but He spoke by the mouth and also the pen of David. When David spoke, was he put into neutral? Into ecstasy?

23:06 There's no indication that he was. All of his rational faculty, these were involved, receiving impressions. His mind then triggered the motor part of the brain that makes the tongue move and push against the teeth and the roof of the mouth and air comes up over the larynx. For if he were writing, it was indeed truly a man speaking and therefore it will have David's style.

23:33 It will reflect David's personality. It is David speaking.

23:40 It's David. It is David speaking in this passage. Not Isaiah. Not Hosea.

23:45 Not Moses. David speaking. And all that David is as David will be seen in what he spoke and wrote. David's writing will be smothered with David's fingerprints.

23:58 Not Moses. Not Isaiah's. Not Hosea's. But David's.

24:05 But you see the fact that does not in any way neutralize the reality that the Spirit spoke. You see? And if we're to understand who it is that the Holy Spirit is grieved in any church where the Scriptures are not given their rightful supremacy and regulating the doctrine, worship, ministry, and congregational life of that church, we must understand His unique function as the divine author of the Scriptures.

The Holy Spirit as Author of Two Incarnations: Living and Written Word

24:45 I have found it helpful in my own devotional life and in my life as a Christian. Life as a servant of God. To think in terms of the Holy Spirit being the unique author of two great incarnations.

24:59 To incarnate something means to put it into flesh. The Holy Spirit is uniquely the author of two great incarnations. He is the unique author of the incarnation of the living Word. And He is the unique author and effector of the incarnation of the written Word.

25:21 You remember the incident in Luke chapter 1 when the angel visits Mary and he announces that she is going to be the instrument in the hands of God through which Messiah will be brought into the world. Luke chapter 1, follow with me. Verse 30, Fear not, Mary, thou hast found grace with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb.

25:47 Mary will conceive. It is her womb. And she'll bring forth a son. And she'll call his name Jesus.

25:56 That's what's going to happen. She'll conceive. She's going to conceive a son. She's going to carry it full term or at least sufficient to full term that it will be a healthy child.

26:06 You'll bring forth a son. And his name is announced. Then the angel talks about his person, his office, his identity. He shall be great.

26:17 He shall be called, designated, Son of the Most High. The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. Of his kingdom there shall be no end.

26:29 Problem.

26:31 How can this be? I've had no sexual intimacy with a man.

26:37 Angel, you come from the presence of God. You know the facts of life as well as I do. If I'm to conceive in my womb, I must have that relationship which is God's divine means of producing.

26:53 I'm a virgin. I've not had sexual intimacy with a man. How can this be? The angel's answer is, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.

27:10 Wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten of thee shall be called Son of God. And you see what God does? He throws this beautiful blanket of mystery over the whole transaction and simply says, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And in the darkness, God will do His mysterious work.

27:43 And by the direct agency of the Holy Spirit, conception takes place in Mary's womb. The modus operandi is veiled in the overshadowing of God. God does this amazing, this pivotal, little work of the mystery of godliness. How He constitutes the theanthropic person, the God-man, as much man as though He were no God, as much God as though He were no man.

28:15 Two distinct natures join forever in the one glorious person and God shrouds it all in the darkness of the overshadowing and all He says is the Holy Spirit effect. That's His great Incarnation. The Incarnation of the Living Word attributed peculiarly to the agency of the Holy Spirit. Mysteriously, instantaneously, secretly, but highly reversibly, our blessed Lord is constituted the God-man in the womb of the Virgin.

28:55 But now the same Spirit has done another marvelous work of Incarnation, not giving flesh and bones to something, but giving substance to something, the mind of God locked up in its own infinite glorious essence. Almighty God has enfleshed. For the Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 2, Who knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? Right now I'm going to think about something totally unrelated to this service.

29:33 Anyone here want to tell me what I was just thinking? Anyone want to raise your hand and venture a guess? Why not? Who knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him?

29:49 I know what I was thinking. You know what I was thinking? There is no snow on the ground outside. You didn't know it.

29:56 Why? Who knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? But once I took my thoughts and framed them into words. Now you all know that in the middle of a service, Pastor Mark was thinking that there's no snow on the ground.

30:10 But I was doing that not as a sinful, a distraction, but to make the point. The Scripture goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 2, even so no man knoweth the things of God, look at the text, save the spirit of God. The Holy Spirit fully knows the mind of God. Verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 2, who among men knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him?

30:39 Even so the things of God none knoweth save the spirit. The spirit who is God himself fully comprehends the mind of God. But it would be locked up from us unless God incarnates it in a way that we can receive it. And he has done that, Paul says, which things also we speak.

31:02 Having received the spirit from God, we now speak forth the mind of God. Notice now, not in words. The only symbols by which thought can be articulated. The only symbols by which thought can be articulated.

31:14 Words, not in words, which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the spirit teacheth. Paul said we express the revealed mind of God in the very words God chooses for us to express it. That's God's second great incarnation. That didn't occur instantaneously, suddenly.

31:41 It stretched out over a period of 1,500 years. But when that process was complete, the final words, the words of the last bit of that unfolding of the mind of God in the words of God, God himself says, if any man adds to the words of this book, God shall add the plagues contained in it. If any shall take away, his name shall be taken out of the book of life. You see his second great incarnation?

The Holy Spirit's Unique Designation as the Spirit of Truth

32:13 It's the incarnation of his own mind in the written word. Now, you say, what in the world does all this have to do with grieving the spirit? I hope you begin to see. If the Holy Spirit has gone to such pains to be the prime leading agent in the effecting of the first great incarnation, the enfleshment of the living word, Jesus Christ, do you see why our point two weeks ago is valid?

32:46 If Jesus Christ is in any way nudged or pushed from his rightful place in the church as savior, Lord, and is fighting against the very ministry of him who came not only to effect his incarnation, but now to take of the things of Christ and to reveal them and make them exceedingly precious. And wherever the Holy Spirit is powerfully present and active and ungrieved, there you will find Christ central with intelligent biblical faith. with ever-growing, burning, passionate, holy love to Him,

33:32 with confidence in Him, subjection to Him, dependence upon Him, and likewise, in a work that He effected over 1,500 years, various times and places, bringing together into that which we now hold as our Bibles, the Old and the New Testaments. He did all of this. Why? So that the people of God might have the full revelation of the mind of God essential for their life in this present age.

34:09 And the next direct revelation will come when we hear the voice of the archangel in the trump of God and we see Him face to face. And in the interim period, God has given us all things necessary for faith and life within the pages, of this blessed book. And in all the life and ministry of the church, when the Spirit is not grieved, not only will the God-man in the glory of His person and the majesty of His office and the sufficiency of His work have His unrivaled place of preeminence, but it's equally true

34:52 when He is not grieved. You will find the Scriptures, His second great incarnation, given there, a rightful supremacy in regulating the doctrine, worship, ministry, and congregational life of that church. But I said we must not only understand something of His unique function as the divine author of Scripture, but secondly and more briefly, His unique designation as the Spirit of Truth. His unique designation as the Spirit of Truth.

35:29 Very interesting. He's called the Holy Spirit, most frequently. And when we come into the chapters that we're now going to look at briefly, several texts in the Upper Room Discourse where the Lord is telling His disciples what the new arrangement will be. When we say the new economy, it has nothing to do with money.

35:46 We mean God's new arrangement of things as He's working out His purposes in the earth. He's telling them what the new economy will be, the new arrangement. He goes back bodily to the right hand of the Father. And He sends the Spirit.

36:01 The Spirit, in that Upper Room Discourse, is designated most frequently as the Comforter, the Paraclete, the one called alongside to help. But next to His designation as Paraclete, you know what is the most frequently used designation? Not the Spirit of love, not the Spirit of joy, certainly not the Spirit of giddiness, and certainly not the Spirit of mindless gibberish as proof that people have the Spirit. He is called the Spirit of Truth.

36:35 Open your Bibles with me, please, to John chapter 14, verses 16 and 17. I'm asserting that to understand how the Spirit can be grieved when Scripture is dislodged from its rightful supremacy, we must not only understand His unique function as the divine author of Scripture, but His unique designation as the Spirit of Truth. John chapter 14, verses 16 and 17. And I will pray the Father in this new arrangement, this new economy, He shall give you another Comforter, another Helper, another Advocate, that He may be with you forever,

37:20 even the Spirit of the Truth. The article is there, and there's no good reason for leaving it untranslated. It is best I've been able to track it down in my most trusted, Greek commentators and references to the grammar. Even the Spirit of the Truth, whom the world cannot receive, for it beholds Him not, neither knows Him, ye know Him, for He abides with you and shall be in you.

37:49 I will pray the Father. He will give you the Comforter, and He is designated as the Spirit.

38:02 We cannot conceive of His first activity in the new economy, separate from the Truth. John 15, verse 26, in the continuation of that Upper Room Discourse, having told them that in the new economy they will be hated, some of them killed, abused for His name's sake, they will be treated as He was treated, His consolation to them is, verse 26, but when the Comforter, the Advocate, the Helper, the Paraclete, is come, whom I will send unto you, from the Father,

38:41 even the Spirit which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of me. He is the Spirit of the Truth. And then in John 16, verses 12 to 15, in that same Upper Room Discourse, it's all one piece of fabric. He doesn't leave the room until John 17, goes out, prays that prayer recorded.

39:15 John 16, verses 12 to 15, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now, howbeit when He, the Spirit, is come, He shall guide you into all the 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. Here He is designated again as the Spirit of the Truth, and He will have a twofold, He will have a twofold ministry. He shall not only bring to remembrance what they have seen and heard

39:57 in their contact with the Lord Jesus, but a prophecy fulfilled uniquely in the Book of the Revelation through John the Apostle, though fulfilled through other Biblical writers, He shall show you the things that are. You see, His unique designation as the Spirit of the Truth, if it teaches us nothing else, teaches us this, that if we would not grieve the Holy Spirit, we had better be very sensitive to that which is called the Truth. He is the Spirit of the Truth, and where the Truth may be lightly or carelessly set by

40:41 that which is most precious to Him, so precious that one of His unique designations is the Spirit of the Truth. And therefore, it should not surprise us that in His ministry, the executor of the will of Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit who comes to bring the internal application of the salvation purchased by the Lord Jesus in every facet of that work of the Spirit, what is the instrument constantly in His hands? It's the Truth.

41:26 That wild, self-destructive, headlong plunge into Hell. What is the by which He gets us and brings us into the Kingdom? It's the Truth. James 1.18,

41:41 of His own will, that's how He got us, by the Word of Truth. Faith cometh of hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10.17, the passage we had in the Sunday school hour, 1 Peter 1, having been begotten again, by the Word of God.

42:10 It shouldn't surprise us that not only is the Truth His instrument in the divine begetting, it is called His sword. Ephesians 6.17, the sword of the Spirit. What is the instrument by which He lays bare the hearts of men?

42:26 Hebrews 4.12 and 13, the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. What is the instrument by which He gives us hope? Romans 15.4,

42:38 by the comfort and patience of the Scriptures, that we have hope. What is it that warns us? Moreover, by them is thy servant warned. What is it that comforts us?

42:50 Wherefore, brethren, comfort one another with these words. I say it reverently. Take the Truth out of the Spirit's hand, and you leave Him with no instrument. It is God breathed Scripture that He uses, because He is the Spirit of the Truth, He is the Spirit of the Truth.

Application 1: Do Not Ignore or Arrogantly Reject Scripture's Doctrine

43:16 Now do you see then why He is grieved? If there is any replacement of the rightful supremacy of this book in regulating the doctrine, the life, the ministry, the congregational experience of any church. Well, I hope I have established the thesis. Now, quickly, I want to make some applications.

43:40 Number one, if we would maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit we must not, as a church, ignore or arrogantly reject any doctrine taught by the Scriptures. If we would maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit, we must not willfully ignore or arrogantly reject any doctrine taught by the Scriptures. If 2nd Timothy 3.16 is true and it is, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and His providence to be profitable

44:24 to make the man of God complete, verse 17, then there is no doctrine that comes within the God-breathed Scriptures that we have any right willfully to ignore or arrogantly to reject. In the consecutive reading of the Word of God we must never come to a portion concerning which we say, well, if I take that seriously that may rattle my cage. I will just willfully pass over it. That's willful ignorance.

45:00 Or we may look at it and say, that seems to say this. The more I look at it, it's obvious it says that, but I don't like that. Do you know what we're doing? As I prayed, Lord, how can I make this stand out in the stark, ugly reality of what it really is?

45:20 Suppose the Lord Jesus were to come down from the right hand and he were beginning to speak and say some things, and you sat there and said, oh, that offends me, and you would have run up on the platform and clasped your mouth over the mouth of Jesus. What would the rest of us do here? We'd wonder that such a person wouldn't drop dead. My friend, that's exactly what you do when you come to any doctrine in Scripture and say, oh, I don't like that.

46:02 You clasp your carnal, arrogant hand over the mouth, or you treat him that way. And why is the Holy Spirit grieved in many a church? Well, not only because they failed to implement corrective discipline to cast out evil people, not only because Christ has been replaced by super personalities and by games and fun and entertainment grieved in many a church that may not have undisciplined, immoral people in it, may not have a three-ring circus, but it has a group of

46:45 people in it. I will willfully ignore many doctrines that are not popular and I will arrogantly reject any doctrine I can't understand. Oh, dear people of God, don't do that. Don't do that.

47:05 Don't do that. Don't do that. I exhort you, do not in any way subject the Holy Spirit's mind in Scripture to human pride for Isaiah 66 1 and 2 says this. Where's the house you're going to build for me?

47:23 God says that will secure my presence. He said it doesn't exist. Everything is mine. I made it.

47:29 You can't build a house big enough to hold me. But he says to this man will I look even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. Isaiah 55, 8 and 9 my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways. As the heavens are high above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts and my ways above your ways. Oh, dear

48:00 people, may we never, never in human pride willfully ignore anything in the Scriptures that should be part of that which we call the doctrine we embrace and humbly confess to be God's truth. You see, you may go down to the Jersey Shore with your mother and a mug that you drink your coffee in and you may dip it into the surge and bring it out and say my mug is full of the Atlantic Ocean. That would be true. But oh what a fool you'd be to say my mug contains the whole of the Atlantic Ocean.

48:43 There's all the difference in the world. And when your coffee mug can contain the Atlantic Ocean then your brain can contain God's mind. Until then take the posture of a creature. That's Paul's answer to human arrogance that won't receive a doctrine such as the doctrine of election.

49:07 Read it in Romans 9. When the objector says, wait a minute, you mean God made a choice between this one and that one before they were born? Before there was anything perceived in their character and conduct that would make one more worthy than the other? And yet he's going to judge them both? That's not fair!

49:25 You know what Paul's answer is? Well, sit down and I'll reason it through with you. And he says, nay, oh man. Nay, oh reply against God. Man!

49:39 Never put them this way. Never put them this way! You and I are on our face. You can't even suck the next lung full if he doesn't give you the breath.

49:55 For he giveth to all life and breath and all things. Oh, may we never, never, never in this place grieve the Spirit by willful ignorance or arrogant rejection of any doctrine taught. By the Scriptures. Second exhortation is this. If we would

Application 2: Permit Nothing Unsanctioned by Scripture in Worship

50:16 maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit, we must never permit and approve in our corporate worship anything not sanctioned by the Scriptures. If we would maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit, we must never permit and approve in our corporate worship anything not sanctioned by the Scriptures. The only worship sought by the Father according to Jesus in John 4, 23 and 24 is what kind of worship? The Father seeks those to worship Him in Spirit and in what? Truth.

50:56 They who worship Him must worship in Spirit and where is that truth? It's in this book. And to introduce anything into His worship for which we have no warrant in the truth is to insult God and to grieve the Holy Spirit. We must resist the pressure to be regulated by human traditions or consensus of men.

51:23 This was the great problem with ancient Israel. Read about it in Deuteronomy 18, 9 where God says you must not learn the way of the nations and frame your life and your worship and your corporate experience by their ways. Paul had to warn the Colossians in Colossians 2, 8 against the traditions of men that would intrude in their concepts of God and salvation and therefore regulate their worship introducing intermediaries rather than the one mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Dear people of God, don't ever grow weary of God's manna.

52:02 You know what God's manna is? His own institutions by which He has ordained to feed our souls. That's what manna was to the wilderness generation, was it not? It was God's own uniquely fully balanced diet sent down every morning six days a week in double portion on the sixth day so they could have enough for their Sabbath.

52:29 But you know what happened to those foolish people? They got weary of the manna. All it did was keep them alive, had all the vitamins and minerals, trace minerals. None of them were going crazy because they didn't have enough zinc and trace minerals. None of them

52:41 were malnourished. But they got tired of it. God's marvelous provision to need all of their for physical sustenance. They got weary of it. That's what happened.

52:55 It happens in churches like this. All we've got is God's plain-jane institutions. Reading the Bible. Praying. Singing praises.

53:05 In theologically truth-framed hymns. Not by somebody's twitch in their feelings but framed by the truth. Reading the Bible. This stinking old manna. I want something fresh.

53:27 You know what God gave them? He gave them flesh till it came out their nostrils and they chubbed and they do that to this place. They got weary of God's manna. You'll grieve the Spirit and when He goes. Go back to my fantasy

53:46 trip to the exotic island. You just can't live long without flowers that don't smell and birds that don't chirp. So people will start to create their own fragrances and make their own sounds. But the Holy Ghost is gone.

54:20 You get wiser than I am and I'll leave you in the arrogance of your ignorance. Dear people of God, may it never be so. Because when a church has to gather with an absent God, the human heart longs for something real. Man's a very religious creature and he'll make up his own substitute.

Application 3: Maintain a Scripturally Saturated Ministry

54:47 Third exhortation, if we would maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit. And here I plead especially with you young men and women in your twenties, early thirties. So you can always tell how old someone is by who he calls young. A few years ago I would have said you mature men and women.

55:07 But you kids in your twenties and thirties. And you real kids in your teens. Listen to me now especially. I'm dead serious now.

55:17 Hear me carefully. If we would maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit we must never receive approve or perpetuate in this place anything less than a scripturally saturated ministry. Do you hear me? We must never receive approve or perpetuate.

55:59 And what do I mean by that? I mean a ministry that no matter where you poke it or punch it out comes Bible. Because my Bible says even in the instruction of little ones what will make them wise to salvation? Puppeteers?

56:15 Making them giggle and laugh? No. You read in the book of Timothy Paul could write to Timothy and say 2 Timothy 3, 14 and 15 Timothy hold on to the things which you've received. Know of whom you have received them and that from a a nursing babe you have known the which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.

56:45 Not puppeteers entertaining you. Not little fiddle faddle stories that make you giggle. It is the that will make our precious children wise to salvation. And I thank God for a Sunday school in which the scriptures saturate the curriculum. And that's the way it ought to be.

57:10 In the teaching of our youth the same is true in the pulpit ministry. Any ministry in our outreach it must be a ministry saturated with the word of God for Paul says to Timothy his son and the faith as he's about to leave his final charge 2 Timothy 4 I charge thee in the sight of God in Christ Jesus who shall judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom And he says Timothy even when people don't want it the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine but they'll have a case of chronic itching ears and then they will heap to themselves

57:54 a bunch of teachers whose one mastery is how to tickle itching ears. Turn away their ears from the truth. Well what's Timothy to do? Go with the flow? People

58:05 can't take solid preaching anymore. You can't get rooted in Bible. From a so called reformed seminary in their quarterly blurb to advertise what they're doing. They had the nerve to produce an article saying the day of consecutive expository preaching is over man. Get with it. Face

58:27 up with it. It's passe. That's right. You can't expect people in today's world to do that.

58:33 The theme, the subject is dictated by the next verse. You gotta be relevant man. The only way you're gonna get a hearing is you gotta speak to the issues that people are already interested in. Who says so? My

58:46 Bible says. I'm pure for all men. Why? Because I've scratched people's ears where they itch in their carnal desires. No.

58:59 I've not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. You dear young people never, never, never, never receive or perpetuate in this place than a scripturally saturated ministry. And if God gives this place over to foolish leadership where they're mesmerized by the influence of eloquence not saturated with the Bible and you've tried to get your voice heard and have something done and they won't hear then go somewhere where you get a Bible saturated ministry. Leave all your happy memories of this place behind.

59:43 Your memories can't take you to heaven. Only God by His grace through the ministry of the Word can. And there are eloquent people who aren't saturated with the scripture and Romans 16, 17 and 18 says that they can begin to beguile the hearts of the innocent. Some of the greatest harm has come to the church of Christ through eloquent men who had enough of Christ and enough of the Bible not to be recognized for what they were. They were

60:11 bridges from orthodoxy to liberalism. They were bridges from Bible saturated ministry ministries. But because they were eloquent people didn't recognize them. I hope you young people, young men and women are developing a spirit of discernment. I don't

60:35 care how eloquent a man may be. If he doesn't keep hooking you into this book and convince your judgment with an open Bible on your lap, don't talk! Don't perpetuate it because the Holy Ghost won't stay long where His own second incarnation is replaced by human eloquence. Beware of those with the captivating influence of a charismatic personality who are not saturated with the Word of God.

61:07 I tell you, Norman Vincent Peale, if you've ever heard him, he's got a captivating charismatic personality. If you can't sit and be gripped by Norman Vincent Peale, there's something wrong with you. There's just something about the man that's captivating. That's why at age almost 90 if he's still around, he can still fill a hole wherever he goes.

61:27 Oh, you dear people, listen, listen. Don't be duped by captivating personalities if they don't saturate the ministry with the Word. Don't be hooked by the fascinating influence of pop psychology promoted by a specious and artificial use of the Word of God. Fascinating influence of pop psychology promoted by a specious and artificial use of the Word of God.

61:59 The airwaves are full of such people. They have their followings by the million in which they've taken humanistic psychology and sprinkled it with the semblance of a verse here and there. They've done what Peter says. They've twisted the Scriptures.

62:16 You beware of it. You, the people of God, along with the leadership, must be convinced that the Spirit will not be grieved unless, unless we approve, receive, and perpetuate only a ministry that is scripturally saturated. Well, my time is gone. I had a fourth exhortation. I leave it.

Conclusion: Grieve Not the Holy Spirit

62:38 Go back to the garden aviary. I believe by His grace God's made such a garden aviary in this place. We don't have all the sweet smell that I pray we will have as we have more of Christ and more of His grace and more likeness to it. We don't chirp and warble and sing as beautifully as I believe we can.

63:07 But I believe this is a God-made garden aviary with real fragrance and with real songs. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Don't grieve Him by allowing the Scripture taken from their place of rite. In every facet of our doctrine, our worship, our ministry, and our congregational life.

63:50 I close with these very brief words of a simple little poem that I found a few days ago and it's been haunting me. The only way I can get it out of my system is to read it. The fourth, second line has the word mean, m-i-e-n. It's a synonym for appearance. Keep that in mind

64:11 as I close by reading this simple expression of what's on my heart. Sin is a monster of such awful mean that to be hated needs but to be seen. Sin is a monster the sin of grieving the Holy Spirit and all of its horrible results of such awful mean that to be hated needs but to be seen. But seen too oft, familiar with face, we first endure, then pity, then embrace. You see?

64:56 To truly see it, but to look at it long, and not to hate and avoid it, we first endure, then pity, then embrace. Grieve not, grieve not the Holy Spirit. Our Father, what can we say in your presence but have mercy upon us? When we think of those gardens and aviaries that you planted

65:40 in days gone by, the fragrance of which and the song of which went out to the ends of the earth, that are now nothing but grown-over fields with thorns and nettles, and not a living bird that finds any resting place in which to sing. O God, spare us such an end. Write upon the heart, the corporate heart of this assembly, a determination that your Spirit will not be grieved away by replacing the rightful supremacy of your Holy Word in the totality of our life.

66:24 Lord, where we are presently walking in a way contrary to Scripture, show it to us. Where there are doctrines put there for our good to believe, and we are ignorant, teach us. Where we believe things we ought not, correct us. O Lord, do anything to us, but take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

66:47 Seal your word, and to your name be the praise and the honor, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.