How Can an Individual Grieve The Holy Spirit?

Introduction: The Command Not to Grieve the Holy Spirit

0:04 This message was delivered on February 2nd, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 Now may I encourage you to turn with me in your own Bibles to Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 4, and follow as I read verse 17 to the end of the chapter. Ephesians 4 and verse 17.

0:41 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart, who being past feeling, gave themselves up to the sin, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye did not so learn Christ, if so be that ye heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus, that ye put away as concerning your former manner of life, the old man that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit, and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put away as concerning your former manner of life, and put on the new man that after God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth, each one with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,

2:07 neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole, steal no more. But rather, let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that hath need. Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear.

2:34 And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the... the day of redemption.

2:44 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. Now let us again unite our hearts in prayer, and unitedly beseech, the Holy Spirit to open the Word of God to our understanding.

3:20 Our Father, in the language of the hymn we have sung, we have pleaded that the Spirit would be given to us, to reveal Yourself, to reveal the Son. And we pray that He would be given to illuminate our minds, to bring instruction, to bring where necessary conviction, and reproof, to bring encouragement, strength of soul. O Lord, do for us in the preaching of the Word what You as God can do. Hear our cry and come to us with power and blessing, we pray, in Jesus' name.

Illustration: The Difference Between an Inanimate Monument and a Living Person

4:04 Amen. Now I want to have you exercise your imagination this morning, and imagine with me that you, as a married man with your wife, are visiting our nation's capital, that place called Washington, D.C. And in the course of spending a couple of days touring the various sites in Washington, D.C., you presently find yourself standing before that larger-than-life figure of old Abraham Lincoln, sitting very peacefully in his large, chair at that very popular tourist attraction, the massive and impressive Lincoln Memorial. And while you're standing there with your wife and other tourists, looking upon old Abe, suddenly, out of the group of tourists, some character starts screaming and hollering and breaks through the security guards and starts kicking at old Abe's shins.

5:20 And while he kicks, he spits upon his knee, and he curses him with a string of foul oaths. Well, of all the different emotions which such actions would precipitate in you and perhaps in your wife, and in the other onlookers and in the security guards, one thing is sure. It would cause no grief, no pain to old Abe, either in the larger-than-life representation in the Lincoln Memorial, or in his soul, wherever he may be. However, after the excitement has died down, and you've seen the other sights you planned to see for that day, you get in your car, and you're making your way back to the motel with your wife, and you notice that she's rather reserved. And you sense, knowing her as you do, that something's troubling. You say, dear, what's on your mind? And she says, in that way you know is not really true, and she says, oh, nothing.

6:30 And you let it pass, and a little more time goes by, and, dear, something's troubling. What is it? Oh, no, no, nothing. So you get to your motel, and you get ready for dinner, and you feel very noble and chivalrous, and without her knowing it, you've planned to take her to a very nice restaurant, and you've made reservations, and you are met by a maitre d' with a European accent, a real high-class place, and yet you sense all during the meal.

6:58 She doesn't sense expressed real delight and excitement, and you ask her again, dear, what's going on? Nothing. And so the evening passes, and it's time to go to bed, and as you're getting ready for bed, you get under the covers, and she puts her head in the crook of your arm. Suddenly you feel she's shaking.

7:16 You say, dear, you're crying. You're surprised. What is it, dear? And then she tells you, you've come to the end of the day and completely forgotten.

7:27 It was her birthday. And she's hurt, she's wounded, she's grieved in her spirit, that though you've spent all this time together seeing all these sights, you forgot something very, very special to her. Now, you didn't kick her. You didn't stomp on her.

7:49 You didn't cuss her. You didn't spit on her. All you did was forget it was her birthday. Took her out to a nice restaurant, with a European maitre d', put yourself in hock on your credit card for a month with what you paid for the dinner, and yet she's hurt and she's wounded.

8:09 Now, what's the difference between old Abe and his memorial, who had his foot stomped on, his shins kicked, and his knee made wet with spittle, and was cussed, and your wife? Well, the difference is, old Abe is but a lifeless spirit spiritless, inanimate, albeit massive and impressive monument, but your wife is a living, feeling, sensitive human being. Old Abe cannot be hurt, though you dissected him, blew him up with bombs and missiles. But just forget her birthday, and her spirit is wounded because she is a living, feeling, sensitive person. Now, why do I use that rather crude, but, I think, homey illustration to which we can all relate? Well, for the simple reason that we are presently studying the eighth tenet in the manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church, which I expressed last Lord's Day in these words. We are determined to maintain the presence of an ungreased, ungrieved Holy Spirit in every facet of our life and ministry.

The Holy Spirit: A Living, Feeling Being, Not a Lifeless Monument

9:37 And in taking up the subject of our determination to maintain the presence of an ungreased Holy Spirit in our life and ministry as a church, we need to be reminded that the Holy Spirit is not a massive, impressive, but lifeless monument in our life. He is a living, feeling, albeit divine, being. And what we did last Lord's Day was to lay hold, I trust, by the help of God, of the basic teaching of what I called the crucial text which mandates this determination. Why should we be determined as a church to maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit in every facet of our life and ministry? Well, there is a crucial text which mandates this determination. That text I've read in your hearing, Ephesians 4.30, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.

10:48 And in opening up the crucial text, we had but two headings, the explicit command, and we considered it together, both its meaning and motivation, and then the implicit concern. There is an implicit concern in the giving of that command, and that implicit concern is opened up in Isaiah 63.10 and the preceding and the following context of that text where we read, And they vexed his Holy Spirit. Now this morning we move on from the crucial text which mandates this determination to take up an important question which is, How is the Holy Spirit grieved? You may send your son or daughter off to camp with a little note to the counselor that says, Do not agitate my son's allergies. Well, that note is of no good to that counselor unless he asks and has a sufficient answer to the question, How are your son's allergies aggravated? Are they aggravated by certain foods?

12:08 By feathers? If so, we'll keep him out of the pillow fights. Are his allergies aggravated by certain grasses? Then we'll keep him away from certain heights.

12:19 You see, the command, Do not aggravate my son's allergies, is impossible to obey in any practical way unless the counselor knows what things aggravate your son's allergies. We have looked at the crucial text which mandates a determination not to grieve the Spirit. What could be plainer? Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

12:43 There is the mandate. But now the question comes, How is the Holy Spirit grieved? What is it that causes his grief, his pain, what causes his vexation? And in seeking to answer that question from the Scriptures, I propose to do so again under two headings.

General Principle: How the Spirit is Grieved in Individual Believers

13:07 We'll take up one this morning and, God willing, the next, next Lord's Day, considering this morning how the Spirit is grieved in individual believers, and then next, Lord willing, next Lord's Day, how the Spirit is grieved in the corporate life of the church. First of all, then, this morning, how is the Spirit grieved in the life of an individual believer? I will attempt to answer the question by stating a general principle, and then we'll look at several examples of that principle. And what is the general principle that I trust will give us a biblical and working principle on how to know what it is that will grieve the Spirit, so that we may avoid those things, and, if we have indulged them, that we may desist, repent, and seek forgiveness for them? Well, the general principle, I will state as follows. The Holy Spirit is grieved in the life of a child of God when he indulges anything in his inward or outward life which is offensive to the Spirit's nature, especially his holiness and his love,

14:34 or when a believer indulges in that which is in violation of the purposes for which the Spirit indwells us. Now, I don't expect you to hold all of that in your head. We're going to break it down as we continue the exposition. But the key concept are the Holy Spirit is grieved when the believer indulges in anything inwardly or outwardly which is an offense to the nature of the Holy Spirit, or which, if indulged, violates the purposes for which the Spirit indwells us. That's the general principle. The Holy Spirit is grieved in the life of a child of God when he indulges anything in his inward or outward life which is an offense to the Spirit's nature, especially his holiness and his love, or when he indulges in that which is in violation of the purposes for which the Spirit indwells us. Now then, let's look for some specific examples of this principle in the Word of God.

Specific Examples of Grieving the Spirit: Offenses to His Nature

15:55 First of all, those things which are an offense to his nature, especially his holiness and his love. Consider the context of Ephesians 4.30. The words, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption, are preceded by this general call to a radical, alternate lifestyle lived out in a wicked world.

16:28 Do you see that in verses 17 to 24? This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk. And then he describes the walk of the Gentiles carried out in the vanity of their mind with an understanding that is darkened. There is ignorance.

16:55 They are devoid of the life of God. They have hardness of heart. They have given themselves up to work uncleanness. He says, You are to live a radical, alternate lifestyle among such people.

17:11 And he says, The reason you are to do this is that if you have truly been taught of Christ and learned of Christ in the powerful application of the Gospel to your heart, you have put off the old man, you have put on the new, and the new man is committed to progressive renewal unto righteousness and holiness of the truth. That's the reality of what we are called to and why we are called to it. To live a radical, alternate lifestyle is simply to be consistent with what God in grace has made us as new creatures in Christ. Now, from that general appeal, he descends to particulars in verse 25. And as Warfield suggests, he descends perhaps to particulars which, because of his intimate knowledge of the city of Ephesus, he lived in that area for about three and a half years and ministered in that area. It may be that these were sins that were in a special way like massive mountain peaks of iniquity among the whole range of the sins of that pagan city. And so he then emphasizes certain sins, falsehood in verse 25, wherefore putting away falsehood, speak truth.

18:40 Verse 26, sinful anger, be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Verse 28, upon theft, let him that stole steal no more. And then he addresses unbecoming and corrupting speech. Verse 29, let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth but such as is good for edifying.

19:11 Now, these are the things that are peculiarly offensive and painful to the Holy Spirit. Why? Because in his nature he is the spirit of spotless moral purity. He is the Spirit, the Holy One, as we saw last week.

19:35 And when a believer who having been united to Christ, verse 24, has put on the new man that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth, how it must grieve the Holy Spirit who has effected that change, who has taken up his residence in us and who by his presence is the seal authenticating us as the people of God and assuring us that we will know the joy of a completed salvation by him we are sealed to the day of redemption, how it must grieve him. When we indulge in us, either in the inward man or in the outward expressions of mouth and ears and feet and hands, those things that are contrary to his nature, especially his holiness, especially his holiness, then what follows the command in verse 30? Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption, now what are the sins brought into focus? Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and railing be put away from you with all malice. And then their opposites

21:00 are mentioned. Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving even as God in Christ forgave you. Read on, be therefore imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love. You see, what's emphasized in this section is not so much the things that are contrary to the nature of the Spirit as the Spirit of holiness or as the Holy Spirit, but as he is in his nature the Spirit of love.

21:33 The fruit of the Spirit is, Galatians 5.22, love. Some have been so bold as to say the other eight things are but various mannerisms and manifestations of love. And while I cannot accept that position, the fact that some good men have both embraced it and defended it shows there must be some compelling pressure from the general teaching of the Word of God to indicate that there is a dominance of emphasis upon love as the outworking of the Spirit's indwelling.

22:13 And then you have that choice little phrase in Romans 15.30, where the Apostle Paul, toward the conclusion of that masterful epistle, says, I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit. He pleads with them that they would strive together with him in their prayers, and he pleads on the basis of the authority of their common Lord and by the reality of the love which the Spirit had shed abroad in their hearts one to another. And so the Holy Spirit then, it would appear from this passage, is particularly grieved. May I say he is heightened in his grief, or his grief is heightened when a believer indulges and when a believer tolerates and when a believer does not repent of and seek forgiveness for those things which are an offense to his nature, especially his holiness and his love. And so I say briefly by application, if you sit here this morning,

23:40 dear child of God, indulging things in heart and life offensive to the Spirit, in his holiness, you are grieving him. And God says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, this one apart from whose ministry you would know nothing of your own sinfulness, to the degree that you would be ready to abandon all of your own righteousness and seek a righteousness only in another. Only the Holy Spirit can so convict a man of his sin as to drive him out of himself and into Christ for acceptance with God. When he has come, he will reprove the world of sin, of sin, because they believe not on me. Men may have all kinds of natural conviction and natural guilt, but never until the Spirit takes a man in hand will he see his sin as so ugly and detestable and damnable that he will flee from it, including the sin of his own self-righteousness, and throw himself upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ for acceptance with the living God. It is the Spirit who brought you to accurate self-knowledge. It is the Spirit who savingly revealed Christ to your heart.

25:05 No man can call Jesus Lord, but in the Holy Spirit it is Christ who enabled you to believe, though you never saw him, that Jesus of Nazareth lived a perfect life, died under the wrath of God, was buried in Joseph's tomb, rose on the third day, ascended to the right hand of God, and there he sits in power. You could not call him Lord with any intelligent faith content apart from the operation of the Holy Spirit. What a terrible thing then to grieve that gracious One who showed you your malady, who revealed the remedy, and then, wonder of wonders, took up his dwelling in that pigpen called your heart and mine. Oh, you say, but he took out the heart of stone, gave us a new heart, then came to dwell within us. Yes, but think what yet remains where he came to dwell. As I was meditating upon this, comparing it with the humiliation of our Lord Jesus, how deep was his humiliation.

26:15 He stooped to become a little speck of life in Mary's womb, to go through the humiliation of being dependent on an umbilical cord for nine months, to go through the humiliation of being expelled into the world like any other child, dependent upon his mother's breast, then all the indignities that he suffered throughout life and on to his death. But you see, his humiliation is bounded by those thirty years. And once he ascended to the right hand of the Father, though he took back with him the humanity that he assumed in Mary's womb, it was glorified humanity, not humanity in humiliation, not humanity in the likeness of sinful flesh anymore. So his humiliation has a time boundary. I say it reverently, the Holy Ghost lives in a state of humiliation in the heart of every believer, making our bodies his very temple. And in a way I cannot explain, the bond of union is not even dissolved in the dust and darkness of the grave.

27:39 What humiliation! Out of love for us, out of love for us, the Holy Spirit dwelling in me, so that in the same complex interaction of mind where thoughts of envy and jealousy and lust are thought, the Holy Ghost dwells in me. Never stained by my sin, no, is forever and ever shall be the Holy Spirit. But I say again reverently in such close proximity to those thoughts and words and deeds that are contrary to his holiness, how grieved he must be. Are you grieving him this morning? Are you indulging in things contrary to his nature as holy? Are you indulging in things contrary to his nature as love, bitterness, wrath, anger, clutter, abusive speech?

28:48 Hear me carefully. If those thoughts don't fill you with a sense of horror, oh God, how could I do it? If the thought, oh well, I grieve this, my friend, you're as lost as the devil. If the thought of grieving such a spirit doesn't grieve your spirit, you're devoid of grace.

Specific Examples of Grieving the Spirit: Violating His Indwelling Purposes

29:09 If there's no sense of horror, the thought that you have and you do and you may even be grieving him right here this morning. But I must hasten to the second category of things which grieve him. Not only the indulgence of the things that are an offense to his nature, especially his holiness and his love, but secondly those things which are in violation of the purposes for which the Spirit indwells us. Those things which are in violation of the purposes for which the Spirit indwells us.

29:50 You remember in opening up the command, the twofold motivation, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, first of all because of who he is. He is the Spirit, the Holy One. And because of what he's done in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption. His presence in us is the divine attestation of God's ownership and possession that we're the real thing.

30:15 And it is also the pledge of security inviolability. We are sealed unto the day of redemption. But as the divine seal, what can cause him more grief and sorrow, pain, than prolonged holy vexation or prolonged vexation, I'm sorry, of the Holy Spirit when we indulge things in the heart and in action which are at cross purposes with the Spirit who indwells us. We are sealed by the Spirit.

30:55 The Spirit himself is the seal. His presence is the attestation and pledge of a complete redemption. But as the Spirit who indwells us, he has a manifold task to accomplish the present redemptive purposes of the Father secured by the death of the Son, and I want to just open up three lines this morning that I hope will provide grist for your further meditation. This is not exhaustive, but I trust it will cause you to reflect and meditate and pray.

31:29 First of all, he indwells us as the spirit of adoption. Secondly, he indwells us as the spirit of mortification. And thirdly, he indwells us as the spirit of conformation, not confirmation, but conformation. And if we indulge things which violate the purposes for which he indwells us, he is grieved.

The Spirit of Adoption, Mortification, and Conformation

31:57 And if we go on grieving him, he is vexed. He indwells us as the spirit of adoption. Where do I get that terminology? Galatians chapter 4 and the parallel passage in Romans chapter 8.

32:13 Galatians chapter 4, verse 4, But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Christ died, and among the many reasons for which he died, he died that we might be given the status of sons, that is, a legal status, parallel to, but not identified with or exacted with, or exactly the same thing as justification, but it is parallel in that it is a legal status. Christ died that we might receive the adoption of sons, and because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Abba is the Aramaic way of saying Father. Father, that's the translation of the Greek, saying Abba, that is, Father, in the most intimate term of endearing. Now do you see the logic of Paul's statement?

33:24 Christ died that a righteous, legal basis of our adoption into the family of God, as sons, might be established. And when we have embraced the Savior, God puts us in the status of sons, but what would the status be if we could not subjectively enjoy that status? So because he has made us sons on the ground of the work of Christ, he has sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, who enables us to call the God before whom we trembled, before whose wrath we felt ourselves about to be crushed. We are now able in terms of endearment to say, Abba, Father. It is not that the spirit cries for us and we are passive, but as Romans 8 clearly indicates and helps to exegete this passage, it is the spirit enabling us to cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8, verses 15 and 16. You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

34:38 We do the crying, but we could never do it apart from a direct operation of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. So he indwells us. As the divine seal, he indwells us as the spirit of adoption.

35:01 Well, you say, Pastor Martin, what does that have to do with grieving the spirit? Well, stop and I'll try to answer it. What happens when you subtly allow your own works, your own performances, your own failures, anything woven upon the loom of your own activity? When you begin to take that fabric and weave it into the fabric of Christ's perfect righteousness as the only ground of your acceptance before God in the courtroom and in the living room, Christ worked the sole ground of your justification and your status in the world.

35:40 And that's what we call your status of adoption. What happens? What happens? The spirit of adoption who bears witness to the truth that we are received as sons and daughters not on the ground of our works but on the grounds of Christ's work, he's grieved.

36:01 When we begin to approach God as Father on some other ground shared with Christ, the spirit of adoption who bears witness to the truth that the only ground of our adoption is the work of Christ, he is grieved. And you can grieve the Holy Spirit not only by indulging in things that are contrary to his nature, but when you indulge perspectives and thoughts and spiritual chemistry in your own dealings with God that puts you in violation of the purpose for which the Spirit indwells us. He's come to indwell us, to enable us to say, Abba, Father, based not on what our hands have done but solely on the basis of what Christ. And that's why Paul emphasizes the doctrine of adoption so clearly in the book of Galatians. Why? What was their problem?

37:13 They were mixing human works and ceremonies and human endeavors with Christ. They were saying Christ is not enough for our acceptance with the Father. If you want full-blown status before God, you need Christ plus circumcision, Christ plus Jewish ceremonies and feast days, etc., etc.

37:37 Oh, dear people, how often we grieve the Spirit. Who would with our spirits bear witness to our sonship if only we were more in our determination that the only ground of our confidence for acceptance with God will be Christ and Christ alone. Secondly, He indwells us as the Spirit of mortification. Where do we learn that?

38:15 Romans 8, 13 and 14. He indwells us as the Spirit of mortification. For if ye live after the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

38:31 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. You see, someone would say that first point I made, that's dangerous doctrine. Well, if you took it and isolated it from the rest of the Bible, it would be. But God doesn't.

38:48 God joins it to another teaching. The Holy Spirit given as divine seal is not only the Spirit of adoption, but is the Spirit of mortification. And only such as are led by the Spirit of God have any grounds to claim they are the sons of God. And in the context, led by the Spirit of God does not refer to people who think, oh, the Holy Ghost told me, this is the car I'm to buy.

39:14 This is the woman I'm to marry. This is the house I'm to purchase. That is nonsensical fanaticism. The Holy Ghost doesn't tell you what car to buy.

39:24 Doesn't tell you what woman to marry. Doesn't tell you what house to buy. The Holy Ghost will guide you as you apply the principles of the Word of God and seek counsel. The Holy Spirit will give you wisdom to understand the principles and precepts.

39:40 But the Holy Ghost doesn't come and whisper in your ear. It's something else whispering. It's either your own mouth, the devil, or who knows what. So this being led by the Spirit in the context, is being under the control of the Spirit particularly as the Spirit of mortification.

40:01 What's that mean? Well, He is given that I might by the grace of God continually put to death the deeds of the flesh if ye by the Spirit do put to death the deeds of the body. As remaining sin would act itself out in my various members, whether it's my tongue, my eyes, my hand, my feet, the Spirit has been given to give me power to put those deeds to death. Now then, if I'm indulging what He has been given to help put to death, I grieve Him.

40:42 He has been given to help us put to death impure thoughts, unholy desires, unmortified ambition, envy and jealousy and pride. He has been given to help us mortify the deeds of the body. He has come to indwell us not only to dethrone reigning sin, which He has done, but to continually assist us in the mortification of remaining sin. And yet He does not do it in such a way as to bypass our activity.

41:19 If you by the Spirit do mortify, we are active in the process of mortification. That's why Jesus said, if thy right hand offend me, bring it to God and ask Him to amputate it and bury it somewhere out in the seventh galaxy. No! If your hand offends you, you cut it off.

41:41 You cast it from you. If your eye offends you, you pluck it out. You cast it from you. Or do I do it or does the Spirit do it?

41:51 I do it by the Spirit. But the Spirit doesn't do it when I sit on my throne by haunches, refusing to declare all honor on my remaining sins and lusts and corruptions. And I grieve and quench the Spirit, if I may say it reverently, who stands ready, fully armed with divine power. He will not when we refuse to be active if ye by the Spirit do mortify.

42:31 So if you are violating the purpose for which the Spirit indwells us, you are grieving Him. He indwells us as the Spirit of adoption. You mix your own works with that of Christ. You destroy a sense of filial access to God.

42:45 You live primarily by the motives of fear and reward. And you don't know the delight of liberty. It's because you are grieving the Spirit who has given us the Spirit of adoption. He indwells us as the Spirit of mortification.

43:00 And if you are not actively mortifying you are grieving the Spirit. And He indwells us as the Spirit of conformation. And what am I talking about there? Well, later on in Romans 8 we read verse 29, whom He did foreknow, He foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son.

43:18 It is God's purpose in redemptive grace to make us like His Son. And He begins that process as we read in Ephesians 4 at conversion when we learn of Christ and we put off the old man and put on the new man when we are united to Christ and made new creatures in Christ. Then in 2 Corinthians 3.18 a process of conformation goes on but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as from the Lord the Spirit.

44:01 Who is it that actually takes the human personality and makes it more and more like Christ by a refining process by a cultivation of Christ-like graces? It is the Holy Spirit who is actually and the Puritans fished around for words they didn't know what to do. And John Owen uses the word he exerts a physical energy upon the soul. I used to scratch my head and say why do you use that terminology?

44:33 Now I understand because it is so hard to come up with any terminology. The soul is not physical so how can physical energy be exerted upon the soul? Well they were trying to express this truth that conformity to Christ is not just learning good spiritual manners and being on your best manners. Something actually happens where the meekness and the gentleness of Christ by degree replace my native spirit.

45:01 Arrogance and harshness. Something actually happens by which my human personality is being transformed into that which will perfectly be in glorification. Totally like Him. And that's one of the encouragements of being in the way for some time to be able to find at least a few areas where you can say look, five years ago I know what my response would have been.

45:32 Lord, have one more and you respond in that way. And you're in amazement to yourself. And you say in old age it did that? In associations with the right people?

45:43 Lord, you're actually making me like your son. At least I can see in some little area. You are conforming me to His image. But now how does He do it?

45:56 Again, just as in mortification not passively. That's why Peter says besides all this on your part in your supply virtue and in your virtue knowledge and in your knowledge self-control we add diligence. The Holy Ghost has not been given to sit us on a cloud of inactivity. He has been given to secure and incorporate the full engagement of all of our redeemed faculties.

46:33 He has been given to give motivation and power to those activities. And therefore as we behold our Lord Jesus mirrored in the Scriptures and we see Him bold where we are timid we say, Oh Lord Jesus make me like Yourself. I'm not like You. And we cry to God to be bold like our Lord Jesus.

46:58 And then two days later in a situation where we're tempted to be cowards and in spite of the temptation we say, Lord that's what I prayed two days ago and I'm going to launch out if I make a fool of myself I'd rather be a fool with a good conscience. And you open your mouth and lo and behold God gives you words and courage and boldness you feel like a giant forty feet tall with a forty foot sword and you say, this is not me. But you see the Lord didn't come to make you feel that way before you struck out as it were in naked trust and faith and duty and obedience you added all diligence. When you're done you say, Lord that wasn't me that was the Holy Spirit. You're in a situation where one of your kids one of your friends has done something grievous left to yourself you're either going to be hurt so you never want to see them again put them at a distance you're going to be angry and want to tell them off you're going to want to they're your own child still minors left to yourself you know you're going to indulge in a carnal whipping of that child and you say, oh God I know what's wrong this child is outburst of un-Christ-like passion Lord give me grace you go in and shut yourself in your room and you tell your wife don't let me come out of here until I'm a calm man you start out the door she says, are you calm yet? you say, no she says, go back in

48:25 and lo and behold twenty minutes later you come out and you're able to deal with that situation with the patience the gentleness the honesty the firmness of Christ and when you're done you say, Lord that wasn't me but you see if you indulge the hasty spirit if you indulge the hasty spirit if you indulge the hurt spirit if you indulge the retaliatory spirit you're being unlike Christ and you grieve the Holy Spirit for he indwells us as the spirit of conformation to transform us into the same image from one stage of glory to another I hope those thoughts will provoke you to think now about what does it mean grieve not the spirit how can I grieve him as an individual when I indulge in anything that is not of Christ that is not of Christ when I indulge in anything that is contrary to his nature particularly his holiness and his love when I violate the purposes for which he was given for example as the spirit of adoption the spirit of mortification the spirit of conformation now then someone asks but pastor what's all that have to do with our life and ministry as a congregation you said in this tenet we are determined to be determined determined to maintain the presence of an ungrieved spirit in the totality

Connecting Individual Grieving to Corporate Church Life

49:54 of our life and ministry and now you've spent 45 minutes telling us how we grieve the Holy Spirit individually what does that have to do with grieving him in our church life well I want to conclude by answering that question it's a mathematical issue and a theological issue most of you learned this little axiom in a math course somewhere along the line the whole is the sum of all of its what parts the whole is the sum of all of its parts now suppose this next week for some strange unknown reason next Saturday in a hundred different homes throughout the areas where we live a hundred different families get afflicted with laryngitis it's all a very individual thing you didn't get it from one another you weren't in one another for some reason something descended in the atmosphere you all got laryngitis you came here next Sunday morning 250 of you 300 of you now when all the parts came together in the whole would that affect our corporate praise you've got a hundred people with laryngitis it sure would or 200 including the wives and the kids 250 300 and if individuals

51:23 are afflicted with laryngitis when we come together then it becomes evident it becomes a corporate manifestation of the individual problem and so it is when individuals are grieving the spirit and in the spirits being grieved he withdraws his powerful working so that we do not come in communion with a felt Christ with felt joy in the Holy Spirit we do not come alive to spiritual reality and sensitive to sin there is a grieved spirit in the individual well all you need is 10 15 20 30 individuals and that will materially influence the overall climate of our corporate gatherings so the answer is first of all a mathematical issue but then it's a theological issue in theology people talk about the biblical doctrine of the responsibility of influencing many as in Adam all solidarity we have solidarity with Adam God piggybacked the whole human race on Adam when he fell we fell with him and in him in his first transgression so in Christ shall all be made alive God piggybacked all his elect

52:52 upon Christ so that when he died we died when he rose we rose when he comes again we'll be glorified with him and that principle of solidarity is seen not only in Adam and in Christ but it's seen in the people of God in the old and the new covenant how many Achan's were there who took the accursed thing contrary to the expressed will of God and caused the whole nation to suffer defeat in the days of his family and yet God said you have sinned the nation has sinned there is solidarity in the early church there was only one couple Ananias and Sapphira but God wanted to teach the great lesson if they went unjudged their leavening influence would have affected the whole church dear people we need to come to grips with this we need to come in private you don't come here as just a group of private individuals we come in a solidarity of identity as the people of God as the church of the living God a living temple a living body and because of that if I come

54:21 with a grieved spirit I influence my brethren I influence the whole I influence my brethren dear people of God we dare not let this tenet ever ever ever be relinquished we must be determined to maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit determined enough and here's where I close this morning that we be prepared to rest the future of the church upon the level to which we are not grieving the spirit see my point you me each one of us individually are to feel the tremendous weight that if the whole were to be presently related to the spirit as I am where would the church be grieve not whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption make as part of your specific preparation for every day and especially every Lord's day every day

55:50 but especially every Lord's day God search me and try me if I grieve the spirit oh God show me as a hymn we used to sing back in the days when we were with another denomination grieved thy holy spirit have I quenched his power within if I have oh Lord forgive me cleanse my heart from every sin do I lack the grace he giveth have I power to win the lost is my message unavailing give him back at any cost do I yield to sin's allurement since thy spirit grieved forsook me when I let the tempter in Lord I come in deep contrition yielding all I have to thee making now a full surrender thine forever would I be and then the refrain is this oh my savior come I pray thee in my heart's confession pardon cleanse and fill me now

57:15 let us pray our father we bow in corporate confession of our grievous sin of grieving your holy spirit oh holy spirit we marvel at your patience that you would dwell within us when so often we tolerate that which is so offensive to your nature when we so often frustrate as it were the very purposes for which you have come to indwell us oh holy spirit forgive us gracious God wash us in the blood of Christ who has altogether too often been grieved and we pray for those who sit here this morning who do not possess your spirit because they have never repented and fled to Christ oh God may the things they've heard cause

58:44 them to fear what it will be like to die and go to hell oh God give them no rest till they flee to Christ to be covered in his righteousness to be indwelt by his spirit write your word upon our hearts and forever bring before us your gracious righteous command to grieve not the