Holy Spirit–Indispensable to Life of the Church, 1

Introduction: The Language of Love, Delight, and Grief

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, March 1st, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 Now let us once again unitedly ask God for the blessing of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the proclamation of His word. Again, we were reminded in the previous hour when God savingly works in the souls of His people, whether it is His initial or His ongoing work, it is never the Spirit apart from the Word, never the Word apart from the Spirit, but it is the Spirit and the Word. And if any one of us is ever to be converted, any one of us ever to be taken safely to heaven, it will be because the Spirit has chosen to bless the Word. This is the moment of life and death, dear people. This is not just a part of the ritual. And let us pray for God's help. Amen.

1:07 Our Father, we would again acknowledge that it is all of grace that Your Word should ever have been given to men, and that we should be in a land where that Word has, as it were, sprinkled down upon the very inception of our life as a nation, and has continued to be given to us over decades and decades. O our God, how good You have been. And yet we acknowledge that like ancient Israel, our nation regards the ten thousand things of Your law as a strange thing. And we pray that in this place this morning, we would be as people who count Your Word as hid treasure, and that we may search for it, and that we may hunger and thirst for it as our necessary food for the soul, and we pray that in our eager attention to the Word, Your Spirit may come, both upon preacher and upon those who receive the Word, and that He, by His own almighty, mysterious work, will so take His own Word, that saving grace may be granted in this place today,

2:34 that sanctifying grace, preventive grace, O Lord, may Your Word do its manifold work in all of our hearts, we plead to the praise of Your own holy name, we ask through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I doubt there is anyone here this morning who would argue with me when I say that delight and grief are words which always belong to the language and to the experience of love. It is the great delight of love to bring delight to its object. We see this when the little boy, clutching a fistful of freshly picked dandelions in his grubby hand, bursts through the back door and goes running through the house yelling, Mommy, Mommy, and when he finds where she is, with a grin as broad as that of a Halloween jack-o'-lantern, he presents what to him is an exquisite bouquet of beautiful flowers, his little fist of dandelions, to his mother. And who, what artist, even Norman Rockwell couldn't capture it,

4:01 who can paint the look of delight upon his face when his mother stoops over and accepts this bouquet of dandelions for what it is in the perception of her son, an expression of his love, desiring to delight his mommy. And the grin that was already like a jack-o'-lantern almost stretches the muscles of his cheeks when she bends over and pats his head and kisses him on the cheek and praises him for expressing his love in that way. Surely, watching a scene like that, no one would debate that it's the great delight of love to delight the object of its love. Or we might say, we might move from the little boy to the young man who, having prayerfully sought the mind of God about his life's partner, having honorably courted a woman with a basis of true knowledge and friendship, culminating in the secret approach to her parents to get their consent to ask her hand in marriage, and sitting in a special place on that special occasion, he has asked the question, and before she even frames her answer, he eagerly gazes into her misty eyes

5:26 to see if the response forthcoming will be one in the affirmative. And who can measure the look of delight in the eyes upon the countenance of the young lover when the object of his love says, yes? And then he presents the ring to her, and as he sees her, take that ring. No one would doubt the truth that it's the great delight of love to bring delight to its object.

6:01 But the reverse is true. It's the great grief of love to cause grief to its object. Suppose the mother in her busyness only saw the boy's grubby hand and these half-crushed dandelions, and she said, son, don't bother me right now. Mom's too busy.

6:25 And a few minutes later, she goes by his room and sees the door shut, and he's in there with his head buried in his pillow, sobbing his heart out. And then she realizes what grief she caused to her son by being too preoccupied to accept his expression of love. And not only is little boy weeping, it isn't long before mommy's at his side, and she weeps and says, honey, forgive mommy for being so insensitive. And why does she weep?

6:54 For this simple reason. It's the great grief of love to cause grief to its object. And because she loves that little boy, she's grieved that she grieved him. And if indeed grief and delight are words always belonging to the language and experience of love, then we should expect the realities of delight and grief to permeate the revelation of God's salvation to men.

7:27 For it is the revelation of His love in Jesus Christ. God so loved that He gave. That being so, we should not be surprised that delight and grief surround the outworking of that salvation with its tap roots in infinite, eternal, redemptive love. And we are not disappointed.

The Command Not to Grieve the Holy Spirit and Previous Applications

7:53 We are only six chapters into the Bible when we read of God being grieved at His heart that He had ever made man. And for a number of weeks, we've been studying a text, the heart of which is the command, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 4 and verse 30. And we took up that text as an expression of the eighth tenet in 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. And after examining that explicit command of Ephesians 4.30, we then considered the implicit concern that is behind that command in the parallel passage of Isaiah 63 and verse 10. We then turn to the Scriptures to consider how the Holy Spirit is grieved in the life of an individual believer, and for several weeks now we've been contemplating how the

9:18 Holy Spirit is grieved in the corporate life of the church. And thus far we have seen three ways in which the Holy Spirit is and can be grieved in the corporate life of the 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. For a quantity of according to Colossians 1.18, God has constituted Christ head over His church that in all things He should have the preeminence. And then secondly, the Holy Spirit is grieved in any church when corporate holiness is not maintained by the prayerful, compassionate, but faithful exercise of corrective church discipline. When a church refuses this element of a divinely instituted means for the corporate holiness of the church, she comes under those scathing denunciations which the Apostle Paul gives to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 5, which the risen Lord gives in Revelation 2 and 3

10:41 when He says to certain churches, I have this against you, you suffer that wicked, evil, and wicked servant, that you are a wicked servant. You are a wicked servant. You are a fratricide, and you suffer that wicked servant. You are a populist, and you suffer the devil, and you suffer the phoenix, and you suffer the cleft. You are a moral and moralist. You have but a fabric of the Father. Your prayer is what is called the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and you are not a firm teacher. You will not be personally, prayerfully, or passionately exercise church discipline for the corporate holiness of the church. And the risen Lord is grieved, and His grief takes tangible expression by the removal of the Spirit's presence and powerful acting in such churches. Thirdly, Thirdly, the Holy Spirit is grieved in any church where the Scriptures are not given their rightful supremacy in regulating the doctrine, worship, ministry, and congregational life of that church.

The Fourth Way the Holy Spirit is Grieved: Not Esteeming His Indispensability

11:34 Now today we address ourselves to a consideration of the fourth way in which the Holy Spirit can be grieved in the corporate life of any church. And it is this, the Holy Spirit is grieved in any church when His person, presence, and power are not esteemed as indispensable to the being, life, and ministry of that church.

12:07 Let me repeat it. The Holy Spirit is grieved in any church when His person, presence, presence, and power are not esteemed as indispensable to the being, life, and ministry of that church. Now in opening up this most important aspect related to our determination to maintain the presence of an ungrieved spirit, I will open up the materials under two main headings. The first, the biblical evidence.

12:46 That His person, presence, and power are indispensable to the life, being, and ministry of the church. And then secondly, I will set before you the practical evidences that His person, presence, and power are esteemed as indispensable to the being, life, and ministry of the church. First then, the biblical evidence that His person, presence, and power are indispensable to the very being, life, and ministry of the church. And I give you three lines of evidence.

Biblical Evidence 1: The Holy Spirit Alone Constitutes the Church as God's Living Temple

13:29 Number one, the Holy Spirit alone constitutes the church a living temple or sanctuary of the living God. The Holy Spirit alone constitutes the church a living temple, or sanctuary, of the living God. Men may gather groups of people in the name of religion. Men may indoctrinate them, direct them into the performance of religious rituals and forms.

14:04 They may receive proper incorporation and recognition by the state as a non-profit religious corporation. They may carry on business and be very successful, and yet be, says the Holy Spirit, a living temple or sanctuary of the living God, which is no longer a true biblical church. Men cannot make what constitutes a living temple of the living God. And what is called a church may be no more a true, living temple of God than that wax figure of Winston Churchill there in Madam Tussauds Wax Museum in London, is the living God of the world.

14:49 the living, breathing, growling, eloquent statesman of another generation. It has all the features of Churchill, but stick a pin and no blood will ooze out. You could listen until your ears were deaf and you would not hear the Churchillian growl. And you could watch until your eyes sunk into their sockets and you'd never see him smoking his cigar or sipping his brandy. It's a dead, lifeless, wax representation of Churchill. And many think all the church is but a dead, wax representation of what a church is. It has the form and feature,

15:42 but it has no breathing, pulsing life. And where are we taught this in the scriptures? Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, the Apostle Paul is seeking to deal with this practical pastoral problem at Corinth of divisions occasioned by God blessing that church with a multiple ministry.

16:11 Various men were given by God to labor in that church, and rather than receiving that blessing and profiting from it, they turned it into an occasion of sinful divisiveness. They made idols of their various favorite preachers. And Paul is seeking to unpack that problem, and he approaches it from a number of ways. And here in chapter 3, he's trying to give them the theology of the Christian ministry.

16:41 He says, If you only understood what Christian ministers are, then you would not relate to them in the sinful way in which you're relating to them. So he says in verse 5, What, then, is Apollos? and what is Paul? Ministers, through whom ye believed, and each As the Lord gave to him, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

17:05 So then, neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. In other words, he says, if you'd only understand the nature of the ministry, all your loyalty would be fastened on God. Not to Apollos, or Paul, or Cephas, or any of his ministers, any of his instruments who perform various tasks, but upon the God who alone made their ministry effective. Now he that plants, and he that waters are one, one in purpose, one in goal, but each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.

17:44 Now then, notice carefully verse 9. We are God's followers. Workers, we're standing shoulder to shoulder, our labors directed and owned of God. Don't split us up into the heads of parties.

18:00 We are yoked together under God. We are God's fellow workers. Now he uses two images for the church. You are God's tilled land.

18:11 You're not a field grown over with nettles and thorns. No, somebody's been working the field. When you sow, you sow. You see a patch of ground, and the weeds are pulled out, and the plants are all in a row, and it looks like it's going to give an abundance of fruit.

18:27 You know, it just didn't simply grow. Somebody was in there working. And he says, you at Corinth are God's tilled land. And then he uses a second image.

18:38 You are God's building. And whenever you see a well-constructed building with symmetry made of solid materials, it didn't just happen. Somebody planned it. Somebody labored in order to construct it.

18:53 Now, he takes the imagery of the building, and he sits on that. He drops the imagery of the tilled land. And now verse 10. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation.

19:09 And another builds thereon. But let each man take heed how he builds thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid. Which is Jesus Christ.

19:21 Paul says later, Though you have ten thousand instructors, yet have ye not many fathers, for I have begotten you through the gospel. When Paul came to Corinth and preached Christ and him crucified, and did so in weakness and fear and much trembling, but his speech and preaching were not in wisdom of words, but in demonstration of the spirit of power, Acts 9.18.9 tells us that many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and were baptized.

19:53 God gave the increase. God regenerated. God took a bunch of them into the operating room. Gave them new hearts.

20:02 Brought them into the courtroom justified. Adopted them in the living room. Planted them there as a church of Christ built upon the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he gives a warning.

20:19 Anyone comes along and is going to put anything on that foundation, he better be careful of his building materials. Can't go back and relay another foundation and have it a church. The church has only one foundation, and I laid it through my labors. But people can put bad stuff in the superstructure, so everyone who comes along, take heed how he builds.

20:41 And the warning then is given that the day shall declare not a quantitative analysis of the work of Christian workers, but a qualitative analysis. The day shall declare each man's work of what sort it is. All talking about those who labor in the building of the church. But now, what makes the church something more than just a building?

21:01 What makes it the very dwelling of God? We come now to verses 16 and 17. Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth, if the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye.

21:31 He is not speaking here of an equally precious truth that every individual believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Romans 8, 9, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. But in this setting, he's speaking of the church in its context, the corporate life and organism that it has been constituted a temple of the living God. Don't you know that ye are a temple, a sanctuary of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in or among you?

22:09 That in addition to the indwelling of the Spirit in the heart of every true believer, there is that peculiar special presence of God, the indwelling of God in His living temple, the church.

22:27 And if the Spirit of God does not inhabit those who come together naming the name of Christ, claiming to be a church of Christ, who can get God in a hammerlock and force God's hand to constitute them a living temple? God dwells where He chooses to dwell. And if He did not, choose to take up His dwelling, there would be no such sanctuary of the living God. This truth has a parallel statement in the Apostles' writing in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 19 through 22, culminating in the statement, in whom you are builded together to be an habitation of God in or by the Spirit. Now, I ask you this question then. When I say, that the person, presence, and power of the Spirit are indispensable to the being, life, and ministry of the church, am I overstating the case?

23:37 Not according to this passage. That His presence, His personal presence in a unique dimension that I am not prepared to even attempt to begin to define is a unique dimension and a unique element of that which makes the church the church. Just as surely as one of the things that separated the Israelites and their professed peculiar relationship to God was the Shekinah glory that was over the tent of meeting as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. No one could imitate that. No religion among us, no religion among the nations could coerce Jehovah to give them a pillar and a cloud. God sovereignly manifested His special presence among His covenant people according to His sovereign will. And were that not so, they would have had nothing to validate their claim that they were His unique people, possessing His unique presence.

24:58 And when God does forsake them, the very imagery that the prophet uses is that that Shekinah removes from the temple until it is gone. And they're left with the temple with all of its rituals and all of its forms and all of its ceremonies. But it is a temple without the special presence of God. And when the Lord Jesus removes a lampstand, He may in His providence leave behind the wax figure of what once was a living temple.

25:35 The building stands. The services still go on. Preachers preach, and people sing, and prayers are said. But it's all in the haunting, haunting emptiness of an absent God.

Biblical Evidence 2: The Holy Spirit Alone Communicates Life to Divinely Instituted Activities

25:51 The Holy Spirit alone constitutes the church a living temple, or sanctuary of the living God. Therefore, His presence, power, and ministry are indispensable. Second line of evidence, the Holy Spirit alone communicates life to all the divinely instituted activities within His temple. He alone can make it a temple by dwelling among His people, but He alone can communicate life to all the divinely instituted activities within His temple.

26:28 In what is a unique essay, at least in terms of my reading of literature on the subject, Vaughan in his masterful work on the gifts of the Holy Spirit has a chapter on the Holy Spirit in conjunction with public worship. And he begins the chapter by saying that the people of God must be exceedingly jealous for two things in their public worship. Number one, that they overshadow the Holy Spirit in their public worship. They only engage in those practices which God Himself has instituted, and that they engage in all that He has instituted.

27:05 And secondly, that they consciously depend upon the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to make those divinely instituted means effectual to the hearts and lives of the people of God. So that there must be jealousy of the purity of God's institutions alone, but great concern that His institutions will never be alone. You catch what I'm saying? His institutions alone, no man-made institutions, but His institutions never alone, that is, unaccompanied by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Now where is this taught in the Word of God? Well, one of the classic texts is found in Philippians chapter 3, as we think of our worship in general. When we bring together the concept of gathering to worship the Lord on His special day, in His special presence, in the midst of His special people, who is it that gives life and power and true spiritual energy and profitableness and acceptableness to our worship?

28:27 Well, obviously from the objective side it is Christ through whom our worship is presented to the Father, the great emphasis of Hebrews, by Him therefore let us draw near to God, the emphasis of Peter. We are a living temple, living stones, a new covenant priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, yes? But it is equally true that we must not only have the mediation of Christ to make our worship acceptable, we must have the present activity and power and ministry of God the Holy Ghost. Philippians 3 and verse 3.

29:07 These Judaizers who were troubling the church, constantly telling people, if you really want to be marked out as God's peculiar people, Christ is not enough, baptism is not enough to be the sign of your identity with Christ, you must visit the Rabbi. And Paul says, beware of the mutilators, the flesh cutters, for we are the circumcision, and what is the first mark of the true people of God who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. What is the mark of God's true people? Not that they merely worship. In our day, that in itself is radical enough.

30:02 In our day, people would say, we are the true circumcision, who? And they would follow it with, work themselves to the bone for Jesus. And if you're busy doing, doing, doing, that's the mark, you're God's true people. Or we are the true circumcision who have wonderful feelings and are giddily and gloriously happy all the time, time, time.

30:23 That proves you're full of the Holy Ghost. Or others would say, we're the true circumcision who babble in gibberish in the closet three hours at a time, not knowing what we say, but ooh, it's wonderful. Brethren, I don't mean to be sarcastic. That's reality.

30:38 That's reality. But that's not what the Bible says. We are the true circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God. In other words, our worship is such that take away the presence, the person, the active power of the Spirit, and it is nothing.

31:00 It is nothing. We worship by the Spirit of God. It is only as the Spirit takes the realities that are connected to an unseen God and an unseen Savior and the unseen realities of the soul and the unseen realities of the age to come and brings them home to our hearts with power so that we are not worshiping vacant, vaporous notions that float by. The Holy Ghost, as it were, gives spiritual flesh and blood to these unseen realities.

31:43 As it is said of Moses, he endured seeing Him who is invisible. Now how in the world do you see what's invisible? Well, you see it when you've got a set of eyes that can see the invisible and when the Holy Spirit takes the invisible and makes it visible to those special eyes. And that's the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

32:10 It is the Spirit's ministry to take of the things of Christ. Jesus said, I'm going away and when the Spirit comes without my physical presence to behold and my physical words to hear, He shall take the things of myself and reveal them to you and you will know your state then to be better than it is now for now I'm with you then I shall be within you and within you forever. Therefore it is only the Holy Spirit present in His own person and active by His own power that all of the institutions of God connected with worship can have reality and life for example, just take the matter of our praise whether in prayer or in song who is it that is the true author of the genuine praise of the people of God? Ephesians 5, 18 look at the text be not drunken with wine where is His excess but be filled with the Spirit speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord listen to the words of this man Vaughan who addresses this very issue

33:40 in the essay I referred to his ordinance must be observed as nearly as possible according to his own prescriptions without additions or subtractions from them but the teaching of the scriptures is unequivocally clear that even the ordinances appointed of God have no power in themselves alone to work the needful effects on the soul of the worshipper unless accompanied by the efficacious influences of the Holy Spirit the assertion of Philippians 3, 3 is that one characteristic mark of a true believer is that he worships God in the Spirit this includes all kinds of worship whether secret, social or public whether in the use of prayer praise or preaching or sacraments or other ordinances the presence and the exerted influence of the Spirit is essential to the right and profitable use of all of God's institutions of worship it becomes clear then that the first in the official order of divine worship is the Holy Spirit who enables the worshipper to offer his service in faith to the Son who as the official High Priest then offers it to the Father no ordinance has any effective spiritual power except as the Spirit gives it no worshipper's heart

35:09 is in a proper frame for worship except as the Spirit gives it without faith it's impossible to please God and there's no true faith except that which is the fruit of the Spirit the Holy Spirit is pervading every sanctuary where the assembly meets to worship the Father through the Son how striking the conception when we fully master it how solemn the thought to what searching inspection is the heart of every worshipper about to be subjected and then he goes on to apply and say what practical impact this would have upon any congregation that does indeed believe that in a unique though in a way we cannot fully comprehend let alone define that the church in its corporate gathering under Christ is God's unique temple and sanctuary and it is he who constitutes the church of the living God and it is he who communicates life to all the divinely instituted activities within his temple not only worship in general but take prayer in particular what is true prayer? Ephesians 6.19 says with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit Romans 8.26 likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmity for we know not how to pray as we ought and therefore the Spirit is designated

36:39 in Zechariah 12.10 as the Spirit of grace and of supplication it is only as he enlarges the heart of the one who is our mouthpiece at the throne of grace whether here on a Lord's day or when we gather on a Wednesday it's only when spiritual reality is so often trafficked in by those of us who live of the gospel it is only when the Spirit as we say let us pray comes afresh to us and makes us feel and sense afresh the great reality the privilege of drawing near to the living God causes us to be moved to genuine empathy for God's suffering saints for the lost for confidence in the power of the gospel only the Spirit can take these hearts with all of the downward pull of remaining sin and cause them to rise to the level where they feel the realities that are framed in the words and only the Spirit can help you sitting there or in that other room to find your heart rising under the impress of the same intensified consciousness of those realities so that when the brethren who are our mouthpiece plead with earnestness we find our hearts have coalesced in that same earnestness as under the influence of the same Spirit we yearn with the same intensity for the same blessing

38:08 that's prayer in the Holy Spirit this is not spooky mysticism folks this is biblical reality all prayer and supplication in the Spirit in the Spirit in the Spirit He is the Spirit of grace and of supplication and in our felt infirmity we know not how to pray as we ought we are not left erect the Spirit helps us in that infirmity in the reading and preaching of the word Paul could say in first Thessalonians one four and five knowing brethren beloved your election how that our gospel came not upon us but on the earth and on the earth and on the earth and on the earth and on the earth and on the earth and on the earth and on the earth and on the earth and on the earth and on the earth so that this may be in the Eucharist had heard read many times but there is a freshness the words are not bare words there is a life giving power and a man is preaching and you know the man you know the man they are your

39:36 friends they are ordinary men made of the same stuff of which you are made they have the same gray matter with which you must think in the same tongue with which you must frame their words and you do not look on them as anything other than men of like passions but when the spirit is present attending their preaching you know that from the time the words leave their mouths and strike your ear there is a power there is a pressure there is a life giving force that you know has no other explanation but the unction of the holy ghost my speech and my preaching were in demonstration of the spirit and of power the the the Not just their hearing enabled by the Spirit. He said, my speech and my preaching were clothed with the demonstration of the reality of the Spirit which is characterized by power.

40:40 Subjected to the analysis of a computer, no. God have mercy when you try to fit him into a computer.

Biblical Evidence 3: The Holy Spirit Alone Imparts Essential Gifts and Graces

40:50 My third line of evidence that the Holy Spirit in his person, presence, and power is indispensable to the being, life, and ministry of the Church is this. The Holy Spirit alone imparts the gifts and graces essential to the Church's true identity and her effective ministry. The Holy Spirit alone imparts the gifts and graces essential to the Church's true identity and her effective ministry. Is the Church's true identity that of the community of the sanctified?

41:28 The justified?

41:32 Well, how does she enter in reality to her identity as those set apart unto God? God's glorious counterculture. Turn to 1 Corinthians 6 for the answer. Because here the contrast is stark, but any lesser contrast is included in the greater.

41:54 Paul describes some of the kinds of sins that were rife among the Church. Verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 6. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men.

42:21 He's talking about homosexuals, both the active and passive partners. If there's any distinction in the Greek words, that seems to be the distinction. Nor thieves, nor covetous. Nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

42:38 And such were some of you, but you were washed, that is cleansed, from the defilement of these sins. You were sanctified, and this is speaking of that initial sanctifying work in which a man is radically, once for all, set apart from the dominion and defilement of sin unto God. Now he must grow in sanctification. Progressively, this is what has come to be called definitive sanctification.

43:07 Ye were sanctified, but you were justified. And what is the spiritual orbit within which these things happened? In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is in conjunction with what God has revealed of redemptive activity in the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's what it means.

43:26 In the name of the Lord Jesus. It means in the revelation of His redemption. Redemptive mercy made in the person and work of Christ. But notice, he doesn't stop there.

43:38 And in the Spirit of our God. It was when the Holy Spirit came and excised that heart of stone, unresponsive to God's law, indifferent to God's fellowship, unconcerned about God's glory, and God excised that heart and put in a heart of flesh. Breathed His own Spirit into man. And in the virtue of that marvelous, transforming work, they became God's counterculture at Corinth.

44:16 Such were some of you. There was no evangelical parachurch organization in Corinth called Evangelical Gays. They've got such organizations in New York and in Chicago and in many majors. People who have a doctrinal statement that is thoroughly evangelical.

44:42 And yet they are unashamed, practicing homosexuals, male and female. There was no such society at Corinth. He said, if that's still your practice, you're on your way to hell. You're not in the kingdom.

44:59 The kingdom culture is the counterculture in which God radically sets men apart from the dominion, of these sins and their defilement. But it's done in the realm of the present, powerful activity of God, the Holy Ghost.

45:20 And so I say, the Holy Spirit alone imparts the gifts and graces essential to the church's true identity as the new humanity. She is sanctified as the new humanity. She is constituted one in a society where all the barriers that separate men from God are gone. Men from one another in the world are leveled.

45:41 1 Corinthians 12, 13. Look at that text.

45:45 1 Corinthians 12, 13. For in one spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free, and ye were all made to drink of one spirit. What's the emphasis here? The emphasis?

46:09 The emphasis is upon that unique unity in the new humanity that is not based upon natural, cultural, sociological factors as the church growth people tell us. They say, you want to have a successful church? Light begets and attracts light. Decide if you're going to have a church of middle class yuppies and then aim at your yuppies and yuppies will attract yuppies and yuppies will multiply yuppies.

46:38 But don't expect to have a church of middle class yuppies. Don't expect to have a church where you've got yuppies and sons and daughters of the ghetto, where you've got people of diverse economic and cultural factors that'll all mean clash, clash, clash. I say no, not without denying the ministry of the Holy Ghost.

47:03 One spirit baptized into one body and whatever barrier separated you, and think of these, Jew and Greek, all your life you've been taught from the time you could breathe, the goyim are dogs. If anyone comes near you, stick.

47:22 Jew and all non-Jew, one body.

47:27 The slave who might resent the master and be jealous of the free man. The master who might have been abusive of his slave and suspicious of a free man. God says all placed into one and all have received life by drinking of the one spirit. Remember what Jesus said, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and what?

47:56 Drink. As the scripture saith, he that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the spirit, for the spirit was not yet given, for that Jesus was not yet glorified, but he has been glorified. And everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus is not only, baptized by the spirit into the one body, he is made to drink of the one spirit.

48:25 So if the new humanity is one body and drinks at one fountain, you just might get the impression they're one.

48:34 Not an artificial oneness based upon natural sociological factors, but a supernatural oneness based upon the dynamics of the person and presence and power of the Holy Spirit. So you see, the church cannot even be what she's to be in her identity without the presence and gifts and graces of the spirit. And this could be multiplied, but time is getting away from me. Let me touch just a moment on the gifts she needs to perform her functions, both to one another and to the world.

49:13 1 Corinthians 12, 1-7 makes it very clear. The first thing Paul wants them to know in overcoming their sin, their ignorance about spiritual gifts, is that the gifts of God's spirit operate in a totally different realm than the driving, non-rational influence of demon spirits connected with pagan worship. And he takes care of that in the first section of 1 Corinthians 12, 1-3. And having done that, he says in verse 4, Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit.

49:50 Diversities of ministries, ministration, and the same Lord. Diversities of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. See the Trinitarian emphasis, Spirit, Lord, God. But unto each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit with all.

50:07 For to one is given through the Spirit, and all of the particular gifts that the Spirit was sovereignly conferring at that time in redemptive history in that church, He deposits, by the direct agency of the Holy Spirit. And he goes on, particularly in chapter 14, and says the great end for which they are all given as those gifts are exercised within the church is one word, edification. Edification. Building up of the body.

50:39 Not personal gratification. Not display and ostentation. They had forgotten that. He said, no, they are given for edification.

50:49 Therefore, you prophet, bite your lip. Don't all stand up and have a prophetic orgy. One speak, others listen. Second speak, another listen.

50:58 Third speak, that's all for that day. Oh, but I've got a plus. Shut up. Three a day is enough.

51:03 And you tongue speakers, keep your mouth shut unless you know there's an interpreter. If there's an interpreter, let it be one that, oh, but I just don't follow. Spirit of the prophets is subject to prophets. Enough of this charismatic orgy.

51:15 Stop it. It may make you feel good, but it doesn't make the people of God morally good. It doesn't edify them. That's the great end for which the gifts are given.

51:26 But what is a church where the Spirit is not living, actively imparting the gifts essential for the building up of the body?

51:37 Those gifts that are part of the permanent giving of Christ who nourishes and cherishes His church and with reference to the world. Who validates our witness to the world? Is it our building?

51:50 Is it our impression made from advertising? No. It's the Spirit who validates our witness. Acts 1.8 He shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me. Acts 4.30 and 31 They are praying as they face opposition. And it says the place where they were praying was shaken and they were all filled with the Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

Conclusion: The Dreadful Consequence of Grieving the Spirit

52:20 Well, I've only gotten through the first head, but I? I'm not concerned, dear people. I made the normal number of notes. I've stuck carefully to my notes.

52:30 I've simply misjudged and I'm only going to go that far. But I want to bring this to a conclusion. What have I tried to demonstrate this morning? I've tried to demonstrate that we must be deeply concerned that we do not grieve the Holy Spirit.

52:47 Why? Because the Holy Spirit Himself, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit alone can give the very being of a church. The Holy Spirit alone gives life and validation to the ministry of the church. And we've looked at the biblical evidence that His person, presence, and power are indispensable to the being, life, and ministry of the church.

53:18 Three lines of evidence. The Holy Spirit alone constitutes the church, a living temple. The Holy Spirit alone communicates life to all the divinely instituted activities within the temple. And the Holy Spirit alone imparts the gifts and graces essential to the church's true identity and effective ministry.

53:39 I trust this brief overview of these realities will show us what a dreadful thing it would be to grieve Him. To grieve Him is to grieve away the One who alone can make us what we're supposed to be. Who can confer upon us all that we need to function as we ought, one to another and to an onlooking world. He alone can give life and power and efficacy to the institutions.

54:10 And we have no backup system. You see, this is one of the great tragedies. In many churches, whether the Spirit of God is present or not, you still have a good time. Because there is so much that is carnally planned and promoted and paraded that at least you get some aesthetic enjoyment.

54:33 You get some entertainment. Whereas I've said again and again in pastors' conferences all around the world as I've had privilege to speak to God's servants, we are shut up to God's simple, plain institutions and if He doesn't attend them with power, we have no backup system. And those who have known the Holy Ghost coming, riding in regal glory and grace on His own institutions into the assembly, if He's absent, all discerning people will know it. And because there's no backup system, then they will fall upon their faces and say, Oh God, why were you absent?

55:10 Wherein have we believed you? Just like Israel. When she was to conquer Canaan, God says, keep my rules, I'll be with you. Break them and you're in trouble.

55:21 So a man, Achan, broke them. So they went out to the next city, Ai, and they couldn't conquer. They didn't have a backup system. So Joshua called the elders together and they fell on their faces and cried to God.

55:35 And God said, up off your faces. There's sin that's grieving me. Deal with the sin and I'll accompany your armies again. You see, that's the glory of the simplicity of God's institutions.

55:48 Only the Holy Ghost can make them effectual. And when He makes them effectual, you don't want anything else. Do you? Someone said concerning our kind of service, well, it's just one of those strict reformed sandwiches.

56:03 You have a hymn and prayer and another hymn and a reading of the Scriptures and it's capped off with a slice of preaching. Just a strict evangelical reformed sandwich. But as one man said, oh, what a sandwich when we're unable to feed upon the living God Himself and His institutions. You see, nobody's ever anxious and itching for novelties when He has the living God.

56:35 And if we don't have Him, what can trinkets and toys do to satisfy the deepest longing of the human heart which only God can sell? That's why, dear people, this command of God, grieve not the Holy Spirit, is crucial. Why we've given place in this manifesto to our determination to maintain the presence of a non-greed Holy Spirit. For mark it, if any of you are around, when the toys and trinkets enter this place, know for sure that long time before the Holy Ghost began to make His way out of here, don't grieve Him. He alone, He alone by His living presence constitutes us, the Church. He alone can confer upon us that divine life-giving power to make His institutions effective to our edification and the salvation of sinners. He alone can impart the gifts and graces essential to the Church being true to her identity and effective in her ministry.

Application to Unbelievers: Spiritual Blindness and the Call to Humility

58:00 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. And there may well be some sitting here, who say this has been the most convoluted, mixed-up, jumbled bunch of nonsensical, mystical teaching I've ever heard. I don't have a clue what that guy's talking about. You get up, put your Sunday go-to-meeting clothes on, you go to church, you sing your hymns, give your five bucks in the play, pray your prayer and go home.

58:27 That's what's the thing, my friend. Is that then what you're thinking? May I lovingly tell you why? God's already told you.

58:35 I'll just tell you what He's told you. Would you listen to God? Tune me out, but listen to God, alright? Listen to what God says about you.

58:42 The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged or examined, spiritually deserved. You know why all of this has been nonsense to you? Because the Holy Spirit does not dwell in you. Your spiritual eyes are still blind, as blind as if someone had gouged them out with an ice stick.

59:16 Your spiritual ears are deaf as deaf as if someone had cut out your eardrums. My friend, don't in the pride and arrogance of your sin sit in judgment on the exposition of God's word about the ministry of His Spirit, and treat lightly things you don't understand, because you're spiritually blind and dead. But humble yourself and say, Oh God, I don't have a clue what that preacher talked about. But he was turning us to passages of your word, and people had their Bibles open on their lap.

59:54 He wasn't up there conning them. He wasn't up there leading up to fleecing them and getting their money. It's evident. And when he talked about the simplicity of the ordinances of God, it's evident.

60:05 There was no free ring circus. There was no attempt to manipulate. Your conscience tells you all those things. You go to God and say, Oh God, there must be something real there.

60:16 Lord, I confess I'm blind and deaf. I couldn't understand a thing, but oh God, have mercy on me. Humble me, and oh God, teach me. There's a wonderful promise if you take that posture.

60:28 God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. You take that posture, and God will give you light, and God will show you your blindness. He'll show you your deafness. He'll show you how bad you are, that he might get you desperate to see how beautiful and lovely Christ is, and how much is in Christ for the taking.

61:00 Oh, my friend, if all of this has been gibberish, don't judge God, judge yourself before the day when God judges you. And you cry to God that he'd open your eyes, give you to see your need of Christ, enable you to grasp hold of the great truth. Christ died for sinners. Christ welcomes sinners.

Final Exhortation and Prayer

61:24 But self-righteous, smug, self-satisfied people, he has nothing for them. He said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. And we who are the people of God, may we treasure as never before the person, presence, and power of the Holy Spirit, and esteem, and name them as indispensable, indispensable to the life, to the very being, to the identity, to the usefulness of this assembly. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank you for your holy word. And we realize that we have traversed holy ground this morning, that you would ever deign to take up your dwelling among men is a marvelous thing in our eyes. We thank you for your coming to us in the person of your Son, that he dwelt among us.

62:38 Men beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We thank you that since his ascension to your right hand, he has sent the Holy Spirit to be with us forever. O Lord, grant us as your people to cherish his presence, to jealously guard his presence among us, to have a deep concern, lest we should do anything that would grieve him in our corporate life. O Lord, wherein we have not properly esteemed you and your presence and power and person, blessed Holy Spirit, forgive us. Lord Jesus, wash us. Holy Father, help us that we may be more mindful of our utter dependence upon the Spirit. For those who sit here blind and dead in their sins, O God, in mercy arrest them.

63:45 Take the word preached and make it effectual to their conversion, we pray. May your blessing rest upon us as we leave this place, watch over us in the afternoon hours, and should it please you to spare us and gather us again tonight. O Lord, be present in the midst of your gathered people. Lord Jesus, especially do we pray, be present at your own instituted table of remembrance, that there by faith we may feed upon you, be drawn into deeper bonds of trust and love.

64:22 Hear our cry. Hear our cry. May your blessing rest upon us. We plead through the Lord Jesus Christ.

64:31 Amen.