Grieve Not the Spirit

Sermon delivered on October 7th, 2018
Sunday Morning Service

By: Pastor Greg Hocson

Scripture Text: Ephesians 4:21-32

 

Introduction

Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

The command here before us is "grieve not the holy Spirit of God." "Grief" is an emotion that all of us are very familiar with. The word grief is synonymous to sadnesssorrowheaviness of heartheartacheheartbreakanguishpaindistress, etc.

 

Webster defines it as "the pain of mind produced by loss, misfortune, injury or evils of any kind; sorrow; regret. We experience grief when we lose a friend, when we incur loss, when we consider ourselves injured, and by sympathy, we feel grief at the misfortunes of others."

 

You and I have the capacity to grieve the Holy Spirit. We have the capacity to offend Him, to cause Him to be sorrowful, and to cause Him to be heavy in heart. So be aware that the Spirit can be grieved. Be aware of all things that can grieve Him and seek to avoid those things at any cost. We must never knowingly be involved in anything that grieves Him and upon the discovery that you stop immediately. 

 

This morning consider with me this vital and weighty subject "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God".  I have three headings to help us in this study, namely:

The Implications — what does it tell us about the truth that the Holy Spirit can be grieved?

The Incitements — what causes the Holy Spirt to be grieved?

The Incentives — what are the reasons or motivations for not grieving the Holy Spirit?

 

I — The Implications

Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

What does it tell us about the Holy Spirit being capable of being grieved? It has at least two implications. 

 

1. The Holy Spirit is a Person

To understand what it means to grieve the Spirit, we must first understand that this indicates the Spirit possesses personality. The fact that He can be grieved shows that the Holy Spirit is a Person, not a mere influence or force. Dead, lifeless impersonal influence or force or objects cannot be grieved. You cannot grieve the wind. No matter what you do with the wind it cannot be grieved. You may curse it, you may complain about it, but the wind will not be affected. Why? It is an impersonal force. It doesn't feel any grief. You cannot grieve the ground. You may curse it and tramp it under your feet and spit upon it but it can't be grieved. It is an impersonal thing, it is an inanimate thing and impersonal and inanimate things cannot be grieved. But the Holy Spirit is a person and only a person can be grieved.

 

When Jesus spoke of the Spirit in His discourse on the subject recorded in John 14 through 16, He spoke of Him as a person.

"...he shall teach you all things..." (John 14:26)

"...he shall testify of me..." (John 15:26)

"...when he is come, he will reprove the world..." (John 16:8)

"...he will guide you into all truth..." (John 16:13)

"He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you."(John 16:14)

 

Again and again the Word of God describes the Holy Spirit as having a mind, will, and emotion. The Holy Spirit is indeed a person, the Third Person of the Trinity, and He came to live inside you when you trusted Christ as your Saviour!

 

2. The Holy Spirit Loves and Cares

The grieving Spirit not only implies that the Holy Spirit is a person but also He loves and cares.

Romans 15:30 Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;

We usually associate the love of God with the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but understand that the Holy Spirit also loves.

 

A person who loves has the capacity to be sorrowful and to be grieved. Just think about a husband and wife relationship. What would you think of a husband who feels no grief even though he finds out that his wife had been unfaithful? No matter what the wife does he feels no grief and no emotion? You would question his love relationship with his wife wouldn't you? If the husband truly has love relationship with his wife, he will be devastated and be grieved. 

 

How about a mother and child relationship? What would you think of a mother who feels no grief even if her child is disobedient? Though she knows that her child is going in the wrong and destructive path she doesn't feel any grief or burden for the child. You would question her love for and relationship with the child wouldn't you? If the mother truly loves the child she will be grieved, right?

 

"If money were missing mysteriously from your wallet, you would be angry. But if you discovered that your child was the one who stole it, your anger would quickly turn into grief.— Albert Lee

 

Grieve is a love word. The word "grieve" denotes a pain or grief that can only be experienced between two people who deeply love each other. You cannot grieve people who don't love you.  You might disappoint them, irritate them, annoy them, upset them, anger them but you cannot grieve them. You can only grieve someone who is close to you and loves you. The Holy Spirit deeply loves us. The Holy Spirit has a deep love for those whom He has regenerated. He is grieved because He loves us so much. The relationship that exists between us and the Holy Spirit is precious! 

 

By the way, since we have that relationship with the Holy Spirit, when He is grieved it should grieve us too. We grieve when we grieve Him.

 

II — The Incitements

What causes the Holy Spirit to be grieved? What grieves the Holy Spirit? There are many ways where the Holy Spirit can be grieved. 

 

God the Spirit can be and is grieved by the people of God

1.  By Our Words

God the Spirit can be grieved by our words.

 

Lying 

Ephesians 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. 

Remember that the Spirit is the Spirit of truth (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). All lying, great or small grieves the Spirit.

 

Lie not to one another. Why? We are members of one another. What a horrible thing if my eye begins to lie to my hand. And my eye sees a burning flame and it says to my hand, no, no, that's just a ball of cotton, pick it up. The tragic result  when my eye begins to deceive to my hand is is a burned and seared flesh.

 

Corrupt communication

Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Corrupt communication — the word used here speaks of something that has gone "rotten" or "spoiled". Unkind words, cursing, profanity, dirty jokes and stories, character assassination, slanderous remarks, backbiting and gossip - these things grieve the Spirit. Anything that does not minister (serve) grace is corrupt and this grieves the Spirit. Instead of speaking evil of someone, we are to be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. We should speak words to build up. 

 

2. By Our Attitudes 

God the Spirit can be grieved our attitudes.

 

Anger

Ephesians 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

The Bible says not to let the sun go down. Make it right immediately. Some people just like to be mad. They live for conflict, arguing, and fighting. This, as with all sin, only gets worse if left unchecked and unrepented of.

 

Bitterness

Ephesians 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour (mean and sharp words), and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 

Bitterness makes the Holy Spirit sad and sorrowful. Bitterness is "an embittered and resentful spirit that refuses to be reconciled." The sad thing is that bitter people rarely want to keep it to themselves. Instead, they spread it around. The Bible speaks of "a root of bitterness defiling many" (see Hebrews 12:15).

 

Unforgiveness

Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. 

If forgiveness has been pleaded and we refuse to stand ready to forgive and hold back forgiveness — this makes the Spirit sad and sorrowful.

 

When we allow things to destroy our fellowship with other believers, or even our family, this grieves the Holy Spirit.

 

3. By Our Actions

God the Spirit can be grieved our actions.

Ephesians 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth

Laziness whether physical or spiritual, grieves the Spirit. Stealing because you are too lazy to work with your own hands grieves the Spirit. Spiritual laziness such as failing to read the Bible and prayer grieves the Spirit.

 

III — The Incentives (Motives)

What are the incentives or reasons for not grieving the Holy Spirit? What happens when He is grieved? Why is Paul so concerned about this matter of grieving the Spirit? Why should we be so concerned about not grieving the Holy Spirit?

 

One of the reasons why we should avoid grieving the Spirit is because a grieved Spirit is a withdrawn Spirit. No, the Bible does not teach that the Spirit ever leaves whom He indwells. We do not need to fear losing the Spirit, but we should fear grieving the Spirit. Although the Spirit is grieved, He is not going to leave! But having said that, understand that a grieved Spirit becomes a withdrawn Spirit, not in His personal indwelling but in His powerful working. We are sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption and the Spirit will never leave as to His personal indwelling securing our ultimate redemption. But He may and does often leave us in His powerful and manifest workings.

 

Charles Hodge wrote, "To grieve Him is to wound Him on Whom our salvation depends. Though He will not finally withdraw from those in whom He dwells, yet when grieved, He withholds the manifestations of His presence."

 

Some might ask, doesn't that encourage careless living? If you think so, you have missed the whole point of Paul's appeal. Paul based his appeals on the grace of God. What Paul is essentially saying is this, "Do not grieve the very Spirit who in mercy and love has sealed you as forever His own. Do not repay such love with such ingratitude."

 

Think of your privileges brought by the Spirit. He is the One who has identified you as His own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Would you knowingly and deliberately grieve the One Who sealed you unto the day of redemption? Would you willfully, and intentionally break the heart of the One who brought you to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and also sealed you unto the day of redemption? The heart of a true believer says no Lord I would not. 

 

Closing Thoughts

We need to realize how precious the Holy Spirit is in our lives. Let's honor Him by making sure we live holy and upright lives. May we never be involved in anything that grieves Him. And if there's anything in our life, whether in words or actions or attitudes that we know make Him sorrowful we should immediately stop and confess our sin and receive cleansing by the blood of Jesus so we can be restored to fellowship with the Spirit of God. 

 

One more thought I want to share before we close and I call the Prince of Preacher Charles Spurgeon to do that, listen to what he wrote, "The Holy Spirit's grief is not of a petty, oversensitive nature. He is grieved with us mainly for our own sakes, for He knows what misery sin will cost us; He reads our sorrows in our sins. He grieves over us because He sees how much chastisement we incur, and how much communion we lose."

 

Every sin that you and I commit grieves the Holy Spirit because He knows that is not what is best for us. Brothers and sisters in Christ do not bring sorrow and sadness to the Holy Spirit of God because it brings on yourself great harm and great loss.

 

May the Lord grant that we may not grieve the Holy Spirit. This is the word of the Lord. 

 

AMEN!