Do Not Quench the Spirit

Numerous times already in this letter the apostle had commended the Thessalonians (1:2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10; 2:13, 17, 19, 20; 3:6, 8, 9), indicating that their church was headed in the right spiritual direction. Whatever spiritual deficiencies existed in Thessalonica, they did not threaten the basic spiritual life of the people. Paul did not point out any scandalous sins or false doctrines. But he did encourage the believers that there was still a sanctification process to follow and much room for additional growth—they needed to “excel still more.”

begins a series of direct exhortations to the Thessalonians to persevere and grow in their Christian walk. Even though they eagerly anticipated the return of Christ for His church and their deliverance from the final Day of the Lord, the Thessalonians’ pressing responsibility was to live holy lives in the present and continue to grow in grace.

Article 24: Man's Sanctification And Good Works

We believe that this true faith, being wrought in man by the hearing of the Word of God and the operation of the Holy Spirit, regenerates him and makes him a new man, causing him to live a new life, and freeing him from the bondage of sin. Therefore it is so far from being true that this justifying faith makes men remiss in a pious and holy life, that on the contrary without it they would never do anything out of love to God, but only out of self-love or fear of damnation.

Therefore it is impossible that this holy faith can be unfruitful in man; for we do not speak of a vain faith, but of such a faith which is called in Scripture a faith working through love, which excites man to the practice of those works which God has commanded in His Word.These works, as they proceed from the good root of faith, are good and acceptable in the sight of God, forasmuch as they are all sanctified by His grace. Nevertheless they are of no account towards our justification, for it is by faith in Christ that we are justified, even before we do any good works; otherwise they could not be good works, any more than the fruit of a tree can be good before the tree itself is good.

Therefore we do good works, but not to merit by them (for what can we merit?); nay, we are indebted to God for the good works we do, and not He to us, since it is He who worketh in us both to will and to work, for His good pleasure. Let us therefore attend to what is written: When ye shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do. In the meantime we do not deny that God rewards good works, but it is through His grace that He crowns His gifts.

Moreover, though we do good works, we do not found our salvation upon them; for we can do no work but what is polluted by our flesh, and also punishable; and although we could perform such works, still the remembrance of one sin is sufficient to make God reject them. Thus, then, we would always be in doubt, tossed to and fro without any certainty, and our poor consciences would be continually vexed if they relied not on the merits of the suffering and death of our Savior.

Do not quench the Spirit –

The metaphor here is very graphic. The word “quench” means to extinguish. It means to stifle, to retard or as it’s translated, to quench. It is used in for putting out a fire. It is used in for putting out a lamp. That’s what it means, to extinguish, to quench, to stifle, pouring water on a fire. You, I’m sure, are very much aware that the Holy Spirit throughout Scripture is depicted as a fire. You find that in the book of when the Spirit of God came upon the church there appeared cloven tongues of fire. The Spirit of God is seen in a number of places as a fire. In fact, you remember that in Paul’s letter to Timothy he told him, “Kindle afresh the gift of the Spirit that is in you.” In other words, the fire is there, throw some more wood on it, get it started again, it’s so low. So the Spirit is on a number of occasions seen as a fire … a flaming fire. And the Apostle is saying, “Don’t pour water on that fire. Don’t put retardant on that fire. Don’t stifle the work of the Spirit.”

When you establish a false standard of sanctification, a false standard of spirituality, you quench the Spirit.

1. The Charismatics have reduced the Holy Spirit to some sort of divine genie who does only things that are seen, felt or heard. If they aren’t seen, felt or heard, He didn’t do them and He does them on demand.

2. Psychology also quenches the work of the Spirit by again substituting a false operation for the real thing. They substitute human wisdom, human resources, human power packaged in human techniques as the path to solving spiritual problems. They reject the only true power, the only genuine problem solver, the Holy Spirit, who alone can heal the sins of our lives and make us holy. “I have never agreed with your view of psychologists and how you lump them all together, Christian and secular. A recent awareness of past events has made this all the more disturbing. I wonder if you realize the harm you are doing as you turn people who have deep emotional problems away from seeking the help they need. If you came from an ideal family situation, you may well have difficulty understanding how deeply the spirits of some people have been wounded and how it has warped the very fiber of their being. Oftentimes the incidents have been sublimated by the youngster only to surface as an adolescent or adult. Recommending only Bible study and prayer can be like putting on a Bandaid when you need surgery. Just becoming a Christian doesn’t solve the dilemma either, I used to think it does, because the troubled person may just consider their past life experiences fairly normal having sublimated the deep hurt of their spirit. Then because these matters have never been dealt with, they carry them on into their marriages and then begins another cycle.” What point is there in seeking the Holy Spirit’s comfort if, after all, deep-seeded emotional problems can be addressed only by a trained psychologist or if people can come to grips with their lives only by getting in touch with their childhood, or if the answers to our deepest hurts are buried deep within us. If those things are true, we don’t need an advocate, we need a therapist.” And this is precisely the route many in the church have chosen. And it is a quenching of the Holy Spirit. “I have never agreed with your view of psychologists and how you lump them all together, Christian and secular. A recent awareness of past events has made this all the more disturbing. I wonder if you realize the harm you are doing as you turn people who have deep emotional problems away from seeking the help they need. If you came from an ideal family situation, you may well have difficulty understanding how deeply the spirits of some people have been wounded and how it has warped the very fiber of their being. Oftentimes the incidents have been sublimated by the youngster only to surface as an adolescent or adult. Recommending only Bible study and prayer can be like putting on a Bandaid when you need surgery. Just becoming a Christian doesn’t solve the dilemma either, I used to think it does, because the troubled person may just consider their past life experiences fairly normal having sublimated the deep hurt of their spirit. Then because these matters have never been dealt with, they carry them on into their marriages and then begins another cycle.” You see what this is saying? What in effect it is saying is the reverse of the truth. The absolute reverse of the truth. Psychology is the Bandaid and the Word, prayer and the power of the Spirit is the deep surgery. But that is the mindset that is rampant in the church. The Christian psychologist has been trained and is better able to get at the root of these serious problems. A friend or good listener isn’t of much help because the matter is too deep and a minister has an entire congregation to minister to, how in the world could he justify the time it would take to deal with just a few in his congregation? Life is becoming more complex, relationships more fragile because of it and you don’t think Christians should seek professional counseling????question. question … question … question. I wonder how many other needy people have been persuaded not to seek professional help they desperately need. I shutter to think of the responsibility that is yours as your voice travels the airways, discouraging people from getting the help they need. I sincerely hope that we have misunderstood the real meaning of what you meant. To make my point very clear … I do not agree with you that Christians should not seek professional psychological counseling. If the need is there, they should avail themselves of the help.”

Tim Hambrick vs Health Lambert

You believe that the Holy Spirit was powerful enough to convict you of your sin including making you weary of your self-effort to please God on your own? That the Holy Spirit was powerful enough to make you repent from a sense of shame about your sin and a fear of the wrath of God to turn from your sin and follow Christ? You mean that the Spirit was powerful enough to energize the gospel so that it could come to you as truth in your spiritual deadness and that the Spirit of God was powerful enough to regenerate you, create you all new, plant the very seed of the life of God within you and He did all of that but He now can’t handle your problems? It seems to me the hard work is done.

Goal of the Holy Spirit He wants to separate you further and further from sin and the further you get away from sin the closer you get to God. It’s just a process of separation. He wants to produce in you the decreasing frequency of sin, the decreasing frequency of sin, the decreasing power of temptation, the decreasing preoccupation with the world, the decreasing victimization to the flesh and increase your longings for God. ;

How the Holy Spirit accomplishes this

1. He illuminates the Word … He illuminates the Word. ; , Your emotions have reached the peak, as it were, in rejoicing that you’re saved. The reason is not because some intuitive thing flowed up from within you, but because you know the truth that relates to your responses and the Spirit of God has quickened those truths to your mind and that has exhilarated your emotions. You can quench it - Fail to study the Word to show yourself approved unto God. Mishandle the Scripture, don’t rightly divide it. Don’t receive it with humility, as says. You can quench the Spirit by not applying it in your life so that you become a hearer and not a doer. You can quench it by not hiding it in your heart, by not searching it diligently, by not desiring it and you can quench it by not letting it dwell in you richly, as Paul said in .

2. There’s a second thing the Holy Spirit does. In moving us along this path of separation to holiness, He brings us in to intimacy with God. This is an essential component in our spiritual growth. We need time with God. Now I need if I’m going to move closer and closer to God, if the relationship is to be sweeter and sweeter and richer and richer and richer and fuller and fuller, then I have to spend time with God and so it’s the Spirit’s work to draw me that way, to pull me that way. It is the Holy Spirit, says, who leads us to cry, “Abba, Father.” It is the Holy Spirit who leads us to the conviction that we are the children of God. Paul says again in , “It is the Holy Spirit who makes us cry, Abba Father,” that means papa or daddy, that’s a term of endearment, a term of infinity, a term of intimacy. The Spirit wants that. The Spirit wants us to draw into prayer, into communion, into fellowship with God, to run there as loving children with a loving Father. We cry Abba Father on the one hand because we just want to celebrate the relationship. We cry Abba Father on the other hand because we so desperately have needs. You can quench it by not accepting the difficulties of life, being bitter and angry, by not being prayerful and not enjoying the communion of God.

3. There’s a third thing He does in moving us toward Christ’s likeness, 3.He glorifies Christ to us … He glorifies Christ to us. You say, “Why does He do that?” Because the goal of our holiness is to be like Christ. ;

4. Fourthly, in the process of this movement in your life He wants to guide you into God’s will. He wants to move you into God’s will.

5. Lastly, He strengthens us inwardly. And that is why Paul in prayed this, “I pray that you might be strengthened in the inner man by the Spirit,” . The only way you’re going to do God’s will, the only way you’re going to experience God’s love, the only way you’re going to see beyond what you can ask or think, the only way you’re going to be glorifying to Christ in the church is when your power is coming from the Holy Spirit. That’s why Paul says, “When I am weak in my human strength, I become powerful because when I’ve run out of human resources I cast myself on God. It’s the Spirit’s power that enables us to do everything.

I guess the sum of His ministry is no more beautifully stated than it is in . Just listen to this, the prophet describes the Holy Spirit this way, he says, “He is the Spirit of the Lord, He is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” This Holy Spirit will bring you wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and cause you to fear and worship God.

We don’t want to quench the Spirit in the church today but we’re doing it on a large scale. We don’t want to quench the Spirit on our own individual lives, but we’re doing it