Holy Spirit 1 Lesson 6
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The Holy Spirit Gives Stronger or Weaker Evidence of the Presence and Blessings of God According to Our Response to Him
The Holy Spirit Gives Stronger or Weaker Evidence of the Presence and Blessings of God According to Our Response to Him
Many OT and NT examples indicate that the HS will bestow or withdraw blessing according to whether or not he is pleased by the situation he sees.
Jesus was without Sin and the HS remained on him
32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.
He also had the HS without measure
34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.
In the OT the HS came mightily upon Sampson
25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
But ultimately left him when he persisted in sin
20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
Saul the same way
14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.
The people of Israel
10 But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.
Also in the NT the HS can be grieved and cease to bring blessing in a situation:
51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.
Paul warns the Ephesian Christians:
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
He Exhorts the Thess. church:
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
Paul talks about not defiling their bodies by joining them to a prostitute because the HS lives within their bodies:
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Even more serious than grieving or quenching the HS is a deeper more hardened disobedience to him that brings strong judgment.
Peter rebuked Ananias
3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
9 But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”
The book of Hebrews also warns:
29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
For such a person there only remains
27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Finally there is one more level of offense against the HS. This kind of offense is even more serious than grieving him or acting with the hardened disobedience to him that brings discipline or judgement. It is possible so to offend the HS that his convicting work will not be brought to bear again in a persons life
31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
These statements where made in context of the Pharisees willfully attributing to Satan the powerful work of the HS that was evident in the min of Jesus.
29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—
All of these passages indicate that we must be very careful not to grieve or offend the HS.
He will not force himself on us against our wills
32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.
but if we resist and quench and appose him, then his empowering will depart and he will remove much of the blessing of God from our lives.
Just as we experience the joy of restoration upon repentance, so we make amends for grieving the Spirit when we turn from our sin and seek to do His will. When we sense a distance in our relationship to God, it is wise to ask ourselves if we are engaged in some persistent, impenitent sin that brings the Spirit grief. He may withdraw for a time that we might recognize that our sin has grieved Him and that we need to deal with it.
Charles Spurgeon Message conclusion on Eph Grieving the HS:
“And now, in conclusion, there may be some of you here who have lost the visible presence of Christ with you; who have in fact so grieved the Spirit that he has gone. It is a mercy for you to know that the Spirit of God never leaves his people finally; he leaves them for chastisement, but not for damnation. He sometimes leaves them that they may get good by knowing their own weakness, but be will not leave them finally to perish. Are you in a state of backsliding, declension, and coldness? Hearken to me for a moment, and God bless the words. Brother, stay not a moment in a condition so perilous; be not easy for a single second in the absence of the Holy Ghost. I beseech you use every means by which that Spirit may be brought back to you. Once more, let me tell you distinctly what the means are. Search out for the sin that has grieved the Spirit, give it up, slay that sin upon the spot; repent with tears and sighs; continue in prayer, and never rest satisfied until the Holy Ghost comes back to you. Frequent an earnest ministry, get much with earnest saints, but above all, be much in prayer to God, and let your daily cry be, "Return, return, O Holy Spirit return, and dwell in my soul." Oh, I beseech you be not content till that prayer is heard, for you have become weak as water, and faint and empty while the Spirit has been away from you. Oh! it may be there are same here this morning with whom the Spirit has been striving during the past week. Oh yield to him, resist him not; grieve him not, but yield to him. Is he saying to you now "Turn to Christ?" Listen to him, obey him, he moves you. Oh I beseech you do not despise him. Have you resisted him many a time, then take care you do not again, for there may come a last time when the Spirit may say, "I will go unto my rest, I will not return unto him, the ground is accursed, it shall be given up to barrenness." Oh I hear the word of the gospel, ere ye separate, for the Spirit speaketh effectually to you now in this short sentence-"Repent and be converted everyone of you, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord,' and hear this solemn sentence, "He that believeth in the Lord Jesus and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." May the Lord grant that we may not grieve the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Holy Spirit, pity me Pierced with grief for grieving thee
W.M. Bunting
1. Holy Spirit! pity me,
Pierced with grief for grieving Thee;
Present, though I mourn apart,
Listen to a wailing heart.
2. Sins unnumbered I confess,
Of exceeding sinfulness,
Sins against Thyself alone,
Only to Omniscience known.
3. Deafness to Thy whispered calls,
Rashness ’midst remembered falls,
Transient fears beneath the rod,
Treacherous trifling with my God.
4. Tasting that the Lord is good,
Pining then for poisoned food;
At the fountains of the skies
Craving creaturely supplies!
5. Worldly cares at worship time:
Groveling aims in works sublime;
Pride, when God is passing by!
Sloth, when souls in darkness die!
6. Chilled devotions, changed desires,
Quenched corruption’s earlier fires:
Sins like these my heart deceive,
Thee, who only know’st them, grieve.
7. O how lightly I have slept,
With Thy daily wrongs unwept!
Sought Thy chiding to defer,
Shunned the wounded Comforter.
8. Woke to holy labors fresh,
With the plague-spot in my flesh;
Angel seemed to human sight,
Stood a leper in Thy light!
9. Still Thy comforts do not fail,
Still Thy healing aids avail;
Patient Inmate of my breast,
Thou art grieved, yet I am blest.
10. O be merciful to me,
Now in bitterness for Thee!
Father, pardon through Thy Son
Sins against Thy Spirit done!