Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. The book of Ephesians, we're going to start there in chapter four, and we're going to obviously be mindful of your time this evening.
I've been refreshed. I'm glad that the young people were able to come and sing, and thank you Salters and Karen for the good special, and it's been encouraging to me. A little while back, Brother Jacob and I sat down and just felt like, you know, I said I felt like we're, our congregational singing, it's just like we're kind of doing it and hurrying through it to get on to other things, and so we have been doing more congregational music, and I've enjoyed it. It takes a while to get a heart prepared, and it's easy just to get in the motions and just to do it because this is what we do, but I encourage you, music is part of your worship, and it's not the only part.
Some people, that's all they, that's all they accent on. That's, that's all the priority is the music, but that's the only part of your worship. Worship can't take place without the Word, and so, but music does a whole lot about preparing the heart, the spirit, all those things. I always think about King Saul, as he would have David come when his heart, when his spirit was troubled, he'd have David come in and play music, and it really can be a very spiritual thing. Tonight I just briefly want to talk to you about grieving the Holy Spirit of God.
Two or three times a year I'll preach on this. It's just something that needs to be reminded because this is a real thing. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians see the Holy Spirit as an it instead of as a him. Okay, because we use that word spirit, the Bible makes it clear that the Holy Spirit has a personality, has a will. The Holy Spirit is God in us.
It's not an it, it's not a thing. The Holy Spirit is a person. Okay, now Ephesians chapter 4, and you know where we're going here in verse 30, just to introduce this subject and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Now first we are reminded here that when you and I are given the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation, there is a whole lot of things that the Holy Spirit does, but it is proof that we are sealed. It is proof that we can't lose our salvation. You're not sealed very well if you just constantly break that seal every time you sin. Okay, we're sealed under the day of redemption. Once you're saved, you're always saved. So the Holy Spirit does that ministry, but also it is possible for you and I through our actions, through our thinking, through our lifestyle, to grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
Now what that does, that causes some issues. So first I just want to give you a couple things, the issues that it causes in your life when you grieve the Holy Spirit, and then I, we cannot exhaust this subject tonight, but then I am going to give you six things, just straight from the Bible, just to show you six things that can grieve the Holy Spirit of God in your life. Okay, so let's pray and we'll dig into it tonight. Not real long, but I want to make sure that we are educated on this matter. Let's pray. Lord, we love you. Thanks for all you've done for the good service we've had. Now, as we look to your word, we need instruction.
This is how we grow. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. My middle son, Hudson, is named after a pastor in Charlotte, North Carolina, Dr. W. Jack Hudson, and he was my first pastor as a kid. And we joined Northside Baptist Church. My dad ran his evangelistic ministry as members of that church for a number of years. When we would be out of meetings, we would come and park there at Northside Baptist. If you've ever gone to Charlotte, North Carolina on 85, you passed Northside Baptist Church.
It's the big dome church kind of a thing. They have a pond right there in front of the church. That's where I caught my first fish as a kid. In fact, my dad told me, now when you feel something and you see that bobber go down, jerk it. And I really listened to that part because my first fish I caught 40 feet behind me. I jerked that thing so hard it pulled it out of the water and went kind of behind me. And my dad told that story for years. He got a real kick out of that. That's the last time I did what he said, but it was a very valuable. That's when I realized don't follow him or what he said.
No, I'm just picking. And, but Northside Baptist Church, our son is named Hudson after Jack Hudson. Jack Hudson told the story one time he was traveling preaching at a church.
And at that church, the pastor was telling them a story that had kind of taken off in local media. And this man had died and he lived on his own. His wife had died years earlier.
He had no children. And he had a dog that was almost, I think 20, 21, 22 years of age. I know that seems, and it has just always been him and his dog and this man died. And they had that dog at the funeral and that dog sat there on that grave side and people would begin to touch the dog, try to pull him and he would growl at them.
And so they left him. People brought water, people brought food. And that dog sat there on that grave for almost two weeks. People would bring food. They'd bring water, but the dog wouldn't eat.
He wouldn't drink. And he died there on that grave. The dog literally grieved himself to death. And Dr. Hudson was preaching. And I remember forget as a kid him telling that story. And he said, the Holy Spirit told me, Jack, that's how I feel when you sin. It grieves me.
It's a loss that someone I love so much would turn their back on me. I've never forgotten that. Grieving the Holy Spirit of God. Samuel Chadwick said this, the Holy Spirit cannot conquer the world with an unbelieving church. Nor can he save the world with a worldly church. He calls for a crusade, a campaign, and an adventure of saving passion.
For this enterprise, he wants a separated, sanctified, and sacrificial people that believe God. First thing tonight I want you to write down is this, grieving the Holy Spirit damages your prayer life. Grieving the Holy Spirit of God in your life, it damages your prayer life. Romans chapter 8, I want you to look at these verses. Verse 26 says, likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray as we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints, notice this, according to the will of God. When you have grieved the Holy Spirit of God, it hurts this entire process.
It literally means that you have thrown a wrench into how this whole thing works. Now, I don't think Butch would mind me saying, but a couple weeks back, Butch sat here in our church, and obviously Butch had a stroke and went through a lot. He's done well to recover, but he doesn't have 100% recovery yet and still is trying hard and therapy and all these different things. And I saw him a couple weeks ago, just sat down and talked with him for a while, and he said, you know, he said, I'm frustrated with some things and, you know, wanted to bounce back a lot quicker than I am. And he says, but one thing, it's hurting me when I pray.
And that was interesting to me. And I said, well, Butch, why is that? He says, well, he says, when I pray, I kind of think I know what I'm trying to say, but because of my stroke and my mind, I can't get the words out and I'll start praying for something and I can't figure out what it is that I'm supposed to say. And he says, I feel like I can't pray. And I took Butch to this verse. I said, you don't have to worry one thing about that because the Bible says the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us when we don't know how to pray.
Isn't that a wonderful thing? That even with a health issue that I want to talk to God and I want to pray to God, but I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to say to God, the Holy Spirit takes over. It's the fact that you want to, and the Holy Spirit does it. But when we grieve the Holy Spirit of God, it damages it.
Let me show you this in Isaiah, chapter 59, verses are on the screen, beginning of verse one. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that he cannot hear. God's willing to save, God's willing to hear, notice, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue has muttered perverseness.
What does this mean? Sin separates your life from God. In other words, God, you're never separated from God.
God loves us. Once you're saved, you're always saved. But it means literally now that my sin creates a gap, a wedge between me and God. It hurts the whole prayer process. This means if you have sin in your life, then you really can't pray.
And if you can't pray, you can't get divine direction. Number two, grieving the Holy Spirit diminishes your discernment. When you grieve the Holy Spirit of God in your life, you now do not have the ability to discern between right and wrong like you should. That's why a whole lot of people get right in the middle of stuff and you think, why in the world did they not see that?
Why could they not see how dangerous that was? Well, because as you grieve the Holy Spirit of God with your life, as you grieve the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you, it means now that it diminishes your ability to discern. And that's one of the major things in our Christian walk. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter two. I want you to see this, verse nine. But as it is written, I have not seen nor e'er heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us, notice this, by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. That means this, that I don't have access to that information, but that's why we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
He searches the deep things of God. It's knowledge that you and I just don't naturally have, but the Holy Spirit brings that. But look at verse 12. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. We have the Holy Spirit so that we can understand what God's done for us, what God has made available to us.
Look at verse 13. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Notice this, the Holy Ghost helps you compare something. Is this right, is this wrong? You compare spiritual with spiritual.
You look at a job opportunity, you look at a move for your family, you look at a decision, even what we're going to do for entertainment this weekend. You look at that and the Holy Spirit helps you compare that with spiritual. Is that right? Is that godly? Is that biblical? Look at verse 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Notice this, neither can he know them.
Why? Because they are spiritually discerned. Only the Holy Spirit brings discernment into your life. And when you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, it diminishes your discernment. May I say this, if you grieve, if you live in a way that's grieving the Holy Spirit of God, you will end up making very bad decisions. And you will think the whole time that you've made good decisions.
But you won't be able to discern. Notice number, a lot of things I would love to say on that. Psalm 119, 105, what does it say?
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It's what lets me know danger. It's what shows me, hey, don't go here. Don't go there. Don't do this in your life.
Don't make this decision. God's word is a lamp unto our feet and it's a light unto our path. R.C. Sproul said this, it is the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible and it is also the Holy Spirit who illuminates the Bible. It means this, he didn't just write it. The Holy Spirit wrote the Word of God through the inspiration. The Holy Spirit, God used the Holy Spirit.
We, in our discipleship class, we talked about it today. Holy men of God were moved as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. They wrote the Word of God so the Holy Spirit helped write the Word of God and that means he now lives inside of you. Who better to help you understand the Word of God? So the Holy Spirit has this ministry but when we grieve him, we hurt that ministry.
It's very, very simple. George Mueller said this, if the Holy Spirit guides us, he will do it according to the Scripture and never contrary to them. The Holy Spirit will never guide you to do something that's against the Word of God. I can't tell you how many people I've heard say, well, God led me to do this.
No, he didn't. Well, who do you think you are? I'm a guy that reads the Bible. The Holy Spirit's not going to lead you to do something that is contrary to something in here. Everybody understand that?
Okay. That gives you a little discernment there. Number three, grieving the Holy Spirit defeats your spiritual fruit. Grieving the Holy Spirit of God can literally kill spiritual fruit in your life. Galatians chapter five, verse 19. Now notice this, now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these.
These things are the fruit that your flesh produces. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. Verse 21, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such the like.
And that's just one weekend. Wow. Notice this, of the witch I tell you before, as I've also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Notice this, but the fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is not.
Look at me. When you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, you now will not bear the fruit of the Spirit, you will begin to produce the fruit of the flesh. That's when men start getting addicted to things. That's when we start creating habits in our life that end up grabbing us.
Why? Because with the Spirit, when you're led of the Spirit, you produce certain fruit, but when you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, now you're going to produce fleshly fruit. So look at the fruit in your life.
What is your life producing right now? That will tell you if you're being led of the Spirit or led of your flesh. Grieving the Holy Spirit of God defeats your spiritual fruit. Now notice this, what does he say?
And let me just illustrate if I can. When you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, what is the fruit of the Spirit? Well, notice first he says love. That means this, when you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, it affects your ability to love people. You know, when you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, you can't love your wife like you should. When you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, you can't love your husband like you should. No wonder you have homes breaking up, well, I don't love him anymore.
Well, why? You can't love him like you should if you're living in a way that's grieving the Holy Spirit of God because love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. But notice secondly, by the way, I thought this is a good quote about this. Billy Graham said this, I thought this was good. It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict God's job to judge and my job to love. What did the Bible say? This is how people are going to know you're my disciples, by how you judge one another. Exactly.
No, by how you love one another, the Bible says. Your joy, the fruit of the Spirit is joy. What does that mean? That means when you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, you begin to take joy out of your life. Now, what is joy? You hear, and we all have our instances, joy is the anchor of the buoy for a fishing term.
You say, what do you mean? You know, when you're out in the ocean, as the waves toss the buoy that you see, it moves left and right, but the anchor always stays the same. The buoy is happiness. The anchor is joy.
Everybody got that? In your life, well, I'm just not happy anymore. Well, that means that you don't have happy things happening. But joy is the anchor. And when you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, now you have taken away your joy. And what does that mean? Now, your life is going to be moved left and right and tossed to and fro.
Why? Because the anchor is joy. And when you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, you begin to lose your joy as a Christian. And the Bible says the joy of the Lord is our what?
It's our strength. Notice third, your peace. What is the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace.
Guess what? When you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, you're going to start losing peace in your life. There's not going to be internal peace. But yet when you live according being led by the Spirit of God, storms are happening all around you and you still have peace because you're being led of the Spirit. But when you're being led of your flesh and grieving the Holy Spirit, now you've lost your peace.
I could go on and on and on about these things. But when you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, you literally choke out the fruit of the Spirit. Notice number four, grieving the Holy Spirit denies your spiritual power.
When you grieve the Holy Spirit, you lose spiritual power. Acts chapter 1 8, but ye shall receive power when? When you get an education? You're going to receive power, the power of God, you're going to receive it when? When you follow certain rules and standards?
No, what does it say? But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Where do we get our power? From the Holy Ghost. We don't get it from ourselves. Listen, if we could get power from ourselves, we could have saved ourselves. But we get our power, our spiritual power from the Holy Ghost. Began all the way back here in the book of Acts, but notice this, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth. God's power is there for what?
To help you witness. God's power is not there for you to walk around and people say, what a spiritual man. No, God's power is given to you so that you can witness to point others to Christ. But when we grieve the Holy Spirit of God, guess what?
Now we've lost our power. Hey, listen, I'm gonna tell you something, I've felt it, I know. I'm not perfect, that's for sure. And I've had my times where I probably at times maybe got up in the pulpit at times where I just wasn't 100% led of the Spirit of God. Let me tell you something, I can give you the best outline, I can do whatever, I can preach, I can give you the stories, the illustrations, whatever, but there ain't nothing happening in the house of God. Now sometimes, listen, I'm right with God, you're not. Why? Nothing's happening. But I'm gonna tell you at times why, because there's no power where the Holy Spirit is grieved.
You say, well, I just, I keep talking to my kids and I keep telling them what to do and my kids just don't listen to me, they're getting worse and worse. There's no power, there's no spiritual power where the Holy Ghost is grieved. Number five, grieving the Holy Spirit decreases your assurance.
You say, what do you mean? Look at this, verse Romans 8 16, the Spirit itself bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God. Do you know one of the side effects of grieving the Holy Spirit of God is you begin to doubt your salvation. It's one of the side effects, because now you've grieved the Holy Spirit of God and he can't bear witness with your Spirit that you are the child of God. And what happens when we grieve the Holy Spirit of God means we're living apart from how God wants us and before long now we begin to decrease, now we're bearing the fruit of the flesh instead of the fruit of the Spirit, and then we look at our life and we say, you know what, I'm probably not even saved. But it was because we grieved the Holy Spirit of God. Number six, more I could say to all this, but just for sake of time, grieving the Holy Spirit destroys your boldness.
Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18, look at this, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. The same, Alistair Begg said this, the same Holy Spirit who implants faith within a life implants the boldness to verbalize that faith. So the Holy Spirit is the one that gives you the faith, but the Holy Spirit is the one that gives you the boldness to share that faith. And when you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, you will not share your faith. You say, well what did Ephesians 5 18 have to do with that? Listen, the Holy Spirit transforms us, with our cooperation, He also wants to transform the world we live in. Okay, so grieving the Holy Spirit destroys your boldness. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. You say, what does that mean? Well, I'm going to explain it to you. And I want to give you six things that the Bible teaches clearly, and there's many other things, but six things I just want you to know clearly. The Bible says, grieves the Holy Spirit of God. I hope that you don't have issues with these, maybe at least at the least I hope you don't have issues with all of these.
Okay, number one, I'm going to get this and we'll be done tonight. Number one, negative speech, negative speech, negative words. Look at Ephesians 4 29, it's not only where we read, but the verses are on the screen for you. 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. Now, corrupt speech doesn't just mean off color and it doesn't mean, you know, cussing or something like that.
Please get this, corrupt communication, what does it say? But that which is good to the use of edifying. When you use words that tear a person down, that's corrupt communication. You and I ought to use language and words that edifies people, builds them up spiritually, not words that tear them down. So notice this, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace under the hearers and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. So we're taught all around here in Ephesians 4 and chapter 5, things that grieve the Holy Spirit of God. One of them is negative speech, constant complaining.
It thrived in the Israelite camp. All the way back to the Old Testament, some of the earliest stories that we are taught, verbal complaining was something that grieved God in the wilderness. Guess what? It still grieves God today. Now, you and I are God's children.
Can I say this? We ought to stop complaining. Because the world's going to think we're complaining because we're his child. Nothing satisfied the Israelites. Instead of focusing on the Lord who delivered them from slavery, instead of focusing on the provision that he gave in the land, they found something wrong with everything.
Am I right about this? That grieves the Holy Spirit of God. When you and I complain about everything in our life and find something wrong with everything in our life and then we show up at church and guess what we find something wrong with? The preacher. Well, the service was dead today.
Preacher didn't have it today. Maybe it's not the preacher. Maybe it's not the service. Maybe it's not the choir. Maybe it's not the staff. Maybe it's you.
Maybe it's me. You and I have got to understand that, that negative speech, corrupt communication that doesn't build up, it breaks down, that grieves the heart of God. These people accused Moses. They had doubted God's word. They wanted to go back to bondage in Egypt. They tested God to the point that they rebelled out of the promised land. They wouldn't go in. They didn't have faith.
They didn't just... The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally.
Would you take a moment to hear this today? Every man is born with a sin nature. Romans 3 23 says for all of sin and come short of the glory of God.
No matter how hard we try, we're not good enough to obtain God's glory or to get to heaven. Because of that, sin carries the penalty of death. Romans 6 23 says for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of our sin or the payment of our sin only equals death and separation from God, but it's only through God's gift of salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept him as our savior.
Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt. The Bible says in Romans 5 8, but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. All you have to do is receive Christ by faith as your savior. Romans 10 9 says that if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13 continues for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner believing that Jesus is the only way and calling upon his name. Bible says whosoever, that's anyone, can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal savior? There is no greater day than today to take care of this. Would you accept Christ as your savior? If you have any questions please give us a call at 336-993-5192 or visit our website at KerwinBaptistChurch.com or visit us at person at one of our three service times. We hope you have a great rest of your day. God bless you.
