Word of Salvation – Vol.12 No.29 – July 1966
Do Not Grieve The Holy Spirit
Sermon by Rev. G. De Ruiter on Ephesians 4:30
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 63:7-17, Ephesians 1:1-14 & 4:17-32
Psalter Hymnal: 182:1,3,5; 436:2,3; 436:4; 386; 387; 389
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
One of the greatest problems for the young Christians in Paul’s days was that they had to live in a completely paganistic, heathen world. In no respect was there any influence of the gospel; all habits and customs were completely heathen. And just like for newly converted young Christians on the mission fields in our days, there came no help and support for a Christian way of life from their surroundings. On the contrary, in every way a really Christian way of life was made difficult. And the great danger was always there that they were carried away again with that mighty stream of heathen habits and customs. And, Paul says somewhere else, having begun by the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?
Well, all this is pretty relevant for us. Maybe there has been a time that public life was marked by Christian habits, and people talked about a Christian Europe, a Christian America, a Christian Australia. We, nowadays live in a world which can hardly be called a Christian society anymore. Alright, here and there you find some remnants of that so-called Christian era, but the spiritual climate of our days is rapidly changing. Christian norms and habits and customs are more and more thrown away.
Our society is a modern-paganistic society. And we more or less live in the same situation as Paul and his contemporaries. And it is therefore very good to listen to Paul when he is talking about the attitude of a real Christian in such a society. In all his letters, he gives his advice how to practise what he has preached. His epistles prove how doctrine and life are one, how doctrinal standards have to be practised in every-day life. This Christian life, however, is not a matter of another series of habits over against the old heathen customs, a new list of “do this and don’t do that.” It is much more a matter of a new spirit, a matter of being guided by the Holy Spirit. And falling back again in that old heathen way of life therefore is a matter of disappointment for the Holy Spirit.
And so in our text Paul says two things about the Holy Spirit:
- that the Holy Spirit has sealed us for the day of redemption, the day of full salvation.
- that we can disappoint and grieve the Holy Spirit.
What does it mean that we are sealed in or by the Holy Spirit? Well, in those days kings and other big shots had their own seal. It was on their houses and on their chariots and on their horses and on their clothes and on their paper and on the parcels they sent away. It had all kind of meanings. The seal on a sack of goods, for example, proved genuineness and ownership; it was a guarantee for the good quality of the goods and it also indicated the ownership and the source of the goods. In a slightly different way a seal was used by an architect after having finished his work. On such a monument or statue or building an architect put his mark, to show that he was responsible for its design and for its erection.
Well, all this is involved when Paul talks about the seal on a congregation, the seal on a believer. Because of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church, to a congregation, to an individual believer, we know that everything we believe, everything about the Lord Jesus is real and genuine and true. There is no doubt about the Lord and the meaning of His work for us. It is true, God’s grace for dirty sinners, God’s love for self-opinionated diehards. It is true: forgiveness, redemption, salvation, it is true forever; aren’t we sealed for the great day of complete redemption? And it all comes from the Holy Spirit. When we say to the Almighty God in heaven, faithful as a little child, “Father, my Father,” that is from the Holy Spirit. When we say with deep amazement but also with deep gratitude in our heart, “Jesus, my Saviour, Jesus my Lord,” that is only from that same Holy Spirit. And because it is from Him we will never lose it. Because it is all from Him, we will say so in all circumstances, we will say so in the hour of our death, we will say so before God’s judgement-seat, we will say so on the great day of judgment and therefore that great day will be for the believer the day of full redemption! And all this just simply and solely because of that divine, heavenly seal on us: God the Holy Spirit. Once God’s property, forever God’s property. Once a believer, forever God’s own. God’s seal is on us and no one will ever be able to tear it away – not even Satan – as Paul puts it in that great chapter, Romans 8: “For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths, nothing in all creation, that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Why such a conviction? Why such a certainty? Because of a believer’s own faithfulness… because of his steadfastness… his firmness and sturdiness as a believer? Paul knows better, since he knows himself too well, and there’s not much of a sturdy believer in Him. On the contrary, he thinks himself to be a miserable creature, he knows himself to be a pretty poor Christian. And yet that conviction, that firm conviction. How is that possible? Isn’t all this a matter of make-belief? No, because of that divine seal we may believe the unbelievable – We are God’s own forever. And to make this a firm conviction, God has given us His Holy Spirit.
There are so many reasons why we should doubt whether we’ll ever be able to reach the finish and live to see that great day of redemption. We would love to and we would like it very, very much… but who can ever guarantee us that it will come true? Who, do you ask. God’s very own Spirit, God the Holy Spirit Himself, God in His own proper Person.
Being sealed with the Holy Spirit – it means the certainty of grace to persevere in the present time and also the guarantee of eternal glory. On that day of redemption, that great day of our Lord’s second coming, God will claim us as His very own through our faith in His Son, and grant us the incomparable, glorious inheritance which is ours through our union with Christ our Lord.
Don’t forget this great truth – don’t forget it when the problems of life bother you, when Satan makes you doubt whether all this is really true, whether you’ll ever be able to reach the finish and see the Lord’s great day as the day of your eternal happiness – don’t forget that God’s seal is on you, and that because of that divine seal on your heart no one is ever able to break and violate that seal, taking away your faith.
Don’t forget and don’t doubt. Remind yourself time and again: “Don’t be so silly as to question your faith… and to doubt God’s grace, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit, what more do you want?” Who do you think made you believe, who made you say, “Jesus my Lord?” Who made you pray, “Father in heaven”? The Holy Spirit of course! So don’t doubt. He will fulfil His purpose for you, His steadfast love endures forever, and He will never forsake the work He started with you and in you.
And do you see now why Paul speaks about that ‘grieving the Holy Spirit’? For what a contrast: his faithfulness and our unfaithfulness. He has given us so much. He is so busy for us day and night. He is so wonderfully faithful, never leaving us alone, always ready and eager to guide us and help and counsel us, always trying to teach us what is good and holy and pleasing to God, for He hates everything which is unholy. On that point the Holy Spirit is very touchy and sensitive. It therefore does not take much to grieve and disappoint Him. Oh, of course gross sins hurt Him deeply, but you don’t need to become a thief or a murderer or a public woman to cause this grief of the Holy Spirit. In this chapter, Ephesians 4, as in his other letters, Paul mentions very common things, things not unknown to you and me, on the contrary, pretty well known in our everyday life and part of our daily behaviour. We hear of lying and gossip, of rivalry and jealousy, of hot-temperedness, of envy, of fits of rage, of selfish ambitions; we read of quarrels grieving the Holy Spirit, of too much drinking of alcohol, of foul talk, of dubious dirty jokes, of flippant, malicious, impure language. The Holy Spirit is grieved and hurt when all this comes from us who are sealed by His presence.
We don’t always realise that this being sealed by the Holy Spirit means that He is always with us, wherever we go, whatever we do, hearing everything we say.
Would you like me to know all that you have said about me…? Or just take whatever person you like. But the Holy Spirit knows and He feels hurt because of everything you have said of any of God’s children. And He is grieved when He sees you dismayed and downhearted and anxious, when He hears you grumbling and complaining, when He finds in your heart (His dwelling-place) discontent and ingratitude, when He finds you doubting and questioning God’s love and care for you. He, the Spirit of God, He has to live with all that dirty, filthy stuff as it is there in your heart and mine, in your life and mine. And it is an unbelievable wonder that in spite of all this the Holy Spirit does not go away and that He does not leave us alone. No indeed, He does not go away, that is guaranteed by God, but I hope you can imagine how often and how deeply we hurt and grieve Him. Do you see and get it: you hurt Him, just like a child grieves father and mother – in not doing what they ask it to do, in spoiling what father and mother give him, in laughing about their care.
The Holy Spirit does not come with heavy punishment, angry reproaches. He doesn’t work with threats, He is grieved. And someone who is grieved, is hurt; he mostly doesn’t say much anymore but he becomes silent and withdraws himself. And that is exactly what the Holy Spirit does: He withdraws Himself and becomes very silent; and so spiritually speaking it becomes quiet and sometimes nearly dead in our lives. That inward voice has become very soft. And there where light and happiness should be, in that heart of God’s child, is now darkness and unhappiness. Oh yes, I know, the Holy Spirit will not leave, but you are giving Him a very hard time when He has to withdraw in that faraway corner because of your behaviour, grieving and hurting Him.
And then your life becomes very dark, nearly withering away, without much fruit for the Lord. It is a kind of spiral downward: we hurt and grieve the Holy Spirit with our unchristian, unholy behaviour, with lukewarmness, with discord and jealousy, with all kind of things, He feels hurt and withdraws Himself, and therefore we continue to do all these wrong things, even in a more intensive way. And the result is an even poorer behaviour, even worse Christianity in your and my life, in our existence and activities as a congregation.
For all this has to be applied also to us as a congregation as a whole. The congregation is in the first place a dwelling- place and workshop of the Holy Spirit, but when we work against Him for whatever reason or in whatever way, when we are continually in His way, hampering Him in His sanctifying work, with our unholy behaviour we more or less force Him to become less and less active. He’ll not leave us as a congregation completely, but His real, actual presence will become less and less noticeable. And somewhere in a corner He is watching us, gossiping, with jealous hearts, fighting without real love for one another; He is watching our discord and lovelessness, our bitterness, talking about things which happened in the past and which should have been forgiven long ago, and He is wondering whenever we’ll give Him a new possibility, a renewed chance to be active in the centre of our congregation, to work again in the centre of your life and mine: our heart, to make that heart again His temple, the real centre of a really Christian life.
Yes, it is great for us, this reality of the Holy Spirit’s work, but for the Holy Spirit Himself it is not always such a great thing – on the contrary – and He needs all His divine patience and faithfulness to continue and not leave us alone. Hear… hear us boast: we never tolerate the laxity which shall destroy God’s Church; but called upon, we ‘pass on the plate’, too busy as we are with private work. The services we dutifully attend. “God’s Spirit, dwell in us,” we sing aloud. However, at the meal table, whispering behind our hand, “the sermon was not much to rave about today.”
And all this is a very disappointing, experience for the Holy Spirit, and now I hope and pray that all of you may see that there is only one way out. It is the way upward, the way of prayer, of prayer also and maybe especially to the Holy Spirit. I hope that all of you are praying again:
Spirit of God…blow love into our yard.
It’s cold there, Lord. And desolate and vain.
Help us to sow Thy Word with hand and heart,
so that Thy Church through us may grow again.
Teach us to do the thing our Lord has taught us in His Word that we may live a life of love.
I hope all of you start praying again:
Lord Jesus, fill me with Thy Spirit, then all shall see
Thee only, always, living in me.
Amen.