Grieving the Holy Spirit, who seals believers for redemption, occurs when sin dishonors Jesus Christ. This dishonor, whether open or secret, leads to a loss of fellowship, joy, and spiritual power for the believer, even though their judicial standing in Christ remains secure. The message emphasizes that while Christ's work settles sin judicially, believers must continually acknowledge and confess their sins to maintain fellowship and experience God's power, drawing parallels to the chastening of sons and the importance of self-judgment to avoid God's discipline. True spiritual growth involves an increasing awareness of sin's exceeding sinfulness and a reliance on Christ's blood for ongoing cleansing and renewal.
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May we turn to the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, chapter four, verse thirty. Ephesians chapter four, verse thirty. We're going to consider in this period the second of these four commands concerning the Holy Spirit and the Christian. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
This is a negative command. The one we considered yesterday was positive, be filled with a spirit. But this, do not grieve. God the Holy Spirit, who has sealed you unto the day of redemption. First of all, what is this matter of sealing? Different Bible students have rather different views. I don't know that it is the witness of the Spirit with our spirits that assures us that we are children of God.
Possibly it does refer to that in divine imprimatur that God places upon us his seal of ownership, that God has marked us with his own sign that we belong to him. How wonderful it is to realize that It was not so much that we chose the Lord, but that He, through infinite grace, chose us. Having bought us with that great price, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, having chosen us in Christ from before the foundation of the world, He places, by the Holy Spirit, His seal of ownership.
looking forward to that coming day when the fullness of redemption will be manifest. But there are those who also feel that this can refer to a special and wonderful and almost ineffable experience of God the Holy Spirit. Possibly it's only a difference in terminology, but the thought has been expressed of a father walking down a country road with his little boy hand in hand and suddenly the father stops and looks at his youngster and picks the child up in his arms and hugs him to himself and says you are my boy again expressing the claim of God upon you and me possibly both may contain elements of truth.
But the thought is that God owns us. God claims us. God has set his seal upon us by the Holy Spirit. In view of this, in view of all that we have an hour in Christ Jesus, let us not grieve God the Holy Spirit. What is it that grieves God the Holy Spirit? anything that dishonors the Lord Jesus Christ. The supreme function of God the Holy Spirit in the Christian is to glorify and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ.
And anything that dishonors the Lord Jesus in your life and in my life brings grief to Christ, brings grief to God the Holy Spirit. What is it that dishonors God in your life and my life? Sin. Sin in the life of the believer brings dishonor and disgrace to the Lord Jesus, and as a consequence God the Holy Spirit is grieved. I expect we know that there is no such thing as a secret sin.
Even the sins of any desire and thought are not really secret. They may be unknown one to another. We may cover up behind the facade of Christian activity or a bright smile or a rather too vocal testimony, but there is no such thing really as secret sin. I think it was Dr. Chaper who used to say, secret sin on earth is open scandal in heaven. We don't think of that very often, do we? That those desires even that we hug to our heart are known in heaven, and there the Lord Jesus, our intercessor and our advocate, is in one sense disgraced and dishonored by the failure, by the disobedience, by the willfulness, by the falling away of his own children.
And then there is that strange thought that Satan, the accuser of the brethren, has the legal right to appear before the presence of God and he can, as it were, throw up in the face of the Lord Jesus. your dishonor and mine, your sin and mine. All of this, then, is a grief to God, is a grief to God, the Holy Spirit, who indwells you and me. What, then, is the consequence of this sin? We are now dealing in the realm of experience, having those things having to do with the state of the believer.
We are not considering His judicial standing which depends one hundred percent upon the person and work of Christ. That is unaffected. But when you and I sin, there is a loss of fellowship between God, God the Holy Spirit who indwells us and the believer. There is a loss of joy and the sense of God's presence. For while a grieved Holy Spirit does not depart from the Christian, He withdraws Himself in fullness of blessing.
So there is a loss of fellowship. The heavens seem as brass. There is a coldness and deadness that lays hold upon our spirit. There is no guilt. There is no joy. in our lives and then there is a loss of power there's a loss of effectiveness all the tragedy of sin in the life of the Christian I sincerely believe that this represents one of the very great problems we face today as Christians we do not sufficiently consider the problem of sin in the assemblies, in the churches.
We do not consider the problem of the effect of sin in our own individual lives. We rejoice in the fact and rightly that the sin question has been settled, that it's all under the blood that we are justified. We can say, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Thank God this is one hundred percent true. It depends not upon us. It depends upon Him. But that is not all the truth. It's only half the truth. And a half truth can in practice become an untruth.
And there is a grave danger of us so concentrating upon our position in Christ Jesus, wherein we are seated with Him in the heavenly, that we ignore our state as believers, and the consequence of sin in the life of the Christian. I wonder if this is true of you and me, and I wonder if this may not be the root cause of our ineffectiveness, of our powerlessness, and the fact that the world doesn't take very much notice of the fact that we claim Christ to be our very own. It was the gracious ministry of God, the Holy Spirit, that first made us aware of sin, that first made us aware that we are sinners and needed a Savior.
And I believe it is the continuing work of that same gracious Spirit and our being sensitive to Him, whereby we constantly are made aware of those areas where Christ is dishonored, where we fall short of God's glory, where there is failure in our lives, And as that is dealt with, so there is blessing and power. I do not believe that there is any condition in the life of the Christian whereby we may be propelled onto a spiritual plateau where sin is no longer a concern, sin is no longer a problem.
I'm quite convinced that there is in the power of the Holy Spirit victory over particular sins so that I may be a prey to a vile, ungovernable temper. And in the power of the Holy Ghost there may be victory over that particular sin, over that temper. But if God continues to work in my heart and life that particular area now being not under the dominion of Satan, but under the dominion of the Lord Jesus, God the Holy Spirit, makes me aware of something else and something else.
And as I grow in grace, probably I become puffed up and are proud of my spirituality, which may be a far more dreadful sin than a bad temper. Frankly, it has been the experience of those who seem to have been closest to the Lord Jesus, those who have been true saints of God and experience, that the nearer they have come to the Lord Jesus, the closer they have approached to the white light of His holiness, the more they have been aware of their unworthiness, the more they have been conscious of failure, the more they have been made to realize that they are not yet perfect.
As a matter of fact, I am absolutely convinced that the grace of God and the continuing work of the Holy Ghost in your heart and my heart, in your life and my life, will not result in our being in a condition whereby we are no longer aware that sin is any longer a problem. But the closer we come to the Lord Jesus, the more sensitive we will be to sin. the more we'll be made to realize the exceeding sinfulness of sin the more we'll realize at moment by moment we are coming short of God's glory that we are not yet perfect except that we are perfect in Christ Jesus the more we need the grace of God day by day therefore I do not hesitate to suggest that your great need and my great need is to be made aware of the problem of sin within our lives.
I believe we can learn a great deal from the Roman Catholic Church at this particular point, apart altogether from its error. And we are not discussing that this morning. At least, according to their general thought, they deal with the problem of sin. We don't believe they deal with it correctly, but they recognize the fact of sin among their adherents. And so there is a place for confession and absolution according to their teaching. But I fear that we are guilty of ignoring the fact of sin in the church, in the assembly, in the believer.
We say the sin question has been settled. And that's true, settled judicially, but the problem of sin and its dire effect in your life and my life too often is being glossed over. Let us, therefore, for a few minutes consider the problem of sin in the life of the Christian and its effect. A grieved Holy Spirit, a Holy Spirit who withdraws. a loss of power, a loss of effectiveness, and worst of all, a dishonored Savior in heaven. Let us turn to the first epistle of John, chapter one. And here we have three statements, and I believe myself this has to do with a Christian.
This epistle is addressed to Christians. This epistle has to do with a test of life among Christians. as to whether we are in a state of grace, whether we are born again or not. This has to do with the fact of sin in the life of the Christian. And we read that if we say we have fellowship with Him, the Lord Jesus, and our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Verse eight, if we say we have no sin, We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we say that we have not committed acts of sin, we make God a liar. And his word is not in us. There is the awful danger of you and me having this attitude. Everything is all right. I'm under the blood. My name's in the Lamb's Book of Life. And I'm in fellowship with believers. And I come to the Lord's table Sunday by Sunday. And I do this and I do that. And everything's all right. I'm in fellowship with one another. I'm in fellowship with God. And God says, yes. If you say you're in fellowship with God the Father and God the Son, and you're walking in darkness, you're living with a sin problem not being recognized as a practical factor in your life, If this sin is not being dealt with in terms of God's provision for the believer, we lie and we do not the truth.
If we say, well, there's no problem of sin in my life, the sin question is settled. What does God say? We deceive ourselves, and the truth, I do not believe this is truth in an absolute sense, but truth concerning fellowship with God. is not in us. Or the awful danger of ignoring sin in our lives. I believe we need to pray day by day that God the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin. There's one thing I like particularly about the Episcopalian or Anglican service of worship in its liturgy, that there there is a recognition of collective sin, and there is the provision for united confession and then the pronouncement of the forgiveness of sins on the basis of confession which is scriptural.
And I fear too often in our morning worship the fact that there may be sin in the assembly that is not being dealt with, which results in a grieved spirit and no effective worship. And because this whole question is ignored and the problem of sin in the life of the believer which results in loss of fellowship is not being recognized, our morning worship is not what it ought to be. Before you and I dare come to the Lord's table, we should examine our hearts. We should be sure that there is no sin that has not been dealt with.
in relation to God and in relation one to another. And as sin has been put away, and we're now talking about sin among Christians, then we can move forward with a true heart in sincerity, in full assurance of faith. The sin has been put away, having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. And yet I've been in assemblies in which leading brethren haven't even shaken hands with one another. They've been so angry for ten or twelve years. And yet those men are presumed to sit at the Lord's table, and the assembly itself was morally and spiritually delinquent in failing to deal with that situation.
This is both an individual matter and a collective matter. How great the need is. for a strong, godly eldership that govern and lead the assembly, the authority of which is recognized, or the tragedy of this democracy in the assemblies when we have some kind of a business meeting and all the moral and spiritual leadership has got to be settled in that context. No, no, the great need for our assembly is for a godly eldership who will really govern. and whose a spiritual authority, not organizational authority, but spiritual authority, will be recognized.
But God has made a provision whereby sin may be dealt with. How does an unconverted person get his sins forgiven? By receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. How does a Christian get his sins forgiven? By taking Christ again? No, no. There's no need to do that. That's forever settled. but by confessing those sins to our great high priest, Jesus the Son of God. You see, there is a Christian confessional, and we do confess our sins to the priest. We confess our sins to our great high priest, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Who is the propitiation for our sins? all that we could get back to the true biblical confessional. All the day by day we would know what it means to open our hearts before God, to be searched by God's Word, to be convicted by God's Spirit, to confess our sins to our great high priest, the righteous one who is the propitiation, the mercy seat. And all that there may be that cleansing and that restoration and renewed fellowship and renewed power, for that is the secret. And possibly the reason there's not power in my life and your life is a grieved spirit because sin has not been dealt with.
God wants us to recognize the problem of sin in our lives as Christians. Young people, listen to me. Are you concerned about the problem of sin in your life? Have you the practice of kneeling before the Lord in contrition? And what do we mean by confessing sins? Oh, Lord, I'm sorry. I have fallen short today of thy glory. Please forgive me and cleanse me for Jesus' sake. That's not what it says. If we confess our sins, naming them one by one, recognizing them as God knows them to be, that if I have been the prey of lustful thoughts, then I've got to confess myself and an adulterer and a fornicator in God's presence.
If I have an attitude of dislike and anger toward a brother, I've got to confess that God calls that murder. No, no, we must call sins by the name that God calls them. And that will bring us to a position of true humility. And I believe a position of great and lasting blessing. And then what is the ground of our cleansing? The eternal efficacy of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there is the picture of walking in the light as He is in the light. And that is not a life of sinless perfection.
but that is a life whereby we are exposed to the white light of God's holiness under the Holy Spirit. And I am being searched by God, and as God is pointing out, failure, I say, O Lord Jesus, I acknowledge it. Forgive me for thy great name's sake. And the blood is applied. And there is cleansing. And there is renewal. And there is power. And there is joy. The picture is not that we live a life of perfection. Still this is it that we say, it's all under the blood settled by the finished work of Christ, I can forget about it. A thousand times, no.
Judicially it has settled forever, but sin in my life. is that results in the grieved spirit, a loss of power, a loss of joy and broken fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, but that we walk in the light whereby we are searched, whereby we are convicted, whereby we acknowledge our sin. And the blood is applied and we go on our way rejoicing. This isn't a life of sinless perfection. This is a life whereby by the grace of God sin is being recognized and the sin is being dealt with and then God the Holy Spirit can come in and empower and quicken and sanctify and there will be growth as there will be progressive sanctification.
We are called upon to judge ourselves. May we turn very briefly to First Corinthians eleven. First Corinthians chapter eleven, you know those familiar verses. for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep for if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned by the world and God alone knows how much sickness is the result of God's judgment because we have failed to judge ourselves.
This is not always the case, but I am absolutely convinced that in many cases when believers are being laid aside on a bed of sickness, it is God speaking to them. But oh, that we might be faithful in dealing one with another. How often when we visit a person who is sick, Do we seek to remind them that they should search their hearts to see whether this is God's judgment? But we don't like to do that kind of thing. If we should judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But more particularly, before we close, may we turn to the Epistle to the Hebrews chapter twelve.
Hebrews chapter twelve. I want to read these words with very little comment. We shall read from verse three. For consider him, the Lord Jesus, who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearyed and faint in your mind. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, as did he, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children my son. Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chastens not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all our partakers, Then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit that we might beamed our takers of his holiness.
Notice that. that we might be partakers in our experience of His holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, after it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which fall down. and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, instead of these crooked, devious, worldly paths, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed.
Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have a birthright. the right of the new birth, the privilege of access into his presence, that we can claim God as our Father and Christ as our Lord and Savior.
But that is on the basis of sin being settled. Now Christ has settled this for us once and for all, and now we are in the family of God. Let us not despise our birthright. Let us not treat lightly the matter of fellowship with God the Father and God the Son. Let us not be indifferent to the tragedy of the Lord Jesus being dishonored in the throne room of heaven because our failure. Let us not be callous and cold and unconcerned about a grieved Holy Spirit who withdraws himself in power because Christ is dishonored. God grant that the Lord may speak to your heart and my heart.
That we may understand again the way that God has dealt with sin in Christ at the cross. That we may understand afresh the provisions that God has made for the dealing of sin in the life of the believer. That we may understand continually the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the effects of sin in heaven and on earth. And that we may realize the deadly danger of deceiving ourselves. or the awful danger. That you and I should rest upon our standing in Christ Jesus, should ignore the problem of sin in our daily lives, and yet say we are walking in the light, and we are in fellowship when in reality we are in darkness.
Some of us have been grieved at the tragedy of the failure, of some of the leaders in our assemblies. Some of us look within our own hearts and are broken because of the exceeding sinfulness of sin within us. All this is the grace of God when He deals with me personally concerning my failure. God grants