23 - THE LIMITING OF THE HOLY SPIRITJuly 14, 1963
Henry F. Kulp
I Thessalonians 5: 16 - 23 Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now as Paul closes this wonderful epistle, he first of all, wants us to watch our testimony towards Christians leaders, verses 12,13 And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
Then he gives us our testimony to Christian brethren, verses 14,15 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.
Then in verses 16, 23 he gives us our testimony toward God.
Last week we talked about rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, and in everything give thanks.
This week we want to start with verse 19 Quench not the Holy Spirit.
Of course, the question immediately comes back—who is the Holy Spirit? Of course, He is God. He is one of the persons of the Godhead. How often we hear Christians refer to the Holy Spirit as ”it” but the personal pronoun, He, is what we should use. He is a Person, just as much a person as God the Son, or God the Father. Yet I am amazed that we hear believers giving praise to God for the gift of the Son but rarely do we hear the child of God praising God for the gift of the Spirit.
1/ Now let us notice the Holy Spirit is omnipresent. This is one of the attributes of the members of the God-head.
Psalms 139: 7, 8 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
Here David said, whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, and where shall I flee from Thy Presence? If I ascend up into Heaven, Thou art there. If I make My bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. And I want you to see that the words, Thy presence, the Spirit is spoken of as God, and yet also is one of the divine attributes, Omnipresence, and is attributed to the Holy Spirit.
2/ Now notice, David said, It is impossible to find a place where the presence of God is not felt, that is God the Holy Spirit, for if he ascends up into Heaven, He is there, and even a skeptic is ready to agree that God dwells in the heavens, but then he said, if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. And here even in death there is no escaping God. This is the other side of the grave—some men commit suicide believing that they can thus get away from a disturbed mind, and an over-worked conscience. But what an awakening they will have when they discover that after death God is everywhere, making their bed in the other world, does not relieve their mind nor their conscience as far as guilt is concerned.
3/ The thing I want you to see is you cannot flee from God the Holy Spirit, Who is a person. You can never get away from him.
4/ But in the New Testament, we have many passages that clearly set forth the personality of Deity of the Holy Spirit. When Ananias and Sapphira sold a possession, and kept back part of the price. Paul said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Thou has not lied unto man, but unto God.
Acts 5: 1 - 4 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
We can clearly see that the Holy Spirit is called God. Men cannot deceive or lie to a mere influence. But Ananias had lied to none other than God the Holy Spirit.
5/ Hebrews 9: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Eternal Spirit, He is without beginning and He is without end, just the same as God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit. He is the Eternal Spirit.
6/ Now, I want you to see the Holy Spirit’s work in salvation, I Corinthians 12: 3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
When you made a decision to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, in conjunction with Romans 10: 9 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
It was not in your own strength, but by the Spirit’s power, for no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Spirit. Any true confession of the Saviour-hood and Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ, is possible only by the Spirit of God. He is the one that enables you to cry out, Lord Jesus, I want you as my Saviour.
7/ Then notice, Romans 8: 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. In other words, you are not saved unless the Holy Spirit has taken up His abode within your heart.
8/ Not only does the Holy Spirit enable you to cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ, that you want Him in salvation, but the moment you do this you are sealed by Him.
Ephesians 1: 13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Believing and sealing are simultaneous. You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and your eternal salvation depends upon Him.
9/ I Corinthians 3: 16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Paul tells us, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. This means more than the Spirit’s incoming. It indicates a residence a permanent residence. He stays within your body.
10/ Then also, the Holy Spirit helps your praying.
Romans 8: 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
It is impossible for you to pray correctly unless you pray in the Holy Spirit.
11/ Romans 5: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Here where we read, the love of God is shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us—If the love of God is operational in our life, it is by the Holy Spirit. Man is by nature, selfish. In each of us, even though we are still saved, there is an urge to advance our selfish interest, enlarge our own prestige, defend our own rights, promote our own prosperity. This strain of self-love runs in all of us. There is a branch of science that is called sociology, or rather the science of living together, and this is a foolish teaching for the simple reason that man can’t live together unless they have the Lord Jesus Christ, because all of us are dominated by our own interests, but when the Holy Spirit comes, he advances the interest of God, He sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God and we become interested in God and in others.
12/ There is so much that is lacking in the hearts of men. Take the Russian Czars—they let over 4 million peasants starve in order to force millions more to submit to their rule, to their dominion. Then you take in Nazi Germany where millions of Jews were tortured and slain. Then take the Bataan death march—that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Japanese who were educated in our own American schools and colleges did not find the science of sociology sufficient to overwhelm or subdue their passion for power. This wonderful Holy Spirit sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts and makes the truth of sociology a reality.
13/ Our Scripture says, quench not. And we have over in Ephesians 4: 30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Grieve not. What does this mean? This wonderful one, the Holy Spirit that indwells our bodies—how do we grieve Him, how do we quench Him?
First of all, it is necessary for us to see, Romans 12: 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
God says we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice. Now remember, our bodies are the dwelling place, the sanctuary, of the Holy Spirit. And the word, present, contains the idea of sacrifice. And it is used in connection with the offering of Jewish sacrifices in the Old Testament. When a Jew would bring his lamb, or his bullock to the tabernacle, he would present it to the priest to be offered to God. This sacrificial offering, after having passed a very close and rigid inspection, would be presented to God at the altar, so that God could say in Exodus 29: 37 Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and it shall be an altar most holy: whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy.
Whatsoever touches the altar shall be holy.
But now God says, in contrast to these dead sacrifices that Israel offered that they and their children turn their bodies over to Him, to present themselves upon an altar, a living sacrifice. And how does one do this? It is very clear in the Word of God.
14/ However, before we go on and study this, it is necessary to realize that the worldly individual has to cater to the body. The world advertises the body today more than it has ever done. The human body, especially the feminine body is exposed, exploited, it is appealed to on billboards, magazines, and newspapers. The body has been subjected to a slow, but sure suicide. Poisoned by alcohol, nicotine, and abused by wrong eating, improper rest, and not the correct exercise.
15/ But God says we are to present our bodies to Him, How? By being subjected to the Holy Spirit. How is this possible? BY TWO AVENUES, AS I SEE IT THIS MORNING.
16/ The first avenue in Ephesians 5: 18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
As we have told you in days gone by, to fill, is a passive verb, it is followed by the dative, it means action. And it indicates that the Holy Spirit is a Filler, not the one who is used to be filled with. If it was a passive verb, followed by the genitive case, which is possessive, it would indicate with what the vessel was filled, and it would be the Holy Spirit, but God is not telling us to fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit, but rather to let the Holy Spirit fill us with something. What is that?
Colossians 3: 16, 17 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
It is the Word of God. If you refuse to study the word under the direction and the power of the Holy Spirit, you are quenching the Holy Spirit. He can’t work in your life, for He only works through the Word of God. It is necessary that you study the Word. The Holy Spirit can’t work in your heart unless it is through the Word.
17/ The second thing is you can study the Word under the power of the Holy Spirit, and then quench Him by saying, “No”, I’ll not obey what the Word tells me to do. And this is a very common sin in the lives of believers. Let us go back and get an illustration of what it means to say, “No” to the Holy Spirit when He has revealed truths from our Bible.
Ephesians 5: 19, 20 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Here, first of all, we are to be singing Christians. If we are sad, and despondent and out of sorts, not singing and making melody in your hearts, you are quenching the Holy Spirit.
18/ Ephesians 5: 20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Then if we fail to give thanks always for all things unto God and the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, we are just disobeying Him. And so it goes. We know that we should do these things, but if we do not do them, then we are quenching the Spirit. We are saying, “No” to Him.
19/ Ephesians 4: 29, 30 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. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
First of all, notice the 30th verse. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.
The word, grieve, here carries with it the idea of causing pain. Believers are forbidden to do or say anything that will cause the Holy Spirit of God to become grieved, to have pain, and I want you to notice, what will give grief or pain to the Holy Spirit. In the 29th verse Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. It is with your mouth that it is so easy to grieve or give pain to the Holy Spirit.
20/ The Old Testament word for grieve, is vex, and it appears only once, but they rebelled, and vexed or grieved His Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 63: 10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
Then we read, therefore he was turned to be their enemy and he fought against them. In the verse preceding this, the prophet Isaiah presents us with a most graphic view of God’s love for the nation Israel, in all their affliction, He was afflicted.
Isaiah 63: 9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
But then the day came when the compassion, and forebearance, and the mercy of God was exhausted.
Isaiah 63: 11 - 15 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name. Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?
Believe me, He didn’t cease to love them, but they themselves had limited Him by grieving His Spirit, and instead of using their voices to praise God, they murmured, they complained, until they so vexed the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God that He was compelled to fill their lives with hardship in order to break their rebellious and complaining Spirits.
I believe this is exactly what happens today. When we grieve the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit has to lay tasks upon us, hardships upon us, so that our rebellious hearts will be broken.
21/ Now the word, quench, and that verse should be translated, the Spirit, do not extinguish—in other words quench the Holy fire that He kindles in our hearts, and I believe Holy Spirit here produces enthusiasm and fervor for the things of God. I have seen many get saved and have a real enthusiasm, real fervor for the things of God, and then slowly that is lost. Oh, they don’t lose their salvation, they don’t get deep into sin, but they lose that enthusiasm, that fervor that they once had, they don’t have that fire, that the Holy Spirit gives.
22/ I believe with all my heart, soul, and mind, that God wants us to be on fire for Him.
Philippians 2: 15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
So it is necessary that you look into your life and see whether you have quenched the Holy Spirit, whether you have grieved the Holy Spirit.
He loves you with an Everlasting Love.
AMEN
Ref: 07/14/1963 / 23 - THE LIMITING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT / 08/20/2020
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