Holy Spirit and the Crisis of Pentecost - Part 3 — T. Austin-Sparks

We ask again, O Lord, that in this very time, that same Holy Spirit may be to us the Spirit of Revelation, opening the eyes of our hearts anew and more widely and showing us. Let it be so, even now we ask in His name.

The Significance of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit

The Lord has let us, dear friends, in this season occupy ourselves again with something of the significance of the Holy Spirit. We have seen that the day of Pentecost was one of the four great crises in the history of God's purpose, and it was indeed a great turning point.

The Holy Spirit as the Seal of Redemption

The time that we have this morning, we're going to look at but a fragment of this Holy Spirit's significance. I turn you to the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1, and verse 13, In whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of God's possession.

Chapter 4, verse 13 also,. May we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness Christ. Verse 30 of that chapter, chapter 4, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.

Words of the Apostle, we have a great depth of meaning as the Holy Spirit. You will notice that there are three major words in the passage that we read. Inheritance, Spirit, the Holy Spirit, three words are our inheritance.

They're interesting words with a very significant background. Having believed, ye received the Spirit as an earnest of the inheritance. We call that a deposit. The earnest was just something in advance, betokening that all the rest surely followed.

It was the guarantee of a completing of the transaction. It was in itself a representation that was promised. The Spirit of promise, the Holy Spirit is called. We have already seen what that means from the letter to the Galatians.

The Spirit of Promise and the Believer's Inheritance

The promise made to Abraham. The promise of the Spirit in Christ. The promise to Abraham was made to be made good in the Holy Spirit or by the Holy Spirit. That is the inheritance. We are heirs of God.

Joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Spirit in that inheritance. But it is not just a promise. He is the earnest of the promise. He is given a present deposit. In which deposit there reside all the potentialities.

All the meaning final of what God is yet going to do for those who believe of the inheritance. With the Holy Spirit of promise. Another business was in those days as in our own. A transaction was sealed.

It might be a document. Business was concluded. It was sealed. It might be a consignment. Something to be sent away as an earnest of what was to follow. It was sealed as it was sent. And the seal was the seal of the one to which it belonged.

The seal said this belongs to so and so. His name, his sign is upon it. It is his. You must not interfere with that. It is not your property. It is his. It is sealed unto him. The Holy Spirit is said to be the seal declaring that we belong to the Lord.

The Lord has put the seal upon us in giving us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So the Spirit is here seen in true of his functions or meanings.

Future Redemption and the Hope of Sonship

He is an earnest or the earnest of all that is yet to be. And he is the seal by which we are secured unto all death. You notice unto the redemption of the purchased possession. Aspect of redemption that is future.

It is not that aspect which is in the past we were redeemed. Not with corruptible things, silver and gold. That's the beginning of redemption. But this redemption is that to which Paul refers in his letter to the Romans.

The complete redemption of the whole creation and of ourselves included. The full redemption of all things. That has been purchased. That has been sealed. That has been betoken in the Holy Spirit. Wonderful meaning the gift of the Spirit.

The gift of the Spirit then is the authentication of sonship. Because we are sons. God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. The authentication, sonship. And the earnest of all that that sonship is going to mean.

As says John, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. That we should be children of God and such we are. But it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that if he shall be made manifest we shall be like him.

For we shall see him as he is. What better and greater inheritance does anybody want than that? The Spirit given is the earnest of that. The Spirit of sonship. The Spirit given is the seal. Right alongside of that we have this exhortation and injunction.

Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit

Grieve not the Holy Spirit. Whereby you seal the day of redemption. The full realization of that which was given to you in token when you believe. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. There are two things that very clearly emerge in any consideration of the Holy Spirit.

The first is that nothing is possible apart from and without the Holy Spirit. That is made abundantly and unmistakably clear. The Lord Jesus himself made that clear. Nothing possible until the Spirit was come and would not allow any attempt at anything even after his resurrection until they had received the Spirit.

Everything depends upon the Holy Spirit. He has taken over. Indeed he has always been in charge from the creation. But in a new way on the day of Pentecost he took over. He took over the commission to preach the gospel in the whole creation.

He took over everything on that day and he is holy and alone in charge of everything. Nothing can be without the Holy Spirit. And the other thing is the Holy Spirit is always positive in his attitude, in his mind, in purpose and object.

The Holy Spirit as the Going Spirit

That is he is what we may call the going Spirit. Borrow that from Ezekiel. The going of the wheels and the cherubim because the Spirit was in them. Going. The Holy Spirit in his very disposition is the Spirit of going, of energy, of movement.

There can be nothing more fatal than that the Spirit should stop going in any life, in any place, anywhere. When the Spirit stops going then nothing more can be. Just nothing more at all. It is only as the Spirit is going that there will be anything at all.

Hence, grieve not the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. That could be put in another way. Do not arrest the going of the Spirit. Do not allow anything to come up or come in that will impede the movement of the Spirit.

Do not allow the Spirit by any means or in any way to be obstructed. He is a going Spirit and it is fatal if he should be. And grieving the Spirit is just hindering the Spirit. Obstructing the Spirit.

Arresting. That is what they did in the wilderness. And as you know from the letter to the Hebrews it is said, Forty years was I grieved with that nation. I was grieved. Spirit. Who was ever a going Spirit?

When they could say we are marching unto the land which the Lord hath given us. But they grieved his Holy Spirit it says. I was grieved with that nation. Forty years. Result? The Spirit could not go through and on.

And death came in just grieving the Spirit. We have dear friends no time this morning for trying to indicate how the Holy Spirit is grieved. We can only warn ourselves of the possibility and take to heart the injunction, grieve not.

Holiness, Truth, and Unity in the Spirit

But were I to try to encompass this in one way I would put it like this. Grieving the Holy Spirit is just a thing that is contrary to the nature and the purpose of the Holy Spirit. If we just were to take account of his nature and of his functions we should immediately see what grieving the Spirit means.

First of all he is the Holy and to grieve him is to allow or persist in some unholiness. Some unholy way. Some unholy thing in our life, in our home, in our business, anywhere. Something for which we have responsibility.

Where if we only applied ourselves with diligence we could make a difference. Something not holy. All unholiness grieves the Holy Spirit. That which is contrary to his very nature. He is the spirit of truth wherever there is anything that is not true.

That is false. That is a lie. That is an exaggeration. All the forms of untruth wherever there is anything like that. It is contrary to his nature and it grieves him. Anything untrue will grieve him and he will stop.

Say I can't go on. Can't go on. He is the spirit of unity. That has been touched on this morning. It will be touched on more fully probably later. The spirit of unity in this very letter from which we have read.

There the words give diligence to keep. Keep the unity. Give diligence to keep the unity. It seems that many people give diligence to break it. To spoil it. Give diligence to keep it. Sure you are doing that.

Giving diligence to keep. Not seeking out or taking up the things that divide and making a lot of them where you don't agree. Why not be positive? Concentrate upon the grounds of oneness and enlarge them.

So we will get over the other. He is the spirit of unity. The unity of the spirit. And where there is disunity and division he is grieved. And mark you he will say I can't go on. I am stopped. I am arrested.

Revelation, Grace, and Holy Spirit Character

Have that. Which answers to his own nature. He is here in this letter called the spirit of revelation. Illumination. If the Holy Spirit shows something. Give some light. Give some truth. Give some knowledge.

And you and I ourselves to obey it and to walk in it. The spirit is grief. The spirit of revelation. And he will say I can give no more. I must stop giving. No more until what I have given has been obeyed.

He is grieved where he has given light. And it is not obeyed. He is the spirit of grace. I would like to enlarge that word because it does mean this. He is the spirit of graciousness. It's true. For after all is not the grace of God his graciousness.

Graciousness. And how gracious the spirit. All those long suffering and forbearance. What we owe the spirit of grace. Brothers and sisters we shall reveal how much of the spirit there really is in us by our graciousness.

Make no mistake about it. A Holy Spirit adorned life and governed life will be a gracious life. Patient, forbearing, long suffering, kindly and courteous. You know that's a New Testament word. Not just a word in the book of etiquette.

It's a word in the New Testament. Be courteous. It's an aspect of graciousness. Be courteous. You must think about what that means. Yes, there are such things as Holy Spirit good manners, good taste, fitness in behavior, in attitude.

He is the spirit of grace. And where there is not graciousness on any of these things that are meant by grace. His greed. His greed. You and I should be ungracious. Discourteous. Spirit is greed. May have got very big high ideas of what it means to be baptized with a Holy Spirit.

But it means that. It means that. It may mean power and service. It may be in being able to give addresses. It may be in many of these public ways. These you ought to attend to but not neglect the others.

And the others are these. Kindly, thoughtfulness and courtesy. They are marks of the Holy Spirit. And where they are lacking His greed. He is the spirit of meekness. Meekness. We want another word for meekness.

Meekness, Brokenness, and the Cross

We could well employ the word brokenness. Because there is no meekness without brokenness. It is in brokenness that our pride ebbs away. It is through the brokenness that our conceits and our arrogance and our self-importance go into the sand.

It is in brokenness that meekness is revealed. You may be very clever. You may be very able in many ways. A mark of the Spirit undoubtedly is in the meekness of brokenness. Have you been really broken by the cross?

Really broken by the cross? Are you a broken spirit? Is there a fundamental brokenness in you? As a brother or sister in Christ? Really? A brokenness? Remember, there is no Pentecost until there is a Calvary.

There is no Holy Spirit until there has been a cross. And if the cross speaks of one thing, it does speak of brokenness, doesn't it? He was broken. He was broken. These men of the New Testament were broken men, broken vessels.

And meekness adorned them because of that. And the Spirit is the Spirit of meekness. Peter speaks about being adorned with a meek and quiet spirit. Well, so we could go on, but this is enough. Surely to indicate that grieving the Spirit, just contradicting what he is in himself, and in so doing, putting something in his way, he can't go on.

Sonship and the Fullness of Christ

Grieve not the Spirit of God. Whereby you were sealed unto all that sonship means. And sonship means all these things that I have mentioned in their full development. Sonship sounds a technical word, I know, a very theological word.

But if you think about it, after all, it is only all that Christ is in his fullness. This creation yet to be, when redeemed from the bondage of corruption, is thus to be filled to the exclusion of all else.

Filled with what Christ is. Reproduced by the Holy Spirit in you and in me. That's sonship. May we not put anything in the way of the Holy Spirit. Grieve him. Give him a way, a clear way, a full way, to remain in us individually and in us together.

The going Spirit. Always going.