Commands Concerning the Holy Spirit — Bill McLeod

Commands Concerning the Holy Spirit

I want to talk with God's power tonight, we trust his grace, about some simple commands that the Bible gives us concerning the Holy Spirit. Maybe you didn't know that there are commands in the Bible related to the Holy Spirit, but there are.

And we're going to look at them. Jesus said, you are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. So we're going to look at some commands that God gave us, this time respecting and concerning the Spirit of God.

Not Grieving the Holy Spirit

What's the first one? The first one is well known, it's in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30, and it says, Grieve not, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you were sealed unto the day of redemption.

Can Christians, do Christians grieve the Holy Spirit? Well obviously they must be, because Paul is writing to Christians, this is addressed to born again believers. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you were sealed unto the day of redemption.

Why? Because the Holy Spirit is the source of our joy, of our peace, of our power, our strength to resist temptation, and all of these things, he's the source of it all. And if I grieve him, then these things are not going to be in my life in the abundant measure that God wants.

We read of the early Christians, for example, they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 13, the last verse, the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Or think of Paul in Romans 14, 17, 18, where he said, The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

For he that in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Or think of Paul in Romans 15, 13, it's a sort of a prayer, Now that God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Believer as God's Temple

I'm going to back up a little bit and come back to our text again from Ephesians chapter 4, because there's something else I think we need to know and understand clearly before we come to this, and it is this truth, that if I'm God's child, God's Holy Spirit is living within me, my body has become the temple of God.

Do we know that? The Christians at Corinth had forgotten it. First Corinthians 3 .16, one of those great 3 .16 texts of the New Testament, if you want a good study, look up all the 3 .16 texts in the New Testament, you'll be amazed at how many of them sort of fit together and how powerful they are.

This is one. He says, What, don't you know? No, you're not. Don't you know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Don't you know that? They'd forgotten it at Corinth, or they'd heard it, but you know, it's easy to forget things we have heard.

And we need to be constantly reminded that as a believer in Jesus Christ, I have become the temple of God. Then in First Corinthians chapter 6, he goes at it the same way Paul does. He said, What, know you not?

Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own, for you are bought for the price? Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

Are you doing that as a Christian believer? Are you glorifying God in your body? Are you glorifying God in your spirit, which belong to God? Remember Paul said in Second Corinthians chapter 7, Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

And of course the reason why is because the Spirit of God has made our bodies his temple and he lives within us. Going back for a moment to First Corinthians chapter 6, he says, He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

You know, I came across this a year or so ago. I've read it many times before and it just never hit me the way it did that day. You know how it is with the Word of God. Sometimes you read something you've read many times before and all of a sudden it hits you and it means something special.

And this verse meant something special to me one day. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. We have become one with Jesus Christ. And the next verse says, free fornication. Every sin that a man does is without, that is outside the body, but he that commits fornication sins against his own body.

And that introduces the thought, what he says, don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you're not your own for your body, for the price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And the commands we're thinking about tonight will enable us, will help us to see how to handle this problem of glorifying God in my body and in my spirit, which are God's.

Love as the Spirit's Fruit

First of all, don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you were sealed unto the day of redemption. We have in Romans 15 .30, the Apostle Paul talks about what he calls the love of the Spirit. Brethren, he said, I beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, for the love of the Spirit.

Colossians 1 .8, he talks about your love in the Spirit. These two verses, it's the only place in the Bible that either of these truths are found. Your love in the Spirit. Then in 2 Timothy chapter one, he reminds us, Paul does, that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

The spirit that lives in the Christian is a spirit of love. And one of the ways we grieve the Spirit of God is just by being unloving and critical and cranky and cold and carnal. When we should be loving, I was on a canoe trip with some friends some years ago in northern Manitoba, a very, very beautiful country.

We came to a lake called Elbow Lake. It was shaped like an elbow. The lake was maybe six miles long, nowhere wider than a mile. High rock hills on both sides. And we hit the lake about five in the afternoon, and it was as calm as glass.

So I said to the others, I said, hey, let's just sit here, I'm going to try the echoes out. So I hollered, hello! And I heard it going down the lake, hitting these rock hills, just bouncing across the lake like this.

Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. And it stopped.

And I thought it was all over. And all of a sudden I heard it coming back.

Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello.

And it hit a rock hill back over here. Seventeen responses. We had a great time for about five minutes, and then all the loons got into the act. I mean, I guess they should have said the other loons. But just supposing, just supposing.

I had said, hello, and I heard it going, hello, hello,.

Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello.

And then it came back and it was saying, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. It was kind of time to take off, wasn't it? But listen, you as a Christian, and I as a Christian, are supposed to be an echo of God.

God is love, and we have become partakers of God's divine nature. And God's nature is love. Am I truly an echo of God? Do I love the way God loves? When Jesus said, be you therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect, if you study the context, what he is talking about is being perfect in love.

That's what he's talking about. We are to let the love of God, we sing this chorus sometimes, the love of God flowing through me, out into the desert, setting all the captives free. Oh, I don't care who you are, you can be a blessing.

God can use your life in the winning of the lost. God can use your life in cheering those that are discouraged and despondent, downcast and afraid. If you're filled with the love of God, that's all that's required.

You don't have to know a lot. The Bible says, knowledge puffs up, it makes men proud, but love builds up, it edifies, it makes men strong. And all God is looking for is people through whom he can pour himself.

So I hope you're an accurate echo of God himself. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. How do I grieve the Spirit? The context shows me how. He begins by talking about lying. He says, put away lying, put away lying.

Speak every man truth with his neighbor. Do Christians lie? Well they don't call it lying, they call it exaggeration. I was just exaggerating. Isn't it funny, you know, if you're telling a story and it was about a sum of $1 ,000, when you tell the story, all of a sudden it's $2 ,000.

You know. And if you're talking about a story, there were four people involved. When you tell a story, there were eight people involved. Well maybe you heard about a fellow who was given to exaggeration and his wife used to check him up.

And he went partridge hunting and came home without a partridge, but he said, honey, I saw 500 partridge in one, in one, you know, one covey. 500 of them. Well she knew what he was like and so she said, honey, how many did you actually see?

Well, about 500. Oh, she said, 500. Well honey, about 250. And she said, let's try again. Now how many partridge did you actually see? About 100. She said, we came from 500 to 100 in a matter of minutes.

Let's try again. How many did you actually see? Well, honey, when you put it that way, about 25. She didn't figure to rip the bottom yet, so she said, honey, I don't like to say this, but I have a funny feeling that you never saw 25.

How many did you actually see? And he said, well, honey, I never saw any, but I sure heard a big noise in the bush. But sometimes we Christians, we exaggerate and we grieve the spirit of God, putting away lying.

I remember preaching on that one time when I was a pastor and one of the dads in the congregation was driving home with his boys and he told me later, the boys said, hey dad, we listened to pastor this morning.

Yeah. Why? Well, when you sell a car, you're going to have to tell a buyer what's wrong with it. He wasn't planning on telling any buyer what was wrong with the car. He was planning on selling the car.

He said, my kids reminded me of what you'd said from the word of God in the morning. Oh people, just to be honest, so people can trust us and know that I'm not given to exaggerating. I do not tell lies.

Some Christians do and agrees the spirit of God. Then he says, be you angry and sin not, you know, sometimes people do and say things and they are things that cause us to be angry, but it says, be you angry and sin not.

Jesus was angry in Mark's gospel chapter three. It says he looked round about him on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their heart. And there's times when you can't help, but being grieved, but you know what it says?

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. If you're angry with someone longer than overnight, you're sinning, you're grieving the spirit of God. And how is it? I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are people in this building within a hearing of my voice tonight that are bearing grudges that have been in your hearts for months and maybe even for years.

I knew two sisters professing Christians. They hadn't spoken to each other for 18 years. There were two men in my church in Saskatoon. I never even knew that they sang duets together because they hadn't sung together for 11 years.

Why? Because they didn't get along. I never knew they hadn't spoken to each other for two years prior to the revival in 1971. I never even knew that. And they were both deeply involved in the work of the church.

Now tell me, how can God bless that? God can't and God doesn't. But somehow we think God overlooks these things and God doesn't. It grieves the spirit of God. Don't let the sun go down on your anger. Make things right.

Make sure when the sun goes down, your heart is free from this kind of problem. You're filled with the love of God no matter what they say or what they do. Then he says, neither give place to the devil.

Don't give the devil any room in your life. It could be a reference to witchcraft, getting involved in the occult. Do Christians do that? Oh, yes, they do. I'm so weary sometimes counseling with people and Christian people involved in the occult.

I've lectured to three or four hundred people on different occasions, given an invitation at the end. I mean lectured on the occult, given an invitation, and had as many as forty people walk forward, all of them Christians, professing Christians, and all of them involved in some occult or witchcraft practices.

Sometimes one person, as many as twenty-two different areas of the occult. But much of it is due to total ignorance that people do not realize what they're doing. They don't think it's occult. They think it's just some kind of a game.

But the Bible says don't give any place to the devil. You know how Paul deals with this in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. He says, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. The word devil in the King James Version, the proper word translation is demon.

You can't be partaker of the Lord's table and of the table of demons. You can't drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. He says, do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? He says, I would not that you should have fellowship with demons.

That's what you do when you use a Ouija board, when you have your palm read, when you go to a fortune teller, when you let somebody look in a crystal ball and tell you things about the future. That's what you're doing.

You're having fellowship with demons. When you use a needle on a thread to determine the sex of an unborn child, you're having fellowship with demons. And I can't go into that tonight, but the text is saying, do not give any place to the devil because it will grieve the spirit of God and cripple you in your walk with him.

Honest Work and Giving

Then it says, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor. Do Christians steal? Well, sometimes they do. Sometimes we steal time from our employer. My father-in-law was not a Christian.

He worked in a mill down in the furnace room where it was very hot, and there was another fellow who was a Christian who worked with him down there. And my father-in-law asked me one day, referring to this particular man, he said, old man so and so.

My father never had much respect for him. He said, tell me something, Bill, do you think he's doing right? He sits there reading his Bible, and I have to fire his furnace as well as fire my furnace. And if I say anything to him, he says, look, I'm reading the Word of God.

Don't disturb me. He said, is that right? I said, no, I said, daddy, it's wrong. Now, he thought he was impressing my father-in-law because he was sitting there reading the Bible, but he was putting a double burden on my father-in-law.

This man was stealing time from the company that was paying him his wage. And more than that, any Christian believer who's not giving God at least one-tenth of all that God gives him. Young people, if your parents give you an allowance, one-tenth of your allowance belongs to God.

And if you're not giving that much at least to God, you are robbing God, and in the strictest sense of the term, you are a thief. That's what God says. Don't blame me. I never wrote Malachi. Will a man rob God?

Yes. God said, you have robbed me. You say, wherein have we robbed thee? And God said, in tithes and offerings. It belongs to God. Christ put a seal of approval on tithing in Matthew 23, 23. Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, if you remember, in the Old Testament, in the first book of the Bible.

And Abraham was a type of the believer, and Melchizedek was a type of Christ. And here we have the believer. He gave him tithes of all, it says. Start it when you're young. Do you mind a personal reference?

When I first went out preaching, they were paying me ten dollars a month. Now, the average salary at the time was about a hundred dollars a month. I was getting ten. They paid me every three months thirty dollars.

After six months, I found a girl that was as crazy as I was, and we got married, and then the two of us had to live on ten dollars a month. And we had the greatest time just watching God supply, because we gave God, always gave God a ten, and beyond a ten, at times when we could, we did.

And what a time we had just watching God answer prayer. You know something? No matter how you try, you can't live on ten dollars a month. You just can't. Try it sometime. I mean, even try to live on a hundred dollars a month.

Well, anyway, give God the tithe. Let him that stole, it says here, steal no more. But rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to invest at fourteen percent.

You noticed that, didn't you? Isn't that what it says? But that's what the Christians are all doing, or trying to do, planning to do. What does it say? That he may have to give to him that needs. That's what it says.

Now, isn't that strange? By the way, that's a subject all by itself, and I have a sermon coming up, not here, but on that. If I get back here, I'm warning you, I might have to preach it, I don't know.

The Bible talks about usury and increase, and God says that increase is unlawful. It's not lawful. Think about it. Anyway, let him that stole, steal no more, because it grieves the Holy Spirit of God.

Speech That Ministers Grace

Rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that needs. Then it says, don't let any corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the ears.

What kind of a person are you when you're taught? I mean, most of us can talk, can't we? I talked with a preacher one time, and he was very, he said, Bill, I'm so dry, I'm as dry as a piece of leather that's hung out in the sun for two years.

Now that's dry. I said, why are you so dry? He said, I don't know. I said, what's God talking to you about? And you know, he hung his head in front of me and said, okay, I know what it is. I said, what is it?

He said, I used to be pastor of a certain church, and he told me where, and I knew the church, I'd had meetings there one time, and he said, there's a certain lady in that church and she's got a long tongue.

You know, some Christians have tongues so long they could use it for a necktie. Some Christians have tongues so long they can shoot them out the side wound of the car and use them for a windshield wiper.

They're always tripping on their tongue, you know. The Bible has a lot to say about this. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, so is the tongue among my members. It's set on fire of hell, it says in the Bible.

Watch your tongue. Watch what it says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. In the Bible, in Isaiah, it says, the Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I might know that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.

You know, before I knew better, I used to tell a lot of jokes. Oh, I knew hundreds of them, I knew hundreds, and I could really tell them. See, people just roar and they always want to hear the latest story I know say.

But it was a cover-up for an empty heart. That's really what it was. You know, a lot of this ha-ha stuff, it's a cover-up for an empty heart. And that's what I was doing. And one night I had a strange dream, and in this dream, I was looking at my own tongue.

I'm sure God did that. And my tongue was a horrible-looking thing, full of ulcers and sores. And I woke up and I said, hey God, what's that all about? He said, it's you. I said, me? I mean, I always preach lots of Bible.

And then God showed me that my tongue was not what it should be. I never ever told dirty stories. I never even told jokes when I preached, unless it had a point. I'll tell an amusing story if it has a point, to get a point across, but not for the sake of getting a laugh.

Not for the sake of reducing pension. And God taught me something. And you know, he really bore that into my heart. After Revival came, I was with a song reader of mine, Howard Gardner, a very godly person.

And we were invited to a pastor's home. His wife was in. She hadn't smiled, he said, in seven years. And she needed to meet God. And she wanted to meet God. And she'd been involved in the occult. And so we went to the home.

We talked about these things. And finally she said, well I'm ready to commit my life totally to God. And she did. And what a transformation. But she said something. I'm ashamed to share it with you, but I have to.

She said, just as we were about to pray, she said, Bill, I don't want you to pray. And I said, oh. She said, don't feel badly. But she said, whenever I think of you, all I can think of is all those funny stories you used to tell, and I don't want you to pray.

I felt awful. But you know, when I got home that night, I said, Lord, thank you for doing that. Thank you. God didn't want me to fall into that again. 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.

Are you serious about the Christian life? Then this will speak to your heart. You want to be the kind of person. You see, you're being watched, as we said in one of the other sessions. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man.

Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not befitting, but rather giving of thanks. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. The Lord is good to all. He is prepared of His goodness for the poor.

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. People, we've got enough to keep us thanking God all day, every day, as long as we're in the earth. Why do we let our tongue get wrapped around other things?

People, we've got enough to keep us thanking God all day, every day, as long as we're in the earth. Why do we let our tongue get wrapped around other things? Anyway, to get back to this preacher, I almost forgot him.

This lady in his church, she had one of these long tongues, you know, and she just, she nattered, and she tattled, and she gossiped, and she lied, and it went on and on and on until she got a storm going in the church, and finally the preacher had to leave.

He said, Bill, I'll tell you something frankly, I hate her, I absolutely hate that woman. I said, no wonder you're dry. He says, please don't tell me I have to love her, I can't. I said, you have to love her.

He says, you mean, I said, yes, that's what I'm saying, you have to make it right. Oh, Bill, he said, listen, I'll have to phone her long distance, and I can just see, I'll tell her, you know, I've had all this bitterness in my heart, please forgive me, and I can just, Bill, I can hear her now, she'll sing this sweet, sweet voice, she'll say, oh, pastor, I've always loved you, I've never gossiped about you, I've loved you with all my heart.

Oh, he says, Bill, it just drives me up the wall, and I said, you have to do it. And he did it, and the joy of God filled his heart as soon as he did it. Listen, you can't afford to hate people, you're a Christian, you can't afford to hate people, you can't afford to have bitterness in your heart, that hurts you, it doesn't hurt the other person in the slightest, it grieves the Spirit of God, and it hurts you, but it doesn't hurt the other person, it sets up tensions in your life.

In Romans 5, it says, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, when you let God do that, you can love everybody, the most unlovely person in the world, you can love them. We had a beautiful, heart-moving testimony in a meeting in Sioux St. Louis one time, a lady came during the sharing time, and this is what she said, she said, people, I've been a Christian for years, but there's one kind of person I could never love, I could never stand people that were mentally deficient.

I never, I didn't, you know, what was happening in the meetings was this, every night we had sharing, there's a little lady there, she's probably close to 60, and she wasn't quite right mentally, and she'd come trotting up in the pulpit, and she'd get in behind the mic and she'd say, I love Jesus with all my heart, and she'd go back to her seat again.

And this lady said, I was saying to myself, why in the world did I let her do that? I can't stand that woman. And one night, God dealt with her about her attitude. God said, I love that woman with all my heart, I live in your heart, why don't you love her the same as I love her?

You're out of step with me. And she got in step with God. And she asked the congregation to forgive her for the attitude she'd had, and then she said, I'm leaving the platform now, and watch me. And you know what she did?

She went and sat down next to that woman, and put her arm around her and gave her a hug and a kiss. And every night in the crusade from that night on, she sat next to that woman, and usually had their arms around each other, which is beautiful.

It wasn't put on, it's the way we should all be. Don't grieve God's Holy Spirit, all right? Let no corrupt communication in, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking and evil speaking, John Wesley defined as saying something about a person that you wouldn't dare say if they were standing right there.

Who hasn't done that? Would you mind standing? You'll notice I'm standing, but I've done it too. All right, but all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor, that seeking for personal attention, be put away with all malice, and malice is secret hatred in the heart.

Even the Old Testament said you're not to bear a grudge in your heart against your neighbor. And then it says, be kind. Are you a kind person, or are you a crusty, demanding and cold? Be kind, tenderhearted.

What's the next phrase? Forgiving one another, which means the Holy Spirit foresaw that Christians would sin against Christians and forgiveness would be required. Forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you, and he has.

Rejoicing, Praying, and Giving Thanks

All right, don't grieve God's Holy Spirit. Don't quench him. There's another command in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. How do we quench the Spirit of God? Look at the context. It says, Rejoice evermore. Do you rejoice all the time?

We're supposed to rejoice in the Lord always. We sing in one of our choruses, and that's taken from Philippians. And again I say, rejoice. We Christians have thousands of things, as indicated a few moments ago, for which to thank God for, to rejoice in.

Rejoice evermore. So, the Holy Spirit leads me to rejoice, and I'm too cranky and cold to do that, and I can't rejoice. So, I quench the Spirit. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. Someone has called prayer the breathing of the soul.

That's based on Lamentations 3 .56, Hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. So, you know, I don't have to think before I breathe in a physical sense. If I had to, I'd die every time I fell asleep.

And I have to pray without ceasing. It's the breathing of the soul. And God's ears are always open when I'm washing dishes, sweeping the floor, driving my car, driving a tractor, whatever I'm nailing, banging nails in the wall or something, looking at a book, studying a book.

Whatever I'm doing, pray without ceasing and everything give thanks. I should be continually raising my heart to God in prayer and praise. The Spirit of God leads me to do that. And so much of the time I say, no, I'm doing something else, I don't want to do this, and I quench the Spirit.

The word quench there, by the way, the Greek word that carries the idea of throwing water on a fire. And the fire in your life is the Spirit of God. Every time you quench Him, you put the fire down. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.

Even when you have a flat tire and you weren't expecting it, or the car won't start in the cold morning, or the baby cries in the middle of the night, you spent half the night walking the floor. It used to happen to us too.

When our kids were small, but we had some older children, and there'd be three or four of us to take turns babysitting. If the child wouldn't go to sleep, sooner or later they'd wake me up and say, Dad, it's your turn.

And I'd stumble out of bed and pick up the baby and walk over to this rocking chair. We had a special rocking chair that had a squeak in it, and the squeak would usually put the kids to sleep, but not always.

And so I'd get in this rocking chair and start rocking, and I'd pray, Lord, I don't want to sit up here all night. Please put this little tight to sleep, and the Lord did it every time. We'd toddle back to bed, put the baby in the crib, and they'd say, Well, how do you do it?

I said, Ask the Lord to do it. I said, I'm not going to sit up there all night with a crying baby, there's no point in that. But listen, it says, Don't quench, don't smother, don't put out the fire of the Holy Spirit.

So don't grieve Him, and don't quench Him. Your body is the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit lives within you. Treat Him as the person He is, the God of glory. There's not a word in my tongue but, Lord, O Lord, Thou knowest it all together.

Being Filled With the Spirit

You understand my thoughts afar off. You're acquainted with all my ways. Don't grieve God, and don't quench Him. Then on the positive side, and it's interesting to notice, you see chapter 4 of Ephesians says, Don't grieve the Spirit.

Chapter 5 says, Be filled with the Spirit. Now that's the other side. Be filled. I can be negative. I mean, I don't grieve the Spirit in this way and this way and this way, but maybe I'm not filled with the Spirit either.

A lady came for counseling one time, I would say she was in her 60s, and she told me she taught Sunday school from the time she was converted when she was about 14 or 15, but she said, You know, I just don't have any joy in my life.