1 Thessalonians 5 — Robert F. Adcock

Quenching the Spirit and Doing God's Will

I'd like for us tonight to consider three passages of scripture. The first one is 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, just the verse. Last week we were considering in the Ephesian epistle that one statement, Grieve not the Spirit of God.

I'd like for us to think for a little while this evening about what it means to quench the Spirit of God. This statement, verse 19, says, Quench not the Spirit. Now in Romans, chapter 12, reading at verse 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.

Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now in Hebrews, chapter 10, a couple of verses here we'd like to read, Hebrews 10, reading from verse 5, wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me.

In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me, to do thy will for God. Shall we look to the Lord in a word of prayer?

Our Father in Heaven, in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to thee the reading of thy word, and we pray tonight that our consideration of these thoughts, and all that we shall think upon concerning our own relationship with thyself through thy Son, the Lord Jesus, and the very fact that we know as believers in Jesus Christ we are indwelled by that holy comfort of the Spirit of God.

Our thoughts have been concerned with, grieve not him tonight, help us, we pray thee, by that divine enabling that the Spirit of God himself can provide, that we will understand more perfectly how not to quench the Spirit of God.

Spirituality and the Fruit of the Spirit

This we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and for his praise and glory, amen. That statement in 1 Thessalonians, quench not the Spirit of God, I think is one that helps us to realize that if such a condition exists, it would certainly be indicative of our true spirituality and how we stand spiritually.

And there are so many things that have been said and so many things that have been written concerning descriptions of what it means to be truly spiritual. I think here a few weeks ago, if my memory serves me correctly, we were thinking about a passage in the Corinthian epistle, chapter 2, where we have a clear definition of what it means to be spiritual, to possess spiritual discernment.

And I think one of the things that we pointed out was, if you want to convince someone that there is true spiritual direction and control of your life, you can better do it by letting them see what your life is like, in other words, a characterization of what is spiritual rather than just a definition.

So there are certain things that we can look for in the life of a Christian that would be fairly clear indicators of whether that individual was truly spiritual. And nothing is more sure than to look for the fruit of the Spirit of God in the individual life.

If fruit is being produced in the life, then to me this is the surest indicator that that individual is filled with the Spirit of God and there is true spiritual control and guidance. We pointed out last Sunday night that the one thing that cannot be tolerated in the life of a Christian, if the Spirit of God is to dwell there ungrieved, is sin.

And we dwelt at some length upon the necessity for confession of our sin. Each one of us. It's so necessary in our individual lives, day by day, to keep short accounts with God. Sin touches our lives every day.

We're constantly in contact with it. And if we're honest, we'll have to say we sin every day, perhaps, that we live. Sins of commission, sins of omission. But sin is something that is real to us, even as believers.

Yet we are aware of that one statement that tells us it is in the realm of possibility that believers sin not. And, of course, we know the one preventative that we're sure of, and the cure for all of this is to have our affection centered in the person of Jesus Christ, constantly concerned with him and his direction for our lives.

The Meaning of Quenching the Spirit

Tonight, I'd like for us to think about this statement that says, Quench not the Spirit of God. Is that a possibility in the life of a Christian? And when you think about the word quench, I think about the Spirit of God in that figure that pictures him in the book of the Acts, one of fire, cloven tongues of fire were in evidence in that room, and men and women were indwelt by the Spirit of God, filled with the Spirit of God.

And the Spirit of God gives gifts. It's by that Spirit of God that our Heavenly Father sees fit to minister those gifts that are needed within the body of Jesus Christ. But by this figure, fire, that is used to picture for us the Spirit of God, you could say, in a sense, that the Spirit of God that indwells us, perhaps that phrase that is sometimes used, on fire for God.

I know some people that don't like that statement. He is on fire for God. Well, if we mean by that that the Spirit of God is so filling and directing us in our Christian experience that it's the equivalent of a burning fire, and there are such strong evidences of his presence and his work in our lives, then I think it would be accurate and suitable to say, on fire for God.

And, of course, if we do something in our individual Christian experience and life that dampens the activity of the Spirit of God, then we've quenched the Spirit of God as far as his control of our lives is concerned.

And if this were not true, and if it were not certainly something that could happen to us, Paul would have never said, Quench not the Spirit of God. Any believer in Jesus Christ that would impose his own will and his own way over the exercise of that divine person, the Spirit of God that indwells him, in such a way that he would say, My way is more important than the direction and the control of the Spirit of God, has committed a sin.

Because what we have said is the equivalent of no to God, no to God. Not your will for my life, not your direction for my life, but my will. And I read a statement one time concerning this question of being very self-willed, and it said, A self-directed life is a misdirected life.

If we only satisfy our ego and self, then there is little room for the activity of the Spirit of God. And I don't think any one of us as believers in Jesus Christ would think that there's anything more important than knowing God's will for our individual lives, and having that will fulfilled for my life day by day.

Well, it can't be accomplished any other way than the way that God has provided. We are indwelt, we are filled with the Spirit of God, and that's with divine purposes and plans and views that these lives of ours might truly glorify God.

We don't want to be guilty of quenching the ministry of the Spirit of God in these lives of ours. What is it that quenches the Spirit of God? I've already said it's simply saying no to God. Well, the Spirit is quenched by any unyieldedness on my part as a believer in Jesus Christ, any unyieldedness to the revealed will of God.

Yielding to God's Revealed Will

And so often we cite statements that relate to those that are yet in spiritual darkness. We can tell them about the will of God for their lives, not God's will that any should perish. God doesn't want you in that terrible state of dwelling in spiritual darkness.

He wants to deliver you, and we feel a certain urgency in pressing home upon individuals that are not saved, their need of knowing God's will in salvation, and that's good. But very often we don't attach any urgency to the need of each one of us in seeing that it is so important to have God's will for our lives every day.

And you know, it sounds repulsive to think that a person that is indebted so greatly to God as a believer would ever say, no, I won't do that, no, I won't have that for my life. A spirit of unyieldedness to God's will for our lives.

When we do that, the Spirit of God and His power and direction for our lives cannot be realized. We have quenched the Spirit of God. We have dampened His activity. He indwells us, He lives within us, He's ever there.

And thank God that condition can be remedied, but to have that realization of God's will for our lives cannot be realized when we go on. Willfully say, no, no to God, no to the activity of the Spirit of God over my life.

I don't think there is any gray area in this matter of yieldedness to God. I think that's one of the things that we recognize in human weakness. I'm more yielded than you are. You know, we like to attach some degree to what we're doing.

I like to think of it as being black and white. We're yielded or we're not yielded to His will. The Spirit of God is quenched or He is not quenched. Therefore when I think of this matter of yieldedness, I think of a condition that must be 100 percent.

It's not a matter of degrees of yieldedness. It's not a matter of saying part of my life and saying maybe percentage-wise 50 percent of my life. Maybe this area of my life yielded to God, some other area not yielded.

The Spirit of God is quenched at any resistance we put up to the will of God for our individual lives. So we need to allow Him the absolute control over our lives. He can be trusted to direct our lives.

He knows better than we. He knows exactly what God wants to do in and through you and me. His will is perfect and the will of the Spirit of God for our lives is always according to that perfect direction from the very heart of God Himself for each of us.

We are precious in the sight of God, precious because of identification with Jesus Christ. He loves us. He has something for us to do. He has something to achieve through the members of the body of Jesus Christ.

The divine power that is available to us, the Spirit of God, is the one that must give the direction, must give the control to our lives that is needed if we are going to truly be profitable servants and if God is going to receive glory out of our lives.

Jeremiah's Warning About Self-Direction

There's a statement that you find in Jeremiah 10, and it's one that just tells it all. I think we should take it very literally. I've read it over and over many times. Weigh it carefully. This is the way it goes.

O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps. And that should warn us once and for all that I don't know what's best for me. And if I want to control and direct my life, I can do that.

That's my choice. And as a Christian, I think I have forfeited my right to having peace and joy in my soul. I think I forfeited the right to a lot of happiness and joy here and certainly for hereafter, because there is a day coming, brothers and sisters in Christ.

We believe the Word of God. We believe that one day we will stand in the presence of Jesus Christ. We believe we will stand there to be rewarded. And that reward that we receive or that loss that we will experience will be in this matter of how much we yielded our lives to His control and His direction.

And if there can be an admission now, I don't know how to direct my pathway. I don't know the way that I should take. But God knows, and He will not hide it from me. He will show me the way that I should go.

He will reveal His will to me. If I desire it, if I want to know His will for my life, He will not hide it from me. But it is not within the man himself to know the way that he should choose. And how many self-willed Christians are there today that are still deciding what's best for them?

According to the Word of God, we don't know what is best for us. We can surmise, we can speculate, only God knows. And sometimes we choose things that are so obvious it's not good for us, and we'll have to suffer the consequences.

If not now, somewhere down the road we will. And most of all, to think in view of eternity and the time that we'll stand in the presence of our blessed Lord, and I'll have to say, Lord, you know, I thought I knew more about how to direct my life than you did.

It's a terrible mistake. How tragic. So when I read this passage in Jeremiah 10, I say, let's really apply some literal interpretation to what is meant here, and say, Lord, You take control. Most of us do not have that discernment within ourselves to know how to choose what is best for our lives.

And certainly in the area of knowing Your will and Your way for my life, You've provided the discernment that I need and the power to exercise that will that You would have for my life. And the Spirit of God is the key to it all.

Presenting the Whole Self as a Living Sacrifice

I read that passage in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. It seems to be a key to the whole matter. And when we come to this idea again of, to some degree, I have offered myself up, my body, my mind, my all, as a living sacrifice unto God.

Well, you know, when those animal sacrifices were offered up, they put the whole animal on that. They didn't divide it up in various parts and look at some choice part and say, You know, I'm taking the hams home, not about to put them on the altar.

They may have been guilty of that. I don't know. They were guilty of offering diseased animals, lame animals, all that sort of thing, which really grieves God. But this matter of offering ourselves a living sacrifice, our bodies, it's our reasonable service unto God, it's all or not at all.

And I think we have developed an attitude where we believe that a certain area of our lives can be sanctified and truly committed to God, and we can deceive ourselves into believing it works this way.

But it doesn't work that way, brothers and sisters. Every area of my life, my whole body, my whole being, a living sacrifice day by day. And those words that remind us, that's just your reasonable sacrifice in view of all that has been done for you.

And if you ever view Calvary and look away and give thought to all that God has done for you in the way of sacrifice, sacrificing heaven's best for the likes of us, and then to entertain any thought, I'll take this little part of my life and I'm going to live it just like I want to.

The rest, Lord, you can have. It doesn't work that way. It just doesn't work that way. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. That means all. And anything short of that, we come up with that same common denominator, a grieved spirit of God, a quenched spirit of God.

Not one of us would doubt that God's will is exactly as it's described in that second verse of Romans 20. It's good, it's acceptable, and it's perfect. And if you wanted to describe something and ascribe to it a certain degree of perfection, you have to say, if that description of the will of God is accurate, what won't I ask for my life?

His will is good, His will is acceptable, His will is perfect. What do I care about my will and what I want? My will is lost in His will and His way for my life. The impact of that passage in Romans 12 should be felt upon each one of us.

We take in those first eight chapters of Romans, all of the doctrinal truth that relates to the righteousness of God and salvation by faith. We loudly proclaim it. We love it. We cherish it. And then we take even those chapters that deal from 9 through 11, dispensational truth relating to the nation of Israel, and we heartily amen all those things.

But chapters 12 through 16 are those chapters that deal more practically with what we're supposed to do once we've been saved by the grace of God. And these bodies of ours, these lives of ours, what we are is redeemed people of God.

We no longer have a choice, it's His will, and it's good, it's acceptable, and it's perfect. And the reason I read that passage in Hebrews 10 was to remind us that we have a perfect pattern for the will of God being accomplished in an individual life.

Christ as the Perfect Pattern of Obedience

The Lord Jesus Christ. You can't go to any other source for a more perfect demonstration of what it means to have perfectly carried out the will of God for an individual life. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, this is what, in a sense, we learn just from this passage and many others in the word of God.

He left heaven's glory, that was the will of God. He left all that was His by right, that was the will of God. He left all of that, and He came right to this place where there was a need, came right to this place where you and I are today, this place called earth, to meet a tremendous need, and He fulfilled the will of God perfectly, in that He did everything perfectly according to the divine will of God.

There were no omissions, there was no degree of accomplishment other than 100 for God. You could never say of Him, He did 99 of the will of God. But no 100%, and there again, I'd like to remind us to know His will for our lives.

Anything short of this represents a real threat to that terrible thing happening in your life and mine in that we quench the Spirit of God. We have gifts from God. Every person in this room, as a believer in Jesus Christ, is gifted by the Spirit of God to provide something that's needed within the body.

We have something to do for God. He has chose to make it that way, and so often we're prone to say, I can't do anything for God, I'm just going to choose to sit quietly on the side. I'll pray, Brother, Sister, that's your gift, and you can earnestly enter into prayer as a service unto God.

You couldn't have any higher calling, but I'm asking you, are you doing it? I'll admit that would be a tremendous calling to be singled out of God, to enter into a life of intercessory prayer on behalf of God's people.

If that's your calling, there is no higher calling. But I'm asking you, are you doing it? If that's the will of God, are you doing it? Are you carrying out His will for your life? If not, even with such a high divine calling, your failure to have it accomplished in your life has resulted in a quenched Spirit in your life.

And you could go from the highest calling down to the lowliest of callings, if you want to look upon it in that way. And whatever it is He has chosen for you to do, if you're not doing it, then His will is not being fulfilled in your life, and the Spirit of God is quenched.

The Spirit of God in His activity in your life is no longer being realized. And we may boldly proclaim to many, I know that I'm indwelt by the Spirit of God. He lives within me. And they may not know anything about the truth of the Spirit of God being grieved because of sin in our lives, or that truth about the Spirit of God being quenched because we will not let the will of God be fulfilled for our lives.

They don't know anything about that, and we're very careful not to tell them anything about that either. We go on, I'm indwelt by the Spirit of God. We may even say, I'm filled with the Spirit of God, if we want to wax both.

And all the while, He that was that perfect example and pattern for us did the will of God perfectly, and we continue to resist, and we do not do what God has directed for our individual lives. I'd like to just summarize in a few moments, as we close, knowing the will of God for our lives.

Desiring and Discerning God's Will

I don't think if we made a little survey right quickly, all would say, I desire God's will for my life. If you wouldn't say it, I'll say it for myself. I desire God's will for my life. I want to know God's will for my life, individually.

I'm willing for that to happen in my life. I have a strong desire to know the will of God for my life. I'm not saying that it has been achieved, but I desire it, I will it. I believe that's the first step.

And that takes some careful consideration before the Lord. That takes that time of quiet examination of your own life, your own motives, your own ambitions, what you want to do with your life. And so often we discover we're pretty selfish, because there are still a lot of things we want to do, we want to achieve, we want to see brought to fruition.

Now, I think you have to reach that point where you say, Lord, your will be done in my life. That's the first step. And you need not venture one step further in seeking that divine will until you are willing to say in His presence, your will be done for my life.

I desire it. It has become the most important thing to me in my life, to know His will. And there again, brethren and sisters, I'm speaking about absolutes. I'm not speaking about a degree of compromise whereby we say very timidly, Lord, maybe I do desire your will for my life.

Now, you know, that sounds almost comical to even say it, because we realize how ridiculous it is. But we may smile at it and we may be amused at it, but what grieves me so much is that sometimes we do these things and we don't attach the importance to it that we should.

The desire, the will, the brokenness of self before God in which we say, Lord, your will be done. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy will. Let the will of God be done, your way, your plan, your purpose for this little life of mine.

I'm a speck of dust, and yet you've taken into account something so infinitesimal as one speck of dust of humanity, and you've empowered this little nothing with the Spirit of God, your Spirit here upon the earth, living in human beings.

And the will of God can be carried out in that little life. How wonderful, how beautiful, but how tragic when most of us have to hang our heads in shame and say, I've failed. That hasn't been realized in my life.

I've grieved the Spirit of God, and I've quenched the Spirit of God. My life is not what it should be, and I think if we fall victim to Satan's treachery, we're going to let it stay that way. But it doesn't need to stay that way.

We can own our faces before God, correct all those matters. We can just open our souls and lay bare our souls, our total being, and make things right with God. And, brothers and sisters, these are things that you will have to do, closeted with God.

These are not things that you make a great show out of, and sometimes it's difficult to talk about these things. We don't like to talk about them. I believe that even Satan himself doesn't like for us to talk about these things, for fear that one of us will wake up and say, I don't want to grieve the Spirit of God.

I don't want to quench the Spirit of God. I want to know His will for my life. Man, think of what an impact it would be for the glory of God if every life represented in this room tonight, that the will of God was being fulfilled perfectly.

May I suggest it can only be fulfilled perfectly, not halfway, perfectly. That requires that we will it, and that requires that we give very careful heed in discerning His will, that it always be according to His words.

He never leads, He never directs, contrary to His word. It's always the word of God. His words. We don't just take our finger and say, that's God's will for my life. Shame on you. And if that's the way you start the day, with one verse selected at random, with a stabbed finger in the dark, shame on you.

No, it takes study, and it takes meditation, it takes thoughtfulness, a weighing very carefully by that teaching ministry of the Spirit of God as He reveals these things to us. He reveals His will to us, it's according to His word, it's by the power of the Spirit of God.

Rejecting Self-Will One Day at a Time

I'm thinking about that passage, and with this I'll close. Found in Isaiah 14, the sin of Satan, I will, I will, my throne above the throne of God, I will. How tragic if I perpetuate that sin in my own life and say, Lord, my will instead of Your will for my life, if I do, brothers and sisters, I quench the Spirit of God, and He's going to stay quenched in my life, and He's going to stay grieved in my life as long as those conditions exist in my life.

You and I have to decide tonight, and knowing the will of God is something you don't have to know but one day at a time, not next year. One day at a time you need to know God's will for your life and for my life.

God takes care of every day, and there are no tomorrows. This is what is important today, and what God's going to do with my life today. So often we think in terms of a whole lifetime, and when we realize there are going to be pitfalls and there are going to be discouragements, we become discouraged, but like the doctor that tells the dear lady that's recuperating from an illness, and she said, I don't know whether I can bear it or not.

What do you recommend? He said, one day at a time, just one day at a time. Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, the truth is found in the word of God. We can live 100 percent for God. We can live with an unbreathed spirit of God.

We can live with an unquenched spirit of God. And don't let Satan tell you otherwise. The God that loved us and sent his Son to die for us put the spirit of God within each one of us so that we might have the power to perfectly represent him and to know his will.

If anything short of that is being achieved in our lives, we are the losers. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, again we bow in Thy presence, and how solemn these thoughts are. Cause them, we pray Thee, to grip our souls.

Send us all home, Lord, with a desire to search our own hearts and to know if we really have your will for our lives. Help us to confess if we have quenched the spirit of God in our lives. Help us, O God, to be all that you want us to be.

Help us to be yielded to the point that you can do all that you want to do through our lives. This we pray in the name and for the glory and honor of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.