LET S NOT GRIEVE GOD

LET S NOT GRIEVE GOD

Eph. 4:26-30 26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 Neither give place to the devil. 28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. 29 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. 30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Verse 30 says, And grieve (λυπέω lypeō; make sorrowful, offend, make sad or cause grief) not the Holy Spirit of God. First off, let us recognize God has emotions and feelings. It hurts Him to see us do wrong and live wrong, it grieves Him. We see this when God destroyed the world in Noah s days. Gen 6:5-8 5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. We obviously know wickedness and evil grieves God; shoot, even wicked and evil people are grieved by wickedness and evil. Wickedness and evil without question causes grief, that s a given. So, why does the Scripture tell us, believers in God, not to grieve the Spirit of God? Scripture is not talking to non-believers. The Holy Scriptures are written to believers, not none believers Scripture is inspired by God, it s God s Word, and one must believe to understand it. So, we know by faith, He is not talking to the world. So, why does this passage speak to us, who have in us, who have God s Holy Spirit in us who (whereby you are sealed with the Holy Spirit) Eph. 4:30 is in companion with Eph. 1:13-14 which says, 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God s possession to the praise of his glory. So, again, why does the Scripture tell us not to grieve (offend, make sad or cause grief) to the Spirit of God? We know God hates evil and wickedness, and generally has no dealings with evil and wicked people. So do we possess the Spirit of God but still remain evil and wicked? First off, let s understand one thing, each and every one of us that have accepted Jesus as Lord and come to this great Salvation is of no doing of our own. John 6:40-41: Grieving God 2

41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. 42 And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? 43 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. 44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. Rom. 8:30 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Eph. 1:4-5 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will Now, if we go back to the story of Noah (Gen. 6:5-8 above), were man is continuously evil and wicked and it grieved the heart of God, it says that Noah found what with God? Grace! Don t miss that. It does not say, Noah was this holy man before God or that Noah lived so upright and good before God. No, it says, Noah found Grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, being called of God is finding Grace in the eyes of the Lord. As God called Noah by Grace, He called us by Grace, to come out of a world that is continuously evil and wicked. So, that means, all us are but Noah s finding Grace in the eyes of the Lord! See Eph. 2:1-5 tells us that before God called us we were dead to Him spiritually living in a world continuously evil and wicked: Eph. 2:1-5: 1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved. So, once being evil and wicked, if God called you, drew you and imparted in you His Holy Spirit of redemption, then you no longer are evil and wicked, because you received His grace, mercy, forgiveness, cleansing and washing and have been made righteous in His sight through the rebirth and regeneration of the Holy Spirit and are sealed by God. (Titus 3:5). So, if I am righteous before God, and no longer counted as evil and wicked, what does it mean for us to grieve Him? First let s notice Eph. 4:21-30 starts off by telling us to turn from, stop doing things, get rid of ways that are displeasing to God; such as, being angry and bitter, stop giving the devil a place in your emotions. He even says, if you used to steal, steal no more. Stop with the foul language, idle talk, gossip, etc. He tells us that we should start speaking good things that minister grace unto the hearer (you re a hearer of yourself to); and, oh, by the way, stop grieving God s Holy Spirit. Grieving God 3

So, because I know that Scripture is for reproofing me, correcting me and instructing me on the things I need to change in my life, such as letting wrath or anger control me, my emotions take me giving the devil a place, and that I should stop taking things not mine and stop gossiping and using vain words, and I say to myself, I don t do those things, I must be a righteous Christian, then I must not be grieving God? If you think that s what it means, then you do not understand what this passage is talking about our telling you. What grieves God most is failing to listen to Him His word, not having faith in Him Heb. 3:7 7 Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. This is what grieves God Ps. 78:32-42 32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe. 33 So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror. 34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again. 35 They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer. 36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; 37 their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant. 38 Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath. 39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return. 40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland! 41 Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel. 42 They did not remember his power the day he redeemed them from the oppressor This is what grieves God! To know the truth of God, received the Grace, mercy and lovekindness of the Lord; and yet, I turn to and listen to what myself has to say, what the devil has to say, someone else has to say or what the world has to say, rather than what God has said about WHATEVER IT IS. I harden my heart and provoke Him by listening to what His Word has to say. This grieves God! Let s look at Jesus being grieved. Mark 3:1-5 1 And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand. 2 And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him. 3 And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth. 4 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace. 5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for Grieving God 4

the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. Oh, you didn t know Jesus got angry? Yes, He was angry and grieved because of the hardness of their hearts. Why? Because He asked them a question about the truth of God s word they should know the answer, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? The answer: it s lawful to do good and to save life rather than lose a life on the sabbath or any day. Obviously Jesus, we should do good on any day. But they kept silent because they didn t want the truth of God. This angered and grieved Jesus! He s grieved when we are like Ephraim and Judah Hosea 6:1-6 1 Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. 3 Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. 4 What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. 5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth then my judgments go forth like the sun. 6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. We grieve God when we have been given His oh so sweet salvation and the sharing of His Spirit and we now turn from that faith in Him. See, when we turn from the Lord, His Word and His truth, we are like what is spoken of in Isa. 63:9-10: In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. 10 Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them. Heb. 10:26-29 26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? Now, the phrase deliberately keep on sinning is the greek hekousiós ἑκουσίως gar Γάρ hamartanó ἁμαρτάνω; which actually means that I am deliberately missing the mark. Translation, I am not trying to do what God would have me to do because I am intentionally not listening to what God has to say. This passage is not talking about sins, in the sense of sins, we commit; although we should not sin, it s talking about turning our back on God and returning to our former way of life, as spoken of in 2 Pet 2:20-22: Grieving God 5

20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: A dog returns to its vomit, and, A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud. What sin referred to her is the hardening of heart. The turning away from the Lord. The ignoring Him, the grieving and sorrowing the Lord after having received His gift of salvation. What Grieves God is Heb. 6:4 4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. 9 Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case the things that have to do with salvation. Let s not grieve God of hardening our heart when we hear His Word! Grieving God 6