Sermon Prepared by James McCullen
Email Preach Him with Dr. Jim

Would You Deliberately Grieve A Friend?
Eph 4:28-32

Introduction Gleaned from Robt McCheyne's sermon. He preached from this text in Aug 2, 1840.
The Holy Spirit is God and I am in no way reducing Him to the position of an earthly friend. I am emphasizing the fact the God the Holy Spirit is a Friend.

Exo. 33:11 Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. NAS

John 3:29 "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. And so this joy of mine has been made full. NAS

John 11:11 This He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, that I may awaken him out of sleep." NAS

Jn 15:14-15 "You are My friends, if you do what I command you 15 "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

James. 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God. NAS
 
 

Jude 14-15 14 And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. "

Illustration Convicts of sin.
None of us likes somebody coming up to us and button holing us and calling us a dirty rotten sinner. But I would think it would be something that all Christians would be open to. That someone on a friendly basis could come up and ask us if we have noticed a blind spot that we have and they pointed out sin. This is exactly what the Holy Spirit is doing. As our friend, He is pointing out our sin.

    1.    Jesus was not Convicted of Sin.
John 8:46   "Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? NAS
 

B.    As A Friend the Holy Spirit . . Adopts us Into the Family of God.
Romans 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" NAS

Illustration Adoption:
The best story I've ever heard about adoption comes from the life of Jack Stanton. He and his wife did not have children. She had talked to him many times about adoption and he was not interested. Finally he said okay go and get us a son. When Mrs. Stanton went to the Baptist Children's Home, a little girl ran up to her and put her arm around her and said would you be my mommy. Well, you know what happened, that little girl came home. Jack was immediately not pleased. And yet when the little girl climbed up on his lap and said would you be my daddy, his heart was melted. This little girl had some legal difficulties with her mom and dad and so adoption was not immediately possible. Jack and his wife went to the courts and did the things that were necessary to begin to arrange for adoption.

But something fell through and Jack and his wife could have visiting privileges, have the young girl in their home but they could not keep her and Jack had even got to the place where he defied the law and hide the little girl.

Well, eventually she was properly and legally adopted. To celebrate they went out camping. Always before the little girl would stay very close to Jack or his wife.

But on this night as they had the bon fire down by the water and the tents up on a hill, the little girl said, "I'm tired and I'm going up to the tent." Jack was surprised and said, "to her you're going up to the tent all by yourself." And she looked at him and said,"yes, I've been adopted. I don't have to be afraid." What a beautiful story about adoption.

C.    As A Friend the Holy Spirit . .Dwells In A Believer's Heart.
Ezekiel 36:27 "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. NAS

John 14:16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;

1 Cor 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,  whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? NAS

Lev 26:12 'I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. NAS
 

D.    As A Friend the Holy Spirit . . Teaches the believer.
John 16:12-14 12"I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 "But
when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. NAS

1 John 2:27 And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you
have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is
true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. NAS
 

E.    As A Friend the Holy Spirit . . Intercedes for the Believer.
Rom 8:26-28 26 And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. NAS

Jude 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; NAS

F.    As A Friend the Holy Spirit Seals the believer.   Eph 4:30
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
 
 

A.    He Can be Grieved through our . . Hard Heart.
Mark 3:5 And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He
said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. NAS

B.    He Can be Grieved through our . . Exalting Him Above Christ.
John 16:13-14 13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth;
for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. NAS

C.    He Can be Grieved When We Do Not . . Rely on Him.
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. KJV

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. NAS

Illustration Rely on Him:
Every preacher, singer, teacher, any person that leads in the Christian life knows the possibility of failing to rely on the Holy Spirit. In the ten years I have been here, I'm sure that you've heard me preach a sermon and you said,"well, that sure was empty or shallow or did not have the touch of God upon it.

I'm sure you've heard Sunday school lessons, I'm sure you've heard music coming from this choir loft that you say well, that was just empty. And the situation was that there was not the preparation spiritually before there was the preparation talent wise. We must rely upon the Holy Spirit and when we do not, we grieve Him.

D.    He Can be Grieved When We . . Despise ordinances.

        1.    The Ordinance of Baptism.
Matt 28:19-20 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. "
 

Illustration
There are some that have made professions of faith and they will give you the verbal expression that they know what they have done saying they have made a commitment of their life to Christ. But they have never followed the Lord in baptism. I want to tell you that grieves the Holy Spirit.

        2.    The Ordinance of the Lord's Supper.
1 Cor 11:25 In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new
covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." NAS

Illustration
Did you know in the ten years that I have been pastor here, some persons have not celebrated the Lord's Supper with us. It would look to me like somebody could make a special attempt to come out and be part of the Lord's Supper service. That is very sad and it grieves the Holy Spirit.
 

Have we Grieved Him?

Has He Prompted you in your Spirit as we read these scriptures?

Right Now Talk to God about this matter.