Do Not Quench the Spirit - 1 Thess Lesson 40

Do Not Quench the Spirit

1 Thessalonians 5: 19

 Let’s open the Word of God again this morning to 1 Thessalonians 5. Let’s read this section of God’s holy Word that begins in verse 12 and goes down through verse 22. Please stand with me as we read the Word of the Lord.

 This morning we are going to look at the imperative of verse 19. Do not quench the Spirit. This imperative, maybe more than anything else we have seen in this passage, touches the very heart of the issue of the Christian life. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not do anything that is going to diminish, quiet, squelch, dampen, hinder, repress, or prevent the Holy Spirit from doing what God has sent Him into your life to accomplish. This is an imperative to not resist what God is doing in your life. We may not have ever studied anything more important than this.

 For the average “Christian” the goal of the Christian life is getting to heaven. If you ask most people who call themselves Christians why they became a Christian the majority will tell you that it was because of the promise of eternal life. The problem with fallen man is that we tend to even make the work of salvation about us rather than about the glory of God. The problem with Satan’s deceptions regarding salvation is that he makes salvation more about man than God’s glory. The reality is that God saves us not simply so we can spend eternity in heaven. God saves us in order that we might live as new creatures in Christ who are brought to an understanding of the truth about our existence. The purpose for our existence is God’s glory. The purpose for our existence is not just so God can have friends in heaven forever. Our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy His presence forever. It starts with His glory and culminates with His forever presence. Our chief end is not so He can enjoy our presence forever. I hope you understand the difference.

 So how do we measure success in the Christian life? Are we successful as Christians because we do certain things? We could make an argument that Paul emphasized the do’s and don’ts. Just look at our list of imperatives in this section of Scripture. We are to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks. That is an impressive list of “do’s.” Here are a couple of don’ts. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Can we measure success by how well we do at the do’s and don’ts of the Bible? Are we saved just so we can follow some rules? Do we measure success by how much Bible we can memorize? Do we measure success by how much money we give, or how many times each week we share the gospel with someone, or how many organizations we get involved with, or how faithful we are to attend church?

 As we come to this imperative of 1 Thess. 5:19, we are following the Apostle Paul as he leads us right to the very heart of the matter regarding the Christian life. When Paul wrote this imperative he knew that the truly redeemed Christians at Thessalonica would know where he was coming from, and what he was getting at. Paul expected these words to hit them hard, and to remind them of all he had taught them about God’s work in their lives and what it meant to live for the glory of God the Father. This was to the Thessalonians, and is to us, a clarion call to look closely at our hearts and understand that we must be taking this Christian life very seriously. We must be living faithfully, obediently, and consistently in step with what the Holy Spirit of God is teaching us about a life lived for the glory of God. We must be giving God His rightful place in our lives. 

 If I do nothing else from the message today, I hope to impress on you an understanding of what it means to do nothing that will quench the Spirit of God. If you understand this imperative your Christian walk cannot help but improve. This imperative deals with our individual relationship to the God who has redeemed us, delivered us from sin and death, and has come to live within us in the person of the Holy Spirit. This imperative commands us to give careful and adequate consideration to who the Holy Spirit is, and what He intends to do in us, and how important it is for us to give careful heed to Him as the indwelling presence of God within every true follower of Christ.

 We are to not do anything that is going to diminish, silence, squelch, dampen, hinder, repress, or prevent the Holy Spirit from doing what God has sent Him into your life to accomplish. The word “quench” is “sbennumi” in the Greek and it means to dampen, hinder, or repress. It means that we should never do anything that keeps the Holy Spirit from exerting His full influence in our lives. 

 There will always be those we want to quench. I find myself wanting to quench anyone who argues with me, or challenges me, or disagrees with me. Why? Because they are wrong. I find myself wanting to quench those who are obviously ignorant and have no idea what they are talking about. I would love to quench all who are teaching false doctrine and error and mishandling the word of God. I would love to quench every deceived and perverted person who is trying to lead children down the destructive path the LGBTQ+ movement. Those people should be quenched. But we cannot quench them even though they should be.

 It is interesting that the ones we would most like to quench we cannot. The ones who should be quenched cannot be quenched. But the One we should not quench we can. Paul would not command us to not quench the Spirit if it were not possible for us to quench the Spirit. So we should carefully consider who it is we quench. We are able to quench the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity. The One who is God, the agent of creation, the omnipotent One, we can quench. It is God the Holy Spirit who indwells every true follower of Christ. We can quench God who lives within us. We should not but we can.

 We never have grounds to justify quenching the Holy Spirit. He is never wrong. He is always right. He is never to be quenched because all He ever does is work that keeps us perfectly in the will of God and empowered to glorify God in every circumstance of life. If we are quenching the Holy Spirit, we are wrong. I want to challenge you today to consider that the true and reliable and accurate measure of success in the Christian life is your response to the Holy Spirit as He exerts His influence in your life. 

 We should first establish some sound doctrinal truth about the Holy Spirit. Other than false teaching regarding the work of salvation, the misrepresentation of the truth about the Holy Spirit may be the worst example of error that is pervasive in the church today. The Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood, misrepresented, and mischaracterized member of the Godhead. He is credited with so much He has nothing to do with. He is blasphemed mercilessly by demonically inspired false teachers, especially in the charismatic movement. The Pharisees blasphemed Christ when they said that Christ did His miracles by the power of Beelzebub, or Satan. Charismatic false teachers similarly blaspheme the Holy Spirit by attributing to Him the work of the devil or demonic forces. They claim to speak by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit even when speaking things that are contrary to the written, inspired word of God. These are demonically inspired lies that these false teachers claim come from the Holy Spirit. This is blasphemy. 

 While we don’t have time for a full explanation of the Holy Spirit, we must begin our study of this verse by knowing who He is and what His work is in us. I’m about to throw a lot at you in a short amount of time. If you don’t get it all, go back and listen to this message again and read the manuscript online in a couple days.

 We must begin with the doctrine of God. This is brief. There is one living and true God. (Dt. 6:4, Is. 45:5-7, 1 Cor. 8:4) He is an infinite, all-knowing Spirit (Jn. 4:24), perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Mt.28:19, 2 Cor. 13:14)– each equally deserving worship and obedience. We could go very deep into the doctrine of God as Father and Son but we won’t. The Holy Spirit, as the third, but equal member of the Triune God, is a divine person, eternal, underived, possessing all the attributes of personality and deity, including intellect (1 Cor. 2:10-13), emotions (Eph. 4:30), will (1 Cor. 12:11), eternality (Heb. 9:14), omnipresence (Ps. 137:7-10), omniscience (Is. 40:13-14), omnipotence (Rom. 15:13), and truthfulness (Jn. 16:13). In all the divine attributes He is coequal and cosubstantial with the Father and the Son. (Mt.28:19, Acts 5:3-4, 28:25-26, 1 Cor. 12:4-6) This is a brief description of who He is. We do well to understand who it is that we sometimes quench. To quench the Spirit is to quench God.

 It is the work of the Holy Spirit to execute the divine will with relation to mankind. We see His sovereign activity in creation (Gen. 1:2), in the incarnation (Matt. 1:18), the written revelation (2 Peter 1:20-21), and the work of salvation (Jn. 3:5-7). A unique work of the Holy Spirit was initiated at Pentecost when He came from the Father as promised by Christ (Jn. 14:16-17, 15:26). He initiated and is continuing to complete the building of the body of Christ on earth. His activity includes convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgment. He glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He is transforming believers into the image of Christ. (Jn. 16:7-9, Acts 1:5, 2:4, Rom. 8:29, 2 Cor. 3:18, Eph. 2:22)

 The Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ. (1 Cor. 12:13) The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers for service, and seals all true believers unto the day of redemption. (Rom. 8:9-11, 2 Cor. 3:6, Eph. 1:13)

 The Holy Spirit is the divine teacher who guided the apostles and prophets unto all the truth as they committed to writing God’s revelation, the Bible. (2 Pet. 1:19-21) Every believer possesses the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit from the moment of salvation, and it is the duty of all those born of the Spirit to be filled with (controlled by) the Spirit. (Rom. 8:9-11, Eph. 5:18, 1 Jn. 2:20,27) The Holy Spirit administers gifts to the church. (1 Cor. 12:4-11)

 I just told you a lot of truth that I can back up with Scripture references. I want to take you into the Scriptures to a few places and look at some of the important verses that describe the truth about the Holy Spirit. Turn to John 14. Let’s begin in verses 16-17. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever (remember, Jesus had just told His disciples that He was leaving); that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

 Look at the specific promises in these verses. The Lord promised that the Father would give the disciples another Helper. This Helper would be with them forever. This Helper is the Spirit of truth. This Spirit of truth they would know because He would abide with them and be in them.

 Look at verses 25-26. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, while He is with you forever and abiding with you and is in you, He will “teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Did you ever wonder how the Apostles and the writers of the Gospels were able to give us such accurate and complete records of the words spoken by Jesus? The Holy Spirit brought those things to their remembrance. We have the Bible because the Holy Spirit inspired the truth that has been written.

 Now turn to John 16:7-15. Verse 6 tells us that sorrow had filled the disciple’s hearts. They were sorrowful because Jesus had told them He was going to the Father who had sent Him. Then, in verse 7, Jesus says this. “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” This is important. What could be better than having Jesus with you? Jesus said that it was to their advantage for Him to go away because He would send the Helper. Having the Holy Spirit is an advantage over having Christ. Jesus was everything to these men, but they would have an advantage by having the Holy Spirit. This is because of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and the work He would do in them. Everything Jesus did He did for them. The work of the Holy Spirit would be in them because He would be with them and in them.

 Verse 8 continues, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;” This is how people are brought to salvation. They are convicted of sin in their own hearts, righteousness that is required to stand before a holy God, and judgment for those who do not possess the necessary righteousness. When the Holy Spirit works in the fallen human heart to make these things known He awakens those who are spiritually dead and brings them to life in Christ.

 Verse 13 reiterates the role of the Holy Spirit in regards to the truth. “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. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

 Now turn over to 2 Cor. 1:21-22. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.” Paul gives testimony of the truth Jesus promised. The Holy Spirit came to dwell in Paul. Lest we think that this was something reserved for only those disciples or Apostles to whom Jesus first spoke this promise, turn to Ephesians 1:13-14. “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

 The clear teaching of Scripture is that every true Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. He comes to us at the time of our salvation. He comes to execute the divine will of God among humanity, especially in the lives of those who come to faith in Christ. He saves us, sanctifies us, working to conform us to the image of Jesus. He does in us the very things that Jesus told us He would do when He came into the world.

 In order to be faithful to the Scriptures and what they teach us concerning the Holy Spirit, let’s look at a few verses that give us specific commands regarding our relationship to the Holy Spirit. You are familiar with these, but we need to be reminded of them. Ephesians 5:18 tells us, “And do not be drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” Some of the cults taught that a person could enter into a deeper level of communion with God by getting drunk. Paul’s instructions tell us to, rather, be filled with the Spirit. Because every true believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit at the time of salvation, we are commanded to live continually under the control of the Spirit. The idea of being filled with the Spirit is that of being controlled by Him. This is consistent with our imperative not to quench the Spirit. One of the ways we quench the Spirit is by not yielding to His control, and submitting to His work and influence in our lives. Being filled with the Spirit is living continually in the conscious presence of our Lord, with our thinking, attitudes, words, and deeds being directed by Him and always being according to His word.

 This is the same as Paul commanded in Galatians 5:16. Turn there. If we are filled with the Spirit we will walk by the Spirit. The influence of the Holy Spirit will result in a continuous lifestyle of humble, consistent, obedience to the will of God. It is the only way to walk in victory over the flesh. Read verses 16-26.

 If we are not filled with the Spirit, and walk by the Spirit, we will grieve the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:30 gives us the other significant imperative regarding the Holy Spirit. Paul writes, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” If you read the passage surrounding this instruction you find a contrast similar to that of Galatians 5. If we are not filled with the Spirit we grieve the Holy Spirit. If we are not walking by the Spirit, this means we are not submitting to Him and yielding to His work in us. We are quenching the Spirit.

 There is so much indicated by this imperative in 1 Thess. 5:19.  We can quench the Spirit of God. We must give heed to the reality of who it is that we quench. We must give careful consideration to just how offensive this must be to our heavenly Father. I enjoy a wonderful relationship to my children and grandchildren, especially those who walk with the Lord. Those grown children and their children often come to me for advice, guidance, and clarification of something from the word of God. I love that. I can’t imagine that any of them would ever quench, or stifle, or suppress anything I tried to teach them or any advice I might offer to them. They would never ignore my counsel.

 I am convicted by the fact that I am not always that considerate of God. His indwelling Holy Spirit convicts of sin and I am capable of ignoring that conviction, at least for a while. I ultimately submit and confess and repent, but sometimes I initially resist. I am sure that I often offend and insult the Holy Spirit because I don’t heed His work and yield to His influence as I should. I sometimes quench the Spirit. This is a foolish thing to do. It isn’t a grandfather who has graced my life with his presence. This is God who has graced my life with His very presence. This is God who is working in me for my good and His glory. I must not measure success in my Christian life by how good my sermon might be on Sunday morning. I must measure success in my Christian life by how sensitive I am to the work of God’s Spirit in my heart moment by moment.

 Let me close with a few practical thoughts on how we quench the Spirit. From all we have seen we cannot get around the fact that the role of the Holy Spirit, the activity of the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit is inseparable from the Word of God. The Holy Spirit will lead you into the Scriptures. He is the Spirit of truth. He is the One who inspired the written word of God. Jesus prayed for His disciples that God would sanctify them in the truth and He clearly stated that God’s word is truth. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is a ministry in the truth, the Bible. He guides us into all the truth. He is our Teacher. He enlightens our understanding. He instructs and aids our comprehension of the truth. He helps us apply the truth and live by the truth of the Word of God.

 We can quench the Spirit by neglecting God’s truth. If you never pick up our Bible, except to bring it to church, you are quenching the Spirit. Think about this. The two most precious treasures of your spiritual life are the word of God and the indwelling Holy Spirit. What does the Bible tell us about itself? The word of God is more precious than gold, even much fine gold. If you had the option of selecting from a 100% pure gold bar that weighed 100 pounds or the Bible, if you chose the gold you would have chosen wrong. There is nothing more valuable than the word of God. There is nothing you need more than the truth of God’s word. There is nothing more important to understand than the truth of God’s word.

 So, along with the immeasurable treasure of truth which God has placed before you, God has given you the gift of His Holy Spirit – the Spirit of truth – who is in you and will be with you, and He guides you into all the truth. He brings the word of God to your remembrance. He enlightens your mind to understand. He makes the good soil hearer of the word of God to be fruitful.

 The Holy Spirit speaks to us through the word of God. He wants us to be looking to Him as we open the word of God and seek wisdom for a life that glorifies God. He will instruct us in the way we must walk in order for God to be glorified in this life. But, are we quenching His work because we are neglecting His word? If so, we must repent.

 We can quench the Spirit if we are not sensitive to His work of conviction as He identifies sin in our lives. We are not perfect. We still battle with the flesh. We all fail. There is no such thing as sinless perfection in this life. When we sin, and miss the mark of God’s holy standard, the Holy Spirit convicts of sin. He calls us to confess and repent, to turn from sin and back to the path of righteousness. He often brings to my mind the precious truth of Scripture. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” What a precious ministry of the Holy Spirit!

 We quench the Spirit when we are not filled with the Holy Spirit. When we are not walking by the Spirit, and yielding to the control of the Holy Spirit, we quench the Spirit. When we are filled with the Spirit, and walking by the Spirit, the fruit of our lives will be evident. If we are not, the fruit of our lives will be evident. The deeds of the flesh are evident as Galatians 5 tells us. The fruit of the Spirit is also evident. If we are not quenching the Spirit our lives will be marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We will be crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires. We quench the Spirit if these things are not true of us.

 When we quench the Spirit we are throwing water on the fire of God’s Holy presence within us. I can’t help myself, I must ask. How dumb is that? It is no small thing to quench God’s Spirit, to suppress His work, to ignore His influence, to dampen or diminish His influence in any way, or to any degree.

 When we do this we are, in effect, saying, I am going to ignore the work of the Holy Spirit because I think my ways are better than God’s. I’m not going to respond to His leading me to the truth because I think my ways are better than His. I’m not going to respond to His conviction of sin because I love my sin and it makes me happy so I would like for Him to leave me alone in this area.

 How foolish is it for a child of God to tell God to “buzz off?” I don’t think a true child of God can or will do that. Do not quench the Spirit.