And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.
13 sermons cite this verse
… You ask, well, what would grieve the Holy Spirit? The answer is given in Ephesians 4.30. It says, don't grieve the Holy Spirit, which means don't bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. What grieves the Holy Spirit? Bitterness, rage, anger, slander, all types of evil behavior. goodness. Can you imagine if people practiced this on social media? If over on X they got rid of all slander and evil behavior and harsh words, there wouldn't be anything left to post for a lot of these people because that's all they do post. They fabricate things about people. They slander people. They attack people and they manage to monetize this and get more followers as a result. No, that grieves the Holy Spirit. Instead, be tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. …
… Secondly, don't grieve the Spirit. Ephesians 4.30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by which you were sealed for the day of redemption. When you sin against God, remember you have God in you, the Holy Spirit. When you join in sin, you're asking God to participate with you in sin. It's an unthinkable thing. It grieves the Holy Spirit. when you disobey God. Thirdly, don't quench the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is like a fire. It can be quenched, not only through disobedience, but simply ignoring the Holy Spirit's direction. Remember, Paul said, for all who are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God. One mark of being a Christian is that the Holy Spirit is giving you direction. Don't ignore his voice. Be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Principle number three, God's power is amplified by his word. God's power in your life is amplified by his word. Just like this microphone amplifies my voice, so God's word amplifies his spirit. Yes, his spirit is powerful, But when you combine God's Spirit with His Word, it's like 10 times the power. …
… The word grieve means to make sad or sorrowful. Ephesians 4.30 says, don't bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way that you live. get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words. Instead, be tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God through Christ has forgiven you. By the way, there are fringe benefits to forgiving others. You'll live longer, literally. A new field of research has developed on the subject of forgiveness. And recent studies suggest that those that do not forgive are more likely to experience high blood pressure, bouts of depression, and problems with anger, stress, and anxiety. So you can keep it all inside, and you can be that person in the restaurant, and they call out your name. Bitter, party of one. Or you can be a forgiving person. It's your choice. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. And don't lead us into temptation. We need to pray to not fall into temptation. We're saying, Lord, don't let me be tempted above my capacity to resist. …
… because many of you probably still have it memorized let no evil talk come out of your mouth but only what is useful for building up as there is need that your words may give grace to those who hear can you imagine how politics would look differently if we all practiced that. Let no evil, remember that word is putrid, it's like rotten, it's spoiling. Let no evil word or talk come out of your mouth, but only what's useful for building others up as there is need, that your words might give grace to those who hear. I think about Paul when he's talking, he's writing to the church at Corinth. You see, there was a lot of divisions in the early church, and in those divisions, there was great conflict in many of the churches, so almost every letter of the New Testament addresses conflict and how to resolve conflict. And in 1 Corinthians, This letter is a major theme of it is the conflict. It starts in chapter 1 and winds its way all the way through the divisions in the church. …
… of Christ until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood. Later on in the same chapter, he says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom we were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. My friends, to these things you are called and finally you're called to be a fit sacrifice. I always struggled with this when I was thinking about the shepherd theme and motif in scripture and thinking about you know how I grew up and knowing what happened to sheep in the end. We'd raise a sheep and we'd show the sheep and we'd get a ribbon for it and then we would take it to the auction and we would sell the sheep and very soon there would be a butcher and there would be a barbecue and it was the outcome and then I would look at the people in my congregation and think that's part of the story that's part of the analogy but how does that work for you what's the expectation for believers paul tells us romans 12 1 you know this now it makes sense i appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of god to present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to god which is your spiritual worship your reasonable service …
… edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. There seems to be a lot of confusion in the world today, and certainly in our culture, about what a true Christian is. We struggle with the reality of that fact because we wish it were clearer who the Christians were, so people claiming to be Christians didn't do so much damage to our reputation. The range of Christianity extends all the way from the true believers on the one hand to the false teachers who claim the name Christian, but who really are the agents of the devil and everything in between. You might say somehow God missed the target in developing Christianity and developing His kingdom in the world because it is so very difficult to tell true Christians from false Christians. …
… edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice or evil. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." Now our theme in chapter 4 has been spiritual transformation. That identifies the true Christian. Verses 17 and 19 that I just read to you describe the unconverted person, and then you have, as I noted, the transition in verse 20. You have learned Christ, and that is a dramatic transformation. You have heard Him. You literally heard Him speak by His Spirit in your heart and in His Word. You have been taught in Him by the Spirit and the Word. You now know the truth in Jesus, and so with reference to your former life, you laid that aside, that corrupt life. …
… edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." This is a very pragmatic section starting in verse 25, and it will continue to be so as we march through chapter 5 in the future. But there's a turning point here, and it's in verse 20. You did not learn Christ in this way. Prior to that, in verses 17 and 19, is a description of the unconverted, the people who are in their fallen condition. They walk in the futility of their mind. They are darkened in their understanding. They are excluded from the life of God. They are ignorant. They are hard-hearted. They are callous. …
… Suddenly Paul says, and don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. What's that doing in there? Well, now, first of all, you say, well, and this is right, the most obvious part is, here's the part that is easy to understand. Obviously it's saying that it's unkindness that grieves the Holy Spirit. The presence of God with you is grieved by unkindness. Okay, that's why he's saying that. It's great to know. But why does he add this little description of the Holy Spirit? Why does he say unkindness particularly grieves the Holy Spirit? Because the Holy Spirit's job is to seal people for the day of redemption. That's why unkindness hurts him. What does that mean? And what's the day of redemption? Well, it's a future thing. It's not the past. It's not looking at the day in which we got redeemed in the sense of that we gave our lives to Christ. to the future is looking to the day of redemption. …
… He makes a decision. And in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30, He talks about do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Well, the only way you can grieve somebody is they have feelings. So, the Holy Spirit is a person. He has feelings. He has a will. And listen, he has knowledge. So, the Holy Spirit is not a something. He is somebody. The first time that I ever really realized that and learned that, I'd only been in seminary a couple of weeks. And I was seated at the table with a group of students, and I didn't know any of them. None of us know each other. and I said something, we're talking about the Holy Spirit, and I said something about the Holy Spirit, it, fellow sitting across the table to me, he said, he didn't say a word at the point, he said, Charles, would you come by my room after lunch, dinner? I said, sure. I didn't know him, so he'd tell me where he was, down the hall from where I live. And I walked in the room, and I was very intimidated because he had books. He was a doctoral student. He had books from the bottom to the bottom of the wall to the top. The only thing you could see, a couple of windows, and down the door, everything else covered books. …
… who hear. And then he makes a statement that most of us know this one by heart. He says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Then here's what he says. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Now, if our first response to someone who wrongs us is anger and bitterness and hostility, then what he says here, let all bitterness, that is, a feeling of intense animosity towards someone, bitterness. Then he says wrath, that is, that's anger with real aggressiveness and anger and clamor with real loud protest towards someone, slander, that is with the desire, intention to really injure someone else. And he says, let all that be put away from you with all malice, that is statements that you intend to damage someone's reputation or their occupation or whatever it might be. …
… look at the next one verse 30 some of y'all say i can't take another one that's all right hold on it's gonna get it's gonna get more better all right verse 30 and do not grieve the holy spirit of god by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption that's what we do by the way with the corrupting thought let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you. By the way, that also goes back to the first imperative. If I'm saying something and it's true, but it's bitter, it's true, but it's slanderous, it's true, but it's angry, I'm in sin. In all malice, be kind to one another. Don't say things that are unkind. Tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Another indication that an unbeliever can't do these things. forgiving one another. And let me clarify that, because a lot of people, when we talk about forgiveness, you know, we, for whatever reason, you know, there's this phrase in our culture, forgive and forget. …
… know this one by heart. He says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Then here's what he says. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Now, when a person has an unforgiving spirit and refuses to be kind and tenderhearted and forgiving, even as God has forgiven us in Christ Jesus. When a person refuses to do that, what happens to them? Well, there's some very definite consequences. One of them is emotional bondage. And this is where people are who are living in anger and bitterness and hostility and resentment. And everybody's going to have things done to them or said about them in life because that's the kind of world we live in. It's never going to be a place where everybody just loves you. …