The sermon by Jason Dohm, titled 'Resisting the Holy Spirit in Putting Off and Putting On,' explores Ephesians 4:30-32, emphasizing the process of spiritual transformation for believers. It discusses the dual actions of putting off the old man—characterized by bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and malice—and putting on the new man, which reflects the likeness of Jesus Christ. The sermon highlights the essential role of the Holy Spirit, who aids believers in this transformation by providing guidance, truth, and strength. Resisting the Holy Spirit, through disobedience or maintaining sinful traits, grieves Him and can hinder spiritual progress. The sermon also underscores the importance of cultivating kindness, tender-heartedness, and forgiveness, reflecting Christ’s character. It draws on related biblical texts, such as John 14 and Galatians 5, to elucidate the Holy Spirit's work and the necessity of cooperation with His influences. Ultimately, the sermon calls believers to be open to the Holy Spirit's guidance, fostering a Christ-like character and community.

Good morning. Ephesians 4, sermon text is Ephesians 4, 30-32. I'm going to read 25-32. Please follow along. Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Father, more than just words, a reflection of your character, of your beauty, God of who you are. Again, may today not be a laundry list of how to be nice to one another. May it be a love affair of epic proportions as we dive deeper into your beautiful characters. We fall more in love with who you are.

That this king of beauty would hang on the cross. That we might reflect who you are. God, perform surgery on us today. We fall so short of this. God, transform us that we might glorify you more and more in character and the way we treat one another.

Amen. You may be seated. The title of the sermon this morning is Resisting the Holy Spirit and Putting Off and Putting On. We've been studying these exhortations of putting off the old man. We're supposed to do that.

And putting on the new man, we're supposed to do that. We learn in this text what was probably implied in the others that God hasn't left us alone to just grind out that work. He actually gives us the Holy Spirit to help us in that work. He's not to be resisted. There is a cost to be paid, a high price to be paid for resisting the Holy Spirit as He helps us to put off the old man and the new man.

Paul has been calling us to walk worthy of our calling. That's how chapter 4 starts. Walk worthy of your calling, of your high calling to put off the old man, to put on the new man. Last week you got very specific. So that's sort of general.

Put off the old man. Ok, got it. Put on the new man. Ok, I got it. How about this specific thing and this specific thing?

Last week Paul brought us to the doorstep of lying versus speaking the truth. He brought us to the doorstep of sinful anger, to the doorstep of stealing versus a productive life that accumulates enough provision to share. He brought us to the doorstep of corrupt words versus gracious words that build up. These are really specific ways in which we are to put off the old man, the old man with his corruptions of nature, that Jesus died to wash away. And to put on the new man, if you could describe the new man in one word, what would be the word?

Jesus. Jesus is the new man. He's the head of the new family. And we look to Him to find out what we should be growing into, the image we should be growing into. Let's ask the Lord to help us.

God, we pray that You would visit us today. We do believe what your word teaches that you're always everywhere at once. We don't necessarily understand that but we know that your word teaches it so we believe it. We also know by experience that you are with us sometimes in a very special and particular way, in which we are thrilled by knowing that we have drawn near to you and we're helped by you in a special way. That's what we're praying for.

Visit us in that way. Let your Holy Spirit be here, thrilling our hearts by being near you and helping us in a very powerful way that does leave us changed. We pray these things In Jesus' name, Amen. Well we have the last three verses of chapter four today, and we'll just look at them verse by verse. So hopefully you're still there.

Follow along as I reread Ephesians chapter four, verse 30. Paul writes, And Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." Here in this verse, obviously, Paul instructs us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Grieve fills in the blank if you're taking notes that way. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.

Paul puts it right in connection with the things he's been saying about putting off and putting on. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. In other words, things in connection with whether we do or whether we don't obey Paul's exhortation to put off the old man with its corruptions and to put on the new man that is in the likeness of Jesus Christ, What we do there has the potential to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. What is it that Paul is indicating offends the Holy Spirit and causes him sorrow, but Both offending and the cause of sorrow are within the range of meaning for this word that's being translated. So what is it that would offend the Holy Spirit and grieve him, cause him sorrow?

I think what Paul teaches, or what Paul says next, teaches us. What does he say next? By whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. The Holy Spirit has a role that he plays in salvation and in growth. An ongoing role.

So the Holy Spirit has a front row position in bringing us into salvation by the blood of Christ, but then he continues on. He indwells and he seals us for the day of redemption. Now this is language that Paul has already used in Ephesians. So Paul is just pulling forward phrases from chapter 1. Turn back to chapter 1.

Let's look at these two verses where Paul uses essentially identical language. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 13 and 14. Here's what Paul said in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. In Him you also trusted. In Jesus Christ you also trusted.

After you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory." By the way, in that song We just sang Ephesians 1. The role of God the Father, the role of Jesus, the role of God the Holy Spirit, to the praise of His glory is all, I mean it's essentially, you can track it through Ephesians 1. I would like to say I had that in my mind when I picked that song, I did not, but anyway, it works out often. So praise God for that.

So this is Paul using the same language that he now draws on again in 4 about the sealing of the Spirit. So The Holy Spirit marks me out as God's. He marks me as God's. God's possession. Because of the work of Christ on my behalf.

This happens in Christ as he says here in chapter 1. And then the Holy Spirit's presence and work is the guarantee of my inheritance. How do I know that I won't fall short of this inheritance? Because of His presence and work, He has sealed me. And so I will make it to the finish line because He indwells me and He is almighty and He who has began a good work in me will bring it to completion through this sealing of the Holy Spirit.

Marked out is His and the inheritance is guaranteed. It is not uncertain at all. It feels uncertain sometimes, but it's not uncertain because this mighty presence of the person of the Holy Spirit indwells the believer, marks the believer, seals the believer. By the way, the Holy Spirit is a hymn. The Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity, not an it or a force or an energy.

It is a person who can be grieved. If you want to know if the Holy Spirit is a person or sort of an it or an energy or a force, let the matter be settled forever in your mind by understanding that he can be grieved. He is a person. What is implied is that now if I resist this call to walk worthy of my calling by putting off the old man and putting on the new man, he's offended. He's made to sorrow.

Why? Because it is His holy occupation to help us walk worthy. We've not been left alone to put off the old man and to put on the new man. He has given us help, indwelling, almighty help, to engage us in the work of making progress in the faith, to grow into the likeness of Jesus Christ. And if you resist that help, if you resist His holy occupation to help us walk worthy.

He's grieved. He's offended by that. It brings him sorrow to have his good influences resisted. I think looking at a few other texts about the work of the Holy Spirit will help us understand. Turn to John 14.

I think John 14 is a real help in understanding this concept of grieving the Holy Spirit. How could you grieve God? What do you have that he needs? Well, he desires that we live to his honor after he saves us by the blood of his son. And it grieves us if we resist that.

That all makes perfect sense, I think. John 14, I'll read, 16 and 17. These are red letters. Jesus said these things. John 14 verses 16 and 17.

Jesus says, and I will pray the Father, I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you." This is profound and I think right to the point of what Paul is talking about here. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit here the Helper. One given to help. This is his holy occupation to help the believer. He's called the Spirit of Truth.

He brings truth into the spirit soul mind of the believer. He helps us to walk in truth. He dwells with the believer and in the believer to help the believer in all that Paul has been laying before us here in Ephesians Chapter 4. Now turn the page to John 16. These chapters of John, if you'll remember, are working through John, are just rich with teaching about the occupation of the Holy Spirit.

We can draw on that here. John 16 verses 13 through 15, more red letters. Jesus says, however when he, the Spirit of Truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine.

Therefore I said, He will take of mine and declare it to you." This is the Spirit of Truth. He's called the Spirit of Truth here again. And it's His job to glorify Jesus. Part of what glorifies Jesus is when with His help we put off the old man and its corruptions and we put on the new man in the likeness of Jesus Christ. That glorifies Jesus Christ.

Now resist that. What do you get? An offended Holy Spirit. A grieved, a sorrowing Holy Spirit because he has this occupation and a delight to bring honor to Christ, to glorify Christ. That is His desire.

That is His mission to see Christ exalted. And He's leading you into truth. And you're resisting that. Okay. Oh, okay, it turned off somehow.

My guess is the battery's gone. You want to switch it out? Hold that thought. Turn now to Galatians 5. This is the last spot that I think really helps us.

You suspected I was going to end up in Galatians 5 and the fruit of the Spirit, and I am. Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23. Of course Paul wrote Galatians also, so Paul writes in Galatians 5 starting in 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. I'll stop there, we could go further.

The work of the Holy Spirit is to produce fruit. To produce fruit, beautiful fruit. A fruit that makes us look and act and speak like the Lord Jesus Christ. We're really talking about the same things here. The work of the Holy Spirit is to produce fruit in the life of the believer.

He is a Holy Spirit, And he goes to work to make his dwelling holy, to make his dwelling place consecrated to God, separated out to be the Lord's and to live as the Lord's. And so, when he meets resistance in a believer, I'm talking about a real believer here, but a believer who is stubbornly clinging to sin, to self-serving and self-loving in ways that dishonor the Lord, it offends him because it is his work to produce this fruit in an increasing abundant over the days, weeks, months, years, decades. He just keeps working away to produce this list of things that make us look and talk and act like Jesus. In 1 Thessalonians 5 19 Paul says this, do not quench the Spirit. First Thessalonians 5 19, do not quench the Spirit.

I think it's closely related. When we resist His work, it is often His pattern to withdraw his influences so that you feel it. So that you get the sense that he is offended and that he is grieving over your resistance of his influences to make you like Christ. And so you quench those influences by this grieving resistance. There is almost a sense in which he says, okay, for a little while have it your way.

Have it your way. Do without my comforts. Do without my influences. See how that goes. See how you like that.

And that bothers a Christian. We're made that way. We're made to be bothered by that. That is made to get our attention. All these things work together.

Listen to what John Calvin says. He says, endeavor that the Holy Spirit may dwell cheerfully with you, as in a pleasant and joyful dwelling and give him no occasion for grief. This verse and this quote makes me want to be a happy home for the Holy Spirit. Because I want what he wants, which is to see Christ glorified in my life by being transformed from what I was, the old man, into what God desires me to be and what he paid with blood for. Jesus didn't shed his blood for me to resist the Holy Spirit.

To quench the Holy Spirit, to offend and give sorrow to the Holy Spirit. Jesus died so that we could be free and then transformed in that freedom. Okay, back to Ephesians 4. Now, verse 31, Ephesians 4, 31. Follow along as I reread that.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice." Here in this verse, Paul gives us a list to put away. It's not the same Greek word that has been put off a couple of times leading up to this, but it's so similar in meaning that when it's translated it's almost the same thing. He gives us a list of things to put away. There are six things which Paul lists which are inconsistent with faith in Jesus Christ. They're inappropriate to be patterns in the life of a believer.

In the life of a believer who is striving to walk worthy, These are things that are unworthy. They are opposites to the fruit of the spirit. You can almost draw a map of how these things are the antithesis, the opposites of the fruits of the spirit. These are corrosive, toxic, poisonous traits that don't belong in the life of a Christian. Paul says, let all, the all there modifies every item on the list.

So all bitterness, all wrath, all anger, all clamor, all evil speaking. It's putting off all the old man. Let's talk about these one by one. All bitterness. Resentfulness would be a good synonym for this, a good word that means the same thing.

Resentfulness. Have you ever been thinking about a person or a circumstance and all of a sudden this emotion wells up or you're thinking, whoa where did that come from? That's often bitterness. It's a resentfulness. It often hides well.

Bitterness can hide. Resentfulness can hide. MacArthur calls it a smoldering resentment, and the author of Hebrews identifies it as a poisonous root. Listen to Hebrews 12 verse 15 where this word is used again. Hebrews 12 verse 15, looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.

A root of bitterness, it's under there, it's a root. It's submerged but then it springs up and it causes trouble and defiles many. You were already defiled by it but bitterness usually ends up by defiling more broadly than just yourself. It is a poisonous root. It is this toxic corrosive trait that is a root that then springs up and causes you trouble.

We're to put that away. All wrath and all anger. All wrath and all anger. I'll take these together because they're such similar words. For wrath, the lexicon says passion, heat, anger boiling up and then subsiding.

So that's really sort of a differentiator between the two. This is this heat that is boiling up and then subsides. Anger is used for a less temporary and more lasting version. So it's not volcanic like wrath is, boiling up and then subsiding. But it's the less temporary and more lasting, more sustained version of this.

It seems to me to be the difference between a hot head. You know what I mean when I say a hot head? Really volatile. You sort of tiptoe around a hothead because you never know when the volcano is going to erupt Boiling up and then subsiding between a hothead and someone who? May very well be able to hide it, but it's still angry It doesn't boil over, but it doesn't subside either it sustains and continues The point is that the follower of Jesus isn't either characterized by wrath is boiling over this volcano or this more sustainable sustained version.

They love their enemies, they pray for people who persecute them they're not hotheads or sustaining anger. All clamor! The New King James note, translational note on this word says loud quarreling. The NASB translational note says, or shouting, clamor, getting loud. Followers of Jesus more and more are less and less about getting loud.

Followers of Jesus aren't characterized by getting loud, by shouting, by loud quarreling. Shouting by loud quarreling. These first three things, bitterness, wrath, and anger are all functionally internal. Wrath, obviously, something that boils over. But all clamor and then all evil speaking are really the giving vent to it through words.

All evil speaking, If you go to the lexicon for that you see slander. Injurious speech, speech which injures, that's what's in view here. Followers of Jesus must guard their tongues. Paul's already started talking about this just a few verses earlier. In last week's text, Ephesians 4 verse 29, Paul said, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth.

So all clamor and all evil speaking would be sort of a further development of that theme. Listen to what the author of James says, you know James has a lot to say about the government of the tongue. Here's what James says in James 3 verses 5 and 6, see how great a forest a little fire kindles and the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity the tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire by hell. So a Christian as he or she grows in knowledge as the Spirit of truth reveals things and brings us to a place of greater maturity you have a sense of what a danger the tongue can be. That it might be little but it can set the whole forest on fire and it can be set on fire by hell itself.

All evil speaking. All malice. Here the lexicon says ill will, Desire to injure. That's what malice is. It's ill will towards another.

And it's so unlike Jesus. So unlike Jesus. In Luke 23, Jesus is being nailed to a cross. He's being crucified. What characterized Jesus?

Father forgive them. They do not know what they do. This is the polar opposite of malice, a desire to injure, ill will towards another. If anyone ever had the right of ill will or desire to injure another, it was the innocent lamb of God who was being nailed to that cross. That's not what he was like at all.

We're to grow into his likeness. Jesus did love his enemies. He did pray for those who persecuted him. He taught it and he did it. Final observation about this list.

A lot of this is internal stuff. A lot of this I can hide away from you. So that it can be true of me, but you have no idea that it's true of me. But I can't hide it away from God. And it doesn't keep me from grieving His Holy Spirit that is to help me and lead me into truth and glorify Christ in my life.

It may rarely be seen by others, but none of it belongs to the new man. Nothing on that list belongs in any way or sense to the new man. All of it belongs to the old man. We're to put it off. That's what Paul is saying.

Finally verse 32. Ephesians 4 verse 32, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. In this verse, Paul gives us a list to cultivate and nurture. So if you're filling in blanks, cultivate and nurture fills in those two blanks. He gives us a second list.

Six things to put away but now three things to cultivate and nurture or to put to put on the new man. Be kind to one another. You go to the lexicon, you see kind, mild, pleasant, Benevolent. I think the essence of this is the golden rule to treat others how you like to be treated. You want to be treated kindly, mildly, pleasantly, benevolently, well then treat others like that too.

The opposite of this, sometimes it's helpful to define by talking about what the opposite of it, what is the opposite of kindness, harshness, unpleasantness, mean. Don't be mean. Be kind. Brethren, brethren, we're nice to each other. It's astounding how often Christians are mean to each other.

And that is not right. We are called to kindness. And kindness should become a second nature to us. Now only one another, only brethren? No, we're to be kind to unbelievers too, but especially one another.

Especially brethren. We have one another language twice in this one verse. We're to be kind to one another and we're to forgive one another. So this is talk about our life together as believers. It doesn't mean that these things don't apply outside believers, but it means it's especially a priority among believers.

Be tender-hearted. The NASB and the NIV render that compassionate. If you look in the lexicon, you see tender-hearted, compassion. That's why they're translating it that way. One picked one, one picked the other.

They really mean such similar things. Not hard-hearted, but soft-hearted, tender-hearted. Brethren, we have a soft spot for one another. You know what it means to have a soft spot? It means to have that special place of affection.

I just have a soft spot for that kid. Have a special place of affection. We should have that for one another. This isn't a business. This isn't Sovereign Redeemer Inc.

This is a family. We're a family. We're members of one another. We should be tenderhearted. We should have a special place of affection.

We should have a soft spot for each other because we're members of one another. We're all trophies of God's grace. So we're brothers and sisters. You know this phrase, Familiarity breeds contempt. Familiarity breeds contempt.

What does that mean? It means after a while, things tend to lose their luster. Things that were special at first become ordinary, and then you don't even notice them anymore. Thought it was great at first but now it's just ordinary or worse. Familiarity breeds contempt.

We are not to be that way with each other. We're to keep a tender heart. We're not to be hard-hearted. We're to have a soft heart towards one another. Be forgiving.

Forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. Here's the underlying assumption. What's the underlying assumption to an exhortation to forgive. That forgiveness is going to be needed. You don't need to forgive each other if there's nothing to forgive, right?

So there is an assumption that the life that God is bringing us into together is going to be close quarters and that we're going to need to forgive each other. So we're called to forgive each other. If we were called into a distant life, a surface life, a superficial life, this exhortation might not be needed but that is not the life that God is calling us together. We are supposed to get in each other's business. That is part of family life.

We are supposed to live closely together. I suggest to you that if you haven't been annoyed by a brother or sister, or if you haven't annoyed a brother or sister in the recent past that you're not doing it right. It's possible you're just really really really mature but I doubt it. We are called into close quarters. We are going to annoy one another or worse, or worse, And God has an antidote for that.

A forgiving disposition. Yeah. But Paul gives us an inexhaustible source the forgiveness we have received so Christ God in Christ forgives us And none of our sins against each other can match our sins against God. Because of the one who is sinned against. So we can sin against each other in serious ways.

But because our value is not the value of God, the sins can't compare. So this is why in Matthew 18 you have this this parable of the unforgiving servant where the king where the king forgives the servant of 230 or 200, 000 years of work the value of 200, 000 years of work in other words an un unpayable debt and then that servant goes and chokes his fellow servant over a hundred days wages. That's what it's like when you're not willing to forgive. This is part of the Lord's Prayer. Listen to Matthew chapter 6 verses 12 and then verses 14 and 15.

This is right in the Lord's Prayer, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, or forgive us our sins as we forgive those who've sinned against us. And then 14 and 15, for if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses here's what dr. Martin loy jones says about this if you are still hard and unforgiving, I have nothing more to say to you except this, while you remain like that I have no evidence and you have no evidence that you have been forgiven. A man who knows forgiveness has got a broken heart. He realizes he is a vile wretch to whom God owes nothing, but for whom God sent his only Son and the Son is born all his sin and iniquity.

And salvation has been given as a free gift entirely and altogether and only in Christ. Now if you have a realization of that when that is before your eyes, you cannot be unforgiving. You cannot be. Then he ends by saying, become kind, dinter-hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Let me try to bring this all together with two more passages.

The first is 1st Peter 3, 8, and 9. I struggled whether I would read these two passages or not, not because they're not applicable but because they're almost too applicable. In other words, they're saying almost the same thing. So I'm thinking, do I get enough value out of taking time for this? But sometimes in reading another place that says almost the same thing, you just get a little extra texture and depth because they say it in a little different way, so that's what I'm hoping for here.

1st Peter 3 verses 8 and 9. Peter writes, finally, All of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another. Love is brothers. Be tender-hearted. Be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing.

Knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. It's a calling to love as brothers. I think that's really a good summary phrase of what Paul has said in our text. Love as brothers. Let it be under that heading.

This tender heartedness, this forgiving one another, this kindness. Let it all be under the banner of loving as brothers. Not returning reviling with reviling. Finally, Colossians 3 verses 12 and 13. It's almost like, we just, I just read out of 1st Peter, it's almost like they were trained by the same master singing off the same sheet of music, Peter and Paul.

Now we have Paul again in Colossians 3 verses 12 and 13. Paul writes, therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. This is a good maybe mini summary of where we are up to date in Ephesians. See, he starts by grounding it in God's goodness to us. So to put it in the words of Ephesians, our riches.

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, then put on these things. It's not a lifeless list, It's what you do when you're loved by God in such tangible ways, in such significant real ways. You put on tender mercies and kindness and humility and meekness and and. Okay, applications. I want to exhort you to see the forest so that you rightly understand the trees.

My fear about this text and texts like it is that I do a reasonably good, at least an accurate job of working through the list of talking about the trees. This is this kind of tree and This is this kind of tree and that's what this tree means. But I don't give a sense of the forest. So I'm hoping now to be able to give a sense of the forest if you don't already have it. We have these list, we have nine things total.

We have six things you're not supposed to do and three things you are supposed to do and how many of these are you going to be able to say out of your memory next week none of them probably maybe so so what should we be left with. Consider Ezekiel 36. You can turn there or just listen, whichever you like. Ezekiel 36 verses 25 through 27. Ezekiel 36 starting in verse 25.

God says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them." This is This is about saving cleansing and the being made a new creation because the heart of stone is removed and you are given a soft heart.

You are given a heart of flesh. It's about the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Isn't that amazing? This is an Old Testament text. Man, does that read like New Testament language, New Testament reality.

We're cleansed and made new, given a new heart, and we're given the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Cooperate with the Holy Spirit. He's given to us to help us, to lead us into truth, to teach us and guide us, and to glorify Christ by our transformation. Cooperate with Him. Don't go grind out the list.

God is giving you these impulses through His Spirit inside of you, these influences. Don't resist them. Influences, don't resist them. It offends Him. It's His great occupation to make you like Christ.

Don't resist Him. Don't quench the Holy Spirit. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. It is possible that you are a believer who has grieved the Spirit and quenched His help, quenched his influences. Does that mean he's unable?

Is he really not almighty after all? No, it means he's unwilling for the time being because of your resistance to continue with his encouragements and comforts and he's going to step back, doesn't mean not indwelling you, He's going to step back until you feel the pain of the lack of help. And so you feel so dry. You feel so dry. This isn't the only thing that can cause dryness in spirits of life.

I don't want to be understood as saying that, but it is one of them. Maybe you've been dry for a long time, and this is why. Because the Holy Spirit is offended at your resistance. He's trying to help you make progress in the faith and you've resisted Him. And now you need to get on your face and repent.

And tell him that you want the pricks of conscience to be sharp again. You want the influences back and you're ready to cooperate. You're tired of not having the encouragements, not having the comforts that you know he can and desires to supply. If that's you, God has brought an opportunity to your doorstep in bringing us to this text. Don't miss it.

Don't miss it. The trinkets That have been the price for this are now worth it Let's pray God we know everything that you said In both lists the put away the list and the cultivated nurture list all these things are good and right. Most of us know ourselves and know our strength. And know that if you just leave us alone with the lists, that sooner or later we'll be back at square one. I'm discouraged and self-loathing.

Thank you that you have not left us in that position but that you have sent another Helper. The Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit of God. To give us power. To bring influence to bear.

To help us become more like Jesus in these ways and more. To whatever extent we've resisted these influences because of selfishness and love for unholy things, whatever extent we've quenched the Spirit and offended the Spirit and caused the Holy Spirit to sorrow, please forgive us. I pray that you would be moving among us now to help us to really come clean on this. Really turn away from those things and embrace this precious help to make progress and to become more like your son. Help us to cooperate with every influence and help that you give us.

I pray in Jesus name, Amen.