QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT
1 Thess. 5:19
Morning Meditation 7/15/16
The subject of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity has been a subject that I have been drawn to over and over again. I have many books on the subject. I have gained much from the writers. I have also gained much confusion. There is always a temptation to read more into the text than is there. God does not tell us all there is to know about many subjects. I do not believe he leaves us to guess. He leaves us to live by faith in what he has said and trust him with what he has not revealed. This is one of the hardest things a man has to do. Let a preacher announce a subject and suggest in the advertizement of it that he has found something in the text that no one else knows, he will increase the number who attend that service. But the audience will always leave disappointed. There is nothing new under the sun. A preacher is growing when he learns he is not much. He adds very little to the religious scene and everyone who thinks he is something, just self deceived. Now he is important to God. But he must be willing to be what God want’s him to be and do what God want’s him to do and wait until the Judgment Seat of Christ to discover the outcome. We are here for the glory of God. That is our main purpose. If we fail here, we have failed miserably and I do not want to enter his presence a failure. I do not want to be crude at this point. But I will say it anyhow: “I would like to be the ass on whose back Jesus rides through this world and into the golden city.” Someone hold my mules!!!
Paul says, Quench not the Spirit.” The word “quench” has a variety of definitions according to Kittel: “To quench, to suck dry, to die, to damp down, to restrain, to rest.” It is a present active imperative verb. So Paul is addressing these Christians in Thessalonica in the present tense. It is not a warning about the future. It is an command (imperative mood) for the present. The imperative mood expresses urgency. A Christian in whose life the Holy Spirit is not in control to guide, enlighten and empower can do nothing but damage to the cause of Christ. He can be nothing but a failure in the work of God. He can be nothing but a hindrance to the fellowship of the Church. It is the violation of the truth Jesus taught when he said, “Without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). To quench the Spirit is to do something without Christ. It is disobedience. It is to refuse his leadership. It is to go off on one’s own. It is to die to his leadership. It is to restrain ourselves from following what he is telling us to do. He is grieved when this takes place: “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” Eph. 4:30.
The Holy Spirit has been sent in the Name of Christ through whom Jesus exercises his Lordship over his people. John 14:26 says, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (Let me give you a good study. Jesus was sent in the name of the Father, the Holy Spirit is sent in the name of the Son and we are sent in the name of the Son). If this is true, and it is, then our work is largely the same as the work of the Holy Spirit. We are the one’s thought whom he works. We are co-laborers with the Holy Spirit. What is it to quench the Holy Spirit? It is to refuse obedience to his leadership in our lives whatever it is. Another verse to nail this down is 2 Corinthians 3:17: “ Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
Paul said, “Quench not the Spirit.” This is just a little statement but so important. He said this to the same ones he had commended in his First Epistle chapter 2 and verse 13 for their strict attention to the Word of God: “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” Someone has said that a person can be as straight as a gun barrel doctrinally and as empty as a gun barrel spiritually. I’ll have to say amen to that. The Pharisees were guilty of that.
John 8:19 says, “Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.” This was a matter of Spiritual discernment (1 Cor. 2:24). The problem with the Pharisees is that they did not have the Spirit. They reasoned as men. You say, “You couldn’t have Spiritual discernment in that day.” When Peter made his great confession: “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” Matt. 16:16-17). Was it possible for Peter to have quenched the Spirit that day? Sure. But I’m glad he didn’t, aren’t you?
The imperative mood in the command “quench not the Spirit” appeals to the volition. You can choose to obey the Spirit or disobey. We want a pat hand to use a gambler’s term.. The Word of God is infallible, inerrant, and verbally inspired. But it is not all we need. Now I debated in my mind whether to make this statement. I want to assure you that I am committed to the inspiration of the Scriptures as the infallible, inerrant and verbally inspired word of God. I am also committed the uses of the King James Bible as the translation that I use. What other men do and use is none of my business. I am not criticizing them and I’m not going to join a group who criticizes them. It is just not my job (nor yours) to keep our brethren straightened out. You say “preacher, is their a point to all of this?” Yes. The Lordship of Christ is exercised through the work of the Holy Spirit within the believer. When you submit to a friend who wants to control your life, you may be quenching the Spirit. When you submit to anyone who exercises control in your life, you may be quenching the Holy Spirit. If I can’t be your friend without you controlling my decisions that I make prayerfully, then you will have to make a choice concerning me. I do not personally withdraw from other Christians unless they have gone into heresy or immorality. Even then I will not forsake them until I have tried to reconcile through obtaining their repentance. Neither will I allow another Christian to tell me who I can have fellowship with. The lines you draw, you draw for yourself, and that’s ok. But you do not draw them for me.
I believe we quench the Spirit when we do not fellowship with a person who believes in the same Saviour that we do and holds to the same plan of salvation that we do. Dr. Bob Jones said, “It is not wrong to walk down the right road with a man as far as you can. It is wrong to walk any distance with any man on the wrong road.” If Jesus loves the man, why shouldn’t I?
