The Joy Of Being Honest

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? This is your good friend Bob Cook and I’m back again with you for another 14 minutes or so. I’m sharing from the Word of God. How I love this. I’m so grateful that God has allowed me through these many years to share from His Word day by day with you, my precious friend. As I’ve said to you from time to time, you know, when we get together by way of radio, we look at the Word of God together, we bow in prayer together and all of a sudden the miles drop away and we’re together with Jesus. That’s what John meant when he said, “Our fellowship is with the Father and with His son Jesus Christ.” It’s like that school boy said to my cousin, Irvine Haig, so long ago, he said, “You and me and Jesus.” [chuckle] That’s how it is, together in the presence of our Lord and His Word through this modern miracle of radio. I’m grateful for it, aren’t you?

We’re in 1 Thessalonians 5, where we talk about everything, in everything give thanks. You’ll never know the sweetness of thanking God under pressure unless you do it. I would like, before we leave this verse, I would just like to urge you, beloved, to pray your way through the day on a basis of thanksgiving. Whatever happens, thank your Lord. Thank Him that He’s in control. Thank Him that He knows what He’s doing. Thank Him that He has a plan for your life. Thank Him that He has the victory already. As Ernst Lang said to me so long ago in Japan, “Do not anything worry, we already have the victory.” [chuckle] He had prayed through and was thanking the Lord at that point.

Oh, thank God today for the things that might otherwise jar you or hurt you or embitter you, even. Dare to look heavenward and say, “Father, thank you.” You’ll be surprised what it’ll do for you. It’ll sweeten your own soul. It’ll keep you from getting resentful and it will make you productive and it will make you an exhibit. It’ll make you a walking demonstration of what God can do in people’s lives. In everything, give thanks. Why? God says so. When I was a little boy, I think I used to drive my father and oftentimes my sister wild with my why questions. Do this, do that. Why? Any kind of a statement was always challenged with a why, and one day my father got tired of the why questions, and I asked him. He had told me to do something, whatever it was and I said, “Why?” He said, “Because I said so, boy.” [chuckle] That was the end of that. Well, oftentimes that really is the response that we would get from our Heavenly Father. Why should I give thanks? In this situation, this illness, this accident, this unemployment, this broken heart, this bout with illness. Why?

Well, read the verse. “For this is the will of God.” Because He said so, that’s why. And in the process, you’re gonna find out that something beautiful happens in your own life. God becomes infinitely more precious and real. The Holy Spirit of God has a chance to make you a blessing to other people, with whom you could not possible empathize unless you had gone through something like that yourself. You try it on for size today. In everything, give thanks. Not necessarily for the thing that hurts you, but thanks to the person who knows what He’s doing and is going to see you through.

Now, verse 19 says, “Quench not the spirit.” Unsaved people have the danger of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus warned against that, and also the unsaved heart resists the Holy Spirit. He said, “Ye,” Stephen said, “You always resist the Spirit of God.” Acts chapter 7:51, I looked it up, “Ye stiff necked in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did so do ye.” The tendency of the unsaved heart to want one’s own way that you resist the Spirit of God. Now, you and I are not so much in danger either of blaspheming or of resisting the Spirit, but we are in danger of doing what Paul called here, “Quenching the Holy Spirit.” What do you quench? Well, you quench fire and put it out and you quench thirst and remove it. Now, this again is in the linear sense and so you have to read it this way. Stop perpetually quenching the Spirit. Don’t let it be a lifestyle for you. It means to suppress or to stifle. Don’t stifle the voice of the Spirit. Don’t suppress the urgings of the Spirit of God.

What do you make of that for yourself? Well, I think you have to apply it in your own life. The Spirit of God deals with each of us in a different way, but we know when He’s speaking to us, don’t we? The Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the sons of God. And if sons and heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, we know that the Holy Spirit tells us we’re saved, don’t we? And we know that the Holy Spirit witnesses with us concerning the genuineness of those who are supposed to be administering the truth of God. “Believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God. Ye have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things and need not that any man teach you,” said John. The Holy Spirit of God will tell you whether something else is genuine or not. The Holy Spirit of God will guide you.

Paul was on his journey and he said, “We came to a certain place and were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to go in there.” And then we tried another place. He said, “The spirit suffered us not.” Then they came down to Troas and Paul saw the vision of the Macedonian man saying, “Come over into Macedonia and help us.” And he said, “When he’d seen the vision immediately, we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

Holy Spirit will guide you. Romans 8:14, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” He’ll lead you. He’ll speak to your heart through the Word and in the unspoken language of the soul. He will guide you step by step. He will tell you what is real and what isn’t real. Yes, He does all of that. He’ll comfort you. Jesus said, “He called Him the comforter.” And He said, “He’ll guide you at all truth and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” He said, “He’ll speak through you. It’s not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” The Holy Spirit of God is the enabler of Christian service. You look in the Book of Acts and you’ll find, “Peter full of the Holy Ghost said… “, “Paul, full of the Holy Ghost said… ” The Holy Spirit of God is the enabler of Christian service. So he says, “Don’t quench the Spirit.”

Now, our tendency is either to postpone obedience or to downright disobey because we want our own way. And so, that quenches the Spirit of God. Another thing that enters in is the impact of pagan culture coming in to the Holy of Holies of your own soul. Listen to rock music, look at porno magazines, engage in dirty talk, any of these things or all of the above. What’s it gonna do? It grieves the Spirit of God. Paul says, “Grieve not the Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

All of these different things he mentions in Ephesians 4 have a tendency to grieve the Spirit of God: Lying and anger, and stealing, and dishonesty, and all of that. He said, “Don’t do that.” And then he says, “Grieve not the Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed.” Corrupt communication. “Let him that stole steal no more. Don’t be angry and let the sun go down upon your wrath. Don’t do it. Don’t lie or putting away lying. Speak every man truth with his neighbor.” He said, “Don’t grieve the Spirit of God.” “Bitterness and wrath and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking. Put it away from you with all malice. Be kind, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you and live in an atmosphere of love as God loved us.”

See, quenching the Spirit simply means, number one, don’t oppose Him. Don’t put off obedience and don’t live in a way that grieves Him. Grieves Him and shuts down the flow of power. Here’s a nuclear plant and it’s in operation. And suddenly, there is an alarm that’s sounded. Something is wrong. There is a faulty circuit or a faulty valve, or a leaking pipe, or something, and there’s an immediate automatic shutdown of the plant. Now, let me ask you. Is the plant still there? Yes. Is the atomic reactor there? Yes. Are the fuel rods in the atomic reactor, are they still putting out energy? Yes. Is everything the same as it was before? Yes. What’s happened? It’s shut down. No power.

Now, your life is a lot like that and so is mine. The Holy Spirit of God is the fire of God. He’s the eternal nuclear reactor in your soul. He’s the power plant that’s putting out the power. “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me,” Jesus said. The Holy Spirit of God is the power plant in your soul. Now what happens? You let a little disobedience, a little selfishness, a little laziness, a little procrastination, putting off doing what God asks you to do. You let some of these things in, and what happens? The plant shuts down. And you say, “I wonder what happened.” Well, you look to where the power failed and you’ll know the answer. Quench not the Spirit. He’s there. He doesn’t move out of your heart just because you failed Him in something, because you opposed Him, because you grieved Him. No, he doesn’t move out because you’re God’s child. He’s there. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you,” he said. Oh, yeah. He doesn’t move out. But what happens is, the power plant shuts down. The fire is there. The person, the Holy Spirit is a wonderful person. He’s there, but you quenched Him.

Now, how do you get around this? You tell God the truth. If we confess our sins… The word, confess, the Greek word “homologeo,” which means to say the same thing. You’ve just agree with God about it, out loud, tell Him the truth. There is a therapeutic value in telling God the truth about yourself. Do it and ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you and to cleanse you with His precious blood and get you back on track again, and He’ll turn the power on once more. Oh, yes, He will. Hallelujah.

Dear Father today, oh, may we be constantly right with Thee and may we be obeying the leading of Thy Holy Spirit, I pray in Jesus’s name. Amen. ‘Til I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing.