The Oberlin Evangelist

December 4, 1839

Lecture XXI.

GRIEVING THE HOLY SPIRIT--No. 1

by the Rev. Charles G. Finney

Modernized by Cliff Collins

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)

In this discussion, I will pursue the following order.

I. Show that the Holy Spirit can be, and is often grieved by people.

II. How and when He is grieved.

III. The consequences of grieving the Holy Spirit.

I. The Holy Spirit can be, and is often grieved.

1. The Bible, in this passage and in various other passages, represents the Holy Spirit as being grieved.

2. God is a moral being. As a result, He has the emotions and feelings of a moral being. Therefore, whatever naturally grieves a moral being will grieve Him.

3. God’s entire character is unselfish love, and therefore He must grieve over whatever is wrong.

But, since I recently published a sermon on the emotions of God, showing that God exercises the feelings ascribed to him in the Bible, I won’t dwell on that topic at this time. (See “The Affections and Emotions of God” Lecture XVIII October 9, 1839)

II. How and when the Holy Spirit grieves.

Before I begin my discussion, I want to make several remarks.

1. The main purpose of the Holy Spirit, as revealed in the Bible, is to sanctify the souls of people. People are saved by “sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth”. (2 Thess 2:13)

2. He can sanctify people only with the truth. Sanctification is holiness. Holiness is voluntary obedience to God. Voluntary obedience certainly cannot be produced without the influence of the truth. As a result, Christ prays, “Sanctify them through thy truth.” The Holy Spirit has no other means to sanctify the soul but by truth.

3. A moral agent can resist any and every truth. Moral agency implies the power to resist any degree of motive brought to bear on the mind. Wherever force begins, moral agency ends. If motives could force the mind, the forced action would have no moral character. The operations of the physical universe have no moral character. Action must be free to be moral action. There is neither virtue or vice in any necessary action. Therefore, moral agency implies the power to resist any and every truth. Whether anyone ever did or ever will resist all truth, is another question. But it is certain that people are able to resist the most powerful influence that the truth can exert on them; and therefore, they have the ability to defeat the wisest, most lovingly unselfish, and most powerful efforts that the Holy Spirit can make to produce their sanctification.

4. Truth must counteract every moral evil. That is the only way you can counteract evil.

5. Whatever, therefore, hinders the truth from producing its sanctifying effect, grieves the Holy Spirit in proportion to His desire to have the truth produce that effect.

6. In preaching this sermon, and in all my sermons, I plan to be personal in what I say, as long as this is consistent with addressing so many people at once. I am not one of those who feel as if I should be convicted of wrong if I know that I have adapted my sermon to the state of the audience around me. I never feel called on to make an apology for being as personal as I can in “giving to each one a portion in due season”. Therefore, I want my hearers and my readers to consider me as speaking to them individually. And although I cannot call you by name I beg you, by all that you hold dear, to pause at every step of this part of my message and solemnly ask yourselves, “Is it I”? Have I grieved the Holy Spirit this way?

With these remarks, I am prepared to discuss some of the many ways that the Holy Spirit is grieved.

1. The Holy Spirit is grieved by neglecting the truth. People can command their attention and can decide to study any subject they desire. If they will not attend to the truth, they cannot be sanctified or saved. Now how many of you are spending your time thinking about anything and everything else but the truth that is infinitely important to you and wholly indispensable for your salvation? Oh, if your neglected Bible could speak to you now, what an overwhelming testimony it would bear! And when it rises up on judgment day against you, will it convict you of gross and ruinous neglect? I think I can almost hear it crying out to you as you go about neglecting it. At one time, it woos and begs you in the melting accents of eternal love to search it, to be instructed by it, and be saved. At another time it mutters, as you pass through the room where it lies, cursing you for neglecting it, or perhaps it cries out to you from some corner of the house, in the language of warning, and expostulation; and yet you do not pay any attention to it! What are you thinking about? Wouldn’t you be grieved and afflicted, if you wrote very important letters to a friend you love dearly, and that person refused to read and understand them? And do you think that the Holy Spirit has fewer feelings on this subject than you have?

2. Levity of mind, conduct, and conversation grieves the Holy Spirit. Levity of conduct would certainly be very unbecoming in the presence of an earthly judge or sovereign. How much less tolerable is it in the presence of the infinitely holy God? Are you a jester? What are you jesting about, and in whose presence, and under what circumstances? Few things in the universe can appear more shocking to one who has any faith in God, than to see a human being whose eternal destiny hangs on a balance, filled with levity right under the searching gaze of His omniscient judge. This appears especially horrible and abominable when we consider that the Holy Spirit woos, pleads, and follows you towards the depths of hell constantly and earnestly pleading with you that you will turn and live! How can you, how dare you jest? You would be shocked to see an individual, on trial for his life, trifle just as the judge was about to pronounce sentence on him. But such conduct would be decent and proper, when compared with the unutterable abomination of trifling in the presence of the great Jehovah who stands, commands, exhorts, urges, threatens, expostulates, pleads, and, in every way, tries to get your solemn attention to the subject of your soul’s salvation.

3. The reading of light and worthless publications grieves the Holy Spirit. Sir, madam, how dare you spend hours defiling your mind with some worthless novel or foolish story, when so much truth of infinite weight and importance desires your investigation and instant attention? Can Jesus Christ, can eternal life and death, can the glory of God and the salvation of the souls of men, can the commandments of God be solemnly weighed, can the blood, groans, and mercy of Calvary be properly considered, when novels, plays, and frivolous reading have taken control over your mind? Oh! You poor, wicked, helpless, loathsome, miserable sinner, what do you mean? It doesn’t matter whether you are a professing Christian or not. You are a miserable sinner before God and the law of your own conscience, if you waste your time reading such trash. What’s your name? Let me visit your living room, your study, or wherever you keep your books. What is here? Do I find Byron, Scott, and Shakespeare, and a host of triflers, blasphemers of God, and despisers of the Holy Ghost. Are these your companions? Are these the spirits you fellowship with? Is this the way you spend your time? And you claim that you are a Christian? Don’t you know that you are a great hypocrite to neglect your Bible and neglect your communion with the Holy Spirit, and give your mind up to communion with such earthly, sensual, and devilish works as these?

But do you say, “I don’t profess to be a Christian”? Then you will probably never become a Christian with such company. You might as well expect to be weaned from habits of intoxication by sitting in the bar with drunks or while holding communion with a fifth of brandy, as to expect to become religious surrounded with such companions as these.

4. Worthless conversation grieves the Holy Spirit. Christ says, “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’, ‘No’. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one”. (Matt 5:37) “And, for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.” (Matt 12:36) In the same chapter as our passage, Ephesians 4, Paul tells Christians “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.” Would you spend your time in corrupt conversation and evil speaking, if you knew you had only one hour to live? Perhaps you don’t spend time in corrupt conversation. But suppose you have. Are your circumstances those in which it is proper for an immortal being to spend his time in worthless conversation? Don’t you know that God is listening to every word you say? He is pouring the blaze of his eye through your inmost soul, as if He wanted to speak out and rebuke you. Why aren’t you using your conversational powers in instructing those around you in the way of life? Perhaps those of your own household, and your nearest friends need to be reproved and warned, exhorted and instructed concerning their salvation. Professing Christian, how do you spend your time when in the midst of your impenitent friends; and what is your conversation when in the midst of professing Christians? I beg you to answer to your own heart and to God. And if you doubt just how you appear to them, will you show them this sermon, and ask them to read this paragraph and then give their candid opinion of what they think of you and of your conversation? Now if your conversation has been vain, trifling, or useless, and in any way unbecoming in a Christian, will you immediately repent and confess to those before whom you have placed an obstacle. Will you confess to the Holy Ghost whom you have grieved, and beg Him to forgive you, and beg Him to return and take up His dwelling in your heart?

Perhaps you are not a professing Christian. Then I ask you, why aren’t you a professing Christian? You probably never will be if you make a false profession of faith in Christ or if you are in the habit of indulging in worthless conversation. Do you expect the Holy Spirit to strive with you, and wait on you day after day, month after month, and year after year, while you keep up your incessant and senseless babble, regardless of His solemn presence, His awful holiness, and of His great and infinite love and desire to get your serious attention that he may save you?

5. Too much study, I mean too much mental application to those arts and sciences that have no direct reference to the sanctification of your souls grieves the Holy Spirit. This is particularly a sin of students, who are sometimes betrayed by ambition, and into which, at other times, they are pressed by their teachers. Their minds are occupied from day to day in literary and scientific pursuits to the neglect of the solemn calls, warnings, and strivings of the Holy Spirit. This was not true with James B. Taylor. Obeying the calls of the Holy Spirit was his first and most important business. This was his determination, and a practical adherence to this rule was the secret of all his piety.

6. Neglecting to study grieves the Holy Spirit. Where study is your occupation, and you are negligent and attend to less than is consistent with all your other duties, you are just as wrong as if you studied too much.

7. Too much business grieves the Holy Spirit. In my last lecture, I spoke of the need for diligence in business and the sin of idleness. I also spoke of the danger of engaging in too much business. Suppose your father visits you on some most important business, and you allow yourself to be so busy that you can’t give him one moment of your time. This certainly would be inexcusable. But what is this when compared with the wickedness of being too busy to talk with God?

8. Not enough business grieves the Holy Spirit. Idleness is one of the greatest sins, and it is completely inconsistent, as I showed in my last message, with either the spirit or duties of religion.

9. Any kind of intemperance grieves the Holy Spirit. Intemperance is any violation of the laws of life and health, in eating, drinking, dress, exercise, or in anything and everything that injures the body. Everyone must understand, as far as he is able, the structure and laws of his whole being, body and soul, and must rigidly and conscientiously conform to those laws on which his health and highest usefulness depend. And yet, how many of you are neglecting, and perhaps refusing to examine the structure and laws of your own being? How many of you are indulging in your filthy lusts, damaging your health, and clouding and stupefying your minds? How many of you are following in the footsteps of those “whose god is their belly, whose end is destruction, and who glory” is in that which should be “their shame”. (Phil 3:19)

10. Self-justification grieves the Holy Spirit. Many persons appear very anxious to justify their conduct, as if they expect salvation by their own works; and they feel that if they are found guilty in anything, it would insure their damnation. Therefore, they continually resort to apologizing, correcting themselves, and self-justifying pleas. They want to clear themselves from all blame, or at least, they want to bring their blame-worthiness into doubt; so they can say, “if I have done wrong I’m sorry”. Please understand, that a spirit of self-justification simply adds insult to injury. A spirit of self-justification abuses God first, and then tries to justify itself. This behavior makes sanctification impossible. Why don’t you immediately break down, confess, and forsake your sin? Why do you go around trying to fritter away your guilt? Your guilt is unspeakably great. No human words can accurately describe it. No one ever has or can accuse you of half as much as you are guilty of before God. Probably no one ever accused you of any form of sin, which, in heart and in the sight of God, you are not fully guilty. But, no matter how true this may be, it is certain, and you should seriously think about this, that less that a thousandth part of your real guilt, as it appears in the sight of God, has ever been named or told or conceived of by mortal man. Your iniquities are infinite. Your iniquities are broader than the earth, they are as high as heaven, they are as deep as hell, and as black as the midnight of the second death. Why do you justify yourself, or spend your time or breath apologizing for your sins?

11. Condemning others grieves the Holy Spirit. Perhaps some of you are judging and condemning those around you instead of judging and condemning yourselves. “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck out of your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.” (Matt 7:1-5)

12. Speaking evil of your fellow Christian, or of any human being, or even of the devil himself, grieves the Holy Spirit. By speaking evil, I don’t mean speaking the truth when you are clearly called to speak the Holy Spirit. Telling lies is always evil speaking. But, telling the truth concerning the faults of others, when uncalled for, is also evil speaking. God is love. He exercises infinite unselfish love toward all His creatures whether holy or unholy. He is infinitely far from consenting to injustice in any situation. And He is infinitely opposed to all harmful treatment of His friends or His foes. He fully resents, sternly rebukes, and promptly punishes injustice done to the devil just as much as He resents injustice done to any soul on earth or in heaven. He will not, cannot, connive nor consent to any abusive treatment of even the vilest sinners in the universe. Therefore, you greatly grieve Him, when you trifle with the name, the reputation, or the feelings of the worst sinner on earth or even the devil in hell. You grieve God just as much as if you were guilty of the same conduct toward any of His friends.

God is infinitely unlike sinful man in this respect. Wicked men will rejoice when their enemies are abused, and even secretly support it. But this not true with God. There is a tremendous universal error on this subject. There are few, if any, who do not consider speaking evil of a brother wicked. But there are many who ignore God’s command when they speak about their enemies, and are guilty of speaking evil and shocking abuses of the enemies of God; and perhaps also of some professed friends of God. Now let me ask, what are your habits concerning this? Madam, when you have company, do you sit down and serve up a dish of slander? Do you dissect and mangle the character of your neighbor? Sir, are you a criticizer? Have you forgotten that God has said, “speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men”? (Titus 3:2) Ah, but perhaps you are speaking about a political opponent, or of a competitor in business, or some opposing religious views and practices. You think that your opponent is very wicked; that he is an enemy of God, truth, and righteousness. Perhaps you think that you are doing God a service by giving him over to all the curses of reprobation. Now stop! Oh stop! Pause as if you were on the brink of eternity! What are you saying? Who are you talking about? You are speaking against a person “made in the image of God”. Suppose he is as bad or even immeasurably worse than you think he is; can the Holy Spirit be anything else than grieved to hear such language as this? Remember that there is a sense in which all humans are the children of God. Suppose they do sin and rebel; do you think that this provides you with an excuse allowing you to abuse them? I tell you no! Infinitely far from it! Every time you abuse someone, even only verbally, you grieve and provoke the Holy Spirit. And it is surprising that He does not turn His face away from you forever.

13. Evil thinking, as well as evil speaking, grieves the Holy Spirit. God looks at your heart. Your thoughts and the secret movements of your mind lie exposed before Him. And, your words and actions are no more pleasing or offensive in His sight, than as they are the expression of what passes within. Therefore, you may grieve the Holy Spirit as effectually, and no doubt do more frequently, by your thoughts than by your words. All your silent and most secret musings are clearly observed, noted, and pondered by the Holy Spirit. He weighs every thought of your heart in His balance. If you indulge in evil, and in unkind and unchristian thoughts about any being in the universe, God knows it and is truly grieved and offended with you, although you may never have even said one word. It is as if your thoughts are penciled by sunbeams throughout every part of the universe. Are you in the habit of searching into your secret thoughts and purposes, and the workings of your mind? You may have grieved the Holy Spirit a lot without knowing it. You can see that if you expressed all the thoughts you entertain, both God and man would be grieved and offended. Now remember that these thoughts sound loud and clear in God’s ear. To God’s eye, your thoughts have been as open, as black, and as grievous as if they were written in dark letters in the sky. Now, please commune with your own heart. Be still, and ask yourself the solemn question: “what have I thought as well as what have I said”?

14. A desire to retaliate grieves the Holy Spirit. This frame of mind is as far as possible from the mind of Christ, and is the direct opposite of a state of sanctification. The spirit of Christ desires to forgive enemies, and those who have injured you, and to labor, and suffer great self-denial for their good. But the spirit of retaliation is earthly, sensual, and devilish.

15. Prejudice grieves the Holy Spirit. There are few things more astonishing than the way professing Christians regard and talk about prejudice. The word prejudice means to prejudge a case, to make up your mind without hearing both sides of a question. Now, as shameful as this is, few things are more disgustingly common than prejudice among professing Christians. Once they make up their minds that this thing or that thing is right or wrong, they set their faces, and use their influence to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to everything that does not completely agree with what they have determined to be right or wrong. Hardly anything is more common than to find professing Christians of all denominations, committing themselves to one side or the other on the most important issues concerning people, rules, regulations, standards, and doctrines. Through prejudice, it becomes useless to try to approach their mind with the truth. And so, they go blindly and often madly forward fighting against God and the dearest interests of His kingdom.

Since I became a professing Christian, I have hardly seen anything that has been more shocking and has made me groan in my inmost soul more than the demonstration of this wicked spirit. And what is even worse, this spirit is treated as a calamity rather than a crime. They seem to excuse the most unreasonable conduct and the most wicked and persecuting behavior by simply saying, “Oh that person is just prejudiced”. If, perhaps, a person’s eyes are opened to any subject where he has been wrong, he speaks about his former vices and conduct as excusable because he was prejudiced. The truth is that prejudice is one of the most detestable sins that disgraces the Church and grieves the Holy Spirit of God. Now, are any of you under its influence? Of course, you will say, no, for the very fact that you are implies that you are ignorant of it. But let me ask you, concerning every subject that currently agitates the Church and the world, especially those important topics on which the nation and the world today are so much divided, like abolition, moral reform, temperance, holiness, religious revivals, methods, and doctrines. Are you sure that you have attended to both sides of the question before you judge? Have you made a sufficient effort to inform yourself concerning men and their methods, and the actual or probable results, so you can make an enlightened and unbiased judgment in the situation? And if not, what do you mean? Why are your feelings enlisted on one side? Why do you use your influence the way you do? How do you know that a view of the whole subject won’t completely change your views and practice, and cause you to go sorrowing down to your grave because you fought against God? Oh! The Holy Spirit grieves at the vast amount of prejudice that causes the dissention, misunderstanding, and misrule of both the Church and the world!

16. Pride grieves the Holy Spirit. Pride is undue self-esteem, and vanity is the manifestation of pride. Nothing is more preposterous and marvelous than human pride; and very few things are further from the spirit of Christ. Pride manifests itself in ten thousand ways; but wherever it exists, it is even an effective barrier against the manifestation or existence of the spirit of Christ.

17. Ill will grieves the Holy Spirit. This is the direct opposite of unselfish love or the spirit and behavior required by both the law and the Gospel. Pure unselfish love is good willing, or benevolence. Malevolence is ill willing. To will evil to any being under the sun is the opposite of all that is lovely. Therefore, how can a God of infinite unselfish love not be grieved with the ill will of any of His great family? How would a parent feel to see one of his children manifest ill will to his siblings? The parent’s grief and indignation would burn! And how the infinite heart of God must glow with grief and indignation when he finds you with a spirit of retaliation or revenge rankling in your heart!

18. Everything you neglect to do that you know you are supposed to do grieves the Holy Spirit. In reading President Edwards’ account of his wife’s experience, I was struck with the remark, that when she was in the highest exercise of grace, she was deeply impressed with the fact that so much of religion consisted in the discharge of relative and social duties. Many people seem to overlook this part of religion and become content with what they call devotion to God. What they mean by devotion is praying, reading the Bible, attending church on Sunday, giving their money to the church or other needy causes, and things like that; while, in their state of mind, they demonstrate anything but the spirit of Christ. Now Christianity, wherever it truly exists, will, from its very nature, develop its image in the eyes of men mainly from its influence in accomplishing all one’s social and relative duties; and if it is not seen there, it does not exist. Such a vast amount of negligence exists among professing Christians that it is almost certain that, if they were any worse, multitudes of them would have no religion at all.

Some neglect to pay their debts. Several months ago, I published a sermon called “Being in Debt”. Since then, I have seen several efforts in some of the religious periodicals attempting to put down or set aside the principles of that sermon, and to remove the pressure from the conscience of the Church and the world concerning their negligence to pay their debts. Some have misconceived and of course misrepresented the doctrines in that sermon. Others, by criticizing the passage I used, have tried to show that it was not a command to abstain from being in debt. This is not the time or place to reply to those remarks. But I would like to say here that the doctrine of that sermon, which says that it is a sin to be in debt, is an eternal and unalterable truth, whether that particular passage prohibits it or not. To deny this is just as absurd as to say that you can owe someone and have no obligation to pay him, and the contradiction is the same as saying that you may neglect or refuse to fulfill your obligation without sin. Now what is sin but the violation of an obligation; and what is an obligation but to owe somebody? What, then, do all these criticisms that I’ve just mentioned allude to? Do such editors and newspaper writers expect to set aside the principles of eternal justice, and to persuade mankind that it is not sinful to be in debt or to allow their obligations to go unfulfilled simply because they criticize a passage? The doctrine of that sermon is true, and that truth is obvious, whether it is taught using that passage or any other passage in the Bible. If there were no Bible, this truth must still stand forever; and to deny it is obviously absurd.

Let me repeat that many people neglect to do things when and as they should be done. Now it is certainly a part of religion to do everything imposed on us at the right time and in the right way, and any and every time you neglect to do this, you sin. If you have an appointment to meet a neighbor at a certain time to conduct business, be on time, otherwise you not only waste your neighbor’s time, but you waste the time of everyone else involved with your appointment. If there is an established time for a Church or any other religious meeting, for worship or to conduct business, be there on time, lest you interrupt or hinder the business or devotion of others. If you have agreed to do anything for your neighbor or for any man or woman on earth, see that you do it just when and as it should be done. In short, no one can keep a conscience void of offense; no one can fulfill the law of love; no one can abstain from grieving the Holy Spirit except by a most faithful and constant discharge of every duty to God or man.

19. Every form of selfishness grieves the Holy Spirit. I have often taught in my sermons that selfishness and sin are synonymous. By selfishness, I have often said that I don’t mean the simple desire for your own happiness, for this is natural. That is self-love, and not selfishness. But, when this desire becomes more important than anything else, and leads you to sacrifice greater interests for the sake of promoting your own self-interest, this is selfishness. No matter what form selfishness is cherished or exhibited, it is a complete abomination to God. Selfishness is strongly displeasing and detestable to God, when He sees it exercised among his children in their relationships with each other! If you are a parent, you know how you are grieved and offended if you see one of your little ones determined to gratify himself at the expense of the good or happiness of the rest of your children. Now “if you being evil” are so stung and grieved with such a spirit as this, how much more shall your Heavenly Father be grieved at such an exhibition of selfishness among his children? (Matt 7:11)

But there are so many ways to grieve the Holy Spirit, that I must resume the subject next time, and I will also show the consequences of grieving the Holy Spirit in my next message.