TOPIC:‌“There's a Christian Way to Treat the Holy Spirit”

                  by Rev. Dr Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌Acts 7:49-51

 

‌‌“Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the

Holy Spirit; as your fathers did so do you” (Acts 7:51).

‌‌

 

It was only a few years ago that I read these shocking headlines in a leading Boston newspaper: “Sniper's Bullet Cuts Down President.” We all remember the horrible incident. The thirty-fifth President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was brutally murdered on a street in Dallas, Texas. A rifle bullet, fired into the back of his head, turned an hour of triumph into an hour of tragedy. Since it was committed against the one who holds the highest office in this country, that of President, is what made the crime all the more serious and severe.

 

But have we ever realized how terrifying, yes, how frightful it is to commit a sin against the Holy Spirit of God who is above all earthly leaders? Do we honestly know how serious a think it is to habitually sin against this Divine Person? As J. Oswald Sanders puts it: “The magnitude of an offense is determined, not alone by the nature of the offense itself, but by the dignity of the one against whom it is committed…So it is with the Holy Spirit. The fact that He is a Divine Person, equal in power and majesty with Father and Son, invests every offense committed against Him with tremendous seriousness.”

 

To be sure, the Spirit of God, this Third Person of the Holy Trinity, is deeply sensitive to sin of any kind. It goes right against His divine and holy nature. Any appearance of evil hurts Him. It causes Him excruciating pain. If only we would realize the grief, sorrow, and suffering the Holy Spirit feels when we willfully sin against Him. The Bible has some plain statements concerning the different sins which men may commit against the Holy Spirit. I shall mention three.

 

I.

 

Consider, to begin with, the PENALTY for RESISTING the Holy Spirit in the realm of SALVATION. We read of this particular sin in Stephen's indictment before the Sanhedrin when he said: “You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51). Phillips translates it this way: “You obstinate people, heathen in your thinking, heathen in the way you are listening to me now. It is always the same - you never fail to resist the Holy Spirit.”

 

Now here were people, or better still, the nation of Israel, who had constantly and continuously refused God's law, rejected God's Son, and resisted . . .