Grieving the Holy Spirit

Spurgeon builds his case for not grieving the Holy Spirit on two foundations: first, the Spirit's love — surveyed through his early striving with us before conversion, his patient perseverance when we resisted him, his work in quickening and teaching us, his help when we cannot pray, his indwelling despite our constant sin — arguing that this record of tender, costly, persistent love makes grieving him a particularly shameful ingratitude; and second, the Spirit's sealing, by which he attests the reality of our faith, marks us as God's own property, and preserves us unto the day of final redemption. He then identifies the ways believers grieve the Spirit — impure thoughts and outward sins, neglect of prayer and Scripture, ingratitude, unbelief — and traces the effects of his withdrawal: the Word becomes dark, comfort vanishes, power for service dries up, and all the graces wilt like flowers without water, leaving the believer in a misery no worldly thing can fill. He closes with both a personal and corporate application: urging any backslider to search out and slay the specific sin that drove the Spirit away and cry for his return, while lamenting that many churches have similarly grieved him into near-absence, and calling God's people to humble themselves, purge whatever is contrary to his Word, and plead for a revival that will open heaven's windows again.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on October 9th, 1859.