1372. Resist Not the Spirit

Resist Not the Spirit

"Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost" (Act_7:51).

The Lord Jesus Christ stands outside the life of each individual man, seeking to enter in.

He is willing to save; He is unwilling that any should perish.

To His own people, Israel, Christ said: "How often would I * * and ye would not" (Mat_23:37).

Christ seemed to be saying, "I would, ye would not, I could not."

We are now about to consider the fact that man may refuse the work of the Holy Ghost.

The Spirit of God convicts him of his sin, but he will not hear.

Three things may be said.

1. The sinner may resist Christ. The scene in Acts is a solemn one. Stephen was a man full of faith and power. He preached a plain, positive, pungent message, to Israel, concerning her treatment of the Prophets, and of the Saviour.

Those who heard Stephen were pricked in their hearts. They knew that he spoke of them; they knew that they were a stiffnecked and an uncircumcised people, both in their heart and in their ears.

Stephen told them plainly: "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye" (Act_7:51).

Then the men, cut to their heart, gnashed on him with their teeth; stopping their ears and crying with a loud voice, they ran upon him with one accord, "and cast him out of the city, and stoned him" (Act_7:58).

This is the attitude of many a lost man toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

They will not come unto Him that they might have life; they stubbornly and steadfastly set their hearts against Him; and they will not hear.

2. The sinner may do despite unto the Holy Spirit. "He that despised Moses' Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace" (Heb_10:28-29).

The passage above seems to speak of "doing despite unto the Spirit of grace," as a climax of sin.

Does "doing despite" mean more than "hardening the heart, and stiffening the neck?"

Does "doing despite" mean more than "neglecting so great salvation," and "refusing Him Who spake?" (see Heb_2:3).

Is there not carried in the Word "despite" almost the depth of that sin against the Spirit, elsewhere called "blasphemy"?

One thing we know–it is a sin of terrible results. Let no one do despite unto the Spirit of Grace.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR