Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the importance of maintaining a pure and devoted relationship with Christ, warning against the dangers of false teachings that can lead believers astray. He draws from Paul's concerns in 2 Corinthians 11, highlighting how the Corinthian church was seduced by a different gospel and spirit, which ultimately jeopardized their devotion to Jesus. Beach Jr. urges Christians to be vigilant in guarding their hearts and minds against these influences, and to cultivate a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit, who is essential for understanding and living out the truth of the Gospel. He outlines four key actions to avoid in relation to the Holy Spirit: grieving, quenching, resisting, and provoking Him, encouraging believers to foster a cooperative relationship with the Spirit for spiritual growth.

If you would please, to turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And I would like to just, I'm sorry, I believe it's 2 Corinthians chapter number 11. Yes, 2 Corinthians 11.4, 2 Corinthians 11.4. We'll begin reading with verse number 1. I'd like to just lay a foundation tonight that you can use and build upon this foundation in your personal study. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 beginning with verse number 1. First of all, just a little introduction. Paul is, at this time, writing this epistle with a little concern in his heart. Actually, much concern. The reason why is because since his last visit to the church that was in Corinth, there were certain men who had come and they were seducing spiritually and perverting spiritually the Corinthian believers. And they were preaching another gospel. In other words, they were preaching a message that was not truly coming from the Lord Himself. It wasn't truly being inspired by God. And Paul was concerned because these Corinthian believers were very special to Paul's heart. He considered them to be his spiritual children. And you know how the way you are with children. If someone comes to take your children and turn them from you and speak lies against you and would want to make your name look like mud in their eyes, that would concern you, wouldn't it? Sure it would. Well, this is how Paul felt about these Corinthian believers. He was inflamed because of these false apostles that had mingled in among the church after Paul left and started raping them spiritually, destroying their mind. And this is where Paul is writing from in verse number 1 of chapter 11, 2 Corinthians. I wish that you would bear with me a little foolishness, but indeed you are bearing with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. Now here we find in the next verse Paul's concern, great concern. But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your mind should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. You see, I think this is probably a good scripture also, Barb, in answer to your question. Paul recognized that if the mind was led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, it would be the beginning of complacency and apathy. You see, God's chief concern for you tonight as a Christian believer, God's chief concern for you as a believer, is that you would understand and maintain simplicity and purity in your devotion to Christ. That you would be devoted to Him. That you would love Him with all of your heart. That you would guard your heart, even as a bride would guard her heart for her husband to be. See, this is what the Lord is concerned about, our hearts and our minds. He's concerned that our purity and our devotion would be wholly His. You see. But this is the very thing that Satan seeks to take away from us, as Paul tells us here. Now verse number four is a very, very interesting verse, and this is what we want to use as a foundation, or rather I should say as a prerequisite to our message tonight, to our teaching tonight. Check out what Paul says. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, I'd like to be able to write this down, another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear with this beautifully. What is the Apostle Paul saying here? First of all, we need to understand that Paul is saying that it is very possible for you and I to hear another Jesus preached other than the Jesus that we have received in believing the Word of God. Secondly, it is possible that not only can we receive another Jesus, but we can receive a different spirit which we had not previously received in receiving the Holy Spirit. So there's a different Jesus, there is a different spirit, and Paul even goes as far as to say, or a different gospel which you have not accepted. And to really top things off, Paul says, you bear this beautifully. In other words, Paul was reprimanding the Corinthian believers because they were so naive as to receive a different Jesus as a result of believing a message that was being preached that really wasn't a message revolving around the true Jesus. And then as a result, they were receiving a different spirit. And then that results in believing a different gospel. Now let me make it easier for you to understand. There is a modern gospel going around and it's not the gospel of the Bible. Those who believe it receive of a spirit, but it is not the Holy Spirit. And those who believe this gospel and receive this spirit end up praying to a Jesus that isn't really the Jesus that the Bible speaks of. This gospel is the good news, it is a message of good news that implies that becoming a Christian enables you to get whatever you want, whenever you want it. The spirit that is received is not the Holy Spirit, but it's a deceiving spirit. Because this deceiving spirit will glorify not Christ, but will glorify self, self-gratification, and self-desire. And then it ends up resulting in believing a Jesus that is really not the Jesus that the Bible speaks of. So you see, the Corinthian believers were under the influence of a different gospel, a different spirit, and a different Jesus. And Paul was concerned for them because he did not want their devotion and their purity to be usurped from Christ. So my question tonight is this. If there is another gospel floating around, another spirit floating around, and another Jesus floating around, should we not, as Christian believers, be eager and zealous to guard our hearts and our minds so that the Jesus we believe in is always in accord to the Word, the spirit that we receive is always in accord to the Word, and the gospel that we believe and confess and profess is always in accord to the Word? Amen. I'd like to, for a brief time tonight, go into the Holy Spirit, which is the spirit that we have received. And I just want to show you several Scriptures in order that we would become more eager to get to know the Holy Spirit. Did you know the Holy Spirit is a person? It's not an energy force. The Holy Spirit is a person. The very person of God Himself. The Holy Spirit has a very, very distinct purpose in living in the believer's life. And God wants us to become acquainted with the Holy Spirit because it is by the Holy Spirit that we will be able to do the things that the Lord wants us to do. It is by the Holy Spirit. Now, first of all, I'd like to turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. We're going to look at some of the things that we shouldn't do. Or rather, that is possible to do. Ephesians chapter 4. Verse number 30. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. First of all, it is possible to grieve the Holy Spirit. The purpose of this evening, after laying the foundation that there is the possibility of receiving another Spirit, another Gospel, and another Jesus, the purpose of this evening is to become acquainted with the true Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Learn a little bit about the Holy Spirit tonight in the Scriptures. Learn a little bit about how important the Holy Spirit is in every aspect of our Christian life. And then, as a result, I'm hoping God will birth a desire afresh within us to begin to desire to get to know the Holy Spirit. Because you can walk in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will always reveal to you the things of Christ. The Holy Spirit will always glorify Christ. The Holy Spirit will always minister to you the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is a great friend. He's a great friend. He's the Spirit of truth. He'll lead your soul into a revelation of Christ. He'll gently convict you of sin. He'll gently say, no, don't do that. He'll give you compassion to love the unlovable. He'll give you patience to tolerate the most impatient, intolerable person in the world. The Holy Spirit is the source of our power and our strength and our joy tonight. The Bible says in Romans chapter 5 that the Holy Spirit Himself is the one who profusely pours into our hearts the love of God. The Holy Spirit is so precious, but He's a person. He has a character. We need to understand how we can hinder the Holy Spirit. Then we'll understand tonight what the ministry of the Holy Spirit is in relation to our daily Christian life. And then I hope, like I said, God births a desire within you to where you'll begin to get down and pray and say, Lord, teach me to know the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, I want to love you. I want to work with you, Holy Spirit. I want to know you and your voice. I want you because you alone know Jesus. You see, you don't know Jesus. The Holy Spirit does. You have something in you. I say something. You have a person in you that is eternally acquainted with the Son of God. Isn't that exciting? You have a person abiding in you. One of the persons of the Godhead, fully God. The Holy Spirit is fully God. And He knows all about Jesus. The Holy Spirit was with Christ from the beginning of eternity and eternity doesn't have a beginning. And why does He come to you? Why is He living in you? So He can reveal to you the things of Christ. See, you have to go through the Holy Spirit to know Christ. Don't you want to get to know this precious Holy Spirit that's in you? You can walk with Him and dine with Him and fellowship with Him and He'll just flood your soul with the glories of what? Of Christ. That's His job. See, the Holy Spirit doesn't lift people up. The Holy Spirit doesn't lift personalities up. The Holy Spirit doesn't lift ministries up. The Holy Spirit lifts Jesus up. And Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto myself. There's so much going on in the church today, quote, unquote, the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, pardon my way of saying it, wouldn't be caught dead involved in most of what's going on in religious circles today. And you know why it can go on in the religious circles today? Because the people don't know the Holy Spirit so they think it is the Holy Spirit. But when you really get acquainted with the Holy Spirit, you know the Holy Spirit would not conduct Himself nor would He anoint someone to conduct Himself the way people are conducting Themself today in the house of God. Holy Spirit has one chief major mission and that is to reveal the glories of Christ to souls and hearts that are humble in God's presence. That's it. That's it. Not to propagate and lift up men in ministries and steal money from the flock. Holy Spirit doesn't lead ministers to rob people of money to support their visions and dreams. I don't want to get into all of it because I don't normally do that because God reveals the truth to those that seek and that's sufficient for me. But because the Holy Spirit is so important, we need to understand certain things we shouldn't do. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Okay, to grieve the Holy Spirit of God is to cause grief to be in the heart of the Holy Spirit as a result of something we say or do. Now, let's understand. How would someone grieve you? By saying something that's unkind or by doing something that's really not good. In the like manner we grieve the Holy Spirit. Now, if you read verse number 29, you'll see that basically verse 29 tells us how to stay free from grieving the Holy Spirit. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who are here. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. So see, grieving the Holy Spirit of God in context is in relation to our speech and Paul is telling us that if you do not allow unwholesome speech to come out of your mouth, you won't grieve God. Now, here's a good question. What is unwholesome speech? I'll give you a definition, a biblical definition and then you take it to your own heart and you pray God will establish this in your life. To grieve the Holy Spirit by speaking unwholesome words is to say something that does not edify or build someone up. If you can't say something that edifies and builds someone up, that ministers grace to the hearers, don't say it at all. Don't say it at all. Now, that's a very difficult task to accomplish. But you'll find that only God can work that in you. See, the Bible says speak evil of no man. But Christians say, well, I can speak evil of those who I think aren't doing things right. And we start speaking evil of people. We judge people's motives, we judge people's actions, we judge people's conduct. And we shouldn't. We shouldn't. God is their judge. That doesn't mean we have to agree with what they're doing. And that doesn't mean we can't take a stand and say, well, according to the Bible, these things are wrong, so I'm opposed to them. That's not speaking evil of someone. But when you gossip and slander and you assassinate someone's character in the ears of someone else. Oh, you know Brother Salso? Oh yeah, he's a real jerk. You want me to tell you what that... You're assassinating that person. You're basically taking a knife and killing him. Hey, you shouldn't do that. I mean, who are you? You know, if it wasn't for God's grace, you would be a filthy sinner too. So see, we should learn, we should ask God to teach us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. James had a profound truth when he said that everything has been tamed. Horses, cattle, even whales in the sea have been tamed. I've seen programs on television where a man can ride on the back of a whale that, my God, would crush that man. But yet, they kiss. They kiss, they touch lips. They've trained that beast. But yet, no man can tame the tongue. For it is an unruly member. And the Bible says that it is set on fire by hell itself. Oh, a slanderous tongue, an evil tongue can do a lot of damage. May God deliver us from a tongue that defiles people. And if we don't have something good to say about someone, then let's learn not to say anything at all. And if we have to say something, we simply say, well, I'm nobody's judge. I believe the Word of God and I'll pray for the person. Period. You want to be blessed? You want to have joy? You want the blessing of God to be upon your life? Learn to hold your tongue. Learn not to give an ear to someone when they gossip. Hey, listen. Nobody comes to me and gossips. Nobody. And if they don't know me, they get to know me and they learn. I won't tolerate it. Oh, well, Brother Beats, do you think you're being a little, you know, not compassionate? Absolutely not. I will not tolerate gossip or slander. I'll simply tell someone, listen, I'm sorry, but I don't think we should be saying this. It's not profitable. See? Don't ever be ashamed to take a stand. I'd rather lose, quote, unquote, a so-called friendship than to be involved with someone who has nothing better to do than gossip and slander. I'll tell you something. If you hang around a gossiper, you're going to turn into a gossiper. If you hang around someone who is always slandering, you're going to end up finding yourself slandering. If you hang around someone who's got a terrible temper, you're going to find out. The Bible says this in Proverbs. You're going to end up with a bad temper. It doesn't mean you reject the person. It doesn't mean that you think that less of the person. But I tell you right now, I wouldn't spend a lot of time with someone who has a bad attitude because I'll end up with that same bad attitude. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. If you want to be in touch with Jesus, you can't grieve the only source that you have to know Him. That's the Holy Spirit. See? Number two. 1 Thessalonians 5.19 1 Thessalonians 5.19 This will challenge you tonight, friends. It'll challenge you. And don't, I pray now, don't allow guilt and condemnation because this is not the intent of God's heart tonight to put a guilt trip on you. God's intent is to show you how lovingly concerned He is that we would know the Holy Spirit so that we can have fellowship with Him. Let me tell you, when you get to know the Holy Spirit, you can help others to know Him too. You can gently come to them and instruct them in a spirit of love. You can help them and you know the greatest testimony that you'll have when you get to know the Holy Spirit is your life. They'll see your life. It's more than what you say. It's what you are as a person. And as you become acquainted with the Holy Spirit and He begins to change your ways, He makes you more patient. He makes you more tolerable. He teaches you not to say things about Joe when Joe isn't there. See, He teaches you to do that. People watch and they listen and they take note and they go home and they say, boy, now I've noticed Karen, she never talks about anybody. Or I've noticed Jane that when Tom came up in the conversation she just sort of got real cold and didn't say a word. That's probably what I should have done. See, we mentioned this morning about Daniel. How because of Daniel's commitment to God he influenced Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And I believe because of Daniel's strong commitment to God it enabled Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to have enough faith to risk being thrown into the fiery furnace. Do you want to be a Daniel? Do you want your faith and your commitment to God to influence others so that they too become strong in Christ? Hey, that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 19 Do not quench the Spirit So we find not only can we grieve the Spirit but we can quench the Spirit. Now you might say well what does it mean to quench the Spirit and what's the difference between quenching the Spirit and grieving the Spirit? Well, very easy. Like I said to grieve the Spirit has to do with our language and our speech. To quench the Spirit means to put the fire of the Spirit out. For example how do you quench thirst? You drink water. How do you quench a fire? You throw water on it. How do you quench the Spirit? Do whatever is necessary to prevent the Spirit from having His way in your life and you're quenching Him. To quench the Spirit is to do something to put out the Spirit's prompting or the Spirit's inspiration. That's how we quench the Holy Spirit. And because the Holy Spirit is the source of life it is very important that we learn not to quench the Holy Spirit because if we quench life what do we end up with? That's it, Neil. I mean if we quench the prompting of the Holy Spirit we end up with whose promptings? Our own. And I don't know about you but I've been led long enough to know that my promptings get me in trouble. My leading leads me into a ditch. You know? And I'm still learning that I don't know better than God. Sometimes I think I do. I don't know if you have that but you guys wouldn't have that problem. I understand that. You just pray for me, alright? Quench not the Holy Spirit of God. Are you seeing that we are supposed to basically what we're seeing here is God is wanting us to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. It's a cooperation. It's like a fellowship. It's like we're workers together. The Holy Spirit and I I need to work with the Holy Spirit. How much easier it would be, would it not? If we work with the one God has sent us rather than fight against Him? Well, to grieve the Holy Spirit is fighting against Him. To quench the Spirit is to fight against Him. Okay. Okay. 1 Corinthians... No, Acts chapter 7 verse 51. Acts chapter 7 verse 51. You're going to find this one also to be something that we need to learn not to do and we actually need the help of the Lord in accomplishing this. Acts chapter 7 verse number 51. You men who are stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. Resist not the Holy Spirit. To resist the Holy Spirit is similar to quenching the Holy Spirit. The difference is this. To quench the Holy Spirit is to put out what God is trying to do. To resist the Holy Spirit is more so rather than to put it out. It's to adamantly oppose the Holy Spirit. I think that we quench the Spirit sometimes but we're not really adamantly opposing the Holy Spirit. There's a difference. Can you relate? There's a difference. There's a difference. Like for example, maybe God is moving upon someone to buy groceries for somebody and they're not resisting and adamantly opposing the truth but rather they're just quenching it like, oh no, that can't be God. No, they don't need groceries. See, you're resisting God but you're not adamantly opposing. That's to quench the Spirit. But this reference here, this is in reference to downright knowing and understanding what God wants and blatantly resisting God and saying no to God. That's a stubborn, rebellious heart and that's something that we shouldn't do. Resist not the Holy Spirit of God. And also, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 22. So we have grieve not, quench not, what's the third one? Resist not and now we have provoke not. 1 Corinthians 10, verse number 22, did I say? Yes. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we? To provoke the Holy Spirit, listen carefully, it's to go after another lover. In context, Paul is saying do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? You see, when you provoke the Spirit to jealousy, you are allowing your heart to love something in a way that's greater than the Lord Himself. See, that provokes the Lord to jealousy. It's a godly jealousy. The Bible says God is a jealous God. That doesn't mean that when He sees someone doing something, He gets jealous and says, boy, I wish I was doing that. That's human jealousy. See, there's a godly jealousy that God has. In other words, I love you and I want your love. I want your love. I don't want you to play the spiritual harlot and to run around. I don't want your heart to be in love with anything but me. See, and when there's something that we put before the Lord and it becomes something that we love and we serve and we honor and it just becomes something more important to us than God, then we are provoking the Holy Spirit to jealousy. And He will show us this. And of course, He's not going to come to us as a god with a thunderbolt. You have to understand that God deals with His own. If you belong to Him, He deals with you in kindness and gentleness. He's a loving God. But He will make you know it if you are provoking Him. I've provoked God to jealousy. As a young pastor or minister, I used to put the ministry before God. I couldn't... See, God has a way of bringing us all to crisis experiences. And God brought me to a crisis where I couldn't accept never ever preaching. I couldn't accept it. God would say, Oh, so, in other words, I'm not good enough, you have to preach? You have that much love for preaching that if I took your preaching gift away from you, you wouldn't serve me? Well, who do you love? See, God showed me that in my heart, I had a love for Him. But I tell you, what was challenging my love for Him, that was my love for preaching. It's not that I wanted to be seen by people necessarily. It's just I loved preaching. But see, God wants me to love Him and Him alone. That's just one example of many times when the Lord would come to me in prayer and I'd sense this grief in His heart and I'd say, Oh, God, what is it? And the Lord would pin it down. What about that? Well, what about it, Lord? I know what He was talking about. Well, what about it, Lord? Oh, it's lunch time. I'll be back after lunch, you know? Huh? You know, then you go to lunch and your milk's sour and you wonder why. You know, you find a fly in your hamburger. All right, Lord, I guess it's time to talk, you know? You get back to prayer and God says the same thing. What about that? Well, Lord, you know how I feel about this. And God says, Yeah, I know exactly how you feel about it and I don't like it. And He pins you down. He doesn't botch you over the head. He talks to you like a father. See, that's what the Holy Spirit does. He talks to you like a father. You know? He says, Give it to me. That's what He did with Abraham and Isaac, right? He said, Oh, now that Abraham has the very thing he longed for and waited for, I'm going to see if he loves Isaac more than me. But what did he find out? Abraham loved God more than Isaac. So God gave him Abraham. God gave Isaac back to him. See? So we grieve not, we quench not, we resist not, and we provoke not the Holy Spirit. This equals our relationship to, boy, I am out of chalk, our relationship to Holy Spirit. Basically, this will keep you busy for a lifetime, will it not? But if you could remember these things, grieving the Holy Spirit, thank you. Boy, my cup runneth over. I've got chalk coming out now everywhere. Thank you, Emily, and thank you, Brother Svensson. Grieving the Holy Spirit is in relation to our speech. Quenching the Holy Spirit is in relation to putting out the prompting of God. Resisting the Holy Spirit is in relation to adamant rebellion against God. And provoking the Holy Spirit is in relation to loving something more than Him. These are four necessary working relation... I'm trying to think of a word. What do you call it when you work with someone and you have a good relationship with them? No, not a rapport. I can't think of the word I'm trying to think of. Excuse me? Yeah, that could be it. I don't think that's the word I was thinking of, but these are the four areas that we want to work with the Holy Spirit in and not... Excuse me? Certainly that was not the word I was thinking of. I never heard of that word. Praise the Lord. Now that we have seen our working relationship and the ethics in our relationship with the Holy Spirit, I don't think I'm going to go on. I think that's enough. I think maybe we'll just carry this through another Sunday night, Lord willing. And what we'll do is we'll go into the things... Once we learn the things that we shouldn't do against the Holy Spirit, we've got a list here of 15 things or 17 things that we need to learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in. And I tell you, if we can know what we're not to do and follow after what we are to do, then we will get a good working relationship with the Holy Spirit and that will ensure that we will be pleasing to God and be ever fruitful in our relationship with the Lord. And that's what we want, isn't it? Amen. Does anyone have any questions or anything before we...