My Spirit shall not always strive with Man ......Genesis 6Verse 3
The Word of God reminds us of the wickedness of man right from
the beginning of time. This portion of Scripture describes people
right away back there close to the beginning of time. But as we
read the account of this time there is a thread of wickedness
that forms a black background to the tapestry of those times.
You look at chapter 5:11 and 12 and it says The earth also
was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.And
God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all
flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. The society of
those days had been going down and down and the Lord had looked
down and while it grieved him to see what was going on He had
borne it with longsuffering. You know the Lord could have reached
down at any time and destroyed the world. The one who had created
all things also could have ended all things but the Lord did not
do that. The Bible in Psalm 86 speaks of the Lord as one who is
a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and
plenteous in mercy and truth. The Lord has always been willing
to give men a chance. It is good that we have a longsuffering
God who is in charge because I think that many of us would have
give the world up as a bad job long ago. The Bible tells us that
the Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should
come to repentance. Down through history there have been times
without number when the Lord has been longsuffering and has given
men a chance to repent.
It has been the same with you in your personal life. There have
been many times in your life when you have grieved the Lord There
have been times when your thoughts and your actions have been
anything but what they ought to be and yet there have been many
times when god has given you another opportunity to repent. There
may have been times when you were in danger of your life or you
were dangerously ill. you may not have been dangerously ill but
you may have had an illness that sometimes has dangerous complications
and if you had taken the dangerous complications you might have
died. But you are here today and you are in another gospel meeting.
God has given you another chance to hear about the way of Salvation.
Perhaps you have been in many gospel meetings and have had many
opportunities. Do you know that is a great privilege? There are
millions of people all over the world who have never heard the
gospel once. There are countries in the world where if the person
that was trying to tell them the gospel was caught they would
be put into prison. But you have heard it often. Maybe you have
begun to take that privilege for granted. You say to yourself,
"Well there will always be gospel meetings and there will
always be another opportunity for me to get right with God."
Perhaps you feel that when it is right and when the circumstances
are suitable in your life that you will get right with God. Well
I want to give a word of warning. The Lord was longsuffering to
the people here right at the beginning of time but there came
a point where the Lord had to issue the stern warning. My spirit
shall not always strive with man, He warned the people that
they could not forever get away with their wickedness and their
rejection of Him. The same warning come to you. So today for a
few minutes we want to look at this text and I want to to act
as a warning to you if you are presuming on the mercy of the Lord.
I The Actuality of the Spirit's Work
First of all I want you to see that the text teaches us about
the actuality of the Holy Spirit's work. We are told here that
the Holy Spirit strives. There is a work that the Spirit of God
does in the heart. There are those times in meetings when the
Lord seems to come in mighty power and the Lord comes near and
seems to be speaking in he heart of men. Today we do not have
the Lord in His physical form but we have something else. We have
Him in our hearts
I heard of an old woman who got saved about ten years ago at the
age 81. The pastor who led her to the Lord asked when she had
first thought about getting saved. She said to him, "God
first spoke to me 59 years ago when I buried my first child and
he spoke to me again when I buried my third child. " But
for 59 long years that woman drifted on without a Saviour. She
was away over the allotted span of three score years and ten and
yet she had left it to then before she knelt at the foot of the
cross and repented of her sin. But all that time the Spirit of
God had been dealing with her heart and there had been times when
the Lord had come and spoken to her.
Who is that does these things? Who is that brings these realities
so clearly before our minds. Who is it that makes us face up to
these truths? It is the Holy Spirit of God. The Bible tells us
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me
draw him
Thank God for the wonderful pull of the Spirit of God upon
the heart. Perhaps there have been meetings that you have been
in and there has been that awareness of the Spirit of God. There
has been that awareness that if the Lord Jesus was to come today
that and the trumpet sounded and the Lord was to come to take
unto Himself His own and there is going to be a great division
in the population of the world that you would end up on the wrong
side of that division. There are those who are aware
The loving Spirit of God has come and revealed to you your lostness
and your perilous position. And maybe also through the hymns and
the invitations you have seen that someone really loved you and
died for you
Oh can it be upon a tree
The Saviour died for me
My soul is thrilled
My heart is filled to think He died for me
Listen to me! God commendeth his love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Here
is the the infinitely purist and the highest- God. Here at the
other extreme is the infinitely lowest and the vilest and the
most lost and the filthiest- "us" but God commended
his love toward me. What a reach that is as God reached down to
reach me where I was. The hymn-writer said "He reached down
for me. He reached way down for me." God is reaching way
down for you now. You have taken His name in vain. You have cursed
Jesus by your lips and God by your swearing. You have stolen things
from people- go away back down to childhood and its all in the
book. And you have lied and you have deceived people. It is not
the amount of lies that we tell but one lie makes us a liar-you
have lied. You have had unclean thoughts and a lustful heart.
You are condemned all right. God knows where you stand and you
know too-you are condemned. But the wonderful thing is that Christ
died for sinners.
The Stauros foundation is a group of mainly former alcoholics
who have been saved by the grace of God and sometimes they go
to services and sing. I know they have been at mission halls around
here. But one of the hymns they often sing is that one
Something more than my yesterdays
More than I had before
Something more than wealth or fame
He gave me something worth living for
God can break the power of booze in your life and the power
of the cigarette and all these things. The Lord Jesus can set
you free. He can change you and make you a new man or a new woman.
He can transform you. He finds you where you are and brings you
to where you want to be. Come just as you are. His Spirit draws
and the Spirit invites. It is His Spirit that reveals to us that
none else could heal all our souls diseases. He reveals to us
the preciousness of the Blood of Jesus. How amazing that God should
ever love us. It amazes me .
I am amazed that Jesus loved me
Naught but the cross could ever take away my stain
Through grace in Christ eternal life He giveth
Now He abides forever more within
II The Ardour of the Spirit's Work
But the second thing that I want you to see in the text today
is the ardour of the Spirit's work. It does not say here that
the Holy Spirit speaks to man, although He does that. It does
not say that the Holy Spirit works upon man although He does that
too. It says that He strives with man. Now when you think of someone
striving perhaps you get the mental picture of something like
a wrestling match that is going on. There is an actual grappling
match going on. It is not just a kind of an intellectual argument
but there is something serious here. The Lord causes His Holy
Spirit to strive with men. It is a good description of it if you
know anything about the convicting power of the Holy Spirit of
God. When the Lord comes there is a wrestling match within the
heart. You know you need to be saved. You know that unless you
repent you will perish but the old nature certainly does not want
to give up. The excuses arise. I remember when the Lord was dealing
with me that it was an awful thing. I knew I needed to get saved
but I wanted to avoid anyone that would tell me that. I even wakened
up at night thinking about it but there was a holding on. I thought
I would leave it off until another time and that when I had a
more convenient season I would get saved. But it came to the point
where the issue was my dominant thought. Those who are saved in
this meeting will recognise the same thing.
Why does the Holy Spirit strive? Because it is the most important
thing. This is the most important issue that you can ever face.
There are many issues that you have and will face in your life
but this is the paramount one. What are you going to do with Jesus
which is called Christ. That is what we need to know. This issue
will settle your destiny not only for time but for all eternity
And how do you know that the Holy Spirit is striving with you?
You will know when you begin to have your attention arrested by
the concerns of your soul. Let me ask you. Have you any concern
for your soul? Is there any thought in your heart for the things
of eternity? Does it bother you at all where you may spend eternity?.
The Holy Spirit strives with men. I wonder is He striving with
you? Maybe you can remember times when it was so but it is not
just like that now. There have been times when you have said "I
know I need to be saved"and the Holy Spirit of God is speaking
in your heart and you hear His voice. But there is another voice
and it says 'what about the friends out there and what about the
clubs and the pubs out there. There is another voice that is speaking
and I know it is speaking because it is a voice that speaks in
nearly every gospel meeting where the unsaved are gathered. There
a voice that will admit that God is real and salvation is real
and forgiveness is real and that unless you get right with God
it will mean a lost eternity but that voice says 'I don't want
it now. Which voice will you listen to? But the Holy Spirit strives.
There is a striving in your heart. We see the ardour of the Holy
Spirit's work..
III The Abeyance of the Spirit's Work
But what I want you to see is the Abeyance of the Spirit's Work.
God says in this text My Spirit shall not always strive with
man And if there is nothing else that you get in this meeting
today I want you to take away the words of the text that God's
Spirit will not always strive with men. There is a limit to the
longsuffering and patience of God. There is that striving within
the heart but then there is a time when there is no more striving.
The man of God writing in the book of Proverbs said He that
being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be cut
off and that without remedy. There is a sudden cutting off.
A little fellow went out one day looking for nests and he came
across a dove's nest one day in a tree in a patch of woodland
and he through up a stone and the dove few off the nest and she
flew around and she came back and settled down on the nest again.
When she had settled down he through up another stone and she
flew off and round and she was looking to see what the problem
was and she came back and settled again. He threw up another stone
and she flew off into the distance and he didn't seem to be coming
back again. He waited and the evening drew on and the darkness
came and he had to start off for home. He went the next morning
and he threw up a stone but there was no dove on the nest. He
climbed the tree and put his hand in but the eggs were cold. Do
you know what had happened? She had forsaken the nest. Some day
the dove of heaven will take a flight and will no more strive
with your heart. He will leave your heart cold and indifferent.
There is a striving now and there is a great deal of emotional
heat that is generated by that striving but it may be that it
will be no more. If we think of it from the human viewpoint the
poet had it right when he said
There is a time we know not when, a place we know not where
That seals the destiny of men for glory or despair
There is a line by us unseen that crosses every path
The hidden boundary between God's mercy and His wrath.
To cross that line it is to die. It is to die by stealth
It does not dull the beaming eye or pale the glowing health
But angels see the fateful sign and shudder at the sight
And devils trace that lurid line with devilish delight
What is he speaking about there? He is speaking about the line
of the last opportunity. There comes a time When God speaks for
the last time to a man or a woman. and looking at it from the
human standpoint it is like a line. The time when the Holy Spirit
says "I will no more strive with that man. Maybe you have
sat in meetings like this or in missions in times gone by either
in this district or in some other place but you rode out the convicting
power of God and you thought that you should leave it until some
other time. You said I'll get saved but not tonight. You said
I will get saved by and by but just at the moment I have no time
to think about eternal things or about religion. Wait till I am
old and then I will get saved. But every time you say no to the
striving of God your heart becomes a little more hard and in many
ways you grieve the Holy Spirit of God
There was a woman a number of years ago and an evangelist came
to invite her to a mission. She said that she had been at another
mission years ago and the Lord had been dealing with her in such
a fashion that she could hardly get up off the seat and get out
side the door to go home. But she managed to get out and on the
way home she said that it seemed as if god was pulling on her
to get her back to the meeting place to speak to the evangelist
but she went on home. Then when she got into bed that voice kept
speaking on and speaking on to her and she tried to drown out
that voice. Eventually she could stick in no longer and she got
out of bed ad she prayed "Holy Spirit leave me alone"
And she said that just like that the voice died and the voice
left and God spoke to her no more. Has God been speaking to you?
Now there is a happy end to that story because the woman we were
talking about was burning bags and she told the evangelist that
every time she looked into the fire she was afraid of the flames
of Hell. The evangelist told her that God was speaking to her
because if she had committed the unpardonable sin she would have
had no fear of Hell. She would have had no thoughts for eternity
and she went to that mission and she got saved a few nights later.
She told the evangelists that God had been speaking to her all
that day in a powerful way. She said I am not going to miss it
this time. I don't want you to miss the opportunity given to you
by the Lord
IV The Absence of the Spirit's Work
But there is one more thing that I want you to see in this text
and that is the absence of the Spirit's work. What are the consequences
for the Holy Spirit not striving with you?
The first thing is that there will be a hardening of the heart.
The Bible speaks about the conscience being seared with a hot
iron. You know how that if you put a hot iron to wool it frizzles
and hardens. So it is with the heart. You will sin with impunity.
There will be less restraint. You will be given over to your lusts.
The preaching of the word will mean nothing.
But more than that it will mean the certainty of Hell. There will
be no remedy. There is only one remedy for sin in this world and
if you reject that only way of salvation there is no other.
Sinner God's patience will weary some day
And leave thy sad soul in the blast
By wilful resistance you've drifted away
Over the deadline at last
Don't be like Cain who was thrust out of the presence of God and
had to wander a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. Don't be
like Judas Iscariot who went out into the night. It was the night
of a lost soul that he went out to. In a few hours he put a rope
around his neck and swung himself out over a cliff and committed
suicide. Don't be like Nabal in the OT who despised king David
and the Bible says that his heart died in him like a stone when
his wife told him the circumstances he faced. don't be like those
of whom it says in the book of Romans that "God gave them
up" Men and women if you want to drift to a lost eternity
God has the mooring ropes on you as it were but one day they will
be cast off and you will drift out into the dark sea of a lost
eternity,
Oh turn while the Saviour in mercy is speaking
And steer for the harbour light
For how do you know but your soul may be drifting
Over the deadline tonight.
young woman do you want to be with the devil and all the wicked
spirits and all the debauched of the world. There is no cleanness
in a lost eternity. Young man do you want to spend for all eternity
without hope. Turn to the Lord Just now. The Bible says that Now
is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation turn
to the Lord and be saved.