Please turn with me in God's Holy Word to Ephesians 5. We've been making our way through the book of Ephesians. And we come now to Ephesians 5, verses 15-21. Ephesians is a letter that concerns the Church of Christ and how the Church of Christ is to look and the origins of the Church, right? The Church isn't a man-made institution. It is an institution, it is a building, but it's been made by God from before all eternity, and it's a building that's made of living stones of people, you and me, of sinners, okay, redeemed by God. And here, in Ephesians 5, in verses 15 through 21, we're told not only that God takes us from darkness to light, but that He takes us from the fogginess of folly and of sin to the sobriety of wisdom. Darkness is a problem, but so is being foggy-headed, like a fool. More on that in a minute. This is God's Holy Word, Ephesians chapter 5, verse 15 through 21. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Amen. Let's ask the Lord for his blessing, shall we? Our Father and our God, we thank You that as we come to Your Word this morning, it is Your Word and not my word that we need. We pray, Father, that You would speak, speak, so that we would not leave here unchanged, but transformed, sanctified, renewed in our minds, in our lives, in our devotion, that we would, Father, cast away all idols, cast away anything, anyone that masters us, And Father, that we would be mastered, guided, directed, controlled only by Your Holy Spirit and by Your very Word. And we pray all these things now in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. In his commentary on the book of Ephesians, Sinclair Ferguson says that you can recognize a person by how they walk. You can recognize a person by how they walk. You can recognize a person a mile away, depending on how they walk. You might say, oh, that's John over there, that's Jim over there, because he's walking kind of slumped over, or he's bow-legged, or she's walking really fast, and she always walks fast. Same thing with us. You see, Christians are to be known by how they walk. Christians are to be known, we are to be recognized by how we walk because we walk in a certain way. And as our text tells us, not as fools or drunks, but we walk in a certain way. We walk with the sobriety of mind given by the Spirit and controlled by His wisdom. That's the key, that's the nugget of today's lesson. We walk, not as fools or drunks, and those two are very similar, but we walk with sobriety, soberness of mind that's given to us by the Spirit. We're controlled, not by alcohol, not by foolishness, not by some desire we have, but we're controlled, we're guided, we're under the influence of the Spirit and His wisdom. And in order to do that, in order to walk filled with the Spirit, we need to remember three things. We need to remember to put off three things and to put on three things. And we see these in our text, first of all, in verse 15 and 17. And we'll deal with these two together now. Don't be unwise. Don't be foolish. We have to put off unwisdom. We have to put off folly. These are parallel statements. Keep your Bibles open, by the way. We'll be going through this text in detail here. Paul says in verse 15, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. And then in verse 17, he repeats this. He says, therefore, do not be foolish, do not be unwise, but be wise. And what's wise? What's wisdom? Understanding what the will of the Lord is. Paul says you need to be careful you need to pay close attention You need to have a mind that's attentive to how you're living You can't just wake up as a Christian and say I'm going to live however. I want the Christian life's automatic, okay? I'm just going to live and God accepts me how I am and God's going to be pleased with whatever I do say think Whatever no Paul says be careful of how you live, because care is needed to live right and to be wise. Who is the wise person and who is the father? If we're called to be wise and not fools, to be people of understanding and not unwise, then what is wisdom? Wisdom The person who is wise is a person who has a practical understanding of what God's will is in their lives. Wisdom, you see, is not knowledge per se. Knowledge is important. You need to know what's right. You need to know what's wrong. But it's not enough just to know. You need to do what's right. You need to take God's will in his word and apply it to your particular life. It's not enough to know how God has saved people, God's redemptive plan. All these are good. They're true. They're right. They're necessary. But you need to live in light of that redemption. It's not simply knowledge. It's knowledge and doing what's right. If that's what wisdom is, who's the fool? The fool you see is the person who refuses to come to God's light. It's the person who refuses to see life as it really is. God says, life is this way. The fool says, no, it's not. Life's not like that. God, you don't know what you're talking about. God, life is the way I want it to be. That's the fool, the person who lives in a world of lies of their own making. The fool is the one who says, I don't care for God. I can do without God. Thank you very much. Because of that, they live in darkness, as we considered last week. That's the wise person, that's the foolish person. But you might be wondering, well, OK, that's all well and good. What does that look like? Well, in verse 16, we're actually given a test case for wisdom. You want to know if you're wise? You want to know if you're foolish? Let's look at verse 16. The wise man, Paul says, makes the best use of the time because the days are evil. The wise person makes the best use of their time because the days are evil. Are you wise? Do you think you're wise? Then the question is, how do you spend your time? How do you spend the 24 hours that God gives you every day? The word here for making the best use of time is actually a word that means a person who redeems time, a person who snaps up every opportunity, a person who takes advantage of every moment, of every chance, of every minute, of every day, to live for God, to serve God and to serve their brother and sister and build them up. How does this person's use of time, however, make them wise? OK, if this is what wisdom is, you might be asking, what makes them wise? What about their use of time makes them prudent, makes them understanding? Paul says in the latter part of that verse, because the days are evil, because the days are evil. The person who is wise is the person who uses all their time for King Jesus in various things. Now, don't misunderstand me. That doesn't mean you spend 24 hours praying or singing or in church. We'll get to that in a minute. It's very varied. At work, at home, with your kids, on the baseball field, you can be serving God, building each other up. So let's not have a hyper-spiritual view of this. More on that in a minute. But what makes this person's use of time wise is that they understand their context. They understand that the days are evil. What makes the days evil? Why does Paul use that expression? It's not that time is evil, but rather that the world outside of the church uses their days for evil. They use their time and they give over their 24 hours for doing what's evil. They have given themselves over to reckless living and a pursuit of selfish pleasures. That's what makes the days evil. But Christians, you see, are not like that. Christians, as the light of Christ, We take all of our time and not use it for evil, but we use it for good. We use it for the King. We use it for Christ. And we are carving out all of our time for Jesus. You are, as it were, taking back the minutes, the hours, the days, the time. You're taking it back from evil and giving it to King Jesus for good. This is a kind of conquest language used by Paul here. Paul is saying you need to plunder time, time that normally would have been given over to evil. Because you're in Christ, that time now is plunder. It's a spoil of the war, of the spiritual war, and it has to be given to Christ. You have to redeem your time. Everyone else is using and wasting their time on evil, on sin. But Christians are not like that. You have to use your time for Christ. As it were, you're taking back time. You're plundering that which you would have used for evil. You're taking it as a treasure. Your time is a treasure. And you're bringing it to Jesus. And you're saying, Jesus, here it is. Here's my treasure. Here's my time. And you're laying it at His feet. Are you wise? Are you wise? What do you do with your time? Or maybe a better question, what do you do when you have nothing to do? How do you spend your discretionary time? There's a certain amount of time we have in each day, right? For sleeping, for eating, for working, okay? But inevitably, every day has a few minutes, a few hours, maybe a lot of hours. How do you use that time? Are you conquering time? Or are you being conquered by evil with your use of your time? Are you wasting time? Do you oftentimes think, where did this time just go? I've been in front of this television For five hours? Are you wasting hours doing nonsense? Gossiping on the phone? Gossiping through texts? Are you sinning with your use of time? Or, are you not a time waster, but a time redeemer? Someone who is redeeming time. Someone who is investing their time for the building up of their soul. Are you investing your time to serve others? To build others up? To be a tangible expression of Christ's love in your community? For your neighbors? For your brothers and sisters in this church? Are you wasting or redeeming time? That's the test case you see for wisdom. Not only do we need to put off unwise behavior and foolishness, but very practically in verse 18, we have to put off being drunk. Paul says very clearly, very straightforwardly, doesn't pull any punches, he says in verse 18, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. but be filled with the Spirit. This seems to come out of nowhere. And some people wonder whether or not in Ephesus there was a drinking problem. Most people don't think there was. So why does Paul say this? Why does he say, don't get drunk with wine? Well, first of all, that's God's will to not get drunk with wine. Don't be given to wine. Now, we need to be clear that this isn't a blanket prohibition against drinking. What isn't prohibited isn't drinking, but getting drunk, being mastered and controlled by alcohol, having a nebulous mind and a clouded vision. Paul says, don't get drunk, because the person who is drunk can't think straight, can't talk straight, and can't walk straight. They are mastered by something toxic, something that has become toxic in their lives. We need to just deal with this very straightforwardly as well. Paul is saying two things, and the first is he's saying don't get physically drunk. Don't imbibe alcohol to the point of being buzzed being drunk. Young people, everyone, but especially young people, You might see the bright lights of the message of the world. You might see, wow, there's something really attractive about drinking and getting drunk. Let me assure you, there is absolutely nothing glamorous about getting drunk. There's nothing glamorous about getting so plastered that you puke, excuse my expression, you puke your guts out. There's nothing glamorous about being so plastered that you can't talk with your children, you can't talk with your wife, you can't talk with other people, you can't get up from your chair. There's nothing manly about that. There's nothing glamorous about being drunk, regardless of what you might see, no matter what you might hear, no matter what might be rumored on the grapevine. And if that wasn't enough, we're told in 1 Corinthians 6, drunks don't inherit the kingdom of God. Not only those wicked people out there, but drunks who find their identity in the drink don't inherit the kingdom of God. Paul says, don't be physically drunk. But let's not stop there. There's a broader concern here that Paul has. It's not so much that You might say, well, I don't drink, so I'm good to go. I am fulfilling this commandment. No, you're not. Not necessarily. Paul is saying, don't just get physically drunk, don't be spiritually drunk either. See, this is the broader concern, that drunkenness and folly are very similar. The person who imbibes alcohol to the point of being plastered and the person who refuses to live by God's law These two people are very similar. What are the characteristics that are common to each? Paul is saying the drunk is a fool and fools are like drunks. Why? Because, first of all, they're mastered by something that is more important to them than God. And they're under the influence of something that has become toxic, something that might be good, but for them has become toxic. Second characteristic that both the fool and the drunk share. They have clouded judgment. They have a foggy vision of life. Everything is opaque and fuzzy to them. They live in darkness, but they also live in the fog of sin. And because of this, fools, those who disregard God's law, can't think straight. Can't talk straight and can't walk and live straight. Don't get drunk. Don't be physically drunk. Don't be spiritually drunk. What's the alternative? Remember the two women in Proverbs 2. Folly calls out that forbidden woman. She says, come with me. There's great pleasure with me. Come on. Live it up. Folly calls out. But the spirit calls out as well, like the woman named Wisdom. And she says, come to me. Come to me and live for the first time. Come to me and know what being alive means. Come to me and I will give you sobriety of mine. Again, not just an absence of alcohol, but rather an absence of living under the influence of anything that isn't God. The Spirit gives sobriety, physical sobriety, spiritual sobriety. In the Spirit, you have, as it were, HD thinking. You have high-definition life, life as it really is. And you're in the Spirit, and you're understanding God's will. The point here, and we don't have time to look at these texts, but if you're taking notes, The Bible talks about sobriety more often than not in this way not just physical sobriety, but spiritual sobriety Clarity of mind knowing how to think in first Peter 1 13 Paul Peter says Be sober minded and prepared for action in first Peter 4 7 He repeats this sentiment and then again in first Peter 5 8 when he talks about the devil like a prowling lying looking for someone to devour. He says be sober-minded, be alert. The bigger point of scripture is then don't let anything make you foggy-headed. Don't let anything in your life plunge you into a misty haze of sin, of relativity, Darkness is a problem spiritual darkness, but we oftentimes don't talk and don't think about spiritual haze Spiritual fogginess which in many cases might be worse than darkness because I you know with fogginess There's light and there's some measure of certainty, but you really don't know right from left nor from south Don't let anything bring you under its mastery, whether it's alcohol, whether it's something else, whether it's someone else. What's the answer? What's the answer then if we are not to be mastered by alcohol or anything or anyone that isn't God? Verse 18 tells us, don't get drunk with wine. That is debauchery. But be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. And notice what the text says here. It doesn't say, get drunk with the Spirit. God never tells His people to get drunk with anything. Okay? And oftentimes we might hear that. Oh, you got to get drunk in the Spirit. Or, hey, that brother was drunk in the Spirit. Or that sister was drunk in the Spirit. I don't want that. I want to be filled with the Spirit. I want to have my faculties around me and my senses around me. God doesn't inhibit your faculties. He restores your faculties to you. Sin inhibits your faculties. Sin prevents you from thinking straight. But God in salvation restores your senses so you can think straight. So you can be human again, right? That's what redemption is. It's re-humanizing of those who are Christians, the re-humanizing of the new humanity. Because sin makes us less than human, but God is in the process of making us human again. Be filled with the Spirit, Paul says. What does this mean, be filled with the Spirit? Be filled with the Spirit means simply that your mind and your life are to be guided Controlled directed by the spirit the spirits will Revealed to us in his word, right? We don't need to to wonder Lord. What's your will for my life? It's right here People say God talked to me God spoke to me. I say which book right? God's will for our lives the spirits will for our lives is not only what we want to do. It's what we do Right think of it this way When you have a boat and you have a sail, that boat needs to have its sails up to be filled with wind. If that boat's sails aren't up, it's not going anywhere. But when those sails are up, that boat's going wherever the wind blows. If the wind blows to the north, that boat's going north. If that wind blows to the south, the boat's not going north. The boat's going south. And it's the same thing with being filled with the Spirit. The wind, the Spirit guides us. It controls our direction. So whatever the Spirit wills is what we will. Whatever the Spirit wants is what we want. Where the Spirit is going, that's where we're going as well. The Spirit says, well, I'm sending trials. I'm sending afflictions to your life. We're saying, Amen, Lord. Help me. Prepare me. Give me patience. If this is your will, I want it too. I want to have Christ-like character. Wherever the Spirit blows, that's where we're moving. That's where we're directed to. That's where we're heading to. And note that this filling of the Spirit is continual. It's continual. But be filled with the Spirit. The notion there is continue to be filled with the Spirit. There are some things that the Spirit does that are unique, unrepeatable, once-for-all-time actions, right? The indwelling of the Spirit. The Spirit comes to live inside of you. You don't need to ask the Spirit to live inside of you again. No, He's there. He's there. He's taking up residence in your life. The sealing of the Spirit, right? When the Spirit seals us, that's a once-for-all-time, unrepeatable action. We get sealed once, and that's it. We don't need to get sealed and then we become unsealed and then get resealed again. No. The seal of the spirit is a once for all time action. But filling is not. Filling is a continuous action. We have to, as it were, continuously seek it. You might be wondering, well, is that something I can pray for? You better be praying for it. Because our lives need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Why? Why? Hello. Because you and I, we veer off into sin continuously. You and I, like that boat, we head into storms that rock us. We head into afflictions and trials. And we veer off into what is sin, into what is foolish, into what is unwise. And that's why we need the Spirit to fill our winds, to bring us back to the steady course of following Jesus. As that hymn says, right? Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. The last stanza. Prone to wander. Prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. What does the hymn say? He says, take my heart, O Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. And that's a prayer that the Spirit of God would once again fill our lives so that what the Spirit wills, we will. What the Spirit desires, we desire. Where the Spirit is going, that's where we're going as well. Not to the right, not to the left, not straying, not veering off into sin and foolishness. If we're to be filled with the Holy Spirit, then what does this look like? And what follows in verses 19, 20, and 21, we'll do a quick run of this, a quick survey of this. More can be said. What follows in these three verses is a partial view of what life filled by the Spirit looks like. Life filled by the Spirit is not ecstatic. It's not irrational. It's not gibberish. It looks like this. It's really boring, it's really ordinary, it's really mundane, but this is it. Look at verses 19 through 21. First of all, Paul says there are a couple of words ending in "-ing", right, which are called participles in Greek, and there are five of them, but they're really classified into four, and that's what life in the Spirit looks like. First of all, verse 19. addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." Singing. Addressing one another and making melody. If you get nothing else from this verse, it means that singing is very important in the Christian life. If life in the Spirit means Out of the five verbs, addressing, singing, making, giving, submitting, five verbs, three of them have to do with singing. If a Spirit-filled life has to do with singing, then we need to pay attention to the importance of singing, and we need to take note. And here, singing is not just in worship, but it's in informal settings. It's throughout your day. It's after dinner. having your devotion, then singing to the Lord. And it's interesting that in verse 19, Paul says addressing one another, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. When you sing in worship, you're addressing not just God, you're addressing one another. you are, as it were, encouraging one another, encouraging your brother and your sister, that as you're singing to the Lord, as you have the hymnal open or whatever, photocopies, sometimes we've used photocopies, as you have that open, you're saying, brother, pay attention to this. Listen to this. In so many words, those who sing are instructing one another. Those who sing are teaching one another. And that's why we have to sing good theology. You might wonder, well, you know, the songs you all sing here are kind of boring. And they might be a little boring. Some of them might be clunkers. The music might be just not consonant with the words. But you see, they represent good theology. These are songs, believe me, I try my best to pick good songs, but these are songs that are going to get into your soul, into your bones, and they won't be easily forgotten. You need to store up good theology, God's Word in your heart. And how do we do that? Well, we can do that by memorizing, but we do that also by singing the Word of God. That's why singing the Psalms takes precedent in this church. We want to get the Word of God into our hearts, into our bones, and not forget it. Which is why, if you don't have a Psalter hymnu, we're going to get some. But please take a Psalter hymnu. Please take a couple of Psalter hymnus home, if you don't have. Okay, it's not a problem. We'll get some. But be singing, be about singing the Word of God and good theology. But not only do we sing to one another when we sing, not only are we addressing one another, we're also addressing God, right? Verse 19 at the end says, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart. The first part of verse 19 is a horizontal perspective where we're singing to each other, with each other, together. But the second part is the vertical perspective. We are singing to God. in worship on Sundays. Singing is not filler. It's not, well, it's tradition to do this in order to get to the sermon, which is the real important part. No, singing is not filler time. We're not trying to fill the time with singing because we need to do something. No, we're singing to the Lord. And how are we to sing to the Lord? It says here, with all your heart, with all your heart. Here, the contrast is not inward, I have to sing in my heart, not with my voice. No, that's not the contrast. The contrast, rather, is singing with your heart or singing half-heartedly. Here, what Paul is saying is that when you sing to God, you need to sing wholeheartedly, sing with all your energy, sing out loud, sing with your whole being, not coerced mumbling. Don't mumble. Don't mumble. You might not know the words, you might not know the rhythm, but be about singing with your whole heart. Know the rhythm, know the words, and sing out loud. You can't sing if you don't open your mouth. We're not just singing to each other, but we're singing together to God the King. Don't forget that. When we come here on Sunday, we're singing to God. He's receiving our praises. We need to pay attention to that. So that's addressing, singing, making melody. Fourthly, giving thanks. Giving thanks, Paul says in verse 20. And here, the three things in view are frequency, comprehensive, and the person to whom we give thanks. Notice that Paul says, We give thanks always and here it's a constant regular Thanksgiving Okay, we're not to only on Sundays give thanks, but our lives are to be marks by gratitude every day Saying thank you Lord. Thank you for the most mundane things. Thank you for this parking spot If you've ever driven in New York, you know, that's probably the most answered prayer Okay of Christians in New York Lord. Give me a parking spot God gives it to you. Thank you Lord. Thank you For small things, for big things. Thank you Lord for healing me. Thank you Lord for providing financially for my family. And everything in between. Small and big and everything in between. Always give thanks. Always give thanks. And it's comprehensive. It's for everything. For everything we are to give thanks. That means for good things, which are obvious, right? When God provides materially for you or spiritually, okay? He delivers you from something big. But it also means giving God thanks in not so good circumstances. Now listen to me. Well, Paul here is not saying, praise God for evil. Lord, thank you for this car crash. No, no, no. We need to be careful. It's not praising God for evil, but in an affliction, in an evil, in a trial, we give God thanks for His sovereignty, that He's in control, and for His care upon our lives. He knows why He sends affliction your way, why He sends evil your way. We don't want to relativize evil. We don't want to say, well, everything is praiseworthy. No, no, no. Not everything is praiseworthy. God is always praiseworthy. Because He is sovereign. He is in control. And because in affliction, He is producing character. He is producing hope. He is producing patience. He is producing steadfastness. We are to give God thanks always for everything. And we are to give thanks to God, to God. We should be thanking one another. But our thanksgiving in the Bible, it's usually directed Godward to God, who is the father. Because of Jesus Christ, who has given us all things, and we do so in the name of the mediator, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then finally, submitting. Submitting in verse 21. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. What does this mean, submitting? It's what Ephesians 4.2 has mentioned in that earlier text. Paul says, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, This is what is to mark our lives. We are to be serving one another. We are to be submitted to one another at the disposal of our brother, of our sister, to serve them, to love them towards God, towards heaven. Well, as we conclude, this is what the life full of the Spirit looks like. But before we leave this, notice two things. Notice two things about being filled with the Spirit. The first is that these things are things you can't do alone. As much as we hear of being filled in the Spirit or, you know, I want to be filled with the Spirit. That's a great thing. But guess what? You can't do it alone. All of these things cannot be done alone. You can't address one another. If you're by yourself, there's not another next to you to address. You can't submit to one another if you're alone. And here the concern is that we not conceive of the Christian life as a private, individualized affair. But rather, being full of the Spirit is something that happens corporately in the body of Christ. Fullness is to be found in the Christian community. That's the first note. The second is that you can't Fill your own life. In v. 18 we're told, but be filled with the Spirit. We are to yearn it, yearn for this. We are to desire being filled with the Spirit. But, the verb is in a passive tense. Paul here isn't saying, fill your own life, but rather, be filled. Be filled. And of course, this points up, this highlights and underscores the necessity of God working in us. Salvation and the Christian life is, by God's grace, from A to Z, and at every point in between, we live, we stand, we can be filled with the Spirit because God is at work in us. because it's God who changes us, because it's God who's filling our sails with the Spirit. And I pray, brother and sister, friends who's visiting with us today, that in this community, we may be recognized by how we live, by how we walk, because people all around us will see that the God we talk about, is the God who dwells in us, the God who's at work in us. This grace that we talk about and highlight, it's in our name, Grace Reformed Church. This grace has first taken place and has first done a powerful work in us. May God help us to this end and may our lives continually be filled with the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, We give you thanks and praise for your word, for the life in Jesus that we have. Father, it is unfathomable. We can't even imagine life apart from Christ. But Father, we pray that you would draw many to Christ. Draw many even in our own midst. to the Savior, to know the sweetness, to know true life in Jesus. Father, help us all to yearn for this reality of being filled with the Spirit, that we would sing to you, sing to one another, devote ourselves to a life of gratitude, serve one another in love and out of reverence for the Lord. Father, we pray for these things now, knowing that you are not just our almighty God, but you are our loving Father who can do these things, but also wills to do these things. And we pray for them now, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.