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If we turn together to the Gospel
of John, chapter 14. The Gospel of John, chapter 14. And we're going to take a reading
from the verse 15. The Savior is speaking here.
John chapter 14, reading from verse 15. Christ says, if ye love me, keep
my commandments. And I will pray the Father that
he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.
Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But ye know him, for he
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you
comfortless, I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world
seeth me no more, but ye see me, because I live, ye shall
live also. At that day, ye shall know that
I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath
my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and
he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him,
not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself
unto us and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto
him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with
him. He that loveth me keepeth not
my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the
Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto
you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever
I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard
how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye
loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father,
for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before
it come to pass, that when it is come to pass ye might believe.
Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the Prince of this
world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may
know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment,
Even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. Ending
there at the end of the chapter, trusting the Lord to bless His
word as we've read it together. In that passage, there's some
content concerning the Lord giving the comforter, the Holy Ghost,
and we're coming to a connected theme when we turn to Ephesians
again tonight. Ephesians chapter five, and we're
going to be looking primarily at verse 18, Ephesians chapter 5 and the verse
18, perhaps we'll just read from verse 15 though. From verse 15,
see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming
the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk
with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit,
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving
thanks always for all things onto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to
another in the fear of God. And ending there, as I say, we're
focusing primarily on the verse 18. According to his word, they were
soon to receive the promise of the Holy Ghost. He told them
to go to Jerusalem to wait for the promise of the Father, the
Holy Spirit, the one who he had promised to them, even as we
were reading together in John's gospel, the Comforter, whom the
Father would send in his name. He said to his people in Acts
1, John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with
the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. And soon enough, the day
of Pentecost arrived. And the disciples that were there,
they were assembled, they'd been waiting as the Lord had told
them, and the Holy Ghost was given to them. Just as in the
days of Exodus, the pillar of fire signifying the presence
of God rested on the tabernacle, so at Pentecost the tongues of
fire came and sat upon each of the Lord's people. God had come
to presence himself and dwell within his people. God had given
his spirit to empower and to enable his people for godly service. Now, in recent times as we've
come to the book of Ephesians we've been dealing with the more
practical sections from chapter 4 and on. The more practical part of Ephesians
and a section which places various demands on us. We've been called
to live with a new life, a life that matches up to a new identity
in Christ. We've been called to live a life
of humble, patient love as we strive to guard the unity of
the body of Christ. We are to strive as a body to
know more of the grace of Christ in our lives. We are to see the
body of Christ built both in terms of quantity, numbers added
in, and quality as well, as we're sanctified and made more holy
in serving the Lord. We are to live this new life
and it means turning from old things, putting away lying and
unjust anger and stealing and corrupt speech and so on. And
we put away these sins and replace it with new traits or new conduct. We're not to be partakers with
the ungodly and these old things anymore. We're not to be dabbling
in those things that belong to the darkness. We're now light
in the Lord. And we're now to walk in the
light instead of the darkness. We're now to walk with wisdom instead
of folly. We've seen these themes already. And in so doing, we're
going to be witnesses for Christ, servants of Christ, redeeming
the time. But here's something key. If we're going to do any
of that, if we're going to fulfill any of these commands, if we're
going to live in this right manner, we need what we're told here
in verse 18. We need the work of the promised
Holy Spirit. We're not to strive towards any
of these things in the flesh. Turning from these various sins
onto a new way of living, it is not just about trying harder.
Living Christ-like lives is not just about thinking things through
a bit and taking time to become more wise. If we're to live lives
that are honoring to God, if we're to live in the light, if
we're to walk with wisdom, then we need to take heed to this
instruction in verse 18. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the
Spirit. In order that we might serve
the Lord in the right manner then, tonight we're called to
the Spirit-filled life. And that's, I suppose if you
want a title, that's what we're aiming for, the Spirit-filled
life. Now, first of all, notice with
me the contrast to this Spirit-filled life. Before urging the believers
in Ephesus to be filled with the Spirit, Paul gives the instruction,
be not drunk with wine wherein is excess. Throughout the practical
part of this letter, Paul has made use of various opposites. So instead of lying, there is
to be speaking the truth. Instead of foolish anger, there's
to be a putting away of wrath. Instead of stealing, there's
to be giving. Instead of speech that is corrupting, our speech
is to be edifying. So all of these themes have been
touched on already. There's all these opposites used
in Ephesians. Instead of bitterness, there's
kindness. Instead of holding grudges, there's forgiveness.
And yet when you come here, you might find this contrast a little
bit surprising. I mean, would you not expect
him to say, be not drunk with wine, but be sober, be sensible. And yet the contrast is, be not
drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit. Now, let me
try and suggest the reason for this contrast. In trying to understand
why it's given, why this command is here, some suggest that there
maybe was a particular problem with drunkenness in Ephesus.
And so, I suppose like with, it seems in Corinth as well.
So Paul is maybe just cutting into his letter with a warning
against drunkenness. But I put it to you, there's
no real evidence for that. And I suggest to you that this
instruction in verse 18, It's closely connected with the commands
of verses 15 through 17. There, if you remember what we
were looking at previously, we are called to redeem the time
and we saw there the need to walk carefully, circumspectly,
that is accurately, with wisdom. We made the comment we're not
meant to be mindless, unthinking, we're not meant to be stupefied
as we proceed through this life, rather we're to be understanding
what the will of the Lord is in order that we walk in wisdom.
And so when you recognize that context, verse 18 makes perfect
sense. It is building upon this theme
of not being mindless, but rather knowing the will of God so as
to walk wisely and redeem the time. In verse 18, Paul then
makes mention of this primary, this obvious, clear danger to
wise living. And that is drunkenness. Drunkenness.
It's the very picture of mindlessness. If you want an example of living
a mindless and therefore a reckless life, you just look at the drunkard.
It's the perfect picture of it. He's the one who has given himself
over to the drink and therefore has lost control of his senses.
We're called to walk circumspectly, carefully, accurately. And therefore
we need our wits about us. We need our wits about us. But
the one who is intoxicated, they've given control of their wits over
into the hands of the drink. I mean, that's why the verse
says, verse 18, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess. Now that word translated excess,
it has the idea of a lack of control, a lack of restraint,
a lack of inhibition. It's translated riot a couple
of times in the King James Version. It's used as an adjective of
the prodigal son. If you remember the account of him, He took his
father's money, the inheritance that was due him. He went away
off into the far country and he wasted his substance in riotous
living. That is, he lived a life without
restraint. He indulged himself in whatever
pleasures he would see presented to him. He ran after this thing
and that thing and the other and he wasn't held back in any
of it. It was riotous living. He gave himself over to it. His
limitations, his inhibitions were gone until his money was
gone. Well, even those who disagree
with the Bible would have to agree with this point that that
drunkenness leads to excess. It leads to this riot, this lack
of restraint, this loss of inhibitions. I don't need to take time to
prove that to you tonight. It's very obvious. You see the
evidence of it on the news at various times. You see the evidence
of it all around you. And certainly if you've ever
seen someone who's been drunk, you'll be very clear about it.
They've lost a lot of their senses. It leads to reckless abandon.
And it leads to that kind of life because the one who has
given themselves over to drunkenness has handed over control to the
wine or at least they've suppressed their senses. The person has
dulled their senses and dulling their senses they then naturally
go on to live like a fool. But why the contrast with the
spirit? Why not call the people to be sober? Well again it ties
in with the recent context. We're not to be mindless, foolish,
unwise in verse 17, but rather the opposite. We're called to
be specifically understanding what the will of the Lord is. And that requires more than just
mere sobriety. That requires more than just
abstaining from drunkenness or drink. If we're going to understand
what the will of the Lord is, that requires the teaching of
the Spirit. You see, the Spirit is the great teacher. We read
John 14 in verse 26, Christ said, when the Comforter, the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your
remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. In John 15, verse
26, Christ spoke of sending the Comforter and described him as
the Spirit of truth. and said, he shall testify of
me. The spirit of God is the great
teacher. He takes the truth of God's word,
especially, and he applies that truth to God's people. He is
the one who brings God's word to us with applicatory force. That is, he molds and shapes
our lives as he uses God's word, so that when we come to scripture,
we're not just reading words and leaving it there. No, the
spirit of God takes those words, living words, and applies them
with force to our hearts and changes us by the word. He's
the teacher. He leads us on to Christ. The wider context here, it sets
out two courses. Two paths to follow, two extremely
different routes. You have mindless folly and you
have a reasonable understanding. Mindless folly brought about
as you give yourself over to drunkenness, as you dim your
senses and run after all forms of corruption. Or this reasonable
understanding of the will of God to walk in wisdom brought
about as the Spirit fills and blesses and works in our lives. Drunkenness leads to mindless
folly, but if you're to have this reasonable and correct understanding
of the will of God to walk in wisdom, you need to be filled
with the Spirit. Now, think with me a moment about
the significance of this contrast. And the significance is that
just as the ungodly and the foolish give themselves over to drunkenness
with wine or whatever they drink and they reap dreadful consequences
as their inhibitions go and the restraint is gone and so on.
They plunge into further and more damaging sin. Well, in contrast,
the child of God is really to give themselves over. You who
are a believer, you're to give yourself over, not to drink.
but to the spirit, to the spirit who's going to do the opposite,
who's going to sanctify you. The drink would lead you into
corruption. The drink would dull your senses and suddenly make
all sorts of sins seem all the more tolerable and exciting to
you. The spirit will do the opposite. You give yourself into his hand
and he's going to sanctify you. He's going to lead you into godliness
and truth, Christ-likeness. The point is that our lives are
to be lived under the control and the leading of the Holy Ghost.
I mean, that's what's happening with the drunkard. They have,
if you like, placed their life under the control of the drink. The Lord's people are to ensure
that we place our lives under the control of the Spirit. We need to lead lives that are
under the influence, but not of wine, not of alcohol, but
of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God. You know, when Paul writes
here, be filled with the Spirit, I think there is something worth
saying on that point. He's not so much teaching that believers
get a literal measure of the Spirit that comes and goes, you
know, as if it's possible to have half of the Spirit and you
seek to have all of the Spirit. I mean, the Spirit is a person.
It's worth remembering that the Spirit is a person. He's not
a substance. He's a person. It's not like you can have half
of a person. It's not like we need to have the full person
and we only have half of him sometimes. No, it's not talking
so much about a measure of the Spirit, but rather the point
is this Spirit who dwells as a full person within every believer,
by the way. Rather, the idea is that we are
to yield ourselves willingly to the Spirit's sanctifying work
so that he might pour his grace, his sanctifying work would be
done, pour his grace into our soul and produce all the fruits
of the Spirit. love and joy and peace and long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faithness, meekness, temperance, the fruits
of the Spirit. The idea is that he would have
the fullness, the full of us. He would have control over the
full of us and shape our lives in the right way. Our lives are
to be lived fully under his control and by his leading as he shows
us the will of God, as he shows us the gospel, Quite opposite
to producing a life of excess, of unrestrained living, he produces
godliness. It wouldn't be a right translation
of it, but if you let me paraphrase the sense of it, Paul's really
saying in this wider section, you're not to be mindless. You
need to grasp the will of God. And therefore, don't be giving
yourself over to wine. which would produce mindlessness
and carnality. Give yourself to the Spirit. Let him change
you more and more into the image of Christ. Let him have the fullness
of your life. Let him shape every area of your
life so that nothing's left untouched. And let him make you more and
more into the image of Christ that you're meant to be. Now
is your life in its fullness given over to the Spirit? Does
He have control of every part? Is the Spirit given alliance
to take the Word and apply it to every area? Because let's
face it, we can be willing perhaps to let the Spirit shape some
areas of our lives and then we keep that little closet there
of some area in life that we don't want touched, we don't
want changed and we're not giving the Spirit access to it. No,
are we giving the Spirit access to it all? To deal with our lives,
whatever is found there and to change it, shape it entirely
as he would see fit. To lead us in righteousness.
Is your life given over to the Spirit of God? The ungodly, at
least some, will give themselves over to the control of the drink.
Are you giving yourself fully to the control of the Spirit?
Now think with me then about the duty towards this Spirit-filled
life. The duty. And here I'm picking
up on the fact that this is a command. Don't miss that. It's a command.
This is an instruction for believers to take heed to and to respond
to with obedience. Be filled. Be filled with the
Spirit. Now, this command, it's stated
in the passive voice. Well, it's the same in English,
I suppose, but in Greek, verbs can be active, passive, or even
middle voice. The active voice, that's where
you're doing something. You throw the ball, you're doing
something, you're throwing. That's the active voice. The
middle voice is when you're doing something to yourself. So maybe
use it if you're getting dressed, you clothe yourself. That's the
middle voice. You're doing something, you're
taking action, but it's affecting you. And then there's the passive
voice, and that's where something is done to you. Well, this is
the passive voice. This is the passive voice. If
I tell you, be taught, that's the passive voice. You are to
be taught. Someone else is doing the teaching.
They are teaching you. This command is the passive voice.
Be filled. It's not you that's doing the
filling. It's the Spirit. The Spirit of God is the active
one here. It's not that you're filling
yourself up. He's doing the work. He's filling you. And yet, it is a command for
believers. Be filled with the Spirit. We're not to recognize, we're
not to look at this text and say, well, the Spirit fills us.
It's His work to do it. And therefore, I'm just gonna
sit back. This is the Spirit's work, so I'm going to leave it
to Him and have no interest in this myself. I'll just wait and
see what happens. We're to give attention to this. It's not a
suggestion, it's a command. It is the expected pursuit of
every believer. This is not just for the missionary,
it's not just for the minister, it's not just for the exceptional
servant of Christ, whoever that might be. This is for every believer.
The regular person in Ephesus, the husband and father in the
home, the wife and mother, the child, the master, the servant,
the slave. This is for the regular believer,
be filled. with the Spirit. And we're not
to be slack in giving attention to this. We are to pursue this. If I command you, be taught,
to take that example, a teacher is going to be doing the action.
They're going to be teaching you. And yet, if I were to command
you that, what I'm gonna mean by that is that you are under
obligation to receive what they are teaching. You have to be
receptive to it. you too have a part to play as
you seek to take instruction from the teacher. So if I tell
you, be taught, and well, you recognize, well, it's the teacher
doing the work, he's the one teaching me, but then you sit in the room
and you take out your novel and you start to read a story or
you take a crossword out and you start to fill in the answers,
you're not listening. Well, then you're not obeying
the instruction. There's a part to play for you there, even though
the teacher is doing the work and teaching. Well, so it is
here. The Spirit is doing the work.
It is the Spirit who fills us, who sanctifies us, who produces
Christ-likeness in us. But you need to be diligent.
You need to be earnest in seeking this filling of the Spirit. You
need to pursue this. The student needs to be earnest
in seeking to be taught. The student needs to pay attention,
as the teacher would teach. Are you earnest, diligent in
seeking this provision of the Holy Ghost? Are you diligently
looking to the Lord to fill you with all that you need by the
Spirit? Commenting on this verse, Matthew Henry said, we cannot
be guilty. of any excess in our endeavors
after these. Nay, we ought not to be satisfied
with a little of the Spirit, but to be aspiring after measures
so as to be filled with the Spirit. He says we cannot be guilty of
any excess in our endeavor. We're to endeavor after this.
And we're to endeavor after this provision by the Spirit and with
the Spirit. We're to endeavor with urgency. Are you endeavoring
to be filled with the Spirit? Are you endeavoring to receive
and to know His gracious influence in your life? You know, instead
of tarrying long at the wine like a drunkard, are you tarrying
long at the Word where the Spirit is pleased to speak to you and
minister to your soul? Are you crying unto God in prayer
for more of His influence in your life? Are you guarding yourself
from those sins that would grieve the Spirit and would hinder His
work within you? In fact, we could add to that,
are you confessing those sins that have grieved the Spirit
that they might be forgiven and put away? Are you diligently
seeking to be under the influence of the Spirit of God and receptive
to His work in your life? Because you have a duty towards
that end. As I said earlier, If you're
going to fulfil any of the instructions that you have in Ephesians here
or any other portion of God's word in terms of living a godly
Christian life practically for the Lord, if you're going to
fulfil that in the slightest, it has to be by the enabling
of the Spirit. You have no reserves of strength
within yourself to do it. You have no power. It must be
by the enabling of the Spirit. Are you seeking to live your
life under His influence? That it might be godly and glorifying
to the Savior. Think then as well with me about
the, I'm gonna call it the continuity in the Spirit-filled life. The
continuity in the Spirit-filled life. We read the instruction
in verse 18, be filled with the Spirit. What doesn't come across
quite so clearly in the English is that this command is in the
present tense, the continuous tense. Greek grammar has a way
of distinguishing between something that's ongoing and something
that is sort of a one-off event. And the command here is speaking
about something ongoing, something continuous. One of the real problems
I think we have when we come to a text like this is that In
the back of our minds somewhere, we are influenced by the sort
of Pentecostal second blessing type thinking and we sort of
think of believers being saved and that's the first step and
there's this need then for a second definitive moment in our existence
when we're then filled with the Spirit and from that particular
moment everything changes. Let me be clear, that's not what
this verse is teaching about. This verse is not urging you
to seek a particular second experience after your conversion where you
receive the fullness of the Spirit. Now, there are particular times
when the Spirit comes upon someone in special power, when the Spirit
comes upon someone enabling them for a particular task and gives
them real power for a certain season of service. I'm not taking
away from that. But that's not what this verse
is really speaking about. I mean, you'll see that type
of thing in Acts at various times. when the Spirit came upon the
Lord's people and gave real and special help in certain settings,
mainly to be witnesses for Christ and to be used in gathering souls
unto Christ. That happens, but that's not so much what this
verse is talking about. It's not talking about a particular dramatic
event, if you like. This verse is commanding us towards
something that is the ongoing daily experience of every believer. You could translate it, be continuously
filled or be being filled with the Spirit. May this filling
constantly be occurring. That's the sense. Now again,
this ties with what we were saying earlier. We were talking about
the Spirit day by day, exerting his influence in the lives of
God's people, producing fruits of righteousness, producing Christ-likeness. This is to be an ongoing thing.
And the challenge is, day by day, Are you seeking this filling
of the Spirit, this influence of the Spirit as He would come
and have control in all of your life? When you wake up in the
morning, you're not to rely on the blessings of yesterday. But
again, you're to begin the day coming in prayer to seek the
help of the Spirit in the work of the day, whatever it might
be. Again, to come to God's word that the Spirit might apply it
freshly to your soul and sustain your soul with nutrients and
nourishment from the Lord. That He might, yet again, through
the Scriptures especially, pour His influence into you. Day by
day, you're to be coming to the Spirit that He might fill you
up with Himself and His blessing, His influence. that day by day he might continue
to make you what you ought to be as a child of God. I said
again this is not presenting some one-off experience that
you get and then all of a sudden you're done with it. This is
commanding us to a daily walk with God, looking to the Spirit
of God for his grace and help. Now let me apply that to you
today as you got out of your bed and started to think of the
duties that lay ahead of you. Did you specifically seek the
Lord for this help, that the Spirit of God might be your teacher,
teaching you more of the things of Christ, conforming your life
to Christ? Not necessarily to do some very
dramatic thing, although perhaps at times that's needed. But did
you seek the Lord simply to help you walk with God today? Did
you seek the influence of the Spirit as you came to God's Word? And if you're not seeking the
influence, the power, that help of the Holy Ghost day by day,
continually, it's no wonder then if you're not making the progress
that you ought to be in your Christian experience. It's no
wonder when you stumble and fall into sins of the flesh that really
you should have had the power to resist had you been leaning
on the Spirit. When you go about the day in
your own strength, you're going to fall. You need to be continually
waiting upon the Spirit that he might apply the things of
Christ to your soul. We have before us then a duty
given that we're continually seeking the influence of the
Spirit upon us, producing these fruits of righteousness, conforming
us to the Savior, leading us not into riotous living, but
into godly living. Now, we began by thinking about
the contrast to drunkenness and the corruption that that brings
as we surrender our control in drunkenness. But finally, consider
with me the description of the Spirit-filled life. If we've
had something of the description of a life of drunkenness wherein
is excess, it leads to this riotous living. What does the spirit-filled
life look like? What does it produce? The description. Now, again, probably because
of the influence of Pentecostalism and charismatic notions, we tend
to have the idea that the filling of the spirit is always connected
with the dramatic. Now again, let me stress, sometimes
it is. Sometimes believers are suddenly
filled with the Spirit and what is meant there is that the Spirit
comes upon them with great power. For example, the day of Pentecost
is a key place where you'll see that. They were there assembled,
and then all of a sudden, they were filled with the Spirit.
They were given the miraculous ability to speak in various different
languages. They had power to preach the
gospel, and they had power to gather souls onto Christ. Again,
in Acts 4, the church was facing great persecution, and they were
together praying to God that he would give them boldness to
witness for Christ. And in answer to prayer, the
place was shaken where they were, assembled together and they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the Word of God
with boldness and there the Spirit came upon them and there was
this special power equipping them to go out with boldness
and to face the dangers and to witness for Christ. Again it
was by being filled with the Spirit that Stephen was able
to dramatically and yet calmly allow his life to be taken as
he became a martyr for the Lord. So the spirit does come with
particular power in certain moments. And when we're serving Christ,
we should seek him and seek the spirit for power in that service. But what I want you to notice
here in Ephesians 5 is that the filling of the spirit is also,
and we could say normally, demonstrated in what we think of as the ordinary.
Now, because of the verse divisions, you might have missed it, but
from verse 18 to the end of verse 21, it forms one continuous sentence. And having told people to be
filled with the Spirit, Paul then goes on to list a number
of different things that flow from being filled with the Spirit,
a number of things that you could say are evidences of Spirit-filled
life. Now, I'm not going to go into
all of these today, But let me simply point them out to you.
Be filled with the Spirit, in verse 19, speaking to yourselves
in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And there's fellowship
there, as believers exhort one another with the truths of the
gospel in spiritual song, in our praise. Be filled with the
Spirit, singing, halfway through verse 19, singing and making
melody in your heart. to the Lord. And there's praise
and worship as we joyfully sing unto the Lord who deserves our
all. We could say, be filled with
the Spirit, verse 20, giving thanks always for all things
unto God and the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And there is contentment and thankfulness in all that the
Lord has given us. Be filled with the Spirit. And here's a
final description. Submitting yourselves. Verse 21. Submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And there you
have order as we serve the Lord within the system of discipline
and authority that He's established. Submitting ourselves to authority. Now sometimes we think of the
spirit-filled life as one where someone is away off doing something
dramatic. They're doing these amazing, interesting things all
the time. And yet here, Paul directly describes the spirit-filled
life as one where believers operate together within a community. They're exhorting one another,
together praising God with thankful hearts with contentment in all
that God has given and done. And as we operate orderly, one
with the other, within the structures of authority that God has appointed
within his church and within family life and so on too, submitting
ourselves one to the other. Now we'll take time to look at
some of these in more detail in days to come, but the Spirit-filled
life is one that gathers believers together, to mutually bless each
other as we rejoice in the gospel of Jesus Christ and together
let it shape our lives. I suggest to you that this is
a practical way of describing what was said in Ephesians 2.
Back in Ephesians 2 in verse 21, we had been told that Jesus
Christ is the chief cornerstone and it says in him that all the
building You have there the picture of this temple of God, the church,
being built, joined together, lifted up through the Spirit.
The Spirit at work to build this temple. And that's what's being
described back in chapter 5 here in more practical words if you like.
The spirit filled life is one where God builds you a believer
into the community of God's people as a participant within the life
of Christ's church and where together we grew in community
as God's people and together we rejoice in what God has done
for us and for this world in Jesus Christ and together we
are brought to labor and show forth together the glory of God. The Spirit of God does not lead
people to be vigilante servants. Quite the opposite. I mean, that's
sometimes the way it's put almost, isn't it? You've got someone
off and they've got no connection with God's people. They're just
off doing their own thing and, oh, the Spirit's leading me into
this. I don't know about every case,
but certainly in the main, that's not how the Spirit works. The
Spirit-filled life is one where God's people are brought together
to serve God within the community of God's people. Are you earnest to be filled
with the Spirit? Are you striving to serve God within God's church
for the glory of Christ? Now, we'll see more about some
of these aspects of the Spirit-filled life in time to come, but the
challenge to us today is that the command has been given to
you. You're not to be foolish and unwise and mindless, but
you're to be understanding what the will of God is. And so that
you might have that understanding and walk with God, the Lord has
provided you with his spirit. Will you give your life believer
totally under the influence of the Holy Ghost? Will you let
him have control? Will you let him deal with every dark corner
of your being? Will you let him be your teacher,
your guide, your source of strength, your molder and shaper, enabling
you to humbly serve God among God's people? May the Lord apply
his word to us tonight for his name's sake. Amen.
The Spirit filled life
Series Ephesians
| Sermon ID | 61218611142 |
| Duration | 40:04 |
| Date | |
| Category | Prayer Meeting |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 5:15-21; John 14:15-31 |
| Language | English |
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