1. "Really, that's all that's left of honesty and sincerity when you remove Christian truth about depravity and love."

2. "Habits change with our loves. And all of our loves coming together in God, coming to be the same, is how our unity is formed. We will only be united as a congregation as much as we're united in our primary love of God."

3. "You understand God's will not by closing your eyes and listening to His voice, but by opening your eyes and reading His Word."

4. "Friends, when we share the gospel with others, we want to make it clear that it is glorious and wonderful and it will cost you everything."

5. "This age, these days are evil in the sense that this world is fallen in its rebellion against God. Satan is the prince of the power of the air, and the sons of disobedience are abroad. It's not that the measure of time, 24 hours a day, is evil. The spiritual season of fallenness that we are in is evil."

6. "Under the influence of the Holy Spirit we do not lose control, we gain it."

7. "It's not that we get more of Him, but that He, so to speak, gets more of us."

8. "Brothers and sisters, Thanksgiving is not just one day next month. It's every day, every month for the Christian."

9. "When you step into a position of authority, you're stepping unusually into the place of God in someone else's life. It's something you must use extremely carefully and only and always for their good, never for your own benefit."

10. "Human authority is limited, but it is also essentially good. Its abuses do not delegitimize it any more than adultery delegitimizes marriage, or hypocrisy the church, or drunkenness eating."

Observation Questions

1. In Ephesians 5:15-16, what two contrasting ways of walking does Paul describe, and what reason does he give for making the best use of time?

2. According to verse 17, what does Paul command believers not to be, and what does he instruct them to understand instead?

3. In verse 18, what two contrasting states does Paul present, and what does he say results from getting drunk with wine?

4. What three activities does Paul describe in verses 19-20 that characterize those who are filled with the Spirit, and to whom are these activities directed?

5. In verse 21, what does Paul say believers should do toward one another, and what motivation does he give for this action?

6. Looking at the structure of verses 15-18, what three pairs of negative and positive commands does Paul give to guide how believers should walk?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does Paul connect wisdom with understanding "what the will of the Lord is" (v. 17), and how does this differ from the world's approach to wisdom that says "be yourself" and "do what comes naturally"?

2. What is the significance of Paul's phrase "the days are evil" (v. 16), and how does this reality shape the urgency of his commands about walking wisely and making the best use of time?

3. How does the contrast between being drunk with wine and being filled with the Spirit (v. 18) illustrate two fundamentally different ways of living, and what does each produce in a person's life?

4. Why does Paul describe Spirit-filled living in terms of community activities—addressing one another, giving thanks, and submitting to one another (vv. 19-21)—rather than primarily individual spiritual experiences?

5. How does "reverence for Christ" (v. 21) serve as the foundation for submission to one another, and what does this reveal about the relationship between our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with others?

Application Questions

1. What specific habits, hobbies, or digital distractions have consumed your time this past week, and what practical step could you take to "redeem" some of that time for reading Scripture, prayer, or meaningful spiritual conversations?

2. When you face a significant decision, do you tend to rely on your own instincts ("do what comes naturally") or do you actively seek to understand God's revealed will in Scripture? What would it look like this week to approach one specific decision by first consulting God's Word?

3. How does your participation in congregational singing reflect the Spirit-filled life Paul describes? What would change if you approached singing as a way to "address one another" and build up fellow believers rather than as a personal worship experience alone?

4. Identify one circumstance in your life right now where you have struggled to give thanks to God. How might Romans 8:28 and the truth that even afflictions can be among God's mercies help you cultivate thanksgiving in that situation?

5. What authority in your life (parent, employer, government official, church leader) do you find most difficult to submit to, and how might cultivating deeper "reverence for Christ" change your attitude and actions toward that person or institution?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Romans 12:1-8 — This passage parallels Paul's call to be transformed by the renewal of the mind rather than conformed to the world, connecting wisdom and understanding God's will to practical Christian living.

2. Proverbs 23:29-35 — This extended warning about the destructive effects of alcohol abuse provides the Old Testament background for Paul's command not to get drunk with wine.

3. Colossians 3:12-17 — This parallel passage describes Spirit-filled community life through similar language of psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, thankfulness, and doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.

4. 1 Peter 2:13-25 — Peter's teaching on submission to human authorities "for the Lord's sake" expands on Paul's instruction about submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

5. Acts 6:1-7 — This account of the selection of the first deacons, who were "full of the Spirit and of wisdom," demonstrates the same combination of Spirit-filling and wisdom that Paul calls for in Ephesians 5.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The World's False Wisdom: "Be Yourself" and "Do What Comes Naturally"

II. We Need Wisdom: Understanding and Applying God's Word (Ephesians 5:15-17)

III. We Need God's Spirit: Being Filled Rather Than Drunk (Ephesians 5:18-21)

IV. Living as Spirit-Filled Believers in Evil Days

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Recently, what song have you heard? What movie have you watched? What show have you seen? What story have you read? What editorial or sitcom or drama or discussion that has not had as part of its Basic ingredients taken for granted, these two simple ideas.

You've got to be yourself.

You've got to do what comes naturally.

You've got to be yourself.

You've got to do what comes naturally.

Really, that's all that's left of honesty and sincerity when you remove Christian truth about depravity and love.

That's all that's left of honesty and sincerity when you remove Christian truth about depravity and love.

I think these two common sentiments, these two common comments, you gotta be yourself and you gotta do what comes naturally, govern public assumptions about morality. They guide plot lines and platitudes.

Often even the advice we give and the decisions that we make ourselves.

And yet I think in order to do what Paul has been telling the Christians to do in Ephesians, these two assumptions have to be rooted out and replaced. Instead of our natures, we need God's Spirit. Instead of our wisdom, We need His. And that's what brings us to our next passage from Ephesians, chapter 5. Let's open our Bibles once again to the book of Ephesians.

You'll find it beginning on page 976 in the Bibles provided. Ephesians is a book that stands against any attempt to most fundamentally define us by our past. It's not that our past is unimportant, our past is dark. And that is a hugely important part of us according to Ephesians. We were dead spiritually, Paul wrote in chapter 2.

But, and this is where the message of Ephesians just comes alive, look there at Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5.

Large numbers are the chapter numbers, small numbers are the verse numbers.

God, who is rich in mercy, has made us alive. So, in the church, people with different backgrounds are given the same Spirit and the same future. And so, differences we have in the past are relativized. They become less important. They're not determinative because God has brought us into this new realm of spiritual light and life which will culminate in our life forever with Him and with each other.

Friend, if you're not a Christian, this is the great news that we've already been singing about and praying about and speaking about and reading about this morning, and it's good news for you. There is a God. Your suspicion is correct. This God has made you in His image. I don't even have to know you personally.

To know that, because the Bible is clear that we are all made in the image of God. That is, we all reflect His character.

The truth also is that we all are, as Ephesians 2 says, spiritually dead. That is, in Adam we have all sinned, and in our own lives we've all confirmed that sin as we choose to do what we want rather than what God wants. And as we've already sung several times today, God would be right and holy and just to judge us for our sins. And yet in His amazing love, that judgment has fallen upon Jesus Christ for all of us who will turn from our sins and trust in Him. God sent His only Son to bear the wrath that we have justly deserved.

This is good news. God raised Him from the dead. He presented His sacrifice of atonement to His Heavenly Father who accepted it, and we all now are summoned to forgiveness in Christ. Would you like to know more about what that looks like in your own life? We would love to tell you.

We would love to try to help you understand what it means to repent and believe. There are about 700 people in the room here who would like to tell you. You can answer their prayers by talking to them about this.

Or you can talk to any of us at the doors on the way out afterward. We would love to talk to you about this. Well, all of that is talked about in the first half of this letter Paul wrote to the Ephesians. The second half of the letter, Paul really moves to the practical outworkings of our new life. What does it look like to be made alive spiritually?

Okay, so I'm not dead anymore. I'm alive. What does that really mean? Now in our passage last week, you'll remember, We moved from... we rather watch Paul write about how we Christians have moved from darkness to light.

You see that there in chapter 5, verse 8.

At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. And that change of behavior is to be expected, really, when we move from darkness to light. Habits change with our loves. And all of our loves coming together in God, coming to be the same, is how our unity is formed. We will only be united as a congregation as much as we're united in our primary love of God.

So far as we have other things that vie for that love, those other things will be alternative centers of union for some of us, and therefore factors in our division as a church. Do you want us to be more united? Grow in loving God. Try to help your brothers and sisters grow in loving God as well. In these last chapters of the letter, Paul is reaching back to that call in chapter 4, verse 2, to walk with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.

So now that these Ephesians have been converted, you remember the hymn Paul cited that we closed with last week, the hymn he cites there in chapter 5 verse 14 about conversion, about being awake. Well, how should they walk now that they are awake? What do they need in order to do that? Last week in chapter 5 verses 7 to 14 we considered how to walk as children of light. Do you remember the four things we said?

Discern, avoid, walk, warn. Those are some instructions in verses 7 to 14. This time we're asking what we need in order to do this. Listen to our passage for this morning, Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 15 to 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. And 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 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. Friends, this sermon will follow the structure of the passage. If you'll keep looking at the passage for a moment, the controlling verb there in verse 15 is that verb walk.

Once again, like last week, walk. That's what he's talking about. Walk. It's this image Paul has used throughout Ephesians. And really, he's making two points.

You see those three sets of contradictions in verses 15, Not as wise, but as wise. Verse 17, Not be foolish, but understand. Verse 18, Not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. Those three contradictions tip you off to what He's saying. He's calling for wisdom there in the end of verse 15 and verse 16, and then understanding in verse 17.

So really He's making the point of wisdom there, wisdom in verse 16 as we know the times, verse 17 as we understand the will of the Lord. So that's wisdom. And the second large point He's making is being filled with the Spirit. You see that, verse 18. Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.

And then English teachers among us, there are a number of participles that follow in the English. They are also participles in the Greek. And you can find the points Paul is making. That is how he says it looks like to be filled with the Spirit, and particularly in these three participles that follow, verse 19, addressing one another, 20, giving thanks, and 21 submitting to one another. So what does it look like to be filled with the Spirit?

Speaking in tongues? Well, here anyway, it seems like it looks like addressing one another in Psalms and hymns, giving thanks always to God, and submitting to one another. That's what it looks like to be filled with the Spirit, according to Paul in our passage. So that's the way we'll walk as we go through this passage. Two points in Wisdom, verses 15 to 17, and the Spirit in verses 18 to 21.

That's what we need. Notice how he begins our passage there in verse 15. Look carefully then how you walk, and that then points us back up to the hymn of conversion in verse 14. The question is, if we're to be a whole community of people so spiritually awakened, enlightened, how are we to live differently than we were living? How are we to live differently than the world around us?

What do we need to walk carefully like this?

We need these two requirements, the Spirit and wisdom. Which interesting, as we were studying this on Friday, Barrick pointed out, Hey, that's the same as was said of the first deacons in Acts 6. They were full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom. Acts 6:3. Thank you, Barrick.

So, what do we need to walk carefully as children of light in a dark world? We need wisdom and we need God's Spirit. First, we need wisdom. That's what we see in verses 15 to 17. Let me begin with verse 17, understanding, and then we can turn to applications at times in verses 15 and 16.

17, understanding God's Word. Look at verse 17, Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Now when we say the will of God, some of you who are theologically minded will think, But doesn't God have an unchanging will, yes. That's talked about back in chapter 1, actually, verse 11. Paul has been very clear when he says, In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

Theologians have called that His secret will. That is, that's a declaration of what will happen. But here, when Paul is talking about the Lord's will, he means His revealed will. His will of what we should do and what we should live like. That's what he's concerned with here and in the rest of the letter.

And because these days are evil, as he says in verse 16, you don't want to spend any more time foolishly or ignorantly. Instead, just like he said up in verse 10, we should try to discern, try to understand what the will of the Lord is. We should learn what God tells us in His Word. The way we can rethink mistakes the world has made, like errors embedded in these ideas, you've got to be yourself and you've got to do what comes naturally, the way we can understand these mistakes is by reading God's Word, understanding the truth about Him as He has taught it to us. Friend, if you're here today and you're not a Christian, You may think naturally that good intentions are all that God requires of you.

And that may seem wise to you. But the Bible says that God has made foolish the wisdom of the world. God gives us His wisdom in the Scriptures. And I would encourage you to find a friend to study it with. Friends is the center of what you take to be wise, what you take to be what God desires and wants of you found in Scripture?

We're called here to understand, very much like what Paul wrote to the Roman Christians in Romans 12, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. When Paul says here in verse 17 what the will of the Lord is, This is exactly what he's been explaining in this epistle. He's been explaining what the Lord's will is. So if you want to understand how to live in these dark and evil days, study Ephesians, study this passage. How do you understand God's will?

By going out into the woods and hearing a voice from God? No. You understand God's will by closing your eyes and listen, not by closing your eyes and listening to his voice.

But by opening, not by closing your ears. There we go. I knew that didn't seem right.

I summarized it so well yesterday when I was thinking about this. You understand God's will, no, yeah, not by closing your eyes and listening to His voice, but by opening your eyes and reading His Word.

Friends, it's not that complicated.

No, no. Saying it can be complicated in a particularly clever and memorable way, but the idea itself is less complicated than my apparent attempt.

This is how God has chosen to speak to us, by His Word. I remember a friend one time going to a meeting of Christian students in a Cambridge college. And he said he was there with them for an hour. The lights were turned down low. Everybody was standing up.

They were singing loudly and longingly, and they were just praying a lot that God would speak to them. He said the whole time their Bibles were laying there, closed on the seats. I think that stands for the experience a lot of well-meaning people today have. They sincerely want to hear from God, but they have been misinstructed, misled about how it is that God speaks to us. I pray that God will give you wisdom about what He teaches about those very areas where you're most tempted to folly.

I pray that you'll learn how to please the Lord as you study His Word and find out His great plan for salvation, His plan for history, His plan for the church. I pray that your heart will be transformed by it and that you will live out what the will of the Lord is.

Just think of how you've grown in the past. In times in your spiritual life when you find yourself growing in understanding, what have been the tools that God has used to help you get into His Word and understand it? Maybe it's godly parents, church, a Bible study, friends, discipling, books, maybe reflecting on what you've been reading as you pray. Friends, all of these can help us to understand God's Word. We should constantly be studying His Word.

Pray for your pastors here to understand well so we can teach you wisdom. That's why we're here. That's why I'm preaching right now, so that you will not be foolish, but you will understand what the will of the Lord is.

But we have wisdom in order to apply it. And that's what Paul has said up in verse 15.

We want to apply God's Word. Look at the end of verse 15, he says, Not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. So Paul says here, We're not to live foolishly, but as those who are thoughtful and sensible. Remember Jesus warned us that it would not be easy to follow Him. He said to His disciples in Matthew 10, Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

It's challenging to follow him in this world. Now one of the reason that spontaneous public calls to follow Christ with a public sort of affirmation, whether it's walking down the front or getting baptized spontaneously, one of the reasons they're so difficult is because in the pitch of emotion in a moment, people can make all kinds of decisions sincerely and falsely at the same time. Whereas if they understood, if they read the small print, they wouldn't have signed on the dotted line. Friends, when we share the gospel with others, we want to make it clear that it is glorious and wonderful and it will cost you everything. If you're talking about the real stuff, we want to be kind in presenting that that's the way the gospel intersects our fallen world.

That's why Paul uses this phrase here in verse 16, making the best use of the time. The image is one of making the most of your opportunities in this season by redeeming, buying up the time. Paul speaks similarly to the Colossians. He ties it specifically to their relationship with outsiders when he says in Colossians 4:5, Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of time. Friends, the days are dangerous.

We live in a spiritual combat zone. Those of you who have served in the military in an active combat area know that when you step outside of the compound, when you go beyond the wire, you live differently. Paul is saying something like that here about the spiritual assaults that regularly fill our days. Every choice can be significant.

So we are trying to buy up time. That's the image he uses, redeem. Which these opportunities that present themselves to us and not to make the best use of time is to waste it. As one writer said, if we lose our time to repent, we shall repent forever that we once lost our time.

This phrase, the days are evil, really strikes people as strange, but Paul uses this kind of language elsewhere. In Galatians 1 he referred to the present evil age. Friends, this age, these days are evil in the sense that this world is fallen in its rebellion against God. Satan is the prince of the power of the air, and the sons of disobedience are abroad. It's not that the measure of time, 24 hours a day, is evil.

The spiritual season of fallenness that we are in is evil. Paul knew by God's Word and by his own experience the evil days. He was in. He was a prisoner when he was writing this for doing nothing more than teaching God's Word. Depraved men in a fallen world made these days dangerous for Jesus, and he promised they would be for his followers.

As one writer put it about these Christians Paul was writing to, when they were converted, it was their lives, not their surroundings, that were transformed.

Well, that's true of us too. Even when I was working on this sermon, I had to pray again and again for God to focus my mind and my thoughts to give me understanding. Friends, the wisdom of God, Bible wisdom, is what gives us the unusual wisdom that should characterize us as Christians. We are to be those who live with an understanding of the wisdom of God that He's revealed to us in His plan in Christ. And part of this divine wisdom is, as he says here in verse 16, making the best use of time, of every opportunity.

It's a great part of Christian wisdom to redeem the time, to use it for its best purposes, like a collector buying up bits of time, opportunities for his collection, turning them into trophies for God and his grace. Like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7, the time is short. From now on, those who use the things of the world should use them as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. So friends, how are you doing on this?

Well, Mark, are you talking about time management in general? Not exactly. Related to that. It's talking about more really a heart posture first and then a wisdom to know how to act with that heart posture. So think of your life right now.

You have work time, you have down time. When is God's time?

Do you ever say no to spending more time at work?

On the other hand, what hobbies and habits have consumed your time this last week? You realize, don't you, that video games are built to be addictive. I mean, literally, they spend far more than our church's annual budget every day in trying to perfect how once you have tasted, you won't want to stop. Facebook is rebranding itself metaverse and is pouring untold amounts of money to make sure that more and more of our life is spent online.

That is not me talking to Caleb or Adam or Lindsay, but me maybe writing them something, or reading something by somebody I don't know, or doing any of a thousand other things, but not talking to another person directly. Friends, share with some friends over lunch today about ways that you've looked at your schedule and that as you reflect on it, you can see like, I'm not sure I'm leaving space to be able to read Scripture or have spiritual conversations during my normal day. Maybe there are ways you can recover your Metro ride or your walk home from class in order to read God's Word or have a serious conversation or take time to pray. Maybe you could open up your schedule to some mature Christian friends and ask for thought or feedback. Like some of you may open up your budgets.

Pray for me and other pastors here as we try to apply God's Word. We spend hours and hours studying God's Word. We also need to understand the times so we can apply it correctly. We need His help, having understood His Word, to look around and accurately understand our times. So in our teaching and in our lives as a congregation, we are supposed to be helping each other have wisdom sufficient for these evil days.

Time spent here should be time well spent for all of us.

So, what we need to walk carefully is wisdom, understood and applied, and we get it from God's Word. So, to walk carefully in these evil days, we need wisdom, and what we also need, according to this passage, is God's Spirit, number two. We need to be Spirit-filled, as Paul wrote here in verse 18, and this is really our third contrast. In the passage, Paul wrote, verse 18, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but instead be filled with the Spirit.

That first phrase is straightforward enough. I think it's the clearest place in the Bible that we're told, Don't get drunk. Scripture is clear about the destructive nature of alcohol. Abused. Look with me over at Proverbs 23, Old Testament.

Go to Psalms, take a right, go to Proverbs.

Chapter 23.

Look at verse 29.

29 to 35 is all about this. So if you're looking for a passage to think about alcohol, use and abuse, Proverbs 23 is your chapter, and verses 29 to 35 is your passage.

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause?

Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine, those who go to try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end, it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.

You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast. They struck me, you'll say, but I was not hurt. They beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I wake? I must have another drink.

Friends, getting drunk is the gateway to the old works of darkness. Just like the Spirit is the gateway to the fruit of the Spirit and the new life in Christ. John Gill, a pastor in London 200 years ago now, was writing about drinking alcohol, and he warned, he said, not for honest delight and lawful pleasure, but excessive drinking of it. Generally speaking, excessive drinking deprives persons of the use of reason. It is an abuse of the creature.

It is opposed to walking honestly. For it, persons are to be excluded from the communion of the church. It hurts the mind. Memory and judgment, deprives of reason and sets a man below a beast. It brings diseases on the body and wastes the estate.

That means it costs a lot. It unfits for business and duty. It opens a door for every sin and exposes to shame and danger and therefore should be carefully avoided and especially by professors of religion. Here's an interesting story. Twenty-five years ago, I led this congregation to change.

It's church covenant. Church covenant is the statement that all of us who join make. This is what we understand the Bible says we're to live like and we intend to live that way.

So, for about fifty years, from 1946 to 1996, our Church members covenanted to abstain from the sale of and use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage. When I got here, I thought that was an unbiblical requirement. I thought it was an unbiblical hindrance to membership in this local Church. Furthermore, I looked through the history of our Church, and our Church had two covenants before that one, neither one of which mentioned alcohol. So for most of the life of our church at that period, it had not been in the church covenant.

So I moved that we revert to a lightly edited version of our church's second covenant, which simply omitted any reference to alcohol. This we unanimously did in 1996. That move, friends, you've got to understand, is in no way contradicting Paul's warning here. Paul's warning here is very clear: Getting drunk leads to debauchery. It impairs the fruit of God's Spirit that He means to produce in the lives of the believer.

Paul says to Titus that anyone open to charge of debauchery, reckless living, wild shamelessness, this is exactly what can be brought on by excessive drinking, that such a man is not qualified to be an elder in the church. And even more broadly, Peter in 1 Peter 4 refers to Christians not joining their old friends in the debauchery that they used to partake in. And when you look a few verses before, you see he means drinking parties. So, friends, debauchery is what happens when you lose control, when you become more like an animal, instinct over intellect, impulse over careful conclusion. You cannot walk carefully when you drink too much.

This is why I myself never drink alcohol. Mark, at meals? No. Mark, once again, no. I was once asked to do a toast to a retiring chairman of the religion department at Duke.

I was flown back down there after I'd graduated at this big gala banquet.

And I offered my toast with a good glass of water and was happy to do it. The toast was no less effective for having used water. I don't need any help in being less self-controlled in my actions. Instead, Paul says we should be filled with the Spirit. We know from Jesus' words in John 14 that the believer is indwelt by God's Spirit.

We know from 1 Corinthians 12 that every believer has been baptized by the Spirit at our conversion. Theologically, we can say that God regenerates us by His Spirit, John 3. Indwells us by His Spirit individually, 1 Corinthians 6, and collectively, 1 Corinthians 3. So that His Spirit's presence in our lives is His seal upon us, Paul said up in chapter 4 here in verse 20. Here in our passage, filling with the Spirit, Paul is commanding something different.

Here he also says that we're to be filled with the Spirit, that is, that the Spirit should inundate us entirely, our thoughts, our loves, our actions. It's like what he had prayed for up in chapter 3, verse 19, when Paul prayed that these Christians would be filled with all the fullness of God. Or in chapter 4, when he instructed them not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom they were sealed for the day of redemption. Paul is encouraging them to cooperate with the fullness of the Spirit that they've been given and that Paul wants them to maintain. So the participles here that follow on that I pointed out, the addressing in verse 19, giving thanks in verse 20, submitting in verse 21, these are not the means of how we get filled with the Spirit.

These are the consequences that follow being filled with the Spirit. So it's not how we're filled, but what it looks like to be filled. So the result of this filling of the Spirit is not inebriation, but self-control. As John Stott put it so well, Under the influence of the Holy Spirit we do not lose control, we gain it. So the Holy Spirit is not some liquid that gets more of it poured into us.

No, He's a living being, indivisible, who indwells us and His filling us is exercising a growing sway over our various loves and actions. It's not that we get more of Him, but that He, so to speak, gets more of us.

It reminds me of how Sinclair Ferguson has described conversion, a lifelong transformation with a once and for all beginning. This is what we pray will typify our whole congregation, this addressing one another in verse 19 and giving thanks always in verse 20 and submitting to one another in verse 21 should be what the Capitol Hill Baptist Church is marked by instead of being marked by people acting as they do when they're intoxicated or drunk. So as Paul says in verse 18, Instead of getting drunk, be filled with the Spirit. The one with whom you've been sealed, who you take care not to grieve, be filled with all the fullness of God by the Holy Spirit and watch your life become renewed and marked with singing and thanksgiving and trust. None of this comes naturally to us when we're still sons of disobedience, like he says up in verse 6.

But this kind of life is according to our new nature when we are born again in Christ. And we need God's wisdom for it. So this is Paul's basic exhortation here in verses 18 to 21. Be filled with the Spirit. Are you somebody here who claims to be filled with the Spirit?

All right, well let's see how these three ways, these three evidences are found in your life.

First one, verse 19. And if you've ever wondered why we sing so much here, this might be useful for you. Look at verse 19, Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Now, when you really get into this verse, I think it surprises people because they're not used to thinking of us going to church fundamentally to deal with each other. We tend to think of it very individualistically, I'm going to go do business with God.

It's a wonderful thing to do business with God. That's certainly a central part of being at church. But you're mistaken if you think that's all there is when you gather as a church. Hebrews 10:25, We're told to meet together and by meeting together to encourage one another.

And a prominent theme in the New Testament is that as Christians gather, we gather to address one another. So here in our passage, the only way that Paul is speaking of edifying one another, addressing one another, is by the singing that he goes on and explains here in the verse. The one another here would certainly include our time in church, but it also could extend to what we do with families and friends. The way that Paul says here to address each other is not in a spoken word. He tells us to do that other places.

But here Paul tells us to address each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And because several of you have asked, I don't think these are three distinct categories. Something that's a psalm, that's a spiritual song, that's a hymn. I think they're three words referring to the same thing, what we do when we sing. Part of the way that we'll get the wisdom we need that we were just thinking about is by singing the doxology so much that it gets in our bloodstream.

Or being struck again by Christ's sacrificial love for us and stricken, smitten, and afflicted. We catechize each other. When we sing. I think you're gonna remember the words of songs we sing more than you're gonna remember even mistakes I make in my sermons. I trust you understand something of the importance of singing of our times together.

I'd love to hear you sing. I love to sing with you. It's what I miss most probably when I'm away from this assembly. But everything about it is important. You realize the words we sing, we're very careful about what hymns we sing.

The words matter. It also matters how the words fit with the theme of the morning that we're seeing from the passage of Scripture. So we're trying to look for words that will help you be prepared for the things that are going to be talked about in the teaching from God's Word. And it's not just the words and the theme, but there's also, honestly, the singability of the melody. Somebody may think, Hey, this is great words, a great poem, but you try to sing it and it's just like, it's as bad as the national anthem as far as a tune, no offense.

It's just, you know, just very great jumping of notes and just, unless you're a professional singer, you're probably not going to do real well at it. So we try to look specifically for songs that we think are singable in their melody. And not just the melody, unlike a lot of churches today, we understand that we have like a 600-person choir.

So we're trying to sing in parts. So that's why we always print the music in the bulletin. Now we know most of you don't read music. We're very aware of that. But you know what?

Probably 10 or 20% of you do, and a lot of the rest of you will stand around somebody who starts singing and you can hit those notes more easily than the high notes of the melody, and you'll start singing those notes. And so a culture just grows. And you know what happens when you sing parts? It actually brings out the words more. When you hit a good chord, you tend to remember that phrase, and that word gets burned in your memory even more.

So the parts are part of what we're doing here. Even the way we tend to sing unison on the first stanza, just in case it's new for anybody, we'll all sing the melody, and then the parts start vigorously in the second stanza. That's when we'll break into them, as the song sort of unfurls. And shows itself to us. And then even the way we think through accompaniment.

So a piano and a guitar, we're thankful for the players, but we really don't want to hear much of them. We want to hear much of each other. We want to hear much of the words. Those are just to accompany us. They're just to help us.

And thus we tend to, when we can, go a cappella, at least on the last stanza, because when we do that, do you know what happens? Again, oh, Mark, the music is so beautiful. It is, and I do like that. But the words pop. People hear what's being said, and it sticks.

Friends, even the lighting, the fact that you're not in a dark room with just a front lit up like you're at some concert, but you're in a light room where we get to see each other even on the darkest of days. The room here is well lit. And not only the lighting, but friends, even the architecture. Do you notice the way this is set up? It wasn't my idea.

This building is actually older than I am. This building has been here a long time. The pulpit was understood in the middle because God's Word is central. And we are radiating around it so that we can hear it equally well, but also that we can see and hear each other. When we sing.

All of that is intentional in the way we try to hear each other. So brothers and sisters, thank you for how much you sing loudly. Keep going. Bless and encourage each other. And know that we're also singing to the Lord, he says here.

Just a note for non-Christian friends with us today. Some people think that the idea that Jesus Christ was divine was a theological construction from hundreds of years later. But here we just see one of many pieces of evidence that the first Christians regarded Jesus Christ as divine. They intended to worship Him. We see here they sing songs to Him.

It says, the Lord, that He means Jesus. And also notice that Paul writes, We should sing to the Lord with your heart. It's not a non-rational, mystical experience. Your heart means to include your mind. The objects of your affections, the Lord and the Lord's people, are clearly in mind.

So you may enjoy the singing here more or less.

It may be your style or not, but the real questions are these: Are we pleasing God by our singing? Are we building up others? Are we being strengthened ourselves? We help each other by our singing here. So don't be passive like you're at some concert.

Jump right in. Sing loudly. So show the fullness of God's Spirit by singing loudly and joyfully. Also by giving thanks to God. That's verse 20.

Look at verse 20. Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank God because of all these gifts that He's given to us: His Spirit, His Son, His Word, His wisdom. We go on and on. Brothers and sisters, Thanksgiving is not just one day next month.

It's every day, every month for the Christian. When such a good God has given such sinful people His only Son and the gift of saving faith in Him and has who has forgiven us for our sins and adopted us as His own children. How can we not thank Him always? Paul says here, Give thanks always. Fresh mercies are fresh occasions of thanksgiving.

And when will God's mercies in the Christian's life ever cease? Even our afflictions are among God's mercies to His children. Is that a new thought to you? That God's afflictions are among His mercies to His children? Turn over to Romans chapter 8.

Very famous verse about this.

Romans 8:28 might be helpful to you.

1. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. All things there seems like they're everything. And then look down a few verses later, look at verse 35. And you wonder, well, what does He mean by all things?

Well, why wasn't Paul be specific here? Well, look at verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors.

Through Him who loved us. Do you see that? All these things there in verse 37. Brothers and sisters, just think of some of the things that you can thank God for. There are so many, especially if this is hard for you.

You may want to reflect on what have been some circumstances that you have not been able to give thanks in.

If you can think of circumstances like that, you're like every other person in this building. You're not a unique spiritual leper. You're a normal human. But friends, the good news, the hope for us in this passage is that we can learn to give thanks for God. Investigate your heart.

Investigate why you haven't been able to. Pray for Him to help you. And notice to whom we give thanks: to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There at the end of Ephesians 5:20. God is sovereign over these evil days, and we thank Him.

He's sovereign over what we call our good days, for those we thank Him. Thanking God also tends to push our pride out, doesn't it, when we remember to speak openly of our dependence on God? And notice our thanks come to God in and through Jesus Christ. He is the necessary means to our relating to God is our benefactor and even our friend, even our Father. This is why here you'll notice if you're new to this church, we always pray at the end in Christ's name.

It's not a required formula. It's not in the Bible, those words particularly. But the idea is there. We can only approach God through Jesus Christ. So we pray in His name.

We're teaching ourselves and those who Listen, how it is that sinners like us can be heard and heeded by the Holy God. So God's Holy Spirit leads us to give thanks to God the Father through God the Son. Every Sunday morning here, you will hear us praising and thanking God in our prayers and in our songs and in other words we speak, because that's what we're all about. Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. From our very hearts we should be singing praise and thanks to God.

This is another way that the fullness of the Spirit shows itself. The final way mentioned here, and the decidedly less popular way of the fullness of the Spirit expressing itself in our lives is in our submitting to one another. You see in our last verse, verse 21, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. And just to be clear, I do not think he means merely submitting to other Christians in the church. This would be a far easier verse if that's all it meant.

But if you look at the three relationships he's just about to bridge into talking to, about marriage, about parents and children, and about masters and slaves. So what Paul is doing here, he is taking all of these principles he's been giving us in chapters 4 and 5, and he's then beginning to walk into three specific examples of the relationships many of them are going to have with their non-Christian husband. They're not yet saved children. Their unsaved master. How are they to relate to these people in the world?

And so when he says allelos one another, it just means others, each other, others, not just God. So he says that we are to submit. Now human authority is limited, but it is also essentially good. Its abuses do not delegitimize it any more than adultery delegitimizes marriage, or hypocrisy the church, or drunkenness eating. Human authority is a gift of God, and when well used reflects his own character and blesses those under it.

And notice that in this submitting to one another grows up out of and springs from our reverence for Christ, he says.

It is Christ whom we most fundamentally fear and reverence, and from that flame we light our smaller flames of reverence for other authorities. We see how in the Garden of Gethsemane He said to His Heavenly Father, Not my will, but yours be done. Even in His darkest hour He trusted His Heavenly Father completely. We are followers of that one. Paul's point is not that all Christians should submit to every other Christian.

It doesn't mean to every other individual. Some people misread this verse like that. Sometimes I think that's an interpretation that appeals to those who suffered more sharply under the misuses of authority, and they may feel that such a mutual submission would offer more protection against its abuse. I wonder if that's been your experience.

If so, I would simply tell you that God is not like those people who abused you.

He is a good God through and through. And when we learn to trust God, it can be the beginning of our learning to appropriately trust others.

Friends, understand particularly when you're in a position of authority, that abusing authority is an unusually heinous sin. Because when you step into a position of authority, you're stepping unusually into the place of God in someone else's life. It's something you must use extremely carefully and only and always for their good, never for your own benefit.

But if this isn't referring to some kind of mutual deference, what's it referring to? Well, it's referring to the many different duties that we have in the order that God has placed us in. Just think for a moment. What divinely ordered authorities are you under? Your parents?

Your husband? The mayor? Your employer? The law? The elders?

This congregation? Now, sometimes when you're under bad authority, you should remove yourself from it. And if you have questions about that, please talk to mature Christian friends you know or any of the pastors here at this church. We have, sadly, much experience with talking to people about situations like that. Sometimes you can replace it.

Other times we must simply endure it. Again, if you need to know what choices you should make or have questions about it, speak to a mature Christian friend. Don't be silent. Talk to one of the pastors here at the church. It's not really surprising that this reverence for Christ would show itself in a reverence for other means of God's provision.

Paul elsewhere refers to the fear of the Lord as the motivation for his own acting, like his evangelizing in 2 Corinthians 5 or in Philippians 2 where Paul instructs the believers to work out their own salvation with fear, and that means as part of your own honoring the Lord. Friend, how is reverence for Christ showing itself in your life?

Normally we submit to those in authority over us out of our respect for Christ. A very clear verse on this 1 Peter 2:13. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. Wow, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution. And that was someone who saw his beloved friend and Messiah, Jesus, crucified by the state.

We're a congregation of people who believe that, I'm quoting our statement of faith here, civil government is a divine appointment for the interest and good order of human society, and that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed, except only in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience and the prince of the kings of the earth. Writing to Titus, Paul reminded the Christians in Crete to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient. That's Titus 3:1. And to the Christians in Rome, he wrote, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

Friends, can we resist wrong policies without denigrating those who promote them?

Some of us may be wearing masks this morning out of love for others, thinking we may protect someone else. Some of us may be wearing them out of a sense of stewardship, trying to protect our own health.

All of us are wearing them in obedience to the submission of rulers and governing authorities that God's Word here teaches Christians to have. And we see the same evidence of God's Spirit indwelling us in marriage as well. I think of Peter's statement in 1 Peter 3:5. This is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands. You see, their submission to their husband was tied to their hope in God.

He was their hope ultimately. Can you think of ways that you are living out this command of submitting? What about here at church? Even in our life together? We're to show the fullness of God's Spirit.

How? By submitting to one another. We'll be thinking about this more in the coming weeks, Lord willing, in these next three passages as we look at three specific relationships. We should conclude you've been very patient.

To live for God in this fallen world, we need God's Spirit and wisdom that He gives. Thank God for how He gives that to us in His Word. It's been many years since I've seen it, but one of the strangest distortions I've seen Hollywood serve up was the 1953 movie called simply Luther. In it, Martin Luther was presented essentially as a man speaking up for freedom of thought, a harbinger of the coming enlightenment, kind of like Robin Williams' character in Dead Poets Society. A man being true to himself.

Well, that may have been the best theology that the Lutherans in 1953 who commissioned the movie could come up with at the time.

But to me, you've got to be yourself and you've got to do what comes naturally, so help me God, does not sound like a good summary of Luther. That's a distorted production. The truth is, Luther was a man under authority. He was a monk. Luther himself said, I was a good monk.

And I kept the rule of my order so strictly that I may say if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkerie, it was I. All my brothers in the monastery who knew me will bear me out. If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading and other work. But Luther came to understand himself to be under an authority greater than the Roman Church and its bishop. He came to understand himself to be under the authority of the Word of God.

And that obedience appeared as courage in his decisions. Filled with God's Spirit, he had wisdom to write hymns like A Mighty Fortress Is Our God that we sang earlier today, and to give thanks to God, and even to submit to one ruler after another, many of whom he didn't even think very much of.

Once, when Luther's puppy happened to be at the table with him, he was looking for some scraps from his master, and he watched with open mouth and motionless eyes. Luther said, oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat. All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat, otherwise he has no thought, no wish, no hope.

Friends, Martin Luther is a good example of someone who is evidently filled with God's wisdom and God's Spirit. But I think his dog made a pretty good example, too, of the focus we should know as children of the light. On how we're to concentrate on God and His Word. That's how His Spirit fills us still today. Let's pray.

O God, we pray that yout would help us to understand what yout will is and to understand the days in which youh called us to live. Help us to apply youy Word rightly in our lives. O God, fill us with youh Holy Spirit. Aid us in addressing one another in song. Help us to give youe the thanks yous deserve.

Give us humility and hope in youn to trust imperfect authorities in this fallen world. All to youo glory we ask it. In Jesus' name, Amen.