The Filling of the Spirit (part two) | Adult Sunday School

Good morning. Morning, good morning. Welcome. Find your seats. We'll pray and begin.

Well, our God and Father, we thank you for this opportunity this morning. Grateful for the chance to gather with the believers. We're grateful that we can gather in a place of peace and tranquility when so much of the world is convulsed with violence and chaos.

Father, we pray this morning for the peace of Jerusalem as we're instructed in the scriptures, knowing that ultimate and final peace will not come to that troubled city until Christ himself returns and the Prince of Peace establishes his earthly reign.

But Lord, we do pray that you would intervene even now and bring an end to the killing and that cooler heads would prevail. Now, Father, as we turn and open the word together, may your spirit help us.

May he enable us to understand what he has for us here this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, good morning to you. I hate to start with apologies, so I'm not going to do it. How's that? Yeah, I am a little diminished, but I'm not gonna apologize for that.

I will acknowledge that. So if I won't shake your hand later today, you understand that I'm doing it because I don't want to share the love with you. How's that? So open your Bibles up to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18, we return for a third time to this text this morning. It's our third time in this text, and as we do, we are attempting to draw out the meaning and significance of this very popular yet frequently misunderstood text.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18. Why don't I read it, and that'll at least put it fresh into our minds. Paul says, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, or my preference, by the Spirit.

Now, we're doing this in outline form to a series of questions, you'll remember. I said we have ten. We're kind of interviewing the text under a series of ten questions, and we've gone over a number of them so far.

Just to remind you, these questions are to help us to understand and to live under the influence of the Spirit. The first question we looked at a couple of weeks back was, why is this study so important?

Why is this study so important? And the reason the study is important is because it's impossible to live as Christians without the Spirit's enablement. It's as simple as that. It's impossible to live as Christians without the enablement of the Spirit.

That's why this study is so important. Secondly, we looked at this question, why warn about wine? Why does Paul warn about wine? And we spent a fair amount of time with this, and we noted that there is a point of contact here in this verse, drawn by Paul, and the point of contact is between drunkenness and the filling of the Spirit.

That's the point of contact, between drunkenness and the filling of the Spirit. The state of drunkenness leads to dissipation, or debauchery. The state of being filled by the Spirit leads to a godly life, a godly life that manifests itself in both the church, the home, and the community, which is what Paul picks up beginning in verse 19 and carrying all the way through chapter 6 and verse 9.

So I have not lost sight of the target. This is going to be about marriage and parenting, but we have to lay some groundwork. We've got to have a long enough runway to get this thing off the ground before we launch into Paul's particulars, and so that's what we're doing here.

But it's impossible to live in a way pleasing to God without being filled by His Spirit, and the state of being filled by the Spirit leads to this godly approach to life. That's Paul's point of contact, that's what Paul wants you to see.

He's not making the contrast between wine and the Spirit as something, okay? That's not the contrast. Wine and the Spirit is not the contrast. Third question, and this occupied ourselves last week, the third question.

What is the filling of the Spirit? That's the third question. We spent a whole session looking at that one. What is the filling of the Spirit? And we spent time in Greek grammar, which some of you came up to me afterwards and told me how delighted you were, but you were few in number.

Understandably so, understandably so. But we spent the time working through the Greek grammar and we learned that Paul's use of the word filled, play ra-o in the Greek here in Ephesians 5 .18, indicates that the Holy Spirit is the means of the filling, not the content of the filling.

He is the means of the filling, not the content of the filling. Therefore, I am of the opinion, and not alone in this, that the better English rendering of 5 .18 would be to be filled by the Spirit rather than with the Spirit.

That preposition, Greek preposition, and can easily be translated by, with, or in. Those are all common within its semantic range. So, I think by does better justice to both the grammar and the flow of the text.

Beyond that, we learned last week that the command, the verb, to be filled is a present passive imperative, present passive imperative, and that indicates that Paul's not giving us a command to fulfill ourselves, but rather to be continually placing ourselves in a position to be under the Spirit's prevailing influence.

We said a more literal translation would be being filled, would be a literal way to translate the Greek there for us. So, to put ourselves continually, the present tense verb, in a position where we are under the Spirit's influence.

That's the idea that Paul is urging upon us here, commanding us. Okay, so that's all review from last time. Now, let's launch forward here with the fourth question. The fourth question. How is the filling different from the Spirit's other ministries to the believer?

How is the filling different from the Spirit's other ministries to the believer? Well, let's begin. Salvation is of the Lord, amen? Salvation is of the Lord, and the means that brings about salvation is the Spirit and the Word.

It is the Spirit and the Word that brings about salvation. The Holy Spirit regenerates spiritually dead hearts and floods them with saving faith in response to the hearing of the Scriptures, Romans 1017.

Okay, so Spirit and Word are the means by which salvation comes. But the Spirit's ministry to the believer does not end there, does not end at the moment of salvation. In fact, it opens the door to a vast and wide ministry.

So, at the exact moment we trust in Christ for salvation, the Spirit begins various activities or actions. He becomes our seal or the mark of God's ownership that authenticates us as children of God. So, Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 13.

The moment of salvation, the moment we trust in Christ for salvation, the Spirit becomes our seal. The idea is like a signet ring impressed into soft wax, okay? That kind of an idea. It authenticates.

In the ancient world, it authenticated a document. The Spirit's sealing authenticates us as children of God. Ephesians 1 .13, in him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise.

You were sealed in him. 2nd Corinthians chapter 1, 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 22. I'll pick it up in 21. Now, he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

He seals us. So, the Spirit does this sealing by indwelling us. So, the Spirit seals us and he does the sealing by indwelling us. We find that in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 22. He indwells us. In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

We become a dwelling of God in the Spirit. 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 19 speaks of this. 619, Paul says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and that you are not your own?

He indwells us. He indwells us. This indwelling of the Spirit acts as a pledge or a down payment or if you like an engagement ring and its purpose is that it guarantees our future fullness of redemption and ensures us that we are children of God.

It guarantees it to us. Guarantees it. We will remain a child of God forever because of the down payment or the pledge of the Spirit. So, when a young man gives a young woman an engagement ring, the purpose of the engagement ring is to vouchsafe to her that he will fulfill his word and that he will wed her.

He will marry her. Okay, so he gives her a ring as a down payment or a pledge and the same idea here in the Spirit. Ephesians 1 14. So, in him, verse the end of 13, with the Holy Spirit of promise who was given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory.

2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 5. Now, he who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave us the Spirit as a pledge and if you look in your marginal note you'll see down payment as another possible rendering there.

Okay, so he is a pledge, he is the down payment, he is the certainty that what has been begun in you, God the will bring to its full fruition. These activities are a consequence of saving faith. They all come to us, we don't ask for them, we don't have to seek them, they come to us by God as a consequence of placing saving faith in the risen Savior.

Now, this is all distinct from the baptism of the Spirit. This is distinct from the baptism of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit is by which the glorified Christ, by means of the Holy Spirit, immerses the believer at the moment of their salvation into the body of Christ or the church.

That's a separate function of the Spirit, okay, the baptism of the Spirit. So, we see this in probably most classic passages, 1st Corinthians 12 13, Paul says, for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, we were all made to drink of one Spirit, all made to drink of one Spirit.

So, the glorified Christ, by means of the Spirit, immerses the believer into his own body, the church, placed into the church by the baptism of the Spirit. Again, it's not something we seek for, there's no commands to search it out, it comes to us automatically as part of our inheritance that we receive in Christ by union with him.

These are the ministries that are of the Spirit here, are bestowed upon every believer at the time of salvation, they are instantaneous and they are non-repeatable. So far, so good? Furthermore, there is no command for the believer to obey regarding these ministries.

There are no commands to obey associated with any of these activities of the Spirit. And the reason is, is because they are part and parcel of the new covenant gift of salvation. The new covenant is vouchsafed through the Spirit, right?

He is the mediator of this new covenant, all right? We live in the age of the Spirit in a very unique way. And so, there's no command to obey regarding the baptism, the pledge, the indwelling, the seal, it all comes to us, it's part of our inheritance as children of God in union with the risen Christ.

Not something we are commanded to do, all right? There's no doing involved in any of this. So far, so good? Okay. So, Paul explicitly says, if you are not indwelt by the Spirit, then you're not a believer.

So, if you're not indwelt, you're not a believer. This differentiates. The believers are indwelt, those that are not indwelt are not believers. You see this in Romans chapter 8 and verse 9, Romans 8, 9, where Paul says, However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. So, it's as simple as that. If you have the Spirit and these ministries of the Spirit, which come automatically at the moment that we have placed saving faith in the risen Savior, then you are a child of God, and He has vouchsafed it to you through His Spirit.

If you do not have the Spirit, you're not a child of God. You're not a child of God. Now, this is different. All of what we've been talking about here come to us without solicitation, without anything on our part.

They just come. They are invisible as well. I probably should say that, right? You can't really see it. The Spirit blows where He wills. We can't see Him. So, it just happens to us. This is different than the command here back in Ephesians.

I'm back now in Ephesians 5. This is different than the command in Ephesians 5 .18 to be continually filled by the Spirit. There we have a command. That is a command. And it is different from the command that we looked at last time as well in Galatians 5, where we are told in 5 .15 and 5 .26 to walk by the Spirit.

That is also a command. So, to be filled by the Spirit and to walk by the Spirit are commands that are given to the children of God with something that we are supposed to do. Before that, it is just who we are.

It's who we are. Is this all working for you so far? Good. All right. So, as one commentator, Harold Hohner, writes, and he has, by the way, if you're interested in Ephesians, he has a magisterial commentary on the book of Ephesians.

And he says, and I'll quote him here, he says that it is these commands to be filled or to walk by that indicate they are not automatic bestowments at the time of salvation, but injunctions for every believer to follow continually.

Okay? So, they're not the automatic bestowments. The automatic bestowments are the indwelling, the sealing, the pledge, and the baptism, and so forth. Okay? But these are something we're supposed to do.

And we're supposed to do it not once, continually. It's a continual command for us. Perhaps I can illustrate it for you this way. Okay? Let's try an illustration for you. Think about it this way. A newborn child shares his parents' DNA from the moment of conception.

All right? But he learns to live out his family identity as he grows to maturity in the day-to-day circumstances of life. Okay? So, he shares the parent DNA from the moment of conception. We share the spirit from the moment of, if we want to call it this way, being born again.

But as a child learns in the day-to-day activities to live out the family identity, so we learn in the day-to-day to live out our new identity in Christ. All right? Paul says that we are new creations in Christ.

Okay? That's in principle, and it has to be worked out in practice. It has to be worked out. Okay? We all good? All right. Well, let's move on to another question, then. Question number five. Who does the filling?

Who does the filling? Since the spirit is the means by which we are filled, then the obvious question is, who does the filling? Who does it? And the short answer to the question is Christ. That's the short answer.

It's Christ. He is spoken of as the one who fills the believer. Back to Ephesians 1, and take a look at verse... Well, pick it up at 22, but 23 is the verse we're after. And he that would be God the Father put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him...

We're talking about Christ here... as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. The fullness of him who fills all in all. Or chapter 4 and verse 10, he who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might fill all things.

So, the short answer is the one who does the filling is Christ, the risen Christ. So, that's question 5. That one we can deal with pretty quickly. So, that takes us to question 6. You might think, man, we're rocketing through this.

We're going to finish quickly. No, no, no, no. Some questions take longer to answer than others. So, question 6. Question 6, what is the content of the filling? What is the content of the filling? Now, to answer this question requires us to link together a number of Paul's statements about fullness in the, what I call, sister epistles of Ephesians and Colossians, right?

So, they're both prison epistles and they are written and there is a fair amount of overlap in the topics covered and they are, as it were, twin sisters, Ephesians and Colossians. So, we're going to need to pull together and take a look at some of that.

So, let's see. Ephesians 1 .23, again, statement about fullness. So, there it is, the church as the body of Christ that shares his fullness, right? His body, which is his body, the church in verse 22, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

The church is the fullness of Christ who fills all in all, Paul says. Let's see. In Colossians 1 .19, we read, for it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him. There, the reference is to Christ again.

It's the Father's good pleasure that all the fullness dwells in Christ. And in chapter 2 and verse 9, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. So, what can we conclude? We can conclude that the divine fullness is perfectly found in Christ.

The divine fullness is perfectly found in Christ. So, as the church, his body, we share his fullness. The divine fullness is perfectly found in Christ himself. Back to Ephesians 3, and in verse 19, this is Paul's second prayer here, whereby he closes out the doctrinal section of his letter, and he says, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Paul prays that the believers would be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now, this is a reference, not simply to the Father, but to the triune God himself, so that we would be filled up to the fullness of the triune God.

Now, this prayer forms the hinge of the book of Ephesians. What's a hinge do? A hinge is something that enables a door and a frame, a jam, to meet together and the door to swing on it, right? So, that's what a hinge does.

So, this is the hinge of this book, meaning that the doctrinal section of the book ends at chapter 3, and the duty section, or how do we live out the theology, begins in chapter 4 and runs through chapter 6.

So, this prayer closes the hinge section, and then the book begins to turn in chapter 4 to Paul's treatment of Christian ethics and morality. It turns to Christian ethics and morality, beginning in chapter 4.

And so, why do we point that out? Well, it's because that it is by our living a Christian, in accordance with Christian ethics and morality, that we model God's fullness. This is how we model it, right?

So, therein that we may be filled up to all the fullness of God, and then a couple of verses later, Paul begins to urge upon us how we are to actually live in the shoe leathers. And in the shoe leather, we then begin to model God's fullness.

So, we can put it all together here, and we can conclude that the fullness of the triune God is the moral likeness of God. That's what Paul's driving at. It is the moral likeness of God, which is most clearly expressed in the person of Christ.

So, what is the fullness of God? It is His moral likeness. Where do we see it most clearly expressed? We see it most clearly expressed in His Son. And we are predestined, right, Romans 8, 29, to be conformed to the image of that Son.

We are to conform, we are predestined to be conformed, to be brought into the moral likeness of the Son who perfectly exhibits the moral likeness of God Himself. So, as we are filled by the Spirit, we grow in the likeness of Christ to maturity, and we become what Paul calls the fullness of Christ.

Take a look at chapter 4 and verse 13. Well, let's pick up in 11, okay? And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of God, excuse me, of Christ.

So, this likeness is called the fullness of Christ. And again, this comports very well with Paul's emphasis on Christian morality and Christ likeness in the later part of the second half of this letter to the church at Ephesus.

So, for example, in chapter 5 and verse 25, notice for husbands, husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her. So, the emphasis on Christian morality here is expressed in terms of a likeness to Christ.

Man, we are to be like Christ in these things. This is a moral likeness that's being urged upon us. And as I've said, chapters 4, 5, and 6 of Ephesians and chapters 3 and 4 of Colossians are both the sections of the book that are devoted to Christian duty, how to live it out, how to live it out.

So, what is the content of the filling? It is the likeness of the triune God in His moral reality, okay, His morality. So, the quote here from Daniel Wallace in his Greek grammar, which I again would suggest to anybody who's interested in such things, believers are to be filled by Christ, by means of the Spirit, with the content of the fullness of God.

And I would just insert there that the content of the fullness of God is His moral likeness, His moral likeness. So, we are to be filled by Christ, by means of the Spirit, with the moral likeness of the triune God.

That's what's being commanded of us, okay? And just think about this for a minute. If we all lived our lives in the likeness of the moral character of the triune God, what a great place it would be, huh?

Don't you think? How many...well, we'll root it right down into marriage because we are headed there eventually. How many marriage problems occur because we're not living in the moral likeness of God?

Instead, we're actually living much more like the likeness of the old man that we habitually drag around with us, okay? So, this is a very practical thing, very, very practical thing. All right, question seven.

We've got time. Question seven. How do I fulfill this command? All right. How do I fulfill the command? Understand what it is now. I am to be being filled by the Spirit in conformity with the moral likeness of the triune God.

I get it. That's the target. That's the bullseye. I'm shooting for it. But how do I do it? How do I get it done? Well, we've established that Paul is commanding us to be continually placing ourselves—so, notice that—to be continually placing ourselves under the influence of the Holy Spirit, by which Christ will change us into His image, make us like Him.

The question that naturally arises is, how do I continually put myself under the Spirit's influence? That's the question. How do I continually put myself under the Spirit's influence? I understand that that's what I have to do.

I understand that's the secret. That's the key that opens the lock. That's the path to, as we could say it, the victorious Christian life, if you like that kind of terminology. But how? Do I pray and ask for the Spirit to fill me?

Right? Oh, Lord, just fill me. No, no, you don't. There's no instance in the New Testament where believers ever prayed for the filling of the Spirit. Right? There's no instances of believers ever praying to be filled with the Spirit.

The answer to this is found in the parallel passage in the Twin Sister of Colossians, chapter 3 and verse 16. Okay? So, let's go over to Colossians 3 and verse 16. Let's go to the Twin Sister and take a look at a parallel passage, because it will unlock this for us.

3 .16. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another, with psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

3 .17 as well. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. 18. Wise, be subject to your husband, the Spirit of the Lord, and so forth.

Okay? So, go back to Ephesians 5 here, and just notice. Verses 9. Drunk with wine, that's dissipation, but be filled by the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Wise to your own husbands as to the Lord, and so forth. So, you see, they are parallel passages. They're dealing with the same basic ideas, but they're using a little bit different terminology. And I am sure glad that the Spirit of God inspired the Apostle Paul, when he wrote the sister letters, to use some different language, because it helps a lot.

It helps a lot. So, now, we do not fill ourselves. We've already said that before. But we are commanded to be receptive to the Spirit's transforming work, which is the same as letting the Word of Christ richly dwell within you.

That's the same thing. Okay? Say it again. We're commanded to be receptive to the Spirit's transforming work, which is the same as letting the Word of Christ richly dwell within you. The word dwell literally means to be at home in, to be at home in.

So, as one commentator says, it is one thing for the believer to be in the Word, it is another for the Word to have free access to all parts of him. That's pretty good. Say it again. It is one thing for the believer to be in the Word, it is another for the Word to have free access to all parts of him.

Now, the implications of this are far-reaching and profound. Far-reaching and profound. In order for the Word to have free access to every room, every closet, every nook, every cranny of our lives, we must both prayerfully immerse ourselves in the Scriptures and consistently allow the Spirit to use those Scriptures to shape the way we think, the way we feel, the way we react to things, and the way we respond to life's circumstances.

Right? How do I fulfill the command to be being filled by the Spirit? The answer is, I immerse myself in the Word of God. Because the Spirit and the Word always are found side by side, they work together.

And so, as I immerse myself in the Scriptures, prayerfully surrendering to the Spirit, under the Word, those aspects of my life that need change, then He does His good work, and the filling occurs, and my moral likeness to the triune God grows.

It's a process. It takes the entire life until the Lord takes us home, and we're glorified. But until then, it is a process. It's a lifelong battle. And as we gain a measure of the likeness of Christ in one area, it's just revealed to us how far short we fall, because we just see other areas where we also need work.

So, you never rest on your laurels in any of this, but it's a recognition that this is the process. Okay? So, when we put it all together, we can see that Paul's command to be filled by the Spirit is an extremely practical command, extremely practical command.

It's a command that regards the day-to-day Christian spirituality lived out in community. It's lived out in community. I just... Go back and take a look at verse 19, okay? Actually, we're going to look at 19, 20, 21, I think next week, I think maybe, if not then, then the week after.

But anyway, notice that this is a statement about community. So, it begins first in community, speaking to one another, speaking to one another. So, being filled by the Spirit, that is, being conformed to the moral likeness of the triune God that occurs as we regularly, daily, humbly, prayerfully submit ourselves to the Scripture, shows up in the Christian community, in the one another's of Christian community.

You can tell a church is making progress in this because it is a church in which the love of the brethren prevails. You can see a church in which they are not making progress in this when you come and are part of a church that is constantly fighting with one another.

Okay? It's a very practical kind of thing. So, beloved, every time we're confronted with a provocation or a decision or a temptation or a setback or a success, we're in that moment faced with a choice.

Will we respond according to our new nature in Christ, or will we respond like the old man, Adam, who is bound in sin? That's really the choice that it comes down to. You will face this decision today.

You probably already have faced it. Okay? But assuming you all got here somehow in a perfect state, I can just tell you this, you will face this decision today, probably before much more time elapses.

And the question will be is, how will you respond? Will you respond like Adam, or will you respond like Christ? The decision is yours. The decision is yours. Let's pray. Our Father, sometimes I feel like we're just sort of pecking away at this a little bit, but there's so much here, and it is so important for us to try to lay down a firm foundation as we move forward and talk about relationships and ultimately the most intimate relationship of all, that between a man and a woman.

And our Father, we can recognize that without your Spirit's enablement, then that relationship can never be what all that you've intended it to be. But there is hope for the believer that as we submit ourselves to the Spirit and the Word, and you accomplish this transformation in us slowly, steadily, assuredly, that we begin to gain a measure of victory against our old man, against the selfishness that we bring into marriage, and that the selfishness that continually crops up therein.

And so, Father, I pray for each of us that we would put into practice the things that we hear, and that we would be people under the authority of the Word of God, and that He would accomplish His good purpose in us.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, do you have something you need to say? Yeah, really quick, guys. Peter, I'm going to do something that I said I wouldn't do. You got 10 minutes. Ask me a question if you want to.

I'm not promising anything, but if you want to ask. I thought we had until like 10 .15. I thought, okay, I'm coming in a little early here. It's okay. 10 .20, nice. Oh, we're in the back here. Go ahead.

Daniel Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, I believe it's called. Yeah, it's a good one. Harold Hohner, H-O-E-N-E-R. Is that right, Jeff? Yeah, I think there is two. Hold on a second. I've got it.

I actually put things in a little in-text footnotes. Hold on, I'll give it to you. That's O 'Brien. Oh, yeah, H-O-E-H-N-E-R. Okay, Harold Hohner. Excellent, excellent commentary on Ephesians. Big, fat one, too.

Probably cost you $70, but it's worth it. I mean, seriously, sell your shirt, buy a good book. How much would it cost? I bet it's $70. I mean, you might be able to get used cheaper than that, but the price of books is ferocious.

Is that it? Is that all you got? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that is a good question. The question was, is there an age limit on children obey your parents? Yeah, I think there is, and when we get there, we will talk about that.

So yeah.

You bet. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so just reading the black print on a white piece of paper in and.

Of itself doesn't do anything. It is the indwelling Spirit of God who makes His Word living and alive in our regenerate heart. So until He regenerates us, it's words on a page. That's all it is. So yeah, if somebody is reading the Scriptures and for years and years and there's no conformity to the life of the Spirit, then I would be very afraid.

I wouldn't want to be handcuffed to them at the rapture, I can tell you that. So I would bring the Gospel to bear.

Do you spend some time in prayer before you start to read the Scriptures? Do you think that's.

Important? Okay, so his question was, do I pray before I read, and do I think that is important? I think it is a good idea, yeah. So do I every single time? No, I don't think I could say I do every single time.

But is it a practice to, in my mind, say, God help me to understand Your Word? Yeah. So in that sense, yes. Yep, normally my practice is our practice. Our practice as a husband and wife is to have our family devotions, if you like that terminology, together.

And so we read together and then pray together. So that's kind of our approach.

So you did a great job of helping us answer the question of how the Ephesian church would have understood the commandment, like it was in fact the Egyptian church, that we didn't want to think about. Did it talk more, like did the thing with the Egyptian church, did it have access to have a Christian experience before then?

Or did they know about the parallel.