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Amen. Thank you for your voices today, it's so encouraging. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter 5, since this is going to be, we'll call them up here at the end and pray for them, it's going to be certain members last Sunday with us for several months, I decided that it would be good to finish Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 today, so I thought we spent several weeks in it and we'll spend one more week in it this morning and I thought that would be good, maybe by the time they get back we'll be through verse 19 or something, now we'll see.
We've been talking about, we've been talking about here together what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Friends, if you're a believer, is this not the desire of your life? Don't you want to be, I mean do you want to be that, be like, well I'm one of those believers who's not filled in the Spirit.
No, that's not what you want, that's what you desire. You desire to be directed and guided and led and filled in the Spirit of God. We desire that of our church, do we not? We want people to think of Perryville Second Baptist Church as a church that is full in the Spirit.
However, I believe that that's probably misunderstood in some realms, some areas today, and so it's our desire here in this last sermon on this verse to correct those and what we want to talk about is how the Holy Spirit influences a Christian.
What is the fruit that is brought in the life of a believer who's filled in the Spirit? So here we are, Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18, I invite you to stand as we honor the reading of God's Word. I'll go ahead and read through verse 21.
Paul says, notice it's an imperative, 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.
Fathers, we come to you this morning. We confess our need. We need this text. We need your grace. Not a soul in here, including the man behind this pulpit, stands before you on our own merit. We come before you in the name of our rock, the name of Christ.
All other ground, all other works, all other means of attempted means of salvation, everything else is sinking sand. We come to you in the name of Christ. We pray, O Father, that you would hear us in the name of Christ, that you would sanctify us in the name of Christ, that you would do meaty, mighty works here in the name of Christ.
We pray, Holy Spirit, that you would be here with us, that you would be in this service, that you would convict us and try us and equip us and encourage us in all the ways that we need to hear. We pray our triune God for the salvation of souls, even in this room.
There are young people who are unconverted, and we pray even today they would hear the gospel and be converted. We pray for any who would be living a life of hypocrisy, that today you would call them out of that.
They would lay aside their shame, their falsehood, their sin, and come to Christ as their only suitable and all-sufficient Savior. Bless this text and the reading of it and the preaching of it today.
Do meaty, mighty works here for the glory of Christ. We pray that he would be made known. We pray it in his name. Amen. You may be seated. So we've held up this verse, as you know, looked at it in every which way, and what we're trying to do here is obey this verse, right?
Anytime we come to a verse of the Bible that's a command for the church, we want to obey it. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. So it's our desire to be Spirit-filled Christians in a Spirit-filled church.
So we've broken down this verse to consider all that it says. The first, I think it's like the fourth week. The first week we looked at the prohibition, do not be drunk with wine. It's always a sin to be drunk with wine, but it's also a sin to let other things in your life control you outside of the Holy Spirit.
Then we looked at the precept, that is, this is a command. Not only is not getting drunk with wine a command, for that is debauchery, but also this other aspect is a command. Be filled with the Spirit.
Now it's a passive command. You can't fill yourself with the Spirit. It's the Spirit that does it, but you ought to put yourself in the way of the Holy Spirit, as it were, cultivating the means of grace, the reading of the Scripture, family worship, studying the Bible, prayer, fellowship with believers, the worship of the church, being involved and connected in the church, the regular services of the church, all of those things.
And then last week we began talking about, or two weeks ago, we began talking about what it looks like for a person in local church to be filled with the Spirit. And so that's where we picked up on point number three, and that is productivity.
And we've, it's got several sub points, as you are already see there in your outline, but the first one that we looked at last time was Christ's saturation. Okay, so just review. That is, wherever the Holy Spirit is truly working, you will see Christ exalted.
Show me a place where man is exalted. Show me a place where other things are exalted, and I'll show you a place that's not where the Holy Spirit's working. Show me a place where Christ is exalted, and I'll show you a place where the Holy Spirit is working.
So we looked at eight things last time, but just to summarize, the Spirit-filled believer is full of the Lord Jesus. So let me encourage you about something. We need to understand that part of what Christ secured on the cross, as the nails were driven into His hands, the wrath of God was poured out upon Him.
As He cried, it is finished. And as on the third day, He rose again from the dead. Part of what He secured is the filling of God's people with the Spirit of God, that we may be the people that God would have us to be.
Understand that Jesus died and rose again for our sins, and so that we would be a people filled in the Spirit. That is, if you deny being filled in the Spirit this morning, you deny the power and the purpose of Christ's very Gospel.
He didn't just die to take us to heaven, although that's wonderful, but also that in the here and now, we would be a people equipped and filled in the Holy Spirit. So now let's get into today's sermon.
So we're to be filled in the Spirit. Part of what that means is Christ's saturation. Christians are saturated with Christ. Now let's talk about these other things. Secondly, Bible hunger. I'm gonna get to the main point at the end, but let me give you some thoughts here before we get to that.
Bible hunger. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Now, we've already done this, so I'm not going to do a lot of work to prove this, but when Paul says be filled with the Spirit, who's he talking about?
He's talking about the Holy Spirit. We are to be filled in the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. I remind you what Peter says in 2nd Peter 121. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
In other words, what I'm encouraging us with this morning is those filled in the Spirit love the Bible, because the Bible is the Spirit's book. The Bible is a spiritual book. What I mean by that, it is the book of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible is God's Word. This, of course, means that everything in the Bible is factually true. It is inerrant. It is infallible. It also means that it is sufficient. The Bible is sufficient for a life of godliness.
It's authoritative. Friends, to disbelieve, say, well, I just don't believe that part of the Bible. That's disbelieving God. They say, I'm not going to obey that part of the Bible. That's disobeying God.
Right? It's not just disobeying culture or what the preacher wants or whatever. This is the Spirit's book, and those filled in the Spirit hunger for the book of the Spirit. We want to be Bible people.
It's a necessary book. You need the book. I got the Holy Spirit. I don't need the book. No, no, no. You have the Holy Spirit, praise God, and you have the book whereby we're not equating the book to the Holy Spirit, but we are saying this is the Holy Spirit's book, and so I have the Holy Spirit, and now I go to the book, and I can understand what the Holy Spirit has said to me because of His continued work and His illumination.
It's necessary. It's also clear, let me say it this way, God knows how to speak to His people. He doesn't speak in riddles. He doesn't speak in Bible code. He knows how to speak, and the Bible is clear.
But for our purposes today, what I'm simply trying to communicate is that those who are filled in the Spirit of God are people who hunger for this book. So what I'm saying to you is, what does it look like in a person's life to obey Ephesians 5 18?
And do not be drunk with wine, but as debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. What does it look like for a believer to be filled with the Spirit or in the Spirit? What does that look like? It looks like people who are saturated with Christ, and it looks like people who are hungry for the Bible.
I think this is very relevant for where we live today because many people seem to neglect and do not know and do not care about the Bible. Yet they'll tell you that they are Christians. They will tell you that the Holy Spirit is in their lives.
You know, one of the things that bugs me, I usually pick on liberals, but I'll pick on conservatives for a minute. One of the things that really bugs me about conservatives, they do these things, hey, we want to put the Ten Commandments here or there.
Okay, so be it. I'm not opposed to that, actually. I think that's wonderful, but if you ask a person who is in favor of putting the Ten Commandments somewhere, and then you ask them, what are the Ten Commandments?
And they say, well, I don't know. That's a problem, right? That's a problem. You've allowed some sort of political point, you know, to rile you up instead of being saturated with the Bible. We love the Bible because we are filled in the Spirit.
So one of the things the Holy Spirit does in our life is give us a hunger for the book. You remember Colossians 3, which we looked at two weeks ago, where Paul says, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Are we Spirit-filled people? Friends, not if we don't love the book of God. A church and a people filled in the Spirit love the Bible. They search the Scriptures. They seek the wisdom of the Scriptures.
They teach the Scriptures to their families. They love to discuss the Scriptures with one another. If we're sitting around and say, what are you reading lately in the Bible? You are able to give an answer.
They love to sit under the preaching of the Word of God. They love to adjust their lives to the Word of God. Let me say it this way. Does this describe you? Can you pray along with the Puritans who prayed things like this, order all my ways, all my ways, by the Holy Word?
A Spirit-filled life is a Bible-hungering life. They say, I'm not a medical expert so take this for what it is, but they say that one of the bad things about artificial sweeteners is it does what? You drink a Diet Coke in the afternoon.
One of the things that it's doing to your body is kind of tricking your brain, and it's actually making you hungry, right? This artificial stuff, it makes us hungry, and you say, I see you drink Diet Coke.
Well, yes, I do. Amen. But the point is, it's probably not good for you, and it makes you hungry. So if an artificial sweetener can make you hungry for food, then how much more hunger does a man who is filled not with something artificial, but who is filled with something genuine, someone genuine, the Holy Spirit of God.
He produces in us a hunger that is far superior to hunger than for physical food, a hunger that is perpetual, meaning we continually hunger. It's like we read the Bible, we study the Bible, and then the next day we're hungry for more.
It never leaves us because the Holy Spirit's creating that in His people. I could spend so much more time there, but let us move on. A life filled in the Holy Spirit is a life that results in Christ's saturation, Bible hunger.
Thirdly, unceasing prayer. Bible hunger, unceasing prayer. Paul says, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Okay, not only do people filled with the Spirit love Christ, love His Word, but they also desire to communicate with God in prayer.
Spurgeon, I believe, was once asked, Which is more important, Bible reading or prayer? And he responded like this, in a Spurgeon-esque way of response, Which is more important, breathing in or breathing out?
Well, the reality is, it takes both, and so Bible reading is breathing in. That is where we get the Word of God. God communicates to us, He speaks to us by His written Word, and so we consume that, and we take that in, and then prayer is what?
Prayer is breathing out. It's our communication to God, and we speak to God, and we tell Him our needs, and our desires, and we express our affections. A person filled in the Holy Spirit is more closely connected with the throne room of God than your feet are connected right now to the floor by gravity.
In Romans 8 26, Paul says,. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Friends, the Spirit filled life is a praying life.
I'm not just talking about most of you probably pray before meals, praise God. I'm not just saying that, or praying for so-and-so surgery tomorrow, or whatever. Those are good things, but I am saying that the prayer life of the Christian goes much deeper than that.
Well, what would it be like, and of course I know this falls kind of flat right now, I understand, but what would it be like if you had direct access to the office of the President? Anytime that you could call, you could call, and He would answer.
You could text, and He would answer. You could go up there, knock on the door, and He would answer. You'd probably utilize that, right? We have access to the throne room of God. Christ is already there praying for us.
The Holy Spirit is already there groaning for us, and so Christians are praying people. My wife and I, we communicate in various different ways. Sometimes I'll be at the office, she'll be at home, and either she'll send me a quick text, love you, or I'll send her one, love you.
Sometimes maybe we talk on the phone for a couple of minutes, so it's a little longer than a text message, and then sometimes we have those longer conversations that are necessary for marriage, but let me say this, all three of these communications are helpful for a healthy marriage.
Quick text, phone conversations, face-to-face time. I want to bring that to the prayer life of the Christian. We, if you will, sometimes send a text message prayer. We're like Nehemiah, remember, and he utters a quick prayer before the king, or sometimes maybe we run across a brother or sister, and they say, hey, will you pray with me, and we pray for a couple minutes.
We pray a little bit longer with them, but then the Christian, we also have these regular and daily times before the Lord where we are alone with Him, and we really pray to Him. We seek His face. Friends, you don't realize the danger that awaits you as you step out the door every day, right?
You step out the door and the evil one is prowling around like a roaring lion. Oh, there's somebody. We spend time with God on a daily basis in prayer. We love to pray because we're filled in the Spirit.
We also believe corporate prayer is important. The church ought to pray together. We pray together on Sunday nights. We also, by the way, have a men's prayer meeting at 845 in the morning on Sundays, but a Spirit-filled church loves to pray.
Okay, before moving on, let me offer your encouragement. No Christian that I've ever known or read about, no Christian that I've ever known or read about is satisfied with their prayer life. So if you hear this about prayer and you feel convicted, know that this is a common feeling.
Now let me help you how to deal with that. First of all, don't dismiss it, right? Don't just say, well, no one is perfect. The preacher said no one is happy with their prayer life, so I'll just throw that out.
No, no, no. Rather, what you should do is take comfort that you're not alone. You're not the only Christian who struggles with a healthy prayer life, okay? Comfort in that, but then seek the accountability and the encouragement of your church family and seek to cultivate in your life unceasing prayer because this is what a Spirit-filled life looks like.
Christ-saturation, Bible hunger, unceasing prayer. Fourthly, gift-using. Gift-using, what do I mean by that? And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12, 4 -6, Paul says this, Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit.
And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all and everyone. Now, you guys know this, and maybe we can talk about this some other time, but it's my position.
There are certain gifts that appeared in the early church that appeared to have ceased when the Apostles died. These gifts were specific, I believe, for the specific time God was ushering in His church.
However, let me say this, it does not mean that the Spirit is not at work today in the Christian. Far from it, beloved. He is gifting brothers and sisters in this church in a variety of ways for the edification of the church and for the glory and honor of Christ.
And so the point here is this, the Spirit-filled Christian uses the gifts to serve the body. I don't think this means that we need to take a spiritual gift test, right, or whatever. I think it means, rather, that you should cultivate the graces that the Spirit has worked in you and use them to serve the church.
How are you doing with this? I want you to just think, just pause for a moment and just think to yourself, how am I using the ways that the Holy Spirit has gifted me specifically, how am I using that to serve at Perryville Second Baptist Church?
Some of you are gifted encouragers. Some of you are gifted servants. Some of you are gifted in teaching, or gifted in generosity, or gifted in hospitality. Now, yes, to an extent all Christians ought to be doing all of these things, but to another extent it's a beautiful reality that's happening.
The Spirit of God is working in His people at His own discretion so that we are one body here, but many parts. Not everyone here is the ear, or the nose, or the mouth, or the hands, or the feet, but we put it all together and what do we have?
We have a body. And so those who are filled with the Spirit are using the gifts. A Spirit-filled Christian serves the church. This is what a Spirit-filled Christian looks like. Christ-saturation, Bible-hunger, unceasing prayer, gift-using.
Fifthly, fruit-generating. Not only using the gifts, but producing fruit. Do not be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Take your Bibles and turn to the left, won't be very far, to Galatians.
Galatians chapter 5. We'll stay here for a minute. Galatians chapter 5. Those who are full of the Spirit produce the fruit. Fruit-generating. Let me say this before we read it. Galatians chapter 5. We're all gifted differently, okay?
You may be gifted at this or that, and I may be gifted at something else, but the Spirit produces the same type of fruit in all Christians. So Galatians 5 .22 says this, but the fruit of the Spirit. Now notice this is important.
Grammar is important. Not fruits. Not as though there's options, right? So we have some church members very soon will be going and selling fruits out in the West. And so they'll sell different kind of fruits.
Fruits I've never heard of. Fruits I'm not even sure if they really exist, but no. All sorts of different fruits out there. And you might go and you go to one of their stands and you say, I want this fruit, but I don't want that fruit.
And I'll take this fruit and maybe, you know, a watermelon, and I'll take my fruits and I'll go home. But the text doesn't say fruits. It says fruit. In other words, the Holy Spirit singularly produces these fruit.
All of these things are alive. So this is the fruit. There's a single fruit. You don't have an option. What I'm saying is you don't go along the buffet line and say, I want this, I want that, I want this.
So what am I talking about? Let me read it, come back to it. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
In other words, what does a Spirit-filled life look like? These are the types of things the Spirit of God is working and those who are under His control, under His divine influence. Do not say to me and do not say to one another that you go on the buffet line and you say, you know, I do love, I do love really well, but I don't do faithfulness.
Or I do joy very good, but I don't do self-control. No, no, no. You're not called to one of these fruits. This is everything that the Holy Spirit is producing in the life of the belief. Okay, sixthly, spiritual leading.
So stay there in Galatians for a minute. Spiritual leading. So Christ's saturation, Bible hunger, unceasing prayer, gift-using, fruit-generating, spiritual leading. Now go down to verse 24 in Galatians 5.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passion and desires. And listen to verse 25. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. That is, those who are filled in the Spirit are led by the Spirit.
Paul says in Romans 8 14, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. So let me ask you something today. Are you a person who is led by the Holy Spirit? Those who are filled in the Spirit live a life led by the Spirit.
Now this can be taken too far, you know that, as though you expect the Spirit of God to audibly speak to you. That's not how it works. I've known people before. I've known a person before they took a church, they took two cups and they filled them with soil and they put a seed.
And one of them said, in each cup, and one of them said stay and one of them said go. And they sent them by the windowsill and they said, Lord, whichever seed grows first, that's what I'm doing. I don't recommend that as biblical counsel.
I'm not saying that you need to stand on the corner, you need to listen. I don't know if I should turn left or right here and I'm just gonna sit on the corner until I hear an audible voice of the Holy Spirit tell me to do something.
You'll be sitting on that corner for a very, very long time. Now, what do we mean? Joel Beeky notes this. The Holy Spirit not only regenerates and quickens the sinner, but from that moment on directs and leads his life so that he will begin to and increasingly live in harmony with that new nature implanted in him.
The Holy Spirit works in us both to will and to do in accord with God's own pleasure. Based on the Word of God, the Holy Spirit directs our actions by enlightening our understanding and guiding our inclinations to do what is pleasing to God.
Okay, so here's what I'm trying to say. On one hand, the Spirit-filled Christian is not waiting around in the corner for some sort of sign or impression or new revelation or audible voice. No, we're not doing that.
On the other hand, don't go too far. When an opportunity arises and it seems as though we see this brother and we feel as though I need to share a word of encouragement to this person, then we should do that.
If it seems as though we should stop what we're doing and share the gospel here with this person, then we should do that. If all of a sudden we're driving down the road and someone's name comes to our mind and we feel as though we should pray for them, then we should do that.
But you say to me, but yeah, but how do I know if that really is the Holy Spirit leading in that particular instance or not? Perhaps it wasn't, okay? Perhaps it wasn't the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it was something you ate.
You ate at McDonald's and your buddy Ronald came to your mind. You're like, I'm gonna pray for that guy. Okay, maybe it wasn't the Holy Spirit, but here's what I'm trying to say. It's a good and right thing to do because it's what the Bible says to do.
So why should you not, don't be over there wrestling like, I don't know, should I share the gospel? No, no, no, we should do what the Bible says to do. We shouldn't wait around and wondering if the Holy Spirit is prompting us to do that or not because He is, because that's what the Bible says to do.
So just don't out think this. Joel Beekie says this, the Holy Spirit leads us in God's ways, always in concert with His Word. All right, so friends, the Holy Spirit will never lead you in a way that is contrary to God's Word.
If you say, I feel like berating my boss today and I think I'm being led by the Holy Spirit. Well, I can tell you, friend, that's not the Holy Spirit because James 1 20 says the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Or if you say to me, I feel, and I've had a person say this before, I feel as though the Holy Spirit, they said God, but I feel as though the Holy Spirit is leading me to divorce my spouse. I can tell you, He is not leading you to do that, right?
Or if you say, I don't feel like sharing the gospel, that must be the Holy Spirit. No, it's not. So don't confuse the Holy Spirit with your feelings. The Holy Spirit will never lead us in a way contrary to God's Word.
So let me just encourage you with this. You want to be led by the Spirit? Then every day, read your Bible, pray, ask for the Spirit's wisdom, ask for His enlightenment in every decision that we make that day.
He will not give us new information, but He will apply the Scriptures ever more deeply to our minds, to our hearts, so that we can live obediently before the Lord each day. Christ-saturation, Bible hunger, unceasing prayer, gift-using, fruit-generating, spiritual leading, seventhly, proper assurance.
Proper assurance. Okay, now I'm back in Ephesians. So Paul says, do not be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Let me say this. Those filled in the Spirit are able to have real and true and proper biblical assurance of their salvation.
Now let me address this. There is such a thing as false assurance. There are people, I hope it's not true in this room, but there are people in our town, maybe even in this room, that really sincerely believe that they are Christians, and they are not.
They pin their hope of salvation on something they did, maybe in the past, or present good deeds, or at least not being as bad as everyone else. That's not biblical assurance. You just stubbornly saying you're going to heaven, even though you live a life that is contrary to the Word of God, even though you've never personally, truly tasted Christ through the rejuvenating, regenerating, awakening work of the Holy Spirit, you just being stubborn and having a date in your Bible, that's not biblical assurance.
When these people are confronted with sin, they ignore it. Or when they are believing they might not be converted, here's what they do. They've been taught this, and we should have pity on that, but it's still wrong, and that is, don't ever doubt your salvation.
The Bible does not ever say that, right? It's not that we should encourage doubt. Rather, if we feel as though we're not converted, then what the Bible says is, don't push that away and lean on your self-confidence.
The Bible says things like this. Examine yourselves to see whether or not you're in the faith. Esther said, make your calling and election sure. So I wonder this morning if there's anyone out there like that.
The 1689 says it this way, the Second London Baptist Confession, it is the duty of all to be as diligent as possible to make their calling and election sure. In this way, their hearts may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness and the duties of obedience.
These effects are the natural fruits of this assurance. Thus, it does not at all encourage believers to be negligent. Okay, let me also say this side. Sometimes genuine believers, true believers, sincerely struggle with doubts about their salvation.
So you say, I'm struggling with doubts about my salvation. Does that automatically mean I'm not converted? No. Sometimes genuine believers, we struggle with doubts of our salvation. Maybe it's because of sin.
Maybe it's because the Lord is sovereignly brought a time of testing into our life. But saving faith and assurance of that faith are not the same thing. Do you hear that? Saving faith and assurance of that faith are two separate things.
So we can believe in Christ and have faith in Christ, and we can still struggle at times with doubts. But this is why, friends, the Spirit-filled life is so important. As we live under His influence, as He saturates us with Christ, as He creates in us a hunger for the Bible, as He leads us in prayer, as He produces gifts in us, and as He produces fruit in us, as He leads us in holiness, as He does these things in our life, what is the result?
We begin to be properly assured of grace and able to live confidently before Him. There are people, perhaps in this room, who have improper assurance because they do not have these realities present in them.
They either believe that they are Christians when they're not, according to the Bible, or they are a Christian and struggle to find assurance because they're not seeking to do what Paul says to do in the text, that is, to be filled in the Spirit.
So the Christian life is so interconnected. That's why when you try to do one thing while neglecting another... So, for example, let me just give you a real tangible example. You say, I'm supposed to go to church, so I'm gonna go to church, but I'm not gonna worry about being filled in the Spirit, all that stuff He's preaching, whatever.
I'm just gonna go to church and do that thing. I'm gonna neglect these other things. No, no. If you try to do one thing and neglect another thing, you find yourself out of balance. It's not the way the Christian life is designed to work.
So we seek to have all of our life under the Spirit's control and influence. This now brings us to our final point. Not that there's so much more that we could consider, but I've got to get to the point of the text.
And so, what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? We see Christ's saturation, Bible hunger, unceasing prayer, gift-using, fruit-generating, spiritual leading, proper assurance. I would encourage you to consider if these things are evident in your life.
But now to the point of the text, and which will lead us into next week, too. Church committed. Eighthly, church committed. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.
And then what is the next thing? 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.
And if for one second you thought, well that's just, that's not about the church. No, look at verse 21. Submitting to one another, right? Out of reverence for Christ. So I touched on this last time, but I re-emphasize it here for two reasons.
First, it's so critical in our day and age. People actually think, you have friends and neighbors, maybe you're one, maybe you would fall under this category, but you have friends and neighbors, you have people in your family who actually think that they are living a life filled in the Spirit, they think that they're living a life under the control of the Spirit, they think that they are happy go lucky, gonna die one day and go to heaven, and they totally neglect the local church.
Make it make sense to my brain. You say, there's not a verse in the Bible that says you have to go to church to be a Christian. Okay, you're right. There's not a verse in the Bible that says child trafficking from California to Maryland is a sin.
You're right, got me. But when we read the Bible in its context and we understand the truth of what it is saying, you cannot escape this reality that to be filled in the Spirit is to love and be committed to and connected with the local church.
So I say as strongly as I can, there is no Holy Spirit filled life that is separated from life in the local church. Those who claim to be filled in the Spirit while rejecting the church, they are lying and they are self-deceived.
You say, but my grandmother is so sweet and she's so nice and I just know she's a Christian, but she hadn't been to church in 30 years. I say, your dear sweet grandmother is either out out lying or she's just flat-out self-deceived and she believes that she's following the ways of God when she is not.
How do I know? You can't judge her. I'm not judging her. The Bible is what the Scriptures say, not what I'm saying. It's what the Spirit of God is saying in His Word. So I think everything I've said in these last two sermons is biblical, it's biblically warranted, it's an application from our text, but this last point here, being committed to the church, it is the only point that is directly and explicitly tied to what it means to be Spirit-filled here in the context.
I mean, here it is, friends. Here is what God is doing in the world today. Through the finished work of Christ, through His life and His death and His burial and His resurrection for sinners, through His appeasement of the wrath of God for sinners, God is saving a people from all over the world and the Spirit of God is giving them new hearts.
He is uniting them to Christ. He's transforming them and then He's uniting them to one another and they are uniting in visible local assemblies known as local churches under the qualified leadership of pastors and they are doing what?
What are they doing? They're all over the world today. They're all over the world and what are they doing? They're doing verse 19. They're addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with their hearts.
This is what they're doing. It doesn't matter what the government looks like. This is what they're doing in North Korea. So be it, you totalitarian state. Christ's people are there and they're singing and they're worshiping because the Holy Spirit has filled their hearts.
It doesn't matter what you're doing in China, you communist, fallen, foolish state. The people of God are there and they're preaching and they're singing. It doesn't matter what's going on in America, friends.
Joe Biden is in Epnest as a president. The people of God are there and they're singing and they're worshiping. They're making melody of the Lord in their heart. Why? Because Christ has purchased them and now they're filled in the Holy Spirit.
This is what God is doing today in the world and guess what? They can't stop us. Why? Because it's written above my head. Christ is king. The Spirit of God is working in the hearts of the people. They're filled in Him and committed to the church.
This is what God is doing in the world today. The church and those who are filled in the Spirit of God are in love with and committed to the church of God. 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.
You want to take back the country, right? You want to push against the darkness, the shootings, the sexual immorality, the debauchery of our world today. You want to be part of what God is doing. You want to honor your king?
Go all in. Quit the local church. Quit letting so many lesser things pull you away. Quit allowing excuses to trump what God's Word says. Do not be controlled by other things. Be filled in the Spirit. And let us exalt the name of Christ together.
Let us see the Lamb who was slain. Receive the full reward for his suffering right here, right here. I love that story in Acts. For the Lord won't let Paul leave. He says, I've got many in this city who are called by my name.
I believe that for our town and our county and this part of the state. Let us go forward in the filling of the Spirit. This is what he does. This is what he's producing in the people of God. Let me close this way.
Isn't this something you want, right? Like, don't you want this? I mean, think of a life that's not filled in the Spirit versus what we've seen a life in the Spirit looks like, right? Like, isn't this what we want?
Christ. I want more of Christ. I want more of the Bible. I want more prayer. I want to use my gifts to serve you better. I want to produce more fruit. I want to, I want to be led by the Spirit. I want to have proper assurance.
I want to be committed to the church. Don't you want this? Isn't this something you want? I've got good news. There's grace for you. There's grace. If you hear me say that you need to leave this room and you need to beat yourself up until you come back here and you're humbled enough, and then we'll see.
No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is you humble yourself now before the Father and you say, let's talk to the Christians first. You say, this is not where I'm at. I'm a believer, but I've just sort of ignored some of this stuff and I've just kind of allowed myself to get in a rut.
I hear you preaching about being filled with Spirit. This is what I need. What should I do? Humble yourself before the Lord. James 4, 8 says, draw near to God. Be careful though, because there's a second half of that verse.
If you draw near to God, you know what he's gonna do? He'll draw near to you. There's no encounter with God that won't leave things in your life unshaken. Draw near to God. Repent. Look to him. Humble yourself before the Lord even now.
Rest upon his promises, all finding their yes in King Jesus. Will you believe what you've heard today? Then if you're an unbeliever, maybe you're a hypocrite, maybe you're just someone who hasn't come to Christ yet, maybe you're someone who told everybody you're a Christian but you know today you're not, what is your response?
Well, I want to tell you that you live now under the preaching of the gospel and today is a day of mercy. I can't promise tomorrow, but I can tell you what today is. Today is the day of salvation. Call upon the Lord while he is near.
Seek him while he may be found. That's what you must do today. You must turn from all that you are. You must turn from all that you've done. You must turn even from your good works and the good things that you think that you are and you must cast yourself wholly upon Christ, who was crucified for sinners, rose again for sinners, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and is from there you will come to judge the living and the dead.
Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is sufficient, it is good. We pray that you would encourage us with your word, convict us, challenge us. I pray now for the saints in this room.
Lord, if there's any aspect of their life that they say, I want to be more filled in the Spirit in that area, I pray they would just humbly confess it to you and cast themselves upon you, ask again for your mercy and seek you.
Lord, I pray for the unbeliever. Lord, I pray for the children and the teenagers in this room who have not publicly confessed Christ before men. Why? Father, I pray that you would work in their heart even now and they would seek Christ alone as their only suitable and all-sufficient Savior.
They would believe even now, casting themselves upon Christ and seeking now to live for his glory. Lord, if there is anyone here who is deceived in their faith, would you wake them up out of that self-deception?
May they see Christ, repent of hypocrisy, know the church will love them and embrace them and encourage them in this journey. Let them call upon Christ. We pray it all in Jesus' name, amen.
